The prayer initiative, which is organized by several Catholic youth associations, will take place January 29-30. The annual event began in 2009, when faithful from some 500 cities around the world joined in a common prayer for peace. Last January, some 1,103 cities worldwide joined Benedict XVI, Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the custos of the Holy Land, and Archbishop Fouad Twal, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, to participate in the prayer for peace. Organizers say that groups from more than 2,000 cities have already confirmed participation in this year's event.

The prayer day is supported by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and responds in a special way to the call for prayer from the recent Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops. "The Church has always made an effort to spread the message of peace," Cardinal Turkson said in his message. "Today, the very important topic of peace and the search for it are more timely than ever."

He then quoted Benedict XVI's appeal at the close of the recent synod for the Middle East: "The cry of the poor and the oppressed finds an immediate echo in God, who wishes to intervene to open a way out, to restore a future of liberty, an horizon of hope." The Third International Day of Intercession for Peace in the Holy Land, Cardinal Turkson noted, "gathers different associations, brothers and sisters of every region, and solicits them to make their voice heard in the whole world saying: We want peace, reconciliation and unity, beginning in Jerusalem!"

The 24 hours of continuous prayer will begin in conjunction with the 5th Extraordinary Prayer of All Churches for Reconciliation, Unity and Peace Beginning in and Proceeding From Jerusalem, as well as the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in Jerusalem.

With its growing arms export and military cooperation, Germany has already achieved prominence with the Arabian Peninsula's dictatorships. German companies are intensifying their cooperation with the states and the sovereign wealth funds of the Arabian autocracies at the Gulf. The most recent example: The Qatar emirate bought a stake in Germany's largest construction company, Hochtief AG, complicating a takeover bid from its Spanish competitor, ACS.

The cooperation with the dictatorships at the Persian Gulf is not only advantageous economically; it is also particularly aimed at weakening Iran. The overthrow of the government in Iraq opened the way for Iran to achieve preeminence in the world's most important resource region. Berlin would like to "enhance its presence" at the Persian Gulf, declared Christian Schmidt, Parliamentary State Secretary in the German Defense Ministry. A few days ago, Schmidt attended this years "Manama Dialogue", an annual conference in Bahrain, organized by the London based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) since 2004, which focuses on military and security policy issues of the Middle East.

"Even though "our footprint is not quite as big and important compared to other countries," according to Schmidt, Germany "traditionally has a good name" on the Arabian Peninsula: "Many positive features" are ascribed to Germany. At the conference, the German State Secretary held informal talks on bilateral military cooperation also with representatives of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. "This region will be the center of change in the next 30 years," prophesized Schmidt. "There are many good reasons for closely cooperating with that region."

Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged that no euro member would be "left on their own", but dug in her heels against the creation of eurobonds and demands to boost the EU's 440 billion euros (372 billion pounds) bail-out fund. "We must not make the mistake of thinking that collectivising risk is the answer," she told a stormy session of the Bundestag.

The defiant stand came as Moody's issued a downgrade warning on Spain owing to "high refinancing needs in 2011" and the risk of further bank bail-outs. It said central and regional governments must finance 200 billion euros next year. Spanish lenders have to roll over a further 90 billion euros. "These needs are now rendered more challenging by the fragile confidence of international capital markets. Foreign investors have typically funded around 5 per cent of Spain's funding requirements. They may be less willing to do so in the immediate future given recent speculation about the treatment of bondholders should Spain be pushed to seek support from the EU/IMF," it said.

In continued tension across the eurozone periphery, rioters in Athens set fire to cars and beat a former minister with clubs outside the parliament building. The violence follows ugly scenes in Rome the day before when protests over education cuts erupted into street battles, leaving 100 injured in Italy's worst riots for 30 years. One police officer was nearly dragged to his death. Italy's press said urban guerrillas had infiltrated the protest, prompting fears of a return to the 1970s terrorism of Left and Right.

Query: Why are we importing a million-plus workers a year when 17 million Americans can't find work? Whose country is this? Why do we not declare a moratorium on all immigration, until our unemployment rate falls to 6 or 5 percent? Charity begins at home. Ought we not take care of our own jobless first before we invite in strangers to take their jobs? According to the Pew Hispanic Center, each year between 300,000 and 400,000 "anchor babies" are born to illegal aliens. These newborns are entitled to citizenship, free health care and education, welfare and food stamps.

Their parents - almost all are poor or working-class - rarely pay any state or federal income tax. How long can we keep granting citizenship and full social welfare benefits to the children of people who break our laws and break into our country or overstay their visas? How long can we keep bringing in workers to take jobs when our unemployment rate hovers around 10 percent? Again, according to the Pew Center, the number of anchor babies here now is about 4 million. Add to that 3 million to 4 million born each decade, and it will not be long before Colorado, Nevada, Arizona and Texas resemble California, which is on the brink of default.

Legal scholar William Quirk describes a new phenomenon in the invasion of America: "maternity tourism." Pregnant Asian women pay $15,000 to agents to ensure they are in the United States when their child is born so that they can return home secure in the knowledge he or she will be a US citizen with the right to a US-taxpayer subsidized education in college.

Democratic spokeswoman Harrell Kirstien accused Republican State Representative David Bates of attempting to impose a "Bible belt social agenda" after video surfaced of Bates saying "the only hope for America" is to "turn from our wicked ways and ask god to heal our land" and "the problem we have here in this country and in all of our states is that we no longer fear god" at a New England Solemn Assembly in Plymouth Massachusetts.

Now Kevin Smith, head of Cornerstone Policy Research, is calling on the Democratic Party to apologize for the attack. "The NHDP's mischaracterization of Representative Bates' faith are not only rooted in religious bigotry, but represents the height of hypocrisy for a party that supposedly prides itself in being tolerant of other's beliefs," Smith said. " The NHDP owes Representative Bates and the hundreds of thousands of Christians in this state an apology for his truly offensive and ignorant remarks."

"No elected official, whether Republican or Democrat, should have to endure such bigoted remarks from a political party simply because they express their religious faith in a public forum," continued Smith. "Mr Kirstein ought to re-read the first amendment to the US Constitution and realize all people are guaranteed the freedom of religion, whether he agrees with their beliefs or not."

Asked how the decline in the US auto industry has affected the local economy, Tammy Maynard, a waitress here since 1988, waved a hand around at the empty tables and said: "You're looking at it, sugar." Regulars and retirees keep the restaurant in business, while workers at the nearby auto supplier plant buy steak at the beginning of the month when they get paid - if they come at all - and then dine on specials over the next four weeks. "I just keep praying every day that we've hit the bottom and that things are going to get better," Maynard said, "because it doesn't seem like it could get any worse."

The US government may have bailed out General Motors, the country's largest automaker, but it hasn't begun to tackle the broader problems that led to the city's implosion. Doing so, experts say, would require the kind of political will that has not been in great evidence in the country recently. To the few remaining auto workers left in a city half the size it was in 1960, the America they knew growing up is long gone and things can only get worse. "We have made concession after concession on wages and benefits and there is no end in sight," said Dean Parm, a worker and union committeeman at Nexteer Automotive, whose hourly wages have been cut to around $17 an hour from $28. "It feels like we're dinosaurs. And we're on the verge of extinction."

This is the point of the story where many Americans typically glaze over because they see Michigan as a long-standing financial basket case of a state thanks to the shrinking US auto industry. But the problem is that the broad decline of the manufacturing sector that has been underway in this country for decades now may threaten not just the long-term health of the economy but also the living standards of all but the wealthiest Americans.

"The whole country is now seeing the story that Michigan has been living with for a long time," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial. "We have kicked the can so far down the road that now all we have is a cliff to fall off. The recession merely revealed a reality that has been with us for a long time. We faced a growing gap in education and skills that we tried to fill with debt and credit, which gave us the illusion of growth."

"Over the past 20 years we have simply borrowed more money in order to prosper," said Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer of the world's biggest bond fund manager PIMCO. "We forgot that the more stable and safe way to go is to make things. Now we're paying the price."

The roll-call of injuries, the cost of the damage inflicted on central London's infrastructure - all prompted swift condemnation from the home secretary and the National Union of Students alike. But if drawing attention to their cause was the protesters' aim, the wreckage proved effective. Every newspaper front page and TV bulletin used images of the chaos to illustrate the anger unleashed among students by the government's plans.

Putting aside the rights and wrongs of this particular case, the British public insist overwhelmingly that they are repulsed by rioting. According to a recent poll by YouGov (PDF), 75% of respondents agreed there were "no instances in which violent protest is acceptable in a democracy" - although some 19% believed there were circumstances in which it could be justified. But few would approve of hurling a fire extinguisher from the roof of a tall building.

One former rioter who downplays their significance, however, is Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens. Now best known for his trenchant conservative views, in 1968 Hitchens earned his political spurs as a left-wing radical at an anti-Vietnam war demonstration by hurling mud at the police. Today, however, he insists that in a free country, the authorities have a duty not to be swayed by the actions of the mob.

"It's tremendously exhilarating," he admits. "Riots are fun. The self-importance, the adrenaline rush of slight, but not serious, danger. But it can't be justified in free countries where there are legitimate means of expression. Any government that has any fortitude at all has to show it's not influenced by that stuff." Everyone will draw their own conclusions about the justice, or otherwise, of the merits of individual protests. The only certainty is that the threat of disorder will persist as long as it captures our collective attention.

While Germany made a large contribution to the Greek bailout package in the spring, and to the massive, 750 billion euros ($990 billion) common currency backstop established earlier this year, Berlin has shown little interest in increasing or extending that fund. The idea of a European bond - one which would bundle the debt of European countries, thus making it more affordable for troubled states to borrow on the bond market - has likewise found little support in Merkel's Chancellery.

Her stance has not been popular in other European capitals. Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker has accused her of "thinking a little simply" and said she was displaying an "un-European manner." His foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, went even further in an interview on Wednesday, blaming Germany of "haughtiness and arrogance."

And the demands keep coming. On Wednesday, Spanish Finance Minister Elena Salgado insisted that the 750 billion euros fund, known as the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), be enlarged - a position supported by several countries in the euro zone. The idea mentioned in some European capitals is to double the size of the fund, to 1.5 trillion euros. Salgado also floated the idea that the EFSF could buy sovereign bonds from troubled countries, much as the European Central Bank has been doing.

"From the political and parliamentary point of view, Berlusconi scored a clear victory," Stefano Folli, a leading Italian political analyst, told the Associated Press on Tuesday. "But on the other hand, the government was weak before this vote and will be weak after it." Frustration among the opposition, though, would appear to be extreme. Scuffles broke out in the lower house during voting on Tuesday when it became clear that some representatives were defecting and throwing their support behind Berlusconi.

When the results of the lower house vote were made public, protests on the streets outside grew violent. Some 100 people were injured in the fracas, which included stone-throwing, torched cars, broken shop windows and tear gas. Police made dozens of arrests. German columnists on Wednesday take a closer look at the political uncertainties in Italy and speculate about what the future might hold.

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"The majority which helped Berlusconi remain in office is not reliable; it is not enough on which to construct a stabile government. It is almost inconceivable that Berlusconi's government will have the power to push through the kinds of economic reforms the country so badly needs - Italy, after all, is being watched closely by the markets. Even if Italy under Berlusconi has experienced the kind of leadership continuity one hasn't always associated with the country, recent years have been lost years. There is little to indicate that that will change... Worry is growing among Italy's European Union partners that Rome's weakness is becoming permanent."

Labor party Member of Parliament Andrew Dismore responded that Choudary himself should be prosecuted. "It's about time he was busted," he added. The House of Commons Counterterrorism sub-committee chairman, MP Patrick Mercer, said the preacher's statements are "weapons being wielded by Al-Qaeda and the Taliban."

Choudary said last September that Britain will become a Muslim country in the future. Last year, he praised the terrorist attack in Mumbai and previously has called for stoning homosexuals and for assassinating the Pope.

Choudary has founded two Muslim groups that the British government later banned as being terrorist organizations. He has threatened British Jews who support Israel, stating that it is an "Islamic obligation upon Muslims everywhere to support the Jihad against those who fight Muslims anywhere in the world or who occupy Muslim land. He added that financial supporters of Israel 'will become part of the conflict'."

Increasingly, there are signs of rising social pressures. Many Western European countries are only just embarking on multi-year deficit-reduction packages, a hard sell in states where expectations have risen for generations. Greek protesters clashed with police in central Athens on Wednesday as tens of thousands marched against austerity measures aimed at pulling the country out of a debt crisis. On Tuesday, Italian rioters and police fought battles in Rome after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi won a no-confidence vote.

Britain saw its worst clashes in two decades last week as students demonstrated over tuition fee rises, with Prince Charles and wife Camilla caught up in the melee. More unrest is expected next year as unions protest against much broader cuts. "It's almost inevitable that there will be more protest in 2011 than 2010, particularly in countries such as Greece and the UK where there are real public divisions over how much austerity is necessary," said Carina O'Reilly, European security analyst at IHS Jane's. "It's going to get nastier. We could well see deaths or serious injuries. We could well have seen deaths in the London riots last week. We were just lucky."

None of the European protests have so far had a major policy impact. But in some countries at least, particularly those with upcoming elections, worries over further unrest will deter the government from more aggressive reforms. "The propensity for civil unrest in France and Italy will act as a check on their governments," said Nomura political analyst Alastair Newton. "Sarkozy may have seen off the unions... but they are angry and will want to reassert themselves possibly around the public sector pay round in the spring."

Spain has elections in 2012 and Portugal's minority government is also seen as lacking the political clout to manage serious street protests - again slowing reform at least as long as markets remain more forgiving than for Ireland or Greece. But at the same time, Portuguese and Spanish unions and many potential protesters are also seen as reluctant to take steps which could spark the downfall of left-of-center governments and usher in the right.

The two Western European countries facing the deepest cuts - Greece and Ireland - have seen very different trends in terms of protest and unrest. Both are being watched closely by wider markets, and any suggestion reforms might be threatened could spook investors worldwide.

The victory ignited running street battles between hundreds of anti-Berlusconi protesters and riot police in which more than 100 people were injured in the tourist-heavy centre of the Italian capital. "What happened yesterday was not an expression of freedom. It was an attack by organised groups of hooligans," Berlusconi said on a news show on Wednesday.

Rome's mayor Gianni Alemanno said the clashes were "shocking" and likened them to the "gratuitous violence that was on the streets of Rome in the 1970s and that I hoped never to see again." Alemanno estimated the damage at 20 million euros (27 million dollars). "The absurd outburst of violence that devastated a part of Rome is an alarm bell because... a rebellion without rules is taking root," Il Messaggero said.

La Repubblica said the violence was "a reflection of the unease, of the insecurity of a country that can no longer be heard, that no longer finds common ground between itself and those that govern it." Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said the clashes were caused by 2,000 people who infiltrated a protest by around 20,000.

Hundreds of riot police outside the Kievsky station in central Moscow hauled into police vans mostly young men and teenagers who were shouting racist slogans and raising their hands in Nazi salutes. Some were lined up against buses and searched by police. Officers confiscated an arsenal of weapons, including traumatic guns, knives and metal bars, police spokesman Viktor Biryukov said. Police rounded up about 60 protesters in St Petersburg, where radical groups also planned a gathering Wednesday.

Riot police prevented clashes in Krasnodar and Rostov-on-Don, southern Russian cities with large non-Slavic populations where ethnic clashes have been frequent in recent years, officials said. Dozens of mostly young men have been detained in central Russia and Siberia, Russian news agencies reported.

Resentment has been rising among Slavic Russians over the growing presence in Moscow and elsewhere of people from the southern Caucasus region, most of them Muslims. People from other parts of the former Soviet Union, including Central Asia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, also face ethnic discrimination and are frequent victims of hate crimes. Analysts say it was the Chechen conflict, with atrocities and killings of civilians committed by both Russian federal forces and militant Islamists, that triggered the rise of xenophobia and neo-Nazism in Russia - and the growing resentment of Caucasus natives to ethnic Russians and Moscow's rule.

Greece was paralyzed by a general strike and violent protests on Wednesday and trade unions staged demonstrations in France, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark and the Czech Republic against government austerity measures one day ahead of what promises to be a fractious European Union summit to agree on a permanent mechanism to handle future debt crises.

In Greece, which has been undergoing radical belt-tightening to meet the conditions of its 110 billion euros bailout by the EU and International Monetary Fund in May, a demonstration by 20,000 people turned violent when masked protestors clashed with riot police, hurling petrol bombs and stones. Police responded by firing tear gas canisters and flash grenades. Flights were grounded, public transport and government ministries shut down and hospitals worked on minimum staff.

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, Germany's 39-year-old defense minister, is the rising star of German politics and widely regarded as having the makings of a future chancellor. The Bavarian baron is the country's most popular politician - by far - and has a knack for getting his way even on deeply controversial issues such as the suspension of military conscription.

Stephanie zu Guttenberg said she wanted to "get a picture of the situation on the ground as a wife, mother and also as a citizen. The soldiers here risk their lives every day, for our security as well, and I want to thank them for that," she said, adding that the visit wasn't a "fun excursion, this is dead serious."

Opposition politicians beg to differ and accused the Guttenbergs of misusing German soldiers as a backdrop for boosting their glamorous status back home as the country's First Family in waiting.

The conservative daily Die Welt writes: "Some people might find the visit by the baroness, a von Bismarck by birth, to the military camp in her trendy boots and anorak a tad extroverted. But the sympathies conveyed by the minister's wife, on behalf of millions of German citizens, has a value that transcends any criticism of the show business element of this coup."

"The Germans often complain bitterly that Berlin lacks the glamor that conveys an element of theater to the conduct of government in the White House and France's Elysee Palace. The zu Guttenbergs have heard these complaints. The fact that defense policy experts in the opposition are grumbling about it shows how annoyed they are at this display of chutzpah."