UK - Adults from ethnic minority backgrounds are more likely to be educated to a high standard than their white British peers, according to research. Figures show they are significantly more likely to hold a degree and less likely to have no qualifications at all than their white counterparts. People from the best-qualified group – Chinese – were around 75 per cent more likely to be university educated than those identified as white British. The study by Manchester University also found that many ethnic minorities had seen bigger overall improvements in education standards over the last 20 years.

UK - Virginia Howes has delivered 500 babies as an independent midwife but her occupation is under threat. Virginia can’t imagine doing any other job but after a government decision last week she may have to. It rejected a proposal to fund indemnity insurance, which protects the midwife if anything goes wrong, for independent midwives who operate outside the NHS. The decision means that when a new EU directive is brought in later this year midwives such as Virginia could be working illegally. Up to 200 independent midwives across Britain could lose their livelihood and the 3,000 women they guide through childbirth each year will have to find alternative care.

EUROPE - EU bureaucrats want new powers that would allow their inspectors to remove any plants on the Brussels hit list. Garden favourites such as the Virginia creeper and Hottentot fig are likely to be top of the list along with several types of rhododendron. The aim is to eliminate invasive non-native species that threaten to cause problems in the countryside. However, the Royal Horticultural Society last night expressed its concern at the secrecy behind the decision-making and warned that whole species, including garden hybrids, could end up being banned. Under the new rules, authorities will have the power to come into people’s homes and destroy plants, including popular shrubs such as cotoneasters, which could well be on the banned list.

UK - Easy changes in lifestyle could slash UK cancer cases by tens of thousands. The steps to take are quitting smoking, losing weight, exercising regularly, drinking less alcohol and eating more fruit and vegetables. The first study to look at the effect of following all five rules had dramatic results. It found nearly half of all lung cancers would be prevented completely and the risk of tumours of any kind would be slashed by almost 20 per cent. A number of breakthrough studies have highlighted how each change in lifestyle individually can help ward off the disease. But the 15-year long research involving more than 65,000 people found that following all five could have a major effect on cancer death rates. Last night, experts said the results confirmed that many cancers can be prevented by small adjustments to diet and lifestyle.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, USA - A magnitude 6.9 earthquake off the coast of Northern California on Sunday night was the largest on the West Coast since the 7.2 Baja California quake in 2010. Sunday's temblor was followed by a series of at least 13 aftershocks as large as a magnitude 4.6, according to the US Geological Survey. The big quake occurred at 10:18 pm in the Pacific Ocean 50 miles west of Eureka in Humboldt County. The USGS put the depth of the quake at about four miles. Several of the aftershocks were much closer to land, including one about 16 miles off the coast that registered as a magnitude 3.4. By California standards, Sunday's quake was large. Two larger recent quakes occurred in remote areas: the 1999 Hector Mines temblor, magnitude 7.1, and the 1992 Landers quake, which was magnitude 7.3.

EGYPT - The Arab League on Sunday backed Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, Al-Arabiya reports. The head of the Arab League, Nabil Elaraby, reportedly urged Arab countries to take a “firm stand” against Israel’s demand for the PA to recognize it as a Jewish state.

MIDDLE EAST - Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party is not ruling out a violent struggle against Israel, a senior member of the party recently said. “None of us, especially in Fatah, has ruled out the military options,” declared Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki in an interview which aired on February 26 on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television.

UK - The First World War would not be fought today, according to Jeremy Paxman, because the younger generation are more concerned with their iPhones than any sense of ‘duty’. The BBC Newsnight host and historian said modern society is too ‘self-obsessed’ and ‘hedonistic’.

CHINA - Big Bubble Brutally Bursts … Bringing Bankruptcies, Bond Busts. The head of China’s sovereign wealth fund noted in 2009: “both China and America are addressing bubbles by creating more bubbles”. He’s right …global credit excess is worse than before the 2008 crash. The US and Japan have been easing like crazy, but – as Zero Hedge notes – China has been much worse: in the past five years the total assets on US bank books have risen by a paltry $2.1 trillion while over the same period, Chinese bank assets have exploded by an unprecedented $15.4 trillion hitting a gargantuan CNY147 trillion or an epic $24 trillion – some two and a half times the GDP of China! What has been going on in the global financial system is completely and totally unsustainable, and it is inevitable that it is all going to come horribly crashing down at some point during the next few years. It is just a matter of time.

SWITZERLAND - The amount of debt globally has soared more than 40 percent to $100 trillion since the first signs of the financial crisis as governments borrowed to pull their economies out of recession and companies took advantage of record low interest rates, according to the Bank for International Settlements. The $30 trillion increase from $70 trillion between mid-2007 and mid-2013 compares with a $3.86 trillion decline in the value of equities to $53.8 trillion in the same period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The jump in debt as measured by the Basel, Switzerland-based BIS in its quarterly review is almost twice the US’s gross domestic product.

UK - Neurodevelopmental disabilities, including autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, and other cognitive impairments, affect millions of children worldwide, and some diagnoses seem to be increasing in frequency. Industrial chemicals that injure the developing brain are among the known causes for this rise in prevalence.

In 2006, we did a systematic review and identified five industrial chemicals as developmental neurotoxicants: lead, methylmercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, arsenic, and toluene. Since 2006, epidemiological studies have documented six additional developmental neurotoxicants — manganese, fluoride, chlorpyrifos, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, tetrachloroethylene, and the polybrominated diphenyl ethers. We postulate that even more neurotoxicants remain undiscovered.

EUROPE - Tensions in Ukraine could pose a "very serious" threat to the rest of Europe, Mario Draghi has warned. The president of the European Central Bank (ECB) said the impact of the Ukranian crisis on the energy market, while minimal in the short term, could escalate. "If we look at the energy market in the next six months, the impact of the crisis is going to be very mild. If we look in a year-and-a-half, it could be very serious," he said. Russia supplies a third of Europe's gas, with 55 percent flowing through Ukraine.

RUSSIA - Vladimir Putin has mocked diplomatic efforts to end the Ukraine crisis as Russia threatened to disrupt European gas supplies by cutting off sales to Kiev over its unpaid debts. The Russian president said through his official spokesman that, despite deep disagreements with the West, he did not want a confrontation over Ukraine to spiral into a “new cold war”. Nevertheless Dmitry Peskov ridiculed Western demands for direct talks between the Kremlin and the new Kiev government, claiming that the loss of credibility involved “puts a smile on our face”.

USA - Geopolitical crises in Eastern Europe have been met with calls in the United States to use energy as a foreign policy tool. With US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz asking the industry to make a stronger case, however, it's domestic policies that may inhibit energy hegemony. "The industry could do a lot better job talking about the drivers for, and what the implications would be, of exports," Moniz told an audience at the IHS CERAWeek energy conference in Houston. EIA said the United States is a net exporter of most petroleum products, but crude oil exports are restricted by legislation enacted in response to the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s.

UK - The legislation of assisted suicide has moved a significant step closer after the Government made clear that it would not stand in the way of a change in the law. Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs and peers – including Coalition ministers – will be given a free vote on a Bill that would enable doctors to help terminally ill patients to die, The Telegraph can disclose. The proposed legislation will come before Parliament in the next few months. Richard Hawkes, chief executive of the disability charity Scope, said: “Many disabled people will be left feeling very concerned by suggestions that a change in the law on assisted suicide could be one step closer. The ban on assisted suicide sends a really powerful message countering the view that if you’re disabled it’s not worth being alive, and that you’re a burden. It provides crucial protection to any person who feels under pressure to end their life."