"Deliveries of natural resources from countries in the Arctic" - ie Russia and Norway - are "of great importance" to Germany, the BGR declared. It is very inconvenient that the prediction of the volume of Arctic resources is based only on unreliable estimates. This research institute is, therefore, consolidating its exploration of the mineral resources of the Arctic Ocean, into a new research program.

The melting of the polar cap could soon allow these resources to be profitably exploited. Within the framework of the natural resources policy offensive launched by the German government around eight years ago, the BGR has been intensifying its activities for German industry. The BGR, which has long since been closely linked to the German business community, founded, in 2010, the Agency for German Resources (DERA) which now serves German industry directly.

The BGR, a high level federal authority, within the portfolio of the Ministry of Economics and Technology, explicitly views itself in an undaunted continuity with institutions of the German Empire and the Nazi period. According to its website, the Royal Prussian Geological Institute founded in Berlin in 1873 could serve as the first of its "predecessor organizations," which - renamed in 1919 - continued its work during the Weimar Republic under the new name, the Prussian Geological Institute.

In 1939 it became the Reich's Office for Geological Survey, which then in 1941 became the Reich's Office for Geological Research. Already in 1945, according to the BGR, the first "attempts at reorganizing" the state geological service were undertaken in the former Hannover branch office of the Reich's Office, which, in 1950, resulted in the formal establishment of the Office for Geological Research, from what was left from the Reich's Office for Geological Research. The transformation into what is today the BGR followed in 1958. And like the BGR, its predecessors had supported German industry with geological research in its expansion - throughout all stages.

Up to 1,300 victims are alleged to have been killed in what opposition sources are calling a “gas attack” on the towns of Zamalka and Ein Tarma as UN inspectors visit nearby Damascus for a pre-planned investigation into allegations of chemical weapons used by both rebels and the Syrian Army. Video clips show dozens of dead bodies with no apparent wounds. The opposition National Coalition has seized on the footage to insist there is no “political solution” to the crisis in Syria, a not so subtle call for NATO military intervention. UK Foreign Secretary William Hague called the alleged attack a “shocking escalation.”

However, several impartial experts have cast doubt on the narrative behind the footage, noting its all too convenient emergence just as UN inspectors enter the country. “Firstly, the timing is odd, bordering on suspicious,” writes BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner. “Why would the Assad government, which has recently been retaking ground from the rebels, carry out a chemical attack while UN weapons inspectors are in the country?”

His suspicions are shared by Swedish diplomat and former UN weapons inspector Rolf Ekeus, who told Reuters, “It would be very peculiar if it was the government to do this at the exact moment the international inspectors come into the country… at the least, it wouldn’t be very clever.” Swedish chemical weapons expert Ake Sellstrom, who is leading the current UN inspection in Syria, told Swedish broadcaster SVT that the high number of those killed and wounded sounded “suspicious.”

Charles Lister, an analyst at IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center, told the Jerusalem Post that the timing of such an attack is confusing. “Logically, it would make little sense for the Syrian government to employ chemical agents at such a time, particularly given the relatively close proximity of the targeted towns (to the UN team),” he said. As we reported earlier today, evidence strongly suggests that previous chemical weapons attacks in Syria were carried out by FSA rebels and then blamed on Assad, in an attempt to fulfil Barack Obama’s “red line” for US military intervention.

IDF Radio reported that bomb shelters in the northern city of Akko (Acre) have been opened for public use, and the IDF is urging residents of the north to remain close to shelters. This would not be the first time Sunni Islamist groups affiliated with the "global jihad" or Al Qaeda ideology have fired rockets from Lebanon into Israel.

Gülen himself has been living in self-imposed exile in the US for years, having left Turkey after public prosecutors accused the elderly imam of working to foment an Islamist revolution. His followers have established schools in 140 countries, as well as a bank, media outlets and hospitals.

Gülen's followers present themselves outwardly as modern. Their numbers are growing in Turkey, where poorer families praise Gülen's commitment to education, and business people appreciate his business-friendly approach. But individuals who have left the fold have told SPIEGEL of brainwashing and sect-like structures within the movement.

In US State Department diplomatic cables made public by WikiLeaks, American diplomats described Gülen's followers in 2004 as "Turkey's most powerful Islamist grouping, feared by the core institutions of the Turkish State" saying the network "controls major business, trade, and publishing activities, has deeply penetrated the political scene - including AKP at high levels."

The Twentieth century saw some of the most destructive wars in history, the development of the Atomic Bomb, the beginning of air and space travel, the colonization and decolonization of the Third World, the rise and fall of Communism, dramatic improvements in the standard of living, the population explosion, the rise of the computer, incredible advances in science and medicine, and hundreds of historically unprecedented changes.

The Twentieth century also produced more inflation than any other century in history. Inflation is nothing new. Roman rulers produced inflation in Third Century Rome by debasing their coins, China suffered inflation in the fourteenth century when the Emperors replaced coins with paper money, Europe and the rest of the world suffered inflation when gold and silver started flowing into the Old World from the New World in the sixteenth century, and the French and American Revolutions destroyed currencies in each of those countries.

Nevertheless, as we shall see, the Twentieth century produced the worst inflation in human history. Every single country in the world suffered worse inflation in the Twentieth century than in any century in history.

He says water is leaking out all over the site and there are no accurate figures for radiation levels. The ongoing problems at the Fukushima plant increased in recent days when the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) admitted that around 300 tonnes of highly radioactive water had leaked from a storage tank on the site.

But some nuclear experts are concerned that the problem is a good deal worse than either Tepco or the Japanese government are willing to admit. They are worried about the enormous quantities of water, used to cool the reactor cores, which are now being stored on site. Some 1,000 tanks have been built to hold the water. But these are believed to be at around 85% of their capacity and every day an extra 400 tonnes of water are being added.

The lack of clarity about the water situation and the continued attempts by Tepco to deny that water was leaking into the sea has irritated many researchers. Dr Ken Buesseler is a senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who has examined the waters around Fukushima. "It is not over yet by a long shot, Chernobyl was in many ways a one week fire-explosive event, nothing with the potential of this right on the ocean. We've been saying since 2011 that the reactor site is still leaking whether that's the buildings and the ground water or these new tank releases. There's no way to really contain all of this radioactive water on site."

In a letter to the UN secretary general, Mitsuhei Murata says the official radiation figures published by Tepco cannot be trusted. He says he is extremely worried about the lack of a sense of crisis in Japan and abroad. This view is shared by Mycle Schneider, who is calling for an international taskforce for Fukushima. "The Japanese have a problem asking for help. It is a big mistake; they badly need it."

“It’s a concept called the dhimmi. The dhimmi is an agreement, it actually means ‘protection,’ and those who are dhimmis are the protected. But they are protected in sort of the sense of mafia protection money, meaning that they are a secondary class of citizen, and this stretches back to the very beginning of the Islamic conquest from the life of the prophet Muhammad all the way up through the Ottoman Empire,” Sexton said. “If you were a non-Muslim you fell under this separate legal category, where you were essentially treated like livestock.”

“They would keep you alive, but you had no real rights. If they wanted to kill you, they could. If they wanted to rape your women, put you in slavery, take your property, they could.” Sexton proceeded to point out that the Coptic community in Egypt is one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, and many of the areas we now think of as firmly “Islamic,” like Istanbul (Constantinople) were actually Christian long before the Islamic conquest.

So what happened?

“They were put under the status of dhimmitude, which essentially over time, either forced them to accept Islam or live in this legal area where they could be killed [or enslaved],” Sexton said. And unlike under Roman law, religious minorities were also disarmed to ensure they could not defend themselves, Sexton said. They also had to pay a “jizya,” which was described as an “I’m not a Muslim” tax. There was also a concept called “fay” saying all property actually belongs to the umma, the Islamic community, and anyone outside that community can therefore have their property appropriated to wage war, Sexton added.

“These Christian communities, the Coptics being one of the most well-known, have been there [since] pre-Islamic times and they are on the verge of extermination,” Sexton warned.

He's a New World man doing the oldest job in the Old World; an Argentine with Italian blood who doesn't like Latin. He writes very little yet talks incessantly. He is, one Left-wing journalist reassures the obsessive critics of the Church, still a Catholic. That's a relief, because traditionalists tell me that we've elected a Buddhist.

Then a chance click on a blog by Alejandro Bermúdez, head of the Catholic News Agency, leant me a fascinating insight into his intellectual character. During his first homily, Pope Francis quoted the 19th century French convert Léon Bloy. And it's a striking quote: When one does not confess Jesus Christ, I am reminded of the expression of Léon Bloy: ‘He who does not pray to the Lord prays to the devil.’ When one does not confess Jesus Christ, one confesses the worldliness of the devil.

Oh my! To anyone who doubts Pope Francis' orthodoxy, there it is in black and white. God is a reality and to reject him is to embrace the only real alternative – the devil. Note that it's "the devil" with a small "d", because he's much smaller than God and cannot possibly win the Final Battle between the two. Satan is a pipsqueak and a born loser, and you'd have to be pretty dumb to pick him for an ally.

Bloy said, "Any Christian who is not a hero is a pig." His angry writings seek to shame us into seeking sainthood. In a quieter, yet no less energetic way, Francis is doing the same.

"God told me to do it," the 86-year-old former pontiff told a friend, six months after his decision to step down shocked the world's 1.2 billion Catholics. God had implanted in his heart the "absolute desire" to resign and to devote himself to a life of prayer and reflection, Benedict told the anonymous confidante, according to Zenit, a Rome-based Catholic news agency.

"It was not because of any type of apparition or phenomenon of that sort," he said, but instead the result of a "mystical experience" received during "a direct rapport with the Lord". He said the more he sees the "charisma" of Pope Francis, his successor, the more he is convinced that it was "the will of God" that he became the first pontiff in 600 years to resign.

Francis, the former archbishop of Buenos Aires, has won huge popularity with his down-to-earth and direct style, renouncing many of the trappings of office, visiting a favela slum during his week-long trip to Brazil last month and calling for a "poor Church".

The Syrian army says the accusations have been fabricated to cover up rebel losses. The main opposition alliance said that more than 1,000 people were killed by the attacks. Frank Gardner, BBC security correspondent, comments:

"Two things stand out immediately in this reported Syrian attack.

Firstly, the timing is odd, bordering on suspicious. Why would the Assad government, which has recently been retaking ground from the rebels, carry out a chemical attack while UN weapons inspectors are in the country?

But secondly, the scale of the apparent casualties is far worse than any of the previous alleged chemical attacks. Experts say it would be almost impossible to fake so many dead and injured, including children and babies. They bear no visible wounds from gunshots; instead, many display the classic symptoms of a nerve agent attack, with startled, frozen expressions that experts say are reminiscent of Saddam Hussein's 1988 attack on the Kurds at Halabja.

Last year a senior Syrian defector, Nawaf Fares, told me in Qatar that the Assad government would not hesitate to use chemical weapons if it wanted to. However, today it denies any guilt and instead says this is a media campaign by its enemies."

But some independent specialists said the video evidence was not entirely convincing.

"At the moment, I am not totally convinced because the people that are helping them are without any protective clothing and without any respirators," said Paula Vanninen, director of Verifin, the Finnish Institute for Verification of the Chemical Weapons Convention. "In a real case, they would also be contaminated and would also be having symptoms," AFP quoted her as saying.

Japan's nuclear regulator also said it feared the disaster exceeded the ability of the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, to cope "in some respects". A spokesman for the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) said earlier on Wednesday the agency plans to upgrade the severity of the crisis from a level 1 "anomaly" to a level three "serious incident" on an international scale for radiological releases.

Such a move would be the most serious action taken since the plant was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011. "Any way you look at it, this is deplorable," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a regular news conference on Wednesday. "The government will make every effort to halt the leak of contaminated water as soon as possible."

China said it was "shocked" to hear that Fukushima was still leaking contaminated water two years after the disaster and urged Japan to provide information "in a timely, thorough and relevant way". "We hope that the Japanese side can earnestly take effective steps to put an end to the negative impact of the after-effects of the Fukushima nuclear accident," China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement faxed to Reuters in Beijing.

Upgrading the warning to level 3 will mark the first time Japan has issued a warning on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) since three reactor meltdowns at the plant after a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. A maximum INES level 7 was declared at the battered plant after explosions led to a loss of power and cooling two years ago, confirming Fukushima as the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl a quarter of a century earlier. The leak is so contaminated that a person standing 50 cm (1.6 feet) away, after 10 hours, a worker in that proximity to the leak would develop radiation sickness with symptoms including nausea and a drop in white blood cells.

According to the British Heart Foundation, one in every 180 babies is born with a heart problem. It remains the most common defect at birth and accounts for more anomalies than limb, face and lung problems combined. The number of children dying from these defects has fallen more than 80% in the last 30 years thanks to better understanding and treatment. Professor Peter Weissberg, Medical Director at the BHF, said: "Our research is beginning to unravel how some of these defects occur. But there's still a long way to go."

The report says: “Estimates suggest that three quarters of the population could be suffering from the effects of heart disease, diabetes and related illnesses within two decades, which is a significant jump. Furthermore, the improving trends seen in survival rates for these diseases translate into larger numbers of people needing nursing care.”

The number of adults suffering from obesity has been forecast in previous research to double by 2030, meaning that half the adult population of Britain would be obese. Heart disease, which is linked to fatty diets, lack of exercise and smoking, is the leading cause of death in the UK. The number of people diagnosed with diabetes has risen by a third in six years, with a 57 per cent rise in prescriptions for the condition.

Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, said: “The tragedy is that we have brought this on ourselves. We have failed miserably to prevent weight increases for more than two decades, so that this problem has kept creeping up on us. Successive governments have failed to take a firm strategy on this, and so we are left with this time bomb.”

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the anti-corruption Aam Admi (Common Man) parties have opened greengrocery vans in the capital Delhi to sell heavily subsidised onions to embarrass the government and highlight eye-watering price increases.

Onions are a key ingredient of most Indian dishes and are regarded as a basic right throughout the country. They are also widely regarded as a sensitive political issue – the BJP government collapsed in 1998 amid anger, among other things, over onion prices which hit 60 rupees (60 pence) per kilogramme.

In recent weeks prices have soared to 80 rupees (80 pence) per kilogramme, provoking a political outcry. The BJP and the Aam Admi Party believe the anger aroused by the shortage and price increase could help oust the ruling Congress Party from power in Delhi's state elections in November. "Onion is very important for all the sections of society in India, particularly the poor, which can survive on just onions and bread," he said.

On Monday, No 10 refused to disclose whether ministers had approved the detention of David Miranda, the partner of Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald, at Heathrow Airport under anti-terror laws. However, a Downing Street source said yesterday that the Prime Minister had been “kept abreast of the operation”.

The source denied any political involvement in the decision and emphasised that the Government “does not direct police investigations”. The source stressed that the fact that Mr Miranda was carrying “stolen” information from the US National Security Agency posed a serious threat to Britain’s security.

Mr Miranda could have been kidnapped and the documents passed into the hands of terrorists or other individuals who wanted to harm Britain, the source said. There were similar fears that the Guardian’s own computer system was not secure enough to be trusted with protecting such highly sensitive information.

Critics have claimed that the police operation was an attempt to intimidate a journalist who had written a series of controversial articles on the activities of the NSA. Mr Miranda was held and questioned at Heathrow for nine hours on Sunday and forced to hand over electronic equipment including encrypted computer files containing more information from Mr Snowden.