ROME, ITALY - Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, came under pressure on Thursday as the city of Rome was on the brink of bankruptcy after parliament threw out a bill that would have injected fresh funding. Ignazio Marino, Rome mayor, said city services like public transport would come to a halt and that he would not be a "Nero" - the Roman emperor who, legend has it, strummed his lyre as the city burnt to the ground. Marino said that Renzi, a centre-left leader and former mayor of Florence who was only confirmed by parliament this week, had promised to adopt urgent measures to help the Italian capital at a cabinet meeting on Friday. Marino said that buses may have to stop running as soon as Sunday because he only had 10 percent of the money required to pay for fuel in March.

UK - There is no scientific proof of man-made global warming and a hotter earth would be ‘beneficial for humans and the majority of other species’, according to a founding member of environmental campaign group Greenpeace. The assertion was made by Canadian ecologist Patrick Moore, a member of Greenpeace from 1971 to 1986, to US senators on Tuesday. He told The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee: ‘There is no scientific proof that human emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) are the dominant cause of the minor warming of the Earth’s atmosphere over the past 100 years. If there were such a proof it would be written down for all to see. No actual proof, as it is understood in science, exists.’

UK - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she can work with the UK to reform the European Union but it will not be "a piece of cake". Following a Downing Street meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron, she said both countries could bring in laws to restrict benefit tourism, as part of "overall European cooperation". Mr Cameron said changes to the EU were "possible, achievable and doable". He regards Mrs Merkel as a key figure in achieving his aim and has organised several events to welcome the German leader during her one-day visit to London, including tea with the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

UK - Britain's surveillance agency GCHQ, with aid from the US National Security Agency, intercepted and stored the webcam images of millions of internet users not suspected of wrongdoing, secret documents reveal. GCHQ files dating between 2008 and 2010 explicitly state that a surveillance program codenamed Optic Nerve collected still images of Yahoo webcam chats in bulk and saved them to agency databases, regardless of whether individual users were an intelligence target or not. In one six-month period in 2008 alone, the agency collected webcam imagery – including substantial quantities of sexually explicit communications – from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts globally.

RUSSIA - Vladimir Putin mobilised more than 150,000 troops and an armada of ships yesterday for a drill to test the combat readiness of forces in western Russia as tensions over Ukraine continue to grow. In addition to the soldiers – nearly twice the British Army’s manpower after planned cuts – 880 tanks, 210 aircraft and 80 warships will take part in the operation. The manoeuvres raised fears that the Russian president may be planning to send forces into Ukraine after the toppling of its Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovych. Yesterday, thousands of protesters took part in rival rallies in Crimea’s administrative capital Simferopol ahead of a planned session of the region’s parliament. Fights broke out between pro-Russians and more than 10,000 Muslim Tatars who rallied in support of the interim government, chanting: ‘Ukraine is not Russia!’

UKRAINE - Ukraine's interior minister has accused Russian naval forces of occupying Sevastopol airport in the autonomous region of Crimea. Arsen Avakov called their presence an "armed invasion". But Russia's Black Sea Fleet has denied that Russian servicemen are taking part. The other main Crimean airport, Simferopol, was also occupied by armed men on Friday. The men are thought to be pro-Russia militia. The Ukrainian parliament has called on the United Nations Security Council to discuss the situation in Crimea. Amid the escalating tensions, Ukraine's central bank has put a 15,000 hryvnia (1,000 euros; £820) limit on daily bank withdrawals in hard currency.

UKRAINE - Ukraine’s sovereignty over the southern region of Crimea appeared to be under threat Wednesday, as Russian-backed fighters moved dozens of kilometres outside their base in this Black Sea port, establishing a checkpoint on the main road connecting Sevastopol to the regional capital. The Globe and Mail saw least a dozen men wearing fatigues – supported by an armoured personnel carrier – standing under a Russian flag at a checkpoint erected roughly halfway along the 80-kilometre road from Sevastopol to Simferopol, putting it close to the administrative border that separates the Sevastopol municipality from the rest of Crimea and Ukraine.

UKRAINE - A few days ago we reported that the Ukraine decided to call Russia's "trump card" bluff - that would be everyone else's reliance on Russian gas supplies - when it drastically cut imports of Russian gas by 80% in February, seemingly to demonstrate its energy independence from Putin. Now Russia has decided to take the Ukraine to task, by announcing it has halted oil deliveries to the Ukraine Odessa refinery. Hopefully the Ukraine, whose foreign currency reserves tumbled from $17.9 billion on February 1 to $15 billion currently, has alternative means of supplying itself with energy from benevolent sources, particularly those who are willing to provide the country with oil in exchange for goodwill.

UK - Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany will address members of both Houses of Parliament, have lunch with Prime Minister David Cameron at 10 Downing Street and then meet Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for afternoon tea.

UK - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she will work with Britain to reform Europe - saying she wants it to remain a "strong voice inside the EU". In an historic address to both Houses of Parliament, she said Britain and Germany shared the goal of a "strong and competitive" European Union. "United and determined", they could act as a beacon to the rest of the world.

UK - Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has warned David Cameron and other Conservatives that she will not pave the way for "a fundamental reform" of the EU in response to British demands for change. In a speech to both Houses of Parliament, Mrs Merkel warned that while she will work to help keep Britain in the EU, there are limits to how far Germany will go in changing EU rules. Her warning of "disappointment" may come as a blow to Mr Cameron, but Mrs Merkel did hint at some backing for British attempts to change controversial EU freedom of movement rules. While she strongly argued for Britain to stay inside the EU, the chancellor made clear that she will seek a middle way between the British agenda and complete rejection of the call for change.

ISRAEL - A Knesset debate Tuesday on Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount set off intense criticism in the Arab world, including in countries with which Israel has signed peace treaties. Egypt’s foreign minister, Nabil Fahmy, warned Tuesday in a statement that an Israeli declaration of sovereignty over the contested site could lead to an “explosion’” in the region.

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - Following on the historic Knesset debate over Jewish prayer rights and Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, the Interior Committee chaired by MK Miri Regev (Likud Beytenu) discussed Jewish entry to the site on Wednesday morning. The discussion was punctuated by provocative statements by Arab MKs, foremost among them Taleb Abu Arar (Raam-Taal) who claimed the Jews have no reason to visit the 3,000 year old site of their First and Second Temple, in a fine example of historical revisionism. As the committee meeting showed, the Tuesday discussion on the Temple Mount has sparked an increase in dialogue about the holy site. It also led to hurried talks and "concern" about Jewish demands for rights on their holiest site among senior officials in Egypt, the Arab League, and Jordan, where MPs called to end the peace treaty with Israel.

JAPAN - Five tiny uninhabited islands slumber in the Pacific Ocean a short distance from Taiwan, China, and Japan. The Japanese call them the Senkaku Islands. The Chinese call them the Diaoyu Islands. Japan controls the islands, but China wants them. While international law favors Japan, it would be a mistake to think the law will stop China from grabbing them. That means that even though no one uses the islands currently for anything, if World War III takes place anytime soon, this is where it will start — implausible as that may sound.

GERMANY – Many American allies are still seething over the steady stream of revelations about the depth and breadth of the National Security Agency’s surveillance network. None is more upset than Germany. German outrage was simmering even before reports in late October that the NSA had targeted German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone. After, it boiled over. Merkel called President Obama to confront him over the spying.