The continued flight from Greek sovereign debt pushed the yield, or return, on the 10-year government bonds to new highs of 15.5 per cent. The European Central Bank, the only major potential buyer, "won't buy whilst [some eurozone countries such as Germany] continue to speak and put pressure on Greece to restructure", said one trader. A restructure of Greek debt, cutting the interest rates and lengthening the terms of the loans, would represent an effective default as the debt would be worth much less.

In late 2009 a more dramatic revision of Greece's deficit sparked Europe's debt crisis as it ignited fears about the state of weaker eurozone nations' finances, eventually leading to Athens last year receiving a 110 billion euros (98 billion pounds) bail-out. Ireland and Portugal have since followed in requesting international aid.

Portugal also disappointed as Eurostat confirmed the figure out from Lisbon at the weekend that upped its 2010 deficit to 9.1 per cent of GDP, compared with earlier estimates of 7.3 per cent.

The pitch was made at an April 16 meeting in Kabul by Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who bluntly told Afghan President Hamid Karzai that the Americans had failed them both, according to Afghans familiar with the meeting. Mr Karzai should forget about allowing a long-term US military presence in his country, Mr Gilani said, according to the Afghans. Pakistan's bid to cut the US out of Afghanistan's future is the clearest sign to date that, as the nearly 10-year war's endgame begins, tensions between Washington and Islamabad threaten to scuttle America's prospects of ending the conflict on its own terms.

With the bulk of US-led coalition troops slated to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, the country's neighbors, including Pakistan, Iran, India and Russia, are beginning to jockey for influence, positioning themselves for Afghanistan's post-American era. Pakistan enjoys particular leverage in Afghanistan because of its historic role in fostering the Taliban movement and its continuing support for the Afghan Taliban insurgency. Washington's relations with Pakistan, ostensibly an ally, have reached their lowest point in years following a series of missteps on both sides.

Pakistani officials say they no longer have an incentive to follow the American lead in their own backyard. "Pakistan is sole guarantor of its own interest," said a senior Pakistani official. "We're not looking for anyone else to protect us, especially the US. If they're leaving, they're leaving and they should go."

Challenging one of the biggest achievements of European integration of recent decades, Nicolas Sarkozy and Silvio Berlusconi also launched a joint effort to stem immigration and demanded European deportation pacts with the countries of revolutionary north Africa to send new arrivals packing. The French president and the Italian prime minister, at a summit in Rome, opted to pile the pressure on Brussels and the governments of the other 25 EU states, demanding an "in-depth revision" of European law regulating the passport-free travel that takes in almost all of the EU with the exception of Britain and Ireland.

Prompted by the influx to Italy of almost 30,000 immigrants, mainly from Tunisia, in recent months, the two leaders warned that the upheavals in north Africa "could swiftly become an out-and-out crisis capable of undermining the trust our fellow citizens place in the free circulation within the Schengen area".

The passport-free travel system known as the Schengen regime was agreed by a handful of countries in 1985 and put into practice in 1995. Since then it has been embraced by 22 EU countries as well as Norway, Switzerland and Iceland, but spurned by Britain and Ireland. It is widely seen, along with the euro single currency, as Europe's signature unification project of recent decades.

The ceremony has become a tradition ever since the liberation of the Temple Mount and the rest of the Old City of Jerusalem during the Six Day War in 1967. It is in commemoration of the Biblical obligation to visit the Holy Temple on the three annual festivals, namely, Pesach (Passover), Shavuot (Pentecost), and Sukkot (Tabernacles).

It is also a special opportunity for many Cohanim (Jews who trace their lineage to Aaron, the first High Priest) to fulfill the Biblical obligation of blessing the nation, and for non-Cohanim to be blessed (also a Biblical obligation, according to some). Following the prayers, Chief Rabbis Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar will greet worshipers and visitors, in fulfillment of the tradition for students to visit their rabbis on the holiday.

It is to be noted that the Western Wall is merely A SUPPORTIVE WALL OF THE TEMPLE MOUNT in which the Holy Temple itself stood. The holiday prayers emphasize our goal of returning to the Mount, and not to the courtyards around it: "Bring us to Zion Your city with joy, and to Jerusalem, the House of Your Temple, with everlasting happiness... Build Your house as at the beginning, and establish Your Temple on its foundation; show us its construction and gladden us with its rectification... and to there we will ascend and be seen and bow down before You on our three festivals..."

Overall, the results of the poll paint a picture of Egyptians as a people who prefer religious moderation over extremism and prize democratic values even if they come at the risk of some political instability. The poll results were released late Monday and come five months ahead of legislative elections, the first since the February ouster of longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak.

Islamic parties are expected to make a significant showing in the crucial vote, with 50 percent of people saying it was "very important" for religious parties to be part of a future government and as much 37 percent have a "very favorable" view of the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest and best organized Islamic group. Another 62 percent of Egyptians believe laws in their country should strictly follow the teachings of the Quran, though 27 percent thought it was enough that the laws reflect Islam's general values and principles.

As of 11:30 pm EDT, there have been 34 tornado sightings from northeastern Texas to western Kentucky and Mississippi. These tornadoes have caused extensive damage in Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas. A tractor trailer was blown off of Highway 165 near Coy, Arkansas. Cars were reported off the highway and trees were snapped near Marshall, Texas. The Groesbeck, Texas fire station was damaged by a tornado as well. Damage in other tornadoes includes structural damage, downed power lines and trees.

"It's a very dangerous day," said AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist Henry Margusity. "It's the kind of day where tornadoes could cause massive destruction." The violent thunderstorms are racing into the western Tennessee Valley, then will shift farther east through the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys Wednesday into Wednesday night.

Tornadoes are not the only concern through Wednesday. Many of the strongest thunderstorms will unleash strong winds that may do more widespread damage than the tornadoes themselves. Hail up to the size of baseballs and softballs will also be unleashed. Flooding downpours and hail will also be produced. Flash flooding kills more people in the US every year than tornadoes do, and most of the deaths happen when people attempt to drive across a roadway covered with water.

Never attempt to cross a flooded roadway. Always turn around and find an alternate route.

In part, that's because the economists think Americans will spend more freely in the coming months. Higher stock prices have made people wealthier. And a cut in the Social Security payroll tax is giving most households an extra $1,000 to $2,000 this year. American exports and corporate spending, which have helped drive the recovery, are also expected to remain strong, according to the quarterly AP Economy Survey.

The one factor that could make a second recession a possibility would be a jump in oil prices to $150 a barrel, economists say. Oil trades at about $112 a barrel now. The record high, set in the summer of 2008, is about $147 a barrel. "The economy is regaining some of its lost muscle and now seems to have a much thicker skin than it did six months or a year ago, and that's helping it handle various negative forces," said Lynn Reaser, a board member of the National Association for Business Economics.

This bleak forecast comes only hours after some Arkansas communities were devastated by the volatile storm front. "The town's gone," one Vilonia, Arkansas resident told the Associated Press. A tornado peeled through the small town in central Arkansas late Monday evening, with torrential downpours and high winds causing damage across much of the state. Since Monday, this storm has killed 14 people and led Arkansas to issue a state of emergency. Compounding the misery:

More rain is expected to come down Tuesday, not only in Arkansas but also in Missouri, where a levee protecting the town of Poplar Bluff was breached late Tuesday morning. Officials were rushing to evacuate residents. But these storms are hardly localized affairs. The wider Lower Mississippi Valley, already hit by one arm of the storm Monday afternoon into early Tuesday, will be struck by yet another wave of storms this afternoon. In fact, early Tuesday morning, meteorologists were already warning half a dozen states to be on the lookout for funnel clouds: Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee.

Overnight, this system will then continue its tirade north into Illinois and Wisconsin, said Greg Carbin, a meteorologist with the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma. From there, the storm will sweep east across the nation, reaching as far north as New York and far south as Georgia, dumping inches of rain across a major swath of the Eastern seaboard. And right behind this system is another emerging storm front in the Midwest, already starting to move east.

Erik Britton, a director at Fathom, compared the development to throwing lighter fuel on a barbecue. The question is, he said, "whether the coals are lit". The warning is the result of the extraordinary measures to prop up the financial system, which have seen central banks resort to strategies such as buying up bonds to keep the flow of money circulating.

Fathom's economists are worried that last year may have marked the high point of the global recovery. "It remains unclear how much of the equity market rally has been 'genuine', rather than simply a 'mopping up' of that extraordinary injection of liquidity," they warned. "As that stimulus is gradually withdrawn, further gains in equity markets will be harder to achieve."

The Bank of England was the smallest contributor to the headline figure. So far, it has pumped 200 billion pounds into the system through quantitative easing (QE), its programme of buying government bonds to keep the money flowing. The European Central Bank (ECB), which sets monetary policy across the eurozone, emerged as the biggest contributor to the headline figure.

The group's website calls for a Muslim uprising on the day and warns Princes William and Harry to "watch your backs". The far-right English Defence League has vowed to stop any MAC demonstration. A second group with Middle East links has recently asked police for permission to protest on the day and is in talks with senior officers. Military personnel will be part of the massive security operation around the procession route through Westminster.

Some 5,000 police officers will be joined by hundreds of soldiers in uniform, though sources suggest there will be many others undercover. Assistant Commissioner Lynne Owens said: "Any criminals attempting to disrupt the day, in protest or otherwise will be met by a robust, decisive, flexible and proportionate police response. We want the public to be our eyes and ears and report anything suspicious or unusual."

Around 1,000 police will form a mobile reserve, ready to deal with any trouble on the fringes of the route, where road closures will begin at 6am. Police told a group of West End businesses to carry on as normal on Friday. A senior officer said he was confident an army of thousands of Middle England Royalists would stop any spontaneous anarchist protest around the wedding.

"This savage behavior, which is aimed at keeping the ruling clique in power at the expense of a rising number of civilian lives, calls for immediate international action beyond condemnations," Sawasiah said in a statement sent to Reuters. "The murderers in the Syrian regime must be held accountable. The rivers of blood spilled by this oppressive regime for the past four decades are enough," the statement said.

Sawasiah's board includes Syrian philosophy professor Sadeq Jalal al-Azem, whose book "Self-criticism after the defeat" helped set the stage for a revival in Arab political thought after Israel's victory in the 1967 Middle East War.

Portions of Texas and a small part of eastern Louisiana are the only parts of the nation that rank in the National Weather Service's worst drought condition category, said Victor Murphy, the climate service program manager for the southern region, based in Fort Worth. The "exceptional" drought level happens once every 50 to 100 years, he said.

Much of the rest of Texas and Louisiana are in extreme drought conditions - the worst in 20 to 50 years - as are parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Florida and tiny portions of Colorado and Kansas. Other areas of those states are experiencing severe and moderate drought conditions, along with parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. May is "pretty much our last chance to mitigate this thing," because that month typically brings the most rainfall in many of the bone-dry states, including Texas and Oklahoma, which need about 4 inches of rain in the next month, Murphy said.

The widespread drought was spawned last year by La Nina, a condition that changes wind and air pressure patterns. It brought warmer-than-normal temperatures and less rainfall to the southern and central US, drying out grass and shrubs that have become fuel for wildfires that have ignited and raged out of control in several states.

The European single currency hit $1.4653 in morning trade, the highest point since mid-December 2009, as many dealers returned from a long holiday weekend. It later stood at $1.4619, compared with $1.4572 late in New York on Monday. The dollar meanwhile tumbled to an all-time low point of 0.8745 Swiss francs. Investors moved to adjust positions ahead of the US Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting, which was to open later on Tuesday, dealers said.

The central bank's Federal Open Market Committee is widely expected to maintain interest rates at between zero and 0.25 percent, where they have stood since December 2008.

The risk of some sort of incident is not easy to calculate. The police must take into account not only the likelihood of something happening but also the impact, should it happen. For example, the chance of someone in the crowd being motivated to bring a firearm and to shoot at the procession is unlikely. But the potential threat is something senior officers have to take very seriously.

Or what if an anti-monarchist tried to throw a paint bomb at the royal carriage? This wouldn't cause injury (except to the Met's reputation), but is far more likely to happen, and therefore a threat. Police will also be on the lookout for possible attacks by radical Islamists. Since 7/7 Britain has experienced a series of such threats - and one, the attempt to blow up Glasgow airport in 2007, came close to being carried out.

After the recent discovery of a bomb in Newry, County Down, and the government's decision to raise the threat of an Irish dissident attack from moderate to substantial, this is another cause for concern for the security services. With this in mind, the police have already begun systematic searches of drains, lamp-posts, traffic lights and other street furniture. Once checked, a tamper-proof sticker is applied to any door or cover behind which a bomb could be placed.

There will be snipers on rooftops and a police "eye in the sky" helicopter with a camera capable of identifying faces in the crowd. Police sniffer dogs will check the route and the Abbey in advance. The police have turned down a request by the group Muslims Against Crusades to march outside Westminster Abbey, though discussions continue and a static protest can't be banned.

After the recent wave of street demonstrations, during one of which a group surrounded a car carrying the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, there are concerns that some radical groups might try to get into the route and close to the royal vehicles. To counter this, Scotland Yard is considering pre-emptive action against known activists, some of whom may be arrested in advance based on the suspicion they may be plotting. About 60 people are banned from entering the area around Parliament under their bail conditions, and will be reminded of the fact.

It comes after David Cameron and George Osborne made clear they would veto any move to make Mr Brown the £270,000-a-year head of the International Monetary Fund, a job for which he has been lobbying. Mr Brown's spokesman was quick to say that his new role will be to 'stop the next financial crisis'. His remarks echoed Mr Brown's assertion that he 'saved the world' after the international credit crunch of 2009.

Tory deputy chairman Michael Fallon said Mr Brown has yet to face up to the legacy of debt that he bequeathed to taxpayers. 'This is a case of putting the arsonist in charge of the fire station,' he said. 'It beggars belief that somebody who is yet to apologise for the mess he made in our finances should be advising the rest of the world.'