Wealthy individuals are limited by law as to how much money they can give directly to a political campaign, but there are no limits on how much money they can give to Super PACs. During the 2012 election season, some of these Super PACs actually have more money than the campaigns of the candidates that they support do. Buying the vote is not illegal in America, and these Super PACs are buying huge amounts of advertising in key states.

Unfortunately, most Americans have never learned to think for themselves. Instead, they let the television do much of their thinking for them. If their trusted friend, the television, tells them to vote a certain way, then that is what they are likely to do. Super PACs are much more likely to run negative ads than the actual candidates are, and we have already seen very negative ads dramatically move the poll numbers in some of the states. Sadly, as long as very negative ads keep working people are going to keep using them.

Super PACs are supposed to be completely and totally “independent” of the campaigns that they support, but the reality is that many of these Super PACs are run and staffed by former top aides of the candidates. Some of the candidates are relying on the Super PACs to be the “attack dogs” while they sit back and try to maintain a more “positive” image. If a Super PAC goes too far, a candidate can simply claim that he does not have any control over that Super PAC.

If money did not influence elections, then people would stop giving so much of it to the campaigns and to the Super PACs. The truth is that money does influence elections, and when wealthy individuals and big corporations are allowed to pour millions upon millions of dollars into these Super PACs it gives them a much, much larger say in the outcome of our elections than you and I have.

The Prime Minister insisted yesterday that Somalia should get a “second chance” to rebuild itself after two decades of famine and civil war. But critics warned against throwing yet more taxpayers’ cash into a country described by Foreign Secretary William Hague earlier this month as “the world’s most failed state”.

Tory MP Philip Davies said: “Pouring ever larger amounts of our money is never going to solve this country’s problems.” Emma Boon of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: “It is crucial that taxpayers’ money isn’t lost to corruption in this highly volatile area.” And UK Independence Party Euro-MP Godfrey Bloom said that Somalia had “a government that had no control”. He added: “It is madness to hand it more taxpayers’ cash.”

The Prime Minister will make today’s aid pledge at a conference which he is hosting in London on the future of the poverty-stricken African nation. Ministers insist that international efforts to stabilise Somalia, including extra aid, are vital for tackling threats to Britain such as terrorism, piracy and illegal immigration. In the Commons yesterday, Mr Cameron said: “This is about trying to put in place the building blocks among the international community.”

According to figures released by Downing Street, up to 100,000 Somalis have starved to death over the last year. A third of the country remains under control of the terrorist group al-Shabab, which is linked to Al Qaeda. And Somali pirates have hijacked 100 vessels and attacked 400 more in the last three years.

However, shoppers are buying as many as before, meaning the demand will force up prices. More than 140 million bananas are eaten in the UK each week, making them a staple for most shopping baskets. Stores currently charge an average 83p per kilo but prices are expected to rise 10 per cent over the next year with a kilo increasing to around 91p.

The rise will be a big blow for cash-strapped families, who are already struggling with the biggest squeeze on household finances in more than 80 years. Commodity experts said a weak exchange rate and pay rises in several of the Latin American and Caribbean countries which supply the UK are adding to the pressure on prices.

Bizarrely, this extraordiary manuscript has never before come to light. Professor Steve Hanke of John Hopkins University, whose former student it was who discovered the document, is now dashing to publish it in full in conjunction with his friend, Jacque de Larosiere. The first stage of the process, transcribing the type-written document into digital form is now complete, though it is not yet available. It's hoped eventually to produce a hard-copy, book version.

All previous accounts of Bretton Woods have been second hand, with historians apparently completely unaware that a full, and one must presume faithful, transcript of proceedings, had been taken. Those who have seen it say it is hard to point to any outright revelation about the talks, in which for Britain, the economist John Maynard Keynes was a leading player. But the level of intellectual debate is said to have been extraordinarily impressive, with exactly the same arguments as to voting rights and undue Western influence at the IMF and World Bank as exist today. The Indian delegation is said to have been particularly outspoken, despite the fact that India was still then a colony of the UK.

It was at Bretton Woods that Keynes identified one of the key problems at the heart of international economics – that imbalances in trade are next to impossible to resolve in a fixed exchange rate system without surplus countries accepting that they have as much of an obligation to do something about them as the offending deficit countries. As the eurozone is demonstrating all over again, the lessons have plainly not be learned.

But a group of Argentina's leading intellectuals, historians, journalists, constitutional experts and politicians have published an open letter calling on their own government to rethink policy towards the islands they call the Malvinas branding it "crazy" and "absurd". The 17 signatories accused Mrs Kirchner's government of "harassing" the Falklands population of 3,000, who overwhelmingly want the islands to remain a British Overseas Territory.

The group said Argentina must respect the islanders' right to self-determination and give up its policy of trying to force Britain into negotiating sovereignty. "It is truly absurd and crazy to force a government and sovereignty on people who do not want it," commented Fernando Iglesias, a former congressman who co-authored the document.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Falklands conflict and concerns have risen over the increasingly hostile rhetoric emerging from Argentine politicians who claimed Britain was treating the islands as "the last refuge of a declining empire". The Argentine government accused Britain of an "act of provocation and aggression" by sending The Duke of Cambridge to the islands on a six-week tour of duty as an RAF search and rescue pilot. It also accused Britain of "militarising" the South Atlantic with its decision to send the state-of-the art naval war ship HMS Dauntless to the area and early this month said it would appeal to the United Nations to negotiate the issue of sovereignty.

Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, insisted this week that there was "no current credible military threat" from Argentina but added: "Her Majesty's Government is committed to defending the right of the Falkland islanders to self determination and plans exist for rapid reinforcement of the land, sea and air forces in and around the islands, should any such threat appear."

"We are in the worst economic crisis since 1929," Credit Agricole (CAGR.PA) chief executive Jean-Paul Chifflet said. Credit Agricole reported a record quarterly net loss of 3.07 billion euros ($4.06 billion), performing worse than expected from the cost of shrinking its balance sheet and after a 220 million euro charge on its Greek debt. "We think 2012 is going to still be a tense period," Chifflet said, adding: "We're hoping that our results will be largely better than in 2011.

Europe's banks have already written down billions of euros from losses on Greek government bonds and loans, and a deal agreed this week with its creditors will inflict losses of 74 percent on bondholders. "We can't say that the writedowns are over," said Franklin Pichard, director at Barclays France. "Even if some can say that the worst is over, we are only at a new stage in terms of provisioning and not necessarily at the end." That is because, despite the bond swap deal, bondholders could suffer further hits if Greece's economy fails to recover.

Problems in Europe's banking sector are far wider than Greece, however. "We have reduced the balance sheet of RBS by over 700 billion pounds of assets. That is roughly twice the size of the entire national debt of Greece," said RBS boss Stephen Hester. The region's banks are still repairing the damage of the financial crisis and shrinking their assets. They must also find 115 billion euros by the middle of this year to shore up their balance sheets against future shocks. But any weakening in the economy will hit earnings and make that harder to achieve.

Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, said: “I’m extremely concerned to hear about these allegations. Sex selection is illegal and is morally wrong. I’ve asked my officials to investigate this as a matter of urgency.” The disclosures will add to growing concerns about the regulation of abortion clinics and the apparent ability of women to secure terminations “on demand”. The Daily Telegraph carried out an investigation into sex-selection abortions after concerns were raised that the procedures were becoming increasingly common for cultural and social reasons.

Acting on specific information, undercover reporters accompanied pregnant women to nine clinics in different parts of the country. In three instances doctors were recorded offering to arrange terminations after being told the mother-to-be did not want to go ahead with the pregnancy because of the sex of the unborn child.

One consultant, Prabha Sivaraman, who works for both private clinics and NHS hospitals in Manchester, was filmed telling a pregnant woman who said she wanted to abort a female foetus: “I don’t ask questions. If you want a termination, you want a termination”. She later telephoned a colleague to book the procedure, explaining that it was for “social reasons” and the woman “doesn’t want questions asked”. She said to her colleague: “This [the termination] will be under private, she doesn’t want to go through NHS. OK, so — that’s right, because you’re part of our team and she doesn’t want questions asked”.

Miss Sivaraman, who works for Pall Mall Medical in Manchester and is an obstetrician and gynaecologist at North Manchester General Hospital, said the cost of the termination would be £200 or £300, on top of the £500 already paid to the clinic for the consultation. After taking the woman’s contact details, Miss Sivaraman asked her if she had considered her options. “Oh, absolutely ... I can’t have it, this baby, because of the gender, so that’s just how it is ...” replied the woman. The doctor booked the pregnant woman in for a termination the following week despite the reason for the abortion being clearly explained.

Abortions for non-medical reasons are legal until 24 weeks, but terminations on grounds of sex of the foetus are illegal under the 1967 Abortion Act. Doctors must agree that there is a compelling case for termination, but it is claimed that many abortions are agreed “on demand” and that the official paperwork does not fully reflect the discussions that have taken place. In 2010 there were 189,574 terminations in England and Wales, an eight per cent increase in the past decade. There is some evidence that more female than male foetuses are aborted.

And the number of people outside the tax system could have climbed even higher since the economic downturn has continued to bite and unemployment has remained high. The decreasing number of taxpayers threatens government revenues, and could also cause resentment from those who believe that welfare recipients are taking money out of the economy. 151.7 million US citizens paid no federal income tax in 2009, according to figures compiled by the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank.

In 1984, the middle of the Reagan era, 85 per cent of Americans paid federal income tax, meaning just 34.8 million people did not. As well as the increased number of jobless people, the reduction in the number of taxpayers is a result of low-income workers taking pay cuts and reduced hours, and therefore slipping out of the tax system. The conjunction of fewer taxpayers with higher welfare payments has led to intense pressure on the public purse, with the national deficit running at $1.3 trillion per year.

The Heritage Foundation argues that the reduction in the number of taxpayers will create an electorate dominated by non-taxpayers, who will always support higher taxes and spending because their own money is not at stake.

Thousands of demonstrators gathered across the country, some chanting "Death to America!", Reuters witnesses and officials said. In eastern Kabul, hundreds of youths threw rocks at police, who fired shots into the air to try disperse the crowds."Our brave people must target the military bases of invader forces, their military convoys and their invader bases," read an e-mailed Taliban statement released by the insurgency's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

"They have to kill them (Westerners), beat them and capture them to give them a lesson to never dare desecrate the holy Koran again." Most westerners were already confined to their heavily fortified compounds, including within the sprawling US embassy complex and nearby embassies in central Kabul. The Koran burnings could make it even more difficult for US-led NATO forces to win the hearts and minds of Afghans and bring the Taliban to the negotiating table ahead of the withdrawal of foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.

Muslims consider the Koran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep reverence. Desecration is considered one of the worst forms of blasphemy. Large protests erupted in eastern Laghman province and the eastern city of Jalalabad, despite an appeal by President Hamid Karzai Wednesday for calm after officials said six people were shot dead and dozens wounded in demonstrations.

The sum represents 29% of Hungary's cohesion (development) fund allocation. Last month the commission threatened Hungary with legal action over new laws said to restrict the independence of its central bank and courts. Hungary has until 1 January next year to improve its budget finances - otherwise the EU funds will be frozen. The commission proposal would also have to be backed by the 26 other EU member states to be applied. The EU cohesion funds are designed to improve infrastructure and the environment in the EU's poorest regions.

The commission statement on Wednesday said "this unprecedented step follows the commission's repeated warnings to Hungary, urging it to step up its efforts to end the country's excessive government deficit, and its subsequent failure to take appropriate action", Reuters news agency reported. The EU's Excessive Deficit Procedure rules say EU member states should keep their budget deficits below 3% of national output (GDP) and government debts below, or sufficiently declining towards, 60% of GDP.

"Hungary has been in excessive deficit since it joined the EU in 2004. And the deadline for correcting the excessive deficit has been pushed back twice, by three years in total," said EU Economics Commissioner Olli Rehn. "Hungary has until 1 January next year to bring its deficit back on track and avoid these consequences, and I trust it can and it will do so."

The comments, made by officials at both the White House and the State Department, marked a shift in emphasis by Washington, which so far has stressed its policy of not arming the opposition and has said little about alternatives. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet with representatives of some 70 countries in Tunis on Friday for the first "Friends of Syria" meeting to coordinate the international community's next steps to respond to the nearly year-long uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"We still believe that a political solution is what's needed in Syria," White House spokesman Jay Carney said. "We don't want to take actions that would contribute to the further militarization of Syria, because that could take the country down a dangerous path. But we don't rule out additional measures."

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, asked if the United States was shifting its stance on arming the rebels, said Washington did not want to see the violence increase and was concentrating on political efforts to halt the bloodshed. "That said ... if we can't get Assad to yield to the pressure that we are all bringing to bear, we may have to consider additional measures." She declined to elaborate on what those measures might be.

Unfortunately, that is simply not the case. Rather, the truth is that this new deal actually “sets the table” for a Greek debt default. When I was studying and working in the legal arena, I learned that sometimes you make an agreement so that you can get the other side to break it. That may sound very strange to the average person on the street, but this is how the game is played at the highest levels. It is all about strategy.

And in this case, the new debt deal imposes such strict conditions on Greece that it is almost inevitable that Greece will fail to meet some of them. When Greece does fail, Germany and the other northern European nations may try to claim that they “did everything that they could” but that Greece just did not “live up to its obligations”. So does this mean that we will definitely see a chaotic Greek debt default? No. What this does mean is that the chess pieces are being moved into position for one.

The odds that this agreement will survive for very long are not great. It will be nearly impossible for Greece to meet all of the conditions being imposed upon it by this new deal. All of the politicians in northern Europe that are just itching to cut off aid to Greece will soon have the excuse that they need for doing so. And the Greek people could decide to bring all of this to an end very quickly. If they elect a new government in April that does not support this bailout agreement, the game will be over.

So don’t be fooled by all the headlines. A chaotic Greek debt default has not been averted. The truth is that a chaotic Greek debt default is now closer than ever.

In the course of the meeting between the two politicians, Kara's aides added an unnamed Syrian opposition leader to the conversation, through Skype. "I just want to pass this message from the Syrian opposition to the Russian leadership through you," said the Syrian. "OK," said the Russian – "Why don't you do [that] through the Russian ambassador in Damascus?"

"Because I can't reach him," explained the Syrian opposition man. "If I come close to the Russian embassy in Damascus, I will be shot dead. Because there are snipers. Iranian snipers now cover the top of the Russian embassy in Damascus. You can ask your colleague in Damascus and he can tell you what is going on there."

"Mr Ambassador, please pass this to your leadership," the Syrian went on. "Don't be surprised, if you find the names of the high leaders in Russia in a file being introduced to the international tribunal... Russia is sharing with everything in doing this crime. Arms, diplomacy, ...intelligence help, and the military experts who are now leading the cannons of Bashar al-Assad."

"We are ready to discuss things with both sides," Yakovlev told Kara after the opposition leader had gone offline. "The Friends of Syria will meet on the 24th in Tunisia [an international forum in which the U.S. and European countries will be represented, but not the Syrian National Council opposition -- ed.]. Why to discuss it only with the opposition, not with the government? This is no way to peace, friend. If you talk to one side, if you strengthen one side, then it will be a fight for, I don’t know, forever."

The United States criticized Iran on Wednesday over the collapse of the International Atomic Energy Agency's talks in Tehran, saying it again showed the Islamic Republic's refusal to abide by international obligations over its nuclear program. Expressing defiance, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran's nuclear policies would not change despite mounting international pressure against what the West says are Tehran's plans to obtain nuclear bombs.

"With God's help, and without paying attention to propaganda, Iran's nuclear course should continue firmly and seriously," he said on state TV. "Pressures, sanctions and assassinations will bear no fruit. No obstacles can stop Iran's nuclear work." A team from the Vienna-based IAEA had hoped to inspect a site at Parchin, southeast of Tehran, where the agency believes there is a facility to test explosives. But the IAEA said Iran "did not grant permission."

The failure of the two-day IAEA visit could hamper any resumption of wider nuclear negotiations between Iran and six world powers - the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany - as the sense grows that Tehran feels it is being backed into a corner. The standoff has rattled oil markets. On Wednesday, London-traded benchmark Brent crude for April delivery rose for a third day - up $1.24 a barrel at $122.90, a nine-month high. US crude futures for April were up 3 cents at $106.28 a barrel.

Recent survey data and official statistics on trade and both the service and manufacturing sectors have been more positive. On Wednesday house builders Barratt Developments and Galliford Try reported strong results and provided evidence that consumers were recovering some of their poise. The American economic recovery appears to have taken a firm hold, China will experience bubbles but is not a bubble itself and even the eurozone seems capable of effective action.

Capital Economics is still assuming a Greek exit from the euro this year and it's right to assume that Athens remains a major problem on our doorstep. Monday's bailout was a short-term debt refinancing, not an economic aid package. The structural problems that Greece faces have not gone away but are in fact getting worse. The advantages of staying in the euro no longer obviously outweigh the disadvantages of leaving, a truth rapidly dawning on the Greek electorate. A third bailout will have to be attempted before long and Greece remains a hugely disruptive threat.

Over the worst? A Greek-authored, Lehmans-style event is still highly likely, which will easily knock any anaemic recovery off track here. Most likely we've bumped upwards of late as we bounce along the bottom but are still going to experience disappointment as we jolt down again soon enough.