The proposal, made in a speech that also called for tighter borders to keep illegal immigrants out of Europe, was part of a flurry of promises designed to help Sarkozy catch up with Socialist frontrunner Francois Hollande before a presidential vote in late April and May. Sarkozy said European companies should have priority when European states award contracts, but economists warned that the measures, while perhaps smart politics, would face stiff legal and political challenges.

If Europe embraces protectionism "it will be difficult to sustain it against countries like China whose borders we want opened," said Christophe Destais, deputy director of the Paris-based CEPII economic think tank. Measures boosting investment should be "non-protectionist", the EU Financial Services Commissioner Michel Barnier said, while adding that the European Union was working on achieving better reciprocity on investment from trading partners.

Thibault Lanxade from France's MEDEF business lobby supported the idea of an Act but warned that France and other nations had made a commitment to the World Trade Organization in 1994 to compete fairly on public contracts. And preferring Europeans could dash existing efforts towards getting China to join WTO agreements on attributing public contracts, warned Patrick Messerlin, professor of economics at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris.

But WTO or not, Europe would certainly face problems if European companies were officially preferred. And economist Destais wondered whether it was even possible in the 21st century to distinguish local companies from foreign ones. "How can you measure benefits to Europe ... when the manufacturers involved are globalised and use suppliers from all over the world?" Destais asked.

Bailouts for debt-laden countries and a Europe-wide squeeze on public spending are casting doubt over the cost of the whole EU integration project. Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, said: “The high-handed actions of the European elite are succeeding in turning the entire Continent against them.

“No longer are the British people alone in condemning the project. While taxpayers across the Continent have a greater belief in the dream, even they are beginning to have qualms about the practical costs of that dream in these times of austerity.” The poll, the most in-depth survey of its kind in recent years, was carried out by new think tank YouGov-Cambridge, which questioned more than 11,000 voters across the EU. It reveals that Britain and the eurozone countries are heading in “two starkly different directions”.

While the majority of voters in France, Germany and Italy favour more integration, support for the project in the UK drains away. Six out of 10 Britons want a renegotiation of our relationship with Brussels or complete withdrawal. Six out of 10 also back a national referendum.

In contrast 62 per cent of Germans, 61 per cent of Italians and almost half of French voters want greater integration. There is even a majority in Italy in favour of a United States of Europe, an idea also given the backing of four out of 10 French voters. The vast majority of British voters want to reclaim national control in almost all policy areas.

Members of Unasur, the South American equivalent of the EU, called on the UK to negotiate over the islands. The organisation – whose 12 members include Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Uruguay – urged Britain “to restart negotiations as soon as possible with a view to ending the dispute”. Referring to the islands by their Spanish name, it added: “The British military presence in the Malvinas is contrary to regional policy which supports the search for a peaceful solution in the dispute over sovereignty.”

“We reject the development of unilateral activities by Great Britain in the disputed area, which include exploration and exploitation of natural resources as well as military exercises.” Venezuelan foreign minister Nicolas Maduro said: “What Britain has done in the last few weeks is rude.”

“David Cameron and William Hague’s attitudes are ones of arrogance, high-handedness and scorn towards Argentina. And if it’s towards Argentina, it’s towards all of us.”

The situation will worsen this week as governors in two Argentine provinces discuss banning planes from the islands landing except for humanitarian reasons and stop shops displaying clothes with a Union Flag on them. The UK has accused Argentina of a campaign of intimidation towards the Falkland Islands.

The ministry is considering whether to deploy ground-based Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptors and Aegis-equipped destroyers carrying Standard Missile-3 ballistic missile interceptors, Tanaka told reporters at the Air Self-Defense Force's Hyakuri air base in Omitama, Ibaraki Prefecture.

"We are currently doing a mental exercise to prepare (for the planned rocket launch), using the previous incident as our guide," Tanaka said, referring to the government's decision at the time of the launch of long-range ballistic missile by Pyongyang in April 2009.

In March 2009, Yasukazu Hamada, defense minister at the time, issued an order for the Self-Defense Forces to destroy a North Korean rocket or its debris in the event that it fell onto Japanese territory.

With the issuance of the order, the ASDF dispatched units capable of launching PAC-3 missiles to Iwate and Akita prefectures in northeastern Japan as well as the Tokyo metropolitan area, while the Maritime Self-Defense Force deployed three Aegis guided-missile destroyers in the Sea of Japan and the Pacific.

In the common practice of dumping government documents on a Friday afternoon, just as the news cycle is wrapping up for the week – a move critics say allows the administration to avoid widespread coverage of embarrassing actions – the White House released an executive order on “National Defense Resources Preparedness.”

Filled with language about “government-owned equipment” and a “defense executive reserve,” among other vague statements, rumors began to spread that the executive order expanded the president’s power to do everything from seizing whole industries to drafting private armies.

A Canada Free Press article titled “Obama Executive Order: Peacetime Martial Law!” spread concerns of gasoline ration cards; while an Examiner article declared the order would “nationalize everything” and “allow for a civilian draft.” Facebook, email and Twitter were suddenly abuzz, and even the extremely popular Drudge Report posted a link to the White House release under the title “Martial Law? Obama Issues Executive Order.”

Read the order:- http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/03/16/executive-order-national-defense-resources-preparedness

The UN estimates more than 8,000 people have now died in a year-long uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. Al-Mezze has previously been the scene of large anti-government protests. One resident told Reuters news agency that there was "fighting near Hamada supermarket and the sound of explosions there and elsewhere in the neighbourhood". He added: "Security police have blocked several side streets and the street lighting has been cut off."

Opposition activist Amer al-Sadeq told the BBC's World Today programme he had spoken to a contact in al-Mezze who reported four blasts within five minutes and then heavy gunfire. The latest incident follows bomb blasts in Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo over the weekend. The car bomb that exploded in Aleppo on Sunday killed at least two people and injured 30 others.

A day earlier, at least 27 people were reported to have been killed and 97 wounded in two explosions in the capital. State TV described the blasts as "terrorist" attacks.

In the largely ceremonial office of president, Gauck poses no threat to Merkel's domination of national politics, but his moral authority, independence of mind and lack of party affiliation could make him an awkward partner for her government as it struggles to overcome Europe's economic crisis. Gauck, 72, won 991 votes in the federal assembly comprising members of parliament and regional delegates that elects German heads of state. His main rival, veteran anti-Nazi campaigner Beate Klarsfeld, got 126 votes.

Germans hope Gauck, a prominent player in the peaceful protests that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, can restore dignity to the presidency, a post tarnished by financial scandals that toppled his predecessor Christian Wulff. "I take up this post with the endless gratitude of a person who, after a long trek through the political desert of the 20th century, has finally and unexpectedly found his home again and was able to witness in the last 20 years the joy of shaping a democratic society," he said after taking the oath of office.

His victory was never in doubt after all the main political parties, including Merkel's centre-right Christian Democrats, threw their weight behind his candidacy. Merkel played down suggestions that the feisty theologian would use his office as a pulpit to harangue Germany's politicians or that they might clash over policy issues. Eighty percent of Germans trust Gauck, according to an opinion poll by Infratest, yet two thirds said they thought he would be an "uncomfortable" president for the political parties.

Speaking during a Friday breakfast in Washington, Greenert told reporters about the bold plans to deploy more patrol boats, minesweepers, Sea Stallion helicopters and drone subs – all keeping an eye on Iran, which is clearly uncomfortable with being surrounded by the warships of a hostile country. While Greenert had already announced plans to up the number of minesweepers in the region to eight on Wednesday, his latest statements shine a light on the Navy’s long-term perspective.

First of all, Greenert talked about deploying five more patrol boats equipped with Gatling guns and close-range missiles capable of hitting Iranian shores from four miles away. “It’s like being in an alley with a rifle and maybe what you need is a sawed-off shotgun,” he said, talking about the Gatling guns.

Secondly, the Navy is planning on sending torpedoes that can compensate for the “turbidity” and “particulate” drags of the Gulf waters, as Greenert put it.

Thirdly, Drone minesweeping submarines, or as Greenert called them “some underwater unmanned neutralization autonomous units.”

And finally, more aircraft carriers...

The Germans don’t dispute the facts. They know that they alone can afford to bail out the Greeks and that everyone else in the eurozone, including France, has lost their triple-A rating. They know that it has fallen to Germany to establish the near €500 billion (£416 billion) fund that will deal with future debt crises, the catchily named European Stability Mechanism that starts in July. They know that the new rules that David Cameron "vetoed" but did not stop in December will see Germanys 16 fellow eurozone members have their budgets checked – "their homework marked" as one Eurocrat put it – in Berlin.

If fate had played out differently, if Nicolas Sarkozy had emerged as the master of Europe, we would never hear the end of it. If Britain somehow found itself atop the European pile, its prime minister determining the political future of the continent, the British press would revel in the glory. But there is no such triumphalism in Germany. The change in fortune is barely discussed and certainly not celebrated. In the Europe of 2012, Germany stands as a reluctant Goliath.

The explanation goes deeper. "It’s because of our history," says Janecek. Later a leading publisher tells me power makes her fellow Germans "uneasy", that the message drummed into them from childhood is that "a powerful Germany is a dangerous Germany". When I meet Jochen Arntz, features editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung, he says: "We make ourselves smaller than we are. This is a German habit that we’ve learned over the last 50 or 60 years – for reasons we all know."

The war ended closer to 70 years ago, but the shadow it casts is still long and inescapable. Some of this is a fear of what the rest of the world will think, but much of it is a German fear of itself – of what Germany is capable of. This helps account for Merkel’s durable popularity – her low-key, cautious style is suitably unthreatening – and explains why the politician who remarked last year that "Suddenly Europe is speaking German" was so hastily shut up.

There is a risk that Germany’s neighbours, including us, are forgetting this need of the Germans. That amid all the talk of bailouts and fiscal tightening, we forget what the European community was for and the demons that made it necessary. But Germany has not forgotten. GOLIATH IS STILL SCARED OF HIS OWN STRENGTH.

The gay rights movement has been very successful, even just in terms of gay visibility. When people see famous gay people, people whom they like who turn out to be gay, that has a huge impact. People are bigoted about people they don’t know; when you get to know gay people, the homophobia drops off.

Another key area of change is the Internet. The Internet has meant that closeted kids have the ability to make friends, to be more confident, to come out earlier. Social networking sites like Facebook ask you your sexual orientation, you click whether you’re male or female, and then you click whether you’re interested in men or women. When I was at school, that question wasn’t even asked — you were straight, or if you weren’t, you were pitied.

Part of the reason it’s spiraled so quickly is that as homophobia decreased, boys could kind of hug each other a little bit or say to their best mate that they loved them, and then they could kind of cough and talk about girls. Then they realized that actually it wasn’t disgusting or repulsive, and so that undid some of their homophobia a little bit more. It’s a virtuous circle.

Police say the man was beaten and shot on March 10 over a neighborhood dispute as he tried to get a haircut. The victim knew the shooter but not his name, pulled up a Facebook photo and gave it to police. Authorities at the Real Time Crime Center fed the photo through the system and a match appeared: The suspect's prior mug shot. The center has a database of mug shots, names and nicknames. Authorities arrested the 37-year-old suspect about a day later in Brooklyn.

Blast-off will be between April 12 and 16 to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of founding leader Kim Il-Sung, the communist state's official news agency and state television said.

The US State Department called the proposed launch "highly provocative" and a threat to regional security. And it voiced doubt over whether it could move ahead with providing food aid to North Korea if Pyongyang followed through with its threat. "Were we to have a launch, it would create obviously tensions and that would make the implementation of any kind of nutritional agreement quite difficult," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

Nuland said that US diplomats told their North Korean counterparts prior to the February 29 agreement that a missile launch would be a "deal breaker."

The CIA claims it will be able to 'read' these devices via the internet - and perhaps even via radio waves from outside the home. Everything from remote controls to clock radios can now be controlled via apps - and chip company ARM recently unveiled low-powered, cheaper chips which will be used in everything from fridges and ovens to doorbells. The resultant chorus of 'connected' gadgets will be able to be read like a book - and even remote-controlled, according to CIA Director David Petraeus, according to a recent report by Wired's 'Danger Room' blog.

Petraeus says that web-connected gadgets will 'transform' the art of spying - 'allowing spies to monitor people automatically without planting bugs, breaking and entering or even donning a tuxedo to infiltrate a dinner party. 'Transformational’ is an overused word, but I do believe it properly applies to these technologies,' said Petraeus.

'Particularly to their effect on clandestine tradecraft. Items of interest will be located, identified, monitored, and remotely controlled through technologies such as radio-frequency identification, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers, and energy harvesters - all connected to the next-generation internet using abundant, low-cost, and high-power computing.'

Futurists think that one day 'connected' devices will tell the internet where they are and what they are doing at all times - and will be mapped by computers as precisely as Google Maps charts the physical landscape now. Privacy groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation have warned of how information such as geolocation data can be misused - but as more and more devices connect, it's clear that opportunities for surveillance will multiply.

The document (PDF), entitled Terrorism Awareness and Prevention, is presented as a guide for both “residents and workers of New Jersey,” along with employees of federal, state and local agencies, on how to “assist in combating terrorism” by identifying “unusual or suspicious activities and behaviors.”

The guide encourages participants to “look for signs of nervousness in the people you come in contact with.” “Signs will become particularly evident in a person’s eyes, face, neck and body movements. The document then lists examples of suspicious behavior indicative of terrorism, which include, “Exaggerated yawning when engaged in conversation,” “glances,” “cold penetrating stare,” “rigid posture,” and “goose bumps”.

Of course, any of these behaviors could be explained by a million other circumstances and the likelihood that they are indications of terrorist activity is virtually zero. However, as we have seen from recent literature put out by the DHS or related law enforcement bodies, the standard for being characterized as a potential terrorist is getting broader and broader all the time.

Characterizing behavior which millions of Americans engage in every day as a potential indication of terrorism only serves to breed paranoia and distrust. If anything, it actually helps terrorists to blend in and not be identified, by increasing the chances exponentially of innocent Americans being mistaken for terrorists.

US government agencies are growing less patient with their own country with every month. First, paying with cash, shielding your laptop screen and a whole list of other commonplace habits was proclaimed to be suspicious – and if you see something you are prompted to say something. Then, reports emerged that drones are being fetched for police forces. Now, the state of Utah seems to be making way in a bid to host the largest-ever cyber shield in the history of American intelligence. Or is it a cyber-pool?

The NSA maintains that the data center, to be completed by September 2013, is a component of the Comprehensive National Cyber-security Initiative. The facility is to provide technical assistance to the Department of Homeland Security, collect intelligence on cyber threats and carry out cyber-security objectives, reported Reuters. But both ordinary Americans and their intelligence community were quick to dub it “a spy center.” The highly-classified project will be responsible for intercepting, storing and analyzing intelligence data as it zips through both domestic and international networks. The data may come in all forms: private emails, cell phone calls, Google searches – even parking lot tickets or shop purchases.

This means not only exposing Facebook activities or Wikipedia requests, but compromising “the invisible” Internet, or the “deepnet.” Legal and business deals, financial transactions, password-protected files and inter-governmental communications will all become vulnerable. Once communication data is stored, a process known as data-mining will begin. Everything a person does – from traveling to buying groceries – is to be displayed on a graph, allowing the NSA to paint a detailed picture of any given individual’s life.

William Binney, NSA’s former senior mathematician-gone-whistleblower, holds his thumb and forefinger close together and tells the on-line magazine: “WE ARE THAT FAR FROM A TURNKEY TOTALITARIAN STATE.”