The warning comes a month before the British government begins its phase-out of tungsten bulbs, scheduled to be completed in 2011. The switchover to CFL bulbs will save at least five million tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year, the government said. Health experts warned this week that people with certain skin ailments will suffer from the new eco-friendly bulbs which cause conditions such as eczema to flare up. Additionally, the bulbs have been linked to migraine headaches in some people.

The Environment Agency's latest advice focuses on the 6 to 8 milligrams of toxic mercury in each bulb. Users who break a bulb should vacate the room for at least 15 minutes, the new guidelines say. The debris should not be removed with a vacuum cleaner, which could put toxic dust into the air, but with rubber gloves. The broken glass and all residue is to be placed into a sealed plastic bag and taken to a local official recycling site for proper disposal.

The calculations suggest that, measured by gross domestic product per capita, Britain can now hold its head up high in the economic stakes after more than a century of playing second fiddle to the Americans. It says that GDP per head in Britain will be £23,500 this year, compared with £23,250 in America, reflecting not only the strength of the pound against the dollar but also the UK economy's record run of growth and rising incomes going back to the early 1990s.

In those days, according to Oxford Economics, Britain's GDP per capita was 34% below that in America, 33% less than in Germany and 26% lower than in France. Now, not only have average incomes crept above those in America but they are more than 8% above France (£21,700) and Germany (£21,665). "The past 15 years have seen a dramatic change in the UK's economic performance and its position in the world economy," said Adrian Cooper, managing director of Oxford Economics. "No longer are we the 'sick man of Europe'. Indeed, our calculations suggest that UK living standards are now a match for those of the US."

Although many people will be surprised by the figures, Americans have long complained that average incomes have been stagnant in their country. One often-quoted statistical comparison suggests that in real terms the median male full-time salary in America is no higher now than it was in the 1970s.

"The occupied territories are awaiting their first visit by the crusader Bush and the mujahideen are also waiting for him," said Gadahn, a California native and now an Al Qaeda spokesman. Gadahn is the star of the latest al Qaeda propaganda video to be posted online by the group's media wing, As Sahab. In his newest dramatic gesture, Gadahn tore up his U.S. passport in protest of the imprisonment of fellow al Qaeda followers Abu Zubaydah, John Walker Lindh and Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman. "I don't need it to travel anyway," he said afterwards.

Jerusalemites are accustomed to waiting in traffic jams as convoys of black sedans shuttle visiting dignitaries around the city, the seat of Israel's government. But Bush, who arrives for three days beginning Wednesday, constitutes a VIP of a different order. Israel is pulling out all the stops to impress a man who is perhaps its staunchest foreign ally in his first visit as U.S. president.

Jerusalem is spending nearly $400,000 to spruce itself up for the visit, said Jacob Avishar, the city official in charge of coordinating preparations. Garbage teams are in a furious race to clean the city's often dusty streets and walls tagged with spray paint, he said. More than 10,500 policemen and security personnel will be deployed to protect Bush and keep order during the visit - more than one-third of Israel's entire police force, according to police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. "There will be so much security nobody will be able to get anywhere near the president," Rosenfeld said.

The security personnel will include snipers, bomb-sniffing dogs and bodyguards from the Shin Bet internal security service, including reservists called up especially for the visit, according to police officials. The operation, dubbed "Clear Skies," will cost Israel $25,000 for every hour Bush is in the country, Israel Radio reported.

The Bishop of Rochester, the Right Reverend Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, said non-Muslims may find it difficult to live or work in some places. He said there was "hostility" in those areas and described the government's multicultural policies as divisive. Muslims and some politicians have accused the bishop of scaremongering. But other politicians agreed with the bishop, saying he had highlighted a real problem.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Dr Nazir-Ali said there had been a worldwide resurgence of Islamic extremism, leading to young people growing up alienated from the country they lived in. It had also turned "already separate communities into 'no-go' areas". He said there had been attempts to "impose an 'Islamic' character on certain areas", for example, by amplifying the call to prayer from mosques. The Muslim Council of Britain said the mosque call was no different from church bells ringing.

Well, sort of. Pope Benedict XVI is alive and well and attending to his mission as absolute ruler of the Roman Catholic Church for the foreseeable future. But just down the block from St. Peter's Square, church elders - though not all so old, and without a Cardinal among them - have begun gathering for a closed-door meeting to elect the man dubbed the "black pope." That's the moniker historically assigned to the leader of the Jesuit order: for the color of the simple priestly vestments he keeps on wearing, for his lifetime posting, and for the planetary influence he carries.

The Jesuits' outgoing Superior General is a soft-spoken Netherlands native named Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, who has served since 1983. The 79-year-old last year became the first ever Jesuit leader to ask for, and receive, papal permission to retire from the post. White-haired and goateed, Kolvenbach has kept a low public profile during his quarter-century reign, but is widely praised for his skills in reestablishing good ties with the Holy See after the run-ins with top Vatican officials of his predecessor, a charismatic Basque-born progressive named Pedro Arrupe.

Though more recently established, more traditionalist movements and religious orders such as Opus Dei and the Legionaries of Christ have gotten more attention of late, the Jesuits are still far and away the largest clerical order in the Church. Though there is no set date for the election, which requires a three-fourths majority of delegates, Jesuit sources say by mid-January there should be a new Superior General.

The order was founded with a special mission to directly serve the Pontiff, and has been dubbed the "Pope's cavalry," engendering suspicion in the past of conspiracies and secret powers. Even Popes, including John Paul II, have criticized them for their apparent autonomy. "Yes, we are in the vanguard of the Church," says Jose de Vera, head spokesman for the order. "It is not our job to just repeat the catechism, but to do research. Sometimes looking for real truth, you can step over the line." Just last year, the Vatican's doctrinal office issued a "Notification" to Spanish Jesuit scholar Jon Sobrino, a proponent of Marxist-inspired liberation theology, for what they called "erroneous ... and even dangerous" writings.

India's tourism minister said Thursday that the dollar will no longer be accepted at the Taj Mahal and other national tourist sites. For years tourists visiting most sites in India were charged either $5, or 250 rupees. After falling 11 percent in 2007, hitting nine-year lows to hover around 39 rupees, the dollar is out.

Charging only rupees now seems more practical and will save tourists money because "the dollar was weaker against the rupee," Tourism Minister Ambika Soni told the CNN-IBN news channel. "Before the dollar lost its value, there was a demand to have (admission tickets) just in rupees," he added. The Taj Mahal, India's famed white marble monument to love, began refusing dollars in November.

It means just one more place where American tourists will have to shell out more money - now nearly $20. And it's likely to get worse in booming India. The dollar hit record lows of $1.4967 against the euro on Nov. 23, the weakest since that currency began trading in 1999, and was down against almost every major currency Thursday.

The Federal Reserve announced Friday that it is increasing the amount of money available to banks through the new auction process it created to ease the nation's severe credit squeeze. The Fed again pledged to continue the auctions "for as long as necessary." The Fed said that it will increase the amount offered at each of the next two auctions from $20 billion to $30 billion, a 50 percent jump. Those two auctions will be Jan. 14 and Jan. 28.

The Fed announcement indicated that the auction process it began last month has been successful in providing a source of loans for cash-strapped banks. The first two auctions offered $20 billion each and attracted bids for about three times that amount.

In excerpts of an interview with Channel 2 aired on Saturday night, Bush said that if he was an Israeli citizen, he would take Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's threats seriously, and as the US president, he too takes them very seriously. Bush reiterated that an Iranian attack on Israel would lead to "World War III." He said that the US was always considering a military option to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue since the most effective diplomacy is conducted when all the options are on the table.

Either global bankers are seducing Islamic dictators, or vice versa. Islamic/Shari'a banking is coming to the United States and other western nations, thanks to global banks such as Citigroup, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. With Great Britain now pledging to become the Islamic banking center of the world, the stampede by all global banks to enter the world of Islamic banking is well underway. The implications for the west, and especially for the United States, are staggering. Because all Islamic banking products must be created and offered according to strict Shari'a law, GLOBAL BANKS ARE DOING FOR ISLAM WHAT IT COULD NEVER DO ON ITS OWN: GIVE LEGITIMACY TO SHARI'A AND INFILTRATE IT INTO THE FABRIC OF WESTERN SOCIETY.

Simply put, "ISLAMIC BANKING AND FINANCE" creates, sells and services products that are in strict accordance with Shari'a. In the Islamic culture, it is referred to as "Shari'a finance" and covers the practices of banking, investment, bonds, loans, brokerage, etc. To insure Shari'a compliance, banks must hire Shari'a scholars to review and approve each product and practice as "halal" - It should be noted that most of these scholars are from the school of radical Wahhabi/Salafi Shari'a in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, HOLDING VIEWS DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED TO THE BASIC VALUES OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION.

Shari'a finance has many differences from orthodox banking: Notably, it cannot charge interest (usury) and it calls for alms giving (zakat). It also calls for avoidance of excessive risk and may not be associated in any way with gambling, drinking alcohol, eating pork, etc. Zakat demands a tithe of 2.5 percent of revenue be donated to Islamic charity. If western banks follow this rule, their contributions will be staggering. IT IS CERTAIN THAT A PORTION OF THIS MONEY WILL END UP IN THE HANDS OF RADICAL MUSLIMS WHO ARE SWORN TO DESTROY THE U.S. AND REPLACE ITS GOVERNMENT WITH SHARI'A LAW.

SHARI'A DEMANDS TOTAL AND UNQUESTIONED SUBMISSION. Its subjects are told that Shari'a is given by Allah and that whatever befalls them (good or bad) is Allah's will. To question a judgment under Shari'a (right or wrong) is to question Shari'a itself and will only bring harsher punishment. If a person receives harsh punishment for something they didn't do, the rationale is that Allah could and would have prevented it if that had been his will. THIS FATALISTIC AND DETERMINISTIC APPROACH ALLOWS SHARI'A RULERS TO GET AWAY WITH VIRTUALLY ANY THING THAT ENTERS THEIR HEAD.

FURTHERMORE, IT IS THE VEHICLE USED TO CALL FOR THE COMPLETE DESTRUCTION OF THE WEST AND IN PARTICULAR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, which then will be replaced by Shari'a dictatorships. Shari'a banking is quickly encircling the globe and forcing a de facto acceptance of Shari'a law. International bankers have long ago proven themselves to be completely amoral when it comes to money. They bankrolled the Bolshevik Revolution in 1918 just as blithely as they bankrolled Hitler in the 1930's. Fortunately for us, neither succeeded in conquering the world.

With Islam, odds of its succeeding are radically different. To start with, there are already 1.6 BILLION MUSLIMS IN THE WORLD, and it is the fastest growing religion in history. Secondly, the spread of Islam is richly FINANCED BY THE OIL that is extracted from mid-eastern countries. Thirdly, ISLAM HAS ALREADY INFILTRATED MOST OF THE WEST, especially in Europe.

AND NOW, ISLAM HAS BEHIND IT THE COMBINED SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE ENTIRE GLOBAL BANKING COMMUNITY. The unholy alliance between Islam and global banking may be the final leg on the age-old quest for global domination. Don't be surprised at the silence of the global elite the next time you hear Islamist mobs chant "Death to America" - their goals are now intertwined.

NOTHING HAS BEEN REPAIRED. The pressure points are big banks suffering from insolvency, prime mortgage bonds destined for massive losses, consumers without kitties to rob to keep spending, a worsening housing market from chronic inventory bloat, and deepening problems in the lending industry frozen from insolvency and distrust. Pitch in a global resentment of US fraud and heavy handed tactics, especially from the last couple of decades. What a prospect! ALMOST ALL OF WALL STREET'S FIRMS ARE BANKRUPT, but still in control of the financial media. Citigroup is dead in the water, inevitably to enter restructuring without admission of bankruptcy and surely with no formal filing of such. Even Goldman Sachs might be bankrupt, if they ever produced an honest balance sheet. THE UNITED STATES IS ON A SAD BUT UNSTOPPABLE MARCH TO THIRD WORLD STATUS, complete with totalitarian rule. Nothing can block the path.

The mirrored central damage will be to the US Economy, from both an exhausted household consumer and a lending climate reluctant to supply urgently needed credit. The dependence upon consumption will be unmasked as fatally flawed finally. The entire banking system will go bust in the United States this year, in a highly visible manner, as the entire world watches in total horror. The nation in custodial duty for the world reserve currency, the US Dollar, will suffer a failed banking & bond system, which undoubtedly will result in a grotesque US Economic recession. It is just a bit late in its arrival. The parade of disasters will be mindboggling, offering little respite. SADLY, 2008 IS THE YEAR THE SYSTEM JUST PLAIN BREAKS.

PEOPLE WILL REACT WITH INCREASING ANGER. They will bristle with anger and frustration, even spark isolated riots, from rising food prices, rising gasoline prices with spotty supply, lost jobs from rising costs and outsourcing, lost homes from predatory lending followed by foreclosures. People will suffer, realize that finances are not safe in banks, as bank runs spread amidst the fear in isolated cases, and some stock accounts are frozen unavailable amidst financial service conglomerate bankruptcies. The year 2008 will bring with it a level of confusion never seen before in the nation's history. Economists will be found befuddled, scratching their heads, dazed, and without solutions. Politicians will be confused as to what to advocate, unsure what is potentially effective.

The confusion in 2008 will culminate in the ratcheting upward of the official rescue attempts, measures, freezes, adoptions, initiatives, and eventual grand platform, as my forecast has steadily called for. Each plan will be recognized as insufficient and limited, thus motivated by the next desperate measure. Neither the Administration nor Congress is willing to press forward to initiate ANY broad rescue just yet, since the first pig in line would be the Wall Street thieves, thugs, and conmen whose fingerprints are all over the mortgage bond debacle laced with criminal fraud. So the entire banking system will continue to slide into quicksand. Once politicians enter the picture, the problem worsens, no exception.

Meanwhile, GOLD WILL RISE for many reasons, few being the traditionally recognized ones:

GOLD WILL RISE from gradual recognition that the banking system is destroyed.
GOLD WILL RISE from the perceived need to generate price inflation, whether such efforts are successful or not, an expectation concept.
GOLD WILL RISE from the Competing Currency Wars, as nations urgently print more money to stave off recession and grotesque asset deflation.
GOLD WILL RISE primarily because the global money supply is rising at an astronomical rate, think Weimar, go global.
GOLD WILL RISE because the smart ones will realize that the United States might seek war as a diversion amidst the crisis.
GOLD WILL RISE in response to failures in most policy initiatives, perceived symptoms to systemic breakdown.
GOLD WILL RISE as the global revolt against the US Dollar continues, with the current focal point being the Persian Gulf nations who must defend themselves from the ravages of inflation.
GOLD WILL RISE as the globe finally reckons that the US Fed, traditionally the most powerful among the central bankers, is impotent, toothless, and irrelevant.

The chaos in the financial sector will be matched by growing chaos in the beehive of the US Economy, the business complexes, the neighborhood communities.

WATCH FOR LAWLESS BEHAVIOR TO RISE, as chaos envelops the system.
WATCH FOR CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE to crop up, as high crimes among Wall Street bankers and US Govt leaders go unaddressed. In the year 2008, the bylines will be 1) breakdown, 2) chaos, 3) futility of tools, 4) absence of options, 5) confusion. The system breaks in 2008. Denials will be laughable.

THE COUNTRY MIGHT NOT BE RECOGNIZABLE BY THE TIME THE 2009 PAGE IS TURNED.

Of the 850 million birds reared in Britain every year, only five per cent have had anything approaching a comfortable life. The vast majority are intensively reared, in prison-camp environments.

The way chickens are reared provides an insight into the intensive techniques used to satisfy our demand for cut-price meat and vegetables. IN THIS WORLD, A BIRD THAT WILL FEED A FAMILY OF FIVE CAN BE RAISED IN A MERE 39 DAYS, WHEN BEFORE THE SECOND WORLD WAR IT WOULD HAVE NEEDED AROUND 20 WEEKS TO REACH THE SAME WEIGHT. Modern methods see 40,000 birds packed into one artificially lit barn, reeking to such an extent that if the ventilation system failed they would be gassed by their own droppings.

Each bird inhabits a space smaller than a piece of A4 paper, and most will have been de-clawed and de-beaked to prevent them damaging their neighbours. To encourage them to feed continuously, they are given only one hour of darkness in each day. They will never experience natural light or see a blade of grass. These birds are meant to fatten quickly, so exercise is undesirable. Low light levels keep them drowsy, but as they grow they become so densely packed in as to find movement impossible.

This is a grisly story of animal welfare dereliction, but will it make any difference? Although we have more food available to us than ever before, we seem to value and care about it less: we are spending a lower proportion of our income on what we eat than at any time in history, and THROWING AWAY AN ASTONISHING 30-40 PER CENT OF ALL THAT WE BUY.

This debate over chickens, then, is effectively a test of our changing attitudes to food. That cut-price roast chicken might now seem to be an irresistibly attractive offer - but once you have seen the repellent reality of what the birds go through, changing your choice might seem like less of an inconvenience than an obvious, inalienable imperative.

Families face a massive surge in power bills today with accusations that foreign energy giants are treating the UK like "Treasure Island". German owned N-Power is rushing through immediate rises of up to 27.1per cent. The average family buying both gas and electricity from the company will find the annual bill soaring above £1,000. Charities for the elderly fear the sudden increase will put many lives at risk.

The decision by Npower, part of German utility powerhouse RWE, is expected to be followed by other suppliers, many with foreign parent companies. EON is also owned by the Germans and EDF by a French business, while Scottish Power is part of the Spanish conglomerate Iberdrola.

Adam Scorer, campaigns chief at the consumer body Energywatch, hit out at the profiteering of the foreign energy giants. "The big European energy companies treat Great Britain like 'Treasure Island,' " he said. "They raid the UK's North Sea for gas supplies when it is cheap but then levy punitive prices when demand is higher. This move suggests something is very badly wrong, not only in the GB energy market but in Europe as well. There is no actual shortage of gas across Europe, we have new pipelines to bring that gas to the UK, greater storage capacity and terminals to bring in supertankers full of liquefied natural gas."

Flights were grounded in Northern California as gusts reached 80 mph during the second wave of an arctic storm that sent trees crashing onto houses, cars and roads. Forecasters expected the storm to dump as much as 10 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada by Sunday. The heavy snow was slowing search efforts for a family believed to be missing in the mountains, authorities said.

Highways from Sacramento to San Francisco were closed because of debris or toppled big rigs blocking lanes, and local roads were flooded.

At Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park in Key Biscayne, iguanas fell out of trees Thursday. The cold-blooded reptiles go into a sort of hibernation when temperatures get too low, even if they are perched in branches. Most woke up when the weather warmed later in the day. The animals are not native to Florida and are considered a nuisance, park officials told The Miami Herald.

Three American Airlines Boeing 767-200s that fly daily round-trip routes between New York and California will receive the anti-missile laser jammers this spring, according to the Department of Homeland Security, which is spending $29 million on the tests.

Jets will fly with the jammer device mounted on the belly of the plane, between the wheels. The device works with sensors, also mounted on the plane, that detect a heat-seeking missile and shoot a laser at it to send the missile veering harmlessly off course.

Anti-missile systems have been tested on cargo planes. But "this is the first time these systems have been tested on actual passenger airlines in commercial service," says Burt Keirstead, director of commercial aircraft protection at BAE Systems, which developed the anti-missile device. "It's the ultimate consumer use of the equipment."