Geopolitics Weekly

“The ban on YouTube will continue as long as it does not remove the blasphemous film,” the official said. “Pakistan can take no chances on lifting the ban as people are not ready to accept this film.”

The proposed combination of Britain's largest defence contractor and the Franco-German owner of Airbus would have created a pan-European manufacturing powerhouse with 220,000 employees, making hi-tech products ranging from nuclear submarines and Typhoon fighter jets to the A380 superjumbo.

"It [Merkel's opposition] was a key factor in the decision to terminate the talks," said the source. Another added that Merkel appeared to be "philosophically opposed" to combining a defence business with a civil aerospace company. "The fundamental problem is that Merkel does not feel comfortable with the deal, full stop."

France, which controlled 15% of EADS directly, was unhappy with German demands for the business to have its headquarters in Munich, while Germany was concerned that France could end up with a bigger shareholding in the new business than the 9% it was seeking.The UK, in turn, refused to allow German and French political representatives to sit on the BAE board, as would have been likely under the dual-listed structure envisaged by both companies.

any decision over Iran's nuclear programme rests with Khamenei who finds himself caught between two factions inside the regime, a small hawkish group pushing for more nuclear "advances" and a majority shy to show opposition. It emerged recently that an internal report by the Revolutionary Guards suggested that Iran needed only to resist "three more years" under sanctions to achieve its nuclear goals.

In a speech to business leaders in New York City Oct. 11, Panetta for the first time admitted the U.S. armed forces were prepared to take on an offensive role against any cyber attackers who seek to cause significant harm to the U.S. - or the loss of life to its citizens. Prior to this statement, the military has acknowledged only a defensive stance against such attacks.

The Washington Post reports that among those new rules of engagement, "for the first time, military cyber-specialists would be able to immediately block malware outside the Pentagon’s networks in an effort to defend the private sector against an imminent, significant physical attack, The Post has reported. At present, such action requires special permission from the President."

at least one academic paper has argued that companies be drafted to participate in cyberwarfare. "Cyberwarfare… will penetrate the territorial borders of the attacked state and target high-value civilian businesses," wrote University of Dayton Professor Susan Brenner in 2011. "Nation-states will therefore need to integrate the civilian employees of these (and perhaps other) companies into their cyberwarfare response structures if a state is able to respond effectively to cyberattacks. "While many companies may voluntarily elect to participate in such an effort, others may decline to do so, which creates a need, in effect, to conscript companies for this purpose," Brenner and her co-author, attorney Leo Clarke, added.

the new party would be called Likud Beiteinu – "The Likud is Our Home"

"The prime minister is essentially signalling that he has chosen the extremist, pro-settlement right, that he has chosen … not to make progress in the diplomatic process," Zehava Gal-On, head of the liberal Meretz party, told Israel's Army Radio.

Netanyahu then further widened the coalition this year by joining forces with the centrist Kadima party, though that partnership soon broke up over the government's failure to push through a reform of military conscription laws granting exemptions en masse to ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students.Netanyahu might try to tackle the draft issue again with the help of the secularist Lieberman, given what appears to have been their decision not to inform Shas, the powerful religious party in the coalition, about their merger in advance."I was absolutely surprised by this," the Shas leader and interior minister, Eli Yishai, said, predicting the move would prompt left-leaning and Orthodox parties to form their own blocs.

Once the US election is over, Washington needs to change policy. One-sided support for the armed opposition condemns Syrians to months, perhaps years, of bloodshed. A Libya-style intervention would be a worse escalation. Far better to junk the failed strategy both candidates followed in last week's debate and work with Russia and Brahimi on a permanent ceasefire. Whatever disputes Obama has with Putin on other issues, he needs to work with the Kremlin on Syria rather than provoke it.

With former leader Yulia Tymoshenko in jail and widespread fears of election fraud, the west is paying close attention to the vote in the strategic ex-Soviet state, which serves as a key conduit for transit of Russian energy supplies to many EU countries. An election deemed undemocratic by international observers could freeze Kiev's ties with the west and push Ukraine towards Moscow.

Udar (Punch), led by world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, is set to get about 15%, according to the survey.

Opposition forces hope to garner enough parliament seats to weaken Yanukovych's power and undo the damage they say he has done: the jailing of Tymoshenko and her top allies, the concentration of power in the hands of the president, the snubbing of the Ukrainian language in favour of Russian, waning media freedoms, a deteriorating business climate and growing corruption.

A leading left-of-centre thinktank is calling on Downing Street to negotiate a "grand bargain" with its European partners in which Britain would abandon its multibillion-pound EU rebate in exchange for a 25% cut in the budget. The Institute for Public Policy Research says the 25% cut, which would see the budget reduced from £120bn to £89bn, would save Britain £1.2bn from its £12.8bn contribution. This would neutralise any loss from ending Britain's EU rebate.Will Straw, associate director of the IPPR, said: "Britain should attempt a 'grand bargain' with Europe, offering to give up the rebate, but only in return for a smaller overall budget, meaningful reform of the CAP [Common Agricultural Policy], and greater measures to enhance growth. To ensure that giving up the rebate is palatable to the British public, it should be contingent on a reduction in the overall size of the budget so that Britain's contribution to the EU becomes smaller than it is today."

Renewable energy capacity will overtake nuclear power in the UK by 2018, if current rates of growth continue, and will provide enough power for one in 10 British homes by 2015, according to new research.

The repeated insistence from Osborne that the UK's energy future lies with the gas industry – a new "dash for gas" is under way, with the government clearing the path for 20 new gas-fired power stations – has unsettled renewable energy investors.