The finding comes from a study conducted by Texas Forest Service urban foresters, who spent the last month surveying tree mortality in cities and towns across the state.

Findings:

• An estimated 5.6 million trees in urban areas were killed as a result of the drought. This figure may represent as much as 10 percent of the total number of trees that make up the urban forest.

• Because these dead trees are in populated areas, many are a safety issue and will need to be removed. The estimated cost to remove these trees is $560 million.

• Urban trees do more than just beautify your community. They also provide economic and environmental benefits like cutting your heating and cooling bill, cleaning the air you breathe and water you drink and boosting your property values. The estimated loss of economic and environmental benefits provided by these trees is roughly $280 million per year.

Rivers, reservoirs and underground stores are at critical levels with water firms warning restrictions could be imposed long before the summer. More than half the households in the country face curbs including hosepipe and sprinkler bans, according to water officials. Jim Dale, senior risk meteorologist at British Weather Services, said the highest populated areas such as the South, South-east and London are most at risk.

He said: “There has been a dearth of rainfall at the most vital time of the year when companies are building stocks for the spring and summer. Because these regions have been hit the worst, then it is a realistic estimation that half of the population will be affected by restrictions.”

He said there was little chance of rain in the next few weeks and water firms are “in trouble”. “The only escape is a very wet spring and summer,” he added. But Netweather forecasters said: “Rainfall amounts (in March) are expected to be below average in many parts. As we head into April, the current forecast suggests that rainfall will stay close to normal.” The Met Office said there was only a 15 per cent chance of getting “well-above average” rainfall in the next 10 weeks. Anglia Water spokesman John Clare said: “We need rain now.”

“We have had divergences of views but perhaps had I been in David Cameron’s position I would have defended British interests in exactly the same manner as he has,” Mr Sarkozy said. “There has never been a personal opposition between us.”

The two leaders acknowledged they recently had a strained relationship, after Mr Cameron refused to let Britain bind its finances closer to other European countries in the treaty. It was reported that Mr Sarkozy had called the Prime Minister an “obstinate kid” over Britain’s refusal to share taxation and spending policy with the rest of Europe. However both leaders were yesterday anxious to underline they are “friends” as well as colleagues and have got to know each other better since their disputes.

Mr Sarkozy said he now understood where Britain’s “red lines” lie when it comes to being part of Europe. He even said he “admired” Britain’s staunch defence of the City. In a show of unity at a meeting in Paris, Mr Cameron and Mr Sarkozy highlighted their common military goals by suggesting they could intervene in Syria if the country’s rebels “unite and organise” in a revolution.

Dealing with the Iranian nuclear programme is a “crisis coming down the tracks” which could lead to military conflict in the Middle East, the Foreign Secretary warns. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, the Foreign Secretary says that Iran is threatening to spark a nuclear arms race in the Middle East which could be more dangerous than the original East-West Cold War as there are not the same “safety mechanisms” in place.

“It is a crisis coming down the tracks,” he said. “Because they are clearly continuing their nuclear weapons programme … If they obtain nuclear weapons capability, then I think other nations across the Middle East will want to develop nuclear weapons. And so, the most serious round of nuclear proliferation since nuclear weapons were invented would have begun with all the destabilising effects in the Middle East. And the threat of a new cold war in the Middle East without necessarily all the safety mechanisms … That would be a disaster in world affairs.”

Mr Hague repeatedly stressed that “all options must remain on the table” when confronting the Iranian regime, despite Liberal Democrat concerns that the Government may be dragged into another military conflict. He added that we “have to be concerned” that Britain could be in range of Iranian nuclear weapons – or that nuclear materials could fall into the hands of terrorists.

The official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted Iranian navy commander Admiral Habibollah Sayari in reporting Saturday's movement of the ships through the Suez Canal on Saturday. The destroyer Shahid Qandi and the Kharg supply ship were docked in Jedda two days ago, the AFP news agency reported.

The last time Iranian warships entered the Mediterranean was in February 2011, when the Kharg supply ship and the Alvand frigate passed through the canal and headed to the Syrian port of Latakia. Israel's navy was placed on alert in response, and the US expressed concern over the move as well.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak called for “tight, ratcheted up” sanctions against Iran to force the country to abandon its nuclear ambitions and said the political process had further to go before a military strike. “We’re still in the sanctions stage and we expect them to become even more tight,” Barak said at a press conference in Tokyo at the end of a four-day visit on Saturday. “I think there is consensus in most capitals of the world that Iran should not be allowed to turn into a nuclear military power.”

The German finance ministry is actively pushing for Greece to declare itself bankrupt and to agree a "haircut" on the bulk of its debts held by banks, a move that would be classed as a default by financial markets. Eurozone finance ministers meet on Monday to approve the next tranche of loans from the EU and the International Monetary Fund, designed to stave off national bankruptcy while the new Greek government puts the country's finances in order.

But the severe austerity measures being demanded have caused such fury in Greece, and the cuts required are so deep, that Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, does not believe that any government would be able to implement them. His pessimism has been tipped into despair with a secret European Commission, Central and IMF report that even if Greece made good on its promises, it would not be enough to reach the target of bringing total debt to 120 per cent of GDP by 2020.

"He just thinks the Greeks cannot do what needs to be done. And even if by some miracle they did what has been promised, he - and a growing group - are convinced it will not pull Greece out the hole," said a eurozone official. "The idea instead is that the Greek government should officially declare itself bankrupt and begin negotiating an even bigger cut with its creditors. For Schäuble, it is more a question of when, not if."

But the European Central Bank and the Eucopean Commission are, for now, lining up with Mrs Merkel to push for the rescue attempt to continue, fearful that the financial tsunami that would be unleashed if it failed would swamp the eurozone. Mr Schäuble maintains that since Greece is already regarded by the financial world as bankrupt, a formal bankruptcy would have no negative consequences for other euro members.

Former Chancellor Lord Lamont warned that Greece was “the canary in the mine... a warning of dangers to come.” The appearance of several high-ranking army officers sitting next to Greek president Karolos Papoulias at a meeting on Wednesday, when he criticised Germany, fuelled speculation of a military takeover.

Mr Papoulias said ominously: “The politicians should take an example from our soldiers. They always stayed true to the native country.” It would not be the first time Greece has succumbed to military rule. A brutal junta led the country from 1967 to 1974.

Former German general Harald Kujat yesterday expressed his fears of a coup. And after the riots in Athens earlier this week, there were calls for tanks to be deployed to protect banks.

In Latin America - the focus of the German foreign minister's current visit - Germany sees Brazil and Mexico in this role. According to experts in Berlin, Brazil is the subcontinental country with "a clear leadership aspiration," which it will be able to fulfill, in the long run, thanks to its "hard power" and its very effective foreign policy. Therefore, it is a highly suitable ally for Germany. Mexico is viewed more skeptically.

It places too strong an emphasis on the "doctrine of non-interference" in the affairs of other countries and is too dependent on the USA, according to the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). Therefore, extensive groundwork will be necessary. As usual, Berlin camouflages its power policy ambitions with feigned apolitical initiatives. As the foreign minister announced, next year Germany will initiate a "Year of Germany" with comprehensive cultural and scholarly activities.

The German government has standardized Berlin's efforts to use cooperation with the so-called regional leading powers, such as Brazil and Mexico, to strengthen Germany's influence around the globe in its new "Strategy toward Policy-Making Powers" doctrine.

What the EU-IMF "Troika" did not fully understand is how many firms were really part of the state in disguise. "The Greek government outsources everything," said one official with close knowledge of the events. Faced with the guillotine, the state first slashed procurement contracts and then stopped paying its bills altogether. The government is now €7 billion (£5.8 billion) in arrears to private companies, including €3 billion in unpaid VAT refunds for exporters. It is why business has borne the brunt of the fiscal squeeze, suffering 450,000 job losses, and why Greece's unemployment has soared to 21 percent.

At the same time the banking system seized up. More than €60 billion of deposits were withdrawn. By November, no Greek bank could issue a letter of credit accepted anywhere in the world, with calamitous implications for trade. "Greece became a leper, and is now stuck in Catch-22," said one official. Hellenic Petroleum was unable to import basic fuel. The reason why Greece's reliance on oil imports from Iran jumped from 15 percent to 70 percent in a two-week period in November was because Tehran agreed to take on the credit risk.

"They need to find some way to unblock this or the Greek economy is going to suffocate from lack of oxygen: we are reaching the limits," said Dimitris Daskalopoulos, head of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises. The economy contracted at a rate of 7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011. Manufacturing fell 15.5 percent in December from a year before. Mr Daskalopoulos now seems resigned to a ghastly denouement, fearing that Greece has been turned into a "useful victim" for countries pursuing their own political agenda.

How far does the NPD actually go, and how deeply does it venture into the forbidden zone? Today, sources within the party portray it as a group that:

# agitates against foreigners and Jews;

# idolizes Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich;

# flirts with the idea - even at the highest levels of its national leadership - of carrying out political change in the country, using violence if necessary;

# uses its activities in regional parliaments as an opportunity to combat the state;

# conceals its worldview behind the image of a party that is concerned about the needs of voters, which has enabled it to penetrate deeply into middle-class society in eastern Germany.

In the end, there is only one goal for the NPD: to overthrow the system, democracy and pluralism. This conclusion supports the notion that the NPD could in fact be banned. But whether such a ban would be a good idea is another question altogether.

“Following the contentious debt ceiling last August, President Obama promised that he would take action to address the country’s fiscal crisis. He has failed to do that," Portman said. "In fact, his new budget increases spending and projects that Washington will be hitting the debt ceiling again in mid-October – burning through a $2.1 trillion debt limit increase in just over 14 months."

Portman's office notes that according to Obama's budget, total debt subject to the statutory debt will reach limit will reach $16.334 trillion by September 30, 2012. This is just $60 billion below the 16,394,000,000,000 debt limit. Since the federal government is adding to the national debt at a rate of $132 billion a month, the debt ceiling is on schedule to be reached by October 15, 2012.

"This is an unfortunate but clear signal to the American people that Washington is spending too much, borrowing too much, and putting our nation’s fiscal stability at risk," Portman said. Earlier today, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner admitted that the debt limit would be reached this year. But he sounded confident it would be later than October 15th. "We do not expect to hit the debt limit until quite late in the year, significantly after the end of the fiscal year [September 30] but before the end of the calendar year," Geithner told the Senate Budget Committee.

Tehran has a missile arsenal capable of reaching "targets throughout the region and into Eastern Europe," Lieutenant General Ronald Burgess, Defense Intelligence Agency director, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "Iran has … threatened to launch missiles against the United States and our allies in the region in response to an attack" on its nuclear facilities or other targets, he said.

What's more, Iran "could also employ its terrorist surrogates worldwide," Burgess said. He also noted that "Iran can close the Strait of Hormuz," the key sea lane used to move oil and other goods to destinations around the globe. The US intelligence community believes Iran "is unlikely to initiate or intentionally provoke a conflict or launch a preemptive attack," Burgess told the panel.

Alireza Nader, an analyst at the RAND Corporation, said the DIA chief's assessment of Iran's naval and missile capabilities sounds accurate. "Iran does have missiles capable of hitting US facilities in the Persian Gulf, and notably, in Afghanistan," Nader said. "And it is known to be in development of long-range missiles that could reach Eastern Europe. It has a pretty robust missile program."

Not long ago such doomsday scenarios would be dismissed in Tokyo as fantasies of ill-informed foreigners sitting on loss-making bets "shorting Japan." Today this is what is on bureaucrats' minds in Japan's centre of political and economic power. "It's scary when you think what could happen if there's triple-selling of bonds, stocks and the yen. The chance of this happening is bigger than markets think," says a senior official.

The official, like many others interviewed by Reuters, declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject and his alarm over Japan's $10 trillion-plus debt overhang has yet to be reflected in public debate or action. But these officials would be the ones pulling the levers in the command center if Japan were to be hit by a debt crisis. The government borrows more than it raises in taxes, and its debt pile amounts to two years' worth of Japan's economic output, the highest debt-to-GDP ratio in the world.

It costs Japan half of the country's tax income just to service its debt. Each year, Japan's debt level increases by more than the combined gross domestic product of Greece and Portugal. Technocrats who might have once dismissed worst-case scenarios are now beginning to take them seriously as doubts grow over whether Japan is ready to act and as Greece's budget meltdown stokes the euro zone's debt crisis.

"We expect the pattern of increasing foreclosures to continue in the coming months, especially given the finalized mortgage and foreclosure settlement reached in early February between 49 state attorneys general and five of the nation's largest lenders," said RealtyTrac's CEO Brandon Moore in a written release. "Foreclosure activity increased on a year-over-year basis for the first time in more than 12 months in Florida, Illinois, Indiana and Pennsylvania, following a pattern we saw in late 2011 in states such as California, Arizona and Massachusetts."

While states that do not require a judge to preside over foreclosure proceedings, like California, saw a jump in filings toward the end of last year, judicial states have all but stalled. That will now change, thanks to the $26 billion dollar government-lender/servicer settlement. There will still be some delays on individual state levels, but the wheels are turning again, and that means more bank repossessions and more foreclosed properties heading to the re-sale market.

He argued that Roman Catholic adoption agencies and other faith groups providing public services must choose between their religion and obeying the law when their beliefs conflict with the will of the state. Mr Phillips singled out the adoption agencies that fought a long legal battle to avoid being forced to accept homosexual couples under equality laws. Last year, following a High Court case, the Charity Commission ruled against an exemption for Catholic Care, an adoption agency operating in Leeds.

Speaking at a debate in London on diverse societies, Mr Phillips backed the new laws, which led to the closure of all Catholic adoption agencies in England. “You can’t say because we decide we’re different then we need a different set of laws,” he said, in comments reported by The Tablet, the Catholic newspaper.

“To me there’s nothing different in principle with a Catholic adoption agency, or indeed Methodist adoption agency, saying the rules in our community are different and therefore the law shouldn’t apply to us. Why not then say sharia can be applied to different parts of the country? It doesn’t work.”

Mr Phillips’s remarks were condemned as “inflammatory” and “ridiculous” by legal specialists and religious leaders. Lord Carey, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, called on the authorities to respect the nation’s heritage as a democracy in which the Church of England is the established religion. He described the comparison with sharia as “ridiculous” and called on MPs to find ways of “accommodation” when new laws clash with religious beliefs.