SAN FRANCISCO, USA - California's electricity grid operator issued a rare statewide alert on Thursday warning residents to curb power usage in coming days as a heat wave threatens to strain its already taxed network. The California Independent System Operation, or CAISO, a not-for-profit corporation charged with operating the majority of the state's high-voltage grid, issued a "flex" alert urging consumers to reduce power usage especially in the afternoon, when air-conditioning dramatically ramps up demand.

USA - US regulators directed five of the country's biggest banks, including Bank of America Corp and Goldman Sachs Group Inc, to develop plans for staving off collapse if they faced serious problems, emphasizing that the banks could not count on government help. The two-year-old program, which has been largely secret until now, is in addition to the "living wills" the banks crafted to help regulators dismantle them if they actually do fail. It shows how hard regulators are working to ensure that banks have plans for worst-case scenarios and can act rationally in times of distress.

USA - After years of high joblessness, America's unemployed legions are unmotivated and increasingly unequipped to fill the jobs that do come open, analysts say. And they may have to contend with a permanent low-employment economy. America has traditionally been quick to shed jobs when economic times get tough, but just as swift to make new positions as things pick up. It's been different this time around. The recession has been over since June 2009. Yet unemployment is still above 8%.

FRANCE - France's socialist government has begun smashing up Roma gipsy camps across the country and deporting the illegal immigrants living in them. It comes days after Greek police rounded up 6,000 migrants in Athens at the weekend - detaining 1,600 for deportation. Destruction of Roma gipsy camps and deportations began in Paris yesterday and will move to other major French cities, where camps have mushroomed in recent years.

USA - In the throes of a historic drought in the United States, a government agency said on Wednesday that it broke a heat record in July that had stood since the devastating Dust Bowl summer of 1936.

TEMPLE MOUNT, JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - A news story on Palestinian Authority television recently accused Israel of using chemicals to erode the foundations of Al-Aqsa Mosque in order to cause it to collapse, according to Palestinian Media Watch.

USA - It's no secret that falling behind on student loan payments can squash a borrower's hopes of building savings, buying a home or even finding work. Now, thousands of retirees are learning that defaulting on student-debt can threaten something that used to be untouchable: their Social Security benefits.

GREENLAND - Greenland is a frontier Eldorado with untapped reserves of critical rare earths under the Arctic ice-cap but a nimble China has already stolen a march in getting access, EU industry commissioner Antonio Tajani warns. The Italian travelled to Greenland on June 16 to initial a deal for the European Union to share exploitation rights to rare earth metal ores in return for technological and environmental mining know-how.

JAPAN - While all eyes are on the absurdist tragicomedy playing out in Europe, Japan is quietly circling a financial black hole as its export economy is destroyed by its strong currency and the global recession.

ITALY - Wine bottles featuring Adolf Hitler on the label have been called "offensive" after complaints from US tourists in the Italian city of Garda. Michael Hirsch, a lawyer from Philadelphia, complained to local media after he found a supermarket near his hotel was stocking wine bottles with Hitler in various poses and another bottle featuring an image of Pope John Paul II.

UNITED NATIONS - The world could face a new food crisis of the kind seen in 2007/08 if countries resort to export bans, the UN's food agency warned on Thursday, after reporting a surge in global food prices due to a drought-fuelled grain price rally. A mix of high oil prices, growing use of biofuels, bad weather, restrictive export policies and soaring grain futures markets pushed up prices of food in 2007/08, sparking violent protests in countries including Egypt, Cameroon and Haiti.

UNITED NATIONS - The man from the United Nations is not sugar-coating the threat he says the world faces as a result of future food, water and energy shortages. "We know clearly that inequalities around food, water and energy wealth do create wars," says David Nabarro, UN special representative on food security and nutrition. "They may not always be the direct trigger... but unless they can be dealt with, the future for all of us is going to be very difficult." Global commodity prices have risen by 147% since 2000.

UNITED NATIONS - Global food prices sharply rebounded in July due to wild swings in weather conditions, a UN food and agricultural body has said. The rise has fanned fresh fears of a repeat of the 2007-2008 food crisis which hurt the world's poorest. Untimely rains in Brazil, drought in the US and production difficulties in Russia drove the rally, said the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Food prices jumped 6% in July from June.

USA - "Over 100 Million People in US Now Receiving Some Form Of Federal Welfare." "The federal government administers nearly 80 different overlapping federal means-tested welfare programs," the Senate Budget Committee notes. The data comes from the US Census’s Survey of Income and Program Participation and shows that nearly 110,000 million individuals received a welfare benefit in 2011. This is not just Americans, however. "These figures include not only citizens, but non-citizens as well," according to the committee.

LONDON, UK - UK investment bank Standard Chartered could be suspended from operating in New York after state finance regulators found hundreds of billions of dollars worth of transactions with Iran. "Motivated by greed, SCB acted for at least ten years without any regard for the legal, reputational, and national security consequences of its flagrantly deceptive actions," the New York Department of Financial Services says. The state regulator alleges the bank colluded on tens of thousands of transactions totaling more than $250 billion, earning Standard Chartered millions in fees.