Headlines:

• OECD: euro collapse would have 'highly devastating outcomes' worldwide
• UK Police insist they are justified to spy on Muslims in the masjid
• Egypt: America and the generals plan to crush the opposition
• West should embrace "Arab Spring" Islamists - Qatar
• Report: ‘US used nukes on Iraq, Afghanistan'
• America gloats and refuses to apologize for the massacre of Pakistani soldiers

Details

OECD: euro collapse would have 'highly devastating outcomes' worldwide

The collapse of the euro could send the world's advanced economies into a severe recession, dragging emerging markets with them into the mire, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warned on Monday. The Paris-based thinktank slashed its forecast for growth among its 34 members from 2.3% half a year ago to 1.6%, with Europe dramatically downgraded from 2% to just 0.2% because of the unresolved sovereign debt crisis. Pier Carlo Padoan, OECD chief economist, made plain in the body's latest six-monthly economic outlook that the greatest threat to global economic health comes from the eurozone rather than from the tax-and-spend gridlock in the US Congress. In his introduction to the report he said: "Recent contagion to countries thought to have relatively solid public finances could massively escalate economic disruption if not addressed."n a devastating critique of eurozone leaders' hesitancy and dilatoriness, he said: "The scenario so far is that Europe's leaders have been behind the curve. We believe this could be very serious."

UK Police insist they are justified to spy on Muslims in the masjid

Muslim organisations in one of Britain's largest cities are warning that the use of undercover police to infiltrate mosques is destroying relations between communities and the police. "It is alarming, you've got one community that is being targeted," Yasmin Dar, a member of the Greater Manchester Police Mosques and Community Forum, told the BBC. "I've not heard of any cases of undercover officers going into churches or synagogues, so why a particular faith? "Relations with the police have hit rock bottom. It has created a lot of mistrust with the police." But a senior police said that undercover policing at mosques throughout the UK would continue and had proved invaluable in providing intelligence that had thwarted "numerous" terrorist plots in the past five years. "I promise you that, if there was a terror threat from Hindus, Jews or Christians, we would be in their temples, synagogues and churches like a shot," he said. "During the decades of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, Protestant and Catholic groups were regularly infiltrated. "The fact is that the principal terror threat in Britain at present is being posed by a very small number of young fanatics, often organised by groups operating in or around mosques. These are the people that we all want to see stopped, including the overwhelming majority of British Muslims."

Egypt: America and the generals plan to crush the opposition

A group of customs employees at the Suez seaport have revealed that the Egyptian Ministry of Interior is in the process of receiving 21 tons of tear gas from the US. The claim was supported by Medhat Eissa, an activist in the coastal city of Suez, who provided documents he says he obtained from a group of employees at the Suez Canal customs. The employees have been subjected to questioning for their refusal to allow an initial seven ton shipment of the US-made tear gas canisters enter the port. A group of employees at the Adabiya Seaport in Suez have confirmed, with the documents to prove it, that a three-stage shipment of in total 21 tons of tear gas canisters is on course for the port from the American port of Wilmington. Employees say the container ship Danica, carrying seven tons of tear-gas canisters made by the American company Combined Systems, has already arrived at the port, with two similar shipments from the same company expected to arrive within the week.

West should embrace "Arab Spring" Islamists - Qatar

Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani was quoted on Thursday as saying Islamists were likely to represent the next wave of political power in the Arab world and that the West should embrace them. Thani said in an interview with the Financial Times that moderate Islamists could assist in fighting what he called extremist ideology. "We shouldn't fear them, let's cooperate with them," said Thani, whose Gulf Arab state is home to Al Jazeera television. "We should not have a problem with anyone who operates within the norms of international law, comes to power and fights terrorism," he said. In Egypt, which is holding its first free election in six decades, the Muslim Brotherhood expects to pick up two-fifths of the vote for an assembly that might limit the power of the generals. Tunisia ousted its leader in the first "Arab Spring" revolution this year, and in the country's first democratic election Tunisians elected a coalition government in October led by the moderate Islamist Ennahda party.

Report: ‘US used nukes on Iraq, Afghanistan'

The United States has used tactical nuclear weapons in its military campaign against Iraq and Afghanistan, a Middle East expert tells Press TV. "Tactical nuclear weapons were used, at least one in Iraq and several were used in Afghanistan -in the Tora Bora mountains," Peter Eyre, a Middle East consultant, said. Eyre pointed out that the atomic bomb dropped on Afghanistan's Tora Bora region was so powerful that it actually created an earthquake there.The analyst went on to say that the use of such lethal weapons by US military, which is a gross violation of the Geneva Convention, has been sanctioned by the US presidents; thus they should be prosecuted for war crimes.

America gloats and refuses to apologize for the massacre of Pakistani soldiers

The White House said US President Barack Obama will not issue a formal apology or condolences on the death of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a Nato attack on the Pak-Afghan border, said a report by The New York Times. However, the State Department officials feel that there is a need for such an apology to mend the straining relationship between the two countries, according to the report. The report stated that US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter, through a video conference, told White House officials that the anti-American sentiment has reached its peak in Pakistan stressing the need for a formal apology by the US. But the White House argued that condolences offered by senior US officials and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were enough till the US completes its investigations into the matter, the report said. "The US government has offered its deepest condolences for the loss of life, from the White House and from Secretary Clinton and Secretary Panetta," said Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the National Security Council, referring to Defense Secretary Leon E Panetta, "and we are conducting an investigation into the incident. We cannot offer additional comment on the circumstances of the incident until we have the results."