“Sudden” is more like it. The thing about inflation is that it comes out of nowhere and hits you. Monetary policy is like sailing. You’re gliding along, passing the peninsula, and you come about. Nothing. Then the wind fills the sail so fast it knocks you into the sea. Right now, the US is a sailboat that has just made open water, and has already come about. That wind is coming. The sailor just doesn’t know it.

“Sudden” has happened to us before. In World War I, an early version of what we would call the CPI-U, the consumer price index for urban areas, went from 1 percent for 1915 to 7 percent in 1916 to 17 percent in 1917. To returning veterans, that felt awful sudden. How did it happen? The Treasury spent like crazy on the war, creating money to pay for it, then pretended that its spending was offset by complex Liberty Bond sales and admonishments to citizens that they save more.

In other words, the Woodrow Wilson administration was in denial, inflating in all but name. Commenting on one complex plan to make more money available, Representative LT McFadden, a Pennsylvania Republican, said, “I would suggest that if the administration believes that inflation of this character is necessary to finance the war the more direct way would be to issue the notes direct.” Or, to return to sailing terms, the Treasury and Fed had tilted the US monetary craft so far one way that it needed to lean back the other way before it could right. That leaning was the true tight money policy of subsequent years, including deflation of 10 percent and wrenching unemployment.

Thursday’s cross-border violence tested a shaky truce Israel and Gaza militants reached this week to halt a four-day flare-up in fighting. Since then, sporadic rocket fire and Israeli airstrikes have persisted. Israeli aircraft struck two militant sites in Gaza before dawn Thursday in response to rocket fire a day earlier. Gaza gunmen retaliated by launching two rockets at Israel by midday, police said.

In a speech to parliament on Wednesday, Mr Netanyahu accused Iran of arming, financing and training Gaza militants, and giving them their marching orders. “Gaza is Iran,” he declared. Israel considers Iran to be its most fearsome enemy, in large part because it is convinced Tehran is developing atomic weapons technology, despite its claims its nuclear program is peaceful.

In the US last week, where he met with President Obama, Mr Netanyahu was markedly more vocal about Israel’s willingness to attack Iran’s program, alone if necessary, though he said no decision had been made on whether to strike. On Wednesday, he ratcheted up the tough talk, suggesting Israel would be ready to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities even if the US objected.

The term has become used to describe a type of beef trimming commonly found in school and restaurant beef in the US. Reports it was widely used in schools prompted a popular outcry, although the beef is certified as safe to eat. Social media campaigns and an online petition sprung up to oppose the use of the product. The beef's producer led a campaign to explain it was nutritional and safe. Last year, British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver publicly criticised the product on his now-defunct US TV show, and McDonald's recently said it would phase out the use of "pink slime" in its burgers.

"Pink slime" - a term reportedly coined by a microbiologist working for the US government - is a form of lean beef formed by reclaiming the small parts of meat from leftover cuts with a high fat content. The beef is spun in a centrifuge to separate the meat from the fat, before the final product is treated with a puff of ammonium hydroxide gas to kill any bacteria. Produced in bulk by a firm in North Dakota, the derogatory nature of the term "pink slime" has coloured the debate, some experts say.

It is "unappetising", Sarah Klein, of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, told the Los Angeles Times, "but perhaps not more so than other things that are routinely part of a hamburger". "What pink slime reveals to us," she told the newspaper, "is the unsavoury marriage of engineering and food, but it's present in a lot of the products we eat."

Karzai told visiting US defence chief Leon Panetta that "Afghanistan is ready to take overall security responsibility", a statement from his office said. "Our demand is that this process should be executed sharply and the responsibility should be handed over to Afghans." Karzai said both sides should work together so that the process of handing security from international troops to Afghan forces would be completed in 2013 rather than 2014, the statement said.

The president also wants the United States to pull all its troops out of villages, where they have outposts, and relocate them in their bases. International forces should "be withdrawn from villages and relocated in their bases", the statement said.

The public debate in Israel about whether Jerusalem should order a strike on Iran’s nuclear program is surprisingly frank. Politicians and policymakers often discuss the merits of an attack in public; over the past year, for example, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have sparred regularly and openly with former Mossad director Meir Dagan, the most prominent opponent of an Israeli operation. But much of the conversation is focused on whether Israel should strike, not on what might happen if it does - in other words, the result on the “day after.”

Indeed, the analysis in Israel about the possible effects of a bombing campaign against Iran is limited to a small, professional elite, mostly in government and behind closed doors. This intimate circle that does consider scenarios of the “day after” concentrates almost exclusively on what an Iranian response, direct or through proxies, might look like. This is not surprising, given that Israel must worry first and foremost about the immediate military implications of an Iranian counterattack.

But in doing so, Israeli policymakers are ignoring several of the potential longer-term aspects of a strike: the preparedness of Israel’s home front; the contours of an Israeli exit strategy; THE IMPACT ON US-ISRAEL RELATIONS; THE GLOBAL DIPLOMATIC FALLOUT; THE STABILITY OF WORLD ENERGY MARKETS; AND THE OUTCOME WITHIN IRAN ITSELF. Should Israel fail to openly debate and account for these factors in advance of an attack, it may end up with a strategic debacle, even if it achieves its narrow military goals.

The warning comes as Chancellor George Osborne puts the finishing touches to this year's Budget, which will be delivered next week. A credit rating in theory determines a country's borrowing costs. Fitch said that while the UK had a strong commitment to reducing the budget deficit and had an economy that was underpinned by a "high-income, diversified and flexible economy”, it had "very limited fiscal space to absorb further adverse economic shocks".

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said the move underlined the need for the government to stick to its deficit reduction plans: "This is a salutary reminder as to why Britain needs to deal with the enormous debts and deficits we inherited, why we have got to stick to those plans." He said there would be no unfunded giveaways in next week's Budget.

Mr Rose said while the incident may have contributed to her death, he could not conclusively say it caused it. He called for more research into the effects of aluminium on public health, but told the people of Camelford there was "no need to fear" they might become victims of the poisoning. "I have little doubt the overwhelming number of residents in July 1988 ingested little or no aluminium," the coroner said. When Mrs Cross died in 2004, very high levels of aluminium were found in her brain. Recording a narrative verdict, the West Somerset coroner said she had been exposed to "an excessive amount" of aluminium in the contaminated water.

Camelford's drinking water was poisoned on 6 July 1988, when a relief delivery driver mistakenly tipped 20 tonnes of aluminium sulphate into the wrong tank at Lowermoor treatment works and the chemical - used to treat cloudy water - went straight into the town's mains supply. Despite being inundated with nearly 1,000 complaints, the then South West Water Authority (SWWA) insisted the water was safe to drink and advised customers to disguise the "foul" taste by mixing it with orange juice to make it more palatable. "They were in fact gambling with as many as 20,000 lives," Mr Rose said.

Shortly after the incident, people in the area began reporting a range of health issues, including stomach cramps, rashes, diarrhoea, mouth ulcers and aching joints. Some residents even said their hair turned green from copper residues. Post-mortem tests revealed very high levels of aluminium in her brain - levels described at the inquest by expert Professor Chris Exley from Keele University as "beyond belief". He said even 24 years later, people who lived in Camelford at the time of the poisoning should drink a litre of mineral water with a high silicon content every day as this could help flush aluminium from their bodies.

It was the latest blow for the investment bank. The company - dubbed a "great vampire squid" in a 2009 article in Rolling Stone magazine - has been embroiled in the biggest-ever insider trading scandal on Wall Street. And just weeks ago, a top judge criticized Goldman for big conflicts of interest in an energy deal. In an opinion column in Wednesday's Times, Greg Smith, who worked in equity derivatives, said Goldman had become "as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it."

"It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off. Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as 'muppets,'" Smith said. In the United States "muppet" brings to mind lovable puppets like Kermit the Frog, but in Britain, "muppet" is slang for a stupid person. (Goldman, as it happens, was at one time also the bank for the family of Muppets creator Jim Henson.)

Goldman Sachs issued a short statement in response: "We disagree with the views expressed, which we don't think reflect the way we run our business. In our view, we will only be successful if our clients are successful. This fundamental truth lies at the heart of how we conduct ourselves." Goldman Sachs - fourth among investment banks last year based on fee-income rankings compiled by Thomson Reuters and Freeman Consulting - has a history of tension with client interests, experts say.

"Greg Smith refers to the last 12 years, but in fact Goldman has been doing this kind of thing since going back to the Great Depression," author William Cohan told Reuters Insider. "It's not just the last 12 years; unfortunately it's part of the firm's DNA," said Cohan, author of the Goldman profile "Money and Power" and a former Wall Street banker himself.

Less than a week after a US staff sergeant allegedly massacred 16 civilians in Kandahar, American soldiers were banned from bringing guns into a talk by Mr Panetta at a base in Helmand province. Around 200 troops who had gathered in a tent at Camp Leatherneck were told "something had come to light" and asked abruptly to file outside and lay down their automatic rifles and 9mm pistols. "Somebody got itchy, that's all I've got to say. Somebody got itchy – we just adjust," said the sergeant who was told to clear the hall of weapons.

Major General Mark Gurganus later said he gave the order because Afghan troops attending the talk were unarmed and he wanted the policy to be consistent for all. "You've got one of the most important people in the world in the room," he told the New York Times, insisting that the decision was unrelated to Sunday's killings. "This is not a big deal."

However, US troops often remain armed even when their Afghan colleagues have been asked to lay down their weapons and the incident is believed to be the first time they were stripped of guns during an address by their own secretary of defence.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) counted a whopping 641 programs in place at 130 federal agencies in 2010 to prop up windmill technology and underwrite solar panel manufacturers. The report released Tuesday didn’t include a reliable estimate of the total cost to taxpayers. The auditors found the array of loans, tax credits, agency purchases of purportedly green vehicles and the cost of regulations would take a great deal of effort to tally.

Wind power made sense in the 18th century, but it doesn’t make sense now. The private sector isn’t interested in blowing money on hopelessly uneconomic windmill and solar projects, so at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing Tuesday, the case was made that the government must step in. Uncle Sam is terrible when it comes to managing money. GAO slammed the administration’s haphazard process for green loan approvals, saying “it is difficult for DOE to defend its decisions” against charges of favoritism.

Even more important, it’s hard to justify offering any green energy subsidies at all. Senator Al Franken gave his best effort Tuesday, saying, “The bark beetle is eating more and more of our forests because of climate change.” The Minnesota Democrat added, “Taxpayer dollars are at risk if we don’t address this and try to get to clean energy.” Tens of billions of dollars is a bit much to spend on a pest-control effort. Instead of this political allocation of capital, the market should be free to judge whether an alternative energy technology is truly promising, free from the distorting influence of congressional subsidy.

For a change, everything has been going according to plan in the fight to save the euro in recent weeks. On Wednesday, euro-zone finance ministers gave the green light to the €130 billion ($170 billion) second rescue package for Greece. It's a pure formality after a satisfyingly large proportion of creditors agreed to a debt cut for Greece. Perhaps the most significant success of recent days is that even though the debt cut was deemed a so-called credit event, triggering the payment of the financial contracts known as credit default swaps, hardly anyone seemed to care.

So has Greece been rescued and financial markets been tamed? Is the euro crisis a thing of the past? Unfortunately not. With their successes in the last few days, euro-zone politicians have done little more than bought themselves time. They must use this window to brace themselves for the next wave of the euro crisis which is about to crash down on Europe.

It's already clear that the Greek economy can't survive with a government debt to GDP ratio that will - at best - still be at 117 percent in 2020, especially given the record pace at which the country's GDP is contracting. There is still no coherent strategy for making Greece competitive again inside the euro zone, or for raising the capital for the huge investments needed - let alone for the wholesale revamp of the country's entire public administration.

And so Greece is likely to report the next set of disappointing budget figures in a few months, and the wrangling over a new debt cut and a new rescue package will start shortly afterwards. Maybe the next wave of the crisis will hit us even sooner: Greece is scheduled to hold an election on April 22 which is expected to produce a left-wing majority deeply opposed to the strict austerity program imposed by Brussels.

The Liberal Democrat minister, who made the comments in an interview with the Independent, launches the consultation exercise today. She gave a "cast iron guarantee" that civil gay marriages would be law by the next general election despite the strength of opposition from church leaders. "There is no rolling back whatsoever," she said. "The essential question is not whether we are going to introduce same-sex civil marriage but how."

In a fierce attack on plans to legalise gay marriage, the UK's most senior Catholic, Cardinal Keith O'Brien described it as an "aberration" and compared it to slavery and abortion. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, he said: "Imagine for a moment that the Government had decided to legalise slavery but assured us that ‘no one will be forced to keep a slave’. Would such worthless assurances calm our fury? Would they justify dismantling a fundamental human right? Or would they simply amount to weasel words masking a great wrong?”

Miss Featherstone rejected fears that a change in the law would mean the church would come under pressure to accept religious marriages. Discussing the language used by critics, she said: "It adds nothing to the debate. It inflames. On these issues, we have a responsibility in leadership positions to make sure we don't fan the flames of homophobia."

Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras are already fitted in thousands of petrol station forecourts. Drivers can only fill their cars with fuel once the camera has captured and logged the vehicle’s number plate. Currently the system is designed to deter motorists from driving off without paying for petrol. But under the new plans, the cameras will automatically cross-refererence with the DVLA’s huge database.

When a car is flagged as being uninsured or untaxed, the system will prevent the fuel pump being used on that vehicle. The proposals will have a huge impact - forcing drivers to insure and tax their car if they want to drive. One in 25 drivers in the UK do not have insurance - one of the worst records in western Europe. According to recent figures, around 160 people are killed and 23,000 injured by uninsured and untraced drivers every year.

Downing Street officials are due to meet representatives from the major fuel companies in the next few weeks to discuss the idea. But some petrol retailers said the proposals were a “step too far” - claiming they put cashiers at risk. “This proposal will increase the potential for conflict. Our cashiers are not law enforcers.”

High-speed bullet trains serving northern Japan were halted and the two runways at Tokyo's Narita International Airport were closed after the quake but quickly resumed operations, local media reported. No abnormalities were reported at the Tokai No.2 nuclear power plant northeast of Tokyo, which has been shut for routine maintenance, or at Tokyo Electric Power Co's tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi and Daini plants, local media said.

The earthquake, which caused substantial shaking in Ibaraki and Chiba prefectures east of Tokyo, followed JUST A FEW HOURS AFTER A MAGNITUDE 6.8 QUAKE JOLTED NORTHERN JAPAN. A tsunami warning was issued but later lifted after that earthquake. Just over one year ago, the northeast coast was struck by a magnitude 9 earthquake, Japan's strongest on record, and a massive tsunami, triggering the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

There has been A FIVE-FOLD INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF QUAKES IN THE TOKYO METROPOLITAN AREA SINCE THE YEAR-AGO DISASTER, the Tokyo University Earthquake Research Institute has said.

More than 20 million people are facing hosepipe bans after seven water companies announced restrictions earlier this week. Householders could be fined up to £1,000 for filling a paddling pool or washing their car. Water companies yesterday faced calls to invest in reducing leaks instead of imposing water restrictions on home owners. According to official figures, the companies are losing 3.4 billion litres of water a year to leaks, equivalent to 25 per cent of all water used.

Thames Water admitted that its last hosepipe ban, imposed in 2006, resulted in just a 5 per cent drop in water use. Ann Robinson, the director of consumer policy at USwitch, said: “I accept we have to try and save water but what is not acceptable is the incredible amount of leakage.” Families face an average price rise for water of 6 per cent to £376 per year from April, just before the hosepipe ban comes in. Southern Water, which missed its leak targets last year, is raising prices by more than 8 per cent.

Martin Baggs, the chief executive of Thames Water, warned that prices would have to rise even further to build reservoirs and new technology. The plant works by taking water from the river at low tide, filtering it and then pumping it through a membrane perforated by millions of minute holes. The water produced is so clean that beneficial minerals have to be put back into it. But the process is extremely costly and energy intensive.