Supersoldier ants can occur naturally in the wild, but only rarely. In the deserts of America and Mexico, their job is to protect the colony from raids by invading army ants. The supersoldiers use their enormous heads to block the nest entrance and attack any enemy ants that get too close. Scientists showed that ordinary ants of the species Pheidole morrisi contain all the genetic 'tools' needed to turn them into supersoldiers - they just need a hormonal push.

The research is reported today in the journal Science. Authors Dr Rajendhran Rajakumar, from McGill University, Canada, and colleagues wrote: 'We uncovered an ancestral development potential to produce a novel supersoldier subcaste that has been retained throughout a hyperdiverse ant genus that evolved 35 to 60 million years ago.' The results suggest that holding on to ancestral development toolkits may play an important role in evolving new physical traits, say the researchers.

At this point, there are several major European nations that are on the verge of default, the European financial system is overflowing with debt and toxic assets, and most major European banks are leveraged about as badly as Lehman Brothers was when it collapsed. Most Americans simply do not grasp the gravity of what is happening. Just because the Dow is sitting above 12000 and a few US economic numbers have improved slightly does not mean that everything is going to be okay.

As I wrote about recently, the EU has a bigger economy than we do and they have a bigger banking system than we do. US banks are massively exposed to European sovereign debt and European banking debt. When the financial system of Europe collapses and the euro falls apart it is going to rock the entire planet. So you better look out below - the euro is coming down and it is coming down hard. After the euro implodes, nothing is ever going to be the same again.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out what is happening in Europe.

The equation is simple:

BRUTAL AUSTERITY...

+ toxic levels of government debt

+ rising bond yields

+ a lack of confidence in the financial system

+ banks that are massively overleveraged

+ a massive credit crunch

= A FINANCIAL IMPLOSION OF HISTORIC PROPORTIONS

"It is essential that we colonise space. I believe that we will eventually establish self-sustaining colonies on Mars, and other bodies in the solar system, although probably not within the next 100 years. "I am optimistic that progress within science and technology will eventually allow humans to spread beyond the solar system and out into the far-reaches of the universe," he said. Professor Hawking was answering questions submitted by listeners to BBC Radio 4's Today programme to mark his seventieth birthday.

But if man should meet alien life on its journey into space, the consequences for humanity could be grave, Prof Hawking warned. "The discovery of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe would be the greatest scientific discovery ever. But it would be very risky to attempt to communicate with an alien civilisation. If aliens decided to visit us, then the outcome might be similar to when Europeans arrived in the Americas. That did not turn out well for the Native Americans." He said he did not believe the results of the CERN experiments which appeared to show particles travelling faster than the speed of light - in defiance of the known laws of physics.

"Einstein's theory of relativity predicts that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. Thus if the Opera experiment is correct, and neutrinos do travel faster than light, then relativity theory is wrong."

A listener from Lagos asked Hawking, Britain's most celebrated physicist, whether there "was a time when there was nothing". "The origin of the universe can be explained by the laws of physics, without any need for miracles or divine intervention," replied the professor, who uses a speech synthesizer due to his debilitating Motor Neurone Disease. "These laws predict that the universe was spontaneously created out of nothing in a rapidly expanding state. It's called inflation, because it's like the way prices go up at an ever increasing rate. Time is defined only with the universe, so it makes no sense to talk about the time before the universe began. It would be like asking for a point south of the south pole."

Congressman Randy Neugebauer, who chairs an investigative panel of the House Financial Services Committee, sent letters to Moody's Corp Chief Executive Raymond McDaniel and Standard & Poor's Ratings Services President Douglas Peterson asking for detailed information about their procedures for determining MF Global's credit-worthiness. In letters dated December 27, Neugebauer asked each of the rating agencies to respond to his inquiries into the matter by January 15 and to turn over a lengthy list of documents concerning bankrupt futures brokerage MF Global.

The subcommittee is also seeking to hold a hearing in the coming weeks on the role of the ratings firms in the MF Global mess, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The Wall Street Journal first reported about the congressional inquiry. MF Global filed for bankruptcy on October 31 after it was forced to reveal that it had made a $6.3 billion bet on European sovereign debt, spooking investors and customers.

Downgrades of MF Global's debt rating by Moody's to near-junk status on October 24 helped trigger the panic among investors. Moody's and Fimalac SA's Fitch Ratings later both downgraded MF Global to junk on October 27. McGraw-Hill Cos Inc's S&P, meanwhile, warned of a possible downgrade on October 26, but did not take any rating action until after MF Global filed for bankruptcy.

"If the common currency were to break down, it will lead to the break up of the European Union itself. And this will be catastrophic not only for Europe but also for the global financial system." The euro zone crisis is "more serious and more threatening than the crash of 2008," the Economic Times reported, quoting Soros.

In the near term, some of the euro zone countries may have to take more austerity measures because of the imbalances between the "creditor and the debtor countries," Soros said at a business school event, the Mint newspaper reported. "Unfortunately, they haven't yet solved the acute financial crisis and that is causing the situation to deteriorate... and (it) is not at all clear it will have a solution," he said.

Nigeria has recently experienced a surge in ethnic and sectarian violence. The government declared a state of emergency in parts of the country. "The attackers started shooting sporadically. They shot through the window of the church, and many people were killed including my wife," Mr Jauro told Reuters news agency. "Many members who attended the church service were also injured."

No group has said it carried out the attack, but the Islamist sect Boko Haram recently carried out a string of bombings on Christmas Day, including against a church in the capital, Abuja, which killed dozens of people. There have been unconfirmed reports that Boko Haram has told all southerners - who are mostly Christians and animists - to leave the largely Muslim north. Earlier on Thursday, two suspected members of Boko Haram were arrested after a father and son were killed in Maiduguri in neighbouring Borno state.

In unrelated violence on Sunday, at least 50 people died in the eastern state of Ebony in clashes between two ethnic groups over a land dispute.

Described as "The Iron Lady of Banking", she is one of 120 Tory MPs in the Fresh Start group, which has drawn up a list of functions that should be handed back to the UK by the European Union. They could include control of employment laws, health and safety measures, farming and funding for poor areas. The group, whose demands will be set out in an alternative White Paper in July, are keen to increase pressure on the Prime Minister despite welcoming his decision not to back an EU treaty designed to rescue the ailing euro.

The move is likely to increase Coalition tensions because the Liberal Democrats are keen for closer relations with Europe. Mr Clegg added to the row yesterday when he said that no one had planned for the possibility of the UK being left isolated following Mr Cameron's veto against the eurozone treaty. Mr Clegg said: "The dangers are that other countries will do things in a way that is not particularly helpful to us as a country when we have not got a proper influence or a good voice."

Speaking before Mr Clegg made his comments, Ms Leadsom, MP for South Northamptonshire and joint chairman of the Fresh Start group, said: "The eurozone crisis is going to be a catalyst for change and a chance to ensure a better relationship for Britain within the EU." She said the Liberal Democrats could not have a veto on repatriating powers, pointing out that the coalition Agreement did not allow for it. She added: "We must seize the opportunity now. We must get on with it.

"Some Lib Dems might not like David Cameron's use of the veto but the coalition is not going to break up over this." Top of the list of Fresh Start demands would be an EU rule allowing member states to opt out of Brussels directives whenever they have a change of government. That would allow the coalition to end the maximum 48-hour week under the EU's working time directive that was agreed when Labour was in power.

Franz Herrmann, head of the German Association of Savers (BDS), has spent half a century trying to be a good investor. As a child, he filled piggy banks and, as an adolescent, he put money away in his savings account. Later came a building loan contract, in addition to 12 life insurance policies. "Money attracts money," his father liked to tell him, quoting a German saying. "I was hardwired for saving money," Hermann explains.

At 52, he says he figured out "what's going on." He'd earned money through his business selling beer steins and jewelry in Munich's city center. But he became convinced that he'd actually lost money through his savings efforts and cancelled his insurance policies, while the small interest earnings from his remaining savings accounts were "eaten up by inflation," he says. To fight back, Herrmann formed the BDS. Now he makes appearances around the country, warning of "money-destroying instruments." He's certain that saving is "state-sanctioned robbery."

Becoming poorer by saving? As radical as Herrmann's perspective may sound, a growing number of people share his mistrust. They no longer believe in the rates of return promised by the financial industry, while savings and fixed deposit accounts yield pathetic interest earnings, and the never-ending euro crisis feeds fears of inflation or even a currency devaluation. Surveys by the polling institutes TNA Infratest and Allensbach reflect the current crisis of faith in Germany: Nearly half of the respondents now fear inflation, while every second person with a job questions which form of private investment even makes sense anymore.

The man standing in the elegant counter hall of the Pro Aurum gold dealing house in Berlin begs to differ. The zookeeper looks - and smells - a little out of place amid the gold bars arrayed behind reinforced glass. He's just come from mucking out stables at Berlin Zoo. All these unsecured loans are like toothpaste, the man said. "You can get it out of the tube, but it won't go back in." Politicians are only making the final bankruptcy more likely by shelling out ever higher sums and setting up new rescue funds, he says. That's why he has converted his and his wife's life insurance and almost all their cash reserves into precious metal. "No one can take my gold away," he says. The greater the public fear, the longer the queues in front of the Pro Aurum counters. Gold is seen as crisis-proof.

These war games involve the testing of Israel's air defense system, which is now fully integrated into the US global missile detection system, following the installation (December 2008) of a new sophisticated X-band early warning radar system. The US global missile detection system includes satellites, Aegis ships in the Mediterranean, Persian Gulf and Red Sea as well as land-based Patriot radars and interceptors. In the context of planning the US-Israel Spring war games:

"The US will also bring its THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) and shipbased Aegis ballistic missile defense systems to Israel to simulate the interception of missile salvos against Israel. The American systems will work in conjunction with Israel's missile defense systems - the Arrow, Patriot and Iron Dome. Gorenc came to Israel for talks with Brigadier-General Doron Gavish, commander of the Air Force's Air Defense Division. He toured one of the Iron Dome batteries in the South and the Israel Test Bed lab in Holon where the IAF holds its interception simulation exercises.

Tehran has since 2005 warned that it will retaliate if attacked, in the form of ballistic missile strikes directed against Israel as well as against US military facilities in the Persian Gulf, which would immediately lead us into a scenario of military escalation. This war would engulf a region extending from the Mediterranean to the heartland of Central Asia. It would have devastating consequences, resulting in a massive loss of life.

It would precipitate humanity into a World War III scenario.

Hundreds of other scroungers are understood to have raked in similar sums to allow them to live in properties that most hard-working families could never dream of inhabiting. Britain's biggest Housing Benefit claims were laid bare in figures released by local councils following a Freedom of Information investigation. The record accommodation bills for the taxpayer were notched up in the final year before the Government imposed a 500-pounds-a-week cap on Housing Benefit claims.

The 2,050-pounds-a-week rental bill would pay for a lavish four-bedroom town house in St John's Wood, an area popular with multi-millionaires, celebrities and rock stars. Three other families had London rental bills of 2,000 pounds a week paid through Housing Benefit to allow them to live in Camden and Mayfair. Last night the figures ignited a new wave of anger at the 20 billion pounds a year cost of Housing Benefit.

Tory MP Anne Main said: "This is a staggering amount of money and it shows that the benefit system has been in desperate need of reform. These claimants are enjoying levels of luxury that most working people, even on fairly high salaries, cannot dream of." Gavin Barwell, another Tory backbencher, added: "It is absolutely outrageous that people on benefits should be able to live in housing that the vast majority of hard-working families cannot afford."

But Labour and some campaign groups claim the cap is forcing families onto the streets.

An Iranian blockade by means of mining, airstrikes or sabotage is logistically well within Tehran's military capabilities. But despite rising tensions with the West, including a tentative ban on European imports of Iranian oil announced Wednesday, Iran is unlikely to take such hostile action, according to most Middle East political experts.

United States officials say the Navy's Fifth Fleet, based in nearby Bahrain, stands ready to defend the shipping route and, if necessary, retaliate militarily against Iran. Iran's own shaky economy relies on exporting at least two million barrels of oil a day through the strait, which is the only sea route from the Persian Gulf and "the world's most important oil choke point," according to Energy Department analysts.

A blockade would also punish China, Iran's most important oil customer and a major recipient of Persian Gulf oil. China has invested heavily in Iranian oil fields and has opposed Western efforts to sanction Iran over its nuclear program. Despite such deterrents to armed confrontation, oil and foreign policy analysts say a miscalculation is possible that could cause an overreaction from one side or the other.

"I fear we may be blundering toward a crisis nobody wants," said Helima Croft, senior geopolitical strategist at Barclays Capital. "There is a peril of engaging in brinkmanship from all sides."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were yesterday edging towards a deal for a swingeing EU-wide financial transaction tax, despite fierce opposition from Britain. Sources in the French government said the two will discuss "rapid implementation" of the levy next Monday. Jean Leonetti, French minister for Europe, claimed it will be in force "by the end of the year".

The latest plotting triggered fury at Westminster amid fears the levy could penalise the City of London and lead to up to 500,000 job cuts in the UK. It will add to the growing support for the Daily Express crusade to get Britain out of the EU. Downing Street also warned that the Prime Minister could be forced to wield Britain's EU veto for a second time to block the plan. One senior source close to Mr Cameron said: "Our position hasn't changed. They cannot impose it on us, and we wouldn't accept it."

A refusal by EU leaders to guarantee protection for the City of London ignited a massive row at a Brussels summit on the euro crisis last month, culminating in Mr Cameron vetoing a proposed EU treaty shake-up. Chancellor Merkel has since been desperately seeking to mend fences with Britain. But the row erupted again yesterday when the French Government confirmed that the issue will be on the agenda for an informal EU summit in Brussels at the end of this month.

Mr Leonetti said: "This is on the programme for the next summit. Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel have decided on this and it will be put in place before the end of 2012." The tax had previously been earmarked for launch in 2013. He claimed that all EU member nations except Britain and Sweden had backed the plan for the levy - known as the Tobin Tax after the economist James Tobin who devised it in 1972. Euro-sceptics last night urged Mr Cameron not to surrender to the latest threat to British business.

On the Jewish calendar, this Thursday is the tenth day in the Hebrew month of Tevet - the anniversary of the date on which the Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar began his deadly siege of Jerusalem in the year 425 BCE. We mark the day by fasting from just before sunrise, until nightfall, and add the Selichot and other special supplements including a special Torah reading to the daily set of prayers. It is one of four fast days commemmorating the stages of the destruction of the First and Second Holy Temples.

Two other sad events were recorded by the Talmudic sages as having occurred on the tenth of Tevet, one the death of Ezra the Scribe who led the revival of Jewish adherence to the Torah when the Jews returned from Babylon to build the Second Temple. The other event is the translation of the Torah into Greek, known as the Septuagint, considered an event to mourn as well. Israel's Chief Rabbinate connected current Jewish mourning to the date and designated the Tenth of Tevet to serve as a "general Kaddish day" for victims of the Holocaust, many of whom were murdered on dates lost in time, and whose day of martyrdom is thus unknown.

It took Nebuchadnezzar 30 months to breach Jerusalem's thick stone walls, but he finally managed it on the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Tammuz, in the year 586 BCE. Only one month later, on Tisha B'Av - the ninth of Av - the Holy Temple was destroyed for the first time, and the Jewish People were sent out into exile to Babylonia for the next 70 years. The prophet Jeremiah wrote Lamentations to memorialize the tragedy. The Second Temple was built when the Jews were allowed to return by Cyrus the Great and destroyed in 70 CE by the Romans, also on the 9th of Av. Remnants of the Holy Temples still remain - one outside retaining wall of the Second Temple is today referred to as the Western Wall, or the Kotel, or Wailing Wall - the place where Jews weep for its destruction.

The Islamic clerics who now inhabit the area, and deliver sermons in the Al Aqsa mosque built on the site, periodically express their intense fear of the day that a Third Holy Temple will rise from the site, and make enormous efforts to prevent at all costs the possibility that the Jews will help bring this about. Words of inspiration and arousal to repentance are delivered on fast days by prominent rabbis in Jewish communities around the world. They urge their followers to reflect on the tragic events of our history and to be motivated, encouraged and inspired to improve their ways in order to shape events to bring a better future and the rebuilding of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

The ECB also revealed that 15 billion euros had been used from its emergency lending facility overnight on Tuesday, following 14.8 billion euros borrowed the previous day. Bank stocks retreated from a stronger start to the new year after the Italian bank UniCredit attempted to entice investors to back a 7.5 billion euros cash call by offering a big discount on the existing price of its shares.

"Interbank funding markets are getting more credit crunched, not less," said Louise Cooper, markets analyst at BCG Partners. Referring to the deposits at the ECB, she said: "This shows how much fear there is still in the wholesale markets - that banks prefer to accept only 0.25% interest rate on their cash rather than lending it out at higher rates to other banks."

"Central banks are having to fund banks themselves because so many credit, wholesale and rates markets are not functioning normally and it is getting worse... Equity markets may have started 2012 with a strong start, but as far as the wholesale funding markets are concerned, the world is still a scary place."

The florint fell more than 1% to a record low against the euro and bond yields soared over 10%. The Hungarian government, which has defied Brussels by introducing a raft of radical constitutional reforms, called off its plans to swap old debt for new because it would be too expensive. Traders, already rattled by the advancing eurozone debt crisis, including a drastically discounted rights issue by UniCredit, were unnerved by the emergence of a new front in central Europe. France's CAC index fell 1.6%, while Germany's Dax and the FTSE 100 dropped 0.6% each.

Elsewhere, Spain's banks will be required to find an extra 50 billion euros in provisions against potential losses from devalued property, as reported in the Financial Times. "These events can have a habit of sparking up from being 'too local and too small' for major players to care about to sudden more unpredictable eruptions of risk contagion," 4Cast analysts said in a note.

Benoit Anne, of Societe Generale, said in a note: "We are very near boiling point in Hungary with a crisis that may escalate into something much more serious than a simple macroeconomic crisis... The EU is extremely concerned about the latest political developments and the potential EU response will - no doubt - be harmful to investor confidence." Hungary, which must roll over nearly 5 billion euros of external debt this year, is due in February to start repaying a loan to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that saved the country from financial collapse in 2008.

Borrowing costs rose in other central European countries today including Poland and Czech Republic. There are also fears about the exposure of European banks to Hungarian debt, particularly Austrian and Italian institutions.