"Real M1 deposits in Italy have fallen at an annual rate of 7 per cent over the last six months, faster than during the build-up to the great recession in 2008," said Simon Ward from Henderson Global Investors. Such a dramatic contraction of M1 cash and overnight deposits typically heralds a slump six to 12 months later. Italy's economy is already vulnerable - industrial output fell 0.6 per cent in May, and the forward looking PMI surveys have dropped below the recession line.

"What is disturbing is that the numbers in the core eurozone have started to deteriorate sharply as well. Central banks normally back-pedal or reverse policy when M1 starts to fall, so it is amazing that the European Central Bank went ahead with a rate rise this month," Mr Henderson said. Italy has to roll over or raise 1 trillion euros over the next five years, with a big spike as soon as August. "Any new issuance will be above the average rate. That is the real cause of the destructive market action," said Paul Schofield from Cititgroup. The IMF has endorsed Italy's 40 billion euros austerity package, though the measures are "back-loaded" with most of the pain in 2013.

However, RBS said the eurozone storm is far from over. "We expect the crisis to continue deteriorating, and threaten to undermine the entire euro area as European policy-makers still misunderstand market dynamics. They show no sign of catching up with reality," said Jacques Cailloux, the bank's Europe economist.

Mr Cailloux said the EU's bail-out machinery (EFSF) must be increased to nearly 3.5 trillion euros in committed funds to staunch the crisis. This would give the authorities effective firepower of 2 trillion euros. "It is a lot of money but the euro is a big project. This is all about political appetite. The longer they wait, the worse it gets."

"The possibility remains that the recent weakness may prove more persistent," Mr Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee yesterday. Such a scenario would imply "a need for additional policy support", he said. The comments from the Fed chairman came just a few hours before the ratings agency Moody's warned that the US will lose its prized triple AAA credit rating if Congress fails to lift the country's $14.3 trillion debt ceiling.

The political gridlock on Capitol Hill over the debt ceiling has only intensified anxieties over the economy's faltering recovery. Failure to strike agreement before the August 2 deadline is likely to trigger a first default by the US government. Wall Street, however, seized on the earlier hint by the Fed chairman that the central bank would consider a further round of quantitative easing (QE), or other measures, should the world's largest economy weaken further. The Fed ended its second and far more controversial round of QE, dubbed QE2, last month.

Meanwhile in Europe, leaders were struggling on how to include the private investors in any restructuring of Greece's debt. Germany is insistent that the private sector is involved before it signs off on any further bail-out. The International Monetary Fund backed that call yesterday.

A September 18, 2009, State Department cable on the issue was prepared for an international meeting of the MTCR that year in Rio de Janeiro. The MTCR is an informal association of 34 states that seeks to limit exports of missiles with ranges greater than 185 miles and warheads heavier than 1,000 pounds.

Sent under Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's signature, the cable included a report on Chinese missile proliferation that on three occasions referred to a "lack of political will" by China to stop missile transfers. "Chinese authorities and firms fail to conduct sufficient evaluations of missile-applicable transactions or to take steps to know their customers," the report said.

Several cables, labelled "secret," were made public on Monday by the anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks, showing Chinese violations or circumventions of the accord.

The Aaa ratings of financial institutions directly linked to the US government, including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Banks, and the Federal Farm Credit Banks, were also put on review for cuts, Moody's said in a statement today.

The US, rated Aaa since 1917, was put on review for the first time since 1995 on concern the debt limit will not be raised in time to prevent a missed payment of interest or principal on outstanding bonds and notes even though the risk remains low, Moody's said. The rating would likely be reduced to the Aa range and there is no assurance that Moody's would return its top rating even if a default is quickly cured.

"It certainly underscores the importance of passing the debt ceiling and not putting us in default status, and making sure there's a longer term fiscal plan to contain spending and the deficit we've been running up over the last few years," said Anthony Cronin, a Treasury bond trader at Societe General SA in New York, one of the 20 primary dealers that trade with the Federal Reserve. "Maybe it's the impetus to say we'll need more of a concession."

With tensions running high in Washington political circles as the clock ticks towards an August 2 deadline for raising the national debt ceiling, the two sides will return for a fifth straight day of talks seemingly farther apart than ever. The meeting follows an acrimonious session Wednesday that laid bare the stark differences between the Democratic president and his Republican rivals over taxes and deficits, a battle whose outcome could have big implications as Obama seeks re-election in 2012.

Heightening the sense of anxiety hanging over already shaky negotiations, Moody's Investors Service jolted Washington on Wednesday with a warning that the United States may lose its top credit rating in the coming weeks if the $14.3 trillion (8.8 trillion pounds) limit on America's borrowing was not raised. That sent the US dollar tumbling against most major currencies. Stock futures and debt prices also fell. The round of talks following Moody's warning was the stormiest yet. Obama told Republicans "Enough's enough" before ending a session that was marked by partisan recriminations, which raised more questions about whether a deal can be reached.

An agreement must be forged to raise America's debt limit by August 2 or the government will run out of money to pay its bills and default on some obligations, but the two sides have failed so far to bridge a sharp divide over taxes.

"The principle of having a euro chiefs' meeting is accepted by the main players, including Germany," said one EU diplomat, adding that it was likely to happen next week despite earlier signals from Berlin that there was no rush to finalise a second package of aid. First, however, countries have to agree how to involve private sector investors in tackling Greece's debt burden, a key demand of Germany before it signs off more support for Athens and a step the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday must be taken.

"Comprehensive private sector involvement is appropriate, given the scale of financing needs and the desirability of burden sharing," the IMF said in its latest review of the debt-choked country. "Greece's debt service capacity may also need to be bolstered by combining appropriate PSI and official support," IMF officials wrote, referring to private-sector involvement.

Ratings agency Fitch cited continued uncertainty about private-sector participation and foot-dragging on giving more aid to Greece, when it downgraded the country further into junk territory.

News Corp withdrew an attempt to purchase the 61 percent of broadcaster BSkyB it does not already own for $12 billion after the government turned against the media giant. Advisers to BSkyB included Morgan Stanley, UBS and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. News Corp was advised by Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase & Co in the deal.

They were poised to collect a combined $90 million in advisory fees upon completion of the transaction, according to Thomson Reuters and Freeman Consulting. The firms will likely collect only about 10 percent of the potential fee pool, Freeman estimates show.

They show that future payments to retired teachers, police officers and NHS staff will cost taxpayers 1.1 trillion pounds, or 1,100 billion pounds. The enormous figure, which is equal to 80 per cent of Britain's output, is treble the combined national debts of Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland.

The future cost of schools and hospitals built under the controversial Private Finance Initiative will pile an extra 40 billion pounds on to our debt mountain. The 1.1 trillion pounds and the 40 billion pounds come on top of the official debt figure of 909 billion pounds. The figures will appear on the Government books for the first time when it publishes full accounts for every Whitehall department.

'Many people would be amazed to know that until now the government did not have a single set of accounts like any company would,' said a Treasury source. After years of foot dragging by the last government we have finally got a true picture of the liabilities that have been built up for future generations.'

Laith Khalaf, a pensions expert at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: 'The cost of public sector pensions has been hidden and downplayed for too long so greater transparency is welcome.' Emma Boon, of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'These latest figures on PFI and the public sector pension liabilities make extremely worrying reading.'

'They will also make it harder for trade unions to continue to resist very necessary changes to public sector pensions.'

The cheapest way for Europe to build a firewall to shield Italy would be to take decisive action this month on a second bailout for Greece, market participants and EU officials say. The longer a decision is delayed, the greater the risk of events getting out of hand in Greece or on capital markets, forcing core nations to take more radical and politically difficult measures to hold the 17-nation currency zone together.

The choice would then be between closer fiscal union and a possible breakup of the euro area. NAB economist Tom Vosa told Reuters Insider TV that Europe would need to quadruple the size of the current bailout mechanism if it needed to support Italy. That would force a shrinking number of creditor countries to commit more capital and guarantees, which seems politically improbable.

So if Italy came under more burning pressure, euro zone leaders would have to reconsider more radical options for fiscal integration which Germany and its allies have so far rejected. Otherwise, the euro area would risk breaking up. "The endgame is probably fiscal union because (the crisis) is just going to move from one country to the next," said Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income at Evolution Securities.

Moody's move comes a week after it slashed Portugal to junk status with a similar warning about the need for a second round of rescue funds. It reflects the credit rating agency's view that any further financial assistance from Brussels will require private investors to share part of the pain, possibly through a debt rollover or swap.

European finance ministers have acknowledged for the first time that some form of Greek default may be needed to cut Athens' debts, and if that materializes, Ireland's rating, never before in junk territory, could be set for a further round of cuts.

Investors fear a Greece default could ripple through Europe's banking system, putting pressure on stretched public finances in other euro zone countries. Italy, the euro zone's third largest economy, looks especially vulnerable with a debt-to-output ratio second only to Greece, and markets fear political bickering may derail a plan to slash spending and rein in the deficit.

Moody's one-notch downgrade on Ireland weighed on stocks and the euro, which hit its lowest level against the dollar in four months.

The late-afternoon surge came after the minutes from the Federal Reserve's June meeting said "a few members" of the bank's Federal Open Market Committee said the bank "might have to consider providing additional monetary policy stimulus, especially if economic growth remained too slow to meaningfully reduce the unemployment rate in the medium run."

It's one of the first times the Fed has made any direct reference to a third round of quantitative easing. The most recent round of quantitative easing, nicknamed QE2, ended in June. The Fed did not name which members of the FOMC were open to more fiscal stimulus. The dollar fell against the euro and Japanese yen on the news. Commodities, which are traded in dollars, also rose, with oil gaining more than 2%. Silver prices also advanced 2%.

"Even minor chatter about a third round of stimulus makes investors sell the dollar," said Brian Dolan, chief currency strategist with Forex.com.

"I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven't resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it," Mr Obama said in an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley, according to excerpts released by CBS News.

The Obama administration and many economists have warned of economic catastrophe if the United States does not raise the amount it is legally allowed to borrow by August 2.

Lawmakers from both parties want to use the threat of that deadline to work out a broader package on long-term deficit reduction, with Republicans looking to cut trillions of dollars in federal spending, while Democrats are pushing for a more "balanced approach," which would include both spending cuts and increased revenue through taxes.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers are expected to hold another round of negotiations with Mr Obama at the White House Tuesday afternoon on long-term deficit reduction, though talks have yielded little results to date. Mr Obama told Pelley "this is not just a matter of Social Security checks. These are veterans checks, these are folks on disability and their checks. There are about 70 million checks that go out."

Mr Zhu is a former deputy governor of the People's Bank of China and has been a special adviser to the IMF for the past year. "Min Zhu brings a wealth of experience in government, international policy making and financial markets, strong managerial and communication skills as well as an institutional understanding of the Fund, and I look forward to his counsel," Ms Lagarde said.

"As deputy managing director, he will play an important role in working with me and the rest of my management team in meeting the challenges facing our global membership in the period ahead, and in strengthening the Fund's understanding of Asia and emerging markets more generally."

Prime Minister David Cameron is also set to detail the terms of a public inquiry into the hacking scandal. In a Commons statement, he is expected to outline the remit of the judicial probe and possibly who will head it. Labour says the unanimous support of MPs for News Corporation to pull out of a bid for the broadcaster will send a "clear message" to Mr Murdoch.

It comes after Mr Cameron met Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Labour leader Ed Miliband at Downing Street to discuss the hacking scandal on Tuesday. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson is believed to have updated the three men on the current state of the police inquiry into hacking claims when he visited No 10.

In the US, Senate Commerce Committee chairman Jay Rockefeller called for an investigation into whether phone hacking targeted any American citizens. He said the authorities should consider whether journalists working for News Corp had broken US law.

He was shot twice by his long-time head of security, Sardar Mohammed, who was himself killed almost immediately. The Taliban said they carried out the attack, calling it one of their top achievements in 10 years of war.

Critics said Ahmad Wali Karzai was a warlord mired in corruption who was openly involved in the drugs trade and had a personal militia at his disposal. His supporters saw him as a defender of Pashtun rights. The president repeatedly defended him, denouncing accusations that his brother was involved in criminal activities.

Nato officials had often spoken of putting Ahmad Wali Karzai "on notice" over allegations of drug deals, and corruption. He challenged everyone to prove them. There's an old Afghan saying "Whoever controls Kandahar, controls Afghanistan". Ahmad Wali Karzai was the lynchpin in so many areas, his death now leaves a dangerous vacuum.