It warned that countries such as Iran - which is resisting international pressure to end its nuclear programme - and even eventually some "non-state actors" could acquire the technology to mount such an attack. Terrorists could also build a "crude" non-nuclear EMP weapon, with the power to cause disruption over a more limited area. But despite the vulnerability of the UK to such an attack, the committee accused the Ministry of Defence of appearing "complacent" and "unwilling to take these threats seriously", and added that ministers should start work on "hardening" the infrastructure to protect against an EMP attack as a "matter of urgency".

The committee said the Government currently rated the probability of a high-altitude EMP attack as "low", although it acknowledged that the impact would be severe. However, an official EMP commission in the United States found "rogue states" such as Iran and nuclear-armed North Korea were well aware of the potential for such an attack. The Iranians in particular were reported to have conducted missile tests which appeared to simulate the effects of an EMP nuclear strike. The Americans concluded that in the event of such an attack, the widespread collapse of the electrical power system was "virtually inevitable".

It is not only EMP weapons that have the power to wreak havoc. The committee said a naturally occurring "space weather event" caused by changing conditions in the sun's atmosphere could have a similar effect. The most severe example - known as the Carrington event after the astronomer who observed it - occurred in 1859 when a massive solar flare sent enormous electrical currents surging through telegraph systems causing shocks to telegraph operators and setting fire to papers.

The likelihood of a severe space weather event occurring over the next five years is currently assessed by the Government as being "moderate to high", the committee said. The National Grid has estimated that if there was another Carrington-sized event, there was a 91% chance that an area of the UK would be left without power for two months or more while essential satellite systems could also be damaged.

In the post-World War II Germany, the president of the federal republic is meant to serve as an obstacle to exploitation of democracy by non-democratic forces, as a lesson of the Hitler precedent. The president’s role is mostly symbolic, yet he holds powers that allow him to decide on issues of vital importance to the state.

Wulff is the second German president in a row to end his term by resigning. His predecessor, the esteemed economist Horst Kohler, was the first ever president to resign, about a year and a half ago, after facing harsh criticism over a statement he made regarding Germany’s right to militarily protect economic interests beyond the country’s borders. Kohler was accused of colonialism, and when no government member came to his defense, he surprised observers with a dramatic resignation.

Studies undertaken in the past decade show a significant decline in Germans’ trust in democracy and growing support for a “strong leader.” Corruption affairs have hurt the image of most established parties, with sympathy growing not only for the “Pirates” but also for far Right parties, including the neo-Nazi party, which was not yet outlawed despite its clear involvement in terror against immigrants.

Its fate had been hanging in the balance for weeks. But in the early hours of Tuesday, euro-zone finance ministers approved a new, €130 billion ($172 billion) rescue package for Greece. The last-minute deal effectively saves the country from bankruptcy. Without the new loans, Greece would have been forced to default on March 20, when €14.5 billion in loans mature.

Euro Group head Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg, announced early on Tuesday that finance ministers had reached "a far-reaching agreement" on the bailout. The deal would "secure Greece's future in the euro area," he said. The announcement came after marathon talks lasting over 12 hours in Brussels. "It's no exaggeration to say that today is a historic day for the Greek economy," said Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, who had attended the meeting. The euro leapt in value after news of the deal came out, climbing to over $1.32.

The €130 billion package will be funded by the euro-zone members, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Of that total, €100 billion will take the form of direct assistance, while the remaining €30 billion will be used to provide guarantees for new bonds for private-sector creditors.

First things first: this commentary isn't directed against Greece. It's got nothing to do with all the talk in Germany about Greek citizens not paying their taxes, Greek civil servants who don't work or Greek politicians who break their promises. This commentary has a clear and simple message: The second Greek bailout of €130 billion ($172 billion) that euro zone finance ministers are expected to agree on Monday afternoon should not be paid out.

Sure, Greece will need help from the other European Union member states for years, possibly even decades, and Germany shouldn't refuse that help. Europe will likely end up pumping far more money into Greece in the coming years than the fresh aid now being discussed in Brussels.

The mistake isn't the size, but the construction of the bailout package. It isn't geared to the requirements of the people of Greece but to the needs of the international financial markets, meaning the banks. How else can one explain the fact that around a quarter of the package won't even arrive in Athens but will flow directly to the country's international creditors? The holders of Greek government bonds are to get some €30 billion as an incentive to convert their old paper into new bonds. The aim is to keep alive the illusion that Greece isn't bankrupt - after all, the creditors are voluntarily forgiving part of the debt. The financial sector is cleverly manipulating the fear that a Greek bankruptcy would trigger a fatal chain reaction.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The finance ministers of the euro zone want to approve a new bailout for Greece this Monday. Can the additional €130 billion ($172 billion) save Greece?

Sinn: No, and the politicians know it can't. They want to gain time until the next election. I think we're wasting time by doing this.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: So the euro countries shouldn't approve the aid?

Sinn: They should give them the money to ease their exit from the currency union. The Greek government could use the money to nationalize the country's banks and prevent the state from collapsing. The state and the banks must continue to function through all the turmoil that an exit will entail.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Why are the euro-zone countries so adamant that Greece must remain in the currency?

Sinn: This isn't really about the country. The Greeks are being held hostage by the banks and financial institutions on Wall Street, in London and Paris who want to make sure that money keeps on flowing from government bailout packages - not to Greece, but into their coffers.

Expats living in the country should register with the consulate “so that we can find them in situations of emergency”. Mr Burt said the Government had been “looking very carefully” at what would be needed. He said they would try to establish where UK nationals might be and work with tour operators to help those on holiday. Foreign Secretary William Hague said it would not be helpful for him to say if Greece was likely or not to leave the euro.

Greek minister for international economic affairs Constantine Popadopoulos dismissed Britain’s contingency plans, saying: “They don’t know how committed we are to staying within the eurozone.”

However, Lebanon contends that part of the gas field lies within its territorial waters, and Washington happens to agree. Engdahl explores the implications of this key development, which have already rippled into the US electoral scene, with Netanyahu betting on Republican race horses against Obama. Recent discoveries of not just significant, but huge oil and gas reserves in the little-explored Mediterranean Sea between Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Israel, Syria and Lebanon suggest that the region could become literally a “new Persian Gulf” in terms of oil and gas riches. As with the old Persian Gulf, discovery of hydrocarbon riches could as well spell a geopolitical curse of staggering dimension.

Long-standing Middle East conflicts could soon be paled by new battles over rights to oil and gas resources beneath the eastern Mediterranean in the Levant Basin and Aegean Sea. The game-changer was a dramatic discovery in late 2010 of an enormous natural gas field offshore of Israel in what geologists call the Levant or Levantine Basin. In October 2010 Israel discovered a massive “super-giant” gas field offshore in what it declares is its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

The find is some 84 miles west of the Haifa port and three miles deep. They named it Leviathan after the Biblical sea monster. Three Israeli energy companies in cooperation with the Houston Texas Noble Energy announced initial estimates that the field contained 16 trillion cubic feet of gas — making it the world’s biggest deep-water gas find in a decade, adding more discredit to “peak oil” theories that the planet is about to see dramatic and permanent shortages of oil, gas and coal. To put the number in perspective, that one gas field, Leviathan, would hold enough reserves to supply Israel’s gas needs for 100 years.

The fly in the Mediterranean energy soup is the fact that Israel, like the USA, has never ratified the 1982 UN Convention on Law of the Sea dividing world subsea mineral rights. The Israeli gas wells at Leviathan are clearly within undisputed Israeli territory as Lebanon affirms, but Lebanon believes the field extends over into their subsea waters as well. The Lebanese Hezbollah claims that the Tamar gas field, which is due to begin gas deliveries by the end of this year, belongs to Lebanon.

Worse, 10% of the employees in mid-February were part timers in search of full-time jobs, though down a tad from January's of 10.1%, the all-time worst level in Gallup's history! Underemployment — a combination of the unemployed and part-timers who are looking for a full-time job — jumped to 19% from the mid-January reading of 18.1%. While Gallup’s unemployment reading has improved steadily over the course of 2011, the underemployment reading has simply gotten worse.

Gallup's mid-month reading has been a good predictor of the non-farm payrolls report that the BLS releases two weeks later on the first Friday of the following month. For example, Gallup’s mid-January reading improved to 8.3%, in line with what the BLS would report two weeks later (causing the above hullabaloo). Unlike the BLS, Gallup, does not seasonally adjust its unemployment reading, so some uptick during this time of the year is normal. But that kind of jump is far beyond normal.

The databases would also include Facebook communications, Twitter posts — including direct messages between subscribers — and even communications between players in online video games. According to the Telegraph, the Communications Capabilities Development Programme (CCDP) is already being attacked by privacy advocates as offering a license for abuse and as raising the “Big Brother” potential for universal surveillance. The British government, however, views it as a “vital” tool against terrorism and serious crime, and the legislation to put it into effect is expected to be proposed in May.

The information to be stored would not include the content of calls or emails but would consist of phone numbers and email addresses. These would reveal who was communicating with whom on what occasions and could also make it easy for police to track the movements of cellphone and computer users. The plan has aroused concerns not only over civil liberties but also because hackers could potentially exploit the massive databases, which would be maintained by the companies and not by the government itself.

First minister Alex Salmond hopes to hold a referendum on Scottish independence in 2014 when the country marks Robert the Bruce’s victory over the English. And Argentina hopes to use the event to drive a wedge between England and Scotland.

Argentine politician Carlos Kunkel, an ally of president Cristina Kirchner, said: “We are analysing the possibility of sending a delegation to the celebrations of the Scottish victory.” But Kunkel may be surprised to learn many islanders are descended from Scottish settlers and the islands take their name from Scot Anthony Cary, the 5th Viscount of Falkland.

"Canada will not hesitate to defend its interests, including at the World Trade Organisation," state letters sent to European commissioners by Canada's ambassador to the EU and its oil minister, released under freedom of information laws. The move is a significant escalation of the row over the EU's plans, which Canada fears would set a global precedent and derail its ability to exploit its tar sands, which are the biggest fossil fuel reserve in the world after Saudi Arabia. Environmental groups argue that exploitation of the tar sands, also called oil sands, is catastrophic for the global climate, as well as causing serious air and water pollution in Alberta.

Darek Urbaniak, at Friends of the Earth Europe, which obtained the new documents, said: "These letters are further evidence of Canadian government and industry lobbying, which continuously undermines efforts to combat climate change. We find it unacceptable that the Canadian government now openly uses direct threats at the highest political levels to derail crucial EU climate legislation."

In December, Canada unilaterally pulled out of the world's only binding climate change treaty, the Kyoto protocol, having increased its emissions of greenhouse gases by a third instead of reducing them by 6%. In public, the Canadian government claimed that tar sands are "sustainable" but in private it has admitted there is no "credible scientific information" to support this. Canada suffered a setback in January, when Barack Obama rejected a proposal for a controversial pipeline called Keystone XL to import tar sands oil from Alberta, though Republicans in congress are working to reinstate the pipeline.

The IAEA inspectors arrived Monday for two days of talks in the Islamic Republic in an atmosphere of growing tension and concern over a potential conflict. Their arrival also coincided with increasing speculation that Israel was mulling over air strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities. "These exercises aim to reinforce the integrated abilities of the country's anti-air defences," said a statement from the Katem-ol-Anbia military air base coordinating Iran's anti-air and ballistic missile systems. Missiles, anti-aircraft artillery, radars and warplanes were being deployed, it said.

"These manoeuvres aim to reinforce the coordination between the military and the Revolutionary Guards for a total coverage of the country's sensitive facilities, especially nuclear sites," the statement said. The exercises, named "Sarollah" (a word borrowed from Arabic meaning "God's vengeance"), covered a zone of 190,000 square kilometres (73,400 square miles) in southern Iran, it said. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said earlier it was hoping for "concrete results" from the two days of talks focused on "the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear programme".

But the delegation's leader, chief UN nuclear inspector Herman Nackaerts, cautioned progress "may take a while". His careful choice of words suggested little expectation the meeting will be successful. That expectation was largely fulfilled when Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told the student news agency ISNA that the IAEA officials would not be going to any nuclear sites. "No. Their work has just begun," Salehi said. The Islamic Republic has in recent days flaunted what it said was "major" nuclear progress, declaring it was adding thousands more centrifuges to its uranium enrichment activities and producing what it said was 20-per cent enriched nuclear fuel.

In September, it was announced that the coalition Government would legislate for same-sex marriages by 2015. A public consultation on how to make civil marriage available to same-sex couples is to be launched next month. Grassroots organisation Coalition for Marriage is today launching a campaign against the moves, in a bid to halt attempts to redefine marriage. The proposals were announced by the Lib Dem Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone last year, but senior Tories made clear they had the strong backing of David Cameron - despite the likely opposition of many Conservative traditionalists.

Lord Carey wrote that he was “baffled” by David Cameron's statement at last year's Conservative party conference, in which the Prime Minister said: “I don’t support gay marriage in spite of being a Conservative. I support gay marriage because I am a Conservative.” In his article, Lord Carey said: “Like many others, I was baffled by this statement. Not because I begrudge rights and benefits to homosexual couples.” He said he was baffled “because this Government’s proposal constitutes one of the greatest political power grabs in history.”

He went on: “The state does not ‘own’ the institution of marriage. Nor does the church. The honourable estate of matrimony precedes both the state and the church, and neither of these institutions have the right to redefine it in such a fundamental way.”

Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said: “The Coalition for Marriage is intolerant and out of touch. Its support for the ban on gay marriage is homophobic and discrimination. Coalition members are entitled to believe that same-sex marriages are wrong, but they are not entitled to demand that their opposition to such marriages should be imposed on the rest of society and enforced by law.”

Mrs May also said students from low risk countries had been allowed to enter Britain even when they did not have visa clearance. She said the practice was unlawful and discriminatory. John Vine, the independent chief inspector of the UK Border Agency, launched an investigation after it emerged the UK's border checks were being relaxed at ports and airports without ministerial approval. His report found that border staff went "over and beyond" any scheme approved by ministers.

It also discovered that the biometric chip reading facility had been deactivated on 14,812 occasions at a number of ports between January and June 2011. Secure ID checks were also suspended a total of 482 times between June 2010 and November 2011, including 463 times at Heathrow alone, and most of these were between one and four hours.

Mrs May said: "The Vine report reveals a Border Force that suspended important checks without permission; that spent millions on new technologies but chose not to use them; that was led by managers who did not communicate with their staff; and that sent reports to ministers that were inaccurate, unbalanced and excluded key information. Suspensions were completely unauthorised and that was simply not acceptable," added the home secretary.

In parts of south-east England groundwater levels are lower than in the infamously dry summer of 1976. Water companies are ready to bring in hosepipe bans from early spring, where necessary, Defra says. The firms have agreed measures to reduce the environmental impact of dry conditions, including reducing water losses and improving leak detection, as well as encouraging customers to save water.

The Environment Agency will also take steps such as monitoring the impact of the dry weather on fisheries and wildlife. Ms Spelman said after the summit: "Drought is already an issue this year with the South East, Anglia and other parts of the UK now officially in drought, and more areas are likely to be affected as we continue to experience a prolonged period of very low rainfall."