The regulator said the manipulation caused substantial losses to 38 US banks which were shut down during and after the 2008 financial crisis.

The sued banks include Barclays, HSBC, Citigroup and Royal Bank of Scotland.

The British Bankers' Association (BBA) has also been sued by the regulator - the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). "BBA participated in the alleged scheme to protect the revenue stream it generated from selling Libor licenses and to appease the Panel Bank Defendants that were members of the BBA," it was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

The FDIC alleged that the banks mentioned in its lawsuit rigged the rate from August 2007 to at least mid-2011. Other banks named in the lawsuit include Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, Lloyds Bank, Credit Suisse, UBS, and Rabobank. Over the past two years, regulators across the globe have been investigating the manipulation of the rate and there have been $3.7 billion (£2.26 billion) in fines to date.

Washington’s decision to release a minuscule 5 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve caused the price of oil to tank – a direct attack on the main revenue source of the Russian government, and a sign that Washington is willing to hit where it hurts the most.

Russia instantly retaliated, it seems. Suddenly, there was a mysterious mega-plunge of $104.5 billion in US Treasuries held in custody by the Federal Reserve during the reporting week ended March 12. Russia has been palavering with other countries about initiating alternatives to the dollar. Formal plans emerged from the Kremlin last May on how Russia wanted the BRICS to dismantle the dollar system.

The sudden shift in Qatar's standings in the Middle East has left much of the world perplexed, suspicious, and skeptical. Others are hopeful that it indicates a fraying in an axis that has been sowing violence and destabilization across much of North Africa and the Middle East for years.

The Irish Times reported in its article, "Saudi Arabia threatens to blockade Qatar over terrorism," that: “Saudi Arabia has threatened to blockade neighbouring Qatar by air, land and sea unless Doha cuts ties with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, closes global channel al-Jazeera, and expels local branches of the US Brookings Institution and Rand Corporation think tanks. The threat was issued by Riyadh before it withdrew its ambassador to Doha and branded as “terrorist organisations” the brotherhood, Lebanon’s Hizbullah and al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and Jabhat al-Nusra.”

The Irish Times then went on to point out the bizarre contradiction of the Saudis’ move, reminding readers that: “While the law and decree are meant to curb jihadi operations on Saudi soil as well as counter non-jihadi dissidence, these legal instruments appear to contradict government policy on foreign jihad. While 400 Saudis have returned home from Syrian battlefields, another 1,000-2,000 are believed to be fighting with jihadi groups funded by the government as well as wealthy Saudis, Kuwaitis and Qataris.”

Another interpretation of Qatar’s sudden geopolitical quandary is what some suspect may have been its establishment of closer ties with Iran. Should Qatar have attempted to strike out an independent foreign policy out of sync with the US-Israeli-Persian Gulf axis, the recent swift and severe measures would be expected.

Unfortunately, the US middle class is steadily shrinking, and unless that trend is reversed we are going to see massive economic changes in this country. For example, in poor neighborhoods all over America we are seeing bank branches, car dealerships and retail stores close down at an alarming rate. If you didn't know better, you might be tempted to think that "Space Available" was the hottest new retailer in some areas of the nation.

On the other hand, if you live in San Francisco, New York City or Washington DC, things are pretty good for the moment. But as a whole, the condition of the US consumer continues to decline. Incomes are going down, the cost of living is going up, and debts are skyrocketing.

The really bad news is that this is about as good as things are going to get for the US economy. The long-term trends that are eating away at our economy like cancer are intensifying, and our "leaders" just continue to act as if "business as usual" will somehow get the job done. Most of them don't even realize that time is running out.

Pressure to let go of the final vestiges of US authority over the system of Web addresses and domain names that organize the Internet has been building for more than a decade and was supercharged by the backlash last year to revelations about National Security Agency surveillance. The change would end the long-running contract between the Commerce Department and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a California-based nonprofit group. That contract is set to expire next year but could be extended if the transition plan is not complete.

“We look forward to ICANN convening stakeholders across the global Internet community to craft an appropriate transition plan,” Lawrence E Strickling, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, said in a statement. The announcement received a passionate response, with some groups quickly embracing the change and others blasting it.

In a statement, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John D Rockefeller IV (Democrat for West Virginia) called the move “consistent with other efforts the US and our allies are making to promote a free and open Internet, and to preserve and advance the current multi-stakeholder model of global Internet governance.” But former House speaker Newt Gingrich (Republican for Georgia) tweeted: “What is the global internet community that Obama wants to turn the internet over to? This risks foreign dictatorships defining the internet.”

This has been evident right from the outset, that first evening of 13 March, when presenting himself to the world from the loggia of St Peter’s Basilica he asked us to pray together, and silence immediately descended on the packed square, which previously had been full of restless murmurs. Instead of proclaiming programs, he called for silence to listen to God’s program (the one that “always precedes us”).

The Bishop of Rome asked for the prayers of the faithful. Some naive television commentators saw this gesture as a sign that he would dispose of hierarchical clericalism. Indeed, with his silent bow, the Pope lowered himself: to show that he is not a monarch, but a person with a mandate, someone who takes very seriously what one billion Catholics do every day with the rosary: “We pray an Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be for the intentions of the supreme Pontiff”.

The most traditional element was expressed in unison with the single most revolutionary, most …progressive element. The uniting of these two elements, the traditional and the progressive, appears to be characteristic of Francis.

At the conclusion of the Synaxis the patriarchs issued a joint statement stating their desire “to reinforce our unity through communion and cooperation.” In Orthodox terms, the global witness of the church occurs in and through its synodality, the convening of church councils. As the Ecumenical Patriarch pointed out in his opening address, to deal with the problems of secularity “there is one necessary condition, namely the unity of our Church and the prospect of addressing the contemporary world with a unified voice.”

Both the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Synaxis have put the challenge of balancing the autocephaly of the Orthodox churches — the fact that they are in communion while maintaining hierarchical independence — with their unity front and center. Although no easy task, this is a welcome development. The seriousness of their intention is underscored by a further commitment to work toward a Holy Synod in 2016. If the Orthodox churches can speak with a united voice through the work of a Holy Synod, it can have a powerful effect for all Christians.