A summit of the G8 leading industrialized nations came down solidly in favor of a push to balance European austerity - an approach long driven by German Chancellor Angela Merkel - with a dose of US-style stimulus seen as vital to healing ailing euro-zone economies.

"We commit to take all necessary steps to strengthen and reinvigorate our economies and combat financial stresses, recognizing that the right measures are not the same for each of us," leaders said in a bold statement issued at their meeting at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.

The message sent by the summit hosted by President Barack Obama reflected his own concerns that the euro-zone contagion, which threatens the future of Europe's 17-country single currency bloc, could hurt the fragile US recovery and his own re-election chances in November. In their final economic communique, the Group of Eight leaders welcomed discussions in Europe to broaden the focus to more pro-growth remedies and said: "We reaffirm our interest in Greece remaining in the euro zone while respecting its commitments."

The final wake-up call came from Moody's. On Thursday evening, the US rating agency downgraded 16 Spanish banks in one fell swoop, some of them by three notches. On Monday, the agency had already downgraded 26 Italian banks - including major institutions such as UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo. The outlook for all the institutions involved is negative, Moody's said.

These are drastic steps, but they are hardly excessive. The European sovereign debt crisis long ago also became a banking crisis. The fate of the affected countries can not be separated from that of their financial institutions: If a state goes bankrupt, its banks too will struggle to survive. On the other hand, the examples of Ireland and Spain show that a shaky banking system can quickly overwhelm national budgets.

Reports began trickling in earlier this week that savers in Greece were withdrawing hundreds of millions of euros from their bank accounts - the German news agency DPA reported that almost €900 million was withdrawn just on Monday alone. Since then Europe has been seized by the fear of a worst-case scenario in Greek's banking system: a so-called bank run, as customers who have lost confidence in their banks rush to take out their savings.

Such a run would be the final stage in the loss of confidence in the banks. For months now, wealthy individuals in crisis-hit countries have already been moving billions of euros abroad out of fears about the stability of the financial systems in their own countries. Until recently, however, there had been few signs of abnormal behavior in terms of ordinary savers withdrawing cash.

The reason a bank run is so feared is because it could land every bank in the world in trouble - even the healthiest ones. The banking system depends on the fact that banks only hold a small portion of customer deposits in cash that is ready to pay out. The rest is invested or passed on to other customers as loans.

Now, rumors are circulating that in Spain, too, people have begun to clear out their accounts at certain banks. The newspaper El Mundo reported that customers had withdrawn over €1 billion from the beleaguered major savings bank Bankia last week.

"I think the biggest risk is actually China because if you look at Greece, it's an insignificant economy," Faber said on CNBC Asia's “Capital Connection.” "Yes, they owe money, but the market knows that it's bankrupt." The European Central Bankwill be able to support Greece and European taxpayers would pay for it, he added. On the other hand, a slowdown in China, the world's second-largest economy, would have a huge impact on prices of industrial commodities, Faber said.

"In turn, this has a huge impact on the economies of countries like Brazil, the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa, and Australasia, so these countries could slow down meaningfully," he said. Faber, who correctly predicted the 1987 stock market crash and more recently forecast the stock market correction in August last year, said China's economy depends largely on capital spending, which tends to be volatile and has a strong multiplier effect on the economy.

A slowdown in China could have a painful impact on global gross domestic product growth as the nation is now the single largest contributor to global economic growth, the International Monetary Fund said earlier this year. The nation's contribution to global economic growth over 2010-13 is expected to be 31 percent, up from just 8 percent in the 1980s, the IMF said.

Pablo Triana, professor at the Esade business school, says that if people start to believe that a new peseta is "not a hallucination" THEY WILL START WITHDRAWING THEIR MONEY FROM SPANISH BANKS. "The biggest potential impact on Spain is the human impact", he explains, because of the "popularity of the eurozone in Spain".

Gail Allard, economics teacher at the IE business school, says the psychological impact would be "devastating" if Spain left the Euro. The Spaniards were very proud to enter the Euro, she adds, and "to shake-up that up would put cracks in the project that are very hard to repair".

Amid growing alarm within the Treasury over the impact of the crisis on Britain, a close ally of Chancellor George Osborne warned the financial contagion in Greece could spread across southern Europe. Mr Cameron flies to the United States today for talks with major industrial leaders, including Ms Merkel, hosted by [Mr] Barack Obama at his Camp David retreat.

The two-day G8 summit will be dominated by the renewed financial storm following the political deadlock in Greece and fears that the eurozone's uncertain future could affect all western nations. He will join other leaders in urging Ms Merkel to authorise German intervention to shore up the EU's weaker currencies.

Despite his political differences with François Hollande, Mr Cameron is likely to receive the backing of the new French President in casting the spotlight on the German government. The Prime Minister delivered his gloomiest warning yet of the dangers of the Greek debt crisis yesterday, making clear he felt hopes of rescuing the eurozone lie with Germany, whose economy is still growing strongly.

Under the enhanced measures, Interior Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri deployed 20,000 law enforcement officers to protect individuals and sensitive sites. In addition, 4,200 military personnel already assigned throughout Italy will be redeployed according to new priorities.

"Based on a thorough analysis of the situation, Interior Cancellieri has confirmed the need to maintain a high level of vigilance, strengthen the security measures against sensitive targets and those exposed to specific risks," the Interior Ministry said in a statement. Authorities will also increase intelligence to "neutralize" the risk of subversive actions "that can be nourished in moments of tension," the statement added.

A group calling itself the Informal Anarchist Federation last week claimed responsibility for the shooting of Ansaldo Nucleare CEO Roberto Adinolfi, and pledged in a letter to the daily Corriere della Sera to carry out further actions against Ansaldo's parent company, the state-controlled Finmeccanica. Italian anarchists sent a letter bomb that exploded at the Rome headquarters of the Equitalia tax collection agency last December, injuring the directory. FAI also claimed responsibility for a series of letter bombs sent to embassies in Rome in December 2010.

Each month YouGov quizzes 1,000 voters for the British Election Study. Euro-scepticism has been growing since the start of the financial crisis in 2008 when voters were split fairly evenly on whether Britain should stay in the EU. The latest findings, from April, will boost those calling for a referendum on UK membership.

Professor Paul Whiteley, BES co-director, said: “Britons have always regarded membership of the EU as a means of promoting growth and prosperity and have been traditionally sceptical about the goals of closer political integration. It is now clear the current economic crisis in the EU is making Britons more eurosceptic and so willing to vote against continued membership in the future.”

Panicking bank customers in Greece and Spain were reported to be withdrawing hundreds of millions of euros from their accounts in response to concerns that the debt crisis could lead to countries quitting the eurozone. Shares in Spain’s fourth biggest bank, Bankia, plunged by more than 10 per cent yesterday following reports that customers had withdrawn more than a billion euros over the last week.

Admitting the European economy was facing “perilous times”, David Cameron said in a speech to business leaders in Manchester: “We are in unchartered territory which carries huge risks for everybody. As I have consistently said, it is in Britain’s interest for the eurozone to sort out its problems. But be in no doubt – whichever path is chosen, I am prepared to do whatever is necessary to protect this country and secure our economy and financial system.” Experts warned that Greek banks were unlikely to survive until the country holds new elections next month.

Steen Jakobsen, from Denmark’s Danske Bank, said: “I don’t think we can get to June. The fuse is burning and the only two options now are a controlled explosion where Germany steps in to ensure an orderly exit, or an uncontrolled explosion.” As the panic spread yesterday, many Greek customers were thought to be exchanging their cash into other currencies because of worries about the plummeting value of the euro. Last night the Fitch ratings agency downgraded crisis-hit Greece by one notch from B- to CCC, citing the “heightened risk” that it may be forced to abandon the euro..

Concerns that Spain was being dragged further into the crisis also spread when investment experts, Moody’s, downgraded the credit ratings of four Spanish regions.

President Barack Obama, the G8 host, has urged European leaders repeatedly to do more to stimulate growth, fearing contagion from the euro crisis that could hurt the US economy and his chances of re-election in November. British Prime Minister David Cameron, who has been increasingly vocal in urging Europe to do more to resolve the debt crisis, will tell leaders they must work together to stop it from spreading worldwide, an aide said.

No major economic policy decisions are expected from the talks but officials said [Mr] Obama hoped to promote a discussion on a comprehensive approach to resolving the crisis. He will seek to cement a bond with France's new leader at the White House later on Friday before heading to Camp David for the talks. [Mr] Francois Hollande, sworn in this week as French president, has already made waves by challenging Europe's austerity focus and saying he will pull French combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year.

For Jews, it is the holiest place on Earth, from where the world was created, the site of the Binding of Isaac and the location of the First and Second Temples. For Muslims too, al-Haram al-Sharif (noble sanctuary), has become a crucial place of worship and pilgrimage, where there stands a monumental shrine – the Dome of the Rock – and the al-Aqsa Mosque, a site of great importance in Islam. This reality, combined with the Temple Mount's physical location at the heart of contested territory, has given it a unique geopolitical combustibility not to be found anywhere else on the planet.

Ariel Sharon's visit to the site in September 2000 prompted large-scale riots that eventually escalated into what became the second Palestinian intifada. In 1969, a fire started in the al-Aqsa mosque by a mentally unstable Christian evangelical from Australia caused extensive damage and led to mass demonstrations in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. The event was also one of the motivating factors in the creation in 1969 of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, an international body devoted to safeguarding Muslim interests.

But inter-religious and political concerns aside, there is another, less prominent but nevertheless bitter dispute currently being waged, this one between different Orthodox Jewish groups regarding the permissibility of going up to Judaism's holiest site. The divisions among different rabbinic leaders are sharp; some outlaw ascent to the Temple Mount in absolute terms on pain of spiritual excommunication; others see the refusal to go up and insist on the Jewish right to pray at the site as a deviation from Torah law.

Full article - http://www.templeinstitute.org/news.htm

After ousting the Athens government that agreed to deeper spending cuts in return for a financial lifeline, voters return to the polls in June after the winning parties failed to form a new government. Apparently hoping to convince Greek voters to return a pro-austerity government to power, European officials are now openly discussing the likely dire consequences if they don’t.

But the comments may have only served to heighten fears of a wider breakup of the eurozone should Greece exit the monetary union. Investors backed away further from Spain's government debt Thursday, raising the country’s borrowing costs to levels that sparked the Greek debt crisis in the first place. Bond buyers were also reacting to fresh economic data showing that Spain’s economy is beginning to shrink, which makes its existing debt load even harder to carry.

The growing crisis also has caused growing nervousness among US investors. Since the inconclusive Greek vote May 6, the Dow Jones industrial average has fallen in seven out of eight sessions and was down again Thursday. US banking giant JPMorgan Chase sent another ripple of worries through the market May 10 when it said it had lost at least $2 billion in a failed attempt to hedge against European volatility.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, who assumed leadership of the terror group after the killing of Osama Bin Laden last year, addressed the Saudis in a video posted on an Islamist website asking them "Why don't you follow the example of your brothers in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen and the Levant?" The video starts with footage showing Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah meeting Pope Benedict XVI, former US President George W Bush and current US President Barack Obama, according to the US-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors terrorist activity.

"Muslim brothers in the land of the holy mosques! A year has passed since the uprising of the Arab people against their rulers… my dear brothers, why do you still accept to be ruled by the Al-Saud family. They are one of the worst corrupt governments who steal your money," he said.

The ultra-conservative Sunni kingdom has seen few protests while the most of the region was swept by Arab Spring uprisings. This is partly thanks to a big public spending package announced by the government early last year, Reuters says. However, there have been demonstrations in the east of the country, mostly led by the Shiite minority, who call for political reform and the release of political prisoners.

And yet another model pupil and political star has fallen. Once again, there was a man who wanted too much, a man who was too clever and paid the price. Norbert Röttgen had had a meteoric career in Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), serving as environment minister and a CDU state leader. Some saw him as a possible future chancellor.

Now that's all over. Röttgen, who was fired as environment minister by Merkel on Wednesday, has tripped up because of his own ambitions and his penchant for tactical maneuvering. He was happy to let other people know that he considered himself to be superior. As a result, he hasn't had many political friends for quite some time. His remaining supporters vanished after the disgrace of last Sunday's state election in North Rhine-Westphalia, where Röttgen led the CDU to a disastrous defeat.

If someone always claims to know best, but then doesn't do a better job himself, he can expect no mercy - in politics just as in real life. The chancellor had to distance herself from Röttgen. His attempt to turn the North Rhine-Westphalia election into a referendum on her policies on the euro crisis was an act of disloyalty. Already a few days before the election, everyone already knew that he had botched it, but yet he still tried to drag Merkel into the mess - a move the chancellor could not forgive.

If they revealed tomorrow that he’d had his own cross-dressing-themed sitcom on primetime TV in the 1980s, I wouldn’t be surprised. The latest find is a fascinating inversion of the birther conspiracy. Breitbart.com has discovered that in 1991 [Mr] Barack Obama’s literary agent (who also represented New Kids on the Block) published a booklet that included a biography of the future President. The audience was “business colleagues” in the publishing industry and it was designed to promote [Mr] Obama’s anticipated first book (later abandoned) called Journeys in Black and White.

Here’s how it describes the author’s origins: [Mr] Barack Obama, the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii. The son of an American anthropologist and a Kenyan finance minister, he attended Columbia University and worked as a financial journalist and editor for Business International Corporation.

The key phrase here is “was born in Kenya” – and this biography line was apparently being used as late as 2007. As for [Mr] Obama, the vetting continues and Republicans have yet more to play with – with the focus, sadly, once more on race.

Yahoo News Blog was among the first to publish a dismissive response to the “Born in Kenya” information that had been placed into a 1991 publication by [Mr] Barack Obama’s own literary agency. Their report is now being picked up by ABC News and other media outlets and repeated verbatim.