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.

Referring to several recent politicians’ statements that caused a stir in the international media, most notably by Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Netanyahu urged the ministers to stay clear of remarks on the Iranian issue.

“The chatter causes extensive damage, puts Israel on the front line and impedes the sanction efforts,” he said during a Likud ministers’ meeting. Barak said last week that if sanctions on Iran fail, the international community would have to consider other options, while Ya’alon claimed that the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities are vulnerable to an attack. The two were speaking at the Herzliya Conference on security.

Reverend Stephen Trott, who is a rector in Boughton, Northampton, said Christians should be free to show their faith without fear of persecution. His motion, which is to be debated by the Synod this week, highlights the case of Gary McFarlane, a Christian relationship counsellor sacked for refusing to give sex therapy sessions to gay couples.

Reverend Trott said: “There is a growing number of cases reported about the ways in which our freedom of expression as Christians is being limited. This creates a climate of opposition and people feel more reluctant to talk about their faith. If the motion is passed I hope we will then have a statement on record of the view of the Church.”

Mr McFarlane and BA check-in clerk Nadia Eweida are among four Christians fighting a case in the European Court of Human Rights over religious discrimination. But despite a plea by former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey, they have not won support from ministers.

The powers include the European Arrest Warrant, under which 200 British nationals have been surrendered to Continental prosecutors, and a requirement for DNA and fingerprints to be shared with European police forces. The letter has been signed by two former cabinet ministers, more than half the influential backbench 1922 Committee and several committee chairmen.

The MPs organising the letter insist that it is intended to be a positive contribution to the debate on Europe, but it threatens a new confrontation between Mr Cameron and backbenchers, who are demanding further repatriation of powers after successfully lobbying him to veto a new EU treaty at a summit in Brussels in December. Backbenchers want Mr Cameron to use a one-off opportunity under the Lisbon Treaty, which came into force in December 2009, to repatriate unilaterally up to 130 EU rules and regulations on crime and policing.

Unless Mr Cameron exercises the opt-out by June 2014, the European Courts of Justice in Luxembourg could force Britain to enforce them in full. The letter says: “We should maintain our national standards of justice and democratic control over crime and policing — but let other nations integrate more closely if they wish. We do not wish to subordinate UK authorities to a pan-European Public Prosecutor.”

“We do not want to see British police forces subjected to mandatory demands by European police under the European Investigation Order.”

The Carolingian union is all that anybody in French public life can really remember. It worked marvellously for two generations, levering French power on the global stage, and the euro was of course their own creation, intended to tie down a reunited Germany with “silken cords”. How can they now face the awful truth that this elegant strategy has blown up in their faces, enthroning Germany as undisputed hegemon?

Yet they can hardly ignore the evidence. While German unemployment has fallen to a post-Reunification low of 5.5 per cent, France’s jobless rate has crept up to a post-EMU high of 9.9 per cent and is certain to rise further as recession bites again. While both countries had the same sorts of export surplus in the early 1990s, they have diverged massively since the D-Mark and franc were fixed in perpetuity. Germany has a current account surplus of 5 per cent of GDP: France has a deficit of 2.7 per cent, anathema for Colbertistes.

So it has fallen to the Socialists – less compromised lately – to start the rebellion. “We cannot let the Germans alone appoint themselves experts and judges,” said party leader François Hollande. He called for “substantial modifications” to the fiscal compact if elected president in May, as he may well be since he is running six points ahead in the polls.

Lucas Papademos held emergency telephone talks with Christine Lagarde and Mario Draghi today in a bid to find a way to meet the demands of both Greece’s private creditor banks and its “troika” paymasters. Evangelos Venizelos, the Greek finance minister, told reporters he hoped to announce a deal this evening to avoid rattling global stockmarkets. However, he added: “It’s not an impasse but there are problems for the Greek side.”

There are just six weeks left before Greece faces a €14.5 billion (£12 billion) bond repayment which it cannot meet without international aid. European leaders have said Greece will not receive funds from the €130 billion rescue package unless it can persuade its private creditors to take losses to reduce the country’s debt pile.

Sources close to the private creditors told The Daily Telegraph that an agreement was still “some way off”. Although the banks have in principle agreed to take a 50 per cent loss on their bonds and an artificially low coupon on new Greek debt, the process is complicated by the demands of international officials on the country’s budget. Sources said the “focus” of the talks remained stuck on troika demands that include a 25 per cent reduction in the minimum wage and tougher public sector spending and job cuts.

At the weekend, Jean Claude Juncker, chairman of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers, said a disorderly Greek default could not be ruled out. He told Der Spiegel, that without an agreement “in March they have to declare bankruptcy”.