The Government is proposing to introduce the laws to protect individuals from hostile or humiliating "environments" as part of an overhaul of discrimination legislation.

But Christian lawyers and the Church of England warned that Christians could face legal action if they offended gays by expressing the traditional teaching that homosexual sex was immoral. The Lawyers' Christian Fellowship said that the new proposals, which may be included in a Single Equality Bill, could allow gays to sue if they heard a sermon that condemned homosexuality. It added that while a church could "gently refuse membership" to an unrepentant, practising homosexual, "that person, if they felt that they had been put in a 'humiliating position', could sue the Church."

The Fellowship also warned that suggestions that local authorities should have a duty to promote gay equality could be "taken too far" and result in state funding being removed from Christian projects. The Church said it could lead to people objecting to religious symbols such as crosses on hospital walls on the grounds that they were an affront to atheists.

It added that the proposals were in danger of undermining religious freedom.

The two leaders met on the sidelines of the annual economic leaders' meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Australia. "This year and next year are going to be a highly dangerous period for the situation in the Taiwan Straits," Hu said.

Regardless of warnings from different quarters, the island authorities have flagrantly pursued secessionist activities, such as proposing a "referendum on UN membership" and "seeking to join the UN under the name of Taiwan". "We must issue harsher warnings to the Taiwan authorities that any secessionist attempt aimed at 'Taiwan independence' in any form will be doomed," Hu said.

Bush said Washington firmly adheres to the one-China policy, observes the three US-China joint communiques and opposes any unilateral act to change the status quo across the Taiwan Straits. Hu said that it has been proved that China and the United States are joint stakeholders in global affairs and cooperate constructively.

He described the talks as "candid and friendly", saying both sides expressed the desire to work toward further development of commercial ties. Bush said he appreciated China's efforts, adding that the US is opposed to trade protectionism and should not set obstacles to bilateral trade.

The influence of the ultra-conservative Deobandi sect, which is characterised by its total rejection of western values, has grown to such an extent that police now believe it runs more than 600 of Britain's 1,350 mosques.
The revelations will put further scrutiny on plans for a "mega mosque" in east London by a group called Tablighi Jamaat, who are closely linked to the Deobandi movement.

The £100 million plan to build the "Islamic village" next to the Olympic site is already mired in controversy after intelligence services said the group was a recruiting ground for al Qaeda. The Deobandi- controlled mosques are predominantly found in the Midlands and the North - such as the Tablighi Jamaat mosque which 7/7 bombers Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer were known to attend. But about 170 London mosques are classified as Deobandi-run compared with less than 100 run by the moderate Sufi-based Barelwi movement.

Mr ul Haq, 36, who runs an Islamic academy in Leicester, gained notoriety with a series of outspoken lectures after 9/11 when he was Imam of Birmingham Central Mosque. He has since travelled the world preaching that America and its allies are seeking to wipe out Islam. A favourite talk of his, however, warns Muslims of the perils of befriending the "kuffar", or non-believer. He says: "The Koran teaches Muslims not to follow in the footsteps of the Jews and the Christians, yet of our own choice we decide to live, act, work, behave, enjoy and play just like the kuffar".

"Do not befriend the kuffarî", was Allah's warning to Muslims, and Muhammad told his companions "to distance themselves and fear this alignment with the kuffar in every way, even to the manner of dressing".

Ghayasuddin Siddiqui of the Muslim Parliament said: "There is no doubt the Deobandi movement became more influential in Britain's mosques in the Nineties and this went largely unchecked. The situation now is of great concern as almost all Islamic extremism originates from the Deobandi thinking".

A rolling credit crunch emanating from U.S. subprime lending has spread through the asset backed commercial paper market through to interbank money markets, the very heart of the global financial system. And while central banks have regained a semblance of control, more or less, over the overnight lending markets, there is still a hugely unusual unwillingness by financial institutions to lend each other money for three months.

There is debate about why this is happening, but what is clear is that there are people out there with a huge mismatch between how long their commitments to lend money are compared to the length of time for which they are able to borrow. That leaves these financial entities, be they conduits or mortgage lenders or whoever else, extremely vulnerable in a market which is already highly agitated.

This knowledge must, in turn, make the money markets still less willing to extend credit for longer periods.

So, how did we come to be here, and who is responsible for getting things back on track? It's easier to answer the first question than the second. The problems with U.S. mortgages and structured finance has shaken the faith of the world's lenders in the value of collateral and the credit ratings upon which the whole edifice has been built.

The asset backed commercial paper market, where many of the people who made such mortgage loans found financing, has partially shut, with many unable to get funding and many now only able to get it for a week at a time, where previously they might have obtained 30 or 60 day loans.

These markets have shrunk by about quarter of a trillion dollars in a month in the U.S. alone, and much of the money has found its way on to banks' balance sheets, either because the banks had extended a commercial paper backup line to someone which has now been drawn, or because they have chosen to bail out a conduit or other entity with which they had a relationship.

At the same time, the banks look like getting stuck with something like another $300 billion of bridge bank loans extended to private equity and other acquirers under very aggressive terms. These loans may now be difficult or impossible to sell.

The storm has been checked out by hurricane hunters and so far it hasn't been given a name or a number. It's a low pressure system sitting about 400 miles off the Carolina coast.

Four RAF F3 Tornado aircraft were scrambled in response to the Russian action, the UK's defence ministry said. The Russian planes - long-range bombers - had earlier been followed by Norwegian F16 jets. Russia recently revived a Cold War-era practice of flying bombers on long-range patrols.

The IDF officially refused to comment on reports from Syria that its air defenses fired on a formation of IAF warplanes that entered Syrian airspace from the Mediterranean. In addition, fears mounted that Hizbullah would use the escalating tensions along the Golan Heights as an excuse to initiate its own conflict with Israel.

Counterterrorism expert Boaz Ganor said that if Thursday's flyover did occur, it was possible that Israel was "collecting intelligence on long-range missiles" deployed by Syria in the North. Imad Fawzi Shoaibi, a Syrian political analyst, speculated that Israel may have been probing Syria's new air defense systems, provided by Russia, at a time when tension was running high between the two countries.

Israel has acknowledged making routine flights over Lebanon, but it is unclear how often the IAF flies over Syria, if at all. At the beginning of the Second Lebanon War last summer, warplanes buzzed the palace of Syrian President Bashar Assad in what analysts called a warning to Damascus. In June of the same year, they also flew over Assad's summer home in Latakia, near the border with Turkey, after Hamas terrorists abducted Cpl. Gilad Schalit in Gaza.

"His initial inclination is to do it next year," Peres told a news conference. "I believe he will try to do whatever he can to have his visit not postponed for any length of time." The Pope told Peres's predecessor two years ago that he hoped to visit Israel in 2006, but that failed to happen and his spokesman said the timing of a visit was still not clear. "As you know, the Pope is ready but the timetable still needs to be seen," Federico Lombardi told reporters after the audience.

Proposals for draconian new laws that target the country's immigrants have been condemned as unjust and racist. A poster campaign, the work of its leading political party, is decried as xenophobic. Has Switzerland become Europe's heart of darkness?

At first sight, the poster looks like an innocent children's cartoon. Three white sheep stand beside a black sheep. The drawing makes it looks as though the animals are smiling. But then you notice that the three white beasts are standing on the Swiss flag. One of the white sheep is kicking the black one off the flag, with a crafty flick of its back legs. The poster is, according to the United Nations, the sinister symbol of the rise of a new racism and xenophobia in the heart of one of the world's oldest independent democracies.

A worrying new extremism is on the rise. For the poster - which bears the slogan "For More Security" - is not the work of a fringe neo-Nazi group. It has been conceived - and plastered on to billboards, into newspapers and posted to every home in a direct mailshot - by the Swiss People's Party (the Schweizerische Volkspartei or SVP) which has the largest number of seats in the Swiss parliament and is a member of the country's coalition government.

With a general election due next month, it has launched a twofold campaign which has caused the UN's special rapporteur on racism to ask for an official explanation from the government. The party has launched a campaign to raise the 100,000 signatures necessary to force a referendum to reintroduce into the penal code a measure to allow judges to deport foreigners who commit serious crimes once they have served their jail sentence.

But far more dramatically, it has announced its intention to lay before parliament a law allowing the entire family of a criminal under the age of 18 to be deported as soon as sentence is passed. It will be the first such law in Europe since the Nazi practice of Sippenhaft - kin liability - whereby relatives of criminals were held responsible for their crimes and punished equally. The proposal will be a test case not just for Switzerland but for the whole of Europe, where a division between liberal multiculturalism and a conservative isolationism is opening up in political discourse in many countries, the UK included.

The truth is that at the heart of the Swiss People's Party's vision is a visceral notion of kinship, breeding and blood that liberals would like to think sits very much at odds with the received wisdom of most of the Western world. It is what lies behind the SVP's fear of even moderate Islam. It has warned that because of their higher birth rates Muslims would eventually become a majority in Switzerland if the citizenship rules were eased. It is what lies behind his fierce support for the militia system.

To those who say that Germany, France, Italy and Austria are nowadays unlikely to invade, he invokes again the shadow of militant Islam. "The character of war is changing. There could be riots or eruptions in a town anywhere in Switzerland. There could be terrorism in a financial centre."

The race issue goes wider than politics in a tiny nation. "I'm broadly optimistic that the tide is moving in our direction both here and in other countries across Europe," said Dr Schlüer. "I feel more supported than criticised from outside." The drama which is being played out in such direct politically incorrect language in Switzerland is one which has repercussions all across Europe, and wider.

The price increase was triggered by claims that Israeli warplanes had penetrated Syrian airspace.

As US crude rose to less than $1.50 short of its record peak, Christophe de Margerie, chief executive of Total, the French oil group, told the Financial Times he expected the oil price to stay high, and suggested the cycle in the market had been broken. "Demand is still strong in Asia, [and there is] strong demand in the Middle East," Mr de Margerie said. "So definitely the price will remain high, and we have to build our strategy on this."

West Texas Intermediate surged to $77.43 a barrel, just below early August's all-time high of $78.77. Later, it fell to $76.67. Brent crude rose above $75. US crude oil inventories fell last week by 3.9m barrels to 329.7m barrels, down year-on-year. Gasoline stocks fell by 2.3m barrels to 132.2m barrels, the lowest level in absolute terms in nearly two years.

The New York Fed added 7.0 billion dollars in 14-day repurchase agreements, 16 billion in seven-day repurchase agreements and 8.25 billion in one-day repos.

THE FED HAS INJECTED SOME 200 BILLION DOLLARS INTO THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM SINCE AUGUST 9 IN A BID TO BOOST CREDIT FLOWS which have seized up due to problems linked to the distressed US mortgage market.

The US central bank typically buys billions of dollars worth of securities from major banks, pumping extra cash into the banking system, which the banks are obliged to repurchase at a later date.

I am convinced that all that has been anticipated since 1968 has now occurred. THE SITUATION NOW RESEMBLES THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC (the term given to describe the German state from 1919-33) in the sense that the Weimar case study is predicated on planned currency destruction to avoid war reparations that got out of control.

THE PRESENT SITUATION IS BASED ON THE ULTIMATE SIN OF GREED CALLED OVER-THE-COUNTER DERIVATIVES. This mountain of unfunded special performance contracts is shaking and will, as a product of declining US business activity and profits, fall precipitously.

Before the fall of this unimaginably large mountain of garbage paper, ALL world central banks will in concert prime the pump any way they can. Priming for this purpose has no practical way of being drained. WHAT IS GOING TO GET OUT OF CONTROL NOW IS MONETARY INFLATION TO OFFSET THE SHAKING MOUNTAIN OF OVER-THE-COUNTER DERIVATIVES. THE BEGINNING OF THIS FALL IS IN PROGRESS AND WILL BE HISTORY BY 2012 OR SOONER.

SIMPLY STATED THIS IS IT, TODAY, NOW!
There is no more "if this happens that will happen" scenario. It has already started to happen and the result will be a bull market for all commodities to a level that even the wildest (rational) bull cannot not even imagine. The dollar is headed below the estimates of the biggest (rational) bear.

THE OVER-THE-COUNTER SHAKING MOUNTAIN OF DERIVATIVES CAN'T BE FIXED BY TRYING TO HIDE IT.
THE PROBLEMS cannot be fixed by any interest rate action.
THE PROBLEM will not even be fixed by a monetary inflation of unprecedented scope.
THE PROBLEM is coming home by 2012 or much SOONER.

Keep in mind that the $20 trillion plus over-the-counter credit and default derivatives generally have the following characteristics.

They are:

- WITHOUT REGULATION.
- WITHOUT LISTING ON PUBLIC EXCHANGES.
- WITHOUT STANDARDS.
- NOT IN THE LEAST BIT TRANSPARENT.
- WITHOUT AN OPEN MARKET OF THE BID/ASK TYPE.
- DEALT IN BY PRIVATE TREATY NEGOTIATIONS.
- WITHOUT A CLEARING HOUSE.
- UNFUNDED WITHOUT FINANCIAL GUARANTEE OF ANY KIND.
- FUNCTIONING AS CONTRACTS OF SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE.

They are of a character or ability to perform that is totally dependent on the balance sheet of the loser in the arrangement.

They are evaluated by computer assumptions made by geeks, non-market experienced mathematicians who assume religiously that all markets return to their normal relationships regardless of disruptions.

They are now in the credit and default category and are considered by accepted authorities as totalling more than USD$20 trillion in notional value.

NOTIONAL VALUE BECOMES REAL VALUE WHEN THE AGREEMENT IS FORCED TO FIND A REAL MARKET FOR ENDING THE OBLIGATION WHICH IS HOW ONE SELLS IT.

Overnight interest rates between lenders fell as the Bank used its first public statement since the financial storm broke to promise to provide up to £4.4 billion of additional reserves this month against which institutions could borrow at the base rate, currently 5.75 per cent.

But the tentative measure left some in the City disappointed, as the central bank bluntly ruled out trying to correct the seizure in benchmark three-month Libor interbank rates.

The Bank said the liquidity problems of three-month Libor were not an issue it could solve, as they were caused by the uncertainty surrounding the value of assets held by the banks. It said: "The source of these problems does not, therefore, lie in a lack of central bank liquidity."

The Bank has come under pressure to bring down three-month Libor, now at its highest level since late 1998. The benchmark borrowing rate, which hit a fresh nine-year high of 6.8 per cent yesterday, is more than 100 basis points over the Bank of England base rate, the widest gap in 20 years.

(Libor:- The London Interbank Offered Rate, the rate charged by one bank to another for lending money.)

The move by senior MPs from the three main parties is evidence that pressure for a national vote comes from all sides of the political spectrum - and includes prominent pro-Europeans as well as Euro-sceptics. With Labour MPs who back a referendum claiming to have the private support of 120 of their parliamentary colleagues and most of the 195 Tory MPs backing a national vote, about half of the House of Commons is now sympathetic to a national poll.

The group of Labour, Tory and Liberal Democrat politicians will stage their launch outside the Commons, unveiling a giant ballot box to symbolise the right of Britons to have a say on issues affecting the future governance of their country. The Tory MP Greg Hands said: "People don't want to give even more power to the EU - at least not without fundamental change first." Mr Hancock said: "We promised the public a referendum. If the public can't trust politicians on this, how can they trust us on anything else?"

The launch follows Mr Brown's warning to EU leaders this week that he would call a referendum if Britain was required to surrender more ground during negotiations on the treaty's final wording. At his monthly press conference at No 10, the Prime Minister said he had told Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Nicolas Sarkozy, of France that Britain's "red lines" must not be breached.

"If I were to come to the conclusion that we were not having the detail of what was decided reflected in the final outcome of the declaration, then of course I would come back to the British people and say, 'Look, we have to do things differently'."