Instead of a bailout, Greece needed a debt "haircut" like the one Germany's creditors had to accept in 1953, Kammenos proposed. He also argued that Berlin should pay World War II reparations to Athens. "All European countries have been compensated for crimes committed by Nazis, except for Greece," Kammenos said, referring to the gold Nazi soldiers brought back from Athens during the war.

The defense minister also accused Germany of "interfering" in its domestic affairs. His criticism was aimed at German Finance Minister Schäuble, who earlier warned of a "Grexident" which could push Athens out of the euro.

"I don't understand why he turns against Greece every day in new statements. It's like a psychological war and Schäuble is poisoning the relationship between the two countries through that," he said.

Greece Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and Germany's Schäuble are both unrelenting in their positions.

The massive outdoor altar, which took several years to build, can be operational at little more than a moment’s notice, reported the Israeli magazine Matzav Haruach. The altar is the last major component needed for the long-obstructed sacrifices to resume in a future Jewish temple. Ultra-Orthodox Jews pray daily for its reconstruction atop the holy hill known as Mount Moriah or the Temple Mount.

Carl Gallups, a Baptist pastor in Florida, Bible prophecy expert and author of “Final Warning: Understanding the Trumpet Days of Revelation,” told WND the announcement about the altar will be seen by many Christians as a huge step toward fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

“This announcement will surely excite prophecy watchers around the world,” he said. “Regardless of one’s eschatological leanings, every sincere student of the Word of God knows there are at least hints, if not clear declarations, of something happening just before the return of the Lord that involves altar sacrifices and the distinct possibility of a rebuilt temple on the Temple Mount.”

"There will be continued advances in software that we see throughout our entire life," Rothblatt told a packed audience in the cavernous Exhibit Hall 5 during her keynote speech. "Eventually, these advances in software will rise to the level of consciousness."

Rothblatt is the founder of Sirius Satellite Radio, current chief executive of United Therapeutics and was recently named by Forbes as the highest-paid female CEO in America. She is a transgender activist and a trans-humanist philosopher who believes technology will one day grant humans eternal life.

On crucial issues — from fighting the Islamic State to fielding integrated defense systems, which share information and operate together, to standing firm against Russian aggression in Ukraine — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government either are not cooperating fully or are acting in outright defiance of NATO’s priorities and interests. Add the fact that Turkey under Mr Erdogan has become increasingly authoritarian, and it becomes apparent that the country is drifting away from an alliance whose treaty says it is “founded on the principles of democracy” as much as defense.

For months, the Western allies have pressured Turkey to close its porous border, which has allowed thousands of jihadists to cross into Syria to join the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and has enabled ISIS to smuggle in weapons and smuggle out oil on which it relies for revenue.

Although the Turkish government has taken some steps to make transit harder, it has been unwilling, or unable, to stem the flow, according to Tim Arango and Eric Schmitt’s reporting in The Times. One smuggler said that while his job has become more difficult, sometimes the Turkish border guards look the other way.

Completely shutting down the long border may be impossible, but given the country’s large military and well-regarded intelligence service, it is inexcusable that Turkey is not doing a better job. Turkey should also be making military bases and troops available to the American-led coalition, but James Clapper Jr, the director of national intelligence, told Congress recently that he was not optimistic that Turkey would do more against ISIS because it had “other priorities and other interests.”

It is being reported that the state only has approximately a one year supply of water left in the reservoirs, and when the water is all gone there are no contingency plans. Back in early 2014, California Governor Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency for the entire state, but since that time water usage has only dropped by 9 percent. That is not nearly enough.

The state of California has been losing more than 12 million acre-feet of total water a year since 2011, and we are quickly heading toward an extremely painful water crisis unlike anything that any of us have ever seen before.

Needless to say, along with any water crisis comes a food crisis. Virtually everything that we eat requires a tremendous amount of water to grow. And at this point, the world is already eating more food than it produces most years. So what is going to happen to us as this water crisis gets even worse?

Martin Wheatley, the chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, said that the new Senior Managers' Regime (SMR) for banks and building society would "create a more resilient and publicly trusted industry". The FCA, along with the Bank of England, is working on the finer points of the SMR, under which top bankers can be found guilty of a new criminal offence of reckless misconduct, and can face up to seven years in jail.

The regime follows a number of high-profile bank scandals such as PPI mis-selling and market rigging, but few senior bankers have been personally censured.

The participants, holding the national flags of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, walked through the city to the Monument of Freedom, where they lay flowers. Many veterans wore uniforms of the legion and pre-war uniforms. The use of Nazi and Soviet symbols was forbidden in the parade and the participants were not allowed to veil faces. The annual march causes controversy among various social groups. Anti-fascist and Jewish organizations, such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center, believe such rallies glorify Nazism.

The Latvian legion of the Waffen-SS consisted of almost 150,000 Latvians and was split into two divisions. The legion was created in 1943 on the orders of Adolf Hitler. In March of the same year, the legion was already battling the Soviet Red Army near the town of Pskov. It was among the last of the Nazi forces to surrender in 1945.

“We won the day Europe and US dreamt of reclaiming Tal Hamis, Mosul, Sinjar, Tikrit, Qaim, Derna, Tell Abyad, and more,” stated the ISIS mouthpiece, as transcribed by Ynet News. “We — with Allah’s help — want Paris, before Rome and Islamic Iberia and after we blow up the White House, Big Ben, and the Eiffel Tower before Paris, and Rome,” al-Adnani warned. “The Muslims will return to power, to be the vanguard and lead in every place.”

The Islamic State’s al-Adnani gave Jews and Christians the ultimatum that they could either “convert to Islam or pay the ultimate price when your armies are expelled from Muhammad’s peninsula, from Jerusalem, and all Muslim lands,” Ynet news translated. He warned Christians and Jews they would soon be unable to stop the jihadi advance to the caliphate, saying, “The Jews and the Crusaders are scared and weak.”

The ISIS spokesman reiterates that the extremist group will ultimately prevail in its destructive plan despite its recent losses. “We took you by surprise,” the spokesman said, asserting that Islamic caliphate rule would soon spread to Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem by threatening the region to convert to Islam or pay the jizya poll tax – a mark of religious inferiority.

Abed further slammed America for calling Operation Inherent Resolve "the war on ISIS," but also fighting other jihadists in Iraq and Syria, for example Al Qaeda's Al-Nusra Front. "They are bombing the very idea of a Caliphate, which has taken root among the people of Syria, Iraq, and other Muslim nations," he added. He then went on to suggest that ISIS is the only vehicle for "freeing Palestine," as it were.

"Oh nation of Islam, only a real Caliphate is capable of satiating your hunger, of defending you and your honor, and of liberating your Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of defilers," he said. In a separate sermon, he slammed Iran for agreeing to nuclear talks, asking, "Do you think America loves you more than it loves Israel?" He intimated that the US has agreed to the talks and re-established a measure of diplomatic relations with Iran out of fear from ISIS. "America will be trampled by the hooves of the horses of the Caliph of Muslims, Allah willing," he concluded.

Controversy erupted over an open letter Republicans sent Iran’s leadership Monday. It vowed Congress can void any deal it finds unsatisfying and was signed by 47 GOP senators. President Obama said Friday he was “embarrassed” for the message’s signers. The move has drawn swift criticism from social media, with the hashtag #47Traitors a recurring trend online last week.

Bolton rebuked the president’s response as unjustified Saturday. He said the Senators were not traitors, but rather lawmakers who “stood up for the Constitution.” “The president coddles the Iranian ayatollah and attacks his own countrymen and our closest allies over this deal,” Bolton said Saturday. “The danger we hope to avoid is now imminent. This is just one example of how the President doesn’t care about America’s national security.” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, blasted the letter’s “backstabbing” on Thursday.

Senator Tom Cotton (Republican for Arkansas), the letter’s driving force, criticized the Ayatollah’s regime Tuesday. “They’ve been killing Americans for 35 years, they’ve killed hundreds of troops in Iran, now they control five capitols in the Middle East,” Cotton said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “They are nothing but hard-liners in Iran, and if they do all of those things without a nuclear weapon, imagine what they would do with one.”

"I've always said whatever comes out of these talks, we will want the same," said the prince, Saudi Arabia's former intelligence chief. "So if Iran has the ability to enrich uranium to whatever level, it's not just Saudi Arabia that's going to ask for that. The whole world will be an open door to go that route without any inhibition, and that's my main objection to this P5+1 [the six world powers] process."

With a late March deadline for an Iran deal approaching, Saudi Arabia last week signed a nuclear co-operation agreement with South Korea that included a plan to study the feasibility of building two nuclear reactors in the kingdom. Riyadh has also signed nuclear co-operation agreements with China, France and Argentina, and intends to construct 16 nuclear power reactors over the next 20 years. The US Secretary of State, John Kerry, flew to Riyadh earlier this month to reassure Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab allies that America would not accept any deal unless it prevented Iran from building a nuclear weapon.

He was told that they found Iran's support for armed Shia Muslim groups in regional conflicts as troubling as the prospect of an atomic bomb. "Iran is already a disruptive player in various scenes in the Arab world, whether it's Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, or Bahrain," said Prince Turki. "So ending fear of developing weapons of mass destruction is not going to be the end of the troubles we're having with Iran."

Of most concern to Saudi Arabia is Iran's backing of Iraqi Shia militias in the fight against Islamic State (IS) militants. That role has become more public during the battle over the Iraqi city of Tikrit, with General Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, stepping out of the shadows to openly guide Shia forces. "Now it seems that Iran is expanding its occupation of Iraq and that is unacceptable," said Prince Turki.

The Vatican traditionally opposes military intervention in the region. However, Pope Francis decried the beheading in February of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians by IS in Libya. The militants have targeted minority religious groups in the parts of Syria and Iraq under their control. Thousands more people have been forced to flee their homes.

In an interview with US Catholic website Crux, Archbishop Tomasi said: "What's needed is a co-ordinated and well-thought-out coalition to do everything possible to achieve a political settlement without violence. But if that's not possible, then the use of force will be necessary." He added: "We have to stop this kind of genocide. Otherwise we'll be crying out in the future about why we didn't do something, why we allowed such a terrible tragedy to happen."

Christians were the main target of IS attacks, the archbishop said, but all minorities were human beings whose rights had to be protected. "Christians, Yazidis, Shias, Sunnis, Alawites, all are human beings whose rights deserve to be protected," he said. Any coalition, he said, must include Muslim states from the Middle East and be guided by the UN.

Crux said the archbishop's endorsement of military action was "unusually blunt". In February, human rights organisations warned that IS was trying to eradicate Iraqi minority groups from large areas of the country. In a report, they detailed summary executions, forced conversions, rapes and other abuses suffered by minorities.

Previously, the EU military force was seriously mulled over during the build-up to the illegal Anglo-American invasion of Iraq in 2003 when Germany, France, Belgium, and Luxembourg met to discuss it as an alternative to US-dominated NATO. The idea has been resurrected again under similar circumstances. In 2003, the friction was over the US-led invasion of Iraq. In 2015, it is because of the mounting friction between Germany and the US over the crisis in Ukraine.

Chancellor Merkel was explicit in her response when she told Senator Corker that the simmering crisis in Ukraine could not be resolved by military means and the US approach would go nowhere and make the situation in Ukraine much worse. When Merkel was pressed on militarizing the conflict in Ukraine by the British MP Malcolm Rifkind, the chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee of the British Parliament, she said that sending more arms to Kiev was useless and unrealistic. Merkel told the British MP “to look reality in the eye.” The German Chancellor also pointed out that there cannot be security in Europe without Russia.

It is in the context of divisions between the EU and Washington that the calls for an EU military force are being made by both the European Commission and Germany. The EU and Germans realize there is not much they can do to hamper Washington as long as it has a say in EU and European security. Both Berlin and a cross-section of the EU have been resentful of how Washington is using NATO to advance its interests and to influence the events inside Europe.

If not a form of pressure in behind the door negotiations with Washington, the calls for an EU military are designed to reduce Washington’s influence in Europe and possibly make NATO defunct. An EU army that would cancel out NATO would have a heavy strategic cost for the US. In this context, Washington would lose its western perch in Eurasia. It “would automatically spell the end of America’s participation in the game on the Eurasian chessboard,” in the words of former US national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski.

In fact, it is 10 years since Juncker’s predecessor Romano Prodi made a similar call, famously adding: “If you don’t want to call it a European Army, you can call it Margaret, you can call it Mary-Ann.” But at least that was in the time when the EU’s members were apparently gung-ho for creating a “European Rapid Reaction Force”, with each nation making its own contribution to the whole – Britain’s being the two giant aircraft carriers we are building without any aircraft to fly off them.

But such integrationist dreams have long since faded, with the French now re-equipping their own army to fight in the desert sands of West Africa, to defend their former colonies against the advancing Islamist hordes.

Curiously it is also 60 years since Jean Monnet, the father of European integration, first came up with a proposal for a European army, which was roundly rejected by the French Assembly (and ridiculed by Winston Churchill). With our own Government having apparently lost any interest in defence, it might be more sensible for Mr Juncker to focus on sorting out all the disasters the EU has already made for itself – including its ludicrously ill-judged policy towards Russia – without creating another one for the future.