Speaking to Egypt's state news agency MENA two days after the Ethiopian government flatly rejected a request from Cairo to halt the project, Mohamed Kamel Amr said Egyptians view any obstacle to the river's flow as a threat to national survival. "No Nile - no Egypt," he said, highlighting the pressure on the Egyptian government, whose popularity is wilting in the face of economic troubles, to prevent the hydro power plant cutting already stretched water supplies for its 84 million people.

Countries that share the Nile have long argued over the use of its waters, repeatedly raising fears that the disputes could eventually boil over into war. Egypt, struggling with a shortage of cash and bitter internal political divisions following a 2011 revolution, called on Ethiopia to stop work after engineers began diverting the course of the Blue Nile late last month.

In Addis Ababa, a government spokesman called that request a "non-starter" and dismissed threats from Cairo of "sabotage" and "destabilization", saying attempts by Egypt under its previous military rulers to undermine Ethiopian leaders had failed.

In Turkey, there are always at least two truths. On Taksim Square in Istanbul, and on the streets of many other cities in 77 of Turkey's 81 provinces, the prevailing truth is that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is curtailing civil rights, governing in an autocratic manner and is trying to force his conservative religious values on the population.

That is the truth motivating tens of thousands of demonstrators to take to the streets for six days, despite tear-gas and truncheon attacks by police. The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) estimates that three people have died and more than 4,000 have been wounded during the protests. There are no reliable figures regarding the number of arrests.

But there is another truth in Kasimpasa, the former dockyard area of Istanbul where Erdogan grew up, and in other more religious parts of the city and in villages throughout the country. In these areas the prevailing truth is that rioters, who have possibly been incited by opposition leaders and foreigners, are running wild and wrecking the cities, waging a campaign against Islam and vilifying the lone politician deserving of praise.

The police, in this view, are only reacting so brutally because they are forced to. Members of Erdogan's base live in these areas. They make up the 50 percent of Turkish voters who bestowed a victory on his Justice and Development Party (AKP) two years ago.

In fact, most Americans actually saw little to negative growth in their net worth over this period. Even more problematic is the emergence of a permanent working poor in spite of a booming stock market. Over 47 million Americans are still receiving food stamps on a monthly basis. Not only has this number remained high, there is now an economy that is building up around servicing the needs of this large constituency.

Why wouldn’t there be a new booming market here? Nearly one out of every six Americans is on food assistance in the most prosperous country in the world. Doesn’t exactly go hand in hand with the perception of a record breaking stock market. Is the US and the current economy developing a permanent under-class of citizens?

It is abundantly clear that very little of this freed up money flowed into the working and middle class. In reality more and more of the wealth in the country is flowing into the hands of a few. In 1989, 32 percent of all the wealth in the US was held by those in the 0 to 90 percentile of income. Today it is merely 25 percent. And the top one percent is holding a much larger share showing that the inequality when it comes to wealth is only getting larger.

The massive ordnance penetrator, as the weapon is called, has cost $500 million to develop, and can be dropped from B-2 stealth bombers. The 13-ton weapon travels at twice the speed of sound and can puncture up to 200 feet of concrete. The report states that it is accurate to within 16 feet.

Experts believe that the US communicated the test results in order to convince Israel of their resolve to prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons, and to dissuade Israel from launching a pre-emptive strike.

Mr Hollande, the socialist leader who oustied Nicolas Sarkozy, is not the first European political leader to declare an end to the crisis. Last year the Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy said that "the worst has passed" for the euro. Markets have also grown less concerned about the situation in the shared currency region. One analyst recently suggested that a "Greecovery" - Greek recovery - might now be a more apposite term than the feared "Grexit" - Greek exit from the euro.

While the imminent threat of a country being forced to leave the currency has receded, the region does however remain mired in recession. The eurozone's collective economy has shrunk for six straight quarters and unemployment has hit 12.2 percent, its highest level since the euro was established in 1999.

Some suspect that tensions could rise again after Germany's national elections in September, when politicians will be more prepared to tackle the area's economic problems.

Udo di Fabio, the constitutional court’s euro expert until last year, said the explosive case on the legality of the European Monetary Union rescue machinery could provoke a showdown between Germany and the European Central Bank (ECB) and ultimately cause the collapse of monetary union.

“In so far as the ECB is acting 'ultra vires’, and these violations are deemed prolonged and serious, the court must decide whether Germany can remain a member of monetary union on constitutional grounds,” he wrote in a report for the German Foundation for Family Businesses. “His arguments are dynamite,” said Mats Persson from Open Europe, which is issuing its own legal survey on the case on Monday.

Brandon Bryant says he was sitting in a chair at a Nevada Air Force base operating the camera when his team fired two missiles from their drone at three men walking down a road halfway around the world in Afghanistan. The missiles hit all three targets, and Bryant says he could see the aftermath on his computer screen – including thermal images of a growing puddle of hot blood.

“The guy that was running forward, he’s missing his right leg,” he recalled. “And I watch this guy bleed out and, I mean, the blood is hot.” As the man died his body grew cold, said Bryant, and his thermal image changed until he became the same color as the ground.

“I can see every little pixel,” said Bryant, who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, “if I just close my eyes. Like, this isn’t a videogame,” he said. “This isn’t some sort of fantasy. This is war. People die.”

The Amish live in a society that consists of outdated technologies and ideals, by contemporary standards. Their diet consists of eating organic, fresh, locally-grown produce, and of course, they do not follow the established vaccination routines. To the dismay of the mainstream media and the medical establishment, this has resulted in a healthier people, that are void of all of our chronic diseases. Heart disease, cancer, and diabetes are virtually non-existent in Amish villages.

Equally non-existent are modern, chemically-engineered medicines, enhanced (chemically-engineered) foods, GMO foods, and of course, vaccines. How is it that those who are without the “miracles” of modern orthodox medicine are healthier? The truth about health, medicine, and how they both relate to the Amish is becoming an embarrassment to some rather powerful people.

There have been 3 (yes three) verified cases of autism in the Amish, and at least two of those children were vaccinated. No information is available for the third. The strong correlation between vaccinations and autism is absolutely undeniable, unless you work for the medical establishment, the government, or Big Media.

Chaput, who leads the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, pointed to Obamacare's sterilization-contraception-abortifacient regulation as one example. The regulation, issued by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, requires almost all health-care plans in the United States to provide coverage for sterilizations, artificial contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs to all women of reproductive age - even if the person or employer providing the insurance coverage and even if the female beneficiaries themselves do not want the coverage and believe it is morally wrong and violates their religious beliefs.

Archbishop Chaput noted that the bishops believe "basic medical care is a matter of social justice and human dignity." That principal, however, does not empower the government to force Americans to violate their moral and religious convictions.

The archbishop noted that the scandal "involving IRS targeting of 'conservative' organizations ... also has a religious dimension." "But the latest IRS ugliness," he wrote, "is a hint of the treatment disfavored religious groups may face in the future, if we sleep through the national discussion of religious liberty now. The day when Americans could take the Founders' understanding of religious freedom as a given is over. We need to wake up."

The documents show that GCHQ, based in Cheltenham, has had access to the system since at least June 2010, and generated 197 intelligence reports from it last year. The US-run programme, called Prism, would appear to allow GCHQ to circumvent the formal legal process required to seek personal material such as emails, photos and videos from an internet company based outside the UK.

The use of Prism raises ethical and legal issues about such direct access to potentially millions of internet users, as well as questions about which British ministers knew of the programme.

The description following each course title either comes directly from the official course description or from a news story about the course…

“What If Harry Potter Is Real?” (Appalachian State University) – This course will engage students with questions about the very nature of history. Who decides what history is? Who decides how it is used or mis-used? How does this use or misuse affect us? How can the historical imagination inform literature and fantasy? How can fantasy reshape how we look at history? The Harry Potter novels and films are fertile ground for exploring all of these deeper questions.

“Zombies In Popular Media” (Columbia College) – This course explores the history, significance, and representation of the zombie as a figure in horror and fantasy texts. Instruction follows an intense schedule, using critical theory and source media (literature, comics, and films) to spur discussion and exploration of the figure’s many incarnations.

“Cyberporn And Society” (State University of New York at Buffalo) – With classwork like this, who needs to play? Undergraduates taking Cyberporn and Society at the State University of New York at Buffalo survey Internet porn sites.

A college education can be a wonderful thing, but right now we have got a system that is deeply, deeply broken.