When the Sun reaches the peak of its 11-year cycle, fierce magnetic rays burst from it. Activity is low this cycle but as energy is not being released, any storms would be more violent. A large discharge could overwhelm Earth’s magnetic field, which serves as a protective barrier.

The last catastrophic “coronal mass ejection”, as it is known, was in 1859 when most telegraph systems were disabled. A Nasa-backed report predicted a “planetary disaster” if a storm struck. Professor Alan Woodward, of Surrey University, said: “We have never had a solar storm since we have been dependent on computers or satellites.”

In 2009, Panarin lectured at the Diplomatic Academy where he said that he believes that the US will begin to collapse in 2010. He compared America to Nazi Germany and blamed the US for the global financial crisis that destroyed the Russian economy. Panarin said that American society is in decline, referencing school shootings like Columbine. Combined with the banker bailouts in 2008 as proof that the US is no longer the global dominating economy, Paranrin believes that the American dream is over.

He asserts that mass immigration, economic decline and moral degradation will plunge America into a civil war that will center on the collapse of the US dollar. Considering the social climate emerging in America, Panarin’s words seem prophetic.

Lubbock County Judge Tom Head said on a local FOX affiliate station that he is convinced that [Mr] Obama’s re-election would spawn civil unrest which would justify the US government’s use of martial law to quell the public. [Tom] Head is seeking an increase in local taxes to “beef up” the Lubbock County Sheriff’s office and district attorney’s office.

The federal government is too large and its influence too prominent, but states still set their own laws on some of this country’s most contentious issues such as abortion and gun rights. Were Europe to emulate such a model the constituent parties (nation states) would retain local authority over at least some of their affairs. However, as recent cases demonstrate, European federalism is far from the federalism of the United States. Over in Ireland, like the United States, abortion is a hot topic. Ireland is alone in Europe when it comes to the severity of its restrictions on abortion. Abortions are illegal under all circumstances except in the case of pregnancy endangering the life of the mother.

While the abnormally religious Irish do have some unorthodox legislation relating to abortion you would think that the sort of federalism European officials say they are practicing would allow for the Irish to make their own laws on abortion. After all, the European Union has an open border policy and Europeans can vote with their feet when it comes to policies. Thousands of Irish women already do this every year, travelling to England to have abortions.

The European Court of Human rights, which has one Irish judge out of the forty seven on the court, ruled in 2010 that a woman with cancer had her rights violated when she was unable to get an abortion in Ireland. The court is set to report on its findings next month. Depending on the findings the court might demand the Irish revise their abortion laws. The current government has vowed to oppose any suggestion from the court.

The European Union has done a poor job at implementing federalism. As a political entity it is highly centralized. It ignores referendums and locally supported policies. The truth is that American-style federalism is not really what the European political machine wants. As the current euro-crisis has been demonstrating, the European political establishment has no respect for democracy and a fetish for centralized control, whether it is economic, political, or judicial.

The Afghan endgame is on in real earnest. The first moves on the regional strategic chessboard and, perhaps, the next episode of the ‘Great Game’ have been initiated. The South-Central Asian Region (SCAR) is thus currently in a state of flux. In its eagerness to egress the region, the US is rending asunder its non-alliance with Pakistan while Russia watches and waits anxiously to exploit the resulting mayhem.

The forceful geopolitical and strategic moves are afoot by both the US and Russia to manoeuvre into a geopolitically advantageous position in the region. The emerging environment of SCAR is thus pregnant with epoch-making possibilities. The Russians have a lot to gain by engaging Pakistan fruitfully at this dynamic juncture in regional and global history. The two have been conducting quiet diplomacy in the recent past. President Vladimir Putin is visiting Pakistan come September 2012.

They embraced, slapped each other on the shoulder and called each other "my friend." When Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg and president of the Euro Group, met with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras at [Mr] Samaras' office in Athens last Wednesday, the mood was convivial - but only for the TV cameras.

Behind closed doors, the Euro Group head got down to business, telling [Mr] Samaras that the end of the line had been reached, and that the Greek government could no longer expect any special treatment from its partners. [Mr] Juncker also told his host that constantly demanding more time for reforms wasn't helpful.

When [Mr] Samaras, the chairman of the center-right New Democracy party, was still opposition leader, he had a reputation for being resistant to the advice of his fellow European conservatives. But now he has apparently become a quick learner. During a visit to Berlin two days later, on Friday, he was no longer asking for more time to implement reforms.

[Mr] Samaras now has two to three weeks left to put together an austerity package worth about €14 billion ($17.5 billion) for the next two years. The Greek leader is promising to privatize state-owned businesses, cut government jobs and collect taxes more efficiently. But politicians in Berlin and Brussels doubt whether his new course will produce results quickly enough.

Brussels bureaucrats have ruled that gardeners who sprinkle coffee grounds around their cabbages to kill slugs are breaking the law. It means there is a chance – albeit a slim one – of vegetable growers receiving a visit and a heavy fine from the police. Gardeners say the caffeine in coffee keeps slugs out of the vegetable patch. Many coffee shops let customers take the grounds home for free, which can then be used as a mulch or to improve compost.

But the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has warned that any gardener using coffee granules to deter slugs falls foul of EU regulations. The rules say that any active ingredient or chemical used in gardening must be explicitly approved and placed on an EU list of pesticides.

This aims to stop people using ‘home-made remedies in a dangerous manner’.

Bob Flowerdew, a panellist on Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time and author of several gardening books, said: ‘Regulations are an ass, but they haven’t led to prosecutions. I cannot recommend that anyone breaks the law, but I can point out that, in other countries, people do use coffee grounds.’ Mr Flowerdew said some gardeners used soft soap on plants to kill aphids, although this would also be technically illegal.

Humans derive about 20% of their protein from animal-based products now, but this may need to drop to just 5% to feed the extra 2 billion people expected to be alive by 2050, according to research by some of the world's leading water scientists. "There will not be enough water available on current croplands to produce food for the expected 9 billion population in 2050 if we follow current trends and changes towards diets common in western nations," the report by Malik Falkenmark and colleagues at the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) said.

"There will be just enough water if the proportion of animal-based foods is limited to 5% of total calories and considerable regional water deficits can be met by a … reliable system of food trade."

Dire warnings of water scarcity limiting food production come as Oxfam and the UN prepare for a possible second global food crisis in five years. Prices for staples such as corn and wheat have risen nearly 50% on international markets since June, triggered by severe droughts in the US and Russia, and weak monsoon rains in Asia. More than 18 million people are already facing serious food shortages across the Sahel.

Oxfam has forecast that the price spike will have a devastating impact in developing countries that rely heavily on food imports, including parts of Latin America, North Africa and the Middle East. Food shortages in 2008 led to civil unrest in 28 countries.