UK - As European leaders get ready to negotiate the EU budget at a summit in Brussels on Thursday, Britain is debating whether membership in the bloc makes any economic sense. Perhaps surprisingly, it's virtually impossible to find hard proof of any net benefit. The billions of euros in payments to Brussels are one of the reasons why the EU is so unpopular in Britain. Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher negotiated a rebate for her country in the 1980s, but Britain remains the fourth-largest net contributor.

EUROPE - Storms in the Mediterranean, calmed in the latter half of last year, now whip up again. Greece’s woes hardly surface in the rest of the world now, but they’re deep and the people remain restive. Seamen struck last week over unpaid wages and extended the strike this past Sunday. The strike cuts off the many islands around the country, and limits exports and imports. For a country so defined by the sea and shipping, it takes on an iconic quality. A 24-hour general strike has been called for February 20: Golden Dawn, the far-right party that targets immigrants and that stands third in the polls, held a thousands-strong rally in Athens on Saturday. No one can say whether the lid will stay on until matters improve – or, indeed, if matters will improve. The Mediterranean is a rough place to be.

GIBRALTAR - A Spanish warship has been confronted by the Royal Navy near Gibraltar amid growing tensions around the UK outpost. The armed patrol vessel, which typically carries special forces and marines, was spotted cruising irregularly and warned repeatedly to leave British waters. Last night, the Foreign Office lodged a diplomatic protest with Madrid over the most serious episode of sabre-rattling off the Rock in half a century. There are fears that the Spanish government is seeking to ramp up tensions to deflect attention away from domestic problems threatening to engulf Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. Prominent Gibraltar barrister Charles Gomez said: 'There has not been an incursion such as this since the mid-1960s when General Franco ruled Spain.'

TUNISIA - Tunisia's Islamists rejected on Thursday a plan by their party chief and prime minister to change the government after unrest erupted over the killing of an opposition leader, deepening the worst crisis since a 2011 revolution. Protests resumed in the North African state that gave birth to the Arab Spring uprisings, with police firing teargas to disperse demonstrators near the interior ministry in Tunis and stone-throwing youths in the southern town of Gafsa. Labor union leaders agreed to stage a general strike on Friday and the family of assassinated secular politician Chokri Belaid said his funeral could be held then too, raising the specter of further destabilizing turmoil.

USA - The medical marijuana shop next to a tattoo parlor on a busy street in Los Angeles looks much like hundreds of other pot dispensaries that dot the city. Except for one thing: On the glass door - under a green cross signaling that cannabis can be bought there for medical purposes - is a sticker for the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW), the nation's largest retail union. During the last few years, unions, led by the UFCW, have played an increasingly significant role in campaigns to allow medical marijuana, now legal in California, 17 other states and Washington DC. Union officials acknowledge that their support stems partly from the idea that the marijuana industry could create hundreds of thousands of members at a time when overall union membership is shrinking.

USA/EUROPE - US diplomat warns of "trade war" if "right to be forgotten" proposals in Europe are followed through. The introduction of planned changes to EU data protection laws could herald a trans-Atlantic "trade war", a US diplomat has warned. John Rodgers, economic Officer in the US Foreign Service, said that "things could really explode" if proposals that would provide individuals with a qualified 'right to be forgotten' are backed within the EU. Under the draft Regulation individuals would enjoy a qualified 'right to be forgotten'. That right would enable them to force organisations to delete personal data stored about them "without delay".

USA - Giving Turkey the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is bad enough. While Turkey was part of the consortium that built the fuselage, what Turkey now demands is the software codes and keys to the technology which make that fighter jet the platform upon which the next generation of American air power will rest.

UK - Swapping butter for margarine and vegetable oils could trigger a heart attack, scientists have warned. Decades of dietary advice has been turned on its head after experts uncovered startling new evidence about the dangers of eating “healthy” spreads. A study revealed an ingredient in vegetable fats triggers inflammation – which plays a major role in chronic illnesses from heart disease and cancer to arthritis and Alzheimer’s. The findings will have major implications for millions of Britons who have stopped using butter in favour of trendy, and less fatty, spreads and oils following healthy-living guidance.

UK - George Osborne has been dealt a major blow after the country’s leading public finance think-tank said he will need to borrow £64 billion more than he planned in 2015 because of the poor performance of the economy. It means that spending on services like the police, defence, transport and justice could be cut by a third by 2017/18 under current Government spending plans, the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned. The dire fiscal position may force the Chancellor to raid pensioner benefits, the NHS, schools or overseas aid, hitherto protected from cuts, according to the IFS report.

ARGENTINA - There is no such thing as Falkland islanders, the Argentine foreign minister has insisted, claiming they are British citizens living in disputed islands. Hector Timerman claimed the United Nations only acknowledges two parties in the territorial dispute - the UK and Argentina. Speaking at a press conference in central London today, Mr Timerman said: "The Falklands islanders do not exist. What exists is British citizens who live in the Islas Malvinas. The United Nations does not recognise a third party in the conflict. It says there are just two parts - the UK and Argentina."

UK - Two years on from the fall of Hosni Mubarak, the new Egyptian president is from the Muslim Brotherhood; on the streets of Cairo, the same kind of people who died in droves in 2011 are still getting killed. On the streets of Athens, the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn is staging anti-migrant pogroms.

USA - Actually, we’ve been in a global currency war for years. As the Wall Street Journal asked in 2010: Beggar-thy-neighbor currency devaluations proved ruinous for the global economy in the 1930s. Is the world setting off down the same slippery slope again? Yes, we are.

USA - Last year's drought took a big bite out of the two most prodigious US crops, corn and soy. But it apparently didn't slow down the spread of weeds that have developed resistance to Monsanto's herbicide Roundup (glyphosate), used on crops engineered by Monsanto to resist it.

UK - David Cameron says he is proud that love between a same-sex couple will now "count the same" as a heterosexual couple, despite almost half his MPs voting against gay marriage. MPs voted in favour of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill by 400 to 175, a majority of 225. But 136 Tory MPs opposed the bill.

USA - By now we should have gotten used to the odor emanating from banks — bailouts, money laundering, Libor rate-rigging, the other misdeeds. But in Europe over the last few days, it was particularly dense.