The VAT rate for food and drink rose from 13 percent to 23 percent in September to comply with EU-IMF Troika demands. The revenue effect has been overwhelmed by the contraction of the economy. Overall tax receipts fell 7 percent year-on-year. This is a damning indictment of the EU-imposed strategy. Greece is chasing its tail. The budget deficit is stuck near 8 percent to 9 percent of GDP because the economic base is shrinking so fast.

Let me just add that it makes little difference whether or not Lucas Papademos secures triparty agreement today – or soon – for a debt deal. The Greek parliament still has to vote and there is a sauve qui peut mood among MPs who don’t want to be stoned to death (metaphorically) by the polloi – hoi or otherwise. Professor Yannis Varoufakis told me this morning that PASOK suupport has dropped to 8 percent in the polls from 47 percent when elected. New Democracy is down to 18 percent.

Where are voters going? To parties that are not very friendly to Angela Merkel. The hard Left in various forms is running at around 35 percent. So what happens in the April elections? Does anybody think that the new government will comply with the Merkel-Troika Diktat, and continue complying until 2020 when the country will still be prostrate with a public debt of 120 percent of GDP – if all goes perfectly?

April is the inflexion point.

Although there will be little explanation of today's decision until the minutes of the meeting are published in a fortnight, the MPC is likely to justify any increase in QE against a backdrop of falling inflation, a weak economy and uncertain outlook. There have been a number of upbeat UK economic indicators for January in recent days, but the economy contracted by 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter according to official data and the prospect of a return to recession hangs in the balance.

"More QE by the Bank of England is still odds-on, despite overall survey evidence that suggests that the UK economy enjoyed some pick-up in activity in January," said Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight. Mr Clarke said: "The Bank of England will feel vindicated that extraordinary monetary policy easing, both here and by the ECB, is having the desired effect on growth. Stronger growth prospects are exactly what the Bank wanted to see, so should not be discouraged by this."

Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, coined the phrase “zone of immunity” to define the circumstances under which Israel would judge it could no longer hold off from an attack because Iran’s effort to produce a bomb would be invulnerable to any strike. But judging when that moment will arrive has set off an intense debate with the Obama administration, whose officials counter that there are other ways to make Iran vulnerable.

Senior Israeli officials, including the foreign minister and leader of the Mossad, have traveled to Washington in recent weeks to make the case that this point is fast approaching. American officials have made reciprocal visits to Jerusalem, arguing that Israel and the West have more time and should allow sanctions and covert actions to deter Iran’s plans.

The Americans have also used the discussions to test their belief, based on a series of public statements by Israeli officials, that an Israeli strike against Iran could come as early as spring, according to an official familiar with the discussions.

The discovery has stunned scientists, who had believed that around 50 billion tonnes of meltwater were being shed each year and not being replaced by new snowfall. The study is the first to survey all the world's icecaps and glaciers and was made possible by the use of satellite data. Overall, the contribution of melting ice outside the two largest caps – Greenland and Antarctica – is much less then previously estimated, with the lack of ice loss in the Himalayas and the other high peaks of Asia responsible for most of the discrepancy.

Bristol University glaciologist Professor Jonathan Bamber, who was not part of the research team, said: "The very unexpected result was the negligible mass loss from high mountain Asia, which is not significantly different from zero."

The melting of Himalayan glaciers caused controversy in 2009 when a report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change mistakenly stated that they would disappear by 2035, instead of 2350. However, the scientist who led the new work is clear that while greater uncertainty has been discovered in Asia's highest mountains, the melting of ice caps and glaciers around the world remains a serious concern.

The scientists are careful to point out that lower-altitude glaciers in the Asian mountain ranges – sometimes dubbed the "third pole" – are definitely melting. Satellite images and reports confirm this. But over the study period from 2003-10 enough ice was added to the peaks to compensate.

The options are being prepared in the event President Barack Obama were to call for them. Two senior administration officials who spoke about the review to CNN emphasized that US policy for now remains the use of non-military options. The focus on diplomatic options was underscored by the US ambassador to the United Nations in an interview with CNN on Tuesday. "Before we start talking about military options, we very much want to ensure that we have exhausted all the political, economic and diplomatic means at our disposal," Ambassador Susan Rice said on CNN's “Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.”

The president has also said that the US is working on non-military options first. "I think it is very important for us to try to resolve this without recourse to outside military intervention, and I think that's possible," Mr Obama said in an interview with NBC News that aired during the Super Bowl on Sunday. But the military is beginning to look at what can be done.

Fanning a political firestorm, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner joined an outcry from religious leaders and social conservatives over a requirement that health insurance plans, including those at Catholic hospitals, charities and universities, offer birth control to women.

Seeking to ease a controversy that has roiled the 2012 presidential race, White House spokesman Jay Carney appeared to leave the door open to compromise. He said Mr Obama was sensitive to religious beliefs on contraception and hoped to find a way to implement the rule that can "allay some of the concerns." But Mr Obama, at a meeting with Senate Democrats, reaffirmed his decision and was "not equivocating," Senator Frank Lautenberg, who attended the closed-door session, told Reuters.

Republicans have seized upon the issue, seeing a chance to paint Mr Obama as anti-religion and put him on the defensive at a time when signs of economic improvement appear to have energized his re-election bid. "This attack ... on religious freedom in our country cannot stand and will not stand," Mr Boehner vowed in a speech on the floor of his chamber.

The escalating fight centers on a provision in the 2010 healthcare law that requires health insurance to cover basic birth control services for women - even at Catholic charities, hospitals and universities. Catholic bishops contend the policy infringes on religious liberty because the church does not condone the use of birth control pills or other contraceptives.

The main stumbling block was proposed pension cuts, reports said. Mr Papademos said further talks were needed with the "troika" of bailout creditors, and that it was hoped these would begin immediately.

"There was broad agreement on all the program issues with the exception of one, which requires further elaboration and discussion with the troika. This discussion will take place immediately, so as to conclude the agreement in view of the Eurogroup meeting," a statement issued by the prime minister's office said.

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos is travelling to Brussels where Eurozone finance ministers are due to meet on Thursday afternoon. Observers say there is huge pressure for Greek political leaders to strike a deal prior to that meeting. "I leave for Brussels with hope that the Eurogroup will take a positive decision concerning the new aid plan," Mr Venizelos said prior to his departure from Athens. Following the coalition talks, Mr Papademos was reported to have gone directly into a meeting with EU and IMF officials.

Tensions between the two countries have been increasing in recent weeks. Last month, the UK said it was sending a destroyer to the region. The status of the islands, known in Argentina as the Malvinas, is still a highly sensitive issue for Buenos Aires. In December, Mercosur, a South American trading bloc, closed its ports to ships flying the Falkland Islands flag. Then, last month, the UK said it was sending one of its newest destroyers, HMS Dauntless, to the South Atlantic, off the Falklands. London described the move as "routine".

Fergal Keane, BBC News comments: "In taking a complaint to the UN the Argentine side knows that Britain, as a permanent member of the Security Council, can ultimately veto any critical resolution." Before the speech there had been speculation that Ms Fernandez might signal an end to the important air link between Chile and the Falklands which must use Argentine air space - a move that would have created significant practical difficulties for the islanders. That she chose not to, illustrates that Argentine tactics are not about achieving any kind of immediate practical effect, but are focused instead on a longer-term campaign of diplomatic attrition.

With a series of deadlines come and gone, leaders of the three parties in the coalition of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos postponed what was supposed to be a crunch meeting until Wednesday. On a day when protesters burned a German flag in Athens, Chancellor Angela Merkel tried to ease growing tension by promising she would not try to force Greece out of the euro. But the Dutch prime minister said the currency bloc could take a Greek exit in its stride.

One party official blamed Tuesday's delay, which is likely to enrage euro zone leaders desperate to tie up the 130 billion euro rescue after months of argument, on missing paperwork - the same reason given when the meeting was postponed from Monday to Tuesday."The reason is that the political leaders will not have the time to assess the measures in the bailout," said the party official, who declined to be named.

The heads of the conservative, socialist and far-right parties had yet to receive the draft agreement with the European Union and IMF only half an hour before the 1900 GMT scheduled start of the meeting on Tuesday. "We can't say a plain yes or no unless we have assurances from the relevant authorities of the state that these actions are constitutional and will lead the country out of the crisis," far-right LAOS leader George Karatzaferis said. "There is time. When it comes to future of the country, we will find the time."

Party leaders have hesitated to accept the tough terms of the deal, which are certain to mean a big drop in living standards for many Greeks. Adding to the pressure, unions staged a 24-hour strike on Tuesday, and protesters tussled with police outside parliament, chanting: "No to mediaeval labour conditions!" Deadlines are rapidly losing any significance as one after another passes.

"In America, increased financial activity is taking place between non-banks which are subject to little or no regulation, and Europe is catching up fast," said Godfried De Vidts, director of European Affairs a ICAP, a brokerage firm that trades only with large professional clients, such as investment banks. The effort is the latest attempt by regulators to make the financial system safer, four years after the start of the global banking crisis. This has already led to a rewriting of the rules that will change the face of banking for good.

Tough new rules on capital requirements for banks - known as Basel III - are forcing banks to increase their safety buffers, while the US "Volcker rule" bans overly risky bets by banks on financial markets. And opaque unlisted derivatives will have to be traded on exchanges in the future, rather than directly between banks in "over the counter" deals. But despite these efforts, large swathes of the financial system remain outside the remit of the regulators, even though they provide essential funding to banks, and were at the heart of the global financial crisis.

This sector, known as "shadow banking" - much to the chagrin of the people operating in it - is huge. The size of the sector was some $60 trillion (37.98 trillion pounds) in 2010, making it as big as roughly half the global banking industry. "Shadow banking is not really well named. It would be preferable to have a better description of what is a wide range of non-bank intermediaries. As it stands, it sounds a bit pejorative," said ICAP's De Vidts. A run on its funds is as much a real risk for a shadow bank as it is for a normal bank, regulators say, and could have devastating consequences for the global financial system because the two sectors are so closely linked.

Initially, the report noted general cooperation by the Syrian government: The Mission [ie the Arab League investigative team] noted that the Government strived to help it succeed in its task and remove any barriers that might stand in its way. The Government also facilitated meetings with all parties. No restrictions were placed on the movement of the Mission and its ability to interview Syrian citizens, both those who opposed the Government and those loyal to it.

The report noted that the media has greatly exaggerated the amount of violence in Syria: The Mission noted that many parties falsely reported that explosions or violence had occurred in several locations. When the observers went to those locations, they found that those reports were unfounded. The Mission also noted that, according to its teams in the field, the media exaggerated the nature of the incidents and the number of persons killed in incidents and protests in certain towns.

Since it began its work, the Mission has been the target of a vicious media campaign. Some media outlets have published unfounded statements, which they attributed to the Head of the Mission. They have also grossly exaggerated events, thereby distorting the truth. Such contrived reports have helped to increase tensions among the Syrian people and undermined the observers’ work.

Opposition leaders are calling on President Traian Basescu to step down as well. Crin Antonescu, who heads the opposition Liberal Party, called it “the most corrupt, incompetent and lying government” since the 1989 revolt against communism, the report said. Austerity has become the watchword in Europe, where governments have been cutting back and trying to rein in debt to help restore faith in the battered euro currency. Spain, for example, crafted a nearly $20-billion package of cuts and tax increases and even cut back on puentes, an extra vacation day slipped in when holidays fall on a Tuesday or Thursday to make a long weekend, Lauren Frayer reported for The Times.

Such austerity cuts are often a tit-for-tat for strapped nations' financial survival: Romania made sweeping cuts to secure a $26-billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the World Bank to keep paying salaries as its economy shrank. Sales taxes were hiked from 19% to 24%. Government workers took a 25% pay cut.

But in Romania and elsewhere, such deep cuts are deeply unpopular. Italy was racked with strikes in December before its lawmakers hiked taxes and put off pension payments. In Greece, workers clad in black are holding marches almost daily, Anthee Carassava has reported for The Times. Greeks argue that the austerity measures just aren’t fixing its tottering economy: "One minute we're being told to do one thing; then, they tell us something else. Then, they modify that with something different, and in the end, it's scrapped and replaced with something even more brutal," said Nikos Tassos, a carpet salesman in Marathon.

These scenarios are described in a report into the military and law enforcement uses of neuroscience, published on Tuesday, which also highlights a raft of legal and ethical concerns that innovations in the field may bring. The report by the Royal Society, the UK's national academy of science, says that while the rapid advance of neuroscience is expected to benefit society and improve treatments for brain disease and mental illness, it also has substantial security applications that should be carefully analysed.

The report's authors also anticipate new designer drugs that boost performance, make captives more talkative and make enemy troops fall asleep. "Neuroscience will have more of an impact in the future," said Rod Flower, chair of the report's working group. "People can see a lot of possibilities, but so far very few have made their way through to actual use.

"All leaps forward start out this way. You have a groundswell of ideas and suddenly you get a step change." The authors argue that while hostile uses of neuroscience and related technologies are ever more likely, scientists remain almost oblivious to the dual uses of their research.

One study cited by the report described how US neuroscientists employed tDCS to improve people's ability to spot roadside bombs, snipers and other hidden threats in a virtual reality training programme used by US troops bound for the Middle East. "Those who had tDCS learned to spot the targets much quicker," said Vince Clark, a cognitive neuroscientist and lead author on the study at the University of New Mexico. "Their accuracy increased twice as fast as those who had minimal brain stimulation. I was shocked that the effect was so large

According to Green, the culprit is non-organic food, but not just one kind. If you’re still eating conventionally-farmed food products, you may be unknowingly exposing yourself to extreme levels of fluoride. Green says this is made possible by fluoride going incognito within the food supply in a very concerning way: “Cryolite is actually sodium aluminum fluoride… This sodium aluminum fluoride is especially effective at killing bugs,” Green says. “It’s also very sticky, so when they spray it, it’s more likely to stick on your produce, unless you’re… really working at trying to get it off of it.”

While Green states that a large number of non-organic produce items can contain shocking levels of this fluoride-based pesticide, iceberg lettuce may be one of the largest offenders. In fact, iceberg lettuce can now be laced with a startling 180 parts per million (ppm) of fluoride – 180 times higher than the ‘recommended’ water fluoridation level. This ‘health’ food could actually be corroding your body with heavy levels of fluoride. But what other seemingly-healthy produce items contain high amounts of fluoride?

•Citrus fruits are actually allowed to contain 95 ppm’s of sodium fluoride.

•Potatoes can have as much as 22 ppm’s on the outside, and 2 ppm inside.

•Raisins are allowed 55 ppm’s.

Fluoride has been linked to decreased IQ in children, and even the United States government is calling for lower levels of fluoride to be added to United States water supplies. Perhaps the next big hurdle in the fight against fluoride will be within the food industry.

Its definition of “militia extremists” states: Groups or individuals who facilitate or engage in acts of violence directed at federal, state, or local government officials or infrastructure in response to their belief that the government deliberately is stripping Americans of their freedoms and is attempting to establish a totalitarian regime. These individuals consequently oppose many federal and state authorities’ laws and regulations, (particularly those related to firearms ownership), and often belong to armed paramilitary groups. They often conduct paramilitary training designed to violently resist perceived government oppression or to violently overthrow the US Government.

So what drives militia extremism according to DHS now is “belief that the government deliberately is stripping Americans of their freedoms.” It is demonstrated by opposing “many federal and state authorities’ laws and regulations, (particularly those related to firearms ownership).” Would writing about those topics (as I am now) fall under “facilitation”? On its face, it’s hard to see how it could be excluded under DHS’s broad definition.