Eurozone finance ministers met in Brussels on Monday hoping to reach a compromise before the bailout expires on February 28. However, Greek politicians reacted with anger to a draft statement tabled by Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who chairs meetings of eurozone finance ministers. The communique committed Greece's far-Left Syriza government to “successfully conclude” the EU-IMF programme.

Greece's government blasted the document, with one source telling Reuters that "carrying out the bailout programme was off the table at the summit. Those who bring this back are wasting their time." To replace the bailout, Greece is seeking a “bridging arrangement”, worth up to €21 billion, that would allow the government in Athens breathing space to implement radical economic reforms.

Wolfgang Schaeuble, the German finance minister, accused the Greek government of “behaving irresponsibly” by threatening to tear up agreements made with the eurozone in return for access to the loans which are all that stand between Greece and financial collapse. “It seems like we have no results so far. I’m quite sceptical. The Greek government has not moved, apparently,” he said.

Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek finance minister, has also told the eurozone that Athens will not implement unpopular austerity measures, such as privatisations or changes to labour laws, that were promised in return for EU aid. “We are asking for a few months of financial stability that will allow us to embark upon the task of reforms that the broad Greek population can own and support, so we can bring back growth and end our inability to pay our due,” he wrote in The New York Times on Monday.

"It aspires to acquire nuclear weapons. It is trying to encircle us with four murderous arms. Three, for now – one in Lebanon, one in Gaza and a new one – on the Golan. It vows openly to destroy the State of Israel in one way or another. Joining it are the forces of extremist Islam who are breaking through every crack in the Middle East and bringing their murderous acts to the entire world… The next four years will be no less difficult. To my assessment, they will be even tougher. We will require every tool, every person, because there's no mercy for the weak in the Middle East. Only the strong ones survive. The IDF is strong in spirit, and certainly in might."

Eisenkot, too, acknowledged the challenges ahead as he accepted the promotion. He vowed to make "preparedness and moral strength" top priorities during his term. "We will aspire to deter the enemy, to ward off war, to threaten and be victorious. I promise to command the Israel Defense Forces with determination and wisdom. I promise to continue in the fulfillment of the vision of the founders of our country. To continue to carry the torch of security that passes from generation to generation," said Eisenkot.

The AfD vote was hovering just above the 5 per cent threshold needed to win seats in parliament in initial projections based on a partial vote count. The AfD made significant gains from Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrats, who saw their share of the vote fall by a projected 5.9 per cent in one of their worst results in recent times.

Hamburg, one of three city states along with Berlin and Bremen, has been a fortress for the centre-left Social Demoracts since the Second World War, and the winner of the vote was never in doubt. But this was the first time support for the AfD has been tested in a west German state, after it made striking gains in the less affluent east last year.

It is also the first election since the anti-Islam and anti-immigrant Pegida movement swept though the German political scene. Unlike Eurosceptic parties in other countries, the AfD is not opposed to the EU, but wants an end to the single currency, starting with the expulsion of poorly performing economies like Greece.

Intelligence officials estimate that the group’s fighters number 20,000 to 31,500 in Syria and Iraq. There are less formal pledges of support from “probably at least a couple hundred extremists” in countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Yemen, according to an American counterterrorism official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential information about the group.

Lieutenant General Vincent R Stewart, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said in an assessment this month that the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, was “beginning to assemble a growing international footprint.” Critics fear such assessments will once again enmesh the United States in a protracted, hydra-headed conflict as President Obama appeals to Congress for new war powers to fight the Islamic State.

He asks the president, "Will you join me in hearing the case for keeping weapons from those who preach death to Israel and America?" Wiesel won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 and is a survivor of the death camps at Buchenwald and Auschwitz. In the ad, he relates the actions of present-day Iran to the biblical story of Haman in the book of Esther, who vowed to "annihilate, murder, and destroy the Jews, young and old, children and women."

"The Ayatollah Khameini has been as clear as his predecessor in declaring his goal: 'the annihilation and destruction' of Israel. He is bent on acquiring the weapons needed to make good on the deadly promise," he continued. President Barack Obama has said he will not attend the Netanyahu speech, and the White House has expressed irritation that House Speaker John Boehner issued the invitation during the run-up to Israel's national elections on March 17.

Netanyahu, who has taken heat from both domestic and overseas political adversaries, tweeted this week he is determined to follow through on his invitation to address Congress at this time. The advertisement supporting him was sponsored by New Jersey Rabbi Shumley Boteach. The London Times refused to run the ad.

Titled “A Message Signed With Blood to the Nation of the Cross,” the video depicts the 21 prisoners in the now-familiar orange jumpsuits being led down a beach by 21 ISIS fighters in their equally familiar black outfits. As they kneel in the sand, subtitles indicate that the men are, “the people of the cross, the followers of the hostile Egyptian Church.”

After declaring unity with other international branches of the extended ISIS network, the executions begin. At the end of the video, the camo-clad executioner, knife in bloodied hand, pledges that ISIS will conquer Rome. It’s the second reference to the city which was once center of the Holy Roman Empire – at one point he says that they are situated in the land “South of Rome”.

Isis started in Iraq and now controls swathes of adjoining Syria, including along the Turkish border, as part of its so-called Islamic State. Its ideology has spread much further, with pledges of allegiance from terrorist groups in Egypt, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Yemen and now Libya.

Aref Ali Nayed, Libya’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, also said Isis’s presence in Libya was increasing “exponentially”. Its military gains last summer sparked a rush by other Islamist groups in the Middle East and North Africa to ally themselves with the group by pledging allegiance and changing their names. The jihadists behind the beheadings in Libya call themselves the Tripoli Province of the Islamic State.

It is not like the simple Trojan horse malware used to by-pass security systems, but something much more complex and unique, according to documents exclusively seen by RT. Anton Shingarev, Chief of Staff at Kaspersky Lab, said the complex nature of the malware used was unprecedented and it was “the most highly sophisticated criminal attack we have ever seen.”

Kaspersky Lab said that most of the victims were located in Russia, the US, Germany, China and Ukraine. The hacking group targeted 30 banks. One customer lost in the region of $7.3 million because of ATM fraud, while another had $10 million stolen due to hackers entering the person’s online banking page.

The money would then be sent to accounts set up mainly in the US and China. “They managed to get access to the whole banking system. They managed to remotely control ATM’s and they managed to transfer money from one account to another. Due to the extreme level of complexity, banks did not realize they were coming under attack,” Shingarev told RT.

It comes after a decision by Buenos Aires to abandon talks with Vladimir Putin to secure 12 Sukhoi Su-24 'Fencer" bombers, capable of reaching Port Stanley. Last night sources told the Sunday Express that the deal with Russia, revealed by the Sunday Express in September, had stalled after a series of delays and concerns over post-sale maintenance. However, that failure will see Argentina now take delivery of 20 of the most advanced fighter jets in the world.

Mrs Kirchner has constantly caused concern for the Foreign Office with her campaign to generate international political support for the islands to be returned to Argentina. Last month the Ministry of Defence revealed that the Rapier air defence system currently based on Mount Pleasant to counter any potential air threat is to be upgraded, with sources adding that the “operational drumbeat” of routine deployments is also being increased.

China has pledged more than £162 billion in investments for Latin America over the next five years, and has indicated that it will write off millions loaned several years ago, allowing nations like Argentina to rebuild their economies.

Ahead of the euro zone finance ministers' meeting, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Sunday he expected difficult negotiations but was "full of confidence". However, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in a radio interview on Monday he was "very skeptical" about the talks.

Tsipras's left-wing Syriza party won parliamentary elections last month on a pledge to scrap austerity measures imposed under Greece's international bailouts. Germany and other euro zone countries say Athens must honor its commitments. The current deal runs out on February 28.

According to the report by Israel's Channel 2, US Undersecretary of State, Wendy Sherman, who is involved in the talks has announced she will no longer be updating Israelis about the talks. Susan Rice, US President Obama's National Security Advisor, has also reportedly announced she is cutting ties with her Israeli counterpart, Yossi Cohen, who serves as Netanyahu's National Security Advisor.

US House Speaker John Boehner says the White House might have tried to quash his plan to have Israeli prime minister speak to Congress if it had gotten wind of the invitation. That helps explain why Boehner made the offer to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu without letting the White House know in advance. Netanyahu's speech is set for March 3. Some Democrats plan to skip it because they consider it a divisive stunt and a breach of protocol that suggests the US is taking sides in coming Israeli elections.

Boehner was asked by "Fox News Sunday" why he told Israel's ambassador to the United States not to mention the invitation to the White House in advance. Boehner says he "wanted to make sure that there was no interference." “There’s a serious threat facing the world," he told Fox News. "And I believe Prime Minister Netanyahu is the perfect person to deliver the message of how serious this threat is.”

In extracts of the letter, seen by The Daily Telegraph, Church of England bishops say that there is an “enduring argument for continuing to build structures of trust and cooperation between the nations of Europe”. It raises the prospect of the Church actively campaigning for the EU in the build-up to the in-out referendum promised by David Cameron. In the letter, which is due to be published on Tuesday, the Bishops also take aim at the Trident, saying that the arguments for the nuclear deterrent “need re-examining”.

One Conservative MP said that it is “deeply disturbing” that the Church “appears to be entering the political arena”. Conor Burns, the Conservative MP for Bournemouth West, said: “It is deeply disturbing that the church appears to be entering the political arena based on a series of clear misrepresentations of facts. The call to abandon our nuclear defence in increasingly uncertain times and for more EU integration with no consultation of the British public will rightly cause concern across the country.”

Caroline Atkinson, the US deputy-national security adviser, said the eurozone authorities had imposed the main burden of adjustment on the weaker deficit states and should do more to accept their share of responsibility for the euro crisis. “They have asymmetric rules. They need to make it socially fairer,” she said.

“It is important for creditors to take into account that Greece has had a very sharp drop in incomes, real wages, and output as well as a big rise in unemployment,” she told a gathering at Chatham House in London. Mrs Atkinson said the White House is relieved that “both sides” are starting to pull back from the brink, a clear warning that Washington is just as exasperated with the high-handed approach of eurozone creditors as it is with the leftist Syriza government in Athens.