The Red Cross, Humane Society and other aid groups mobilized to help evacuees while at least 400 firefighters, aided by air tankers and helicopters from as far away as Canada battled the fire about 15 miles west of Fort Collins.

"The hope for containment today, I will tell you, is tenuous," incident commander Bill Hahnenberg said. The fire nearly doubled in size overnight to 36,930 acres, or more than 57 square miles, Larimer County Sheriff's Office Executive Officer Nick Christensen said Monday. It had been estimated at 20,000 acres Sunday night.

The fire is "very large, unpredictable, aggressive," Christensen said. It was moving at 20 to 40 feet per second, or about 1 mile an hour - fast for a fire, Christensen said. Flames of 15 to 20 feet were commonplace, with some reaching 300 feet, he said.

The deluge could persist until July, sparking fears of flash floods and travel chaos. Although the South, South-west, West and North are likely to get the worst of it, the whole country is braced for the worst storms for a decade. Jonathan Powell, of Vantage Weather Services, said: “The deluge is expected to get going from Monday with some extremely heavy and persistent downpours on the way. We are on course for the wettest June on record, without a doubt.”

The first of its kind in the United States, the law was adopted after the state Supreme Court went too far in one of its rulings last year, according to supporters. The case in question involved a man who assaulted an officer during a domestic violence call. The court ruled that there was “no right to reasonably resist unlawful entry by police officers.”

The National Rifle Association lobbied for the new law, arguing that the court decision had legalized police to commit unjustified entries. Tim Downs, president of the Indiana State Fraternal Order of Police, which opposed the legislation, said the law could open the way for people who are under the influence or emotionally distressed to attack officers in their homes. “It’s just a recipe for disaster,” Downs told Bloomberg. “It just puts a bounty on our heads.”

These genes make crops toxic to pests but are claimed to pose no danger to the environment and human health. Genetically modified brinjal, whose commercial release was stopped a year ago, has a toxin derived from a soil bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).

Till now, scientists and multinational corporations promoting GM crops have maintained that Bt toxin poses no danger to human health as the protein breaks down in the human gut. But the presence of this toxin in human blood shows that this does not happen.

Scientists from the University of Sherbrooke, Canada, have detected the insecticidal protein, Cry1Ab, circulating in the blood of pregnant as well as non-pregnant women. They have also detected the toxin in fetal blood, implying it could pass on to the next generation. The research paper has been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication in the journal Reproductive Toxicology. The study covered 30 pregnant women and 39 women who had come for tubectomy at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke (CHUS) in Quebec. None of them had worked or lived with a spouse working in contact with pesticides.

They were all consuming a typical Canadian diet that included GM foods such as soybeans, corn and potatoes. Blood samples were taken before delivery for pregnant women and at tubal ligation for non-pregnant women. Umbilical cord blood sampling was done after birth.

Cry1Ab toxin was detected in 93 per cent and 80 per cent of maternal and fetal blood samples, respectively and in 69 per cent of tested blood samples from non-pregnant women.

"If Europe does slip into a crisis, it is going to be a very difficult time. There is no escaping from that. Though we (government and the Reserve Bank) have a team that is working on different scenarios, to see how we will react, it will be a lie to say that we have the strength to weather that. It will hit us in the face," Basu told an Exim [Export/Import] Bank organised here over the weekend.

Stating that a deeper European crisis was not impossible, he said there would be a jolt and it could spin Europe into a big crisis. "It is going to be a difficult one or two years for the world for sure." However, he said on the positive side, "Thankfully, Europe is no longer our biggest export destination, to the Middle East we probably export more today."

But he warned that the impact on us will be indirect. "Europe being a major driver of growth and if it slows down, even if we don't get a direct hit, the US is going to get hit immediately, China is going to get hit immediately. So the impact on us will come to us through our trading partners."

Because Bitcoin isn't under the control of central banks or governments, there is a perception that it's not susceptible to political pressures. This is why so many are flocking to bitcoin and leaving the European banks. More from the Financial Post: ...The sudden rise (in Bitcoin transfers) has been driven by people in countries like Greece, Italy, Spain — and even the Netherlands — anxious to protect their savings.

“We’re getting requests from people literally saying, can we mail you euros? We can’t do that legally, but they keep asking.” It's interesting that people are willing to put their money on Bitcoin, where security breaches by hackers have already occurred, rather than in century old banks or government treasuries. This says a lot about how the people feel about the European banks.

Official statistics confirmed that Italy’s economy contracted by a quarterly rate of 0.8 percent in the first three months of the year, the worst contraction in three years and significantly more than in Spain, whose economy contracted 0.4 percent. While Italy’s first quarter performance was affected by one-offs like a transport strike that hurt sales of durable goods like cars, the second quarter is expected to be equally dire — experts predict a contraction of between 0.6 percent and 0.7 percent. IHS analyst Raj Badiani called the numbers “appalling.”

“The focus is on Italy and the risk is high. The Italian government has to deliver on its reform agenda. Any relapses to the old Italian ways will lead to another spike in bond yields, which could see them overtake Spanish bond yields. The situation is fragile,” said Badiani.

The problem, said sovereign debt expert Nicholas Spiro, is that Spain’s admission that its banks need a bailout gives rise to what he called “bailout creep,” the idea in international markets that Italy will be the next domino to fall. “WHERE SPAIN GOES, THERE IS THE PERCEPTION THAT ITALY WILL FOLLOW, which is terrible because it is like comparing apples and pears,” Spiro said, noting that Italy’s economic situation is “infinitely better.”

Financial markets responded with relief to Saturday's euro zone deal to lend Madrid up to €100 billion ($125 billion) to recapitalize debt-laden banks, with investors scooping up battered financial shares. The euro and European stocks jumped, with the Madrid stock exchange opening up 5.3 percent and the euro zone STOXX banking index rising 4.5 percent in early trade.

Spanish and Italian bond yields fell after the deal eased fears of a run on Spanish banks. But previous "bailout bounces" on financial markets have been short-lived, often fizzling within a day or two as investors anticipate the next flare-up in the euro zone's unresolved debt crisis. Greece's general election next Sunday could rapidly change market sentiment if radical leftists hostile to the austerity terms of Athens' EU/IMF bailout outpoll the mainstream conservative and centre-left parties that signed the deal, or the vote ends in another deadlock.

Rajoy said on Sunday Madrid had scored a victory by securing aid from euro zone partners without having to submit to a full state rescue program, saying Spain's rescue had "nothing to do" with the procedures imposed on Greece, Ireland and Portugal. But EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that as in those other bailouts, a "troika" of the International Monetary Fund, THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION AND THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK WOULD OVERSEE THE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.

Earlier this week police conducted a dawn raid on the house and office of Ettore Gotti Tedeschi. Investigators say they were looking for evidence in a draft case against defense and aerospace firm Finmeccanica, which was formerly run by a close friend of Gotti Tedeschi. Instead, as it turns out, police stumbled upon an entirely different find.

They discovered 47 binders containing private communication exposing the opaque inner workings of the secretive Holy See. They included financial documents, details of money transfers and confidential internal reports – all prepared by Gotti Tedeschi to build a convincing expose of corruption in the Vatican.

The Vatican is barely concealing its panic – and wants the folders handed back unopened.“We have faith that the prosecutors and Italian judicial system will respect our sovereignty — recognized internationally — with regard to these documents,” said an official statement. But there is little chance the Papacy will get its way this time.

Italian prosecutors have frequently been at loggerheads with the Vatican and have accused it of using its sovereignty as a shield against proper regulation. If the documents do spark a legal firestorm, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi is sure to be a key witness in any trial. A former employee against his employers, and a conservative Catholic pitched against the Vatican itself.

Allegedly, Gotti Tedeschi keeps a list of personal enemies in the Vatican – people who he had felt would stop at nothing to prevent him from reforming the Institute for Works of Religion. His friends have told the media he is shaken and scared. Police are now considering putting the whistle-blowing banker under armed protection.

Aidan O’Neill QC has provided the Catholic Church with a legal opinion stating that equality laws mean teachers will be forced to emphasise the validity of same-sex marriages. Mothers and fathers with “traditional and often religiously-based views” will be “hard pressed” to insist that their offspring are educated in line with their convictions, he said.

The Catholic Church in Scotland, which commissioned the opinion, said it raised the prospect of classrooms being “flooded” with teaching materials promoting gay marriage. Although the opinion considers the position in Scotland, where Alex Salmond’s administration is expected to legalise same-sex marriage, it is thought it could apply south of the Border where David Cameron is planning to do the same.

Mr O’Neill said legalising gay marriage is not required under the European Convention of Human Rights but case law makes it “clear” that parents who believe in “committed and faithful heterosexual sex” will have no recourse if this is done.

Mr Rajoy’s claims that Spain’s public finances would not be impacted were disputed, even though the details of the deal have not been released. “A bail-out is a bail-out, Spain, sorry,” said Steen Jakobsen chief economist of Saxo Bank, arguing that the liability for cost will be added to Spain’s public debt, even indirectly.

Open Europe, the London-based think tank, said if Spanish banks take up Brussels’ offer of €100 billion in loans, Spain’s public debt would grow by around 10 per cent. “If this is a victory - finally dealing with a glaring problem after four years - then we don’t want to see a defeat,” said Raoul Ruparel of Open Europe. “Spanish debt to GDP could be about to jump by 10 per cent in the near future and given its current path this could put Spain over 90 per cent debt to GDP, the level beyond which sustainability becomes questionable, much sooner than had been anticipated.”

“This will require adjustments in its reform programme and lead to increasing market pressure.” Spanish officials said the loan would cost 3 per cent a year rather than the 6 per cent-plus that it is costing Spain to borrow on the bond markets.

In the US and Germany, the loss of output since 2008 of about 5-7 per cent hardly registers against the losses registered during the Great Depression, when output fell by 25 per cent. But the recession here in the UK has been greater. Contrary to the folk memory of a disastrous decade, in the 1930s the UK did relatively well. Of course, unemployment at first rose alarmingly – and this counted for far more then as living standards were lower and there was less support for the needy. Yet output here only fell by about 8 per cent, and it subsequently recovered rapidly.

In the popular imagination, the slump of the 1930s was set off by the sharp falls in share prices in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. In fact, the direct effect of the Crash was probably not that great. More important was the international banking crisis which followed the collapse of the Austrian bank, Creditanstalt, in 1931. This time we have not had major weakness in share prices, but we have had a major asset price collapse, namely in real estate prices - in America, Spain and Ireland. As a direct result, we have certainly had a major banking crisis.

This was a key feature of 1930s America. Interestingly, though, despite the economic downturn, there were no bank failures here. That meant that the policy of very low interest rates and concomitant low bond yields could succeed in boosting private spending.

As regards policy to get out of the mess, there are both similarities and differences. In 2009, there was an international conference in London to try to sort the problem out. The same thing had happened in 1933. And then, as now, it does not seem to have done any lasting good. In the 1930s, the possibility of reaching a global solution was hampered by the difficult relationship between the old hegemon, the UK, and the new powers, the US, Germany and Japan. Now the US, as the declining hegemon, squares off against China and the emerging markets.

ITALY MUST GUARANTEE 22 PER CENT OF THE BAIL-OUT FUNDS, EVEN THOUGH IT CANNOT RAISE MONEY ITSELF AT A SUSTAINABLE RATE. You could hardly design a surer way to pull Italy into the fire. Citigroup warned over the weekend that Italy’s economy will shrink by 2.5 per cent this year and another 2 per cent next year as the fiscal squeeze starts in earnest, with grim implications for debt dynamics. Public debt will jump from 121 per cent of GDP to 137 per cent by 2014.

“The situation could rapidly become critical, because the country is highly vulnerable if the sovereign debt crisis persists or intensifies. A significant further rise in yields would deepen and extend the recession and accelerate the rise in the debt/GDP ratio, triggering a worsening vicious circle. We expect that Italy will have to request help,” it said. The world is uncomfortably close to a 1931 moment. Italy’s public debt is the world’s third largest after the US and Japan at €1.9 trillion. There is no margin for political error.

The EU machinery (EFSF/ESM) exists largely on paper, a €500 billion declaration of intent. It had trouble raising trivial sums last year to fund Irish and Portuguese loan tranches - understandably so, since the fund is a transparent attempt to evade the imperative of Eurobonds and EMU debt pooling.

It comes amid claims that the form is being filled in by gay rights activists in California. Mr Brazier has called on Ms Featherstone to tear up the “flawed” consultation, which ends on Thursday, and start again with a “robust and rigorous” process. The online form does not require a person to give their name, address, e-mail account address or even verify that they are a UK citizen.

Mr Brazier said: “Given the sensitive and important nature of the topic matter, it strikes me as highly unusual to rely on a completely anonymous internet survey that requires no verification of one-person one-submission status, whether the person is a UK citizen, or even if they are a UK resident and entitled to take part. This lack of validation opens the door to abuse of the consultation, which could significantly skew the results. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with the policy, it is surely in everyone’s interests that the consultation is seen as fair.”

Government guidelines on consultations suggest all those taking part should receive feedback, but it is impossible in this case as no personal details are required. A Home Office spokeswoman said: “We have ensured the equal civil marriage consultation is as open, fair and transparent as possible. We made clear when the consultation was launched that all responses would be treated as anonymous.”

The Associated Press also reports of wolves being evacuated from a local sanctuary. The Colorado fire is now raging in a mountainous area on a territory covering some 22 square miles. It has already destroyed or damaged 18 structures. In New Mexico, firefighters were struggling to put out a 40-square-mile wildfire near the mountain community of Ruidoso, but strong winds have grounded aircraft fighting the blaze. The fires started on Friday, and have damaged or destroyed 36 structures.