Forecasters say the UK will be “put in the freezer” with weeks of snow, ice and freezing temperatures set to cause chaos on the roads. The AA yesterday warned motorists lulled into a false sense of security by the mild weather to take extra care as wet roads freeze over, making driving conditions treacherous. The Met Office has severe weather warnings in place today for ice, with snow turning to slush leading to traffic disruption.

Forecaster Helen Chivers said: “We have got cold air coming in from the East, an Atlantic system from the West and the UK is the battleground. It is going to turn cold with the risk of snow cover in the North.” Black ice could turn roads into skating rinks and drivers were warned to be prepared for delays and to check road conditions before setting off.

Last year Britain ground to a halt as one of the coldest winters on record caused transport chaos. Parts of the country were buried under up to a foot of snow for days as temperatures plunged to -20C. But a spokesman for the Local Government Association said yesterday: “Councils are better prepared this winter than they have ever been. Town halls have stockpiled 1.4 million tons of grit, more than was used throughout all of last winter.”

More than half of all black men without a high-school diploma go to prison at some time in their lives. Mass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled in human history is a fundamental fact of our country today — perhaps the fundamental fact, as slavery was the fundamental fact of 1850.

In truth, there are more black men in the grip of the criminal-justice system — in prison, on probation, or on parole — than were in slavery then. Over all, there are now more people under “correctional supervision” in America — more than six million — than were in the Gulag Archipelago under Stalin at its height. That city of the confined and the controlled, Lockuptown, is now the second largest in the United States.

There, Haitian-American artists come to talk about their faith in voodoo and how it keeps them connected to their homeland. "The religion is like a glue," says voodoo priestess Marie Saintil. "We attract each other. If a drum is beating, and someone hears it, the next thing you know, this place is packed." That connection is especially important this month, on the two-year anniversary of the earthquake that devastated Haiti.

Since the quake, voodoo has played an important role in the healing process. Many of these Haitian immigrants have found comfort in the faith and community that voodoo cultivates, practitioners of the religion in the US say. Haitian voodoo (spelt 'vodou' in Creole) is an ancient practice that emerged among the first Africans brought to Haiti as slaves in the 16th Century. Unable to practice their own diverse religions openly, the slaves fused them with the Catholic beliefs of the Spanish and French slavers. From these complex beginnings voodoo has become an important part of Haitian culture, especially for those living far from home.

Voodoo ceremonies do not take place on a weekly basis, like Catholic mass or a Jewish Shabbat service. A voodoo practitioner can request a ritual meeting with a priest or priestess but, more often, ritual ceremonies mark holidays. Practitioners hope to connect with deceased ancestors through a series of songs and prayers. During the singing and drumming, they aim to become possessed by voodoo spirits. "Voodoo is veneration of our ancestors and also our connection to nature," says Brooklyn-based actor Atibon Legba. At a recent ceremony practitioners in the Brooklyn temple celebrated the Gede, an important voodoo spirit who connects with the dead.

It's a move which has tit-for-tat written all over it, but one which could nonetheless have a serious impact: The Iranian government wants to present a bill to parliament this weekend calling for an immediate halt to oil deliveries to Europe. The move, with most reports citing the Iranian news agency Mehr, has come about in response to the EU agreement to impose sanctions against Iran, which were announced earlier this week.

The sanctions banned any new contracts for buying oil from Iran, but allowed existing deals to continue until July in order to give countries time to find other sources. But that process is now at risk after the latest move from Tehran, a step the Iranian government had already threatened. "If this bill is passed, the government will be forced to stop selling oil to Europe before the actual implementation of their sanctions," said Emad Hosseini, spokesman for the Iranian parliament's energy commission. The bill is set to become law on Sunday.

The EU sanctions allow for oil deliveries from Iran until July 1. Any pre-empting of this timescale by Tehran could prove problematic for countries like Italy, Greece and Spain, who would need to urgently find new suppliers.

The World Economic Forum couldn't have found a more suitable keynote speaker. Leading the charge in efforts to save the euro, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has become the most powerful politician in Europe, and the person expected to save its currency from collapsing and wreaking financial havoc worldwide. As the country with the deepest pockets in Europe, expectations are high when it comes to Germany's role in the currency crisis. But even though the world is talking about Germany, when Merkel took to the podium in Davos on Wednesday, she talked about the rest of the world instead.

The first part of the chancellor's speech focused on global issues, such as the sluggish progress in climate protection efforts and World Trade Organization talks. But then she got around to Europe, praising the reforms made so far in the crisis-stricken countries. She also urged more European integration. Without it, she said, "we will remain an interesting holiday destination for a long time, but we won't be able to produce prosperity for the people in Europe anymore."

When she turned to Germany, Merkel insisted that the country was prepared to do what it takes to save the euro, but the comments that followed showed she wasn't ready to get overly ambitious on that front. "Germany is thought to be especially strong," she said, adding that this is not entirely wrong. But when Germany makes a promise "that through tough attacks on the market is also not redeemable, then Europe has a totally open flank."

The comment echoed another she made in an interview she gave on Wednesday to six European newspapers, including German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, when she warned about placing too many financial burdens on Germany. "Amid all the billions in aid and rescue funds, we Germans also must watch that we do not lose our strength in the end - because our possibilities are not endless either, and that would not help Europe as a whole," Merkel added. "We show solidarity, but must not forget (countries') own initiative."

"In the past two weeks, security forces have reportedly arrested four journalists," the US State Department said in a statement, "including Shahram Manouchehri, Sahamedin Bourghani, Parastoo Dokouhaki, and Marzieh Rasouli, and Iranian courts confirmed death sentences for bloggers Saeed Malekpour and Vahid Asghari, both of whom were not accorded due process and now face imminent execution on charges of 'spreading corruption.'"

The State Department faulted Iran for trying "to extinguish all forms of free expression and limit its citizens' access to information in the lead-up to March parliamentary elections."

The list of countries with which China has such deals is slowly and steadily lengthening and this is the first such deal with a Gulf Cooperation Council [GCC] state. The deal with the UAE is worth $5.5 billion — bilateral trade was $36 billion last year with Chinese exports accounting for two-thirds — and aims at “strengthening bilateral financial cooperation, promoting trade and investments and jointly safeguarding regional financial stability”, according to the Chinese central bank. China is, in essence, providing ’seed money’ so that businessmen wouldn’t need to convert every transaction into dollars, thereby lowering the foreign exchange costs.

The cool reasoning here is practical convenience but its shadows inevitably fall on other domains. Clearly, the Middle East is being ’sensitized’ about the renminbi’s role. To be kept as reserve currency in the UAE vaults enhances renminbi’s prestige. For the UAE, keeping the mighty yuan is one of the safest things they ever did in the world of high finance, as the appreciation of the Chinese currency in value is a near-certain happening in the future.

The swap deal with the UAE has introduced a tantalizing thought to the GCC states — possibility of renminbi invoicing — that will worry the west. Currently, there may be no need to lose sleep since Beijing severely restricts the flows of its currency across its borders but China is doubtless putting the infrastructure in place for an era that is not too far off when it may begin to do away with today’s strict limits on currency flows, and Beijing may well seek the use of renminbi in international trade.

The eurozone is still struggling with a sovereign debt crisis and is trying to agree reform to its political system. But many want Germany and other nations to boost the size of their rescue fund. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) wants the eurozone to inject more cash into its rescue fund.

The IMF wants the sum available for bailouts to grow beyond €500 billion ($647 billion; £416 billion) to ensure talks between private creditors and Greece do not grind to a halt.

The reserves could be bolstered by merging the temporary European Financial Stability Fund with the permanent European Stability Mechanism, according to IMF's managing director, Christine Lagarde. The future of the world economy is high on the agenda as some of world's most powerful people gather in Davos. They meet annually in the Swiss resort to discuss the state of the world.

Moreover, if Iran goes ahead with a threat to blockade oil exports via the Straits of Hormuz in the Gulf, the IMF said the shock could be even greater. About a quarter of all oil produced globally, and some 40% of all oil exports - including those from Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia - are shipped through the Straits each year.

"A blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would constitute, and be perceived by markets to presage, sharply heightened global geopolitical tension involving a much larger and unprecedented disruption," the Fund said in a regular note to the Group of 20 leading industrialised countries. The market is already pricing in a small risk of an escalation of tensions between Iran on the one hand, and the US, Europe and Israel on the other, according to the IMF's estimates.

From now, users will simply be notified that they are being 'updated' via an announcement at the top of their home page, which users click on to activate Timeline.

As with voluntary switches to Timeline, those who are 'updated' will have just seven days to select which photos, posts and life events they want to advertise to the world.

Via the official Facebook blog, the site announced, 'Last year we introduced timeline, a new kind of profile that lets you highlight the photos, posts and life events that help you tell your story.'

'Over the next few weeks, everyone will get timeline. When you get timeline, you'll have 7 days to preview what's there now. This gives you a chance to add or hide whatever you want before anyone else sees it.'

Timeline has been criticised for showing off pictures and posts that people might have wanted to forget.

For example, if you spend an hour signed in to a Google account searching the Web for skateboards, the next time you log into YouTube, you might get recommendations for videos featuring Tony Hawk, along with ads for his merchandise and the nearest place to buy them. However, this could also apply to searches relating to sensitive topics such as meetings in your calendar. Privacy problems are particularly pertinent to those who share a Google account with other members of their family.

Cecilia Kang, of the Washington Post, described collation of vast tracts of information as a ‘massive cauldron of data.’ ‘Privacy advocates say Google's changes betray users who are not accustomed to having their information shared across different Web sites.’ she said. ‘A user of Gmail, for instance, may send messages about a private meeting with a colleague and may not want the location of that meeting to be thrown into Google's massive cauldron of data or used for Google's maps application.’

Technology site Gizmodo said that the change was the end of Google’s ‘don’t be evil’ motto. The site’s Mat Honan wrote: ‘It means that things you could do in relative anonymity today, will be explicitly associated with your name, your face, your phone number. If you use Google's services, you have to agree to this new privacy policy. It is an explicit reversal of its previous policies.’ Larry Dignan, meanwhile, writing on ZDnet.com, described the new policy as ‘Big Brother-ish’.

He wrote: ‘Google will know more about you than your wife does. Everything across your screens will be integrated and tracked.’ Google noted that it collects information you provide, data from your usage, device information and location. Unique applications are also noted.

The European sanctions, which follow a similar move by the US, provide for a grace period lasting until July 1, during which standing contracts with the Islamic Republic may be honored. However Iranian MPs are drafting a new law, which would stop short all supply to Europeans as soon as possible, according to Nasser Soudani, a member of the parliament’s energy committee.

“A number of representatives of the Majlis [Iranian parliament – RT] and I are seeking to approve a plan according to which all European countries that made Iran the target of their sanctions will not be able to buy even one drop of oil from Iran, and oil taps will be turned off to them so that they will not play with fire again,” Soudani told the Fars News Agency on Wednesday. The legislation may be voted on in the parliament as early as this Sunday. If imposed, such a ban would result in a fuel shortage in Europe, as the countries, which joined the sanctions while receiving a considerable amount of crude from Iran, would not have enough time to secure a substitute.

Countries like Italy and Greece refine oil from Iran at plants tailored to a particular blend of crude, and readjusting them to another sort of oil would be costly both in terms of time and money. Soudani says the sanctions may eventually force buyers to acquire Iranian oil through intermediaries, and the cost of the fuel would be inflated by both rising market prices, and middlemen’s fees. “European firms have no alternative but to enter into contracts with us, since abandoning Iran’s oil would mean the extinguishing of the candles of their economic lives,” the Iranian MP predicted.

It is a little hard to know, given that what is deemed a “safe level” of radiation is determined by politics… rather than science. For example, current safety standards are based on the ridiculous assumption that everyone exposed is a healthy man in his 20’s – and that radioactive particles ingested into the body cause no more damage than radiation hitting the outside of the body.

And one of the main advisors to the Japanese government on Fukushima announced: "If you smile, the radiation will not affect you."

In the real world, however, even low doses of radiation can cause cancer. Moreover, small particles of radiation – called “internal emitters” – which get inside the body are much more dangerous than general exposures to radiation. And radiation affects small children much more than full-grown adults.

Indeed, instead of doing much to try to protect their citizens from Fukushima, Japan, the US and the EU all just raised the radiation levels they deem “safe”. Nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen says that high-level friends in the State Department told him that Hillary Clinton signed a pact with her counterpart in Japan agreeing that the US will continue buying seafood from Japan, despite that food not being tested for radioactive materials.

In reality, not only is there overwhelming evidence that low doses of radiation can cause cancer, but there is some evidence that low doses can – in certain circumstances cause more damage than higher doses.

The 15-page warning was compiled by experts and presented to then-prime minister Naoto Kan two weeks after the March 11 earthquake and tsunamis that triggered nuclear-reactor meltdowns at a power plant northeast of Tokyo and forced 80,000 nearby residents to flee. The twin disasters left 20,000 people dead or missing. After Mr Kan received the report on March 25, he and other Japanese officials publicly insisted there was no need to prepare for wide-scale evacuations.

The Associated Press quotes Cabinet minister Goshi Hosono as saying the scenario was "based on hypothesis, and even in the event of such a development, we were told that residents would have enough time to evacuate." The report, leaked recently to the Associated Press, detailed several ways the nuclear crisis could escalate, including reactor explosions, complete core meltdowns and structural failures preventing water pools from cooling spent nuclear fuel.

The authors are quoted as saying "we can not rule out further developments that may lead to an unpredictable situation" at the plant, if the meltdowns spiral out of control and radiation levels spike. In that case, the authors said evacuations should be ordered within a 170-kilometer radius, with voluntary evacuations provided for everyone living within 250 kilometers and beyond. The largest proposed evacuation area would have included Tokyo and its suburbs, with a population of 35-million residents.

The fresh crisis in Britain's factories dealt a blow to the Coalition, which has pinned its hopes for recovery on UK industry. The economy's worse-than-expected performance, which put annual growth for 2011 in line with forecasts at 0.9 per cent, came as the Bank of England revealed that the private sector is planning job cuts – undermining hopes that it might pick up the slack from the roughly 110,000 public sector redundancies expected this year.

The Bank's summary of business conditions said: "Having already pared back non-labour costs as much as possible during the recession, many business services contacts now felt that they would be forced to reduce staff numbers." Bankers, lawyers, accountants, retailers and hauliers are expected to be worst hit in the "shakeout". Even manufacturers, which have enjoyed strong growth, "reported they were taking a pause from further recruitment" the Bank said. Unemployment is already at a 17-year high of 2.68m, or 8.4 per cent.