USA - According to a new report, more than a third of US drug approvals are based on a single large clinical trial, while others require more in-depth study. Some scientists question whether one trial is sufficient to know that a medicine is safe for patients. The variation in clinical evidence required to receive marketing approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is highly variable and this has caused some medics cause for concern.

USA - The Pentagon has discovered a gap in the defenses of Washington DC, and it’s about to test a solution. But depending on your point of view, the solution is either vital for national security or a threat to American privacy. Starting this fall, two blimps will float at 10,000 feet over the Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland in an attempt to develop a defense for the nation’s capital against cruise missiles fired from ships offshore.

USA - California’s ongoing drought is forcing Governor Jerry Brown to start a so-called “water war” between the north and the south. The governor revealed Wednesday he’s prepared to move water from Southern California to drier areas of the state as conditions worsen.

GERMANY - Germany has been heavily criticized in recent years for not doing its share in hotspots around the world. New Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen says that it is time for Berlin to take more responsibility. She also dreams of a European army.

IRELAND - Opposition to the expansion of the German-European military policy appears to be growing in Ireland. EU operations in Africa, which are to be reinforced, as Berlin has announced, are primarily serving to protect the interests of former colonial powers, declared representatives of the opposition last week in the Irish parliament, demanding that Irish troops not be sent to participate. Military neutrality has deep roots in Ireland and is still supported by an overwhelming majority of the Irish population - according to a poll, by nearly 80 percent.

EUROPE - During his first anti EU congress on Saturday, February 1st, Dutch EP-member Daniël van der Stoep will argue that The Netherlands shall withdraw themselves from the European Union as soon as possible. Besides Van der Stoep, also chairman of Article 50, British EP members of anti EU party UKIP and co-initiator Thierry Baudet of the Dutch Citizensforum-EU will address the congress. Van der Stoep opposes a United States of Europe and wants citizens to decide about that in a binding referendum. He thinks the euro is a failure and The Netherlands should step out of the euro zone. The European Parliament - according to Van der Stoep an expensive applauding machine who's representing no-one - should be dissolved.

USA - The US Federal Reserve announced a $10 billion (£6 billion) reduction in its monthly bond purchases from $75 billion to $65 billion in the second straight month of winding down stimulus efforts. The central bank had been buying bonds in an effort to keep interest rates low and stimulate growth. In a statement, the Fed said that "growth in economic activity picked up" since it last met in December. The move comes amidst ongoing turmoil in emerging markets, which have been hurt by the prospect of an increase in global interest rates.

USA - A US bank regulator is warning about the dangers of banks and alternative asset managers working together to do risky deals and get around rules amid concerns about a possible bubble in junk-rated loans to companies. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has already told banks to avoid some of the riskiest junk loans to companies, but is alarmed that banks may still do such deals by sharing some of the risk with asset managers. Officials at the Federal Reserve and the FDIC [Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation] declined to comment.

TURKEY - The Turkish central bank raised its overnight lending rate to 12 percent from 7.75 percent and the overnight borrowing rate to 8 percent from 3.5 percent late Tuesday, in a surprisingly strong move to defend the country's embattled currency. The lira immediately strengthened to 2.2 to the dollar from 2.253 after the decision. The rate hike was much sharper than expected; eight economists polled by the Wall Street Journal had expected an increase of three percentage points at the most. "The shock and awe of this move was important, we'll have to see now if it sticks," David McAlvany, CEO of McAlvany Financial Group, told CNBC.

USA - The World Bank warns in its latest report that the withdrawal of stimulus by the US Federal Reserve could throw a "curved ball" at the international system. Half the world economy is one accident away from a deflation trap. It is a remarkable state of affairs that the G2 monetary superpowers - the US and China - should both be tightening into such a 20 percent risk, though no doubt they have concluded that asset bubbles are becoming an even bigger danger. It is not hard to imagine what that shock might be. It is already before us as Turkey, India and South Africa all slam on the brakes, forced to defend their currencies as global liquidity drains away.

ICELAND - Iceland let its banks fail in 2008 because they proved too big to save. Now, the island is finding crisis-management decisions made half a decade ago have put it on a trajectory that’s turned 2 percent unemployment into a realistic goal. While the euro area grapples with record joblessness, led by more than 25 percent in Greece and Spain, only about 4 percent of Iceland’s labor force is without work. Prime Minister Sigmundur D Gunnlaugsson says even that’s too high.

EUROPE - The European Union is secretly developing a "remote stopping" device to be fitted to all cars that would allow the police to disable vehicles at the flick of a switch from a control room. Confidential documents from a committee of senior EU police officers, who hold their meetings in secret, have set out a plan entitled "remote stopping vehicles" as part of wider law enforcement surveillance and tracking measures. "The project will work on a technological solution that can be a 'build in standard' for all cars that enter the European market," said a restricted document.

USA - The American people aren’t falling for NSA’s propaganda. They want the rogue agency reined in. But Obama refuses to rein in the NSA, Dianne Feinstein says that Congress “doesn’t have the votes” to do anything about mass surveillance, and at least some judges are supporting the NSA’s spying. But states are trying to fight back. Legislation has been introduced in 10 states proposing one or both of the following: Cutting off water, electricity or other resources to NSA facilities [and] prohibiting the state’s cooperation with the NSA. Democrats who support the NSA will be vulnerable next election, and progressives need to re-claim freedom from mass surveillance as a core issue.

PHILIPPINES - After five decades of bloody conflict, the southern Philippines could soon be open for investment, after a peace agreement was reached this weekend between the government and Muslim insurgents. The area where the conflict was the most intense — particularly the 38,000 square mile island of Mindanao — has been long-coveted by Philippine investors, foreign governments and multinational mining companies alike. In 2006, the US embassy in Manilla estimated that untapped natural resource wealth in the country could be worth as much as $1 trillion, in a cable later made public by Wikileaks.

USA - Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said Wednesday the service will “get to the bottom” of a systemic problem in its nuclear force, where 14 percent of officers reportedly have been at least temporarily removed from active duty after allegations of cheating on a proficiency exam. “We do have a systemic problem,” James said at an Air Force Association event in Arlington, Virginia. “The need for perfection has created way too much stress and way too much fear.” The Air Force is also looking at improving pay and career options and addressing problems such as burnout and micromanagement in an attempt to make the career field more appealing for new airmen, she said.