Those on interest-only mortgages, who do not pay back any of the value of the property but must clear it in full at the end of the term, could be worst hit. An estimated 1.5 million such loans, worth 120 billion pounds, will become due for repayment over the next 10 years, which could hit lenders and homeowners.

Although customers usually need to show they will be able to repay the money once the mortgage has finished, lenders were less strict about this during the boom years of 2002 to 2007. By 2007, a third of all mortgages were interest only, but 75 per cent of these had no reported repayment vehicle at all, meaning the customers did not have to prove they could pay back the loan

Today the regulator publishes the Mortgage Market Review, aimed at shaking up the lending market to try to prevent a return of irresponsible lending and to stop borrower "nightmares" where people face losing their homes because they were granted loans that will be unaffordable when rates go up. It estimated that up to 15 per cent of people who took out mortgages between 2005 and 2010 could now be in negative equity, with many others "trapped" into paying a high interest rate by their current lender because they were unable to go elsewhere. The Bank of England recently found that 15.5 per cent of people with a mortgage were constantly struggling with repayments or falling behind

He added, "A (nuclear) disaster befalling one of us would affect us all." The Sunni Muslim kingdom last summer said it would build 16 nuclear reactors for energy, but Faisal's remarks were the first indication, at least in public, that Saudi Arabia may acquire nuclear weapons. Israel has maintained a policy of "nuclear ambiguity," meaning it does not confirm or deny assumptions that it has nuclear weapons, perhaps as many as several hundred.

However, Saudi Arabia's biggest worry is Iran, run by a Shi'ite Muslim regime that openly says it wants to head a new Islamic empire in the Middle East. The Islamic Republic is on a collision course with the West - and Shi'ite Muslim Arab countries - as it proceeds towards the capability of both manufacturing and delivering a nuclear weapon. Saudi Arabia focused on peaceful use of nuclear energy at the energy conference in the oil-rich monarchy. "Once our nuclear project is complete and we have satisfied the kingdom's demand for electricity," Saudi Arabia plans to export electricity, said Khalid Al-Sulaiman, vice president of renewable energy at King Abdullah City.

As the world looks for alternative energy sources, Saudi Arabia, which produces 20 percent of the world's crude oil, is looking to a future of not being dependent on oil to keep its economy strong.

On Thursday, the British Daily Mail newspaper said that an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities could come as soon as December 25, the day the Christian world celebrates Christmas. The paper quoted a senior Foreign Office official as saying that "'We're expecting something as early as Christmas, or very early in the new year." Israel, the official said, would not wait for Western approval for such an attack, if it felt that Iran was truly at the point of no return.

The officials said that the US would most likely support Israel, given that President Barack Obama is desperate not to lose Jewish support in next year's presidential election. Reports last week said that the US was gearing up its own plans to militarily halt Iran's nuclear program, and that Britain was cooperating. The Foreign Office official did not confirm that report in his remarks Thursday, but did say that "of course we are not in favor of Iran developing a bomb." With that, he said, Britain did not believe that Iran would use a bomb, even if they did develop a one. "The bigger concern is it will be impossible to stop Saudi Arabia and Turkey from developing their own weapons," the source added.

Considering that Iran does not celebrate Christmas, however, it was unclear why that date would be preferred by Israel for an attack against the Shi'ite Muslim country, and the Daily Mail story did not address this point.

The Korea Times quoted an unnamed source as saying that the scientists and missile engineers are working at the Natanz and Qom sites, among others. Iran is operating a uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. Despite Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's denials, Israel and Western powers assume the objective of the enrichment plant is to use the uranium to build a nuclear weapon, while engineers try to build a missile capable of delivering it.

North Korea has an enrichment plant in its own country and has conducted nuclear tests. Both it and Iran are under United Nations sanctions for not cooperating with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors. "The source with access to intelligence on the years-long weapons collaboration between Pyongyang and Tehran said the North Koreans are visiting Iran via third countries and many of them are being rotated every three to six months." the newspaper reported.

"The North Korean experts are from the country's so-called Room 99, which is directly supervised by the North's ruling Workers' Party Munitions Industry Department," it added. "The room, which can be translated as office or bureau, is widely believed to be engaged in exports of weapons and military technology."

While David Cameron and George Osborne have been careful not to say openly that they believe the euro is past rescue, Mr Johnson and other senior Tory politicians yesterday began for the first time to discuss publicly the likelihood of a euro collapse. 'I would be amazed if we were all sitting here next year and the euro had not undergone some sort of change,' said the London Mayor. 'I think it highly likely that there will be a realignment in the sense that some countries will fall out... and we all know who the likely candidates are. Ouzo will be substantially cheaper.'

'But there is such phobia about this and such a lot of political ego has been invested in the success of the euro project that people are failing to see that might be the best way forward.' Mr Johnson told BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show: 'If we continually go on with these hysterical attempts to bubblegum the whole thing together we are just going to consign those periphery economies particularly to low growth and we are never going to get confidence back in the eurozone.' Yesterday a leading Conservative peer warned that Britons living on the Continent could be left stranded and 'destitute' if the eurozone breaks up.

Dame Pauline Neville-Jones said banks would close their doors meaning Britons could be left unable to withdraw money to live on.

She spoke as it emerged that officials are drawing up plans to evacuate British expats and to give them emergency loans in the event of a breakdown of the system. Warning of the risk of collapse, Dame Neville-Jones said: 'Spain is clearly a vulnerable area. If that happens, one of the things that will happen in a crash of that kind is that the banks would close their doors.'

Observers also fear a behind-the-scenes power struggle, or nuclear instability, between the country's military and politicians - despite the announcement his third son Kim Jong Un is to be his successor. Rod Lyon, a Korea expert at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra, said: 'The reason people are watching closely is not because we expect the North to strike out, it's because events within North Korea could have unsettling ramifications.'

'If there's a contested succession, it means there's a struggle over things like who controls North Korea's plutonium, not just who controls North Korea's army.' The other key regional player is China, the closest North Korea has to a major ally and which has a sometimes testy relationship with the United States. Cai Jian, a Korea expert at Shanghai's Fudan University, said: 'China's biggest worry will be over North Korea's stability, and China's aim will be to ensure the country remains stable.'

Figures suggest European Union officials expect British taxpayers to be the second largest contributor. The Prime Minister has repeatedly promised not to provide any extra funding for the IMF for the specific purpose of saving the euro and Britain is already liable for 12 billion pounds of loans and guarantees to Ireland, Greece and Portugal. Earlier this month, EU countries set today as the deadline to raise up to 200 billion euros in new loans for the IMF to deal with the eurozone crisis. Finance ministers will hold a conference call in an attempt to reach agreement on the war chest.

An EU official said Britain was still expected to contribute 30.9 billion euros (25.9 billion pounds), leaving the country as the second biggest contributor to the new IMF fund behind Germany and equal with France. Any suggestion that Britain will pay more towards the bailing out debt-ridden eurozone economies will cause anger among Tory Euro-sceptics, particularly if the eurozone nations do not pay their fair share. Douglas Carswell, the Conservative MP for Clacton, said: "George Osborne has spent 20 months going along with the bail-out and borrow consensus. It has cost this country billions of pounds in liabilities which dwarf all the austerity measures. He needs to call a halt now."

Mr Carswell called for eurozone countries to be allowed an "orderly default" on their debts. Peter Bone, the Tory MP for Wellingborough, urged the Chancellor to stand up for the British "national interest", even if he is as isolated in today's meeting as Mr Cameron was earlier this month in Brussels. Ten days after Mr Cameron deployed his veto in Brussels, the eurozone crisis appeared no closer to resolution.

Nick de Bois, Conservative MP for Enfield North, comments: "The figures revealed in the Daily Express today are a wake-up call for local councils. That the sum of 27 million pounds was spent by local authorities in the past two years on translations is staggering. People in Britain will rightly argue that, in times of austerity, this is one cut we can all agree on. However, I would argue that even if we were not living in tough economic times, the use of taxpayers' money in this way is very questionable indeed."

"Let's be absolutely clear - there is no legal requirement on local councils to provide translation services. There are, in fact, guidelines recently issued by the Department for Communities and Local Government which encourage local authorities to think long and hard before offering translation services. Take as an example my own local council in the London Borough of Enfield. Residents have recently had to fight a campaign against a threat to services at the much-used Ordnance Road Library, which is located in one of the more deprived parts of my constituency."

"It costs 220,000 pounds a year to run and is a learning resource used by residents and schools alike. The fact that library services could be under threat when last year the council spent 350,000 pounds on translation services speaks volumes. This is not what residents want and it is not what is good for our country. I say that because I want to make a wider point here. I'm all in favour of having people come to this country who want to make a better life for themselves and their families and contribute to society."

"To achieve this, learning the language is crucial. Without it, at best, your job opportunities are restricted and it's far more difficult to realise your potential. At worst, you can't integrate into society. What all areas of Government - from Whitehall to town halls - need to ensure is that policies are geared towards encouraging people to learn English, not allowing people to get by without doing so."

Is Iran in possession of satellite jamming technology? A European intelligence source claimed Iran stunned Western intelligence agencies when it managed to "blind a CIA spy satellite by aiming a laser burst quite accurately," in a never before reported incident. According to an article in The Christian Science Monitor, this unreported incident might suggest that the Iranians have successively gained access to jamming technology, allowing them to track unmanned aerial vehicle navigation capabilities.

Former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton told Fox News on Sunday that such an option is possible. "Some reports have said Russia sold (Iran) a very sophisticated jamming system a short time ago. Now, our military says that is not true, it came down because of a malfunction. I certainly hope that's right because if the Russians have provided Iran with sophisticated jamming equipment it means a lot else is at risk too," said Bolton.

He added that Congress should be quite concerned if Iran is in possession of jamming technology that can bring down missiles, planes and communications and guidance systems "for a whole range of our weapon systems." Google CEO Eric Schmidt asserted that Iran has been developing cyber warfare which might endanger the US in the future. "The Iranians are unusually talented in cyber war for some reason we don't fully understand," Schmidt said in an interview with CNN on Thursday.

Last night the MoD denied this was a response to a "new threat alert". A spokesman said: "This is still a police-led operation and we are providing no more in terms of security than what had been originally planned." However, a security consultant, who made a comprehensive risk assessment of the London site last month, said: "We are extremely aware of the issue of missing missiles from Libya."

More than 10,000 shoulder-mounted missiles are still unaccounted for after the chaos that led to the toppling of Gaddafi in October. Egyptian authorities have already captured five groups of smugglers taking Libyan weapons toward the border with Israel. Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said security for the Games will include 13,500 soldiers who will be supported by armed plainclothes special forces and snipers.

More important is the placing of HMS Ocean on the Thames at Greenwich. Ocean will carry a contingent of Royal Marines and special forces and support sniper-carrying Lynx helicopters. It is fitted with Siren, which uses a variety of jamming techniques against missiles.

He suffered a stroke in 2008 and was absent from public view for months. Pyongyang described his son Kim Jong-un as the "great successor" and urged North Koreans to unite behind him. "All party members, military men and the public should faithfully follow the leadership of comrade Kim Jong-un and protect and further strengthen the unified front of the party, military and the public," North Korea's state-run news agency, KCNA, said.

Lucy Williamson, BBC News, Seoul, reports: Kim Jong-il's death leaves a hole in the communist state that is difficult for outsiders to understand. As only the country's second leader and the son of its founder, Kim Jong-il was more than just a national figurehead. State propaganda elevated him to a demi-god, credited with superhuman powers of wisdom, leadership and military prowess. Now that focus has moved to his younger son, Kim Jong-un. He has been publicly positioned as his father's successor for just over a year. But this is perhaps the toughest test of North Korea's stability.

If we do not educate the American people about how deathly ill the US economy has become, then they will just keep falling for the same old lies that our politicians keep telling them. Just "tweaking" things here and there is not going to fix this economy. We truly do need a fundamental change in direction. America is consuming far more wealth than it is producing and our debt is absolutely exploding. If we stay on this current path, an economic collapse is inevitable. Hopefully the crazy economic numbers from 2011 that I have included in this article will be shocking enough to wake some people up.

At this time of the year, a lot of families get together, and in most homes the conversation usually gets around to politics at some point. Hopefully many of you will use the list below as a tool to help you share the reality of the US economic crisis with your family and friends. If we all work together, hopefully we can get millions of people to wake up and realize that "business as usual" will result in a national economic apocalypse.

The following are 50 economic numbers from 2011 that are almost too crazy to believe....

#1 A staggering 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty.

#2 Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be "low income" or impoverished.

#3 If the number of Americans that "wanted jobs" was the same today as it was back in 2007, the "official" unemployment rate put out by the US government would be up to 11 percent.

#4 The average amount of time that a worker stays unemployed in the United States is now over 40 weeks.

#5 One recent survey found that 77 percent of all US small businesses do not plan to hire any more workers.

See full list - http://www.blacklistednews.com/50_Economic_Numbers_From_2011_That_Are_Almost_Too_Crazy_To_Believe/17054/0/38/38/Y/M.html

Of course the heart of our economic problems is the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve is a perpetual debt machine, it has almost completely destroyed the value of the US dollar and it has an absolutely nightmarish track record of incompetence. If the Federal Reserve system had never been created, the US economy would be in far better shape. The federal government needs to shut down the Federal Reserve and start issuing currency that is not debt-based. That would be a very significant step toward restoring prosperity to America.

During 2011 we made a lot of progress in educating the American people about our economic problems, but we still have a long way to go. Hopefully next year more Americans than ever will wake up, because 2012 is going to represent a huge turning point for this country.

Officials said many bodies remained unclaimed, suggesting entire families had been swept away. The flash floods were triggered by a tropical storm that coincided with high tides, trapping many in their homes. The major ports of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan were among the areas worst hit on Friday night. Almost 35,000 people were still sheltering in evacuation centres on Sunday, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said.

The Philippine National Red Cross puts the current death toll at 521 with about 370 people reported missing. Red Cross Secretary General Gwendolyn Pang said at least 239 people had died in Cagayan de Oro and 195 in nearby Iligan. The rest died in several other southern and central provinces, she added. Many of the bodies were unclaimed after nearly 24 hours, she said, suggesting that entire families had died.

"The affected area is so wide and huge and I believe they have not really gone to all areas to do a search," she said. "This thing happened so fast, it was very overwhelming." The navy joined the search for those who had been swept out to sea. About 60 people were reported to have been plucked from the ocean off El Salvador city, about six miles (10km) north-west of Cagayan de Oro.

The message laments that "some currents of modern culture, built upon rationalist and individualist economic principles, have cut off the concept of justice from its transcendent roots, detaching it from charity and solidarity." Authentic education, Benedict writes, teaches the proper use of freedom with "respect for oneself and others, including those whose way of being and living differs greatly from one's own."

Peace-making requires education not only in the values of compassion and solidarity, but in the importance of wealth redistribution, the "promotion of growth, cooperation for development and conflict resolution," Benedict writes. The pope also calls on political leaders to "ensure that no one is ever denied access to education."

The message was presented on Friday by officials of the Vatican's Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace. The same body published a controversial document in October blaming the world's economic and financial crisis on an "economic liberalism that spurns rules and controls," and calling for global regulation of the financial industry and the international money supply.

Number 10 said Mr Clegg was "absolutely right", and remarks from the French were "not helpful in any way." Meanwhile, UK officials are to join continuing eurozone talks despite Prime Minister David Cameron's veto of an EU-wide treaty change involving all states. Mr Baroin's comments came after the chairman of the French central bank, Christian Noyer, suggested on Thursday that Britain was a candidate for a downgrade ahead of France, amid fears in Paris that France might lose its triple-A rating.

The French prime minister, Mr Fillon, raised similar concerns during a visit to Brazil. "When I look at our British friends, who are even more indebted than us and carrying a bigger deficit, what I see is that the ratings agencies so far don't seem to have noticed," he said on Thursday.

Andrew Tyrie, Conservative MP and chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, said the remarks by senior French figures were "a reflection of the great nervousness around". "We have been watching the slow-motion train crash about to happen for some time," he told BBC Radio 4's World at One. "The plain fact is we have all got an interest in seeing an orderly resolution in all this. Trying to distract attention to other countries' problems is not going to help anyone."