"We were simply asking for a level playing field for open competition for financial services companies in all EU countries, with arrangements that would enable every EU member state to regulate its financial sector properly," he said, rejecting accusations the government was "trying to go soft on the banks". Mr Cameron said he wished France and Germany had accepted the requests "but frankly I have to tell the House the choice was a treaty without proper safeguards or no treaty and the right answer was no treaty. It was not an easy thing to do but it was the right thing to do," he added.

The prime minister insisted the move had done nothing to change Britain's influence or position in the EU.

He told MPs: "I am absolutely clear that it is possible to be both a full, committed and influential member of the European Union but to stay out of arrangements where they do not protect our interests." Opposition leader Ed Miliband noted the absence from the frontbench of Deputy PM and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg - who described the outcome of the European summit as "bitterly disappointing".

Mr Miliband said the deal was a "bad deal for Britain", accusing Mr Cameron of walking away from the negotiating table and "sidelining" the UK with "long-lasting consequences. He should have stayed inside and fought his corner," the Labour leader said, accusing Mr Cameron of acting in his party's and not the country's interest.

Mr Cameron retorted that Mr Miliband had refused to say what Labour would have done - whether it would have supported or opposed the new treaty. "If is answer is yes he should say so. If the answer is no you should have the honesty to say I was right to keep Britain out of it," he said.

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday defended his decision to refuse to join the other 26 European Union member states in a fiscal union, and dismissed growing calls in his Conservative Party for Britain to leave the EU, saying remaining in the bloc was vital to Britain's national interests.

"Britain remains a full member of the EU and the events of the last week do nothing to change that," Cameron told parliament during a debate on last week's European Union summit. "Our membership of the EU is vital to our national interest. We are a trading nation and we need the single market for trade, investment and jobs. We are in the EU and we want to be," he added. Cameron's decision not to take part in an EU treaty change aimed at tightening fiscal rules for euro-zone member states has isolated Britain in the 27-nation bloc and opened a rift in his government coalition with the pro-European Liberal Democrat party.

Cameron said he voted against amending the Lisbon Treaty to enshrine new debt rules because his call for safeguards for the financial sector had been rejected by EU partners at the summit. He added that he had not sought the safeguards just for Britain but for the whole EU, to protect the competitiveness of banks. "The right answer was no treaty," he said. "It was not an easy thing to do but it was the right thing to do." Financial services are a particularly important sector for the British economy.

German mass circulation Bild, a veteran of many tabloid spats between Germany and Britain, weighed in on Saturday with the headline "Bye Bye, England. Europe will go on without you." In a tongue-in-cheek commentary, Bild wrote: "Dear British, Europe without you is like fish without chips, like London without driving on the left, like beer without foam. But you must decide now. Do you really want to be a lonely island and do everything differently? If yes, be honest - and get out of the EU altogether." It emerged on Monday that the British government may yet deepen its isolation by obstructing plans to agree a separate treaty on budget discipline.

The property company is one of a number to have identified a collection of retailers suffering from poor trading and another group facing liquidity pressures because of debt mountains. If these retailers were to collapse into administration, close stores or restructure through controversial Company Voluntary Arrangements (CVAs) then thousands of shops across the UK would be at risk.

The scenario highlights the troubles facing Britain's high streets on the eve of a Government-commissioned report by Mary Portas which will be released on Tuesday. Miss Portas issues a grave warning about the health of the high street when she unveils her report alongside the Prime Minister. She will suggest a series of remedies including a National Market Day to promote street markets, a loosening of regulations on night-time deliveries, and town centres providing more free car parking.

More than one in 10 shops on the average British high street is already empty, with vacancy rates reaching 30 per cent in towns such as Runcorn, Cheshire. However, landlords fear the situation could worsen with footfall down in high streets as consumers struggle under the weight of higher taxes, higher fuel prices, and economic uncertainty because of the eurozone debt crisis.

Yaalon said however it was for the international community, rather than Israel, to apply what he called an "achievable" policy. "We prefer that the international community led by the United States will bring about this dilemma in order to convince the regime to give up its military nuclear programme," he said, stressing the need for political isolation and economic sanctions aimed at the banking and oil sectors.

Israel and much of the international community fear that Iran's nuclear programme masks a drive for a weapons capability. Tehran denies any such ambition and says the programme is for peaceful civilian energy and medical purposes only. "Our policy is very clear - by one way or another, the military nuclear project in Iran should be stopped," Yaalon said, indicating it "might be 12 months, might be 24 months" until Iran was able to reach a military nuclear capability.

Israel has pushed Washington and the European Union for tough sanctions against Tehran, but has repeatedly warned it would not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons. Yaalon, a member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's inner circle of eight ministers, also reiterated the line that a military option was still on the table, as "the last resort."

Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel fell out with Prime Minister David Cameron at least week's EU summit, when London refused to sign up to a pact imposing closer economic coordination between member states. "We did everything, the chancellor and I, to allow the British to take part in the agreement. But there are now clearly two Europes," Sarkozy said in an interview with the French daily Le Monde.

"One wants more solidarity between its members and more regulation. The other is attached only to the logic of the single market," he said. But, asked whether Britain, which has refused to join the single currency and opposed last week's fiscal pact, could still remain inside the EU single market, Sarkozy said: "We need Great Britain. We'd be greatly impoverished if we allowed its departure which, luckily, is not on the agenda," he insisted.

He said implementing the bill as written would effectively break the Internet. "By criminalizing links, what these bills do is they force you to take content off the Internet," Schmidt said, calling it a form of censorship. The search giant has been at the forefront of a tech industry backlash against the legislation from House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (Republican for Texas).

"If Congress writes a bad law, we all suffer," Schmidt said. He compared the proposal to the Web censorship practiced by repressive foreign governments like China and doubled down on that comparison when speaking with reporters after his remarks at the Economic Club of Washington.

"It's not a good thing. I understand the goal of what SOPA and PIPA are trying to do," Schmidt said of the Senate counterpart bill, the Protect IP Act. "Their goal is reasonable, their mechanism is terrible. They should not criminalize the intermediaries. They should go after the people that are violating the law."

Environment Minister Peter Kent broke the news on his return from talks in Durban, where countries agreed to extend Kyoto for five years and hammer out a new deal forcing all big polluters for the first time to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Canada, a major energy producer which critics complain is becoming a climate renegade, has long complained Kyoto is unworkable precisely because it excludes so many significant emitters.

"As we've said, Kyoto for Canada is in the past... We are invoking our legal right to formally withdraw from Kyoto," Kent told reporters. The right-of-center Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, which has close ties to the energy sector, says Canada would be subject to penalties equivalent to C$14 billion ($13.6 billion) under the terms of the treaty for not cutting emissions by the required amount by 2012. "To meet the targets under Kyoto for 2012 would be the equivalent of removing every car truck, all-terrain vehicle, tractor, ambulance, police car and vehicle off every kind of Canadian road," said Kent.

The Conservatives took power in 2006 and quickly made clear they would not stick to Canada's Kyoto commitments on the grounds it would cripple the economy and the energy sector. The announcement will do little to help Canada's international reputation. Green groups awarded the country their Fossil of the Year award for its performance in Durban.

Danon made the comments after Jews who arrived at the Temple Mount on Sunday were blocked by police, who told them that they cannot enter because the bridge to the Rambam Gate (also known as the Mughrabi Gate) has been declared unsafe and must undergo renovation. At the same time, Jews are not allowed to use another entrance to enter the compound.

"It is unacceptable that there will be freedom of religion for Muslims and not for Christians and Jews," Danon told Arutz Sheva. "What's happening today is that the Jordanians and the Waqf are threatening Israel not to build a new bridge, while at the same time, because of the condition of the bridge Jews cannot go and pray on the Temple Mount."

"I asked the Prime Minister to use another gate in order to allow Jews and Christians to go on the Temple Mount and pray," he added. "We cannot say that there is freedom of religion only for a small minority. It should be for all religions in Jerusalem." Danon expressed hope that the situation will be resolved within a few days.

Jews who arrived at the Mount Sunday were blocked by police who told them that the Jerusalem municipality deems the bridge unsafe for use and that Jews cannot enter the Mount by any other entrance. "There is no reason that the state of Israel, whose capital is Jerusalem, will close off the Temple Mount, which is the bastion of Judaism in Israel and the entire world, and is one of the central pillars of the state of Israel," Danon stated.

The decision to close off the Mount to Jews is causing a public storm in Israel and a solution must be found immediately, he said, in a request to the Knesset Presidium to allow the urgent hearing. He noted that when the Rambam Gate was closed in 2007, Jews were temporarily instructed to use the Shalshelet Gate.

MK Uri Ariel (National Union) said that the dangerous Rambam Bridge needs to be torn down immediately and replaced by a safe walkway. However, he said, "It is unthinkable that during the construction Jews will be delayed from ascending to the Mount for even a single minute." He demanded that the Prime Minister and Minister for Public Security designate an alternate entrance for Jews immediately.

"We're dealing with matters of the press, the government, matters related to the ascent to the Temple Mount by women," Baruch Ben Yosef, Chairman of the Movement to Restore the Temple, told Arutz Sheva. Following the lectures, a general meeting was held inside the Great Synagogue, where participants heard more lectures and music related to the Temple. They then ate what is called the Seudat Hamikdash - the Temple Repast.

"This is all in order to raise awareness of the Holy Temple, the Temple Mount, and its significance to the Jewish people," explained Ben Yosef. He said that it is no coincidence that the conference took place this week, as the Palestinian Authority prepares to present its unilateral statehood bid to the UN. "It's obvious that the vacuum caused by there being no Temple and a lack of Jewish presence on the Temple Mount led the Arabs to call the creation of a new state," said Ben Yosef.

Yehudah Glick, Chairman of the Temple Mount Heritage Foundation, told Arutz Sheva that he believes the anti-Israel gatherings around the world this week are a direct result of the lack of Jewish presence on the Temple Mount. "Jewish presence on the Temple Mount is a natural part of the view," he said. "We're here trying to gather our energy and work together towards this goal."

From whatever point on the globe they are, Jews pray facing the Temple Mount and have done so since the first Holy Temple was built during King Solomon's reign. Their prayers included the hope to rebuild the Temple and ascend the Temple Mount to worship there. Seeing mosques standing on the site from the 7th century on due to the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem was a difficult pill for the Jewish people to swallow, in addition to mourning the Second Temple's destruction by the Roman legion in the 1st century.

A leaked document shows she believes that "effective implementation of EU human rights policy requires more frequent meetings and standing capability" of expertise in Brussels. She also said Twitter, YouTube and Facebook had played a big part in the "Arab Spring" and suggested the EU could use social media for "digital diplomacy".

Lady Ashton also wants a ban on selling technology that helps dictators to snoop on their citizens. The document said the EU's "exemplary" record on human rights would help its attempts to promote high standards throughout the world.

The row centres on whether the UK is obliged to pay benefits in certain circumstances to nationals from Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein as a result of agreements between the EU and the European Economic Area countries. Ministers argue Britain has an opt-out clause, under existing treaties, from rules introduced last year to "coordinate social security systems" between the EU and EEA.

It is feared the EU plan could turn Britain into a magnet for so-called "welfare tourists" and cost British taxpayers around 1 billion pounds a year. The UK says it is within its right to stop "non-active" migrants from outside the EU receiving benefits and has taken the case to the European Court of Justice arguing that an EU decision in July was legally unsound and therefore invalid.

Ministers say nation states should remain in control of determining their own social security arrangements. Mr Grayling said yesterday: "The Government is absolutely clear in taking this to the European Court. We will fight this every inch of the way." He told the Commons European Scrutiny Committee: "It is a really important principle here. We should not simply allow the European Commission to take what we believe is an incorrect legal base."

Nawa-e Waqt bluntly commented on India's Kashmiri water polices and Islamabad's failure up to now to stop New Delhi's efforts to construct hydroelectric dams in Kashmir, "India should be forcibly prevented from constructing these dams. If it fails to constrain itself, we should not hesitate in launching nuclear war because there is no solution except this." Potential nuclear war over water rights - such sentiments ought to light up switchboards from New Delhi to Washington. Needless to say, the fact that both India and Pakistan are nuclear powers is cause for concern.

Nawa-e Waqt is a privately owned, widely read conservative Pakistani Islamic daily with a circulation around 125,000 and is heavily critical of the US and India. To put Nawa-e Waqt's circulation in context, consider that the conservative Washington Times has a current estimated circulation of 50,000. So, what has the editorial board of the Nawa-e Waqt so excited? Indian dam building in the disputed area of Kashmir. Compared with much of South Asia, Kashmir has many rivers and relatively few people.

Bashir Ahmad, a geologist in Srinagar, Kashmir commented grimly about the Indians' future intentions, "They will switch the Indus off to make Pakistan solely dependent on India. It's going to be a water bomb." A more dispassionate report by America's Senate last February offered still a similar assessment, noting, "The cumulative effect of (the dam) projects could give India the ability to store enough water to limit the supply to Pakistan at crucial moments in the growing season" before concluding that dams are a source of "significant bilateral tension."

Pakistan's vulnerability is underwritten by the fact that, like Egypt it exists around a single great river, although the Indus is nearly twice the Nile's size when it reaches the sea. The Indus provides water to over 80 percent of Pakistan's 54 million acres of irrigated land, via a canal system largely built by the British.

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Likewise, they have no prescription for the restoration of growth. The previous EU yardstick under the Growth and Stability Pact set a ceiling for government deficits at 3% of GDP. This assumes a modicum of growth in each economy. What if there is zero or negative growth? Will the budgets be scaled down amidst further austerity?

The previous fixes that left the question of how the current debt was going to be paid evaporated quickly after the financial markets effectively voted no confidence in them. If the markets are sufficiently forgiving to allow a solution to take shape, the summit can be deemed a success. If there is a spike in interest rates, it will be back to the drawing board for the euro zone members.

The situation involving Britain is interesting, as it has boosted the personal popularity of Prime Minister David Cameron to over 60% in a country where Euroskepticism is mainstream. It has also made him a hero within his Conservative Party, earning him adulation from those who but a short time ago were comparing him with Neville Chamberlain for selling out Britain to the European Union.

It has however exacerbated fissures with the Liberal Democratic coalition partner and has even elicited public criticism from David Cameron's deputy Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader. If the Liberal Democrats decided to violate the coalition agreement, they could bring down the government. Neither party to the coalition wants elections...