Eurozone chiefs cancelled a meeting with Greek officials earlier, demanding further cuts and reassurances. International lenders have told Greece to make huge cuts in return for a 130 billion euros ($170 billion, £109 billion) bailout package. The Greek parliament approved an austerity package on the weekend, despite violent protests sweeping the country. But eurozone ministers have demanded a further 325 million euros of cuts. They have also insisted that all major Greek parties give an assurance that the cuts will be enacted regardless of who wins a general election scheduled for April.

Mark Lowen, BBC News, Athens, writes: "There is now huge mistrust between eurozone leaders and Greece. Despite Athens passing its austerity package in parliament last Sunday, Brussels has set two more conditions for Greece's international bailout: that an extra 325 million euros of savings are found and that the Greek government sign a pledge to implement the cuts.

The EU has grown exasperated with a perceived lack of commitment by Greece and there is now immense pressure on Athens to quicken the pace of change. But there is real anger in Greece. Athens saw the worst rioting for years when the austerity package was passed by parliament. Greece is now in a worrying situation. Its economy contracted by 7% in the last quarter. Eurozone finance ministers will now meet on Monday instead - perhaps the bailout will come then, but this game of brinkmanship could be very dangerous indeed.

Moody's actions can be summarised as follows:

- Austria: outlook on Aaa rating changed to negative

- France: outlook on Aaa rating changed to negative

- Italy: downgraded to A3 from A2, negative outlook

- Malta: downgraded to A3 from A2, negative outlook

- Portugal: downgraded to Ba3 from Ba2, negative outlook

- Slovakia: downgraded to A2 from A1, negative outlook

- Slovenia: downgraded to A2 from A1, negative outlook

- Spain: downgraded to A3 from A1, negative outlook

- United Kingdom: outlook on Aaa rating changed to negative

The implications of these actions for directly and indirectly related ratings will be reported through separate press releases. The main drivers of today's actions are:

- The uncertainty over (i) the euro area's prospects for institutional reform of its fiscal and economic framework and (ii) the resources that will be made available to deal with the crisis.

- Europe's increasingly weak macroeconomic prospects, which threaten the implementation of domestic austerity programmes and the structural reforms that are needed to promote competitiveness.

Well I'm still waiting, George. We all are. But I do recognise that the problem is not totally the Chancellor's fault. For one thing he has to carry round his neck the rotting albatross of his Lib Dem coalition partners and for another he has the BBC – as he wittily hinted this morning in a sprightly ad lib on BBC Radio 4's Today programme in an interview with John Humphrys.

Humphrys was accusing Osborne's government of being "anti-growth". While perfectly true, this is the equivalent of King Herod rebuking parents for being insufficiently caring of the rights of first-born male children. After being prodded by Humphrys one time too many about his banker-bashing (Humphrys suggested that the Coalition seemed to relish taking them to the tumbrils), Osborne replied:

"And the BBC is often in the front row of these tumbrils, knitting as they happen."

Osborne said it in a mild, good-humoured tone but even so, coming from so senior a politician this is pretty strong stuff. There is an unspoken rule that whenever people of a vaguely Right-wing persuasion appear on BBC programmes like Today they're not supposed to mention how incorrigibly, poisonously Left-wing it is. The BBC doesn't get really angry or refuse to invite you back or anything like that. Rather, it comes over all hurt: a bit like you would if you were a leper and you had half your nose eaten away, and instead of politely ignoring it someone were to say: "That missing nose of yours isn't going to win you many beauty contests, is it?"

I do hope that Osborne's remark is a taste of even stronger things to come. The BBC is not a benign organisation. Indeed, it probably bears greater responsibility than any other institution for Britain's cultural, moral, intellectual and economic decline. Even if you were just to consider its outrageous, misleading propagandising over climate change, you would have more than reason enough to scrap the licence fee. Osborne has fired his warning shot across the bows; what we need next is a torpedo amidships – preferably straight into the magazine.

"The objective is to identify and help correct risky and harmful imbalances that have built up over the years," said Olli Rehn, the EU's economic and monetary affairs commissioner. The commission expressed fears that high levels of private borrowing in Britain, driven by high property prices, is "strongly linked" to public debt via bank bail-outs and "feedback effects".

"The high level of private debt is a concern in a context of a weak public finance situation with high and increasing public debt. The household debt largely reflects mortgages in a context of high accumulated increases in house prices," it warned. "While both the level of household debt and real house prices has been reduced, they still remain high which suggests that the unwinding of these imbalances has further to go."

A Government spokesman said: "This report simply reinforces the unsustainable imbalances that built up over the past decade and underlines why the government is right to be getting a grip of the country's debt." Britain was also warned that its declining share of exports was the worst in the EU, down 24.3 percent over the last five years. But while Britain was praised for "stabilising" its export decline, the EU is concerned that France's continued slide in global market share is damaging French business.

Nearly half the men are unemployed, nearly half the population is functionally illiterate, more than half of the children are living in poverty and the city government is drowning in debt. As economic conditions have gotten worse, crime has absolutely exploded. Every single night in Detroit there are frightening confrontations between desperate criminals and exasperated homeowners. Unfortunately, the police force in Detroit has been dramatically reduced in size.

When the police in Detroit are called, they often show up very late if they even show up at all. Detroit has become a lawless hellhole where violence is the currency of the streets. If you want to survive in Detroit, you better be ready to fight because there are hordes of desperate criminals that are quite eager to take literally everything that you have got. But don’t look down on Detroit too much, because what is happening in Detroit will soon be happening all over America.

Lots of other cities all over America are flat broke and out of options. For example, just check out what is happening in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Mayor Christopher Doherty is blunt when asked about a court order forcing his Pennsylvania city to pay about $30 million in wages withheld from police and firefighters under a state-approved fiscal recovery plan. “I don’t have the money,” said Doherty, 53. As for the chance of borrowing the cash, more than half of the city’s projected general-fund revenue, he added, “there’s no financial institution that’s going to give me $30 million to pay it.”

The US economy never recovered from the last major financial crisis, and now another one is on the way. As the economy crumbles, so will the fabric of our society. The American people are terribly spoiled and they do not possess the character to handle depression-like conditions with grace and dignity. In the years ahead, we are going to see rampant rioting and looting in our major cities. The crime sprees that we will witness in future years will be absolutely unprecedented. Things did not have to turn out this way, but unfortunately the consequences of decades of really bad decisions are starting to catch up with us.

Although the candidates have taken part in some debates devoted to foreign policy and nations such as China have entered into the campaign rhetoric, by and large the issue has played a secondary role on the campaign trail. That's dangerous. The United States is facing a number of major foreign policy challenges that could flare up in the coming years. In November, voters won't have much of a sense about how the parties would address these issues, nor are politicians using the campaign to highlight key issues to voters, one of the functions that our campaigns serve.

Perhaps the biggest issue is Iran. Tensions have been rapidly escalating with the Iranian government, which has continued to issue provocative statements and to work on its nuclear weapons program. There is a very real possibility that Israel could launch a military strike on Iran in the near future. The United States has been ratcheting up the economic and diplomatic pressure on the country. There is a strong chance that the international community will be forced to deal with this threat in the near future.

The second issue involves the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Last year the world watched eagerly as the impossible suddenly seemed possible. Dictators were overthrown and the region headed toward a democratic revolution. It's a grave error to elect politicians without having any gauge of what they think and what they would do on the foreign policy issues that they will face in their presidency. Unfortunately, it seems that we are once again losing an important chance to have a national dialogue and to prepare for the challenges ahead.

Peres praised the Syrians taking to the streets daily against Assad and showing “courage under fire. I must say that the fact that the Arab League turned to the UN for the first time with a request to send military forces to save the citizens and children of Syria is very important in the struggle for freedom, democracy and preserving the dignity of man and the Syrian people,” he said.

Peres’s comments came amid a perception among some in the Arab world that Israel – out of a preference for “the devil it knows” – is interested in seeing Assad remain in power. In an apparent effort to dispel this thinking, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said in an Army Radio interview last week that any alternative to Assad would be better for Israel.

Israel, according to diplomatic sources, is walking a delicate balancing act, not wanting to be perceived as intervening in Syrian affairs, and concerned that anything it says will be turned against it. The officials said that the opposing forces in Syria are busy casting aspersions upon each other by saying that the other side either supports or is being aided by Israel. Peres also told his Croatian counterpart that it was very important for Israel to maintain its peace treaties with Jordan and Egypt during this period of regional instability.

The decision followed a district security assessment. The police expressed concerns that the intent of some of far-right Likud member Moshe Feiglin's followers to enter the compound would incite riots. The publicized visit caused what the police described as "agitation" among east Jerusalem's Palestinian neighborhoods. "Feiglin's people come to Temple Mount almost every month. The difference this time was the flyers," a police source said.

The flyers found near the compound read: "Member of the Likud Caucus, along with its thousands of members, headed by Moshe Feiglin are hereby invited to arrive at Temple Mount and praise God, and declare that healthy leadership begins with total control over Temple Mount. (Let us) purify this place from the enemies of Israel, who rob lands, and build the Temple on the ruins of mosques. We need not be afraid!"

According to the police, the flyer "cause Hamas members and other individuals in the city's east to 'heat things up' and try to incite riots on Temple Mount. "A security assessment determined that the compound should be closed for visitors. Muslim worshipers can pray as usual," the source said. Feiglin himself arrived at Temple Mount with a group of his followers, but was forced to turn back. "Calling for the destruction of a holy place like Temple Mount is an attempt to harvest political gain through provocation," another police source said, adding that the department was investigating whether the flyers constitute criminal incitement.

Feiglin's camp denies any connection to the flyers, calling them "a well-timed provocation." They expressed confidence in the police's ability to "find the real culprits."

It put the UK on "negative outlook", implying a 30% chance of losing its AAA credit rating within 18 months. France and Austria have also been warned and Italy, Spain and Portugal's ratings have been lowered. Chancellor George Osborne said the comments from the US agency was not a criticism of his government's economic policy. "It was a reality check for the whole political system that Britain has to deal with its debts, that we can't waiver in the path of dealing with our debts," Mr Osborne told the BBC.

"This is yet another organisation - in this case a credit ratings agency - warning Britain that if we spend or borrow too much we're going to lose our credit rating," he added. However, shadow chancellor Ed Balls said the Moody's statement was a warning to the UK. "Unless you have growth, if your plan is unbalanced it becomes self-defeating and today is the first evidence that even the ratings agencies are waking up to the fact George Osborne's plan is not working," he told the BBC. "I have said consistently and in the face of the views at times of ratings agencies, that without growth, without jobs, you can't get the deficit down," he added.

Because Egypt is one of the top recipients of US aid, American threats to revoke the aid were seen by many as something too big for Egypt to resist. But comments from one of the top MPs in the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) suggest Egypt isn’t going to take this lying down. MP Essam El-Erian, the chairman of Egypt’s Foreign Affairs Committee, pointed out that the US aid wasn’t just a “no-strings attached” gift by the administration, but a required US contribution under the terms of the 1979 Camp David Accords. Revoking the aid, then, would be a negation of that treaty, and would have the parliament pushing for a renegotiation of some of the more onerous terms.

Which would not only be a major loss for the US, but would be a political gain for the FJP. Many Egyptians have been irked by that treaty’s restrictions, and recent polls also show a strong majority who don’t want to receive aid from the US in the first place, particularly given the US attempts to meddle in their political process. What started as a few raids against a few US-funded NGOs looks like a full-scale diplomatic split now, and the dramatic US overreaction may give Egypt’s new power brokers the excuse they need to revisit the terms of their treaty with the US and Israel.

Hearts could also be taken from recently deceased patients and restarted in those needing a cardiac transplant, under controversial proposals from the British Medical Association intended to stop up to 1,000 people a year dying because of the country's chronic shortage of organs. A new BMA report on ways to increase the supply of organs, which it has shown to the Guardian, has revived the intense ethical debate about how far doctors should go to help save the lives of the growing number of patients with organ failure.

The BMA wants a debate about the use of an ethically contentious practice called "elective ventilation", in which patients diagnosed as dead using brain stem tests – such as those who have suffered a massive stroke – are kept alive purely to enable organ retrieval. While such patients are usually put on artificial ventilation for a short while to enable their relatives to say goodbye or for organ donation, the report says, "elective ventilation is different in that it involves starting ventilation, once it is recognised that the patient is close to death, with the specific intention of facilitating organ donation".

One of the report's other most radical suggestions is that – with the permission of the deceased's family – surgeons could remove the heart of someone who has just suffered circulatory death, maintain its function by putting blood and oxygen into it, and give it to a patient who needs a new heart. At the moment only livers, kidneys and lungs are retrieved from such patients.

New cases of the progressive sight-loss condition age related macular degeneration will rise at a far faster rate than has been officially predicted. A study has revealed that instead of the 26,000 cases a year expected by the NHS, the figure will more likely be 71,000 a year. AMD is caused when tissue at the back of the eye gets clogged with waste products, blocking vital nutrients from reaching the retina. It can lead to partial or in some cases total blindness.

Helen Jackman, head of the Macular Disease Society, which funded the research, said: “AMD can lead to isolation, loss of independence and depression. We urge politicians and health planners to ensure proper provision is made for people with AMD.” The research was published online in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

Record low water stocks could devastate crops and send food prices rocketing unless we get a sustained period of rainfall soon. Trevor Bishop, the Environment Agency’s head of water resources, said: “We have a cumulative effect of two years of low rainfall. This is going to have a very strong input and there is a real risk of restrictions including hosepipe bans.” Anglia Water was planning for “the worst possible scenario” and warned hosepipe bans could be in place before summer.

Last night there were growing fears that the UK could this year face a situation similar to the summer drought of 1976. This saw widespread water rationing, with people having to collect water from street standpipes. Parts of rivers have already dried up, forcing Environment Agency staff to move thousands of stranded fish to spots where water is still flowing.

Experts say that if the dry spell continues, the Midlands, East Anglia and the South-east of England are likely to be worst hit as underground supplies need to be diverted into parched rivers. The Environment Agency said the impending crisis, which could also hit tourism and wildlife, had been building up for almost two years. Head of water resources Trevor Bishop said: “We haven’t seen anything this severe for at least two decades. The effect in the East of England is the worst since the 1920s.” But forecasters say the next few weeks will stay dry with no hope of sustained rainfall until May.

"The savings of the citizens would be at risk. The state would be unable to pay salaries, pensions, and cover basic functions, such as hospitals and schools, and … the country - public and private sector alike - would lose all access to borrowing and liquidity would shrink. The living standards of Greeks would collapse. The country would drift into a long spiral of recession, instability, unemployment and prolonged misery. These developments would lead, sooner or later, to exit from the euro."

Up to a point, these warnings are of course all true. Much less clear is whether the enforced penury of continued euro membership which Greek MPs eventually voted for on Sunday night amounts to a better alternative. Any analysis of the economics suggests powerfully that it does not.

Now it is certainly the case that once in the euro, exiting it is not a path any government would willingly contemplate. Without the second bailout of €130 billion, Greece would not have had the money to redeem the €14 billion of bonds which fall due on 20 March. The resulting default would mark the start of a process of national bankruptcy which in the first order would mean state pensions, wages, contracts and medical bills not being paid. From there, the insolvency would multiply outwards into the already deeply impaired private sector, where many businesses would find it impossible to stay afloat.

It is no surprise, then, that Greece's technocrats, backed by a substantial majority of its existing politicians, have turned their back on such a course. But is it really any worse than the one chosen? Repeated rounds of austerity are proving self defeating, which makes it virtually certain that Greece will eventually have to come back for more. What are Europe's paymasters to demand then?

That ordinary Greeks be further punished for the sins and omissions of the old political and business elite? They've already been driven close to open rebellion. Morally and socially, it cannot be right to push them any further. To keep on demanding more is no longer an economic strategy, but a form of sadistic vindictiveness, designed, perhaps deliberately, to back the country into a corner.

In an article for The Daily Telegraph, the Cabinet Office minister says that to create a “more just society” Britons must “feel stronger in their religious identities”. The minister, who is also chairman of the Conservative Party, says: “My fear today is that a militant secularisation is taking hold of our societies. We see it in any number of things: when signs of religion cannot be displayed or worn in government buildings; and where religion is sidelined, marginalised and downgraded in the public sphere.”

“For me, one of the most worrying aspects about this militant secularisation is that at its core and in its instincts it is deeply intolerant. It demonstrates similar traits to totalitarian regimes – denying people the right to a religious identity because they were frightened of the concept of multiple identities.” Baroness Warsi leads an unprecedented government delegation to the Vatican where she will be received by Pope Benedict for a private audience on Wednesday.

She will be the first foreign minister to deliver an address to the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, which trains Papal diplomats, and the party will stay in the Santa Marta, an official residence in the Vatican for visiting cardinals. The visit, to mark the 30th anniversary of the re-establishment of full diplomatic ties between Britain and the Vatican, follows the Pope’s successful visit to Britain in 2010 when he is said to have been impressed by the Government’s outspoken defence of the importance of religion in public life.

The speech represents one of the most strident defences of the importance of religion by a serving British minister. It comes days after the High Court ruled that local councils could not hold prayers during meetings. There have also been recent cases of public sector workers being banned from displaying Christian symbols at work.