Almost one in five birds was highly dangerous, figures published on Thursday showed. In almost 7 per cent of cases, the bacteria were present on the outside packaging of fresh whole chickens. In a statement supported for the first time by the Office for National Statistics, food safety officials concluded that "all chickens, no matter which retail outlet they are sold from" were at risk of being contaminated.

They urged families to take particular care during handling and cooking whole chickens at home. The Food Standards Agency, which is responsible for protecting the public from poisoning, criticised supermarkets for taking too long to cut contamination levels.

The National Farmers Union warned that around a quarter of British crops could be affected and said that European pesticide bans were making it more difficult to control. Yellow Rust can cause significant reductions in quality and yield, and in some cases, lead to the loss of the entire harvest.

Farmers have been urged to spray crops thoroughly but scientists say they are unsure if regular fungicides will be affective against the new strain. Many more powerful chemicals have been banned by Europe. The findings were published in the journal Genome Biology.

Pastor Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries warns that “our nation will be judged” based on whether the United States sides with or against the Jewish state. Biltz believes signs in the heavens and correlations with feast days on the biblical calendar show such a judgment may be coming soon. “When Netanyahu speaks before Congress on March 3, this is the day before the Fast of Esther when the enemies of Israel, specifically Persia/Iran, had planned to destroy the nation of Israel,” he said. “The next day is Purim, which celebrates the day Israel achieved victory over Iran. The timing significance of this is just as important as the timing of the blood moon.”

Biltz, author of “Blood Moons: Decoding the Imminent Heavenly Signs,” warns that the next blood moon is scheduled to appear over Passover, which begins April 3, just one month after Netanyahu’s speech. And this will be preceded two weeks earlier by a total solar eclipse on March 20, three days after the Israeli election, and coincides with Nisan, the beginning of the New Year according to the biblical calendar. These prophetic warnings come amid unprecedented tumult in the American-Israeli relationship.

About 15 different emulsifiers are commonly used in processed Western foods for purposes such as smoothing the texture of ice cream and preventing mayonnaise from separating. Regulatory agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rule that emulsifiers are “generally regarded as safe”, because there is no evidence that they increase the risk of cancer or have toxic effects in mammals.

But when immunologist Andrew Gewirtz at Georgia State University in Atlanta and his colleagues fed common emulsifiers carboxymethylcellulose and polysorbate-80 to mice, they found evidence that the chemicals affected the animals' health. Although their diet was not otherwise changed, healthy mice whose water contained the chemicals became obese and developed metabolic problems such as glucose intolerance. In mice genetically engineered to be prone to inflammatory gut diseases, emulsifiers also seemed to increase the severity and frequency with which the animals developed inflammatory bowel disease.

The Iraqi lawmaker explained that the United States prefers the chaotic situation in the province because it reportedly does not want the ISIL crisis to come to an end. The al-Ahed news website quoted Khalaf Tarmouz, head of Al Anbar Provincial Council saying that they have “discovered weapons made in the United States, European countries and Israel from the areas liberated from ISIL’s control in Al-Baqdadi region.”

Mr Tarmouz added that the weapons made by European nations and Israel were discovered from the terrorists in the Eastern parts of Ramadi. Mr Al-Zameli has previously said that the planes of the anti-ISIL coalition have dropped weapons and food supplies for the terrorist group in Al-Anbar, Salahuddin and Diyala provinces. The head of the Iraqi Parliament’s National Security and Defence Committee noted that the coalition is the main reason why ISIL still exists in Iraq. He told the news agency in January “there are proofs and evidence for the US-led coalition’s military aid to ISIL terrorists through air.”

Mr Al-Zameli added that the members of his committee have proved that planes belonging to the United States have dropped advanced weaponry for the ISIL, which is why it has set up an investigation committee to probe into the matter.

The truth is very different. The adoption of these FCC rules on the Internet represents the largest regulatory power grab in recent history. The FCC’s newly adopted rule takes the most dynamic means of communication and imposes the regulatory structure designed for public utilities. Federal regulation could also open the door to de facto censorship of ideas perceived as threatening to the political class – ideas like the troops should be brought home, the PATRIOT Act should be repealed, military spending and corporate welfare should be cut, and the Federal Reserve should be audited and ended.

The one bright spot in this otherwise disastrous move is that federal regulations making it more difficult to use the Internet will cause more Americans to join our movement for liberty, peace, and prosperity. The federal government should keep its hands off of the Internet!

They were the first such disturbances since Greece's leftist Syriza was sworn in as the main government party exactly a month ago. Dozens of activists hurled petrol bombs and stones at police and set cars alight after a march involving hundreds of protesters. Syriza swept to power in January by promising to renegotiate the country's debt and end austerity.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble spoke in favour of the deal, telling parliament: "We Germans should do everything possible to keep Europe together as much as we can. We're not talking about new billions for Greece… rather it's about providing or granting extra time to successfully end this programme," he insisted. Mr Schaeuble has expressed doubt about the Greek government's commitment to reform.

There has been a chorus of scepticism about the deal inside Germany - with Thursday's edition of the largest tabloid, Bild, emblazoned with the word "No!" adding "No more billions for the greedy Greeks!"

In Greece, the proposed bailout extension has also triggered dissent within the governing party. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has defended it, but some on the hard left have accused Syriza of going back on pre-election pledges. Meanwhile, even if the bailout extension goes through Greece still faces the formidable task of trying to service its debt obligations. It will need to flesh out its reform programme in detail by April and prove that reforms are bedding in before receiving a final disbursement of 7.2 billion euros.

Enlarging existing armoured capacity would entail taking Cold War-era tanks out of storage, rather than buying new ones. Bundeswehr Chief of Staff Volker Wieker promised to report on the impact of the current “availability management” system on the Bundeswehr's ability to fulfil its Nato obligations. “If we want to present a credible allied defence for Europe, the troops have to be fully equipped,” defence committee chairman Hans-Peter Bartels said. “A tank battalion without tanks is not a tank battalion”.

Some militants, including senior commanders who are planning the attacks, are thought to have already entered Turkey and are in safe houses, the note said, without saying how many entered. "Militants expert in suicide and bomb attacks are preparing … attacks on the Istanbul and Ankara missions of coalition forces which intervened in Syria," it said.

Some militants with Syrian and Palestinian nationality were also planning to cross into Bulgaria to carry out attacks in European Union countries, it added. Turkish police declined to comment on the issue and MIT was not available for comment. Turkey has in the past drawn criticism from Western allies for failing to stop the flow of jihadists across its border to join the Sunni insurgents in Syria. Some critics said it even aided the militants, an accusation that Ankara denies.

Earlier, US National Security Adviser Susan Rice said Mr Netanyahu's visit was "destructive to the fabric of the relationship". In response Mr Netanyahu said the US and others were "accepting that Iran will gradually, within a few years, develop capabilities to produce material for many nuclear weapons. I respect the White House and the president of the United States but on such a fateful matter, that can determine whether or not we survive, I must do everything to prevent such a great danger for Israel," he said in a speech in Israel.

Late on Wednesday US Secretary of State John Kerry rebuffed Mr Netanyahu, saying: "He may have a judgment that just may not be correct here." He said it was premature to criticise the nuclear negotiations with Tehran. "The president has made clear - I can't state this more firmly - the policy is Iran will not get a nuclear weapon," Mr Kerry told senators. He was speaking after returning from the latest round of nuclear talks involving Iran in Geneva.

President Putin said that other countries should not be concerned and that the port's main use would be for counter-terrorism and anti-piracy.

The island already hosts British military bases. Britain announced on Tuesday that it would be deploying troops to Ukraine as trainers. Tensions remain high between Russia and other European countries but the Russian leader was not concerned that the deal could be misconstrued.

"Our friendly ties aren't aimed against anyone," President Putin said. "I don't think it should cause worries anywhere." Russia has sought to strengthen ties with a number of individual EU members - including Cyprus, Hungary and Greece, after the bloc, along with the US, imposed sanctions on Moscow over its role in Ukraine. President Anastasiades also revealed that the two countries were discussing the possibility of Russia using an air base on Cyprus for humanitarian relief missions.

It's a common refrain. Opinion polls suggest voters are lukewarm about both Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives, seeking a second term, and Ed Miliband's opposition Labour Party. So who is going to win the May 7 vote? "The simple answer is nobody," said Leighton Vaughan Williams, director of the Political Forecasting Unit at Nottingham Business School. "It's very, very unlikely indeed that any party will get a majority. Indeed, it's very, very unlikely that any two parties can put together a majority after the election."

Britain's electoral landscape has become a patchwork of parties, including Scottish and Welsh nationalists, Greens and anti-Europeans. Any of them could end up holding the balance of power in Parliament. It's a radical change after decades in which Britain's electoral system usually delivered either Conservative or Labour majorities in the House of Commons. Not anymore.

Support for the two big parties has plummeted, Strathclyde University political scientist John Curtice, who coined the term "lottery election," has said that "the 2015 election looks less like a simple battle between two straightforward alternatives than any of its post-war predecessors." Although Labour is traditionally left of center and the Conservatives to the right, increasing numbers of voters find it hard to tell the difference.

Signers include a raft of dignitaries; many with titles most Americans would not know existed any longer. They include princes and princesses, dukes and duchesses, counts and countesses, barons and baronesses, descendants of storied European royal families, and one exiled African king.

Kigeli V, exiled King of Rawanda, is a signer, along with the heads of the Imperial House of Portugal and Brazil, Prince Armand de Merode of Belgium, Duke and Duchess Antonello Del Balzo di Presenzano of Italy, Princess Monika of Lowenstein-Werthheim-Rosenberg, Baron Rudolf Pfyffer von Altishofen of France, and many others.

The letter says, “Our fears arise from witnessing a decades-long sexual revolution promoted by an alliance of powerful organizations, political forces and the mass media that consistently work against the very existence of the family as the basic unit of society.”