But what does Mr Tsipras really hope to achieve? Fears of a Leftist alliance with Putin's Russia first emerged after Syriza's landslide election win in late January. The nascent government moved to quickly condemn economic sanctions placed on Moscow. In a nod to their long-standing historical ties, the Moscow trip was announced as Greeks marked the anniversary of their foundational War of Independence, when Tsar Alexander I allied with the Mediterranean state to throw off four centuries of Ottoman rule.

The dalliance with the Kremlin has since intensified, as Greece's creditors show no signs of lessening the squeeze on the country. Ahead of his visit, a defiant Mr Tsipras revived calls for the EU to halt sanctions and open up diplomatic channels with the Kremlin. In a hint at Greece's simmering tensions with Brussels, the Syriza leader attacked economic warfare as a "dead-end policy".

With the clock ticking on its cash crunch, both sides will be hoping for a denouement to the saga before Mr Tsipras returns to Moscow in May. The Greek premier will be marking Russian Victory Day - a celebration of the capitulation of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union in the Second World War.

After European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called for the creation of an “EU joint army” in a March 8 interview with Germany’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper, Le Monde published an article titled “Germans in uniform.” The French media and political establishment are for the most part remaining silent on Juncker’s proposal for an EU army, which would be dominated by Germany. Le Monde wrote, “The proposal, which has largely gone unnoticed in France, has become very popular on the other side of the Rhine.” Le Monde went on to cite German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen, who welcomed Juncker’s proposal, saying, “Our future, as Europeans, will one day depend on a European army.”

Le Monde drew a parallel with the situation after World War II, when Washington forced Paris to acquiesce to the rearmament of West Germany, which was directed against the USSR. The newspaper wrote: “The French had to submit to what they wanted to avoid: the rearming of Germany and its integration into NATO. Sixty-five years later, History seems to be repeating itself. Europe again wants Germans in uniform, as it is threatened by the Islamic State (IS) and Vladimir Putin.” However, as Le Monde bluntly added, “The French… are not in a hurry to see Germans in uniform.”

The newspaper summarily dismissed Berlin’s attempts to mask the reassertion of its imperialist interests under the veneer of an all-European project. It explained Berlin’s calculations as follows: “We cannot scare our neighbors as we re-arm. It is better to give a European gloss to our re-militarization.”

Fundamental contradictions of European capitalism are reasserting themselves. Berlin and Paris are planning joint projects, such as combat drones, and have sought to work together to negotiate a cease-fire in Ukraine to prevent the US from precipitating outright war with Russia. However, the policy of rearmament across Europe is sharpening deeply rooted tensions between Germany and France, who fought wars three times in the last century-and-a-half: the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871 and the two world wars of the 20th century.

SBX “represents a capability that is unmatched,” the director of the Missile Defense Agency told a Senate subcommittee in 2007. In reality, the giant floating radar has been a $2.2-billion flop, a Los Angeles Times investigation found.

Although it can powerfully magnify distant objects, its field of vision is so narrow that it would be of little use against what experts consider the likeliest attack: a stream of missiles interspersed with decoys. SBX was supposed to be operational by 2005. Instead, it spends most of the year mothballed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Over the last decade, the agency has sunk nearly $10 billion into SBX and three other programs that had to be killed or sidelined after they proved unworkable, The Times found.

The man behind the institute, Dr Abdullah Swalha, wants to see an informed Arab public equipped with the tools to relate, deal and negotiate with Israel, by presenting the country as an imperfect democracy and model of tolerance, albeit with inequalities between Arab and Jewish citizens and an occupying power still controlling the lives of million of Palestinians in the West Bank — a far cry from the “Zionist entity” trope widely used for decades in the Arab world as a blanket description for the Jewish state.

“We don’t see the other side of Israel: Israel as a model of democracy, Israel as a model for prosperity, Israel as a state that respects human rights,” Swalha told this reporter in his cushy, renovated office featuring arresting views of downtown Amman. “The relationship between the government branch and the people, the separation of power, an independent judiciary — all the necessary democratic criteria exist in Israel,” Swalha said, adding “I speak of course only about Israel within [the 1967 lines], not about Israel in relation to the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. We have to be clear about this point.”

Modeling the center on Israeli think tanks and research institutes, Swalha seeks not only to inform the public, but also to provide strategy analysis and recommendations to the Jordanian government — both to shape foreign policy vis-à-vis Israel, and to widen Jordan’s involvement in a binding rapprochement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The affected families can be found in the rural communities of Eastern Coachella Valley and South Kern, and are known to spend 10 percent of their earnings buying bottled water and other alternatives because the local supply tastes bad, has a dirty appearance or suffers from general contamination. “In some of these areas, people are getting their water from private wells,” said Dr Lucia Kaiser, lead author of a recent policy brief from UC Davis’ Center for Poverty Research. “Those aren’t as regulated, or as tested to be proven safe.”

Families resort to drinking from bottles or a filtration system, but both are costly. The extra cost and fear about water contamination is creating another health issue as people begin purchasing sugar-sweetened beverages instead, leading to growing levels of diabetes. In the last decade, there has been a 35 percent increase.

However, it is actually a facade to win political access and influence for individuals holding extreme, bigoted and anti-democratic views. Labour’s shadow equalities minister and vice-chair of its national policy forum, Kate Green, spoke at a Mend event last Friday addressed by a man, Abu Eesa Niamatullah, who has called British people “animals,” demanded that women should not work, attacked democracy and said that “the Creator is the one who should decide what the laws should be.”

In new recordings heard by this newspaper, Sufyan Ismail, Mend’s chief executive, describes the group’s strategy to act as “kingmaker” in next month’s election and claims it can control as many as 30 seats.

A survey of 10,000 people by the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2012 suggested that 1% of the population was transgender. But the truth is no-one really knows because many people never seek help. The UK's only centre specialising in gender issues in under 18s is the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust which has clinics in London and Leeds. It says that gender dysphoria in young people is a "complex and rare condition where there is incongruence between the young person's perceived gender and their biological sex".

Over the past six years there's been a four-fold increase in children aged 10 or under being referred to the unit in 2014-15, compared with 2009-10. Of those children, 47 were aged five or younger and two of the children were three years old. One charity which supports parents with kids who are uncomfortable with their gender is Mermaids. Its head says she's received around 60 calls in the past year from parents of under 10s who think their child might be transgender.

There might be some who would attribute the situation to the parents - that it must be the way they brought their child up, spoiling them rotten, indulging them, or maybe they inadvertently "conditioned" the child in some way because they wanted a girl instead of a boy?

As the economy turns down from 2015.75, the geopolitical tensions will rise for this is how governments on both sides will distract the people. It has also been suggested that if Obama can start a war before the 2016 election, he can suspend the elections in 2016 and stay in office under the Constitution. He has allowed the same people that were running the show under Bush to stay in place.

They let him tinker with healthcare provided they ran all the war games and data collection unmolested. These dark sinister people behind the curtain would certainly NOT want anyone to come in and clean house. They have the power now and there is a serious risk we may see all our freedoms vanish - whatever is really left. At best, they will want another stooge who leaves them run the world and they will let them play with the social issues.

This is the very dark side of government. Our computer has been warning about a rise in 3rd Party activity for 2016. However, keep in mind this could also be anything but business as usual. All projections show that typically the Democrats should lose the election. The Republicans SHOULD win, but our 3rd Party models warn of a split as was the case with the Republican split into the Progressive Party with Teddy Roosevelt. This introduces a wildcard that is very interesting to say the least.

The US recently provided crucial air support in the Iran-led offensive to drive ISIS (aka Islamic State, Daesh) from Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit and bragged about it. US officials told The Wall Street Journal that "they deliberately used the Tikrit operation to drive a wedge between Iran and Iraq." The template, however, is reportedly seen as the best way to retake Iraq's second largest city of Mosul, which ISIS captured last summer as it rampaged into Iraq from its massive safe haven in neighboring Syria.

“You can see where this is going,” a senior Pentagon official told the Times, apparently with reference to Mosul. “Are the Iraqi forces ready yet? I would say no.” As Iraqi forces connect the US with Iran, the Obama administration is placed squarely on the Shia side of the emerging and increasingly brutal sectarian war.

For better or worse, it seems that the US is either consciously or inadvertently taking a part in Iran's project in Iraq. Adding to the intrigue, all of this is occurring while the Obama administration denies aspirations of a grand detente with Tehran amid high stakes nuclear talks.

Giving evidence in a case which has divided opinion in Ulster, where gay marriage is illegal, Mr McArthur said: “The reason for the decision was that, as Christians, we could not put that message on a cake. Gay marriage is clearly in contradiction of the Bible. Our Christian faith is of utmost importance to us. It is how we run our lives, it is how we live our lives, it is how we bring up our families. Before God, this is something we couldn’t make.”

The court case comes after Northern Ireland’s Equality Commission took action against Belfast-based Ashers on behalf of gay rights activist Gareth Lee. The bakery has refused to admit breaching equality rules or pay “modest” damages and denies its actions broke the law. Mr Lee, a member of campaign group Queer Space, earlier claimed he was left feeling like a “lesser person” when his order was rejected a few days after he placed it. The cake, ordered for a gay rights event, was later made elsewhere.

As our world becomes increasingly unstable, and as our society rapidly decays from within, many believe that it is only a matter of time before the executive branch will have sufficient excuse to use the extensive martial law powers that it has been accumulating since 9/11. When that day arrives, what will our nation look like? What would actually happen if martial law was declared in America? Well, the first thing that you need to know is that the US Constitution would be “suspended”.

In other words, you would suddenly have no rights at all. There would be no freedom of speech, no freedom of the press, no freedom of assembly and you could be arrested at any time for any reason whatsoever. For the duration of the “emergency”, the military would be in control. There would be troops in the streets, a curfew would almost certainly be imposed, and armed checkpoints would be set up.

If the “emergency” lasted long enough, we would probably see authorities go house to house confiscating firearms, ammunition and food supplies. And perhaps most troubling of all, “dissidents” and “subversives” would likely be rounded up and imprisoned. Perhaps you don’t think that this could ever happen in the United States in 2015. Very alarming stuff. And if we did see martial law declared nationwide, it is likely that all elections would be suspended indefinitely. That could also potentially include the 2016 presidential election.

Is it possible that Barack Obama could use his emergency powers to stay in the White House beyond his second term? There are some out there that believe that this could actually happen under the right circumstances.

But now a punishing drought — and the unprecedented measures the state announced last week to compel people to reduce water consumption — is forcing a reconsideration of whether the aspiration of untrammeled growth that has for so long been this state’s driving engine has run against the limits of nature.

The 25 percent cut in water consumption ordered by Governor Jerry Brown raises fundamental questions about what life in California will be like in the years ahead, and even whether this state faces the prospect of people leaving for wetter climates — assuming, as Mr Brown and other state leaders do, that this marks a permanent change in the climate, rather than a particularly severe cyclical drought.

These days, the economy is thriving, the population is growing, the state budget is in surplus, and development is exploding from Silicon Valley to San Diego; the evidence of it can be seen in the construction cranes dotting the skylines of Los Angeles and San Francisco. But even California’s biggest advocates are wondering if the severity of this drought, now in its fourth year, is going to force a change in the way the state does business.

US President Barack Obama has sought to accommodate Tehran and its sensitivities. He admitted that CIA participation in the 1953 putsch against liberal Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh had been a historical mistake. He also congratulated Iran on its new year holiday, Nowrus, calling the country a "great civilization," and he has written several personal letters to Supreme Leader Khamenei.

Despite all their differences, it appears that Secretary of State John Kerry is more comfortable negotiating with his smooth Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif, who studied international law in Denver, than with his coarser Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman. And US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, the former head of the physics faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, seems to get along very well with Ali Akbar Salehi, the Number 2 man in the Iran delegation. It's no wonder, either, given that Salehi himself graduated from MIT.

If the nuclear negotiations do ultimately fail, Tehran will decry it as a humiliation. It will follow up by eliminating any restrictions and placing all of its energy into its effort to build a nuclear bomb. It will use national pride as the argument to oblige its people to persevere through difficult times.

In marking that anniversary, Pope Francis made plain his view of the vernacular Mass, one of the most visible changes ushered in by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). The practice still pains Catholic traditionalists who mourn the loss of churchwide unity that came with a common language.

Allowing Catholics to pray in their local languages “was truly a courageous act by the church to draw closer to the people of God,” Pope Francis told a crowd gathered outside. “This is important for us, to follow the Mass this way. And there is no going back…Whoever goes back is mistaken.”