He also decried the slaughter of the "defenceless" in Syria and spoke of his hopes for countries which experienced the Arab Spring, especially what he described as the “beloved land Egypt”. In comments given added significance on Christmas Day, he spoke of “the Land where the Redeemer was born” urging Israelis and Palestinians to find the “courage” to take negotiations seriously.

It comes just days after the Pope met the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Throughout the year debt-ridden Greece has been the epicenter of Europe’s most violent protests. Facing severe economic conditions and harsh austerity measures the Greeks were forced to take to the streets and stage massive general strikes. As tensions grow within Greek society, far-right movements have been on the rise, with neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party gaining popularity in the country.

Spain, the eurozone’s fourth largest economy, has regularly seen thousands of people protesting, with many being arrested and injured. The country faces the highest unemployment rate in the entire eurozone and it’s estimated that more than 400,000 families have lost their homes due to unpaid rent, since the start of Spain's financial crisis in 2007.

Italy hasn’t escaped austerity-related uproar and has seen some of the most violent protests, with clashes between the demonstrators and riot police rocking major cities.

Thousands have also been regularly protesting in Portugal, voicing their anger over dire economic prospects. Portugal's austerity program, introduced last year, involves severe tax hikes and spending cuts and has resulted in joblessness for a record 15 percent of the population and forced the country into its worst recession since the 1970s.

The anti-austerity protests came to a climax on November 14 when millions of people took to the streets in 23 countries across Europe to mark the European Day of Action and Solidarity. Many rallies ended with violent clashes with police.

It could soon be a similar story with yet another gem from [Mr] Schäuble's repertoire of quotations. "Germany is clearly a gainer from the euro," as the minister likes to say. But if what his team has been writing over the past few weeks is true, Germans will soon find that their presumed winnings have transformed into losses.

The government in Berlin is living in a dual reality. Strategists in the center-right coalition parties are planning to enhance benefits for families, pensioners and the long-term unemployed in a bid to woo voters in the upcoming elections. By contrast, due to the economic slowdown, experts in [Mr] Schäuble's ministry are anticipating an entirely different scenario: The next government - no matter who will be chancellor and which parties will be in power - won't be able to boost spending. Instead, it will have to impose rigorous spending restraint.

According to the recommendations made by [Mr] Schäuble's team, in order to brace itself for the consequences of the euro crisis, Germany will have to drastically increase taxes and make painful cuts in social services over the coming years. These ideas don't fit with the current political climate in Germany!

Many Americans may be dreaming of a white Christmas, but it could turn into a travel nightmare for those looking to get out of town for the holidays. Meteorologists predict snowfall could blanket nearly half the nation on Tuesday - from Dallas to Maine - as a massive snowstorm moves from the Great Plains and up into the Northeast.

While children everywhere, both young and young-at-heart, are likely to welcome the snow, the nation's 87 million holiday travelers will likely be less enthusiastic. Between yesterday and today, the winter storm dubbed 'Draco' had delayed 7,367 flights in the US and canceled 317, leaving desperate holiday travelers scrambling to find alternative routes.

The high winds could threaten to delay even more flights at airports in New York, Philadelphia and Washington, meteorologists said. On the southern edge of the storm system, tornadoes destroyed several homes in Arkansas and peeled the roofs from buildings, toppled trucks and blew down oak trees and limbs in Alabama. More tornadoes may sweep in on Christmas Day, as well, from Texas to the Florida panhandle, according to Accuweather.

Amid fears that a tide of Euroscepticism could sweep London towards the exit, Wolfgang Schäuble urged Britain to avoid a referendum on EU membership that would create “uncertainty”. “I would wish for more British involvement in Europe, not less,” he said in an interview with German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. “We want to keep Britain in the EU and not push it out.”

However, Mr Schäuble cautioned that any attempt to “blackmail” Germany with threats of an exit would not be tolerated. “Our British friends are not dangerous, but a referendum would create uncertainty,” he added. The White House has also waded into the argument, warning that Britain’s position on the world stage could be significantly weakened by an exit.

Mr Schäuble renewed his call for an EU president that was “directly elected by the people, like in France and America”.

The philosophy behind Agenda 21 is that our environmental problems are the number one problem that we are facing, and that those problems are being caused by human activity. Therefore, according to Agenda 21 human activity needs to be tightly monitored, regulated and controlled for the greater good. Individual liberties and freedoms must be sacrificed for the good of the planet.

If you are thinking that this sounds like it is exactly the opposite of what our founding fathers intended when they established this nation, you would be on the right track. Those that promote the philosophy underlying Agenda 21 believe that human activity must be "managed" and that letting people make their own decisions is "destructive" and "dangerous". Sadly, the principles behind Agenda 21 are being rammed down the throats of local communities all over America, and most of the people living in those communities don't even realize it.

The Right Reverend Mark Davies will use his midnight Mass to say marriage can only be between a man and a woman. And he will accuse the Prime Minister of attempting to redefine the institution of marriage for ‘generations to come’ without any mandate from the electorate.

Most controversially, he will equate the support for same-sex marriage with the way totalitarian regimes acted in the twentieth century. The bishop will say that both Hitler and Stalin challenged Christianity with the notion that what they were doing was ‘progress’. He will argue that, in a similar fashion, the supporters of same-sex marriage also use the idea of ‘progress’ to support the ‘redefinition’ of marriage. The bishop will conclude: ‘The British people have reason to ask on this night where is such progress leading?’

And he will tell the faithful that a moment has arrived for them to ‘stand up for what is right and true as previous generations have done before us: to give witness to the value of every human life, to the truth of marriage as the lasting union of man and woman... the foundation of family.’

The bishop’s comments come despite the fact that polls repeatedly show the public is largely in favour of allowing gay marriage. Ruth Hunt, of gay rights group Stonewall, said: ‘Gay people are all too aware of the horrific results of Nazi ideology due to the countless casualties of the Holocaust. Bishop Davies’s comments are both deeply offensive to gay people and their families.’