Moreover, if Iran goes ahead with a threat to blockade oil exports via the Straits of Hormuz in the Gulf, the IMF said the shock could be even greater. About a quarter of all oil produced globally, and some 40% of all oil exports - including those from Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia - are shipped through the Straits each year.

"A blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would constitute, and be perceived by markets to presage, sharply heightened global geopolitical tension involving a much larger and unprecedented disruption," the Fund said in a regular note to the Group of 20 leading industrialised countries. The market is already pricing in a small risk of an escalation of tensions between Iran on the one hand, and the US, Europe and Israel on the other, according to the IMF's estimates.

From now, users will simply be notified that they are being 'updated' via an announcement at the top of their home page, which users click on to activate Timeline.

As with voluntary switches to Timeline, those who are 'updated' will have just seven days to select which photos, posts and life events they want to advertise to the world.

Via the official Facebook blog, the site announced, 'Last year we introduced timeline, a new kind of profile that lets you highlight the photos, posts and life events that help you tell your story.'

'Over the next few weeks, everyone will get timeline. When you get timeline, you'll have 7 days to preview what's there now. This gives you a chance to add or hide whatever you want before anyone else sees it.'

Timeline has been criticised for showing off pictures and posts that people might have wanted to forget.

For example, if you spend an hour signed in to a Google account searching the Web for skateboards, the next time you log into YouTube, you might get recommendations for videos featuring Tony Hawk, along with ads for his merchandise and the nearest place to buy them. However, this could also apply to searches relating to sensitive topics such as meetings in your calendar. Privacy problems are particularly pertinent to those who share a Google account with other members of their family.

Cecilia Kang, of the Washington Post, described collation of vast tracts of information as a ‘massive cauldron of data.’ ‘Privacy advocates say Google's changes betray users who are not accustomed to having their information shared across different Web sites.’ she said. ‘A user of Gmail, for instance, may send messages about a private meeting with a colleague and may not want the location of that meeting to be thrown into Google's massive cauldron of data or used for Google's maps application.’

Technology site Gizmodo said that the change was the end of Google’s ‘don’t be evil’ motto. The site’s Mat Honan wrote: ‘It means that things you could do in relative anonymity today, will be explicitly associated with your name, your face, your phone number. If you use Google's services, you have to agree to this new privacy policy. It is an explicit reversal of its previous policies.’ Larry Dignan, meanwhile, writing on ZDnet.com, described the new policy as ‘Big Brother-ish’.

He wrote: ‘Google will know more about you than your wife does. Everything across your screens will be integrated and tracked.’ Google noted that it collects information you provide, data from your usage, device information and location. Unique applications are also noted.

The European sanctions, which follow a similar move by the US, provide for a grace period lasting until July 1, during which standing contracts with the Islamic Republic may be honored. However Iranian MPs are drafting a new law, which would stop short all supply to Europeans as soon as possible, according to Nasser Soudani, a member of the parliament’s energy committee.

“A number of representatives of the Majlis [Iranian parliament – RT] and I are seeking to approve a plan according to which all European countries that made Iran the target of their sanctions will not be able to buy even one drop of oil from Iran, and oil taps will be turned off to them so that they will not play with fire again,” Soudani told the Fars News Agency on Wednesday. The legislation may be voted on in the parliament as early as this Sunday. If imposed, such a ban would result in a fuel shortage in Europe, as the countries, which joined the sanctions while receiving a considerable amount of crude from Iran, would not have enough time to secure a substitute.

Countries like Italy and Greece refine oil from Iran at plants tailored to a particular blend of crude, and readjusting them to another sort of oil would be costly both in terms of time and money. Soudani says the sanctions may eventually force buyers to acquire Iranian oil through intermediaries, and the cost of the fuel would be inflated by both rising market prices, and middlemen’s fees. “European firms have no alternative but to enter into contracts with us, since abandoning Iran’s oil would mean the extinguishing of the candles of their economic lives,” the Iranian MP predicted.

It is a little hard to know, given that what is deemed a “safe level” of radiation is determined by politics… rather than science. For example, current safety standards are based on the ridiculous assumption that everyone exposed is a healthy man in his 20’s – and that radioactive particles ingested into the body cause no more damage than radiation hitting the outside of the body.

And one of the main advisors to the Japanese government on Fukushima announced: "If you smile, the radiation will not affect you."

In the real world, however, even low doses of radiation can cause cancer. Moreover, small particles of radiation – called “internal emitters” – which get inside the body are much more dangerous than general exposures to radiation. And radiation affects small children much more than full-grown adults.

Indeed, instead of doing much to try to protect their citizens from Fukushima, Japan, the US and the EU all just raised the radiation levels they deem “safe”. Nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen says that high-level friends in the State Department told him that Hillary Clinton signed a pact with her counterpart in Japan agreeing that the US will continue buying seafood from Japan, despite that food not being tested for radioactive materials.

In reality, not only is there overwhelming evidence that low doses of radiation can cause cancer, but there is some evidence that low doses can – in certain circumstances cause more damage than higher doses.

The 15-page warning was compiled by experts and presented to then-prime minister Naoto Kan two weeks after the March 11 earthquake and tsunamis that triggered nuclear-reactor meltdowns at a power plant northeast of Tokyo and forced 80,000 nearby residents to flee. The twin disasters left 20,000 people dead or missing. After Mr Kan received the report on March 25, he and other Japanese officials publicly insisted there was no need to prepare for wide-scale evacuations.

The Associated Press quotes Cabinet minister Goshi Hosono as saying the scenario was "based on hypothesis, and even in the event of such a development, we were told that residents would have enough time to evacuate." The report, leaked recently to the Associated Press, detailed several ways the nuclear crisis could escalate, including reactor explosions, complete core meltdowns and structural failures preventing water pools from cooling spent nuclear fuel.

The authors are quoted as saying "we can not rule out further developments that may lead to an unpredictable situation" at the plant, if the meltdowns spiral out of control and radiation levels spike. In that case, the authors said evacuations should be ordered within a 170-kilometer radius, with voluntary evacuations provided for everyone living within 250 kilometers and beyond. The largest proposed evacuation area would have included Tokyo and its suburbs, with a population of 35-million residents.

The fresh crisis in Britain's factories dealt a blow to the Coalition, which has pinned its hopes for recovery on UK industry. The economy's worse-than-expected performance, which put annual growth for 2011 in line with forecasts at 0.9 per cent, came as the Bank of England revealed that the private sector is planning job cuts – undermining hopes that it might pick up the slack from the roughly 110,000 public sector redundancies expected this year.

The Bank's summary of business conditions said: "Having already pared back non-labour costs as much as possible during the recession, many business services contacts now felt that they would be forced to reduce staff numbers." Bankers, lawyers, accountants, retailers and hauliers are expected to be worst hit in the "shakeout". Even manufacturers, which have enjoyed strong growth, "reported they were taking a pause from further recruitment" the Bank said. Unemployment is already at a 17-year high of 2.68m, or 8.4 per cent.

The prime minister said he wanted decisions made at a national level to be "treated with respect". Labour have accused the PM of "peddling myths" that "denigrate" the court. The UK currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of Europe, and in his speech to its Parliamentary Assembly on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Cameron promised to use the remaining months of its term to press for change.

The UK has clashed with the European court over a number of issues. Last week, Strasbourg upheld a challenge by radical preacher Abu Qatada that deporting him from the UK to Jordan would breach his human rights. Westminster is also embroiled in a row with the court over voting rights for prisoners. The UK's blanket ban on prisoners voting has been held as incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights but last year MPs voted to keep it - although the vote was not binding. A new ruling is due on the case soon. In his speech, Mr Cameron said no-one should "doubt the British commitment to defending human rights", but that did not mean "sticking with the status quo".

He argued there were three main problems facing the court - the first being the huge backlog of more than 150,000 cases. Second, he said, was the fact that many of the waiting cases were trivial and were effectively turning the institution into "a small claims court". The third problem, Mr Cameron said, was that the court is failing to take "enough account... of democratic decisions by national parliaments".

"Yes, some of this is misinterpretation - but some of it is credible democratic anxiety, as with the prisoner voting issue. "I completely understand the court's belief that a national decision must be properly made, but in the end, I believe that where an issue like this has been subjected to proper, reasoned democratic debate and has also met with detailed scrutiny by national courts in line with the convention, the decision made at a national level should be treated with respect."

Senomyx, a California-based biotechnology company that specializes in developing food flavorings, is one such company that uses aborted embryonic cells to create "isolated human taste receptors," which are used in the production of food chemicals. And this company has partnered with several major food manufacturers, including Kraft, PepsiCo, and Nestle. "There is a potential that there are companies that are using aborted human babies in their research and development of basically enhancing flavor for artificial flavors," Senator Shortey is quoted as saying by KRMG News Talk Radio. "What I am saying is that if it does happen then we are not going to allow it to manufacture here."

According to Children of God for Life (CGL), a pro-life watchdog group, Senomyx uses HEK 293 to produce its artificial flavor enhancing chemicals. HEK 293 is code for human embryonic kidney cells that are manipulated to produce taste receptors that express a specific protein known as the G protein. But CGL says the company could also use animal, insect, or other more acceptably-derived cells instead, and still procure the same results. While aborted fetal cells are not necessarily in the final products made by PepsiCo, Kraft, or Nestle, such cells appear to needlessly play a part in the production of artificial flavor chemicals used by these companies. And since there are viable alternatives to this questionable practice, Senator Shortey, CGL, and many others are calling for its end.

As we reported previously, the Campbell Soup company used to be a Senomyx partner until CGL contacted them about the fetal cell issue. Shortly thereafter, reports indicate that Campbell's officially cut ties with Senomyx, which in 2003 filed a patent for "recombinant (genetically modified) methods for expressing a functional sweet taste receptor."

Over the past few weeks, a nationwide general strike has paralyzed the country, during the course of which, government repressive forces have killed at least nine people. The widespread impoverishment of broad sections of the population in this country rich in petroleum and natural gas is the primary reason for these protests. Germany is interested in more than only Nigeria's natural resources; Germany also attributes significant geo-strategic importance to Nigeria, as a western proxy in African conflicts as well as a deputy in fighting against piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.

Apprehension is now growing in government circles in Berlin, that Nigeria could be politically destabilized, which, in the eyes of Germany, would reduce its geo-strategic usefulness. By intensifying cooperation with Abuja, the German government is attempting to counteract this development. Since the end of last year, social conflicts in Nigeria have been escalating to such an extent that observers are warning that the country could drift into civil war. First, terror attacks by Islamist groups in the north of the country increased, causing 50 deaths, while simultaneously the violent conflicts in the Niger Delta over the apportionment of petroleum wealth were ongoing.

A nationwide general strike started last week. President Goodluck Jonathan's cancellation of gasoline subventions - tantamount to doubling gasoline prices - was the spark that set off the protests, in which millions of Nigerians participated. The government reacted with brutal repression. At least nine people have been killed in skirmishes with government repressive forces. Jonathan has backtracked on some of his subvention reductions, causing the protests to abate - at least for now.

Germany is pursuing its cooperation with Nigeria on a bilateral level to secure its economic and geo-strategic interests in that country. In early December 2011, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle met his Nigerian counterpart Olugbenga Ashiru. The talks focused on future intensification of the strategic partnership. They agreed to establish a bi-national commission, which will hold "regular consultations on bilateral, regional and international issues." The current escalation of violence in Nigeria will give enough reason for discussion at the first of these meetings planned for this year.

He admitted being desperate to sweep away the “colonial nonsense” of British rule over the Rock and agreed a deal without letting the people of Gibraltar know. The plot was thwarted when Tony Blair and Spanish Premier Jose Maria Aznar had second thoughts.

In his book Outside In, he also revealed Mr Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw enthusiastically backed a plan for sharing sovereignty of Gibraltar that would have brought 300 years of British rule to an end. “Jack’s desire to do something about Gibraltar coincided with my gut instinct that it was ridiculous in the modern age for Britain to have a colony on the tip of Spain nearly 2,000 miles away,” Mr Hain wrote.

Mr Blair supported the plan “because he attached great importance to a close relationship with Spain and Italy in that order,” said Mr Hain, adding: “I don’t regret what we did.” Tory MP Andrew Rosindell said: “This is to Labour’s eternal shame. Tony Blair and Peter Hain were quite willing to sacrifice those people without any democratic choice.”

Khamenei has been heard to say that the coming of the last Islamic Messiah, the Shiites’ 12th Imam Mahdi, is near and that specific actions need to be taken to protect the Islamic regime for upcoming events. Mahdi, according to Shiite belief, will reappear at the time of Armageddon.

Selected forces within the Revolutionary Guards and Basij reportedly have been trained under a task force called “Soldiers of Imam Mahdi” and they will bear the responsibility of security and protecting the regime against uprisings. Many in the Guards and Basij have been told that the 12th Imam is on earth, facilitated the victory of Hezbollah over Israel in the 2006 war and soon will announce publicly his presence after the needed environment is created.

According to SepahOnline, sources within the Vali’eh Amr, the revolutionary forces in charge of the supreme leader’s protection, report that Khamenei held several meetings in recent days at which the leader instructed his advisers to tighten the grip on anyone who opposes or might oppose the regime in case of war.

The US, Britain and France are sending additional naval forces into the Gulf. The European Union is taking new steps to impose an oil embargo on Iran. The US is taking steps to sanction Iran’s third largest bank, though dragging its feet on actually sanctioning Iran’s Central Bank. Adding to the regional tensions, Russia is lashing out at the EU and selling $550 million worth of arms to one of Iran’s key regional allies. Will such Western moves be enough to stop Iran from building an arsenal of nuclear weapons?

Personally, I’m not convinced. Such moves would have been good a few years ago. Now they strike me as too little too late, especially after the Obama White House disastrous decision recently to cancel joint military exercises with Israel for fear of being “too provocative” towards Iran. But it doesn’t matter what I think. What matters is what Netanyahu thinks. If he decides the West isn’t doing enough and Iran is going to get the Bomb, then he is going to hit Iran hard, soon, and without warning.

In that context, it’s worth noting a speech Netanyahu gave Tuesday warning his nation that the world has not internalized the lessons of the Holocaust. ”Speaking at the Knesset just days before International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27), Netanyahu reasoned that the Jewish people must not put their fate in the hands of the international community,” reported the Jerusalem Post. ”Posing a rhetorical question, Netanyahu asked, ‘How does the world react to the calls for genocide against the Jews today?’

‘Seventy years after the shoa [Holocaust], Iran is calling for us to be wiped off the map, Hezbollah is calling for our extinction, as are many in Hamas. The Jerusalem Mufti [Sheikh Muhammad Hussein] called on Sunday for Jews to be killed wherever they are echoing his predecessor Haj Amin Al Husseini, who actively helped Hitler and Eichman,’ he said. ‘I do not hear the international community condemning this. I hear them condemning buildings in the West Bank. But I don’t hear them condemning this incitement,’ said Netanyahu.”

Could Netanyahu be signaling that his patience — and that of the Israeli government and military – is running out?

Users will have no way to opt out of being tracked across the board when the search company unifies its privacy policy and terms of service for all its online offerings, including search, Gmail and Google+. The move is being criticised by privacy advocates and could attract greater scrutiny from anti-trust regulators. "If you're signed in, we may combine information you've provided from one service with information from other services," Google's director of privacy, product and engineering, Alma Whitten, wrote in a blogpost.

After the new policy comes into effect, user information from most Google products – such as YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps, Google+ and Android mobile – will be treated as a single trove of data, which the company could use for targeted advertising or other revenue-raising purposes. An article in the Washington Post raised concerns about details of people's private meetings, health, politics and finances becoming part of their digital dossier kept by Google. Confidential discussions via Gmail of a meeting location might be transferred to Google Maps without the user's consent, for example.

"There is no way anyone expected this," Jeffrey Chester, executive director of privacy advocacy group the Centre for Digital Democracy, told the Washington Post. "There is no way a user can comprehend the implication of Google collecting across platforms for information about your health, political opinions and financial concerns." Google said it expected to roll out the revised guidelines on 1 March, consolidating more than 70 privacy policies covering all of its products.

Austria's finance minister Maria Fekter said patience with Athens is exhausted. "Greece has failed its austerity targets by a wide margin. The Greeks have made decisions, but they weren't implemented. They have agreed to austerity measures, but costs haven't come down. This situation has caused great consternation," she said at a meeting of EU finance minister in Brussels. "We're sending a direct message to Greece that the community expects more. We're not pleased and only when there's a written message on the table in front of us, can further assistance be discussed," she said.

The head of the European Commission's economics team Mario Buti said Brussels is prepared to allow credit default swaps (CDS) on Greek bonds to come into play if talks fail to reach a deal that gives Greece enough debt relief to claw its way back to viability. "Triggering CDS may have to be considered," he said. The comment is a clear warning to private creditors holding €206 billion (£172 billion) of Greek debt that the EU will not step in with fresh money to prevent a default on March 20, when Greece must make a €14.5 billion debt payment.

Charlesa Dallara, the head of the International Institute for Finance (IIF) representing creditor banks, said EU officials were playing with fire by talking about default and demanded that the EU stick to the agreement reached last October. "We put an offer on the table and it remains on the table. All parties need to contribute to the solution. We are wiping off the face of the earth €100 billion in existing claims against Greece," he told Bloomberg.

The continued failure to reach a deal began to rattle markets, halting the last week's rally on bourses on both sides of the Atlantic.