UK/FRANCE - David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy have hailed the strong ties between the UK and France after agreeing to work more closely on military operations and civil nuclear power. Their relationship has come under scrutiny after the UK refused to join a European fiscal pact.
USA - Many of you will not believe some of the things Americans are doing just to survive. Some families are living in sewers and drain tunnels, some families are living in tents, some families are living in their cars, some families will make ketchup soup for dinner tonight and some families are even eating rats.
EUROPE - Tensions between Greece and Germany reached boiling point on the bailout today as markets across Europe fell. Stocks took a hit across the board, the euro dropped 0.5 per cent below $1.30 and borrowing rates rose for both Italy and Spain amid fears the €130 billion (£108 billion) bail-out could be delayed until after the Greek elections in April.
ARGENTINA - Argentina has condemned a planned visit to the Falkland Islands by UK MPs as another sign of Britain's "militarisation" of the South Atlantic. The plans for a visit by members of the Commons defence select committee emerged on Tuesday.
USA/JERUSALEM - The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) this week sent a sharply critical letter to Knesset members government ministers, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, demanding that Jews have the right to “unfettered access and freedom” to pray on the Temple Mount (Har Habayit).
USA - This March 8th, the FBI is planning to unplug DNS servers it set up to help eliminate malware from over half of Fortune 500 companies and government agencies still infected in early 2012. The change could potentially leave a great number of Internet users without access to the Web.
USA - Any financial system that is based on debt is doomed to fail. Today, we are living in the greatest debt bubble that the world has ever seen, and if all of a sudden people could not use credit to buy things our economy would immediately ground to a halt. Unfortunately, no debt bubble can last forever.
UK - England is failing its young children ‘on a grand scale’ when it comes to achieving basic levels of social and emotional development, experts have warned. Sir Michael Marmot, director of the University College London Institute of Health Equity, said social inequality is leaving two in every five children unable to perform simple life skills by the age of five.
BRUSSELS, EUROPE - European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso has told the Chinese public that the EU will become a fully-fledged "political union" after the financial crisis. Speaking to TV cameras after a meeting with Chinese leader Wen Jiabao in Bejing on Tuesday (14 February), he noted the EU has recently suffered mass strikes and protests, including violent clashes in Greece.
EUROPE - EU leaders were last night urged to kick Greece out of the euro instead of working on rescue deals that “nobody believes”. Martin Callanan, the Conservative leader in the European Parliament, said Brussels should concentrate on preparations for Greece’s “orderly withdrawal” from the single currency.
UK - The Metropolitan Police continues to stumble from one self-inflicted crisis to another, weakening its ability to fight genuine crime. It is a force that for too long has been gripped by a dangerous cocktail of poor leadership, politically correct dogma, warped priorities and tactical incompetence.
UK - As a nation, we have gone from god-fearing to god-jeering faster than you can say the 'Lord is my shepherd I shall not want'. This was the point made by Baroness Warsi during her visit to the Vatican this week. British society, she warned, is under threat from a rising tide of “militant secularisation”.
VATICAN - The Cabinet Office minister and chairman of the Conservative Party gave Benedict XVI a personal gift during a 20-minute private audience – a gold-plated cube that opens up to reveal 99 tiny cubes, each inscribed with a reference to Allah.
GERMANY - Greece has still not met European Union demands for details about an additional 325 million euros in spending cuts, leading to the cancellation of the planned Euro Group meeting on Wednesday. Political leaders in Germany are getting nervous - and increasingly impatient.
USA - A mother in Hoke County complains her daughter was forced to eat a school lunch because a government inspector determined her home-made lunch did not meet nutrition requirements. In fact, all of the students in the NC Pre-K program classroom at West Hoke Elementary School in Raeford had to accept a school lunch in addition to their lunches brought from home.