The ruling came in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from a public interest group, which said the public has a right to know about any spying on citizens. The appeals court agreed that the NSA can reject the request, and does not even have to confirm whether it has any arrangement with the Internet giant.

"Any information pertaining to the relationship between Google and NSA would reveal protected information about NSA's implementation of its information assurance mission," Judge Janice Rogers Brown wrote in the appeals opinion. The non-profit Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a formal request to make public documents related to the dealings, and said much of the information had already been in news media. The request stemmed from a January 2010 cyber attack on Google that primarily targeted the Gmail email accounts of Chinese human rights activists.

Up to 600 people denouncing the Bank of England rallied in London and a Reuters witness said scuffles broke out between some demonstrators and police, with at least 12 arrests. The Indignados and the offshoot Occupy and Take the Square movements had called for a global day of action against anti-debt austerity policies and the widening gap between rich and poor, but nowhere were protests as large as in Spain.

A year after tens of thousands set up a month-long camp in Madrid's central Puerta del Sol square, drawing international attention, indignant Spaniards have even more to be angry about. Unemployment has soared to over 24 percent, over half the country's youth is out of work, the economy has dipped back into recession and one of its largest banks has been nationalized.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative government has passed painful austerity measures that have hit once-sacred public health and education spending in an effort to appease international markets and avoid a Greek-style bailout. "We have to stand up and say enough is enough! They pull our hair telling us we're lazy so they can dismantle social welfare and take away health and education and now they're bailing out the bankers," said Gloria Bravo, 48, a civil servant.

Rescue money for banks, crippled after a 10-year building bubble burst four years ago, is a touchy subject for Spaniards, especially after the government took a stake in lender Bankia on Wednesday. "They bail out banks but not people," banners read in Cantabria, northern Spain, home to Spain's biggest bank Santander. Demonstrators gathered in more than 80 cities across Spain, chanting the slogan that has become a mantra at protests over the past year: "They say it's democracy but it's not."

The three nations are major traders, and together accounted for 19.6 percent of global gross domestic product and 18.5 percent of exports in 2010, according to a feasibility study that the governments issued last year on the proposed trade pact. But they are divided by political distrust, trade barriers and diverging investment policies.

"In response to a slow economic recovery and rising trade protectionism around the world, many countries are seeking to strengthen regional economic integration to expand their market share and raise their competitiveness," China's Wen told reporters after talks in Beijing with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

"Northeast Asia is the most economically vibrant region in the world," Wen said. "The establishment of an FTA will unleash the economic vitality of our region and give a strong boost to economic integration in east Asia."

The small, upstart party known as the Pirates has the political establishment sitting up and taking notice. Analysts attribute the Pirates’ success, in part, to many voters’ feelings of alienation from traditional center-left and center-right parties. “The party is something that people are projecting their hopes onto at the moment,” said Stephan Kletcha, a political science researcher at Erlangen’s Friedrich Alexander University.

In September, the Pirates won 15 seats in the Berlin Senate. The unprecedented win was a surprise even for party members, officials said, but it gave them the momentum to win seats in the western state of Saarland in March, led by 22-year-old former Goth model Jasmin Maurer.

On May 6, voters in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein gave the Pirates six seats in parliament. Polls forecast the Pirates will win more Sunday in the legislature of Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia. Now, some of these “swashbucklers” are eyeing real power as part of state coalition governments.

“I’d like a new political system in which [lawmakers] vote according to conscience rather than party,” said Daniel Schweighofer, who administers Liquid Feedback, and who acknowledged that he holds on to some of his old anarchist ideals. “The Pirate Party isn’t important. What is crucial are our goals.”

"This union could start with two or three" members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, she told AFP, adding that the proposal for a Gulf union put forward by Saudi King Abdullah was "backed by Bahrain." Unlike most other Gulf countries ruled by Sunni dynasties, Bahrain was hit last year by a wave of protests inspired by the Arab Spring and led by its Shiite majority. The tiny neighbour of the Gulf heavyweight continues to see frequent confrontations between police and protesters despite a brutal crackdown on mass protests in mid-March last year, a day after Saudi forces rolled into Bahrain to help quell the uprising.

On Friday, a top Gulf official who requested not to be named also said Gulf leaders will "discuss the idea of a union between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain." The GCC, which was formed in 1981, also includes Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the UAE. Rajab declined to elaborate on the nature of the proposed union, saying only that it could follow the "European Union model." "In Bahrain, we support setting up a Gulf union to protect us from the threats facing the region on the political, economic, security and military fronts," she said.

King Abdullah told his fellow Gulf leaders in December that the GCC should move from the "phase of cooperation to a phase of union within a single entity." A joint committee comprising three representatives of each member state is tasked with thinking the proposal through and should present its findings to Monday's summit.

US media reports say that market regulators have already begun an investigation into the losses. According to the New York Times, the Securities and Exchange Commission is looking at JP Morgan's accounting practices and the way it updated the markets about the loss making trades. Credit rating agency Fitch said the scale of the loss was "manageable". But it also said the size of the trade and the fact the situation was ongoing, implied that was proving difficult for JP Morgan to fix the problem.

As a result Fitch downgraded JP Morgan's debt from A plus to AA minus and said that another downgrade could be possible in the next six months. JP Morgan's losses undermined confidence in other US banking shares. Citigroup closed 4.2% lower, Goldmans Sachs fell 3.9% and Morgan Stanley lost 4.2%. US politicians have called for action.

The strategy taken at the CIO unit, run by Ina Drew in New York and Achilles Macris in London, had been "riskier, more volatile and less effective" than previously believed, Mr Dimon said. "These were egregious mistakes," he said. "They were self-inflicted and this is not how we want to run a business. It could get worse," he warned. "This could go on for a little bit." He said the risky hedging strategy could cost the bank an additional $1 billion.

When most Americans think of Wall Street, they think of a bunch of stuffy bankers trading stocks and bonds. But over the past couple of decades it has evolved into much more than that. Today, Wall Street is the biggest casino in the entire world. When the “too big to fail” banks make good bets, they can make a lot of money. When they make bad bets, they can lose a lot of money, and that is exactly what just happened to JP Morgan. Their Chief Investment Office made a series of trades which turned out horribly, and it resulted in a loss of over 2 billion dollars over the past 40 days.

But 2 billion dollars is small potatoes compared to the vast size of the global derivatives market. It has been estimated that the the notional value of all the derivatives in the world is somewhere between 600 trillion dollars and 1.5 quadrillion dollars. Nobody really knows the real amount, but when this derivatives bubble finally bursts there is not going to be nearly enough money on the entire planet to fix things.

Sadly, a lot of mainstream news reports are not even using the word “derivatives” when they discuss what just happened at JP Morgan. This morning I listened carefully as one reporter described the 2 billion dollar loss as simply a “bad bet”. And perhaps that is easier for the American people to understand. JP Morgan made a series of really bad bets and during a conference call last night CEO Jamie Dimon admitted that the strategy was “flawed, complex, poorly reviewed, poorly executed and poorly monitored”. The funny thing is that JP Morgan is considered to be much more “risk averse” than most other major Wall Street financial institutions are.

So if this kind of stuff is happening at JP Morgan, then what in the world is going on at some of these other places? That is a really good question.

The Japanese government has been scrambling to keep the utility company from collapsing so it can meet the billions of dollars in compensation claims and decommission the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi, all while continuing to provide the Tokyo metropolis with stable electricity.

The government is also eager to push through reforms to restore public trust in a company that has played a vital role in Japan’s energy policy but has also admitted safety lapses and cover-ups at its power plants. The $12.5 billion bailout comes at a time when the government itself is carrying a debt burden that has mushroomed to more than twice the size of the economy.

“I ask that you rebuild the trust that has been lost,” Yukio Edano, the Japanese trade minister, told executives of the utility on Wednesday after his ministry approved the 10-year plan. “We consider the plan a new start and are prepared to thoroughly carry it out,” said Toshio Nishizawa, president of Tokyo Electric, also known as Tepco.

Savings have been wiped out and in Spain, a real estate crash has helped swell unemployment to 25 per cent of the workforce. Many economists have advocated a greater emphasis on growth, but it has only gained traction among European policy-makers and politicians in the past few weeks. Paul Krugman, an economics Nobel Prize winner, welcomed the anti-austerity groundswell in Europe, saying the bloc’s voters proved “wiser than the Continent’s best and brightest”.

He said the health of the German economy was “an argument for much more expansionary policies elsewhere, and in particular for the European Central Bank to drop its obsession with inflation and focus on growth”. Anti-austerity momentum came to a head on Sunday night, when voters in France and Greece spectacularly ousted governments seen as towing the fiscal discipline line too strictly. In France, new Socialist president-elect Francois Hollande said his victory marked “a new departure for Europe and hope for the world” because it showed “austerity can no longer be the only option”.

Meanwhile in Greece, where over 60 per cent of voters support anti-austerity parties, parties who reject the extreme belt-tightening that comes with international bail-outs were the big winners in parliamentary elections on Sunday. Hannes Swoboda, leader of European Socialists and Democrats, said yesterday: “This radical austerity policy has pushed Europe into recession and brought about the explosion in unemployment. It has led to the votes for extremists in Greece and the upsurge in the National Front in France. The process of stabilisation must be based on a growth pact to stimulate investment and job creation”.

Even in Germany, the state of Schleswig-Holstein ousted a centre-Right government made up of the same parties as Chancellor Angela Merkel’s federal coalition, which preaches austerity.

In the United States, it is the hamburger test. When hitting the stump in rural backwaters, American political candidates have little choice but to grab on with both hands and sink their teeth into a juicy burger. It is, after all, one of the few tricks available to politicians, aside from cuddling the odd baby or two, to demonstrate just how human they really are.

In Germany, the analogue is the bratwurst test. And Norbert Röttgen, the lead conservative candidate in Sunday's crucial regional vote in North Rhine-Westphalia, has been failing it. A slick political operator, Röttgen is both the German environment minister and the deputy head of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU). But with personality increasingly trumping policy in Germany's fast changing political landscape, Röttgen's aloof political style has not played well in small-town Germany. And with an increasing number of parties for voters to choose from, North Rhine-Westphalia threatens to become the latest in a series of regional election setbacks for Merkel and her conservatives.

"The Sunday vote will be an election of personalities," Wolfgang Muno, a professor of German politics at the University of Erfurt, told Spiegel Online. "It is the Americanization of politics… and it could very well be indicative of a new model and a new political culture in the country."

Contrary to what some people may think, there is, at present, no general prohibition against the publication of Adolf Hitler's book.

The reason it has been possible to ban new editions is purely technical. After World War II, the state of Bavaria became the owner of parts of Hitler's property which had been confiscated by the occupying powers - including the copyright to the dictator's publications.

Thus Bavaria has been able, so far, to use its discretion and block new editions. However, the copyright expires in 2015. Those who really want to read Hitler's credo can do so on the internet. Just put Mein Kampf into a search engine and you can receive a pdf file for your computer. This, too, should be taken into consideration. Also, there is no legal ban on the possession or sale of Mein Kampf - for example, in antiquarian bookshops. A ruling of the German Supreme Court more than 30 years ago made this clear.

This does not mean that the re-emergence of the Fuhrer's venomous concoction should be taken lightly. Yes, unhindered distribution of Mein Kampf could make the life of right-wing extremists easier, give them yet better access to the book and provide them with fresh ammunition for their propaganda efforts, which find fertile ground in today's difficult economic and cultural situation.

Over to the southeast, 12,000 special operations troops from 17 nations, including the US and other NATO members, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, were poised on the Jordanian side of the Syrian border for an exercise codenamed “Eager Lion.”

DEBKAfile’s military sources also disclose that the bomb attack on Damascus was the most serious his regime had suffered against a military target since the 14-month Syrian uprising began. For the first time, Assad moved his most loyal unit, the Republican Guard Brigade, into central Damascus. Western and Arab pressure is building up to an intolerable pitch for the Syrian president to step down and save his people from the descent into the ultimate agony of a full-blown civil war. It is coming from two directions:

1. Special forces units of the US, France, Britain, Canada and other NATO members have gathered in Jordan alongside Saudi, Jordanian and Qatari special units for a large-scale ten-day military exercise in Jordan starting May 15.

The exercise was set up by the US Special Operations Command Central. Since all 12,000 troops massed in Jordan are commandos, they stand ready at all times to cross the border into Syria if this is deemed necessary.

2. Syrian cities, especially the capital, are being targeted for violent bombing attacks designed to bring the Assad regime tumbling down. Behind these attacks are Persian Gulf emirates led by Saudi Arabia and Qatar. DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources disclose they have been joined in the last few days for the first time by Turkey which is contributing intelligence input. The military pressure on the Assad regime is thus reinforced by a campaign of terror against its props.

No connection is admitted between the multinational force on the Jordanian-Syrian border and the spate of bombings. However, if Saudi or Qatari intelligence did play a hand in the Damascus bombings, their special forces in Jordan will have been in the picture.

It wasn't so long ago that the Spanish banking system was the subject of glowing praise. As financial institutions in Germany and many other European Union countries began to falter because they had badly gambled on high-risk US mortgage securities, the situation remained remarkably quiet in the southwestern part of the continent. The reason was that Spanish banking regulators had largely restricted the country's banks from engaging in the risky business.

In the meantime, Spain's banks are now amongst the greatest problem children in the euro zone. Developments on Wednesday night underscored just how dire the situation has become. The Spanish government announced that Bankia, the country's fourth-largest financial institution, would be largely nationalized. The announcement, made with little notice, suggests a hectic situation. The cabinet of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy had actually been planning to announce a new bailout program on Friday.

So what led the situation in the Spanish banking market to escalate so quickly? The problem was that the Spanish regulators recognized the threat abroad, but not the one that was brewing at home. Just like in the United States, a real estate bubble had also grown in Spain. The only difference between the two was that Spain's wasn't hidden in the form of complicated financial products. Spain's cajas, or savings banks, speculated badly with normal loans.

Meanwhile, the developments with Bankia will do little to strengthen the Spaniards' faith in their financial system. In July 2011, shares in Bankia were floated publicly, and it was primarily Spanish investors who bought them. They were promised a safe investment, but Bankia share prices began plummeting in February. Within less than a year, shares had lost more than 40 percent of their value.

Yashuhiro Yoshida, director for earthquake investigation at the science ministry, said, "It's possible that [parts of] the mountain could collapse with mudslides flowing to Gotenba." A team of researchers, led by academics from the University of Tokyo, fired simulated seismic waves at the mountain, which revealed a fault that was theoretically capable of generating an earthquake of up to magnitude seven. The researchers said they believed the fault moved some time in the last million years, although it was not clear when.

Yoshida said local geography showed that Mount Fuji experienced major mudslides nearly 3,000 years ago but that more studies were required to determine how the fault could affect potential volcanic activity. The area around the mountain, an almost-perfect volcanic cone that is much admired for its beauty, is known for having frequent earthquakes and numerous fault lines, even for quake-prone Japan.

Japan has been on heightened alert for possible quakes and other natural hazards since the 9.0 magnitude quake and the tsunami of March 2011 killed 19,000 people and sparked a nuclear emergency at a Fukushima nuclear complex.

The losses stemmed from wagers gone wrong in the bank's Chief Investment Office, which manages risk for the New York company. The Wall Street Journal reported early last month that large positions taken in that office by a trader nicknamed "the London whale" had roiled a sector of the debt markets. The bank, betting on a continued economic recovery with a complex web of trades tied to the values of corporate bonds, was hit hard when prices moved against it starting last month, causing losses in many of its derivatives positions. The losses occurred while JP Morgan tried to scale back that trade.

The bank's strategy was "flawed, complex, poorly reviewed, poorly executed and poorly monitored," Mr Dimon said Thursday in a hastily arranged conference call with analysts and investors after the stock-market close. He called the mistake "egregious, self-inflicted," and said: "We will admit it, we will fix it and move on," he said. The CEO emphasized that the bank remains profitable despite the trading loss. "While we don't give overall earnings guidance and we are not confirming current analyst estimates, if you did adjust current analyst estimates for the loss, we still earned approximately $4 billion after-tax this quarter give or take," he said on the call. The bank earned $5.38 billion in the first quarter.

JP Morgan, the nation's largest bank by assets, said in its quarterly filing with regulators Thursday that the plan it has been using to hedge risks "has proven to be riskier, more volatile and less effective as an economic hedge than the firm previously believed."