The union warned the strikes could hit petrol supplies and cripple supermarkets, garages and airports nationwide in the worst industrial action since the fuel blockade of 2000. Voting will start next week among 2,000 drivers, who account for 90 per cent of those supplying petrol to UK forecourts. Unite said there had been 'unrelenting attacks' on drivers’ terms and conditions, adding that it had been trying to establish a forum to agree industry-wide best practice on issues such as safety and training.

Matt Draper, Unite national officer said: 'For over a year we have strived to talk some sense into this industry but they have shown no genuine interest in bringing stability to the supply of this vital national commodity. This is not about pay - this is about ensuring that high safety and training standards are maintained so that our communities are safe. It is about a simple measure, the creation of an industry-wide bargaining forum. It is about bringing fairness and stability back to an industry that is now controlled by faceless global giants.'

'This is a clear case of a predatory industry putting its profits and greed before the wider well-being. This workforce is now saying enough is enough.'

Unite said it will serve notice of the ballot for strike action on Wincanton, DHL, Hoyer, BP, J Suckling, Norbert Dentressangle and Turners. For just over a week in September 2000 the nation came to a virtual standstill as protesters blocked the crucial flow of fuel.

We still don't know that this bat flu virus can infect people, according to Donis, who is chief of the molecular virology and vaccines branch in the influenza division at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He and a team of American and Guatemalan researchers isolated the virus from fruit-eating, little yellow-shouldered bats in Guatemala. So far, there is no evidence the newly discovered virus is causing illness among the bats.

The new virus belongs to a family of flu viruses called Influenza A. Birds are natural hosts for these viruses, but they are found in other animals, too, including pigs, horses, seals and whales — and of course, humans, according to the CDC. The flu viruses that cause pandemics generally emerge from infected animal populations, Donis said.

While bats so far haven't been known to contribute to human flu, they have been found carrying a number of diseases that can affect both us and domestic animals, including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), rabies and hemorrhagic Marburg virus.

"The Irish people will be asked for their authorization in a referendum to ratify the European stability treaty," Prime Minister Enda Kenny told parliament after the state's top lawyer advised that on balance a plebiscite was necessary. Kenny set no date for the vote in a country that received an EU/International Monetary Fund bailout in 2010 after suffering a banking crisis. Public support for the EU has since fallen due to the unpopularity of harsh austerity measures.

Germany's top court earlier overruled government efforts to push decisions on disbursing euro zone bailout funds through a special fast-track parliamentary panel meeting in secret. That may limit Chancellor Angela Merkel's room for maneuver on future bailouts, which was already in doubt after a revolt by 17 lawmakers in her centre-right coalition against a second rescue package for Greece, approved on Monday.

Growing public hostility in Germany to euro zone bailouts could make it harder for Merkel to agree to an increase in the currency bloc's financial firewall, which major economies are demanding as a condition for giving the IMF more money to fight the fallout from the European crisis.

S&P's head of European sovereign ratings, Moritz Kraemer, said the downgrading of Greece's long-term ratings to 'selective default' could well be short-lived but there was a risk Athens could fall back into default later. When assessing what rating to give Greece in the future, S&P would look at the political environment, the growth outlook and the remaining debt stock. "We think that on all three fronts there are huge question marks," said Kraemer.

The first round was carried out on 21 December when banks borrowed 489 billion euros. The programme is credited with restoring confidence in Europe's banks. "In some cases, time has been bought that will enable banks to work through their difficulties," said Bridget Gandy, in a report by the credit rating agency Fitch.

But Fitch warned that for some smaller banks, it is only the ECB funding that is keeping them afloat. "For other already low-rated banks, the long-term refinancing operation's life-support is merely stalling their demise." The second round of loans is expected to be even bigger than the first as some banks have been reluctant to approach the ECB for fear of looking weak. It is hoped that the funds will make banks stronger and encourage them to loan money to business and consumers.

But analysts question whether that has happened. In its report, Fitch said: "Use to date has been predominantly to replace existing forms of funding."

The move is linked to the dispute with Britain over the Falkland Islands, which Argentina claims as the Malvinas. Tension has been rising ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Falklands war. The industry ministry is trying to reduce Argentina's trade deficit with the UK and establish policies that favour countries that recognize Argentina's territorial claim, Telam reported.

In recent months the government of President Cristina Fernandez has stepped up its campaign to assert sovereignty over the Falklands, rallying regional support for its claim. It also has a policy of restricting imports through formal and informal means to try to stop foreign currency reserves from flowing out of the country. On Monday two cruise ships were turned back from the Argentine port of Ushuaia, apparently because they had visited the Falklands.

UK foreign office minister Jeremy Browne expressed "sadness and frustration" at that move. "We enter the relationship with Argentina in a spirit of friendship, and it's source of sadness to us that they don't always do the same," he told parliament. The UK, which has controlled the Falklands since 1833, says there can be no negotiations on sovereignty as long as the 3,000 Islanders wish to remain British.

People on higher doses also have an increased risk of cancer, but even those on the lowest doses – between four to 18 pills a year – have a 3.6 times higher risk of dying compared to non-users. Experts say the benefits of taking the tablets, known as hypnotics, do not justify the risks. Their research, published in the BMJ Open, is worrying because about a third of people in the country are thought to suffer from insomnia brought on by stress, and this leads them to take some form of medication.

Dr Trish Groves, editor in chief of BMJ Open, said: “Although the report’s authors have not been able to prove that sleeping pills cause premature death, their analyses have ruled out a wide range of other possible causative factors.” A wide range of drugs was analysed for the US-based study of more than 10,500 people. They included benzodiazepines, which include temazepam and diazepam, non- benzodiazepines – including zolpidem, zopiclone and zaleplon – barbiturates and sedative antihistamines.

In their report the researchers said a move from pills to therapy for insomnia would be much more beneficial. They added: “Against meagre benefits, it is prudent to weigh the evidence of mortality risks from the current study and 24 previous reports, to reconsider whether even short-term use of hypnotics is sufficiently safe.”

Fixing and expanding underground drinking water systems will cost over $1 trillion in the next 25 years and users will get socked with the bill, according to the American Water Works Association. As with most infrastructure investments, spending heavily now means less costs down the road. But with little appetite in the country for even trickling taxes now, a delayed and more expensive fix is almost guaranteed. The association figures that spending to fix leaky water systems will double from roughly $13 billion a year today to $30 billion annually by 2040.

"Because pipe assets last a long time, water systems that were built in the later part of the 19th century and throughout much of the 20th century have, for the most part, never experienced the need for pipe replacement on a large scale," said the report provided to Washington Secrets. "The dawn of an era in which the assets will need to be replaced puts growing stress on communities that will continue to increase for decades to come." What kind of stress? Families can expect to pay at least $300-$550 more for water in taxes and fees just to keep their current systems operating. Add growth and improved systems, and that bill jumps to $900 for a family of three, said the report.

Currently, Americans pay about $400 a month in water taxes and fees.

There are a couple of major reasons for this. Number one, the Ogallala Aquifer is being depleted at an astounding pace. The Ogallala Aquifer is one of the largest bodies of fresh water in the entire world, and water from it currently irrigates more than 15 million acres of crops. When that water is gone we will be in a world of hurt. Secondly, drought conditions have become the “new normal” in many areas of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and other states in the middle part of the country.

Scientists tell us that the wet conditions that we enjoyed for several decades after World War II were actually the exception to the rule and that most of time the interior west is incredibly dry. They also tell us that when dust bowl conditions return to the area, they might stay with us a lot longer than a decade like they did during the 1930s. Unfortunately, without water you cannot grow food, and with global food supplies as tight as they are right now we cannot afford to have a significant decrease in agricultural production.

But it is not just the central United States that is experiencing the early stages of a major water crisis. Already many other areas around the nation are rapidly developing their own water problems. As supplies of fresh water get tighter and tighter, some really tough decisions are going to have to be made. Fresh water is absolutely essential to life, and it is going to become increasingly precious in the years ahead.

Most Americans have never even heard of the Ogallala Aquifer, but the truth is that it is one of the most important bodies of water on the globe. It covers well over 100,000 square miles and it sits underneath the states of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming and South Dakota. Water drawn from the Ogallala Aquifer is used to water more than 15 million acres of crops. Without this source of water, the United States would not be the breadbasket of the world.

We had a totally different perspective on things in which we essentially said that Iran, with the complicity of major trading partners like China, India and Russia is preparing to phase out the petrodollar: a move which would be impossible if key bilateral trade partners would not agree to it. Gradually it appears this is increasingly the case following a just released Reuters report that "Iran will take payment from its trading partners in gold instead of dollars, the Iranian state news agency IRNA quoted the central bank governor as saying on Tuesday."

Now this would be great news for Greece which as previously reported had at times relied for more than 50% of its crude imports on Iran. There is just one problem: very soon the country will no longer have said gold in its possession, as part of the preapproved Greek bailout of Europe, the country's constitution would be changed to reflect that even its gold now is part of the bailout conditions, and European banks have a lien on it. Especially if said gold is located in the basement of the NY Fed where it most likely resides.

(zerohedge.com confirms - "Ms Katseli, an economist who was labor minister in the government of George Papandreou until she left in a cabinet reshuffle last June, was also upset that Greece’s lenders will have the right to seize the gold reserves in the Bank of Greece under the terms of the new deal".)

Nothing is sacred to Pedro Passos Coelho, not even Carnival. Portugal's prime minister expects government employees at their desks and working on Entrudo, the traditional high point of the country's Carnival celebrations, which falls on this Tuesday. This is "not the time to talk about tradition," the conservative head of state has commanded those of his citizens who see the move as an attack on their culture. Rather, he says, they should stop "whining" about austerity measures. It's time, the prime minister adds, to break free of old structures and to change "lazy and sometimes self-involved patterns of behavior."

Fans of Carnival celebrations are not the only ones affected - churchgoers and nationalists will have to make bitter sacrifices as well. In response to this national state of emergency, the Portuguese government plans to do away with four public holidays. Corpus Christi and Assumption are to be crossed off the calendar without a replacement, and public holidays celebrating Portugal's first republic and the 1640 end to its union with Spain will no longer be commemorated.

This readiness to make sacrifices comes as welcome news to the so-called troika, made up of the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank (ECB), whose officials are currently in Lisbon to evaluate the country's reform program. But does Portugal really have a better chance of avoiding bankruptcy than Greece does? Or is the country simply the next domino destined to fall in the course of the euro crisis?

Financial markets take a far more critical view of Portugal than does the troika. They are assuming there is a 71 percent probability that the country will default within the next five years, as reflected in insurance premiums on Portuguese government bonds - so-called credit default swaps - in early February.

Here's an idea. Police reports used to exclude the ethnic origins of the perpetrators of crimes. Why not apply that practice to reporting the euro crisis? We could stop mentioning which countries are getting aid. Instead of writing about the Greeks or Portuguese, we could just refer to the recipient as a southern European country - or, better yet, of our fellow European citizens in the south. Perhaps that would serve to improve the mood in Europe.

You have to be very careful about what you say these days. One careless statement and suddenly you can get crushed by a wave of emotions. I know what I'm talking about. After the cruise ship accident near Giglio in Italy, I made a few irreverent comments about Italians that seemed to outrage half of Italy. The Italian ambassador in Berlin even gave me a dressing down. I'm just happy that Italy is part of the Schengen Zone. After reading what had been written about me in the Italian press, I don't know whether they would have let me back into the country.

In my defense, I can say that I am not the only person who has unwittingly triggered a diplomatic imbroglio in these difficult times. Who would have thought that people in Athens also listen to SWR 2 radio? But German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble had barely finished an interview with the public radio broadcaster from his southern German home region about the reform efforts of Greek politicians before he was accused of disparaging the Greeks. "Who is this Herr Schäuble who insults Greece?" Greek President Karolos Papoulias roared back at Berlin. Schäuble, too, apparently underestimated how easy it is to insult people in the south.

Sentiment towards the Germans isn't very good in the region right now. Hardly a day goes by without Chancellor Angela Merkel being depicted in a Nazi uniform somewhere. Swastikas are a common sight as well. It doesn't seem to help at all that we faithfully approve one aid package after the other. If calculations by experts are true, then we are far beyond the point where we are just providing loan guarantees.

A good deal of the €130 billion expected to be approved by the German parliament on Monday will never be seen again. But if you read the editorial pages of newspapers in the crisis regions, for whom this money is intended, you would be led to believe that we are out to achieve what our grandfathers failed to do 70 years ago (and this despite the fact that research into Hitler outside of Greece is fairly unanimous in the belief that National Socialism didn't launch its tyranny of Europe with a bailout package). It won't be long before they start burning German flags. We've now become the Americans of Europe.

Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, one of the architects of the European single currency, has stepped into the German debate about the wisdom of providing Greece with further aid. On Tuesday, he urged Germany to stay committed to European unity, which he said remained a matter of war and peace, even 67 years after the end of World War II.

"The current discussion in Europe and the crisis in Greece mustn't lead us to lose sight of or even question or retreat from the goal of a united Europe," Kohl wrote in a guest commentary published in Germany's best-selling daily, Bild, on Tuesday. In a bid to preserve his legacy, the former chancellor, who is 81 and frail, has made several appeals to the German government to show greater leadership and solidarity with struggling euro-zone member states during the crisis. His latest comment coincides with a rift in the center-right coalition of his former protégé, Chancellor Angela Merkel, over whether Greece should remain in the euro zone.

Merkel was forced to rebuke Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich for telling Spiegel that Greece should be encouraged to quit the currency. She also faced a backbench revolt in Monday's parliamentary vote on the second Greek bailout package. "Merkel is losing her powers to convince, and the members of the Bundestag are losing their belief that everything will go according to plan," Gero Neugebauer, a politics professor at Berlin's Free University, told Reuters. Opposition leaders went as far as to say the rebellion signalled the beginning of the end of her government.

“Whatever the nature of schooling – homeschool, private school, Catholic school – we do not tolerate disrespect for differences,” said Donna McColl, Lukaszuk’s assistant director of communications. “You can affirm the family’s ideology in your family life, you just can’t do it as part of your educational study and instruction.”

Paul Faris, president of the Home School Legal Defence Association of Canada, told the news website the Ministry of Education is “clearly signaling that they are in fact planning to violate the private conversations families have in their own homes. A government that seeks that sort of control over our personal lives should be feared and opposed.”

According to the report, a government spokesman said, “You can affirm the family’s ideology in your family life. You just can’t do it as part of your educational study and instruction.” LifeSiteNews reports that the Human Rights Act has been used to target Christians and conservatives across the country, especially those who hold traditional beliefs about homosexuality.

McColl added that Christian homeschooling families can teach biblical lessons on homosexuality in their homes, “as long as it’s not part of their academic program of studies and instructional materials. What they want to do about their ideology elsewhere, that’s their family business,” she said. “But a fundamental nature of our society is to respect diversity.”

Standard & Poor’s said it had put the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the “big bazooka” tasked with raising the bail-out funds, on negative outlook. The rating agency said the fund’s profile was weaker since some of its guarantor countries were stripped of their AAA ratings.

S&P also downgraded Greece to "SD", meaning it believed the country has undergone a selective default. The agency cited Greece's retroactive insertion of collective-action clauses to its debt as the reason for the move.

Over the weekend, the G20 finance minister said they would refuse to grant the eurozone more funds via the International Monetary Fund (IMF) until they were shown “the colour of the eurozone’s money first”. The G20 pushed the decisions back to the European Union leaders, who meet in Brussels on Thursday. Jose Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, said the leaders would decide to boost the bail-out funds - the EFSF and its replacement the European Stability Mechanism (EMS) - but later in March, not this week.

Germany is the biggest contributor to the bail-out funds. Ms Merkel’s official position has been to insist that the “firewall” fund already has enough funding. However, in a speech before the vote, Ms Merkel admitted to the Bundestag there were “no guarantees” the second bail-out would work. But the Chancellor warned: “The risks of turning away from Greece now are incalculable. No one can assess what consequences would arise for the German economy, on Italy, Spain, the eurozone as a whole and finally for the whole world.”

Protestors gathered outside the Bundestag, while Germany’s best selling newspaper, Bild, splashed with the headline: “Billions for Greece – Stop”. The paper called for politicians not to “go any further down this crazy path”. An opinion poll published in a Sunday newspaper found 62 percent of Germans were against the second Greek rescue package while 33 percent were in favour. “Quite clearly the mood in Germany is turning against further rescues for Greece,” said Klaus-Peter Willsch, a member of Ms Merkel’s Christian Democrats party.

The German parliament on Monday approved the €130 billion ($175 billion) second bailout package for Greece with a large majority, as expected. A total of 496 lawmakers voted in favor of the package, with 90 against and five abstentions. The parliament had been all but certain to back the motion because the opposition Social Democrats and Greens said they would support it.

In a slight setback for Angela Merkel, the chancellor failed to secure an absolute majority within her own government coalition. A total of 304 members of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) voted in favor of the bailout, but 311 were required for a majority. Within the CDU/CSU bloc, 13 politicians rejected the bailout, with four members of the FDP joining them to oppose it. Ultimately, Merkel had to rely on opposition support.

In a speech before the vote, the chancellor had conceded that there was no "100 percent guarantee" that the rescue would succeed, but said the potential benefits outweighed the risks. "Europe will fail if the euro fails. Europe wins if the euro wins," she said in a statement to parliament, repeating her mantra that the euro zone must be kept intact despite signs that her coalition is divided on whether Greece can be rescued.