It wasn’t easy. In some jurisdictions, officials said that they didn’t know; in others, they stonewalled. Pappas’s first report, issued in 2010, estimated the total state and local debt at $56 billion for the county’s 5.6 million residents. Two years later, after further investigation, the figure had risen to a frightening $140 billion, shocking residents and officials alike. “Nobody knew the numbers because local governments don’t like to show how badly they are doing,” Pappas observed.

Since Pappas began her project to tally Cook County’s hidden debt, she has found lots of company. Across America, elected officials, taxpayer groups, and other researchers have launched a forensic accounting of state and municipal debt, and their fact-finding mission is rewriting the country’s balance sheet. Just a few years ago, most experts estimated that state and local governments owed about $2.5 trillion, mostly in the form of municipal bonds and other debt securities.

But late last year, the States Project, a joint venture of Harvard’s Institute of Politics and the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government, projected that if you also count promises made to retired government workers and money borrowed without taxpayer approval, the figure might be higher than $7 trillion.

Now, however, it may try to stop the European Central Bank's so-called outright monetary transactions (OMT) programme (the ECB's pledge to buy, without limit, the government bonds of troubled eurozone countries that subject themselves to the ESM's conditions).

To be sure, the German court has no jurisdiction over the ECB – and thus has no power to judge its actions. The only institution that does have that power is the European court of justice in Luxembourg. But Germany's constitutional court can judge whether the actions of EU institutions are compatible with its constitution and the EU treaties.

If the court finds that the ECB's actions are unlawful, it can constrain German institutions – even the German parliament. For example, it could forbid the Bundesbank from participating in the OMT programme. Or it could rule that the German government's participation in the ESM must be conditional on the ECB's willingness to limit OMTs. Udo Di Fabio, a former judge on the court, has argued that the tribunal could even force the German government to unwind the EU treaties if it does not succeed in curbing the OMT programme.

In a further sign that the NSA row has soured relations between the US and its European allies, Peer Steinbrück, leader of the Social Democratic party, told ARD TV: "I would interrupt the negotiations until the Americans say if German government offices and European institutions are bugged or wiretapped. We don't know if the Americans may be sitting under our desks with some technical devices." He pledged to press Washington about the spy agency's activities before continuing with the talks about a transatlantic free trade agreement.

His move comes after Germany's Der Spiegel weekly reported that the NSA bugged the United Nations' New York headquarters, with the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency among those targeted.

Der Spiegel said files obtained by whistleblower Edward Snowden showed that the NSA spied on the EU in New York after it moved to new rooms in autumn 2012 and that the NSA runs a bugging programme in more than 80 embassies and consulates worldwide called the "Special Collection Service", which has "little or nothing to do with warding off terrorists".

“Greece shouldn’t have been allowed into the euro,” Ms Merkel told around 1,000 supporters of her Christian Democratic Union in Rendsburg on Tuesday. “Chancellor Schroeder accepted Greece in [in 2001] and weakened the Stability Pact, and both decisions were fundamentally wrong, and one of the starting points for our current troubles.”

Ms Merkel reiterated her desire to see a strong single currency, but warned that this can only be achieved through reforms in struggling countries such as Greece. “That [a unified euro area] is such a treasure, such a boon, that we can’t place it in doubt,” she told her supporters. “That’s why the euro is more than a currency. For this reason we’ve shown solidarity, but solidarity always linked to responsibility for reforms in those countries that experience our solidarity.”

Ms Merkel’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, admitted last month that Greece will need another bailout, raising fears among Germans that they will have to foot the bill. On Sunday, the Chancellor refused to rule out another aid package but dismissed debt haircuts, which would hurt Germany as the country with the largest exposure to Greece.

Brent October futures are above $115 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate blend (WTI) hit $110 on speculation unrest in Syria will disrupt oil shipments and supplies in the Middle East. For WTI its the highest price since May 2011.

The US and Britain are gearing up in a coordinated military action against Syria, as both confirmed chemical weapons attacks were carried out against civilians, something the Assad government denies. The US-Syria standoff could send oil prices soaring, and Brent could ‘spike briefly’ to $150 a barrel if the US initiates a military attack on Syria, Societe Generale bank told Bloomberg on Wednesday.

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has given the green light to launch a strike against Syria, and is just waiting for the directive from President Obama. “The concern is that an attack on Syria will reverberate through the region, increasing the spill over into other countries and possibly resulting in a larger supply disruption elsewhere,” Michael Wittner, the head of oil market research in New York, said in an August 27 report.

Oil-production in Syria is low, but its geographical position poses a threat to disrupt neighboring pipelines and seaways. Turkey, its northern neighbor, is home to 2 major pipelines that transport Iraqi oil to Europe and Central Asia.

Hossein Sheikholeslam, the director general of the Iranian parliament’s International Affairs bureau, claimed the United States would not dare attack Syria but said that if it does, “the Zionist regime will be the first victim.”

“No military attack will be waged against Syria,” Sheikholeslam was quoted as saying on Monday by Iran’s state run Fars News Agency. “Yet, if such an incident takes place, which is impossible, the Zionist regime will be the first victim of a military attack on Syria,” Sheikholeslam said in an apparent response to the Obama administration’s increasingly stern rhetoric against Syria.

Iran has been one of embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s chief allies. It has sent Hezbollah reinforcements to battle rebel forces and acted as Assad’s chief defender in the Middle East.

Carla del Ponte, a member of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, told Swiss TV there were “strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof,” that rebels seeking to oust Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad had used the nerve agent.

But she said her panel had not yet seen any evidence of Syrian government forces using chemical weapons, according to the BBC, but she added that more investigation was needed. Damascus has recently faced growing Western accusations that its forces used such weapons, which President Obama has described as crossing a red line. But Ms del Ponte’s remarks may serve to shift the focus of international concern.

Some analysts say that Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia fighting in support of embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad, likely would be inspired to ramp up operations in Iran’s “shadow war” with the US and its allies.

Tensions between the West and Iran over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program have fueled the protracted and secretive war — a tit-for-tat exchange marked most often by operations and attacks carried out from the Middle East to Eastern Europe and Asia by Hezbollah and Israel’s lead intelligence agency, the Mossad. “These are groups that have long memories,” Matthew Levitt, who heads the Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Monday.

Iran’s government, which most in the US intelligence community think exerts heavy influence over the activities of Hezbollah, sought Monday to downplay the likelihood of a US strike. But some officials in Tehran said that if a strike occurs, Israel would be targeted in response.

Reuters' article, "Syria strike due in days, West tells opposition: sources," states that: Western powers told the Syrian opposition to expect a strike against President Bashar al-Assad's forces within days, according to sources who attended a meeting between envoys and the Syrian National Coalition in Istanbul.

"The opposition was told in clear terms that action to deter further use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime could come as early as in the next few days, and that they should still prepare for peace talks at Geneva," one of the sources who was at the meeting on Monday told Reuters.

Associated Press reported that the State Department postponed a meeting, which was originally scheduled for August 28, with Russian diplomats in Syria this week to an indefinite future date. The meeting at The Hague was about setting up an international conference to find a political resolution to the Syrian crisis.

A senior State Department official said Monday the meeting between Undersecretary Wendy Sherman and US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford with their Russian counterparts was postponed because of the ongoing US review about alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria.

The revelations come amid high tension in the Middle East, with US, British, and French warships poised for missile strikes against Syria, and Iran threatening to retaliate. The strategic jitters pushed Brent crude prices to a five-month high of $US112 a barrel.

‘‘We are only one incident away from a serious oil spike. The market is a lot tighter than people think,’’ said Chris Skrebowski, editor of Petroleum Review. Leaked transcripts of a behind closed doors meeting between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan shed an extraordinary light on the hard-nosed Realpolitik of the two sides.

The talks appear to offer an alliance between the OPEC cartel and Russia, which together produce more than 40 million barrels a day of oil, 45 per cent of global output. Such a move would alter the strategic landscape.

The prime minister said the world could "not stand idly by" in the face of the "massive use" of banned weapons. But any military action would have to be proportionate and legal, he added. The Syrian government said it was not responsible and the US and others were using it as an excuse to attack it.

The UK is considering military options following last week's suspected attack, which is being investigated by the United Nations. Mr Cameron said he believed that the Syrian government had the "motive and the opportunity" to use chemical weapons while the likelihood of opposition forces being the perpetrators was "vanishingly small". "What we have seen in Syria are appalling scenes of death and suffering because of the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime," he said. "I don't believe we can let that stand."

While there was no question of the UK and its allies seeking to alter the outcome of the military struggle in Syria, they must decide whether limited military action was needed to "deter and degrade the future use of chemical weapons".

They occasionally hear about the upheavals in Europe and that China is undertaking currency manipulations, but nothing that would really alarm them. They never hear that Japan is in meltdown. Nor do they know that the American taxpayer is paying trillions to keep Europe afloat, even though there are in-your-face examples of what to do to get out of the financial death spiral they are in.

The American people are being kept ignorant to keep them from understanding that global events are increasingly threatening everything we take for granted – in a potentially devastating way.

Japan has taken the spending practices of the West and kicked it up to a whole new level. As of this year, they owe 250% of GDP in debt. Just like the US, they are trying to print their way out of trouble by firing up the currency printing presses. Over the past year, the value of the Yen has fallen almost 20%. All of this has caused the largest credit bubble in Japan’s history. All of this uncertainty and instability in Japan is causing a crisis in other countries of the region. Japan’s bond market is literally in meltdown threatening their solvency, while China is using smoke and mirrors to convince the world it is wildly prospering.

Fed up with what it sees as Washington’s debauching of the dollar, China is busily promoting the use of its own yuan as the reserve currency with nine other nations. GoldSilver.com writes: “Displacing the dollar, Beijing says, will reduce volatility in oil and commodity prices and belatedly erode the ‘exorbitant privilege’ the United States enjoys as the issuer of the reserve currency at the heart of a post-war international financial architecture it now sees as hopelessly outmoded.” No mention is made that if China is successful, it will make the US dollar worthless. No mention is made that China has major debt problems of its own.

If the report is accurate, it would be the second serious collapse on the Temple Mount in the past five years, caused by “deliberate Israeli action” to bring down the mosque so that the Jewish Temple can be rebuilt, the report said. Experts have warned for years that the construction projects being carried out by Muslims atop the Temple Mount are destabilizing the structure, and many believe it is only a matter of time before it collapses completely.

Some fear such a collapse could occur during Ramadan, when upward of 100,000 Muslims gather atop the Temple Mount for prayer, Israel Today reported.

Amanda Catherine Hein, 26, was held without bail yesterday after being charged with one count of criminal homicide stemming from the August 18 tragedy. A late-night cleaning crew found the infant’s body in a toilet tank at Starters Pub in Bethlehem, about 30 miles north of Philadelphia. The premature baby was a few weeks premature, but still could have survived, authorities said.

But Hein allegedly put the newborn in a plastic garbage bag and stashed it in the toilet tank. After giving birth, Hein allegedly smoked a cigarette and rejoined friends, gathered to watch the pay-per-view wrestling show “WWE SummerSlam.” Hein was interviewed by cops on August 20, and she admitted to giving birth and placing the baby in the toilet tank, officials said.

“I cannot get inside this lady’s head,” Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said of Hein’s potential motive. “I have no clue.”