Lam, which arrived as a Category Four, struck Elcho Island and is moving south-west. Local residents said roofs had been torn off from a number of houses and trees uprooted. In its latest update, Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said Marcia was expected to move south and gradually weaken. "The very destructive core... with gusts to 205 km/h (127mph), is currently impacting the Yeppoon and Rockhampton areas," it said.

Destructive winds were expected to extend further south and inland across the Capricornia and Burnett districts, it added. Local residents should be prepared for an evacuation if advised by the authorities, the BoM added. It also warned about possible tidal and flash flooding.

Jerusalem, the Gush Etzion region of Judea, Tzfat (Safed), and the Golan saw the most snow, but the storm hit other areas less prone to inclement weather - including several towns in the Negev.

The lower Golan Heights region, which was also blanketed by the blizzard, has not seen snow since 1992, according to Walla! News.

As of Friday morning, some 30 cm (11.8 inches) of snow has fallen in Tzfat; 20 cm (7.8 inches) has fallen in the Golan Heights.

The Kinneret's (Sea of Galilee) water levels have risen over a record 5.5 cm (2.16 inches) over the past 24 hours alone, with the current level at -212.8 meters.

In 2008, a federal law stipulated that the primary "task" of the relief organization was to "support the Bundeswehr's medical service." Since 2009, the DRK has maintained its own "representative for civil-military cooperation." Since last year, this cooperation has been exercised within the framework of the "Joint Cooperation" maneuvers, which are explicitly aimed at the implementation of the "network" of the military and relief organizations, to be applied in foreign missions in civil war regions.

As the Bundeswehr announced, the German Red Cross (DRK) and the German armed forces have entered a cooperation agreement for "the first time in history." The agreement, entitled "Future Pact," foresees the direct integration of the DRK into the "Civil-Military Cooperation Center" of the German military located in Nienburg, Lower Saxony, where the relief organization will maintain a "permanent liaison office" and function as a "consistent contact" for training military personnel.

The "conceptual cooperation in the formulation, editing and further development of regulations," is also planned. The agreement's declared objective - touted as "a milestone" in civil-military cooperation - is the DRK's cooperation in the Bundeswehr's combat operations.

Makers of junk food know it is highly addictive, but the UNSW study proves unequivocally that junk food alters behavior by causing near-permanent changes in the brain’s reward circuiting, an alteration that can trigger obesity.

Here Is What Happened In The Study

In the UNSW study, rats were fed a standard junk food diet, complete with cookies, cakes, biscuits, and other junk foods for two weeks. Another group of rats were fed a ‘standard lab chow’ diet. They were then observed under Pavlovian conditions, when a sound cue informed the rats it was time for their next serving. You can guess what happened. The ‘junk-food rats’ ate until they were glutinously full, obese, and ill, and the ‘healthy – diet rats’ stopped eating naturally – when they were full, and not over-stuffed. What’s most interesting though is what happened to the ‘junk food rats’ once they were returned to a normal diet. They still had the tendency to overeat. Their brains were literally trained to eat too much, and held that habit even after environmental factors were changed.

Even at the humble and likely modest estimation of the World Health Organization, at least 2.8 million people die annually from diseases linked to obesity including heart disease, diabetes, and brain stroke. The junk food habit is killing 40% more people than wars, famine, dictators, murderers, and politicians put-together. Still think there’s no reason to fight for food freedom so that Americans and people everywhere can enjoy healthful, non-processed, nutrient-dense, organic food?

Concerningly, most Americans have been tricked through brain-piercing marketing ploys into thinking these junk foods are healthful. For example, companies use terms like “healthy” or “natural” as a means to convince us it’s a good buy – this is one of many food tricks. You know the modern food system is broken too, when even vegetables are now cause for concern – the GMO, pesticide-laden kind, that is.

So what can one do to counter-balance this literal food war? Start by eating unprocessed foods in organic form. It is really that simple. That, and growing your own food is essential. Eating better is the best weapon against the corporate coup which has us eating toxic junk straight into the hospital.

The 31 Most Pointless Foods in Your Supermarket

Many would be at risk of drowning with rescue services unable to cope. But authorities fear that if numbers on this scale arrived, European cities could witness riots. Separately, the militants hope to cement their control of Libya then cross the Mediterranean disguised as refugees, according to letters seen by Quilliam the anti-terror group, reported by the Telegraph. Italian Minister for the Interior Angelino Alfano said on Monday that Libya was the 'absolute priority' and insisted there was 'not a minute to lose' for the international community.

He said: 'If the militias of the Caliphate advance faster than the decisions of the international community how can we put out the fire in Libya and stem the migration flows? We are at risk of an exodus without precedent.' More than 170,000 migrants arrived in Italy by boat last year. Since last Friday almost 4,000 have been rescued. The spread of militancy across Libya was predicted by the country's deceased leader Muammar Gaddafi, who warned the Mediterranean would become 'a sea of chaos'.

In response, Italian security chiefs have approved plans to put 4,800 soldiers on the country's streets to help prevent terrorist attacks. The statement from the Interior Ministry said they would guard 'sensitive sites' until at least June and reports claim 500 will be deployed in Rome - where soldiers are already guarding diplomatic residences, synagogues and Jewish schools.

The troops are also expected to be deployed at tourist venues such as archaeological sites and monuments. A treaty between Gaddafi and the Italian premier provided for joint boat patrols which curtailed the departure of migrant boats from Libya. But, as the Libyan despot predicted back in 2011, if the Gaddafis were brought down, Islamists would exploit the power vacuum.

The growing military alliance is rooted in a shared belief among Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Gulf Arab leaders that extremism must be confronted region-wide. It has been anchored with a quid pro quo: Gulf oil powerhouses Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have given Egypt an estimated $30 billion to rescue its damaged economy in return for Egypt providing military manpower alongside its Gulf counterparts.

With the alliance, this nation of 90 million people seeks to maneuver itself into a leadership role that has eluded it in recent years, first because of waning influence under former President Hosni Mubarak, then because of the turmoil that followed his 2011 ouster. A contingent of Egyptian troops is already deployed on Saudi Arabia's border with Iraq to help defend it against jihadi fighters, who earlier this year carried out a deadly cross-border raid, according to Egyptian military and security officials.

On another front, Gulf nations have said they are considering what action to take in Yemen, where Shiite rebels known as Houthis - widely suspected of links to Iran - have taken power in the capital and are fighting to seize more of the country.

“We have to understand who we’re dealing with and you have to deal with it accordingly,” said Rev Graham in a February 17 On the Record interview with Greta Van Susteren. “The president is ignoring the fact that these are Islamic extremists, these are terrorists, and ISIS is a terrorist organization and they are bent on destroying the West. They’ve already said they want the flag of Islam to fly over the White House.”

“The president, his entire life, his whole influence has been Islam,” said Rev Graham, whose father is the world-renowned preacher Billy Graham. “His mother was married to a Muslim. His father’s a Muslim. Then she married a [Muslim] man from Indonesia.” “He [Obama] was raised in Indonesia,” said Rev. Graham. “He went to Islamic schools. I assume she was a Muslim. So, his whole life experiences have been surrounded by Islam. He only knows Islam. And he’s given a pass to Islam. He’s refusing to accept and understand the evil that is in front of him.”

Van Susteren’s interview questions were prompted by the White House’s decision to not state that the 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians beheaded by the Islamic State over the weekend were, in fact, Christians and were killed for their faith, as their murderers stated on video.

Also, author and psychiatrist Charles Krauthammer said on February 16, “We have an administration that is truly pathological in its inability to actually state what's going on. In the video that was released that showed the savage beheading, it was addressed to the nations of the cross. It pledged itself to the conquest of Rome.” Krauthammer further noted that Pope Francis publicly mourned for the Egyptian Copts who were killed and said they were murdered by the Islamists precisely because of their Christian faith, yet the White House called them “Egyptian citizens,” not Christians.

In his Facebook post on February 17, Rev Graham wrote, “After a weekend of terrorism in Libya and Denmark, beginning today the White House is hosting a three-day ‘Summit on Countering Violent Extremism.’ I am perplexed as to why our President will not acknowledge the truth and call Islamic extremism what it is.” “In a statement the White House even called the 21 Christians who were beheaded ‘Egyptian citizens,’ refusing to identify them as Christians,” wrote Rev Graham. “The truth is - their barbaric murderers openly said they killed them because they were ‘people of the cross.’ Why is the President seemingly continuing to protect Islam and refusing to open his eyes to the truth?”

The BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens says Germany's rejection of the Greek proposal suggested "a rift between Brussels and Berlin at the very highest level". "It's not yet clear which side will prevail, and which side will give ground, but clearly the hopes that Greece was moving towards a deal... have been thrown into doubt once again."

The Greek request letter includes a pledge to maintain "fiscal balance" for a six-month period, while it negotiates with eurozone partners over long-term growth and debt reduction. The Greek government was also reported as saying that its extension proposal was in order to give Athens enough time, without the threat of "blackmail and time deficits", to draw up a new agreement with Europe for growth over the next four years.

If Greece is forced out of the euro in acrimonious circumstances - a 50/50 risk given the continued refusal of the creditor core to acknowledge their own guilt and strategic errors - the country will not only default on its EMU rescue packages, but also on its "Target2" liabilities to the European Central Bank. In normal times, Target2 adjustments are routine and self-correcting. They occur automatically as money is shifted around the currency bloc.

The US Federal Reserve has a similar internal system to square books across regions. They turn nuclear if monetary union breaks up. The Target2 "debts" owed by Greece's central bank to the ECB jumped to €49 billion in December as capital flight accelerated on fears of a Syriza victory. They may have reached €65 billion or €70 billion by now. A Greek default - unavoidable in a Grexit scenario - would crystallize these losses. The German people would discover instantly that a large sum of money committed without their knowledge and without a vote in the Bundestag had vanished.

Events would confirm what citizens already suspect, that they have been lied to by their political class about the true implications of ECB support for southern Europe, and they would strongly suspect that Greece is not the end of it. This would happen at a time when the anti-euro party, Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD), is bursting on to the political scene, breaking into four regional assemblies, a sort of German UKIP nipping at the heels of Angela Merkel.

"A work slowdown during contract negotiations over the past seven months has already created logistic nightmares for American exporters, manufacturers and retailers dependent on an efficient supply chain. A complete shutdown would be catastrophic, with hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk if America’s supply chain grinds to a halt."

"A west coast port shutdown would be an economic disaster."

"A shutdown would not only impact the hundreds of thousands of jobs working directly in America’s transportation supply chain, but the reality is the entire economy would be impacted as exports sit on docks and imports sit in the harbor waiting for manufacturers to build products and retailers to stock shelves."

And the punchline: "The slowdown is already making life difficult, but a shutdown could derail the economy completely."

Just so readers have a sense of what is at stake, this is what the average dockworker makes: $147,000 a year in salary, plus $35,000 a year in employer-paid health care and an annual pension of $80,000 (according to an association press release). It is the overtime compensation to the total shown here, which grosses to over a quarter of a million dollars, that dockworkers are negotiating to raise or else the key US supply-chains gets it.

“The expansion of the restrooms for visitors at the Western Wall is being carried out by The Western Wall Heritage Foundation, which Palestinian officials have called ‘the agency of the occupiers,’ even though it is under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s Office,” read a statement issued Wednesday by Rabinowitz’s office.

“It is unfortunate that a minimal action designed to cater to the needs of visitors to the remnant of the Jewish temple is turning into a contentious issue and a pretext for unnecessary tension,” he said. He called for more education about the importance of the holy site to the Jewish people in order counter the propaganda.

Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek finance minister, said Eurogroup finance ministers had ignored a deal already agreed with the European Commission for a four-month delay and a “new contract for growth”, returning instead to old demands. "The only way to solve Greece is to treat us like equals; not a debt colony,” he said, predicting that EU authorities would soon have to withdraw their latest “ultimatum”.

The talks were halted after four hours of stormy exchanges, risking a traumatic showdown that could precipitate the biggest default in world history and force Greece out of the euro by the end of the month. Mr Varoufakis said Syriza had won a landslide vowing to overthrow the EU-IMF troika memorandum and could not betray Greek democracy. "It would be an act of subterfuge to promise our partners that we will complete a programme we were elected to challenge."

But even before we get to the end of the week, the prospects of a disorderly exit for Greece could be heightened significantly. On Wednesday, the European Central Bank will have its say on events. The ECB will be meeting to discuss whether or not it should continue to provide the emergency funds that are helping keep Greece's banks alive.

This Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) is the last remaining link between the country's lenders and the eurozone.

For that very reason, ELA now hangs like the "sword of Damocles" over Greek banks, according to Lorcan Roche Kelly of Bloomberg. The lenders themselves have no control over whether they will remain eligible for this vital source of assistance. It is the politics that will decide that. Should no extension of a bail-out agreement be reached before Friday, the plug may well be pulled at the end of the month, effectively dumping Greece out of the euro.

In an impromptu appeal at the Church of Scotland, Pope Francis called for all Christians to hear the cries of the recently executed Coptic Christians. “The blood of our Christian brothers is a testimony which cries out to be heard. It makes no difference whether they be Catholics, Orthodox, Copts or Protestants. They are Christians. Their blood is one and the same.” The Pope added, “as we recall these brothers who died only because they confessed Christ, I ask that we encourage each another to go forward with this ecumenism which is giving us strength, the ecumenism of blood.”

“The martyrs belong to all Christians.” Ecumenism describes the initiative to promote unity among the world’s Christian churches. The Argentinian Pope Francis notably switched to his native Spanish to talk about the executions; leaving behind the Italian he uses at most formal events.

According to the New York Post, an ISIS member in the execution video vowed the group would eventually sack Rome, about 600 miles from Tripoli. Italy’s Foreign Minister, Roberta Pinotti, is ready to answer the threat immediately if necessary, telling the newspaper Il Messaggero that 5,000 troops are ready for action. Egypt is already responding to the execution. Reuters reports they’ve hit militant camps and training centers in pre-dawn airstrikes.

Now, after a brief lull, that incitement is back in full force, with the three top PA religious leaders repeating the claims this month alone. Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) revealed that in the last several days, the PA Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, Abbas's adviser on Religious and Islamic Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash, as well as PA Minister of Religious Affairs Sheikh Yusuf Ida'is have all echoed the claims heard last October and November which elicited a string of high-profile attacks.

Hussein last Thursday claimed that Israel hopes "to build the alleged Temple on the ruins of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque," in a reference to the Third Temple to be built on the holiest site in Judaism, which the PA has aggressively claimed to be Muslim-only in an attempt to erase roughly 3,000 years of Jewish history. UNESCO must stop Israel from "destroying the human heritage in Jerusalem," al-Habbash said last Wednesday, in another claim against Israel.