The EU's trade relationship with China is "deeply unequal", its trade commissioner Peter Mandelson has said.

In a frank letter to the European Commission president, he suggested that China took business in Europe for granted. China is now the EU's biggest source of manufactured goods.

But Mr Mandelson said that tariff barriers and Chinese interventions were limiting how much the EU sold to the Asian giant - costing firms billions. The letter added that the Chinese were "procedurally obstructive" where dialogue had been set up.

THE EU SOLD MORE GOODS TO SWITZERLAND THAN IT DID TO CHINA, the letter to Jose Manuel Barroso said, adding that THE TRADE DEFICIT BETWEEN THE EU AND CHINA WAS GROWING AT ABOUT £10M EVERY HOUR. "The Chinese juggernaut is, to some extent, out of control," Mr Mandelson added.

The BBC's Jonny Dymond, who has seen the letter, says that the trade commissioner 's letter "effectively accuses China of taking the mickey. The message behind the letter looks pretty clear - that Europe has rolled over long enough," our reporter added.

Mr Mandelson told the BBC that pressure from the public and politicians for a level playing-field of trade was growing. "If we want to sustain a policy of openness towards China politically, we have to make sure that the public is satisfied that that trading relationship is being conducted on full and fair trade, otherwise we are going to be in trouble."

China was "shifting the economic and diplomatic scenery so fast that it is almost impossible for policy makers to keep up let alone be ahead of the game", he added. "Because of China's extraordinary economic growth as well as its political and diplomatic reach, and the effect it can have on global security, we are seeing China changing the whole global landscape in so many different ways."

The vote overshadowed a U.S. government report that crude oil and gasoline inventories overall rose more than expected last week. But prices did draw some support from a 200,000 barrel decline in inventories at the closely-watched New York Mercantile Exchange delivery terminal in Cushing, Okla. Light, sweet crude for November delivery rose $1.09 to $88.69 a barrel on the Nymex after rising to a record $89 earlier.

Oil prices initially fell after the Energy Information Administration reported that crude inventories rose by 1.8 million barrels during the week ended Oct. 12, more than the 1 million barrel increase analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires, on average, had expected. But prices reversed course and rose after the Turkish parliament vote. Traders worry that any escalation in the conflict between the Kurds and Turkey will cut oil supplies from northern Iraq. Despite the decision, Turkey's government said an incursion into Iraq isn't imminent.

Many analysts believe speculative investing is the real culprit behind higher prices. Traders see technical signs in the differences between current and future oil contracts that suggest money continues to be plowed into oil futures. And those signals precipitate new buying, which pushes prices even higher. "I think the market has been trading on momentum," said Antoine Halff, head of energy research at Fimat USA LLC.

Despite the nonsense put out by economists at the Federal Reserve and other centers of misinformation, food and energy are the most important components of the consumers' spending basket. And, the wallets of about two billion consumers are being filled by economic growth in China and India. They are spending that money on improving and increasing their consumption of food.

Consumption of all the major grains has increased. In total, global annual consumption of just these four grains increased by 80 million tonnes in five years. Remember, this higher demand must be satisfied by Agri-Food production that is constrained on the supply side. Agri-Food production is not like a factory. We can not just turn a dial and increase production.

The ability of the globe to produce Agri-Foods is constrained by the total amount of productive farm land. In the past five years the United States, for example, lost 10 million acres of farm land. Europe has moved to eliminate any farm land set aside, and will be planting essentially all available farm land in the next year.

Higher demand up against constrained supply means higher prices. Higher food prices are inevitable!

Data from the US Treasury showed outflows of $163bn (£80bn) from all forms of US investments. "These numbers are absolutely stunning," said Marc Ostwald, an economist at Insinger de Beaufort. Asian investors dumped $52bn worth of US Treasury bonds alone, led by Japan ($23bn), China ($14.2bn) and Taiwan ($5bn). It is the first time since 1998 that foreigners have, on balance, sold Treasuries.

Mr Ostwald warned that US bond yields could start to rise again unless the outflows reverse quickly. "Woe betide US Treasuries if inflation does not remain benign," he said. The release comes a day after the IMF warned that the dollar was still overvalued and likely to face "some depreciation in the medium term".

The US requires $70bn a month in capital inflows to cover its current account deficit, but the key sources of finance are drying up one by one. BNP Paribas said America has relied on "hot money" from abroad to cover 25pc to 30pc of the US short-term credit and commercial paper market over the last two years.

This flow is now in danger after the seizure in parts of the market over the summer and after the Federal Reserve's half point rate cut, which has shaved the US yield advantage over other countries. Ian Stannard, a Paribas currency analyst, said the data was "extremely negative" for the dollar. "It exceeds the worst fears. It is not just foreigners who are selling US assets. Americans are turning their back as well," he said.

Central banks in Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam have all begun to cut purchases of US bonds, or signalled an intent to do so. In effect, they are giving up trying to hold down their currencies because the policy is starting to set off inflation. The Treasury data would have been even worse if it had not been for $60bn of inflows from hedge funds based in Britain and the Caymans, which needed to cover US positions at the height of the credit crunch.

Sir Christopher Ondaatje feared his warning of economic meltdown would come too late. So he wrote faster and faster, PREDICTING THAT THE PRESENT ABUSE OF MONEY IN THE FINANCIAL WORLD COULD CAUSE THE WORLD ECONOMY TO COLLAPSE, CREATING CHAOS AND CONFUSION ACROSS THE GLOBE, FROM AMERICA TO CHINA.

He foretold that the American housing bubble, based on reckless mortgage lending, would burst, with repercussions for us all. While *"The Power of Paper" was at the printers, it did. Then, another warning tremor: people started queuing to get their money out of Northern Rock branches across Britain.

"The Government says it will back Northern Rock," he says scornfully. "They don't have the money. They are desperate to get someone to buy it and get it off their back." These are dangerous times. And, make no mistake about it, Northern Rock is only the tip of the iceberg. Recent government action [to guarantee investors' deposits] may indicate that this is the end of a seriously bad beginning, BUT IT MAY BE A WARNING THAT THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF THE END!"

He lists the problems: -
THE PERILS OF DERIVATIVES,
THE SNARE OF SUB-PRIME MORTGAGES,
THE QUESTIONABLE PRACTICE OF DISGUISING AND REPACKAGING DEBT
AND THE AWFUL LACK OF TRANSPARENCY ABOUT WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON.

His final prediction is that the purchasing power of the dollar and the pound will be only 10 per cent of what it is now in 10 years' time - maybe five.

* 'The Power of Paper' by Christopher Ondaatje (HarperCollins)

The Syrian envoy disclosed the nature of the target during a meeting of a UN committee where Israeli envoys were also present. A senior source in the Foreign Ministry confirmed that the statement was made in New York by the Syrian official.

Since first announcing on September 6 that an incursion into Syrian airspace by IAF jets took place, Syria has attempted to strike a balance between mustering international condemnation of Israel on the one hand and efforts by Damascus to blur the nature and purpose of the facility attacked on the other hand.

Israel continues to keep mum on the affair, and the only information cleared by the military censor for publication was the fact that a strike took place; any other information published in Israel continues to be accompanied by the phrase "according to foreign media outlets."

Israeli analysts estimated that the government's decision not to disclose information about the strike was intended to avoid embarrassing Assad's regime, in the hope that silence on Israel's side could prevent the tension between the two countries from escalating into all-out war.

The microbe, a strain of a once innocuous staph bacterium that has become invulnerable to first-line antibiotics, is responsible for more than 94,000 serious infections and nearly 19,000 deaths each year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calculated.

Although mounting evidence shows that the infection is becoming more common, the estimate published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association is the first national assessment of the toll from the insidious pathogen, officials said. "This is a significant public health problem. We should be very worried," said Scott K. Fridkin, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC.

MRSA is a strain of the ubiquitous bacterium that usually causes staph infections that are easily treated with common, or first-line, antibiotics in the penicillin family, such as methicillin and amoxicillin. Resistant strains of the organism, however, have been increasingly turning up in hospitals and in small outbreaks outside of heath-care settings, such as among athletes, prison inmates and children.

In the second paper, Michael E. Pichichero and Janet R. Casey of the University of Rochester in New York documented the emergence of an antibiotic-resistant strain of another bacterium known as Streptococcus pneumoniae, which causes common ear infections. Although all 11 children identified in the Rochester area with the microbe so far were successfully treated, five required an antibiotic approved only for adults, and one child was left with permanent hearing loss.

The researchers attributed the emergence of the strain to a combination of the overuse of antibiotics and the introduction of a vaccine that protects against the infection. "The use of the vaccine created an ecological vacuum, and that combined with excessive use of antibiotics to create this new superbug," Pichichero said.

The MRSA estimate is being published with a report that a strain of another bacterium, which causes ear infections in children, has become impervious to every approved antibiotic for youngsters. "Taken together, what these two papers show is that we're increasingly facing antibiotic-resistant forms of these very common organisms," Bancroft said.

Traders are concerned that a Turkish incursion into Iraq in search of Kurdish rebels could disrupt crude supplies from northern Iraq.

"Whenever there is any escalation in political tensions in the Middle East, oil markets become concerned," said David Moore, a commodity strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney. "There is production and there are pipelines that people worry may be affected if there are any issues in Iraq."

Adam Applegarth, Northern Rock's chief executive, told MPs that the revelation that his bank had been forced to seek emergency financial support from the Bank of England had helped cause the wave of panic withdrawals that may have seen as much as £7 billion pulled out of its accounts.

And Matt Ridley, the bank's chairman, said that without the media exposing Northern Rock's troubles, the run on the bank could have been averted. The bank's troubles ultimately stem from a global shortage of credit. But its efforts to keep its plight a secret were shattered on the night of Thursday, 13 September when the BBC revealed that Northern Rock had asked the Bank of England for an emergency line of credit.

The following morning, queues started to form outside Northern Rock branches as savers rushed to withdraw money. The panic eventually forced the Treasury to issue an unprecedented public promise to underwrite all money deposited with the bank, a promise that could be worth more than £20 billion.

Mr Applegarth, testifying before MPs on the Treasury select committee yesterday, made clear he considered the BBC report to have contributed to his bank's near-demise. "It caused us immense difficulties," he said.
During a stormy interrogation yesterday, it emerged that both Mr Applegarth and Dr Ridley have offered their resignations to the Northern Rock board, but had their offers turned down. Yet members of the cross-party committee yesterday left no doubt that they believe that the positions of both men are still extremely fragile.

Michael Fallon, the senior Tory MP on the committee, turned his fire on Dr Ridley. He said: "You are the chairman of the bank that ran out of money, that caused the first bank run in this country for 150 years. You have had to borrow billions of public money from the Bank of England. You have damaged the good name of British banking. Why are you still clinging to office?"

Dr Ridley, a former journalist and scientific author, replied that he was working "night and day" to repair the damage done to Northern Rock.

But the new Unicef report also reveals that fewer children are getting access to treatments for the disease. Every year, 800,000 African children under the age of five die from malaria. Experts agree the simplest, most cost-effective way to prevent those deaths is the distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets. Studies show that in countries where they are in use, malaria deaths have dropped by half.

But while Unicef and the WHO are pleased with the progress in preventative measures, the death toll among African children remains unchanged. Meanwhile, fewer children are receiving life-saving drugs if they do get malaria. This is because most African countries have followed WHO advice and phased out older treatments which had become ineffective - but have not yet brought in the newer, more expensive malaria treatment drugs.

But, the WHO says, increased production of the new treatments is now bringing prices down.

Parliament in Ankara is expected to approve the motion by a large majority amid widespread public support for military action against the PKK. Attacks blamed on the rebels have been escalating inside Turkey in a conflict which dates back more than two decades. But the US is anxious that Turkish action could destabilise northern Iraq. It is also embroiled in a row with Turkey over a Congressional vote to recognise the mass killing of Armenians in Ottoman times as genocide.

Turkey is a regional hub for the US military, and some suggest access to Incirlik airbase or other supply lines crucial to US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan could be affected by the row.

The recent death of 13 Turkish soldiers in an ambush blamed on the PKK has put the government under immense pressure to respond with force, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford reports from Ankara. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the motion does not mean a military operation is imminent. But he also warned that Turkey would act decisively in its fight against terrorism.

Iraq and America are urging restraint out of concern that military action by Turkey will bring chaos to the only relatively calm region of Iraq, our correspondent notes. Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh warned that unilateral action by Turkey in Iraq could have "very grave consequences". If Turkey as a neighbour of Iraq allows itself the right to intervene militarily in Iraq, what is there to prevent other neighbours from intervening?" he asked in the BBC interview.

On Tuesday ministers published a review of immigration research showing "clear benefits" to the British economy. But in a first review of the regional picture, a presentation prepared for the impacts forum warns that pressures are being felt across five key areas: crime and disorder, community cohesion, health, education and housing. The report also highlighted the need for translators, particularly for schools and health services.

Immigrants were reported to use accident and emergency departments instead of a GP surgery in the East of England, North Lincolnshire and Southampton. There were also concerns about an increase in low-level crimes such as driving offences and anti-social behaviour, and community tensions in the North West, South West and Scotland.

On Tuesday, a separate paper published by the Home Office set out the economic case for migration, saying that all evidence pointed towards a "clear benefit" to the UK. It said claims that Eastern European workers had taken jobs from British people were unsubstantiated - instead they had contributed towards an expanding of the economy. However, it added that some of the lowest paid workers can lose out in the face of cheaper foreign workers, even with the minimum wage in place.

The largest ever UK study into obesity, backed by government and compiled by 250 experts, said excess weight was now the norm in our "obesogenic" society. Dramatic and comprehensive action was required to stop the majority of us becoming obese by 2050, they said.

In 2002, those who were overweight or obese cost nearly £7bn in treatment and state benefits and in indirect costs such as loss of earnings and reduced productivity. In 40 years time, that figure could reach nearly £46bn, as health services struggle to cope with the ill health such as diabetes, cancer and stroke which can be associated with excess weight.

"There is a danger that the moment to act radically and dramatically will be missed," said Sir David King, the government's chief scientific advisor and head of the Foresight Programme which drew up the report. "It is a problem that is getting worse every year."

Obesity, the authors concluded, was an inevitable consequence of a society in which energy-dense, cheap foods, labour-saving devices, motorised transport and sedentary work were rife. The Food and Drink Federation said it understood its role in tackling the problem. "Our industry is now widely recognised as leading the world when it comes to reformulating products; extending consumer choice; and introducing improved nutrition labelling," a spokesperson said.

He also said countries bordering the Caspian Sea must jointly back any oil pipeline projects in the region. At a summit of the five nations that border the inland Caspian Sea, Putin said none of the nations' territory should be used by any outside countries for use of military force against any nation in the region. It was a clear reference to long-standing rumors that the U.S. was planning to use Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic, as a staging ground for any possible military action against Iran.

"We are saying that no Caspian nation should offer its territory to third powers for use of force or military aggression against any Caspian state," Putin said. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also underlined the need for solidarity. "The Caspian Sea is an inland sea and it only belongs to the Caspian states, therefore only they are entitled to have their ships and military forces here," he said.

A State Department spokesman, Tom Casey, said the United States is not planning military action against Iran.

"We are pursuing a diplomatic course with respect to Iran that includes with respect to its nuclear program as well as with respect to its support for terrorism and other issues that are out there," he said.

Putin refused to set a date for the start-up of Iran's first nuclear power plant, to be built by Russia. At the same time, he said, "We are not going to renounce our obligations."

Putin emphasized Monday that he would negotiate in Tehran on behalf of the five permanent U.N. Security Council members - United States, Russia, China, Britain and France - and Germany, a group that has led efforts to resolve the stalemate with Tehran.

The number of volcanic earthquakes at Mount Kelud, 90 km (55 miles) southwest of Indonesia's second-largest city Surabaya, had soared to more than 300 in a six-hour period from late morning, the country's top volcano expert said by telephone. "An area 10 km from the crater should be evacuated," said Surono, head of the Centre for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation in Bandung.

The alert level was raised to maximum "based on the seismic activity, deformation, visual observation and the temperature of the crater lake going up", according to the centre's Web site (www.vsi.esdm.go.id). An estimated 350,000 people live within 10 km of the volcano on Java island, growing coffee, sugar cane, pineapples and papayas on the rich volcanic soil or feeding their cattle on the volcano's slopes.

"People are panicking as they are heading towards the evacuation areas," a Reuters witness said by telephone from the area. "They are facing water and sanitation problems as the evacuation sites have not been properly equipped."

The crater lake on Kelud makes it harder to monitor than many of the other volcanoes scattered across Indonesia's archipelago, as some of the warning signs are concealed below the water's surface. Saut Simatupang, another official at the centre, said the crater lake had started to change color indicating increasing sulphur levels. "On the east and the north of the lake, it has started to turn white with sulphur."

When Kelud last erupted in 1990, at least 30 people were killed, while an eruption in 1919 killed about 5,000 as it ejected scalding water from its crater lake.