Rothschild's London-listed RIT Capital Partners (RCP.L) said on Wednesday it was buying the 37 percent stake from French group Societe Generale's (SOGN.PA) private banking arm for an undisclosed sum. The transatlantic union brings together David Rockefeller, 96, and Jacob Rothschild, 76 - two family patriarchs whose personal relationship spans five decades.

Rockefeller & Co traces its origins back to 1882 when it was founded as one of the world's first family offices by John D Rockefeller to manage his personal wealth. Since then it has developed into a wealth advisory group administering assets of $34 billion. The Rothschild banking dynasty began when Mayer Amschel Rothschild started a business in Frankfurt in the late 18th century.

The family has worked on some epochal deals during its history, such as helping finance Britain's war against Napoleon in the 19th century and raising funds for a loan allowing the British government to buy the Suez canal. SocGen, which has held the stake in the Rockefeller wealth and asset management operation since 2008, appointed a new head of private banking in March, replacing Daniel Truchi with Jean-Francois Mazaud as it moved to overhaul the business.

Banks across the world are shedding non-core assets to reduce their risks and strengthen their capital positions to meet tough regulations aimed at preventing a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis. The deal is expected to close by the end of September.

Essentially, the thinking goes that a large European bank is no longer capable of borrowing directly from the ECB because it no longer has creditworthy collateral. Instead this bank has been forced to borrow from the Emergency Liquidity Assistance Program, which allows commercial banks without collateral to access money through domestic central banks.

CNBC's John Carney notes that the amount of money the ECB is lending to banks via long-term refinancing operations decreased significantly over the time period, by about €21 billion. Bloomberg's Linda Yueh pointed out that the €34 billion weekly increase on "other claims on euro area credit institutions" probably indicates lending from the ELA. The ECB's financial statements are always a little bit murky, so it might be wise to take this with a grain of salt. That said, this does not bode well for struggling European banks.

“We were frankly kind of startled,” said Nicholas Fisher, one of the researchers reporting the findings online Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The levels of radioactive cesium were 10 times higher than the amount measured in tuna off the California coast in previous years. But even so, that’s still far below safe-to-eat limits set by the US and Japanese governments.

Previously, smaller fish and plankton were found with elevated levels of radiation in Japanese waters after a magnitude-9 earthquake in March 2011 triggered a tsunami that badly damaged the Fukushima Dai-ichi reactors. But scientists did not expect the nuclear fallout to linger in huge fish that sail the world because such fish can metabolize and shed radioactive substances.

The Tory cabinet minister claimed that the MPs who have been calling for a referendum were 'a few extreme nationalist politicians.' The comment provoked outrage among Tory backbenchers who have been increasing pressure on the Prime Minister to promise a referendum in a bid to escape the grips of Brussels.

Dozens have signed up to the People's Pledge campaign, which is staging votes around the country to gauge support - with the first showing 89.9 per cent in favour. But Mr Clarke, among the most pro-European Tories, said it was a "ridiculous" idea that would do nothing to end the complaints of "frenzied" eurosceptics. "It is the demand of a few right-wing journalists and a few extreme nationalist politicians."

According to the report, the information mentioned in the report came from officers and soldiers who deserted the Syrian Army at the beginning of the popular uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's regime over 14 months ago. The FSA consists of some 30,000 poorly organized and equipped army defectors who are headed by a small cadre of senior dissident officers who have taken refuge in Turkey. They constitute roughly half of the estimated number of Syrian army defectors to date.

According to the report, Jerusalem and Washington are now aware of all storage sites for biological and chemical weapons in Syria, as well as the names and locations of all Syrian defense research facilities. The rebels are said to have also provided Israel and the US with the capabilities of all of Syria's conventional and non-conventional warheads, as well as the exact location of where bombs and missiles capable of delivering biological or chemical payloads are stored.

It is a highly creative way out of the debt crisis, but is not a soft option for Italy, Spain, Portugal, and other states in trouble. The plan is drafted by the German Council of Economic Experts and inspired by Alexander Hamilton’s Sinking Fund in the United States - created in 1790 to clean up the morass of debts left by the Revolutionary War. Flourishing Virginia was comparable to Germany today. Chancellor Angela Merkel shot down the proposals last November as "completely impossible", but Europe’s crisis has since festered, and her Christian Democrat party has since suffered crushing defeats in regional elections.

The Social Democrat opposition supports the idea. The Greens say they will block ratification of the EU Fiscal Compact in the German Bundesrat - or upper house - unless Mrs Merkel relents. "The Redemption Pact cleverly combines the advantages of lower interest rates through joint European borrowing with a reduction of debt," says Green leader Jürgen Trittin. "Joint liability would be limited in both time and scale."

Germany would have a lockhold over the fund, able to enforce discipline. Each state would have to pledge 20 per cent of their debt as collateral. "The assets could be taken from the country’s currency and gold reserves. The collateral nominated would only be used in the event that a country does not meet its payment obligations," said the proposal. This demand could enflame opinion in Italy and Portugal. Both states have kept their bullion, resisting the rush to sell by Britain and others. Italy has 2,451 tonnes of gold, valued at €98 billion in March.

It's the rich soil and perfect climate that has helped make the Central Valley so productive, but something else has made a big difference as well: irrigation. Fountains running up and down the fields sprinkle a steady stream of water onto the soil, without which farming on such a massive scale would be all but impossible in this dry climate. And that water comes from both the ground — farmers pumping deep water to the surface — and from a sprawling irrigation network that is fed in part by the great Colorado River.

Or at least, it used to be great. These days the Colorado River — which starts in the Rocky Mountains and cuts through much of the Southwest — isn't what it once was. The water of the river has been dammed and divvied up, with more than 40 million people in the region now depending on it for irrigation and municipal supplies. But persistent drought along with the growth in the West has reduced the river's flow, to the point that these days it usually dries up before it reaches what had been its mouth on the Pacific coast of Mexico. We're draining the river dry.

And this year is likely to be worse than most. The Southwest is still recovering from a historic drought that lasted much of the previous year, setting off wildfires and severely damaging agricultural output. Snowpack across the Colorado River Basin — important because melting snow in the spring helps feed the river — was less than half normal levels, which made for a terribly dry spring. Water levels at Lake Mead — the man-made reservoir created by the Hoover Dam near Las Vegas — was barely half full at the end of April, and is expected to drop another 14 feet this summer.

By mid-April 61% of the lower 48 states were listed by the US Drought Monitor as being in abnormally dry or drought conditions. Already wildfires are sweeping across New Mexico. The West is set to burn this summer, once again. But what's really scary is what long-term changes in water availability and water use could mean for our ability to feed ourselves.

Gunter Grass angers him, but the writer's positions do not reflect those of most of his countrymen, he believes. He doesn't buy the games Iran is playing with the international community, but he doesn't support the way the Israeli prime minister is dealing with the situation, either. Joachim Gauck, Germany's 11th president, begins his first official visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories on Tuesday, a visit that has generated a great deal of curiosity.

And for good reason. In less than three months as president, the Lutheran pastor has developed the aura of a national superstar. The charismatic Gauck, a former anti-Communist civil rights activist in East Germany, has been hailed as the "president of hearts" and "Germany's Nelson Mandela." He is an apolitical personality and a proud patriot who describes himself as a "conservative liberal with leftist leanings." All told, Gauck, one of the leaders of the "peaceful revolution" that led to the downing of the Berlin Wall, is a symbol in the eyes of his countrymen a symbol of freedom, unity and hope.

But regarding Israeli-German relations, hope is not the prevailing attitude. If anything, the opposite is true. In advance of Gauck's visit, Stern magazine published a poll showing that around two-thirds of Germans believe Israel is an "aggressive state," a "state that advances its own interests while ignoring other peoples," and worst of all, "a state to which Germany has no special responsibility."

He attributes the poll results to ignorance, which he plans to fight, and to a general wave of xenophobia that "flares up here and there, time and again." GERMANY, HE INSISTS, "HAS A UNIQUE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ISRAEL DUE TO THE DARKEST CHAPTER IN OUR HISTORY," A RESPONSIBILITY, HE SAYS, "THAT WILL NEVER CEASE. Germany is fully committed to the security and right to exist of the State of Israel. I will therefore, come to Israel with a little bit more self-confidence, since I sincerely believe that Germany today can be trusted by other nations, Israel included."

A woman was pulled out alive in the evening in Cavezzo, but officials say at least one more person is missing. The quake on 20 May killed seven people and left thousands homeless. The 6.0 magnitude tremor also caused significant damage to Emilia Romagna's cultural heritage, destroying churches and historic buildings. The number of people made homeless has now gone up from 6,000 to 14,000 after the two quakes, the Italian government says.

“The euro zone is a club but you get cheaters who get away with it until everyone finds out and at that point you need to remove them otherwise everyone will cheat. It’s better for Greece to leave,” Dewhirst said. He added that Greek society was built on cheating and scheming, saying “everyone does it” but that voters elsewhere in the euro zone were now calling Greece to account.

“The basic question is that a German has to increase working from 65 to 67 and that is to pay for Greeks retiring at 50. The 17th of June is the perfect opportunity to say either 'we’ll behave' or 'we’ll carry on cheating,'" he said.

Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) sparked criticism in Greece after saying that Greeks needed to start paying their taxes, with Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos accusing her of "insulting the Greek people." Greece was forced to call for a new round of elections, which will take place on June 17 after the country failed to pick a decisive winner in elections earlier this month.

Over 12,000 soldiers were taking part in the war games, representing 19 countries, including Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Pakistan, Qatar, Britain, France, Italy, Spain and Australia. Of those, 6,500 soldiers were from the United States, and 3,500 were from Jordan. The drill included scenarios in which soldiers were directed to free captives held by terrorists.

It also focused on training Jordanian and Saudi service personnel in how to treat refugees, and on naval interception of smuggling vessels, according to Major General Ken Tovo, US Commander-General of Special Operations. But, although it began on time and was set to end later in the week, the exercise was instead halted on Monday - three days early.

Mr Rajoy denies the story, not surprisingly since it would be a devastating climb-down, and not all options are yet exhausted. "There will not be any (outside) rescue for the Spanish banking system," he said. Fine, so where is the €23.5 billion for the Bankia rescue going to come from? The state's Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FROB) is down to €5.3 billion, and there are many other candidates for that soup kitchen.

Spain must somehow rustle up €20 billion or more on the debt markets. This will push the budget deficit back into the danger zone, though Madrid will no doubt try to keep it off books – or seek backdoor funds from the ECB to cap borrowing costs. Nobody will be fooled. Meanwhile, Bankia's shares crashed 30 per cent this morning. JP Morgan and Nomura expect a near total wipeout. Investors who bought the new shares at flotation last year may lose almost everything.

Paolo Gabriele's pledge to co-operate with Vatican magistrates means high-ranking prelates could soon be named in the investigation into leaks of confidential Vatican correspondence that have shed a light on power struggles and intrigue at the highest levels of the Catholic church.

Italian media report that a cardinal is suspected of playing a major role in the "Vatileaks" scandal. However, the Vatican spokesman, the Reverend Federico Lombardi, denied the reports. He said many Vatican officials were being questioned in the investigation but insisted: "There is no cardinal under suspicion."

The scandal broke in January when the Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi broadcast letters from the former number-two Vatican administrator, Monsignor Carlo Maria Viganò, to the pope. In the letters, Viganò begged not to be transferred for having exposed alleged corruption, which cost the Holy See millions of euros in higher contract prices. The prelate is now the Vatican's US ambassador. The scandal widened over the following months, with documents leaked to Italian journalists that laid bare clear power struggles inside the Vatican over its efforts to show greater financial transparency.

An opinion poll commissioned by German state TV ZDF published on Friday showed that 79% of respondents rejected eurobonds as a solution to the crisis. Support for euro membership appears to be waning as 50% of respondents (up from 43% in February) say they believed Germany’s euro membership carried more disadvantages than advantages. According to the poll, 45% took the opposite view (down from 51% in February).

A series of new polls ahead of Greece’s re-run elections on June 17 show the centre-right New Democracy party, which supports the conditions attached to the bailouts, ahead on 25.6% and 27.7%, a 0.5% and 5.7% lead on anti-bailout SYRIZA party. New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras warned yesterday that "If Greece terminates the loan agreement, it will remain isolated for many years internationally. It will not have food, medicine, or fuel. It will live in a constant blackout."

IMF director Christine Largarde’s comments in an interview with Saturday’s Guardian - in which she said that she had more sympathy for victims of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa than Greeks hit by the economic crisis and claimed that tax evasion in Greece was rife - have provoked a furious reaction in the country. PASOK leader and former Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said that “Nobody has the right to humiliate the Greek people during the crisis, and I say this today specifically addressing Ms Lagarde … who insulted the Greek people”. Lagarde subsequently qualified her comments by saying she was “very sympathetic to the Greek people and the challenges they are facing”, and that she had been referring to tax evasion among the most privileged.

In fact, the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group which was led until May 24, 2012, by leader-in-exile Burhan Ghalioun, could well be in a process of disintegration. Ghalioun resigned from his self-nominated position after having realized that he could not represent all the factions fighting against Assad. Ghalioun had particular problems extending his authority over the Free Syrian Army (FSA) that was, until lately, the main fighting arm of the rebellion against Assad.

As in the Egyptian case, in Syria THE MUSLIM BROTHERS HAVE SUCCEEDED IN APPROPRIATING (some would call it hijacking) THE REVOLT AND ULTIMATELY BECOMING ITS BACKBONE. Moreover, the Muslim Brothers, with their worldwide organization, provide the conduit through which Muslim fighters from around the globe are coming to join the ranks in the battle against Assad.