Spectators waving US flags and wearing red, white and blue headed for public gatherings in Boston, New York, Washington, Atlanta and other cities under the close watch of police armed with hand-held chemical detectors, radiation scanners and camera surveillance, precautions sparked by the deadly April 15 bombings.

A US national security official said on Wednesday that US intelligence agencies were unaware of any attack threat by militants timed to occur on July 4. Under steamy summer skies, tourists in New York flocked to ferries headed for the Statue of Liberty, which re-opened with an Independence Day ceremony after closing in October as Superstorm Sandy approached. The storm swamped about 75 percent of Liberty Island, the statue's home off the southern tip of Manhattan.

"He should be welcomed, and offered asylum," Stone continued, "but he has no place to hide because every country is intimidated by the United States. This should not be. This is what's wrong with the world today, and it's very important that the world recognizes and gives asylum to Snowden. Everyone in the world is impacted by the United States' Big Brother attitude toward the world."

But he didn't stop there. In front of a room of mostly European journalists, Stone said, "We need countries to say no to the United States. The United States is the dominant power in the universe, with its eavesdropping abilities, cyber abilities," he continued. "And the world is in danger with our tyranny."

It remains to be seen whether Merkel will suffer in the polls as a result of the NSA revelations. No public opinion surveys have been conducted since the Spiegel story hit the newsstands on Monday. But even if she doesn't lose ground immediately, the issue is almost certain to play a major role in the rest of the campaign. And the chancellor's every move will be closely watched.

Le Monde, the most famous and best respected newspaper in France, today carries a detailed report outlining the behaviour of the DGSE, the country's notoriously ruthless external intelligence agency. It says the DGSE intercepts signals from computers and telephones - including foreign ones - to work out 'who is talking to whom'. Such activity boils down to wiretapping, even though this is officially strictly forbidden following a number of scandals in the past.

'All of our communications are spied on,' says Le Monde's report, quoting unnamed intelligence sources, as well as remarks made publicly by intelligence officials. 'Emails, text messages, telephone records, access to Facebook and Twitter are then stored for years,' it says. Such activities are just like those carried out by the US National Security Agency, as described in documents leaked by former NSA worker Edward Snowden.

The revelations will be an embarrassment to France, which has vocally criticised the US after the Snowden leaks. The DGSE revelations will now leave Mr Hollande looking, at best, incredibly naive, and at worst extremely hypocritical.

Mr Morsi himself called for foreign intervention in Syria against Mr Assad, leading to a veiled rebuke from the army, which issued an apparently bland but sharp-edged statement the next day stressing that its only role was guarding Egypt’s borders.

“The armed forces were very alarmed by the Syrian conference at a time the state was going through a major political crisis,” said one officer, whose comments reflected remarks made privately by other army staff. He was speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to talk to the media. For the army, the Syria rally had crossed “a national security red line” by encouraging Egyptians to fight abroad, risking creating a new generation of jihadists, said Yasser El-Shimy, analyst with the International Crisis Group.

At the heart of the military’s concern is the history of militant Islam in Egypt, homeland of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri. The military source condemned recent remarks made by “retired terrorists” allied to Mr Morsi, who has deepened his ties with the once-armed group al-Gamaa al-Islamiya.

Obama had recently sent American troops to prop up Morsi, and the protesters were furious at the US for backing Islamic radicals.

Most of the country seems to have turned against him. One reason for that is his incompetence. He did nothing to rescue the economy from looming collapse. The Egyptian pound and foreign exchange reserves have both dwindled, inflation is rising and unemployment among those under 24 is more than 40%. The IMF has despaired of agreeing on a big loan that would have opened the way to others. In the broiling summer heat, electricity cuts have become maddeningly frequent. Queues for petrol have lengthened. Farmers are often not being paid for their wheat. Crime has soared — the murder rate has tripled since the revolution.

The Brothers’ failure to include a wide range of views in its first government was even more foolish. Egypt, at the best of times, is hard to govern because society is polarised. Secular-minded and better-educated Egyptians generally want the country to be dragged into a modern, pluralistic and outward-looking world. A more conservative and religious stratum looks to political Islam rather than socialism or capitalism as the answer to centuries of injustice, inequality and corruption. In addition, Egypt has a large and nervous minority of Christians, perhaps a tenth of the populace of 84 million, along with a much smaller minority of Shia Muslims, both of whom have been rattled by an Islamist government.

That so many Egyptians should wish to get rid of Mr Morsi is therefore entirely understandable. That they have succeeded in doing so could well turn out to be a disaster, and not just for Egypt.

The precedent that Mr Morsi’s ouster sets for other shaky democracies is a terrible one. It will encourage the disaffected to try to eject governments not by voting them out but by disrupting their rule. It will create an incentive for oppositions all over the Arab world to pursue their agendas on the streets, not in parliaments. It thus will reduce the chance of peace and prosperity across the region.

It also sends a dreadful message to Islamists everywhere. The conclusion they will draw from events in Egypt is that, if they win power in elections, their opponents will use non-democratic means to oust them. So if they are allowed to come to office, they will very likely do their damnedest to cement their power by fair means or foul. Crush your opponents could well be their motto.

At stake as Obama and his aides wrestle with that question in the coming days is the $1.5 billion in aid the United States sends to Cairo each year - almost all of it for the military - as well as the president's views on how best to promote Arab democracy. If the United States formally declares Mursi's ouster a coup, US law mandates that most aid for its longtime ally must stop. And that could weaken the Egyptian military, one of the country's most stable institutions with long-standing ties to US authorities.

Further complicating Obama's calculus is the fact that millions of Egyptians rallied in favor of Mursi's departure, and that the military announced a roadmap for return to civilian rule that was blessed by Egypt's Muslim and Christian religious leaders.

But Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood retain backing from a broad swathe of Egyptian society, even as he alienated many of his countrymen.

Obama, after meeting top advisors at the White House, said in a statement that he was "deeply concerned" by the army's actions and had directed the relevant US agencies to review the implications for US assistance to Egypt. But he did not use the word "coup" and stopped well short of advocating for Mursi's reinstatement, suggesting Washington might be willing to accept the military's move as a way to end a political crisis in a nation of 83 million people struggling with severe economic difficulties.

A cardinal in Rome earns about €3,000 ($3,888) a month, even less than a pastor in Germany. But a cardinal's life in Rome is a lot more expensive - with visits to restaurants and shopping at boutiques for the upscale clothing men of the church are expected to wear, not to mention their jewellery and the antiques they display in their apartments. So it's good to have friends who can treat you or otherwise provide support now and then.

Friends are also happy to give a cardinal a hand - and not just out of religious considerations. A cardinal can be helpful in both political and business terms. So it's not surprising that a symbiotic relationship between parts of the Curia and the upper class around the world has formed - one that brings together the establishment, luxury and power. It's a nice little tradition that new Pope Francis would like to put an end to. For the Catholic establishment, though, it is nothing less than a catastrophe.

Even before his enthronement as pope, when he was still a cardinal, Jorge Mario Bergoglio had spoken clearly about this. During his speech to the cardinal conclave, he warned that, "When the church does not emerge from itself to evangalize, it becomes self-referential and therefore becomes sick." He warned of "self-referentiality" and "theological narcissism." He also criticized a "mundane church that lives within itself, of itself and for itself." And it appears the Argentinian pope meant this criticism seriously. In fact, he demonstrates that every day.

Instead of wearing a gold cross, he has one of steel. And he lives in a sparsely furnished apartment in the Santa Marta guest house rather than in the Apostolic Palace. Instead of taking his seat in the Vatican concert hall to listen to classical music, he recently remained at his desk working on the final version of his decree for the church-state's own Institute for Religious Works (IOR) bank. With his signature, he created a powerful special papal commission to review the bank's activities. He also said the new commission must change everything at the Vatican Bank, as it is also known. He said the Vatican certainly needed a bank, but its areas of business should only reach a "certain point."

"Did we actually vote for someone who really believes in what he preaches?" some within the Curia are now whispering.

Don Patrizio Poggi, 46, told Italian authorities that a former Carabinieri pimped boys for nine clergymen. Poggi also accused the former Carabinieri of selling consecrated hosts for satanic rites.

Poggi reportedly presented documentary and photographic evidence to police in the company of two senior Vatican clergymen who vouched for his credibility. Poggi identified the nine clergymen, including two senior church officials and a religion lecturer. Three people have been placed under formal investigation.

The students recorded audio of the exchange on an iPhone proving that the language-analyst NSA recruiters were left tongue-tied. "I'm surprised that for language analysts you're incredibly imprecise with your language," grad student Madiha Tahir charged when they failed to define what constitutes an adversary.

"What you're selling us is untrue" she added. "We also know that the NSA took down brochures and fact sheets after the Snowden revelations because those fact sheets had severe inaccuracies and untruths in them - so how are we supposed to believe what you're saying?"

Another student directly challenged the NSA's morality for using the "globe as their playground" and then partying at the office with co-workers. She then challenged them to become whistleblowers because the truth will ultimately prevail.

Glenn Greenwald speaking with Eric Bolling on Fox & Friends about the ongoing revelations of NSA spying and whistleblower Edward Snowden hinted that a new NSA story was forthcoming and potentially explosive.

When asked if he was ready to unveil a new NSA scoop, Greenwald responded: I will say that there are vast programs of both domestic and international spying that the world will be shocked to learn about that the NSA is engaged in with no democratic accountability, and that's what's driving our reporting.

Greenwald also gave a preview of this next exposé over the weekend during a speech given to the Socialism 2013 conference, saying it would report on "a brand new technology [that] enables the National Security Agency to redirect into its own repositories one billion cell phones calls every single day."

He also claimed that had the deployment of “golden rice” - a strain of the food that boosts vitamin A levels and reduces blindness in developing countries – not been thwarted, seven million lives could have been saved.

But Mr Goldsmith rubbished his claims and accused him of having "swallowed the industry line, hook, line and sinker". He told The Independent: “Any half-way decent GM enthusiast with a scientific background would have blushed during much of the speech Owen Paterson made. You have to wonder about the Government's gung-ho attitude to GM - you can't stuff pollen back into a tin."

He dismissed Mr Paterson's comments about golden rice as “nonsense”, adding: “No serious GM campaigner would ever make those claims for which there is no factual basis at all. It undermines his credibility on this issue and makes the Government look very silly.” The Richmond Park MP, who sits on the Government's Environment Audit Committee, also raised questions over Mr Paterson's suitability for the job of Environment Secretary, suggesting he failed to understand the issue of GM.

“When designing policy that's a dangerous thing, and I'm concerned big business is framing the debate for the Government,” he said. In response, Mr Paterson insisted that the problems the world faced in feeding the global population in four decades’ time were “very real” and should be prepared for immediately. We should not ignore what is a “scientifically proven, safe technology” that could help with this, he argued. He added: “There are different opinions on GM. I know and respect that. It's why I wanted to launch a national discussion about the issue, so that people can talk about GM in an informed way."