In the latest sign of the "great wall of money" from Asia heading towards western Europe, the infrastructure company of Li Ka-shing is understood to be among a number of suitors preparing first-round offers for the network, which delivers electricity to some 2.2m customers in north-west England.

Li Ka-shing may be an unknown name in Britain but over the past 20 years his Hong Kong-based conglomerate, Hutchison Whampoa, has amassed a sizeable UK portfolio worth around £15bn - making him Asia's biggest investor in Britain. His empire over here includes household names such as 3, the mobile phone network, Superdrug, the health and beauty chain, three of Britain's biggest ports, including Felixstowe and Harwich, and Cambridge Water.

Cash-rich bidders from emerging markets in Asia and the Middle East have been at the forefront of the recent spate of takeovers in Britain. Two years ago Dubai Ports World bought P&O, while the investment arm of the Qatar government is considering a bid for J Sainsbury. Earlier this year Tata, the Indian conglomerate, bought Corus and in 2005 Appejay International picked up Typhoo, taking tea back to India.

The commodities boom has underpinned much of the growth in these countries. China, Russia and India have all registered triple-digit percentage growth over the past decade, while some oil-rich nations have grown faster still.

The huge amount of cash has led to the emergence of sovereign investment funds, such as the one stalking Sainsbury. For many of these countries the issue is how to diversify away from foreign debt and into tangible assets; China alone has earmarked a staggering $200bn-$300bn to fund further acquisitions. Last month the China Development Bank, an arm of the Beijing government, took a sizeable stake in Barclays, which was intended to help boost the British group's chances in the battle for ABN Amro, the Dutch bank.

The last (and only) time Huawei made headlines in the UK was when it emerged two years ago as a bidder for Marconi, the British group that had come close to collapse after a string of disastrous acquisitions. Located a few miles from the centre of Shenzhen, the Chinese city that neighbours Hong Kong, Huawei's campus stretches to nearly a square mile. A three-lane highway runs through the complex.

The company's chairman is in the habit of visiting a different country, noting the architecture he likes and putting up buildings of the same design at Huawei's HQ. Hence there is a large office complex that bears a close resemblance to the White House in Washington and a "chill out" area for staff that looks like a Bali beach hut.

Over 20,000 staff work here, while 3,000 live on site in a residential area that has schools, playing fields and all the other trappings of urban living. There is a massive research department, a highly automated distribution centre that handles 30,000 different raw materials but only employs 38 workers, and a manufacturing complex.

In 2005, when it made its abortive bid for Marconi, Huawei had turnover of $3.8bn (£1.9bn) and net income of $681m. Last year its turnover was $8.5bn, with revenues of $512m. It now holds over 20,000 patents and counts most of Europe's major telecoms companies among its customers.

Its relatively low profile is explained by the fact that in Europe it does not sell directly to the consumer. But in the UK, for example, its technology will play a key role in the country's telecoms infrastructure. BT's £10bn 21CN project will create a next-generation telecoms network with an unprecedented bandwidth and speed. For Huawei, winning this assignment was a bridgehead to an assault on European markets that has accelerated over the past two years. Its customers now include Vodafone, Orange and Telefonica, to name but a few.

It was founded in 1988 by Ren Zhengfei, a former officer in the People's Liberation Army. Little is known about him or his fellow board members. A company spokesman says it began as a third-party reseller of other groups' telecoms devices, before selling its own technology to the domestic market. Huawei has apparently never had any outside investment, although its expansion has been funded in part by unspecified loans from nationalised Chinese banks.

Mr Zhengfei and his fellow directors never give interviews. In fact, in Huawei's annual report, the identities of the board members are not even mentioned. Instead there is a message from the "executive management team".

While this may seem odd from a Western business perspective, it is more normal in Chinese culture, where it is bad form to boast about success.

All visitors, or rather "distinguished guests", are ushered around the vast hall to marvel at Huawei's technological achievements. In total, the company shipped 27 million such devices in 2006 and a further 17 million in the first half of 2007, including three million for Europe.

Most of its products to European markets are "white label" goods, which carry the operators' brands. For example, Hua- wei makes one of Vodafone's most popular 3G mobile phones, called the V710. Nearly one million of the devices have been shipped so far.

Huawei has achieved what most Chinese companies have failed to do: it has become a genuine global giant. However, until the group opens the door to its boardroom, as well as its exhibition hall, its achievements will remain open to question.

Tar sands extraction - mining oil from a mixture of sand or clay, water and very heavy crude oil - uses a huge amount of energy and water. Environmentalists say it results in more than three times as many emissions of carbon dioxide compared to conventional oil production.

Now Canadian firms AECL and Energy Alberta have proposed building a nuclear reactor near the site of Shell's vast Athabasca tar sands development. The boss of Energy Alberta has said the C$6bn (£2.8bn) reactor has the backing of a large unnamed company that would take 70 per cent of the reactor's energy.

A spokeswoman for Shell Canada refused to confirm that the company would take electricity from the reactor but said: "We have had a number of power options presented to us. Yes, it includes nuclear."

Shell and its Athabasca partners currently pump over 155,000 barrels of oil per day from the tar sands but want to increase this by five times over the next 20 years. This would need more than an extra 1,000MW of generating capacity. Most of the project's existing power comes from a gas-fired plant, but gas production in North America is declining.

When the Frankfurt Motor Show opens on Thursday, it will not be the glittering new cars from Europe, Japan and the US that attract the most attention; hogging the headlights will be the motor manufacturers of China.
Their latest models are accused of copying the world's finest. Shuanghuan's Ufo off-roader does bear some resemblance to Toyota's Rav4, its larger Ceo has a distinct whiff of the BMW X5, and its Noble makes the Smart Fortwo seem not quite so unique.

"If a car suddenly appears that looks like a Smart, yet is not one but a copy which was produced not quite legally, then that is not great," observed German Chancellor Angela Merkel, noting that Chinese product piracy "is a relatively big issue".

The world's car companies - particularly in Germany - are less diplomatic. A BMW spokesman said: "We are looking at taking legal measures. This is the first time that this has happened."

Mark Binder, a Smart spokesman, said: "We saw the Shuanghuan vehicle at Auto Shanghai - It is a blatant attempt to copy the design of the Smart Fortwo. We reserve the right to pursue legal action - also with regard to a possible exhibition of the car at the Frankfurt motor show."

Shuanghuan is not alone in finding inspiration elsewhere. The Hongqi HQD bears the stature of the Rolls-Royce Phantom, while the Geely's Merry seems to imitate the Mercedes-Benz C-Class.

GM, the largest car maker in China through two joint ventures, claims its Spark has been very precisely copied by Chery's QQ. Their doors are said to be interchangeable. Yet GM has still to find help from China's courts. Meanwhile, the QQ is undercutting and outselling the Spark.

Eric Thun of Said Business School, Oxford, an expert on the Chinese motor industry, identifies two key weaknesses: "Process skills they learn from working with foreign groups; design skills will take a long time. Right now, there is no Chinese company able to develop its own vehicles. Copying is a short-term solution which works in the domestic market."

China already insists on a high level of local content, so ensuring the creation of a thriving, indeed crowded, indigenous industry. The market share of domestic brands has risen to 25 per cent from 10 per cent within a year.

The announcement capped marathon discussions between lawyers for the diocese and the victims, who are to receive $1.37 million each. Church officials had filed for bankruptcy reorganization, but recent court rulings pressured them to settle the case.

Investors were taken aback by the Labor Department's report that payrolls dropped by 4,000 in August. Economists had forecast payrolls would increase by 110,000. However, the unemployment rate held steady at 4.6 percent as expected.

Wall Street had been awaiting the report all week as it sought to determine how well the economy was holding up under the weight of a faltering housing market, a rise in mortgage defaults and tightening availability of credit. While the report is backward looking, investors regard it as an important proxy of the economy's overall health.

"This certainly cements the case for a Fed action at the next meeting. The debate has really become about whether it will be 25 or 50 basis points," said Zach Pandl, economist at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., referring to whether the central bank would reduce rates by a quarter point or a half percentage point. He expects the Fed will reduce rates by 25 basis points to 5 percent when it meets Sept. 18.

JUSTICE MUHAMMAD TAQI USMANI ARGUES THAT MUSLIMS SHOULD LIVE PEACEFULLY IN COUNTRIES SUCH AS BRITAIN, WHERE THEY HAVE THE FREEDOM TO PRACTISE ISLAM, ONLY UNTIL THEY GAIN ENOUGH POWER TO ENGAGE IN BATTLE.

His views explode the myth that the creed of offensive, expansionist jihad represents a distortion of traditional Islamic thinking.

Mr Usmani, 64, sat for 20 years as a Sharia judge in Pakistan's Supreme Court. He is an adviser to several global financial institutions and a regular visitor to Britain. Polite and softly spoken, he revealed to The Times a detailed knowledge of world events and his words, for the most part, were balanced and considered.

Archaeologists fear that Muslims have used the work as an excuse to employ bulldozers and backhoes to remove remains of the wall from the outer courtyard of the Second Temple.

Klein and a camera crew from an Internet-based television network ascended the Mount to obtain footage of the trench that has been dug by Waqf Muslim authorities. They restricted the photographers to taking pictures of a trench that already has been closed.

The Muslims received a permit from the Antiquities Authorities, who may have been ordered by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to issue the permit as another "good will" measure to Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The Prime Minister has not commented on the work, which might destroy what would be the most significant archeological find of ruins of the Holy Temples.

Klein and the crew were escorted from the site by the Waqf and an Israeli policeman.

The Pope said that today when he received in audience bishops from Laos and Cambodia, in Italy for their five-yearly visit.

He added, "Jesus is the Good News for the men and women of every time and place in their search for the meaning of existence and for the truth of their own humanity, and in her announcement to all peoples, THE CHURCH DOES NOT WISH TO IMPOSE HERSELF but to bear witness to her respect for human beings and for the society in which she lives."

It's important that we show resolve and determination to protect ourselves, deny al-Qaida safe havens," Bush said during a visit to Australia. Israel Radio quoted top CIA officials as saying Al Qaida was likely to attempt a major terror attack on US soil in the near future, the target of which would probably be related in a significant way to the American economy.

The video was released just days before the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States that killed almost 3,000 people. In a 30-minute speech addressed to Americans, bin Laden boasts about the impact of the 2001 attacks, mocks the democratic system of government in the United States and lambastes the Bush administration for initiating the war in Iraq.

Israel Radio quoted top CIA officials as saying Al Qaida was likely to attempt a major terror attack on US soil in the near future, the target of which would probably be related in a significant way to the American economy. The video was released just days before the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States that killed almost 3,000 people.

Simon France, 38, already a convicted sex offender, was being monitored by the authorities and supposedly getting "help" for his crimes from probation officers in a special programme. But between meetings of a sex offenders group, FRANCE WAS SECRETLY LOGGING ONTO FACEBOX TO LOOK FOR TEENAGE GIRLS TO SEDUCE.

Rachel Shenton, prosecuting, said: "The defendant was a regular user of the internet site Facebox. Facebox is now known as Netlog

The findings from the survey, which was carried out for the BBC, highlight growing worries over social breakdown and rising levels of crime. The poll suggested that most passers-by would be too scared to intervene if they witnessed a minor offence.

Two thirds of those questioned said they would shy away from action if they saw teenagers daubing graffiti.

More than three quarters said they would not reprimand a fellow traveller talking excessively loudly on a mobile phone.

It comes in the wake of the shooting of 11-year- old Rhys Jones in Liverpool, apparently by a gang member, and follows a series of gang-related killings of teenagers and adults who challenged yobbish behaviour.

MOST OF THOSE QUESTIONED THOUGHT THE RETREAT OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF WAS A FACTOR IN MORAL DECLINE. Nearly two thirds, 62 per cent, said religion was an important factor in guiding the morals of the nation. The proportion who considered religion important was higher among the young than the middle aged. More than two thirds of 16- to 24-year- olds thought religion should be a major influence.

This week Church of England leaders expressed alarm over the moral direction of the Government, complaining that proposed equality laws will suppress religious belief and stop Christians from expressing their views.

SO POLITICALLY CORRECT HAS ADOPTION BECOME, a council allowed these gay paedophiles to foster young boys - even, as one mother reveals here, turning a blind eye when presented with evidence of their horrifying abuse

Craig Faunch and Ian Wathey were the first homosexual couple in Yorkshire to be approved by the authorities as foster parents. The pair had looked after 18 children in only 15 months after being approved by the council, but under the guise of caring men offering a helping hand to disadvantaged youngsters, had sexually abused vulnerable children for their own gratification. Neither man, Leeds Crown Court was told last year, had shown any empathy or remorse. Both are now serving prison sentences for their despicable crimes.

Nonetheless, the repercussions have continued to rumble, and in a scathing independently authored report issued this week, Wakefield Metropolitan District Council found itself the subject of robust condemnation.
THEY HAD, THE REPORT CONCLUDED, LEFT THE COUPLE FREE TO SEXUALLY ABUSE YOUNGSTERS IN THEIR CARE BECAUSE OF FEARS OF DISCRIMINATION IF THEY LAUNCHED AN INVESTIGATION.

By virtue of their sexuality, the report suggested, the men were "trophy carers" who were not subject to the same rigorous assessment as others. At a time when GAY COUPLES CAN LEGALLY ADOPT CHILDREN FOR THE FIRST TIME, the criticism raises serious questions about vetting procedures, as well as fears that the crimes of two men could have repercussions FOR GENUINE GAY FOSTER PARENTS.

A petty dispute about fixing a leaky drain could have allowed foot and mouth disease to escape from a high-security research base, it has been revealed. The official inquiry into last month's outbreak found that staff at the Institute for Animal Health at Pirbright, Surrey, knew the drain - which carries virus- contaminated waste - needed repairs four years ago. BUT THEY FAILED TO CARRY OUT THE WORK BECAUSE OF A ROW WITH THE NEIGHBOURING VACCINE FACTORY ABOUT HOW TO SPLIT THE £50,000 BILL.

The astonishing revelation came as investigators concluded that leaking pipes, freak floods and building work at Pirbright laboratories probably allowed the virus to escape. The Government-funded institute was accused of a "culture of complacency" and was blamed for serious lapses in security for the spread of disease to nearby farms. The centre needed to review its safety systems and tighten up, investigators added.

Although the inquiry fell short of blaming the Government directly, critics said its decision to starve the institute of money - and its failure to spot the problems at Pirbright - meant it was also culpable. Yesterday's reports by the Health and Safety Executive and Professor Brian Spratt, of Imperial College, London, came as the chief vet Debby Reynolds announced that Surrey was disease free. She said the remaining restrictions on the movement of livestock nationwide would be lifted at noon today.

Foot and mouth was spotted a month ago in farms near Guildford, with hundreds of animals slaughtered and farmers losing £1million a week. The president of the National Farmers Union, Peter Kendall, said it was "indefensible" that such a high-risk environment could have been allowed to get into a state of disrepair. He said: "I find it well-nigh incredible that standards should have been as lax as these reports appear to reveal, given that those concerned were handling some of the most dangerous animal viruses on the planet." He said the union was talking to lawyers about suing for compensation.

Lib Dem environment spokesman Chris Huhne said: "It is shocking and appalling that facilities designed to protect British farming have actually damaged it. Farmers are right to be angry and concerned about the slapdash, complacent and negligent handling of a deadly virus. Defra was warned, but completely failed to act. Heads must roll." A spokesman for the institute said its management of waste had been based on the assumption that any virus was sterilised before it entered the drains.

READER COMMENT:- "How very convenient, the government lab gets blamed so the taxpayers, rather than shareholders of the bio company, will pay any compensation.

"We have an ecosystem that has turned from the big turbot and halibut and the shoals of herring and cod of the 1880s, into prawns, scallops and mud," says the author, Callum Roberts, Professor of Marine Conservation at York University.

His book tells the story of the profusion of fish and marine mammals that were in the sea in previous centuries - North Sea cod, he calculates, is now just two per cent of its former, pre-industrial profusion of two million tons.
"The fishing industry - with the active collaboration of bureaucrats and politicians - is going to destroy itself."

(The Unnatural History of the Sea, The past and future of humanity and fishing, by Callum Roberts. Gaia )