The goal of greater union is embedded in the 1981 Gulf Cooperation Council charter, but became a point of serious discussion as the so-called Arab Spring has continued to reshape regional geopolitics. The six-member GCC, holding its highest-level meeting since a wave of protests swept the Arab world this year, pledged closer military and security integration in a final statement read out on Saudi state television.

They agreed on "adopting King Abdullah's suggestion of moving from cooperation to unity that would support our people overcome the challenges faced by the GCC," the statement said. Earlier this year the GCC members - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE - began serious discussions aimed at forming a unified diplomatic and security confederation.

They also moved to expand the union earlier this year - opening talks with Jordan and Morocco - hoping to include all eight Sunni Arab monarchies. Abdullah's call to create an Arab super-state comes only one day after GCC officials revealed they want to include Egypt in the alliance. Saudi Arabia has long accused Iran of expansionist ambition and suspects Tehran of attempting to develop a nuclear bomb.

Dock workers became suspicious after finding explosives poorly stored on open pallets, and the missiles were then found in containers marked "fireworks". The managing director of the ship's owner, Thorco Shipping, expressed surprise. Thomas Mikkelsen told AFP news agency from Denmark that he was unaware of the matter.

Another company official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the ship had been detained in Finland and said the missiles could have been loaded on to the vessel by mistake, AFP adds. Police did not confirm Finnish media reports that the ship had also been scheduled to stop in South Korea, Reuters news agency reports.

The MS Thor Liberty left port in Emden, northern Germany, on 13 December and docked two days later in Kotka, southern Finland, to pick up a cargo of anchor chains, said Finnish Customs spokesman Petri Lounatmaa. It was bound for the Chinese port of Shanghai but there was no indication for whom the military cargo was destined.

Routine checks by Finland's traffic safety authority revealed a load of up to 160 tonnes of improperly packed nitroguanidine, a low-sensitivity explosive with a high detonation speed. "Actually in our investigation at the moment, we have got the information that we found 69 Patriot missiles on the ship and around 160 tonnes of explosives," said Detective Superintendent Timo Virtanen from the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation.

"This is where terrorism starts, in the education system." Ali Al-Ahmed, director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs, told Fox News. Al-Ahmed, a Saudi national, said the textbooks, made and paid for by the Saudi government, were smuggled out of the kingdom through confidential sources.

In a textbook for 10th-graders, printed for the 2010-2011 academic year, al-Ahmed said teenagers are taught barbaric practices. "They show students how to cut (the) hand and the feet of a thief," he said. In another textbook, for ninth-graders, the students are taught the annihilation of the Jewish people is imperative. One text reads in part: "The hour (of judgment) will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them... There is a Jew behind me come and kill him."

According to the textbook translations provided to Fox News, women are described as weak and irresponsible. And al-Ahmed said the textbooks call for homosexuals to be put to death "because they pose a danger at society, as the Saudi school books teaches." Al-Ahmed says the textbooks are both a Saudi and an American problem. "If you teach six million children in these important years of their lives, if you install that in their brain, no wonder we have so many Saudi suicide bombers."

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, there was an intense focus on Saudi Arabia and its educational teachings because almost all of the attackers were from the kingdom. In 2006, Saudi Ambassador to the US Prince Turki al-Faisal told the Chicago Council on Foreign Relationships that the Saudi king was determined to eradicate this ideology of hate.

"In Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah recognizes that above all else education is the key, and he has put forth a program of reforms in this area," al-Faisal said. "In recent years, the kingdom has reviewed all of its education practices and materials and has removed any element that is inconsistent with the needs of a modern education. Not only have we eliminated what is objectionable from old textbooks that were in our system, we have also implemented a comprehensive internal revision and modernization plan."

But the new textbooks, most from the 2010-2011 academic year, show the hateful speech remains.

Nestled amid plains so flat the locals joke you can watch your dog run away for miles, Fargo treasures its placid lifestyle, seldom pierced by the mayhem and violence common in other urban communities. North Dakota's largest city has averaged fewer than two homicides a year since 2005, and there's not been a single international terrorism prosecution in the last decade. But that hasn't stopped authorities in Fargo and its surrounding county from going on an $8 million buying spree to arm police officers with the sort of gear once reserved only for soldiers fighting foreign wars.

Every city squad car is equipped today with a military-style assault rifle, and officers can don Kevlar helmets able to withstand incoming fire from battlefield-grade ammunition. And for that epic confrontation - if it ever occurs - officers can now summon a new $256,643 armored truck, complete with a rotating turret. For now, though, the menacing truck is used mostly for training and appearances at the annual city picnic, where it's been parked near the children's bounce house.

"Most people are so fascinated by it, because nothing happens here," says Carol Archbold, a Fargo resident and criminal justice professor at North Dakota State University. "There's no terrorism here." Like Fargo, thousands of other local police departments nationwide have been amassing stockpiles of military-style equipment in the name of homeland security, aided by more than $34 billion in federal grants since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a Daily Beast investigation conducted by the Center for Investigative Reporting has found.

Mexico's tourism agency expects to draw 52 million visitors by next year only to the regions of Chiapas, Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Campeche. All of Mexico usually lures about 22 million foreigners in a year. It's selling the date, the Winter Solstice in the coming year, as a time of renewal. Many archeologists argue that the 2012 reference on a 1,300-year-old stone tablet only marks the end of a cycle in the Mayan calendar.

"The world will not end. It is an era," said Yeanet Zaldo, a tourism spokeswoman for the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo, home to Cancun. "For us, it is a message of hope." Cities and towns in the Mayan region on Wednesday will start the yearlong countdown. In Chiapas the town of Tapachula on the Guatemalan border will start a countdown on an 8-foot digital clock in the main park exactly a year before the mysterious date.

In the nearby archaeological site of Izapa, Maya priests will burn incense, chant and offer prayers.

In the tropical jungle of Quintana Roo, between the resorts of Cancun and Playa del Carmen, people are putting messages and photos in a time capsule that will be buried for 50 years. Maya priests and Indian dancers will perform a ritual at the time capsule ceremony.

The Maya reputation for wisdom has people taking the alleged prediction seriously. The Mayan civilization, which reached its height from 300 AD to 900 AD, had a talent for astronomy. Its Long Count calendar begins in 3,114 BC, marking time in roughly 394-year periods known as Baktuns. Thirteen was a significant, sacred number for the Mayas, and they wrote that the 13th Baktun ends on December 21, 2012. The doomsday theories stem from a stone tablet discovered in the 1960s at the archaeological site of Tortuguero in the Gulf of Mexico state of Tabasco that describes the return of a Mayan god at the end of a 13th period.

For some reason, Gronemeyer says, people have ignored evidence that dates beyond 2012 were recorded.

Lord West, the former the former First Sea Lord, said Britain should also undertake military exercises in response to the "aggressive" decision by the Mercosur bloc to close ports to ships flying the "illegal" flag. The Foreign Office also condemned the decision by the bloc, which includes Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, as tensions over the long-disputed territory erupted into the open on Wednesday.

Ministers warned Argentina that "no one should be in any doubt about the British Government's commitment to support" the area, which involves a vast swathe of potentially mineral-rich South Atlantic waters. Ambassadors throughout the region were ordered to raise the issue as a "matter of urgency" as anger mounted over the unjust decision to "intimidate the people of the Falkland Islands".

The South Atlantic islands are a powerful Argentine national symbol and the government often reiterates its sovereignty claim over the South Atlantic archipelago since the brief, but bloody war, in 1982. Britain has repeatedly said that its sovereignty over the three groups of islands, whose inhabitants are overwhelmingly of British descent, is not up for negotiation.

Central bankers tend to be diplomatic and cautious in their public statements, so the dramatic wording the European Central Bank (ECB) used this week to warn about an escalation of the euro crisis was indeed striking. Tensions in the financial markets had "intensified to take on systemic crisis proportions not witnessed since the collapse of Lehman Brothers three years ago," the ECB warned in its latest report issued on Monday.

ECB President Mario Draghi told a committee of the European Parliament that Europe's banks faced major dangers in the coming months. "The pressure that bond markets will be experiencing is really very, very significant if not unprecedented," Draghi said. It will be a tough year for banks. In 2012 overall they will have to pay back 725 billion euros ($953 billion) in debt, of which 280 billion euros will fall due in the first quarter alone. They will have to borrow fresh money to service this debt, but it's almost impossible for them to raise that money in the private market. Most of them have large holdings of European government bonds on their balance sheets, so they don't have the mutual trust necessary to lend each other large sums of money.

"The interbank market is pretty shut," said Dieter Hein, a finance expert at Fairesearch, an independent research company for institutional investors, banks and brokers. "Virtually no one outside is lending any money to euro-zone banks any more." That's why the ECB has become the lendor of last resort for many banks. Ever since the start of the 2008 financial crisis it has kept on supplying the banking sector with fresh cash, for up to one year in some cases. On Wednesday, it launched the biggest lending operation in its history, and banks responded by borrowing 489 billion euros in the ECB's first ever offering of three-year funding - at an interest rate of just one percent initially.

But critics are sounding the alarm. They say that by bailing out the banks, the ECB is financing governments through the back door. Bill Gross, head of the world's biggest bond investor Pimco, said Europe was simply shifting funds from one hand to the other.

Hugo Beck, economics professor at Pforzheim University in Germany, said the flood of money would eventually stoke inflation. "The ECB is hurling gigantic amounts of liquidity into the market," he said. "It can't control that, it's playing with fire."

Last night there were fears the decision could lead to a wave of copycat legal-aid funded appeals by prisoners convicted by juries that included a serving police officer. Police have been allowed to sit on juries in England and Wales since 2004 when the then Labour Home Secretary David Blunkett controversially relaxed the rules, despite warnings from the Police Federation that it would prove "unworkable".

Former Tory Shadow Home Secretary David Davis last night said there was serious doubt over whether police officers should continue to sit on juries. He added: "I thought it was only in America that convictions were overruled on ridiculous technicalities, but thanks to Europe we are now seeing this happen in the UK too. I would think that no policeman or woman could ever again sit on a UK jury again following this decision - the risks are simply too great. You also have to wonder where this will ever stop. This is not some minor decision that has been made, it is very important and greatly affects how we run our justice system."

In a landmark report, Sir Denis O'Connor, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, also said police should be prepared to use plastic bullets and water cannon to tackle rioters who use weapons such as petrol bombs and rocks to attack emergency services.

Sir Denis said: "If we don't raise some of these awkward issues, then we're not giving people the chance to prepare for a future where we're slightly more assured as to what will happen."

"Some new rules of engagement are necessary so the police can protect the public in confidence. People were burned out of their houses. We can all remember the woman leaping from the burning building in Croydon."

The recommendations were made in a far-reaching report on the handling of rioting in London and several other major cities in August.

Over 500 banks raced to borrow from the scheme, which was far beyond market expectations. The euro rose sharply on the news, but then fell back later. When the plan was announced, French President Nicholas Sarkozy said banks could use the money to invest in eurozone sovereign debt. However, analysts were uncertain if banks will use the money in this way.

"The very heavy take-up of the ECB's three-year, long-term refinancing operation provides some encouragement that banks' liquidity needs are being amply met," said Jonathan Loynes at Capital Economics. "But while this might help to address recent signs of renewed tensions in credit markets and support bank lending, we remain sceptical of the idea that the operation will ease the sovereign debt crisis too as banks use the funds to purchase large volumes of peripheral government bonds."

This was the European Central Bank's first offer of three-year loans and was the largest amount of money the central bank has injected into the financial system, beating the 450 billion euros it put in with its 2009 one-year loans offer. Although the offer was seen as a success, its impact on the eurozone economy is still uncertain.

Although the ECB has ruled out lending directly to countries, banks taking the three-year loans at 1% are being encouraged to invest in sovereign debt at 6% to 7%. This not only provides a lucrative return for the banks, but increases demand for sovereign debt, helping countries such as Italy and Spain that need to raise money.

Dempsey, speaking to CNN during a worldwide tour, spoke one day after Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta warned that the American government will not allow Iran to produce a nuclear weapon. He said that if Iran continues to enrich high-grade uranium, it could produce a nuclear weapon within a year, an estimate formerly given by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

"My biggest worry is they [Iran] will miscalculate our resolve," Dempsey said in Afghanistan. "Any miscalculation could mean that we are drawn into conflict, and that would be a tragedy for the region and the world." Besides repeating the often-used phrase" all options are on the table," General Dempsey went one step further and declared, "I am satisfied that the options that we are developing are evolving to a point that they would be executable if necessary."

It was the most blatant warning made regarding Iran's growing nuclear threat.

Yields on Spain's three-month notes plummeted to 1.74% on Tuesday from 5.11% last month, leading euphoric moves across the eurozone periphery. Spanish 10-year yields fell below 5% for the first time in two months, with credit rallies in Italy, Belgium, and Ireland. Exuberance lifted Germany's DAX index by 3%, the French CAC by 2.7%, and FTSE 100 by 1%, with ripple effects through commodities and risky assets worldwide.

The buying spree comes as markets wait for the ECB to turn on the monetary spigot. Funds are betting that an offer of unlimited bank credit for three years - long-term repo operations (LTROs) - will transform the underlying dynamic of Europe's debt crisis. Banks will be able to borrow at 1% to buy Spanish and Italian bonds at 5% or 6%. It allows the ECB to prop up sovereign states without violating EU treaty law.

Lenders call it the "Sarko trade" after French leader Nicolas Sarkozy said the liquidity will allow each state to "turn to its banks" for finance. Markets have seized on the idea, hoovering up distressed debt in advance to lock in gains. The ECB move is part of a string of fresh measures by the bank's new president Mario Draghi to head off a dangerous escalation of the crisis. "We are trying to avoid a credit crunch," he told Euro MPs on Monday, warning that EMU banks and states must together to raise 720 billion euros (602 billion pounds) over the first quarter of 2012.

"Draghi's been smart," said Simon Ward, of Henderson Global Investors. "The spread available to banks is going to prove attractive. He has outmanoeuvred the Bundesbank by drawing it in deeper." Yet it is unclear whether liquidity alone can stop investor flight from Club Med. European banks have already cut holdings of EMU bonds by 65 billion euros this year, and are slashing loan books to meet the EU's core Tier 1 capital ratio of 9%. The Basel-based Global Stability Board fears that deleveraging could reach 2.5 trillion euros over coming months, risking a shock to the system.

Although the Obama administration has not publicly threatened to retaliate with military force, the allegations have underscored the real and growing risk that the two sides could go to war sometime soon - particularly over Iran's advancing nuclear program. For several years now, starting long before this episode, American pundits and policymakers have been debating whether the United States should attack Iran and attempt to eliminate its nuclear facilities.

Proponents of a strike have argued that the only thing worse than military action against Iran would be an Iran armed with nuclear weapons. Critics, meanwhile, have warned that such a raid would likely fail and, even if it succeeded, would spark a full-fledged war and a global economic crisis.

But skeptics of military action fail to appreciate the true danger that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose to US interests in the Middle East and beyond. And their grim forecasts assume that the cure would be worse than the disease - that is, that the consequences of a US assault on Iran would be as bad as or worse than those of Iran achieving its nuclear ambitions. But that is a faulty assumption. The truth is that a military strike intended to destroy Iran's nuclear program, if managed carefully, could spare the region and the world a very real threat and dramatically improve the long-term national security of the United States.

The source added that the military, which is trying to develop a nuclear arsenal, has pledged allegiance to the untested Kim Jong-un, who takes over the family dynasty that has ruled North Korea since it was founded after World War Two. The source declined to be identified but has correctly predicted events in the past, telling Reuters about the North's first nuclear test in 2006 before it took place.

The comments are the first signal that North Korea is following a course that many analysts have anticipated - it will be governed by a group of people for the first time since it was founded in 1948. Both Kim Jong-il and his father Kim Il-sung were all-powerful, authoritarian rulers of the isolated state.

The situation in North Korea appeared stable after the military gave its backing to Kim Jong-un, the source said. "It's very unlikely," the source said when asked about the possibility of a military coup. "The military has pledged allegiance to Kim Jong-un." North Korea's collective leadership will include Kim Jong-un, his uncle and the military, the source said.

The break-in at the US Chamber of Commerce is one of the boldest known infiltrations in what has become a regular confrontation between US companies and Chinese hackers. The complex operation, which involved at least 300 internet addresses, was discovered and quietly shut down in May 2010.

It isn't clear how much of the compromised data was viewed by the hackers. Chamber officials say internal investigators found evidence that hackers had focused on four Chamber employees who worked on Asia policy, and that six weeks of their email had been stolen. It is possible the hackers had access to the network for more than a year before the breach was uncovered, according to two people familiar with the Chamber's internal investigation.

One of these people said the group behind the break-in is one that US officials suspect of having ties to the Chinese government. The Chamber learned of the break-in when the FBI told the group that servers in China were stealing its information, this person said. The FBI declined to comment on the matter.