FMM

But it will still be five minutes to midnight for some months, and quite possibly even into next year.

It's five minutes to midnight on the European clock, Mrs Merkel.

Four years ago, when bishops from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean held their fifth General Conference in Aparecida, Brazil, Krautler warned that it was "five minutes to midnight" for Amazonia.

At five minutes to midnight on January 20, Airbus A340-600 D-AIHC (c/n 523) departed Munich on a charter service to Santiago de Chile, arriving in the South American city 16, hours and 43 minutes later.

In January 2007, the clock moved to five minutes to midnight, when climate change was added to the prospect of nuclear annihilation as the greatest threats to humankind.

It's five minutes to midnight, but there may - just - be time to learn this lesson."

AT five minutes to midnight on Wednesday I shall be reclining by my fire silkily wrapped in my new satin jamas and matching robe (thanks Santa - though sexy black for a lady of my maturity was a tad optimistic).

Redknapp said: "I honestly could not tell you the exact details but at five minutes to midnight on Thursday the two deals were dependent on each other with us getting pounds 9million for Benjani and spending it on Defoe."

It was five minutes to midnight on Monday when the Birmingham City boss concluded his January transfer window dealings for another year with the signing of Deportivo La Coruna's Uruguayan striker Walter Pandiani, the second of Bruce's two raids in a day on Spain.

At five minutes to midnight, the youngster's bedroom begins to shake as a deafening roar reverberates throughout the neighbourhood.

In January Steve Mac waited until five minutes to midnight before snapping up Ricketts having just completed a double deal with Derby for Christie and Riggott, then in August Zenden and Mendieta were unveiled as the window slammed.

He sketches the protracted, obtuse refusal of politicians (from all points of the political compass) to accept the dynamic forces shifting relations among the world's peoples until five minutes to midnight. Betts could have included more about the individual and corporate interests that created and sustained the imperial impulse, the orchestration of propaganda that sought to mislead generations of patriotic folk about what was being done in their name, the heart-breaking sacrifices that had to be made for empire, and the shocking miscarriages of justice that went unpunished (and perhaps had to be passed over in order for France to emerge, more or less united, from the vice of colonialism).