Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the Archbishop of Vienna, who was himself widely tipped as a possible successor to Pope Benedict, said he had personally had two “strong signs” that Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was “the chosen one” in the run up to vote. He said only divine intervention could explain the speed with which the Argentine Cardinal - who did not feature on any of the main lists of likely candidates compiled by Vatican experts - was elected.

Speaking to an Anglican conference in London, he also said the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, had a “strange similarity” to the new Pope. He said that the two elections were a “little miracle” and a “sign from the Lord” that the two churches should work towards closer unity.

Addressing an audience of 5,000 people in the Royal Albert Hall, at a conference organised by the prominent Holy Trinity Brompton church in west London, he said that he was certain that on the evening of March 12, as the papal Conclave began, none of the Cardinals had known who would be chosen. He added: “I received at least two strong signs: one I can tell, the other was in the Conclave I can’t speak about – but real signs of the Lord giving me indication ‘he is the one’.”

To applause, the Cardinal went on: “You know there is a strange similarity with your Archbishop Justin, I hope so much that they will meet soon.” Laughing, he added: “I don’t know the secrets of the ‘conclave’ at Lambeth Palace. But it looks like a little miracle that he became the Archbishop, so I think the Lord has given us a great sign through these two elections and other signs and what I have deeply in my heart … it is as if he would say to the world ‘come home, I wait for you’.”

His visit to the Vatican is significant because he leads Egypt’s largest Christian Church with ten million members, as well as historic, since the May 9-13 trip is the first to Rome in 40 years. Coptic Pope Shenouda III, Tawadros II’s predecessor, visited Pope Paul VI in May 1973 and Pope John Paul II returned the visit to Egypt in 2000. Coptic Pope Tawadros was elected to succeed Shenouda III in November 2012.

“The rising of Islamic parties in countries like Egypt and Syria means Christians are now feeling they are second or third class citizens,” said Father Rafic Greiche, director of the press office for the Catholic Church in Egypt. “We Egyptian Christians want our brothers of all world churches to help us, to pray for us and to be real brothers in our Lord Jesus Christ,” he told CNA on May 10 in Rome.

Pope Francis answered him assuring him of his prayers and invoking the protection of the apostles Saints Peter and Mark, who established the two Churches. “If one member suffers, all suffer together, if one member is honored, all rejoice together,” Pope Francis said, quoting St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.

“I greet the participants of the March for Life which took place this morning in Rome and invite everyone to stay focused on the important issue of respect for human life, from the moment of conception,” said the Pope at St Peter’s Basilica. He addressed the pro-life advocates at Saint Peter’s Square in his comments for the May 12 Regina Caeli prayer. They had gathered in St Peter’s Square after marching against abortion earlier that day in Rome.

Pope Francis praised other pro-life efforts in Italy. “I am pleased to recall the petition that today takes place in many Italian parishes, in order to support the initiative European ‘One of Us’ to ensure legal protection to the embryo, protecting every human being from the first moment of its existence,” the Pope said.

Not only are the member states' financial outlays for foreign and military activities clearly diminishing, due to leeway shrinkage caused by budget cuts, but "conflicts between member states have grown" around how to handle the crisis, according to the SWP. This has stifled "joint foreign policy initiatives." The think tank points out that the enduring crisis and the hard-line German austerity dictate have damaged the prestige of the EU and, therefore, also severely tarnished its global "soft power."

Particularly damaging are the cuts in the military sector, even ranging up to 30 percent reductions in defense spending of the smaller and medium sized EU countries, jeopardizing their long term capability of participation in EU wars. The option of instrumentalizing a common EU foreign and military policy, to reinforce German clout and eventually promote it to world power status, had always been an important motive in Berlin for the build up and development of the EU.

Germany's center-right has long been in a luxurious position. Whereas conservatives across Europe have been struggling in recent years with the rise of right-wing populist parties eating into their base, Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats have had little to worry about. Though the German left is splintered among three, or even four, parties, the right is a monolith. There is the CDU, its Bavarian wing known as the Christian Social Union, and its favorite coalition partner, the Free Democrats (FDP).

But this election year is different. With the birth of the anti-euro party Alternative for Germany (AfD), Merkel is facing competition from within her own clientele. Furthermore, though her preferred strategy has been that of maintaining complete silence about the AfD so as not to lend it credibility, there are many in Merkel's party who disagree with that approach. And they are increasingly giving voice to their displeasure.

It is true that plenty of groups claim to be non-political when most sensible people would say that politics is their main purpose. But on the evidence so far, it seems only right-wing groups were targeted - and more bizarrely still only small local ones, not the huge lobby groups.

This affair, along with the justice department's raid on the Associated Press, is likely to have a political impact. Conservative groups have long claimed an overbearing administration is targeting their freedoms and that abuses of power are ignored by a complacent media. The events of this week will strengthen their belief that someone is out to get them.

(Comment from Mark Mardell, BBC North America editor)

The next major wave of the economic collapse is already sweeping across Europe and Asia and it is going to devastate the United States as well. I hope that you are ready.

The following are 10 scenes from the economic collapse that is sweeping across the planet...

• 27 Percent Unemployment/60 Percent Youth Unemployment In Greece

• Detroit, Michigan Is Insolvent And Is Rapidly Running Out Of Cash

• Economic Despair In France

• 7,000 Abandoned Buildings In Dayton, Ohio

• Overwhelmed By Squatters In Spain

• The Collapse Of Chinese Power Consumption

• Horrible Economic Data Coming Out Of The Second Largest Economy On The Planet

• One Out Of Every Five US Households On Food Stamps

• Child Hunger In America

• The Tremendous Suffering Of Hundreds Of Millions Of Desperately Poor People That We Never Hear About

Sadly, things are going to get much worse. The economic and financial systems of the world are rapidly breaking down, and in a few years these are going to look like "the good old days". And a growing number of people are starting to realize the direction that things are headed. For example, according to a survey that has just been released, 48 percent of all Americans believe that the best days of America are now behind us.

He also conceded that the influx of arrivals meant the party’s traditional supporters are now unable to find work. By contrast, Labour leader Ed Miliband has said his party got it wrong on immigration but has refused to admit it was too high under Labour. Between 1997 and 2010, net migration to Britain totalled more than 2.2 million, more than twice the population of Birmingham.

Lord Mandelson’s remarks come three years after Labour officials denied claims by former adviser Andrew Neather that they deliberately encouraged immigration in order to change the make-up of Britain. Mr Neather said the policy was designed to ‘rub the Right’s nose in diversity’. He said there was ‘a driving political purpose: that mass immigration was the way that the Government was going to make the UK truly multicultural’.

"We have to change direction, otherwise this is going to bring down whole political systems," said Braulio Rodriguez, the Archbishop of Toledo. "It is very dangerous. Unemployment has reached tremendous levels and austerity cuts don't seem to be producing results," he told The Telegraph. "There is deep unease across the whole society, and it is not just in Spain. We have to give people some hope or this is going to foment conflict and mutual hatred."

Europe's Catholic bishops have been careful not to stray into the political debate or criticise EU economic strategy but the Archbishop said the current course is untenable. "The Vatican has always been an enthusiast for Europe, but a Europe of solidarity where we help each other, not a Europe of coal and steel. Whether this is possible depends on Germany and Chancellor Angela Merkel," he said. The Archbishop said the COMECE forum of European bishops is spear-heading a push for change, drawing on social doctrines dating back to Pope Leo XIII.

The eminence grise is Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx, author of "Das Kapital: A Plea for Man". The firebrand cardinal has been picked by Pope Francis for his eight-man team of policy advisers at the Vatican. Europe's churches are emerging as a powerful pole of authority, filling a vacuum left by political parties of all stripes tainted by the crisis. German leaders may be more ready to heed criticism from the Vatican and their own clergy than from Club Med politicians.

Europe's ongoing economic crisis and lasting currency woes are beginning to rapidly erode faith among Europeans in the EU project. That is the result of a new survey undertaken by the renowned Pew Research Center in Washington DC and released on Monday evening.

The institute polled 8,000 people in eight European Union member states in March and arrived at some disturbing results. In just one year, the share of Europeans who view the European Union project favorably plummeted from 60 percent in 2012 to just 45 percent this year. Furthermore, only in Germany does a majority continue to support granting more power to Brussels in an effort to combat the ongoing crisis.

"The European Union is the new sick man of Europe," read the survey's opening lines. "The effort over the past half century to create a more united Europe is now the principal casualty of the euro crisis. The European project now stands in disrepute across much of Europe."

The most recent scandal to grip the Obama administration came Monday evening, when The Associated Press disclosed that the Justice Department sought its reporters’ phone records — including those of correspondents who sit in the Capitol. Within hours, House Republicans vowed to investigate. To make things worse for President Barack Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder is scheduled to be on Capitol Hill Wednesday for a House Judiciary Committee hearing.

That’s hardly the president’s only problem. Two separate committees — Oversight and Government Reform, and Ways and Means — will probe whether the IRS was treating right-leaning groups unfairly. Republicans moved swiftly to secure the IRS acting director for a Friday hearing, just a week after the news broke. GOP aides hinted Monday afternoon that widespread calls for the director’s resignation could come shortly.

There are currently five separate committee investigations into the attack on a US diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, and a probe into Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius raising millions of dollars to promote Obamacare. Ways and Means is demanding answers to seven questions on this matter, as well.

All together, roughly one-third of House committees are engaged in investigating some aspect of the Obama administration.

Since then, a steady stream of male celebrities has been arrested on suspicion of sexual offences including comic Jim Davidson, DJ Dave Lee Travis, publicist Max Clifford, entertainers Jimmy Tarbuck and Rolf Harris, Coronation Street actor William Roache and the former BBC compere Stuart Hall. Nor is that all. Claims of groping by the Lib Dem grandee Lord Rennard seemed to raise the floodgates on a deluge of stories of sexual harassment of women in the workplace. The House of Commons Deputy Speaker and Conservative MP Nigel Evans has been arrested on suspicion of rape and sexual assault against two men.

Eddie Shah, founder of the now defunct Today newspaper, is facing trial on six counts of rape in the Nineties against a girl aged between 13 and 15. Stuart Hall has pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting 13 girls, the youngest aged nine. And from the details of that sordid case, we learn that the BBC effectively facilitated Hall’s crimes, with a member of staff shepherding a steady stream of girls and women to a ‘medical room’ in the BBC’s Manchester HQ where Hall’s assignations took place.

A number of people knew what was going on there; no one did anything. So should we conclude that the BBC was a den of vice, a kind of public service brothel of the air? Yet the BBC and entertainment industry were clearly not alone in this. No fewer than five distinguished music schools are currently facing investigations into claims of sexual abuse of their pupils by members of staff. And let’s not forget the relentless trickle of Christian clerics subject to such accusations. One reason this is all coming out now is that the social climate has dramatically changed from indifference about sexual permissiveness to panic about sexual abuse.

The real reason no one at the BBC did anything about Savile or Hall was not just the fear of destroying their lucrative stars. It was also that, especially during the Seventies and Eighties, sexual licence was considered acceptable and anyone who spoke against it was treated as a pariah. This was, after all, what the sexual revolution was all about. All constraints on sexual behaviour were removed. ‘Lifestyle choice’ meant the right to have sex with anyone.

So why are people now shocked by the debauchery that has been unleashed? If you remove constraints on sexual behaviour, this is precisely what you get. Permissiveness and sexual abuse are two sides of the same coin. We are now merely reaping what we have sown.

The meeting is reportedly being led by Bill Gates of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The public has been kept away from the hotel which is hosting the meeting. Other reported attendees include Michael Bloomberg of New York, Oprah Winfrey and Billionaire Warren Buffet. The potential Presidential hopeful Jeb Bush is also reported to be attending.

A similar meeting took place in 2009 in New York at the home of Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Rockefeller Foundation. Familiar names were in attendance including Bloomberg, Gates, and Winfrey. The London Times reported that the meeting discussed plans to “curb overpopulation.” As to the secrecy of this 2009 meeting, a guest said, “They wanted to speak rich to rich without worrying anything they said would end up in the newspapers, painting them as an alternative world government.”

In the meantime, the secretive Bilderberg group is preparing to host their 2013 gathering in Watford, UK.

Hershberger, whose trial begins shortly, is charged with four criminal misdemeanors that could land this husband and father in county jail for up to 30 months with fines of over $10,000... The Wisconsin Department of Agricultural Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) targeted Hershberger for supplying a private buying club with fresh milk and other farm products.

DATCP has charged Hershberger with, among other things, operating a retail food establishment without a license. Hershberger repeatedly rejects this, citing that he provides foods only to paid members in a private buying club and is not subject to state food regulations.

Hershberger says: “There is more at stake here than just a farmer and his few customers - this is about the fundamental right of farmers and consumers to engage in peaceful, private, mutually consenting agreements for food, without additional oversight.”

This is a landmark precedent-setting case that could forever change food access rights. In addition, did you know that a Wisconsin judge who declared that we have no inherent right to the healthy foods of our choice retired and went to work for Monsanto?