"Seasonal flu affects 10 to 20 percent of the world every year - as much as a billion people or more," said Inglesby. "The case fatality rate of wild H5N1 in the WHO database is nearly 60 percent, as you indicated. So if a strain of H5N1 with that fatality rate were engineered to spread like seasonal flu, hundreds of millions of people’s lives would be at risk. Even a strain a hundred times less fatal would place at risk millions of people’s lives."

The National Institute of Health released its policy last month on dual-use research, which is designed to implement recommendations made in a 2003 National Academy of Sciences report titled, “Biotechnology Research in an Age of Terrorism.” Concern has grown recently over advances in the field of biotechnology, in which scientists have created synthetic viruses in laboratories.

“Can we assume this research won’t be replicated and deliberately misused? No. We can hope no potential adversary will have the competence or the intention to pursue this. But we can’t accurately predict their chances this work will be replicated by a malevolent or disaffected scientist somewhere in the world, or a terrorist group, or nation state,” Inglesby said.

The US Secret Service is a case in point. Hookergate has shaken the agency to its very foundations. Secret Service agents went wild in Cartagena, Colombia, prior to a recent summit attended by Mr Obama and other world leaders. A dozen agents and more than 10 military personnel have been implicated so far. Bar hopping, boozing and soliciting prostitutes — all of this took place as the Secret Service was supposed to be laying the groundwork for the president’s arrival. Instead, they behaved like puerile frat boys, taking hookers back to their hotel rooms and partying all night long. Some press reports even claim that cocaine use was involved.

The Secret Service was once a venerated institution; its reputation is now in tatters. These agents were more than unprofessional. They engaged in sexually permissive, immoral and illegal behavior. They also put America’s national security at risk, opening them to potential blackmail. The president’s schedule was in one of the rooms attended by a prostitute. Moreover, the image it sends to the world is that of the ugly American. Decadent, perverse and arrogant — these Secret Service agents embody the worst traits of US culture. Landing on foreign soil, they behaved as a conquering imperial army, lacking self-restraint, humility or even common decency.

Yet, the question must be asked: Is Mr Obama to blame? This is not the first Secret Service scandal under his watch. Rather than cleaning house, he turned a blind eye to the growing venality within the agency. The same applies to the General Services Administration. The GSA is supposed to be a centralized clearinghouse for the federal government to oversee its numerous buildings, ensuring the best value in the use of taxpayer dollars. It has become the very opposite — a symbol of waste, fraud and extravagance.

The sad fact is that the GSA scandal is the tip of the iceberg. The deeper congressional investigators look, the more waste is found. Trips to Hawaii, Guam, the South Pacific and Napa Valley — lavish “conferences” are simply part of the GSA’s regular business operations. It is like a rotten onion. Peel one layer and there is another beneath it. If the commander-in-chief is always partying on the taxpayers’ tab, then why should his subordinates behave any differently — whether at the Secret Service or the GSA? That’s the real scandal.

In the Netherlands, where the ruling government coalition collapsed last weekend over failure to reach a deal on the country's budget, Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager told reporters that he had constructive talks with different political factions. "I cannot say there is the prospect of an agreement," De Jager told reporters on Thursday. "But I see reason to continue talks."

Government instability in the Netherlands has translated into shaky markets this week, and further signals indicated a growing level of popular resistance to austerity measures as a solution for the debt crisis. Large-scale protests over the financial crisis have been staged recently across Europe, including in the Czech Republic, where 100,000 people took to the streets in Prague over the weekend to oppose government reforms and cuts.

On Wednesday, European Central Bank (ECB) head Mario Draghi made headlines by calling for a "growth pact" to help Europe out of the financial crisis. French Presidential candidate Francois Hollande, who is leading in the polls in advance of his country's May 6 runoff election, jumped on the comments. Hollande has proposed renegotiating the euro zone's fiscal pact to add provisions for stimulating growth. Draghi's comments "add a voice to others that confirm that the announcement I made, that the commitment I made, will turn the French election into an election that is also decisive for Europe," Hollande reportedly said on the campaign trail.

But German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a staunch ally of Hollande's opponent, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, reiterated her strong stance in favor of the austerity measures this week, saying Tuesday: "I want to say clearly, it is not the case that we say saving solves every problem, but if you at home talk about how you want to shape your life tolerably, then one of the first conditions is that you somehow get by with what you earn."

"The overarching threat to our whole society today is the exploding federal debt," Ryan said, speaking in a Gothic, oak-paneled auditorium on the Georgetown campus. "Pope Benedict has charged that governments, communities, and individuals running up high debt levels are 'living at the expense of future generations' and 'living in untruth.'"

Ryan said the actions of individuals, charities, private institutions and firms should take precedence over government programs - citing a Catholic doctrine known as "subsidiarity". "I feel it's important to discuss how, as a Catholic in public life, my own personal thinking on these issues has been guided by my understanding of the Church's social teaching," Ryan said. "Simply put, I do not believe that the preferential option for the poor means a preferential option for big government." The best way to lift people out of poverty is to spur economic growth, said Ryan, the influential chairman of the House Budget Committee.

The Republican budget that Ryan pushed through the House of Representatives last month proposes big cuts to federal food aid and Medicaid healthcare for the poor, as well as to education grants, in order to shrink deficits while preserving low tax rates for the wealthy and for corporations. It has drawn sharp criticism from US Catholic bishops for violating Church teachings to help the poor, and on Wednesday, 90 Georgetown faculty members and priests signed a letter rebuking the plan.

That figure, provided to Reuters by tracking firm CoreLogic, represents about one out of 10 home loans made during that period. It is a sobering indication the US housing market remains deeply troubled, with home values still falling in many parts of the country, and raises the question of whether low-down payment loans backed by the FHA are putting another generation of buyers at risk.

As of December 2011, the latest figures available, 31 percent of the US home loans that were in negative equity - in which the outstanding loan balance exceeds the value of the home - were FHA-insured mortgages, according to CoreLogic. Many borrowers, particularly since late 2010, thought they were buying at the bottom of a housing market that had already suffered steep declines, but have been caught out by a continued fall in prices in wide swaths of America.

Even for loans taken out in December - less than four months ago and the last month for which data is available - nearly 44,000 borrowers, or about 7.5 percent of the total, now find themselves under water. "The overwhelming majority of the US is still seeing home prices decline," said CoreLogic senior economist Sam Khater. "Many borrowers continue to be quickly wiped out."

But in what might serve to cool expectations of further aggressive easing, the central bank said consumer inflation may approach its 1 percent target as early as in 2014 as the world's third-largest economy shifts towards a recovery. The central bank surprised markets by boosting government bond purchases under its asset-buying scheme by 10 trillion yen, double the usual amount, and increasing buying of riskier assets: exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and real-estate linked funds (REITs).

"The BOJ did a little bit more than we had expected, so their decision comes as a positive surprise. We didn't expect they would increase purchases of ETFs and REITs," said Masamichi Adachi, senior economist at JP Morgan Securities in Tokyo. "The bank is trying to send a message that they are supporting the market and the economic recovery, just like they did in February. It is a step in the right direction and we think the BOJ needs to do even more to boost the economy." The second easing in just over two months was widely seen as a response to political pressure for greater efforts to end deflation that has dogged Japan for over a decade, depressing consumption and business investment.

Since 1998, the UK has sold products only that would maintain, rather than enhance, Argentina's military. The trade has been worth more than £3 million over the past five years. In a written statement to the House of Commons, Business Secretary Vince Cable said the export control policy to Argentina was being tightened up with immediate effect.

Argentina has asked for negotiations about sovereignty of the Falklands - which it calls the Malvinas - but the British government says it will not discuss the issue without the agreement of the islanders. London has accused Buenos Aires of trying to impose an economic blockade on the islanders, after Argentina and other countries in the South American Mercosur trading block banned Falklands-flagged ships from docking in their ports.

More recently Argentina has complained to the United Nations about what it calls British "militarisation", after the UK deployed one of its newest Royal Navy destroyers - HMS Dauntless - to the south Atlantic.

Among opposite-sex married couples, one in 10 (5.4 million couples) are interracial, a 28% jump since 2000. In 2010, 18% of heterosexual unmarried couples were of different races (1.2 million couples) and 21% of same-sex couples (133,477 couples) were mixed.

The data shows "we're becoming much more of an integrated, multiracial society," says demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution. Says sociologist Dan Lichter of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, "This is a movement toward a post-racial society, but most social scientists would agree we're a long way from a colorblind or post-racial society."

"Race is still a category that separates and divides us," but "this might be evidence that some of the historical boundaries that separate the races are breaking down," Lichter says.

High-frequency trading distorts the markets. and it lets the big banks peek at what the real traders are buying and selling, and then trade on the insider information. Morgan Stanley has just shown (via the Financial Times) that the percentage of high frequency trading in the stock market has skyrocketed to 84%.

It’s not just the US. High frequency trading dominates in the UK as well. Given the dominance of the machines, do flesh-and-blood traders have a chance?

“Planning what kind of measures we will take if tens of thousands of people end up on our border is a requirement of being a big state,” he said. “This is not an intervention or warmongering as some claim.” Davutoglu did not specify what measures his government would take, but the mass influx of refugees fleeing the Syrian unrest has raised alarm in Ankara.

Different scenarios have been floated, including the setting up of a buffer zone on the Syrian side of the border to protect refugees, but opponents say such a measure would be a declaration of war. In response to criticism from opposition parties, Davutoglu said Turkey did not attempt to change the regime of any country in the region including Syria.

“It was not we who initiated the popular movement in Syria. We didn't call on anybody to rise up,” he said. “But we cannot and will not remain silent to the masses' appeal for democracy. Peace and stability can be restored in Syria, not with the Baath regime but with a new political system which takes its legitimacy from the people,” said Davutoglu.

No reason was given for the reformist's resignation, although a minister who declined to be identified told Reuters that Al-Khasawneh made the move while on a visit to Turkey following the extension of a parliamentary session in which he was expected to come under fire. Sources at the royal palace have told Al-Arabiya that former premier Fayez al-Tarawneh has been asked to form a new government.

Other creditor nations with large foreign exchange reserves and exposure to the dollar and the euro including Turkey and Kazakhstan also increased their holdings of gold according to the International Monetary Fund data. Mexico raised its reserves to 122.6 tons last month when gold averaged $1,676.67 an ounce. Turkey added 11.5 tons, Kazakhstan 4.3 tons, Ukraine 1.2 tons, Tajikistan 0.4 ton, and Belarus 0.1 tonnes, according to the IMF.

The perfect storm trifecta of bad political and economic news yesterday out of France, Holland and Germany led to risk off and falls in many markets. Gold performed well and was resilient considering the sell off seen in equity markets.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte speaks in parliament today after tendering his Cabinet's resignation to break a deadlock over further austerity. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande will face off in a 2nd round ballot on May 6th and the prospect of Hollande taking power is making European markets jittery. So far gold has not been a prime beneficiary of these risks but this will likely change soon - especially if financial conditions deteriorate which seems very likely.

The Defense Clandestine Service is supposed to work closely with its counterpart in the CIA, the National Clandestine Service, recruiting spies from the ranks of the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and deploying them globally to boost the flow of intelligence on perceived long-term threats to US national interests.

US military news website Insidedefense said the defence department had asked Congress for authority for spies to work undercover posing as businessmen when conducting covert operations abroad. The move by the defence secretary, Leon Panetta, emerged in briefings to US journalists. “You have to do global coverage,” a senior defence official said, according to the Los Angeles Times. The new service would seek to “make sure officers are in the right locations to pursue those requirements”, the Washington Post quoted the official as saying.

A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction. The economy shrank by 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2011. BBC economics editor Stephanie Flanders says it "adds to the picture that the economy is bumping along the bottom". She said economic output was slightly smaller now than it was in the autumn of 2010.

Wednesday's figure is an early estimate and is subject to at least two further revisions in the coming months. It is compiled using 40% of the data gathered for later revisions. The UK economy was last in recession in 2009.

In a rare concession, the German Chancellor admitted that austerity alone would not solve the crisis but she insisted that the wave of political opposition to fiscal discipline was wrong. "We're not saying that saving solves all problems," Ms Merkel said at a conference in Berlin. "But you can't spend more than you take in. You can't live your whole life this way. Everybody knows this."

Mark Rutte, the deposed Dutch prime minister, made a passionate plea to politicians to stick to his proposed budget cuts. "The problems are serious, the economy is stalling, employment is under pressure and government debt is growing faster than the Netherlands can afford," he said. "Those are the facts and nobody can run away from them. I'm standing here without pretences, it is up to parliament and the voters."

Mr Rutte said the Netherlands had to confirm its budget intentions in a letter to the European Commission by April 30. The Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders said the cuts were unnecessary and would be bad for the Netherlands. The message was repeated in Spain. Treasury minister Cristobal Montoro told parliament: "We are in an extremely delicate moment as a country, an extremely fragile moment as a country. This is the most austere budget since democracy, and it is aimed at being the most realistic that Spain needs to overcome this crisis situation."