IMF chief Christine Lagarde admitted she could not “preclude” a "potential" Greek exit, after four months of tortuous bail-out talks that have failed to get both sides closer to a deal to release aid to the country. “No one wishes the Europeans a Grexit,” Ms Lagarde told Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, suggesting that Greece is closer to leaving the single currency than ever before.

Extinguishing hopes in Athens that the two sides were ready to draft an agreement by the end of the week, Ms Lagarde said recent optimism over the country's future had “sobered”. "It's very unlikely that we will reach a comprehensive solution in the next few days”, said Ms Lagarde, as G7 finance ministers and central bankers met in Dresden on Thursday. She added that the prospect would not be "a walk in the park" for the single currency, but would "probably not be an end to the euro”.

Francis has had showers for homeless people erected near St Peter's Square, but has at the same time also spent millions on international consultants. He brought the Vatican Bank's finances into order, but created confusion in the Curia. He has negotiated between Cuba and the United States, but also scared the Israelis by calling Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas an "angel of peace."

This pope is much more enigmatic than his predecessor - and that is becoming a problem. Right up to this day, many people have been trying to determine Francis' true intentions. If you ask cardinals and bishops, or the pope's advisors and colleagues, or veteran Vatican observers about his possible strategy these days - the Pope's overarching plan - they seem to agree on one point: The man who sits on the Chair of St Peter is a notorious troublemaker.

If it weren't for the recently installed statue of the Madonna of Luján, the patron saint of Argentina, in the pope's library, everything at Catholic Church headquarters would look like it did when Benedict XVI was still in office. This despite the fact that, since the latter's resignation on Shrove Monday 2013, an experiment with an uncertain outcome has been carried out in the Vatican, instigated in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. In the process, Pope Francis is simultaneously fighting on three fronts: against the claims to power of his council, the Curia; against ostentation and pomp in the clergy; and for a radical return to the Gospel.

Indeed, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the first non-European on the papal throne in over one thousand years, has quickly become a favorite of Catholics - and even more so of non-believers and the media. In his first year, Francis appeared on the covers of both Time and Rolling Stone. Business magazine Fortune named him the world's greatest leader. The Economist raved that Francis was on the verge of reinventing "the world's oldest multinational."

Not surprisingly, critics within the church have begun quietly grumbling in the pontiff's third year, but it is becoming increasingly audible. There are various reasons why they feel uneasy about the man from Buenos Aires: His leadership style is supposedly too authoritarian, his self-marketing is too sophisticated, he doesn't know enough about matters of doctrine.

This year will be a decisive one for the pope. On December 8, exactly 50 years after the closing of the Second Vatican Council - which focused on the relationship between the Catholic Church and the modern world - an extraordinary Holy Year will begin.

“The time has come to ask everybody in Europe Yes or No - if they want sovereignty to decide on their own future”. He added that British PM David Cameron, who is currently on a tour of European capitals to sound out feeling on a renegotiation of EU powers, “with this referendum … has put himself in a powerful position to demand real reforms”.

He also said that if Hollande declines to do it, the National Front will put an in/out EU vote “at the heart” of its 2017 presidential election campaign. The Eurosceptics and anti-immigrant National Front came first in France’s EU elections last year, with 25 percent of the vote, and again in local elections earlier this year.

When I Googled the issue to see who else has picked it up, to my surprise, Armstrong Economics comes up first. Others are quoting me, and I even find it spreading as far as the Central Bank of Nigeria, but I have yet to find any reports on the meeting taking place in London, when my sources are direct.

Other newspapers who have covered my European tour have stated that the “crash” of which I speak is the typical stock market, rather than a crash in government. What is concerning me is the silence on this meeting, when there are more and more reports claiming a cashless society would be better.

If we look at the turning points on the ECM, yes, they have been to the day when there has been a concentration of capital in a particular market. However, it has also picked the turning points in political decisions, such as the formation of the G5 with 1985.65, the very day Greece asked for help from the IMF in 2010, to the day of 9/11. We better keep one eye open at night for this birth of a cashless society that is coming in much faster than expected. Why the secret meeting? Something does not smell right here.

The lecturer at Nottingham Trent University told Express.co.uk: "It's really a power play for Islamic State. The mines are one of the last things Syria could make money from. It will push the state closer towards failure which is now almost inevitable. Syria is at crisis point. It's already seen as a crisis state. We are just one or two more key events away from failure as we know it. With the situation as it is we could wake up tomorrow and the whole state would have changed."

While ISIS has shown it is willing to focus on a core area rather than seek to expand at a vast rate, neighbouring Jordan should still be aware of the likelihood of an invasion. It comes after the Queen of Jordan urged the world to confront the "menace" of ISIS. Dr Underhill said: "Borders are weak and it's so easy for groups to move. Jordan is already seen as threatened. The Middle East expert added allied nations would now be seriously considering "boots on the ground" in the region."

But the man dressed like the mystical Merlin of Arthurian legend was in fact a former builder called Ian Wilson, who died of cancer aged 63. On Thursday scores of witches, fairies, goths and druids turned out to pay tribute to the high priest who became one of Britain's foremost pagans. In a spectacular ceremony, believed to be the first full-scale pagan funeral of its kind to take place in Britain for centuries, he was given a magical send-off.

Eron the Wizard, from Tintagel, Cornwall, had been convinced he had magical powers and dedicated his life to spreading his form of wizardry. His dying wish was for a celebration of his life in the way of Wicca, the modern pagan, witchcraft religion. A high priestess had travelled from Austria to lead the service, which began with the entrance of four torch-bearers standing at each quarter, representing the elements. The group then cast a circle and blessed it with the elements before calling the watchtowers.

Jack Lew said policymakers should stop their brinkmanship over Greece and act quickly or risk an accidental and messy Greek exit from the eurozone. "I don't think anyone wishes [Greece] to blow up. What I worry most about is an accident. You have moments that come up with all too much frequency, where a miscalculation could lead to a crisis that would be potentially very damaging."

Mr Lew said compromises had to be made by Greece and its creditors, amid pleas from the Greek government for leniency as it faces €1.6 billion of repayments to the International Monetary Fund this month. He told an audience at the London School of Economics: "I think brinkmanship is a dangerous thing when it only takes one accident. Everyone has to double down and treat the next deadline as last deadline and get this resolved. The risk from going from deadline to deadline increases the risk of an accident."

"We have made many steps. We are on the final stretch towards a positive deal," said Mr Tsipras. "This agreement will be positive for the Greek economy, this agreement will redistribute the [financial] burdens and I believe that, very soon, we will be in a position to present more information," said the Leftist premier.

His comments came as officials met for talks in Brussels over the country's bail-out conditions. But European officials moved to immediately dampen hopes that an agreement was imminent. Vice president of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis said both sides were "still not there yet". “We are working very intensively to ensure a staff-level agreement," he said.

In a list of highly ambitious proposals, Spain also called for the single currency to adopt a common budget for use in emergency rescues, and issue debt in the form of eurobonds, according to a list of proposals reported in El Pais.

Both measures are likely to meet resistance in Germany, Europe's largest creditor, as a further pooling of funds that would effectively subsidise southern debtor states. They would also likely require a reworking of Europe's treaties - a shakeup that has been ruled out by Berlin as Britain also seeks to renegotiate its relationship with Europe.

Highlighting the euro's exposure to "asymmetric shocks", the blueprint urges for a revolution in the ECB's mandate, requesting the central bank adopt tools to prevent soaring debt levels and crippling unemployment.

In a warning shot ahead of David Cameron’s trip to European capitals, the Foreign Secretary told EU leaders to stop “obsessing” about the principle of “ever closer union”. He also became the most senior figure in the government to say the vote on Britain’s EU membership could take place next year.

It comes with the Prime Minister meeting the leaders of France, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands for talks in a 48-hour diplomatic blitz. The Foreign Secretary said Britain needed “proper protection” as a non-eurozone country and voters would demand they are “not ridden over roughshod” by Europe.

During World War II and prior to that, these emergency powers were largely uncodified and were primarily used during times of war. But since World War II things have completely changed, and this has particularly been true since 9/11. Over the past decade or so, a whole host of extraordinary powers have specifically been given to the office of the president, and all that it takes to exercise them is a major “national emergency”.

So if we do have a full-blown economic collapse, a historic natural disaster, a significant war or a massive pandemic, Barack Obama could use the emergency powers that he has been given to essentially take authority over everything.