So how come Japan can borrow for 10 years at a measly 1 percent versus 5.45 percent for Italy, the world's eighth-largest economy. And why isn't anybody talking about the unthinkable: that Japan, the world's third-largest economy, could default? Japan can borrow much more cheaply than Italy can for two reasons. First, Japan borrows in a currency it controls. Second, almost all of Japan's public debt is money it owes to its own people. Conversely, consider Italy. Because only the European Central Bank can print euros, it's actually possible for Italy to run out of euros. If investors think that this might happen - or if they think that other investors think this might happen - they'll dump Italian bonds and send interest rates soaring. It's a classic bank run, but on a national level.

The same can't happen to Japan, because it has its own central bank, the Bank of Japan (BOJ). Japan can't run out of yen. If a panic did grip Japanese bonds, the BOJ could step in as a buyer of last resort. More importantly, it's rare for a country to default on itself. Usually countries that default, like Iceland, are stiffing foreign creditors. Japan, however, has run massive current account surpluses for the past thirty years. They are net lenders to, rather than borrowers from, the rest of the world. Put simply, they don't at all rely on foreigners to finance their debt. Italy does.

But that might be changing. With their nuclear plants idled following the tsunami, Japanese energy imports have skyrocketed in the past year - pushing them much closer to a point where they would need to borrow from abroad. It's not clear if is just a one-time blip, or the beginning of a new long-term trend. If it's the latter, Japan could be in trouble.

Foreign investors would probably demand higher interest rates on Japanese bonds than domestic investors. This isn't a question of patriotism. Rather, Japanese banks and insurance companies can be regulated into buying their government bonds, even at negligible interest rates. International investors don't face that pressure. They can shop around the globe for the best deal. So Japan would have to pay more to borrow. And that could be toxic. A vicious circle where higher interest rates increase deficits, causing investors to demand even higher interest rates could set in. The BOJ could intervene, but, in the nightmare scenario, all other buyers would disappear. Japan would be left with a grim choice between outright default and hyperinflation.

Question: Do you have any people being paid by the CIA who are contributing to a major circulation journal?

Answer: We do have people who submit pieces to American journals.

Question: Do you have any people paid by the CIA who are working for television networks?

Answer: This I think gets into the details I'd like to get into in executive session (so the public doesn’t hear how we control all the networks).

Considering that this was going on in the 1950's, it is highly likely that this is happening now and to a much larger extent. The CIA and other government agencies literally control the corporate controlled media. Anytime you hear a story on the major networks that has any implication in US foreign or domestic policy rest assured that it was, at the very least, vetted by the CIA before being released. In the early 90's CNN was also used to test Army psychological operations.

The rise in US public debt is a serious threat to the whole world if Washington fails to rein it in, the head of the Institute of International Finance warned Saturday. "Countries that are occasionally immature in their ability to manage their economic affairs as well as they should - and that includes most of them - are going to find that the world is at risk," Dallara said.

"These countries are going to wait for the marketplace to give them a shower of cold water. And we know that when that happens... it can give a shower of cold water to the global economy." The non-partisan US Congressional Budget Office estimates that President Barack Obama will finish his first mandate with four consecutive fiscal years showing a deficit above $1 trillion.

Earlier this month an administration official said Mr Obama's budget for the current fiscal year projects a $1.3 trillion deficit, slightly higher than the $1.296 trillion in 2011. According to estimates from the International Monetary Fund, the US national debt surpassed the country's Gross Domestic Product in 2011 and should rise to more than 107 percent of GDP this year.

But US debt remains attractive to international investors, allowing Washington to borrow at extremely low rates.

Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, signed a new defence co-operation agreement with Kazakhstan which the British Government hopes will enable an estimated £4 billion of equipment – including tanks and armoured personnel carriers – to be shipped out of northern Afghanistan. Britain and its Nato allies have been desperately seeking alternative routes following Pakistan's decision to close the vital supply route from Karachi to Afghanistan. Pakistan closed the border crossing after the Americans mistakenly killed 24 Pakistani troops last November.

Relations between Washington and Pakistan were already tense following last year's successful raid by US Navy Seals to kill Osama bin Laden, which was carried out without Islamabad's knowledge. While diplomats expect Pakistan to reopen the border at some point in the future, Britain has decided that it can no longer rely on Pakistan's co-operation as it begins the immensely complex operation of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, when all Nato combat operations are due to cease.

Mr Hammond now hopes to open a new supply route through Central Asia following the signing of the pact with Kazakhstan's defence ministry that guarantees Britain air transit rights over the massive Central Asian republic, a country which is equal in size to the whole of Western Europe.

British diplomats in Argentina are trying to clarify what happened. Tensions have risen recently, as the 30th anniversary of the Falklands war approaches. Argentina claims ownership of the islands, which it calls the Malvinas, but the UK has rejected calls for talks on the archipelago's sovereignty. Around 3,000 people live on the islands, most of whom are British citizens.

The Adonia and the Star Princess, which are both operated by the Carnival Group, arrived off the port of Ushuaia on Monday morning. The BBC's World Affairs Correspondent Peter Biles said both ships are reported to have been denied entry and both vessels had just visited the Falkland Islands.

Jane Archer, one of the passengers on board the Adonia, told the BBC: "It's simply the fact that we were in the Falklands." The Foreign Office said it was very concerned to hear the two ships had been refused access to Ushuaia. A spokesperson said there could be no justification for interference in free and legitimate commerce. It is understood the two vessels are now heading for Punta Arenas in Chile.

Farrakhan spent much of his oration decrying what he cast as Satan's influence over racist forces in politics and society before asking a pointed rhetorical question: "Do you think they're wicked enough to be plotting OUR BROTHER'S assassination as we speak?"

Farrakhan delivered his speech to an enthusiastic crowd of adherents packed loosely into the United Center for the Nation of Islam's annual observance of Saviours' Day, which celebrates the birth of the faith's founder, W Fard Muhammad. This year's events marked the 82nd year of the religion's existence in North America. With his finger jabbing at the air above him and his voice frequently raising to an indignant shout, Farrakhan, 78, delivered his message to a crowd of men in dark suits with bow ties and women in shimmering white gowns and scarves.

On domestic policy, Farrakhan said the national debt has reached unsustainable levels, and he challenged Mr Obama's assertion in his recent State of the Union speech that the country is not in decline. "America is on her deathbed. The vital signs of America are not good," he said. Near the close of his speech, Farrakhan spent several minutes comparing Mr Obama's political situation to that of Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated after winning a second term, and suggested an assassination plot against Mr Obama might involve a "patsy," a person set up to take the blame for a broader conspiracy. "I believe they want a Muslim to kill President Obama," he said.

Such a policy would require a further €40 billion or €50 billion of cuts and accelerate the downward spiral already underway, beyond the 1.7 percent contraction expected this year by the International Monetary Fund. The unemployment rate would rise to well over 25 percent with six million out of work by the end of the year, equivalent to 30 percent under the old definition used in the last jobless crisis in the early 1990s.

"We have reached the point where `taxes kill taxation'. The therapy is turning fatal and is starting to take on a highly political tone. SIXTY YEARS AFTER THE END OF THE WAR, GERMANY IS AGAIN COMING TO BE SEEN AS AN OVERBEARING ENEMY, and an atmosphere of hostility is building up in a Continent divided between a rich and flourishing North and a South in danger of being reduced to a protectorate. If we carry on like this we are going to destroy the European project," he said.

The popular pressure gauge has been rising for months but the mass protests of the last two weeks have had a new and sharper edge - even if you disregard the outbreak of violent street clashes with police in Valencia, already dubbed the "Valencia Spring".

The Spanish have good reason to feel maligned by North Europe's self-serving narrative of the EMU crisis. They never violated the Maastricht debt rules. They ran a budget surplus of 2 percent of GDP during the boom. What is needed to save the South must endanger the North. Germany would overheat, pushing its inflation to 4 percent or 5 percent until Bild Zeitung erupts in Teutonic fury. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO RECONCILE THE CONFLICTING IMPERATIVES.

Commenting on the German parliament's vote on the Greek bailout, Kathleen Brooks, research director at Forex.com, said: “In the absence of much economic data all eyes will be on the vote that takes place at 1400GMT/ 0900 ET. It is expected to be passed, although a dozen or so members of Merkel’s own party are against the second bailout for Athens. However, what is more worrying is the lack of support from the German public over more bailout funds for Greece. According to a poll conducted by a Sunday newspaper, 62% of Germans polled are against the rescue package.”

“Merkel may not go to the polls until 2013 but she will be keenly aware that public opinion is shifting, which may make her ultra-cautious when it comes to pledging more German taxpayer funds to sorting out the Eurozone’s woes. Added to that, if French Socialist Presidential candidate Hollande wins the election in May, then Germany could lose its austerity ally.”

“So just as the German public is losing faith in bailouts, so too could the German leader lose her ability to demand concessions in the form of austerity from bailed out nations. This could hamstring Germany, the only country in the currency bloc with the funds necessary to sort out this crisis.”

Ex-fireman Mr Jones, a former member of the Household Cavalry, said he experienced an ‘Orwellian nightmare’ after commenting on the ease with which a Muslim passenger ahead of him – who had her face almost completely covered by a hijab – had passed through security without showing her face. As he placed his scarf and other belongings into a tray to pass through the X-ray scanner, Mr Jones, 67, said to an official: ‘If I was wearing this scarf over my face, I wonder what would happen.’

To his astonishment, he was stopped by security staff on the other side of the checkpoint at Gatwick and accused of racism after a Muslim security guard who heard the remark said it had caused her offence. Mr Jones, who was flying with his two grown-up daughters to Faro in Portugal – he now lives in the Algarve, where he runs a restaurant – was then subjected to a one-hour stand-off involving security staff, a British Airways manager and a policeman as security tried to make him apologise.

He said yesterday: ‘What I said had nothing to do with the woman’s religion. It was the fact that her face was covered and she seemed to have passed through that part of the security process without showing it.' Mr Jones, originally from Ealing, West London, said: ‘Something like George Orwell’s 1984 now seems to have arrived in Gatwick airport. I feel my rights as an individual have been violated. What I underwent amounts to intimidation and detention. I am not opposed to having this level of security but it must be equal for all.’

He demanded that the officer should arrest him if there was a case against him, but was told ‘that we now live in a different time and some things are not to be said’.

"This is the best visible achievement I have made so far," said Willems, who is based at the law firm's Brussels office and has been representing Chinese clients in trade disputes against their European competitors since 1995. At the beginning of this month, the European Court of Justice annulled anti-dumping duties the EU slapped on Hong Kong shoemakers Brosmann Footwear HK Ltd and Risen Footwear (HK) Co Ltd and Guangdong shoemakers Seasonable Footwear (Zhongshan) Ltd and Lung Pao Footwear (Guangzhou) Ltd.

This has led to the likelihood that another 400 to 500 Chinese and Vietnamese shoemakers, which have been paying 16.5 percent of revenues in anti-dumping duties since 2006, may win lower rates of duty. Willems said that since 2006 the shoemakers had paid more than $1 billion in such duties. "Other shoemakers may request the EU to undertake individual assessments after the ruling, although the EU courts may argue that the cases are too many for it to handle," said Willems, urging the EU to treat the Chinese shoe exporters fairly.

On the European Commission's website there are currently 34 ongoing trade defense investigations listed from the beginning of 2011. Of that total, 20 involve Chinese companies.

Whatever tensions exist could be exacerbated by the looming crisis that provides a backdrop for the election-year meeting. Israel believes time is running out for a military strike against Iran that would prevent the Islamic republic from developing nuclear weapons, something Israel sees as an existential threat. Administration officials acknowledge the Iranian nuclear issue is coming to a head, but US officials have cautioned Israel against a strike that would threaten stability in the Middle East and the global economy.

It’s possible the Obama-Netanyahu meeting next week could determine both countries’ course of actions for Iran. The relationship between Mr Obama and Mr Netanyahu is going to be tested like never before,” said David Makovsky, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “It doesn’t have to happen on March 5… but if they don't see eye-to-eye, the prospect of Israel going off on its own dramatically increases.”

A few hours earlier, on a steaming July day in 2007, Pasternack was sent to Temple Mount in his role as an Israel Antiquities Authority inspector, in order to supervise excavation works at the holy site, which in the past boasted two Jewish Temples. This marked the first such project at the site since the 1967 Six-Day War, as the area's sensitivity could prompt a political and diplomatic flare-up, thereby discouraging any such work.

According to specific Antiquities Authority instructions, any digging at the site was not allowed to exceed 60 centimeters (roughly two feet) and was not to be undertaken using mechanical equipment. However, reports drafted by Pasternnack and other sources, exposed for the first time by Yedioth Ahronoth Friday, indicate that workers largely ignored the instructions. MUCH OF THE WORK WAS DONE USING A TRACTOR, CONTINUED DURING THE NIGHT with the help of a flashlight, reached deeper than the permit allowed for.

Archeology expert Dr Gabai Barkai, a world-renowned expert on Temple era excavations, was shocked by the reported work: "How could one dig up such a sensitive area at night? How could one dig using mechanical equipment? Every such move is a crime. This is first-rate barbarity."

The Waqf issued the following response: "The Waqf's management was sorry to hear the claims made in the story pertaining to the Waqf's policy on the Temple Mount. In the Waqf management's view, all these claims are baseless and constitute false charges. Our official policy is to preserve and respect any human heritage. You are invited to visit the mosque and see for yourself well preserved Roman, Byzantine and Crusader artifacts, among other items."

Speaking to Arutz Sheva, Tsfarir said he believes the United States should be the one to carry out such a military strike, but added that if there is a feeling that no one is willing to attack Iran, then Israel will have no choice other than to do so itself.

Tsafrir, who in the past has served as the Prime Minister’s advisor on Arab affairs, also said that as an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites takes place, Iranian government sites should be attacked as well, thus allowing the Iranian people to take over their government centers and replace the current regime.

His remarks are being made ahead of a special conference at the Hebrew University’s Truman Institute, in which he will lecture on the issue of the attitudes of the Iranian people. He noted that he believes that almost all Iranian citizens who were born after the 1979 Islamic Revolution would like to see the country return to its status as an empire and in this spirit want to see the Islamic Republic having a nuclear capability. This desire, explained Tsafrir, is part of their greater desire for freedom and independence as they view them.

“Sanctions will not help,” he said. “The Iranians are determined to obtain nuclear weapons. There is no choice other than a military strike. As an Israeli, I think it’s best that America do this, but if there is no other choice and no one will do it, Israel will have to do it.”

The report was researched and written at the urgent request of the Committee for the Prevention of Temple Mount Antiquities' Destruction, a group of archaeologists and scholars concerned about wanton excavations at the site. The police claim, Rabbi Levy was told by the committee's lawyer, that its publication might cause rioting and be a danger to the public order.

The Hebrew language daily, Yediot Aharonot, recently exposed the existence of the report, stating what Arutz Sheva has reported repeatedly, that Israel’s “valuable remnants from the two Jewish Temples were thrown away to an improvised garbage dump by members of the Waqf (the administrative Muslim body in charge of Temple Mount)”. A look at what has occurred reveals the ongoing failure of Israeli authorities in safeguarding the archeological treasures found on Temple Mount, Judaism’s most holy site. In fact, the Waqf is still consistently erasing any trace of Jewish history at the site. Some Islamic scholars claim there is none to begin with.

Most of the damage was done to the underground space which the Crusaders had termed “Solomon’s Stables”. Israeli authorities did not negate the Wakf's proposal to convert the “stables” into an Islamic praying area, called “massalam”. An underground chamber with two pillars and an arch from the Second Temple period has already been turned into a mosque, said Rabbi Levy, and the rumors of plans to unify the mosques so as to cover the entire outdoor area are true.

UNESCO cried when the Taliban bombed the two Buddhas in Bamyan. But this time the UN didn’t say a thing. In Jerusalem, the Arabs are committing an archaeological crime intolerable to any cultured person, regardless of his political identity. Let’s call it archeological Holocaust.

Mr Osborne made it clear that due to the parlous state of the public finances the best hope for economic growth was to encourage businesses to flourish and hire more workers. “The British Government has run out of money because all the money was spent in the good years,” the Chancellor said. “The money and the investment and the jobs need to come from the private sector.”

Mr Osborne’s bleak assessment echoes that of Liam Byrne, the former chief secretary to the Treasury, who bluntly joked that Labour had left Britain broke when he exited the Government in 2010. He left David Laws, his successor, a one-line note saying: “Dear Chief Secretary, I’m afraid to tell you there’s no money left”.

Mr Osborne is under severe pressure to boost growth, amid signs the economy is slipping back into a recession. The Institute of Fiscal Studies has urged him to consider emergency tax cuts in the Budget to reduce the risk of a prolonged economic slump. But the Chancellor yesterday said he would stand firm on his effort to balance the books by refusing to borrow money. “Any tax cut would have to be paid for,” Mr Osborne told Sky News. “In other words there would have to be a tax rise somewhere else or a spending reduction. In other words what we are not going to do in this Budget is borrow more money to either increase spending or cut taxes.”

Meanwhile, the Chancellor made it clear he was resisting pressure to hand over up to another £17.5 billion in taxpayers’ money to help bail out struggling European Union countries. He said Europe had not “shown the colour of its money” by taking measures to help itself tackle its debt problems. Until that happens, Britain will not give any extra funds to the International Monetary Fund.