TGV builder Alstom Transports and the state-run rail company SNCF said the 30 million euro project was aimed at boosting customer interest in France's high-speed technology.

"It is important for us to show that the TGV technology, developed by SNCF 30 years ago, is a technology of the future," CEO Guillaume Pepy said.

Germany's ICE trains and Japan's Shinkansen - the TGV's main competitors - develop a maximum speed of 267 miles per hour and 249 miles per hour, respectively.

Japan's non-conventional magnetically levitated Maglev train can accelerate to 361 miles per hour.

Less than a day after a devastating tsunami hit the Solomon Islands, a smaller earthquake struck early Tuesday near the South Pacific chain of islands. The U.S. Geological Survey reported an earthquake of 6.2 on the Richter scale struck about 305 kilometers west-northwest of Honiara, on Guadacanal, the capital of the Solomons, about 10:20 a.m.

There were no reports of further damage after Tuesday's quake.

The tsunami and huge 8.1 earthquake that devastated the western Solomon Islands Monday killed at least 20 people and left many more missing, a senior police officer said.

"We are now of a view that here are about 20 confirmed dead overall, but I am rather fearful that the number will increase today as we get around to the various locations," said Solomons Deputy Police Commissioner Peter Marshall.

He said many more people were missing. Earthquakes are regular events in the Solomons, a poor country of 450,000 people spread over 1,000 islands closer to Papua New Guinea than Australia.

Entire villages were destroyed Monday after the 8.1-magnitude quake caused a tsunami that struck towns in the country's Western Province and a state of emergency was declared by the government.

Sky news in Australia reported hundreds of people were missing after the town of Gizo was first shaken by the earthquake, whose epicentre was just 40km away, and then by punished by a wave reported to be at least 10 feet high.

"The main number of the deaths were in Gizo, where a number of villages were affected," Marshall said.

Separately, police spokesman Mick Spinks said 13 villages had been destroyed.

"Virtually all the houses have been destroyed" in the affected villages, the spokesman said.

"The priority this morning is to use aircraft to get around all the islands in the Western Province to see what the level of the problem is," Marshall said.

He said rough terrain and poor communications were hampering efforts to assess the damage and loss of life.

Aircraft and boats with aid workers and officers on board were racing to the area to estimate damage and bring help to survivors.

"It's been a long night for a lot of people, in the area of Gizo in particular, there is no electricity and there have been a lot of tremors overnight and people have had to move to higher ground," Marshall said.

The premier of the Western Province said there were up to 4,000 people camping out in Gizo.

The U.S. Geological Survey recorded at least 10 quakes measuring between 5.0 and 6.2 in magnitude overnight.

The Moscow City Court upheld a city ban on gay pride parades in the city on Monday, dismissing an extraordinary appeal by parade organizers challenging a ruling by the Tverskoy district court. Organizers say they are prepared to appeal to the Russian Supreme Court, and believe that the high court will be "more objective" in its decision. The parade is currently scheduled for May 27; a valid application for permission to hold the parade due two weeks in advance.

The parade organizers announced in February that they were considering filing a lawsuit against the Moscow city government with the European Court of Human Rights. In 2006 the parade was held despite a ban upheld by the Moscow Court and ended in violence when approximately 100 religious and nationalist extremists attacked [Washington Post report] the gay rights activists. Additionally, approximately 200 gay rights supporters were arrested for defying the ban. Another Moscow court ruled in August that bans on such parades are legal, citing safety concerns.

The lawmaker promised to make the fight against illegal immigration the cornerstone of his 2008 bid, the report said. "The crisis of illegal immigration threatened not only our economy and our security but our very identity," he said in a statement.

"That ends today," said Tancredo, who, with the announcement, joined a crowded field that includes better-known hopefuls such as former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and Arizona Senator John McCain.

Born in Denver, Colorado, in December 1945, Tancredo has served as a House member since 1999. He supports deporting all illegal immigrants and has criticized a plan by the President George W. Bush, McCain and others to give some illegal immigrants a chance for citizenship.

An estimated 12 million illegal immigrants now live in the United States. A recent USA Today/Gallup Poll shows immigration ranks fourth behind the Iraq war, terrorism and corruption as an issue that Republicans want the president and Congress to address.

U.S. audit authorities on Tuesday proposed auditors specify whether a company's financial restatement is due to an error or a change in accounting principles.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) said the change to their auditing standards would help investors clearly distinguish when a company restated their results to comply with a different interpretation of accounting rules, or made an actual mistake.

"The proposal would specifically focus auditors on ensuring that disclosures about those changes are accurate," board member Charles Niemeier said in a statement.

The standard, however, would not distinguish between different types of mistakes such as the misapplication of accounting rules, mathematical errors or fraud.

The audit watchdog also proposed it align its standards on how auditors evaluate the consistency with which a company applies U.S. accounting rules with a standard released by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, which writes U.S. accounting rules.

The board also asked for public comment on a "concept release" that discusses whether an accounting firm that performed tax services for a company executive should be able to act as that company's auditor later in the same year.

The board said it wanted to hear comments on whether those services would compromise the firm's independence or if prohibiting those services would jeopardize a company's ability to switch auditors.

The financial statement proposal and the "concept release" are available for public comment through May 18.

UK financial regulators on Wednesday gave the first official recognition of intensifying City concern about the impact some overseas listings are having on the standards and reputation of London.

The Financial Services Authority said it will canvass opinions in the City about how to clarify the regulations to make clear whether companies have chosen light-touch listing methods, which can offer investors less protection. It said it was calling for formal debate about the balance between attracting new flotations and maintaining quality.

The decision comes a day after John Thain, chief executive head of the newly merged NYSE Euronext exchange group, took a thinly veiled swipe at the London Stock Exchange, criticising corporate governance and inadequate protection for minority investors offered by some Russian companies. There has been a steady flow of Russian and Kazakh companies seeking to raise capital in London.

Former Assemblyman Larry Bowler, a family advocate, said the court should defer to voters.

"At least four justices on that San Francisco bench are against the broad majority of California voters, who want marriage preserved and protected," he said. "The high court could deal a low blow to the voters by creating so-called 'same-sex marriages' in late 2007 or early 2008."
Liberty Counsel filed a brief representing Campaign for California Families. It challenged the assertion that protecting marriage is discriminatory.

"They aren't arguing for a minor change in marriage, but for a deconstruction of the entire institution of marriage," read a news release from the non-profit legal group. "The essence of marriage has always been the union of one man and one woman. We have never allowed any other human relationships to be united under the banner of marriage."