Historians say the treaty weakened the Church, which could have been a centre of opposition to the Nazis, and gave the new Nazi regime a certain legitimacy outside of Germany.

The Nazis did not keep their promises and, after a few years, limited Church publications and then began harrassing and jailing priests who criticised them. Many Catholic priests died in concentration camps, especially Dachau near Munich.

Wolfram Kastner, who disguised himself as the then pope, told Reuters Television: "I'm an artist. I try to make pictures. Pictures that have to do with current times, living pictures. I think this is a living picture that can illustrate the scandal of this failure to separate Church and State."

Every word he utters during the state visit - especially in his address to parliament in Berlin on Thursday or an Erfurt meeting with Protestant leaders on Friday - will be weighed, analysed, hailed or slammed by his supporters and critics. Benedict's predecessor John Paul always met rapturous crowds in his Catholic Poland. The pope from Catholic Bavaria can expect less deference from the Protestants of old Prussia or the atheist generations raised in communist East Germany. But he has chosen to stride straight into the lion's den, addressing on his first day the Bundestag (lower house of parliament). About 100 deputies - almost one-seventh of the legislature - plan to boycott the speech in protest.

On his second day, he will meet Protestant leaders in the Erfurt monastery where reformer Martin Luther lived as a Catholic monk before posting the 95 Theses in 1517 that inspired the Reformation and split western Christianity. The Protestants, whose ranks are roughly equal with those of German Catholics, want to celebrate the 500th anniversary of that event in 2017 with nationwide celebrations emphasising Luther's contributions to Christianity and German culture. Their question now is how far the Catholics will cooperate.

Benedict is the first pope who really knows and understands Protestants. Will he speak of Luther as a heretic? Praise him for reviving Christian interest in the Bible? Will he stress how important Luther's Bible translation was for the development of the modern German language? German Protestants and Catholics will be listening carefully when he answers these questions in Erfurt on Friday.

Given that background, the impact on ties was expected to be slight, partly because Washington deferred a decision on selling Taiwan a more advanced version of the plane that would have stirred far greater anger from Beijing. "For the sake of legitimacy, the regime has to respond strongly. There will always be bluster and threats bandied about, but they also know that the US is their most important foreign relationship," said Gabe Collins, a Michigan-based expert on the Chinese military.

"At the end of the day, I don't think there'll be significant damage," said Collins, the co-founder of China Signpost, an online publication that follows China's armed forces. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website that Vice Minister Zhang Zhijun summoned US Ambassador Gary Locke in Beijing to deliver the protest. "The wrongdoing by the US side will inevitably undermine bilateral relations as well as exchanges and cooperation in military and security areas," Zhang told Locke, according to the statement.

China's Defense Ministry also protested the US decision, with spokesman Geng Yansheng saying it had "created severe obstacles for the normal military-to-military exchanges of the two countries." The ministry's deputy head of foreign affairs summoned Washington's military attache to Beijing to deliver a "strong protest," over the arms deal, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Absent from the logo is any hint that Palestine consists of anything other than Arab territory. No nod is given even to the UN's 1948 decision to divide the region into Jewish and Arab sectors. As for the shape of Israel by the time it was forced into waging the defensive Six Day war in 1967: irrelevant. The logo illustrates that the Palestinian bid before the UN for support of a unilateral declaration of statehood is disingenuous and dangerous. There is not too much left to the imagination here: Israel is "wiped off the map."

Lest anyone believe that the map is a temporary phenomenon, pending a successful Palestinian UN statehood gambit, the memo appearing on the Palestine UN mission website makes it clear this is not the case. The memo is a response to legal opinions advising the Palestinians that the status of the Palestinian Liberation Organization is at risk if their UN move succeeds. The response: The PLO will continue to be "the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people as a whole." Along with their no-Israel emblem.

As the Palestinians seek statehood status from the United Nations, they claim to be interested in peace. But the logo reveals a more sinister goal: Palestinian unilateral statehood efforts go hand-in-hand with a desire by the rulers of such a state to champion the continued rejection of the Jewish state, Israel. That's what the UN - with its automatic majority of Muslim countries and their undemocratic allies - is being asked to endorse.

The stadium was built for the 1936 games, famous for the performance of black American sprinter Jesse Owens, who made a mockery of Nazi master race theories by winning gold in the 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay and the long jump. Designed by Werner March, advised by Hitler's architect Albert Speer, it remains an imposing example of Nazi architecture, with vast grey towers and a neo-classical aspect.

The stadium survived the Allies' intense bombardment of Berlin practically intact, and once Germany surrendered in 1945 it became the headquarters for British troops. Its name was changed from the Reichssportfeld to the Olympiastadion and it was gradually stripped of all signs of the Nazi regime including giant swastikas and "Aryan" statues.

The government is "more likely now than during the financial crisis to allow a large bank to fail should it become financially troubled," said the rating agency, a unit of Moody's Corp. "This is crystallizing the fact we're in a new political reality," said Jason Ware, equity analyst with Salt Lake City-based Albion Financial Group. Moody's decision hit Bank of America hardest, as it downgraded the long- and short-term debt of the holding company and long-term deposits at its main banking unit.

The ratings agency downgraded only short-term debt at Citigroup and limited the Wells' cut to its senior debt and to deposits at its lead bank. Bank of America is struggling with billions of dollars of mortgage losses, litigation and stresses from the need to raise capital to meet new regulatory obligations. After Moody's downgrade, the cost to insure $10 million of Bank of America's debt for 5 years in the credit default swap market rose 48 basis points to $378,000 per year.

Representative Barney Frank, one of the law's two primary authors, and former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp Chairman Sheila Bair have been most outspoken in arguing the only way a bailout could occur is for Congress to change the law. "I can't comment on the absolute value of Moody's ratings, but I am pleased that the rating agency recognizes that such large institutions are not 'too big to fail,'" Frank said in a prepared statement.

While a break-up of the European Union might seem far-fetched, it's of great concern apparently to Jacek Rostowsi, the Polish Finance Minister. Notably, Poland, while a member of the EU since 2004, has not adopted the common currency.

His fear is that first the monetary union would collapse, followed thereafter by the dissolution of the whole European Union. As a result, significant risks to the region would begin to arise. So, too, would be the possibility - remote, as it may be - of war over the long term. In his words, you can't exclude that possibility.

In his opinion, over the past 60 years, the European Union has been one of the pillars of peace and security. He believes that over the course of the next decade or so, in the absence of that security, political anarchy could easily arise, and with it, the possibility of war.

The warning came as it estimated the eurozone debt crisis will put banks in danger of losing up to 300 billion euros. Financial markets have begun to question the ability of political leaders to take the action needed to provide a lasting solution to the economic problems in the eurozone and the US, the IMF said.

The "political weakness" will add to market turbulence from the eurozone and bad credit ratings for the US and UK, the IMF added. The Global Financial Stability report comes a day after the IMF published its World Economic Outlook, in which it warned the economic recovery had entered "a dangerous new phase" and slashed growth forecasts for the UK and countries across the world. Political differences within countries hit by the euro-zone debt crisis and among countries called upon to help have hindered progress, the IMF said.

It operated for 14 years, collecting measurements of ozone and other chemicals in the atmosphere. Since completing its mission in 2005, UARS has been slowly losing altitude, tugged by Earth's gravity. On Friday, the 35-foot-long, 15-foot diameter (10.6-metres long, 4.5-metres diameter) satellite is expected to plunge into the atmosphere, NASA reported on its website.

While most of the spacecraft will be incinerated, scientists expect up to 26 pieces, with a combined mass of about 1,100 pounds (500 kg) to survive the fiery re-entry and fall down somewhere on Earth. The satellite's orbit passes over most of the planet, from as far north as northern Canada to the southern part of South America.

The largest chunk of wreckage from UARS is expected to be about 331 pounds (151 kg), says Nicholas Johnson, chief scientist of NASA's Orbital Debris Program office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. As of Sunday, UARS was in a 133-mile by 149-mile (215-km by 240-km) high orbit around Earth. Re-entry is expected some time on Friday, although it could happen as early as Thursday or as late as Saturday.

The agency is posting updates on its website, www.nasa.gov/uars.

Most economists expect the Fed to announce a plan Wednesday to shift money in its $1.7 trillion portfolio out of short-term securities and into longer-term holdings.The plan could lower Treasury yields further. Ultimately, it could reduce rates on mortgages and other consumer and business loans, too. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is expected to advocate the move despite criticism from within the Fed and from Republican lawmakers and presidential candidates.

On Monday, the four highest-ranking Republicans in Congress sent Bernanke a letter cautioning the Fed against taking further steps to lower interest rates. Their letter suggested that lower rates could escalate the risk of high inflation. The plan the Fed is considered most likely to unveil Wednesday has been dubbed "Operation Twist" and dates to the early 1960s. The Fed used a similar program then to "twist" long-term rates lower relative to short-term rates. Expectations that the Fed will do so again, along with renewed fears of another recession, have led investors to buy up US Treasurys. Treasury yields have dropped in response.

The decision to do so highlighted a rift within the central bank. Three members dissented from the Fed's decision - the most negative votes in nearly two decades. The three, all regional Fed bank presidents, said the Fed's policies have increased the risk of inflation. Bernanke has also faced criticism from congressional Republicans and GOP presidential candidates. Some have argued that the Fed's $600 billion bond-buying program, which ended in June, weakened the value of the dollar against other currencies and contributed to a spike in oil and commodity prices.

Texas Governor Rick Perry, who is seeking the GOP nomination for president, went so far as to say Bernanke would be "almost treasonous" to launch more bond buying.

There are concerns heavy rain could force radioactive water into the sea. The storm, packing winds of 162km/h (100mph), passed near Tokyo stranding tens of thousands of commuters as trains and flights were cancelled. The typhoon made landfall on Wednesday afternoon (05:00GMT) in Hamamatsu, scouring its way up the main island of Honshu.

The storm is now tracking a path towards Fukushima prefecture and is then expected to travel up along the north-east coast, which was battered by the 11 March earthquake and tsunami. The BBC's Roland Buerk in Tokyo says pools of radioactive water remain at the Fukushima nuclear site, and there is concern that a heavy downpour could cause them to overflow into the sea or groundwater.

Five people have so far been found dead in central and western Japan, public broadcaster NHK reported. Four people are missing including a nine-year-old boy and 84-year-old man who were swept away by flood waters in Gifu prefecture as the storm approached.

If all goes according to plan, German President Christian Wulff will greet the pope at 11:15 am this Thursday in front of Bellevue Palace, the president's official residence in Berlin. Photographers and cameramen will be eagerly jostling for the best spots, security teams will be intently scanning the area, and Wulff will shake his guest's hand with the proper degree of decorum.

But what will happen next? What will the German head of state and the leader of the Roman Catholic Church talk about when they meet for the first time, shortly after Benedict XVI's landing in Berlin? Will they talk about the fact that Wulff, a practicing Catholic, is divorced and remarried, a fact that, under the current rules of the Church, excludes him from receiving Communion?

Will Benedict XVI address the sensitive issue in his speech before the German parliament, the Bundestag, that afternoon? Although about 100 Bundestag members plan to boycott his address, Gerda Hasselfeldt, the Catholic chairwoman of the conservative Christian Social Union's group in the Bundestag, will be there without fail. Hasselfeldt is also divorced and has remarried. So has the leader of her party, Horst Seehofer, who also fathered an illegitimate child, and Oskar Lafontaine, the former co-chairman of the Left Party and a former Jesuit school pupil.

Benedict is scheduled to arrive at Berlin's Olympic Stadium at 6 pm, where he will celebrate mass and meet with Berlin's openly gay Mayor, Klaus Wowereit. Will the pope encourage Wowereit, a Catholic and a member of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) who has been living with his partner for years, to practice abstinence and not to act out his proclivities, as his church demands of all homosexuals?

Luckily for the pope, he won't have any problems with two other prominent people he will meet in Berlin. Chancellor Angela Merkel (remarried) and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle (gay) are both Protestants.

City officials in San Juan Capistrano, California say Chuck and Stephanie Fromm are in violation of municipal code 9-3.301, which prohibits "religious, fraternal or non-profit" organizations in residential neighborhoods without a permit. Stephanie hosts a Wednesday Bible study that draws about 20 attendees, and Chuck holds a Sunday service that gets about 50. The Fromms appealed their citations but were denied and warned future sessions would carry heftier penalties.

A statement from the Pacific Justice Institute, which is defending the couple in a lawsuit against the city, said Chuck Fromm was also told regular gatherings of three or more people require a conditional use permit, which can be costly and difficult to obtain. "How dare they tell us we can't have whatever we want in our home," Stephanie Fromm told the Capistrano Dispatch. "We want to be able to use our home. We've paid a lot and invested a lot in our home and backyard... I should be able to be hospitable in my home."

According to the Dispatch, the Fromms live in a neighborhood with large homes and have a corral, barn, pool and huge back lawn on their property, so parking and noise aren't a problem. "There's no singing or music," Stephanie said. "It's meditative."

"Imposing a heavy-handed permit requirement on a home Bible study is outrageous," said Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute. "An informal gathering in a home cannot be treated with suspicion by the government, or worse than any other gathering of friends, just because it is religious. We cannot allow this to happen in America, and we will fight as long and as hard as it takes to restore this group's religious freedom."

'What's on Xiamen', a Chinese news source, reports that countless millions of dead fish were found floating on a large portion of the Minjiang River stretching from Huangtian in Gutian County, to Shuikou, an area that represents the largest grass carp breeding region in China's Fujian Province. As many as nine million fish have reportedly died in Huangtian alone, thus far.

"All the fish in Huangtian floated onto the river on August 27, 28 and 29," said Wei Maoci to Chinese reporters. Maoci, who owns his own fish farm, was the first of many farmers to experience massive and unexplained fish deaths and he reportedly lost the equivalent of roughly $470,000 worth of fish as a result. "Fish started to die even as we gave more oxygen. Some 100 cages of fish died within two hours. We all lost a family fortune."

Abbas told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon he would press ahead with plans to ask on Friday for a Security Council vote on Palestinian membership. Washington has threatened to veto any such move. Ban told Abbas he would forward on to the Security Council any application submitted, and called for the Israelis and the Palestinians to resume talks "within a legitimate and balanced framework," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

The Palestinian crisis has overshadowed this week's meeting of the UN General Assembly and sparked hectic talks aimed at averting a confrontation which carries risks for the Palestinians, Israel and the United States. Senior diplomats from the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations - the so-called Quartet of Middle East mediators - are meeting throughout the week in hopes of finding a way forward.

The Quartet has for months been trying to put together guidelines for future peace talks, thus far without result.