The government’s decision foresees the mission will continue until 31 January 2015, with the possibility of further extension. The mission will involve up to 400 troops from the German military, the Bundeswehr. Following Wednesday’s decision, the German government will seek authorization this month by the Federal Parliament, the Bundestag. Passage looks assured as Merkel’s conservative-left coalition government sworn in last month enjoys an overwhelming parliamentary majority.

Germany’s previous conservative-liberal coalition government had decided in December 2012 to station two Patriot batteries in Turkey, following a request by Ankara and a decision by NATO’s North Atlantic Council. Germany’s Federal Parliament authorized the deployment on December 14, while setting a 31 January 2014 deadline for the mission.

The Patriot batteries provided by Germany have been stationed in Kahramanmaras since January 2013 and they have been operating under the command and control of NATO. The mission involves up to 400 troops from the German military. The cost of the deployment, which is estimated to be around 25 million euros, is covered by Germany.

Announcing the trip January 5, Pope Francis said its “principal goal” is “to commemorate the historic meeting between Pope Paul VI and the Patriarch Athenagoras I, that occurred … 50 years ago today.”

That encounter was the beginning of ecumenical dialogue between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches, and led to a joint declaration issued in 1965 which declared the two leaders' desire “to overcome their differences in order to be again ‘one’ as the Lord Jesus asked of his Father for them”, and which lifted the mutual excommunications of their predecessors issued in 1054, which profoundly contributed to the schism between Eastern Orthodoxy and Catholicism.

Pope Francis is visiting with Patriarch Bartholomew at the Patriarch's request, which was made at the Roman Pontiff's inaugural Mass on March 19. That was the first time the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople had attended such an event since 1054. Following the Mass, Patriarch Bartholomew suggested that they visit the Holy Land together, commemorating and hopefully replicating the embrace between their predecessors; Pope Francis responded by embracing the Patriarch.

Pope Francis' visit will take place May 24-26, where he and the Patriarch will celebrate an ecumenical meeting at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site of Christ's burial in Jerusalem, which is shared among Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholics.

"We recognize we could have done a better job," said JP Morgan spokesperson Jennifer Zuccarelli. The bank has agreed to improve its controls as part of the settlement. "It took until after the arrest of Madoff, one of the worst crooks this office has ever seen, for JP Morgan to alert authorities to what the world already knew," said George Venizelos, head of the FBI's New York office, during a press conference.

The settlement includes a so-called deferred prosecution agreement that will dismiss criminal charges after two years if the bank remains compliant. No individual executives were accused of wrongdoing.

Seth Berenzweig, a corporate lawyer, says US authorities are reluctant to press criminal charges against major banks. "It's very dangerous to criminally indict a commercial bank," Mr Berenzweig told the BBC. "It could throw the institution into a tailspin - and the government can't afford a banking crisis with JP Morgan."

The list reflects the world view of Eurasia Group's president, Ian Bremmer, who coined the phrase "G-Zero world" a couple of years back to describe the current geopolitical landscape, which is being shaped by a "notable decline" in US foreign policy characterized by Barack Obama's ultra-pragmatism in foreign affairs.

Top of the list – above tensions over economic reforms in China and the rise of "al-Qaeda 2.0" in Iraq and Syria - is "America's troubled alliances"; the idea that the US is both challenged by a rising China but also withdrawing from the world, creating deep uncertainty among old allies over how far the US is prepared to underwrite the existing world order. In this "every-country-for-itself world", America – being the world's biggest economy - continues to prosper, but its traditional allies – Israel, Japan and Britain – fare much less happily.

Since the US can no longer be relied upon to fulfil its previously expected role in the world, Bremmer sees its second-tier allies - Germany, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Brazil, and Indonesia – starting to hedge their bets against an unreliable US. So in a new world order where everyone now doubts where they stand, the US remains confident it can look after itself. But as the US disengages, Britain, particularly a Britain drifting away from Europe, should be much less sanguine.

Washington dispatched Treasury Secretary Jack Lew this week to Paris, Berlin and Lisbon in part to convey concerns about the euro zone's need to revitalize banks crippled by a debt crisis.The issue has jumped up the United States' worry list, overshadowing a previous spat with Berlin about criticism of Germany's export-driven economic model.

Speaking in Paris on Tuesday, Lew urged Europeans to go beyond the deal struck last month to create shared institutions for winding down failed banks. Washington "would like to see more action taken" to create common backstops for banks and to insure they have enough capital to make enough loans to create jobs, he said.

"The more capital that there is in European banks, and the stronger the backstops are, the better it is for the European economy, the US economy and the world economy," he said. In October, the US Treasury said in a report to Congress that Germany wasn't doing enough to spur its domestic economy, and that its dependence on exports was putting downward pressure on wages and prices around the world.

German politicians were furious, saying Germany's export success is a reflection of its competitiveness and highly-skilled workforce. But any tension there is likely to be secondary to the banking union issue for a number of reasons. For one, the United States has little moral high ground with Germany on issues of macroeconomic policy. Washington has engaged in harsh austerity in recent years and has had little success boosting real wages - both of which keep domestic demand low.

Daniel Filmus took office on Monday at a ceremony in Buenos Aires and immediately stated that it was "unacceptable" that the Malvinas – the Argentinian name for the Falklands – were occupied by a "colonial power". The 58-year-old, whose mother was an English teacher of Polish descent according to local reports, has been tasked with overseeing Argentina's diplomatic campaign against Britain over the disputed territory.

Britain has occupied the Falklands since 1833 and the islands are a British overseas territory. There are around 3,000 Falkland Islanders, who voted in a referendum last year to remain British by a majority of 98.9 per cent. Argentina claims it acquired the territory upon achieving independence from Spain in 1816.

At least nine deaths have been reported across the country connected with the polar air mass that swept over North America during the past few days. Authorities have put about half of the United States under a wind chill warning or cold weather advisory.

Temperatures were expected to be 25 degrees to 35 degrees Fahrenheit (14 to 19 degrees Celsius) below normal from the Midwest to the Southeast, the National Weather Service said. PJM Interconnection, the agency that oversees the electric grid supplying the mid-Atlantic and parts of the Midwest, said electricity suppliers were struggling to keep up with surging demand as the cold forced some power plants to shut.

"This particular cold is far-reaching, and most of our neighbors are experiencing the extreme conditions we are," said Michael Kormos, executive vice president for operations at PJM Interconnection. Oil refiners were also hit, with Marathon Petroleum Corp and Exxon Mobil Corp both experiencing cold-related outages.

The extreme cold won't last much longer, according to AccuWeather.com. The frigid air and "polar vortex" that affected about 240 million people in the United States and southern Canada will depart during the second half of this week, and a far-reaching January thaw will begin, according to AccuWeather.com.

With marriage on the decline, the shift is helping redefine the traditional notion of family. "The emergence of cohabitation as an acceptable context for childbearing has changed the family-formation landscape," said Christina Gibson-Davis, a sociology professor at Duke University. "Individuals still value the idea of a two-parent family but no longer consider it necessary for the parents to be married."

Still, she cautions that children in cohabiting households may face more difficulties growing up if their unmarried parents are at higher risk of breaking up. In all, the share of unmarried couples who opted to have "shotgun cohabitations" — moving in together after a pregnancy — surpassed "shotgun marriages" for the first time over the last decade, according to a forthcoming paper from the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The trend was affirmed by three demographers who conducted separate research on the topic.

It's the latest demographic tipping point as cohabitations turn mainstream — a far cry from the days when the father of a pregnant daughter might use coercion, such as a shotgun, to make sure the boyfriend followed through on a wedding.

Hordes of the brown rats have escaped flooded drains across the south of England after storms unleashed torrential downpours on vast swathes of the country. The rodents are seeking refuge in homes where there is a ready supply of food and warm shelter to be found in lofts. Pest control firms have reportedly been in high demand in the worst hit areas, as terrified families face another problem to contend with.

The rats are resistant to normal poisons and can transmit life-threatening diseases to humans and farm animals. A study by University of Reading’s Rodenticide Resistance Action Group involving testing the tails of hundreds of rats killed in Berkshire and Oxfordshire, found that many of the rodents were resistant to common forms of poison used by local authorities and professional pest controllers, farmers and gamekeepers.

Other EU countries allow the use of potent poisons, brodifacoum and flocoumafen outside. But in the UK fears over the effect the poisons will have on other wildlife, including owls who feed on rats, has prompted widespread studies by experts.

The group formally submitted its application to a panel that oversees the Capitol grounds, including an artist’s rendering that depicts Satan as Baphomet, a goat-headed figure with horns, wings and a long beard that’s often used as a symbol of the occult. In the rendering, Satan is sitting in a pentagram-adorned throne with smiling children next to him.

“The monument has been designed to reflect the views of Satanists in Oklahoma City and beyond,” temple spokesman Lucien Greaves said in a statement. “The statue will also have a functional purpose as a chair where people of all ages may sit on the lap of Satan for inspiration and contemplation.”

The Satanic Temple maintains that the Oklahoma Legislature’s decision to authorize a privately funded Ten Commandments monument at the Capitol opened the door for its statue. The Ten Commandments monument was placed on the north steps of the building in 2012, and the Oklahoma chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has sued to have it removed. Similar requests for monuments have been made by a Hindu leader in Nevada, an animal rights group and the satirical Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

The push by The Satanic Temple has rankled elected leaders in this conservative state known as the buckle of the Bible Belt, who say such a proposal would never be approved by the commission. “I think you’ve got to remember where you are. This is Oklahoma, the middle of the Heartland,” said Representative Don Armes, Republican for Faxon. “I think we need to be tolerant of people who think different than us, but this is Oklahoma, and that’s not going to fly here.”

The special fascination of ThyssenKrupp's new Type 218SG submarine is not immediately apparent. It only becomes clear at the sight of the delicate, detailed engineering at its stern. That's where the "air independent propulsion system" is installed, connected directly with a gearless Permasyn motor. Built to glide through the sea almost noiselessly, the submarine is quieter and more durable than any other conventional model.

These are ideal capabilities for a war machine built to function in the depths of seemingly endless waters, over routes that can be navigated without interruption for longer than ever before. It is a design suitable for the largest of all oceans: the Pacific. At the end of November, Singapore, an authoritarian city-state on the edge of the crisis regions of the West Pacific, ordered the first two Type 218SG submarines to be released by German firm ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS). The custom-designed machines are to be delivered to the Singapore Navy by 2020. The deal cost the country €1.6 billion ($2.18 billion), which will go directly into the German economy.

The deal is also a contribution to the arms race for military dominance in the Pacific. To underscore its interests, China has already sent its first aircraft carrier cruising over the South China Sea and presented a stealth jet. Japan and the United States are strengthening their engagement in the West Pacific. Vietnam is arming itself with submarines, frigates and fighter jets. Singapore's neighbour Malaysia is involved in scuffles over islands with the Chinese People's Republic.

Even Russia is involved: Last summer they engaged in joint naval exercises with China -- in the Sea of Japan. The entire region is expected to become one of the world's most important focal points for security policy.

By early January, the Dead Sea fell to 427.82 meters below sea level, three centimeters lower than the 427.79 m. below sea level measured the month before, according to Dead Sea and Arava Science Center researcher Eli Raz, citing raw data from the Water Authority’s Hydrological Services.

In comparison, he stressed, Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) celebrated an increase of 11 cm. in the same time period.The additional drop in water level of the Dead Sea brings the basin to 0.93 m. below its level one year ago, the Hydrological Services data said.

Another huge problem with the EU is its acute lack of transparency. Staggering as it may seem, in the last 20 years the Union has not passed a single audit. Indeed, so opaque is the state of its finances that in 2002 Marta Andreasen, the first ever professional accountant to serve as the Commission’s Chief Accountant, refused to sign off the organization’s 2001 accounts, citing concerns that the EU’s accounting system was “open to fraud.” After taking her concerns public, Andreasen was suspended and then later sacked by the Commission.

However, by far the EU’s greatest — and certainly most dangerous — structural flaw is its gaping democratic deficit. To paraphrase Nigel Farage, the stridently anti-EU British MEP, not only is the EU undemocratic, it is fundamentally anti-democratic. While Farage may be treated as little more than an eccentric court jester by the vast bulk of the mainstream media — both in the UK and on the continent — his ideas are fast gaining ground among voters.

A House of Lords committee has cast doubt on the prospects of the bill the Conservatives are seeking to use to guarantee a European referendum in the next Parliament. David Cameron has promised to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the EU then put the new deal to the people in a referendum after the next election. The Conservatives will make that promise a central part of their campaigning until the next general election.

To answer public doubts about whether that vote will ever be held, the Conservatives are attempting to pass a new law that would commit whoever is in power in the next Parliament to hold a referendum by the end of 2017. Because the Liberal Democrats have withheld support, the law is being taken through Parliament not as Government legislation but as a private member’s bill.

MPs have expressed "extreme concern" that drug manufacturers appear to only publish around 50% of completed trial results and warned that the practice has "ramifications for the whole of medicine". Their conclusions have emerged in a public accounts committee report which examined the Department of Health's decision to spend £424 million on stockpiling the flu drug Tamiflu, before writing off £74 million because of poor record keeping.

The MPs found that experts failed to agree on how well Tamiflu works, but discussions were hampered because important information was held back. Richard Bacon, a senior member of the committee, said, "Research suggests that the probability of completed trials being published is roughly 50%. And trials which gave a favourable verdict are about twice as likely to be published as trials giving unfavourable results.This is of extreme concern to this committee.”