"This is about the economic and monetary union but for the EU as a whole," he said. "The commission will, therefore, set out its views and explicit ideas for treaty change in order for them to be debated before the European elections."

"We want to put all the elements on the table, in a clear and consistent way, even if some of them may sound like political science fiction today. They will be reality in a few years' time." Mr Barroso's announcement that he will set out plans for a European federation next spring, before elections to the European Parliament in May 2014, will further deepen Conservative divisions over the EU.

The intervention will add weight to the argument made by Lord Lawson, and other anti-EU Tories, that it is pointless to try and improve Britain's membership terms when the dynamic, set by the eurozone, is towards a fully-fledged federal Europe.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom recently said: “The flight of Christians out of the region is unprecedented and it’s increasing year by year.” In our lifetime alone “Christians might disappear altogether from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt.” Ongoing reports from the Islamic world certainly support this conclusion: Iraq was the earliest indicator of the fate awaiting Christians once Islamic forces are liberated from the grip of dictators.

In 2003, Iraq’s Christian population was at least one million. Today fewer than 400,000 remain — the result of an anti-Christian campaign that began with the US occupation of Iraq, when countless Christian churches were bombed and countless Christians killed, including by crucifixion and beheading.

The 2010 Baghdad church attack, which saw nearly 60 Christian worshippers slaughtered, is the tip of a decade-long iceberg. Now, as the US supports the jihad on Syria’s secular president Assad, the same pattern has come to Syria: entire regions and towns where Christians lived for centuries before Islam came into being have now been emptied, as the opposition targets Christians for kidnapping, plundering, and beheadings, all in compliance with mosque calls telling the populace that it’s a “sacred duty” to drive Christians away.

We noted in 2008: Political insider and veteran reporter Kevin Phillips has documented that every major empire over the past several hundred years has undergone a predictable cycle of collapse, usually within 10 to 20 years of its peak power.

The indications are always the same:

- The financialization of the economy, moving from manufacturing to speculation;

- Very high levels of debt;

- Extreme economic inequality;

– And costly military overreaching.

We wrote in 2009: In 2000, America was described as the sole remaining superpower – or even the world’s “hyperpower”. Now we’re in real trouble. How did it happen so fast?

It is ironic that our military is what made us a superpower, but our huge military is bankrupting us … thus destroying our status as an empire. Empires which fight “one too many wars” always collapse.

If historical patterns hold up, the economy is heading for a very rocky stretch. For example, the price of copper is called "Dr Copper" by many economists because it so accurately forecasts the future direction of the US economy. And so far this year the price of copper is way down. But that is not the only indicator that is worrying economists. Home renovation spending has fallen dramatically, retail spending is crashing in a way not seen since the last recession, manufacturing activity and consumer confidence are both declining, and troubling economic data continues to come pouring out of Asia and Europe.

So why do US stocks continue to skyrocket? Will US financial markets be able to continue to be divorced from reality? Unfortunately, as we have seen so many times in the past, when stocks do catch up with reality they tend to do so very rapidly. So you better put on your seatbelts because a crash is coming at some point.

Michael Snyder: “We inherited the greatest economic machine the world has ever seen and we have wrecked it, and now a very painful day of reckoning is approaching”!

If one seeks to "roll back" the influence of the People's Republic of China, Myanmar is "a very interesting partner," affirmed a specialist on Southeast Asia at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin. The German government is expanding cooperation with that country accordingly, and in addition to broadening cooperation on political projects, seeks particularly to enhance its economic influence.

The EU recently lifted the economic sanctions imposed on Myanmar due also to German pressure. The German Ministry of the Economy is supporting new business deals.

An invitation sent by organizers to Likud members read, “46 years after the liberation of Jerusalem, 46 years since the historic shofar blast that made thousands of hearts tremble, and the emotional cry, ‘The Temple Mount is in our hands!’ the Likud-Beytenu movement has decided to end the shameful neglect of Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount, the holiest place on earth to the Jewish people!”

Islamic groups have called on supporters to spend all day Tuesday on the Temple Mount in order to prevent the Likud group for touring the area.

In light of recent tension as Muslims try to prevent Jews from visiting the holy site, Temple Mount groups are throwing their weight behind a proposal to avoid tension by splitting visiting hours at the site. The proposal would see certain times and places set aside for Jewish prayer, while other times are set aside exclusively for Muslim prayer.

"The economic situation is worsening from month to month, and unemployment has reached a level that puts democratic structures ever more in doubt," he said. "The Germans have not yet realised that southern Europe, including France, will be forced by their current misery to fight back against German hegemony sooner or later," he said, blaming much of the crisis on Germany's wage squeeze to gain export share.

Mr Lafontaine said on the parliamentary website of Germany's Left Party that Chancellor Angela Merkel will "awake from her self-righteous slumber" once the countries in trouble unite to force a change in crisis policy at Germany's expense. His prediction appeared confirmed as French finance minister Pierre Moscovici yesterday proclaimed the end of austerity and a triumph of French policy, risking further damage to the tattered relations between Paris and Berlin. "Austerity is finished. This is a decisive turn in the history of the EU project since the euro," he told French TV. "We're seeing the end of austerity dogma. It's a victory of the French point of view."

At a Mass he celebrated Sunday in crowded St Peter's Square, Francis said abuse victims are in his prayers. He stressed that all must work with courage so that children, who are among the most vulnerable people, be always defended and protected.

Ignoring sometimes heavy rain, Francis toured the square in a popemobile, but left the vehicle to embrace disabled adults and children along his route. In a surprise, he ventured beyond the Vatican's confines, riding the popemobile down a Rome boulevard to greet thousands of cheering faithful who couldn't fit in the square.