The erratic Gila National Forest blaze grew overnight to more than 190,000 acres, or nearly 300 square miles, as it raced across the area's steep, ponderosa pine-covered hills and through its rugged canyons. More than 1,200 firefighters are at the massive blaze near the Arizona border, which has destroyed 13 cabins and about a dozen outbuildings, fire information officer Iris Estes said.

Experts say persistent drought, climate change and shifts in land use and firefighting strategies mean other western states likely will see similar giant fires this season. "We've been in a long drought cycle for the last 20 years, and conditions now are great for these type of fires," said Steve Pyne, author of "Tending Fire. Coping with America's Wildland Fires" and a life science professor at Arizona State University. "Everything is in line."

This type of alliance has already been forged with Mongolia and Kazakhstan. Berlin's plans for a supplementary accord with Chile, which holds the world's greatest copper deposits, are furthest advanced. German enterprises are also receiving a large portion of their supplies from Chile. Against strong popular protests, the rightwing Chilean Sebastián Piñera government is carrying out a privatization policy, which is very advantageous for German access to the country's resources.

This frantic search has been caused by the heightened global market competition and therefore the dramatic rise in prices of raw materials over the past few years. The focus is not only on energy resources, such as oil and gas, but also on mineral resources, which are indispensible to the industry, such as iron ore or copper. The German economy had progressively retreated from the actual production of raw materials, because raw materials generally remained at a relatively low price for decades, and the necessary resources could be bought rather inexpensively on the world market.

Therefore, today, it finds itself at a disadvantage - due to the rapid rise in the price of resources - in relationship to other countries, which had not taken this course, for example Great Britain, Australia, China and Brazil with their leading multi-national steel and mining companies. In a recently published interview, Volker Steinbach, department director at the Federal Agency for Geological Studies and Natural Resources (BGR), evoked dramatic scenarios.

According to Steinbach, 30 percent of the global iron production is currently in the hands of three companies - Rio Tinto (Great Britain/Australia), Vale (Brazil) and BHP-Billiton (Australia/Great Britain). In reference to shipped iron ore, these companies are even in control of 70 percent of the global iron ore trade. This has placed them in a position to dictate prices. For Germany, this is "fatal."

However, he told Arutz Sheva, they were careful not to violate orders against praying, or even appearing to pray, at the site. “They told us we couldn’t pray, or move our lips, and we didn’t,” he said. But that was not enough. “Toward the end of the tour I got a bit emotional and said a silent prayer in my heart,” he recalled. “A Wakf man yelled to a policeman to arrest me, because I was praying. The policeman seemed conflicted,” Hertzlich reported. “But in the end he took me to the police station and told me I was detained. I said I didn’t do anything, but it didn’t help.”

Police simply accepted the Wakf man’s complaint without investigating themselves, he accused. There is a sense that officers are quick to crack down on visiting Jews, he added. Hertzlich was ultimately released without being charged, but not before police tried to persuade him to sign a form confirming the complaint. “The captain at the station told me he understood that [the complaint] was not correct, and that I hadn’t violated any orders, but that the procedure is to fill out forms,” he said.

Police have not yet responded to Arutz Sheva’s request for clarification.

The yuan-yen trade - part of a wider deal reached last year between Beijing and Tokyo to forge closer ties -- will be allowed to move in a wider range than the narrow band at which the dollar and yuan change hands. China will set a daily rate based on dealer quotes, with trade allowed to move within a 3.0 percent band above or below that rate, compared with a 1.0 percent band fixed to the yuan-dollar.

The trading-band rule applies only in Shanghai while free exchanges are guaranteed in Tokyo. Rates in the two markets could be different briefly but are likely to converge very quickly, traders said. It is impossible to make money through price gaps between the two markets, said Akira Hoshino, head of foreign exchange trading at Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Bank.

The ruling on the 1996 law, the Defense of Marriage Act, marked a victory for gay rights groups and US President Barack Obama, whose administration announced last year it considered the law unconstitutional and would no longer defend it. In its 3-0 ruling, a panel of the US Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit concluded that the law discriminates against gay couples. Eight of the 50 US states permit gay marriage, including Massachusetts, which became the first in 2004, and Maryland, which became the most recent in March.

"Congress' denial of federal benefits to same-sex couples lawfully married in Massachusetts has not been adequately supported by any permissible federal interest," Judge Michael Boudin wrote for the three-judge panel. The issue of gay marriage is an emotional and divisive one in the United States. Polls show US public support of gay marriage rising.

[Mr] Obama on May 9 said he believes same-sex couples should be allowed to marry, marking the first time a US president publicly expressed support for gay marriage. Republican activists and conservative Christian leaders condemned [Mr] Obama's stance.

Popocatepetl sits roughly halfway between Mexico City and the city of Puebla, meaning some 25 MILLION PEOPLE LIVE WITHIN A 90-KM (60-MILE) RADIUS OF THE VOLCANO. Over a month ago, the volcanic eruptions started growing larger.

Spain is the next country in the firing line of the euro zone's debt crisis, with spendthrift regions and shaky banks threatening to blow a hole in state finances and pushing funding costs towards levels that signal the need for a bailout. The European Commission gave new help on Wednesday, offering direct aid from a euro zone rescue fund to recapitalize Spanish banks and more time for Madrid to reduce its budget deficit.

That helped lower the risk premium investors demand to hold Spanish 10-year debt rather than the German benchmark on Thursday, but it remained close to the euro-era record, at 520 basis points. Bank of Spain data showed a net €66.2 billion ($82.0 billion) was sent abroad last month, the most since records began in 1990. The figure compares to a €5.4 billion net entry of funds during the same month one year ago.

Spaniards are worried about the health of their banks, hit by their exposure to a 2008 property crash, and have been sending money to deposit accounts in the stronger economies of northern Europe.

Well, it turns out that JP Morgan did not tell us the whole truth. As you will see later in this article, most analysts are estimating that the losses will eventually be far larger than $2 billion. But no matter how bad things get for JP Morgan, it will not be allowed to fail. JP Morgan is the largest bank in the United States, so it is essentially the “granddaddy” of the too big to fail banks. If JP Morgan gets to the point where it is about to collapse, the US government and the Federal Reserve will rush in to save it.

Because of this “security blanket”, banks such as JP Morgan feel free to take outrageous risks. Today, JP Morgan has more exposure to derivatives than anyone else in the world. If they win, they win big. If they lose, US taxpayers will be on the hook. Not only that, but thanks to Dodd-Frank, US taxpayers are on the hook for bailing out the major derivatives clearinghouses if there is ever a major derivatives crisis. So when the derivatives market crashes (and it will) you and I will be left holding a gigantic bill.

Derivatives almost caused the complete collapse of insurance giant AIG back in 2008. But instead of learning our lessons, the derivatives bubble has gotten even larger since that time. Today, the 9 largest banks in the United States have a total of more than $200 trillion of exposure to derivatives. That is approximately 3 times the size of the entire global economy. The US government is already nearly $16 trillion in debt. How in the world can we afford to keep bailing out the huge messes that Wall Street makes?

Sadly, most Americans have no idea how vulnerable our financial system really is. It is a poorly constructed house of cards that could come crashing down at any time. If you still have faith in our financial system you are being quite foolish and you will soon be bitterly, bitterly disappointed.

Draghi said bailouts for Bankia in Spain show that national regulators are reluctant to admit the extent of troubles at home. That only has the effect of raising the end costs of rescuing the banks and undermining trust and transparency, he said. He explained: "What Bankia shows is that whenever we are confronted with the dramatic need to recapitalize, if you look back, the reaction of the national supervisors... is to underestimate the problem, then come out with a first assessment, a second, a third, fourth."

"That is the worst possible way of doing things, because everybody ends up doing the right thing but at the highest possible cost and price," Draghi said in testimony in the European Parliament in Brussels. Spain said last Friday it would need to put €19 billion ($23.63 billion) into Bankia to rescue it from losses on real estate loans. The company made a successful stock market flotation only last year but has since had to restate earnings and has been taken over by the government. Dexia was bailed out in October by France, Belgium Luxembourg. It was the second time the bank has needed help, as it was bailed out for €6.4 billion in 2008.

Banks have been a key part of the European economic and financial crisis stemming from excessive levels of government debt. Bank bailouts are a further burden on financially shaky governments, and weak government finances in turn hurt the banks that hold those governments' bonds. The ECB made €1 trillion in emergency loans in December and February to shore up the banking system, but Draghi warned that the ECB cannot fill "the vacuum of lack of action by national governments" in reducing deficits and reforming their economies.

He repeated his call for European officials to come up with a long-term vision of what they wanted the Eurozone to be. "What is the vision... What is the euro going to look like a certain number of years from now? The sooner the answer is specified the better it is."

Though past referendums on European Union issues in Ireland have proven to be problematic, this time things are expected to go off without a hitch. When the Irish vote on the EU "fiscal compact" treaty on Thursday, their clear approval is expected. Polls predict that some 60 percent of the voters will tick the Yes box on the controversial treaty, which commits all ratifying members to fiscal responsibility.

But as certain as a majority vote may appear, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will nevertheless be anxiously focused on the activity in Dublin on Thursday. In the past, the Irish have repeatedly proven to be both unpredictable and resistant to being told what to do. Should they reject Merkel's fiscal pact, it would be a further setback for the German chancellor following the election of Socialist François Hollande in France.

Though the fiscal pact can still go into effect without Irish approval - it only requires ratification from 12 of the 17 euro-zone countries - a vote against it would be highly symbolic. After all, the Irish are the only Europeans allowed to vote on the treaty. On top of that, it would once again make investors on the financial markets question whether the euro zone has a future.

The IBEX index of stocks in Madrid fell 2.6 per cent, the lowest since the dotcom bust in 2003. Chaos over the €23.5 billion rescue of crippled lender Bankia has led to the abrupt resignation of central bank governor Miguel Ángel Fernández Ordóñez, who testified to the senate that he had been muzzled to avoid inflaming events as confidence in the country drains away.

Markets are on tenterhooks as Spanish yields test levels that forced the European Central Bank to respond last November with its €1 trillion liquidity blitz. “Nobody is short Spanish debt right now because they are expecting ECB intervention,” said Andrew Roberts, credit chief at RBS. “If it doesn’t come - if we take out 6.8 per cent - we’re going to see a hyberbolic sell-off,” he said.

Italy felt the full brunt of contagion from Spain on Wednesday, with 10-year yields back near 6 per cent. The euro fell to a 2-year low of $1.239 against the dollar. Crude oil and metal prices plummeted and save-haven flight pushed rates on 2-year German debt to zero. Gilt yields fell to 1.64 per cent, the lowest in history.

Mr Roberts said the collapse in Spanish tax revenues is replicating the pattern in Greece. Fiscal revenues have fallen 4.8 per cent over the last year, and VAT returns have slumped 14.6 per cent. Debt service costs have risen by 18 per cent. The country is caught in a classic deflationary vice: a rising debt burden on a shrinking economic base. “Once you get into such a negative feedback loop, YOU CAN MOVE BEYOND THE POINT OF NO RETURN QUICKLY,” HE SAID.

A minister named Philip Caminiti was sentenced to 2 years in prison for simply teaching that parents should spank their children when they misbehave. Please note that Caminiti was not accused of spanking anyone or of physically hurting anyone. He was put in prison simply for his speech. He was put in prison simply for what he was teaching others to do.

Whether you agree with spanking or not, this should be incredibly sobering for all of us. Increasingly, speech is being penalized in the United States. Much of the time, the focus of the attacks by the forces of political correctness is on religious speech. If this trend continues, many of you that are reading this article might be put in jail for the things that you say in the coming years.

Instead of going after the parents who were doing the spanking, prosecutors chose to go after the pastor instead. They claimed that Caminiti was “the spoke in the wheel of this conspiracy”. Even after Caminiti leaves prison, he will be forbidden from having any contact with his old church. Caminiti will be on extended supervision for six years after his release from prison. Despite objections on constitutional grounds by Caminiti’s lawyers the judge ordered that he not have any contact with the Aleitheia Bible Church and have no leadership role in any church.

What in the world is happening to this country? Criminal predators are literally eating the faces off of people, and yet authorities want to go after pastors that are encouraging their congregations to follow the teachings of the Bible? Have we stepped into a really bizarre episode of The Twilight Zone? Sadly, this is not the only example of how our free speech is under attack these days.

Police tell Alex Jones and crew to leave the hotel. Surveying the scene at the hotel today, radio host Alex Jones described a chaotic picture, with Bilderberg security, including a particularly vocal Swedish woman, stomping around the building announcing that “machine gun nests” were being set up in anticipation of a deluge of protesters arriving over the next few days.

Given the fact that a record number of demonstrators are expected to attend, Bilderberg has been more stringent than ever before in its efforts to get people out of the way, telling customers who had made room reservations for two days before the start of the conference that their bookings would not be honored. Undercover Fairfax police, secret service, hotel security, as well as diplomatic service personnel are all now rushing to finalize preparations for the arrival of Bilderberg members tomorrow morning.

According to London Guardian journalist Charlie Skelton, conference organizers were also using iPhones to film guests who had arrived for brunch. Regular guests as well as journalists are also having background checks run against their names. Alex Jones also heard discussions between members of Bilderberg security about how sophisticated surveillance equipment using satellites was being used to tap phones of prominent activists and media personalities set to cover the event.

The erratic blaze grew overnight to more than 170,000 acres, surpassing a blaze last year that burned 156,593 acres in Los Conchas and threatened the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the nation's premier nuclear facility. The Gila forest fire is also the largest currently burning in the country. It formed last week when two lightning-sparked blazes merged in an isolated mountainous area in southwestern New Mexico, where it has destroyed about a dozen homes and prompted evacuations of nearby towns and health alerts for some of the state's largest cities.

Fire information officer Jerry Perry said about 1,200 firefighters from around the state were battling the growing blaze, but that they continue to face low humidity and shifting winds in their efforts. "We are still facing adverse weather conditions that are posing a challenge," Perry said. "We're doing a lot of burnout operations and yesterday we had to deal with a lot of spot fires." The fire has not been contained, and officials worry that shifting winds and dryness related to the state's record drought may cause the blaze to grow even more.

The full genome sequence of a tomato breed known as Heinz 1706, and a draft sequence for its closest wild relative Solanum pimpinellifolium, were published in the journal Nature on Wednesday. Researchers who carried out the work said that together the sequences provide the most detailed look yet at the functional parts of the tomato genome and show order, orientation, types and relative positions of all of its 35,000 genes.

"Tomatoes are one of the most important fruit crops in the world, both in terms of the volume that we eat and the vitamins, minerals and other phytochemicals that both fresh and processed tomato products provide to our diets," said Graham Seymour, a professor of biotechnology at Nottingham University, one of 300 scientists involved in the Tomato Genome Consortium (TGC). Tomatoes represent a $2 billion market in the United States alone, while in Britain the market for tomatoes is worth around £625 million ($980 million) a year.

The research also offers some insight into how the tomato and its relatives diversified and adapted to new environments over the years. The scientists said the findings show the tomato genome expanded abruptly about 60 million years ago. Some of the genes generated during that expansion were involved in the development and control of ripening, making them particularly interesting to tomato breeders.

Giovanni said the work has implications for other plant species. Strawberries, apples, melons, bananas and other fleshy fruits share some characteristics with tomatoes, he explained, so knowledge about the genes involved in fruit ripening could potentially be applied to them, helping breeders and growers to improve food quality and cut costs. "Now we can start asking a lot more interesting questions about fruit biology, disease resistance, root development and nutritional qualities," he said in a statement.