Last night the MoD denied this was a response to a "new threat alert". A spokesman said: "This is still a police-led operation and we are providing no more in terms of security than what had been originally planned." However, a security consultant, who made a comprehensive risk assessment of the London site last month, said: "We are extremely aware of the issue of missing missiles from Libya."

More than 10,000 shoulder-mounted missiles are still unaccounted for after the chaos that led to the toppling of Gaddafi in October. Egyptian authorities have already captured five groups of smugglers taking Libyan weapons toward the border with Israel. Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said security for the Games will include 13,500 soldiers who will be supported by armed plainclothes special forces and snipers.

More important is the placing of HMS Ocean on the Thames at Greenwich. Ocean will carry a contingent of Royal Marines and special forces and support sniper-carrying Lynx helicopters. It is fitted with Siren, which uses a variety of jamming techniques against missiles.

He suffered a stroke in 2008 and was absent from public view for months. Pyongyang described his son Kim Jong-un as the "great successor" and urged North Koreans to unite behind him. "All party members, military men and the public should faithfully follow the leadership of comrade Kim Jong-un and protect and further strengthen the unified front of the party, military and the public," North Korea's state-run news agency, KCNA, said.

Lucy Williamson, BBC News, Seoul, reports: Kim Jong-il's death leaves a hole in the communist state that is difficult for outsiders to understand. As only the country's second leader and the son of its founder, Kim Jong-il was more than just a national figurehead. State propaganda elevated him to a demi-god, credited with superhuman powers of wisdom, leadership and military prowess. Now that focus has moved to his younger son, Kim Jong-un. He has been publicly positioned as his father's successor for just over a year. But this is perhaps the toughest test of North Korea's stability.

If we do not educate the American people about how deathly ill the US economy has become, then they will just keep falling for the same old lies that our politicians keep telling them. Just "tweaking" things here and there is not going to fix this economy. We truly do need a fundamental change in direction. America is consuming far more wealth than it is producing and our debt is absolutely exploding. If we stay on this current path, an economic collapse is inevitable. Hopefully the crazy economic numbers from 2011 that I have included in this article will be shocking enough to wake some people up.

At this time of the year, a lot of families get together, and in most homes the conversation usually gets around to politics at some point. Hopefully many of you will use the list below as a tool to help you share the reality of the US economic crisis with your family and friends. If we all work together, hopefully we can get millions of people to wake up and realize that "business as usual" will result in a national economic apocalypse.

The following are 50 economic numbers from 2011 that are almost too crazy to believe....

#1 A staggering 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty.

#2 Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be "low income" or impoverished.

#3 If the number of Americans that "wanted jobs" was the same today as it was back in 2007, the "official" unemployment rate put out by the US government would be up to 11 percent.

#4 The average amount of time that a worker stays unemployed in the United States is now over 40 weeks.

#5 One recent survey found that 77 percent of all US small businesses do not plan to hire any more workers.

See full list - http://www.blacklistednews.com/50_Economic_Numbers_From_2011_That_Are_Almost_Too_Crazy_To_Believe/17054/0/38/38/Y/M.html

Of course the heart of our economic problems is the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve is a perpetual debt machine, it has almost completely destroyed the value of the US dollar and it has an absolutely nightmarish track record of incompetence. If the Federal Reserve system had never been created, the US economy would be in far better shape. The federal government needs to shut down the Federal Reserve and start issuing currency that is not debt-based. That would be a very significant step toward restoring prosperity to America.

During 2011 we made a lot of progress in educating the American people about our economic problems, but we still have a long way to go. Hopefully next year more Americans than ever will wake up, because 2012 is going to represent a huge turning point for this country.

Officials said many bodies remained unclaimed, suggesting entire families had been swept away. The flash floods were triggered by a tropical storm that coincided with high tides, trapping many in their homes. The major ports of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan were among the areas worst hit on Friday night. Almost 35,000 people were still sheltering in evacuation centres on Sunday, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said.

The Philippine National Red Cross puts the current death toll at 521 with about 370 people reported missing. Red Cross Secretary General Gwendolyn Pang said at least 239 people had died in Cagayan de Oro and 195 in nearby Iligan. The rest died in several other southern and central provinces, she added. Many of the bodies were unclaimed after nearly 24 hours, she said, suggesting that entire families had died.

"The affected area is so wide and huge and I believe they have not really gone to all areas to do a search," she said. "This thing happened so fast, it was very overwhelming." The navy joined the search for those who had been swept out to sea. About 60 people were reported to have been plucked from the ocean off El Salvador city, about six miles (10km) north-west of Cagayan de Oro.

The message laments that "some currents of modern culture, built upon rationalist and individualist economic principles, have cut off the concept of justice from its transcendent roots, detaching it from charity and solidarity." Authentic education, Benedict writes, teaches the proper use of freedom with "respect for oneself and others, including those whose way of being and living differs greatly from one's own."

Peace-making requires education not only in the values of compassion and solidarity, but in the importance of wealth redistribution, the "promotion of growth, cooperation for development and conflict resolution," Benedict writes. The pope also calls on political leaders to "ensure that no one is ever denied access to education."

The message was presented on Friday by officials of the Vatican's Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace. The same body published a controversial document in October blaming the world's economic and financial crisis on an "economic liberalism that spurns rules and controls," and calling for global regulation of the financial industry and the international money supply.

Number 10 said Mr Clegg was "absolutely right", and remarks from the French were "not helpful in any way." Meanwhile, UK officials are to join continuing eurozone talks despite Prime Minister David Cameron's veto of an EU-wide treaty change involving all states. Mr Baroin's comments came after the chairman of the French central bank, Christian Noyer, suggested on Thursday that Britain was a candidate for a downgrade ahead of France, amid fears in Paris that France might lose its triple-A rating.

The French prime minister, Mr Fillon, raised similar concerns during a visit to Brazil. "When I look at our British friends, who are even more indebted than us and carrying a bigger deficit, what I see is that the ratings agencies so far don't seem to have noticed," he said on Thursday.

Andrew Tyrie, Conservative MP and chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, said the remarks by senior French figures were "a reflection of the great nervousness around". "We have been watching the slow-motion train crash about to happen for some time," he told BBC Radio 4's World at One. "The plain fact is we have all got an interest in seeing an orderly resolution in all this. Trying to distract attention to other countries' problems is not going to help anyone."

Since January 1, the number of cows in Texas has dropped by about 600,000, a 12 percent decline from the roughly 5 million cows the state had at the beginning of the year, said David Anderson, who monitors beef markets for the Texas AgriLife Extension Service. That's likely the largest drop in the number of cows any state has ever seen, though Texas had a larger percentage decline from 1934 to 1935, when ranchers were reeling from the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, Anderson said.

Anderson said many cows were moved "somewhere there's grass," but lots of others were slaughtered. He said that in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana and Arkansas, about 200,000 more cattle were slaughtered this year, a 20 percent increase over last year. That extra supply could help meet increased demand from China and other countries, but the loss of cows likely will mean fewer cattle in future years.

"Consumers are going to pay more because we're going to have less beef," Anderson said. "Fewer cows, calves, less beef production and increasing exports."

The deputy prime minister, in a speech to the Demos thinktank, will also take issue with Cameron's defining idea of a "big society" based upon the institutions of marriage, the family, the church and voluntary organisations. After a week dominated by his rift with Cameron over Europe, Clegg's latest attempt to assert his political philosophy and set out his differences with the prime minister will infuriate Tory MPs - many of whom privately doubt whether the Tory-Lib Dem coalition can last a full five-year term.

The intervention comes after Cameron, in a speech on Saturday, stressed the importance of religious faith as a force for good in society, saying it provided people with "a moral code" upon which to run their lives. Stressing the Lib Dems' "progressive" credentials, Clegg will make clear that his party would never support Tory plans for tax breaks for married couples - an idea he said was the product of a party that failed to notice social changes until well after they had happened. "The institutions of our society are constantly evolving," Clegg will say. "Just look at the way the roles of men and women, and attitudes to marriage and divorce, have changed over the last century."

"We should not take a particular version of the family institution, such as the 1950s model of the suit-wearing, bread-winning dad and aproned, homemaking mother, and try to preserve it in aspic." Instead, he will back his own vision of an "open society" where power is vested in people rather than state or social institutions, and married people are not placed on a moral pedestal.

The violence - witnessed by a Reuters journalist - marred the first free election most Egyptians can remember and highlighted the tensions in Egypt 10 months after a popular revolt toppled President Hosni Mubarak. Shots were fired in the air and television footage showed soldiers pulling down protester tents and setting them on fire. The army assault followed skirmishes between protesters some of them had been throwing stones near fire brigade vehicles trying to douse a burning building.

Army-appointed prime minister, Kamal al-Ganzouri, blamed the violence on the crowds, accusing them of attacking the cabinet and parliament buildings which had to be defended by security forces. He confirmed the death and injury toll in which one of those killed was a respected Muslim religious scholar, Emad Effat. Ganzouri claimed 30 security guards were injured and 18 people had gunshot wounds, as soldiers tried to end the three-week sit-in outside the parliament building. Inside officials counted votes there from the second round of the country's free parliamentary elections.

It's the latest development in this extraordinary tale of intrigue, with a Christian Science Monitor report citing a 2003 document suggesting the GPS weakness was long known to the US military. The RQ-170 Sentinel has been seen on display by Iran's gloating military after it went missing along the Afghan-Iran border earlier this month - but a former Pentagon official said it seems to be a fake.

However the engineer working on the CIA drone's system told the Christian Science Monitor that his country fooled the aircraft into touching down in Iran - instead of its programmed destination. The engineer claimed the electronic attack made it 'land on its own where we wanted it to, without having to crack the remote-control signals and communications' from the US control centre.

'The GPS navigation is the weakest point,' he told the CS Monitor. 'By putting noise (jamming) on the communications, you force the bird into autopilot. This is where the bird loses its brain.' The CS Monitor highlighted a report in 2003 - GPS Spoofing Countermeasures - from Los Alamos National Laboratory that appeared to warn of the type of attack claimed by the Iranian engineer. 'A more pernicious attack involves feeding the GPS receiver fake signals so that it believes it is located somewhere in space and time that it is not,' the report states.

But a former Pentagon official, who does not wish to be named, claimed the drone looks like a fake.

It is the wrong colour and the welding along the wing joints does not appear to conform to the stealth design that helps it avoid radar detection, he said. He questioned why the landing gear was covered up when displayed by the Iranian military.

Benedict turns 85 in the new year, so a slowdown is only natural. Expected. And given his age and continued rigorous work schedule, it's remarkable he does as much as he does and is in such good health overall: Just this past week he confirmed he would travel to Mexico and Cuba next spring.

But a decline has been noted as Benedict prepares for next weekend's grueling Christmas celebrations, which kick off two weeks of intense public appearances. And that raises questions about the future of the papacy given that Benedict himself has said popes should resign if they can't do the job.

Vatican spokesman the Reverend Federico Lombardi has said no medical condition prompted the decision to use the moving platform in St Peter's, and that it's merely designed to spare the pontiff the fatigue of the 100 meter walk to and from the main altar. Back at home, however, it seems the daily grind of being pope - the audiences with visiting heads of state, the weekly public catechism lessons, the sessions with visiting bishops - has taken its toll. A spark is gone. He doesn't elaborate off-the-cuff much anymore, and some days he just seems wiped out.

He said "live and let live" had too often become "do what you please". The PM said it was wrong to suggest that standing up for Christianity was "somehow doing down other faiths". Describing himself as a "committed" but only "vaguely practising" Christian, the PM admitted he was "full of doubts" about big theological issues.

But he staunchly defended the role of religion in politics and said the Bible in particular was crucial to British values. "We are a Christian country and we should not be afraid to say so," he told the audience at Christ Church. "Let me be clear: I am not in any way saying that to have another faith - or no faith - is somehow wrong."

"I know and fully respect that many people in this country do not have a religion. And I am also incredibly proud that Britain is home to many different faith communities, who do so much to make our country stronger. But what I am saying is that the Bible has helped to give Britain a set of values and morals which make Britain what it is today."

And he staunchly defended the role of religion in politics and said the Bible in particular was crucial to British values. But how have the comments been received across the UK?

The Anglican Church - The Church of England was contacted for a response but said it would prefer not to comment. However, Reverend Sally Hitchiner, vicar at St John's Church in Ealing, expressed surprise at how strongly Mr Cameron made his case. She told Sky News: "I think he was saying - in much stronger terms than even I would put - that Christianity is fundamentally important and needs to stay fundamentally important."

President of the National Secular Society, Terry Sanderson - "Mr Cameron's promotion of faith for other people when his own is so wishy-washy is typical of a politician who thinks religion is a useful means of social control. But you cannot force people to believe what they have reasoned to be untrue. Nor will they be convinced that religion is the only route to morality. The daily headlines from around the world have shown that religion can be a thousand times more destructive than any rioter in Tottenham."

British Humanist Association chief executive Andrew Copson - "As a simple factual statement what the prime minister said is incorrect - only a minority of people in Britain are practising Christians and over half of the population sees itself as non-religious according to the latest British Social Attitudes survey. The most hopeful political reading of his speech is that Mr Cameron doesn't really mean it and that his statements are intended as a way to pacify the increasingly strident lobbying of a minority of Christians for more influence in our public life and greater privilege for those with Christian beliefs. Most concerning would be if the prime minister were serious. A politician and a government that tried to make Christianity and Christian beliefs the foundation of British values or a social morality would be building on seriously unstable foundations. All the evidence is that religion makes no difference in terms of a person's social and moral behaviour."

Muslim Council of Britain member and imam from Leicester, Sheikh Ibrahim Mogra - "It's very seldom I get excited by what our prime minister has to say and this is one of those times. As Muslims we also believe in the Bible. We believe in the teachings of Jesus. Not only that, but in the teachings of all the biblical prophets, including Moses in the Torah. So this is something that we feel is absolutely in tune with the Muslim thinking. We have to base our behaviour according to scripture, God's revealed message. For a long time Muslims have been trying to express this idea, that for us as Muslims Islam is not just a religion but a way of life. To divorce politics from religion is not something we are able to do, we cannot leave our religion at home or in the mosques, it comes with us wherever we go. So it's refreshing to hear the prime minister say Christians should do the same. I agree Britain is the best country for Muslims to live in, at least in Europe."

At the peak of the operation there were 170,000 US troops and more than 500 bases in Iraq. Nearly 4,500 US soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis have died since the US-led campaign began in 2003. The operation has cost Washington nearly $1 trillion (643 billion pounds).

Jim Muir - BBC News, Baghdad - writes: US troops have trained up Iraqi security forces which, if they stick together, can arguably contain the internal security situation, still stubbornly jammed at a level of violence which kills on average around 350 people every month. But security has to be rooted in political stability, and that's only one of many challenges immediately facing Iraq.

Even as the final US troops were heading for the border, a political crisis was erupting in Baghdad, with deputies from Ayyad Allawi's Iraqiyya block pulling out of parliament. There is turmoil in two mainly Sunni provinces, which want to declare themselves autonomous regions like the Kurds in the north. There's also a widespread conviction that with the Americans gone, Iranian influence will spread. While most Iraqis believe it was high time for the Americans to go, many are deeply worried about the challenges that lie ahead.

Their studies collated the relative worth of potential new currencies five years after a theoretical collapse of the Euro. Our charts show ING's forecast for 2012 based on their assumption of a dollar to sterling rate of 1.42. For 2016 the chart shows the average of their forecasts, converted to ING's guess of a dollar to sterling rate of 1.5. ING sees an immediate fall in currencies in 2012, which is shown in the red bars, and a recovery over the four years running up to 2016. ING predicts that most of the new currencies will not reach Euro exchange rates, except for Germany which would see its currency appreciate by four per cent.

The weakest nations inside the Eurozone would rapidly devalue against sterling by 2016, with a new Greek drachma worth at least 44 per cent less against sterling by 2016, the Portugese escudo worth 28 per cent less and the Spanish peseta worth nearly 24 per cent less. Both forecasters believe it would be a far from smooth ride if the Euro collapsed. There would be enormous uncertainty after a possible Euro collapse, with currencies liable to overshoot and be subject to high volatility. In ING's complete break-up scenario, governments decide to convert all assets and liabilities into their new national currencies. Capital controls like transaction taxes are temporarily introduced in an effort to stop money leaving weaker members.

New notes and coins are introduced as quickly as possible, but in the transition Euro notes would likely be stamped to mark them as the new national currencies, and strict legal tender limits would be put on coins. In the Eurozone ING sees GDP output falls ranging from seven per cent in Germany to 13 per cent in Greece. The Nomura team base their analysis on current real exchange rate misalignments and possible future inflation risk.