The culprit behind this silent killer is lead. And vinyl. And formaldehyde. And asbestos. And Bisphenol A. And polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). And thousands more innovations brought to us by the industries that once promised “better living through chemistry,” but instead produced a toxic stew that has made every American a guinea pig and has turned the United States into one grand unnatural experiment.

Today, we are all unwitting subjects in the largest set of drug trials ever. Without our knowledge or consent, we are testing thousands of suspected toxic chemicals and compounds, as well as new substances whose safety is largely unproven and whose effects on human beings are all but unknown. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) itself has begun monitoring our bodies for 151 potentially dangerous chemicals, detailing the variety of pollutants we store in our bones, muscle, blood, and fat.

None of the companies introducing these new chemicals has even bothered to tell us we’re part of their experiment. None of them has asked us to sign consent forms or explained that they have little idea what the long-term side effects of the chemicals they’ve put in our environment — and so our bodies — could be. Nor do they have any clue as to what the synergistic effects of combining so many novel chemicals inside a human body in unknown quantities might produce.

The so-called 'bail-in' forces savers to foot the bill for the recapitalisation of Cyprus' biggest bank, after it was hit by massive losses from its exposure to debt-crippled Greece. Bank of Cyprus said it had converted 37.5 percent of deposits exceeding €100,000 into "class A" shares, with an additional 22.5 percent held as a buffer for possible conversion in the future.

Another 30 percent would be temporarily frozen and held as deposits, the bank said.

The bail-in is part of attempts by Cyprus to find €13 billion - a figure nearly double the island's original bill - to shore up its economy. Other measures include a possible sell-off of the nation's gold reserves. The European Union and the International Monetary Fund are providing a further €10 billion to the island, one of the eurozone's smallest economies.

Eric King: "Jim, we now know the answer to the 'Cyprus Solution'."

Sinclair: "Yes, Cyprus depositors have now been flushed. The Bank of Cyprus, the island's largest bank said it has converted 37.5% of deposits exceeding 100,000 euros into a Class A share, with an additional 22.5% held as a buffer for possible conversion in the future."

"Another 30% will be temporarily frozen and held as a deposit. So the amount of money that has been taken from the Cyprus depositors is in all practicality almost their entire accounts. Major depositors funds have now been taken in grand style. Depositors everywhere are now defined as lenders to the banks. Today is a day of financial infamy. History will see this event as serious as the flushing of Lehman Brothers... "

Sinclair: "There has been a total blackout in the Western mainstream media regarding what just took place in Cyprus. Even where there was even scant reporting about Cyprus, they only reported approximately 1/3 of the amount of the assets that have effectively been stolen. The takeaway I have, and the shock I have, is that the news is now so selective in the so-called free Western hemisphere..."

One video features a Washington DC doctor, Cesare Santangelo, who said that in the unlikely event that an abortion resulted in a live birth, “we would not help it.” Santangelo was answering repeated questions from an undercover operative about what would happen, hypothetically, if she gave birth after an unsuccessful abortion.

“I mean, technically, you know, legally, we would be obligated to help it, you know, to survive, but ... it probably wouldn’t,” Santangelo is shown telling the woman, who was 24 weeks pregnant. “It’s all in how vigorously you do things to help a fetus survive at this point.” Live Action president Lila Rose said the group’s videos expose “truly gruesome, illegal and inhuman practices.” She defended the tactics, saying undercover investigations are a powerful method to expose abuses.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Santangelo said he was trying to reassure the woman, who turned out to be an undercover operative of the group, Live Action. In reality, he said, he would call 9-1-1. But he said he stands by what he said on tape. “What I said is, basically I wouldn’t do anything extraordinary,” he said Saturday. “We would call EMS. We would call 9-1-1. But I wouldn’t do intubation or anything... You let nature take its course.”

The videos do not depict Santangelo doing anything illegal.

The disaster, in which several thousand people were buried alive in the collapsed Rana Plaza building in Savar, a suburb of the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, created sights and sounds that many will find hard to forget. At least 3,000 people are believed to have been in the building on Rana Plaza at the time the building collapsed. More than 380 bodies had been recovered by Monday morning. Hundreds are still missing. And with every day that passes, the chances of finding survivors grows dimmer.

The deadly incident in Savar has already been called the worst industrial accident in the country's history. It serves as a reminder that nothing has changed when it comes to the inhumane conditions under which clothes are made in Bangladesh for European and American textile companies and clothing chains. And the same can be said about the culture of corruption that is rampant in Bangladesh, the abundance of illegally procured construction permits and the lax attitude factory owners take toward safety standards.

Workers had noticed deep cracks in the building's walls on Tuesday, the day before it caved in. They warned the police, the regulatory authorities and the Exporters Association of Bangladesh. It was common knowledge that the owner had three extra stories added to the previously five-story building without a permit. A ninth floor was under construction when the disaster occurred.

The Bangladeshi garment industry employs some 4 million people and generates almost 80 percent of the country's export revenues. Threats by customers are therefore not taken lightly. As a result, manufacturers were understandably desperate to make up for lost time. Roy Ramesch Chandra, the head of a trade union in Dhaka, calls the disaster "murder in the name of profit." He says, "Bangladeshi workers had to pay with their lives so that foreign consumers could buy cheap clothes."

One thousand survivors and World War II vets joined with former President Bill Clinton and Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust activist Elie Wiesel to mark the museum’s 20th anniversary. “We felt it was important, while that generation is still with us in fairly substantial numbers, to bring them together,” said Museum Director Sara Bloomfield.

Since the museum opened 20 years ago, the world has made huge scientific discoveries, including the sequencing of the human genome, which proved humans are 99.5 percent genetically the same, Clinton said. “Every non age-related difference … is contained in one half of 1 percent of our genetic makeup, but every one of us spends too much time on that half a percent,” Clinton said. “That makes us vulnerable to the fever, the sickness that the Nazis gave to the Germans. That sickness is very alive across the world today.”

Just five per cent of those polled ate every meal at the table, compared with 13 per cent of those who ate at least one meal a day there. A spokesperson from NetVoucherCodes.co.uk, who conducted the research commented: ‘Compared to 40 years ago, we now live in a society which moves at an extremely fast pace. Often, breakfast has to be eaten on the go, and in many cases so does lunch. Also, with people working longer hours, a quick ready meal or a takeaway in front of the TV is the easiest option.’

One final respondent said of the poll: ‘I am really worried that my children are growing up in a society where eating meals at the table is something special and not the norm. What does it say about family life in this country if all we can do at meal times is sit and watch the television while stuffing our faces.’

Now, however, the military is developing an alarming new interest in the human body and brain. It wants to create armies of mutant soldiers, equipped with unstoppable physical and mental powers. Within 30 years, according to newly released Ministry of Defence papers, British soldiers should be able to lift huge weights, run at high speeds over extreme distances, have infra-red night vision built into their brains, and even be capable of transmitting thoughts by electronically aided telepathy.

And this is not just pie-in-the-sky planning. Science is now emerging that may make these army dreams real. A recent Freedom of Information request revealed details of a two-day future-gazing summit by the MoD’s obscure Development Concepts and Doctrine Centre, where military spooks swapped ideas with experts from universities, industry and government.

The summit concluded that by 2045, advances in medical technology could create a class of genetically superior humans — rather like the super-powered science fiction characters Wolverine, Storm and Rogue from Marvel Comics.

Every six weeks or so, they gather in Basel, Switzerland, for secret discussions and, to an extent at least, they act in concert. The decisions that emerge from those meetings affect the entire world. And yet the broad public has a dim understanding, if any, of the job they do.

In fact, these individuals now wield at least as much influence over the lives of ordinary citizens as prime ministers and presidents. The tool they have used to change the world so profoundly is one they alone possess: creating money out of thin air. There is an economic term for this: quantitative easing. More colloquially, it's called printing money.

Since the great economic meltdown in 2008, these central bankers have probably saved the world's economy from collapse, and dragged it into the unknown at the same time. The amounts they have created are so vast as to be almost incomprehensible — trillions of dollars in pounds and euros, among other currencies.

“Italy is dying from fiscal consolidation. Growth policies cannot wait any longer,” he told Italy’s parliament. He said the country is in “very serious” crisis after a decade of stagnation and warned of violent protest if the social malaise deepens. The grand coalition of Left and Right - the first since the late 1940s - will abolish the hated IMU tax on primary residences, a wealth levy imposed by ex-premier Mario Monti, and push for tax cuts for business and young people to pull the country out of perma-slump. A rise in VAT to 22 percent in July may be delayed.

Vice-premier Angelo Alfano - the appointee of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi - said he agreed with every word from “beginning to end”, as the Berlusconi camp claimed “total victory” over the policy agenda. Mr Letta said Italy would abide by EU budget pledges but in reality he seems to have broken with the core demands of the EU fiscal compact.

Some homes that were destroyed along shore towns in New Jersey still look as they did the day after the storm: piles of rubble and kindling, with the occasional bathroom fixture or personal possession visible among the detritus. The cost of the damage wrecked by Sandy has been estimated at $50 billion (£32 billion), second only to the $108 billion (£70 billion) caused by Hurricane Katrina in Gulf Coast states in 2005.

US Congress approved more than $60 billion (£39 billion) in storm aid for Sandy victims and their communities.

Rosemarie Smead is one of about 150 women around the world who have decided not to wait for the Roman Catholic Church to lift its ban on women priests, but to be ordained and start their own congregations. In an interview before the ceremony, Smead said she is not worried about being excommunicated from the Church - the fate of other women ordained outside of Vatican law.

"It has no sting for me," said Smead, a petite, gray-haired former Carmelite nun with a ready hug for strangers. "It is a Medieval bullying stick the bishops used to keep control over people and to keep the voices of women silent. I am way beyond letting octogenarian men tell us how to live our lives."

The ordination of women as priests, along with the issues of married priests and birth control, represents one of the big divides between US Catholics and the Vatican hierarchy. Seventy percent of US Catholics believe that women should be allowed to be priests, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll earlier this year.