As their sad, bewildered faces show whenever they appear on our screens, the EU's leaders have nowhere to turn. They cannot afford to allow Greece to fall out of their beloved euro, which might trigger an international currency crisis, the consequences of which no one can calculate. On the other hand, they cannot afford to continue pouring tens of billions of euros, which will never be repaid, into a basket-case economy. They - and we - are impaled on an impossible hook.

One of the few sources of pleasure in this mess has been to witness the discomfiture of our own homegrown euro-zealots who, a decade or more ago, were obsessively urging Britain to join the lemmings as they set off for that ultimately inevitable cliff. There was no cheerleader louder than the BBC's Today programme, which back in the late 1990s was almost daily wheeling on the likes of Michael Heseltine, Chris Patten and Leon Brittan to argue, unchallenged, that Britain was doomed unless we signed up.

Last week, in a ghostly, forlorn echo of those times, Lord Brittan was interviewed on Today by Evan Davis, himself once a stalwart cheerleader for the cause. A reader has sent me the transcript of a programme from 2003 in which Davis was trumpeting how happy the Greeks were, after years of inflation with the drachma, to be part of a currency which was "stable" and "quite secure".

Last week, of course, Lord Brittan was adamant that Greece must remain in the euro, while observing that the country had brought these problems on itself because it had "simply been spending more than it could possibly afford". Rather more to the point, one might have thought, was the cover of the latest issue of Private Eye, showing two speech bubbles coming out of the Parthenon. The first said "Massive debts, greedy banks, dodgy politicians, reckless borrowing, cuts, strikes...". The second agreed: "They should let Britain go bust."

Far more than most people realise, we in Britain are approaching a financial abyss almost as great as that into which Greece has been falling.

China's plan to continue to invest in the continent's volatile sovereign debt market comes as efforts continue to prevent Greece's financial crisis making it the first nation to be forced out of the euro. "China is a long-term investor in Europe's sovereign debt market," Mr Wen said at a press conference with the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban.

"In recent years we have increased by quite a big margin our holdings of government bonds. We will consistently continue to support Europe and the euro." He added: "China is ready to work with Europe to share opportunities, cope with challenges and achieve common development and to make unremitting efforts for stable development of the world economy and an in-depth development of China-Europe ties."

Mr Wen's comments, made before boarding a flight to Birmingham, came after a week in which EU leaders committed themselves to staving off a Greek default provided that the prime minister, George Papandreou, pushes through a package of budget cuts next week. As a signal of China's enthusiasm for doing deals with Europe, Mr Wen signed 12 trade deals with Hungary and agreed to finance more of the country's debt.

His openness in pledging his support will also bolster the UK Government's hopes of strengthening Anglo-China ties during his time in the UK, when he will tour the Chinese-owned MG car factory in Longbridge and attend a UK-China summit at 10 Downing Street tomorrow. Writing in today's Sunday Telegraph, Jim O'Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, said that the eurozone should look east for solutions to their continuing debt problems. He said that it is likely that sovereign wealth funds would be keen to invest.

But they (and we) face a huge looming crisis. It transcends politics and political candidates - it is much bigger than Michele Bachmann's hair or Barack Obama's thesaurus - and sometime soon they are going to have to face it. It's the debt. America's federal government debt is growing at $40,000 per second. It has reached $14 trillion, whatever that means. More comprehensible perhaps is this fact: the debt will soon match the entire GDP of the United States. Outside wartime, that has never happened before.

The real issue is the future of America's domestic spending. The projections are appalling: the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office thinks that by 2030 interest payments plus spending on pensions and health will take up all the government's tax income. Everything else, from education to war-fighting, will have to be borrowed for. Or cut out.

A nation whose productive capacity, whose support of economic and political freedom plays such a big part in our world could be heading for a period of poverty and introspection. AND THE POVERTY COULD COME QUITE SUDDENLY - brought on by interest rate rises forced on America by world markets, or by foreign powers selling dollar bonds.

While making my BBC Radio Four documentary 'Analysis: America's Debt', I asked Richard Haass, of the Council on Foreign Relations think tank, whether the fiscal crisis might allow the US to be blackmailed. His answer: "Yes ...one can imagine a situation nowadays, where say there is a crisis over Taiwan between the US and China - which holds a significant number of dollars - and one can imagine the Chinese might be prepared to threaten the dollar, make some comments to weaken it unless the US backs off some of its support of Taiwan."

With Greece teetering on the edge of defaulting on its huge public debt, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos offered to talk to wavering deputies from the ruling Socialist Party, at least two of whom have said they will oppose the measures in crucial votes on Wednesday and Thursday. "I believe that the sense of responsibility will ultimately prevail, the God of Greece is great," he told TV station Alter.

Without parliamentary approval for the measures, the European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have said they will not release a vital 12 billion euro ($17.2 billion) loan tranche and the government would run out of cash within days. On Friday, Prime Minister George Papandreou's already slim majority was further undermined when a deputy from his PASOK party said he would vote against the measures, joining another party rebel who announced his opposition earlier this month.

Papandreou's government has 155 seats in the 300-strong parliament, having seen five defections since it came to power in October 2009 with 160 deputies. With the economy stuck in its deepest recession since 1974 and youth unemployment running at over 40 percent, the mix of spending cuts, state sell offs and tax hikes demanded by the EU and the IMF has caused bitter resentment among ordinary Greeks.

"The river's coming up rapidly," Mayor Curt Zimbelman said. "It's dangerous and we need to stay away." Fed by heavy rains upstream and dam releases that have accelerated in recent days, the Souris surged past a 130-year-old record Friday and kept going. The river was nearly 5 feet above major flood stage Friday afternoon and expected to crest over the weekend after reaching more than 8 1/2 feet beyond major flood stage.

The predicted crest was lowered a foot based on new modeling by the National Weather Service, but it was little consolation in Minot. "This has been a very trying time for our community," Zimbelman said. "It's emotionally draining for all of us." Members of the state's congressional delegation pressed for a federal emergency declaration making people eligible for individual assistance, a step they said was needed for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to set up transitional housing centers.

Brent oil prices tumbled to a four-month closing low on Thursday and after rallying early on Friday, turned and fell again. Some doubts emerged that the unexpected decision by the International Energy Agency to release 60 million barrels over the next month would have a long-term impact. Japanese Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano said the IEA move was a warning to speculative buyers but India's Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy doubted the action would have an impact.

"Even if there is a slight increase in production (supply), those gains will not be made available to us because of unbridled speculation in the financial markets of the world," he said. "We don't know whether this (weaker oil prices) is a stable trend." The stock release is only the third in the 37-year history of the agency that was set up as a counter weight to exporting group OPEC.

IEA Asian members Japan and Korea said that from next week they will start releasing oil reserves in line with the agency's targets. Japan will cut the reserve requirement for oil companies by 7.9 million barrels over the next 30 days and South Korea will release 3.46 million barrels, together providing about 19 percent of the IEA target.

Bank of England Governor and FPC Chairman Mervyn King said a roadmap was still needed to show markets there was a way out of the Greek debt crisis, and the watchdog's report focussed heavily on the risks posed by high-indebted euro zone states. "Sovereign and banking strains are the most material and immediate threat," it said.

"Market concerns remain over fiscal positions in a number of euro area countries and the potential for contagion to banking systems." Greece won the consent of international lenders on Thursday for a five-year austerity plan to avoid bankruptcy, which helped reassure financial markets. The FPC report stopped short of placing curbs on bank payouts to shareholders as US authorities have done.

"It does not make sense to place an arbitrary limit," King told a news conference. "What matters is to put in the capital." The FPC is one of a new breed of watchdogs set up after the financial crisis to try to spot trouble in the financial system before it can derail the wider economy.

The move drew immediate condemnation from Republicans and business interests opposed to tapping the emergency reserve for anything other than a critical cut-off of oil. "The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was designed for energy emergencies, not political convenience. Releasing our reserves to calm the market is emblematic of an administration whose energy policy is irrational and counter-productive," said Representative Fred Upton, Republican for Michigan, head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

"The Obama administration's decision to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is ill-advised and not the signal the markets need," said Karen Harbert, president and CEO of the US Chamber of Commerce's Energy Institute.

"Our reserve is intended to address true emergencies, not politically inconvenient high prices... With US crude oil production expected to decrease by 90 million barrels in the next year, the administration should instead focus on increasing domestic production to improve our energy security, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and create thousands of jobs," she said in a statement.

No damage or injuries were reported. The warning, which extended for roughly 800 miles (1,300 km) - from Unimak Pass, northeast of Dutch Harbor, westward to Amchitka Pass, west of Adak Island - was cancelled after a little more than an hour. A tsunami wave measuring just 6 centimetres tall was recorded at Nikolski, a tiny Aleut village on the island of Umnak, and a 10-centimeter wave was observed at Adak, said Becki Legatt, a spokeswoman for the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Centre in Palmer, Alaska.

The coast of the entire Alaska peninsula and all of the Alaska mainland were never considered to be threatened. The quake struck shortly after 7 pm local time (4 am BST) at a depth of about 25 miles (40 km). A second tremor of magnitude 7.2 hit in the same vicinity of the Aleutians a half-minute later, the US Geological Survey said. Quakes of 7 to 8 magnitudes and higher are relatively common in the Aleutians but are generally of little consequence because the island chain is so remote and sparsely populated.

"This is a very seismically active area," said Randy Baldwin, a USGS geophysicist with the National Earthquake Information Centre in Golden, Colorado.

Last week credit rating agency Moody's announced it was putting Italy on review for a possible downgrade to its Aa2 credit rating. These reviews typically last three months or so, and although a downgrade would still leave Italy at the higher end of investment grade, it is not good news to be sliding down the scale, especially when a sovereign debt crisis is raging further along the Mediterranean coast.

The reasoning behind the move by Moody's was firstly challenges to economic growth, and secondly difficulties in bringing its debt levels down. A lot of attention has focused on a Greek default hitting Portugal and Ireland hardest, but Italy has a public debt-to-GDP of close to 120 percent of GDP, thus it is extremely vulnerable to investors dumping its debt, which would push up interest rates and make its debts too expensive to service.

Nearly a quarter of all debt issued by the euro zone comes from Italy and yet its growth remains stubbornly sluggish. Its average quarterly growth rate since 2000 is just 1 percent. Italy now risks becoming a long-term low growth/high debt economy. Although its budget deficit is at a manageable level just below 4 percent of GDP, it has more than 300 billion euros of debt maturing this year and needs to get access to the capital markets in order to fund these bond redemptions.

Italy's structural economic deficiencies are only expected to get worse. By 2030 there will be less than two workers for every retired person aged 65 years or over, that compares with three today. If you think productivity is low now, imagine what it could be in the future. It has one of the fastest aging populations in Europe and its pension costs are set to continue to expand rapidly. This is the major challenge it faces in the coming decade. Without easy access to the capital markets it is easy to imagine a Greek-style situation for Italy as it drowns in its enormous public debt.

With a second bail-out due in the autumn, there had been a suggestion cash from EU-wide funds may be used. This will now not happen, but the UK will still contribute via the IMF. "This is the right outcome for the British taxpayer," a Downing Street source told the BBC after the vote. The confirmation that the European contribution to the second Greek rescue package will again be limited to eurozone countries - those that use the single currency - was made in Brussels by European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.

Mr Rompuy was speaking at the end of the first day of a summit of EU leaders, which Mr Cameron is also attending. The European money currently being given to Greece comes from the European Financial Stability Facility, to which only the 17 eurozone nations contribute. The UK instead contributes to the wider European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism, which covers the whole of the EU. The Greek parliament will vote next week on the government's latest round of spending cuts.

If the vote goes through, then Greece will get the next 12 billion euros instalment of the current 110 billion euros of eurozone and IMF funds. Greece needs this money by 15 July, or else it will default on its loan payments. However, many economists think that even if Greece gets the latest 12 billion euros it will still default at some time in the future.

The ministry on Thursday said the Chinese warships were monitored passing from the Pacific Ocean into the East China Sea. Ministry spokesman Shuichi Fukuya said they were believed to be returning from target practice and refueling exercises in waters about 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) south of Okinawa. He said the Japanese military saw the Chinese warships heading out to the area June 8-9.

Separately, the foreign ministry said a Chinese maritime research vessel briefly entered Japan's exclusive economic zone Thursday, around 330 kilometers (205 miles) off the coast of Miyagi, one of the worst-hit areas in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. A coast guard patrol vessel issued a warning against the Chinese ship, which left the economic zone around four hours later.

The "Drought Monitor" report released Thursday from a consortium of national climate experts said that over the last week, the worst level of drought, called "exceptional drought," expanded to cover more than 70 percent of Texas. And 91 percent of the Lone Star State suffers from either exceptional drought or the second-worst category, "extreme" drought. "We've had extraordinarily high temperatures and really high wind. It is still bad," said Don Conlee, acting state climatologist for Texas.

Arizona likewise has more than 70 percent of its land in extreme and exceptional drought, up from 68 percent. Louisiana saw exceptional drought spread to 65 percent from 28 percent in the week, while Oklahoma saw it spread to a third of its land from a tenth. Drought has ravaged the region, sparking thousands of wildfires, drying up grazing land for cattle, and ruining thousands of acres of wheat and other crops. Texas experienced its driest spring on record with only a fraction of the rainfall typically seen.

Overall, this is third-worst drought in Texas history up to this point of the year, Conlee said. Drought in the South sees its opposite extreme in the North, severe flooding. This week floodwaters forced the evacuation of thousands of residents in North Dakota as heavy rains swelled waterways from Montana through Missouri. And more rain is expected over the next several days through the Missouri River basin, according to forecasters.

It is a surreal scenario. Gigantic risks. Staggering sums of money. The degree to which the political debate has become polarized is likewise unbelievable - both among European Union member states and within those societies themselves. In the Greece of today, the government has to be protected from its own people. In the Netherlands and Finland, right-wing populist parties have made huge gains on terrain normally held by large, centrist parties. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel isn't even certain of a parliamentary majority when a second bailout package for Greece comes up for a vote.

It is the kind of escalation that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago. Rescue efforts have been underway for three years now - first the banks and then the countries. But instead of coming together in times of crisis, Europeans have become divided. And there is a lot at stake. A break-up of the European currency union has now become a realistic scenario. Indeed, the political climate has become so toxic that a collapse of the European Union and of the idea of European unity - and the entire European postwar order - also seems possible.

The German government also seems to care little that the European Central Bank is slipping into serious distress. Speculation is heating up, further exacerbating the crisis. Nevertheless, Berlin is still insisting on a haircut: as a matter of principle, but also because there are many in the government who would like to show the financial markets (and the Greeks) that they mean business. If the euro-zone breaks apart, it is Germany that will be blamed - because it was the country that could have saved the euro but didn't do so out of short-sighted self-interest. The damage, should it come to that, will be much more than monetary.

A quarter of the city's 41,000 residents had been facing a 6 pm evacuation order, but emergency sirens blared at 1 pm, warning people that the deadline had been moved up by five full hours. Before making their escape, city crews sandbagged critical structures such as the water-treatment plant, city hall and school buildings.

Minot, the fourth-largest city in North Dakota, is less than 60 miles south of the Canadian border. It was founded in the late 1800s during construction of the Great Northern Railroad. The economy relies extensively on agriculture, as well as Minot Air Force Base and the recent oil boom in the western part of the state. Nearly 500 National Guard soldiers were in town to help with traffic control and the evacuation.