This is how the Economic Policy Journal summarized what happened to Raub…

The muscle used to grab Brandon Raub was local Chesterfield County, Viriginia, police. Also present during the grab were agents of the FBI and of the Secret Service. Both the FBI and the Secret Service claim that they were only observing and not participating in the grab. The Chesterfield County police initially stated that they were only carrying out a request from the federal agencies.

The police also claim Raub is not under arrest, even though he was led away in handcuffs and is not permitted to leave the psychiatric ward of a hospital — even though it appears that Raub is not in any way in need of psychological care. I note this happened in the United States of America, with local police, FBI agents and Secret Service taking part.

The claim that Raub is “not under arrest” is completely and totally ridiculous. The authorities came to his door, slapped handcuffs on him and are holding him in a mental institution against his will. And now he has been transferred to a facility that is 3 hours away from his family, his supporters and his legal team.

What in the world is America turning into?

SPIEGEL: Mr Glucksmann, in light of the intellectual and existential experiences you had in the 20th century as an anti-totalitarian thinker, are you worried about Europe's future?

GLUCKSMANN: I've never believed that all the dangers were averted after the end of fascism and communism. History doesn't come to a standstill. Europe didn't step out of (history) when the Iron Curtain disappeared, even if it has occasionally seemed to want to. Democracies tend to ignore or forget the tragic dimensions of history. In this sense, I would say: Yes, current developments are extremely unsettling.

SPIEGEL: Since its beginnings 60 years ago, the European community has almost always stumbled from one crisis to the next. Setbacks are part of its normal mode of operation.

GLUCKSMANN: A sense of crisis characterizes the modern European era. From it, one can draw the general conclusion that Europe actually isn't a state or a community in the national sense, which grows together organically. It also can't be compared with the ancient Greek city-states, which, despite their differences and rivalries, formed a single cultural unit.

SPIEGEL: European countries are also bound by shared cultural aspects. Is there such a thing as a European spirit?

GLUCKSMANN: European nations are not alike, which is why they can't be merged together. What unites them is not a community but a societal model. There is a European civilization and a Western way of thinking.

Höhler is a former professor of literature who has made numerous appearances on German talk shows, where she positions herself as a pundit representing the views of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party. Her claim to fame is that she was once considered for a cabinet post more than 20 years ago, under then-Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Now she is fighting the fight of her life. Her opponent is the most powerful woman in Germany, and perhaps even the world. Höhler refers to the chancellor as: "that girl Angela," a woman washed into Germany with the collapse of a Soviet satellite state.

It's a conflict of historic proportions. It revolves around protecting Germany from a third dictatorship, following fascism and communism - at least that's the way Höhler sees it. "That woman," she says, "has already installed an autocratic regime."

"That woman" is German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Höhler has written a book called "The Godmother," about Merkel's rise to power and about how she has gradually rolled back democracy in Germany.

He says the money is needed to “beef up” its resources in case President Obama wins the November election. In the event of civil unrest Judge Head said he’s concerned the President would hand over sovereignty of the United States to the UN and that the American public would react violently.

“He’s going to try to hand over the sovereignty of the US to the United Nations, what’s going to happen when that happens?” Judge Head told FOX 34 in Lubbock. “I’m thinking worse case scenario,” Judge Head explained. “Civil unrest, civil disobedience, civil war maybe… we’re not just talking a few riots or demonstrations.”

The West Texas judge’s proposed tax increase is to help the sheriff’s office hire a law enforcement large enough to protect the county and to drive away the invaders.

The journey to Lichtenhagen takes 40 minutes by tram. That's how far the district is from the center of the northeastern German city of Rostock. Lichtenhagen is home to the so-called Sunflower House. Twenty years ago, this 11-story apartment block housed the so-called "central reception center" for asylum-seekers in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Most of the people staying there were Sinti and Roma from Romania, and Vietnamese workers who had come to eastern Germany on temporary work assignments when it was still a fellow communist state.

On August 22, 1992, the building was attacked by a mob, who threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the high-rise. The crowd of up to 3,000 people was made up of both curious onlookers and rioters, including many people from Rostock, according to eyewitnesses. For five days, the area was gripped by a pogrom-like atmosphere. Images of enraged youths, burning buildings and retreating police officers circled the globe. It was the most violent xenophobic riot in the history of postwar Germany. There it was again, this other Germany, the dark one.

Today, area residents claim that the crowd had been made up of "outsiders." They say these people harassed the Sinti and Roma who were camped outside the high-rise due to overcrowding. Residents also say that it was "outsiders" who threw the Molotov cocktails at the tower block, trapping 150 people - mostly Vietnamese - inside. In their defense, they add that they had always lived on good terms with the Vietnamese.

When Antonis Samaras travels to Berlin on Friday, his role will be clear: Greece's conservative prime minister is coming as a supplicant who is being forced to ask for more financial assistance in Germany for his hard-hit nation.

Still, calls for more time to implement austerity measures in Greece have already met with resistance in a broad section of the German government. "Europe and the euro cannot be allowed to fail because people refuse to implement reforms," Economics Minister Philipp Rösler told Spiegel Online on Sunday. And the accusation being heard in the run-up to [Mr] Samaras' important meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel is that the Greeks are exactly these kinds of reform refuseniks.

"Greece is bleeding," the German tabloid Bild wrote in a headline ahead of [Mr] Samaras' visit to Germany. During the past three years, quality of life has dropped by 30 percent and pensioners have lost one-fifth of their monthly benefits.

One can't really claim that Greece under [Mr] Samaras hasn't been economizing enough. But have the efforts also been successful? Will [Mr] Samaras succeed in modernizing the Greek state and, especially, the country's ailing political culture? It is still too early to answer these questions. After all, the man has only been in office for two months.

The strike that started last week at Lonmin's Marikana mine has driven up platinum prices and stoked worries about investing in Africa's biggest economy, where chronic unemployment and income disparities threaten social stability. At Marikana, a somber-looking President Jacob Zuma stood under a parasol held by an aide to address around 2,000 subdued miners. In the Xhosa and Zulu languages, he said there was no need for workers to die in a Labor dispute. "This is painful to all of us. It is not acceptable for people to die where talks can be held. But I do feel your pain and have come personally to express that," he said.

The world's top platinum producer, Anglo American Platinum, said on Wednesday it had received a demand for a pay increase from its South African workers, while Royal Bafokeng Platinum said a Labor action by about 500 miners interrupted work at a shaft at its Rasimone mine. The price of platinum leapt to its highest since early May, driven by concern about supply from South Africa, which holds 80 percent of the known reserves of the metal, used in jewelry and for catalytic converters in cars.

The Egyptian move in Sinai – which the peace agreement says must remain largely demilitarised, with any changes co-ordinated between the two sides – appeared aimed at Islamist militants blamed for killing 16 Egyptian border guards in an attack this month. While senior Israeli officials said on Wednesday that they were in direct contact with their Egyptian counterparts, they suggested that any violation of the treaty could undermine regional stability.

A government official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli foreign minister, told foreign ambassadors in a closed meeting in Jerusalem late on Tuesday that the agreement “needs to be respected very strictly, otherwise we’ll find ourselves on a slippery slope.”

Zvi Mazel, a former Israeli ambassador to Egypt, said: “This is not a good omen. Nobody has tried to violate the peace treaty in the past 33 years.”