The four-man, twin-propeller plane "should arrive on or shortly after December 25th," about one month ahead of schedule, Lieutenant General David Deptula, who oversees Air Force intelligence and reconnaissance, said in an e-mail today.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered the service in April 2008 to dramatically increase the number of manned and unmanned aircraft providing intelligence to ground troops. The planes also are equipped with SENSORS THAT CAN MONITOR INSURGENTS' CONVERSATIONS and help pinpoint their location, said Jeffrey Richelson, author of the "US Intelligence Community," a detailed compendium now in its fifth edition.

The sensors are provided by the National Security Agency, which manages US eavesdropping satellites.

In Poland, where temperatures have dropped to as low as -20C in some areas, police appealed for tip-offs about people spotted lying around outside. At least 42 people, most of them homeless, died over the weekend. In Ukraine 27 people have frozen to death since the thermometer dropped last week. Authorities in Romania said 11 people had succumbed to the chill, and in the Czech Republic the toll was 12. In Germany, where temperatures have fallen to -33C in certain parts, at least seven people are known to have lost their lives in the freezing weather.

For millions of others across the continent, the cold snap has brought severe disruption, with flight cancellations and traffic jams thwarting pre-Christmas travel plans. The resumption of Eurostar services brought some relief to passengers travelling between France, Belgium and England, but many trains across Europe were delayed or cancelled. Airports were struggling to cope with icy runways, with Ryanair and Easyjet among several airlines to cancel some flights.

In Italy, where winters are usually mild, motorways in the north-east were closed and the Ministry of Defence dispatched helicopters in Sicily to bring medical aid to those in need. In Milan hundreds of soldiers worked through the night to clear the snow and ice-covered streets.

Prices for carbon permits for December 2010 delivery, the benchmark contract for pricing European permits, dropped nearly 10 per cent in early trading, before recovering to end the day 8.3 per cent lower at €12.41. Lower prices give companies less incentive to invest in cutting their greenhouse gas output. Analysts estimate that prices of more than €40 a tonne are required to stimulate investment in new low-carbon technologies.

Carbon traders blamed the price fall on the Copenhagen conference, which produced an accord among the world's biggest developed and developing countries to limit their greenhouse gas emissions, but omitted details on what those limits would be. Governments now have a month to submit formal pledges on how far they will reduce their carbon output.

City Hall, public libraries, health clinics and most other city offices will be closed on Christmas Eve as those city workers are being forced to take the day off without pay. Police and Fire Department operations are not affected and will remain fully staffed. Any other worker needed to provide for the public's safety will also be on the job.

As part of the 2009 budget, three reduced-service days were planned for 2009: August 17, the Friday after Thanksgiving; and Christmas Eve. The city expects to save $8.3 million. "Every dollar we save from these measures helps to save jobs, and in the long-term, maintain services for Chicagoans," Mayor Daley said in a statement. "This plan relies on most of our civilian employees to be part of the solution to our very serious budget challenges. I want to thank them again for their efforts."

In Copenhagen, the outlines of a dangerous world were there for all to see. The climate summit did not end in a fist fight between tens of thousands of people, despite the fact that serious global problems were not resolved. Barack Obama did not have to fly out from the roof of a burning conference center. Nevertheless, it was palpable that this is a world in which TRUST IS HARDER TO COME BY THAN OIL, and where there is more mistrust than CO2 emissions.

And yet Copenhagen has proven that trust is the most important resource for the transformation of the current oil-based system into a green civilization. It is more important than all the money that will be required for new technology, more efficient machines, dams and the survival of forest inhabitants.

It is a question of trust that China does not flood Europe with even more products made using cheap coal-based power, instead of replacing coal with alternative power stations; that Europe is not isolated as an island of environmentalists, while in Africa entire countries are becoming inhospitable; that climate aid amounting to billions does not land in private bank accounts in Africa, while there is not enough money for schools in the donor country; and that America does not come to rely on cheap oil, while China and India curb their fossil fuel consumption for reasons of climate protection.

In order for 9 billion people to live together on one planet, a circle of trust is required, one that rewards solutions and punishes the wrong economic activities of the past. That does not describe some kind of paradise. Rather it is the prerequisite for preventing a world without hope. In Copenhagen a vicious circle of mistrust came in to being, one that engulfed all the good intentions and plans.

Regulators shuttered First Federal Bank of California, based in Santa Monica, with $6.1 billion in assets and $4.5 billion in deposits, as well as Imperial Capital Bank of La Jolla, California, with about $4 billion in assets and $2.8 billion in deposits.

California was one of the states hardest hit by the real estate market meltdown and many banks there have suffered under the weight of soured mortgage loans. First Federal and Imperial Capital bring to 17 the number of California banks to fail this year.

THE 140 BANK FAILURES are the most in a year since 1992 at the height of the savings-and-loan crisis. They have cost the government-backed deposit insurance fund - which has fallen into the red - more than $30 billion so far this year. The failures compare with 25 last year and three in 2007.

THIS IS THE BIGGEST HEIST IN HISTORY. As they poured carbon over snow-covered Denmark from their gas-guzzling jets, world leaders were congratulating themselves on securing a deal which will make their backers and financiers a trillion pounds a year. These riches will come from buying and selling permits, the so-called 'carbon credits' which allow industry and electricity generators in developed countries to emit carbon dioxide.

Forget 'Big Oil' - this is 'Big Carbon' making the most of a 'business opportunity' that was created by the first climate treaty at Kyoto in 1997. The frenzied negotiations we have just seen were never about 'saving the planet'. THEY WERE ALWAYS ABOUT MONEY. At stake was this new 'climate change industry' which last year ripped off £129billion from the global economy and is heading for that trillion-pound bonanza by 2020 - but only if the key parts of the Kyoto treaty could be renewed.

THE ACTUAL EMISSIONS DON'T CHANGE, it's merely a matter of how much you have to pay for them. For example, in 2006, the NHS spent £6million on carbon permits to keep patients warm. THIS WAS THE REAL BUSINESS IN COPENHAGEN LAST WEEK.

There were "GLOBAL CRISES" and "GLOBAL CHALLENGES", the only possible resolution to which lay in "GLOBAL SOLUTIONS" necessitating "GLOBAL AGREEMENTS". Gordon Brown actually suggested something called a "GLOBAL ALLIANCE" in response to climate change.

To the extent that the word had intelligible meaning, it also had political ramifications that were scarcely examined by those who bandied it about with such ponderous self-importance. The mere utterance of it was assumed to sweep away any consideration of what was once assumed to be the most basic principle of modern democracy: that elected national governments are responsible to their own people – that the right to govern derives from the consent of the electorate.

Nor was much consideration given to the logical conclusion of all this grandiose talk of global consensus as unquestionably desirable: if there was no popular choice about approving supranational "legally binding agreements", WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO DISSENTERS WHO DID NOT ACCEPT THEIR PREMISES (on climate change, for example) when there was no possibility of fleeing to another country in protest? Was this to be regarded as the emergence of world government? And WOULD IT HAVE POWERS OF POLICING AND ENFORCEMENT THAT WOULD SUPERSEDE THE AUTHORITY OF ELECTED NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS?

In effect, this was the infamous "DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT" of the European Union elevated on to a planetary scale. And if the EU model is anything to go by, then the agencies of global authority will involve VAST TRACTS OF POWER BEING HANDED TO UNELECTED OFFICIALS. Forget the relatively petty irritations of Euro bureaucracy: WELCOME TO THE ERA OF EARTH-BUREAUCRACY, WHEN THERE WILL BE LITERALLY NOWHERE TO RUN.

As explained by the German Minister of State to the Foreign Ministry, Werner Hoyer, the EU Council President and the Foreign Minister do not have to be German, but Germany "lays great weight" on "relevantly participating" at the administrative level positions just below them, which are considered decisively influential on Brussels' policies.

Berlin is giving the new External Action Service a particularly high priority, since it consolidates the EU's external policy and is supposed to provide Brussels with new global power impact. GERMAN POLICY ADVISORS CONSIDER THAT THE EU HAS THE "POTENTIAL OF A WORLD POWER" but point out that this potential must first be established through Brussels' external policy.

It was under German pressure that the decision was made to place the EU's military planning and operation staff within the responsibility of the External Action Service, to be able to directly incorporate military operations into EU external policy. IN THE MEANTIME, THE GERMAN PROJECT OF CREATING AN EU ARMY IS WINNING FAVOR. Last weekend the Italian Foreign Minister gave his accord.

Leading personnel from the Chancellery and the Foreign Ministry are being suggested. The general secretary heads the administration and is second only to the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, CATHERINE ASHTON, WHO IS CONSIDERED TO BE VERY WEAK, meaning that a German EEAS general secretary would have a free hand.

The structuring of the EEAS is one of Berlin's most essential objectives since the Lisbon Treaty took effect, reinforcing the EU on its path toward becoming a world power. As was expressed in Berlin's foreign ministry, the basic features of the new administration must be institutionalized by April 2010, so that the British Conservatives, expected to be the victors of the next parliamentary elections in the spring of 2010, will not be able to have any influence. THEY ARE CAPABLE OF PUTTING UP SERIOUS RESISTANCE TO GERMAN HEGEMONIC POLICY.

But Berlin is pressing for haste. Next spring, in May 2010 at the latest, parliamentary elections will be held in Great Britain. The replacement of the Labor government by a Conservative one is considered certain. The German government is doing everything possible so that the basic structural features of the EEAS will be completed by April 2010. A Conservative British government could "otherwise complicate the implementation of the EEAS," as is diplomatically asserted in the German Foreign Ministry, WHERE IT IS FEARED THAT LONDON COULD SERIOUSLY RESIST GERMAN PLANS TO USE EU FOREIGN POLICY TO RISE TO WORLD POWER STATUS.

As explained in a recent paper published by the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), the British Conservatives' attitude will have a "DECISIVE INFLUENCE ON HELPING TO SET THE EU'S FUTURE RADIUS OF ACTION," because the ambitious possibilities in EU foreign policy making, opened through the Lisbon Treaty's coming into force, will depend, to a certain extent, on London's cooperation.

It is expected that the elections scheduled in May will bring a government change - from Labor to Conservative. The chairman of the conservatives, a flexible "Euro-pragmatist," is taking a Euro-skeptic position because of the balance of forces within his party, according to the authors of the SWP paper, but he can be brought to oppose his party's EU-critical wing. THE MAIN REASON FOR BRITISH EU-SKEPTICISM IS THE FEAR OF THE LOSS OF THE COUNTRY'S SOVEREIGNTY. It would "behoove" EU members to insist on the British government's firm engagement for Brussels after the Lisbon Treaty takes effect.

This is not unjustified, as can be seen in the controversy around Greece's national debt. The German chancellor is threatening Athens that the EU needs to consider whether it should impose an austerity budget on Greece - if necessary, EVEN AGAINST THE WILL OF THE ELECTED PARLIAMENT IN ATHENS.

Scientists raised the alert level for the Mayon volcano to one step below a major eruption AFTER 453 VOLCANIC EARTHQUAKES were detected in a five-hour span Sunday, compared to just over 200 Saturday, said Renato Solidum, chief of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

Army troops and police will intensify patrols to enforce a round-the-clock ban on villagers within a five-mile danger zone AROUND THE 8,070-FOOT MOUNTAIN, said Governor Joey Salceda of Albay province, about 210 miles southeast of Manila. The massive evacuations were unfortunate, coming so close before Christmas, Salceda said, but authorities will find ways to bring holiday cheer to displaced villagers in emergency shelters.

The cone-shaped volcano has already belched a plume of grayish ash half a mile into the sky, and red-hot lava has flowed about 2.8 miles down the mountainside, he said. Residents who briefly returned to their homes within the danger zone to check on their belongings reported hearing eerie rumbling sounds.

The quake struck the southeast African country at 1:19am, and the victims included students who were sleeping in a dormitory at a government school, said Gasten Macheka, the commissioner of Karonga district. Macheka said about 270,000 people have been urged to leave their homes for their safety, and that the hard-hit district in northern Malawi urgently needs at least 48,000 tents and medical supplies.

"This is a crisis," he said. "We are asking everyone in Karonga not to be in houses or near houses because the situation is unstable. We are appealing to the government and the international community to help us as a matter of urgency." THE DISTRICT HAS BEEN HIT BY A SERIES OF EARTHQUAKES AND AFTERSHOCKS SINCE THE BEGINNING OF DECEMBER.

Leonard Kalindekafe, the director of Malawi's Department of Geological Surveys, said Sunday's quake was worse than any other. However, earlier this month an earthquake nearly as strong — a 5.9 magnitude — demolished several houses in Karonga district, killing a child and injuring six people. The district lies on THE GREAT RIFT VALLEY FAULT LINE, which may now be realigning itself, making it more unstable than it has been for a long time, said Kalindekafe.

The heaviest snow through this evening will be found in Cape Cod and Downeast Maine, where another 2-3 inches will fall. The additional snow will bring totals to around 2 feet on Cape Cod! A large number of places saw 18 inches or more from this storm from western North Carolina to Cape Cod. The heaviest snow reported was 30 inches in Wintergreen, Virginia. Several snowfall records were set by this storm.

Philadelphia was buried by 22.9 inches of snow from this storm. This amount not only broke the single greatest December snowfall record, but it will also go down in the history books as the second heaviest snowfall ever for the city! It is second only to the 30.7 inches of snow dropped by the January 7-8, 1996 blizzard.

The Associated Press reports that at least five deaths have been attributed to the storm, with hundreds of motorists stranded and hundreds of thousands without power. Hundreds of flights were canceled at major airports in Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York City.

Flights have been cancelled, train services have been severely affected and roads made impassable. Eurostar passenger trains are still not running after electrical failures. More than 2,000 people were trapped on the trains in the Channel Tunnel for up to 16 hours after condensation caused a series of electrical failures on Friday night.

It is currently unclear when services will resume. Eurostar is running tests on the line on Sunday. Two people were reported dead in Austria's southern province of Styria as they tried to get home after nights out. In France, 40% of flights out of Paris's Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports were cancelled as a second wave of snowstorms hit northern France.

Germany's third largest airport - in Duesseldorf - was also closed because of heavy snow, authorities said. In Belgium, the three biggest airports - Brussels, Charleroi and Liege - were completely shut. Severe delays and cancellations were reported at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. In Britain, officials at Manchester Airport - the busiest outside the London area - suspended flights for 90 minutes as staff moved snow and de-iced a runway.