Also this week, the Department of Justice told a federal court that the courts could not review the legality of the government’s extra-judicial assassination by drone of Americans abroad:

“‘Are you saying that a US citizen targeted by the United States in a foreign country has no constitutional rights?’ [the judge] asked Brian Hauck, a deputy assistant attorney general. ‘How broadly are you asserting the right of the United States to target an American citizen? Where is the limit to this?’

She provided her own answer: ‘The limit is the courthouse door’...

Mr Hauck acknowledged that Americans targeted overseas do have rights, but he said they could not be enforced in court either before or after the Americans were killed.”

Indeed, the Obama administration has previously claimed the power to be judge, jury and executioner in both drone and cyber-attacks. This violates Anglo-Saxon laws which have been on the books in England and America for 800 years.

In addition to attacks on the judiciary by the White House and Congress, judges are voluntarily gutting the justice system … and laying down in lapdog-obeisance to [Washington] DC. For example, the Supreme Court ruled that if judges don’t like plaintiffs’ allegations of bad government actions, the judge can simply pre-judge and throw out the lawsuit before even allowing the party to conduct any discovery to prove their claims. This guts 220 years of Constitutional law, and makes it extremely difficult to challenge harmful government action in court.

1. You could buy an airline ticket and fly without ever showing an ID.

2. You could buy cough syrup without showing an ID.

3. You could buy and sell gold coins without showing an ID.

4. You could buy a gun without showing an ID.

5. You could pull as much cash out of your bank account without the bank filing a report with the government.

6. You could get a job without having to prove you were an American.

7. You could buy cigarettes without showing an ID.

8. You could have a phone conversation without the government knowing who you called and who called you.

9. You could open a stock brokerage account without having to explain where the money came from.

10. You could open a Swiss bank account with ease. All Swiss banks were willing and happy to open accounts for Americans.

There are thousands of other examples. The monitoring is in place all that is required from here is the clampdown.

The differences, between now and 1975 in the business sector are even more prevalent. In recent years, in industry after industry regulations and prohibitions have been poured on top of free markets. It doesn't look like things will get any better in years to come. Eventually, the economy will suffocate and collapse, if this continues.

The Transportation Security Administration has launched an expansion to their program that allows members to bypass regular airport pre-flight security checkpoints. Those enrolled in the ‘trusted traveler’ program, called TSA PreCheck, don’t have to remove their shoes, jackets and belts during screening. Members can also keep their laptop computers and approved liquids in their bags.

Currently, only members of several frequent-flier programs are given the opportunity to apply without paying a fee, the TSA says. But TSA Administrator John Pistole on Friday announced that all travelers will soon be able to join PreCheck – as long as they pay $85 for a five-year membership, provide identifying information, pass a background check, and undergo fingerprinting.

Pistole said that enrollment will be opened to the public later this year and he expects an additional 3 million people to sign up for PreCheck before the end of the year. About 12 million travelers are currently enrolled.

If his estimates are accurate, the TSA will reap about $255 million from the program in 2013.

The new Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center will open this fall, but due to public perceptions, the water from the plant will be diverted for use in fire hydrants, landscaping and electrical fountains instead of homes. “It takes a long time to educate folks and grasp the concept that this water can be purified to a level that’s cleaner than what we are already drinking,” said Marty Grimes of the Santa Clara Valley Water District. “The reality is that we are able to produce water that is cleaner than all of our other water sources.”

The plant will produce 8 million gallons of water a day, using a three-step process of microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet light – which zaps away impurities. Fresh water is expensive and in short supply during drought years, so this water may some day be a resource that people want to tap.

The Senate Banking Committee hearing comes as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase - which generated an estimated $4 billion in commodity revenues last year - face growing pressure from a number of investigations into their operations, and as the Federal Reserve reviews Wall Street's right to operate in raw material markets.

Big aluminum consumers like MillerCoors are set to tell the committee that the banks' control of metal warehousing firms has driven up industry costs by as much as $3 billion. The banks will not speak at the hearing, with their views represented by a lawyer who often works with Wall Street.

The threat to Wall Street's physical commodity trading divisions has escalated abruptly across multiple fronts, putting an uncomfortable spotlight on a lucrative side of their business that has thus far fallen largely outside of regulators' sights.

The 76-year-old Jesuit Pope said the “culture of rejection” also extended to old people and that there was a danger that the elderly were being thrown on the scrap heap of society despite the experience they could offer.

Speaking aboard the plane, the Argentinian Pontiff had a serious message about the impact of the current global economic turmoil. “The global crisis has brought nothing good to young people,” he said. “I saw the data on youth unemployed last week. We run the risk of having a generation without work.”

On the subject of the elderly, he added: “We are used to this culture of rejection with old people, we do it often, despite the life wisdom they give us. They are left on one side as if they have nothing to offer. We need to make an effort to bring everyone into society, this is the sense I want to bring to this trip.”

The Pope’s remarks about youth unemployment will resonate far beyond South America – jobless rates among the young in Greece and Spain are near 60 per cent and are almost as dire in countries like Italy and Portugal.

It was discovered on Sunday by personnel from the Brazilian air force as they carried out security checks of the area ahead of the Pope's visit on Wednesday. The bomb was detonated safely by military police.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida is Brazil's most revered Catholic pilgrimage site. It protects a famous 18th-century clay statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is regarded by Brazilians as the country's main patroness. Pope Francis is in Brazil to attend World Youth Day, an international Catholic festival expected to attract more than a million young pilgrims.

Between 500 to 1,000 prisoners have escaped as a result of the attack, “most of them were convicted senior members of Al-Qaeda and had received death sentences," said Hakim Zamili, a senior member of the security and defense committee in parliament. Suicide bombers drove cars with explosives into the gates of the prison on the outskirts of Baghdad on Sunday night, while gunmen attacked guards with mortar fire as well as rocket propelled grenades.

The attacks on the two prisons came a year after Al-Qaeda’s Iraqi front group announced that it would be targeting the country’s justice system. “The first priority in this is releasing Muslim prisoners everywhere, and chasing and eliminating judges and investigators and their guards,” said an audio message attributed to the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in July 2012.

Sunni rebels, including Al-Qaeda-affiliated, have been gaining strength and regularly striking Shiite Muslims and security forces. The violence has increased fears of a return to conflict in the country.

Euroarea: 92.2%, up from 88.2% a year ago

Greece: 160.5%, up from 136.5% a year ago

Italy: 130.3%; up from 123.8% a year ago

Portugal: 127.2%, up from 112.3% a year ago

Ireland: 125.1%, up from 106.8% a year ago

Spain: 88.2%, up from 73.0% a year ago

Netherlands: 72.0%, up from 66.7% a year ago

Drugs companies publish only a fraction of their results and keep much of the information to themselves, but regulators want to ban the practice. If companies published all of their clinical trials data, independent scientists could reanalyse their results and check companies’ claims about the safety and efficacy of drugs.

Under proposals being thrashed out in Europe, drugs companies would be compelled to release all of their data, including results that show drugs do not work or cause dangerous side-effects. While some companies have agreed to share data more freely, the industry has broadly resisted the moves. The latest strategy shows how patient groups – many of which receive some or all of their funding from drugs companies – have been brought into the battle.

The email describes a four-pronged campaign that starts with “mobilising patient groups to express concern about the risk to public health by non-scientific re-use of data”. Translated, that means patient groups go into bat for the industry by raising fears that if full results from drug trials are published, the information might be misinterpreted and cause a health scare.

Two helicopters and around 3,000 soldiers, police and rescue personnel have been deployed, reports say. Thousands of buildings collapsed or were damaged in the magnitude 5.98 and 5.6 quakes. More than 9,000 houses collapsed, the Dingxi municipal government said on its verified microblog account.

Rescuers were digging through rubble to look for victims buried by landslides and mudslides triggered by the quake. By 18:00 (10:00 GMT) on Monday, the region had experienced 422 aftershocks, including one with a magnitude greater than five, Xinhua reported.

The palace said in a statement that the duchess and the baby were "doing well" and would stay in hospital overnight. The news has been displayed on an ornate easel in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace in line with tradition. A bulletin, signed by key medical staff, was taken by a royal aide from St Mary's to the palace under police escort.

It will now become illegal for Hezbollah sympathisers in Europe to send the group money, and enables the freezing of the group's assets there. Some member states had been wary of the measure, saying it could further destabilise the situation in Lebanon. The BBC's Chris Morris in Brussels says some states had also argued it would be difficult to distinguish fully between the group's military and political wings. The US, which has blacklisted Hezbollah for many years, welcomed the EU move.

An undisclosed number of F-15 and F-16 fighter jets from both sides are participating in the training event. It’s held at Uvda Base in the southern Negev Desert, and the United States European Command (EUCOM) is involved in the aerial war games which will focus on air-to- air combat maneuvers, mid-air refueling, bombing runs and other missions. The exercise comes after a two-day visit to Israel on July 14 by EUCOM’s Commander General Philip M Breedlove.

"The combined exercise is designed to improve the interoperability and cooperation between the Israeli and US air forces, and has been planned for more than a year," an Israeli military source told Xinhua. The US is Israel's biggest ally and international supporter. It supports Tel Aviv financially, militarily and diplomatically. Washington is providing billions of dollars of military aid to Tel Aviv annually. During Fiscal Year 2013, the US is providing Israel with at least $8.5 million per day in military aid.

The Arab push was a mainstay of recent annual meetings of the 159-nation International Atomic Energy Agency, where it was usually narrowly voted down by Israel's allies. It was suspended in 2011 and 2012, in what Arab nations viewed as a concession to keep hopes alive of high-profile talks on banning weapons of mass destruction from the Mideast.

That attempt, co-sponsored by the United States, Russia and Britain, was called off late last year. While Syria's civil war, nuclear tensions with Iran and other Middle East frictions were cited as the official motive for the cancellation, diplomats then acknowledged that the real reason was the failure to bridge Arab-Israeli differences.

Israel has long said that a full Palestinian-Israeli peace plan must precede any creation of a Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction. The Israelis refuse to confirm or deny whether they have nuclear weapons. They also describe Iran and its alleged work on nuclear weapons as the real regional menace.