The diplomat called on Europeans not to act as America's client and instead to pursue their own interests in the conflict. Meanwhile, Iran's OPEC governor, Mohammad Ali Khatibi, said it would be "ECONOMIC SUICIDE" FOR EUROPE TO JOIN THE SANCTIONS AMID THE CRISIS. "Regarding the economic crisis in the eurozone, imposing any sanction on Iran's oil will push European countries into a deeper crisis," Khatibi said as quoted by Mehr news agency. "The European currency is already under pressure because of debt and financing problems facing some of its members."

Double-edged embargo - EUROPE IS A MAJOR IMPORTER OF IRANIAN OIL, the others being China, Japan, South Korea and India. Southern European countries like Italy, Spain and Greece buy some 13 per cent of all crude they consume from Iran. China, which is the largest buyer of Iranian oil, said last week it would not uphold any sanctions against the Islamic Republic unless they are imposed by the UN Security Council. India came up with a similar statement on Wednesday.

South Korea and Japan both voiced their readiness to boycott Iran's crude, but did not indicate when such a measure might come into force. Japan is particularly vulnerable to energy shortages after the devastating earthquake and tsunami which hit it last year, destroying the Fukushima power plant.

Philip Giraldi, an ex-CIA officer who is currently the executive director of the Council for the National Interest think-tank, believes Iran is buying time, basically saying: "There is a high level of belligerency right now, but if we buy time, possibly that will change. The resolve of the European powers to push on this Iranian nuclear issue is higher now," Giraldi explained. "But if there is a genuine threat to possibly raise oil prices through closing the Strait of Hormuz, then the Europeans who get quite a lot of this oil would begin to reconsider what they are doing."

In light of the West's announced withdrawal from Afghanistan, Pakistan's predominating military intends to tighten its grip over the country to enhance its influence in that neighboring country, according to rumors in Islamabad. The generals are also no longer willing to sit back and accept the continuous violation of Pakistani sovereignty by ambushes from US drones and NATO aerial attacks.

The country's military, which is already cooperating closely with China, could, in the long run, turn its back on the West and form an alliance with Beijing, according to speculations expressed in Berlin. Whereas the USA and the EU - particularly Germany - are insisting that violations of Pakistan's sovereignty be attenuated with conciliatory gestures, influential German politicians are warning against overstraining US operations in Pakistan. The cooperation should be intensified in the business and educational fields, otherwise it would not be possible to maintain long-term western influence in that country.

Last week, indications became more evident that in Pakistan a putsch may be in preparation. Following the Islamabad government's sharp public criticism, the army warned the government of "serious consequences," without elaborating further. The prime minister, from his side, then fired the state secretary in the defense ministry, a former general, who had served as the main liaison between the government and the military. "The military wants to get rid of the government," concluded an observer of the situation developing in the Pakistani capital.

A statement from the Vatican Information Service noted that the week is promoted by the World Council of Churches (WCC), a worldwide fellowship of 349 churches seeking unity, common witness and Christian service. The Catholic Church participates in this ecumenical initiative, despite not being a member of the WCC.

This year's theme comes from St Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians, which promises the transformation of human life - with all its apparent dimensions of "triumph" and "defeat" - through the victory of Christ's resurrection. After leading the Angelus on Sunday, Benedict XVI invited the faithful, "as individuals and in communities, to participate spiritually, and where possible practically, in the Week of Prayer, to ask God for the gift of full unity among the disciples of Christ."

A working group composed of representatives of the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church and Old Catholic and Protestant Churches active in Poland prepared the texts this year.

"Sweden's educational policy is becoming increasingly totalitarian," warned Michael Donnelly, the director of international affairs for the Home School Legal Defense Association, a US-based group that advocates for students' and parents' rights worldwide. "A country that does not permit home education is not really a free country," he said.

According to the HSLDA, Lotta Edholm, a prominent leader of Sweden's liberal party, opined in an article in Aftonbladet, a Swedish newspaper, that the nation's social service laws should be changed to encourage social workers to take children away from homeschooling families. "That the deputy minister of social affairs, Maria Larsson... should take an initiative to change the social services act so that the social authorities can intervene when children are kept away from school by their parents," she wrote in her blog.

"This is the most direct and serious threat to date for homeschooling families in the Nordic country where the climate for homeschooling is literally freezing," the HSLDA report said. The organization said Jonas Himmelstrand, chief of the Swedish Association for Home Education, believes Edholm's perception that homeschooling isn't compatible with democracy simply inverts freedom.

"Edholm argues that because children have a right to an education, this means that public school is the only valid option," Himmelstrand told the HSLDA. "With the knowledge we have today this is pure ignorance. Home education is an effective and perfectly legitimate way for children to learn. Edholm's argument is totalitarian and breaches fundamental democratic principles. It's fine for the government to provide schools, but it goes against basic human rights norms to force every child to go to school." He continued, "The government is not the parent... Unfortunately, in Sweden the line between parents and the state has become strongly blurred."

The proficiency of the latest assassination to deplete Iran's community of atom specialists suggests that violent actions by one or more of Iran's adversaries form an increasingly active - and public - element in a multifaceted international drive to impede Iran's nuclear program. Some old espionage hands voice respect for the expert landing of clandestine, deniable blows against a program the West suspects is aimed at acquiring a nuclear bomb capability and Iran says is for civilian purposes.

"Ten out of 10. They hit the target and nobody got caught," former US intelligence officer Robert Ayers told Reuters of the January 11 killing. "What makes these things so impressive is they gather a lot of information and do their 'on the ground' homework, which can take months." Sidney Alford, a British explosives expert, says the hit was technically "professional. It worked and it worked very well."

But whoever the apparently adept perpetrators were, the attack appears to form part of a quickening series of sabotage and assassinations that is growing less covert by the month. And the more visible the cloak-and-dagger campaign grows, some analysts argue, the more acute its affront to national prestige and sovereignty, and the deeper the siege mentality widely held to motivate Iran's drive for nuclear prowess.

Ahmadi-Roshan was the fourth Iranian nuclear scientist killed in the past two years; another scientist survived an explosion that wounded him and his wife. Iran says scientists have also been kidnapped, a computer virus attacked its nuclear equipment, and a massive explosion at a military base, which Iran called an accident, killed more than a dozen officers including the head of the Revolutionary Guards missile program.

While "there is more that unites us than divides us" on the basic tenets of faith - belief in Christ, the son of God and savior of humanity - "divisions remain and regard many practical and ethical questions, giving rise to confusion and mistrust, weakening our ability to transmit the saving word of Christ," Pope Benedict said January 18 at his weekly general audience.

The Second Vatican Council placed THE SEARCH FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY "AT THE CENTER OF THE LIFE AND WORK OF THE CHURCH," the pope said, and it did so because it was Christ's desire for his followers and because, practically speaking, it is essential for the full credibility of Christians. "The lack of unity among Christians impedes a more effective proclamation of Christ because it puts our credibility in danger," the pope said. "How can we give a convincing witness if we are divided?"

"To be sure, the UK suffers from some of the adverse factors cited by S&P to justify the euro-area downgrades," London-based Citigroup analysts Michael Saunders and Mark Schofield said in a note to clients today. "Nevertheless, in other respects, we think the UK's ability to return to fiscal sustainability is significantly better than most" euro-region governments.

Germany was left with the euro area's only stable AAA rating at S&P after the ratings company cut nine sovereigns on January 13. Citigroup said the UK will retain its rating and "not be placed on negative watch or negative outlook" because of the government's commitment to reducing the budget deficit and the nation's flexible monetary policy.

Citigroup also said the UK faces less risk of having to support euro-area countries and banks ensnared in the region's debt crisis. At the same time, the British government's proposals to protect UK lenders' consumer units will limit its liabilities to backstop them against other losses.

"Nevertheless, of course, the UK's AAA rating would be vulnerable if the economic outlook for 2012-13 proves far worse than we currently expect," the analysts said, adding that the next hurdle will be Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne's budget in March.

Numerous Internet companies engaged in a "blackout" protest Wednesday against two anti-piracy bills, SOPA and its counterpart in the Senate, the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). The bills are supported by the RIAA, MPAA and countless other creative and business organizations. A handful of leading Internet sites are showing that fear is a great motivator. The logo on Google's home page is covered by a black rectangle. Following the link takes the reader to an "End Piracy, Not Liberty" page with information on the bills and an online petition.

At Wikipedia, a black welcome screen asks the visitor to "Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge" and warns that Congress is "considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet." The page offers a zip code-lookup that returns the contact information of a visitor's local representatives.

Craigslist's home page contains the questionable warning that "News Corp, RIAA, MPAA, Nike, Sony, Comcast, VISA & others" want a world without Craigslist, Wikipedia and Google. A page with information about SOPA contains the dubious charge that neither SOPA nor PIPA contain provisions for judicial oversight or due process.

Other companies taking part in Wednesday's protest are WordPress, Reddit and Mozilla. Some of the bills' opponents - such as Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo! and LinkedIn - decided not to disturb their users' experiences for the sake of the protest. The one-day protest is likely to rally even more opposition to the anti-piracy bills that had previously enjoyed widespread support in both houses of Congress.

According to the Saudi Jidda News, the agreement will seek joint development of "atomic energy for peaceful purposes, which will help to meet the kingdom's rising demand for energy and cut its growing dependence on depleting resources." The agreement was signed by King Abdullah and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and followed earlier public remarks by a senior Saudi prince who said the country should develop nuclear weapons to counter rival Iran's nuclear arms.

Former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal said December 5 that "our efforts and those of the world have failed to convince Israel to abandon its weapons of mass destruction, as well as Iran... Therefore it is our duty toward our nation and people to consider all possible options, including the possession of these weapons."

The administration's argument against Iran's reason for developing nuclear energy - that Tehran has enough oil to produce electrical power for a century - also would apply to Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia holds some of the largest oil reserves in the world and is China's main supplier of crude oil. Saudi Arabia last year held talks with the Obama administration on US nuclear cooperation and reached a deal for nuclear development with South Korea in November.

Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak earlier said in Jerusalem on Wednesday that his country was not even close to deciding to attack Iran and believed that a military option remained "very far away". Lavrov warned of the "severest" consequences of an attack that he warned would spark a regional refugee crisis and incite inter-communal tensions in the region. "I have no doubt in the fact that it only add fuel to the fire of the still-simmering Sunni-Shiite conflict. And I do not know where the subsequent chain reaction will end."

He added that punitive sanctions aimed at winning more transparency from Iran had "exhausted" themselves and only hurt the chances of peace. "Additional unilateral sanctions against Iran have nothing to do with a desire to ensure the regime's commitment to nuclear non-proliferation," Lavrov told reporters at an annual briefing outlining Russia's foreign policy views. "It is seriously aimed at suffocating the Iranian economy and the well-being of its people, probably in the hope of inciting discontent."

His comments came as EU diplomats closed in on a July date for a full oil embargo that would suit nations such as Italy with a strong reliance on Iranian supplies.

Tehran likely would employ a mixed game plan against the US military consisting of "advanced technology" and "guerilla tactics," according to a research organization with close ties to the Pentagon. Before that, Iran would first lean hard on weaker Middle Eastern nations to convince those states to deny Washington access to bases on their soil, it states.

Some of the report's grimmer scenarios predict Iranian ballistic missile launches on Gulf cities in an attempt to convince other nations to resist providing support to an American military operation. The report also forecasts efforts by Tehran to use Shiite Muslim "proxy groups" to attack US allies in the region. Similar groups plagued the US-led war effort in Iraq for years, and some officials and experts said some acted with Tehran's backing.

Anthony Cordesman, a Pentagon adviser, acknowledged Iranian officials might give some kind of support to extremist groups in a place like Yemen. But he cast doubt on the likelihood that Iran would fire missiles at Gulf cities, or if its missiles would even work. "Iran is much more likely to look at this and realize when you see this type of exchange, you ignore the fact that there are no rules as to how the US and others would respond," said Cordesman, a senior analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The violent rallies began last week over a highly unpopular health bill which has since been withdrawn. Night and day, people come to scream their defiance. Biting austerity and a feeling the government is not listening have spilled over into anger, even violence.

Meanwhile, the government is shrugging off responsibility, saying international economic conditions are to blame for the country's woes. "Let's not forget that we're in the eye of a storm, of an economic European storm. All around us, unfortunately, is a mighty tempest with economic consequences that inevitably affect us too," laments the country's Prime Minister, Emil Boc. "Not good enough," say the opposition, who argue, of course, that they could do better. "Every day this corrupt, inefficient government stays in power is a day lost for Romania. Our duty is to shorten that period as much as we can and as fast as we can by fair elections," rages Victor Ponta from the opposition Social Democratic party.

Protesters in Bucharest know that economic woes are the foundation of their problem. Pile on top of that corruption, the government's perceived eagerness for harsh austerity, and the widespread feeling that their president views democracy with contempt, and you can see why Romanians want to tear it all down and start again.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban only needed a few years. In that short time he managed to turn his country inside out. Civil liberties and press freedoms were reined in, the democratic separation of powers annulled, and a constitution passed in the spirit of the country's former authoritarian-nationalistic leader Miklos Horthy. Hungary is politically isolated in the European Union, and on the verge of national insolvency. And now the European Commission has launched legal action against the country. Brussels sees Orban's constitutional reform as a violation of EU law, and is threatening to deny economic aid to the heavily indebted country.

It's a remarkable development for a country once seen as a model for reform to be emulated by other countries in the region. Orban himself, formerly a much-admired politician, now seems like a dubious mix of Vladimir Putin and Hugo Chavez. But the diminutive politician from the tiny northwestern Hungarian village of Alcsutdoboz is by no means a special case. Orban and his Hungary represent a political movement that is sweeping across central and southern Europe.

A dangerous storm is brewing in the shadow of the euro crisis. The devastating consequences of the 2008 global financial crisis were never fully overcome in Eastern Europe, and more countries in the region are falling into financial and economic imbalance, battling sprawling debt, high budget deficits, recessions and unemployment. But it's not just the fragile economies that are at risk. Many central and southern European societies also lack political and social stability. These regions have two decades of uninterrupted reforms and tough austerity policies behind them. Many people there are exhausted, and democracy fatigue, euroskepticism, and aversion towards the once deified West are on the rise.

"In many respects, it's a process similar to the disillusionment in Eastern Europe with socialism in the 1970s and 1980s," says Hungarian economic scholar and publicist Laszlo Lengyel. "The danger of this is that entire social classes or regions like those in eastern Poland, Slovakia and Hungary fall victim to hopelessness and extremism."

Polls reveal a climate of hate spawned by the right-wing nationalist and extremist discourse of the last few years. For example, nearly two-thirds of Hungarians believe that the influence of Jews is too great in their economy, and that the Roma have a genetic predisposition towards criminality.

The European Commission said on Tuesday it was launching legal action against Hungary for violating EU laws with new legislation that curbs the independence of the national central bank, the data protection agency and the judiciary. Legal proceedings against a member state's laws are rare in the EU, and the Commission's move reflects mounting international concern at the authoritarian policies of the right-wing government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and could delay negotiations on an international aid package for Hungary.

"We had hoped that Hungary would have made the necessary changes. This has not been the case so far," said Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. Hungary has introduced legislation permitting a cabinet minister to participate in meetings of the central bank's monetary council, requiring the council to send the government the agenda of its meetings in advance, and forcing the central bank governor and council members to take an oath of loyalty to the country.

The government has also lowered the retirement age of judges to 62 from 70, in addition to making other changes to the organization of courts. The move has raised suspicions that the government wants to get rid of troublesome judges and state prosecutors. The Commission also said Hungary had breached its rules on the independence of data protection agencies by creating a new National Agency for Data Protection and introducing legislation permitting the government to dismiss the data supervisor.

The launch of what the Commission called "accelerated infringement proceedings" means Hungary must amend the laws in question or be taken before the European Court of Justice.

We find ourselves, said Brok, after rating agency Standard & Poor's recently downgraded the credit rating of nine euro-zone countries late last week, in a conflict akin to a "currency war." The agencies, he went on, are pursuing "Anglo-American political interests." Gysi took things a tiny step further. For him, the "war" against the "European people" has already begun.

But before we all grab for our rifles and helmets to beat down the evil Americans, it makes sense to take a quick look at reality. What actually happened? S&P changed its opinion on the creditworthiness of some euro-zone states and also on the temporary euro bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility or EFSF. That France will repay its debt is, according to these analysts, no longer an extremely safe bet. It is merely a pretty safe bet. When it comes to Italy, their doubts are slightly greater and S&P sees Portuguese sovereign bonds as a speculative investment.

Even the criticism over the timing of the downgrades is nonsensical. "Now, of all times!" grumble critics of the ratings agencies, just at a moment when the euro crisis seemed to be slackening. When else, though, should S&P have published its findings? At a point when the financial markets were once again in panic? Had that happened, rating agencies would have been blasted for aggravating an already difficult situation. There is no good time for bad news. It is always unwelcome. And it's also human nature not to want to hear it.

But why are so many people cloaking their fear of bad news in such absurd talk of an Anglo-American conspiracy? It is so simple to lay the blame for Europe's plight on the other side of the Atlantic. The anti-American reflex is still largely intact in large parts of the German population - and can even be used to attract votes.