The latest to die were four soldiers whose patrol vehicle was blown up by a bomb in southern Baghdad on Sunday. The deaths bring the total to 4,000, according to the US military and independent monitoring groups.
Insurgent attacks and US military operations left at least 47 people dead across Iraq on Sunday.

According to an Associated Press breakdown of the figure, 97% of deaths occurred after US President George W Bush declared on 1 May 2003 that major combat was over. Roadside bombs accounted for 44% of deaths last year and 55% to date in 2008, the agency adds.

With snowballing home foreclosures, soaring oil prices, growing inflation and an ever-weakening dollar, the US Federal Reserve last week again slashed rates and orchestrated a bail-out of major brokerage house Bear Stearns, a move so unusual that it might have scared - more than reassured - investors. Amid the neon signs of recession, with credit and currency crises mounting, an economic meltdown looms.

After the World Trade Center attacks of September 11, 2001, those searching for a historical comparison seized on Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor. Now financial sages such as former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan are again referencing WWII. "The current financial crisis in the US is likely to be judged in retrospect as the most wrenching since the end of the Second World War," he said at the beginning of the week. And seeking solace from that era, Americans have been turning to Franklin D. Roosevelt, who led a country out of Depression, fought back the Nazis and restored America's belief in itself.

FDR's famous quote - "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" - has become a national Greek chorus in recent days, a reference not only to the stewardship and oratory of a longed-for leader, but a reminder that an economic crash hinges on psychology, on a crisis in confidence among lenders and spenders.

But that doesn't mean the international community stands to gain much; a bad US economy is bad for everyone. And that means that whether it wants to or not, the US has to work with overseas partners to weather this crisis. The recent responses of the Federal Reserve have been aimed at global markets as well as local consumers. Americans are once again learning that they have no back to turn when it comes to the wider world. And in case anyone needed a reminder, when disaster hits Wall Street, the reality is that we are all Americans.

Andy Hornby, HBOS's chief executive, paid out £414,000 of his annual bonus to buy 92,812 shares in the bank on Thursday. He was joined in the shares buying-spree by Peter Cummings, head of HBOS's booming corporate lending business, and five other executive directors. Charles Dunstone, chief executive of Carphone Warehouse and one of HBOS's independent directors, spent almost £500,000 of his own money to buy 100,000 shares. Together, executive directors, non-executives and 250 senior managers bought roughly 1.3 million shares at about £4.46 apiece.

After Thursday's acquisition, Mr Hornby owns 721,598 shares in HBOS, worth just over £3.4 million based on the closing price that day of 473p. The speedy recovery in HBOS's share price means that those involved are already looking at a collective profit of £325,000.

"This reinforces very clearly the high level of confidence senior directors have in the business," he said. "There is no suggestion of wrongdoing on the part of any HBOS executives."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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