He believes financial turmoil could be the trigger for the crisis, and that the reactions of American leaders will be crucial to its outcome. He also thinks new global organizations will be key to securing stability rather than nation-states. Professor Boyle argues that 2014 will be important because the previous five centuries have also hinged on events that took place in the middle of their second decade.

In 1517 Martin Luther nailed his theses to the door of Wittenburg church, sparking the Reformation and the rise of Protestantism.

A century later 1618 marked the start of the 30 Years War and decades of religious conflict in Western Europe, which ended with the establishment of the Hanoverians in 1715.

The enlightened Congress of Vienna took place in 1815 following the defeat of Napoleon, heralding a century of relative stability across Europe.

But in 1914 the First World War broke out, a catastrophic conflict that would claim millions of lives and set the tone for international discord throughout the 21st century.

Prof Boyle, whose book '2014 - How to survive the next world crisis' is published on Thursday, said: "The character of a century becomes very apparent in that second decade, so why should ours be any different?"

The statistics, compiled by SNL Financial from US Treasury data, showed 91 banks and thrifts skipped the May dividend payment under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. It was the first missed payment for 23 of the banks; for the others, it was at least their second miss.

The number of banks missing their TARP payments rose for the third straight quarter. In February, 74 banks deferred their payments; 55 deferred last November. SNL Financial's analysis found 20 banks have missed four or more payments since the program began in 2008, while eight banks have missed five payments.

Under the TARP program, the US Treasury invested in preferred shares issued banks looking for funds. The banks were to make regular dividend payments to the Treasury, and have the right to repurchase the shares at some point in the future. While many of the largest US banks easily repaid billions in TARP aid, more than 600 smaller banks still hold $130 billion from the program, created at the height of the financial crisis. The next quarterly TARP payments to the US Treasury are due by August 16.

Lieberman has been pushing for government regulation of the Internet for years under the guise of cybersecurity, but this new bill goes even further in handing emergency powers over to the feds which could be used to silence free speech under the pretext of a national emergency.

"The legislation says that companies such as broadband providers, search engines or software firms that the US Government selects shall immediately comply with any emergency measure or action developed by the Department of Homeland Security. Anyone failing to comply would be fined," reports ZDNet's Declan McCullagh.

The 197-page bill (PDF) is entitled Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, or PCNAA. Technology lobbying group TechAmerica warned that the legislation created "the potential for absolute power," while the Center for Democracy and Technology worried that the bill's emergency powers "include authority to shut down or limit internet traffic on private systems."

The bill has the vehement support of Senator Jay Rockefeller, who last year asked during a congressional hearing, "Would it have been better if we'd have never invented the Internet?" while fearmongering about cyber-terrorists preparing attacks. The Lieberman bill needs to be met with fierce opposition at every level and from across the political spectrum. Regulation of the Internet would not only represent a massive assault on free speech, it would also create new roadblocks for e-commerce and as a consequence further devastate the economy

A NYSE Euronext official, Mr Pellecchia, said that trading in Post Co stock was halted at 3:07 pm after three apparently erroneous trades went through NYSE Arca, an all-electronic trading platform. Two of the trades were for $919.18 per share, and another went through at $929.18 per share.

The company's shares had been trading at roughly $455 before the three transactions. Trading in Post Co stock resumed five minutes later, at $453.25 a share. It is still unclear exactly how the error occurred. NYSE Euronext officials say that millions of transactions take place daily and that a small fraction mistakenly take place at a price that neither the seller nor buyer intended.

The circuit breakers, which went into effect on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, apply only to the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. The curbs pause trading in a stock that falls or rises more than 10 percent in a five-minute span. "It did what it was supposed to do, but it was triggered by an erroneous trade in this instance," Pellecchia said.

Mr Assad also rejected claims he was arming Hezbollah in Lebanon. He said that the Middle East was going through a period of momentous change. He has the air of a man who thinks matters are going his way, even though he shares the common Middle Eastern view that the region is getting more dangerous.

Mr Assad said the Israeli attack on the Free Gaza flotilla that killed nine Turkish activists was having serious consequences. "It has destroyed any chance for peace in the near future," he told the BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen. Mr Assad denied that he was sending weapons to the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.

Our Middle East editor says Israel, the US and Britain are convinced not only that he is, but they say he is also sending bigger, better and more accurate ones than before. He seems in no mood to respond to American attempts to woo him away from Syria's long term strategic alliance with Iran. He said he is happy to do business with the United States. But Iran would stay an ally.

But come September, when the weather warms up and the first shoots of spring emerge, the locusts will hatch, potentially wiping A$2 billion (1.2 billion pounds) of profit off the country's agriculture industry. Several parts of Australia were hit by locust swarms earlier this year, but scientists have warned that the worst is still to come.

The next generation of locusts could create the worst plague in Australia since 1973, affecting an area almost as large as Wales, according to the Australian Plague Locust Commission, though the severity of the infestation will depend on weather conditions. The problem is expected to be so bad that the Victorian premier John Brumby last week announced a $43 million "war on locusts" fund to fight the plague, which he warned could reach "biblical proportions".

Russell Amery, president of the Victorian Farmers Federation's grain group, predicted that "all hell will break loose" in early spring. "They need to eat three times their own body weight every day, so they can take a paddock from green to bare dust in a matter of hours, it's incredible." Mr Amery said locusts would devour "anything green", decimating crops including canola, wheat and vegetables. The insects also posed a threat to race tracks, golf courses and even the young leaves on grape vines.

Farmers faced losing 90 per cent of their income for the year if the plague was allowed to take hold, he warned. The only hope was spraying the locusts during a small window just after they hatch and when they are still too young to fly.

The Catholic Church is currently being shaken by a number of financial scandals, not only in Franconia but also in Augsburg, another Bavarian city, where Bishop Walter Mixa's dip into funds from a foundation that runs children's homes recently made headlines.

More than 40 million euros have gone missing in the Diocese of Magdeburg in eastern Germany, 5 million euros have disappeared in Limburg near Frankfurt, and it was recently discovered that a senior priest in the Diocese of Munster had 30 secret bank accounts. And while parishes throughout Germany are cutting jobs and funds for community work, many bishops are still living on the high horse.

Financially speaking, Germany's dioceses are in excellent shape. "The Catholic Church claims that it's poor, but the truth is that it hides its wealth," says Carsten Frerk, a Berlin political scientist who, after years of research, is publishing "Violettbuch Kirchenfinanzen" (The Violet Book of Church Finances) this fall. Frerk estimates the cash assets of the church's legal entities at about 50 billion euros. The Catholics, who are not releasing their own figures, accuse Frerk of being a prejudiced, atheistic critic of the church.

The assets, accumulated over the centuries, are invested in many areas, including real estate, church-owned banks, academies, breweries, vineyards, media companies and hospitals. The church also derives income from stock holdings, foundations and bequests. As a rule, all of this money flows into the accounts of the so-called bishop's see. Only a bishop and his closest associates are familiar with this shadow budget, which tax authorities are not required to review. The public budgets of dioceses consist of far less than their total finances.

This complicated web is handled with such secrecy that not even the financial department heads of all dioceses openly discuss their finances with one another. Seemingly baroque structures make these finances even more difficult to fathom. Of Germany's 27 Catholic dioceses, 25 refused to provide information in response to a Spiegel survey, noting that this information "is not made public."

Hundreds of people ran out of their homes, said Yan Pieter Yarangga, a resident from the coastal town of Biak. Fearing a tsunami, others ran from the beach. The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency registered the temblor at 7.1, and initially warned it had the potential to trigger a tsunami.

Indonesia sits above a series of fault lines that make the vast island nation one of the most earthquake-prone places in the world.

They were soon confronted by 100 people, some wearing English Defence League T-shirts, who shouted 'scum' and 'Muslim bombers off our streets'. Police, who had received intelligence warning of trouble at the march in Barking, Essex, separated the groups behind barriers on opposite sides of the road.

But violence flared after 200 soldiers from 1st Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment - who lost five men in a recent tour of Afghanistan and had been granted freedom of the borough - marched past thousands of well-wishers. MAC supporters shouted slogans such as 'murderers, murderers' and 'British troops go to hell', while the mainly white crowd opposite, some of whom are believed to have been BNP supporters, threw frozen pork sausages and chanted 'scum' and 'Allah, Allah, who the **** is Allah?'

The anti-MAC contingent then stormed the barriers and traded punches before around 100 officers, including some on horseback, broke up the mob. The clashes came little over a year after Muslim extremists screamed 'baby killers' and 'rapists' at soldiers from 2nd Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment parading through Luton after a tour of duty in Iraq. Members of the public who travelled to Barking yesterday to cheer the troops said they were 'disgusted' by what happened.

The leader of Barking and Dagenham Council recently wrote to Home Secretary Theresa May asking her to ban MAC because he feared its extremist propaganda could cause violence. Liam Smith acted after MAC posters about the protest, showing a bomber bursting through a flag of St George, appeared on the town's war memorial. Previous leaflets depicted British soldiers beside a bloody puddle in the shape of a skull. Mr Smith said: 'We don't want these people with their hate-filled agenda in our borough.'

Tourists expecting sunny skies in Cape Town were greeted by snow on Table Mountain, where the temperature never rose above 1C. In Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West people might also wake up to "snow" on Wednesday. In KwaZulu-Natal, people were reminded on Tuesday that winter had well and truly settled in. Light to medium snowfalls were experienced in some regions with very cold temperatures around the province.

Snow fell consistently on Tuesday morning in Kokstad, with light snow on Sani Pass, Nottingham Road and Matatiele. Freezing temperatures and snow were experienced at Sani Top Chalet on Tuesday said manager Roger Aldous. "We have had mean temperatures. We are attached to an outdoor weather station and it says it's -8C and with the wind chill it says -17C," Aldous said on Tuesday afternoon.

After nearly two years of lockstep economic policy moves, the regions are going their separate ways, with debt-wary Germany pressing for a swift clamp-down on public spending while the United States preaches patience. As G20 world leaders prepare for next week's summit in Toronto, disagreements are becoming more frequent and decades-old policy biases are resurfacing.

For many American officials, Germany's rush to retract is reminiscent of 1937 when the United States abruptly shifted into austerity mode, thinking the Great Depression was over. For Germany, the old scar is hyperinflation. "I think I should start by noting... that it's very important what Europe does and what Japan does too," Geithner said in response to Kerry's question at a congressional hearing on US-China relations on Thursday.

Like China, Germany and Japan typically export more than they import, so it makes sense for Geithner to mention all three when he talks about rebalancing world growth. Until Europe's debt troubles intensified last month, however, he rarely did.

Senator John McCain, who ran against Obama in the 2008 presidential election, voiced concern about slower-than-expected progress in southern Afghanistan and doubts about Afghan President Hamid Karzai's commitment. "I am deeply concerned about our campaign in Afghanistan. Many of the key trends seem to be heading in a bad direction, perhaps even signaling a mounting crisis," McCain said at a Senate hearing, where top Pentagon officials defended the Afghan strategy.

In an extraordinary briefing to trade union chiefs last week, Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso set out an 'apocalyptic' vision in which crisis-hit countries in southern Europe could fall victim to military coups or popular uprisings as interest rates soar and public services collapse because their governments run out of money.

Mr Monks, now head of the European TUC, said: "I had a discussion with Barroso last Friday about what can be done for Greece, Spain, Portugal and the rest and his message was blunt: 'Look, if they do not carry out these austerity packages, these countries could virtually disappear in the way that we know them as democracies. They've got no choice, this is it.' He's very, very worried. He shocked us with an apocalyptic vision of democracies in Europe collapsing because of the state of indebtedness."

Mr Barroso's warning lays bare the concern at the highest level in Brussels that the economic crisis could lead to the collapse of not only the beleaguered euro, but the EU itself, along with a string of fragile democracies. But it risks infuriating governments in southern Europe which are already struggling to contain public anger as they drive through tax rises and spending cuts in a bid to avoid disaster.

Mr Monks yesterday warned that the new austerity measures themselves could take the continent 'back to the 1930s'.

In an interview with the Brussels-based magazine EU Observer he said: 'This is extremely dangerous. This is 1931, we're heading back to the 1930s, with the Great Depression and we ended up with a militarist dictatorship. I'm not saying we're there yet, but it's potentially very serious, not just economically, but politically as well.'

The looming bankruptcy of Spain, one of the foremost economies in Europe, poses far more of a threat to European unity and the euro project than Greece. Greece contributes 2.5 percent of GDP to Europe, Spain nearly 12 percent.

In that speech, Obama took aim at the "Christian Right" for "hijacking" religion and using it to divide the nation: "Somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and started being used to drive us apart. It got hijacked. Part of it's because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, who've been all too eager to exploit what divides us," he said.

Geller suggested perhaps other evidence should be considered as well, listing how Obama in early 2009 declared the "war on terror" over, suggested discussions with Hamas and recruited more Muslims for the White House staff.

He also created the Outreach to the Worldwide Muslim community in the State department, announced cuts in the US nuclear arsenal, offered funding to a Muslim technology fund, issued a special hajj message, had a "non-religious" Christmas, ordered NASA to work with Muslim nations and offered support for an anti-Israel resolution at the UN.

The quake follows a series of temblors that struck Southern California over the weekend, including a pair of moderate earthquakes that rattled a desert area east of San Diego. Residents in downtown San Diego could feel the ground rumbling during at least one of the Saturday quakes. At least 20 aftershocks were recorded within 30 minutes of Monday's earthquake, with the largest measuring at magnitude 4.1.

More than 1,000 people reported feeling the shaking, according to online citizen reports compiled by the USGS. The strongest shaking was felt in San Diego County. The latest quake struck just two months after the deadly Easter Sunday magnitude 7.2 quake that shook Baja California and Southern California. Monday's quake occurred in the aftershock zone of the Easter quake, said USGS geophysicist Rafael Abreu. "It's still too early to say, if it was an aftershock," Abreu said.