Argentina's Foreign Minister is to meet the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon. A resolution is also set to be tabled in the UN General Assembly condemning Britain for allowing Ocean Guardian to begin drilling 60 miles north of the islands after Argentina annouced new shipping controls. Desire Petroleum, which is operating the rig, has said that the drilling will take about a month. Further exploration is likely by other companies.

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, insisted that the exploration was fully within international law. But ministers admit privately that the UK has been preparing for a diplomatic confrontation with Argentina for months. Although both sides played down the prospect of renewed military conflict, a government source told The Times that a submarine had been made available to supplement the routine military presence, although it is not yet in waters off the Falklands.

The Ministry of Defence said that HMS York, a frigate, was expected to remain there for the foreseeable future. The Falklands air defences were quietly upgraded late last year with the arrival of four Typhoon jets. The US offered Britain only tepid support. The State Department said that it took no position on the sovereignty claims of either country.

This second storm will be nothing short of a monster. Even in light of the blizzards earlier this winter that targeted the southern mid-Atlantic, this may be the one that people remember the most this winter in parts of New England and the northern mid-Atlantic.

At its peak, the storm will deliver near hurricane-force wind gusts (74 mph) blinding snow falling at the rate of over an inch per hour. For some people in upstate New York and eastern and northern Pennsylvania, this may seem more like a "snow hurricane" rather than a blizzard.

Cities likely to be impacted by heavy snow for all or at least part of the storm include: New York City, Albany, Rochester, Syracuse, Binghamton, Scranton, Allentown, Reading, Williamsport and Burlington. The storm will also deliver heavy rain and flooding northeast of the center of circulation. The cities of Boston, Providence and Portland may have their hands full with coastal flooding problems.

The combination of wind, heavy rain and heavy snow will lead to extensive power outages and property damage. Where numerous trees and lines are blown down, the power could be out for a week in some areas. One thing is for sure, most people in the mid-Atlantic and New England will have problems from this storm's strong winds. Keep checking in at AccuWeather.com for updates on snowfall and other impacts on this potentially very dangerous, destructive storm.

The US is likely to tighten monetary policy before cutting government spending, sending "shockwaves" through financial markets, Rogoff said in an interview after the speech. Fiscal policy won't be curbed until soaring bond yields trigger "very painful" tax increases and spending cuts, he said.

Global scrutiny of sovereign debt has risen after budget shortfalls of countries including Greece swelled in the wake of the worst global financial meltdown since the 1930s. The US is facing an unprecedented $1.6 trillion budget deficit in the year ending September 30, the government has forecast.

"Most countries have reached a point where it would be much wiser to phase out fiscal stimulus," said Rogoff, who co-wrote a history of financial crises published in 2009. It would be better "to keep monetary policy soft and start gradually tightening fiscal policy even if it meant some inflation."

Mexico is hosting a regional summit in the beach resort of Cancun. The OAS has been dogged by rifts between some Latin American members and the US over economic policy and trade. It has also been criticised as promoting US interests over those of other members.

The proposed new grouping was one of the main issues on the agenda of the two-day summit, ending on Tuesday. It "must as a priority push for regional integration... and promote the regional agenda in global meetings," Mr Calderon told the summit, which includes leaders and representatives from 32 countries.

Cuba was suspended from the OAS in 1962 because of its socialist political system. In 2009, the OAS voted to lift Cuba's suspension but the country has declined to rejoin. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez earlier expressed his support for the proposal, citing it as a move away from US "colonising" of the region. A US State Department official said he did not see the new body as replacing the OAS.

In a letter to The Times a group of Church of England clerics say today that religious denominations should be allowed to register civil partnerships on their premises if they wish. It would be up to individual denominations whether to offer civil partnership ceremonies. The Church of England, which along with the wider Anglican Communion is divided over gay ordinations and same-sex blessings, will maintain its official ban. But if the legislative prohibition is lifted, as seems likely, the Church's own ban is likely to be ignored by some clergy.

The Lords amendment is expected to be tabled in the next few days by Lord Alli, the Labour peer, who is openly gay. It is likely to be backed by the Conservatives and, significantly, the Bishop of Leicester, the Right Reverend Timothy Stevens, who convenes the 26 bishops in the House.

The amendment is expected to be strongly opposed by conservative Christians. Andrea Williams, of the Christian Legal Centre, said: "What is being advanced as an issue of religious freedom today will be used to remove religious freedom in the future. Homosexual activists have made clear that this is not the end. It is a step towards forcing churches to conduct same-sex unions that would go against their beliefs. Changing the law will further blur the distinction between marriage and what the Government put forward as a purely secular ceremony."

If she is right, the findings would indicate a strong central government in Jerusalem then because building city walls demanded great resources and organisation. One school of archaeologists, including Miss Mazar, believes that David and Solomon were 10th century rulers. A second school argues they were mythical. But she said her findings provide support to the biblical account that David and Solomon ruled the city then.

Based on the wall's age and location, Miss Mazar said she believes it was built by Solomon. She called her find "the most significant construction we have from First Temple days in Israel. It means that at that time, the 10th century, in Jerusalem there was a regime capable of carrying out such construction," she said.

Europe is indeed currently the hottest topic on the global financial markets. The value of the battered euro has been falling since the Greek government confessed to the actual scope of its debt - and since it became clear that things are not looking significantly better in the other PIIGS countries (the acronym refers to Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain).

There has never been this much uncertainty. No one knows whether the Greeks will manage to solve their problems, whether and how other countries will come to their aid, whether the crisis can be confined to Greece or whether it will spread like wildfire among the PIIGS - and end up tearing apart the European currency union. All of this translates into excellent opportunities for foreign currency traders and speculators. They can either bet on a decline of the euro or a bailout for the Greeks in the form of a rescue effort by other euro zone countries. In the first case, the price of Greek government bonds will hit rock bottom, and in the second case it will rise.

These are the kinds of conditions that make it possible to make a lot of money quickly - but with devastating consequences, because speculators amplify trends and increase risks. If they bet on a Greek bankruptcy, it will become even more difficult, and expensive, to attract fresh capital. This could lead to a national bankruptcy or the feared conflagration - or even the collapse of the euro.

Mr Rudd said that many "home-grown terrorists" were inspired by what he called international jihadist narratives, as he released a new report compiled by intelligence agencies. "The threat of home-grown terrorism is now increasing," he said. "This white paper is clear: some of the threat we now face comes from the Australian-born, Australian-educated and Australian residents."

Al-Qaida-linked groups in Yemen and Sudan are the new centre of threat internationally, the policy paper says, and the risks posed by Afghanistan and Pakistan remain high. The paper says that, despite Indonesia's successes against terrorism, the Jakarta hotel attacks of last July point to an ongoing threat there.

"Terrorism continues to pose a serious threat and a serious challenge to Australia's security interests. That threat is not diminishing," Mr Rudd said. "In fact, the government security intelligence agencies assess that terrorism has become a persistent and permanent feature of Australia's security environment. These agencies warn that an attack could occur at any time."

The announcement comes as a British rig began drilling for oil off the islands. According to reports from Cancun, Argentine President Cristina Kirchner says her government has won the backing of other regional leaders in its dispute with the UK over the territory in the South Atlantic. The Mexican President, Felipe Calderon, is reported to have said that a document has been drawn up behind closed doors giving Argentina unanimous support.

The BBC's Andy Gallacher in Cancun says that any broad agreement at the summit could put more pressure on the British government in what has become an escalating diplomatic row. Leaders at the summit, between the Rio Group and the Caribbean Community (Caricom), are also said to have discussed plans for a new pan-American alliance which would exclude Canada and the United States.

The new grouping would serve as an alternative to the Organisation of American States (OAS), the main forum for regional affairs in the past 50 years. "It's time to realise the unity of Latin America and the Caribbean," said Mr Calderon, asking the attending leaders and foreign ministers to put aside their political differences. UK Defence Minister Bill Rammell said the government had a "legitimate right" to build an oil industry in its waters. Mr Rammell said the UK would take "whatever steps [were] necessary" to protect the islands and that it had made Argentina "aware of that".

The study, published in 2009 in Nature Geoscience, one of the top journals in its field, confirmed the conclusions of the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It used data over the last 22,000 years to predict that sea level would rise by between 7cm and 82cm by the end of the century. At the time, Mark Siddall, from the Earth Sciences Department at the University of Bristol, said the study "strengthens the confidence with which one may interpret the IPCC results".

The IPCC said that sea level would probably rise by 18cm-59cm by 2100, though stressed this was based on incomplete information about ice sheet melting and that the true rise could be higher. Many scientists criticised the IPCC approach as too conservative, and several papers since have suggested that sea levels could rise more. Martin Vermeer of the Helsinki University of Technology, Finland and Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany published a study in December that projected a rise of 0.75m to 1.9m by 2100.

Announcing the formal retraction of the paper from the journal, Siddall said: "It's one of those things that happens. People make mistakes and mistakes happen in science." He said there were two separate technical mistakes in the paper, which were pointed out by other scientists after it was published. A formal retraction was required, rather than a correction, because the errors undermined the study's conclusion.

This principle was enshrined in the Maastricht treaty and has since been rigorously interpreted by the German constitutional court. The euro was a unique and unusual construction whose viability is now being tested. The construction is patently flawed. A fully fledged currency requires both a central bank and a Treasury. The Treasury need not be used to tax citizens on an everyday basis but it needs to be available in times of crisis. When the financial system is in danger of collapsing, the central bank can provide liquidity, but only a Treasury can deal with problems of solvency.

This is a well-known fact that should have been clear to everyone involved in the creation of the euro. Mr Issing admits that he was among those who believed that "starting monetary union without having established a political union was putting the cart before the horse". The European Union was brought into existence by putting the cart before the horse: setting limited but politically attainable targets and timetables, knowing full well that they would not be sufficient and require further steps in due course. But for various reasons the process gradually ground to a halt. The EU is now largely frozen in its present shape.

The Papandreou government is determined to correct the abuses of the past and it enjoys remarkable public support. There have been mass protests and resistance from the old guard of the governing party, but the public seems ready to accept austerity as long as it sees progress in correcting budgetary abuses - and there are plenty of abuses to allow progress. So makeshift assistance should be enough for Greece, but that leaves Spain, Italy, Portugal and Ireland. Together they constitute too large a portion of euroland to be helped in this way. The survival of Greece would still leave the future of the euro in question.

The planes can fly at least 20 consecutive hours and are primarily used for surveillance and carrying diverse payloads. At the fleet's inauguration ceremony at a sprawling air base in central Israel, the drone dwarfed an F-15 fighter jet parked beside it. The unmanned plane resembles its predecessor, the Heron, but can fly higher, reaching an altitude of more than 40,000 feet (12,000 meters), and remain in the air longer.

"With the inauguration of the Heron TP, we are realizing the air force's dream," said Brigadier General Amikam Norkin, commander of the base that will operate the drones. "The Heron TP is a technological and operational breakthrough." The commander of Israel's air force, Major General Ido Nehushtan, said the aircraft "has the potential to be able to conduct new missions down the line as they become relevant."

Israel's military refused to say how large the new fleet is or whether the planes were designed for use against Iran, but stressed it was versatile and could adapt to new missions. The plane's maker, state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, has said it is capable of reaching the Persian Gulf, which would put Iran within its range. Israeli defense officials said the Heron TP could be a useful tool against Iran. It could provide surveillance, jam enemy communications and connect ground control and manned air force planes.

Israeli companies are considered world leaders in drone technology and now export unmanned aircraft to a number of armies, including US-led forces that have used them in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Heron TP has been in development for about a decade, but the aircraft first saw action during Israel's offensive against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip just over a year ago.

It can be assembled by villagers in a back yard and it enables the Taliban to take on an enemy with far superior numbers and fire power just as Stinger surface-to-air missiles enabled the Mujaheddin to neutralise Soviet air power in the 1980s. In Afghanistan now, in the battle for Marjah, the coalition has 15,000 soldiers ranged against an estimated 400 Taliban fighters.

It sounds like no contest. Yet progress is slow and bloody because the Taliban have ringed the town with IEDs in what soldiers call the "belt of death". January was a bad month, with about one a day killed, all in Afghanistan. In 2003 there were 81 recorded IED incidents in Afghanistan. Last year there were 8,159. In Helmand it is common to see soldiers vomit before they go on patrol because the chances of being hit are so high.

About half of all American soldiers who died in Iraq were killed by IEDs, while in Afghanistan the figure is now about two-thirds. But insurgents quickly learnt that they inflict more than just death and injury. Over the past three years, the Pentagon has spent $15.5 billion and employed top scientific minds in an effort to come up with the best ways to detect and survive IEDs. Its scientists and engineers are working round the clock on robots, lasers, chemical detectors and even specially trained bees.

Sergeant John Stricklett has done four tours in Baghdad, often taking the "long walk" to defuse a bomb. He shows me how he can operate the Talon robot from a laptop in a case, studying the area from its four mounted cameras and manoeuvring its claw-like hands. "It becomes my hands and disassembles the bomb while I can stay at remote distance," he says. "On my last deployment I lost three robots. If I’d walked down that street instead, they would have got me." At $150,000 a time, the robots are expensive, but cheap in comparison with the lives they save.

One of the more bizarre suggestions has been to use honeybees because of their acute sense of smell. The small hairs that bees use to detect pollen can be used to detect any scent, prompting them to stick out their tongues. A defence research laboratory in Los Alamos has found they can be trained within 20 minutes to recognise a particular chemical. But the logistics of carrying bees inside army vehicles moving around Afghanistan have proved unworkable.

IEDs are nothing new. Guy Fawkes used one to try to blow up parliament. Lawrence of Arabia placed bombs on the road and railway to disrupt Turkish supply routes during the first world war. They were common in Vietnam when the Vietcong fashioned them from unexploded American ordinance. The term IED was coined in the 1970s by the British Army when the IRA made bombs from fertiliser and Semtex smuggled from Libya.

Ordinariate is the term established in the November 4, 2009, apostolic constitution "Anglicanorum Coetibus," which allows for groups of Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony. "It's the first step on the road, saying thank you, we are going to go along this particular track because the door has been closed to us by the Anglican Church of Australia over a long period of time," Bishop David Robarts, chairman of Forward in Faith, told the Telegraph newspaper. "We're not really wanted any more [in the Anglican Communion]," he said, "our conscience is not being respected."

The Pope's apostolic constitution is an answer to just that type of experience, which many Anglicans have expressed as the Communion moves toward greater approval of homosexual behavior - including openness to active homosexuals in ordained ministry - and women bishops. The path to establish ordinariates was the Pope's response to requests from disconcerted Anglicans.

The Church in Australia is celebrating as Benedict XVI announced that Blessed Mary MacKillop will soon be proclaimed as the country's first saint. Australia's prime minister, Kevin Rudd, commented that the sainthood of Mother MacKillop is "deeply significant" and "an inspiration" for all Australians.

The president of the unity council, Cardinal Walter Kasper, will participate in the visit. Rome's Lutheran community had invited the Pope in 2008 to mark the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II's visit to the church. The Polish Pontiff's 1983 visit commemorated the 550th anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther (1483-1546).

According to the Lutheran community, Benedict XVI's homily will be on the biblical passage from John: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." For his part, Pastor Jens-Martin Kruse will analyze the first chapter of the Second Letter of St Paul to the Corinthians, which speaks about Christ's consolation in moments of tribulation.

In statements to the NEV agency, Kruse noted his sense of the importance of the visit: "To have the Bishop of Rome among us is a good sign for ecumenism in our city."