"I’m neither for nor against the outcome of the recent talks. According to the Iranian officials involved no measure has been taken yet and there are no binding results," said Khamenei during a televised speech on Thursday. Khamenei added that in light of past experience, he is not optimistic regarding the negotiations with the US, but allowed for the talks to take place anyway, stressing that he supports the ongoing negotiation, and would support a future agreement if it upholds Iran's honor and interests.

Khamenei also said that it's too early to tell if the talks will lead to an agreement, and called for restraint among Iranians on announcing victory or failure in the negotiations. "I fully trust our negotiating team, but I'm weary of the other side's attempt at deception. It's all about the details. The deceptive side may want to stab Iran in the back over the details; it is too early to congratulate," continued Khamenei, who also praised Iranian nuclear achievements thus far, and reiterated previous Iranian claims that its nuclear program has peaceful purposes. "I told President Rohani and Foreign Minister Zarif that any agreement must preserve Iran's right to scientific and technological development. They need to find a way for that to happen," Khamenei said.

According to Khamenei, the United States published a document that was "mostly false" after the latest round of talks. "I gave President Rohani my list of principles and red lines. Beyond that, I don't intend to get involved in details," although he also noted that he instructed the negating teams to make it clear to the Western powers that Iran will not allow IAEA inspectors into military facilities under the pretext of supervision of its nuclear program.

Indeed, following similar developments in Syria and Iraq, the conflict in Yemen is increasingly looking like a proxy war between Riyadh and Tehran. The two capitals are blatantly wrestling over supremacy in the region. Either Saudi Arabia, the traditional Western ally that is watching nervously as the United States slowly pulls back. Or Iran, which has been expanding its power in the region of late and which has just taken an historic step toward rapprochement with the US and its allies.

Thursday night saw Iran take another step forward. The Saudi monarchy, whose power is based on the country's vast oil reserves, were forced to watch from the sidelines in recent weeks as its historic ally America passionately pushed for a solution to the nuclear conflict with Iran. The deal was announced late on Thursday by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini - and means that Iran has now moved a bit closer to the West and, first and foremost, to the US.

The Saudis have dubbed their offensive "Operation Storm of Resolve." But they won't be able to win with air strikes alone; to avoid defeat, they must be prepared to fight on the ground as well. The country's army is hardly in a position to do so, but eyewitnesses have nonetheless reported seeing kilometer-long tank columns along the Saudi border while on the other side thousands of Houthi rebels prepare to do battle with the invaders.

Once before, back in the 1960s, a large regional power sent tens of thousands of soldiers into Yemen. But the operation ended in disaster. It is remembered by history as Egypt's Vietnam.

Trying to decipher this complex enemy — a hybrid terrorist organization and a conventional army — is such a conundrum that General Nagata assembled an unofficial brain trust outside the traditional realms of expertise within the Pentagon, State Department and intelligence agencies, in search of fresh ideas and inspiration. Business professors, for example, are examining the Islamic State’s marketing and branding strategies.

“We do not understand the movement, and until we do, we are not going to defeat it,” he said, according to the confidential minutes of a conference call he held with the experts. “We have not defeated the idea. We do not even understand the idea.”

You can call in all the marketing executives and Harvard academics all you like, but when the Obama administration — meaning the entire US government – as a matter of established policy refuses to acknowledge the ideology and intentions that our enemy publishes IN ENGLISH in the form of videos, audio recordings and magazines, and actively prohibits anyone in a government department or agency from discussing or speaking about said ideology, you really are beyond hope. And so is America.

Differing accounts of what the deal entails have been published between the US, Europe, and Iran, with each version providing drastic variations on the deal's content. Israel has repeatedly denounced the deal as an "historic mistake." "To my regret, all of the things I warned about vis-a-vis the framework agreement that was put together in Lausanne are coming true before our eyes," Netanyahu said.

"This framework gives the leading terrorist state in the world a certain path to nuclear bombs," he warned. "How can such a country be trusted?" The emerging deal, which is to be finalized by June 30, would leave Iran with "significant nuclear capabilities," he said. "It is not dismantling them, it is preserving them. We also see that the inspection is not serious... As of now, there is no monitoring," he said. "We see that the sanctions are being lifted, immediately, according to Iran's demand, and this is without Iran having changed its policy of aggression everywhere."

Hours after Netanyahu made the remarks, Iranian Revolutionary Guards chief General Mohammed Ali Jafari, who is considered to be one of the most influential men in Tehran, stated publicly that the US conceded all of its red lines in negotiating the deal as well.

It was there he developed an unhealthy obsession with eating 'proper' food. 'All I could think about was food,' he said. 'But even when I became aware that my scrabbling in the dirt after raw vegetables and wild plants had become an obsession, I found it terribly difficult to free myself. I had been seduced by righteous eating.' Bratman's description draws parallels with many modern dietary fads that promise superior health by restricting whole food groups without a medical reason or even a valid scientific explanation. Raw food followers might meet regularly to 'align their bodies, minds and souls' by feasting on 'cleansing and immune-boosting' raw foods.

Such foods are never heated above 44˚C, so 'all the living enzymes in the food remain intact'. No gluten, dairy or 'sugar' is allowed. Clean eaters may follow similar regimes, removing gluten, dairy and even meat from their diets. You might overhear a discussion about 'superfood green smoothie' recipes after a yoga class that also happen to 'cleanse your gall bladder'. And finally, around the corner, paleo pushers may 'beef up' together with a Crossfit class, followed by a few steaks. Again, with paleo, there is no gluten – or any grains for that matter – and no dairy or other such 'toxins' are allowed.

There is a blurry line separating 'normal' healthy eating and orthorexia nervosa, but one way to define the condition is when eating 'healthily' causes significant distress or negative consequences in a person's life. They may be 'plunged into gloom' by eating a piece of bread, become anxious about when their next kale, chia or quinoa hit is coming, or eat only at home where 'superfood' intake can be tightly controlled. Such behaviours can have a significant impact on relationships with family members and friends, let alone on their mental health.

As a nutritionist and a recovered sufferer of bulimia, I leave you with some advice: 'Don't trust all-devoted kale consumers, including health professionals and celebrities, if their advice isn't based on scientific evidence.' Don't make food the most important focus of your life. As Bratman says: 'Rather than eat my sprouts (or kale) alone, it would be better for me to share a pizza with some friends.' Try to be a balanced food consumer with a 'mostly and sometimes' mantra.

Laurent Stefanini, 54, a senior diplomat and Mr Hollande's chief of protocol, was nominated in early January but the Vatican has maintained a stony silence over whether it accepts his credentials, officials in Paris said. The usual time frame for their acceptance is a month and a half. After that, a prolonged silence after a nomination is normally interpreted as a rejection.

The Elysee said that the choice of Mr Stefanini to represent France at the Vatican resulted from "a wish by the president and a cabinet decision" and that the president regarded him as "one of our best diplomats." French media widely reported that Mr Stefanini has been blackballed due to his homosexuality. Le Journal du Dimanche quoted a Vatican insider as saying that the rejection was "a decision taken by the pope himself."

Liberation, the left-leaning daily, said that "the Vatican's homophobia seriously tarnishes Pope Francis' image as being (slightly) more open-minded that his predecessors on sexuality". France in 2007 nominated a gay ambassador to the Vatican who had a partner recognised under French law but the Holy See never responded to the nomination, despite lengthy attempts to secure him the post.

He hopes it will encourage UN negotiators meeting in Paris in December to make courageous decisions about protecting the world from global warming, he told reporters traveling with him to the Philippines earlier this year. "I don't know if (human activity) is the only cause, but mostly, in great part, it is man who has slapped nature in the face," he said in January before visiting with survivors of 2013’s Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded, according to federal weather experts. "We have in a sense taken over nature."

Pope Francis is exceptionally well regarded at the end of his first two years as pontiff, a tenure during which he has rejected ostentatious trappings of the Vatican, embraced the poor and criticized a church that he says has become obsessed with abortion, gay marriage and contraception. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released in March found that only 6 percent of Americans viewed him negatively, while 55 percent had positive feelings about him.

Christiana Peppard, an assistant professor of theology, science, and ethics in Fordham University's Department of Theology, said she doubted that Francis would convince doubters in the US Congress to change their minds. "But I think it is good to have people who are respected as moral leaders and powerful ones at that remind powerful politicians that in a globalizing world a lot more is at stake than might be discerned in election cycles or fiscal quarters," she said.

Though the petition has already surpassed the required amount of signatures needed for the initiative, Sibila said that he hopes it will gather another 50,000 by early May in order to highlight the issue. “Who wants to stay in euro? This is the main question,” Sibila told RT. “But we don’t want to get out just like this - we want a program and a discussion, and then let the citizens decide. It’s really necessary today as the situation in Italy is going from bad to worse where jobs and economy are concerned.”

The Italian constitution, however, does not provide for the cancellation of international agreements through referenda. According to Sibila, Italy’s debt increased dramatically after the introduction of the euro. He also noted that Italy’s unemployment rate hovers around 12.7 percent, the sixth highest in the EU. “We can’t have our own fiscal policy, but without the euro it is possible in Italy,” Sibila said.

The Five Star Movement, formed in 2009 by comedian and activist Beppe Grillo, finished second in the 2014 European Parliament election with 21 percent of the vote.

For decades, we’ve been poisoning our soils with chemical fertilizers and pesticides. We’ve been overgrazing and over-farming our soil to the point that what were once prairies and grasslands teeming with life, are now lifeless dust fields.

The top six inches of soil are the most precious yet least understood ecosystem on Earth. In order to appreciate its importance to our very survival, you first must understand the role carbon plays in maintaining the ecological balance of our entire planet.

Conventional agriculture that relies on tilling and monocrops decimates the top soil and is responsible for massive losses every year. So much so that some predict that most of the topsoil in the US will be lost in the next two generations.

Some of the DNA strands are from humans, because the developers hope milk proteins made from our own species will mean less chance of allergic reactions. iGem has now hit its $15,000 (£8,790) goal on the Indiegogo crowdfunding website, to develop the cheese for mass market. It claims that the product is the first vegan cheese - rather than a cheese substitute.

On its fundraising page, iGem said: "To create our proteins, we study animal genomes to find natural milk-protein genetic sequences. We optimise the genes for use in yeast and synthesise the resulting yeast milk protein DNA from scratch. This DNA is then put into yeast cells where the cellular machinery takes over and produces real milk-protein from the DNA blueprint provided by us."

Farmers in those counties are also eligible for emergency aid through the US Department of Agriculture. The agencies opened up their aid programs in Oregon in response to US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack's announcement this week that most of Oregon is in drought disaster mode. A map of the disaster zones nationwide shows California, Nevada, and Arizona completely engulfed in drought, while just a few counties in New Mexico and Utah remain unaffected.

Meanwhile, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife experts worry that without sufficient glacial melt to keep waterways deep and cold, fish will struggle to survive. Oregon Department of Forestry officials are bracing for a fourth straight long, devastating fire season. "Instead of 1- or 2-acre fires in the spring we've been seeing 20- and 30-acre fires," Oregon Department of Forestry spokesman Rod Nichols said.

“They’re taking the water hoses, taking the copper wiring,” says the county’s District Attorney, David Linn. “We’ve even had instances where they’ve come in and stolen the water pumps from the farmers.” Linn has recently launched a new task force so rural residents and farmers can reach a deputy district attorney 24-7 to report crime, including illegal well drilling.

Linn says a hypothetical call might be, “You know over the past two weeks, the water flow on my kitchen sink has continued to decrease. I notice there’s a couple of big drill rigs across the road, looks like they’re very active.” An investigator could come out and talk with the well driller to make sure they’re drilling where they should be. “We want to stop the wholesale planned attempt by water drillers to essentially tap out entire neighborhoods of homes without proper legal authority,” says Linn.

If water is siphoned out of a storage tank, or a water pump goes missing, the DA’s office could dispatch investigators to the scene to collect evidence for prosecution. Under last year’s landmark groundwater law, local officials will be taking on the primary responsibility for managing groundwater and enforcing new rules.

Making calls for reparations does not advance the race by Greece and its creditors to bolster the country's solvency by even "a millimetre", Gabriel, who is also vice-chancellor, said at an event in Berlin. "Honestly, I find it dumb," he added.

Greece has an interest in gaining "wiggle room" for its new radical government's policies, Gabriel said, adding: "This changed policy and the wiggle room have absolutely nothing to do with the Second World War and reparations payments." Greece's fledgling radical-left government that came to power in January has stepped up pressure on Berlin over the emotional and controversial issue of war reparations which it says are a "moral issue" that must still be resolved.

As tempers have flared between debt-mired Greece and the eurozone's effective paymaster over the debt crisis, painful historical memories have resurfaced over the Nazi's bloody and devastating occupation of Greece from 1941. A junior minister told the Greek parliament on Monday that the figure owed by Germany amounted to more than 278 billion euros, including some 10 billion for a forced loan taken by Nazi occupation forces.

In a highly symbolic visit to Moscow on the eve of a crunch International Monetary Fund loan repayment, Mr Tsipras insisted Greece was not a “debt colony”, but a “sovereign nation with the indelible right to carry out its own foreign policy”. Following a three-hour meeting with president Vladimir Putin, the Leftist premier asserted his government would continue to forge an independent economic and foreign policy, hailing a “new spring” in Greco-Russian relations.

"We are a sovereign state and we can sign agreements in our common interest in order to combat the crisis in our country. This is why we came here. We want to create bonds of trust with Russia." Mr Tsipras also risked opening up a new schism with the European Union, repeating his claim that economic warfare against Russia would not resolve Europe’s simmering security problems with its eastern giant, and could presage a new “Cold War in Europe”.

Ahead of the visit, EU officials warned Greece of undermining the continent’s unity over economic sanctions imposed on Moscow in the wake of the Ukraine crisis.