In part, the Pentagon intends its plan as a warning to potential adversaries of the consequences of attacking the US in this way. "If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks," said a military official. Recent attacks on the Pentagon's own systems - as well as the sabotaging of Iran's nuclear program via the Stuxnet computer worm - have given new urgency to US efforts to develop a more formalized approach to cyber attacks.

A key moment occurred in 2008, when at least one US military computer system was penetrated. This weekend Lockheed Martin, a major military contractor, acknowledged that it had been the victim of an infiltration, while playing down its impact. The report will also spark a debate over a range of sensitive issues the Pentagon left unaddressed, including whether the US can ever be certain about an attack's origin, and how to define when computer sabotage is serious enough to constitute an act of war. These questions have already been a topic of dispute within the military.

One idea gaining momentum at the Pentagon is the notion of "equivalence." If a cyber attack produces the death, damage, destruction or high-level disruption that a traditional military attack would cause, then it would be a candidate for a "use of force" consideration, which could merit retaliation

Ya'alon wouldn't discuss who might deal the strike, saying the entire world, not just Israel, must be concerned about the danger posed by a nuclear-armed Iran. Ya'alon's spokesman Ofer Harel told The Associated Press later Monday that the minister was repeating Israel's position that all options are on the table and not calling for anybody to attack Iran.

Iran has insisted its nuclear program is peaceful, but the US, Israel and many others believe it is cover for developing atomic weapons. Iran flatly denied this claim recently, with Iran's nuclear envoy saying it would be a "strategic mistake" to build atom bombs.

"We have no way to obstruct the UN decision," Netanyahu said, but warned that that the Palestinians will not succeed in their efforts in the UN Security Council. "It is impossible to recognize a Palestinian state without passing through the Security Council and such a move is bound to fail." On Friday, the president of the United Nations General Assembly said there was no way that a Palestinian state could become a member of the United Nations without a recommendation from the Security Council.

Joseph Deiss said that if the United States or any other permanent council member used its veto, the General Assembly would not be able to vote on membership for Palestine. US President Barack Obama said last weekend that no vote at the United Nations would ever create a Palestinian state, a strong indication that the US would veto a resolution recommending Palestinian membership in the 192-nation world body.

The IMF could withhold its portion of June's 12 billion euros payment unless Athens can prove it can meet all its financing requirements for the next 12 months. "It's high noon again in Europe and the gun is to Greece's head," Jan Randolph, Director of Sovereign Risk, IHS Global Insight, told CNBC.com. "The single biggest issue is: Are they going to get the funding?"

A report in the Financial Times suggested that revised plans for Greece's bailout could include incentivizing private bondholders to extend repayment schedules, which could take some of the pressure off Greece. But this was unlikely to calm market jitters and whether Greece defaulted or not still rests on the shoulders of Greece's creditors, according to Randolph.

"It's not up to the ratings agencies to decide if they're defaulted, but their creditors. It's Greece's choice to join Europe properly once and for all, and any foot-dragging or missing of targets is going to create huge anxiety in their creditor governments, including Berlin," he said. "In terms of the classic risk-on, risk-off, we know what the risky and safe haven assets are," Randolph said.

"Europe's debt crisis remains a slow-motion car crash. If sovereign wealth funds did not remain so determined to diversify out of dollars, the euro would surely be much lower," Simon Smith, chief economist at FXPro, wrote in a research note. "The news out of Greece over the weekend was not reassuring, so there is certainly the potential for further weakness once markets return to normal tomorrow," Smith said.

The deaths are unrelated to recent signs of restiveness in Taal volcano, which is surrounded by the lake where many villagers have grown milkfish and tilapia - staple foods for many Filipinos, officials said. The volcano and lake are a popular tourist draw.

Government volcanologist Allan Loza said Monday that 115 earthquakes were detected in Taal in the past 24 hours compared to an average of 10 to 15 quakes daily in recent weeks, a sign that magma is rising from within the small volcano. Such unrest has been monitored since April, long before last week's fish deaths, he said.

Talisay agricultural officer Zenaida Macatangay said an initial investigation showed the deaths may have been caused by the temperature change as the rainy season set in last week after a scorching summer, which also depleted the lake's oxygen levels. More than 400 tons of milkfish have died in Talisay alone since Friday in 84 out of about 1,000 fish pens - lake areas about half the size of a basketball court that are fenced off by bamboo poles and nets. Damage has been estimated at US$770,000, Mendoza said. About 400 tons more have died in the other towns.

In its report, Oxfam highlights four "food insecurity hotspots", areas which are already struggling to feed their citizens.

* in Guatemala, 865,000 people are at risk of food insecurity, due to a lack of state investment in smallholder farmers, who are highly dependent on imported food, the charity says.

* in India, people spend more than twice the proportion of their income on food than UK residents - paying the equivalent of 10 pounds for a litre of milk and 6 pounds for a kilo of rice.

* in Azerbaijan, wheat production fell 33% last year due to poor weather, forcing the country to import grains from Russia and Kazakhstan. Food prices were 20% higher in December 2010 than the same month in 2009.

* in East Africa, eight million people currently face chronic food shortages due to drought, with women and children among the hardest hit.

The World Bank has also warned that rising food prices are pushing millions of people into extreme poverty.

In April, it said food prices were 36% above levels of a year ago, driven by problems in the Middle East and North Africa. Oxfam wants nations to agree new rules to govern food markets, to ensure the poor do not go hungry.

It said world leaders must:

* increase transparency in commodities markets and regulate futures markets

* scale up food reserves

* end policies promoting biofuels

* invest in smallholder farmers, especially women

"We are sleepwalking towards an avoidable age of crisis," said Ms Stocking. "One in seven people on the planet go hungry every day despite the fact that the world is capable of feeding everyone."

It wasn't all that long ago that Europe's top monetary policy experts and the leader of the European Union's most important member state were politely exchanging compliments. Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), praised German Chancellor Angela Merkel for having made Germany into an "example for all of its neighbors." Merkel, for her part, thanked the Frenchman for his decidedly "successful actions."

A few years and a crisis later, the relationship has cooled off considerably. Merkel feels that the Frankfurt-based monetary watchdogs are pressuring her inappropriately, while Trichet and his fellow bankers have taken to characterizing the Berlin government's proposals as "incorrect," "illusory" or simply as a "catastrophe." Today, members of the German government and the ECB seem to have trouble spending time in the same room together. At a recent meeting of finance ministers in Luxembourg, Trichet stormed out of the room after being confronted with yet another crisis plan from Germany that he didn't like.

The controversy revolves around the future of the common currency, which instruments ought to be used to rescue the euro and, not least, a workable plan to support ailing Greece. While Merkel has long advocated a cautious restructuring of Greece's debt, Frankfurt-based Frenchman Trichet categorically rejects any form of debt deferral for Athens.

The cold war between Berlin and Frankfurt reached a new high last week. Should Germany implement its plans, the ECB would have to cut off funding for Greece, the monetary watchdogs warned. The consequences for Europe's banks and the Greek economy would be devastating. In the past, the central bank was seen as the undisputed economic authority in Germany. Anyone who opposed the monetary policy experts was quickly marginalized. Today, however, the central bank must threaten with the most drastic of measures just to force the German government to toe the line. A majority of German economic politicians and economists see the ECB's crisis strategy as unrealistic and contradictory.

Greece's debt crisis continued to deter investors from searching out higher risk assets. European Union and International Monetary Fund officials are expected to deliver their verdict this week on Greece's faltering drive to bring its budget deficit under control.

Prime Minister George Papandreou has failed to win backing from the opposition to adopt fresh austerity steps, as demanded by the EU and IMF, raising concerns over whether Greece will receive its next tranche of bailout loans. Adding to the pall of debt gloom, a government minister in Ireland said it may have to ask for another loan from the EU and IMF because it will struggle to return to debt markets to raise funds next year.

"We've had enough. Politicians are making fools of us. If things stay as they are, our future will be very bleak," said a 22-year-old student who gave his name as Nikos. Unlike the violent protests last year when radicals clashed with police, the peaceful crowds on Sunday were made up of ordinary Greeks, some of whom brought along their children.

Greeks are angry no politicians have been punished for the corruption they blame for the crisis, as well as the dire state of the economy and waves of austerity demanded under the terms of a 110 billion euro ($157.5 billion) bailout from the European Union and IMF last year. Greeks have been protesting in Syntagma Square for five days, fired up by similar demonstrations across Spain. They were joined on Sunday night by a small group of Spaniards who had come to show their solidarity, raising banners in Spanish.

Spain has not had to seek an international bailout, unlike Greece, Ireland and Portugal, but it also faces major budget problems, lack of confidence in its debt, and demand for reform. Police put Sunday's crowd at 30,000 although the protesters, who have few formal leaders and are prompted by Facebook, say official figures usually underestimate the size of demonstrations by a wide margin.

Before the Syntagma Square rallies began, some Spanish protesters had accused Greeks of being too passive. But on Sunday Ifigenia Argyrou, a 57-year-old insurance consultant, said all that had changed. "People were indignant but they needed a motivation to express that. The Spanish people gave us that motivation," she told Reuters. "We are not sleeping, we are awake. The IMF should get out. There are other solutions without them."

Meanwhile the number of opposite-sex couples living together rather than marrying jumped 13 per cent from 2009 to 7.5 million. The median age for first marriages has climbed steadily in the US since the 1960s, when men got married at about 23, and women at 20. Now men are waiting until they are 28 and women until 26.

Americans are also living longer, with an average life expectancy of 78, nearly a decade longer than in the 1960s. According to the most recent figures from the Office for National Statistics, the married population in the UK is expected to drop to just 41 per cent in 20 years, compared with 49 per cent now.

Meanwhile, Staunchly Roman Catholic Malta has narrowly voted to allow divorce, the last country in Europe to do so. The Mediterranean island still bans abortion.

Four things went wrong. The first two were private sector failures. First, far from reacting to their newly shackled state, Spain and Ireland went on a private sector spending spree. (Meanwhile, in Greece the government led the bonanza.) Second, in all these cases, the bond markets were hopeless at foreseeing possible difficulties and imposed bond yields only marginally higher than on Germany. Accordingly, they provided no restraint at all.

The third and fourth were failures of government. The authorities presided over an extremely shaky banking system, acutely vulnerable to shocks. And their policies over many years resulted in a high government debt to GDP ratio, not only in the peripheral countries, but also in the supposedly solid core. In common with almost everyone else, the European authorities grossly underestimated the possibility of sovereign default as a realistic threat and market worry, and underestimated its capacity to cause a full scale banking crisis.

The fact that the political elite ploughed on with the euro project was the result of profound arrogance. Where possible, electorates would be denied the chance to say whether they approved of the euro and other aspects of integration. Where they had to have their say, they would be compelled to go on voting until they said "yes". The current crisis has the same roots. The project's difficult economics would be overcome by the politics. The Brussels establishment would ensure that everything turned out all right.

But it hasn't. Now the economics threaten to overwhelm the politics.

Greece's sovereign indebtedness is so high that it is impossible to see how it can honour its debts without outside help (ie. gifts). And the economy will go on contracting for years. There will have to be "an event". The only issues are when this will happen; who will pick up the tab; and what it will be called. So even though the markets cannot cause the euro to break up by exchange rate pressure, they can cause an internal financial crisis worse than any currency panic. The prospect, or the reality, of such a crisis could yet cause some European leaders to precipitate the end of the euro as we know it.

Churning brown water from the rising Winooski River and a tributary flooded into the streets of Vermont's capital city, Montpelier, sending business owners with inundated basements scurrying to move merchandise to higher ground. Plainfield, just east of the capital city of Montpelier, got 5.22 inches of rain, St. Johnsbury got 4.74 inches, and Montpelier got 3.89 inches, the National Weather Service said.

In eastern Pennsylvania, a tornado that touched down Thursday in Schuylkill County was the second twister to hit the area this week, the National Weather Service said. Another tornado hit Franklin County in south-central Pennsylvania. The weather service said the twister had top winds of 90 mph and traveled 200 yards, but no one was injured. A third twister, also an EF-1, hit Crawford County, bringing down trees and wires and damaging about 10 buildings north of Springboro, county emergency officials told the Erie Times-News.

In Georgia, two Decatur women were killed in Atlanta when a tree fell on a truck, police said. Atlanta station WSB-TV reported that a 19-year-old man was killed in Mableton when a tree fell on him while he cleared debris from a driveway. Power was knocked out to more than 200,000 customers statewide, utilities said. High winds toppled trees in the Macon and Columbus areas. A flash flood warning was issued for portions of Fulton and DeKalb counties in the Atlanta area.

People involved in the talks said the package would also include incentives for private holders of Greek debt voluntarily to extend Athens' repayment schedule, as well as another round of austerity measures. Officials hope that as much as half of the 60-70 billion euros ($86-$100 billion) in new financing needed by Athens until the end of 2013 could be accounted for without new loans. Under a plan advocated by some, much of that would be covered by the sale of state assets and the change in repayment terms for private debtholders.

Eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund would then need to lend an additional 30-35 billion euros on top of the 110 billion euros already promised as part of the bail-out programme agreed last year. Officials warned, however, that almost every element of the new package faced significant opposition from at least one of the governments and institutions involved in the current negotiations and a deal could still unravel. In the latest setback, the Greek government failed on Friday to win cross-party agreement on the new austerity measures, which European Union lenders have insisted is a prerequisite to another bail-out.

In addition, the European Central Bank remains opposed to any restructuring of Greek debt that could be considered a "credit event" - a change in terms that could technically be ruled a default. One senior European official involved in the talks, however, said ECB objections could be overcome if the rescheduling was structured properly. Despite the hurdles, pressure is building to have a deal done within three weeks because of an IMF threat to withhold its portion of June's 12 billion euros bail-out payment unless Athens can show it can meet all its financing requirements for the next 12 months.

Indeed, analysts say Goldman and the other oil trading giant that also has the might to move prices, JPMorgan Chase, have already placed their energy bets for the summer. JPMorgan predicts oil hitting $130 a barrel in the coming weeks. Despite all the turmoil in the Middle East associated with the Arab Spring rioting, oil has fallen to the $100 level, closing out May with a stunning 12 percent drop.

But before the storm, the calm. There appears to be a backlash by some oil-pit analysts. "Whoever would buy into these rising prices is just paying homage (to Wall Street firms) and helping the speculative positions," said one oil trading source familiar with energy bets of Wall Street trading desks. Gas prices, meanwhile, should benefit from the brief respite in oil prices.

"We should be seeing some big declines at the gas pumps after Memorial Day," said energy analyst Peter Beutel of Cameron Hanover. "Wholesale prices have been dropping, and that could cause some serious revisions downward at the pumps," he said. Every 50-cent jump in the cost of gasoline takes $70 billion out of the US economy over the course of a year, economists say.

The Texas field, known as the Eagle Ford, is just one of about 20 new onshore oil fields that advocates say could collectively increase the nation's oil output by 25 percent within a decade - without the dangers of drilling in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico or the delicate coastal areas off Alaska. There is only one catch: the oil from the Eagle Ford and similar fields of tightly packed rock can be extracted only by using hydraulic fracturing, a method that uses a high-pressure mix of water, sand and hazardous chemicals to blast through the rocks to release the oil inside.

The technique, also called fracking, has been widely used in the last decade to unlock vast new fields of natural gas, but drillers only recently figured out how to release large quantities of oil, which flows less easily through rock than gas. As evidence mounts that fracking poses risks to water supplies, the federal government and regulators in various states are considering tighter regulations on it.

The oil industry says any environmental concerns are far outweighed by the economic benefits of pumping previously inaccessible oil from fields that could collectively hold two or three times as much oil as Prudhoe Bay, the Alaskan field that was the last great onshore discovery. The companies estimate that the boom will create more than two million new jobs, directly or indirectly, and bring tens of billions of dollars to the states where the fields are located, which include traditional oil sites like Texas and Oklahoma, industrial stalwarts like Ohio and Michigan and even farm states like Kansas.

The oil rush is already transforming this impoverished area of Texas near the Mexican border, doubling real estate values in the last year and filling restaurants and hotels. "That's oil money," said Bert Bell, a truck company manager, pointing to the new pickup truck he bought for his wife after making $525,000 leasing mineral rights around his family's mobile home. "Oil money just makes life easier."