The Saudi ambassador to the US, Prince Turki Al-Faisal, said such an event could send prices spiralling from their current level of about $70 per barrel.

Iran is the Opec cartel's number two oil producer and analysts fear it could halt exports if the dispute worsens.

Tehran is currently examining proposals aimed at ending the diplomatic impasse.

STRAIT OF HORMUZ

"The idea of somebody firing a missile at an installation somewhere will shoot up the price of oil astronomically," Prince Turki told a conference hosted by the United States Energy Association.

He warned that any conflict involving Iran would threaten the Strait of Hormuz, through which most Middle East nations export their oil.

Tankers carry 17 million barrels of oil through the channel every day, according to the International Energy Agency.

US President George W. Bush has refused to rule out a military attack should diplomatic efforts to reach an agreement with Iran fail.

The US Energy Secretary, Sam Bodman, has maintained that the country would be in "good shape" if Iran did put a stop on its oil exports, thanks to America's emergency stockpile of almost 700 million barrels of crude oil.

The threat of a cut in Iranian oil exports has been the main factor driving oil prices higher in recent months, with the price fluctuating either side of $70 per barrel.

The southern section of the fault, which crosses through Palm Springs and San Bernardino, has not experienced a major earthquake in at least 300 years, according to Yuri Fialko of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.

As a result, the fault has been stressed to a level where it could unleash an earthquake with a magnitude of seven or greater. The fault marks the intersection where the Pacific plate meets the North American plate. The fault-slip rate, or pace of the plate movement at the fault, is about one inch per year. But pressure buildup indicates that the southern region of the fault has accumulated 6 to 8 meters of slip deficit--that is, movement that should have occurred but hasn't because the plates have temporarily become stuck against each other--which inevitably will be released in future earthquakes.

If the accumulated deficit were released in a single event, it would result in an earthquake about the same size as the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Such a quake would affect many of the coastal cities in southern California.
"In the earthquake business, the past is a key to understanding the present and, by comparing ancient observations of the fault with what we have measured over the last 10 years, we can say with some certainty that the fault is approaching the end of its loading period," Fialko said in a statement. "All these data suggest that the fault is ready for the next big earthquake, but exactly when the triggering will happen and when the earthquake will occur, we cannot tell. It could be tomorrow, or it could be 10 years or more from now."

Quakes occurred along the central part of the fault in 1857 and 1906 in the northern part of the fault.

Predicting earthquakes, however, is difficult. Scientists generally believe there is a 70 percent chance of a large quake along the San Andreas in the next 30 years. Researchers, though, concede it could happen tomorrow or in 50 years.

Some scientists, however, have begun to conduct research that indicates the Earth gives off early warning signs through increased magnetic signals and other phenomena.

But the Pentagon refused to confirm or deny reports that it had activated its missile defence system in response.

The US ambassador to Japan hinted that the missile could be shot down.

Amid growing pressure on Pyongyang, former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung cancelled a planned trip to the North Korean capital.

The North has asserted its right to conduct missile tests, and said it was no longer bound by a 1999 moratorium or a 2002 agreement with Japan.

But it is also reportedly calling for talks with Washington to resolve the issue, which analysts said suggested North Korea was trying to use the row for wider, diplomatic purposes.

'Sense of crisis'

George Bush's national security adviser Stephen Hadley said on Tuesday that North Korea appeared to be moving towards a missile launch, although "the intelligence is not conclusive at this point".
He said it was "hard to tell" whether the country had finished fuelling a Taepodong-2, a missile thought capable of reaching US territory.

"There tends to be a desire to create a sense of crisis," he said.

The comments came after unnamed US officials had been quoted as saying that America's missile defence system had now been activated. But the Pentagon says it does not comment on the status of the system.

The White House has refused to say what action the US might take if the missile is launched. The US ambassador to Japan, Thomas Schieffer, said on Wednesday that the US had a greater capacity to track missiles than in 1998, when North Korea last launched a long-range missile.

Asked if the US would shoot down a missile, he said: "We have options that we have not had in the past, and all these options are on the table".

The BBC's Jonathan Beale in Washington says shooting a missile down would be only likely to escalate tensions.

Trip cancelled

Japan, Australia, China and South Korea have repeatedly called on North Korea to abandon any launch plans.

South Korea warned that thousands of tons of food aid would be at risk if the launch went ahead.

Officials in Seoul announced that the former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung had cancelled a visit to Pyongyang planned for next week.

The trip was now "practically impossible" because of "the unexpected circumstances", an official said.

Mr Kim has played a key role in past talks with North Korea, and had hoped to use the meeting to help restart stalled six-country talks on ending Pyongyang's nuclear programmes.

Right to test

North Korea has not said it plans to go ahead with a missile launch, but diplomats have asserted the country's right to develop and test missiles in recent media interviews.

Han Song-ryol, deputy chief of North Korea's mission to the United Nations, told South Korea's Yonhap news agency that the country would like to ease tensions over the situation through talks.

Talks deadlock

North Korea last tested a long-range missile in 1998 when it fired a Taepodong-1, with a range of 2,000km (1,200 miles), over northern Japan. North Korea has observed a self-imposed moratorium since 1999, but Han Song-ryol said that this only applied when the country was in dialogue with the US.

The US says North Korea also implicitly agreed not to test-launch any new missiles at multi-party talks on its nuclear programme last year. But the six-party talks have been stalled for months. Correspondents say North Korea may be now using the missile threat to try to break the deadlock, or as a bargaining chip in negotiations.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor will call on ministers to lower the 24-week abortion limit at a private meeting at the Department of Health.

He is expected to tell the Health Secretary that technological advances mean the abortion laws are outdated.

The government said there were no plans to alter the regulations.

However, 31 MPs have signed a Commons motion calling for a review of the law.

The Catholic church is against abortion altogether, but realises it is unrealistic to try to ban the practice completely.

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor sparked controversy last year when he backed the then Tory leader Michael Howard's suggestion just before the election that the limit be lowered.

Medical advances have meant foetuses can survive even if they are born before 24 weeks gestation.

Doctors opposed

Doctors debated the issue at their annual conference last year for the first time since 1989, but voted against calling for a reduction in the limit.

And Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt has already said this year she is not in favour of lowering the limit despite the likes of France, Germany and Italy setting the limit at between 12 and 13 weeks.

But the church leader believes recent opinion polls have shown public opinion is changing.

A survey by the Observer newspaper earlier this year showed that half of women wanted tougher laws.

Archbishop of Cardiff Peter Smith told the BBC: "There is growing concern about the way the Abortion Act actually has worked.

"It was originally intended to be very, very restricted, but it has now become, in effect, abortion on demand."

The cardinal will also press the health secretary to set up a national bioethics committee to robustly discuss issues surrounding end of life and embryo science.

He is said to be concerned about the creeping moves towards genetic screening and so-called designer babies.

Embryo screening was in the headlines this week when doctors from Guy's Hospital in London said they had developed a new test to screen for a range of disorders.

At the moment the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority makes rulings on such issues, but is currently subject to a review of its remit.

No plans for a change

The Department of Health said the health secretary was happy to take the cardinal's views into consideration.

But a spokeswoman added: "It is accepted parliamentary practice that proposals for changes in the law on abortion have come from backbench members and that decisions are made on the basis of free votes.

"The government has no plans to change the law on abortion."

And Melissa Dear, of fpa, formerly the Family Planning Association, said she was against a reduction in the limit.

"Only a small minority of women have abortions after 20 weeks - about 1% - and for these there are good reasons.

"There may be genetic abnormalities or the women may be just before menopause or in their teens when periods are irregular and they may not have realised they were pregnant."

However, Liberal Democrat MP, Phil Willis, who chairs the Commons science and technology committee, said there was a "clear consensus" among the British public that the legislation should be reviewed.

He said: "What my committee is saying is that there ought to be a thorough review of the scientific evidence, that that should be placed at the disposal of Parliament and if, in fact, there is a need to reduce the time limit, then that should be the case."

The latest figures show more 185,000 abortions were carried out in 2004, but only 124 were carried out at 24 weeks.

The test looks at the whole DNA of a cell rather than focusing on a specific mutation in one gene, making it quicker to identify diseases in embryos.

It also allows doctors to check for many more potential illnesses.

The team will tell a Prague fertility conference five couples are expecting healthy babies after the test, and IVF.

How the new and existing embryo tests work
However, some campaigners have questioned the morality of such screening tests, as they inevitably lead to the destruction of some embryos.

Simone Aspis, from the British Council of Disabled People, said: "Who is going to make the decision about who should and should not live? We believe all babies have an equal right to life."

The new "DNA fingerprint" test of a cell can spot from a genetic signature that a condition, such as cystic fibrosis, is present, the scientists behind it say.

The team, from the genetics unit at London's Guy's Hospital, have developed a method called pre-implantation genetic haplotyping (PGH), which they expect to offer to over 100 families a year.

The current test is known as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD).

50/50 chance
PGH involves testing parents and any existing children or relations carrying or with a genetic condition, to identify the faulty units of chromosomal DNA.

Using this information, it is possible to take a cell from the embryo, treat it in the lab to create more copies of its genetic material and then look for markers that show an embryo carries two copies of these faulty units, or haplotypes.

This would mean it would be affected by the condition.

The technique has been used to test for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). It primarily affects boys, who inherit the disease through their mothers.

Families with a history of the condition are currently offered embryo sex testing and no male embryos are implanted, as it is not possible to tell if they have the condition - even though they have a 50/50 chance of being affected.

But with the new test, doctors are able to see if an embryo carries the tell-tale DMD haplotypes seen in its parents, meaning more embryos can be selected for use.

Genetic trail
The test also allows detection of any of the genetic mutations which can cause cystic fibrosis.

Like DMD, it is a recessive disease, and means both copies of chromosome 7 must carry a fault for a child to have the disease - but PGD can spot only the most common of the hundreds of faults.

The team have also helped a woman affected by hydatidiform mole - a condition where pregnancy leads to a potentially fatal tumour forming instead of a foetus.

Professor Peter Braude, the fertility specialist who helped develop the test, said: "It doesn't matter what the genetic fault is.

"We can know the same chromosome that has affected a family member, and know the embryo is also affected."

'No flood'
Alison Lockwood, a nurse who is part of the genetics unit team, said the bottom line for couples who came to see her was the wish for a healthy baby.

"Until now, you really had to know the name of the mutation to do a direct test. Now that doesn't matter.

"With sex linked disease, you would currently have to take away probably 50% of embryos because they are male.

"But with this test, you might get up to 75% of embryos for transfer."

However she said the new test would not lead to a flood of people wanting to take advantage of the science.

"Of the patients currently referred for PGD, only a third end up going through a cycle.

"These are, generally, couples who can get pregnant without having to undergo fertility treatment, and when they get to know what it involves, many do not go ahead."

Dr Mark Hamilton, chairman of the British Fertility Society, said: "Any technique which has the potential to reduce the risk of serious, debilitating and potentially life-threatening disease has to be greeted with some enthusiasm.

"We are always striving to maximise the chance that fertility treatment will be successful.

"But not transferring because we are absolutely confident they are affected by a condition, rather than because we suspect they are, is preferable and much less wasteful."

But Josephine Quintavalle, of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, warned against further extensions of screening.

She said: "I am horrified to think of these people sitting in judgment on these embryos and saying who should live and who should die."

DENVER Jun 16, 2006 (AP)? With another tinderbox summer shaping up in much of the West, officials issued red-flag fire warnings for Colorado on Thursday, while in Arizona a roaring blaze forced the evacuation of about 1,000 homes.

Wildfires also were burning in Alaska, Utah and New Mexico.

The aggressive 700-acre Colorado blaze had already prompted about 100 people to leave their homes in the rolling hills near Westcliffe, about 100 miles south of Denver.

The fire, which began when a falling tree dragged a power line to the ground, left patches of dense trees and brush "totally nuked, completely black," said Steve Segin, a spokesman for the Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team.

Air tankers became unnecessary Thursday afternoon when the wind direction shifted to push the fire back onto itself, Segin said. Air tankers and helicopters were available if needed.

No structures were reported lost, but a house suffered exterior damage. A six-mile stretch of Colorado 96 was closed.

Judi Coker, who lives about two miles from the fire, said less smoke was visible Thursday than a day earlier. Her subdivision was not threatened and she and her husband, Rod, were not among the residents who left, but their bags were packed just in case.

"It's very dry, more dry than I've seen it since we lived here," said Coker, who has lived in the area for four years.

The Rocky Mountain Area Predictive Services issued a red-flag warning for a huge swath of southern Colorado, meaning conditions were favorable for big, fast-moving fires. The warning spanned the entire width of the state and ranged as far north as the Denver area.

At least 60,604 acres have burned in Colorado this year, said Larry Helmerick, spokesman for the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center. That compares with 41,048 acres for all of 2005. It was still far below the 619,029 that burned in 2002.

"It's so dry out here that it doesn't take more than a spark to start a wildfire," said Jamie Moore, director of emergency management for Douglas County south of Denver, where a passing train apparently sparked a 30-acre fire Wednesday.

The job application of the future may require showing would-be bosses a new ID card proving prospective employees are who they say they are.

As Congress debates sweeping immigration and border security reforms, some lawmakers and policy experts say no new system will work without such tamper-proof credentials. Otherwise, immigrants still could come to the United States illegally and use fake documents to get jobs, possibly undermining reforms designed to encourage legal immigration.

How lawmakers deal with verifying workers' identities could determine whether immigration reform succeeds or fails. Experts agree the prospect of finding work in the United States is the lure for more than 500,000 undocumented immigrants who come here every year.

But critics are concerned about privacy issues with an ID card system, adding to worries that the government would be too involved in job applications under any new immigration system.

The House and the Senate have passed competing versions of reform legislation, and both bills would require employers to check whether workers are legally eligible for U.S. jobs. Neither bill would create a new ID document for all workers - the Senate bill calls for ID cards for foreign guest workers, and the House bill would have employers check applicants' Social Security numbers against a federal database. But revisions are expected during negotiations over how to reconcile the two bills. Negotiations have not yet begun, but Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., says a "secure, tamper-proof" ID card is an essential part of reform that he will push for during House-Senate meetings.

"If you (allow immigration) in a regulated manner and you don't close the back door to illegal immigration, it's the same effect," said T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union for U.S. Border Patrol agents.

A new system might require a new work authorization ID, or it might combine more secure Social Security cards with more secure driver's licenses to prevent people from using counterfeit cards to pass checks. The government would have to update its databases either way, experts said.

Employers now are required to ask for Social Security numbers, but there's little consequence for most companies even if they find out workers are using fake numbers or numbers that belong to someone else. The Department of Homeland Security, which enforces laws against hiring undocumented immigrants, does not have access to Social Security records that show which companies have received warnings that their workers are using bogus IDs.

The non-partisan Pew Hispanic Center estimates that about 7 million of the 11 million to 12 million undocumented immigrants living here already are working. A Government Accountability Office audit last year found 9 million cases of workers using the Social Security number 000-00-0000 when applying for jobs.

Requiring all employers to check Social Security numbers against a federal database could cost nearly $12 billion a year, another GAO report found last year. The audit didn't study how much a new card might cost.

"As long as people can use documents that U.S. citizens now use, which are highly insecure, it's unlikely that we'll be able to reduce the fraud substantially enough," said Deborah Meyers, a senior analyst at the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

The need for a new worksite verification system with secure identifying documents unites lawmakers who often split over immigration, from Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the chief sponsors of reform legislation, to House conservatives like Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., leader of a caucus that pushes for more enforcement of current laws. Business owners might welcome a change that makes it easier to figure out whether workers are in the country legally.

"I think that there should be a card that is read," said Marty Thompson, vice president for human resources at Bar-S Foods, based in Phoenix. "We've got computers, read the card . . . There should be a standard document (for U.S. citizens and foreigners). Why not?"

President Bush, who supports the Senate bill, said recently that all foreign workers should have a secure ID card that proves they are who they say. That might mean U.S. citizens would not need any new documents.

But Latino civil rights advocates, who have played a major role in pushing Congress to act on immigration, say a universal verification system would be more fair. Otherwise, advocates worry that employers would reject hiring hiring anyone who they thought might be a foreigner, for fear of unwittingly accepting phony documentation.

"If we're going to have a system that works and that reforms our immigration system, we need to be able to verify the employment of all eligible workers," said Flavia Jimenez, a spokeswoman for the National Council of La Raza. Conservatives like Bonner agree that letting U.S. citizens prove their identity without a new, counterfeit-proof card could backfire.

"The system (the House bill is based on) relies upon nothing more than matching Social Security names, number, date of birth and a separate form of ID to prove that you are that person," Bonner said. "That's great if every employer were a cop, but the cops are the only ones who have the means to tell the genuine from the fake driver's license."

But critics say any national system to verify identity would effectively mean workers need the government's permission to get a job, and that security flaws in federal databases could leave personal records vulnerable to hackers.

"Our fundamental freedoms should not be undermined through a flawed immigration reform bill," said Caroline Frederickson, director of the national legislative office for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Politically influential business groups, which also are pushing for immigration reform, said they're staying out of the argument about a new ID document, as long as Congress comes up with a system that won't be too expensive or complex for employers to use.

"The issue is, does the system work?" said John Gay, co-chairman of the Essential Immigration Worker Coalition, which represents big hotel chains, restaurant companies and other employers. "There's no out for us if the government doesn't have its end running."

The Europarliament voted today in first reading on the 7th Research Framework Program and called for EU funding of research with human embryos and human embryonic stem cells.

Monsignor Noël Treanor, secretary-general of the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community (COMECE), stressed in a statement that "such research raises fundamental anthropological and ethical problems."

"Many people are uneasy about research manipulating human life and using it as a raw material," he noted. "This is not just a Catholic position.

"Scientifically, there is no reason to make a moral distinction between an embryo at the very beginning of his or her life and after implantation in the womb or after 14 days. Human dignity does not depend -- and must not be made dependent -- on decisions of other human beings."

The European Parliament expressed with a slim majority its support for EU funding of research with human embryonic and adult stem cells. The proposal of the Committee for Industry, Research and Energy was adopted by a vote of 284-249. There were 32 abstentions.

The European Parliament itself was divided on the issue, and a significant number of members voted either to exclude funding for all research on human embryos and human embryonic stem cells or at least to tighten the ethical guidelines in order to avoid the further destruction of human embryos.

The COMECE took advantage of the opportunity to renew its "support for the EU to finance research on adult stem cells."

The British scientist joked he was lucky the pope didn't realize he had already presented a paper at the gathering suggesting how the universe was created.

"I didn't fancy the thought of being handed over to the Inquisition like Galileo," Hawking said in a lecture to a sold-out audience at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. John Paul died in 2005; Hawking did not say when the Vatican meeting was held.

Galileo ran afoul of the Roman Catholic Church in the 17th century for supporting Copernicus' discovery that the Earth revolved around the sun. The church insisted the Earth was at the center of the universe.

In 1992, John Paul issued a declaration saying the church's denunciation of Galileo was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension."

Hawking said the pope told the scientists, "It's OK to study the universe and where it began. But we should not inquire into the beginning itself because that was the moment of creation and the work of God."

The physicist, author of the best seller "A Brief History of Time," added that John Paul believed "God chose how the universe began for reasons we could not understand."

John Paul insisted faith and science could coexist. In 1996, in a message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, he said that Darwin's theories were sound as long as they took into account that creation was the work of God and that Darwin's theory of evolution was "more than a hypothesis."

But Hawking questioned whether an almighty power was needed to create the universe.

"Does it require a creator to decree how the universe began? Or is the initial state of the universe determined by a law of science?" he asked.

Hawking's groundbreaking research on black holes and the origins of the universe has made him one of the best-known theoretical physicists of his generation. He proposes that space and time have no beginning and no end.

The scientist uses a wheelchair and suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a neurological disorder. But he said people shouldn't let physical disabilities limit their ambitions.

"You can't afford to be disabled in spirit as well as physically," he said. "People won't have time for you."

Hawking must communicate using an electronic speech synthesizer, and he was asked why he used a voice with an American accent.

"The voice I use is a very old hardware speech synthesizer made in 1986," Hawking said. "I keep it because I have not heard a voice I like better and because I have identified with it."

But the 64-year-old Hawking said he's shopping for a new system because the hardware is large and fragile. He also said it uses components that are no longer made.

"I have been trying to get a software version, but it seems very difficult," he said. "One version has a French accent. I said if I used it, my wife would divorce me."

The moderator at the lecture told the audience that at a recent dinner, she asked Hawking about his ambitions. He said he wanted to know how the universe began, what happens inside black holes and how can humans survive the next 100 years, she said.

But, she added, he said had one more great ambition: "I would also like to understand women."

Hawking ended his lecture saying, "We are getting closer to answering the age-old questions: Why are we here? Where did we come from?"

The [Pope] is close, especially with prayer, to innocent victims, their relatives and the peoples of that land, hostages of all those who have the illusion of being able to resolve the ever more dramatic problems of the region through force or unilaterally.

The Holy See appeals to the international community to rapidly activate the means necessary for humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian population, and associates itself in urging leaders of both peoples to observe above all due respect for human life, especially that of defenseless civilians and children, and that the path of negotiation be resumed with courage, which is the only path that can lead to the just and lasting peace to which all aspire.

Many of the assets involved were originally state-owned before the wave of privatisations that took place in the 1980s. What are the latest examples of British companies passing into foreign hands?

Before the AB Ports deal, Spanish building group Ferrovial grabbed headlines when it launched a successful £10.3bn takeover bid for BAA, which runs seven UK airports.

Both of the latest British takeover targets used to be state-owned. AB Ports, which began life as the British Transport Docks Board in 1962, was privatised in 1982 and floated on the stock market a year later.

BAA has its roots in the old British Airports Authority, created in 1966. It was privatised 20 years later.

Ferrovial is not the only Spanish company to take an interest in corporate Britain. Last year, the Abbey banking chain was bought by Santander, while mobile phone group O2 was taken over by Telefonica.

What other sectors of the economy have been affected?

The privatisation of gas, electricity and water in the 1980s also created opportunities for foreign firms to enter the UK market.

London Electricity was one of the first utilities to be snapped up when US firm Entergy bought it in 1996 for £1.3bn ($2.1bn).

However, it sold the company two years later for £1.9bn to France's EDF, which later bought up two neighbouring power firms and merged them into a new company, EDF Energy.

The capital's water company, Thames Water, has been owned by Germany's RWE since 2001, while Wessex Water passed into Malaysian hands the following year.

RWE also bought Innogy, Npower and Yorkshire Power, while another German company, E.ON, owns gas and electricity company Powergen.

Among other privatised firms, British Steel, which was sold off in 1988, has been part of the Corus Group since 1999, when it merged with a Dutch rival.

Even companies that are not controlled by overseas firms may have a substantial proportion of their shares owned by foreigners. About 35% of all shares in companies listed on the FTSE-100 index are in the hands of non-UK investors.

What are the political implications of all this?

Opening up Britain's state-controlled monopolies to free-market competition was the aim of Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives in the 1980s.

Far from opposing the consequences of this process, Tony Blair's Labour government has defended them.

Mr Blair said earlier this month, in the wake of the BAA announcement, that foreign takeovers of British airports and utility firms should not be a political issue.

He said what was best for UK consumers was a free market with shareholders, not politicians, deciding who was the best management team.

Back in March, Mr Blair defended foreign ownership of utilities, saying: "Liberalised energy markets and more open markets are good for business and for consumers right across Europe."

Does the rest of Europe agree?

Not necessarily. As far as energy is concerned, Britain is arguably in the vanguard of moves by the European Commission to shake up the sector and offer consumers more choice.

But in other areas of economic endeavour, the issue of who is allowed to own key assets has been fraught with controversy - even for governments that profess to abide by free-trade principles.

France's Veolia is one European company with a stake in the British water industry, owning three companies in south-eastern England. But the French government is happier to let its firms buy assets abroad than it is to allow foreign takeovers of French firms.

Last year, President Jacques Chirac reacted hotly to rumours that US drinks giant Pepsico was poised to bid for food firm Danone. The bid speculation turned out to be unfounded, but the episode prompted Anglo-Saxon free-marketeers to ridicule France as a country where yogurt was a "strategic" industry.

What about the US? Surely Washington is more "laissez-faire" than the French?

Again, not necessarily - as shown by the row in the US earlier this year over the sale of UK-based ports and shipping group P&O to Dubai Ports World, from the United Arab Emirates. US politicians mounted a campaign to stop DPW taking control over management at six key US ports, citing security fears.

President George W Bush said their opposition sent a bad signal to Washington's allies. He was backed by economic pundits who said it would give the impression that no Middle East company was allowed to invest in the US. But it was all to no avail - and DPW eventually had to get rid of its entire US operation in order to placate Congress.

Back in the UK, is there no limit to what Britain will sell to foreign firms?

One possibility which makes UK politicians distinctly uneasy is the prospect that Russia's state-owned Gazprom might enter the UK energy market.

At stake is British Gas, which was privatised in 1986 and is now owned by a company named Centrica.

The deputy chairman of Gazprom's board, Alexander Medvedev, has admitted Centrica is on its list of potential takeover targets.

But Russia's apparent willingness to use energy supplies as a political weapon - as shown by its cutting of gas supplies to Ukraine earlier this year - makes the issue problematic.

Chancellor Gordon Brown has said such a takeover might raise "political issues".

The Conservatives agree, with shadow trade and industry secretary Alan Duncan saying there should be "no question" of Gazprom being able to buy a UK utility without the company's management being decoupled from the Russian government.

The owner of Ipswich, Plymouth, Hull, Swansea, Ayr and Southampton ports, among others, handles about a quarter of the UK's seaborne traffic. The deal is the latest in a string of takeovers of British port owners in anticipation of rising global trade. Although the company's board has accepted the bid, there is talk of other bidders possibly entering the fray.

PORTS BEING SOLD

Ayr, Barrow, Barry, Cardiff, Fleetwood, Garston, Goole, Grimsby, Hull, Immingham, Ipswich, King's Lynn, Lowestoft, Newport, Plymouth, Port Talbot, Silloth, Southampton, Swansea, Teignmouth, Troon

Stockbroker Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein bought a large chunk of ABP shares on Wednesday and, according to the Reuters news agency, it was not acting on behalf of the consortium.

"At this stage, there is one bidder on the table but there are a lot of rumours in the market," said Gerald Khoo, an analyst at Oriel Securities.

However, ABP said it had not received any further approaches.

Foreign buyers

The spectacular growth of the Chinese and Indian economies has fuelled interest in infrastructure and cargo handling assets.

P&O was bought in a controversial deal by Dubai Ports World for $6.8bn earlier this year, while Mersey Docks and PD Ports have also been taken over during the past year.

If approved by shareholders, many of the UK's leading ports - including Tilbury and Southampton - will pass into foreign ownership.

The deal comes only days after BAA, the owner of Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports, agreed to be bought by the Spanish company Grupo Ferrovial.

ABP employs 3,000 staff worldwide, the bulk of which are UK-based.

The company operates container services at Southampton and Tilbury on a joint venture basis while its US business, Amports, handles vehicle imports and exports.

ABP began life as the British Transport Docks Board in 1962. It was privatised in 1982 and floated on the stock market a year later. It expanded into the US in 1998.

Multinational consortium

ABP rejected a 730 pence per share bid from the consortium in March, branding the offer "wholly inadequate".
However, when the consortium returned with an improved offer last month, ABP agreed to open its books to the group.

Other members of the consortium include Canadian investment firm Borealis Infrastructure Management Inc. ("Borealis") and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, which invests the island's substantial foreign reserves.

"ABP is a unique strategic asset," said ABP chairman Chris Clark. "The consortium's offer reflects that and recognises the strong operational and financial performance of the business."

Shares in the company rose strongly on the news of the deal, gaining 61.50 pence, or nearly 8%, to 838.50p.

Abu Bakar Ba'asyir was found guilty in March 2005 of conspiracy in connection with the bomb plot, but he was cleared of more serious charges.

Security experts say the cleric is a founding member of a regional Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI).

Supporters gathered outside the prison, cheering as he left the building.

Australia, from where many of those killed in the Bali nightclub bombs came, has said it is disappointed by the cleric's release.

The BBC's Rachel Harvey, in Jakarta, says Ba'asyir emerged into bright sunlight and a crowd of supporters, police and journalists.

Ba'asyir's legal wrangles

He was freed about one hour ahead of schedule, surprising many - including his lawyer, who did not arrive at the jail until his client had been whisked away.

He was thought to be travelling straight to his home town of Solo, in central Java, where he runs an Islamic school.

Wearing his trademark white skullcap and thick spectacles, the elderly cleric tried to give a brief speech, but his voice was barely heard among the shouting, our correspondent adds.

"I will continue to fight to uphold the Islamic Sharia," he said, thanking Allah and his lawyers for continuing to support him, the Associated Press reported him as saying.

With the crowd becoming increasingly excited, a group of young men formed a human barrier to allow Ba'asyir to move through the sea of jostling people towards a waiting car.

Back to teaching

Ba'asyir was first arrested shortly after the Bali nightclub bombings in October 2002, although he was never accused of taking part in the attack.

Two bombs ripped through the Kuta area of Bali, a regular haunt for tourists, destroying a nightclub and killing mainly foreigners.

Ba'asyir was held in custody and faced two separate trials, eventually serving two separate sentences, the first for minor immigration offences, the second for being part of what the court called an "evil conspiracy".

In both cases more serious charges were either dropped or later overturned on appeal.

Indonesian and foreign intelligence agencies believe Ba'asyir was, and perhaps still is, the spiritual leader of radical network JI.

Our correspondent says Ba'asyir's power lies in his ability, as a charismatic preacher and teacher, to provide encouragement - and some would argue ideological justification - for violence.

However, many experts believe his influence within JI has waned, and the situation has changed hugely since he was imprisoned.

JI's network is fractured, split between those who espouse violence as part of what they say is legitimate and necessary jihad, and those who believe in a longer term struggle requiring patient proselytizing and military preparation, our correspondent says.

Survivors' outrage

Members of JI are accused of being behind a number of operations in Indonesia, including two suicide attacks in Jakarta and the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings.

But most of these attacks took place while Ba'asyir was in prison and he denies JI even exists.

He claims he was the victim of an American-inspired plot to undermine Islam.

The 68-year-old cleric has said that once released he planned to return to the boarding-school he founded and to continue teaching.

Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer said he feared that Ba'asyir could now incite further violence.

Mr Downer said that Australia and the US regard Ba'asyir as an extremist and want his travel restricted and financial assets frozen.

Survivors of the bombings have expressed their outrage and frustration that Ba'asyir has walked free after just two years in prison.

"I think the Indonesian government need to have a good look at themselves," Peter Hughes, who survived with burns to 56% of his body, told the Associated Press.

But Mr Downer said that Canberra accepted the decision of the Indonesian legal system.

The BBC's Phil Mercer in Sydney says the Bali bombings brought Australia to the front line of international terrorism for the first time, hardening the government's resolve to fight alongside the US in its war on terror.

Now, British investigative journalist Melanie Phillips reveals how widespread Muslim immigration into Great Britain, and the country's paralysis by multiculturalism and fear, has created a fifth column of jihadists plotting against the West from deep inside its bosom.

Londonistan paints a picture of a country so terrified of giving offense to its Muslim minority that it has been cowed by radical clerics. Institutions across British society -- the judiciary, security circles, the Church of England, the universities, the media -- have all been reduced to silence or appeasement. With the resulting license to incite hatred and terror, London's mosques have churned out literally thousands of foot soldiers in Islamic terrorism's war against the West -- including shoe-bomber Richard Reid, 9/11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui, and the British Muslims who perpetrated last year's hideous London Underground and bus bombings that killed 52 people.

The result, Phillips shows, is an ugly climate in Britain of fear and defeatism, which now threatens to undermine the alliance with America and imperil the defense of the free world. In the end, she argues, British authorities are walking the same path as those who capitulated to Adolf Hitler -- a strategy that is as likely to earn peace as Neville Chamberlain's.

Among the disturbing revelations in Londonistan:

• Why Great Britain can be described as the birthplace of al-Qaeda
• Why Brits can thank Prince Charles for London's leading radical mosque, Finsbury Park
• How the British push toward multiculturalism has provided cover for jihadist forces plotting terrorism
• How British universities are being used as a major recruiting ground for Islamic terrorism
• Plans for a 70,000 person mosque to be erected next to the Olympic Stadium in time for the 2012 games
• Why the legions of Muslims in Britain who are British citizens not only feel no allegiance to their country, but are actively hostile to it
• The newest political party in Europe: both far left and Islamist ... And winning elections
• How Muslim leaders in Britain are demanding -- and are getting -- special rights, along with the special application of Islamic religious law ("Sharia
• How the toleration by British authorities of Sharia law in certain quarters could lead to the effective legalization of polygamy
• How the British Left has endorsed and advanced the grotesque anti-Semitism that infuses Islamism
• The wholesale abdication by the Church of England in the face of this threat
• How the British government is manipulated by the country's radical Muslim clerics
• How leading Brits are bending backwards to appease and accommodate a radical community bent on their annihilation
• Why British police and intelligence services are impotent in the face of this growing threat
• How Great Britain's failure to deal with its radical Islam problem could lead to a breakup of its "special relationship" with the US

"One of the most compelling books you will ever read on the ascendancy of Islamic fundamentalism, violence and intimidation in the West. Melanie Phillips exposes the scandalous appeasement of militant Islam by British officials, the media, even the Church of England, capturing in extraordinary detail how British society and institutions have either ignored or actively fostered the growth of extremist groups on British soil. This book will both enlighten and enrage. Although its story is focused on the United Kingdom, it could be applied to any European capital or to the United States." -- Steven Emerson, author of American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us

"A last-minute warning for Britain and for much of the free world. In the 1930s, Britain was the leading appeaser of the world's most intransigent foe, refusing to see the gathering signs of danger until it was almost too late. Today, the same tendency to appeasement and self-delusion is evident again -- only now, the threat is within. Britain refuses to recognize the clear and present danger of Islamism inside its own borders, which steadily corrodes its social values and moral compass." -- Nathan Sharansky, author of The Case for Democracy.

WASHINGTON: Two years ago, he was as lonely as the Maytag repairman an obscure congressman trying desperately to raise the visibility of an issue he believed threatened the very security of the U.S.

More recently, he has become a force to be reckoned with, the leader of a powerful House caucus, a Republican who has taken on the president, a man respected for outspoken positions and the political force behind what has become the hottest issue in the nation.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus and the undisputed heavyweight champion of the border security issue in the nation's capital, now tells the whole story of the threats facing the nation, the solutions within its grasp and his own personal quest to awaken the political establishment to the seething discontentment gripping America as a result of illegal immigration.

In his new book, "In Mortal Danger," published by WND Books, Tancredo warns that the country is on a course to the dustbin of history. Like the great and mighty empires of the past, he writes, superpowers that once stretched from horizon to horizon, America is heading down the road to ruin.

English historian Edward Gibbon, in penning his classic "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (ironically published in the year America's Founding Fathers declared independence from Great Britain), theorized that Rome fell because it rotted from within. It succumbed to barbarian invasions because of a loss of civic virtue, its citizens became lazy and soft, hiring barbarian mercenaries to defend the empire because they were unwilling to defend it themselves.

Tancredo says America is following in the tragic footsteps of Rome.

Living up to his reputation for candor, Tancredo explains how the economic success and historical military prowess of the United States has transformed a nation founded on Judeo-Christian principles of right and wrong into an overindulgent, self-deprecating, immoral cesspool of depravity.

His recipe for turning things around?

Without strong, moral leadership, without a renewed sense of purpose, without a rededication to family and community, without shunning the race hustlers and pop-culture sham artists, without protecting borders, language and culture, the nation that once was "the land of the free and home of the brave" and the "one last best hope of mankind" will repeat the catastrophic mistakes of the past, he writes.

Tancredo, born and raised in Colorado, represents Colorado's 6th district in the U.S. House of Representatives. Prior to his election to Congress in 1998, Tancredo worked as a schoolteacher, was elected to the Colorado State House of Representatives in 1976, was appointed by President Reagan as the secretary of education's regional representative in 1981, and served as president of the Independence Institute. He serves on the International Relations Committee, the Resources Committee and the Budget Committee, and is the chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus. Tancredo and his wife, Jackie, reside in Littleton, Colo.