The shift in the powerful US naval assets comes at a moment of heightened tensions with Iran, which has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz - the world's most important oil shipping lane - if US and EU sanctions over its nuclear program cut off its oil exports. The US military has said it will halt any blockade of the strategic strait and the top US naval officer acknowledged on Tuesday that preparing for a potential conflict there was something that "keeps me awake at night."

Still, the Pentagon denied any direct link between recent tensions and the movement of aircraft carriers. "I don't want to leave anybody with the impression that we're somehow (speeding) two carriers over there because we're concerned about what happened, you know, today in Iran. It's just not the case," said Captain John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman. Military officials said the USS Carl Vinson arrived in the Arabian Sea on Monday to replace the outgoing USS John C Stennis carrier strike group, which Iran last week warned not to return to the Gulf after departing in late December.

Another carrier strike group, led by the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, concluded a port visit to Thailand on Tuesday and was now in the Indian Ocean. It is on track to join the Vinson in the Central Command area of operations, which begins in the neighboring Arabian Sea. It is "not unusual to have two carriers in the CENTCOM theater at the same time," a second US military official said. Iran had warned the Stennis not to re-enter the Gulf and it is unclear when another US carrier will enter Gulf waters. The Pentagon has suggested only that, sooner or later, a carrier will pass through the Strait of Hormuz into the Gulf. "We routinely operate our ships - all of our ships, all of our types of ships - inside the Arabian Gulf and that will continue," Kirby said.

Monti, who arrived in Berlin to meet with German chancellor Angela Merkel said that his country's reforms did not receive the recognition that they deserved. He told German newspaper Die Welt: "Despite our sacrifices we do not experience any kind of concession by the EU, for example in the form of a cut in interest rates."

He warned Italians could turn hostile toward Europe and Germany if they do not see that the austerity measures they have accepted lead to any progress in the country's financial situation. Although Monti's government has adopted debt-cutting reforms, Italy's borrowing rates remain dangerously high. He added: "If the Italians do not see concrete rewards for their willingness to save and reform, there will be protests in Italy against Europe and also against Germany which is seen as ringleader of EU intolerance and against the European Central Bank,"

Italy is viewed as the most important country in the eurozone at the moment, in that if it falls there will be no recovery for Europe and it will bring down all other countries. The ECB will hold its monthly monetary policy meeting on Thursday, but analysts do not expect it to cut interest rates - which would help a weak economy like Italy's - nor signal a more aggressive stance in its bond purchases.

Hungary is currently facing the threat of legal action from the EU over its finances. The unprecedented warning by the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, came in response to the passage of a new constitution and a number of laws at the end of last year by the Hungarian PM Viktor Orban. The PM removed checks and balances on the government in areas like central banking, the judiciary and the media and has also failed to act to control the country's deficit.

Haaretz said that "The photo was featured in a packet prepared by the Military Rabbinate issued to Israel Defense Forces bases ahead of Hanukkah, under the section titled 'The Festival of Jewish Heroism,' which included an article and a quiz on the Jewish struggle against Hellenistic rule." IDF Spokesman's Office said in its response that the photo was meant to illustrate Jerusalem during the period of the Second Temple. "As was explained to the reporter, the Dome of the Rock did not exist at that time, so there was no need for it to appear in the picture," the IDF said.

The story was picked up by the Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Fatah websites - and by numerous other websites, both Muslim and non-Muslim. Jihadi websites presented it as proof that Israel has serious designs on the Al Aqsa mosque. "Tens of millions of easily excited Muslims will see the story and potentially be incited to violence," notes Elder of Zion.

But they will also be allowed to "temporarily deviate" from the rules "in case of an usual event" or in "periods of severe economic downturn." The role of the ECJ has also been weakened in the draft. Rather than having the power to judge if countries are breaking the rules, the ECJ will be restricted to receiving complaints from other member states and imposing deadlines for nations to get their budgets back in line. Open Europe argued that Germany had evidently "caved in" on its original demands, which could rattle markets.

The London-based think tank said: "From the eurozone's point of view, the draft may actually be worse news than the previous version, as the markets could judge the watering down of the enforcement mechanisms through the EU institutions as a weakness similar to those haunting the original Stability & Growth Pact." Uncertainty over the fiscal pact came amid continued fears over the crisis. European markets closed down after Fitch, the rating agency, warned that the European Central Bank (ECB) needed to step up its bond buying programme to avert a collapse in the euro.

Mats Persson, director of Open Europe, said: "This latest draft marks a provisional victory for Cameron and Clegg - the references to the single market are gone and the role of the EU institutions watered down. The fact that the changes line up closely with UK objectives suggests that the Government may have more allies than has often been portrayed." The draft has imposed a deadline of January 1, 2013 for the new fiscal rules to be adopted. An additional article appears to hold the door open to Britain and other "outs" to sign up too.

"What can Iran do with a nuclear weapon?" he asked rhetorically. "For example, will they hit Israel? How many Palestinians will die? And you think if Iran hits Israel, their cities will be safe? They will be gone the next day." The UAE, like Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, are dead-set against Shi'ite Muslim Iran's bold desire to head an Islamic empire, based on Sharia law, in every Muslim country.

The UAE probably would provide key bases and air space in the event of a Western or Israeli attack on Iran. It also is a prime target for Iran, which is separated from the UAE by only 50 miles via the Persian Gulf. Furthermore, several Gulf State islands are claimed by Iran. However, al Maktoum spoke in diplomatic language with CNN. "Iran is our neighbor," he said. "They are Muslim, and we lived next to each other for thousands and thousands of years. I don't believe that Iran will develop a nuclear weapon."

As a result of the ongoing economic crisis the Mafia is also cashing in with its traditional money-raising means of loan sharking - charging extortionate interest rates to hard-pressed businesses who are unable to raise funds. According to a report titled Criminality's Grip On Business, the various Mafia groups across Italy make a profit of around 116 billion pounds a year - a figure equivalent to seven per cent of the country's GDP.

It is a massive amount of money leaving the economy and passing from businesses straight into the pockets of gangsters.

The report said that 'every minute' a business or commercial activity was directly affected by organised crime - with no part of the country escaping, and with a surge of activity in the capital Rome. Marco Venturi, president of Confesercenti - an association of small and medium-sized companies, and publisher of the report - described the Mafia as 'the biggest bank in the country' with liquid assets of more than 50 billion pounds.

Mr Venturi added that, as a result of extortion and loan sharking, more than 190,000 businesses had been forced to shut in the past three years alone.

He explained that Rome was the prime city targeted by organised crime gangs, with the Sicilian Mafia, Naples Camorra, Calabrian N'drangheta and the Sacra Corona Unita from the Puglia region all having an active 'financial interest' in the capital city.

The deployment, which will only include five troops so far, comes after a report of a massacre was refuted by the United Nations, and also as South Sudan continues to accuse the Sudanese government of preventing it from shipping oil more efficiently. It also comes just days after President Obama announced his intention to sell weapons to the South Sudanese government's "People's Liberation Army" saying that the sales would be a key to "world peace."

South Sudan's independence from the north was finalized in July, and the indications from this week suggest they are well on their way to being a modern US client state, complete with massive internal unrest and US deployments of "advisors."

Two assailants on a motorcycle attached a magnetic bomb to the car of an Iranian university professor working at a key nuclear facility, killing him and wounding two people on Wednesday, a semiofficial news agency reported. The attack in Tehran bore a strong resemblance to earlier killings of scientists working on the Iranian nuclear program. It is certain to reinforce authorities' claims of widening clandestine operations by Western powers and allies to try to cripple nuclear advancements.

The bomb killed Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a chemistry expert and a director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported. Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said the country's nuclear path would not change despite the killing, which it branded a "heinous act". "Our path is irreversible," Arabic language al-Alam TV quoted an agency statement as saying.

Tehran has accused Israel's Mossad, the CIA and Britain's spy agency of engaging in an underground "terrorism" campaign against nuclear-related targets, including at least three slayings since early 2010 and the release of a malicious computer virus known at Stuxnet in 2010 that temporarily disrupted controls of some centrifuges - a key component in nuclear fuel production. All three countries have denied the Iranian accusations. But Israeli officials have hinted about covert campaigns against Iran without directly admitting involvement. On Tuesday, Israeli military chief Lieutenant General Benny Gantz was quoted as telling a parliamentary panel that 2012 would be a "critical year" for Iran - in part because of "things that happen to it unnaturally."

At least the backdrop to the heated exchange was glamorous. The venue for the mid-December conference, which was hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce, was the Hotel InterContinental in Athens. Poul Thomsen, wearing a purple tie, was standing on the floor of the ballroom. Thomsen, the International Monetary Fund's envoy for Greece, summarized the country's reform efforts to date in harsh terms. "Reforms are running behind schedule in most areas," he said. There was no longer even a pretense of hope. When Thomsen predicted that the economy would shrink in 2012, someone in the room shouted angrily: "Your troika is destroying us!"

Two years after the crisis began, the Greek tragedy is reaching a new climax. The economic data are distressing, the reforms are progressing very slowly, and now negotiations with private lenders on a voluntary writedown of Greek government bonds appear to be on the rocks.

The Greek economy was actually expected to shrink by only 3 percent in 2011. But according to current calculations the contraction was closer to 6 percent. Hopes that the economy will regain strength in 2012 will probably remain unfulfilled. Instead, it will most likely continue its downward slide - for the fifth year in a row. It is becoming more and more apparent that without general debt relief that includes all groups of creditors, from private banks to the European Central Bank (ECB), Greece will hardly be able to free itself from its predicament.

But the Greek government and the so-called troika, consisting of the European Union, the IMF and the ECB, are determined to stick to their current strategy. IMF envoy Thomsen plans to return to Athens next week, and he is already starting to ramp up the pressure. In light of the country's gloomy economic outlook, the troika wants to revise the benchmark figures for the restructuring program approved in October.

Nevertheless, even German politicians are slowly realizing that the current strategy is not sustainable. "It is quite possible that we will also have to write off some of the Greeks' debts," says Gerhard Schick, financial policy spokesman for the Green Party in the German parliament. "After all, it doesn't make sense to demand debt repayments that can never be made."

In Greece, where the crisis started over two years ago, the government is in a race against time to agree a bond-swap deal with banks that is crucial to a new 130 billion euro bailout package from European partners and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Without that package, Athens faces the threat of a debt default in March. But talks with the banks and investment funds that are being asked to accept 50 percent losses on their Greek bonds to help pay for the bailout have dragged on for weeks, sowing doubts about whether Athens can really deliver.

"The risk of a disorderly Greek default is once again on the rise, with the threat of contagion to Italy and others," economists at Barclays Capital said last week. Compounding the challenge, both Greece and France face elections within months that could complicate decision-making at the national level in two key states and thwart the broader bloc's ability to act swiftly at a time when pressure is high to bed down agreements sealed at an EU summit last month. A key element of the summit package was a deal to funnel 200 billion euros to the IMF, money that could be used to offer precautionary credit programs to Italy and possibly Spain.

The Greek election, expected by the end of March, seems unlikely to produce an outright winner, meaning coalition talks could drag out and prolong uncertainty. In France, polls suggest there is a good chance President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has steered Europe's crisis response along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, could be pushed out of office by his Socialist challenger Francois Hollande.

A cut in France's triple-A credit rating in the weeks ahead could also upset the delicate Franco-German balance, although some economists believe it could force the French to accept more far-reaching fiscal reforms, regardless of who wins the two-round election in April and May. "It won't be Merkozy anymore. It will be Angela Merkel and (IMF chief) Christine Lagarde dictating policy in Europe," said French economist Jacques Delpla.

Peter Ludlow, president of the European Strategy Forum think tank, said Germany and France are confident they will secure a deal to save the long term future of the euro by the end of this month. That would mean tougher financial rules for members of the eurozone and the use of existing EU institutions to enforce them, a move Mr Cameron has indicated is a step too far.

However, veteran EU analyst Mr Ludlow said one "very senior member" of the European Council had told him that if Britain were to try to block the deal it would be "tantamount to a declaration of war".

He said: "If Cameron is stupid enough to try and block the use of the institutions it would be a very, very dramatic development which could only have grave consequences in terms of Britain's own interests. It would be his nuclear weapon and that's why all the messages I get from various people give the impression he will not do that."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy want a new "fiscal compact" that commits countries to running a balanced budget. They want the rules enshrined in EU law so that sanctions can be levied on any member breaching them. That would mean a bigger role for the European Court of Justice and un-elected European Commission, which would also have a larger say on the single market, not just matters relating to the euro.

Mr Cameron said on Friday he would be against such a development but Mr Ludlow, who lectures around the world on EU affairs, told the Sunday Express: "The Germans and the French are absolutely serious. They are confident they can get the political agreement on this treaty by the end of this month and they will go ahead. I don't think for a moment that Britain will join this scheme within 50 years, let alone five. However, I don't think there is much that Cameron can do."

"I don't think there is any intention of the Germans or French or anyone else of pushing Britain out of the EU but there is nevertheless a realistic assessment that the British may edge themselves out or at least redefine their position in such a basic way that they are to all intents and purposes in another category of membership."

Speaking to FNA, Tehran's Ambassador to Moscow Seyed Reza Sajjadi said that the proposal for replacing US Dollar with Ruble and Rial was raised by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Astana on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting.

"Since then, we have acted on this basis and a part of our interactions is done in Ruble now," Sajjadi stated, adding that many Iranian traders are using Ruble for their trade deals. "There is a similar interest in the Russian side," the envoy stated, adding that Moscow is against unilateral sanctions on Iran outside the UN Security Council, specially the recent sanctions against Iran's Central Bank (CBI).

"The move (imposing sanctions on the CBI) is unacceptable. Russians have clearly announced that they will not accept these sanctions and Iran's nuclear issue is resolvable just through negotiations." Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hit back at the US after Washington introduced new sanctions against Iran's central bank. President Ahmadinejad told an annual meeting of senior central bank officials that Iran's central bank would respond with "force" to the new US sanctions intended to pressure Tehran to abandon its nuclear program.

He said the bank was strong enough to defeat "enemy plans". During the last two years, Iran has been replacing the dollar with other currencies in its trade with the outside world. Iran has replaced the dollar in its oil trade with India, China and Japan. Late in November, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued the needed permission to the Central Bank of Iran to open rupee accounts with two Indian banks, namely UCO and IDBI, as a long-lasting solution to the two countries' payment problems.

What Could Go Wrong?

Looking behind the headlines:

- The people pushing for war against Iran are the same neocons who pushed for war against Iraq.

- China and Russia have warned that attacking Iran could lead to World War III.

- War against Iran was planned at least 20 years ago.

- The US has been claiming for more than 30 years that Iran was on the verge of nuclear capability (and the US apparently helped fund the Iranian nuclear program.)

- The sinking of the USS Maine, the Gulf of Tonkin incident, and other justifications for past wars have turned out to be false. Similarly, a number of high-level intelligence officials and politicians have said that the US would fake a provocation and blame it on Iran as a casus belli. For example, Ron Paul has warned of a "Gulf of Tonkin type incident" in Iran, and Pulitzer-prize winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh says many ideas have been proposed for provoking a war, including building boats that look like Iranian boats, and then putting Navy Seals on them to "start a shoot-up"

- The CIA admits that it hired Iranians in the 1950's to pose as Communists and stage bombings in Iran in order to turn the country against its democratically-elected prime minister. Pulitzer-prize winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh says that the Bush administration (and especially Dick Cheney) helped to fund terrorist groups within Iran. And the New York Times, Washington Post and others are reporting, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, former national security adviser Fran Townsend and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey - who all said that the terrorists were going to get us if we didn't jettison the liberties granted under the Bill of Rights - are now supporting terrorists in Iran.

- Endless war is bankrupting America and harming our national security.

- The war against Iran has already begun.

What could possibly go wrong?

Last November, a Syrian news agency reported that Russian warships were planned to arrive at Syrian territorial waters, indicating that the move represented a clear message to the West that Moscow would resist any foreign intervention in the country's civil unrest.

Citing the official Syrian news agency SANA on Sunday, AFP reported that a large Russian naval flotilla, led by an aircraft carrier, is making a six-day port call to Tartus. SANA also quoted a Russian naval officer as saying that the visit was "aimed at bringing the two countries closer together and strengthening their ties of friendship."

"The commanders of the Russian naval vessels docked in Tartus took turns to express their solidarity with the Syrian people," SANA added. The Russian visit came as the Arab League ruled out considering a withdrawal of its widely criticized peace observers from Syria, ahead of a meeting in Cairo to assess the performance of the mission.