The eurozone debt crisis has left many countries including Spain and Greece facing austerity measures and has forced many to tighten purse strings and trade within the euro rather than outside. Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said the survey was "disappointing and an early blow" to hopes the economy will return to growth, after official figures last week showed the UK was in a technical recession.

The news will add to the comments made by David Cameron who claimed that the eurozone strife would continue to effect the British economy until at least 2015. The PM said: "I don’t think we’re anywhere near halfway through it because what’s happening in the eurozone is a massive tension between the single currency that countries are finding very difficult to adapt to. I think it’s going to be a very long and painful process as they work out do they want a single currency with a single economic policy and all the things that go with it, or are they going to have something quite different.”

Economists have already raised concerns about the second quarter, as additional bank holidays for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee are expected to knock growth. Mr Archer added: "Not only is eurozone contraction and soft activity elsewhere hurting exports, but domestic demand for manufactured goods is handicapped by a still appreciable squeeze on consumers' purchasing power as well as by tighter public spending."

Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik admitted to using Call of Duty as a training aid before the Utoya massacre - and the new discovery raises fears that other groups such as Al Qaeda could use the games in the same way. Players used a pistol-shaped controller in a shoot 'em up, then a real gun on a mannequin - the gamers had 99% more hits in the head than non-gamers.

Players who had 'trained' using games also had 33% more shots that hit other parts of the body. The study found that participants who reported habitual playing of violent shooting games also were more accurate than others when shooting at the mannequin, and made more head shots. It's not surprising that video games can improve shooting accuracy - the military, police departments and others already use video games for training purposes, said Brad Bushman, co-author of the study and a professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State University.

But this is the first study to show that average players using violent shooting games with realistic human targets can improve firing aim and accuracy. ‘For good and bad, video game players are learning lessons that can be applied in the real world,’ Bushman said. ‘The more frequently one plays violent shooting games, the more accurately one fires a realistic gun and aims for the head, although we can't tell from this study which factor is the cause,’ Bushman said.

Bushman said these results should give parents and policymakers pause. ‘We shouldn't be too quick to dismiss violent video games as just harmless fun in a fantasy world – they can have real-world effects,’ he said. Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik described how he became a deadly marksman by honing his gun skills by playing the violent Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare computer game. The mass killer even bought a special gun sight used on the game - and attached it to the hunting rifle he used for his deadly rampage on a Norwegian island.

“As far as I am concerned, US Treasurys are junk bonds,” Schiff said on CNBC Asia’s “Squawk Box”. “And the only reason that the US government can pay the interest on the debt, and I say ‘pay’ in quotes because we never pay our bills. We borrow the money so we pretend to pay, but the only reason we can do it is because the Fed has got interest rates so artificially low.” The Fed has been keeping rates on benchmark 10-year Treasurys low by purchasing bonds via quantitative easing (QE), and this will ultimately be the US economy’s “undoing”, Schiff said.

“Unfortunately, we are going to get more QE than Rocky movies, because the only thing keeping this phony economy going is this QE. And the minute you take it away, it’s going to collapse,” he said. Schiff’s comments come after two Fed officials warned on Tuesday that the US could be heading for a "fiscal cliff" at the end of the year if mandated tax increases and spending cuts are implemented. On the same day, fund manager Bill Gross, who runs the world’s biggest bond fund, told CNBC that the US will face a downgrade of its ‘AAA’ debt rating if it does not fix its fiscal situation.

The expected tax increases and spending cuts were triggered when a congressional "super committee" failed to come up with a way of closing the federal budget deficit. Both Fed officials spoke during the Milken conference in Los Angeles. Earlier Tuesday, on CNBC, both agreed the slowing US economy is disappointing, but differed on the need for continued stimulus. "I’d like nothing better than to start raising rates before late 2014 on the strength of a stronger economy," Evans told Squawk on the Street.

Tom Byrne, senior vice president and regional officer, acknowledged the tax increase would leave Japan facing weaker economic growth but said the country needs to "bite the bullet" and start fixing public finances driven by swelling welfare costs. "If you don't increase taxes you'd have to issue more JGBs which moves the day of reckoning closer to the tipping point where markets demand higher risk premiums," Byrne told reporters on the sidelines of the Asian Development Bank meeting in Manila.

"WE TEND TO THINK THERE IS A TIPPING POINT WHERE THINGS COULD CHANGE ABRUPTLY." Facing snowballing debt, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is struggling to preserve party unity and push through a contentious plan to double the 5 percent sales tax by 2015, with opposition parties that control the parliament's upper house refusing to cooperate.

Moody's rates Japan's sovereign credit at Aa3 with a stable outlook but has warned the rating would be reviewed if the tax hike plans are delayed further. The government borrows more than it raises in taxes, and its debt pile amounts to two years' worth of Japan's economic output, the highest debt-to-GDP ratio in the world.

The protest group Take the Flour Back has vowed to "decontaminate" the site unless the research is halted. The scientists say the GM plants could benefit the environment as they will reduce pesticide use. "We appeal to you as environmentalists," they write in an open letter. "Our GM wheat could, for future generations, substantially reduce the use of agricultural chemicals."

But the campaigners say the GM trial presents "a clear risk to British farming". They argue that genes from the modified strain could spread into neighbouring fields, and that there has been no evaluation of whether foods made from the GM variety would be safe to eat. They are planning a day of action on 27 May, trailed on their website as "a nice day out in the country, with picnics, music... and a decontamination".

Lucy Harrap from Take the Flour Back doubted the crop's environmental credentials. "So far, the evidence doesn't indicate that GM fields need less pesticide - in fact they tend to need more," she said. "The other thing is that they're using an antibiotic resistance gene as a marker in this trial, and in many parts of the EU that's considered quite outdated science now because you can get gene transfer into bacteria and so on."

He arrived in Afghanistan on a publicly unannounced visit to sign an agreement on future Afghan-US ties with President Hamid Karzai, ahead of a Nato summit. Hours after his speech, at least seven people died in an attack in Kabul. Afghan officials said at least two suicide bombers targeted a guesthouse popular with foreigners in the eastern part of the capital.

They said at least four of the victims were civilians - children from a nearby school, according to Nato. Seventeen people were wounded. The Taliban later claimed responsibility for the attacks. A spokesman for the Nato lead force praised the Afghan security forces for "taking the lead in putting down another desperate attack by insurgents".

Mark Mardell, BBC North America editor said, “At its heart, this speech was a balancing act. The vast majority of Americans want to get out of Afghanistan and end the war. But anything that looks like cutting and running, leaving the Afghans in the lurch, would be criticised by the foreign policy establishment and by some allies, as well as his obvious opponents. At the weekend the president officially launches his re-election campaign. Foreign affairs will not dominate, but one of the reasons he was elected was to end the wars, to change America's foreign policy. It is important that he is perceived to have done that in a way that is both patriotic and responsible. There are few better ways than to be seen alongside America's military.”

Gross cited a US structural deficit figure between six and eight percent greater than any other country besides Japan and the United Kingdom, and added "until we address that structural deficit then yes, we're headed to AA territory." The US is currently rated AA plus by Standard & Poor's and AAA by Moody's and Fitch. While Gross currently gives the US a personal credit rating of AA plus, he warned that one needs to be "very conscious" of the "fiscal cliff" near the end of the year.

Previously linked in scientific research to the massive obesity crisis, pesticides are now known to impact the mind in ways that are still not entirely understood. Despite these findings, they are continually touted as safe by the profit-hungry chemical industry. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, observed pregnant mothers in New York who were exposed to a pesticide known as chlorpyrifos (CPF).

Banned in 2001 from household use, the chemical is still used worldwide in agriculture. That’s right, this is a chemical that is not permitted to be used in your home, though it is perfectly fine to spray on your food. What the researchers found was that women who had higher levels of CPF had children with ”significant abnormalities” in brain structure compared to mothers with lower exposure levels.

Perhaps the most startling finding by the academic team is that all of the women in the study, of which there were 369 total, were actually below the US established thresholds of acute exposure. Therefore, even low to moderate levels of exposure can seriously impact brain function. A large amount of exposure could be even more dangerous and destructive. Lead researcher Virginia Rauh, a professor at the Mailman School of Public Health, summarized the findings:

“Toxic exposure during this critical period can have far-reaching effects on brain development and behavioral functioning.” The findings will certainly cause a ripple in the pesticide industry, though the larger issue is why this pesticide is being used in your food after it was banned from being used indoors. If the pesticide is damaging by simply being used in the same living space as humans, how could it be considered safe to put into your body?

Money from the Department for International Development has helped pay for a controversial programme that has led to miscarriages and even deaths after botched operations. A number of pregnant women selected for sterilisation suffered miscarriages and lost their babies. The UK agreed to give India £166 million to fund the programme, despite allegations that the money would be used to sterilise the poor in an attempt to curb the country's burgeoning population of 1.2 billion people.

Sterilisation has been mired in controversy for years. With officials and doctors paid a bonus for every operation, poor and little-educated men and women in rural areas are routinely rounded up and sterilised without having a chance to object. Activists say some are told they are going to health camps for operations that will improve their general wellbeing and only discover the truth after going under the knife.

Yet a working paper published by the UK's Department for International Development in 2010 cited the need to fight climate change as one of the key reasons for pressing ahead with such programmes. The document argued that reducing population numbers would cut greenhouse gases, although it warned that there were "complex human rights and ethical issues" involved in forced population control.

More than a million home owners will see the cost of their mortgage payments increase today as several lenders raise their standard variable rate (SVR). Three quarters of mortgage-holders told the group that they would be affected if their repayments increased by £50 a month, with 41 per cent saying they would need to cut back on regular spending, 20 per cent reducing savings and 11 per cent not having enough for essentials.

An increase of £100 a month would see 20 per cent of mortgage-holders not having enough for daily essentials such as food and 11 per cent being unable to pay their mortgage. Consumers also highlighted the emotional impact of increases in mortgage repayments, describing them as "devastating" and "a disaster". Halifax is raising its SVR from 3.5 per cent to 3.99 per cent, affecting 850,000 home owners. Borrowers revert to paying an SVR when their fixed rate deal ends.

The Co-operative Bank, Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank are also among those raising rates from Tuesday, blaming the weak economy and the increased cost of funding a mortgage. Which? estimated the annual cost of the rises in mortgage rates at £300 million.

Starstreak and Rapier missile systems - which have a range of around 4 miles - would be deployed as a “last resort” to shoot down any low flying aircraft intending a 9/11 style suicide mission at one of the Olympic venues. Defence sources claim radar would identify rogue aircraft and the missiles would be deployed long before they reached built up areas.

But experts have claimed that the systems are useless in poor weather as they rely on the operator being able to see the target. Nick Brown, editor in chief of IHS Jane's International Defence Review said: "The system’s weakness is that the missiles are laser-guided, steered onto their target by the soldier keeping his sight on an aircraft. So if the soldier can’t see an aircraft, they can’t hit it."

The missiles are intended to form part of a “layered” defence system, which will see 13,500 military personnel deployed to support the police for the duration of the games. Typhoon aircraft will conduct low flying exercises over the capital and helicopters carrying snipers will also conduct practice operations.

"The name Forward carries a special meaning in socialist political terminology. It has been frequently used as a name for socialist, communist and other left-wing newspapers and publications," the online encyclopedia explains. The slogan "Forward!" reflected the conviction of European Marxists and radicals that their movements reflected the march of history, which would move forward past capitalism and into socialism and communism.

The Obama campaign released its new campaign slogan Monday in a 7-minute video. The title card has simply the word "Forward" with the "O" having the familiar Obama logo from 2008. It will be played at rallies this weekend that mark the Obama re-election campaign's official beginning.

There have been at least two radical-left publications named "Vorwaerts" (the German word for "Forward"). One was the daily newspaper of the Social Democratic Party of Germany whose writers included Friedrich Engels and Leon Trotsky. It still publishes as the organ of Germany's SDP, though that party has changed considerably since World War II. Another was the 1844 biweekly reader of the Communist League. Karl Marx, Engels and Mikhail Bakunin are among the names associated with that publication.

"Just in case you needed some incentive to stop working we have a little surprise for you. Think fast you have seconds." Several samples tested negative - evidently containing corn starch, police said. Later, all the powder samples were determined to be non-toxic, The Associated Press reported. The receipt of the white powder prompted evacuations at bank branches, police told the AP, but caused no injuries.

Police initially suggested the suspicious envelopes could have been mailed by militants from within the Occupy Wall Street movement, but a spokesman for Occupy Wall Street denied any connection to the mailings, saying the NYPD was making a false assumption. Police had no suspects in the mailings, the AP reported. Labor, immigration and Occupy Wall Street activists were planning public protests for "May Day," May 1, which also is known as international workers' day.

Yet, with a handful of employees in a small office here in Reno, Apple has done something central to its corporate strategy: it has avoided millions of dollars in taxes in California and 20 other states. Apple’s headquarters are in Cupertino, California. By putting an office in Reno, just 200 miles away, to collect and invest the company’s profits, Apple sidesteps state income taxes on some of those gains. California’s corporate tax rate is 8.84 percent. Nevada’s? Zero.

Setting up an office in Reno is just one of many legal methods Apple uses to reduce its worldwide tax bill by billions of dollars each year. As it has in Nevada, Apple has created subsidiaries in low-tax places like Ireland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the British Virgin Islands — some little more than a letterbox or an anonymous office — that help cut the taxes it pays around the world.

Without such tactics, Apple’s federal tax bill in the United States most likely would have been $2.4 billion higher last year, according to a recent study by a former Treasury Department economist, Martin A Sullivan. As it stands, the company paid cash taxes of $3.3 billion around the world on its reported profits of $34.2 billion last year, a tax rate of 9.8 percent. (Apple does not disclose what portion of those payments was in the United States, or what portion is assigned to previous or future years.)

By comparison, Wal-Mart last year paid worldwide cash taxes of $5.9 billion on its booked profits of $24.4 billion, a tax rate of 24 percent, which is about average for non-tech companies.