In these anxious times anti-German sentiments are not unusual in Greece. Locked in a struggle to avoid economic ruin and exit from the eurozone, Greece is confronting the potential collapse of its self-image as a country with a secure place in Europe’s family of nations. To blame Germany draws on deep wells of national suffering endured during the 1941-1944 Nazi occupation of Greece. It is not the only response: Greek economic mismanagement, public sector corruption and dysfunctional politics inspire much self-criticism. Animosity towards Germany is not sweeping through all levels of Greek society.

However, a steady drumbeat of resentful attacks on Germany’s policies in the eurozone debt crisis, and on German popular views of Greece, rumbles week after week through television talk shows and the press. As the economic emergency intensifies, it resonates in stormy debates among Greece’s political classes.

The left wing of the socialist Pasok party, and the right wing of the conservative New Democracy party, each contain a self-styled “patriotic” element for which national sovereignty is a badge of pride. In both of Greece’s largest parties a block of pro-European modernisers, mindful of the need for sustained external financial support, is doing battle with malcontents that dabble with anti-German and anti-European Union rhetoric.

Anti-German populism finds its mirror in the impression among the German public that Greeks are lazy, unreliable and responsible for their own woes. German business people are losing patience: Franz Fehrenbach, head of Bosch, the world’s leading car parts supplier, called this week for Greece to leave the eurozone. In all these ways the economic costs and political strains of the debt crisis are producing a certain “renationalisation” of public opinion across Europe. An unmistakable discomfort accompanies the realisation that Germany’s economic pre-eminence entitles it to the leading role in tackling the emergency.

Even the most modest option now under consideration would be an historic and politically bold disarmament step in a presidential election year, although the plan is in line with President Barack Obama's 2009 pledge to pursue the elimination of nuclear weapons. No final decision has been made, but the administration is considering at least three options for lower total numbers of deployed strategic nuclear weapons cutting to around 1,000 to 1,100, 700 to 800, or 300 to 400, according to a former government official and a congressional staffer. Both spoke on condition of anonymity in order to reveal internal administration deliberations.

The potential cuts would be from a current treaty limit of 1,550 deployed strategic warheads. A level of 300 deployed strategic nuclear weapons would take the US back to levels not seen since 1950 when the nation was ramping up production in an arms race with the Soviet Union. The US numbers peaked at above 12,000 in the late 1980s and first dropped below 5,000 in 2003. Obama has often cited his desire to seek lower levels of nuclear weapons, but specific options for a further round of cuts had been kept under wraps until the AP learned of the three options now on the table.

Nuclear stockpile numbers are closely guarded secrets in most states that possess them, but private nuclear policy experts say no countries other than the US and Russia are thought to have more than 300. The Federation of American Scientists estimates that France has about 300, China about 240, Britain about 225, and Israel, India and Pakistan roughly 100 each.

Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, used for a third of the world's seaborne oil trade, if Western moves to ban Iranian crude exports cripple its energy sector. Tuesday aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln - part of the Bahrain-based US Fifth Fleet - sailed through the strait of Hormuz with the Cape St George destroyer cruising behind.

"If you listen to the (Iranian) rhetoric ... you might think that there are some tensions," Admiral Troy Shoemaker, commander of the carrier strike group nine, told Reuters. "We obviously pay attention to that as we go through but I think we are conducting the transit as part of our normal business ... Our intention is to keep it professional and routine."

The commander of US naval forces in the Gulf region said Sunday Iran had built up its naval forces in the Gulf and prepared boats that could be used in suicide attacks, but the US Navy could prevent it from blocking the Strait of Hormuz. Military experts say the US Navy's Fifth Fleet patrolling the Gulf - which always has at least one giant supercarrier accompanied by scores of jets and a fleet of frigates and destroyers - is overwhelmingly more powerful than Iran's navy.

Shanghai's Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding Company late last month launched the fourth of China's new 071 amphibious landing ships according to reports carried by Chinese military web sites and the state-controlled media. While most attention has been drawn to the ongoing sea trials of China's first aircraft carrier, military analysts say the expanding fleet of 20,000 tonne landing ships, the biggest domestically designed and built vessels in the Chinese navy, delivers a far more immediate boost to Beijing's global influence.

"Having a significant fleet of large amphibious assault vessels clearly suggests a desire for power projection," says Christian Le Miere, a maritime security researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. "If you want the surgical insertion of forces, for a range of reasons, then you need amphibious response ships."

China's naval buildup comes amid mounting maritime tensions in the Asia-Pacific region, which is likely to be one of the main geopolitical stress points in the coming decade. Military planners previously had focused mainly on a potential conflict in the Taiwan strait. More recently, however, Japan and China have locked horns over islands each claims in the East China Sea; Vietnam, the Philippines and other nations are disputing territorial claims with China over parts of the South China Sea thought to be rich in oil and gas.

The US Navy has announced it will deploy its own new amphibious assault vessels, the Littoral Combat Ships, to the "maritime crossroads" of the Asia-Pacific theater, stationing them in Singapore and perhaps the Philippines.

But this is little more than wishful thinking. European leaders are sighing with cowardly relief, hoping that they have finally insulated themselves from the Greek problem. In a way they have. The Greek vote capped a few weeks of gradual easing of tensions in the euro zone’s other fiscally-challenged countries. Yields on Spanish and Italian debt have come down to almost bearable levels. Even Portuguese yields, which spiked at the end of January on fears the country was headed down the Greek path, have dropped by 3 percentage points this month.

But Greece and Europe are still a long way from safety. Athens is rioting while the country’s political leaders are devoting their energy to expelling from their ranks the MPs who dared vote against the austerity plan. This lays bare Greece’s main problem: the inability of any government to implement its decisions. There is something pathetic in the creditors’ insistence on new government programmes and reforms while they acknowledge the absence of a properly functioning state machine to implement them.

If there is no contagion, the conventional wisdom is that the euro zone could take the pain of a disorderly Greek default or a unilateral exit from the euro zone. The Greek economy is tiny, private creditors won’t have much more to lose after the current deal, and banks are being restructured. But there will still be some 150 billion euros worth of public loans and, if Athens were to leave the zone, the eurosystem’s 109 billion euro exposure to the Greek central bank. That’s without counting the adverse impact of the latest austerity plans. The euro zone, as always, is buying time. It should make sure it uses that time to help pull Greece out of its current death spiral.

Euro zone finance ministers had cancelled face-to-face talks on the 130-billion-euro ($170 billion) deal on Wednesday, saying they had yet to receive written pledges from Greek political party leaders to stick to punishing spending cuts, or clarification of all the savings. "The letter will be dispatched within the day," a New Democracy party source told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Doubt has focused on Samaras, Greece's likely next prime minister and a strong critic of the austerity measures.

Ministers of the Eurogroup downgraded the Brussels meeting - originally planned for 1700 GMT - to a conference call. Greece needs the funds by next month to avoid a messy bankruptcy. The Eurogroup is next due to meet on Monday, but Greece has said it must initiate a debt swap deal with private sector bondholders by Friday if it is to meet a March 20 deadline for 14.5 billion euros in debt repayments. The Eurogroup had asked Greece to clarify how it would fill a 325-million-euro gap in budget cuts promised for 2012 and to persuade all party leaders to sign a commitment to implement austerity measures after an election expected in April.

"It's true we are asking the Greeks for some extremely painful sacrifices and I understand their anger, but Greece has made many errors in its past," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told France Info radio on Wednesday. "It (the bailout) must be concluded because if Greece went bankrupt and left the euro zone, the chaos would be even worse for the Greek people and very bad news for the euro zone."

Eurozone chiefs cancelled a meeting with Greek officials earlier, demanding further cuts and reassurances. International lenders have told Greece to make huge cuts in return for a 130 billion euros ($170 billion, £109 billion) bailout package. The Greek parliament approved an austerity package on the weekend, despite violent protests sweeping the country. But eurozone ministers have demanded a further 325 million euros of cuts. They have also insisted that all major Greek parties give an assurance that the cuts will be enacted regardless of who wins a general election scheduled for April.

Mark Lowen, BBC News, Athens, writes: "There is now huge mistrust between eurozone leaders and Greece. Despite Athens passing its austerity package in parliament last Sunday, Brussels has set two more conditions for Greece's international bailout: that an extra 325 million euros of savings are found and that the Greek government sign a pledge to implement the cuts.

The EU has grown exasperated with a perceived lack of commitment by Greece and there is now immense pressure on Athens to quicken the pace of change. But there is real anger in Greece. Athens saw the worst rioting for years when the austerity package was passed by parliament. Greece is now in a worrying situation. Its economy contracted by 7% in the last quarter. Eurozone finance ministers will now meet on Monday instead - perhaps the bailout will come then, but this game of brinkmanship could be very dangerous indeed.

Moody's actions can be summarised as follows:

- Austria: outlook on Aaa rating changed to negative

- France: outlook on Aaa rating changed to negative

- Italy: downgraded to A3 from A2, negative outlook

- Malta: downgraded to A3 from A2, negative outlook

- Portugal: downgraded to Ba3 from Ba2, negative outlook

- Slovakia: downgraded to A2 from A1, negative outlook

- Slovenia: downgraded to A2 from A1, negative outlook

- Spain: downgraded to A3 from A1, negative outlook

- United Kingdom: outlook on Aaa rating changed to negative

The implications of these actions for directly and indirectly related ratings will be reported through separate press releases. The main drivers of today's actions are:

- The uncertainty over (i) the euro area's prospects for institutional reform of its fiscal and economic framework and (ii) the resources that will be made available to deal with the crisis.

- Europe's increasingly weak macroeconomic prospects, which threaten the implementation of domestic austerity programmes and the structural reforms that are needed to promote competitiveness.

Well I'm still waiting, George. We all are. But I do recognise that the problem is not totally the Chancellor's fault. For one thing he has to carry round his neck the rotting albatross of his Lib Dem coalition partners and for another he has the BBC – as he wittily hinted this morning in a sprightly ad lib on BBC Radio 4's Today programme in an interview with John Humphrys.

Humphrys was accusing Osborne's government of being "anti-growth". While perfectly true, this is the equivalent of King Herod rebuking parents for being insufficiently caring of the rights of first-born male children. After being prodded by Humphrys one time too many about his banker-bashing (Humphrys suggested that the Coalition seemed to relish taking them to the tumbrils), Osborne replied:

"And the BBC is often in the front row of these tumbrils, knitting as they happen."

Osborne said it in a mild, good-humoured tone but even so, coming from so senior a politician this is pretty strong stuff. There is an unspoken rule that whenever people of a vaguely Right-wing persuasion appear on BBC programmes like Today they're not supposed to mention how incorrigibly, poisonously Left-wing it is. The BBC doesn't get really angry or refuse to invite you back or anything like that. Rather, it comes over all hurt: a bit like you would if you were a leper and you had half your nose eaten away, and instead of politely ignoring it someone were to say: "That missing nose of yours isn't going to win you many beauty contests, is it?"

I do hope that Osborne's remark is a taste of even stronger things to come. The BBC is not a benign organisation. Indeed, it probably bears greater responsibility than any other institution for Britain's cultural, moral, intellectual and economic decline. Even if you were just to consider its outrageous, misleading propagandising over climate change, you would have more than reason enough to scrap the licence fee. Osborne has fired his warning shot across the bows; what we need next is a torpedo amidships – preferably straight into the magazine.

"The objective is to identify and help correct risky and harmful imbalances that have built up over the years," said Olli Rehn, the EU's economic and monetary affairs commissioner. The commission expressed fears that high levels of private borrowing in Britain, driven by high property prices, is "strongly linked" to public debt via bank bail-outs and "feedback effects".

"The high level of private debt is a concern in a context of a weak public finance situation with high and increasing public debt. The household debt largely reflects mortgages in a context of high accumulated increases in house prices," it warned. "While both the level of household debt and real house prices has been reduced, they still remain high which suggests that the unwinding of these imbalances has further to go."

A Government spokesman said: "This report simply reinforces the unsustainable imbalances that built up over the past decade and underlines why the government is right to be getting a grip of the country's debt." Britain was also warned that its declining share of exports was the worst in the EU, down 24.3 percent over the last five years. But while Britain was praised for "stabilising" its export decline, the EU is concerned that France's continued slide in global market share is damaging French business.

Nearly half the men are unemployed, nearly half the population is functionally illiterate, more than half of the children are living in poverty and the city government is drowning in debt. As economic conditions have gotten worse, crime has absolutely exploded. Every single night in Detroit there are frightening confrontations between desperate criminals and exasperated homeowners. Unfortunately, the police force in Detroit has been dramatically reduced in size.

When the police in Detroit are called, they often show up very late if they even show up at all. Detroit has become a lawless hellhole where violence is the currency of the streets. If you want to survive in Detroit, you better be ready to fight because there are hordes of desperate criminals that are quite eager to take literally everything that you have got. But don’t look down on Detroit too much, because what is happening in Detroit will soon be happening all over America.

Lots of other cities all over America are flat broke and out of options. For example, just check out what is happening in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Mayor Christopher Doherty is blunt when asked about a court order forcing his Pennsylvania city to pay about $30 million in wages withheld from police and firefighters under a state-approved fiscal recovery plan. “I don’t have the money,” said Doherty, 53. As for the chance of borrowing the cash, more than half of the city’s projected general-fund revenue, he added, “there’s no financial institution that’s going to give me $30 million to pay it.”

The US economy never recovered from the last major financial crisis, and now another one is on the way. As the economy crumbles, so will the fabric of our society. The American people are terribly spoiled and they do not possess the character to handle depression-like conditions with grace and dignity. In the years ahead, we are going to see rampant rioting and looting in our major cities. The crime sprees that we will witness in future years will be absolutely unprecedented. Things did not have to turn out this way, but unfortunately the consequences of decades of really bad decisions are starting to catch up with us.

Although the candidates have taken part in some debates devoted to foreign policy and nations such as China have entered into the campaign rhetoric, by and large the issue has played a secondary role on the campaign trail. That's dangerous. The United States is facing a number of major foreign policy challenges that could flare up in the coming years. In November, voters won't have much of a sense about how the parties would address these issues, nor are politicians using the campaign to highlight key issues to voters, one of the functions that our campaigns serve.

Perhaps the biggest issue is Iran. Tensions have been rapidly escalating with the Iranian government, which has continued to issue provocative statements and to work on its nuclear weapons program. There is a very real possibility that Israel could launch a military strike on Iran in the near future. The United States has been ratcheting up the economic and diplomatic pressure on the country. There is a strong chance that the international community will be forced to deal with this threat in the near future.

The second issue involves the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Last year the world watched eagerly as the impossible suddenly seemed possible. Dictators were overthrown and the region headed toward a democratic revolution. It's a grave error to elect politicians without having any gauge of what they think and what they would do on the foreign policy issues that they will face in their presidency. Unfortunately, it seems that we are once again losing an important chance to have a national dialogue and to prepare for the challenges ahead.

Peres praised the Syrians taking to the streets daily against Assad and showing “courage under fire. I must say that the fact that the Arab League turned to the UN for the first time with a request to send military forces to save the citizens and children of Syria is very important in the struggle for freedom, democracy and preserving the dignity of man and the Syrian people,” he said.

Peres’s comments came amid a perception among some in the Arab world that Israel – out of a preference for “the devil it knows” – is interested in seeing Assad remain in power. In an apparent effort to dispel this thinking, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said in an Army Radio interview last week that any alternative to Assad would be better for Israel.

Israel, according to diplomatic sources, is walking a delicate balancing act, not wanting to be perceived as intervening in Syrian affairs, and concerned that anything it says will be turned against it. The officials said that the opposing forces in Syria are busy casting aspersions upon each other by saying that the other side either supports or is being aided by Israel. Peres also told his Croatian counterpart that it was very important for Israel to maintain its peace treaties with Jordan and Egypt during this period of regional instability.

The decision followed a district security assessment. The police expressed concerns that the intent of some of far-right Likud member Moshe Feiglin's followers to enter the compound would incite riots. The publicized visit caused what the police described as "agitation" among east Jerusalem's Palestinian neighborhoods. "Feiglin's people come to Temple Mount almost every month. The difference this time was the flyers," a police source said.

The flyers found near the compound read: "Member of the Likud Caucus, along with its thousands of members, headed by Moshe Feiglin are hereby invited to arrive at Temple Mount and praise God, and declare that healthy leadership begins with total control over Temple Mount. (Let us) purify this place from the enemies of Israel, who rob lands, and build the Temple on the ruins of mosques. We need not be afraid!"

According to the police, the flyer "cause Hamas members and other individuals in the city's east to 'heat things up' and try to incite riots on Temple Mount. "A security assessment determined that the compound should be closed for visitors. Muslim worshipers can pray as usual," the source said. Feiglin himself arrived at Temple Mount with a group of his followers, but was forced to turn back. "Calling for the destruction of a holy place like Temple Mount is an attempt to harvest political gain through provocation," another police source said, adding that the department was investigating whether the flyers constitute criminal incitement.

Feiglin's camp denies any connection to the flyers, calling them "a well-timed provocation." They expressed confidence in the police's ability to "find the real culprits."

It put the UK on "negative outlook", implying a 30% chance of losing its AAA credit rating within 18 months. France and Austria have also been warned and Italy, Spain and Portugal's ratings have been lowered. Chancellor George Osborne said the comments from the US agency was not a criticism of his government's economic policy. "It was a reality check for the whole political system that Britain has to deal with its debts, that we can't waiver in the path of dealing with our debts," Mr Osborne told the BBC.

"This is yet another organisation - in this case a credit ratings agency - warning Britain that if we spend or borrow too much we're going to lose our credit rating," he added. However, shadow chancellor Ed Balls said the Moody's statement was a warning to the UK. "Unless you have growth, if your plan is unbalanced it becomes self-defeating and today is the first evidence that even the ratings agencies are waking up to the fact George Osborne's plan is not working," he told the BBC. "I have said consistently and in the face of the views at times of ratings agencies, that without growth, without jobs, you can't get the deficit down," he added.