They hone their skills at the head of convoys that trundle along the dusty roads of remote mountainous provinces. As they drive, these soldiers scan ahead for signs of roadside bombs: disturbed earth, a glint of metal, or just something that seems out of place. Spotting them can mean the difference between life and death. Those who are half-jokingly said to possess the “sixth sense” are the ones that seem to have an uncanny ability to spot these almost imperceptible signs of danger. The problem is that it may take several seconds for the brain to become conscious of what it’s seen, and in Afghanistan, that brief time can mean the difference between spotting a bomb, and driving over it and setting it off.

But a device known as an electroencephalogram (EEG) can spot that P300 signal. Hooked into a sophisticated computer that can interpret the signal, it can immediately alert a person to a potential threat, taking a short cut through the brain’s normal conscious processing. Combined with advanced optics, it is possible to imagine a Terminator-like vision system that scans an area and immediately identifies and categorises threats.

They are the Order for Funerals and the Order for the Celebration of Holy Matrimony. There are now three ordinariates established: the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in the United Kingdom; the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter in the United States and Canada; and the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross in Australia. According to a report by Vatican Radio the texts are drawn from the classical Anglican prayer book tradition and incorporate elements of the Anglican patrimony, now in the full communion of the Catholic Church.

Yet the government will not permit farmers to pump the water to save their crops. Many of the farmers have wells that draw groundwater for use in situations like this. But in 2006, the Colorado Supreme Court ordered 440 wells shut down and curtailed the pumping of another 1,000. The decision to shut down the wells came about during a historic drought in the early 2000s that caused water in the South Platte River to become scarce.

Following the shutdowns, the volume of water discharged into the artificial recharge systems in the South Platte Basin has increased, reaching more than 350,000 acre-feet in 2009. The increase in ground water has now come to the point where local basements are being flooded, causing damage to the homes.

Though seemingly insignificant against the backdrop of all the regional and international crises affecting our world, Balochistan is, in fact, a nexus: the point at which diametrically opposing strategic interests converge.

The United States views Balochistan, an area that encompasses western Pakistan, eastern Iran, and a piece of southern Afghanistan, as critical to the maintenance of US hegemony in the Middle East and Central and South Asia. Conversely, China regards the region as necessary for its own economic and political evolution into a world superpower. Seen in this way, Balochistan becomes central to the development of geopolitical power in the 21st Century.

An estimated 16,000 people have died in the government's violent supression of dissent since March 2011, including members of President Bashar Al-Assad's security forces. The diplomats are expected to formulate a plan of measures to increase pressure on the Assad regime. The plan will be submitted to the United Nations.

Researchers said allowing Greece or another member state to quit the European Union’s single currency would have a “distinctly positive” effect. And a smooth departure could be organised secretly within weeks and achieved over a weekend.

The report, by a team at analysts Capital Economics, won the £250,000 Wolfson Economics Prize for the best essay detailing how a country could leave the euro.

Article by Nigel Farage MEP:

I have had enough of being told that we will have an EU referendum “when the time is right”. The time has come for a real debate: I challenge the Prime Minister to debate with me why he will not give us a say on our relationship with the European Union.

The explanation is that it is in our interests to remain a member, so it does not matter what voters think. It’s a case of “I, David Cameron, have made up my mind.” This assertion, shared by almost the entire political class, must be questioned in an open debate. Those of us who have dared to challenge the consensus have been mocked and derided, but opinion polls now show that the British people do not want to be part of a political union.

The Prime Minister overstates the benefits of EU membership. I believe we would be better off out. My parents’ generation voted to remain a part of a Common Market which they believed to be a free-trade agreement that would not impinge on our rights of self-government. We were conned in 1975 and we must not allow that to be repeated today.

The EU is a Seventies solution to a Fifties problem. The world has moved on since the “Common Market”, with World Trade Organisation agreements guaranteeing trading terms. Countries like Norway, Switzerland and even Mexico have free trade deals with the EU. Trade will continue as it does now with consumers making their choices in the marketplace. We are the world’s fifth-largest trading nation and yet, incredibly, we are banned from negotiating our own trade deals around the world. Ukip believes the Commonwealth is a good place to start, with its shared ties, common law, common language and a growth rate that outstrips our European neighbours.

“The future of our nation is at stake. Mr Cameron, you have my phone number”.

DatelineDrought.com has been developed by Farm Progress to provide coverage of the unfolding drought conditions; the website provides drought news from its family of local state and regional agricultural magazines, along with Farm Futures, the nation's leading magazine serving large-scale ag producers.

DatelineDrought.com includes a daily updated video. Most video segments will include a summary hosted by Max Armstrong, Farm Progress broadcast director, and news articles from Farm Progress' extensive staff of editors located throughout the nation.

"In six minutes you can watch the video posted on DatelineDrought.com and get the full agricultural drought impact across the nation," said Willie Vogt, Farm Progress editorial director. "Max Armstrong will host many of the daily updated videos and three times each week we'll feature Greg Soulje with the weather perspective and Bryce Knorr will provide daily market impact coverage."

On paper, the idea of creating an uber-watchdog with knowledge about the risks in banks' balance sheets and information on how much they depend on central bank funding, appears a perfect recipe for an effective supervisor.

The European Commission is expected to lay out the blueprint in September, giving lawmakers time to discuss changes ahead of an end of year deadline, which must be met before the euro zone's bailout fund can start recapitalizing banks direct. One German official said it was "TOTALLY UNREALISTIC" to expect the new set up to be up and running in six months - some experienced in euro zone politics think it could take 2-3 years - but ECB insiders say they already have a clear outline of their plans and that talks with Brussels have already started.

Much of the detail is still to be decided, but plans as they stand would see the ECB supervise the 25 to 30 large, multi-national commercial euro zone banks such as BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Santander and UniCredit. "I don't think it's realistic to build the ECB up into a single, unified bank supervisor of all of Europe's thousands of banks ... but we will find a sensible solution in terms of a division of labor," the ECB's Ewald Nowotny said this week.

Smaller banks would remain under national regulator control, while those based in the UK, Sweden and other countries not in the euro will not take part as they have no say in the ECB.

Last week’s summit took important steps to stop the immediate panic. But the big economies of Italy and Spain are shrinking and there is no agreed long-term vision for the zone. In other words, the crisis is still there.

Some countries like Germany want much more common decision making, but others fear the loss of sovereignty. Meanwhile, many weaker nations want to pool their debts – an idea rightly rejected by Merkel.

Europe’s people are not ready for full political union. So the best solution would be to keep the loss of sovereignty and debt-sharing down to the minimum. But the summit kicked these big issues into touch.

The dinosaur is less terrifying than it was a few weeks ago. But it is still there.

China, the euro zone and Britain all loosened monetary policy on Thursday, signaling growing alarm about the world economy. But to little avail.

More than 3,000 temperature records have been shattered in the US this past week, from June 28-July 4, 2012, according to NOAA. The tally of record high temperatures during the time period is 2,253, and the tally of maximum low temperature records is 936. From July 1-July 4 alone, more than 1,000 record highs have fallen, while more than 600 maximum low temperature records have been broken.

Parts of the UK were under a severe weather warning today as forecasters predicted up to a month's worth of rain could fall over 24 hours. Yorkshire, the North East, the Midlands and East Anglia are likely to take the brunt of the severe weather late today, the Environment Agency said. June saw long, prolonged rainfall and short but exceptionally heavy showers, and ended with freak storms which battered areas of the Midlands and the North East. The exceptional amount of rain caused floods in Wales and parts of England.

"Firearms, offensive weapons and other material were later found hidden inside, prompting police to take action to trace and arrest the driver, passenger and others suspected of being involved." It follows the arrest of five men and a women in an intelligence-led anti-terrorism operation in nine addresses across London yesterday.

David Handley, of the campaign group Farmers for Action, said there was great “anger and frustration” among dairy farmers that they had been “robbed”.

He told the BBC: “If we don’t get reinstatement [reversing price cuts], we are looking at disruption of milk supplies. That could come in many forms.” Mr Handley said the protest would probably be held during the Olympics, adding: “Part of our action is likely to disrupt that and that is unfortunate, but at the end of the day we are in desperation street.”