HE ARGUES THAT SOCIETY HAS BECOME INCREASINGLY INTOLERANT OF THE FREEDOM TO EXPRESS RELIGIOUS VIEWS. "You can't express views that were common currency 30 or 40 years ago," he said. "Arguably, the parameters of what you might call 'right thinking' are probably closing. Sadly, along with that has come the fact that it's almost socially unacceptable to say you believe in God."

His comments follow the claim from Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, that Britain is an "unfriendly" place for religious people to live.

Ed Stourton, one of Mr Vine's colleagues at the BBC, said that he felt that the biggest problem for people of faith is being sidelined. "If you are in the American political system or others then you can talk about religious faith and people say 'Yes, that's fair enough,' and it is something they respond to quite naturally. YOU TALK ABOUT IT IN OUR SYSTEM AND, FRANKLY, PEOPLE DO THINK YOU'RE A NUTTER."

Dublin has nationalised Anglo Irish Bank with its half-built folly on North Wall Quay and €73bn (£65bn) of liabilities, moving a step nearer the line where markets probe the solvency of the Irish state. A great ring of EU states stretching from Eastern Europe down across Mare Nostrum to the Celtic fringe are either in a 1930s depression already or soon will be. Greece's social fabric is unravelling before the pain begins, which bodes ill.

Each is a victim of ill-judged economic policies foisted upon them by elites in thrall to Europe's monetary project – either in EMU or preparing to join – and each is trapped. As UKIP leader Nigel Farage put it in a rare voice of dissent at the euro's 10th birthday triumph in Strasbourg, EMU-land has become a Völker-Kerker – a "prison of nations", to borrow from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

This week, Riga's cobbled streets became a war zone. Protesters armed with blocks of ice smashed up Latvia's finance ministry. Hundreds tried to force their way into the legislature, enraged by austerity cuts. "Trust in the state's authority and officials has fallen catastrophically," said President Valdis Zatlers, who called for the dissolution of parliament.

FIXED EXCHANGE SYSTEMS – AND EMU IS JUST A GLORIFIED VERSION – RUPTURE SUDDENLY. Things can seem eerily calm for a long time. Politicians swear by the parity. Remember John Major's "soft-option" defiance days before the ERM blew apart in 1992? Or Philip Snowden's defence of sterling before a Royal Navy mutiny forced Britain off the Gold Standard in 1931. Don't expect tremors before an earthquake – and there is no fault line of greater historic violence than the crunching plates where Latin Europe meets Teutonia.

Traders suspect that investors are dumping their Club Med and Irish debt immediately on the European Central Bank in "repo" actions. In other words, the ECB is already providing a stealth bail-out for Europe's governments – though secrecy veils all. An EU debt union is being created, in breach of EU law. LIABILITIES ARE BEING SHIFTED QUIETLY ON TO GERMAN TAXPAYERS. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN GERMANY'S HARD-WORKING CITIZENS FIND OUT?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has allowed shipments of Australian bees to resume despite concerns by some of its own scientists. Australia had been airfreighting the insects across the Pacific for four years to replace hives devastated by the perplexing colony collapse disorder. But six weeks ago the Australian government abruptly stopped the shipments, saying it could no longer be certain the hives were free of a smaller, aggressive bee that has infested areas near the Great Barrier Reef, U.S. officials said.

Early this month, the USDA decided to permit the bee shipments to resume with some precautions, and the first planeloads arrived in San Francisco last Monday. Beekeeper Ken Haff of Mandan, North Dakota, says he fears the foreign hives could kill off his apiary. Government officials said they do not know how many Australian bees have been imported, but hive importer Sullivan estimates that HE HAS SOLD 110,000 HIVES SINCE 2005.

"The last quarter of 2008 was catastrophic in every respect." It was unclear whether he was referring to the euro zone or the wider European economy. The European Commission is due to present its forecasts for the euro zone next week. The EU's executive arm forecast on November 3, the euro zone economy would still grow 0.1 percent in 2009 and 0.9 percent in 2010, but data since then has shown the forecasts were too optimistic and they will be revised on Monday.

The European Central bank last week cut rates by half a percentage point to 2 percent in response to the deepening euro zone recession, and governments have launched stimulus packages worth billions of euros to offset the crisis.

The study, commissioned by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said some ethnic groups may get swallowed up by the intermingling of race. It found that the number of people who defined themselves as purely Caribbean was most likely to decline with nearly half of all black Caribbean men in mixed race relationships.

The report, entitled Ethnicity and Family: Relationships Within and Between Ethnic Groups, was written by Lucinda Platt, from the University of Essex. She said: "There is clear evidence that across groups INTER-ETHNIC PARTNERSHIPS TEND TO BE INCREASING. There has been a dramatic shift over the last 10 years and what we mean when we talk about minority groups is changing."

A spokeswoman for the Equality and Human Rights Commission said the results of the study were "remarkable. The old, polarising debate about black and white is changing and the next generation will not see race in the same way we see it," she said. "This is hugely positive and we can afford a moment to celebrate: BRITAIN'S DIVERSE CULTURE IS BECOMING ALL THE MORE FASCINATING AND INTER-CONNECTED."

"Every time the picture of this woman is shown, I really wish that somebody would expend a bullet on her," he said according to a recording of the sermon obtained by the Associated Press. A copy of the speech was also translated and published by the Middle East Media Research Institute, a Middle Eastern press monitoring service.

Jannati is the head of the powerful hardline Iranian Council of Guardians which ensures the government remains true to the principles of the Islamic revolution. He was hand-picked by Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for the position and is seen by the reformist camp as one of the biggest opponents of democratic reforms in Iran. His council disqualified thousands of reformist candidates during parliamentary elections.

Jannati also criticized US President-elect Barack Obama during his sermon. "The world is on a slope of collapse. One is shocked when a president (Obama) sits, smiles and says 'my concern is to find a dog for my daughter.' Shame on you and those who voted for you," he said.

And interest in racist ideology was so high right after the election that computer servers for two White supremacist Web sites crashed, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups. But the violence and interest soon subsided. Leaders within the white supremacist movement are now seeking to capitalize on Obama's presidency by using his election to help grow their organizations.

"President-elect Obama is going to be the spark that arouses the 'white movement,'" reads a posting on the National Socialist Movement Web site. "Obama's win is our win. We should all be happy of this event." In an interview posted on his Web site on election night, former Louisiana state Rep. David Duke said Obama's election "is good in one sense - THAT IT IS MAKING WHITE PEOPLE CLEAR OF THE FACT THAT THAT GOVERNMENT IN WASHINGTON DC, IS NOT OUR GOVERNMENT."

"We are beginning to learn and realize our positioning," Duke, a prominent white supremacist, later said in the election night recording. "AND OUR POSITION IS THAT WE HAVE GOT TO STAND UP AND FIGHT NOW."

Crucially, that action will have to be taken within Obama's first administration, he added. Soaring carbon emissions are already causing ice-cap melting and threaten to trigger global flooding, widespread species loss and major disruptions of weather patterns in the near future. "We cannot afford to put off change any longer," said Hansen. "We have to get on a new path within this new administration. We have only four years left for Obama to set an example to the rest of the world. America must take the lead."

Hansen said current carbon levels in the atmosphere were already too high to prevent runaway greenhouse warming. Yet the levels are still rising despite all the efforts of politicians and scientists. Hansen said feedbacks in the climate system are already accelerating ice melt and are threatening to lead to the collapse of ice sheets.

Sea-level rises will therefore be far greater - a claim backed last week by a group of British, Danish and Finnish scientists who said studies of past variations in climate indicate that a far more likely figure for sea-level rise will be about 1.4 metres, enough to cause devastating flooding of many of the world's major cities and of low-lying areas of Holland, Bangladesh and other nations.

Earlier, a Hamas spokesman said it would fight until its demands were met, including an Israeli withdrawal. Nearly 1,200 Palestinians have been killed since the violence began on 27 December. Thirteen Israelis have died. Minutes before Mr Olmert was due to speak, a rocket was fired from Gaza, a BBC producer in Gaza said. The Israeli prime minister's announcement came in a televised address following a late-night cabinet meeting.

Israel's operation in Gaza had fully achieved its aims, Mr Olmert said, with Hamas badly damaged both militarily and in terms of infrastructure. But the success of the ceasefire depended on Hamas, he said. If militant rocket fire into Israel continued, Israel would respond with force, he said.

First Bus said it would do everything in its power to ensure Mr Heather does not have to drive the buses. Buses across Britain started displaying atheist messages in an advertising campaign launched earlier this month. Mr Heather told BBC Radio Solent: "I was just about to board and there it was staring me in the face, my first reaction was shock horror. I felt that I could not drive that bus, I told my managers and they said they haven't got another one and I thought I better go home, so I did".

When he returned to work on Monday he was called into a meeting with managers and agreed to go back to work with the promise he would only have to drive the buses if there were no others available. First Bus said in a statement: "As a company we understand Mr Heather's views regarding the atheist bus advert and we are doing what we can to accommodate his request not to drive the buses concerned."

It added: "As an organisation we don't endorse any of the products or sentiments advertised on our buses. The content of this advert has been approved by the Advertising Standards Agency and therefore it is capable of being posted on static sites or anywhere else."

The liquidity crisis of last year left smaller members of the euro thanking their lucky stars they were inside a big warm tent with a major currency and critically, a powerful central bank that could help banks and maintain order in financial markets. But now that the crisis has morphed into one in the real economy, with exports plunging and employment hit, things will be less cohesive within the euro zone, with one currency having to do duty for different countries with different economies and levels of competitiveness.

European governments vary widely in their ability to withstand the fiscal squeeze from falling tax receipts, as well as having varying ability to credibly take on programs of stimulative deficit spending. That of course is about all that euro countries have open to them when it comes to unilateral action, being forced as a condition of membership to live with a common currency and interest rate policy. Standard & Poor's on Wednesday cut Greece's sovereign debt rating, citing falling competitiveness and a rising fiscal deficit. S&P has also threatened the credit ratings of Ireland, Portugal and Spain on concerns about deteriorating public finances.

To be clear, the chances of a country leaving the euro zone currency project are still extremely small, though it now rates as a possibility for discussion in polite company. For one thing THERE IS NO ESCAPE HATCH, no plan as to how a national currency might be reborn. For another, there is the matter that while a bit of a weak currency and an accommodative interest rate might seem attractive at first blush, the reality would include much higher interest rates and THE REAL RISK OF A LATIN-AMERICAN STYLE INFLATION AND CURRENCY CRISIS. "Put very simply if either Greece or Italy, for example, left, the sort of spreads they are trading on at the moment would have to treble," said Marc Ostwald, strategist at brokerage Monument Securities in London. "THERE WOULD BE COLOSSAL INFLATION in both countries as a result."

There are a couple of bitter ironies here for the euro zone. The world has probably never needed an alternative reserve currency more, with natural demand likely to rise for liquid, safe non-dollar assets given U.S. imbalances and monetary policy experiments. It is also a bit raw that the downturn that will test the euro zone is not of its making. But that is cold comfort and no assurance the price of the risks of euro disintegration won't rise further.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said National Bank of Commerce of Berkeley, Illinois and Bank of Clark County of Vancouver, Washington were closing with other banks taking over their insured deposits. In 2008, 25 banks were seized by officials, up from just 3 in 2007.

The FDIC agency also has a running tally of problem banks that its examiners closely monitor. At the end of the third quarter, 171 UNDISCLOSED INSTITUTIONS WERE ON THAT LIST.

Iran's efforts are detailed in a series of recent emails and letters between Iranian companies and foreign suppliers seen by The Wall Street Journal. Business records show one Iranian company, ABAN Commercial & Industrial Ltd, has contracted through an intermediary for more than 30,000 kilograms (about 66,000 pounds) of tungsten copper - which can be used in missile guidance systems - from Advanced Technology & Materials Co Ltd Of Beijing. One March 2008 email between the firms mentions shipping 215 ingots, with more planned.

The United Arab Emirates has informed the US that in September it intercepted a Chinese shipment headed to Iran of specialized aluminum sheets that can be used to make ballistic missiles. A month earlier, UAE officials also intercepted an Iran-bound shipment of titanium sheets that can be used in long-range missiles, according to a recent letter to the US Commerce Department from the UAE's Washington ambassador.

Evidence of Iran's efforts to acquire sensitive materials also is emerging from investigations by state and federal prosecutors in New York into whether a NUMBER OF MAJOR WESTERN BANKS ILLEGALLY HANDLED FUNDS FOR IRAN and deliberately hid Iranian transactions routed through the US.

Because of economic sanctions and the small size of Iranian banks, the banks have long relied on big European multinational banks to finance their international trade and wire transfers. Last week, LLOYDS TSB of London agreed to pay $350 million to settle US sanctions-busting charges. The bank admitted it violated US law but said the practice has ceased. Other banks under scrutiny in the probe include CREDIT SUISSE AND DEUTSCHE BANK, people with knowledge of the inquiries said.

But underlining the depth of the problems that have emerged from Bank of America's acquisition of Merrill Lynch, Merrill had a net loss of $15.31 billion, or $9.62 a share, in the fourth quarter, "driven by severe capital markets dislocations," before the acquisition was completed, Bank of America said. Merrill's results for the fourth quarter were not a part of Bank of America's. The merger of the two banks closed on Jan. 1.

Even as Bank of America was coping with the challenge of absorbing Merrill, Citigroup was announcing the latest steps in dismantling its own financial supermarket. Citigroup confirmed that it would divide, for management purposes, into two separate businesses - Citicorp and Citi Holdings. Citicorp will focus on international banking, while Citi Holdings will comprise the brokerage, asset management and consumer finance businesses.

Peter Dixon, an economist in London for Commerzbank, said the decision to split the financial giant was "an indication that the era of big financials is at an end for now."

He did not give details for his figures, which were released days before an Arab Economic Summit. Stock market falls and a low oil price have contributed to the losses. The biggest loss was an estimated 40% drop in the value of Arab investments abroad, which had previously totalled around $2.5tn, AFP news agency reports.

"The Arab world has lost $2.5 trillion in the past four months," Mr Sabah said after meeting fellow foreign and finance ministers. Kuwait City is due to open a two-day Arab Economic Summit on Monday, the first of its kind. Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa earlier described the meeting of 22 heads of state as "the largest and most important" Arab event of 2009.