He told Mr van Rompuy and Mr Barroso they could save almost £5 billion by raising the retirement age for staff from 65 to 68, cutting 10 per cent from the pay bill and capping pensions at 60 rather than 70 per cent of final salary. EU bosses were said to have reacted ‘very defensively’ to his proposals. They claimed it would be ‘legally difficult’ to change employees’ terms and conditions, even though similar reforms have been implemented in many member states.

‘These are not dramatic changes,’ said one senior British official. ‘The terms and conditions people are currently on are extremely generous. The Commission and others are telling the Greeks, the Italians and others to raise their retirement age. It’s not too much to ask them to do the same.’

The European Commission wants to increase its budget by a staggering 350 per cent – from £6.5 billion to £29 billion. Britain said that at most it should be doubled to £13 billion, saving £16 billion.

Mr Cameron said: ‘Clearly at a time when we are making difficult decisions at home over public spending it would be quite wrong – it is quite wrong – for there to be proposals for this increased extra spending in the EU.’ Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg agreed: ‘What we want from the European Union is just common sense. There is not enough money to go around at the moment. Everyone is tightening their belts - let’s make sure it is reflected in the EU budget.’

Most EU members support an increase in the budget but several countries say it is unacceptable at a time of austerity. Earlier, President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy circulated a revised proposal for the new budget and said he believed that a compromise was possible. "I think we're advancing a bit, but I doubt that we will reach a deal," Mrs Merkel said. She has previously said that another summit may be necessary early next year if no deal can be reached now.

The UK is the most vocal of EU member states seeking cuts in the budget to match austerity programmes at home. "No, I'm not happy at all," Prime Minister David Cameron said about Mr Van Rompuy's offer to cap spending at €973 billion (£783 billion; $1.2 trillion). "Clearly, at a time when we're making difficult decisions at home over public spending, it would be quite wrong - it is quite wrong - for there to be proposals for this increased extra spending in the EU."

MEPs in Brussels have approved a resolution saying the EU must respond to growing geostrategic changes and threats to global security and make full use of all existing means, including military, to secure peace and security for its citizens. This means a new EU operational headquarters is on the cards, and that Brussels will have the authority to jump into different crises, including what it calls “high intensity conflicts” – otherwise known as wars.

It is a question of business as well. European MPs stressed that building up Europe’s capabilities would save and even create jobs, pumping more investment into the military industry. Not all EU member states are going to be jumping for joy over the plans. The more ambitious EU common security and defense policy could leave Britain between a rock and a hard place. The UK could end up getting dragged into military campaigns that it has no interest in joining.

MEP David Campbell Bannerman from the UK Conservative Party voted against the move and slammed it. Bannerman told RT that Brussels is encroaching on the sovereignty of its members, with Britain relinquishing control of its own defense and security decisions.

The World Conference on International Communications in Dubai will update global telecom rules for the first time since 1988, and some countries see this as an opportunity to set up new rules for the Internet. There are fears proposals made by China, Russia and other nations could threaten the open model of Internet governance by giving the UN a greater role. Oversight of the net's domain name system and technical specifications is currently undertaken by US-based bodies, but some countries want an international organisation to take responsibility.

Google's statement said 'the ITU is the wrong place to make decisions about the future of the Internet' because 'only governments have a voice at the ITU,' including some 'that do not support a free and open Internet.' 'The ITU is also secretive,' Google said. 'The treaty conference and proposals are confidential.' Google said some proposed treaty changes 'permit governments to censor legitimate speech — or even allow them to cut off Internet access'.

As we reported last week, an article in the Washington Post, cited several US officials saying that [Mr] Obama signed off on the secret cybersecurity order, believed to widely expand NSA’s spying authorities, in mid-October.

“The new directive is the most extensive White House effort to date to wrestle with what constitutes an “offensive” and a “defensive” action in the rapidly evolving world of cyberwar and cyberterrorism.” the report states.

In response to the move, lawyers with the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request demanding that the Obama administration make public the text of the directive.

The NSA responded to the FOIA request this week with a statement arguing that it does not have to release the document because it is a confidential presidential communication and it is classified.

Thanksgiving, a hugely popular holiday, celebrates the Pilgrims' first harvest in what is now Massachusetts state. For the 39 million Americans travelling in vehicles, heavy traffic was expected in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Reasons for turkeys to be nervous

Americans will gobble 46 million of the poultry at Thanksgiving, almost 3lb (1.4kg) per person

At an average weight of 16lb each, last year's Thanksgiving turkeys weighed 736 million lb in total.

Americans spend about $875 million (£550 million) buying turkeys for Thanksgiving

About 31% of turkeys scoffed during the year in the US will be consumed on the holiday

Traditionally, retailers enticed shoppers with "doorbuster" deals early Friday morning. Then they shifted to midnight following Thanksgiving.

Now Walmart's US discount stores, which will already be open during the day, will offer some "Black Friday" deals at 8 pm and special deals on some electronics at 10 pm. Target has moved its opening from midnight to 9 pm on Thursday and Toys R Us is opening at 8 pm. Other retailers, like JC Penney Co Inc are holding out and will not open until Friday morning, so shoppers trying to get all the deals will need a lot of stamina. The stakes are high for US retailers, which can earn more than a third of their annual sales in the holiday season.

The Catholic Church high official equated Israel’s operation in Gaza against terror groups with the New Testament story of Herod’s slaughter of Jewish babies in his effort to kill Jesus. Ravasi, who is one of the most popular Catholic cardinals and the director of the Church’s policy on culture, called Israelis baby-killers in a shameless form of anti-Semitism which subtly accuses the Jewish State of trying to murder the new Jesus, symbolized by the Palestinian people.

The Vatican official’s modern blood libel against Israel was delivered during the presentation of Pope Benedict’s new book about the life of Jesus. However, Ravasi's theme – the Jews as Herod, who killed all the innocent babies because his heart was set on killing Jesus – was much beloved by Medieval organizers of pogroms.

Talking to the Vatican News Agency, Michel Sabbah, Patriarch Emeritus of Jerusalem, said that the Gaza Strip for many years “has been living under the weight of an absurd embargo, which makes the daily lives of a million and a half of people inhumane”. Sabbah signed the recent appeal by more than one hundred Christian leaders who have asked the international community to support the recognition of the Palestinian State as a full member of the United Nations. Among the signers is the Greek Orthodox Archbishop Atallah Hanna, a self professed anti-Semite who blessed the suicide attacks against Israeli civilians.

As yet, no condemnation has come from the Pope of the barrages of rockets fired by terror groups on southern Israeli cities before Operation Pillar of Defense. The Church authorities, and Benedict XVI himself, raised their voices in condemnation of the violence that has broken out in the Gaza Strip only after Israel began bombing the installations of the terrorist movements in that territory. Not a word was heard before that. During the Cast Lead operation in 2009, the Vatican officials called Gaza "a concentration camp". After the Nazi comparison did its work, the Jesus-killer motif has now returned to the Catholic Church.

Under the terms of the truce, both sides will hold off from hostilities until further notice. After the truce has held for 24 hours, talks will begin to address Hamas's demand that Israel's blockade of Gaza be lifted. There was no mention of Israel's requirement that Hamas be prevented from rearming, either immediately or in the future. But the deal was announced in Cairo by Mohammed Kamel Amr, the foreign minister of Egypt, through which any arms would have to travel to reach Gaza, standing alongside Mrs Clinton. The Israelis believe this amounts to a guarantee their security concerns have been accepted.