But while leaving the organisation would have initial negative consequences, the CEBR's chief executive Douglas McWilliams suspects "that over a 15-year period, it would probably be positive." Britain is set to vote on a referendum on EU membership in 2017.

The report predicts the UK's GDP will first move to fifth place ahead of France by 2018 before leapfrogging Germany around 2030. However, despite being forecast to be the second most successful of the Western economies after the US, it will fall behind the accelerating economies of India and Brazil.

"Germany is forecast to lose its position as the largest Western European economy to the UK around 2030 because of the UK's faster population growth and lesser dependence on the other European economies," the report said. But added: "If the euro were to break up, Germany's outlook would be much better."

Known since March 13 as Pope Francis, the spectacle-wearing 77-year-old was 2013’s most discussed human being, according to the Global Language Monitor’s annual survey of the internet. The accolade lays bare his astounding ability — unique among modern religious leaders — to shape the news agenda and capture hearts and minds with a succession of charismatic speeches and colourful public gestures.

Yesterday, Francis drew a near record crowd estimated at 100,000 to St Peter’s Square in Rome to hear a Christmas address where he called for ‘a better world, free from conflict’. More than two million people have flocked to such audiences since his election — four times the number his predecessor Pope Benedict drew in total in 2012. This Pope’s headline-grabbing speeches are tweeted and televised around the world. His public gestures are YouTube gold.

And his policy statements are included in the morning briefing papers of Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin and David Cameron. A fortnight ago, Francis was named Time magazine’s 86th Person of the Year — an honour previously awarded to Churchill, the Queen, Ronald Reagan and John F Kennedy.

In just nine months, the magazine credited him with single-handedly re-vitalising a Roman Catholic Church that has been mired in scandal and long-term decline. ‘Rarely has a new player on the world stage captured so much attention so quickly — young and old, faithful and cynical,’ it wrote. In the coming months, in between trips to Israel and the Philippines, Francis has pledged to restructure Vatican bureaucracy and de-centralise power from Rome, potentially threatening jobs. Indeed, I gather that almost all members of the Curia have been told their contracts are to be reviewed in the coming year.

Among places ravaged by conflict, Francis singled out Syria, which saw its third Christmas during civil war, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Nigeria and Iraq. The pope prayed that Jesus, the "prince of peace," would "bless the land where you chose to come into the world and grant a favourable outcome to the peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians."

In the Middle East, pilgrims celebrated Christmas Day in the ancient Bethlehem church where tradition holds Jesus was born, as candles illuminated the sacred site and while prayers were said. This year's turnout has been the largest in years in Bethlehem, and the celebrations have been marked by careful optimism amid ongoing Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Leaders expressed hope that the coming year would finally bring the Palestinians an independent state of their own.

The crisis erupted on December 17 when dozens of people, including of the head of state-run Halkbank, were arrested on graft charges. Erdogan responded by purging police investigators. The ensuing feud with the judiciary reignited long-simmering street protests and rattled foreign investors.

Earlier on Wednesday, three ministers who had sons among those detained resigned. Two of them echoed Erdogan in depicting the inquiry as baseless and a conspiracy. The third, Environment Minister Erdogan Bayraktar, turned on the premier.

After nightfall, a spent-looking Erdogan announced he was appointing 10 new ministers to replace the three who quit and others planning mayoral runs in local elections in March. The fact that the shake-up happened over Christmas cushioned the blow to Turkey on dormant international markets. But the stock index closed down 4.2 percent and the lira weakened to 2.0862 against the dollar.

No, those green pieces of paper are Federal Reserve notes. "Notes" in this case meaning liabilities to the central bank of the United States. That makes you, me, and anyone else holding those green pieces of paper essentially creditors of the Federal Reserve, whether we signed up for it or not.

The Fed is theoretically like any other business. On one side of its balance sheet, it has assets. On the other side, it has liabilities. The Fed is unique, though, in that its liabilities - namely Federal Reserve Notes - are passed off as money in the Land of the Free. And they have a legal monopoly in this money business. Just ask Bernard von NotHaus, the founder of Liberty Dollar who was labeled a domestic terrorist and convicted for minting silver coins to be used as a competing money.

Moreover, the Fed has the ability to increase its liabilities at will. Mr Bernanke can conjure additional Federal Reserve notes out of thin air and pump them into the system. And at this point, thanks to a long-standing policy of wanton money printing, the Fed has more liabilities than ever before in its history. By an enormous margin. This precarious balance sheet is dangerous, because if the Fed goes bust, everyone loses.

Is it even possible for a central bank to go bust? Definitely.

Zimbabwe and Tajikistan are infamous examples. And most recently it happened in Iceland. The banking system there collapsed from being so highly leveraged, and Iceland's central bank suffered tremendous losses. The end result was insolvency, and the central bank's liabilities, ie the Icelandic kronor, went into freefall, losing 60% against the dollar and euro in a matter of days.

Iraq's ancient Christian community has more than halved in recent years, from an estimated population of 900,000. Both blasts happened in the Dora area of Baghdad. The bomb outside St John's Catholic church exploded in a parked car, shortly after a blast at an outdoor market in the mainly Christian al-Athorien district.

No-one has yet admitted carrying out the attacks, which came as Christmas Day services were held across Iraq. During a service at St Joseph Chaldean church in the Karrada area of the capital, Father Saad Seroub called for peace and security for all Iraqis. Churches have been targeted across the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Zayani held talks in Saudi Arabia with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and expressed "GCC interest in bolstering friendship and cooperation ties with China," a GCC statement said. Wang was quoted as saying that Beijing wants to "expand economic, trade and investment relations" with GCC countries and spoke of the "strategic cooperation and relations (it has) with the GCC".

Wang arrived in Saudi Arabia as part of a regional tour during which he also visits Israel, the Palestinian territories, Morocco and Algeria. Saudi media said he will be discussing with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saudi al-Faisal a "strategic partnership" between Beijing and Riyadh. It did not elaborate.

Gulf monarchies are wary of Washington's reluctance to provide military support to Syrian rebels and for its openness towards their regional arch foe Iran, and are looking to improve ties with other nations. The Sunni-ruled monarchies, like Western powers, fear that Iran may develop nuclear weapons under the cover of its disputed nuclear programme, which Iran insists is for peaceful purposes only.

The group, whose candidate Mohammed Morsi won the presidential poll last year before being deposed by the military, had already been outlawed. Thousands of its supporters have been arrested in a crackdown. A Muslim Brotherhood leader in exile vowed that protests would continue.

Deputy Prime Minister Hossam Eissa announced the move, which will give the authorities more power to crack down on the Brotherhood. He said that those who belonged to the group, financed it or promoted its activities would face punishment.

The decision was in response to Tuesday's suicide bombing of a police headquarters in Mansoura, in the Nile Delta, which killed 16 people and wounded more than 100, he said. "Egypt was horrified from north to south by the hideous crime committed by the Muslim Brotherhood group," Mr Eissa said. "This was in context of dangerous escalation to violence against Egypt and Egyptians and a clear declaration by the Muslim Brotherhood group that it still knows nothing but violence."

Gracie and her brother, Luke, each made Christmas cards for the vets, and proudly showed them off. “It includes ‘Merry Christmas,’ and when you open it up, it says ‘Thank you for your service’ and the American flag,” said Luke.

But their excitement over doing a good deed was short-lived when they were told that their cards wouldn’t pass muster — no “God bless you,” no religious references, not even a “Merry Christmas” are allowed. Gracie and Luke’s mom, Andrea, was incensed. “This wasn’t the country I grew up in, when you couldn’t say ‘Merry Christmas,’ you couldn’t say ‘God bless you’ or reference any scripture,” she said.

Susan Chapman, a math teacher at Grace Academy, is married to a veteran and came up with the idea. “It really didn’t occur to me there would be a problem with distributing Christmas cards,” Chapman told the station. She got the bad news when she called Monday morning to schedule the delivery.

“I told him my students made cards, we’d like to bring them down for the veterans,” said Chapman. “And he said, ‘That’s great. We’re thrilled to have them, except the only thing is, we can’t accept anything that says ‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘God bless you’ or any scriptural references because of all the red tape’.” I agree with Gracie and Luke’s mom — this isn’t the country I grew up in either.

Recently revealed statements by former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the height of the banking crisis in October 2008 could give some insights into that question. An article on BBC News on September 21, 2013, drew from an explosive autobiography called Power Trip by Brown’s spin doctor Damian McBride, who said the prime minister was worried that law and order could collapse during the financial crisis.

McBride quoted Brown as saying: “If the banks are shutting their doors, and the cash points aren’t working, and people go to Tesco [a grocery chain] and their cards aren’t being accepted, the whole thing will just explode. If you can’t buy food or petrol or medicine for your kids, people will just start breaking the windows and helping themselves.”

“And as soon as people see that on TV, that’s the end, because everyone will think that’s OK now, that’s just what we all have to do. It’ll be anarchy. That’s what could happen tomorrow. How to deal with that threat?” Brown said, “We’d have to think: do we have curfews, do we put the Army on the streets, how do we get order back?”

“Simply put, I do my best to keep errors of fact off the letters page; when one does run, a correction is published,” said Paul Thornton, letters editor of the editorial page, in an October 8 column. “Saying ‘there’s no sign humans have caused climate change’ is not stating an opinion, it’s asserting a factual inaccuracy.” On the surface, climate-change skeptics say they have no problem with the policy, because nobody with any substance is saying that humans don’t cause climate change. Cutting down a forest causes climate change. Planting crops causes climate change.

“Obviously, humans do have an impact on climate,” said Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and a leading global-warming skeptic. “The question is whether burning fossil fuels like coal and natural gas is leading to the rapid warming of the planet, and notwithstanding the Los Angeles Times’ position on the issue, the evidence is that it isn’t.” Whether that’s enough to get Mr Ebell bumped from the letters-to-the-editor page is unclear, but he says the newspaper’s policy is emblematic of a broader debate.

In his column, Mr Thornton also states that many letter-writers insist “climate change is a hoax, a scheme by liberals to curtail personal freedom.” Indeed, skeptics have long argued that the extent of man-made global warming has been blown wildly out of proportion by climate-change alarmists in order to advance an agenda that includes more government control and less freedom. “It’s one thing for a news outlet to advance the as-yet unproven theory of anthropogenic global warming; it’s quite another to admit that you won’t publish views that oppose it,” said associate editor Noel Sheppard.

Most drones are used today by military powers for remote-controlled surveillance and attack, and their numbers are growing. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) predicted in 2012 that within 20 years there could be as many as 30,000 drones flying over US soil alone. As robotic birds will become commonplace in the near future, we should be prepared to identify them. This survival guide is an attempt to familiarise ourselves and future generations, with a changing technological environment.

This document contains the silhouettes of the most common drone species used today and in the near future. Each indicating nationality and whether they are used for surveillance only or for deadly force. All drones are drawn in scale for size indication. From the smallest consumer drones measuring less than 1 meter, up to the Global Hawk measuring 39.9 meters in length. The guide contains tactics for hiding from drones and interfering with the drones’ sensors, collected from various online sources.

Winds of up to 90 mph hit both sides of the Channel with heavy downpours causing flooding, traffic jams, and cancellations of rail, flight and ferry services. In Britain the number of people killed in two days of storms rose to at least five after a man died trying to rescue his dog from fast-flowing waters in Devon, southwest England. A teenager died in France on Monday after a wall collapsed on him.

Airports in southern England were disrupted, with some flights from Britain's busiest airport, Heathrow, canceled or delayed. Britain's second busiest airport, Gatwick, said one terminal had been hit by a major power outage on Tuesday and storm damage had temporarily cut all trains to the airport.

The weather was expected to hurt British retailers, eager to cash in on the traditional pre-Christmas rush. "Given retailers' hopes that the last couple of days before Christmas would see a final strong surge in sales, the awful weather could not have come at a worse time," IHS analyst Howard Archer said. Britain's weather forecasting agency, the Met Office, said conditions would ease on Christmas Day and Boxing Day but warned of further wet and stormy weather on Friday, causing more headaches for retailers during "the sales", the usually busy post-Christmas discounting period.

When it comes to “followers,” the pope does have an enormous head start, as leader of the 1.2 billion-member Roman Catholic Church. He also inspires unmatched curiosity and attention globally among many millions from other faiths and no faiths. Francis comments most effectively through compelling gestures. The public sees him kissing the bare foot of an imprisoned Muslim woman, or the illness-ravaged face of a man he is blessing. When a child jumps to his side or grabs his papal skull cap, the pope is attentive, undistracted.

Less instantaneous, but still revealing, gestures find him riding public buses, driving his own old car, living in humble quarters or sneaking off in the night to minister to the homeless. Minority factions, Catholic and “other,” sputter criticisms. Months ago they were surprised at the election of this Argentinean Jesuit to lead the Catholic Church. Now they charge that he restricts himself to what they dismiss as mere gestures, mere symbols, mere ceremonies.

On every level, though, the gestures of this pope serve as defining visual instruments of his papacy. Some commentators and critics have studied them to question his sincerity, which the wrong gestures and symbols could obscure. Near the end of his first year, however, the consensus now confirms that the pope we see is indeed authentic.

Will Francis misstep? Or wear out his welcome? Few signs of that as yet appear. But the old cautions remain: Francis has to take on drastic reform within the Vatican and its operations, where positive gestures and symbols will not always help him. What some see as his honeymoon of 2013 will certainly be clouded when opponents regain their footing and organize resistance. Whatever happens, however, we can be assured that we already have on hand the candidate for “the best-known person in the world” in 2014.

The total value of the returned gold is estimated at 1.1 billion euro, the head of Bundesbank, Jens Weidemann told the Bild newspaper. Weidemann explained it is part of a program to increase the reserves held in Frankfurt, and there was no doubt on the security of the gold held in America and France.

“The gold reserves of the country will be stored in Frankfurt because it has a special storage with the corresponding equipment,” said Carl-Ludwig Thiele, a Bundesbank board member. A large part of the German gold is held in foreign banks, primarily in New York and Paris. At the beginning of this year the Bundesbank said it intended to repatriate 700 tons of gold worth 27 billion euro by 2020.

Once completed, a half of the Federal republic’s gold reserves, or about 3,400 tons will be stored within the country. During the Cold War fearing a Soviet invasion the German government shipped two-thirds of its gold reserves to the UK, France and US. Recently, the Bundesbank has been criticised for not holding its reserves in Frankfurt, so it has decided that some should be brought back to Germany.