She praised the "quite remarkable" humanitarian responses by people of all faiths to the tragedies.

"This last year has reminded us that we live in a world which is not easy or safe, but it is the only place we have," she said.

Addressing thousands in St Peter's Square, the pope said people of the 21st Century risked becoming "victims of their intellectual achievements".

He decried the "menace" of terrorism, the "humiliation" of worldwide poverty and said pandemics and environmental destruction were dangerous new threats.

The purpose of the DS100 is to portray as close a picture as possible of the corporate environment in OIC member countries. It continues to include Government and Private enterprises, for whom data was verified through public sources, to reflect their disproportionately significant role in the Muslim world economies. At the same time, more than half of the list is comprised of publicly listed companies (57 of the 100) representing the growing public markets of the Muslim world.

This year's ranking continues to recognize the rich diversity of corporate activity in the Muslim world, states Rafi-uddin Shikoh, Editor of Dinar Standard. "With the tremendous global media interest in the first DS100 ranking, we are confident that the ranking is playing its part in raising the spirit of competitiveness in the region, as well as serving as a means of motivation and pride to the ever-important workforce and corporate leaders alike.

Saudi Aramco, the world's top oil producer, continues to lead the DS100 as the largest business enterprise of the Muslim world with an estimated 36% rise in its revenues from the previous year. Overall, the energy sector dominates the top of the list with 8 of the top 10 being state-owned Integrated Oil & Gas companies. However, it is the diversified conglomerates that have the highest representation on the list (22 of the 100), with Turkish family owned conglomerates Koc Holding, Sabanci Holding, and Dogus Holding having the highest revenues.

The largest growth companies this year are part of the Orascom Group of Egypt with its publicly listed companies Orascom Telekom recording a 113% growth and Orascom Construction recording 98% revenue growth compared to previous year.

Turkish companies continue to lead the list with 25 represented enterprises, followed by 18 from Malaysia, 15 from Saudi Arabia, and 11 from Indonesia. Other countries represented include the UAE, Pakistan, Iran, Nigeria, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Egypt, Bahrain, and Algeria.

Major General Farooq Ahmad Khan, who regularly briefs the press on the relief and rehabilitation work, confirmed that more than 9,000 people in the earthquake-affected area were still unaccounted for.

More than 30% of people's livestock in the area have died due to the drought, Mandera's district commissioner said. These reports come two days after UN agencies warned that 2.5 million Kenyans could face famine next year unless food aid pleas are met.

The drought in the area along the border with Somalia has led to competition for land and water. This has led to frequent clashes in Kenya and Somalia with conflicts between pastoralists and farmers.

Mandera District Commissioner Kimani Waweru told Kenya's media that lack of rain had caused the situation to deteriorate badly. "We have moved from a situation of drought to one of famine. The situation is not just bad, it is very, very bad," he said. Mohammed Molole, 80, told the East African Standard that the last of his 289 head of cattle died at the weekend.

"I have walked all over the plains and there is nothing at all to give the cattle," he said. The newspaper says that there are fears that more deaths could have gone unreported because residents would usually bury their dead within 24 hours.

The World Food Programme is appealing for $127 million for emergency operations in the drought-affected areas while the UN children's fund, Unicef, says it needs $4 million to save more than 20,000 children hit by famine in northern Kenya.

The government also says more than 100,000 people are faced with food shortages on the east coast due to a prolonged drought.

While Iran's nuclear program is Israel's main concern, its space capabilities are also considered a point of no return, which determined the actual timing of the Israeli strike. "The Iranians' space program is a matter of deep concern to us," said an Israeli defense official. If and when we launch an attack on several Iranian targets, the last thing we need is Iranian early warning received by satellite."

Iran wants to master space technology as soon as possible, amid fears the West will seek to impose restrictions on its satellite program like those placed on its nuclear plans. According to an article on Global Research.ca, the Sinah-1 is just the first of several Iranian satellites set for Russian launches in the coming months. The Islamic republic is also working on a Shahab-4 missile that could carry an Iranian-built satellite on its orbit.

Thus the Iranians will soon have a satellite network in place to give them early warning of an Israeli attack. However, Iran's satellites won't be as efficient as more powerful Israeli and American space spies that can track the slightest movements; cameras on Israel's Ofek-5 spy satellite have been monitoring the activities in Arab countries and Iran since 2002.

Moreover, Russia signed a $1 billion contract to sell Iran an advanced defense system that can destroy guided missiles and laser-guided bombs, the Sunday Times reports. This too will be ready in the next few months.

The timing of the Israeli attack is closely linked to Israel's political situation. With a parliamentary elections on March 28, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who quit the right-wing Likud to form a new centrist party, wants to look strong. Former PM Benjamin Netanyahu, the newly elected Likud leader, pledged that if Sharon doesn't act against Iran, "then when I form the new Israeli government, we'll do what we did in the past against Saddam's reactor, which gave us 20 years of tranquility."

This all pushed Sharon to rally the country, and stave off this lunge from the right, with a strike against Tehran. "Israel and not only Israel cannot accept a nuclear Iran," the Israeli Prime Minister said recently. "We have the ability to deal with this and we're making all the necessary preparations to be ready for such a situation."

A strike against Iran would be popular in Israel, where everyone agrees that Iran cannot be allowed to have the kind of nuclear weapons that Israel itself possesses in such bristling abundance. By the late 1990s, the US intelligence community estimated that Israel possessed between 75-130 nuclear weapons, including missiles and bombs, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

Israel did its homework. The March deadline also comes with an International Atomic Energy Agency report on Iran's nuclear program, which could lead to UN sanctions against Tehran, as Israel and the United States want. According to the Sunday Times, Sharon had already ordered Israel's special forces to be at the highest stage of readiness for the strike. Commenting on the report, a top White House official said that the threat of a nuclear Iran was moving to the top of the international agenda, and the question "what next? Would have to be answered in the next few months" (meaning: 'Sure, March could work for us').

Only a fool would believe that the Bush administration gave up its ambitions for full-spectrum dominance in the Middle East just because Iraq turned into a disaster. To Washington, Iraq has always been a step towards Iran; which was never punished for removing the US's puppet, the shah, and seizing the American Embassy in Tehran.

In fact, Iran is the first step to Washington's ultimate goal; planting US-controlled hands on Middle Eastern and Central Asian oil, thus halting the political rise of China and India, and ensuring a new American century of unchallenged profit and privilege. For the elite, of course; as always, those back home have to deal with the bills and the body bags from these war games.

The United States and Israel have already begun a covert war against Iran. With defiant Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Bush and Sharon will have little trouble gaining support for such an attack. In the next few months, we'll see the usual charade of diplomacy as military plans are being finalized.

Three weeks of flooding in southern Thailand have left 52 people dead and thousands stranded without provisions in remote areas while 69 people have perished in central Vietnam, some of them in landslides. Northern Malaysia, where nine are reported dead, is suffering the worst floods in 30 years.

In Thailand, a local government official said tens of thousands of people were stranded without necessary supplies as floods affected nine of 14 provinces in the south.

"Food and water are running out for thousands of families who live in remote areas that the rescue team has not yet reached," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he did not want to be seen as criticizing the government.

Pensri Kheawkumpai, a disaster official in Nakorn Srithammarat, said 12 people have died in the province. Kaj Sentoyep, a disaster official for the deep south of Thailand, said 40 people have died in the seven southernmost provinces.

Local officials estimate one million people are affected and that it will take at least one month for the floods to recede from most parts of Pattani, Songkhla and Phattalung provinces.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has played down the severity of the floods, saying Wednesday that "they were not as bad as the tsunami." State-owned media have reported only 19 people killed.

The opposition Democrat party has accused Thaksin of being slow to help flood victims because the southern region did not support his political party in the last election.

"The government has played down the situation and ignored the plight of the people in southern Thailand because the people in the south did not vote for Thai Rak Thai (Thai Love Thai) party," said Sathit Wongnongtoey an opposition lawmaker. This year's flooding is regarded as the country's worst in 40 years.

In Vietnam, the coastal Khanh Hoa province has been the worst hit with 32 deaths. Nearby Phu Yen province had 14 deaths while Binh Dinh province had 11 and central Quang Ngai province had five deaths.

Roy Wilsher, chief fire officer in Hertfordshire County, told reporters that blazes at 17 tanks had been extinguished using 4 million gallons of water and more than 66,000 gallons of foam concentrate. He expected the fire to be out completely later Tuesday.

People across Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire were awoken early on Sunday morning by an explosion, later described by Hertfordshire's Chief Fire Officer Roy Wilsher as "the largest incident of its kind in peace time Europe".

The Fire Brigade and other emergency services were called to attend Buncefield Oil Depot in Hemel Hempstead following reports of a huge explosion just after 6.00am. The depot, situated near to Junction 8 of the M1 is one of the largest fuel supplying facilities in the country and maintains fuel deliveries to Luton, Heathrow and Gatwick airports.

In total there were 20 petrol tanks involved in the fire, each said to hold three million gallons of fuel. The noise of the explosion is being reported to have been heard as far away as the Netherlands.

The most obvious commercial victim of bird flu - imagined or real - is the multi-million pound poultry industry, which includes egg producers and broiler breeders, as well as those bringing the poultry to market; ranging from supermarkets to restaurants.

For the moment, this sector's most immediate concern is that talk of a possible pandemic will spook consumers. "This is not a food safety issue," insists National Farmers' Union president Tim Bennett. "I am concerned that consumers are not getting a clear message that poultry is safe to eat."

Yet, early signs of a bird flu impact on companies are already appearing. Two months ago, when the British Veterinary Association said it was "inevitable" that wild birds would eventually carry bird flu to Britain, there was a "blip in sales" of poultry, Mr Bennett observes.

On Thursday this week, Northern Foods' finance director Jez Maiden warned that chicken pies and ready meals are about to become dearer, since the "uncertainties over avian flu? has a tendency to push up the price of chicken we buy in the UK".

Waiting list: The pharmaceutical group Roche is among the global giants that have contingency plans in place. "We need to make sure we can maintain our business, so we have our own pandemic plan within Roche," spokeswoman Susie Hackett tells BBC News. Ms Hackett declines to elaborate on the plan's details, but Roche's efforts are believed to include supplies of its Tamiflu anti-viral drug for members of staff, some of whom would be considered "essential workers" should a pandemic occur.

Other companies eager to stockpile either Roche's Tamiflu drug or GlaxoSmitkline's equivalent Relenza, are finding it difficult to do so since there is a worldwide shortage of the drug. "Several companies have approached us," says Ms Hackett.

But government requirements are dealt with first to make sure the public at large is looked after. "We are managing our stock levels very carefully and there is a waiting list among companies," says Ms Hackett. Roche has scaled up its production of Tamiflu significantly in recent months, and this should lead to an eightfold increase in output by next summer when compared with 2004, says Ms Hackett.

Depending on the severity of the annual ordinary flu season, some stock might be released to private companies early next year, she says. Companies insist their preparations are nothing out of the ordinary, and that they are getting ready 'just-in-case', just as they would prepare contingency plans for natural disasters and terrorist attacks. And primary care expert Dr Nigel Higgins is among those in the medical profession who agrees that whereas "we do not need to panic, we need to be prepared".

Our current name tends to have the effect of hindering our ability to proclaim the gospel, because it creates another barrier for the unchurched to deal with, Dr Tkach said. Instead of readily discovering that we are a vibrant Christian renewal movement, they instead equate us with groups that have followed the tenets of Armstrongism.

Our current name does not properly represent us for several reasons. Numerous older sources continue to address the former doctrinal errors of the WCG under that name, even though we have long since been delivered from such errors.

In many ways, the name Worldwide Church of God is in effect 'poisoned,' similar to the way the German word fuehrer (leader), though innocuous in itself, is no longer usable in any normal sense because of its associations with a negative history.

The negative associations with Armstrongism that are connected with the name Worldwide Church of God tend to hamper our effectiveness in proclaiming the gospel. A name change could give us a greater opportunity to tell the story of our transition.

According to an announcement sent to church pastors, suggested names should be short (no more than four words), clear and descriptive of our church; they should be names not already being used by other churches.

Tkach added, I believe that all the work [involved in a name change] will be well worth the fresh sense of purpose and identity that a new name will help bring us. Please join me in praying for God's blessing in our process and final selection.

But for the island's 23 million people, the future is overshadowed by an unresolved dispute with China. Both sides are used to dealing with this fraught relationship, and closer economic ties may eventually make conflict less likely. But until that happens, any flare-up over Taiwan would have much wider implications.

Most importantly, it could quickly suck the US into conflict with China, because of US security assurances to Taiwan.