Last month, THE SWISS VOTED TO BAN MINARETS. Now, it may be Europe's turn. Just a few weeks after Swiss citizens decided in a referendum to ban the further construction of minarets, A RIGHT-WING GROUP IN GERMANY is running a similar anti-mosque campaign to gain votes ahead of the state election in May 2010.

According to an article in the German daily Die Welt, the North Rhine-Westphalia group Pro NRW -- an outgrowth of the anti-Muslim right-wing group Pro Cologne -- hopes to unite other European right-wing associations behind the campaign against Muslim prayer houses.

"We will run a state election campaign that is decidedly critical of Islam. We will use the posters from the Swiss minaret ban," Markus Wiener, general secretary of Pro NRW, told Die Welt. "WE SEE THE CONSTRUCTION OF MOSQUES AS AN AGGRESSIVE AND POWERFUL SYMBOL OF A MUSLIM CONQUEST," he added.

The pilgrimage, which will include guided tours of the area throughout the morning, will also be a litmus test for the shaky calm that has prevailed in Jerusalem's Old City since October, when rumors of a "Jewish takeover" of the mount sparked fierce clashes between Arab rioters and security forces in and around the sensitive holy site and in various neighborhoods of east Jerusalem.

The rumors were fueled in part by calls at the time, from a number of Knesset members and prominent national-religious rabbis, THAT JEWS ASCEND TO THE TEMPLE MOUNT WITH INCREASED VIGOR. Those calls were portrayed, in turn, by Palestinian clerics as nefarious plans to invade the site or build a synagogue there.

The mount, which was the location of both the First and Second Jewish Temples from 960 BCE until 70 AD, is also home to the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aksa Mosque, which is considered the third-holiest shrine in Islam.

The consumer prices index jumped to a higher than expected 1.9 per cent in November, up from 1.5 per cent the previous month, due largely to the rise in fuel prices. The Bank has warned that WE WILL SEE A RISE IN INFLATION EARLY NEXT YEAR, not least because VAT will be raised back to 17.5 per cent in January. THE FULL EFFECTS OF THE FALL IN STERLING HAVE NOT YET WORKED THROUGH EITHER.

Economists think inflation could go above 3 per cent — compared with the Bank's target of 2 per cent — forcing the Governor to write to the Chancellor explaining the overshoot. But Mervyn King has indicated that the Bank will "look through" what it believes is a temporary spike caused by the swing in oil prices and will not feel compelled to raise interest rates in response. IT FORECASTS THAT INFLATION WILL BE BACK WELL BELOW 2 PER CENT BY THE END OF THE YEAR.

UN climate chief Yvo de Boer says Hedegaard will continue to lead informal talks but Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen will now be the formal head of the conference. Hedegaard said the move was procedural and that it was appropriate for Loekke Rasmussen to preside with so many heads of state and government taking part.

Hedegaard was appointed climate minister in 2004 and has been criticized by African nations for favoring rich nations in the climate negotiations.

To a chorus of boos, a man dressed as a polar bear entered Copenhagen's main conference center Tuesday and began paging the discredited climate scientist whose hacked e-mails sparked the Climate-Gate scandal. Using a megaphone to pierce the rumble of hundreds gathered inside the Bella Center, which is hosting the city's global climate summit, the polar bear boomed out: "PHIL JONES??? HAS ANYONE SEEN PHIL JONES???" Jones, who stepped down from his leading academic post amid swirling scandal earlier this month, has reportedly skipped the climate conference entirely. BUT HIS SHADOW AND HIS WORDS COULD AFFECT ITS OUTCOME.

It was Jones who, in an e-mail to a colleague, wrote of using a "trick" to "hide the decline" of data indicating global warming from the 1980s and onward. That e-mail and thousands of others were posted online in November, and have since been taken as evidence by skeptics to claim global warming is a scam. One of those skeptics was the man behind the bear suit: Phelim McAleer, a journalist and filmmaker who last year produced "Not Evil Just Wrong," which disputes many of the assertions made in former Vice President Al Gore's documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth."

McAleer, a persistent critic of Gore's film, frequently attends public events and venues to question and discuss the Nobel Prize-winner's position on environmental issues. McAleer has now turned his sights on Jones and the Climate-Gate scandal. When asked about the motivation behind his protest, McAleer explained his vision of a future film, a 'Roger & Me' for the climate change movement. "I wasn't getting anywhere with conventional attempts for an interview," he told FoxNews.com, "SO I DECIDED TO USE THE ENVIRONMENTALIST TRICK OF DRESSING UP AS A POLAR BEAR TO CATCH ATTENTION."

There's a serious side to McAleer's antics, of course. "PROFESSOR JONES HAS PRODUCED A LOT OF THE IPCC'S SCIENCE AND NOW HE AND THE SCIENCE IS IN QUESTION AND HE NEEDS TO ANSWER SOME SERIOUS QUESTIONS," he said. "THEY ARE SUGGESTING MASSIVE CHANGES TO OUR WAY OF LIFE — THEREFORE PROFESSOR JONES AND HIS DUBIOUS METHODS SHOULD FACE HARD QUESTIONS."

The pope's call for more environmental commitments came in his message for the Roman Catholic Church's annual World Day of Peace, to be marked on January 1 and whose theme is "IF YOU WANT TO CULTIVATE PEACE, PROTECT CREATION." The message is traditionally sent to heads of state, government and international organizations and its importance this year is more significant because its release coincided with the UN climate conference in Copenhagen.

"It is important to acknowledge that among the causes of the present ecological crisis is the historical responsibility of the industrialized countries," he said in the message. While saying that developing countries "are not exempt from their own responsibilities with regard to creation," and had a duty to gradually adopt effective environmental measures, THE BULK OF HIS CRITICISM WAS AIMED AT RICH NATIONS.

Speaking of the need for all nations to address the issue of energy resources, he said: "THIS MEANS THAT TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED SOCIETIES MUST BE PREPARED TO ENCOURAGE MORE SOBER LIFESTYLES, while reducing their energy consumption and improving its efficiency." He said no nation or people can remain indifferent to problems such as climate change, desertification, pollution, the loss of biodiversity, the increase of natural catastrophes and the deforestation of equatorial and tropical regions.

That starts a 30-day review period in Congress, but advocates expect the Democratic majority on Capitol Hill to allow the measure to become law in March. "WE ARE ON THE VERGE OF HISTORY," Councilman David Catania told a pre-vote rally Monday night. "Today's victory means a great deal, coming after marriage equality losses in New York and Maine," Joe Solmonese of the Human Rights Campaign said in an e-mail to supporters.

The vote was a bright spot for gay-rights activists who have suffered a string of recent setbacks in Maine, New York and New Jersey. If Congress sits on its hands as expected, the district will become the fourth jurisdiction, along with Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa, where gays can marry. Next month, same-sex couples in New Hampshire will be able to wed.

The warrant against Livni was withdrawn, but not before she had cancelled a planned trip to address a conference in London this week. The Israelis accused the British Government of breaking pledges to stop British courts being used to pursue Israeli politicians and generals. The Israeli foreign ministry said Britain should 'fulfill its promises to stop anti-Israel exploitation of the British courts' or risk losing its role in Middle East peacemaking.

Several senior Israeli officials have cancelled trips to London in the past after pro-Palestinian activists secured arrest warrants from British judges. Doron Almog, an Israeli general in charge of operations in Gaza during the intifada uprising, was forced to remain on a plane on the tarmac at Heathrow in 2005 to evade possible arrest if he set foot on British soil. Defence Minister and former Prime Minister Ehud Barak was also threatened with arrest when he came to meet Brown and address a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference in October.

In a statement, the Israeli foreign ministry pointed out that 'Israel and Britain are both engaged in a common struggle against the forces of international terror. In many parts of the world, British soldiers are fighting to eradicate terrorism. Israel calls on the British government to fulfill its promises, once and for all, TO ACT IN PREVENTING THE EXPLOITATION OF THE BRITISH LEGAL SYSTEM BY ANTI-ISRAEL ELEMENTS AGAINST THE STATE OF ISRAEL AND ITS CITIZENS. The absence of immediate, determined action to correct THIS ABUSE HARMS RELATIONS BETWEEN BRITAIN AND ISRAEL.'

While premier George Papandreou offered pro forma assurances at Friday's EU summit that Greece would not default on its €298bn (£268bn) debt, his words to reporters afterwards had a different flavour. "Salaried workers will not pay for this situation: we will not proceed with wage freezes or cuts. WE DID NOT COME TO POWER TO TEAR DOWN THE SOCIAL STATE," he said. Were we to believe that a country in the grip anarchist riots and prey to hard-Left unions would risk its democracy to please Brussels?

Mr Papandreou has good reason to throw the gauntlet at Europe's feet. Greece is being told to adopt an IMF-style austerity package, without the devaluation so central to IMF plans. THE PRESCRIPTION IS RUINOUS AND PATENTLY SELF-DEFEATING. Public debt is already 113pc of GDP. The Commission says it will reach 125pc by late 2010. It may top 140pc by 2012.

If Greece were to impose the draconian pay cuts under way in Ireland (5pc for lower state workers, rising to 20pc for bosses), it would deepen depression and cause tax revenues to collapse further. It is already too late for such crude policies. GREECE IS PAST THE TIPPING POINT OF A COMPOUND DEBT SPIRAL.

Mr Papandreou faces circumstances more akin to those of ARGENTINE LEADERS IN 2001, when they tried to cut wages in the mistaken belief that ditching the dollar-peg would prove calamitous. Buenos Aires erupted in riots. The police lost control, killing 27 people. President De la Rua was rescued from the Casa Rosada by an air force helicopter. THE PEG COLLAPSED, SETTING IN TRAIN THE BIGGEST SOVEREIGN DEFAULT IN HISTORY.

"THE GULF MONETARY UNION PACT HAS COME INTO EFFECT," said Kuwait's finance minister, Mustafa al-Shamali, speaking at a Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) summit in Kuwait. The move will give the hyper-rich club of oil exporters a petro-currency of their own, greatly increasing their influence in the global exchange and capital markets AND POTENTIALLY DISPLACING THE US DOLLAR as the pricing currency for oil contracts. Between them they amount to a regional superpower with a GDP of $1.2 trillion (£739bn), some 40pc of the world's proven oil reserves, and financial clout equal to that of China.

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar are to launch the first phase next year, creating a Gulf Monetary Council that will evolve quickly into a full-fledged central bank. The Emirates are staying out for now – irked that the bank will be located in Riyadh at the insistence of Saudi King Abdullah rather than in Abu Dhabi. They are expected join later, along with Oman.

THE GULF STATES REMAIN DIVIDED OVER THE WISDOM OF ANCHORING THEIR ECONOMIES TO THE US DOLLAR. The Gulf currency – dubbed "Gulfo" – is likely to track a global exchange basket and may ultimately float as a regional reserve currency in its own right. "THE US DOLLAR HAS FAILED. We need to delink," said Nahed Taher, chief executive of Bahrain's Gulf One Investment Bank.

In a sombre report on the outlook for next year, the credit rating agency raised the prospect that future tax rises and spending cuts could trigger social unrest in a range of countries from the developing to the developed world. It said that in the coming years, EVIDENCE OF SOCIAL UNREST AND PUBLIC TENSION may become just as important signs of whether a country will be able to adapt as traditional economic metrics.

Signalling that a fiscal crisis remains a possibility for a leading economy, IT SAID THAT 2010 WOULD BE A "TUMULTUOUS YEAR FOR SOVEREIGN DEBT ISSUERS". It added that the sheer quantity of debt to be raised by Britain and other leading nations would increase the risk of investor fright. Strikingly, however, it added that even if countries reached agreement on the depth of the cuts necessary to their budgets, they could face difficulties in carrying out the cuts.

The report, which comes amid growing worries about Britain's credit rating, said: "In those countries whose debt has increased significantly, and especially those whose debt has become unaffordable, the need to rein in deficits will test social cohesiveness. The test will be starker as growth disappoints and interest rates rise." It said THE MAIN OBSTACLE FOR FISCAL CONSOLIDATION PLANS would be signs not necessarily of economic strength but of "POLITICAL AND SOCIAL TENSION".

He said London will lead the way by making sure no Londoner is more than a mile from a charging point for an electric car by 2015. "WE NEED TO STOP OVERDOSING ON GLOOM and start conveying a message of optimism to people they can improve their lives and cut their CO2," he said. He warned that the public was turned off by a "miserable" message, but said measures to improve energy efficiency in homes could save people money and cut their heating bills in homes while an electric vehicle network would mean they do not have to "buy a lagoon of petrol or diesel over the lifetime of their car".

"We're never going to beat consumerism, we need to harness it, we need a new green consumerism," he said. He said CITIES WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR MORE THAN THREE QUARTERS OF EMISSIONS and it was "up to us" to make the changes to urban lifestyles, which help people save money, be greener and become healthier - such as cycling. "I think cities can break the logjam and show national governments the way to pick up the pace," he added.

The leader of the British National Party and MEP is at the international summit as a representative of the European Parliament. But he said global warming was a "hoax" DESIGNED TO IMPOSE TAX INCREASES ON THE CITIZENS of the world through putting up the price of energy. He said world leaders and advocates of action on climate change such as Al Gore are "mass murderers" by supporting biofuels.

He said LAND FOR GROWING FOOD IS BEING TAKEN TO GROW FUELS for crops and it will cause starvation greater than the famines caused by Russian dictator Stalin during the 1930s and Chairman Mao in the 1950s. "It is a crime against humanity which in future will be SEEN AS AN ENORMOUS MAN-MADE FAMINE. Under Stalin 20 million people died, under Chairman Mao 30 million died. This will be the third and the greatest famine of the modern era and I regard that as a crime."

However Mr Griffin's own party would not give more money to the Third World. "BRITAIN IS BANKRUPT. WE CANNOT AFFORD TO GO GIVING MONEY TO THE THIRD WORLD," he said. Mr Griffin has no official role at the conference but will be speaking to delegates in an attempt to "stop the juggernaut". "MY MESSAGE IS STOP AND THINK before imposing the most outrageous tax increase on people ever proposed by a group of nations ON THE BASIS OF AN UNPROVEN THEORY that is contradicted by an increasing number of scientists," he added.

One of the world's most perfectly formed volcanoes oozed lava and ash overnight, threatening to explode over a picturesque tourist town in the Philippines. "After the series of ash puffs and ash explosions of 1,000 metres, we cannot rule out a major explosion," said Cedric Daep, the head of the disaster relief operations in the eastern Bicol region. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology raised the alert level for Mayon to three on Monday after lava was seen dripping from the crater, and evacuations began immediately.

Level three means a full eruption is likely in the very near future. The scale runs from one to five, with five meaning an eruption is occurring. However the volcanology institute also said Mayon could yet calm down without an eruption. Mayon, which sits above a farming area about 200 miles south-east of Manila, has erupted 48 times since records began, claiming thousands of lives.

However, the climatologist whose work Mr Gore was relying upon dropped the former Vice-President in the water with an icy blast. "IT'S UNCLEAR TO ME HOW THIS FIGURE WAS ARRIVED AT," DR MASLOWSKI SAID. "I would never try to estimate likelihood at anything as exact as this."

Richard Lindzen, a climate scientist at the Massachusets Institute of Technology who does not believe that global warming is largely caused by man, said: "He's just extrapolated from 2007, when there was a big retreat, and got zero."

Mr Gore's office later admitted that the 75 per cent figure was one used by Dr Maslowksi as a "ballpark figure" several years ago in a conversation with Mr Gore. THE EMBARRASSING ERROR CAST ANOTHER SHADOW OVER THE CONFERENCE after the controversy over the hacked e-mails from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit, which appeared to suggest that SCIENTISTS HAD MANIPULATED DATA TO STRENGTHEN THEIR ARGUMENT that human activities were causing global warming.