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.

Giuliani stated that Iran is the biggest state sponsor of terrorism and for the American administration not to treat it as such is simply “mindboggling.” He said America, whose military capabilities far surpass those of Iran, should be willing and prepared to use military actions against the regime. Part of the problem, Giuliani noted, lies in the fact that Iran views Obama as a “weak president” and does not feel threatened by the possibility of America taking military actions.

With regards to the presidential race and leading Republican candidates, Giuliani said that the key objective remains defeating Obama. He said that while the economy is a pressing issue, the next American president must be willing to forcefully take on vital national security concerns.

Speaking to a Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant, she said: "It's always said: if you let one nation go, or ask one to leave, the entire structure will collapse. But that is just not true." She said Greece's austerity drive so far left much to be desired. "This is why the troika (IMF, EU and European Central Bank) is back in Greece again, reporting for the umpteenth time that Greece is not living up to its promises: too few savings, too few reforms,"

Kroes, who is in charge of digital affairs for the EU, said. "It's becoming a Greek mantra: 'We cannot. We won't'!" Prime Minister Lucas Papademos is in the throes of deciding the best path for the Greek nation with the coalition party leaders of the country warning the PM not to give too much up to the EU. Other eurozone nations are becoming impatient with the debt-laden country which is in need of a 130 billion euro bailout deal.

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have warned Greek leaders that they need to push through the austerity measures or risk letting the country go bankrupt. Without an injection of emergency money, Greece will likely default on its bond repayments on March 20 - an event that could shake European banks and other private lenders with Greek debt on their books.

In the past fortnight, the bug has been suspected in 34 hospitals. Laboratory tests confirmed 19 to be norovirus. Wards have closed at 23 hospitals with visiting hours restricted due to the virus which also causes diarrhoea. A Health Protection Agency spokesman said: “It is believed to be connected with cold weather – that is why it is called the winter vomiting bug. The numbers this year are a little lower than normal – but this could change in the weeks ahead.”

The North-east and the South-west have been worst hit by the virus although experts fear the cold weather could spark a nationwide outbreak. Around a million people each year are affected by the virus which can spread rapidly in hospitals, residential care homes and schools. HPA advice is to wash hands regularly and thoroughly, particularly after using the toilet and before eating. Forecasters warned freezing temperatures could last for weeks with parts of Britain braced for more snow today.

The mercury was expected to plunge to -13C (9F) overnight, the coldest so far this winter. Daytime highs are not expected to rise above 2C. London, Kent and the East Coast are on alert for snow today and tomorrow as a block of freezing air from Russia continues to be wedged over the UK. The Met Office last night issued a severe weather warning for the area and extended a level-3 Cold Weather Alert until Friday.

"Even though our American and Chinese competitors have an interest in the survival of the single currency, the euro is condemned to an uncontrollable explosion sooner or late" (A nice twist that one, inverting the false and widely believed conspiracy theory that the US is trying to destroy the euro).

"National currencies should be recreated in each eurozone country". There will be a short transition period of dual notes as old euros are stamped by country ('U' for France) until new francs etc are printed (This is what happened when the Austro-Hungarian monetary union fell apart in 1919).

The new exchange rates will be determined by a formula that takes into account the accumulated inflation differential and trade balances since the launch of EMU. The devaluations/revaluations will be set against a new unit of account reflecting the average weighting of the old euro (not anchored on the new D-Mark).

"The public debt of each state will be converted into the corresponding national currency, whoever the creditors may be. By contrast, the external debt of private entities will be converted into the European accounting unit. Even though this helps the stronger countries and penalizes the weak, it is the only feasible way to uphold preceding contracts."

"All governments will declare a bank holiday for a limited period. They will temporarily close banks to determine which are viable and which will need to apply to the central bank." The central banks will lose their independence, returning to their pre-1970s status.

MPs have threatened similar action before, but failed to follow through. The summons will be sent to Mr Ahmadinejad in the next two days. He must appear in parliament within a month according to Iran's constitution. That means he could appear after legislative elections on 2 March - the first national elections since the disputed presidential poll in 2009.

James Reynolds, BBC Iran correspondent reports: "Iran's president and parliament are fighting a lengthy battle for power. Now, parliament has decided to take what may be a dramatic public step. The summons for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad comes at a critical moment for the country's divided conservative establishment. Parliamentary elections are set to be held at the start of next month. The ruling conservatives came together in 2009 to defeat the opposition Green Movement. But since then, conservatives have fought among themselves.

Mr Ahmadinejad and his supporters want to reduce the influence of the country's ruling clerics. But the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and his allies in parliament and the powerful Revolutionary Guards have fought back.

This is a president, whose repression apparatus had used torture to prepare prisoners for interrogations by German officials and is currently held responsible for large-scale massacres. What remains uncertain is to what extent pro-western countries are furnishing weapons to the armed contingents of Syrian rebels, who, according to reports, are responsible for a massacre of dozens of Christians in the city of Homs. The civil war in Syria that seems inevitable falls in line with western geostrategic plans aimed at isolating Iran.

This has been confirmed by reports from correspondents in Israel. The Syrian conflict provides a good example of how Berlin uses the issue of human rights arbitrarily, but very effectively. Even though the German government is posing as the protector of the Syrian opposition, whose oppression it had facilitated over the decades through its cooperation with the Syrian secret services, Berlin is still deporting Syrian refugees.

The civil war escalating between the Assad regime, until early 2011 a close western cooperation partner, and the insurgents, the current western partners, falls in line with the West's geo-strategic plans against Iran. According to a press report from Israel, the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas are clearly distancing themselves from Iran, and Syria, "Tehran's last Arab ally," weakened by the insurgency against Assad, is now too preoccupied with itself.

The former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy is quoted referring to Syria as "Iran's Achilles heel" and demanding a reduction of Iranian influence in that country. A weakened Iran would open "enormous opportunities" for the West. The complete overthrow of the Assad regime possibly would not even be necessary. Its international isolation, through supporting one party to the civil war, may suffice. This objective has already been attained.

Defence sources have revealed that the Americans only relented and allowed a Royal Navy frigate to join the mission following an intervention from Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president. The revelation that US defence chiefs saw little military value in UK participation will raise new questions about Britain’s international clout after Coalition defence cuts. Amid rising tensions in the region, the Royal Navy last month deployed HMS Argyll, a Type 23 frigate, to the Gulf.

The ship accompanied a US carrier strike group made up of an aircraft carrier with a full complement of fighters, a heavy cruiser and several destroyers. A French frigate, the La Motte-Picquet, was also part of the flotilla which sailed through the Straits of Hormuz. Iran has staged wargames in the area and threatened to block the straits, a vital supply route for oil exports. The US also has another carrier strike group in the Gulf and a third heading for the region.

A diplomatic source revealed that US commanders originally planned for an all-American naval operation, and only relented after protests from European leaders. The source said: “The Americans originally planned to do it alone. They were clear that they saw no military advantage in having European ships taking part. But after the President insisted that France had to be represented, ministers decided that “Britain must participate too, regardless of the military importance.”