The key to getting your way in tough negotiations, of course, is to find your opponents Achilles' heel. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy did that on Thursday night and early Friday morning in Brussels. And the result is a euro-zone agreement to allow the common currency bailout funds to give direct help to ailing banks and to become active on sovereign bond markets to provide relief on the financial markets - free of conditions for the countries in need of such aid.

"We are opening the possibilities for countries that are well-behaving to make use of financial stability instruments, the EFSF and ESM, in order to reassure markets and get again some stability around some of the sovereign bonds of our member states," said European Council President Herman Van Rompuy at a 4:30 am press conference, referring to the temporary bailout fund European Financial Stability Facility and the permanent fund European Stability Mechanism.

Monti and Rajoy were able to secure the immediate assistance they had been demanding by threatening to torpedo the €120 billion ($150 billion) European Union growth pact leaders had hoped to rubber stamp early on Thursday evening. Even if experts doubt whether the growth pact will have much of an effect, German Chancellor Angela Merkel had promised the successful passage of the pact to the opposition back home in exchange for their support in ratifying the ESM and the EU fiscal pact in parliamentary votes on Friday. Merkel is seeking a two-thirds majority for both measures to take the wind out of the sails of potential legal challenges at Germany's Constitutional Court.

A detailed proposal on how a banking union might look is to be presented in the autumn by the so-called Gang of Four, made up of Van Rompuy and the heads of the European Commission, European Central Bank and Euro Group. "THE AIM IS, OF COURSE, TO MAKE THE EURO AN IRREVERSIBLE PROJECT," Van Rompuy said.

Spain and Italy put pressure on Germany to allow the bailout fund to buy government debt in the markets - a measure to contain borrowing costs. Eurozone leaders agreed to begin implementing the decisions by 9 July. HOWEVER, IT COULD TAKE UNTIL THE END OF THE YEAR BEFORE THE NEW MONEY BECOMES AVAILABLE.

Announcing the deal, EU Council President Herman van Rompuy said it would break the "vicious circle" between banks and national governments. The euro surged against the dollar in Asian trade after the news from Brussels. Stocks in Germany and London also rose sharply. The deal also tried to sort out a problem with a previous agreement to lend money to Spain's banks. There had been confusion over where that money would come from, and which lenders would have priority in the event of a default.

Internal predictions now state that the worst case scenario is that £5.7 billion has to be written off, though it is now scrambling to avoid that happening. The deals were made by a team led by French-born trader Bruno Iksil, nicknamed Voldemort after Harry Potter’s evil nemesis because he was such a ‘scary and powerful’ force in the City. JP Morgan’s chief executive Jamie Dimon had previously admitted that he thought the loss could rise to £1.8 billion, but the latest figure is far higher.

The bank is due to give an update on July 13 but according to the New York Times it has already extricated itself from half the botched deals and may be completely out by the end of the year. The disclosure comes at a time when the banking industry is under intense scrutiny over the Barclays scandal.

Barclays has been fined £290 million by the Financial Services Authority and US regulators for trying to manipulate a key interest rate to make money and make itself look more stable than it actually was. Critics have claimed both episodes are further evidence that the banking industry needs tighter regulation.

The Avenger class vessels out of San Diego will join eight US and British navy mine hunters deployed in the region. Their main mission will be to keep open the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the only way in and out of the gulf, if the Iranians carry through on a threat to close the vital energy artery through which one-fifth of the world's oil supplies pass every day.

Iran is reported to have in excess of 2,000 sea mines, including advanced Russian weapons, that could be used to block the narrow, 112-mile strait.

These could be used in conjunction with Chinese-designed anti-ship missiles and swarm attacks by fleets of armed speedboats manned by naval forces of the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps. The Navy has two aircraft carrier battle groups, headed by the USS Enterprise and the USS Abraham Lincoln, deployed in the gulf and the Arabian Sea. These can put up a powerful force of more than 100 F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet strike jets, backed by early warning radar and surveillance aircraft.

The French navy's carrier Charles de Gaulle, carrying multi-role Dassault Rafale jets, is also in the region. Meantime, the USS Ponce, an amphibious transport ship now configured to operate as a mother ship for US Special Forces using helicopters and small patrol boats, was reported transiting the Suez Canal en route to Manama. It's expected to arrive in Bahrain early in July, which could be a critical period in the long-simmering confrontation between the United States, and its gulf allies led by Saudi Arabia, and Iran.

Navy warships and submarines have fired more than 2,000 Tomahawks in combat, from the 1990-91 Gulf War through the Libyan war in 2011.

The current variant, the 1.2-ton RGM-109E Block 4 land attack missile deployed in the gulf, has a range of around 1,000 miles. It can fly at an altitude of 50-100 feet, making it difficult to detect, and has been upgraded to hit moving targets, particularly other ships.

In recent weeks, the US Air Force has deployed an unspecified number of state-of-the-art Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor fighters, the most advanced operational fighter in the world. These are believed to be deployed at Al-Dhafra airbase near Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, a longtime Arab ally.

And this is precisely what is happening – but in ways that have startled the researchers themselves. The discovery is a wakeup call to geneticists because it has highlighted the importance of having to closely monitor and counter pest resistance to biotech crops. The development also raises the question of the potential futility of having to change the genetic structure of crops in perpetuity; given that insects are constantly evolving, to what degree will geneticists have to go to ensure crop immunity to pests? And what does that say to the ongoing safety of such crops as far as human consumption is concerned?

Case in point are cotton bollworms. To deal with these pests, genetic scientists have developed an insect-killing cotton plant that produces toxins derived from the Bt bacterium (geneticists say that these toxins are harmless to most other creatures, including humans). But the bollworms are developing a resistance. Scientists have observed that a rare genetic mutation in bollworms makes them immune to Bt – and that the mutation isn't so rare any more.

One scientist who predicted that these insects would adapt is Bruce Tabashnik, head of the department of entomology at the University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and co-author of the study making note of these findings. To stay ahead of the game, Tabashnik studied bollworms in the lab just to see how they would adapt to the toxin. Then, expecting to see the same sorts of adaptations in the real world, he took a look at bollworms in China.

What he found there was a bit disturbing. Yes, he discovered bollworms that exhibited the exact same mutations as the ones in his lab – but the Chinese insects also showed some adaptations that were completely unexpected. Speaking through a University of Arizona release, Tabashnik noted that, "We also found lots of other mutations, most of them in the same gene and one in a completely different gene."

A particularly big surprise was that the real world mutations will be more challenging to deal with from a genetic perspective. This indicates that geneticists are in the midst of an arms race with insects. Each measure they enact will likely be countered by the ever-adapting insects. It's difficult to know at this point just how modified the crops will have to be to withstand these pests, or how these new crops could impact on human health and the very constitution of the insects themselves.

In one incident, an unauthorized employee was discovered inside a restricted area. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman says the unsecured door incidents in 2010 and 2009 inside its Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory in Atlanta were "not an acceptable practice of the agency." At no time, though, were bioterror organisms such as anthrax at risk of falling into the wrong hands, he said.

"The doors in question here are but one layer of multiple layers of security when it comes to both the animals and the agents that are worked on," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said. "The security measures we have in place, without going into detail, make it close to impossible for anyone who doesn't have approved access to the agents to get their hands on them."

The e-mails document doors being left unlocked in the building's high-containment lab block, which includes an animal-holding area and Biosafety Level 3 labs where experiments are done on microbes that can cause serious or potentially fatal diseases and can be spread through the air. Anthrax, monkeypox, dangerous strains of influenza and the SARS virus are examples.

One e-mail by a CDC safety manager describes an unauthorized man discovered in the animal-holding area and multiple doors that were unsecured at the time. Skinner says the man was a CDC scientist but was not immediately able to provide further details about why he was in the restricted area. Skinner said the man was in an outer corridor of the BSL-3 suite of labs.

Already a figure of hate in Greece for insisting on austerity in exchange for aid, Merkel has long endured montages of herself in a Nazi uniform, but the run-up to this week's EU summit has unleashed particularly savage images and headlines. Politicians from Paris to Washington are piling pressure on Merkel, leader of Europe's biggest economy, to solve the debt crisis which threatens to derail the global economy.

But 'Frau Nein' shows little sign of giving ground on such issues as mutualizing Europe's debt or slashing public spending - not least because her approach has boosted her popularity among German voters in the countdown to next year's election. Britain's left-wing New Statesman magazine last week splashed an image of Merkel as the Terminator with a glistening robotic eye and Arnold Schwarzenegger-style black jacket on its front cover under the headline "Europe's most dangerous leader".

In an article arguing that Merkel's "mania for austerity" is destroying Europe, senior editor Mehdi Hasan characterized her as a greater danger to global prosperity and order than Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or North Korea's Kim Jong-un. "Merkel is the most dangerous German leader since Hitler" wrote Hasan, adding that under her leadership Germany, Europe's paymaster, was isolated, loathed and feared in equal measure.

It may be a British tradition to poke fun at Germans, but the tone has turned nasty even in some mainstream publications. The centrist Independent daily has published a reproduction of Goya's painting of 'Saturn devouring his son' showing a wild-eyed Merkel, with a Greek flag as a bib, devouring a Greek.

In the course of the debt crisis, the German Constitutional Court has ruled several times to boost the say of Germany's parliament in euro zone affairs, slowing down the decision-making process. Ironically, it was the United States and Britain which imposed this political system of checks and balances on Germany after World War Two to avoid a repeat of Hitler's dictatorship.

The two remain at odds on how to move forward, with Germany opposed to pooling debt while France insists the eurozone needs further integration. But there appears to be broad agreement on stimulating growth. European authorities have unveiled proposals such as the creation of a European treasury, which would have powers over national budgets.

The 10-year plan is designed to strengthen the eurozone and prevent future crises, but critics say it will not address current debt problems. Spanish 10-year government bonds were trading at yields above 6.9% on Thursday morning, coming close to the 7% considered unaffordable. Spanish and Italian leaders are worried that their countries could soon - in effect - be shut out of international markets and forced to seek assistance.

The debate about short-term fixes could become very bitter indeed, the BBC's Chris Morris reports. Mrs Merkel has warned there is no "magic formula" to solve the crisis.

Firemen had set up a perimeter in an attempt to contain the blaze, one of 10 currently burning across the central US state, after it took hold of 6,000 acres of the Pikes National Forest, just west of Colorado Springs. But on Wednesday, fanned by a windy thunderstorm, it spread to cover more than 15,000 acres – 24 square miles – quickly overwhelming fire crews and tearing into neighbourhoods on the city’s west side.

More than 32,000 of the city’s 419,000 residents were ordered to leave their homes. Local politicians described the scene as akin to “the worst movie set you can imagine”. Fleeing residents covered their faces with T-shirts and bandannas to breathe through the smoke. It marked the most dramatic development yet in America’s summer wildfire season, the worst in recent years, which has been fuelled by searing, record-setting heat and prolonged drought.

Most, if not all, of Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana are under red flag warnings, meaning extreme fire danger. On Wednesday the air above Colorado Springs, which sits beneath the Rocky Mountains, was filled with plumes of heavy smoke and ash which could be seen nearly 100 miles away in Denver.

In the north of the state, near Fort Collins, a fire in High Park is already the second worst in the history of Colorado. It started following a lightning strike on June 9 and is currently only 65 per cent contained. It has destroyed 257 homes and as of yesterday had spread across 87,284 acres. One person has been killed.

The Thursday political cartoon in the Financial Times Deutschland couldn't be easier to decipher. It depicts the Grim Reaper standing over an aged, bed-ridden Angela Merkel saying: "It is time." Merkel responds: "For euro bonds, I know."

The drawing refers to the chancellor's comments made Tuesday afternoon during a meeting with parliamentarians belonging to her junior coalition partner, the Free Democrats. Euro bonds, she said according to meeting participants, would not be introduced in the euro zone "as long as I live." The statement was widely interpreted as Merkel finally losing patience with demands from southern European countries that euro-zone debt be communitized. Instead of bending to the political breeze, Merkel had finally turned into "Iron Angie."

But is that really what she meant? There are several indications that the answer could be no. First and foremost, the Chancellery has been at pains since Tuesday evening to elaborate on the context within which the "as long as I live" sentence was uttered. In reality, several papers, citing Chancellery sources, are reporting on Thursday that she was outlining the complexity of the reforms necessary before such shared debt could be introduced. As such, euro bonds aren't likely "in her lifetime." In other words, the Chancellery is insisting, Merkel remains the voice of calm and reason rather than one of hysteria and division.

Furthermore, in her speech before German parliament on Wednesday, her line on euro bonds was the same as it has always been - shared debt might make an appearance eventually, BUT ONLY AT THE END OF A LONG POLITICAL AND FISCAL REFORM PROCESS.

A showdown is brewing between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti at the European Union summit in Brussels. Shortly before the start of the key euro crisis meeting on Thursday afternoon, Berlin further stoked its ongoing conflict with Rome. High-level officials within Merkel's government dismissed complaints from Monti and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy over high interest rates for government bonds in their countries as "fearmongering."

"I would warn against projecting interest rates from specific situations as though they were the average," a German government source said. "Interest rates fluctuate." There is no reason to "fall into alarm," the official added. In recent days, Monti and Rajoy have resorted to increasingly shrill rhetoric to indicate that their countries are in desperate need of assistance. They want the euro rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), to buy up Italian and Spanish bonds to push down market interest rates from levels approaching 7 percent, which is considered to be unsustainable for borrowing in the longer term.

If the EU summit in Brussels fails to make this happen, then a "catastrophe" awaits, Monti has warned, adding that the euro would then "go to hell". On Thursday, Italy had to offer yields of 6.19 percent in order to float government bonds valuing a total of €5.4 billion ($6.7 billion). But Berlin has so far been unfazed by Monti's warnings. The view of Merkel's government is that purchasing government bonds is not on the agenda.

"The Big Bang could've occurred as a result of just the laws of physics being there," said astrophysicist Alex Filippenko of the University of California, Berkeley. "With the laws of physics, you can get universes."

However, Filippenko, a speaker on the "Did the Big Bang Require a Divine Spark?" panel, stopped short of saying there is no god - he's merely pointing out that the birth of the Universe didn't require an intervening omnipotent being to get the whole thing started. The laws of physics, pure and simple, sparked universal creation.

He then meandered into a classic chicken-and-egg argument: "The question, then, is, 'Why are there laws of physics?' And you could say, 'Well, that required a divine creator, who created these laws of physics and the spark that led from the laws of physics to these universes, maybe more than one.'

"The 'divine spark' was whatever produced the laws of physics. And I don't know what produced that divine spark. So let's just leave it at the laws of physics."

British astrophysicist and author Stephen Hawking, on the other hand, cares little for society's belief in supernatural beings (or subtlety for that matter). In his 2010 book, "The Grand Design," Hawking said, "Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist."

The address was in response to an independent report on foreign debt and other related international financial obligations. The Holy See supported the "Report’s assertion that human rights as well as the rules of justice and ethics apply to all economic and social relations, including foreign debt obligations."

"Human rights criteria for evaluating foreign debt can be an important tool for moving development from the narrow economic or material understanding to one based on integral human development, one that promotes the development of each man and of the whole man," he said. Archbishop Tomasi also acknowledged the role corruption has and continues to play in less developed countries.

The Italian archbishop stressed the importance of a "people-centered ethics" that is based on the dignity of the human person as crucial to the handling of foreign debt. If not, he warned, "wealth and debt become instruments of exploitation, especially of the poor and marginalized."

Archbishop Tomasi concluded his address by stressing that the problem of sovereign debt cannot be viewed as solely economic. "It affects future generations as well as the social conditions that allow the enjoyment of human rights of vast numbers of people entitled to the solidarity of the whole human family."

The Russian war games began the same day President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a frosty summit meeting in Mexico June 18. US officials said the arctic exercises over the Russian Far East and Pacific appeared to be a further sign of Russia’s hardening posture toward the United States. The Obama administration made no protest of the bomber intrusions, according to the officials, in line with its conciliatory “reset” policy of seeking warmer ties with Moscow.

About 30 strategic nuclear bombers and support aircraft took part in the war games that continued through June 25. The aircraft included Tu-95MS Bear H and Tu-160 Blackjack nuclear-capable bombers, along with Il-76 refueling tankers, A-50 airborne warning and control aircraft, and Su-27 and MiG-31 jet fighters. Some 200 troops also took part in the Russian Strategic Aviation forces exercise.

So far, two of the babies have been tested and have been found to contain genes from three 'parents'. Fifteen of the children were born in the past three years as a result of one experimental programme at the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science of St Barnabas in New Jersey.

The babies were born to women who had problems conceiving. Extra genes from a female donor were inserted into their eggs before they were fertilised in an attempt to enable them to conceive. Genetic fingerprint tests on two one-year-old children confirm that they have inherited DNA from three adults - two women and one man. The fact that the children have inherited the extra genes and incorporated them into their 'germline' means that they will, in turn, be able to pass them on to their own offspring.

Altering the human germline - in effect tinkering with the very make-up of our species - is a technique shunned by the vast majority of the world's scientists. Geneticists fear that one day this method could be used to create new races of humans with extra, desired characteristics such as strength or high intelligence. Writing in the journal Human Reproduction, the researchers, led by fertility pioneer Professor Jacques Cohen, say that this 'is the first case of human germline genetic modification resulting in normal healthy children'.