Films will also be shown in HD, with Hollywood blockbusters Kill Bill and Sin City promised for Christmas.

BBC: RELATED BBC SITES

Optimists in both camps still talked about how they would reach out to the other side when it was all over, like the World War I infantrymen who played soccer on Christmas Day before going back to their trenches to try to kill each other again.

CNN: Bush's Contested Lead

His hesitation has been understandable: powerful lobbies on one side have insisted that fast-track deals must be Christmas-treed with onerous labour and environmental provisions, while free-market Republicans vowed to kill any fast-track so adorned.

ECONOMIST: The United States looks south