Obama's involvement adds a sense of urgency to the discussions as the clock ticks for Congress to increase the nation's credit line before defaulting on its debt. The August 2 deadline to increase the debt limit has been pushed back already by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, who shifted around resources to prevent the US from hitting its debt ceiling and potentially losing its global credit rating.

Vice President Biden had been the administration's point man on budget talks and on several occasions had huddled with negotiators from the House and Senate to find ways to reduce spending by identifying domestic programs that both sides agree can be cut. But after meeting with congressional negotiators for two hours on Tuesday, Biden said the top House and Senate leaders may have to get involved to close any deal.

"American families should not be punished for the sins of Washington. According to the (Congressional Budget Office), we are going to spend $45 trillion over the next 10 years. Reports suggest that the Senate Democrat plan... will cut, or save, just $2 trillion," Sessions said.

Republicans say they want "trillions, not billions" cut from the spending side of the ledger. That means if the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling is increased by $2 trillion, as it was last year, spending cuts of the same amount would have to be included.

CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann reports that there are about 300 homes in Tunica Cutoff, and they have all been flooded. Other swamped communities may rebuild, but Tunica Cutoff may not. New housing codes mandate raising new homes above the 100-year flood plain. Most victims in Tunica had no flood insurance, and couldn't afford raising their homes. So here's their worry: Tunica Cutoff could be gone for good, flooded into history.

Tunica County, which contains the unincorporated Tunica Cutoff community, has little more than 10,000 residents, and a median family income of around $30,000, about half the national average, according to Census estimates. It is also about 70 percent black, whereas the national average is around 12 percent.

Update: The swollen Mississippi River set a record high water level at Natchez, Mississippi, on Wednesday - 10 days before its expected crest in the southern city. The level of the largest river in North America reached 58.48 feet at Natchez on Wednesday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service, above the record of 58.04 feet set in 1937. The river is expected to crest at 64 feet on May 21. Thunderstorms are also expected on Thursday night into Friday, which could bring another inch of rain into the area.

The US is selling $72 billion in new debt over three days this week. The Treasury auctioned $32 billion in three-year notes Tuesday and $24 billion in 10-year notes Wednesday, and will sell $16 billion in 30-year bonds Thursday. All of the auctions will settle Monday. As of Tuesday, total debt subject to the limit was $14.274 trillion, according to the Treasury Department. The Obama administration has asked Congress to raise the limit, warning that failure to act could lead the government to default by August 2 - and could spook investors even before then.

House Speaker John Boehner (Republican for Ohio) said Monday that any increase in the government's debt limit should be accompanied by trillions of dollars in spending cuts. "It's true that allowing America to default would be irresponsible. But it would be more irresponsible to raise the debt limit without simultaneously taking dramatic steps to reduce spending and to reform the budget process," he said.

The federal budget deficit widened in April, with the government spending $ 40.49 billion more than it collected last month, a Treasury Department report said Wednesday. The deficit was the 31st monthly shortfall in a row. With seven months of fiscal 2011 elapsed, the government has spent $869.90 billion more than it has collected. Even the most aggressive plans wouldn't wipe out budget deficits for years, meaning that debt will continue to mount.

Why does it surprise anyone that the latter, the eurozone, has a stronger currency than the former, the US? Because of peripheral countries' debt refinancing issues? And the potential for contagion? These are real and serious issues, but in our assessment, they should be primarily priced into the spreads of eurozone bonds, not the euro itself.

Think of it this way: in the US, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has testified that going off the gold standard during the Great Depression helped the US recover faster than other countries. Fast-forward to today: we believe Bernanke embraces a weaker currency as a monetary policy tool to help address the current state of the US economy. What many overlook is that someone must be on the other side of that trade: today it is the eurozone, which is experiencing a strong currency, despite the many challenges in the 17-nation bloc.

In the US, the day investors come to accept the reality that inflation, rather than fiscal discipline, is the path of least political resistance may be the day the bond market won't be as forgiving. Unlike the eurozone, where consumers stopped spending and started saving a decade ago, the highly indebted US consumer may not be able to stomach higher interest rates. The large US current account deficit also makes the dollar more vulnerable to a misbehaving bond market than the eurozone.

In the medium term, we are far more concerned about risks to the US dollar than those posed by the Greek drama to the euro.

A senior Navy official told Fox News the legal counsel determined the suspension would be necessary "until broader legal and policy questions are answered." The original memo would have allowed for Navy chaplains to perform gay marriages in states where it is legal only after the "don't ask, don't tell" policy is repealed. Military training to apply the new law allowing gays to serve openly began earlier this year and is expected to be completed by midsummer.

But House members wrote to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to object to the Navy's initial ruling, saying the service was violating the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act by appearing to recognize and support same-sex marriages. That law defines marriage as only between a man and a woman, and it also says states don't have to recognize gay marriages performed in other states where they are legal. "We find it unconscionable that the United States Navy, a federal entity sworn to preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States, believes it is their place alone to train and direct service members to violate federal law," said the lawmakers' letter, which was signed by 63 House members.

The lawmakers asked Mabus to direct the Navy to defend the Constitution, adding that individuals should not be allowed to pick and choose the laws they will follow. In addition, Representative Todd Akin, Republican for Missouri, plans to offer an amendment Wednesday that would bar military facilities from being used for same-sex marriages.

"If the US military and intelligence apparatus have really arrested or killed Bin Laden, why don't they show him [his body]? Why have they thrown his corpse into the sea?" Moslehi asked rhetorically, FARS news agency reports. Moslehi labeled the US raid in Abbottabad as a "PR campaign", created to divert the attention of its citizens from domestic problems, such as the "fragile" state of the US economy.

"We believe that what the US is seeking, by dictated media programs, to overshadow the recent awakening in the region through the release of such reports," ISNA quoted Moslehi as saying. Bin Laden was killed on May 2 in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad, north of the capital Islamabad, during a special operation carried out by US Navy Seals. President Barack Obama announced the news in a special address to the nation.

The news of "justice having been done" sparked mass celebrations in the United States and then ignited a new wave of conspiracy theories after Washington refused to release Bin Laden's postmortem photographs, claiming that they might instigate a new wave of radicalism.

"There have been 24 detentions and two police officers have been hurt," said police spokesman Panagiotis Papapetropoulos. "There was a small group of protesters that threw objects at police, and there was some use of teargas, but the clash was fairly minor." Police estimated a modest turnout in the capital of some 20,000 people, while organizers put the number at around 30,000. The protest was backed by a nationwide general strike that effectively shut down most government operations.

Throughout the day, public services across Greece ground to a halt as civil servants, teachers and hospital staff walked off the job, in one of the biggest demonstrations in months. Central and local government offices were closed, hospitals and ambulance services were operating on skeleton staffs, and schools and universities were shut.

Transport services also were disrupted, with ferry and rail services suspended after dock workers joined the strike. Public transport around the capital, Athens, operated on a reduced schedule, and flight operations were hit by a four-hour walkout by air-traffic controllers. Journalists also joined in the strike, leading to a blackout of all radio and television news programs.

"What seems astonishing today could become conventional wisdom in a short period of time," Forbes said. Such a move would help to stabilize the value of the dollar, restore confidence among foreign investors in US government bonds, and discourage reckless federal spending, the media mogul and former presidential candidate said. The United States used gold as the basis for valuing the US dollar successfully for roughly 180 years before President Richard Nixon embarked upon an experiment to end the practice in the 1970s that has contributed to a number of woes that the country is suffering from now, Forbes added.

If the gold standard had been in place in recent years, the value of the US dollar would not have weakened as it has and excessive federal spending would have been curbed, Forbes told 'Human Events'. The constantly changing value of the US dollar leads to marketplace uncertainty and consequently spurs speculation in commodity investing as a hedge against inflation.

The only probable 2012 US presidential candidate who has championed a return to the gold standard so far is Representative Ron Paul (Republican for Texas). But the idea "makes too much sense" not to gain popularity as the US economy struggles to create jobs, recover from a housing bubble induced by the Federal Reserve's easy-money policies, stop rising gasoline prices, and restore fiscal responsibility to US government's budget, Forbes insisted.

Lorca Mayor Francisco Jodar told local radio the four deaths were caused by falling debris and cave-ins. Old buildings, including a clocktower, were badly damaged by the quake, which followed a smaller 4.4-magnitude quake about two hours earlier. Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has deployed emergency military units to the scene, the Spanish EFE news agency reported.

Earthquakes are common in southern Spain, but they rarely result in casualties. A number of aftershocks have been felt in the Murcia region, where authorities fear the death toll could rise. The area worst hit by Tuesday's quake suffered previous tremors in 2005 and 1999.

Officials have insisted quakes cannot be predicted and special programmes have run on state TV calling for calm. But many people said they were leaving the city to be on the safe side. There are reports of an 18% increase in the number of city employees planning to stay away from work. The rumours have been circulating on the streets and online for months that the Eternal City is facing imminent destruction.

They were based on work by Bendandi, who was knighted by Mussolini in 1927 for his prophetic meteorological skill. He was said to have used his theory that the movement of the planets caused seismic activity to accurately predict a 1923 quake that killed 1,000 people. Before he died, he pinpointed 11 May 2011 as the day Rome would be totally destroyed - to be followed by two more catastrophic events in May 2012.

Italian concerns have been heightened after the deadly quake in L'Aquila in 2009, and reports that scientists Giampaolo Giuliani had been trying to warn officials in the days before. Franceso Verselli said that Rome would be spared because it was home to the Pope: "Wherever the Pope is, nothing will happen."

At the first-ever press conference in the 98-year history of the US Federal Reserve, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke announced last Wednesday what everyone was expecting, and wanting, to hear. Flanked by the Stars and Stripes as well as the flag of the US central bank, he said: "The Fed believes that a strong dollar is both in American interests and in the interest of the global economy."

Bernanke has often made similar pronouncements - as has US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Invoking the dollar's strength was also part of their predecessors' standard repertoire. This familiar litany is actually a worrying sign, however. The statement is always made when things are not looking good for the dollar. In one sense, currencies are just like people: Anyone who is genuinely strong doesn't feel the need to emphasize that fact over and over.

In reality, the US currency is currently plagued by an acute bout of weakness. Its exchange rate has stabilized at around $1.50 to the euro, which is not far from the low point that it reached before the outbreak of the financial crisis. Since the beginning of the year, the dollar has lost 13 percent against the euro. The decline in the value of the dollar on the currency markets, however, is merely an indication of a profound global development. The dollar is in danger of losing its role as the global reserve currency and the world's benchmark unit for exports.

Not only is the euro gaining in importance - despite the debt crises in Greece, Portugal and Ireland - but the currencies of emerging nations like China, India and Brazil will likely play a larger role in the near future, both in global trade and in the investment practices of central banks. The dollar no longer has a monopoly, according to US economist Barry Eichengreen, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Germany, the world's second largest exporter behind China, also imported a record 69.5 billion pounds of goods as its economy ploughed on while many other EU member states struggled. 'Germany is on the verge of a golden decade,' said Christian Schulz, an economist at Berenberg Bank, the country's oldest private bank.

The German government expects economic growth of 2.6% this year, following a 3.6% expansion in 2010. In Britain, the Coalition predicts the economy will grow by 1.7% in 2011, although some commentators think such a forecast is optimistic.

The software mess at the Geneva-based office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR, has already involved "years of delays," according to the internal UN audit of the situation, and the scramble to fix it may not be over until next year.

In the meantime, the audit report by the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) states, information "critical to the decision-making process" could not be recorded, and "users could not compare expenditures against budget, and actual performance against targets" in a sophisticated system that was supposed to provide managers with information on how well the organization is spending its money at myriad locations around the world.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in UNHCR spending have been affected by the lack of information, according to the report.

The memo reads: "Regarding the use of base facilities for same-sex marriages, legal counsel has concluded that generally speaking, base facility use is sexuality orientation neutral. If the base is located in a state where same-sex is legal, then base facilities may normally be used to celebrate the marriage." Navy marriages on Navy bases typically involve Navy Chaplains, but the memo goes on to say the chaplains involvement is not mandatory and he or she could decline to participate if gay marriage is not "consistent with the tenets of his or her religious organization."

On Monday Representative Todd Akin, Republican for Missouri, released a statement saying the Navy's new policy violates the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as between one man and one woman. "While a state may legalize same-sex marriage, federal property and federal employees, like Navy chaplains, should not be used to perform marriages that are not recognized by federal law," Akin says.

The Navy is hoping to have all its chaplains trained on the new guidelines by the end of June, and the Pentagon is expected to remove the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy sometime this summer.

Last month was the warmest April on record in Britain. It was also the 11th driest month, with on average just half the usual rainfall. And in parts of south-east England, there was less than 10% of normal precipitation. Smos is an experimental mission of the European Space Agency (Esa), and is providing some novel information to meteorologists, hydrologists and other scientists interested in how water moves around the globe.

The 760km-high satellite carries an 8m-wide interferometric radiometer that senses the natural emission of microwaves coming up off the planet's surface. Variations in the water content of soils will modify this signal. Understanding how much water is held in the earth under our feet is a key variable if you want to make weather forecasts. If soils are wet then much of the energy coming from the Sun will be used to evaporate water from the ground, keeping temperatures cooler than they would otherwise be.

Generally speaking, more precipitation would be initiated as well. But if soils are dry, then the water available for evaporation is limited. As a result, the incoming solar energy will warm the surface, raising the temperatures above it. Over a sustained period, this can lead to drought conditions.