The irony is GM seeds have not been effective in India and the consequences are not as rosy as what Monsanto had promised to deliver. Scathing reports of mass suicides of the Indian farmers broke out as recently as three years ago when scores of farmers took their own lives in order to escape the burden of high price and failure of Monsanto's GM seeds. Monsanto offered its GM seeds to the farmers of India with hopes of reaping plentiful crops. Plain and mostly uneducated farmers thought Monsanto had come to provide a "magic" formula that would transform their lives. They had no idea what was coming.

Monsanto's seeds in India did not produce what the company had promised and farmers hoped. The expensive seeds piled up debts and destroyed farming fields. In many instances, the crops simply failed to materialize. The farmers were not aware that the GM seeds required more water than the traditional seeds. And lack of rain in many parts of India exacerbated the crop failure.

With no harvest, the farmers could not pay back the lenders. Burdened with debts and humiliation, the farmers simply took their own lives, some by swallowing poisonous pesticides in front of their families. To date, an estimated 200,000 farmers have committed suicide all over India. To add to the misery, wives inherited the debts along with the fear of losing their homes and lands. With no money coming in, they also had to pull their kids from the schools. The mass suicide among the Indian farmers is known as the "GM genocide."

''The most urgent needs now are water, tents and food,'' he said. The quake hit 70km north of Dumaguete city on Negros island. The 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck at 11:49 (03:49 GMT) at a depth of 20km, according to the US Geological Survey. As of 08:00 local time, an official report put the death toll at 15 confirmed dead, 44 reported missing and 52 injured.

One local report on Monday put the number of dead at 43, including many people killed in a landslide in the badly-hit coastal area of Guihulngan. But this report has not yet been confirmed by the central authorities. Telecommunications have been cut in many areas. A series of aftershocks followed the initial quake, one of them registered a magnitude of 6.2 at the epicentre. Damaged roads and bridges added to challenges faced by rescue workers and the transport of aid and supplies.

In the town of Guihulngan, about 90 km north of Dumaguete, reports said some houses had been completely buried by landslides, and the market and court house were also damaged. The town's 42-strong police force, joined by army personnel and volunteers, had been searching for survivors and clearing debris, said Inspector Alvin Futalan, police chief of Guihulngan. "The army (troops) had to walk about 50 km from the last stop reachable by vehicle to reach us," he told the Agence France Presse news agency. Nine bridges were damaged in Negros Oriental, with four no longer passable, said Governor Roel Degamo.

The map, referring to Florida shores as "The Treasure Coast," depicts nine countries, two of which – Garnet and North Garnet are identified as fundamentalist Islamic theocracies suspected of supporting terror groups. The drill map also depicts a 56 km (35 miles) wide strait located some 320 km (200 miles) from the coast. The mock strait’s shape and width is identical to the Strait of Hormuz – the key oil shipping route, part of which is controlled by Iran.

Although US military officials deny the maneuvers are connected with escalated tensions around Iran saying strike group is "training for all the mission areas." However, Rear Admiral Dennis Fitzpatrick, commander of Strike Force Training Atlantic told The Navy Times: "there obviously is an emphasis on where we think the ship will go."

The 50-year-old aircraft carrier Enterprise, leading the naval exercise, is to join two other US strike groups in the Persian Gulf by March. This will be the final deployment for the oldest carrier in Washington's fleet. Meanwhile, Tehran has also launched ground drills near the Strait of Hormuz, which is used to transmit nearly a third of global oil exports. The Iranian military says the drill is preparing for a military conflict.

The magazine,which last week published a scenario of how Israel will attack Iran if it decides to do so, featured on its website on Monday an article by Professor Niall Ferguson. He pooh-poohed five arguments why Israel should not stage a military strike on Iran: Iranian retaliation, new Arab Spring rebellion, a recession caused by doubling of the price of crude oil, boomerang support for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad within Iran, and the ability to live with a nuclear Iran.

Professor Ferguson maintains that whether he likes it or not, President Barack Obama will comes to Israel’s defense if it attacks Iran in an attempt to slow down its nuclear development, if not destroy its nuclear facilities altogether. “The Iranians will very likely be facing not one, not two, but three US aircraft carriers,” the professor wrote. “Two are already in the Persian Gulf: CVN 72 Abraham Lincoln and CVN 70 Carl Vinson. A third, CVN 77 George HW Bush, is said to be on its way from Norfolk, Virginia”

The reasons are practical, he said – the probability of the price of oil at $200 a barrel if Iran were to close the Strait of Hormuz, and the political backlash for not backing Israel. As for an “eruption of the entire Muslim world, all the crocodiles of Africa could not equal the fake tears that will be shed by the Sunni powers of the region if Iran’s nuclear ambitions are checked,” according to the professor.

Mr Ahmadinejad, the Iranian leader, has said several times that Israel is a “cancer” and should be “wiped off the map. War is an evil,” Professor Ferguson wrote. “But sometimes a preventive war can be a lesser evil than a policy of appeasement. The people who don’t yet know that are the ones still in denial about what a nuclear-armed Iran would end up costing us all. It feels like the eve of some creative destruction.”

“It is a blow to a freedom that you have fought to defend and for which you have seen your buddies fall in battle,” the archbishop wrote. Another line in his letter said: “We cannot — we will not — comply with this unjust law.”

The message from the archbishop touched off a controversy both in and outside the military when the Army's Office of the Chief of Chaplains told the service's senior chaplains that Catholic priests serving as Army chaplains should be told not to read the archbishop's letter from the pulpit. The Archdiocese for the Military Services has described that move as a violation of the archbishop's First Amendment rights as well as the First Amendment rights of the Catholic chaplains involved and their congregations.

Because the Catholic Church teaches that sterilization, artificial contraception, and abortion are morally wrong and that Catholics cannot be involved in them, and because the Obamacare law requires that all individuals purchase health insurance and that larger employers provide health insurance to their workers or face a penalty, the regulation would force Catholics to act against the teachings of their faith and against their consciences.

Hundreds of thousands of Catholics attended mass across the country Sunday, and many were told about the new healthcare mandate that religious leaders believe is a violation of the church's beliefs. "It's a core issue of freedom of religion and freedom of conscience, Bishops all across the country are responding in the same way because we feel as if our freedom of religion, our ability to live out the church teachings are being compromised by this regulation that's come out of the department of human services," Bishop Paul Swain with the Sioux Falls Catholic Diocese said.

The new mandate requires all employers that provide health insurance, including faith-based ones, to provide and pay for all forms of contraception, including birth control. Swain says the mandate strikes at the very core of the country's rights. "We have the freedom to exercise individually and as church what we believe free from the interference of government at any level I mean that's what the first amendment was all about," Swain said.

The Catholic Church has one year to comply with the new mandate, which goes into effect in January 2013. South Dakota senator John Thune and Representative Kristi Noem have both signed on to different challenges to the mandate.

According to this week’s The Hill Poll, 49 percent said military force should be used to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, while 31 percent said it should not. Twenty percent were not sure. Sixty-two percent of likely voters said they were somewhat or very concerned about the possibility Iran would carry out a terrorist strike on the US, while 37 percent said they were not very concerned or not at all concerned about it.

The Rasmussen polling agency found that 48 percent of likely voters said that if Israel attacks Iran, the US should help Israel. “Voters nationwide remain firmly convinced that Iran is likely to develop a nuclear weapon in the near future, and if so, will use it against Israel,” said Rasmussen. “At the same time, most also think an Israeli attack on Iran is likely to happen within the next year.”

But in a statement issued by the diocese of Harrisburg, Bishop Joseph McFadden did not retract comments he made during an interview on January 24 with WHTM-TV, the ABC affiliate in Harrisburg. The bishop made a comparison between the interests of the public school system and totalitarianism, while discussing what he sees as a lack of school choice in Pennsylvania.

“In the totalitarian government, they would love our system,” McFadden said. “This is what Hitler and Mussolini and all them tried to establish - a monolith; so all the children would be educated in one set of beliefs and one way of doing things.”

“The reference to dictators and totalitarian governments of the 20th century which I made in an interview on the topic of school choice was to make a dramatic illustration of how these unchecked monolithic governments of the past used schools to curtail the primary responsibility of the parent in the education of their children,” he said. “Today many parents in our state experience the same lack of freedom in choosing an education that bests suits their child as those parents oppressed by dictators of the past.”

How so? In 2009, Microsoft purchased a key piece of technology from the drug company Merck, the world's largest maker of vaccines (which Bill Gates says can help "reduce the global population" by 10 to 15 percent). That technology, as you'll see below, can conceivably be used to develop eugenics vaccines that target specific races and nationalities with infertility-inducing pharmaceuticals - something that is entirely consistent with Bill Gates' openly-admitted goal of reducing world population through the use of vaccines.

This gene-targeting vaccine research technology purchased by Microsoft was developed by the company known as Rosetta Biosciences, formerly owned by Merck. Their software is described as a way to "figure out how genes interact with each other, analyze peptides and metabolites, and determine how they relate to gene expression."

An announcement on the Rosetta Biosoftware web site explains, "The deal allows Microsoft to incorporate genetic, genomic, metabolomic and proteomics data management software into the Microsoft Amalga Life Sciences platform for enhanced translational research capabilities." This same announcement goes on to say that vaccine maker Merck will "provide strategic input to Microsoft" as a part of the deal. Merck's strategy, of course, is to make money by pimping vaccines and pharmaceuticals, including the now-infamous Gardasil vaccine.

Rupert Vessey, the vice president of Merck Research Laboratories, openly admits this deal puts Microsoft in the role of being a drug developer. He says, "We look forward to collaborating with Microsoft to develop new bioinformatic solutions to enable and expedite drug discovery and development..."

This is a key statement to understand, because the term "bioinformatic" can only mean one thing. What stores information in biology? There is only one digital storage system in human biology, and that system is, of course, DNA. Therefore, the idea of developing "bioinformatic solutions" really means to develop "gene-targeting drugs and vaccines." This is fully consistent with Bill Gates' admitted agenda of reducing world population with the help of drug company technologies. At a TED conference, he announced in front of a live audience: "...if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower [global population] by perhaps 10 or 15 percent."

The 6.8-magnitude quake, in a narrow strait just off Negros Island, caused a landslide in Guihulngan, a city of about 180,000 people in Negros Oriental province. As many as 30 houses were buried and at least 29 people were missing, Mayor Ernesto Reyes said.

"Their situation is bad because if you are covered by landslide for one hour, two hours, how can you breathe?" he said. "But we just hope for the best, that there are still survivors." Rescuers were using picks and shovels to dig for survivors, he said. At least 10 people were confirmed dead, including students at a college and an elementary school and others in a town market that collapsed, Reyes said. About 100 were injured.

The quake, which hit at 11:49 am, triggered another landslide in the mountain village of Solongon in La Libertad town, also in Negros Oriental. An unknown number of people were trapped, said La Libertad police chief inspector Eric Arrol Besario. Philippine seismologists briefly issued a tsunami alert for the central islands. Five bamboo and wooden cottages were washed out from a beach resort in La Libertad by huge waves, but there were no reports of injuries, said police Superintendent Ernesto Tagle. Elsewhere along the coast, people rushed out of schools, malls and offices.

Calling Israel a danger to Islam, the conservative website Alef, with ties to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the opportunity must not be lost to remove “this corrupting material. It is a ‘jurisprudential justification’ to kill all the Jews and annihilate Israel, and in that, the Islamic government of Iran must take the helm.”

The article, written by Alireza Forghani, a conservative analyst and a strategy specialist in Khamenei’s camp, now is being run on most state-owned conservative sites, including the Revolutionary Guards’ Fars News Agency, showing that the regime endorses this doctrine.

Because Israel is going to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, Iran is justified in launching a pre-emptive, cataclysmic attack against the Jewish state, the doctrine argues. On Friday, in a major speech at prayers, Khamenei announced that Iran will support any nation or group that attacks the “cancerous tumor” of Israel. Though his statement was seen by some in the West as fluff, there is substance behind it.

Iran’s Defense Ministry announced this weekend that it test-fired an advanced two-stage, solid-fuel ballistic missile and boasted about successfully putting a new satellite into orbit, reminding the West that its engineers have mastered the technology for intercontinental ballistic missiles even as the Islamic state pushes its nuclear weapons program.

The Iranian secret documentary “The Coming Is Upon Us” clearly indicates that these radicals believe the destruction of Israel will trigger the coming of the last Islamic Messiah and that even Jesus Christ, who will convert to Islam, will act as Mahdi’s deputy, praying to Allah as he stands behind the 12th Imam.

Last week, Iran's supreme clerical leader threatened reprisals for the West's new ban on Iranian oil exports and the US defense secretary was quoted as saying Israel was likely to bomb Iran within months to stop it assembling nuclear weapons. Although broadened and sharpened financial sanctions have begun to inflict serious economic pain in Iran, its oil minister asserted Saturday it would make no nuclear retreat even if its crude oil exports ground to a halt.

Iran says its nuclear program is for civilian energy purposes. But its recent shift of uranium enrichment to a mountain bunker possibly impervious to conventional bombing, and refusal to negotiate peaceful guarantees for the program or open up to UN nuclear inspectors, have thickened an atmosphere of brewing confrontation, raising fears for Gulf oil supplies.

"Any spot used by the enemy for hostile operations against Iran will be subjected to retaliatory aggression by our armed forces," Hossein Salami, deputy head of the elite Revolutionary Guards, told the semi-official Fars news agency Sunday. The Guards began two days of military maneuvers in southern Iran Saturday in another show of force for Iran's adversaries associated with tensions over its disputed nuclear program.

Sunday Israel appointed a new air force chief who last month, in his position as top military planner, warned publicly that Israel could not deal a knock-out blow to its enemies, including Iran, in any regional conflict.

After Russia pulled back from the region at the end of the Cold War, the United States and its Western allies faced few external rivals in attempts to influence events. But as the US withdraws from Iraq, emerging economic powers reshape the globe and are themselves sucked ever deeper into the Gulf by their energy needs, that era seems over.

"What we are seeing is the US losing its ability to shape events in the region, even though it remains by far the pre-eminent military power," says Waleed Hazbun, director of the Centre for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies at the American University in Beirut. "You're seeing others moving in to fill the gap."

In some ways, experts say, there are echoes of 19th and 20th century scrambles for resources, territory and influence.

"Bottom line: there will be more players in the sandbox," says Hayat Alvi, lecturer in Middle Eastern studies at the US Naval War College. "The Middle East has always been the venue for the 'Great Game'. Rising powers will see opportunities and advantages in engaging in (that), just like the colonial powers."

Today, however, she makes clear that thoughts of retirement are far from her mind as she formally rededicates herself to her nation. In a statement to mark the start of her diamond jubilee year, the Queen – only the second monarch after her great great grandmother Queen Victoria to celebrate 60 years on the British throne – vows once again to serve her people for the rest of her life.

Her message is interesting because, unlike addresses issued to mark her silver and golden jubilees, the Queen takes the opportunity to rededicate herself to her people, scotching rumours that she might abdicate in favour of her son and heir, Prince Charles.

The disclosure will fuel the rising controversy over Britain’s aid to India. The country is the world’s top recipient of British bilateral aid, even though its economy has been growing at up to 10 per cent a year and is projected to become bigger than Britain’s within a decade.

Last week India rejected the British-built Typhoon jet as preferred candidate for a £6.3 billion warplane deal, despite the Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell, saying that Britain’s aid to Delhi was partly “about seeking to sell Typhoon.” Mr Mukherjee’s remarks, previously unreported outside India, were made during question time in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament.

DFID has sent more than £1 billion of UK taxpayers’ money to India in the last five years and is planning to spend a further £600 million on Indian aid by 2015. In India, meanwhile, government audit reports found £70 million had disappeared from one DFID-funded project alone.