As they head north, the protesters plan to hold meetings, collecting complaints and proposals as they go. Since the movement began in Madrid two months ago, similar groups have sprung up across Europe.

They say they are marching because they are fed up with the way the economic crisis is playing out in Europe, with spending cuts, job losses, and privatisations, while those they blame for the recession remain unaffected. The aim is to link up with fellow indignants from across Europe for a mass rally in October. The Madrid protest began on 15 May and spread to other Spanish cities as word got around via Facebook and Twitter. Spain's unemployment rate is the highest in the EU, at 21.3%. For the under-25s, it has risen to 44.6%.

The head of Norway's intelligence police, Janne Kristiansen, told a Norwegian newspaper Monday that Breivik had "deliberately desisted from violent exhortations on the net. He has more or less been a moderate, and has neither been part of any extremist network." The blogs and websites Breivik enthused about were pro-American and pro-Israel, extremely hostile to Islam and despairing that the European political elite would ever see the error of its liberal multicultural outlook.

One such site is Gates of Vienna, whose banner reads: "At the siege of Vienna in 1683 Islam seemed poised to overrun Christian Europe. We are in a new phase of a very old war." Breivik regularly applauded a writer who goes by the name of Fjordman on the site, one of whose contributions, from 2007, reads: "When the Swedish welfare state collapses, the immigrants who lose their payments will have to go somewhere. Denmark will probably be fairly successful at keeping them out. A lot of them will migrate to Norway, some will move to Germany and the Netherlands, and some will probably end up in Eastern Europe."

Breivik also praised Fjordman's book, "Defeating Eurabia," describing it as "the perfect Christmas gift for family and friends." The book contends that Europe is being overrun by Muslims - and that its governing class is complicit in this surrender. "According to some, one out of three babies born in France is a Muslim," Fjordman writes. "Hundreds of Muslim ghettos already de facto follow sharia, not French law. Some believe France will quietly become a Muslim country, while others predict a civil war in the near future."

The group says it filed the lawsuit this week in state court in New York and posted a copy of the lawsuit on its website. The lawsuit names many defendants, including the state of New Jersey, the city of New York , New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. The World Trade Center cross, two intersecting steel beams that held up when the twin towers collapsed on September 11, 2001, is seen as iconic to some.

The cross was moved Saturday from near a church to its new home at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. There was also ceremonial blessing of the cross in a service led by Father Brian Jordan, a Franciscan monk who ministered to workers clearing the area after the 9/11 attacks. Joe Daniels, 9/11 Memorial president, said Saturday that the cross is "an important part of our commitment to bring back the authentic physical reminders that tell the history of 9/11 in a way nothing else could. Its return is a symbol of the progress on the Memorial & Museum that we feel rather than see, reminding us that commemoration is at the heart of our mission."

But the atheist group says the cross sends a symbol of something different. "The WTC cross has become a Christian icon," said Dave Silverman, president of the atheist group. "It has been blessed by SO-CALLED HOLY MEN and presented as a reminder THAT THEIR GOD, WHO COULDN'T BE BOTHERED TO STOP THE MUSLIM TERRORISTS OR PREVENT 3,000 PEOPLE FROM BEING KILLED IN HIS NAME, cared only enough to bestow upon us some rubble that resembles a cross. It's a truly ridiculous assertion."

If Mr Jordan is right, that would mean Speaker John A Boehner would have to rely on Democrats to pass the $1.2 trillion spending cuts plan - support the Democrats' top vote-counter said he'll be hard-pressed to gain. Minority Whip Steny H Hoyer said "very few" Democrats will vote for the Boehner plan, though he acknowledged there could be some.

Mr Boehner's bill would reduce future discretionary spending by $1.2 trillion, grant an immediate debt increase of $1 trillion, and set up a committee to work on trillions of dollars in future deficit reduction either through more spending cuts or tax increases, which would then earn another future debt increase. It would also require both the House and Senate to hold votes on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

But conservative Republicans in the House, many allied to the tea party movement, said they don't just want votes on the amendment, they want an assurance it will be sent to the states. Mr Jordan and other conservatives said they would prefer the Senate vote on the debt increase the House passed last week, that includes deeper spending cuts and requires both chambers approve a balanced budget amendment and submit it to states for ratification before any debt increase happens. Both the Heritage Foundation and Club for Growth, two key conservative activist groups, are also urging a "No" vote and said it will be one of the key votes they use in their annual lawmaker scorecards.

Mr Boehner said Tuesday that his plan is the only option that can bridge party differences and win enough support to pass Congress."We have a bill that is a reasonable approach negotiated with the Senate leadership that really is commonsense," Mr Boehner said. "There's more cuts in spending than you have an increase in the debt limit. It has real caps and a real process for cutting spending before the end of this year. And it provides for - I think - the best effort to get a balanced budget amendment enacted into the Constitution." On Monday President Obama called for voters to call Congress and demand a compromise bill, and on Tuesday offices said they have been inundated.

The headquarters will move from Wisconsin amid a broader plan to invest about $2 billion across China, including opening six "customer innovation'' and development centers. The division should have "double-digit'' growth rates as the country converts from film and analog to digital X-ray technology, LeGrand said. GE Healthcare, also the world's biggest maker of magnetic resonance imaging and cardiac tomography scanners, got about $1.1 billion of its $16.9 billion in sales from China last year.

The X-ray business, whose financial results aren't reported separately by GE, will hire 65 new engineers and support staff at a new Chengdu facility, the company said. GE has hired "a large number'' of engineers who are in training, LeGrand said. GE, based in Fairfield, Connecticut, also has a global research center in Shanghai. "Over the next five years, China will be GE Healthcare's most important growth market,'' said Rachel Duan, the China unit's chief executive. About 60,000 people work at GE Healthcare globally.

"An unfortunate consequence of these new circumstances is that we will no longer be able to manage assets for anyone other than a family client as defined under the regulations", Jonathan and Robert Soros, Mr Soros' sons and Quantum's co-deputy chairmen, wrote in a letter to investors on Tuesday. New regulations require hedge funds with more than $150 million under management to report details about investments, employees and investors, and also makes them subject to possible inspections by the SEC. Mr Soros' decision contrasts with his own reputation as an advocate for both government and corporate transparency. A spokesman for Mr Soros declined to comment.

Quantum is returning about $750 million of capital to outside investors, according to a person familiar with its decision. Keith Anderson, chief investment officer since 2008, is also leaving the fund. The move brings an to end Mr Soros' four-decade career as a hedge fund manager. A Hungarian emigre, he made more than $1 billion in 1992 betting that the UK would be forced to devalue sterling and pull out of the European exchange rate mechanism. Other hedge fund veterans including Stanley Druckenmiller, who managed Quantum in the 1990s, and Carl Icahn have also recently decided they will no longer manage other people's money. "It demonstrates that hedge funds, at least as we once knew them, are gone, replaced by far more transparent entities," said Anthony Sabino, professor at the Tobin College of Business.

Considering the carnage wrought in World War II, most Europeans - and even many Germans - considered this perfectly reasonable right up to the current decade. Germany dutifully followed the orders of the others, most notably the French, and wrote check after check to underwrite European solidarity.

However, with the end of the Cold War and German reunification, the Germans began to stand up for themselves once again. Europe's contemporary financial crisis can be as complicated as one wants to make it, but strip away all the talk of bonds, defaults and credit-default swaps and the core of the matter consists of these three points:

- Europe cannot function as a unified entity unless someone is in control.

- At present, Germany is the only country with a large enough economy and population to achieve that control.

- Being in control comes with a cost: It requires deep and ongoing financial support for the European Union's weaker members.

What happened since Stratfor published Germany's Choice was a debate within Germany about how central the European Union was to German interests and how much the Germans were willing to pay to keep it intact. With their July 22 approval of a new bailout mechanism - from which the Greeks immediately received another 109 billion euros - the Germans made clear their answers to those questions, and with that decision, Europe enters a new era.

The nine Turks were killed by Israeli forces when they attempted to lynch members of Israel's Shayatet-13, or naval commando, when they boarded the Mavi Marmara in accordance with international maritime law. Israel has said it will only 'express regret' for the loss of life. On Sunday, Erdogan said that he still expects a full apology from Jerusalem, "We will wait for the Israelis' decision a certain period. If they don't apologize by this time we shall move to Plan B." According to Hurriyet, "Plan B" means cooling down relations with Israel. One of the most significant steps will be downgrading the level of Turkey's embassy staff in Israel. Ankara recalled its ambassador following last year's flotilla event.

It is also possible Turkey will not approve an Israeli ambassador to replace Gaby Levy. On Sunday, Hurriyet reported that the Palmer Report has ruled that IDF soldiers boarded the ship with "the intent to kill," despite the fact that the commandos were armed with less-than-lethal pneumatic guns with live fire being employed only after the lynching attempt was underway. Hurriyet's claim is spurious as the Palmer Report's publication was delayed until August due to Israel and Turkey's inability to agree on the final wording of the report, including Turkey's insistence it include the phrase 'intent to kill.'

Recent drafts of the report, however, did conclude Israel's arms embargo on Gaza - and the decision to board the Mavi Marmara to enforce it - are legal under international law. Observers suggest Erdogan's second attempt to extort an apology from Israel is based on his frustration with the Palmer Report, which does not support Turkey's - or Hurriyet's - version of events.

Intelligence officials have warned for more than two years that the Hamas terrorist regime in Gaza has smuggled missiles that can reach far beyond southern Israel, which was targeted nearly three years ago, before and during the counterterrorist Operation Cast Lead campaign. Hamas and other terrorist groups have at least 10,000 missiles and rockets, according to military intelligence estimates. Advanced weapons are smuggled, in whole or in parts for assembly, entering Gaza from Iran, often via Sudan.

Vilnai said that Israel is improving its defense capabilities against missiles, and referred to bomb shelters and missile interceptors as well as retaliatory measures. Citing Israel's tiny area, he said, "There is no country in the world that is threatened like the State of Israel," he said. "The only country that approximates it is South Korea."

Since the end of Operation Cast Lead, southern Israel has been attacked by nearly 300 missiles and rockets. Israel has carried out tit-for-tat retaliatory tactics, striking rocket manufacturing plants and terrorist tunnels. The Defense Ministry, headed by Ehud Barak, has not explained why orders have not been give to the IDF to conduct pre-emptive strikes before missiles cam bombard Israeli civilians.

Whatever the news has been of 2011, one thing always strikes me: this story, the alleged homicidal hospital worker, or the imminent implosion of Greece, or the famine in the horn of Africa, any one of these would normally have been enough to hold the front pages for days, even weeks: were it not for that story, the Murdoch affair, the imminent collapse of Italy, the Norwegian massacre, the American debt ceiling. There is such an abundance of news that it's torpedoed the news agenda. How do you make an agenda, when everything is as important as everything else? There is just too much news. It's the kind of news environment that makes conspiracy theorists say: "These things are all connected."

There is also a sense of headspin, of being unable to digest one tragedy before another happens. It's compounded by Twitter, as almost everything always is: the modern business of half-knowing meant that the news of Amy Winehouse's death was on Twitter before it was publicly announced, of course. The Facebook profile of the allegedly homicidal nurse would normally have been picked over for clues all week. But they're superseded so fast that you never get time for that half-knowledge to turn into full knowledge before the next thing happens. The effect is a news twilight, where you can't even be sure what has been confirmed and what hasn't.

But to return to that urge to connect, the urge to understand: even for non-conspiracy theorists, that is a legitimate aim; when huge events tumble up on one another, it is human to look for a link. This is easier with natural disasters than it is with sudden decapitations of the high command, so, to start in New Zealand: the Christchurch earthquake in February would, in a normal year, have taken up news coverage on a scale of the Australian fires of 2009: there would have been eyewitness accounts pouring out, the whole disaster would have been broken down to individual narratives with either an especially tragic or ironic twist. I can remember specific stories about those fires, families who died in cars, brave individuals who fought off flames with a spade. I can't remember anything at all about Christchurch, since less than three weeks later, the Japanese suffered their greatest, costliest disaster since Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The tornados that hit Arkansas and Ontario in April would normally - having killed 45 people - have been quite a big story, but were obliterated by the destruction that had already happened. In that ruminative period that usually follows a significant event, people were batting around the theory that one earthquake will predispose the earth to suffer another; otherwise, the coincidence of New Zealand, then Japan, then Japan again a few days later (not to mention New Zealand again in June), just seemed too great. In fact, the intricacies of new tectonic theory were totally wiped out by the threat to the Japanese nuclear power plants, which themselves - and this is surprising, given that the story is far from over - lost coverage to the Arab spring.

At the beginning of BBC radio, if the time rolled around for a news bulletin, and there was no news, the newsreader would simply say "there is no news". Sooner or later, the idea of a news agenda developed, and if there was no news, they would just find some news. But you can imagine today, just waking up to hear that there was no news: what a comfort that would be.

Worried private financial institutions that own Greek debt can swap it for new debt from the European authorities - but they will be paid back after a much longer period than their original agreement stipulated. This is technically a default - although Europe's leaders refuse to call it that - but it does give Greece a little breathing space to try to get its economy moving and pay back its mountain of borrowing. Says a Treasury official: 'The impact of a break-up of the Euro would be absolutely catastrophic.'

But this deal is nothing like the end of the Euro crisis. It is merely a respite before there is more pressure for bailouts for other over-extended Eurozone countries.The only long-term solution to this - other than an extremely messy break-up of the euro - IS FOR THE EUROZONE COUNTRIES TO INTEGRATE MUCH MORE CLOSELY AND BECOME, IN ALL BUT NAME, A UNITED STATES OF EUROZONE (USE).

THAT MEANS GERMANY AND FRANCE IMPOSING ONE ECONOMIC POLICY, with taxpayers in wealthy France and Germany supporting the poorer southern European states in return for them living according to German rules, with tight spending constraints. And in a shift of historic proportions, this is the path the two most powerful leaders in Europe, France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany's Angela Merkel, have chosen. They will deny it publicly, to try to reassure German taxpayers. But their decision to stand behind Greek debts will mean the steady expansion of their authority over economic policy in other Eurozone countries.

THE GERMANS ARE PAYING THE PIPER SO THEY CAN CALL THE TUNE. For Britain this has huge implications. We are in the European Union, but like ten other EU countries not in the Eurozone. Joining the 'USE' is clearly out of the question. Instead, (as I first argued last year) we have a once-in-a-generation chance for Britain to renegotiate its membership of the EU.

The Germans and French will need to amend existing EU treaties to make their new arrangements work. And the crucial point is that Britain will have the power of veto over any changes, as well as a new law requiring new EU treaties to be put to a referendum in the UK. This means we can demand the return of powers back from the EU - if ministers push hard enough. An end to the welter of Brussels-imposed regulations stifling employment in the UK is essential. The restoration of full control of our borders is a must.

"I don't think there are immediate ramifications unless we get a negative or flat outturn. Without a strong bounce back in the third quarter, though, there is quite possibly a risk for the sovereign rating," Ross Walker, UK economist at Royal Bank of Scotland, who expects growth of 0.3 per cent, said. Stephen Lewis, chief economist at Monument Securities, added: "If the third quarter is poor as well, I fear we will be put on negative watch."

A cut to Britain's top-notch rating would be highly damaging, costing the country its safe-haven status, increasing the price of debt for the Government, and potentially slowing the recovery further. Although ratings agencies declined to comment on Monday, they have raised concerns about growth. Moody's said in March: "We believe that slower growth combined with weaker-than-expected fiscal consolidation could cause the UK's debt metrics to deteriorate to a point that would be inconsistent with a triple-A rating."

On Monday, Prime Minister David Cameron indicated the Government would not alter its 110 billion pounds programme, saying: "There's no country, really, that can afford another fiscal stimulus. They've all run out of money."

Beck, a multimillionaire darling of the Tea Party movement, said on his nationally-syndicated radio show: "There was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like, you know, the Hitler youth. I mean, who does a camp for kids that's all about politics? Disturbing." Torbjorn Eriksen, a former press secretary to Jens Stoltenberg, Norway's prime minister, described the comment as "a new low" for the broadcaster, who has frequently been forced to apologise for offensive remarks.

"Young political activists have gathered at Utoya for over 60 years to learn about and be part of democracy, the very opposite of what the Hitler Youth was about," he told The Daily Telegraph. "Glenn Beck's comments are ignorant, incorrect and extremely hurtful." The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, a Washington-based campaign group, said the remark by Beck, a free agent after being forced out of the Fox News channel earlier this year, was "absolutely disgusting".

Despite Beck expressing surprise that political movements would hold camps for children, followers of his 9/12 Project - which aims to "recapture the spirit of the day after America was attacked" - have this summer been doing just that. Organisers of the "vacation liberty schools" in several states told the Daily Telegraph how they taught children as young as eight a Tea Party-endorsed curriculum spanning religion, economics and political principles.

"The Federal Reserve and the Treasury can work together to generate enough cash probably for the next two or three months to avoid any kind of automatic default on the Treasury debt," Silvia, who is based in Charlotte, North Carolina, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop" with Betty Liu. "There's a way of getting around this issue for at least another month or two."

Political party leaders are preparing dueling plans for raising the US debt ceiling, unable to break a partisan stalemate over how to tackle the nation's $14.3 trillion debt by August 2. That is the date when the Treasury Department says its borrowing authority will end. Greater-than-forecast tax revenue might give the Treasury until August 10 before it runs out of cash, Barclays Capital said in a report last week.

"Tax-receipt inflows from July 14 to date have been considerably stronger than we were expecting," New York-based Barclays analysts, including Ajay Rajadhyaksha, said. Inflows over the five-day period from July 14 were about $14 billion higher than Barclays had foreseen, and outlays were about $1 billion less, according to the report. Even if the two parties fail to reach an agreement to raise the debt ceiling in time, officials will still be able to stave off a default for at least a month, Silvia said. Bond investors have realized they will probably still get paid in the event the impasse goes past the deadline.

Silvia cautioned that there is still a risk that the US will lose its AAA debt rating. "OK you've got a deal, the debt ceiling's raised - that's not the issue," he said. "The issue is what are the details behind that, that alter the long-term trend in terms of federal spending and the deficit, and that's what the credit agencies are talking about."

Confirmation of the close encounter comes as the US and China are trying to cool tensions in the South China Sea and safeguard a recent improvement in bilateral military relations. Taipei, whose relations with Beijing have also been on the mend, moved to downplay the incident. "This was not between Taiwan and China, but between China and the US," said a senior Taiwanese defence official. "The Chinese crossed the line to repel a perceived intrusion by a US reconnaissance aircraft."

China and Taiwan have long respected the middle line, which was drawn by the US when it signed a mutual defence treaty with the island in 1954. The line functions as a buffer zone between China and Taiwan's militaries, which still regard each other as enemies. Chinese military aircraft have not crossed the middle line since July 1999, at a time of heightened tensions with Taiwan. That summer the People's Liberation Army Airforce, which had rarely patrolled the area previously, flew hundreds of sorties over the Taiwan Strait.

China has also long objected to reconnaissance patrols of its coastline, especially since a PLA jet fighter collided with a US spy plane in April 2001 near Hainan island. The PLA pilot died and Chinese authorities detained the US crew for 11 days in a tense stand-off. "This once again shows that US military activity very close to our territory is a destabilising factor in the region," said a Chinese defence source. Chinese and US military officials declined to comment. The Pentagon declined to comment on this specific case but said US reconnaissance flights in the area were "fairly routine" and were conducted in international airspace, as were the Chinese intercepts.