More than 48 hours after Britain's last snowfall, some furious passengers with boarding passes for Monday flights were not even allowed into London's Heathrow Airport. Inside, piles of garbage grew and some people slept on terminal floors. Other travelers waited in the cold for up to six hours to get inside London's St Pancras train station, where they had to wait still longer for Eurostar trains to mainland Europe.

Chagrined British officials promised an inquiry into the failure to clear the remnants of a storm that dumped five inches over parts of England Saturday morning. Other European airports rebounded from weekend snowfall and resumed close to normal flight schedules by Monday. "It can't be beyond the wit of man surely to find the shovels, the diggers, the snowplows or whatever it takes to clear the snow out from under the planes, to get the planes moving and to have more than one runway going," London Mayor Boris Johnson said as British Airways canceled its Monday short-haul schedule from Heathrow.

At Heathrow's sprawling Terminal 5, tired and disgruntled passengers faced lengthy waits without much information as piles of garbage grew throughout the complex. "The whole situation is horrible," said teenager Sophiya Bolkova, as she clutched her ticket home to Moscow after three days' delay. "We are very angry. People were just mean, rude, sleeping on the floor, babies sleeping on the floor, no information, no help, no money for hotels."

The snow-related problems come near the end of a year filled with travel disruptions, including the April shutdown of much of Europe's airspace because of a plume of ash from a volcano eruption in Iceland.

The officials, who declined to be named, said Wang Qishan, a Chinese vice-premier, had given assurances that China would step up support for European stabilisation efforts "if necessary". Mr Wang made the pledge during the third annual China-EU High Level Economic and Trade Dialogue, held in Beijing on Tuesday. In comments reported by state media, Mr Wang said China supported measures taken by the EU and the International Monetary Fund to stabilise the eurozone, but gave little detail of what form such backing would take.

Beijing has emerged as one of the more enthusiastic backers of distressed European sovereign debt in recent months. During a trip to Portugal last month, Hu Jintao, China's president, said Beijing would take "concrete measures" to help the country, which officials signalled would include bond purchases. A month earlier, Wen Jiabao, China's prime minister, said in Athens that Beijing would purchase Greek bonds and increase foreign investment in the country.

In addition, Klaus Regling, the head of the eurozone's 440 billion euros ($577 billion) bail-out fund, said China had shown enthusiasm for bonds issued by his agency, tasked with raising a sizeable chunk of the funding for the 85 billion euros Irish bail-out. The EU is China's biggest export market, with two-way trade valued at $434 billion in the first 11 months of this year, and Beijing has a strong interest in supporting regional stability

European officials said that although China had not explicitly linked its bond purchases to any specific issues, Beijing asked in the talks for the EU to grant it "market economy" status and lift a long-standing arms embargo. But Karel de Gucht, European trade commissioner, said that lifting the embargo required a unanimous vote from all EU member states, something analysts say is highly unlikely.

There's little evidence the public is demanding these rules, which purport to stop the non-problem of phone and cable companies blocking access to websites and interfering with Internet traffic. Over 300 House and Senate members have signed a letter opposing FCC Internet regulation, and there will undoubtedly be even less support in the next Congress.

The net neutrality vision for government regulation of the Internet began with the work of Robert McChesney, a University of Illinois communications professor who founded the liberal lobby Free Press in 2002. Mr McChesney's agenda? "At the moment, the battle over network neutrality is not to completely eliminate the telephone and cable companies," he told the website SocialistProject in 2009. "But the ultimate goal is to get rid of the media capitalists in the phone and cable companies and to divest them from control."

A year earlier, Mr McChesney wrote in the Marxist journal Monthly Review that "any serious effort to reform the media system would have to necessarily be part of a revolutionary program to overthrow the capitalist system itself." Mr McChesney told me in an interview that some of his comments have been "taken out of context." He acknowledged that he is a socialist and said he was "hesitant to say I'm not a Marxist."

For a man with such radical views, Mr McChesney and his Free Press group have had astonishing influence.

The Financial Report of the United States, which applies corporate-style accrual accounting methods to Washington, showed the government's liabilities exceeded assets by $13.473 trillion. That compared with a $11.456 trillion gap a year earlier. Unlike the normal measurement of government intake of receipts against cash outlays, accrual accounting measures costs such as interest on the debt and federal benefits payable when they are incurred, not when funds are actually disbursed.

The government's net operating cost, or deficit, in the report grew to $2.080 trillion for the year ended September 30 from $1.253 trillion the prior year as spending and liabilities increased for social programs. Actual and anticipated revenues were roughly unchanged. The latest Treasury report should fuel debate in Congress over spending cuts next year as a new Republican majority in the House of Representatives takes office.

The US Senate on Tuesday approved a compromise bill to fund the government until March 4, 2011. After that, Republicans will have the chance to push through dramatic budget cuts. The biggest increase in net liabilities in fiscal 2010 stemmed from a $1.477 trillion increase in federal debt repayment and interest obligations, largely to finance programs to stabilize the economy and pull it out of recession.

The survey questioned 64,000 people in 53 countries. It measures levels of optimism about personal well-being and the state of the economy in the coming 12 months. Globally, opinion is evenly divided about whether 2011 will be a year of prosperity, with 30% saying Yes and 28% No, while 42% believe it will be unchanged.

The UK was particularly downbeat in four key questions.

- Will 2011 be a year of prosperity? UK - 8% Yes; World average 30%

- Will unemployment rise? UK 37% Yes; World average 17%

- Will you find a job quickly if you become unemployed? UK 17% Yes; World average 31%

- Will 2011 be better than 2010? UK 23% Yes; World average 42%

Gallup says its findings suggest: "While wealth is still concentrated in Europe and North America, there is a shift in power and prosperity from the West of the 20th Century to the East". The economies of the Bric [Brazil, Russia, India, China] countries - with the exception of Russia - typically enjoy rapid growth rates, with gross domestic product expansion of 10% not untypical in China. In contrast, the developed economies have largely struggled back into positive figures as the credit crisis of 2008 has receded.

It is feared that the swine flu strain may have grown more virulent over the past 12 months with victims quickly becoming dangerously ill. Intensive care units are warned to look out for the illness in new admissions, with medics urged to use antiviral medicines if they have the least suspicion a patient has it.

Hospital managers have been holding emergency meetings to draw up plans to tackle a further onslaught of cases. It is thought the cold weather could cause a surge of admissions, putting intensive care units under massive strain. Analysis by SDI Healthcare, which models flu rates based on reports from GPs and chemists, suggests infection rates are at a five-year high. It estimates that nine million Britons have been struck down - nearly one in six of the population. Twice the level seen this time last year, the infection rate is 36 per cent above normal, making it the worst flu outbreak in five years.

Three strains of influenza are in circulation: H1N1 or swine flu, flu B and H2N3. Swine flu is proving the most deadly and has claimed 14 of this winter's 17 victims. Pregnant women, the obese and asthmatics are at greater risk, with the virus far more common in those under the age of 65.

GPs blame the surge in cases in part on low vaccination rates, particularly among younger age groups. The Government has also been accused of doing too little to prevent the spread of flu, such as using adverts to remind people to wash hands or catch sneezes in tissues. Chip Schaible, an SDI Healthcare director, said last night: 'We've seen an explosion in cases in the past two weeks. 'It is one of the highest peaks we've seen in the past ten years and significantly higher than the five-year average for this time of year.

The Germans dominated the stage politically in Brussels, once again. The 26 other heads of state and government gave in to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's demand to amend the EU's Lisbon Treaty to include a permanent crisis fund, known as the stability mechanism, for the euro zone starting in 2013. Also at the chancellor's request, they inserted a passage stating that the stability mechanism is only "to be activated if indispensable to safeguard the stability of the euro area as a whole." The group also approved Germany's demand that private lenders be involved in the event of a government bankruptcy.

"We came to an agreement," a clearly pleased Merkel announced. "It was a good day for Europe." The other summit participants had no choice but to make similar statements. This summit was supposed to send out signals of calm, levelheadedness and solidarity, if only to reassure the financial markets, but the unity was little more than a show. The conflict continued to simmer behind the scenes, especially the dispute over common euro-zone bonds. Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker campaigned for the idea once again, and he was backed by many of the attendees. But Merkel was quick to object, arguing that a system of euro bonds would reward spendthrift governments and penalize disciplined countries like Germany.

In short, nothing was resolved at the summit. The more the euro crisis expands into an existential crisis for the European Union, the more critical are other member states about Germany, the largest economy on the continent and the fourth largest worldwide. "This is all about Germany, and it's all about the end of the German appetite for writing checks to the periphery of Europe," said Harvard University historian Niall Ferguson in a recent CNN interview. British historian Timothy Garton Ash complains of a lack of vision. "It is much clearer today what Germany wants from Europe than what it wants for Europe," he wrote in an op-ed for the Guardian.

Both comments imply that Germany is no longer the locomotive of European integration that it once was. In the last few decades, more and more countries joined the unification process, because they saw it as a road to common prosperity in peace and freedom.

It's a problem not just in her rural community of Seville, California but throughout the Central Valley. "This isn't supposed to be happening in California," said Quintana, a lifelong resident of Seville. "California is one of the richest states in the nation, and the United States is one of the richest countries in the world, and we're living like a third world country."

Home to 350 residents, Seville is supported by the agriculture and dairy industries. Known as the breadbasket of America, the central valley is responsible for over sixty percent of California's agriculture production. However, according to community activists it is these very industries that are harming the drinking water of the valley's residents. "We live in one of the most agriculturally intensive areas in the world, yet there are no programs to protect our groundwater sources from pollution," said Susana De Anda of the Community Water Center in Visalia. "It's not a coincidence that many communities in the valley like Seville have lacked clean drinking water for decades."

According to De Anda, chemical fertilizers and animal waste are the leading causes of the high levels of nitrates in Seville's drinking water and these nitrates have the potential to cause serious health problems for those that drink them. "Nitrates are linked to the blue baby syndrome. If a child of six months of age or younger ingests nitrate contaminated drinking water, the blood system in the body cannot absorb oxygen and it can literally turn blue," said De Anda. "Nitrates are linked to kidney disease and cancer and it's something we don't want in our water."

Seville's drinking water comes from a groundwater well with pipes well over a hundred years old. Corroded and rusty, these pipes feed the water to Seville's 74 homes and run along a field irrigation ditch which residents say lends itself to water filled with sand, debris, and of course, nitrates. "It's frustrating, you know, everyone should be able to turn on their water and not have to think, is anything wrong with my water?" said Quintana. "It's a human right that everyone should have; we shouldn't have to even think about what is in our water."

About 30cm of snow fell at Perisher in NSW yesterday, while Victoria's Mount Hotham received a 10cm dusting on Sunday. Charlotte's Pass in the NSW Snowy Mountains also received a 10cm sprinkling of snow, prompting would-be bushwalkers to don clothing more suitable for skiing.

In Sydney yesterday, there were blustery winds and unseasonably low temperatures of just 13C. The western suburb of Horsley Park recorded 9.8C and the Blue Mountains dropped to -2C. Victorian State Emergency Services yesterday attended to at least six lightning-damaged houses in Aspenville, south of Melbourne, which was hit by a storm on Sunday night.

On the Gold Coast, a storm blacked out more than 10,000 homes and businesses over the weekend, while in Western Australia's northern Gascoyne region scores of people remained isolated by the worst flooding in 50 years. Millions of dollars of damage was caused to crops, livestock and buildings in WA.

Twenty-six states elected new governors last month - 17 Republicans, eight Democrats and one independent - and now they are going to have to reconcile their principles and campaign promises with some harsh fiscal realities: This is the worst budget climate for the states in at least a generation.

Cumulatively, the states face budget shortfalls of nearly $140 billion next year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington think tank. To make matters worse, billions in aid to states from the federal government's $800 billion stimulus plan is set to dry up early next year.

The incoming governors face some painful and politically unpopular decisions, with the easy fixes long gone. Among the unsavory alternatives: tax increases or deep cuts in programs voters hold dear, such as education, public safety and health care. "I think we have to be realistic with the people of South Carolina: This is gonna hurt," said Republican Nikki Haley, South Carolina's incoming governor. "It's very daunting. It's as bad as you could imagine."

More than 100 American cities could go bust next year as the debt crisis that has taken down banks and countries threatens next to spark a municipal meltdown, a leading analyst has warned. Meredith Whitney, the US research analyst who correctly predicted the global credit crunch, described local and state debt as the biggest problem facing the US economy, and one that could derail its recovery.

"Next to housing this is the single most important issue in the US and certainly the biggest threat to the US economy," Whitney told the CBS 60 Minutes programme on Sunday night. "There's not a doubt on my mind that you will see a spate of municipal bond defaults. You can see fifty to a hundred sizeable defaults - more. This will amount to hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of defaults."

New Jersey governor Chris Christie summarised the problem succinctly: "We spent too much on everything. We spent money we didn't have. We borrowed money just crazily. The credit card's maxed out, and it's over. We now have to get to the business of climbing out of the hole. We've been digging it for a decade or more. We've got to climb now, and a climb is harder." American cities and states have debts in total of as much as $2 trillion. In Europe, local and regional government borrowing is expected to reach a historical peak of nearly 1.3 trillion euros (1.1 trillion pounds) this year.

Cities from Detroit to Madrid are struggling to pay creditors, including providers of basic services such as street cleaning. Last week, Moody's ratings agency warned about a possible downgrade for the cities of Florence and Barcelona and cut the rating of the Basque country in northern Spain. Lisbon was downgraded by rival agency Standard & Poor's earlier this year, while the borrowings of Naples and Budapest are on the brink of junk status. Istanbul's debt has already been downgraded to junk.

"They're on these routes every day so they're used to the normal situation so they are able to recognize a non-normal situation," explains Ken Bevis of Waste Management. Trucks are now armed with a cell phone, camera and incident reports so they'll have accurate information for police and, possibly, prosecutors. "The drivers understand their main job is to observe and report and let authorities do their job," explains Bevis.

The extra set of eyes and ears in the street is appreciated because even cops know they can't be everywhere, all the time. "The old adage is 'where's a cop when you you need one?' Now it will be where's a cop or DGS or Waste Management when you need one," says Albany Police Chief Steve Krokoff. "Waste Watch" is free to municipalities and the Capital Region is the first area in New York state to benefit from the program.

To be sure, their sabotage campaign exploits the atmosphere of intimidation created by jihadist terror. But their "grand jihad" is mostly a nonviolent affair, marching through our institutions: government, academia, media, the courts, the financial sector - all aspects of society.

That is the conclusion of a group of national security experts that recently released its study "Shariah: The Threat to America." Modeled on the "Team B" of a generation ago, which questioned the folly of detente as a strategy for dealing with the Soviet threat, the new study takes issue with government's regnant security policy, premised on the theory that the threat to our way of life comes only from a tiny group of "violent extremists."

To the contrary, Islamism is a mainstream ideology to which millions of Muslims - only a bare fraction of whom would ever participate in terrorism - are beholden. Islamists and Muslim terrorists agree on the goal: the implementation of Sharia to strangle individual liberty and foster Islamicized societies.

One needn't believe the United States is in danger of imminent conquest to see that the patient Islamist approach can work. Just ask recent observers of Europe about its countless "no go zones" - communities police no longer patrol, effectively transferring sovereignty to the local Muslim leaders.

Our nation needs to understand the breadth of the Islamist challenge. President Obama instead accommodates it. Although the Brotherhood is banned in Egypt (where it has a history of terrorism), and although the Justice Department had only recently proved that the organization and its American offshoots were at the core of a conspiracy to finance Hamas, the administration took pains to invite Brotherhood members to Obama's 2009 Cairo speech on Islam and the West.

The government is using for this purpose the FBI, local police, state homeland security offices and military criminal investigators, the daily added. The system collects, stores and analyzes information about thousands of US citizens and residents, many of whom have not been accused of any wrongdoing, the report noted. The government's goal is to have every state and local law enforcement agency in the country feed information to Washington to buttress the work of the FBI, noted the paper, which has conducted its own investigation of the matter.

According to the report, the network includes 4,058 federal, state and local organizations, each with its own counter-terrorism responsibilities and jurisdictions. At least 935 of these organizations have been created since the 2001 attacks, The Post said. The probe has revealed that technologies and techniques developed for use on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan have migrated into the hands of law enforcement agencies in the United States, the paper pointed out.

In addition, the FBI is building a database with the names and personal information of thousands of US citizens and residents, the report said. The database is accessible to an increasing number of local law enforcement and military criminal investigators, the report noted. In a bid to counter what is seen as a threat from radical Islam, some law enforcement agencies have hired as trainers people whose extremist views on Islam and terrorism are considered inaccurate and counterproductive by US intelligence agencies, the paper pointed out.

The cost of the network is difficult to measure, the paper said. But the Department of Homeland Security has given 31 billion dollars in grants since 2003 to state and local governments for homeland security and to improve their ability to find and protect against terrorists, The Post said.

The Federal Communications Commission is set to approve on Tuesday Chairman Julius Genachowski's proposed rules governing net neutrality - a concept aimed at preventing Internet providers from interfering with web traffic. The rules are expected to bar providers from discriminating against legal Internet traffic and require more transparency. They also would let broadband providers for the first time charge more to companies that want faster service for delivery of games, videos or other services.

Net neutrality has become a contentious issue as worries grow that large phone and cable companies are growing too powerful as Internet gatekeepers. Start-ups and small businesses that rely on the Internet to provide shopping, information or other services to consumers are particularly concerned.

The FCC has wanted to step in and act as an Internet traffic cop, but Congress has never given it clear authority to do so. "We must take action to protect consumers against price hikes and closed access to the Internet - and our proposed framework is designed to do just that: to guard against these risks while recognizing the legitimate needs and interests of broadband providers," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a blog post this month.