“2011 was the driest year on record and certainly an infamous year of distinction for the state’s farmers and ranchers,” said Dr David Anderson, AgriLife Extension livestock economist. “The $7.62 billion mark for 2011 is more than $3.5 billion higher than the 2006 drought loss estimates, which previously was the costliest drought on record. The 2011 losses also represent about 43 percent of the average value of agricultural receipts over the last four years.”

“No one alive has seen single-year drought damage to this extent,” said Dr Travis Miller, AgriLife Extension agronomist and a member of the Governor’s Drought Preparedness Council. “Texas farmers and ranchers are not strangers to drought, but the intensity of the drought, reflected in record high temperatures, record low precipitation, unprecedented winds coupled with duration - all came together to devastate production agriculture.”

Miller said millions of acres of Texas crops never received enough rain to germinate the planting seed. “Even irrigated farmers experienced huge losses as water supplies that they could deliver were not adequate to produce crops under these conditions with no rain,” he said. “The drought started in the fall of 2010, resulting in very little winter grazing. Many of our pastures and hay meadows never greened up after the winter.”

Diminishing water supplies and no local hay production dramatically increased the cost of maintaining livestock herds, resulting in massive culling and unprecedented runs at livestock sale rings beginning in June, Miller said. “Hay was purchased as far away as Montana, dramatically driving up the cost of supplemental feed. While much of the state began to receive some relief from this drought in late fall or early winter, most of the large areas of the plains and West Texas have yet to receive any relief.”

Editor’s note: The following is a list of economic drought losses from 1998 through 2011, as compiled by AgriLife Extension economists:

* 2011– $7.62 billion

* 2009 – $3.6 billion

* 2008 – $1.4 billion

* 2006 – $4.1 billion

* 2002 – $316 million

* 2000 – $1.1 billion

* 1999 – $223 million

* 1998 – $2.4 billion

The TB Vaccine Blueprint provides an enormous opportunity to coordinate efforts to halt the spread of this devastating disease," said Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, the Health Minister of South Africa, a country that has played a vital role in ongoing clinical trials for TB vaccines. More than 10 million children have been orphaned by the disease, which is rapidly becoming resistant to available treatment options. In addition to great human suffering, the disease causes significant financial and economic damage costing the global economy in estimated hundreds of billions of dollars a year.

The only currently existing vaccine, developed decades ago, is limited in its ability to impact the global TB epidemic. Known as Bacille Calmette-Gurin (BCG), it protects children from severe forms of TB in the first years of life, but it endangers babies who have been infected with HIV by their mothers, and doesn't protect the largest group of people infected with TB - adolescents and adults.

The blueprint, titled 'Tuberculosis Vaccines: A Strategic Blueprint for the Next Decade' emphasizes that effective vaccines will remain out of reach unless the world scales up efforts to solve the scientific puzzles now hindering development of vaccines.

The move is a blow to the Vatican's drive to have its bank included in Europe's "white list" of states that comply with international standards against tax fraud and money-laundering. The bank, formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), enacted major reforms last year in an attempt to get Europe's seal of approval and put behind it scandals that have included accusations of money laundering and fraud.

Italy's leading financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore reported at the weekend that JP Morgan Chase in Milan had told the IOR of the closing of its account in a letter on February 15. The letter said the IOR's account in Italy's business capital would gradually be phased out starting on March 16 and closed on March 30. In Milan, JP Morgan Chase declined to comment and the Vatican also had no comment. It was not possible to contact IOR officials because Monday was a holiday in the Vatican.

Il Sole said JP Morgan Chase informed the IOR that the account was being closed because the bank's Milan branch felt the IOR had failed to provide sufficient information on money transfers. The financial newspaper, which gave the number of the IOR account, said some 1.5 billion euros passed through it in about 18 months. It said the account was a "sweeping facility," meaning that it was emptied out at the end of each day with funds transferred to another IOR account in Germany.

The study of more than 1,000 women showed that completely switching to protein such as chicken and fish is not as healthy as many believe. 'We had originally thought that red meat might not be good for mental health, as studies from other countries had found red meat consumption to be associated with physical health risks, but it turns out that it actually may be quite important,' said Felice Jacka, from Deakin University, Victoria.

'When we looked at women consuming less than the recommended amount of red meat in our study, we found that they were twice as likely to have a diagnosed depressive or anxiety disorder as those consuming the recommended amount.' The associate professor added: 'Even when we took into account the overall healthiness of the women’s diets, as well as other factors such as their socio-economic status, physical activity levels, smoking, weight and age, the relationship between low red meat intake and mental health remained.

Associate Professor Jacka also suggested that women should stick to ORGANIC, GRASS-FED MEATS whenever possible. 'We know that red meat in Australia is a healthy product as it contains high levels of nutrients, INCLUDING THE OMEGA-3 FATTY ACIDS that are important to mental and physical health,' she said. 'This is because cattle and sheep in Australia are largely grass fed. In many other countries, the cattle are kept in feedlots and fed grains, rather than grass. This results in a much less healthy meat with more saturated fat and fewer healthy fats.'

If I had it to do over, I’d approach the issue planning differently, my fellow editors permitting. I would scale back on the nuclear fusion and clean coal, instead devoting at least half of the available space for feature articles on psychology, sociology, economics and political science. Since doing that issue, I’ve come to the conclusion that the technical details are the easy part. It’s the social engineering that’s the killer. Moon shots and Manhattan Projects are child’s play compared to needed changes in the way we behave.

A policy article authored by several dozen scientists appeared online March 15 in Science to acknowledge this point: “Human societies must now change course and steer away from critical tipping points in the Earth system that might lead to rapid and irreversible change. This requires fundamental reorientation and restructuring of national and international institutions toward more effective Earth system governance and planetary stewardship.”

“I’m not going after the president to keep him off a ballot or anything else, but that could happen,” Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio said. “I’m going at it strictly as a law-enforcement guy investigating a possible forgery and fraud. I’m sticking with that, but I’ll tell you one thing. We got tons of other information that could be very shocking, too, but I’m sticking now with just the [forgery] investigation and possible criminal violations.”

The lawman from Maricopa County made the comments March 16 on a national radio show hosted by Roger Hedgecock. He stressed on the radio show his original intent with the posse was to put to rest all the claims suggesting Obama was not meeting the constitutional requirements to hold the presidency. “I told these guys, ‘I want you to do a good job. I hope we clear the president,’” he explained. “I said give me the microfiche in Hawaii to show that he was born in that hospital. Give us the microfiche. I said that six months ago. And that would clear everything up. But as we went into it with an open mind, now we’re coming to a conclusion that we may have some forged documents revolving around this situation.”

When asked about making an arrest, Arpaio said, “We’re trying to identify any alleged forger. We haven’t done that yet. … I’m not blaming the president, but if they’re forged, someone has to be responsible for doing that.” The sheriff also said that on Friday, he made a decision about where to send Obama’s Selective Service Card in order to have that agency “help us or do an independent investigation.”

“We have nothing to hide. We’re bringing it to their attention, and see what happens,” Arpaio said. “My problem is, there’s a lot of conflicts out here to get somebody to look into this. Regarding the media … this is probably the biggest censorship blackout in the history of the United States. When I go to the toilet, I make it in national news. … I just can’t believe the media, including the cable media blocking this thing out.”

This software allows Samsung to recognise who is viewing the TV and personalises each person’s experience accordingly. The TV also listens and responds to specific voice commands. But some critics have suggested that the TV company could be spying on you, or even watching and listening to you - without your knowledge - through these features.

Gary Merson, who runs website HD-guru, said that because there is no way of disconnecting the camera and microphone, users cannot be 100 per cent sure that Samsung is not collecting data and passing it on to third parties. Merson said: ‘What concerns us is the integration of both an active camera and microphone. A Samsung representative tells us you can deactivate the voice feature; however this is done via software, not a hard switch like the one you use to turn a room light on or off.’

‘And unlike other TVs, which have cameras and microphones as add-on accessories connected by a single, easily removable USB cable, you can't just unplug these sensors. During our demo, unless the face recognition learning feature was activated, there was no indication as to whether the camera (such as a red light) and audio mics are on. And as far as the microphone is concerned, there is no way to physically disconnect it or be assured it is not picking up your voice.’

Merson claims that this problem raises questions about whether Samsung can watch someone watching their TV, and listen to them, at will, via the microphone and internet connection.

According to this data Portugal's economy, for example, declined by 1.3 percent in the last quarter of 2011 and could shrink by up to six percent this year. Industrial production in Italy registered a sharp decline. Retail sales in Spain - an indicator of private consumption - declined by almost a quarter in comparison to 2007. Greece is approaching the economic level of countries in Latin America or Southeast Asia, which, up to now, had clearly lagged behind European standards. In the longer run, the recession could have a backlash on Germany because the massive slump is also affecting German exports. This could have serious repercussions.

In the end, Germany's export industry will not escape the downward trend in the Euro zone, despite its growing exports to so-called threshold countries. EU countries' orders coming in for the German industry are dramatically diminishing. The business press reports, "already since the middle of the year, the quantity of new orders from countries of the monetary union has declined consistently, since the debt crisis resurged in the summer."

"A demand for German products has decreased also" in other countries, "due to their austerity measures." Berlin's austerity dictate is ultimately threatening to push Germany's export dependent economy into a recession. Like the populations in Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy today, the German population will most likely have to confront drastic austerity programs.

Theresa May, the Home Secretary, also updated colleagues on legislative efforts to address the threat from terrorism. The main Olympic Park in east London will be protected by the biggest peace-time security operation ever seen, including the possible deployment of missile batteries to protect the capital from attack from the air. However, The Daily Telegraph understands that senior security officials have become concerned that other sites around the country could also become targets.

Olympic and Paralympic rowing events will take place at Eton Dorney, near Windsor Castle, 25 miles west of the capital, road cycling will be held at Brands Hatch racing circuit in Kent, while sailing events will be based in Weymouth. Other venues include stadiums in Newcastle, Coventry, Cardiff, and Manchester.

During a 40-minute meeting in Parliament yesterday, the MI5 director-general, Jonathan Evans, briefed Cabinet ministers on the threats facing the country in the period leading up to the Games. It is thought to be the first time that Mr Evans has addressed a full meeting of the Prime Minister’s senior team.

As I wrote about a few days ago, the percentage of working age Americans that are actually employed has stayed very flat since late 2009, and the average duration of unemployment is hovering near an all-time high. Sadly, this is not just a temporary downturn. The US economy has been slowly declining for several decades and is nearing total system failure.

Right now, many poverty statistics are higher than they have ever been since the Great Depression. Many measurements of government dependence are the highest that we have ever seen in all of US history. The emerging one world economic system (otherwise known as “free trade”) has cost the US economy tens of thousands of businesses, millions of jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars of our national wealth. The federal government is going into unprecedented amounts of debt in order to try to maintain our current standard of living, but there is no way that they will be able to sustain this kind of borrowing for too much longer.

So enjoy this bubble of false prosperity while you can, because things will soon get significantly worse. Unfortunately, the US economy is not going to be improving in the long run. What we are experiencing right now is about as good as it is going to get.

The truth is that it is pretty much downhill from here.

It is fairly simple to figure out what is happening to us as a nation.

You can’t keep buying far more than you sell.

You can’t keep spending far more than you bring in.

You can’t keep running up debt in larger and larger amounts indefinitely.

The US economy is running on borrowed money and on borrowed time.

At some point, both are going to run out.

Are you ready for that?

But his officials are already on the defensive, explaining what the meeting is not. It is not about establishing an EU policy avant garde, an official said yesterday, nor was it likely to produce formal proposals. So what is it? For Mr Westerwelle, it is about moving the European debate, shifting the gaze beyond the day-to-day euro zone crisis.

“This kind of debate is hanging in the air. There’s an expectation that Germany takes on an important role in this debate,” said a foreign ministry official. “This isn’t about a German prescription for Europe being imposed on anyone.” Despite this, and the fact that there is no formal agenda, a Berlin foreign ministry paper proposes discussing integration of EU justice and trade affairs, as well as economic and finance policy.

Debate is likely too on achieving “more democracy” in Europe by strengthening the European Parliament and organising more efficiently other EU institutions. German officials say their invitation list is limited in the interests of a proper conversation. But invitees reflect all geographical and historical experiences in the EU, they say. Further meetings of this group are likely, but membership is unlikely to be extended. Invited to attend were foreign ministers from the EU’s five other founding members – France, Italy and the three Benelux states – as well as Denmark, Poland, Portugal, Austria and Spain.

Barak said the sanctions, including a European import ban on Iranian oil, are an encouraging sign that the international community is now serious about stopping Tehran’s leaders who have “shown a clear determination to defy and deceive the world and move closer to a military nuclear capability.” Germany’s Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere, speaking alongside Barak after holding closed-door talks with his counterpart, said it appears “unambiguous” that Iran’s nuclear program also has a military purpose.

Iran must be stopped from developing nuclear weapons, requiring “tough negotiations and tough sanctions,” de Maiziere said. But the minister urged all parties involved to use “rhetorical, factual and also military restraint,” adding that a “military escalation would carry unforeseeable risks, for Israel, for the region and for others.” Germany is part of the six nations group negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program.

The European Court of Human Rights reached the decision in the case of a lesbian couple in a civil partnership in France, who complained they would not be allowed to adopt a child as a couple, according to the Daily Mail. The court heard how one of the women had her application refused to adopt her partner's child. The pair, Valerie Gas and Nathalie Dubois, had tried to establish marriage rights under anti-discrimination laws but the judges said there had been no discrimination.

Judges also said that if same-sex unions became lawful, any church that refuses to marry gay couples could be charged with discrimination. Launching the Government's consultation on the issue last week, Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone said: "Put simply, it's not right that a couple who love each other and want to formalise a commitment to each other should be denied the right to marry."

But the judges in Strasbourg said: "The European Convention on Human Rights does not require member states’ governments to grant same-sex couples access to marriage. With regard to married couples, the court considers that in view of the social, personal, and legal consequences of marriage, the applicants’ legal situation could not be said to be comparable to that of married couples," the judges added. The ruling is likely to have an impact on David Cameron's drive to allow gay marriages.

Khamenei praised the country’s great accomplishments in the previous year and stated that the Arab Spring benefited the country’s objective. “Those countries in the region that the Islamic republic has supported have achieved great goals: Dictators were overthrown, and constitutions based on Islam were passed in several countries,” he said. “The Number 1 enemy of the Islamic Ummah (community) and the Islamic Republic of Iran, namely the Zionist regime, has now been surrounded.”

Khamenei talked about an economic jihad to confront international sanctions imposed to prevent Iran from attaining nuclear weapons. If self-sufficiency in production of goods is achieved, he said, the enemy will lose interest in confronting Iran.

Israel believes the Iranian nuclear program will soon be strike-proof and that an imminent pre-emptive attack is necessary to derail Iran’s ambitions, which include destroying the Jewish nation. Precautionary actions have been taken in Israel, suggesting a move toward war.

Reports indicate that Israel has transferred nuclear fuel out of its Dimona reactor, fearing retaliation by Iran. It also has moved army units close to the Lebanese and Syrian borders in case war expands on those fronts, and has set in place its anti-missile system in its most populated areas. President Barack Obama, for his part, issued an executive order on Friday addressing national defense resource policies and programs. Though Mr Obama’s order was hardly different from what President Bill Clinton had set in place, the executive departments and agencies responsible for national defense were once again ordered to identify requirements for emergencies, which include military and civilian demands.

The executive order demands preparedness in the event of a threat to America’s security and asks all agencies to ensure the availability of adequate services, such as energy, food and water distribution, health services and transportation.

The editor of Al Quds al Arabi newspaper noted: "If they have decided to bomb Iran I think they will bomb Iran and Syria and Hezbollah. I think they will launch a package war. I believe the war will take place, the question is when? The Israelis and the Americans do agree there will be a war. But the difference is about the timing of this war. It could be either before the American presidential election or after it. The Israelis want it before the election, the American will like to wait until they finish this election,” he said.

Atwan explained that if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad falls it would be easier for the West to intervene in Iran, as it would mean the West had managed to secure the front against Israel. “They could neutralize tens of thousands of Syrian missiles and war planes, which could participate in any war against Iran, but in order to do that you have to invade in Syria which is a very complicated and costly adventure.”

The journalist is sure that nothing but the Iranian deadlock could make Syria a military target. “The West intervened in the Arab world to change regime twice – in Iraq and Libya, because there are huge oil reserves there. But here are no oil reserves in Syria, so who will compensate the West their losses?” he wonders.