We have just learned about the true nature of Facebook's responses to subpoenas thanks to documents uncovered by the Boston Phoenix, an alternative weekly. While researching a story about a man dubbed the "Craigslist Killer," reporters at the Phoenix had access to "a huge trove of case files released by the Boston Police Department." And in the process of sifting through all of those documents, they discovered the Boston Police's subpoena of the suspect's Facebook information— as well as the data provided by the social network.

The data — which really did come in the form of an old-fashioned paper printout rather than as a digital file of some sort — included all of the suspect's wall posts, photos he'd uploaded, photos he'd been tagged in, a list of his Facebook friends, and "a long table of login and IP data." Based on a look at the actual documents, it appears the login and IP data actually lists which parts of Facebook the individual accessed — down to the photos, groups and profiles he viewed.

A statement from the organization posted on a militant website said Abu Qatada’s expulsion would open “an unnecessary door to evil that will harm (Britain) and its subjects.” Britain has been trying for years to deport the Palestinian-Jordanian Abu Qatada, whose real name is Omar Mahmoud Mohammed Othman. He has been described in both Spanish and British courts as a leading al-Qaeda figure in Europe and a threat to national security.

He spent six years in jail in Britain, although he has never been charged with any crime. He was freed last month on strict bail conditions that expire in three months, making British officials eager to find a solution. The British have been exploring the possibility of sending him to Jordan, where he has been convicted in absentia of terrorist offenses related to two alleged bomb plots in 1999 and 2000 and would face a retrial if returned.

But the European Court of Human Rights ruled in January that Abu Qatada cannot be sent back to Jordan because of a risk that evidence obtained through torture would be used against him if he is put on trial there. The al-Qaeda statement also invoked the possibility of torture in Jordan. “To deport him to a country known by everyone for its crimes, is something that we never accept and will not pass without (someone) being held accountable.” Jordan says it will guarantee Abu Qatada a fair trial.

This new way for the cash-strapped Greek state to raise money will "pay for the cost of using police materials and infrastructure, and allow to modernize them", the Ministry of Citizen Protection said in a statement. The Police services on offer were previously used in "exceptional cases" – escorting the transportation of dangerous material or art works and were free of charge. Now, Police services have a price-tag. If you need something special the hourly fee for patrol boats is €200, and €1500 for helicopters, according to the Proto Thema newspaper.

Even though the ministry said it would only accept such hires if they do not affect the security forces' operational capacity, only those with the cash will benefit from the initiative. The newspaper says the less wealthy will be left to deal with crime by themselves. The financial crisis left Greece with rising unemployment, a fast-growing crime rate and a surge in illegal immigration. Security has substantially deteriorated in the Greek capital in recent years, with previously safe and calm neighborhoods of the city becoming literally off limits after nightfall.

The Athens City Council described the situation as, "The city's historic center and other major areas are suffering desertification, all manner of criminal activity and manifestations of violence, insecurity, lawlessness, the impoverishment of significant numbers of people – both native inhabitants and foreign nationals, illegal prostitution and illegal drug trading." Youth unemployment is soaring as high as 50 per cent, driving some to leave the country, others to protest, and a few to resort to breaking the law.

The Eurozone is larger than the United States, so America's debt per capita also exceeds the Eurozone's. According to the Census Bureau, the US has a population of 313 million, whereas the Eurozone has a population in excess of 331 million. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney frequently warns that the United States should not become like Greece. "We need to rein in government and unleash the extraordinary vitality and creativity of the American people," Romney wrote in a December op-ed. "We must not wait to suffer a crisis like Greece's or Portugal's to right the ship of state."

Since the troubled period began at the end of 2009, there has been a clear pattern to events: crisis, response, respite, new crisis. The latest recovery has been robust, but it was always a fantasy to believe that the ECB could solve all the euro's problems with its long-term refinancing operations, ladling out ultra-cheap three-year money to European banks. The current flare-up has three dimensions. The contingent cause of Spanish bond yields heading back into the danger zone (yields on 10-year debt were touching 6% on Tuesday night) was poor demand for bonds in last week's bond auctions.

Fears of contagion and growing opposition to Mario Monti's labour market reforms explain why the Italian stock market has been taking such a thumping, with the shares of badly hit banks suspended. A second factor is the emergence of political risk. Greece is holding an election early next month, and support has slumped for the two major parties that backed austerity in order to secure a second bailout from the European Union, the ECB and the International Monetary Fund earlier this year. The chances of the Greek public electing a government that repudiates the terms of the bailout is deemed to be high.

Analysts are also worrying about the outcome of the French presidential election, since the polls show that the socialist candidate François Hollande, who wants to rewrite the eurozone's painstakingly negotiated fiscal pact, has a good chance of defeating Nicolas Sarkozy in a run-off. Markets look at France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece and see the potential for general strikes and civil strife as opposition to austerity hardens. It is not an outlook that inspires much confidence, so at the very best European markets face another two months of turbulence and uncertainty.

The mood of uneasy calm seen across Europe since the Greek bailout in February was shattered as financial markets took fright at evidence of a double-dip recession and growing popular opposition to welfare cuts and tax increases. Italy and Spain, the eurozone's third and fourth biggest economies, were at the centre of the market turmoil, with investors demanding an increasingly high premium for holding their bonds.

"Spain is right in the centre of a European storm," admitted finance minister Luis de Guindos, who declined to rule out an eventual bailout but insisted it could be avoided. In Italy, Mario Monti's coalition government is facing growing hostility to reforms of its labour market, while the sheer size of the country's public debt made it an obvious target for nervous traders. The prospect of Greek voters rejecting austerity and the French electorate denying Nicolas Sarkozy a second term as president was also weighing on the markets.

The Greek government said it would hold a general election on 6 May, with opinion polls showing support for the mainstream pro-austerity parties is too weak to allow them to form a government. "Spain is a big focus right now and even Greece will be coming back into the picture as it looks for another tranche of aid, so this eurozone debt tragedy is not going away, but seems to be getting worse," said Daniel Hwang, senior currency strategist at Forex.com in New York.

The markets closed in New York with Wall Street completing a fifth successive day of decline, with the Dow Jones having lost 213 points. In London, the FTSE 100 closed down 128 points, at 5,595.55. Oil prices also fell sharply amid concerns about the prospects for growth on both sides of the Atlantic and in Asia, with the price of a barrel of crude falling by more than $2. In contrast, safe haven assets such as gold, the US dollar and bonds in the US, Germany and Britain were all in demand.

After a tornado ripped through Springfield, Massachusetts, last year, R Paula Lazzari's home was badly damaged. The retired teacher found broken windows, missing siding and a damaged roof. Her insurer offered to fund repairs for one broken window and some of the siding. It took nine months - and mediation services from an independent adjuster and the Massachusetts Division of Insurance - to get her bills paid, according to the parties involved.

In this era of unpredictable weather patterns, Lazzari's case is not unique. Insurance companies are raising rates, cutting coverage, balking at some payouts and generally shifting more expense and liability to homeowners, according to reports from the industry and its critics. "Insurance companies have significantly and methodically decreased their financial responsibility for weather catastrophes like hurricanes, tornados and floods in recent years," the Consumer Federation of America said in a statement after studying industry data.

The industry concedes that it is trying to avoid getting trounced by those same punishing weather patterns. "Last year (2011) was an extraordinary year for natural disasters," said Michael Barry of the Insurance Information Institute (III), an industry trade group. "Insurers have taken a step back to assess whether or not they can absorb severe losses."

That leaves two options: raising private capital or turning to the EU for bailout funds. Prospects for a private sector solution are poor. Nothing on the horizon looks likely to persuade foreign fund managers to invest, such is the fear of the banks' growing bad loans, their holdings of shaky sovereign debt and the worsening economy. Already battered by a property market crash that began four years ago and continues unabated, few Spanish banks are able to borrow funds on wholesale credit markets and the majority are instead relying on the European Central Bank.

"Most are currently on liquidity life support from the ECB but asset quality continues to deteriorate as house prices keep falling and unemployment is still rising," said Georg Grodzki, head of credit research at Legal & General Investment Management. "Their funding remains constrained and competition for deposits intense," he told Reuters. Economy Minister Luis De Guindos told Reuters last week that all Spanish banks had met capital requirements set by the European Banking Authority under a 115-billion-euro recapitalization plan decided by European Union leaders in December.

But fund managers remain skeptical due to the slow-burning property crash. They include Mark Glazener, head of global equities at Dutch asset manager Robeco, who sold off his exposure to Spain at the end of last year. "Given the scale of over-building over all these years, the present provisioning that the banks have made does not appear to be enough," he said.

The decision to cast out Bo Xilai from the party's Central Committee and its Politburo effectively ends the career of the former high-flyer, widely seen as pressing for a top post in China's next leadership to be decided later this year. The official Xinhua news agency confirmed a Reuters report several hours earlier on Tuesday that Bo had been suspended from his party posts, and separately reported that his wife, Gu Kailai, was suspected in the murder of Briton Neil Heywood.

"Comrade Bo Xilai is suspected of being involved in serious disciplinary violations," said Xinhua, citing a decision by the central party leadership to banish Bo from its top ranks. "Police set up a team to reinvestigate the case of the British national Neil Heywood who was found dead in Chongqing," the news agency said, referring to the sprawling southwestern municipality where Bo was party chief until he was dismissed in March as a scandal surrounding him unfolded.

It was the most dramatic convulsion in China's secretive leadership since 1989, when Jiang Zemin was plucked from obscurity to head the Communist Party after the bloody crackdown on democracy protests in Beijing. Bo's ouster has sparked public contention and revealed friction among China's leaders, pitting reformist Premier Wen Jiabao against conservative officials who sources have said were dismayed by the upheavals months before the party congress that anoints the new leadership. There were even outlandish rumors of an attempted coup.

Prime Minister David Cameron said he was "very pleased" with the news. "It's quite right that we have a proper legal process, although sometimes you can be frustrated by how long things take," he added. The court's decision is one of its most important since 9/11 because it approves of human rights in US maximum security prisons, making it easier for the UK to send suspects to its closest ally. There could still hypothetically be an appeal against the court's ruling in its final Grand Chamber - but in practice, very few cases are re-examined in that final forum.

The men have three months to try to persuade the Grand Chamber to reopen the entire case and examine it. If the men fail to launch an appeal, they will be extradited to the United States. The family of one of the men, Babar Ahmad, who has been held for a record of nearly eight years without trial, said he would fight on against extradition.

Home Secretary Theresa May welcomed the ruling, and said she would work to ensure that the suspects were handed over to the US authorities "as quickly as possible". The US Justice Department also said it was "pleased" about the decision on the five. "We look forward to the court's decision becoming final and to the extradition of these defendants to stand trial in the United States," it said in a statement.

Worries over the eurozone debt crisis and the US economic recovery losing its steam hit shares of exporters. Sony fell 5%, a day after it doubled its forecast of an annual loss to $6.4 billion (£4 billion). "Japan's consumer electronics industry is facing defeat," said Fujio Ando, senior managing director of Chibagin Asset Management. "I don't think there is any guarantee that we will see the company return to black this year." he said.

One of the biggest fears among the global investors has been that the eurozone debt crisis, which has hurt growth countries such as Greece, may spread to the region's bigger economies. Those fears were fanned further on Tuesday after the interest rate on Spanish bonds traded in the secondary market rose further. The yield on 10-year bonds hit 5.99%, up from 5.74% on Monday, indicating that investors are getting increasingly concerned about Spain's ability to repay its debts.

The fear is that if the crisis in Spain, which makes up about 11% of the total output of the 17 countries that use the euro, is not managed properly, it will have a negative impact on the region's growth and also hurt the global economic recovery. On Tuesday, France's Cac 40 fell 3.1%, the UK's FTSE 100 and Germany's Dax lost about 2.5%.

Analysts warned that markets may fall even further amid a dip in investor morale. "2012 is at risk of being a carbon copy of 2011, where equity markets began the year with a spring in their step before sentiment turned very bearish as the European sovereign debt crisis spiralled out of control", said Angus Campbell of Capital Spreads. At the same time, weaker-than-expected jobs data from the US has raised concerns about the recovery in the world's biggest economy.

The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index declined 16 points, or 1.1%, to 1366. Both benchmarks are on pace to string together their longest losing streaks this year. The Nasdaq Composite fell 35 points, or 1.2%, to 3010.

Growth-sensitive energy, materials and industrial stocks weakened, although all 10 sectors of the S&P 500 declined. Alcoa, AA -2.08% set to kick off the first-quarter earnings season when it releases its results after the close, fell. Other blue-chip laggards included Caterpillar, CAT -2.80% Chevron CVX -1.58%and Exxon Mobil XOM -1.76%.

"We were priced for perfection and it's a lot less than perfect out there," said Uri Landesman, president of Platinum Partners LLP. "If earnings start to be disappointing, it's a perfect storm. And given how quickly the market's risen, it suggests to me that this market will find a base, and that it's going to be lower."

John Bolton, the American ambassador to the UN under George Bush, said: “Britain should renounce the jurisdiction of this court. It’s a question of what do British people want to do? Do you want to be an independent nation, or do you want to be a county in Europe?”

“This is just another example of Britain’s mistake in allowing European institutions to develop to the extent they have. It is yet another infringement on British sovereignty that undercuts its ability to cooperate with the United States. It also calls into question the ability of Europe as a whole to be an effective partner in the war against terrorism.”

Estimates obtained by The Daily Telegraph suggest that it has cost the taxpayer £2.6 million to keep the six men in high-security jails. A further £1.5 million is estimated to have been spent on legal costs, including legal aid for the men, and thousands more on benefit claims for their families. The men have been fighting extradition on human rights grounds for up to 14 years.

But instead of investigating or setting up parameters, the USDA asserts that it is safe in their view so there is no cause for alarm. It is currently forbidden by the agency itself for any producer to distribute or sell cloned meat.The news came back in August of 2010, when US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack went on record saying that he really doesn’t know whether or not cloned meat is being put on dinner tables nationwide.

The announcement was made after the United Kingdom’s Food Standards Agency told consumers that meat from descendants of cloned animals had already entered the food supply. Of course the agency made the statements a year after the cloned products leaked into the food chain. Still, just like the USDA, the UK’s FSA stated that they believe cloned meat poses no risk, so citizens should not panic.

The reason? They say that cloned meat has ‘no substantial difference’ to traditional meat, and therefore it is safe. The statements echo those of Monsanto, whose genetically modified creations have been linked to everything from organ damage to toxicity-induced cell death.

The number of people out of work will not peak until at least September with almost 5,000 Britons becoming jobless each week between now and the end of August, the report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found. The analysis, based on predictions for UK jobs by the Government’s independent forecaster, suggests Britain’s jobless toll may fall short of reaching 3 miliion as some analysts predicted at the start of the recession. Unemployment stands at 2.67 million at present.

However, the IPPR study paints a bleak picture in the year ahead for young people and jobseekers over 50, already hit disproportionately by the jobs crisis. The study said 41,000 more people aged between 16 and 24 will join the ranks of the unemployed, breaking a new record since records began in 1992, while an extra 7,000 older workers aged 50 or over will become jobless.