It comes after a major new intelligence assessment suggested the government in Tehran is not trying to develop nuclear weapons at present. The latest National Intelligence Estimate says it is now believed Iran stopped its weapons programme in 2003. The Democrat leader of the US Senate, Harry Reid, said he hoped the White House would undertake "a diplomatic surge" to engage with Iran.

But, our correspondent adds, Washington's Iran hawks are horrified. In particular they are concerned that news of that key assessment will drown out other findings in the document - for instance, that Tehran is keeping open its option to develop a nuclear weapon and would have all the capacity to do so in the future if its leaders decided to go ahead.

A senior advisor to President Bush said the report was "positive" but the risk of a nuclear Iran remained "serious". Iran is currently under sanctions from both the UN Security Council, which is demanding the end of uranium enrichment, and unilateral US sanctions.

Talks will centre on whether a further set of binding targets is needed. It is the first such meeting since the INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE (IPCC) warned that evidence for global warming was "UNEQUIVOCAL". The two-week gathering in Bali, Indonesia, will also debate how to help poor nations cope in a warming world.

Earlier this year, the IPCC published its Fourth Assessment Report (A4R), in which it projected that the world would warm by 1.8-4.0C (3.2-7.2F) over the next century. Mr de Boer added that the IPCC'S CONCLUSION THAT CLIMATE CHANGE WAS "VERY LIKELY" THE RESULT OF HUMAN ACTIVITY ENDED ANY DOUBT OVER THE NEED TO ACT.

Accused of sponsoring the killing and rape of hundreds of thousands of its own people in Darfur and then of blocking the peacekeepers who might protect them - barely a week passed without a threat of sanctions or a new UN resolution.

But thanks to the Gillian Gibbons saga, Sudan has managed to transform its public image from pariah state to something approaching a laughing stock. If Khartoum was hoping to turn the teddy bear into a rallying point for Muslims across the Middle East it was quickly disappointed. Condemnation of the British teacher's detention came in from around the world and from all religions - leaving the government looking for an escape strategy.

The carefully stage-managed pardoning of Mrs Gibbons by Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir will have satisfied few within his divided government. Moderates who want better relations with the West will want to know why Sudan's president did not intervene sooner. Sudan's foreign ministry has been shown to be an open but ultimately powerless limb of the administration. Sudanese officials reassured British diplomats that the case would be dismissed right up to the moment that Mrs Gibbons was sentenced to 15 days in detention.

That disconnect is an experience shared by UN officials who spent months negotiating with Sudanese diplomats the arrival of a new peacekeeping force for Darfur. Those talks have since been shown to count for little. Security agencies have impounded equipment, denied permission for night flights and refused to grant land for military bases.

PRESIDENT AL-BASHIR IS A MILITARY MAN, AND MRS GIBBONS'S DETENTION HAS SHOWN CLEARLY ONCE AGAIN THAT POWER RESTS FIRMLY WITH SECURITY FORCES AND THE INTERIOR AND DEFENCE MINISTRIES. The men who lead these organs will not have minded the outcry in Britain. For them the key international relationship is not with the West but the Far East and China. Despite 10 years of sanctions and an ongoing war in Darfur, Sudan's oil-fuelled economy is currently growing at one of the fastest rates in Africa.

The Judge asked DB to show documents proving legal title to the 14 homes. DB could not. All DB attorneys could show was a document showing only an "intent to convey the rights in the mortgages." They could not produce the actual mortgage, the heart of Western property rights since the Magna Carta if not longer.

Again why could Deutsche Bank not show the 14 mortgages on the 14 homes? Because they live in the exotic new world of "global securitization", where banks like DB or Citigroup buy tens of thousands of mortgages from small local lending banks, "bundle" them into Jumbo new securities which then are rated by Moody's or Standard & Poors or Fitch, and sell them as bonds to pension funds or other banks or private investors who naively believed they were buying bonds rated AAA, the highest, and never realized that their "bundle" of say 1,000 different home mortgages, CONTAINED MAYBE 20% OR 200 MORTGAGES RATED "SUB-PRIME," I.E. OF DUBIOUS CREDIT QUALITY.

Indeed the PROFITS being earned in the past seven years by the world's largest financial players from Goldman Sachs to Morgan Stanley to HSBC, Chase, and yes, Deutsche Bank, WERE SO STAGGERING, FEW BOTHERED TO OPEN THE RISK MODELS USED BY THE PROFESSIONALS WHO BUNDLED THE MORTGAGES. The Ohio ruling that dismissed DB's claim to foreclose and take back the 14 homes for non-payment, IS AN EARTH-SHAKING PRECEDENT FOR ALL BANKS HOLDING WHAT THEY HAD THOUGHT WERE COLLATERAL IN FORM OF REAL ESTATE PROPERTY.

How this? Because of the complex structure of asset-backed securities and the widely dispersed ownership of mortgage securities (not actual mortgages but the securities based on same) NO ONE IS YET ABLE TO IDENTIFY WHO PRECISELY HOLDS THE PHYSICAL MORTGAGE DOCUMENT. The Judge then declared that the banks "seem to adopt the attitude that since they have been doing this for so long, unchallenged, this practice equates with legal compliance. Finally put to the test," the Judge concluded, "their weak legal arguments compel the court to stop them at the gate."

Deutsche Bank has refused comment.

In the last two years of the boom in selling real estate loans, banks were convinced they could resell the mortgage loans to a Wall Street financial house who would bundle it with thousands of good better and worse quality mortgage loans and resell them as Collateralized Mortgage Obligation bonds. IN THE FLUSH OF GREED, BANKS BECAME INCREASINGLY RECKLESS of the credit worthiness of the prospective home owners. In many cases they did not even bother to check if the person was employed. Who cares? It will be resold and securitized and the risk of mortgage default was historically low.

Here is where the Ohio court decision guarantees that the next phase of the US mortgage crisis will assume Tsunami dimension. IF THE OHIO DEUTSCHE BANK PRECEDENT HOLDS IN THE APPEAL TO THE SUPREME COURT, MILLIONS OF HOMES WILL BE IN DEFAULT BUT THE BANKS PREVENTED FROM SEIZING THEM AS COLLATERAL ASSETS TO RESELL.

But if banks are unable to reclaim the homes as assets to offset the non-performing mortgages, THE US BANKING SYSTEM AND A CHUNK OF THE GLOBAL BANKING SYSTEM FACES A FINANCIAL GRIDLOCK THAT WILL MAKE EVENTS TO DATE TRULY "PEANUTS" BY COMPARISON.

"Indeed Muhammad was a man of murder," the pig, voiced by Keller himself, states in the video. "He was a paedophile, having a wife at the age of six. And I came to find out that the Quran really is nothing more than a book of fairy tales." Keller, a vocal critic of Islam, made the video in response to the case of Gillian Gibbons, who was sentenced to 15 days in a Sudan jail after being convicted of insulting Islam for allowing her student to call a teddy bear 'Muhammad'.

In his latest devotional which is being sent to his subscribers, Keller states, "Of course there will be Muslim apologists who say that these are only the extremists, just like they try to distance themselves from their brothers in this 'peaceful religion' who flew the planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the one intended for the Capitol building that was crashed in a Pennsylvania field by some real American heroes.

"These people are not about love or peace or unity. They are about one thing. Converting the world to their false religion and those who get in their way or who refuse to follow their lies will be silenced and killed. The word 'Islam' literally means 'submission'. Maybe you don't understand what it means when their 'holy book' says 'death to all infidels.'"

WND reader, Clay Hestilow, said, "Senseless. Ignorant. Hateful. This 'minister' is a poor representation of the love that Christ has for all of mankind."

Modesto Villasanta, a Roman Catholic priest and leader of a local human rights group, said he feared a humanitarian crisis if military operations continue to displace Manobo tribes from 11 communities in a province on Mindanao island. "We're appealing to the military to stop the offensives and allow these people to return to their homes during Christmas," Villasanta told Reuters in a phone interview. "We're also running out of food and supplies to sustain these people."

The military launched the offensive against the communist rebels last month, aiming to capture their largest base on Mindanao island. The 6,000-member NPA, active in 69 of 81 provinces, has been fighting for nearly 40 years to overthrow Manila's democratic government and replace it with a Maoist system. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

The Kremlin said the outcome of Sunday's election was a strong endorsement of Putin's policies. He is expected to use it as a mandate to continue shaping Russian politics after his term ends next year, although he has not said how he will do so.

The Central Election Commission said that with almost all votes counted, United Russia had won 64.1 percent of votes, nearly six times as many as the nearest challenger, the Communist party. Two smaller pro-Kremlin groupings took another 16 percent of the vote and pro-Western parties won no seats.

But allegations of vote-rigging and fraud have alarmed the European Union, which said free speech had been violated in the run-up to the vote, and the United States, which urged the Russian authorities to investigate the allegations.

Voters rejected the raft of reforms by a margin of 51% to 49%, the chief of the National Electoral Council said. Mr Chavez described the defeat as a "photo finish", and urged followers not to turn it into a point of conflict. Correspondents say the opposition could barely hide their delight and that the victory will put a brake on Mr Chavez's self-styled "Socialist revolution".

The BBC's correspondent says that some of Mr Chavez' loyal supporters have gone against him on this occasion. Though some of them may still support him, he says, they think he has gone a little too far in a country which has a history of dictatorships. With his constitutional reform proposals, Mr Chavez was seeking an end to presidential term limits and the removal of the Central Bank's autonomy. Having lost the vote, the current rules state that he will have to stand down in 2013.

The main opposition parties had claimed during the referendum campaign that Mr Chavez was seeking to give himself too much power, and was trying to establish a dictatorship. Mr Chavez said the package of reforms was necessary to "construct a new socialist economy".

There is a near-consensus among economists, in fact, that the Anglo-Saxon world created this credit crunch and will likely bear the most pain. The eurozone, it is widely assumed, has been less affected by sub-prime. Most investment banks predict the 13-country region will out-perform the UK in 2008.

A slew of recent data tells me we should now question that assumption. If I'm right, and the eurozone does a face serious drop, us Brits would be foolish to grin. We like to revel in Continental misfortunes, but the single currency area matters hugely - accounting for three-fifths of UK trade, more than four times as much as the States.

The reason the eurozone now worries me is the emerging picture of sharply rising consumer prices on the one hand, and falling output on the other. Just like the Bank of England, the European Central Bank will on Thursday try to set monetary policy not only to deal with inflation, but also bolster growth.

Then, of course, there's the US currency - that is, the impact of the feeble greenback on the euro. Over the last year, the single currency has risen more than 15 per cent against the dollar, which has seen investors dump US assets. This makes European leaders see red, of course, as a rising currency undermines exports and jobs.

The eurozone also sends less than a tenth of its exports to the US. So, on a trade-weighted basis, the euro is up only 7 per cent against the dollar since January - less than half the straight euro-dollar rise.

Even up to the second world war, honey was being used for its antibacterial properties in treating wounds. But with the advent of penicillin and other antibiotic drugs in the twentieth century, honey's medicinal qualities have taken a back seat. But that might be about to change - thanks to one New Zealand based researcher. Professor Molan has shown that honey made from the flowers of the manuka bush, a native of New Zealand, has antibacterial properties over and above those of other honeys.

He said: "In all honeys, there is - to different levels - hydrogen peroxide produced from an enzyme that bees add to the nectar. In manuka honey, and its close relative which grows in Australia called jellybush, there's something else besides the hydrogen peroxide. And there's nothing like that ever been found anywhere else in the world." That 'something else' has proved very hard to pin down. Even now, after more than twenty years of research, Peter Molan admits he still has no idea exactly what it is. But he has given it a name: unique manuka factor, or UMF.

And he has found a way to measure its antibacterial efficacy, by comparing UMF manuka honey with a standard antiseptic (carbolic, or phenol) in its ability to fight bacteria. The results are astonishing. He said: "We know it has a very broad spectrum of action. It works on bacteria, fungi, protozoa. We haven't found anything it doesn't work on among infectious organisms." In fact, he says UMF manuka honey can even tackle antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria - a growing problem for hospitals around the world.

That's a view shared by beekeeper Bill Bennett a few kilometres up the road from the hospital. He and his wife Margaret run the Summerglow Apiaries, one of just a handful of registered suppliers of UMF manuka honey in New Zealand. The honey is rigorously tested three times during production for that elusive unique manuka factor; only then can it carry the label "UMF manuka honey. There is a lot of manuka honey out there that doesn't have this special property. That's why it's so important to look for the name UMF."

Olmert has already agreed to give control of the Temple Mount to a coalition including the PA, Egypt, and Jordan, the unnamed source said.

The negotiator said Olmert may not have told the public out of fear for his standing, and concerns that his coalition with Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) would fall apart. Olmert had easily agreed to give up Judaisms most holy site, he said, and the PA delegates were "pleasantly surprised" by his lack of resistance.

Olmert has not yet responded to the WND report.

The USS Reuben James had sought permission to visit Hong Kong over the New Year holidays, but the request was denied last week. A separate request for a C-17 cargo aircraft to make its quarterly visit to Hong Kong to supply the US consulate was also refused, according to US military officials. China last week also refused to allow USS Kitty Hawk permission to visit Hong Kong over Thanksgiving. Beijing reversed the Kitty Hawk decision after John Negroponte, the deputy secretary of state, complained to the Chinese ambassador to the US. It also recently refused requests from two US minesweepers that were seeking refuge from a storm.

Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said on Friday the incidents "have not inhibited our ability to work together". He added that a Chinese military delegation would meet Pentagon officials on Monday for discussions that would include the installation of a telephone hotline between the US and Chinese militaries.

The spat has also spilled over into Sino-Japanese military relations. Japan this week refused a Chinese request for its soldiers to tour an advanced combat ship. The move marred the historic visit this week of a Chinese missile destroyer to Japan, the first by a Chinese naval ship since the second world war. China had requested that the sailors on the Shenzhen be allowed to tour an Aegis-class destroyer, but a person familiar with the Japanese decision said the Pentagon had told Japan that the move would not be appropriate, given the Kitty Hawk incident. The US embassy in Japan denied that the US military had influenced the decision.

An outraged Labour councillor immediately accused the Tories of bigotry and contacted the national watchdog which regulates town hall standards. The Conservative councillors angrily counter-attacked, claiming their religious freedom was under assault. Following the case of the British teacher jailed in Sudan for letting children name a teddy bear Mohammad, this row has again focused attention on how to balance freedom of expression and cultural sensitivity.

Perry Schmidt-Leukel, professor of religious studies at Glasgow University, said: "For many Christians, Buddhism - is the hardest to find common ground with - because it doesn't acknowledge a creator." Ani Lhamo, the Buddhist abbot's secretary, said: "We have no problem with people not wanting to take part. People have the right to follow their own beliefs and stay outside if they want."

Roberta Tuckfield, who works in tourism, said: "I don't believe anyone was offended. We made a point of coming in discreetly through the side door. If we had all walked out and made a show of it that would be one thing but the fact is that people often come into meetings late and no one notices."

Margo Moffat, a Lockerbie businesswoman, said: "They should have gone because this was all about showing respect and tolerance, not about taking part. "If you are elected then you are a public figure and you are often going to be invited to events and you have a responsibility to show a commitment to equality and to tolerance." Victor Spence, general secretary of the Edinburgh inter-faith council, said: "Public figures have a responsibility to all their constituents, of all faiths. Going along to something does not mean you are taking part."

California, Canada and the European Union are so persuaded he's right, the three governments are in the process of banning the sale of incandescent light bulbs, following the trailblazing paths of Fidel Castro in Cuba and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Even the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is on board, urging American citizens to do their part for the environment and switch to the twisty little CFL bulbs that last longer and use less electricity.

But opposition is building among other environmentalists who say the threat of mercury contamination as a result of hundreds of millions of broken CFLS, each containing about 5 milligrams of the highly toxic substance, outweighs any benefits from a switch from Thomas Edison's trusty old invention.

One new voice weighing in against the tide is Andrew Michrowski of the Canadian-based Planetary Association for Clean Energy: "I feel it's very important to warn people these 'green' bulbs contain mercury, which will end up in landfills throughout the country if we make the switch to them. In addition to filling our landfills with mercury, if the bulbs break you will be exposed to the mercury they contain." He says consumers shouldn't buy them - even though they are now showing up in stores all over America.

A major debate has erupted among architects about the pros and cons of CFLs, with many "now calling for lower mercury in lighting systems," says Michael Driedger, a Vancouver-based architect specializing in green technologies. "Many people, especially in the lighting industry, are waiting for the lighting industry to develop mercury-free light emitting diode (LED) lighting as a safe substitute for CFLs," he says.

Although the news media generally have portrayed CAIR as a legitimate civil rights group, the organization has had a hard time maintaining its squeaky clean image. Current CAIR leaders also have made statements in support of Hamas and the domination of the U.S. by Islam. As WorldNetDaily reported, CAIR's chairman of the board, Omar Ahmad, was cited by a California newspaper in 1998 declaring THE QURAN SHOULD BE AMERICA'S HIGHEST AUTHORITY. He also was reported to have said that ISLAM IS NOT IN AMERICA TO BE EQUAL TO ANY OTHER RELIGION BUT TO BE DOMINANT.