Senior New York Times columnist describes Israeli cabinet as 'out-of-touch, in-bred, unimaginative and cliché-driven'; says Jerusalem unable to adjust to changes in Egypt

The Israeli cabinet is cliché-driven and Jerusalem used the crisis in Egypt to to score propaganda points to the point where the White House was disgusted with Israeli interlocutors, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote Sunday.

Friedman, who visited Cairo following the recent uprising, described the Israeli government as out-of-touch, in-bred and unimaginative. He expressed concern over Israel's future due to its inability to adjust to changes in the region as it sided with Mubarak until the very last moment.

Instead of listening to what the democracy youth in Tahrir Square were saying, Friedman says, the Israeli government frantically called the White House telling the president he must not abandon Pharaoh - and "used the opportunity to score propaganda points: 'Look at us! Look at us! We told you so! We are the only stable country in the region, because we are the only democracy.'"

Friedman continues: "Israel's government seemed oblivious to the irony of its message: 'We are your only reliable ally because we are a democracy and whatever you do don't abandon Mubarak and open the way there for democracy.'"

France will help the transition to a global financial system based on 'several international currencies', the French Economy Minister said today.

France, as current head of the Group of 20 countries, will help the transition to a global financial system based on 'several international currencies', French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said today.

Lagarde, speaking ahead of a G20 finance ministers meeting in Paris on Friday and Saturday, said the world had to move on from the 'non-monetary system' it now has to one 'based on several international currencies'.

Accordingly, France wants to see less need for countries, especially the emerging economies, to accumulate huge foreign reserves, she said.

Egyptian media sources have confirmed reports from Israeli intelligence agencies that the US has moved some of its naval forces from the Fifth Fleet closer to the Suez Canal. It is feared that the situation in Egypt could spiral out of control and threaten navigation in the Canal.

The Egyptian newspaper Al Masri Al Yawm has said that the naval personnel include 850 US Marines. They have taken up a strategic position near Ismailia, giving easy access to the main Egyptian land mass and the Sinai Peninsula. The newspaper cited Israeli sources regarding the deployment which came about following the statement by Vice President Omer Sulaiman that Egypt faces a choice between a coup d'état or dialogue.

Al Masri Al Yawm also referred to a recent report published in Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper in which Israel Defence Forces officers have called for the re-occupation of the Philadelphia corridor located between Egypt and the Gaza Strip in the event of the total collapse of the Mubarak regime.

A port official has admitted that a 'weapon of mass effect' has been found by 'partner agencies' in the U.S., raising major questions over a possible government cover-up.

The disturbing revelation came in an interview with San Diego's assistant port director screened by a television channel in the city.

The Customs and Border Protection Department tried to dampen speculation over his remarks, but doubts remained over whether he had inadvertently revealed a dirty bomb plot to attack the U.S. mainland.

Think-tank says new building early in its construction

Pakistan "determined" to make more weapons-grade plutonium

Vienna - Pakistan appears to be building a fourth military nuclear reactor, signalling its determination to produce more plutonium for atomic weapons, a U.S.-based think-tank said.

The report came as India and Pakistan agreed to resume peace talks that were broken off by New Delhi after the 2008 Mumbai attacks, a move that should help ease tensions in the volatile region.

The nuclear-armed neighbours have been under pressure from the United States to reduce tension because their rivalry spills over into Afghanistan, complicating peace efforts there.

The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a think-tank specialising in nuclear proliferation issues, said it had obtained commercial satellite images from mid-January.

They showed "what appears to be a fourth reactor under construction at Pakistan's Khushab nuclear site," ISIS experts David Albright and Paul Brannan said in the Feb. 9 report.

Islamabad - The US has threatened Pakistan that its envoy will be "kicked out" if it fails to release the American official arrested for gunning down two men in Lahore by Friday, according to a media report.

National security advisor Tom Donilon told Pakistani envoy Hussain Haqqani that the Obama administration will "kick him out of the US", close consulates in Pakistan and cancel President Asif Ali Zardari's upcoming visit to Washington if US official Raymond Davis is not released by Friday, ABC News channel quoted two unnamed Pakistani officials as saying.

Donilon reportedly conveyed the warning to Haqqani on Monday evening.

The "outlines of the threat" were also confirmed to ABC News by a senior US official who was not authorized to speak on the record.

The US has suspended all high-level bilateral talks with Pakistan over its refusal to grant diplomatic immunity to an American official.

Raymond Davis has been in prison since last month when he admitted to killing two men who he said tried to rob him in the city of Lahore.

Congress is threatening to cut off Pakistan's aid because Davis is a US embassy employee and should be immune from prosecution.

US Congressman Silvestre Reyes says reports that he may have been a spy on an espionage mission are irrelevant.

"I don't know what his job is, but I do know that he had diplomatic status. The issue of what he was doing at the time is not an issue for the government," he said.

"He was accosted by two criminals, known criminals with criminal records. He protected himself."

Islamabad - Pakistan's standoff with Washington over a jailed U.S. Embassy worker will not thwart talks between the two countries and Afghanistan, a Pakistani government spokesman said Sunday.

Tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan have been rising over the detention of American Raymond Allen Davis for killing two Pakistani men he says were trying to rob him.

In an apparent step to show its displeasure, the United States on Saturday postponed a meeting with Pakistani and Afghan officials to discuss the war in Afghanistan. Pakistan prizes such gatherings as a way to assert influence in Afghanistan.

The meeting was to have taken place next week. The U.S. did not directly cite Davis' continued detention as the reason, but U.S. diplomats have said the talks could become a casualty of the dispute.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said he is confident the three-way talks will continue.

The scene could have been scripted in a Hollywood action thriller: For two hours at the end of last month in Lahore, U.S. diplomat Raymond Davis was closely pursued by two visibly armed men on a motorbike. He noticed them tailing him from a restaurant to an ATM, and through the crowded streets of Pakistan's second city. They were close by when, in a crowded intersection, Davis produced his own handgun and fired seven shots. The diplomat was apparently a crack shot, and all seven bullets found their mark, killing his two pursuers. Davis then called for back-up, and a four-wheel-drive vehicle raced onto the scene, striking a Pakistani bystander who was killed by the impact. But the people in the vehicle, whose identities remain unknown, escaped from the scene having failed to retrieve Davis, who was later arrested nearby. In custody, Davis has told Pakistani authorities that he acted in self-defense, and has invoked diplomatic immunity, an international convention that protects diplomats from prosecution in the countries where they serve.

Two weeks later, Davis remains behind bars, facing murder charges. And the incident has plunged the already troubled relationship between Washington and Islamabad to a new low. Pakistani officials say Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week canceled a meeting with her Pakistani counterpart and is considering withdrawing an invitation for President Asif Ali Zardari to a trilateral summit with Afghan President Hamid Karzai later this month. But at home, Zardari faces intense pressure to prosecute Davis. The hitherto obscure employee of the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad has now become a lightning rod for the fierce anti-American sentiments shared by an overwhelming majority of Pakistanis.

The two men gunned down by US national Raymond Davis in Lahore last month were working for ISI which was tailing the American because he was spying and "encroaching on their turf", according to a media report. The two men were sent to track Davis by the ISI, which believed that he had crossed "a red line" and needed to be followed, four unnamed Pakistani officials were quoted as saying by ABC News. The men Davis shot had been following him for at least two hours and recorded some of his movements on their cell phone cameras, one of the Pakistani officials said.

In late January, Davis was asked to leave an area of Lahore restricted by the military, the officials said. Davis' cell phone was tracked and some of his calls were made to the Waziristan tribal area, where the Pakistani Taliban and a dozen other militant groups have a safe haven, one official said. Pakistani intelligence officials saw Davis as a threat who was "encroaching on their turf," the official was quoted as saying.