Colin Blakemore, a former head of the Medical Research Council (MRC), has invited Catholic church leaders who staged an Easter attack on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill to an "open-minded discussion" with the research community and patient groups. In a letter to The Times today, Professor Blakemore says that while he does not wish to question the right of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor and other senior bishops to speak out on ethical issues, their criticisms are based on misconceptions.

"The Bill is not about creating monsters or mocking the sanctity of human life," he writes. "Indeed, it will reduce the number of human eggs and embryos used in the production of stem cells for research." Professor Blakemore says he would also be happy to arrange for scientists to brief MPs who want a better understanding of the issues before they decide how to vote. "Scientists should not challenge the spiritual authority of religious leaders, but they are entitled to question the factual evidence on which moral pronouncements are based."

Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, said nobody would be forced to support the Bill against their conscience: "There will not be a Cabinet split, but there will be an accommodation for those who have a particular sensitivity around this, including those whose sensitivity relates to the faith." No 10 played down reports that "accommodation" meant that Gordon Brown would allow MPs and even ministers the option of voting against the Bill, saying that no final decisions would be taken until nearer the vote.

Mr Brown is privately encouraging scientists to challenge the Catholic Church's interpretation, and Downing Street insiders say the debate has only just begun. "So far we've only heard from one side," one said.

In a surprise move at the Easter vigil at St Peter's, Pope Benedict XVI baptised Magdi Allam, 55, an outspoken Egyptian-born critic of Islamic extremism and supporter of Israel. He has been under police protection for five years after receiving death threats over his criticism of suicide-bombings.

Religious freedom has been the theme of this year's Easter celebrations. The meditations for the Good Friday Via Crucis procession at the Colosseum were written by Cardinal Joseph Zen, the Archbishop of Hong Kong, who drew attention to the suffering of persecuted Christian "martyrs" around the world. Mr Allam's conversion was kept secret until less than an hour before the service on Saturday evening. He took the middle name "Christian" for his baptism.

In an article for Corriere della Sera, the Italian newspaper of which he is a deputy editor, Mr Allam, who has lived in Italy most of his adult life and has a Catholic wife, said that his soul had been "liberated from the obscurantism of an ideology which legitimises lies and dissimulation, violent death, which induces both murder and suicide, and blind submission to tyranny". Instead he had "seen the light" and joined "the authentic religion of Truth, Life and Liberty".

He added: "I had to do this. Beyond extremists and Islamist terrorism at the global level, the root of evil is inherent in a physiologically violent and historically conflictual Islam."

The Pope called for an end to problems in Tibet, Iraq and the Holy Land in his "urbi et orbi" blessing to the world - broadcast live in 57 countries. Christians around the world are marking Easter, when they remember the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Late on Saturday, the Pope baptised a controversial, Muslim-born journalist. Magdi Allam, 55, is deputy director of the leading newspaper Corriere della Sera and has angered some Muslims with his views.

"How can we fail to remember certain African regions, such as Darfur and Somalia, the tormented Middle East, especially the Holy Land, Iraq, Lebanon and finally Tibet, all of which I encourage to seek solutions that will safeguard peace and the common good," the Pope said. He said he wished that "the light that streams forth from this solemn day [may] shine forth in every part of the world".

Later this year the Pope will be hosting an unprecedented meeting at the Vatican with Muslim religious leaders from around the world to try to find common ground for future interreligious dialogue, he says.

Bankers say the greater authority is a direct consequence of the Fed's extraordinary decisions to extend a $30bn credit line to help JPMorgan Chase's takeover of Bear and to lend emergency funds to securities houses for the first time in more than 70 years. "There is a new sheriff in town," said a senior banker. "The Bear situation changed everything: people saw death before their eyes. THE FED AND TREASURY ARE IN CHARGE NOW AND ARE NOT GOING TO LET GO".

Under a regulatory regime dating back to the 1930s, the Fed oversees commercial banks, but investment banks are primarily regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. But as the credit crunch deepened, Ben Bernanke, Fed chairman, Tim Geithner, president of the New York Fed, Hank Paulson, Treasury secretary, and Robert Steel, his number two, have been in unusually close contact with Wall Street executives.

People close to the situation said the Fed and Treasury feared further problems among securities firms could destabilise the financial system and expose US taxpayers to sizeable losses on the new Fed loans. Their stance has triggered talk of new financial services legislation, with bankers and politicians, including Barney Frank, House financial services committee chairman, ASKING WHETHER INVESTMENT BANKS SHOULD BE REGULATED BY THE SEC OR THE FED.

At Narita airport, some 40 miles from downtown Tokyo, 51 international flights were cancelled as airport workers were unable to remove snow from runways quickly enough. "A total of 9,690 passengers were stranded overnight at the two terminals. We provided blankets and extended the time for air-conditioning and lighting to accommodate them at lobbies," the official said.

AT LEAST 125 PEOPLE HAVE SUFFERED BROKEN BONES AND OTHER MINOR INJURIES IN TOKYO after slipping in the rare snow by midday Sunday, fire officials said, while 200 others were reported hurt in nearby prefectures. It usually snows lightly only a few times a year in the Tokyo region, located on the warmer Pacific side of Japan's main island.

COASTAL REGIONS HAVE EXPERIENCED JAPAN'S DEADLIEST WINTER IN MORE THAN TWO DECADES, WITH AT LEAST 102 DEATHS RECORDED BY TUESDAY, WITH MANY OF THE VICTIMS CRUSHED BY SNOW OR FALLING FROM BUILDINGS WHILE CLEARING SNOW FROM ROOFS. Most of the dead have been elderly people. The death toll is the highest since 1983-1984, when 131 people died in snow-related incidents.

The minister's warning came as a coalition of 27 international charities marked World Water Day, by writing to Gordon Brown demanding action to give fresh water to 1.1 billion people with poor supplies. "IF WE DO NOT ACT, THE REALITY IS THAT WATER SUPPLIES MAY BECOME THE SUBJECT OF INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT IN THE YEARS AHEAD," said Mr Thomas. "We need to invest now to prevent us having to pay that price in the future."

In their letter, the campaigners say: "Tackling the water and sanitation crisis is essential if the 'Millennium Development Goal Call to Action' is to be a success, otherwise progress on health, education and environmental sustainability will be undermined. EACH YEAR 443 MILLION SCHOOL DAYS ARE LOST GLOBALLY TO DIARRHOEA AND 1.8 MILLION CHILDREN DIE UNNECESSARILY FROM THESE DISEASES.

"ALREADY WELL OVER 1 BILLION PEOPLE SUFFER FROM WATER SHORTAGES AND 30 COUNTRIES GET MORE THAN A THIRD OF THEIR WATER FROM OUTSIDE THEIR BORDERS."

Guidelines revised in 2002 say the Fed should charge non-banks more than the highest rate that commercial banks pay. Instead, Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his colleagues, in emergency votes on March 16, invoked broader authority in the Federal Reserve Act to give Wall Street dealers the same rate as banks, a Fed staff official said on condition of anonymity.

Backstopping securities firms, coupled with last week's action to keep Bear Stearns afloat before its sale to JPMorgan Chase, represents the central bank's first lifelines to institutions other than banks since the Great Depression.

"THEY CERTAINLY PUSHED THE LIMIT," said Brian Sack, a former Fed researcher who is now senior economist at Macroeconomic Advisers LLC in Washington. "THE LAW PROBABLY HAS 'ENOUGH GRAY AREA' TO ALLOW THE DECISION," HE SAID.

Magdi Allam is the deputy editor of the Corriere della Sera newspaper and writes often on Muslim and Arab affairs. Born in Egypt, he has described himself as a non-practicing Muslim. He has long spoken out against extremism and in favor of tolerance.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said of Allam before the service that anyone who chooses to become a Catholic of his or her own free will has the right to receive the sacrament. Lombardi said the pope administers the sacrament "without making any 'difference of people,' that is, considering all equally important before the love of God and welcoming all in the community of the Church."

There is no overarching Muslim law on conversion. But under a widespread interpretation of Islamic legal doctrine, converting from Islam is apostasy and punishable by death - though killings are rare. Egypt's highest Islamic cleric, the Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, wrote last year against the killing of apostates, saying there is no worldly retribution for Muslims who abandon their religion and that punishment would come in the afterlife.

The looming famine is proof of this neglect, as the crisis - and the rat invasion - were entirely predictable. It happens to this region roughly every 50 years. That is how often the bamboo forests that cover the hillsides blossom. Their seeds are high in protein and, when the rats eat them, they breed four times faster than normal.

After their numbers swell and they finish eating the bamboo seeds, they move into people's fields and eat their crops. The blossoming, the rat problem, and the food shortages began two years ago in India then moved into Bangladesh in January and have now headed south into Burma as well. The last rat plague in 1959 caused devastation just over the border in the Indian state of Mizoram.

The people there suffered so much and were so appalled by the lack of help from the government, they launched a rebellion that lasted 20 years.

The Pope, who has made improving relations with China one of the goals of his pontificate, presided over the traditional Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) procession commemorating Christ's crucifixion and death. Attended by tens of thousands of people, the solemn, night-time ceremony is one of the main services ahead of Easter -- the climax of the Christian year.

Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong, who has criticised a lack of religious freedom in China, wrote the meditations for this year. They paid tribute to those "living martyrs" who suffer for their faith. "In many parts of the world, (the Church) is undergoing the dark hour of persecution," Zen wrote in one of the meditations. China's 8 to 12 million Catholics are split between a church approved by the ruling Communist party and an "underground" church wary of government intervention. Beijing and the Vatican severed ties two years after the 1949 Communist takeover.

"Colosseums have multiplied down the centuries, wherever our brothers and sisters, in different parts of the world, continue to be harshly persecuted today," Zen wrote in the forward, which the Pope read aloud. Earlier this month, an Iraqi archbishop was found dead in eastern Mosul after being kidnapped by gunmen, in an attack Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blamed on al Qaeda.

President Bush visited the scene of the disaster and assured the nation, "We in the federal government will respond," and Congress allocated nearly $200 million for repairs. But since then, very little has changed in how the country ensures bridges are safe. Throughout the U.S., bridges continue to be inspected only every two years, just as they were before the tragedy in Minnesota.

And although a disaster may have been averted on a Philadelphia bridge this week, it was only thanks to the careful watch of a single engineer. Peter Kim wasn't scheduled to inspect a certain overpass outside Philadelphia until next year, but the alert contractor, passing through the area on his way from lunch, SPOTTED A 6-FOOT CRACK IN A 40-YEAR-OLD COLUMN ON INTERSTATE 95, the main highway corridor from New England to southern Florida. "I passed by this column and saw that it had deteriorated to a point that needed immediate attention," Kim said. A DECISION TO CLOSE A STRETCH OF THE BRIDGE AND A PORTION OF I-95 WAS MADE WITHIN MINUTES.

AROUND THE COUNTRY, 74,000 BRIDGES ARE CLASSIFIED AS STRUCTURALLY DEFICIENT. Just this week in Minnesota, another bridge was closed to traffic - ITS CONDITION SO POOR THAT IT MAY BE BEYOND REPAIR. Experts believe another collapse is all but inevitable. These troubled bridges are a problem with no easy solution: ENGINEERING ESTIMATES SAY IT WILL TAKE $1.6 TRILLION TO REPAIR AND REPLACE THEM.

But the more than $120 billion spent over 25 years to build the "Star Wars" missile shield has not left the U.S. less vulnerable to attack - SOME WOULD ARGUE THAT IT HAS DONE EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE, BY DIVERTING RESOURCES AWAY FROM DEALING WITH MORE URGENT AND PLAUSIBLE THREATS.

To those who fear a missile strike on the American mainland from North Korea or Iran - not that either is anywhere close to achieving such capability - the investment in a missile shield, even one whose efficacy is far from clearly established, may seem worthwhile. To those who believe the more salient and insidious threats are those of the type we experienced on 9/11, this shield against a handful of rogue missiles represents an unfortunate diversion of funds that could be used far more effectively to defend the U.S.

The growing consensus among national-security professionals is that A DEADLY WEAPON TARGETING THE U.S. IS FAR MORE LIKELY TO BE DELIVERED HIDDEN IN A SHIPPING CONTAINER THAN IN THE WARHEAD OF AN INTERCONTINENTAL BALLISTIC MISSILE. But the $10 billion a year the Pentagon devotes to missile defenses is almost twice the amount the U.S. spends on defending the nation's borders and ports from smuggled weapons.

Along the Meramec River in eastern Missouri, residents of Valley Park hoped the town's $49 million earthen levee, built in 2005 to withstand a 100-year flood, would pass its first big test. The surging Meramec was expected to crest at a record 40 feet on Saturday - 24 feet above flood stage. The Army Corps of Engineers and Missouri Public Safety said the levee was in good shape, but some residents decided to leave for higher ground just in case.

Snow forced the cancellation of more than 450 flights and delayed numerous others at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, one of the world's busiest. Many flights were also canceled at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Michigan, where up to 12 inches of snow was expected in areas. Northern Ohio residents prepared for an expected 3 to 6 inches of snow, while flood victims in the southern parts of the state began the arduous task of cleaning up after some of the heaviest rain in years. A blizzard warning remained in effect in northern Maine, where fierce winds scattered snow, uprooted trees and brought down power lines.

At least 16 deaths have been linked to the weather over the past few days, and at least two people whose vehicles were swept away by rushing water Tuesday were still missing in Arkansas

GERMAN BANKS ARE NERVOUS. Deutsche Bank Chairman Josef Ackermann demanded earlier this week that governments and banks cooperate more closely in overcoming the current crisis. His comments came on the heels of rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve and the Fed's cash injection to help out wobbly banks in the US. In Germany, however, Ackermann's plea unleashed a heated debate in Germany over the market's ability to recover without state intervention.

Axel Weber, president of the Bundesbank, Germany's federal bank, rejected Ackermann's statement. In an interview with the financial daily Handelsblatt, he said: "THE BANKS THEMSELVES MUST BE RESPONSIBLE FOR MONITORING AND SOLVING THEIR OWN PROBLEMS." Calling for greater transparency, he said that, "all participants in the financial markets must inform promptly about their risks."

"For example, Deutsche Bank boss Josef Ackermann admitted at the beginning of the week that he no longer believes in the market's ability to recover on its own - despite having cited this very ability for years in his rejection of state intervention. It seems likely that we're in for a dramatic change in the political weather: EVEN IF MONEY BEGINS TO FLOW ABUNDANTLY AGAIN BETWEEN BANKS, THEIR CREDIBILITY WITH THE PUBLIC IS ZERO."

"The price of the ongoing bailouts will take the form of significantly stricter regulations and greater state influence."

Frenchman Jérôme Kerviel offered a particularly enlightening commentary on the steadily worsening crisis in the financial markets. Just as a reminder, Kerviel is one of the young traders whose UNAUTHORIZED TRADES RESULTED IN THE STUNNING LOSS OF €4.9 BILLION ($7.66 billion) for his employer, French bank Société Générale. When questioned by prosecutors, Kerviel offered this logical explanation for his actions: "WORKING IN THIS PROFESSION, YOU LOSE YOUR SENSE FOR SUMS." Then he added: "You get a little carried away."

The sad and, for many contemporaries, extremely costly truth is that the ENTIRE FINANCIAL SECTOR HAS APPARENTLY LOST ITS SENSE FOR SUMS IN RECENT YEARS. We are all in the hands of tens of thousands of men and women like Kerviel, who pursue their business deals in banks around the globe.

No matter how it ends, we must learn our lessons from this tremor as quickly as possible. Perhaps the most important lesson is that the financial sector is far too important to be left almost entirely in the hands of nimble financial traders in Frankfurt, London and New York. As it happens, the financial industry plays a special role in a market economy. A crisis in the auto or chemical industry can be contained. BUT A BLOW TO THE BANKING SYSTEM AFFECTS EVERYONE AND CAN EVEN LEAD TO THE COLLAPSE OF POLITICAL STRUCTURES, AS THE CRASH OF 1929 AND ITS CONSEQUENCES HAVE SHOWN.