This is what it looks like, the document of a conspiracy: 24 pages, with appendix, in Latin, published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican. A "norma interna," or confidential set of guidelines for all bishops, who were required to keep it a secret for all eternity, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

The guidelines, issued in the year of our Lord 1962, address a sensitive subject: sex in the confessional. The Vatican doesn't put it quite that directly, preferring to use more guarded terminology to describe what happens when a priest leads a member of his flock astray before, during or after the confession - in other words, when he provokes a penitent "toward impure and obscene matters" through "words or signs or nods of the head (or) by touch."

According to the instructions from Rome, the bishops were to deal very firmly with each individual case - so firmly, in fact, that everything would remain within the confines of the Holy Church. After all, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - formerly known as the Inquisition - has centuries of experience in conducting internal investigations. The Vatican has always filled all the positions in such investigations - prosecutors, defendants, judges - from within its own ranks, while the investigation files have been kept in the secret archives of the Roman Curia.

On the surface, the Vatican's objective is to protect the sacrament of the confession. In reality, however, it is trying to uphold the Catholic Church's claim to being a superior moral authority. Nothing can be allowed to besmirch this authority: not the sexual abuse of children and adolescents, committed by thousands of Catholic priests worldwide; not the secret relationships between pastor and their housekeepers; not the covering-up of priests' children; and not the love affairs between gay clerics.

They are all cases of a double standard that arose because it is difficult for people - even priests - to subordinate their human desires to a papal encyclical. This code of silence has been upheld for decades, in some cases informally and in some cases by virtue of Vatican directives like the 1962 guideline.

Federal agencies that employ 230,000 in Washington were closed, as were many businesses and school districts across the region. The National Weather Service, meanwhile, issued a storm watch for the Washington area Tuesday, saying there was potential for another 5 inches or more of snow. Forecasters expect highs in the low- to mid-30s for the next few days, though sunshine on Monday should help melt some of the snow, said weather service meteorologist Bryan Jackson.

"You've got a whole city held captive here," Gwen Dawkins, who was trying to get to Detroit, said as she waited at Washington's Reagan National Airport, where all flights had been canceled after 18 inches of snow was recorded by Sunday. The National Weather Service called the storm "historic" and reported a foot of snow in parts of Ohio and 2 feet or more in Washington, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Parts of Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia got closer to 3 feet.

The state of emergency for King was declared by members of the City Council after Stokes County authorities also declared a state of emergency. Under North Carolina law, May said, when a state of emergency is put into place that includes a ban on driving, the sale of alcohol and carrying of firearms in vehicles is also banned.

"I think there's been some misinterpretation that I personally have declared martial law and taken away people's right to bear arms and that's erroneous," May told WXII reporter Jermont Terry. "By law, statue 14-288.7 automatically went into effect. And that law which goes into effect when there's a state of emergency prohibits the transportation, purchase sale and possession of firearms other than on one's own premises."

The news of the ban created a firestorm of criticism. "This is absolutely the craziest thing I have ever heard. So far fetched that I am speechless!" one post on WXII12.com read. "This has to be the most ridiculous event of the century!!!!! This is the ultimate denial of liberties for the most asinine reason...bad weather!!!" another poster wrote. The state of emergency was lifted Monday morning.

Worries about debt problems in Greece, Portugal and Spain have dragged on markets across the globe for the past week as many worry that these are the next shoes to drop. European finance ministers tried to reassure Group of Seven leaders that the debt situation there is under control but it hasn't been as easy convincing investors, who are backing away from riskier bets.

In addition to battling debt, Greece is faced with an assault on another front: Organized labor. Unions are threatening more strikes if the Socialist government goes through with a tough cost-cutting plan.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that Iran is set to deliver a "punch" that will stun world powers during this week's 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution. The country's top cleric was marking the occasion when Iran's air force gave its support to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a key event which led to the toppling of the US-backed shah on February 11, 1979.

His comments came as Iran said it would begin to produce higher enriched uranium from Tuesday, in defiance of Western powers trying to ensure the country's nuclear drive is peaceful. This year's anniversary is expected to become a flashpoint between security forces and supporters of opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who charge that the June re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was rigged. Mousavi renewed his call for demonstrations on the February 11 anniversary. "The 22nd of Bahman is upon us, truly it should be called the day of gathering," Mousavi said on his Kaleme.org website Monday.

"I feel we have to participate while maintaining the collective spirit as well as our identity and leave an impression," Mousavi said. "Anger and bitterness should not take our control away. The clerics should know that since imprisonment, beatings, and other confrontational methods are done in the name of Islam and the Islamic regime, it is hurting Islam and we all should try to stop," he added.

In a report released last week by the Harvard Kennedy School of Government's Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs, ex-CIA man Rolf Mowatt-Karssen warned that threats by al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden to attack Western nations are not "empty rhetoric," but rather are a top goal.

The group has access to sophisticated weaponry and technology, argued Mowatt-Karssen, who added that bin Laden's ultimate aim is to destroy the US economy and overthrow pro-Western governments in the Muslim world. The 23-year CIA veteran led the agency's internal task force on al-Qaeda and weapons of mass destruction after the 9/11 simultaneous multi-site terrorist attacks left more than 3,000 people dead in New York City and Washington, DC on September 11, 2001. Mowatt-Larssen was later named director of intelligence and counterintelligence for the Energy Department.

Al Qaeda has long had the capability of carrying out a biological terror attack as well, Mowatt-Karssen said, but has chosen not to do so, for reasons unknown. Its biological weapon of choice, he added, was anthrax. The group has also maintained its interest in nuclear weapons, but "realized they needed a lucky break. That meant buying or stealing fissile material or acquiring a stolen bomb."

The survey in Reading, Berkshire, shows how schools are being put under mounting pressure by the rising levels of pupils who do not speak English as their first language. In a bid to ease the burden, Reading Borough Council, is offering discounted English lessons for both children and adults.

The aim is to get children, whose command of English is often much better, to help their families learn it. Lesley Reilly, head of adult learning at the authority, said: 'Our aim is to involve stakeholders in community groups across the town to encourage people to join the English classes. Our target is to reach more men, unemployed people, learners recently arrived in Reading and parents of primary pupils.'

The classes are being run as part of English for Speakers of Other Languages, a government initiative to encourage people to integrate in the community. The Government described the number of languages and dialects spoken by pupils in Reading as 'extraordinary' and conceded that it would place schools under extra pressure.

It was revealed in 2005 that pupils at Woodside High School in Tottenham, north London, spoke as many as 58 languages, with many arriving at the comprehensive unable to speak any English. Pupils at a primary school in the West Midlands were found to speak 33 different languages in 2003. Conservative MP Philip Davies said: 'It's very worrying and Labour's lax immigration policies are a huge factor in this. It is also a result of political correctness. We haven't really made people integrate properly into British society.'

In a further sign of the concerns surrounding the UK economy, the spread between ten-year gilts and German government bonds hit a two-and-a-half-year high. There was a slight respite for the euro as it rallied against the dollar and the pound, but analysts said that the currency was likely to remain under pressure. It has fallen almost 10 per cent from a 15-month high of $1.5145 reached in late November.

The scale of the problems in the eurozone was illustrated as new data showed that currency speculators had ramped up their bets against the euro to record levels this month. Data from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, often used as a proxy of hedge fund activity, showed that investors had bet $7.6 billion (4.9 billion pounds) in short positions against the euro in the week to February 2, the highest level since the single currency was created in 1999.

This came as Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel prize-winning economist, called for eurozone authorities to "burn" the speculators. "The speculators will always look for the weakest link," he told Sky News. "What they're doing now is a version of the Hong Kong double play in 1997-98. What Hong Kong did in response was to raise interest rates and intervene in the stock market. They burnt the speculators and Europe needs to do the same thing."

Sterling came under additional strain over anxieties about the deteriorating state of the UK's finances. The pound fell to its lowest level against the dollar since May last year, hitting $1.5535 before paring these losses slightly, rising to $1.5640, flat on the day.

The established church, which introduced women to the priesthood in 1994, is committed to ordaining female bishops as well but the process has been held up by the entrenched positions of both supporters and opponents of the historic move. Liberals argue that women should be introduced to the episcopate on the same basis and with the same powers as men, otherwise an unfair two-tier system will develop.

However conservatives claim they were assured back when women priests were introduced that provisions would be made for them, similar to the "flying bishops" that currently cater for parishes that cannot accept the oversight of female vicars, when the next step was taken.

They want either an entirely new "men-only" province that could cover the whole of England, or extra junior bishops in dioceses who had not ordained women bishops and who would be answerable only to an Archbishop. The Church's revision committee, which is drawing up the legislation, was due to report back this week but the debate has been postponed until July as it struggles with the conflicting proposals.

European ministers told their counterparts at a Group of Seven meeting on Saturday they would make sure Greece sticks to its budget-cutting plan. But analysts said Europe needs to go beyond words to restore confidence among investors worried that problems in Greece, Portugal and other weaker euro zone states could upset or derail the global economic recovery.

"What I think is needed is an agreement on behalf of the EU to provide further support for Greece to further ensure that it doesn't default," said Michael Woolfolk, senior currency analyst at Bank of New York Mellon. The euro fell 0.3 percent from late US Friday levels to $1.3636, edging back toward an 8-and-a-half month low hit on Friday. The single currency has shed around 10 percent from a 15-month high of $1.5145 in late November.

G7 ministers also said they backed the notion of a global tax on banks to help pay for financial bailouts, an idea first floated last year which seems to be gaining momentum as the Obama administration takes a tougher line on Wall Street. Boris Schlossberg, director of foreign exchange research at GFT in New York, said the bank tax idea could be another cause for concern for investors on top of the euro zone's problems. "So the net result of all this is not a boost of confidence in the capital market," he said. "We may see a little more turbulence going forward. Overall, the G7 meeting, instead of reassuring the market may have simply created more angst."

Organised by the Bank for International Settlements last year, the two-day talks are shrouded in secrecy with high-level security believed to have been invoked by law enforcement agencies. Speculation that the chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Dr Ben Bernanke, would make an appearance could not be confirmed last night. The event will be dominated by Asian delegations and is expected to include governors of the Peoples Bank of China, the Bank of Japan and the Reserve Bank of India.

The arrival of the high-powered gathering coincided with a fresh meltdown on world sharemarkets, sparked by renewed concerns about global growth and sovereign debt. Fears countries including Greece, Portugal, Spain and Dubai could default on debt repayments combined with disappointing US jobs data could spook investors.

"This does feel like '08 and '07 all over again whereby we had these sort of little fires pop up and they are supposedly contained but in reality they are not quite contained,'' said H3 Global Advisors chief executive Andrew Kaleel. "Dubai should have been an isolated incident and now we are seeing issues with Greece, Portugal and Spain.''

A key part of the two-day talkfest will be a special meeting of Asian central bankers chaired by the governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz. Influential BIS general manager Jaime Caruana is also expected to take a prominent role in the talks. Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan will address the central bank officials at a dinner on Monday night.

He found an ad for the toy on the Toys R Us website which proudly proclaimed: " . . . Now the OUIJA Board is just for you, girl." The new flashy pink board comes with 72 questions to ask the board, a carrying case with storage pockets and instructions for how to use it to contact the dead. "Make up your own questions, and let the OUIJA Board satisfy your curiosity in virtually endless ways," the site says. "OUIJA Board will answer. It's just a game - or is it?"

Another young fan referred to it as a "real portal to the other world" and admitted to using it to "personally summon three ghosts who were really cute and died the best." Mr Cain, who was deeply involved in the occult earlier in his life, was so outraged by the marketing of such a dangerous "toy" to children that he launched a boycott the very next day.

"I'm a Catholic and I know it's stated in the Catechism and the Bible that divination and necromancy are off-limits," he said. "But the middle-of-the-road group, people who have either fallen away from the Church or don't have any religious affiliation, they think that when a big corporation like Hasbro and Toys R Us makes it appear so innocuous, it makes them wonder 'how bad can this be?' So they buy it and introduce it to their children."

He went on to issue the strongest warning against the use of these boards. "No one should be messing with Ouija boards, especially Christians who should know better. They are not toys. They are not safe; they are what they say they are, a portal to talk to 'spirits' that you really don't want to deal with." Milton Bradley does nothing to hide these dark realities while advertising its "glow in the dark" version of the board. "Evil spirits! Wake the dead! Consult the board of omens!" the ad encourages. "The classic Ouija board has the answers to all questions, except the mysterious powers that determine its answers!"

But his focus on Europe is not principally a health decision for the 82-year-old Benedict, who has seemed energized by his few jaunts to South America, Australia and Africa. Instead, the Pope sees his European forays as journeys to hostile territory where he must try to counter the prevailing forces of secularism sweeping the continent. The London-based National Secular Society said it would stage protests during the Pope's time in Britain. The organization also launched a "Make the Pope Pay" petition to deny public funding for the state visit, which the group estimates could cost upwards of $30 million.

Of course, the Pope might expect this kind of treatment in Britain. There has been a strain of anti-papal sentiment in England dating back to King Henry VIII's break with the Catholic Church in the 16th century. And when the famously conservative Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope in 2005, the British press let loose a barrage of criticism and sometimes tasteless jokes about him. But the clash between Britain and the Vatican is now shaping up more than ever as a battle of ideas.

The UK is home to a burgeoning atheist movement - led by the likes of Richard Dawkins, author of the best-selling book The God Delusion - which sees the Pope as a symbol of antiquated doctrine and organized religion's intrusion into public discourse. And Benedict will likely use the trip to shine a light on what he believes is a spreading prejudice in Europe against the devout and public pronouncements of faith.

Austen Ivereigh, a well-known London-based Catholic commentator, who has just launched a committee to help promote the Pope's UK visit, says the trip is a chance for Benedict to flex his intellectual muscle. "The Pope's mission when he comes to Britain will be to confront the rise of aggressive secularism and atheism on its own turf. Although details of the itinerary won't be known for months, there has been talk of a possible papal lecture at Oxford University."

"We talked about Greece, Portugal and Spain and we told our partners we had to solve the problem ourselves without the help of the IMF," Eurogroup chair Jean-Claude Juncker told Reuters on Saturday, the second day of a meeting of finance leaders from the Group of Seven rich industrialized nations. Euro zone countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal are under increasing pressure to bring spending under control.

Stock markets tumbled to three-month lows on Friday as fears rose about a huge bailout and the possible destabilization of the 16-country euro zone. IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who is attending the G7 meetings in Canada's remote north, said last week his institution was ready to help Greece if asked.

Guenther Oettinger, a German Conservative leader, warned in a Saturday newspaper interview that the euro currency was "in danger of becoming unstable," although his comments contradicted those from Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble. "The euro will stay stable," Schaeuble told reporters on Friday. "Markets always tend to overreact."

Thunderous mudslides damaged dozens of homes, swept away cars and pushed furniture into the streets of the foothills north of Los Angeles on Saturday as intense winter rain poured down mountains denuded by a summer wildfire. No injuries were reported but residents and emergency responders were caught off guard by the unpredicted ferocity of the storm, which damaged more than 40 homes and dozens of vehicles.Residents of all but about 70 of those homes were allowed to return home under clear skies Saturday night as another round of rains proved tame and moved on quickly. Flash flood warnings for foothill areas also were called off.

Looming above the damaged houses were the wildfire-scarred mountain slopes, still blackened from wildfires. Widespread flooding and downed trees tied up traffic and caused accidents across Los Angeles County. At least three fatalities were reported after vehicles hydroplaned and crashed on Los Angeles County freeways, and water almost a foot deep flowed into businesses on Melrose Avenue. Scattered power outages affected more than 10,000 customers in the Los Angeles area.