On the one hand, the additional losses are not a surprise since Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s CEO, warned that the situation was volatile and that THE $2 BILLION OF TRADING LOSSES originally suffered could balloon and get worse before they get better. But the New York Times report will likely cause even more uncertainty in the market because of the speed with which the trading losses appear to have increased.

These concerns will have to do with things like whether the bank will need to cut its divided. On the surface, it seems like disclosure of the trading losses, which were partly the result of a strategy executed by a JPMorgan trader known as the London Whale, has undermined the bank’s bet even further.

Moody's pinned the downgrade on a weakening operating environment made worse by Prime Minister Mario Monti's tough austerity cure. 'Moody's decision is an assault against Italy, its companies, its families,' said Italian banking lobby ABI. 'Once more rating agencies turn out to be a destabilising factor for financial markets with their partial and contradictory statements.'

Big business lobby chief Emma Marcegalia said she was concerned by such an 'attack against Italy.' Moody's downgrade came on the back of its February cut of Italy's sovereign rating to A3 from A2 and makes the ratings of Italian banks among the weakest in western Europe.

While large groups such as Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit have enough international reach and capital to absorb the hit, this is more problematic for smaller lenders such as Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which now stands just above 'junk' or non-investment grade status.

Non-Hispanic whites accounted for 49.6 percent of all births in the 12-month period that ended last July, according to Census Bureau data made public on Thursday, while minorities — including Hispanics, blacks, Asians and those of mixed race — reached 50.4 percent, representing a majority for the first time in the country’s history.

Such a turn has been long expected, but no one was certain when the moment would arrive — signaling a milestone for a nation whose government was founded by white Europeans and has wrestled mightily with issues of race, from the days of slavery, through a civil war, bitter civil rights battles and, most recently, highly charged debates over efforts to restrict immigration.

While over all, whites will remain a majority for some time, the fact that a younger generation is being born in which minorities are the majority has broad implications for the country’s economy, its political life and its identity. “This is an important tipping point,” said William H Frey, the senior demographer at the Brookings Institution, describing the shift as a “transformation from a mostly white baby boomer culture to the more globalized multiethnic country that we are becoming.”

The comments were made at a conference in Tehran in honor of Nakba Day – the day of catastrophe – which is what the Arabs call the English date of May 15, when the State of Israel was re-established with a declaration of independence in 1948. In a brief address at the end of the conference, the official, Hossein Shiekholeslam said, “In success of a revolution three major factors need to play effective roles, and they are the people, the leadership, and the school of thought, or ideology.”

He added, “If we wish success for the Palestinians, the existence of these three factors is necessary, as they did exist in the case of the victory of the Islamic Revolution of Iran.” Sheikholeslam said that “In near future the Islamic Awakening movement would also swallow the Zionist regime.”

The first speaker at the conference, according to IRNA, was the PA Ambassador in Tehran, Salah Zawawi, who said that the one and only way to soothe the Arabs’ pains and agony is the annihilation of the Zionist regime. “So long as the entire Palestinian groups have not united and each group is merely heeding its own factional interests the problems of this detached part of the Islamic world would never be solved,” he added.

Greeks are withdrawing euros afraid of the prospect of rapid devaluation if the country leaves the single currency, minutes of President Karolos Papoulias's meetings with political leaders showed. Greece's warring parties have refused to form a viable coalition, triggering new elections that could strengthen the hand of opponents of Greece's EU bailout.

Central bank head George Provopoulos said savers withdrew at least €700 million ($894 million) on Monday, the president told party chiefs. "Mr Provopoulos told me there was no panic, but there was great fear that could develop into a panic," the minutes quoted the president as saying.

"Withdrawals and outflows by 4:00 pm when I called him exceeded €600 million and reached €700 million," he said. "He expects total outflows of about €800 million, including conversions in German Bunds and other such things." The specter of Greece quitting the single currency sent the euro and European shares to a fresh four-month low on Wednesday and raised the yields on Spanish and Italian debt, reflecting the risk that other European countries will be hurt.

Sources at two Greek banks told Reuters that withdrawals on Tuesday had taken place at about the same rate as Monday and the president's numbers appeared to be broadly accurate. Greeks have been withdrawing funds from banks for years, and there has so far been no sign of queues at banks in Athens, but withdrawals at such a pace in two days are unusual.

As leaders in Athens accepted the need for a new general election to end a national stalemate, the International Monetary Fund said Europe’s leaders should prepare for the possibility of a Greek departure from the single currency. Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF, warned she was “technically prepared for anything” and said the utmost effort must be made to ensure any Greek exit was orderly.

The effect was likely to be “quite messy” with risks to growth, trade and financial markets. “It is something that would be extremely expensive and would pose great risks but it is part of options that we must technically consider,” she said. Raising tensions still further, Germany warned Greek voters that the wrong result in next month’s election will force their country out of the single currency.

Greece’s president warned, perhaps most alarmingly, that its banks risk running out of money, posing a “threat to our national existence”. The escalating turmoil sharpened fears in financial markets, with European shares and the euro itself falling again. Following this month’s inconclusive election, Greek parties yesterday failed again to agree a new government. A new election, most likely to be held in mid-June, could see more gains for parties that want to reject the austerity measures that are a condition of international efforts to bail out the debt-crippled state.

Wolfgang Schauble, the German finance minister, piled further pressure on Greek voters, warning that unless they deliver a government that honours the terms of the bail-out, he said, the country will have to leave the euro.

The turmoil in Athens sent shock waves around other troubled members of the 17-nation European single currency area. The euro slipped below $1.28, world stocks slid and Spanish and Italian bond yields rose above the danger level of 6 percent as investors scurried for shelter in safe haven German Bunds. The tremors from Greece, compounding worries about Spain's debt-laden banking system, ended any honeymoon for new French President Francois Hollande, thrusting the growing risks to the euro zone to the top of the agenda for his first ever meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin the same evening.

The leaders of the Franco-German alliance that sits at the heart of the single currency project said after their talks that both wanted Greece to remain in the euro zone and were ready to work to promote ideas for economic growth that could help achieve that - though differences remain over what can be done. After a meeting at which both stressed a commitment to the political ideal of the euro, despite coming from opposing sides of Europe's left-right party divide, Hollande told a news conference: "I hope that we can say to the Greeks that Europe is ready to add measures to help growth and support economic activity so that there is a return to growth in Greece."

"On growth, the method that we agreed is putting all ideas and all proposals on the table and seeing what legal means exist to put them into effect," added the French leader, who landed in Berlin late after lightning struck his presidential jet. Earlier, in his inaugural address, the Socialist president called for a European pact to revive growth and temper the conservative Merkel's preference for Europe-wide austerity, seeking to change the direction of euro zone economic policy.

Parties deeply divided over an unpopular EU-IMF rescue plan threw in the towel on Tuesday after nine days of failed attempts to put together a coalition, hitting heavyweight financial stocks as investors worried at the prospect that the euro zone weakling would remain in limbo for at least another month. Opinion polls show that voters enraged with five years of recession, record unemployment and steep wage cuts are likely to elect a parliament as fragmented as the one they chose on May 6. But the vote, probably in mid-June, may well tip the balance of power toward leftist parties opposed to the bailout conditions.

Policymakers from European Union states and at the European Central Bank have warned that they would stop sending debt-choked Athens the cash it needs to stay afloat if a new government tears up the bailout and backs out of commitments to cut the public debt which are blamed by many Greeks for misery. But many cash-strapped Greek voters shrug off the threat and see no contradiction between their deep-rooted wish to stay in the euro and their opposition to conditions imposed to obtain the bailouts that have staved off bankruptcy but have dragged the nation into its deepest economic crisis since World War Two.

"There is a bit of schizophrenia in our society right now. People want to stay in Europe - have the cake - but they also want to eat it - by attacking the creditors," said Theodore Couloumbis at Athens-based think-tank ELIAMEP. "Much depends on whether the Greek people in this repeat election are going to vote with anger and passion or if they will cool off, reflect and see in effect what the real choices are. The choice is between bad and worse."

Bankia, Spain's fourth biggest bank, is the first in line for state aid. Rodrigo Rato, chairman and former IMF managing director, swiftly resigned after it was disclosed the finance ministry was preparing to refinance the bank and introduce legislation to protect the balance sheets of others.

Spain, which also signalled it could dock its only aircraft carrier to save €30 million a year, is already struggling to cope with an austerity drive that has pushed the jobless total up to nearly 25 per cent of the workforce.

Mr Rajoy insisted that any bank bail-out would not compromise the tough targets set by Brussels to reduce the budget deficit.

Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Capital, said Spain's action was positive because "it's them taking ownership of their own issues".

“What’s at stake isn’t just the next Greek government,” said Guido Westerwelle, Germany’s foreign minister. “What’s at stake is the Greek people’s commitment to Europe and the euro.”

“A second vote means Greece is edging closer to the point where it’s inevitable they have to exit the euro,” Fredrik Erixon, head of the European Centre for International Political Economy in Brussels, said. “No other course of events is now likely.” As the Greek president, Karolos Papoulias, admitted defeat on coalition talks, Alexis Tsipras, leader of the radical Left-wing Syriza party which is leading the Greek polls, said he couldn’t “guarantee” the country would stay in the euro.

Global financial institutions have a €422 billion (£335.8 billion) exposure to Greek debt, including state, household and corporate debt, according to the latest figures from the International Monetary Fund. The Institute of International Finance has estimated that the global cost of a Greek exit could hit €1 trillion. When Argentina defaulted in 2001, foreign debtors lost around 70 per cent of their investments.

With the world's third largest debt after the US and Japan at €1.9 trillion (£1.18 trillion), it is big enough to bring the global financial system to its knees. It is also in the front line of contagion as the Greek crisis metastasizes. Yields on 10-year Italian debt jumped 16 points to 5.86 per cent on Tuesday after Italy's data agency said the country is sliding even into deeper recession, with GDP shrinking 0.8 per cent in the first quarter.

Output is now 6 per cent below its peak in 2008. Italy has been trapped in perma-slump for a decade, the only major state to suffer a fall in real per capita income since 2000. Rising anger has led to a spate of violent attacks by terrorist groups over recent weeks, all too like the traumatic 'years of lead' in the late 1970s. The government is mulling use of troops to protect targets after anarchists shot the head of Ansaldo Nucleare last week and hurled petrol bombs at tax offices.

The unelected government of Mario Monti is carrying out net fiscal tightening of 3.5 per cent of GDP this year even though Italy's budget is near primary surplus. This is three times the International Monetary Fund's "therapeutic" pace. All key measures of Italy's money supply have been contracting at 1930s rates over the last six months. Italy's former premier Romano Prodi said the EU risks instant contagion to Spain, Italy, and France if Greece leaves. "The whole house of cards will come down", he said

Angelo Drusiani from Banca Albertini said the only way to avert catstrophe is to convert the European Central Bank into a lender of last resort. Otherwise Italy faces "massive devaluation, three to five years of hyperinflation, and unbearable unemployment."

“Yesterday we began to apply the skills that we have developed over the last weeks in an irregular warfare scenario… They will last for approximately the coming two weeks,” he added. “The message that I want to send through this exercise is that we have developed the right partners throughout the region and across the world… ensuring that we have the ability to… meet challenges that are coming to our nations,” Tovo said.

Over 12,000 soldiers are 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. Jordanian army operations and training chief Major General Awni Adwan said the military exercise “has been in the planning phase for the past three years.”

“No forces will be deployed north… the exercise is not connected to any real world event,” Adwan said when asked if the war games were related to the ongoing violence in Jordan’s northern neighbor Syria. “This has nothing to do with Syria. We respect the sovereignty of Syria. There is no tension between the Syrians and us. Our objectives are clear,” Adwan said.

Germany has gold reserves of just under 3,400 tons, the second-largest reserves in the world after the United States. Much of that is in the safekeeping of central banks outside Germany, especially in the US Federal Reserve in New York. One would think that with such a valuable stash, worth around €133 billion ($170 billion), the German government would want to keep a close eye on its whereabouts. But now a bizarre dispute has broken out between different German institutions over how closely the reserves should be checked.

Germany's federal audit office, the Bundesrechnungshof, which monitors the German government's financial management, is unhappy with how Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank, keeps tabs on its gold. According to media reports, the auditors are dissatisfied with the fact that gold reserves in Frankfurt are more closely monitored than those held abroad. In Germany, spot checks are carried out to make sure that the gold bars are in the right place. But for the German gold that is stored on the Bundesbank's behalf by the US Federal Reserve in New York, the Bank of England in London and the Banque de France in France, the German central bank relies on the assurances of its foreign counterparts that the gold is where it should be. The three foreign central banks give the Bundesbank annual statements confirming the size of the reserves, but the Germans do not usually carry out physical inspections of the bars.

According to German media reports, the Bundesrechnungshof has now recommended in its confidential annual audit of the Bundesbank for 2011 that Germany's central bank check its foreign gold reserves with yearly spot checks. The Bundesbank has rejected the demand, arguing that central banks do not usually check each others' reserves. "The scope of the checks that the Bundesrechnungshof wants does not correspond to the usual practices among central banks," the Bundesbank said in a statement quoted by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. "There are no doubts about the integrity and the reputation of these foreign depositories."

Now the finance committee of the German parliament, the Bundestag, has gotten involved. Parliamentarians apparently demanded to see the Bundesrechnungshof's audit report on the Bundesbank after they were alarmed by a report in the influential tabloid daily Bild, which claimed that the central bank had not checked its gold reserves in five years.

With a price tag of $3,000+ apiece, according to an ABC report, the street lights are now being rolled out in Detroit, Chicago and Pittsburgh, and may soon mushroom all across the country. Part of the Intellistreets systems made by the company Illuminating Concepts, they have a number of “homeland security applications” attached.

Each has a microprocessor “essentially similar to an iPhone,” capable of wireless communication. Each can capture images and count people for the police through a digital camera, record conversations of passers-by and even give voice commands thanks to a built-in speaker. Ron Harwood, president and founder of Illuminating Concepts, says he eyed the creation of such a system after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the Hurricane Katrina disaster. He is “working with Homeland Security” to deliver his dream of making people “more informed and safer.”

"The system represents Big Brother on steroids,” commented the website InfoWars.com, which sees Intellistreets as a major threat to privacy.

Currently, Section 5 of the 1986 Act outlaws ‘insulting words or behaviour’, but what constitutes ‘insulting’ is unclear and has resulted in a string of controversial arrests. Human rights campaigners, MPs, faith groups and secular organisations have joined forces to have the ‘insulting words or behaviour’ phrase removed from the legislation, arguing that it restricts freedom of speech and penalises campaigners, protesters and even preachers.

Former shadow home secretary David Davis, a leading campaigner for civil liberties, said reform was ‘vital to protecting freedom of expression in Britain today’. ‘There is a growing list of examples where the law against using “insulting” language has led to heavy-handed action by police and prosecutors. It is not only distressing for the individuals concerned, it constitutes a threat to Britain’s tradition of free speech,’ he said. ‘Of course nobody likes to be insulted, particularly in public, but nor does anyone have a right not to be insulted. Freedom of speech includes the right to criticise, to ridicule and to offend. It is not the job of the police and the courts to prevent us from having our feelings hurt.’

‘The solution is simple: The law needs to change. The word “insulting” should be removed from section 5 of the Public Order Act. This would provide proportionate protection to individuals’ right to free speech, while continuing to protect people from threatening or abusive speech.’