"This is a big prize in terms of technology," a senior US military source told Fox News. The spy plane uses the same stealth technology as the drone used to monitor the compound during the raid that killed Usama bin Laden, US military sources told Fox News on Monday. Military sources confirmed that the Iranians have the RQ-170 drone, which is so advanced that the US Air Force has not distributed even a photo of it. However, they did not say that the Iranians shot down the spy plane, as was reported by Iran's official IRNA news agency.

IRNA quoted an unidentified Iranian military official saying Sunday that the spy plane was shot down by Iran's armed forces and suffered minor damage. The official also warned of strong and crushing response to any violations of the country's airspace by American drone aircraft.

The Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, as expected, emerged with the largest share with 36.6 per cent of the vote. Defying expectations, the far more funadamentalist al-eNour - the "Party of Light" - emerged in second place with 24.4 per cent. It is backed by Egypt's growing community of Salafists, adherents of one of the most puritanical strains of Islam.

With the moderately Islamist al-Wesat winning 4.3 per cent of the vote, religious parties are just shy of a two-thirds majority that would give them the power to draft a new constitution without reference to secular rivals, which made a poor showing. The rise of al-Nour has caused particular alarm among liberals. Their leaders openly espouse the introduction of the harshest interpretation of Islamic law.

They call for women to be segregated and veiled, the ban of alcohol, the stoning of adulterers and the amputation of the hands of thieves.

After individually outlining their views last week on closer fiscal integration, the two leaders must overcome remaining differences to fine tune proposals they want to present to EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday, on the eve of a summit. The duo, increasingly dubbed "Merkozy" as they intensify bilateral efforts to restore confidence in the euro zone, will meet over lunch at 1:30 pm (1230 GMT) on Monday and are expected to hold a news conference afterwards. They aim to agree plans for more coercive budget discipline in the euro zone, likely via EU treaty change, which they want all 27 EU leaders to approve at Friday's summit.

"We need profound treaty modifications," French government spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse told France Inter radio, but stressed the idea was to give euro zone governments the final say on applying any punitive sanctions proposed by the European Commission for fiscal slackers. The sticking point is that France opposes Germany's push to have euro states surrender budgetary control to a European authority with veto power.

While Germany, fed up with costly bailouts, wants a more federal EU system, Sarkozy is under fire five months from a presidential election from political rivals who accuse him of being ready to hand over sovereignty to unelected EU officials. Socialist presidential hopeful Francois Hollande, in Berlin on Monday to address opposition Social Democrats (SPD), and far-right leader Marine Le Pen have both criticized the idea of handing Brussels more control of public finances. Hollande aide Pierre Moscovici told French LCI television on Monday that acquiescing to Berlin's demands would be evidence that the Franco-German relationship had become unbalanced. "We do not need a treaty to have budgetary union," he said. "Most of all, it erodes our sovereignty. We do not need to be under the nitpicking control of the European Court of Justice."

Several other governments, notably Britain, Ireland and the Netherlands, oppose treaty change for domestic political reasons and fear they would not win public backing in referendums. "Investors would be well advised to adopt a cautious stance in the run-up to next Friday's EU summit," said Nicholas Spiro of debt consultancy Spiro Sovereign Strategy. British Prime Minister David Cameron said after talks with Sarkozy in Paris on Friday that he would only agree to treaty change if Britain's interests were protected.

Tehran denied links to the bombing but in July offered talks with Argentina to start "shedding light" on the case. The 1994 attack came two years after a group called Islamic Jihad Organization, which was believed to be linked to Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, claimed responsibility for bombing the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29.

For more than a decade Argentina appeared to do little to investigate the attacks. But when Nestor Kirchner became president in 2003 he vowed to reopen the cases, calling the neglect "a national disgrace." Several years later former Iranian President Ali Rafsanjani was among those indicted by Argentine prosecutors and sought by Interpol.

But there have been signs of a thaw in the two nations' frosty ties. Argentine exports to Iran, which dropped to a few tens of millions of dollars annually amid sour relations, have grown in recent years, soaring more than 70 percent last year to $1.5 billion. Iran is the biggest buyer of Argentine corn, a key crop for the Latin American country as it strives to bolster its trade surplus. "As the rest of us work to pressure Iran to end its nuclear weapons program and stop supporting terrorism, Argentina's government has been considering moving in the opposite direction," a European envoy said on condition of anonymity.

China cut reserve requirements for banks last week for the first time in three years and its factory sector shrank to levels not seen since February 2009. Brazil also lowered rates for the third time since August. Only the United States has enjoyed a steady stream of improving data. The unemployment level dropped to 8.6 percent in November, the lowest level in two and a half years, factories expanded and retail spending accelerated, pointing to a slow and gradual pick-up in growth.

But Europe casts a pall over everything. So serious are the risks that it could disrupt three years of painful global economic recovery that politicians, central bankers and market strategists are starting to compare the danger of European leaders deadlocking to the collapse of Lehman Bros in September 2008. That shock plunged the world into its deepest recession since the 1930s. "Let us not hide it: Europe may be swept away by the crisis if it doesn't get a grip, if it doesn't change," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Thursday.

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King warned of a "systemic crisis," adding that "none of us really know" how the euro zone would survive if the crisis explodes into sovereign default. "This is Lehmans, Take Two. Cubed," said Kathleen Gaffney of Loomis Sayles, a part of Natixis Asset Management.

The correct term is 'Stability Union', as the Chancellor calls it at home. It certainly entails unprecedented intrusion into the internal affairs of sovereign states, but in one direction only: discipline, without transforming help. The Greeks have had a taste of this with EU commissars lodged in each ministry under the occupation terms of their loan package, and it may come back to bite Germany itself one day as the economic cycle plays its trick. Nor is the idea going down well in France, where Leftist MP Jean-Marie Le Guen compared President Nicolas Sarkozy's kowtowing to the Iron Chancellor with Daladier's capitulation at Munich in 1938, and where Le Front Nationale's Marie Le Pen is running near 20 per cent in the polls with calls to "let the euro die a natural death."

"The time has come to take on the political confrontation with Germany and defend our values," said socialist doyen Arnaud Montebourg, equating Mr Sarkozy's epic humiliations with French defeat at Sedan in 1870. Even socialist leader Francois Hollande is dipping his toe in these nationalist waters. "Merkel decides and Sarkozy follows," said the man most likely to be France's president next year. The Latin revolt is underway. None of Mrs Merkel's proposals - whether enshrined in EU treaties or not - offer any meaningful solution to the crisis at hand. They continue to ignore the cancer in the EMU system: the corrosive 30 per cent currency misalignment between North and South, and the German-Dutch trade surplus.

Brussels has warned that Europe will "disintegrate" unless leaders grasp the nettle this week. It is a scare tactic. There is no necessary linkage between a euro break-up and the end of the EU. One might equally argue that the surest way to bedevil Europe is to persist in trying to hold this unworkable currency together with coercive powers. But having cranked up the rhetoric, Europe's leaders will have to conjure some pro-forma triumph for the headlines, as they have at each of the last seventeen crisis summits.

No doubt there will be a "bazooka" of sorts, a mish-mash of big talk on the EFSF bail-out fund, with IMF flanking operations, and accompanying ECB action to keep banks afloat for longer, all cloaked in a fiscal union that isn't what it seems. Mandarins will slip the figure 1 trillion euros somewhere into the communique to nourish a hungry media.

In other words, we may just have to hunker down yet again and wait for Germany to blink at last, or detonate the fuse.

Portuguese premier Pedro Passos Coelho set the tone for the week in an interview on Sunday: "We have to find a response, a much stronger response than so far. If we don't, clearly that could represent the end of the European Union." Senior opposition politicians put severe pressure on French president Nicolas Sarkozy and German chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of their pre-summit talks in Paris on Monday to approve a "grand bargain" or, at least, workable plan that will gain the support of partners such as the US. Timothy Geithner, Treasury secretary, will be in Europe for talks all week.

Sarkozy's main opponent in next spring's presidential election, socialist leader Francois Hollande, accused him of caving into German demands for a new EU treaty on budgets that was bound to fail, exacerbating French weakness in an unbalanced relationship with Berlin and ignoring the need for immediate solutions. Mark Rutte, Dutch premier, said: "It is really important that the markets see that Europe is prepared to help the countries in trouble, so long as those countries commit to very tough reforms and austerity programmes."

Market hopes are that - despite their differences - Merkel and Sarkozy agree on both a short-term solution and longer-term vision that will persuade the ECB not only to cut interest rates by 0.25% to 1% but extend loans of up to three years maturity to struggling banks. The ECB governing council meets hours before the EU summit on Thursday.

The survey found that just 22.5 per cent of all staff professed to be Christians. Yet the combination of those who said they were atheists and those who had no faith came to a total of 23.5 per cent. Some 40 per cent of staff failed to respond to the questionnaire. Other beliefs represented in the workforce included Islam, Hinduism and Judaism.

BBC veteran Roger Bolton, who until recently presented BBC Radio 4's religious current affairs programme, Sunday, said: 'There is an inbuilt but unconscious bias against religion, fuelled by the fact staff are not representative of the public. It is not a conspiracy but it needs a correction.' And Peter Kearney, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, said the statistics confirmed the belief that the BBC is 'institutionally incapable of reflecting the society it serves since BBC staff are not representative of the audience they broadcast to'.

The independent Christian Broadcasting Council also told the media watchdog Ofcom in a report earlier this month it was 'concerned' that Christians were not fairly represented. The criticisms follow complaints the BBC has cut back its religious broadcasting. Viewers have also claimed the BBC portrays Christians in soap operas or dramas as 'weak' or 'bigoted'. The beliefs of BBC staff have been disclosed for the first time after the Corporation carried out a costly audit earlier this year to comply with the 2010 Equality Act. The census by pollsters Ipsos MORI, was voluntary.

Last summer - as factories geared up to cope with demand for the Christmas period - investigators spent three weeks in the industrial cities of Shenzhen and Dongguan. In some cases, they found that employees:

* worked up to 140 hours overtime a month;

* were paid up to a month late;

* claimed they were expected to work with dangerous tools and machines without training or safety measures;

* had to work in silence and were fined up to 5 pounds for going to the toilet without permission.

Perhaps the most insidious effect of the long hours and poor wages was how it tore families apart, separating mothers and fathers from their children for all but a few days a year. Many workers were too afraid to speak to the investigators from human rights group Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (Sacom). Sacom accuses big global brands of failing to pay the factories enough, with workers suffering because factories undercut one another in an attempt to secure contracts. The report also criticises the industry's own regulator for failing to clamp down on rights abuses.

The researcher spent three weeks in the factory and found workers put in up to 140 hours of overtime every month, nearly four times the 36 hours a month legal limit. Basic pay is 110 pounds a month, but wages were paid a month late, in breach of labour law. During the peak summer season workers could make up to 240 pounds a month, including overtime, but that falls to 140 pounds during low season.

A typical working day during the peak season starts at 8am and does not end until 10pm. Workers routinely put in six-day weeks, but if the factory is busy there are no days off. Workers complained that they were banned from talking to one another on the production line and were fined up to 5 pounds if they went to the toilet without applying for an "off-duty" permit.

Russia has threatened to cut off Nato supply routes to Afghanistan if the alliance doesn't compromise on its missile defence plans. "If Nato doesn't give a serious response, we have to address matters in relations in other areas," Russian news services reported. Russia's cooperation on Afghanistan may be an area for review, the news services reported. Pakistan has already cut the Nato supply route after the Mohmand Agency attack by Nato troops that killed twenty-six Pakistani soldiers.

Lieutenant General (retired) Hameed Gul while talking to The News said that Russia would utilise every option to take revenge from the Americans and time has come for the Russians to do this. He said that Russia wants to join hands with Pakistan and Pakistan should reconsider its policy towards Russia. "Americans and Nato troops have been strangled in Afghanistan and time has come for Pakistan to avail the opportunity that it missed on 9/11 to regain the respect and sovereignty", Gul said.

He mentioned that Americans will have to leave Afghanistan and will ask for concessions and Pakistan should negotiate with them for their exit. If Russia cuts the supply then the route will be from Georgia to Baku and then to Azerbaijan, which means NATO will never get the supply, said Gul. "Now Nato troops will have to exit Vietnam style, and that too by using Pakistan's airspace because Iran will never let USA use its airspace", the retired general said. He mentioned that the war against terror that was started with our own people will come to an end at once and there will be peace in no time once the Americans leave Afghanistan. He said that Indian interests in Afghanistan were growing but India will get nothing from Afghanistan.

Big resorts such as Davos or St Moritz have been able to open a few runs with the help of snow cannons. Others have delayed the start of the season. The franc has risen sharply this year against the euro, the dollar and the British pound, making a skiing holiday in Switzerland far more expensive than in France, Italy or Austria. The BBC's Imogen Foulkes says now the lack of snow has added to the worries of hoteliers, ski instructors, and lift companies.

There was some snow in parts of the Swiss Alps early on Saturday, but observers say this was not enough to kick-start the struggling ski season. Alpine resorts in neighbouring countries are also experiencing shortages of snow. A hotel in Austria's Katschberg mountains has hired 15 chimney sweepers - which are associated with good luck in the country - to pray for snow. "We're confident things will go well now!" hotel manager Wolfgang Hinteregger said.

On a visit to Paris for talks which had been due to last several hours but ended up as a brief working lunch, Mr Cameron vowed to 'further protect and enhance' Britain's interests. But in a move that enraged Eurosceptics, he made clear that the UK's first priority is 'to help solve the crisis in the eurozone' rather than to repatriate powers from Brussels to Britain as they would like.

Mr Cameron, who returned to London last night after his brief meeting with President Sarkozy, is now effectively locked in a stand-off with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She has demanded a new EU treaty to let the eurozone dictate tax and spending policies to members of the single currency. Crucially, Mrs Merkel believes that the new rules should be agreed by all 27 EU nations. That would give Britain the right to veto the changes and hand the Prime Minister the power to demand concessions in return.

Rather than demand the repatriation of major powers, Britain's tactic will be to call for safeguards for the City of London and demand the right to veto regulations from the 17 eurozone nations if they threaten the single market enjoyed by all 27 countries. Mr Cameron wants to avoid a big treaty change because that could trigger a referendum where powers are passed from Westminster to Brussels. Britain's priority is to act fast, rather than have a protracted process of treaty change.

A senior official said: 'We've been trying to inject a sense of reality. There might need to be some legal changes but let's not get bogged down in some protracted debate about institutions.' Bill Cash, chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee, said: 'At best we are acquiescing or at worst we are capitulating to demands by Germany and France in a way that is no solution to Britain's national interests in relation to the eurozone crisis. They have demanded renegotiation and a referendum is essential.'

They will be policed by the independent Electoral Reform Society under its strict rules. The unprecedented move is being organised by the Vote UK Out Of EU organisation. Chief executive Jon Gaunt said: "In three constituencies voters can tell their party leaders that they have had enough - enough of being promised a referendum by David Cameron and being let down, enough of the 50 million pounds a day we give to the EU, enough of the rules and regulations which blight people's lives and enough of the EU gravy train."

The demand for the British people to be given their first say on our membership of the EU for more than 35 years has been shown clearly by the response to the Daily Express crusade to get Britain out of Europe. Mr Gaunt said: "Following the brave crusade the Daily Express began we are taking it to the next level."

Constituents in Mr Cameron's Oxfordshire seat of Witney, Mr Clegg's of Sheffield Hallam and Mr Miliband's of Doncaster North will see the issues debated in a full-scale campaign including public meetings before casting votes by post, internet or phone. They will vote yes or no to the question: "The UK is currently a member of the European Union. Do you agree the UK should stay in the European Union?" The results will not be binding on ministers but a vote to quit the EU would be acutely embarrassing for all three party leaders who say Britain should stay in.

The stark assessment comes ahead of a gathering of European leaders in Brussels that has been billed as a summit that cannot afford to fail. A crisis that began in Greece almost two years ago, has since ensnared Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy, and now threatens France and Germany. Rising bond yields across the continent will only alarm, rather than tempt investors until there's agreement on the future structure of the euro. "Yes, yields are higher but you have existential problems and risk that's hard to quantify," said Mr Balls, brother of Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls MP. "We're very cautious and we're underweight versus our indices."

A series of bail-outs for individual countries, accompanied by promises of austerity, have failed to convince global investors that monetary union can survive its first major hurdle since it was created more than a decade ago. China has, so far, baulked about committing cash to the European Financial Stability Facility and no sovereign wealth fund has stepped forward as a buyer of the bonds of the most indebted members of the euro. Mr Balls said that while it was not too late for European leaders to decide on their future, each carries "enormous execution risk and co-ordination risk. If you don't need to be invested in the eurozone, then go for better global alternatives".

The escalation in the crisis was underlined by last week's move by the world's major central banks, led by the Bank of England, to make dollars cheaper and more available to European banks needing to refinance loans.

Wolfgang Schauble outlined his plans under which states would effectively siphon off a chunk of their debt to a special national fund and pay it off over about 20 years while committing to reforms to keep debt levels on target. Schauble believes his proposal, which has won qualified support from Chancellor Angela Merkel, would boost confidence as states would be sending a signal they were serious about limiting debt levels to 60 percent of gross domestic product.

Investors are desperate for a sign from EU leaders next week that they can find a solution to the more than two year-old debt crisis which is having a knock-on effect on the global economy. Merkel is pushing for binding EU rules on budget discipline. "We need a redemption fund in every single country of the euro zone," Schauble told the Passauer Neue Presse.

"Each of these countries should put into a special fund that part of its debt which exceed 60 percent of its GDP, and should pay that off with tax revenues. Over a period of 20 years, the debt should be reduced to 60 percent," he said. In Germany's case, the fund - covering federal, state and municipal debts - would amount to about 500 billion euros (430 billion pounds) as German debt is around 80 percent of its gross domestic product, said Schauble.