The Saudi intelligence service played a particularly important role in penetrating al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen and recovering the explosive device, according to officials, who described an elaborate espionage operation in which the CIA tracked the bomb’s movements for weeks and then killed suspected plotters in a drone strike after the device was seized. Senior US officials continued to withhold certain details, including the location and status of the individual — described by officials as a Saudi informant — who penetrated the terrorist group posing as a bomber and then turned over the device to authorities after leaving Yemen.

But comments by White House counterterrorism adviser John O Brennan and others made it clear that the involvement of the CIA and its partners went well beyond simply watching the plot unfold. “We’re confident that neither the device nor the intended user of this device posed a threat to us,” Brennan said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “We had the device in our control, and we were confident that it was not going to pose a threat to the American public.”

The bomb arrived at an FBI laboratory in Quantico about a week ago and is being examined by explosives technicians, law enforcement officials said. One said the explosive was made from a chemical compound that was “built to get around US security and had the potential to do that.” The emerging details help to illuminate the evolving tactics being employed by both sides in what US officials have come to regard as the most critical counterterrorism front.

Several well-known experts are presenting their proposals on the role German hegemony should play. In addition to advocating Germany's global engagement for free trade and "human rights," experts are proposing that, with its "global political mission," Germany has to reconstitute "the West," ie an alliance with the USA. On a par with Washington, Germany should help this alliance experience a "renaissance."

To achieve the necessary political weight, the EU's instruments of power should be used to have "leverage for German foreign policy interests." For the first time, with its current edition, "Internationale Politik" is launching a larger public debate on Berlin's hegemonic policy. Even though this policy is already being applied, until recently, it was officially denied, to avoid humiliating other EU countries.

"Taking the Lead" is the title and focus of the current edition of "Internationale Politik." As the "European Union's most important shareholder," as its "biggest beneficiary" and particularly as an "economic powerhouse," Germany has "a duty, to take the lead," alleges the journal's editor in chief in her editorial. "Whoever leads, has to show the direction and convince the others of the chosen path," writes the editor in view of the Federal Republic of Germany's European hegemonic ambition.

The journal is presenting a series of proposals for a "German leadership" role. For the first time, the Berlin establishment is launching a larger public debate on the German hegemonic policy that, so far, has been covered in official silence. "Internationale Politik" has a considerable circulation in professional circles inside and outside Germany and is seeking to attract a larger public. For several years, it is not only available by personal subscription, but can also be bought at news stands.

It was one of those puzzling sentences that central bankers like to leave hanging in the air. The temporary European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the rescue fund for cash-strapped euro-zone countries, has not been very successful, admitted European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi at a press conference in Barcelona last Thursday. "Its functioning fell short of both expectations and needs," he said.

Draghi left it up to the journalists in the audience to interpret what is wrong with the fund and what needs to be changed. Furthermore, the Italian banker failed to mention that his organization has long been exploring ways of expanding the scope of the EFSF, or its permanent successor, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), to give the bailout mechanism more firepower.

Euro Group chief Jean-Claude Juncker had asked Draghi for his advice in the matter two weeks earlier. Originally, the ESM, which will be launched in July 2012, was only intended to help out debt-ridden governments, which would have to meet strict requirements in return. But recently, there have been serious closed-door discussions about direct aid for banks. In Brussels, a working group is also looking at this delicate subject.

Time is running out. With the financial crisis now in its fifth year, the banks' problems remain unresolved, and in some countries they are even jeopardizing the stability of the state - and the future of the European common currency.

The new projection, released here Monday, warns that 42% of Americans may end up obese by 2030, and 11% could be severely obese, adding billions of dollars to health care costs."If nothing is done (about obesity), it's going to hinder efforts for health care cost containment," says Justin Trogdon, a research economist with RTI International, a non-profit research organization in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park.

As of 2010, about 36% of adults were obese, which is roughly 30 pounds over a healthy weight, and 6% were severely obese, which is 100 or more pounds over a healthy weight. "The obesity problem is likely to get much worse without a major public health intervention," says Eric Finkelstein, a health economist with Duke University Global Health Institute and lead researcher on the new study. The analysis was presented at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's "Weight of the Nation" meeting. The study is being published online in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Responding to the gift, Monsignor Newton said, “I am very grateful to the (Pope) for his generosity and support. This gift is a great help and encouragement as we continue to grow and develop our distinctive ecclesial life, while seeking to contribute to the wider work of evangelization in England and Wales."

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham was established in January 2011 to allow Anglicans to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church while retaining essential elements of their heritage and tradition. It is so far comprised of about 1,200 lay faithful and 60 clergy spread across the United Kingdom.

The apostolic nuncio in the United Kingdom, Archbishop Antonio Mennini, spoke of the gift as "a clear sign of [the Pope's] personal commitment to the work of Christian Unity and the special place the ordinariate holds in his heart. I pray for the continuing success and development of the ordinariate." Speaking of the need for further fundraising, the nuncio added, “I urge all those who share (the Pope's) vision to lend their spiritual and material support to the ordinariate, especially in these early days."

“You could safely say that Iceland holds the world record in household debt relief,” said Lars Christensen, chief emerging markets economist at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen. “Iceland followed the textbook example of what is required in a crisis. Any economist would agree with that.”

Iceland’s special prosecutor has said it may indict as many as 90 people, while more than 200, including the former chief executives at the three biggest banks, face criminal charges. The Securities and Exchange Commission said last year it had sanctioned 39 senior officers for conduct related to the housing market meltdown.

Larus Welding, the former CEO of Glitnir Bank hf, once Iceland’s second biggest, was indicted in December for granting illegal loans and is now waiting to stand trial. The former CEO of Landsbanki Islands hf, Sigurjon Arnason, has endured stints of solitary confinement as his criminal investigation continues. That compares with the US, where no top bank executives have faced criminal prosecution for their roles in the subprime mortgage meltdown.

She said: “Malvinas are Argentinian. I mean, the islands belong to Argentina, they are in our continental shelf so there’s nothing wrong with an athlete training there. I don’t really want to go into a small discussion, I would like to go into a broader discussion and the discussion is why can’t we sit and talk?”

“The international community is calling for a settlement of this conflict in a peaceful and permanent solution.” Ms Castro, in a sarcastic sideswipe at Britain, added: “We are very happy having this colonial enclave in the south of our country. It’s not an Argentinian cause, it’s a regional cause. The United Kingdom, by not wanting to have a proper dialogue with Argentina, is turning its back on Latin America as a whole.”

“If it’s true Britain wants to improve its relations with Latin America, they have to settle this dispute.” The 90-second clip shows Zylberberg exercising on the Great War Memorial, which honours British sailors who died in the First World War.

Eurocrats, too, are tiptoing away from cuts, belatedly aware of how outrageous it sounded to argue for austerity in the 27 member states while demanding a 6.8 per cent budget increase for themselves. We can expect a very different strategy now, one based on higher spending and deeper European integration. Stand by for Eurobonds, a common finance minister, pan-European taxes, EU-wide stimulus packages etc.

This was, of course, the approach which brought Europe to its present unhappy condition. So why do voters hope to solve the crisis by accelerating the policies which led to it? Much of the blame must attach to the Centre-Right parties currently in office in most national capitals. Though they talk of fiscal prudence, many of them are in reality locked into Euro-corporatism. With a handful of honourable exceptions, they have presided over crony capitalism, more spending, more taxes and more debt.

Their failure has opened the door to the angry and populist Left. When the 'Right' is represented by Samaras and Sarkozy, it's no surprise that voters cast around for radical alternatives. After all, when it comes to the euro, the Trotskyists have been proved right. They argued all along that, while the single currency would suit the suits, working people would suffer.

As long as Europe's élites remain determined to keep the euro, the economic situation will deteriorate. And the worse things get, the likelier people are to demand the high-tax, high-spend policies which caused the mess. THE EUROZONE IS NOW IN A VICIOUS CIRCLE.

She said the Coalition would continue to focus on “core issues”, such as reducing the deficit, at the same time as introducing laws allowing same-sex couples to marry by the end of this Parliament. Her remarks, on her constituency blog, will fuel tensions between Liberal Democrats and Tories over the direction of the government.

Since last week’s poor election results for both Coalition parties, a succession of Conservatives have demanded that David Cameron and Nick Clegg abandon “fringe issues” and focus on the economy. Miss Featherstone insists that the coalition can introduce equal marriage and secure the economic recovery at the same time.

“In the aftermath of a tough set of election results for both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, I couldn’t help but notice a few naysayers popping up in the media and uttering dire warnings about a government that needs to concentrate on core issues rather than same sex civil marriage,” she said. “For goodness sake – it’s not either / or. The economy is clearly the No 1 priority – but the Coalition can multi-task! There will be no u-turn on equal marriage – we are committed as a government to legislate by 2015.”

Hugh Schofield BBC News, Paris, reports: After the euphoria of election night, it was back down to earth on Monday morning as Mr Hollande moved quickly on to the business of preparing to govern. Over the next few days, he will be drawing up the list of names for his first government, which will take over after the handover of presidential power next week.

Favourite for the post of prime minister is Jean-Marc Ayrault, a veteran socialist parliamentarian and mayor of the city of Nantes, who is also a German speaker and could help build up relations with Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. The new government's primary task will be to prepare for more elections, this time for the parliament or national assembly, which will take place at the start of June.

These are crucial because Mr Hollande needs a parliamentary majority in order to see through his programme. At the moment, the assembly is dominated by supporters of Mr Sarkozy. Parliamentary elections like these that immediately follow presidential elections tend to deliver the head of state the majority he requires, but it is not a foregone conclusion; the next few weeks in France will see yet more passionate political campaigning.

Bankia, Spain's fourth biggest bank, is the first in line for state aid. Rodrigo Rato, chairman and former IMF managing director, swiftly resigned after it was disclosed the finance ministry was preparing to refinance the bank and introduce legislation to protect the balance sheets of others. Spain, which also signalled it could dock its only aircraft carrier to save €30 million a year, is already struggling to cope with an austerity drive that has pushed the jobless total up to nearly 25 per cent of the workforce.

Mr Rajoy insisted that any bank bail-out would not compromise the tough targets set by Brussels to reduce the budget deficit. Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Capital, said Spain's action was positive because "it's them taking ownership of their own issues". Fears of a fall-out in financial markets after the election results in France and Greece were short-lived. Shares and the euro recovered after initial falls as investors reasoned any policy changes in the eurozone recovery programme were some way off.

But the turmoil in Greece produced by a backlash against a tough austerity programme and the failure of early efforts to form a coalition government heightened speculation the country would be forced out of the eurozone. Citi's European economics team said there was a "rising risk of a Greek exit from the euro within the next 12 to 18 months." Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, urged the Greek political parties to stick to the bail-out programme but her pleas fell on deaf ears.

Street protests have been seen across Italy, Spain and Portugal as people reacted to spending cuts that have slowed economies across Europe. Savings have been wiped out and in Spain, a real estate crash has helped swell unemployment to 25 per cent of the workforce. Many economists have advocated a greater emphasis on growth, but it has only gained traction among European policy-makers and politicians in the past few weeks.

Paul Krugman, an economics Nobel Prize winner, welcomed the anti-austerity groundswell in Europe, saying the bloc’s voters proved “wiser than the Continent’s best and brightest”. He said the health of the German economy was “an argument for much more expansionary policies elsewhere, and in particular for the European Central Bank to drop its obsession with inflation and focus on growth”.

Anti-austerity momentum came to a head on Sunday night, when voters in France and Greece spectacularly ousted governments seen as towing the fiscal discipline line too strictly. In France, new Socialist president-elect Francois Hollande said his victory marked “a new departure for Europe and hope for the world” because it showed “austerity can no longer be the only option”.

After thanking his ministers for the past three years, Netanyahu said that although the government was one of the most stable in Israel’s history, recent instability could lead to extortion — apparently a reference to pressure from minor coalition parties. Such a situation would harm Israel’s basic pillars of security, economy and society, the prime minister said. He added that after the elections he intended to form “a wide and stable coalition,” capable of dealing with the burning core issues and the country’s needs.

Netanyahu was expected to name the election date Sunday night at his Likud party’s convention in Tel Aviv, but in the end put it off for a day. The Knesset is expected to vote to dissolve itself Monday, paving the way for new elections.

Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) scored 30.6 percent, according to ARD public television, with her junior partners at the national level, the Free Democrats (FDP), winning 8.3 percent - not enough to retain power in the northern state. However, the opposition - combining the centre-left Social Democrats and ecologist Greens - also failed to gain sufficient support to form a government, with 29.9 percent and 13.6 percent respectively.

This left as a strong possibility a so-called "grand coalition" between the CDU and SPD, which many believe could be the final result of the national elections due in September or October 2013. The big winners on the night were the Pirates, an upstart party that has shaken up the staid world of German politics with a campaign based on more transparency in the political process and internet freedom.

For the third consecutive regional election, they breached the five-percent mark needed to enter the state parliament, winning 8.2 percent of the vote. But for the FDP, although they lost more than six percent compared to the last election in 2009, it was a better-than-expected result, given that they are polling nationally at around three percent. The vote in Schleswig-Holstein is seen as a dress rehearsal for a much more significant election in the bellwether state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) on May 13.

As Germany's most populous state with 18 million people and a major industrial base, NRW's centre-left minority government fell after just 22 months over a budget dispute. The state historically plays a big role in federal politics - in 2005, a lost vote in NRW prompted then Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to call a snap federal election which he then lost to Merkel.

The latest official results, with over 61 percent of the vote counted, showed the only two major parties supporting an EU/IMF program that keeps Greece from bankruptcy would be hard pressed to form a lasting coalition. Conservative New Democracy and Socialist PASOK, who have dominated Greece for decades, were holding less than 35 percent of the vote. That would mean they might only scrape the 151-seat threshold needed for even the most fragile majority in parliament.

Once mighty PASOK looked set to be pushed into third place by the anti-bailout Left Coalition party, in a stunning vote against austerity policies that have caused deep hardship in one of Europe's worst postwar recessions. New Democracy was polling just under 20 percent and PASOK a humiliating 13.6 percent with the Left Coalition on 16.2.

In the last election in 2009, PASOK won a landslide victory with 44 percent and the Left Coalition had just 5 percent. "I cannot take it anymore, living as beggars in our own country. The Left Coalition can shake them up, and wake them up," said Kate Savvidou, 65, a pensioner who deserted PASOK. Left Coalition leader Alexis Tsipras, at 37 Greece's youngest political leader, hailed a peaceful revolution and said German Chancellor Angela Merkel should understand that austerity policies had been defeated. "Greek people gave a mandate for a new dawn with solidarity and justice instead of barbaric bailout measures," he said.

The Greek electoral shock coincided with the victory of Socialist Francois Hollande in France's presidential election and was likely to add to pressure for resistance to German-led austerity policies. Italian technocrat Prime Minister Mario Monti, who faces increasing resistance to austerity at home, phoned Hollande and other European leaders after the election results to push for pro-growth policies.