"I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven't resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it," Mr Obama said in an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley, according to excerpts released by CBS News.

The Obama administration and many economists have warned of economic catastrophe if the United States does not raise the amount it is legally allowed to borrow by August 2.

Lawmakers from both parties want to use the threat of that deadline to work out a broader package on long-term deficit reduction, with Republicans looking to cut trillions of dollars in federal spending, while Democrats are pushing for a more "balanced approach," which would include both spending cuts and increased revenue through taxes.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers are expected to hold another round of negotiations with Mr Obama at the White House Tuesday afternoon on long-term deficit reduction, though talks have yielded little results to date. Mr Obama told Pelley "this is not just a matter of Social Security checks. These are veterans checks, these are folks on disability and their checks. There are about 70 million checks that go out."

Mr Zhu is a former deputy governor of the People's Bank of China and has been a special adviser to the IMF for the past year. "Min Zhu brings a wealth of experience in government, international policy making and financial markets, strong managerial and communication skills as well as an institutional understanding of the Fund, and I look forward to his counsel," Ms Lagarde said.

"As deputy managing director, he will play an important role in working with me and the rest of my management team in meeting the challenges facing our global membership in the period ahead, and in strengthening the Fund's understanding of Asia and emerging markets more generally."

Prime Minister David Cameron is also set to detail the terms of a public inquiry into the hacking scandal. In a Commons statement, he is expected to outline the remit of the judicial probe and possibly who will head it. Labour says the unanimous support of MPs for News Corporation to pull out of a bid for the broadcaster will send a "clear message" to Mr Murdoch.

It comes after Mr Cameron met Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Labour leader Ed Miliband at Downing Street to discuss the hacking scandal on Tuesday. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson is believed to have updated the three men on the current state of the police inquiry into hacking claims when he visited No 10.

In the US, Senate Commerce Committee chairman Jay Rockefeller called for an investigation into whether phone hacking targeted any American citizens. He said the authorities should consider whether journalists working for News Corp had broken US law.

He was shot twice by his long-time head of security, Sardar Mohammed, who was himself killed almost immediately. The Taliban said they carried out the attack, calling it one of their top achievements in 10 years of war.

Critics said Ahmad Wali Karzai was a warlord mired in corruption who was openly involved in the drugs trade and had a personal militia at his disposal. His supporters saw him as a defender of Pashtun rights. The president repeatedly defended him, denouncing accusations that his brother was involved in criminal activities.

Nato officials had often spoken of putting Ahmad Wali Karzai "on notice" over allegations of drug deals, and corruption. He challenged everyone to prove them. There's an old Afghan saying "Whoever controls Kandahar, controls Afghanistan". Ahmad Wali Karzai was the lynchpin in so many areas, his death now leaves a dangerous vacuum.

The police have also fired a number of plastic bullets. Greater Ardoyne Residents Collective (GARC) which opposes the Orange parade passing through the nationalist Ardoyne held a protest in response to the Parades Commission decision to allow the march to pass the shops. The Orange parade has now passed through the area.

Last year, there were several days of rioting after the parade was allowed to walk past the shops. A car has been set alight nearby on the Crumlin Road. On Monday night, 22 police officers were injured during serious rioting in several nationalist areas of west and north Belfast. An investigation is continuing into the possibility that shots were fired during the trouble in west Belfast.

An ambulance and a fire engine were also attacked. More than 40 petrol bombs were thrown at police, who said crowds of about 150-200 people were involved in the violence at Broadway and about 200 in both the Oldpark and New Lodge areas of north Belfast.

Saudi Arabia, which has already been receiving combat aircraft ("Eurofighters") as well as French/German produced command and control operation centers, as well as other military equipment, holds sixth place on the customer list for German combat material - NATO customers included. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) even holds second place - immediately behind the United States.

Saudi Arabia, which has been producing under license the German-origin G3 assault rifle, has now been furnished a factory for the production of the G3's successor - G36 assault rifle - under license from the Heckler and Koch gunsmith company in Southern Germany. The buildup of arms in Saudi Arabia and the other dictatorships at the Gulf is not only being implemented on the premise of the arms business' seeking to maintain a top position on the global arms market - Germany is the third largest weapons vender in the world.

There are also geostrategic reasons: Since the breakup of Iraq, Iran has the potential to become the leading power in the resources rich region of the Persian Gulf. Its local rivals are being called upon to block this development, so that western hegemony will continue to reign over the Middle East.

Also known as Archduke Otto of Austria, Otto was the eldest son of Blessed Charles I of Austria, the last emperor of Austria-Hungary. The empire dissolved in 1918, at the end of the First World War, and the Habsburg family was forced into exile. Otto would never become an emperor or a king, but rather he dedicated himself to a lifelong career in politics, during which he worked tirelessly to unify a divided Europe, and remind the continent of its Christian roots.

Benedict XVI stated in his message, sent Sunday to Karl von Habsburg, that Otto had "been a witness to the changing face of Europe." "Trusting in God and aware of a significant heritage," the Pope added, Otto had "been a committed European tirelessly working for freedom, for the unity of peoples and for a just order in this continent."

After being exiled from Austria, the Habsburgs lived in Switzerland, Portugal and Spain. Otto's father, Charles I, died in 1922, leaving his eldest son as pretender to the imperial throne. In 2004, Pope John Paul II beatified his father. In 1933, Otto graduated with a doctorate in political and social sciences from the University of Louvain in Belgium.

During World War II, Otto was a fearless critic of the Nazi party in Germany. Upon annexing Austria, Adolf Hitler had not only ordered the death of Otto von Habsburg, but also revoked his citizenship, as well as the citizenship of the imperial royal family. Otto, who was left stateless, spent the better part of World War II in the United States, and he wouldn't regain his citizenship until 1965.

In the 1960s, after renouncing his claim to the Austrian throne, Otto embarked on a long political career. He served as president of the International Paneuropean Union from 1973-2004, and from 1979-1999 he was a member of the European Parliament.

Otto was an organizer of the Pan-European Picnic at the Hungary-Austria border on August 19, 1989, which allowed some 700 East Germans to escape to the West, and is considered a turning point in the collapse of the Iron Curtain that divided Europe.

The doses of drugs were far too small to have an effect on anyone drinking them, but the results highlight how man-made chemicals are now found throughout the food chain. The highest quantities of medicines were found in cow's milk. Researchers believe some of the drugs and growth promoters were given to the cattle, or got into milk through cattle feed or contamination on the farm.

The Spanish-Moroccan team analysed 20 samples of cow's milk bought in Spain and Morocco, along with samples of goat and breast milk. Their breakdown, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, revealed that cow's milk contained traces of anti-inflammatory drugs niflumic acid, mefenamic acid and ketoprofen - commonly used as painkillers in animals and people.

It also contained the hormone 17-beta-estradiol, a form of the sex hormone oestrogen. The hormone was detected at three millionths of a gram in every kilogram of milk, while the highest dose of niflumic acid was less than one millionth of a gram per kilogram of milk. However, the scientists, led by Dr Evaristo Ballesteros, from the University of Jaen in Spain, say their technique could be used to check the safety of other types of food.

Last year Portsmouth University scientists found that fish were being contaminated with the anti-depressant Prozac. The drug enters rivers from the sewer system and tinkers with the brain chemistry of fish, the researchers claimed. Previous studies have shown that caffeine is released into our waterways after surviving the sewage treatment process.

The hormones from the contraceptive pill and HRT have been blamed for feminising fish, leading to male fish producing eggs. The effects of antibiotics, blood pressure drugs and cholesterol-lowering drugs on wildlife are also being studied around the world.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2012050/The-cocktail-20-chemicals-glass-milk.html#ixzz1Rs9bqpfS

British banks and investment houses risk losses of 7.9 billion euros if the Italian government defaults on its debts and another 5.7 billion euros if Italian banks collapse. Financial firms face losing another 29.2 billion pounds should Italian companies fold as the debt crisis spirals. Chancellor George Osborne was travelling last night to Brussels for a meeting of the EU's 27 finance ministers today.

Last night, a meeting of Eurozone ministers, to which Britain is not invited since the UK is not part of the single currency, discussed plans for a fresh bailout of Greece. A Treasury source said: 'The important thing is to get the Greek bailout sorted out, which will spread confidence through the Eurozone.'

But Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income at Evolution Securities, said: 'Italy with a debt to GDP ratio of 120 per cent and debt of 1.6 trillion euros is a pretty big elephant to have in the room. You have to stop the contagion getting to Italy.' Yesterday the Milan stock market plunged by 3.4 per cent, wiping billions off the value of Italian companies.

British taxpayers have already contributed 12.5 billion pounds in aid to Greece, Ireland and Portugal but the Government has refused to join a second EU bailout fund for Greece. The Rome government has already announced 40 billion pounds of cuts after Italy's credit rating was downgraded last month. Jane Foley, analyst with finance house Rabobank, said: 'The fact that contagion is spreading marks the failure of politicians to draw a line under the euro-crisis.'

Mr Schauble denied reports that Berlin was ready to empower the fund to purchase Spanish and Italian bonds pre-emptively on the open market, a move seen by experts as vital to halt dangerous contagion to the larger economies. The market's verdict on EU foot-dragging was instant and brutal. Yields on 10-year Spanish bonds smashed through the 6 per cent barrier for the first time since 1997, made worse by warnings from the Castilla-La Mancha region that its deficit had become "extremely serious".

Italian yields jumped 44 points 5.7 per cent, a level that starts to threaten the sustainability of the country's finances. Markit's iTraxx SovX Western Europe, Europe's sovereign stress gauge, saw the biggest one-day rise ever. "Contagion was the word on everybody's lips," said Gavan Nolan, Markit's credit chief.

EU leaders seem unable to keep pace with the fast-moving events. Eurogroup finance ministers focused yesterday on details of "burden-sharing" for banks that lent to Greece, no longer the most urgent matter. A summit of top EU officials ended with no hint of how the crisis could be contained.

In a bid to stop financial contagion engulfing Italy and Spain, officials promised to provide cheaper loans, longer maturities and a more flexible rescue fund to help Greece and other EU debtors. They declined to rule out the possibility of a selective default by Greece, a move officials said bolstered Germany's push to involve investors in easing Greece's debts despite the concerns of the European Central Bank.

European Union finance ministers meet later on Tuesday and are under the cosh to soothe market nerves ahead of Thursday's Italian bond auctions. Italy is aiming to raise 7.75 billion euros in the debt market, according to estimates from Barclays Capital.

"All we have right now are headlines about possibilities. I don't think what we're seeing now in the market is going to stop until we see action. If it's aggressive enough and large enough, then it could possibly do the trick," said Michael Feroli, chief US economist at JPMorgan in New York.

The Obama administration has significantly stepped up enforcement of anti-bribery laws in the last two years, winning big settlements from the likes of Daimler AG and BAE Systems Plc by focusing on bribes they paid to foreign officials to win lucrative contracts.

Bribes for business have represented the bulk of these anti-bribery cases brought by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission. It is unclear whether US authorities would use scarce resources to probe News Corp over bribes allegedly paid to British police and other officials for information that became news scoops.

Employees of Murdoch's now-shuttered News of the World tabloid have been accused of hacking into personal voicemail and paying bribes. British authorities are investigating. Legal experts in the United States said News Corp could face scrutiny on this side of the Atlantic Ocean as US officials probe whether any of the allegations, if proven true, violate the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. That law makes it a crime for any company with US ties to bribe foreign officials to obtain or retain business.

Chinese reconnaissance satellites can now monitor targets for up to six hours a day, the World Security Institute, a Washington think-tank, has concluded in a new report. The People's Liberation Army, which could only manage three hours of daily coverage just 18 months ago, is now nearly on a par with the US military in its ability to monitor fixed targets, according to the findings.

"Starting from almost no live surveillance capability 10 years ago, today the PLA has likely equalled the US's ability to observe targets from space for some real-time operations," two of the institute's China researchers, Eric Hagt and Matthew Durnin, write in the Journal of Strategic Studies. China's rapidly growing military might has unnerved its neighbours, many of whom are US allies, while a series of disputes this year with Vietnam and the Philippines have added to the concerns.

China's military build-up has accelerated in recent years, as it has developed an anti-ship ballistic missile, tested a stealth fighter and is poised to launch its first aircraft carrier. The fast-growing network of reconnaissance satellites provides China with the vision to harness this hardware. Admiral Mike Mullen, America's top military official, said at the weekend in Beijing that it was clear that the PLA is focused on "access denial" - a term that describes a strategy of pushing the US out of the western Pacific.

Farmers with the money and equipment to irrigate are running wells dry in the unseasonably early and particularly brutal national drought that some say could rival the Dust Bowl days. "It's horrible so far," said Mike Newberry, a Georgia farmer who is trying grow cotton, corn and peanuts on a thousand acres. "There is no description for what we've been through since we started planting corn in March."

The pain has spread across 14 states, from Florida, where severe water restrictions are in place, to Arizona, where ranchers could be forced to sell off entire herds of cattle because they simply cannot feed them. In Texas, where the drought is the worst, virtually no part of the state has been untouched. City dwellers and ranchers have been tormented by excessive heat and high winds. In the Southwest, wildfires are chewing through millions of acres.

Last month, the United States Department of Agriculture designated all 254 counties in Texas natural disaster areas, qualifying them for varying levels of federal relief. More than 30 percent of the state's wheat fields might be lost, adding pressure to a crop in short supply globally. Even if weather patterns shift and relief-giving rain comes, losses will surely head past $3 billion in Texas alone, state agricultural officials said.

European stock markets fell heavily on Monday, especially Italy, where the market in Milan lost 4%. In New York the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1.2% lower. On Monday eurozone finance ministers, meeting to discuss a new aid plan for Greece, said they were ready to enhance "the flexibility and the scope" of a 400 billion-euro (353 billion pounds) rescue fund. "Ministers reaffirmed their absolute commitment to safeguard financial stability in the euro area," the group said in a statement after eight hours of talks.

"To this end, ministers stand ready to adopt further measures that will improve the euro area's systemic capacity to resist contagion risk, including enhancing the flexibility and the scope of the EFSF (European Financial Stability Facility), lengthening the maturities of the loans and lowering the interest rates, including through a collateral arrangement where appropriate. "Proposals to this effect will be presented to ministers shortly."