Answering a question about the legal status of a Jewish minority in the future state, Areikat apparently rejected the issue, saying: "I believe, I still believe that as a first step we need to be totally separated," adding "I think we can contemplate these issues in the future. After the experience of the last 44 years, of military occupation and all the conflict and friction, I think it will be in the best interest that the two peoples should be separated," Areikat added.

Former US National Security Council official Elliot Abrams responded to the Palestinian official's comment, saying to USA Today that the Palestinian demand was "a despicable form of anti-Semitism," adding: "No civilized country would act this way."

Speaking shortly before a meeting with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, he did not elaborate on the possible consequences. "The moment has not yet come to give details of what will happen," he said. In the past he has called for Israel to sever all relations with the administration of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas should it press on with its UN bid. "What I can say with the greatest confidence is that from the moment they pass a unilateral decision there will be harsh and grave consequences," Lieberman told an agricultural conference in southern Israel.

"I hope that we shall not come to those harsh and grave consequences, and that common sense will prevail in all decisions taken, in order to allow coexistence and progress with negotiations," he added. Some hardline Israeli ministers are calling for Israel to annex chunks of the West Bank if the Palestinians go ahead, though Israeli officials say they have not finalised their response to the UN move as the Palestinians have yet to reveal its details.

"We're not saying what we'll do, a lot of our reaction is subject to what the final resolution will say," a foreign ministry official told AFP earlier this week on condition of anonymity. Lieberman has accused the Palestinians of planning an "unprecedented bloodbath" after the UN move, although they say they will hold purely peaceful rallies.

People whose gender was different from that of their birth were previously required to have reassignment surgery before they could change their passport to their preferred sex. An Australian senator, Louise Pratt - whose partner was born female and is now identified as a man - said the reform was a huge step forward.

"There have been very many cases of people being detained at airports by immigration in foreign countries simply because their passports don't reflect what they look like," she told Australian radio. "It's very distressing, highly inconvenient and frankly sometimes dangerous."

The answer, it seems, is that we put too little store on family time and too much on material goods. Unicef paints a picture of a country that has got its priorities wrong - trading quality time with our children for "cupboards full of expensive toys that aren't used".

"Parents in the UK want to be good parents, but aren't sure how," the research suggests. "They feel they don't have the time, and sometimes the knowledge, and often try to compensate for this by buying their children gadgets and clothes." The research compares Britain with Sweden and Spain. While the UK languishes in 21st, and last, place in the child well-being table, they come second and fifth respectively. One reason they perform so much better, according to Unicef, is that in both countries "family time is protected" and children "all have greater access to activities".

"In Sweden their social policy allows family time and their culture massively reinforces it. In Spain fathers do work long hours, but the extended family is still very important and women stay at home to look after their children." The report argues that the pressure of the working environment and rampant materialism combine to damage the well-being of our children. They want our attention but we give them our money.

"All children interviewed said that material goods did not make them happy, but materialism in the UK seems to be just as much of a problem for parents as children," the research concludes. "Parents in the UK often feel compelled to purchase consumer goods which are often neither wanted or treasured." It is a profoundly depressing analysis of British life, not least because it rings true.

The ECB's plans would require clearing houses that handle more than 5% of the market in a euro-denominated financial product to be based in the eurozone. The Treasury says the move would contravene European law. It has started proceedings at the European Court of Justice.

A Treasury spokesperson said: "This decision contravenes European law and fundamental single market principles by preventing the clearing of some financial products outside the euro area. The government wants to see this resolved swiftly and without involving the courts, but if necessary will not shy away from continuing legal action to make sure there is a level playing field across the EU for British businesses."

The pressure rose on all fronts with the United States again expressing great concern, with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner saying European states "now recognise they are going to have to do more" to resolve the crisis. Highlighting the threat to the global economy, Geithner is to attend exceptional talks between European Union finance ministers and central bankers in Poland on Friday.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou were to hold a teleconference late Wednesday as markets price in a default by the government in Athens, and credit rating giant Moody's downgraded two major French banks given their exposure to Greek debt. "Europe is in danger," Polish Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski, whose country currently chairs EU meetings, told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

"If the eurozone breaks up, the European Union will not be able to survive," he added. At his most dramatic, Rostowski even warned that "war" could return to Europe if the crisis fatally weakens the EU, founded amid the rubble of World War II. His underlying message was backed up by European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, who described the crisis as "the most serious challenge of a generation." Barroso stressed: "This is a fight... for the economic and political future of Europe."

Industrial action, potentially involving millions of workers, could start by late November. Unions plan to follow up the strikes with co-ordinated action across the UK. "The idea that we will have a one-day dispute, marching around town with a few flags... ain't going to do it," said the union leader. When asked specifically whether there would be a number of one-day national strikes, he replied "yep".

"In some areas there will be two or three days," said the union leader. "In other areas it will be continuous. In other areas it will be a rolling programme." He added: "There are lists that are being drawn up of targeted areas." The three biggest public sector unions - Unison, Unite and the GMB - are thought to be close to announcing a strike ballot over planned pension reforms.

Between them they would have to ballot around 1.5 million members, ranging from the health sector to local government. The involvement of the "big three" unions would significantly escalate the dispute and could bring millions of workers out on strike.

But one economic think tank said any move towards sustained industrial action could not be justified. Mark Littlewood from the right-leaning Institute for Economic Affairs, said public sector workers were not "the oppressed poor" and also enjoyed "unbelievable job security, more generous annual holidays". "Your average worker in the public sector earns 4,000 pounds more a year in their salary, and if you start building in their pensions then it's about 7,000 pounds a year more. Overall, average to average, [they are] 35%, maybe 40% richer than the average private sector worker," Mr Littlewood said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are due to hold talks on Wednesday in response to growing market expectations of an imminent default by Greece. The two downgraded banks have seen their share prices fall 60% and 65% respectively since February, while BNP has fallen 53% over the same period.

Moody's focused on the banks' exposure to the Greek economy, although the recent market sell-off reflects a broader concern over the health of other southern European countries such as Italy, as well as over the political will to sustain the euro. SocGen has a total exposure to Greek government and commercial debts equal to 6.6 billion euros, while Credit Agricole has 27 billion euros, according to their disclosures to the European Banking Authority. For BNP Paribas the total is 8.5 billion euros.

Moody's said BNP's rating could also be cut one notch, although it noted that the bank's capital and accumulated profits should be enough to absorb losses from Greece, as well as from the troubled Portuguese and Irish economies.

With only days to go before world leaders gather in New York, the maneuvering became an exercise in brinkmanship as the administration wrestles with roiling tensions in the region, including a sharp deterioration of relations between three of its closest allies in the region: Egypt, Israel and Turkey.

Nabil el-Araby, secretary general of the Arab League, said after meeting with the Palestinians that "it is obvious that the Palestinian Authority and the Arab countries are leaning towards going to the General Assembly," where a successful vote could elevate the status of the Palestinian Authority from nonvoting "observer entity" to "observer state," a status equal to that of the Holy See.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey ratcheted up pressure on the United States and Israel by telling Arab League ministers that recognition of a Palestinian state was "not a choice but an obligation." In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that American negotiators would return to the region on Wednesday to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority in a final effort to avert a vote on the matter.

The administration, working with the European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, and Tony Blair, who serves as a special envoy to the region, continued to seek international support for what Mrs Clinton described as "a sustainable platform for negotiations" between the Israelis and the Palestinians to create a Palestinian state.

The timing of the confrontation has created a diplomatic quandary for President Obama, putting him in the position of opposing Palestinian aspirations for self-determination even as his administration has championed Arabs who have overthrown leaders in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya or who seek to in Syria. At the same time, he faces pressure from Israel's vocal supporters in Congress to block the vote or cut off military and economic assistance the United States has given to the Palestinians.

Internationally, however, the United States and Israel appeared increasingly isolated, with even some European nations, from Russia to France, signaling support for at least a General Assembly vote for the Palestinians. The support for the Palestinians from the Turkish prime minister was not a surprise, but the commanding tone of his endorsement - coupled with Turkey's souring relations with Israel, once a close ally - underscored the growing sympathy for Palestinian aspirations for sovereignty and statehood.

The panic seems to have been temporarily stemmed by a statement from BNP Paribas to the effect that it wasn't having the problems widely reported of finding dollar funding. There was also an emphatic denial of discussions over state intervention. But no-one is kidding themselves. Italy had to pay the highest spread since joining the euro to sell its bonds on Tuesday. There are growing fears over whether Europe's largest borrower can stay the course.

The eurozone sovereign debt crisis is meanwhile exacting a devastating toll on the European banking system as a whole, the UK included. With their high exposure to eurozone debt, the problem is particularly acute for the French banking goliaths, BNP Paribas and Societe Generale.

BNP alone has a eurozone sovereign debt exposure of some 75 billion euros, amounting to roughly 6 per cent of total assets, including 14 billion euros of Greek debt and 21 billion euros of Italian government bonds. And that's just BNP. The other two major French banks, SocGen and Credit Agricole each have exposures of a similar order of magnitude. Collectively, French banks have 56 billion euros of Greek sovereign bonds alone. They've so far only written down this Greek debt by around 20 per cent, or in line with the restructuring agreed at the time of the last bailout.

That's nowhere near mark to market. In the increasingly likely event of Germany kicking the Greeks out of the eurozone altogether, Greek debt will become close to worthless. Greece is already effectively a cash only economy. Most forms of credit have effectively dried up, the Greek banking system is finished, and capital controls to prevent what little money that remains from leaving the country are surely only a matter of time. European banking must prepare for the worst as far as Greece is concerned.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel sought to quash talk of an imminent Greek default or exit from the euro zone, but confusion over whether she would issue a joint statement on Greece with French President Sarkozy sent markets gyrating up and then down. Confidence in the 17-nation currency area was further dented when Italy was forced to pay the highest interest rates since joining the euro in 1999 to sell 5-year bonds.

"I think there is a possibility, if the wrong steps are taken, that the system goes off the rails," Sergio Marchionne, the CEO of Italian carmaker Fiat, told reporters in Frankfurt when asked if the euro's survival was at risk. Merkel said in a radio interview that Europe was doing everything in its power to avoid a Greek default and urged politicians in her own coalition to weigh their words carefully to avoid creating turmoil on financial markets.

That means that for each husband and wife who worked full-time in the private sector last year there was a Social Security recipient somewhere in the country taking benefits from the federal government. Most state and local workers are part of the Social Security system and pay Social Security taxes; and, since 1984, all federal workers have been part of the system and pay Social Security taxes.

However, unlike private sector workers who pay Social Security taxes with private-sector dollars, government workers pay their payroll taxes out of wages government pays them with tax dollars or with money that was borrowed by government and taxpayers must eventually repay. In its latest annual report, the Social Security board of trustees reported that the federal government's total revenue from Social Security taxes in 2010 - $544.8 billion - was not enough to cover Social Security's total benefit payments - $577.4 billion.

The Census Bureau's annual report released Tuesday offers a snapshot of the economic well-being of US households for 2010, when joblessness hovered above 9 percent for a second year. It comes at a politically sensitive time for President Barack Obama, who has acknowledged in the midst of a re-election fight that the unemployment rate could persist at high levels through next year.

The overall poverty rate climbed to 15.1 percent, or 46.2 million, up from 14.3 percent in 2009. The official poverty level is an annual income of $22,314 for a family of four. Reflecting the lingering impact of the recession, the US poverty rate from 2007-2010 has now risen faster than any three-year period since the early 1980s, when a crippling energy crisis amid government cutbacks contributed to inflation, spiraling interest rates and unemployment.

Measured by total numbers, the 46 million now living in poverty is the largest on record dating back to when the census began tracking poverty in 1959. Based on percentages, it tied the poverty level in 1993 and was the highest since 1983.

So is this by accident? Surely not. The truth is that there is an overwhelming consensus among the political and financial elite of Europe that a "United States of Europe" is what would be best for the eurozone. However, they are likely going to need a massive financial crisis in order to reach their goal. Right now, the citizens of the countries that make up the eurozone are overwhelmingly against deeper European integration.

Without experiencing a massive amount of financial pain, they are unlikely to change their minds any time soon. So who is going to win in the end? Unfortunately, the clock is ticking because Greece is on the verge of defaulting on their debts and several other countries are not that far behind. If Europe does not decide on a course of action soon, the euro is going to collapse and financial institutions all over Europe are going to come crashing down.

Up until now, EU leaders have been handling this crisis by putting out one fire after another. This has been going on for a couple of years, but these bailouts cannot go on indefinitely. Instead of fixing things, "kicking the can down the road" has only delayed the pain and made things even worse. The EU as it is currently structured simply does not work. The political will for more bailouts is rapidly drying up and politicians in Europe are only going to be able to "extend and pretend" for a little while longer.

Something needs to be done.

Mario Draghi, the incoming head of the European Central Bank, is totally convinced that Europe needs to integrate much more deeply... "To cope with this, we must have a treaty change. The aim of this effort should be a quantum leap up in European economic and political integration." Do you notice that he is not just advocating small changes in the way that Europe works. What Draghi wants is "a quantum leap" in European integration.

His predecessor feels the same way. Jean-Claude Trichet, the departing head of the European Central Bank, is also very much in favor of much deeper European integration... "The crisis has clearly revealed the need for strong economic governance in a zone with a single currency". In the past, European leaders were always very hesitant to use the words "United States of Europe". But now it seems like that term is flying around all over the place. It is almost as if they want to start getting us conditioned to the idea.

The Dutch government has called for an "EU Budgetary Commissioner" who would have sweeping powers as part of closer cooperation among eurozone members on economic and fiscal policies. This new office would have the powers to impose penalties on those countries that flout EU rules and in extreme circumstances would have the authority to evict member states from the single currency.

Under proposals published by Mr. Rutte and his government, eurozone countries would be required to present their budgets to the "EU Budgetary Commissioner" before they are presented to the national Parliament. The Commissioner would have the right to veto measures that would lead to the country flouting EU deficit and other fiscal rules.

"Independent supervision requires a commissioner for budgetary discipline," the ministers wrote. "The new commissioner should be given clear powers to set requirements for the budgetary policy of countries that run excessive deficits." Mr Rutte governs with the support of the far right wing Geert Wilders' Feedom Party which is exerting significant pressure on the Prime Minister to toughen up against bailouts and profligate countries within the Eurozone. "Whoever wants to be part of the eurozone must adhere to the agreements and cannot systematically ignore the rules," wrote Mr Rutte and his finance minister Jan Kees de Jager in an opinion piece in today's Financial Times.