"We don't have a ban on non-traditional sexual relations," he said. "We have a ban on promoting homosexuality and paedophilia among minors." He was speaking in Sochi to volunteers due to help at next month's games.

Mr Putin told BBC News Russia would ensure security for the games without it impacting unduly on the event. Speaking to BBC One's Andrew Marr Show nearly three weeks after the deadly suicide bombings in Volgograd, he said the international community should unite against terrorism.

Denying that the Winter Olympics was aimed at increasing his personal prestige, it said it was a chance to boost Russian morale after the difficult years which followed the collapse of the USSR in 1991.

"We want an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital that includes all the lands that were occupied in 1967 and that lives side by side with Israel in security and stability," Abbas said in a joint press conference with Harper in Ramallah.

"Anything else said or interpreted on our behalf matters only to those who interpret it," he added, according to Ma’an, dismissing rumors that he had agreed to concessions in ongoing negotiations with Israel. He added that he briefed Harper on peace negotiations and reiterated the PA’s position on a future state. Abbas’s comments are a continuation of his ongoing policy of announcing that unless all his demands are met, there will never be peace with Israel.

This was also not the first time that he has declared that the future Palestinian state will have no Israeli presence whatsoever.

The Fed’s policy of monetizing one trillion dollars of bonds annually put pressure on the US dollar, the value of which declined in terms of gold. When gold hit $1,900 per ounce in 2011, the Federal Reserve realized that $2,000 per ounce could have a psychological impact that would spread into the dollar’s exchange rate with other currencies, resulting in a run on the dollar as both foreign and domestic holders sold dollars to avoid the fall in value.

Once this realization hit, the manipulation of the gold price moved beyond central bank leasing of gold to bullion dealers in order to create an artificial market supply to absorb demand that otherwise would have pushed gold prices higher. The manipulation consists of the Fed using bullion banks as its agents to sell naked gold shorts in the New York Comex futures market.

Short selling drives down the gold price, triggers stop-loss orders and margin calls, and scares participants out of the gold trusts. The bullion banks purchase the deserted shares and present them to the trusts for redemption in bullion. The bullion can then be sold in the London physical gold market, where the sales both ratify the lower price that short-selling achieved on the Comex floor and provide a supply of bullion to meet Asian demands for physical gold as opposed to paper claims on gold.

The evidence of gold price manipulation is clear. We conclude that ability to manipulate the gold price is disappearing as physical gold moves from New York and London to Asia, leaving the West with paper claims to gold that greatly exceed the available supply.

A KPMG report warned last year that the next systemic shock to UK banking could come from an as yet unforeseen event, such as a massive payment outage or a cyber attack. Since the IT systems in most banks are complex and some essential parts of these systems are very old, a system outage is almost inevitable. The IT systems that hold up our every financial move are a disaster waiting to happen.

In the summer of 2012, a routine software update in India caused an IT meltdown at the Royal Bank of Scotland. As a result, 17 million customers were locked out of their accounts for days. This was followed by a hardware failure in March 2013 that prevented millions of customers from accessing online services and ATMs for hours. While the bank is still under investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority over these incidents, it suffered a third embarrassing system outage on the busiest online shopping day before Christmas last year, followed by yet another IT failure a few days later.

Catastrophic IT failures such as these can lead to financial chaos, create financial hardship for both businesses and families and, if not quickly addressed, may even lead to social breakdowns. If employers are unable to pay employees and people are unable to pay their rents, buy their groceries and medicine or pay for their transport, utilities and credit card bills, social unrest may ensue.

Today, half of the world’s 30 fastest-growing countries are in Africa, which is quickly losing its image of hopelessness and despair. Unfortunately, economic growth, while significant, rarely benefits the impoverished majority, even amid scenes of bustling business taking place from Dakar to Nairobi, and statistics indicating an emerging African middle class of some 150 million – which could quickly rise to 300 million by 2015, barring any ‘black swan’ events.

Politically, there is optimism as almost all 55 African countries have some kind of constitution with an active civil society that is contributing to more democratic or pluralistic political engagement. The continent’s two longest lasting internal conflicts (Somalia and Congo) persist; even if at a lower intensity, while two newer ones (Mali, Central African Republic) continue unabated.

However, considering that from 1998-2003, the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and its neighbors left some three million dead, the 2,000 registered ‘military’ deaths recorded in 2013 suggests that 2014 could be one of Africa’s most peaceful in recent history.

The federal government says its offices in the Washington area will be closed on Tuesday due to the winter storm bearing down on the mid-Atlantic and northeastern US. The Office of Personnel Management says non-emergency personnel in and around the District of Columbia are granted excused absences for the day. Emergency employees and telework-ready employees are expected to work.

The National Weather Service predicts Washington could get between 4 and 8 inches of snow on Tuesday, with higher amounts north of the nation's capital. Forecasts expect that coastal regions will be hit harder than inland areas with the storm crippling travel at airports, on trains and by car. While the winter blast is expected to be gone by Thursday, meteorologists predict it'll be followed by another blast of cold air pushing down from Canada on Friday or Saturday. Snow is possible as far south as Greenville, South Carolina and Raleigh, North Carolina on Tuesday as the extent of the precipitation hits its peak into the afternoon and later.

While spared from the bitter winter chills, the Southwest and much of California remained in the midst of one of the worst droughts in history. Paired with record heat, the conditions have also helped lead to a ring of fierce wildfires around Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department said the fire was 78 percent contained by Sunday, with full containment expected Wednesday. The California Conference of Catholic Bishops asked people of all faiths to join in prayers for rain. Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto, president of the bishops' conference, suggested a prayer for God to 'open the heavens and let His mercy rain down upon our fields and mountains.'

They are planning this approval despite the fact that use of this herbicide is associated with increased rates of deadly immune system cancers, Parkinson’s disease, endocrine disruption, birth defects, and many other serious kinds of illness and reproductive problems.

Weed ecologists are unanimous in warning that approval of these crops will lead to vast increases in the use of this poisonous chemical. Researchers at Penn State say that in soybeans alone, planting of crops resistant to 2,4-D would increase the amount of 2,4-D sprayed on American fields to 100 million pounds per year — four times the current level.

A coalition of 144 farming, fishery, environmental and public health groups have asked the USDA not to approve the 2,4-D resistant crops. Citing studies that predict dire consequences to both human and environmental health, they add the concern among farmers that 2,4-D would drift onto their property and kill their crops, causing serious economic damage in rural communities.

Numbers aside, this result wasn’t entirely unexpected. “The outcome was never really in doubt: No major political faction was pushing a ‘no’ vote, and many Egyptians saw approving the constitution as a key first step towards restoring stability after the army overthrew President Mohamed Morsi in July.”

However, last month the military-backed government led by General Abdel Fattah Sisi, who is possibly planning a run for president, outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the party of deposed leader Mohamed Morsi and the main political opposition in the country. Others yet were dismayed by the relative low turnout – some 38.6 percent of 53 million eligible voters – which belied the statistical enthusiasm of the results.

British Islands-based private equity firm SRE Minerals Limited announced the study results in December, along with a 25-year deal to develop the deposits in Jongju, northwest of the capital, Pyongyang. The joint venture, called Pacific Century Rare Earth Mineral Limited, is with state-owned Korea Natural Resources Trading Corporation. The potential bonanza could offer the isolated and impoverished North a game-changing stake in the rare earths industry.

Scott Bruce, an associate of the East-West Center in Hawaii, said the deposits could not only shake China's hold on the market but also improve relations with Japan and South Korea, two of the biggest importers of the minerals.

China's near monopoly on rare earths, 90 percent of the world market, led prices to skyrocket when Tokyo accused Beijing of capping exports because of political tensions. Prices have since dropped to more sustainable levels, but Beijing's control of the market has spurred a search for other sources.

David Cameron has been given a six-week deadline by rebel Tory MPs to publish a clear plan for clawing back power from Brussels if he is to avoid a “disaster” in the European elections this spring. The Prime Minister must produce a detailed strategy for renegotiating Britain's membership of the EU by the end of next month, ahead of elections for the European Parliament in May, MPs said.

The Sunday Telegraph disclosed last week that 95 backbench Tories were supporting a rebel demand for Parliament be given a new power to veto EU laws in a move which fractured the uneasy peace over Europe between Mr Cameron and his MPs. Now senior figures, including David Davis, Mr Cameron’s former leadership rival, are stepping up their campaign for a tougher policy on the EU.

Many MPs privately believe that Tories will be “hammered” in May’s European Parliament elections and some are even warning that a disastrous result could prompt an attempt to oust Mr Cameron as party leader.

Three years after the Pentagon said it was de-emphasizing Europe in favor of the Asia-Pacific region, Navy Admiral Samuel J Locklear III said this week that US dominance has weakened in the shadow of a more aggressive China. “Our historic dominance that most of us in this room have enjoyed is diminishing, no question,” Admiral Locklear, chief of US Pacific Command, said Wednesday at a naval conference in Virginia.

Although Admiral Locklear said it is obvious that Chinese military power is growing, he suggested that it is unclear whether China will seek to be a hard adversary to the US in the long term, so Washington should be working overtime on steering Beijing toward a cooperative security posture. “China is going to rise, we all know that,” Admiral Locklear said, as reported by Defense News, which included several quotes from his speech at the annual Surface Navy Association meeting.

Also, the number of residents 65 and older will jump by 20.7 percent over the next five years, the report said. State demographers expected Latinos to surpass the non-Hispanic white population seven months earlier, but Latino birth rates were lower than anticipated. Now, officials say, by March Latinos will make up 39 percent of California's population, edging out non-Hispanic whites at 38.8 percent. Nearly 25 years ago, non-Hispanic whites made up 57 percent of the state, while Latinos made up 26 percent.

The state's Department of Finance includes the projections in the governor's budget proposal because of the potential economic impact, such as the increase in retirees affecting the scope of services needed for an aging population, or income disparities among minority groups increasing the need for social or educational programs.

In a strongly worded speech in the European Parliament this morning, UKIP leader Nigel Farage warned that the EU is increasingly being controlled by big business and centralised bureaucracy, stating that the forthcoming European elections would be the battleground to bring back national democracy.

He went on to argue that people don’t want a ‘United States of Europe’ but a Europe of sovereign states trading and working together. Farage also said the European elections would ‘mark a watershed’ in the battle for national democracy.

Bacteria harboring the encoding gene that makes them resistant have been found on every continent except for Antarctica. Tests at two wastewater treatment plants in northern China revealed antibiotic-resistant bacteria — “superbugs” carrying New Delhi Metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM-1), a multidrug-resistant gene first identified in India in 2010 — were not only escaping purification but also breeding and spreading their dangerous cargo.

NDM-1 is able to make such common bacteria as E-coli, salmonella, and K pneumonias resistant to even the strongest available antibiotics. Tests at two wastewater treatment plants in northern China revealed antibiotic-resistant bacteria were not only escaping purification but also breeding and spreading their dangerous cargo.

The study, led by Rice University environmental engineer Pedro Alvarez, appeared this month in the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters. “It’s scary,” Alvarez said. “There’s no antibiotic that can kill them. We only realized they exist just a little while ago when a Swedish man got infected in India, in New Delhi. Now, people are beginning to realize that more and more tourists trying to go to the upper waters of the Ganges River are getting these infections that cannot be treated.”

The figures, scheduled for release at 9 am tomorrow in Washington, were inadvertently posted on the Treasury’s website. Japan’s holdings rose $12 billion to $1.186 trillion, the figures showed.

China’s swelling foreign-exchange reserves, reported today to have reached a world record $3.82 trillion at the end of December, may sustain the nation’s appetite for US debt. Capital inflows and intervention to limit gains in the yuan have contributed to China building up currency holdings that are a third of the global total.