“The head of the oil products exporters’ union,” reports Reuters, “said the agreement between the exporters’ union, Iran’s central bank, and the oil ministry would get around a European Union ban on shipping insurance for tankers carrying Iranian oil.”

“In accordance with the agreement,” said Hassan Khosrojerdi, the exporters’ union head, ”it is planned that 20 percent of Iran’s oil exports will go through this private consortium.”

The impact of a decade of conflict on Britain’s hard-pressed Armed Forces is revealed in new Ministry of Defence figures. A study of the 1,472 new cases of Servicemen and women seeking help in the first three months of the year shows some clear trends. Female personnel are twice as likely to suffer mental ill-health, and lower ranks are more vulnerable than officers.

Today’s problems seem to be obvious and as more soldiers leave the regimental system and find themselves in civilian life they will not have their friends close at hand. ‘Only they really appreciate the difficulties of spending so long on the frontline.’

The website Jihad Watch cited a report in last Thursday’s Egypt-based Al Wafd newspaper. The report said that, during his weekly sermon, “Muhammad Badi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide, confirmed the necessity for every Muslim to strive to save al-Quds [Jerusalem] from the hands of the rapists [Israelis] and to cleanse Palestine from the clutches of the occupation, deeming this an individual duty for all Muslims.”

More specifically, the report said, Badi “called on all Muslims to wage jihad with their money and their selves to free al-Quds” — the same exact language one finds in al-Qaeda’s tracts.

Some 75% of people in the UK read, watch or listen to a news story every day, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism survey suggests. By contrast, nine out of 10 Germans access the news every day.

The study also suggested that UK readers have less interest in politics, and more interest in celebrity news, than their European counterparts. The findings showed that men were more likely to consume news than women, and that young audiences were typically less interested in current affairs than their elders. UK consumers were more likely to find their news online than by any other medium.

President Vladimir Putin has ordered an inquiry into whether people were given enough warning of the disaster. A separate criminal investigation is under way into possible negligence. Officials deny allegations blaming the ferocity of the floods on the opening of reservoir sluice gates.

The flash floods, the worst in living memory in the region, struck in the Krasnodar region on Friday night, after days of torrential rain. People were reportedly given little or no warning. The rains dumped as much as 28cm (11 inches) of water overnight, forcing many residents to take refuge in trees or on house roofs.

Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche failed to pass on a further 65,000 reports of suspected side effects that were recorded by patients. All of the reactions took place in the United States over the past 15 years with medicines used to treat breast cancer, bowel cancer, hepatitis B, and skin and eye conditions.

Alexander Hamilton, the first US Treasury secretary and the face on the ten-dollar bill, offered cash-strapped states in 1790 a deal they eventually couldn’t refuse: The federal government assumed their debts in return for more centralized power. The alternative risked consigning their creditworthiness to “burst and vanish,” and a breakup, Hamilton warned.

Europe can learn from Hamilton, said Paul de Grauwe, a professor at the London School of Economics and two-time Belgian candidate for a European Central Bank post. “His was a first attempt at pooling debt and as with Germany today there was lots of resistance.”

While policy makers are taking baby steps toward closer ties, national self-interest and ideology leave them balking at the United States of Europe, viewed by some as the only solution to the two-year crisis.

They hone their skills at the head of convoys that trundle along the dusty roads of remote mountainous provinces. As they drive, these soldiers scan ahead for signs of roadside bombs: disturbed earth, a glint of metal, or just something that seems out of place. Spotting them can mean the difference between life and death. Those who are half-jokingly said to possess the “sixth sense” are the ones that seem to have an uncanny ability to spot these almost imperceptible signs of danger. The problem is that it may take several seconds for the brain to become conscious of what it’s seen, and in Afghanistan, that brief time can mean the difference between spotting a bomb, and driving over it and setting it off.

But a device known as an electroencephalogram (EEG) can spot that P300 signal. Hooked into a sophisticated computer that can interpret the signal, it can immediately alert a person to a potential threat, taking a short cut through the brain’s normal conscious processing. Combined with advanced optics, it is possible to imagine a Terminator-like vision system that scans an area and immediately identifies and categorises threats.

They are the Order for Funerals and the Order for the Celebration of Holy Matrimony. There are now three ordinariates established: the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in the United Kingdom; the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter in the United States and Canada; and the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross in Australia. According to a report by Vatican Radio the texts are drawn from the classical Anglican prayer book tradition and incorporate elements of the Anglican patrimony, now in the full communion of the Catholic Church.

Yet the government will not permit farmers to pump the water to save their crops. Many of the farmers have wells that draw groundwater for use in situations like this. But in 2006, the Colorado Supreme Court ordered 440 wells shut down and curtailed the pumping of another 1,000. The decision to shut down the wells came about during a historic drought in the early 2000s that caused water in the South Platte River to become scarce.

Following the shutdowns, the volume of water discharged into the artificial recharge systems in the South Platte Basin has increased, reaching more than 350,000 acre-feet in 2009. The increase in ground water has now come to the point where local basements are being flooded, causing damage to the homes.

Though seemingly insignificant against the backdrop of all the regional and international crises affecting our world, Balochistan is, in fact, a nexus: the point at which diametrically opposing strategic interests converge.

The United States views Balochistan, an area that encompasses western Pakistan, eastern Iran, and a piece of southern Afghanistan, as critical to the maintenance of US hegemony in the Middle East and Central and South Asia. Conversely, China regards the region as necessary for its own economic and political evolution into a world superpower. Seen in this way, Balochistan becomes central to the development of geopolitical power in the 21st Century.

An estimated 16,000 people have died in the government's violent supression of dissent since March 2011, including members of President Bashar Al-Assad's security forces. The diplomats are expected to formulate a plan of measures to increase pressure on the Assad regime. The plan will be submitted to the United Nations.

Researchers said allowing Greece or another member state to quit the European Union’s single currency would have a “distinctly positive” effect. And a smooth departure could be organised secretly within weeks and achieved over a weekend.

The report, by a team at analysts Capital Economics, won the £250,000 Wolfson Economics Prize for the best essay detailing how a country could leave the euro.

Article by Nigel Farage MEP:

I have had enough of being told that we will have an EU referendum “when the time is right”. The time has come for a real debate: I challenge the Prime Minister to debate with me why he will not give us a say on our relationship with the European Union.

The explanation is that it is in our interests to remain a member, so it does not matter what voters think. It’s a case of “I, David Cameron, have made up my mind.” This assertion, shared by almost the entire political class, must be questioned in an open debate. Those of us who have dared to challenge the consensus have been mocked and derided, but opinion polls now show that the British people do not want to be part of a political union.

The Prime Minister overstates the benefits of EU membership. I believe we would be better off out. My parents’ generation voted to remain a part of a Common Market which they believed to be a free-trade agreement that would not impinge on our rights of self-government. We were conned in 1975 and we must not allow that to be repeated today.

The EU is a Seventies solution to a Fifties problem. The world has moved on since the “Common Market”, with World Trade Organisation agreements guaranteeing trading terms. Countries like Norway, Switzerland and even Mexico have free trade deals with the EU. Trade will continue as it does now with consumers making their choices in the marketplace. We are the world’s fifth-largest trading nation and yet, incredibly, we are banned from negotiating our own trade deals around the world. Ukip believes the Commonwealth is a good place to start, with its shared ties, common law, common language and a growth rate that outstrips our European neighbours.

“The future of our nation is at stake. Mr Cameron, you have my phone number”.

DatelineDrought.com has been developed by Farm Progress to provide coverage of the unfolding drought conditions; the website provides drought news from its family of local state and regional agricultural magazines, along with Farm Futures, the nation's leading magazine serving large-scale ag producers.

DatelineDrought.com includes a daily updated video. Most video segments will include a summary hosted by Max Armstrong, Farm Progress broadcast director, and news articles from Farm Progress' extensive staff of editors located throughout the nation.

"In six minutes you can watch the video posted on DatelineDrought.com and get the full agricultural drought impact across the nation," said Willie Vogt, Farm Progress editorial director. "Max Armstrong will host many of the daily updated videos and three times each week we'll feature Greg Soulje with the weather perspective and Bryce Knorr will provide daily market impact coverage."