This would be done if the draft of an economic agreement between the Jewish state and the Holy See, containing no distinction between sovereign Israel and the territories occupied by it in 1967, is approved by the two sides, Ha'aretz online reported. The lack of a preamble containing such a distinction is at the center of heightened tension between Palestinian Christian denominations and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the Vatican, it said.

Palestinian sources told the Israeli daily that THE AGREEMENT WOULD MEAN "INDIRECT RECOGNITION" OF ISRAELI ANNEXATION OF EAST JERUSALEM AND OF THE IMPOSITION OF ISRAELI LAW IN PART OF THE WEST BANK.

France, which has special standing as custodian of holy Christian sites and Christian communities, is also said to be concerned at the apparent latent recognition of the annexation and the economic implications for the communities, and particularly its Christian institutions in the country and the people who are part of them, the report said. The Bilateral Permanent Working Commission between the Holy See and the State of Israel is to meet in Rome today and tomorrow to continue with talks held in Jerusalem last week, addressing matters of disagreement.

The bishops released a statement on Thursday as they announced the two-week event.

“Some recent threats to religious freedom include the HHS mandate to provide coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization and contraception; forcing Catholic foster care and adoption services to shut down for refusal to place children with same-sex couples; state immigration laws that forbid pastoral care of undocumented immigrants; discrimination against Catholic humanitarian services for victims of human trafficking for refusal to refer for abortion services,” the bishops maintained.

At least 9,000 Christians from the western Syrian city of Qusayr were forced to seek refuge after an ultimatum from a local military chief of the armed opposition, Abdel Salam Harba, Fides news agency reports. In the latest outburst of violence a Christian man was shot dead by a sniper in Qusayr, which neighbors the restive city of Homs.

There have been reports last week that some mosques in the city have announced from the minarets: "Christians must leave Qusayr within six days, which expires this Friday." Two Catholic priests who fled Qusayr confirmed to the news agency that they heard the ultimatum "with their own ears" repeated from the minarets.

"The situation is unsustainable in the area and exposed to total lawlessness," Fides sources on the ground say. They also fear that the fate of Christians in Qusayr could soon affect the 10,000 believers who live in other villages in the area. Christians make up about 10 per cent of the country’s population with most belonging to the denomination of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch.

Meeting in Rome, Italian Premier Mario Monti and France's President Francois Hollande stressed more needed to be done to ease market pressures amid black news for Spain, worrying signs in Italy and concern over the upcoming Greek election. "The progress made, including in the governance of the eurozone, is not sufficient and we need to strengthen the weak parts of the system," Monti said, adding that the views of Italy and France on the crisis were closely linked.

International financial watchers are waiting with bated breath for a crucial Greek election which may see Greece exit the eurozone and could have a knock-on effect on struggling Spain and Italy. In Athens, with just three days before the vote, thousands of people attended a campaign rally for leftist leader Alexis Tsipras who has promised to rip up bailout conditions that have brought Greece's economy to its knees. But instead of challenging Brussels, Tsirpas promised if elected to form a government "for all Greeks... with Europe and the euro."

She said history and geography backed Argentina's claim. But an islander told the committee Argentina was "bullying". UK Prime Minister David Cameron has said there would be "no negotiation". Earlier on Thursday, the Falklands marked the end of Argentina's 74-day 1982 occupation with a service at Port Stanley's Christ Church cathedral.

Veterans of the war then led a military parade to the Liberation Monument for an act of remembrance, paying tribute to the 255 UK servicemen and three Falklands civilians who died in the war. An estimated 650 Argentines were also killed during the conflict. The BBC's Barbara Plett said President Fernandez made as much as she could of her platform at the United Nations, where a majority backs Argentina's demand that the Falklands' status be negotiated.

Syriza, the anti-bailout bloc which surged to second place in May, held its final rally in Athens on Thursday. Unofficial opinion polls suggest a fall in support for anti-bailout parties. Under Greek election law, official opinion polls are banned in the two weeks before the election. Tough austerity measures were attached to the two international bailouts awarded to Greece, an initial package worth €110 billion (£89 billion; $138 billion) in 2010, then a follow-up last year worth €130 billion.

While five of the seven main political groups reject the last bailout, only one - the Communists - wants the country to abandon the euro. Germany, which has the eurozone's most powerful economy, insists Greece, like other member-states which have received international bailouts, must abide by the austerity conditions.

German Bundesbank (central bank) chief Jens Weidmann repeated the warning on Friday, adding that the eurozone could not allow any country to "blackmail" it with the threat of financial contagion.

Indeed, the United States is fighting on the same side as 3 terrorist groups in Syria. Even Pat Buchanan asks: If its good for Al Qaeda, can it be good for us? Indeed, terrorist rebels have been responsible for much of the violence inside Syria. And outside monitors have confirmed that the situation on the ground is much different than it is being portrayed in the Western media (and according to the large German newspaper FAZ, those recently massacred in Hama were on the same side as Syrian leader Assad).

Russia has repeatedly stated that it would consider an attack on Syria as an attack on its national security (and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that if the US invades the sovereignty of countries like Syria, it could lead to nuclear war). Now, Russia is allegedly selling attack helicopters to the Syrian government, and defending the sales because the US is supplying rebels with weapons to fight against the government.

Cold War 2.0. And this time, China may participate.

On 12 November 2011 Iranian Supreme National Security Council's Secretary Assistant Ali Bageri said that Iran is seeking full membership in the SCO, upgrading its current observer status, telling journalists in Moscow, "We have already submitted a relevant application." Now, Iran has gotten an endorsement from the SCO about the unacceptability of force - sort of.

The leaders of SCO members China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan said in a joint statement signed at the end of a two-day summit on 7 June that "any attempts to solve the Iranian problem with force are unacceptable and could lead to unpredictable circumstances."

NATO member Turkey also has "dialogue partner" status and has also requested full membership. Iran's interest in CSTO and SCO are hardly a minor policy exercise, as between Russia, Kazakhstan (both non-OPEC producers) and Iran, the trio account for nearly 20 percent of the world's oil output, which could be offlined to the global community should it embark on "reckless adventureism," to use a piquant Soviet term.

The phrase, "any attempts to solve the Iranian problem with force are unacceptable and could lead to unpredictable circumstances" was signed off by SCO members China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan and should therefore factor into the considerations of those beating the drums for a military strike against Iran. Hardly insignificant, as the SCO statement was signed by all members.

Something for both Washington and Tel Aviv hawks to consider.

The costs include equipping internet and telephone companies to retain and store data on behalf of the police, the security services, the Serious Organised and Crime Agency and HM Revenue and Customs. The Home Office said the expected benefits from the outlay would be in the region of £5 billion to £6.2 billion, including from reducing tax fraud and seizing criminal assets.

Jim Killock, Executive Director of Open Rights Group said: "The government's notes confirm that this is exactly what we expected: black boxes to intercept people's traffic data, and poorly supervised police powers to get access to it. Bluntly these are as dangerous as we expected, and represent unprecedented surveillance powers in the democratic world. China and Iran will be delighted."

Mrs May compared the average £180 million-a-year cost of the plans with the annual policing bill of £14 billion.

Europe has made it clear that to keep receiving the bailout money it relies on, Greece needs to form a coalition that agrees to implement the strict conditions on the loans. Without that, payments would dry up, leaving Greece unable to pay public sector workers, pensioners and suppliers. It would be forced to cut back spending drastically.

If the worst comes to the worst, continued political paralysis or resistance to the bailout conditions could see the euro area carry out its threat and eject Greece from the single currency. Greek banks would be cut off from the lifeline funding they get from the European Central Bank and shunned by international markets, triggering a bank run.

As a result Mr Thomas’s organic carrots and aubergines have been ravaged in Linscombe, Devon. Slug expert Professor David Glen said: “Slugs breed rapidly when conditions suit. They are capable of moving up to five metres a night and detecting food from 2 feet away.” Snails have also increased three-fold in some areas.

Swiss National Bank President Thomas Jordan is among the most vociferous, dangling the threat on Thursday of imposing capital controls to stop the Swiss franc from soaring as a result of investors seeking the currency's relative safety. "The SNB will not tolerate this," he said bluntly. Switzerland is not alone. The Bank of Japan is prioritizing market stability, according to one source, with economists saying the bank's main concern would be to stop the yen taking off. Intervention would be a likely response should the yen rise too high for the authorities' taste. With G20 leaders meeting in Mexico next week there is even speculation of a coordinated global response although no evidence of that has emerged so far.

India has a range of crisis management groups within the government set up to deal with euro zone-triggered financial stress, according to Kaushik Basu, the finance minister's chief economic adviser. In China, key agencies including the central bank, have been asked to come up with similar plans, sources said last week. Measures may include keeping the yuan steady and stepping up policies to stabilize the economy, they said. The big concern for all these countries - and others across Europe and the Americas - is that a victory on Sunday by parties in Greece opposed to austerity attached to its second bailout will send the euro zone further into crisis by pushing the country towards the currency bloc's exit door.

There are already signs of contagion. Spanish 10-year bond yields rose above 7 percent for the first time in the euro era on Thursday, hitting a level widely seen as being unsustainable. It has all triggered concerns about another global financial market spasm similar to the one that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. "Europe's debt problems are the biggest risk to the global and Japanese economies," BOJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa told parliament this week. "A loss of market stability will lead to a severe economic slump, as we experienced during the Lehman crisis."

For weeks, German officials have focused a significant amount of attention on the country's Salafists, members of a fundamentalist strain of Islam who are suspected of having close ties to Islamist extremists. On Thursday, they made their move, raiding Salafist facilities in seven German states and banning one of the most important Salafist groups in the country, the Millatu Ibrahim.

"The organization acts in opposition to the idea of constitutional order and multicultural understanding," German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said on Thursday morning. He added that the group promotes violence in its "fight against existing constitutional order." In addition, Friedrich says that two other Salafist groups have now been placed under investigation in the hopes of finding enough evidence to be able to ban them as well. Some 1,000 police officers took part in the early morning raids.

Authorities estimate that some 4,000 people belong to Salafist groups in Germany, and that it is the fastest growing strain of Islam in the country. Salafists are considered by the German government to be particularly dangerous and prone to violence, primarily because of their single-minded goal of establishing Sharia in Germany and their rejection of Western values. Furthermore, authorities believe that Salafist groups have close ties to jihadist fighters in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The ruling on parliament means that it must be dissolved, state TV reported. An Egyptian constitutional law expert told CNN that following the court's decision, a political decision will be made about what steps to take next. Parliament had been in session for just over four months. The court found that all articles making up the law that regulated parliamentary elections are invalid, said Showee Elsayed, a constitutional lawyer.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, in control of the country since Mubarak's ouster, announced that it now has full legislative power and will announce a 100-person assembly that will write the country's new constitution. The court's rulings come a day after Egypt's military-led government imposed a de facto martial law, extending the arrest powers of security forces.

But German Chancellor Angela Merkel rebuffed pressure from EU partners and the United States for Europe's most powerful economy to underwrite debt or guarantee bank deposits in the single currency area. Spain's 10-year bond yield hit a euro lifetime high above 7 percent on Thursday - a danger level above which Greece, Ireland and Portugal were driven to seek international rescues - despite last weekend's euro zone agreement to lend Madrid up to €100 billion ($125 billion) to recapitalize ailing banks.

"It is not a situation that can be maintained over time... and I am convinced that we will continue to take more measures in the coming days and weeks to help bring it down," Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos told reporters in the corridors of parliament. In Rome, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Piero Giarda, in charge of a public spending review, said Italy will seek to cut €5 billion in state administration spending this year instead of a previously announced €4.2 billion. The money saved would help fund areas hit by two earthquakes last month.

Moody's Investor Service slashed Spain's sovereign credit rating by three notches to Baa3, just one level above junk, late on Wednesday, citing the government's "very limited" access to international debt markets and the weakness of the economy. The downgrade added to a sense of emergency in financial markets ahead of an election in debt-plagued Greece on Sunday that could deliver a mandate to an anti-bailout party.