SYRIA - A landmark agreement to disarm Syria of its chemical arsenal has fallen months behind schedule with only 11 per cent of the deadliest poisons shipped out so far. Under this deal, all 700 tons of “priority 1” chemicals - the most lethal components of President Bashar al-Assad’s stockpile - should have left Syria by December 31. In fact, only three shipments have departed carrying 77 tons, or 11 per cent, of this holding. A British official said that all plans were in place to destroy Syria’s chemical arsenal and Mr Assad was deliberately dragging his feet. ”Everything is ready for the destruction of Syria’s chemicals, but Syria is not delivering them up at the port of Latakia as it should,” he said.

JAPAN - Snow-choked roads cut off thousands on Tuesday as parts of Japan struggled to dig out from its second storm in a week, with the death toll rising to at least 23. Train services were suspended in some areas after the Valentine's Day storm dumped more than a meter of snow in parts of central Japan and blanketed the capital with record snow for the second weekend in a row, snarling airline traffic and slowing production at some Japanese automakers. The freak storm dumped more than 1.1 meters of snow in Yamanashi prefecture in central Japan, the most in more than a century of record-keeping and lesser amounts across a wide swathe of the eastern and north-eastern parts of the nation. Tokyo was hit by 27 cm (10.6 inches). By Tuesday, at least 23 people had died, including some killed in traffic accidents or by being caught under snow that fell from roofs.

ISRAEL - Speaking Sunday night, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Danon sarcastically said that the Jewish people “are grateful” to Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas for “recognizing the Jewish right to pray at the Kotel [Wailing Wall].” Abbas made the comments earlier Sunday, speaking to Israeli students in Ramallah. “We do not need the permission of anyone to pray at the Kotel, certainly not from the Palestinian leadership,” Danon said. “Jews have prayed, Jews pray, and Jews will pray at the Kotel forever.” Besides presenting his views on the Kotel, Abbas also discussed numerous other issues. Abbas said he would never recognize Israel as a Jewish state. “You want to go the UN to change the name of the state, then do so. I only know and recognize Israel, I do not know a 'democratic, Jewish state.'”

UK - British schoolchildren are lagging so far behind their peers in the Far East that even pupils from wealthy backgrounds are now performing worse in exams than the poorest students in China, an international study shows. The children of factory workers and cleaners in parts of the Far East are more than a year ahead of the offspring of British doctors and lawyers, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The report was published as a senior European Commission politician attacked the standards of British schools and warned that UK politicians must improve the education system before focusing on changing the country’s relationship with the EU.

NORTH KOREA - China rejected what it said was "unreasonable criticism" of Beijing in a new UN report on human rights abuses in North Korea, but it would not be drawn on whether it would veto any proceedings in the Security Council to bring Pyongyang to book. North Korean security chiefs and possibly even Kim Jong Un, the leader of the country, should face international justice for ordering systematic torture, starvation and killings comparable to Nazi-era atrocities, UN investigators said. The unprecedented public rebuke and warning to a head of state by a UN inquiry is likely to further antagonise Kim and complicate efforts to persuade him to rein in his isolated country's nuclear weapons programme and belligerent confrontations with South Korea and the West.

USA - A recent ruling on same-sex marriage ignores the fundamentals of human sexuality. Denial of reality on the marriage issue is becoming almost impermeable. Self-reinforcing decisions from one federal court to another are weaving together a skein of an alternate reality in which we will all soon be required to participate. It just hit Virginia, where I reside. On February 13, US District Judge Arenda L Wright Allen chose to disenfranchise the citizens of the Commonwealth by voiding that part of our constitution and those laws that define marriage as between one man and one woman as unconstitutional.

UK - Britain is likely to face the strange and disturbing threat of more sinkholes opening up in the weeks and months ahead. The warning comes from the British Geological Survey (BGS), which has been studying a recent spate of collapses across the country. In a typical year, geologists would expect to see one or two sinkholes appearing, but this month's tally has reached six so far. This is shaping up to be yet another painful legacy of Britain's winter of storms.

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - An upcoming Knesset debate on “the loss of Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount” has raised hackles in the Jordanian parliament, where lawmakers consider custodianship of the holy site part of their duty.

USA - America is unravelling at a stunning speed and to a staggering degree. This decline is breathtaking, and the prognosis is dim. For starters, Obama now rules by decree. Reportedly for the 27th time, he has changed the rules of Obamacare singlehandedly, with neither congressional approval nor even ceremonial resolutions to limit his actions. Obama needs no such frivolities.

UK - “The age of purely representative democracy,” Peter Mandelson once told us, “is slowly coming to an end.” And he was right. Throughout the Western world, public policy choices which were once in the hands of representatives we elected have been farmed out to technocrats.

USA - In a new study published in the peer reviewed Public Library of Science (PLOS), researchers emphasize that there is sufficient evidence that meal-derived DNA fragments carry complete genes that can enter into the human circulation system through an unknown mechanism.

ISRAEL - Israel faces a severe crisis if urgent measures are not taken to address the country's growing water scarcity, according to experts. January passed with barely a drop of rain, and February hasn't been much better, despite last weekend's rainstorm, said Avshalom Vilan, chairman of the Israeli Agricultural Federation, a group representing farmers and agricultural families. Unless there is a “climatic miracle,” he said, Israel would soon be in a very serious water shortage situation. The situation is so bad, he said, that stored water that is usually released only in April to farmers in northern Israel is already being used, due to a lack of natural rainfall.

UK - Actually, according to the first detailed estimate of international purchase activity in London by Knight Frank, the percentage of all central London homes that sold for more than 1 million pounds to foreigners in the 12 months through June 2013, was 49% to be exact. And as we showed yesterday when we put China's loan creation in the context of US and Japanese QE, keeping in mind the use of proceeds of all this newly created inside money has to ultimately go somewhere - that somewhere in this case being London and other global luxury real estate, said percentage is only going to get higher. Especially when one adds Russia, the middle east and other various regions whose oligarchs are desperate to park their money in "safe" havens.

GERMANY - The German government is fiercely promoting an aggressive imperialist foreign policy. At the beginning of the year, it declared an end to the previous policy of military restraint. Shortly thereafter, it announced plans to develop a new strategy for Africa. At the same time, Berlin is toughening its foreign policy offensive in the Ukraine. In his first official visit to Moscow last week, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (Social Democratic Party, SPD) warned the Russian government against escalating the Ukrainian power struggle. “Nobody should seek to ignite the fuse to that powder keg”, said Steinmeier. In fact, Berlin itself is fanning the flames of conflict in Ukraine.

UK - Britain’s flood misery is set to drag on for MONTHS as forecasters warn of more torrential rain on the way. Although fierce storms which triggered months of misery have come to an end relentless downpours will continue until MAY. Experts warned it could be SUMMER before thousands who have endured weeks of flood misery get any respite. Underground water stores are dangerously full while rivers are at bursting point, threatening to swamp homes and communities living nearby. Aquifers will continue to feed into rivers until mid spring at least with any more rain running off saturated land in torrents.