The Pope, who turns 85 on April 16, looked tired during Easter services in Rome. His duties included leading the annual Way of the Cross procession around the Colosseum on Good Friday and celebrating Mass on Sunday in St Peter's Basilica. During his traditional "Urbi et Orbi" (Latin for "to the city and to the world") Easter speech he called for an end to the bloodshed in Syria and for a return to peace in Mali, which was recently hit by a military coup.

During his trip to Mexico and Cuba last month, he used a walking stick publicly for the first time, amid long-standing concerns for his physical wellbeing. Instead of walking down the long central aisle of St Peter's, he travels on a platform on wheels which is pushed by Vatican aides.

A columnist with The Washington Times declared the mid-March order — an update of a 60-year-old document outlining the president's authority in a national emergency — "stunning in its audacity and a flagrant violation of the Constitution." The conservative Drudge Report website linked to it with the headline, "Martial Law?" And Adams, Republican for Orlando, said it "leaves the door open for the president to give himself control over American resources during both times of peace, and national crisis."

So Adams filed a nonbinding resolution specifying what Obama cannot do with the order — including institute a draft, confiscate personal property and "force civilians to engage in labor against their will or without compensation." As written, the executive order outlines the powers the president can exercise "in the event of a potential threat," such as mobilizing for war. These range from the mundane, such as preparing disaster plans, to more robust authority that includes taking control of civil transportation and forcing US companies to prioritize defense contracts.

All this has been on the books for decades. Experts on national-security law say the big difference between what Obama signed and the version in place since President Bill Clinton was in office is reference to the Department of Homeland Security, which wasn't around then. "It's valid to be concerned that the president has too many powers that are justified by national-defense needs," said Benjamin Friedman, a defense expert with the libertarian Cato Institute. "But this executive order doesn't change much compared to prior executive orders that Republican and Democratic presidents have put in place."

Adams denies any political motivation and said she was doing her duty to uphold the US Constitution. Still, she is running in a tough Republican primary against veteran US Representative John Mica of Winter Park and is positioning herself as the hard-line conservative in that race.

John Kampfner, the chief executive of the Index on Censorship, clarified Cameron’s comments: “It’s very easy to defend the case of black and white – human rights against dictatorships around the world. But as soon as our own Western-style stability of the state is called into question, well then freedom of expression is expendable. There should be one rule for all including Western governments.” Cameron’s comments are viewed as a response to China and Russia. Both countries have pushed for tighter regulation of the internet through binding international treaties.

In the United States, the government has used a mostly phantom cyber threat to call for draconian legislation to control the internet. In January, Senators Joseph Lieberman (Independent for Connecticut) and Susan Collins (Republican for Maine) renewed their call for an “internet kill switch” that would allow the president to shut down the internet in response to a national emergency.

The effort came as the Egyptian government shut down the internet in response to demonstrations calling for the removal of president Hosni Mubarak. The move demonstrated that governments have the ability and technical capacity to shut down the internet in response to political crises.

“If given the proper authorization, the United States government could stop files in the process of being stolen from getting to the Chinese hackers.” Clarke writes. “If government agencies were authorized to create a major program to grab stolen data leaving the country, they could drastically reduce today’s wholesale theft of American corporate secrets.”

While Clarke may well be coming at this subject well intentioned, the fact that government has a long history of attempting to crackdown on internet freedom and control the web will mean his words are a cause of concern for many. “Under Customs authority, the Department of Homeland Security could inspect what enters and exits the United States in cyberspace…” Clarke continues. “And under the Intelligence Act, the president could issue a finding that would authorize agencies to scan Internet traffic outside the United States and seize sensitive files stolen from within our borders.”

We have seen with the recent attempts to pass legislation such as SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA, that the federal government is hell bent on skirting around legal oversight in order to seize more control over web content and communications. While those particular bills have more of a focus on copyright protection, there is a huge move afoot to use the issue of cybersecurity as a means to crack down on the free internet.

Essentially all of these bills legislate for moves by the federal government to access and monitor the online communications of all Americans, much like the more open agenda of the British government to snoop on citizens.

And developer Larry Hall has options to retro-fit three more Cold War-era silos when this one fills up. "They worry about events ranging from solar flares, to economic collapse, to pandemics to terrorism to food shortages," Hall told AFP on a tour of the site. These "doomsday preppers", as they are called, want a safe place and he will be there with them because Hall, 55, bought one of the condos for himself. He says his fear is that sun flares could wipe out the power grid and cause chaos. He and his wife and son live in Denver and will use their condo mostly as a vacation home, he says, but if the grid goes, they will be ready.

Hall isn't the first person to buy an abandoned nuclear missile silo and transform at least part of it into a shelter. Built to withstand an atomic blast, even the most paranoid can find comfort inside concrete walls that are nine feet thick and stretch 174 feet (53 meters) underground. Instead of simply setting up shop in the old living quarters provided for missile operators, Hall is building condos right up the missile shaft. Seven of the 14 underground floors will be condo space selling for $2 million a floor or $1 million a half floor. Three and a half units have been sold, two contracts are pending and only two more full units are available, Hall said.

Doomsday fears have flourished throughout history, but what once involved isolated pockets of fear now spreads worldwide through the media and Internet. They have also expanded into the popular culture thanks to the success of dystopian fantasies like the Hunger Games and a National Geographic reality show about those preparing for doomsday. "Fear sells even better than sex," said John Hoopes, a professor in the anthropology department at the University of Kansas who has studied the spread of doomsday culture.

"We just don't see people walking up, looking for jobs like they used to," he says. Now he has to pay a labor contractor to find enough people to tend his 2,200 furrowed acres under the harsh Sonoran sun near Yuma, in the southwestern corner of Arizona. The dwindling supply of labor available to Mr Dunn illustrates a significant shift in migration from Mexico, which has caused illegal immigration to drop to its lowest levels.

Even as states loudly debate new immigration restrictions – including Arizona's proposed armed, all-volunteer state militia to keep Mexicans from sneaking across the US-Mexican border – research suggests the illegal immigration has slowed. The migration explosion that since the 1970s had pushed millions of men, women, and children into the United States has fizzled, says Douglas Massey, a sociologist at Princeton University and codirector of the long-term, binational Mexican Migration Project. "We're at a turning point, and what unfolds in the future remains to be seen. But I think the boom is over."

Mr Massey's research shows that after the US recession hit, the illegal population fell from about 12 million to 11 million, where it has hovered since 2009 (about 60 percent of the illegal population is Mexican). The shrinking labor pool already is having an impact in agricultural fields scattered throughout the US, some say.

Meanwhile, South Korean officials say new satellite images suggest the North is preparing to carry out a third nuclear test. The images show piles of earth and sand at the entrance of a tunnel at the Punggye-ri site, where tests of a nuclear bomb were previously carried out in 2006 and 2009, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reports.

"Recent satellite images led us to conclude the North has been secretly digging a new underground tunnel in the nuclear test site... besides two others where the previous tests were conducted," one unnamed official told the AFP news agency. North Korea has been under close scrutiny by its neighbours and the international community since Kim Jong-un became leader of the secretive state following the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in December 2011.

Pyongyang has previously said the launch, for "peaceful purposes", is to mark the centennial of the birth of founding leader Kim Il-sung. But the United States and North Korea's neighbours say it contravenes UN resolutions that were imposed after a similar launch in April 2009. Japan and South Korea have warned they will shoot the rocket down if it strays into their territory. The North says any of those responses would be considered hostile acts. But it seems determined to go ahead even if it sets off a dangerous cascade of events, says our correspondent.

As the legendary journalist John Pilger said in April 2009, "No one knew what the new brand actually stood for." Since it stands for nothing, the Obama brand is falling into oblivion. Obama, who was sold as the defender of the rule of law and the rights of the American people, is now being exposed to be a liar and a fraud.

Obama is a fig leaf, and the hijacked US government is a hollowed out rotten tree that is barely standing. It has had no real power since it abandoned the American people and the US Constitution on November 22, 1963, when America's last real president was assassinated. Such a weak structure cannot survive the storms of change. It is bound for failure and catastrophe just like the Soviet system and Nazi Germany. In some ways, the cult of Obama is similar to the cults of Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Khomeini, and other totalitarian cult personalities of the 20th century.

The CIA and Mossad may commit a new staged terrorist attack in an American city to mobilize public support for the declining Obama presidency and a war against Iran, but such a desperate move by the power elite will not produce the desired change in public perception. It will only accelerate the collapse of the Obama White House, the bankster hijacked US government, and the terrorist state in Israel. The war criminals in Washington, London, and Tel Aviv have already lost the war for the global narrative of history. No amount of lies, propaganda, false flag terror attacks, and wars can rehabilitate the power and prestige of these three totalitarian terrorist states.

Easter for Christians commemorates Christ's triumph over death with his resurrection following his crucifixion."Life is stronger than death. Good is stronger than evil. Love is stronger than hate. Truth is stronger than lies," Benedict, wearing white robes in a symbol of new life, told the faithful in a packed St Peter's Basilica.

Still, Benedict worried in his homily: "The darkness that poses a real threat to mankind, after all, is the fact that he can see and investigate tangible material things, but cannot see where the world is going or whence it comes, where our own life is going, what is good and what is evil."

"The darkness enshrouding God and obscuring values is the real threat to our existence and to the world in general," the pope said. "If God and moral values, the difference between good and evil, remain in darkness, then all other 'lights,' that put such incredible technical feats within our reach, are not only progress but also dangers that put us and the world at risk," Benedict added.

"We think it’s a little bit strange to hear such voices," Ambassador Gábor Győriványi told Zenit March 27th. "The real founding fathers of the European Union planned to base the Union on Christian values, and expressed the notion that European democracy can only be viable if constructed on the Christian basis." The preamble of the new Constitution, or "Fundamental Law," which came into force January 1, contains references to God, Christianity, and traditional family values. It further stipulates that the life of a fetus be protected from the moment of conception (abortion remains legal, however, in cases where the mother’s health is threatened).

The Constitution states that it recognizes the role of Christianity "in preserving nationhood"; it requires that marriage only be between a man and a woman; it assigns parents, rather than the State, primary responsibility for protecting the rights of the child; and it holds that "the family and the nation constitute the principal framework of our coexistence." In sum, it marks a refreshing change in stark contrast to a Europe suffering from increasing secularism and a European Union that only a few years ago tried to push through its own Constitution, which conspicuously omitted references to God or Christianity. It also points to the positive contribution some former Eastern bloc countries could make to the spiritual well-being of the continent.

"We hope that perhaps some of Europe’s new democracies - Poland, the Baltic states, as well as Hungary - can give an impetus to a Christian renaissance, a coming back to the original vision of the founding fathers," said Ambassador Győriványi. The Hungarian government has welcomed the Holy See’s support which, according to Ambassador Győriványi, is "very happy" with the pro-life and pro-Christian clauses. He also stressed the Vatican has not been involved in any way in the Constitution process. But he would naturally like more backing from both the Catholic Church and other Christian groups.

A front-page commentary in the newspaper left no doubt the party leadership wants to inoculate People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops against rumours that could corrode the authority of President Hu Jintao. The paper admonished soldiers to 'resolutely resist the incursion of all kinds of erroneous ideas, not be disturbed by noise, not be affected by rumours, and not be drawn by undercurrents, and ensure that at all times and under all circumstances the military absolutely obeys the command of the Party central leadership, the Central Military Commission and Chairman Hu.'

Although the coup rumours were unfounded, their spread and the government’s tightening of Internet controls and warnings to ignore such talk have raised jitters about stability in the superpower. In addition, the military has been shaken by a separate corruption scandal in the run-up to the party leadership change.

The rumours fed on speculation about the ousting of Bo Xilai, who in mid-March was removed as party boss of Chongqing city in southwest China, over a month after his vice mayor, Wang Lijun, fled to a US consulate, triggering a scandal exposing accusations of infighting and abuses of power. Charismatic Bo had wrapped himself in populist rhetoric and egalitarian vows, and his removal has stirred open opposition from leftist supporters who see him as the victim of a plot.

A great poem it is not. Nor is it a brilliant political analysis. But the brief lines that Günter Grass has published under the title "What Must Be Said" will one day be seen as some of his most influential words. They mark a rupture. It is this one sentence that we will not be able to ignore in the future: "The nuclear power Israel is endangering a world peace that is already fragile." It is a sentence that has triggered an outcry. Because it is true. Because it is a German, an author, a Nobel laureate who said it. Because it is Günter Grass who said it. And therein lies the breach. And, for that, one should thank Grass. He has taken it upon himself to utter this sentence for all of us. A much-delayed dialogue has begun.

It is a discussion about Israel and whether Israel is preparing a war against Iran, a country whose leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has threatened Israel, referring to it as a "cancer" that must be "wiped off the map." Israel, a country that has been surrounded by enemies for decades, many of whom believe that Israel has no right to exist - even independent of its policies. It is a war that could plunge the entire world into the abyss. When a German speaks about such things, Germany must be part of the discussion - and Germany's historical responsibility.

Such debates follow a pre-established pattern. Grass knew that he would be chided as an anti-Semite - a risk taken by any German critic of Israel. Indeed, Mathias Döpfner - the head of the publishing house Axel Springer, the parent company of the country's largest daily, Bild - accused Grass of "politically correct anti-Semitism" in a Thursday editorial. Döpfner, a man who fancies himself the guardian of German-Israeli relations, also suggested that Grass should be committed to a historical rehabilitation center and inserts a few jabs about Grass' long-secret World War II membership in the Waffen-SS. Yes, Grass has to deal with such charges, as well.

Some of this cash ended up in the sovereign bond markets, helping reduce the rates countries need to pay to raise funds after a year of high tension over whether Italy and Spain - the eurozone's third and fourth largest economies - might also need to be bailed out after Greece, Ireland and Portugal. "The first quarter was exceptional for eurozone state borrowing," said Jean-Francois Robin at France's Natixis bank.

The first three months of the year are important as countries often try to meet a huge chunk of their annual borrowing needs at the outset and they made the most of the early calm. "Paris and Berlin borrowed at historically very favourable rates and Madrid got a long way towards covering its financing needs this year," noted Robin. Spain covered 43 percent of its annual medium and long term financing needs in the first quarter, taking advantage of rates of around 4.0 percent compared to near 7.0 percent at the height of the crisis late last year.

But in the first week of April the calm on European debt markets abruptly ended. Spain barely raised the amount it sought in a bond auction on Wednesday and had to pay investors sharply higher rates just after announcing a tough 2012 budget that aims to make a whopping 27 billion euros in savings. Madrid's warning that its public debt will jump by 10 percentage points this year to nearly 80 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) clearly rattled investors who also faced the prospect of an economy slipping deeper into recession.

The latest economic data present a grim picture, with German industrial output declining by 1.3 percent in February and a survey of purchasing managers suggesting a manufacturing slowdown and that the eurozone has gone into recession. "Not only does that undermine the chances of Germany spending more on other countries' exports but, if the hyper-efficient and competitive German industrial sector cannot stay out of recession, what hope is there that the peripheral economies will achieve the growth they need to get out of their fiscal mess?" asked Capital Economics' Loynes.

The Advertising Standards Authority condemned material handed out by the Healing on the Streets group in Bath as misleading after a complaint was made by an atheist. The authority, chaired by former Labour Culture Secretary Lord Smith, also warned that the leaflets could deter sick people from seeking essential medical attention.

Mr Streeter has now called on Lord Smith to say ‘on what scientific research or empirical evidence’ the ASA based its decision. He also challenged him to say whether his authority would now rebuke the tens of thousands of football fans who have been praying for Fabrice Muamba, the Premiership player who suffered a heart attack in the middle of a game. Mr Streeter said: ‘It’s a pretty remarkable thing that the ASA can make such a statement, especially at the same time as we are all supposed to be praying for Fabrice Muamba.’

The MP, who served as a Minister in John Major’s Government in the Nineties, also launched a stinging attack on secular Britain as well as the commercialisation of Easter. He said: ‘We are living in an age of unbelief. It’s important from time to time for people to actually express what mainstream Christianity is all about. IT’S NOT ABOUT BUNNIES AND PAINTED EGGS – IT’S ABOUT ISSUES OF LIFE AND DEATH.’

This week, the Obama administration quietly released $1.5 billion in foreign aid to the new Egyptian government, now dominated by a Brotherhood-led coalition in parliament — soon to be joined by an Ikhwan (ie, Brotherhood) luminary as president. ...

Obama has overlooked the MB’s intimate ties to Hamas, which self-identifies as the Ikhwan’s Palestinian branch and is formally designated a terrorist organization under American law. Administration officials have absurdly portrayed the Brothers as “secular” and “moderate,” although the organization, from its founding in the 1920s, has never retreated an inch from its professed mission to establish Islam’s global hegemony.