Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek finance minister, said there can be no agreement if the EMU creditor powers continue to insist that Greece sticks to the terms of its EU-IMF Troika bail-out and increase its primary budget surplus from 1.5 percent to 4.5 percent of GDP by next year.

“We have bent over backwards to reach an accord. We are perfectly prepared to refrain from any moves that would jeopardize financial stability or Greek competitiveness. But what we cannot accept is that the fiscal adjustment, agreed by the last government, be carried through just because the rules say so,” he told The Telegraph. The defiant stand by the Leftist Syriza government raises the risk of an irreversible showdown when finance ministers from the Eurogroup converge on Brussels on Friday for yet another emergency meeting.

While there is mounting irritation in EU circles over Germany’s refusal to give ground, and signs of a Franco-German rift are emerging, the Greeks are on thin ice. Failure to agree a deal could set off a chain-reaction as capital flight accelerates, leading ineluctably to a sovereign default and ejection from the euro.

It was the collapse of US house prices back in 2007 that resulted in the seizure of the credit markets and banking crisis of 2008. And it would be easy to lay the blame for the 2008 financial crisis at the doorstep of American home owners, easy but wrong. The collapse of the US housing market was not the cause of the crisis, it was merely a symptom of the more insidious ills of cheap credit, low risk and the promise of another bailout round the corner.

The Keynesian pump priming that has taken place on a colossal scale across the world is failing. The Chinese economy was growing at 12 percent in 2010, but that slowed to 7.7 percent in 2013 and 7.4 percent last year — its weakest in 24 years. Economists expect Chinese growth to slow to 7 percent this year. It is the once booming property sector that has turned into a bust, and is now dragging down the wider economy as the bubble deflates.

The second global credit crisis is now already unfolding in China some 6,800 miles away from the epicentre of the first in the US. The bonds of Chinese real estate companies are now falling like dominoes. Kaisa, a Shenzhen-based, Hong Kong-listed developer that raised $2.5 billion on international markets had to be bailed out by rival group Sunac last week after it defaulted on its debts. The bonds of other Chinese real estate groups such as Glorious Property and Fantasia have also sold off heavily as the contagion spreads.

The strain in its banking system is highlighted by the elevated levels of the Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (SHIBOR), which shows Chinese banks are worried about lending to each other. There is no schadenfreude in watching China unravel. The idea that this is an isolated incident is laughable, remember the very same was said of US subprime. The problem is that banks such as Standard Chartered and HSBC have both rapidly increased their lending operations in Asia since 2008.

Loans are very easy to make, it is getting the money back that is tricky. If loans go bad in Asia they will ultimately have to be recognised on the very same group balance sheet from which finance is extended here in the UK. So, the contagion can quickly spread from the Chinese property market to a poorly funded UK bank that has never set foot in Asia. That is because UK banks borrow billions in short term funding from each other. Loan losses in China can very quickly become a UK problem.

With the barbaric murder of Lieutenant Muath al-Kaseasbeh — the Jordanian pilot locked in a cage and burned alive by operatives of the Islamic State, for all the world to see — Jordan’s King Abdullah faces the most dangerous moment since ascending to the throne in 1999.

While Jordan has remained a source of calm in the region, the roots of radical Islamic extremism run deep there. A Jordanian, Abu Musab Zarqawi, was the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq - the precursor to ISIS - before he was killed by a US airstrike on June 7, 2006. Today, an estimated 2,000 Jordanian nationals are fighting with ISIS. What happens when they come back to Jordan? Meanwhile, 1.3 million people, mostly Muslims, have fled Syria and are currently residing in Jordan. Some 600,000 are contained inside refugee camps. The rest are freely moving about the country. How many are plotting against the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and how advanced and sophisticated are their plans?

The good news is that King Abdullah understands full well that he is in a winner-take-all showdown with ISIS, which he describes as a Third World war. As a descendent of the Prophet Muhammad, the king sees himself as a moderate Arab reformer. He believes Islam is the answer to the challenges facing his region, but he does not believe violent jihad is the way forward. He has built good relations with the West, maintains a solid peace treaty with Israel, and has worked hard to protect Christians in Jordan. But he is acutely aware that the jihadists are gunning for him. Indeed, upon hearing the news of the pilot’s murder, he immediately cut short his visit to Washington and returned to Amman to launch an earth-shaking military response to ISIS.

The urgent question right now is whether American leaders fully understand just how catastrophic it would be for Jordan to fall to ISIS, and whether they are truly committed to taking all measures necessary to crush ISIS and stand firm with Jordan, one of our most important Arab allies.

In Europe, the Swiss, Danish and Swedish authorities have all moved to impose punitive negative interest rates in a bid to prevent their currencies from rocketing in value. The Swiss kicked off this round of devaluation with a shock decision to abandon its de facto peg with the euro in January. The Riksbank has gone further and will begin its own round of bond-buying in response to the ECB's moves.

Denmark meanwhile, has been forced to lower rates four times in three weeks and purchase €32 billion in foreign exchange to prevent the krone from developing into a safe haven for investors. This co-ordinated central bank action is reviving the "ghosts of the 1930s", according to investment bank Morgan Stanley.

In the inter-war period, European economies that left the Gold Standard saw their new fiat currencies weaken, provoking a domino effect of devaluation across the Continent.

This operation, first disclosed in an August 2013 Wall Street Journal story has been criticized for bypassing due process; the government is pressuring the financial industry to cut off the companies' access to banking services, without first having shown that the targeted companies are violating the law.

As reported by the St Louis Post-Dispatch, critics believe "it's a thinly veiled ideological attack on industries the Obama administration doesn't like, such as gun sellers and coal producers." The operation itself is now under investigation by two federal agencies.

The warning, issued Wednesday, replaced a travel warning issued in early September, and placed much more emphasis on dangers to US citizens from terror attacks in well-traveled areas. The notice warned that “the July-August 2014 Gaza conflict and subsequent political and religious tension associated with access to the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem led to increased levels of violence, particularly in Jerusalem and West Bank environs, not seen in those areas in a decade.”

US citizens accounted for a high number of victims in a string of terror attacks that rocked the Jerusalem area in the fall, including a three-month-old baby run over by an East Jerusalem driver, and three US-born rabbis killed in an attack on a synagogue.

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.