But Fatih Birol, chief economist of the International Energy Agency, said that the current price of $120 per barrel could be the catalyst for a global economic crisis on the scale of the one experienced in 2008. "If you don't see any softening of the prices, there is a risk of derailing the economy, of a double-dip," Dr Birol told the Reuters Global Energy and Climate Change Summit. "We all know what happened in 2008. Are we going to see the same movie?"

Oil prices fell nearly $3 in London to $117.30 and more than $5 in New York to $94.84 on worries about the faltering global economy. However, economists believe the price is still at a level near to tipping the global economy back into a downturn.

Prime Minister George Papandreou faces the risk of a revolt in his Pasok party over the austerity package. He has proposed a unity government to pass the measures, state TV reports. He is seeking support for a new austerity programme of 28 billion euros (24.6 billion pounds; $40.5 billion) in cuts to take effect from 2012 to 2015.

Thousands are taking part in a general strike, the third in Greece this year. Ports, public transport and banks have been badly disrupted as the main public and private sector unions go out on strike. State-run companies have also joined the walkout, while hospitals are only offering emergency care. However, airports are operating normally after air traffic controllers called off their strike.

A top credit agency has cut Greece's rating, making it the least credit-worthy nation out of 131 countries it monitors. The Greek government said the downgrade by Standard & Poor's - from B to CCC - ignored its efforts to secure funding. In order for the next tranche of rescue loans to go through, parliament must adopt the new austerity plan by the end of June.

Some eastern counties have had only 5mm of rain since the end of February, with most regions seeing no more than 60% of average rainfall in the past four months, usually one of the wettest times of the year. "The next few weeks are critical," said National Farmers Union water adviser Jenny Bashford. "We had some rain last week but all it did was stop the situation worsening in some places. If we get a heatwave now, and the forecast is for above average temperatures and only sporadic showers in June, we are in a different situation. The north and north-west is largely ok but there are already significant problems in the south and east."

The meeting is at the request of the environment secretary, Caroline Spelman, who asked the Environment Agency two weeks ago to report on how a drought might affect food production and prices, water and power supplies. Water companies, which have been upbeat so far about supplies, are likely to warn that some reservoirs in the south and east are beginning to empty but that no hosepipe bans will be needed for several months.

Farming leaders warned Spelman last week that production across much of southern Britain was likely to be down by 15% if normal rains resumed immediately and by much more if prolonged rains did not come soon. An increasing number of farmers predict that yields will be reduced by 50% or more, warning that the impact of a continuing dry summer could last well beyond the harvest into next year.

Food prices are expected to rise and a further prolonged spell of dry weather or a heatwave could result in restrictions on water use by the public, including hosepipe and sprinkler bans. The government could declare a drought within weeks. "At this point a whole range of powers could be invoked, from allowing farmers to take more water from rivers, to water restrictions on consumers," said Trevor Bishop, head of water resources at the Environment Agency.

Concern is growing across Europe that the drought will be disastrous for economies, affecting tourism, electricity supplies and food prices. And last week brought more bad news for the agricultuaral sectors of countries such as Spain and Holland as the E.coli outbreak saw shipments of fruit and vegetables hit hard. The Dutch industry association Productschap Tuinbouw said it estimated the cost of the infection scare to farmers at 50 million euros per week.

A decrease in global warming might result in the years after 2020, the approximate time when sunspots are expected to disappear for years, maybe even decades. While the effects of a calmer sun are mostly good - there'd be fewer disruptions of satellites and power systems - it could see a sharp turnaround in global warming.

An absence of sunspots is not an unprecedented situation. It has happened before, but not since the early 18th century. Lead researcher Frank Hill, of the National Solar Observatory, said: 'The solar cycle is maybe going into hiatus, sort of like a summertime TV show.' While scientists don't know why the sun is going quiet, all the signs are that it will. Dr Hill and his team have based their prediction on three changes in the sun spotted by scientific teams - weakening sunspots; fewer streams spewing from the poles of the sun's corona; and a disappearing solar jet stream.

Dr Richard Altrock, the study's co-author and an astrophysicist at the Air Force Research Laboratory, said these three cues show that 'there's a good possibility that the sun could be going into some sort of state from which it takes a long time to recover'.

Their prediction is specifically aimed at the solar cycle starting in 2020.

Experts say the sun has already been unusually quiet for about four years with few sunspots - higher magnetic areas that appear as dark spots. The enormous magnetic field of the sun dictates the solar cycle, which includes sunspots, solar wind and ejection of fast-moving particles that sometimes hit Earth.

Things don't look good. So exactly what is going on here? Well, it is undeniable that the recent mini-bubble in stocks has been too good to be true. The S&P 500 had surged nearly 30 percent since last September. Much of this has been fueled by the Federal Reserve's latest round of quantitative easing, but now that is coming to an end in a few weeks and investors are a bit spooked. Meanwhile, wars and revolutions are sweeping the Middle East, Japan is dealing with the damage caused by the tsunami and by Fukushima, Europe is trying to figure out how to bail out Greece again and the US debt crisis is continually getting worse.

In addition, wave after wave of bad economic news is certainly not helping the mood on Wall Street. In many ways, a "perfect storm" is developing and many are now extremely concerned about what the rest of 2011 is going to bring for Wall Street. QE2 is slated to conclude at the end of June, and many investors are deeply disappointed that it does not appear that we are not going to see QE3 right away. Many fear that the end of quantitative easing will pop the current mini-bubble in stocks and commodities. At the moment, financial markets are more jittery than they have been in a long time.

Frank Davis, director of sales and trading with LEK Securities, says that there is a lot of pessimism on Wall Street right now... "There's a lot of emotion in this market at the moment, and the conversations among traders are nearly all leaning toward the bear side" So what are some of the signs that this downturn on Wall Street may turn into a full-blown crash?

Well, according to the Wall Street Journal, junk bonds are being sold off at an alarming rate right now. Does the following quote from the Journal remind anyone of 2008 at least a little bit?... "A steep decline in prices of bonds backed by subprime mortgages has spread through the riskiest segments of the credit markets, ending rallies in high-yield corporate bonds and commercial real-estate debt."

If we see another collapse in 2011 or 2012 there is not going to be much of a safety net available. The entire world financial system is simply swamped with way too much debt. The world has never seen anything even remotely close to the gigantic mountains of debt that have been accumulated around the world today. The current global financial system is not sustainable. More crashes are inevitable. A lot of people are going to get steamrolled.

Traders say there are substantial options barriers around that level, a break of which would accelerate gains. If the franc goes much higher, investor concern about whether it is overbought will increase, potentially driving some into, for example, the Swedish and Norwegian crowns. They, like the franc, are backed by sound economies.

"All the forces that have been driving euro/Swiss franc lower remain in place. Until the market is comfortable with the idea that Europe is containing the second phase of the debt crisis, euro/Swiss will probably be a sell on rallies," said Audrey Childe-Freeman, strategist at JP Morgan Private Bank.

Franc gains have been exacerbated as investors have sought to limit exposure to the euro just as concerns about fiscal stress and weak economies have dented the appeal of more liquid alternatives - the US dollar, Japanese yen and sterling.

On Monday, Standard & Poor's slashed Greece's rating by three notches to CCC, just four steps from default. It said complicated political and economic conditions meant efforts by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to rescue Greece were looking increasingly shaky.

Now the big three agencies -- S&P (MHP.N), Moody's Investors Service (MCO.N) and Fitch Ratings (LBCP.PA) - have their biggest opportunity yet to exercise power over Europe, as they prepare to rule on a second bailout of Greece. "If you look at the rating agencies' actions in the recent months, when all of the anti-rating agency sentiment was there, they have not shown any sign of backing down," said Sony Kapoor, founder of European think tank Re-Define.

"They have downgraded Portugal at a very inconvenient time and Greece repeatedly. But there is nothing that has been suggested to replace them - they are here to stay." The agencies have faced withering criticism from European politicians and officials over the last couple of years - first for failing to warn of risks behind the global credit crisis, then for repeatedly downgrading Greece, Ireland and Portugal despite Europe's multi-billion euro bailouts of them.

He added: "This is the normal thing for authorities to do. In this case, I'm afraid they are making a mistake." Credit markets were thrown into fresh turmoil as Greek debt became the lowest rated in the world following a savage downgrade by Standard & Poor's on Monday. The yield on 10-year Greek government bonds spiked to a record high of more than 17 per cent as investors demanded a higher return to cover the risks of holding the debt.

Greek debt is now the lowest rated in the world - below Ecuador and Grenada - with many investors now expecting an uncontrolled default. The emergency meeting of eurozone finance ministers was called by Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the group, and comes ahead of a summit in Brussels next week. The group has set a deadline of June 20 to agree a new aid package for Greece, the country's second in 14 months. On Tuesday, Christian Noyer, governor of the Bank of France, backed the ECB. He said: "We think anything that would lead to declaration of a default for Greece or other regions should absolutely be avoided."

A general strike has been called for today in Athens, which may include a blockade of the Greek parliament.

The Visigoths and the Vandals who sacked Rome and undermined its empire, though far more cultured and sophisticated than their popular reputation, were unable to replicate the Pax Romana order it had established. European territories previously under Roman rule fractured into an unstable array of weak kingdoms and embattled city-states. Similarly, the vacuum created today by the erosion of US hegemony and the turmoil in the eurozone is resulting in stasis rather than a new direction.

Even those trade officials most hermetically sealed in bureaucratic bubbles are finally accepting that the so-called "Doha round" of trade negotiations, which the US pushed to the launch pad 10 years ago, is expiring. New Delhi and Beijing have shown they are perfectly willing to collapse the talks rather than accede to demands from Washington.

China, with covering fire from other governments, has repulsed much of the US's charge to force Beijing to liberalise its currency. Assuming that Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister, takes over the managing directorship of the International Monetary Fund, she will inherit a process of mutual economic assessment at the behest of the G20 to encourage global economic rebalancing. But recent history suggests it will do little to make China hasten the rise of the renminbi.

In a letter sent Tuesday afternoon, Mr Boehner, the top Republican in the constitutional chain of succession, said Mr Obama must provide a clear justification by Friday for committing troops to Libya. Sunday marks the 90th day since the president notified Congress that US troops had been committed to help enforce a no-fly zone over Libya, which is designed to protect the rebels fighting Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's government.

"The Constitution requires the president to 'take care that the laws be faithfully executed,' and one of those laws is the War Powers Resolution, which requires an approving action by Congress or withdrawal within 90 days from the notification of a military operation," Mr Boehner said in the letter. The White House has repeatedly said it has complied with the law by alerting Congress to the initial deployment, and by testifying at more than 10 hearings and providing 30 follow-up briefings about the pace and extent of US troops' commitment.

But the administration has never sought approval from Congress.

"Preaching is big business. It's almost as profitable as the oil business," he said. The joint wealth of five pastors was at least $200 million (121 million pounds), he said. Mr Nsehe said the richest of them, Bishop David Oyedepo of the Living Faith World Outreach Ministry, was worth about $150 million. Bishop Oyedepo owned a publishing company, university, an elite private school, four jets and homes in London and the United States, according to Mr Nsehe.

The Nigerian blogger said Bishop Oyedepo was followed on the rich list by Pastor Chris Oyakhilome of the Believers' Loveworld Ministries. He was worth between $30 and $50 millon. "Oyakhilome's diversified interests include newspapers, magazines, a local television station, a record label, satellite TV, hotels and extensive real estate," Mr Nsehe said.

He said three of the other richest pastors were:

- Temitope Joshua Matthew of the Synagogue Church Of All Nations (worth between $10-15 million);

- Matthew Ashimolowo of Kingsway International Christian Centre (worth between $6-10 million) and

- Chris Okotie of the Household of God Church (worth between $3-10 million).

- Mr Nsehe said representatives of all the clergymen, except Pastor Ashimolowo, confirmed ownership of the assets he had listed on his blog.

"We have Nigerians who are desperate, looking for solutions to their problems. They go to church for salvation, redemption and healing and pastors sometimes take advantage of them," Mr Nsehe said.

South Africa, the continent's largest economy, is driving regional integration as it seeks to create a larger market for companies such as Shoprite Holdings Ltd (SHP), Africa's biggest retailer. Africa's economy has grown an average of 5.7 percent over the past decade according to the International Monetary Fund, fueling the expansion of a new middle class.

Strong growth and "intensifying global competition for Africa's resources and markets" make it "imperative that South Africa accelerates efforts to promote regional integration to ensure that we trade on terms at least as favorable as other competitors," Trade Minister Rob Davies said. Africa now has more families earning in excess of $20,000 a year than India, according to a McKinsey & Co Inc study published in June last year.

While there are at least eight overlapping African economic blocs, poorly maintained transport routes and lengthy border-crossings have undermined internal trade. The so-called Grand Free Trade Area, which encompasses 26 countries and 590 million people, would initially be limited to the trade of goods, Davies said in a June 8 opinion piece published in Johannesburg's Business Report newspaper.

Then last Friday, a bomb detonated at a government building in the northeastern port city of Tianjin, set off by a man who was intent on seeking "revenge on society," according to Chinese state media. Finally over the weekend, a scuffle between migrant street vendors and security personnel near China's southern metropolis of Guangzhou sparked a series of riots and 25 detentions. Bloggers, social-media contributors and journalists from nearby Hong Kong reported that at least 1,000 migrant workers had coalesced in support of the vendors, setting fire to police vehicles and offices.

That map of China? It's pockmarked with thumbtacks.

As China prepares to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party on July 1, the nation has been inundated by a wave of social unrest. Although each case appears isolated and tied to specific local grievances, the proliferation of protests and violence nationwide must surely spook China's stability-obsessed leaders, who have already unleashed a crackdown on dissent that has netted dozens of activists, bloggers, journalists and other independent-minded types.

Earlier this year, the central government approved a budget of $95 billion, nearly a 14% annual increase, for "internal security" - a fuzzy designation that covers everything from salaries for security forces to the building of prisons. Maintaining social stability is such an important goal that local leaders can have their promotions tied to keeping the lid on any unrest. Chinese web censors work overtime to prevent search words related to protests from turning up sensitive information. In recent days, for instance, banned keywords have included "Inner Mongolia" and "Tianjin bombings."

A sociologist at Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University has said that some 180,000 so-called "mass incidents" took place last year, a significant increase from the 74,000 reported in 2004, the last year that the government officially released such figures.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, said its 1.2 million members would vote on industrial action over the next few months in what he described as the biggest union ballot ever held in Britain. It could herald an 'autumn of discontent' which could bring council and NHS services to a halt.

The union, which represents staff in the NHS and councils, is angry about proposed changes to gold-plated public sector pensions.

The Coalition wants to reform the schemes to bring them into line with those that normally exist in the private sector. Under the changes, workers will pay more into the schemes and receive less in retirement.

Mr Prentis warned: 'If we are prevented from reaching agreement we will move to a ballot in the summer or early autumn. It will not be one day of action - it will be long-term action throughout our public services to prevent destruction of our pension schemes. It will be the biggest ever industrial action taken in this country.' Describing what is to come as 'massive industrial unrest', he said: 'It is very clear we are on a collision course unless the Government changes its policies.'

Mr Prentis said balloting on strike action could begin next month if the Coalition does not offer changes at a meeting on June 27.

There's a one-in-three chance the factors will combine to stunt growth from 2013, Roubini said in a June 11 interview in Singapore. Other possible outcomes are "anemic but OK" global growth or an "optimistic" scenario in which the expansion improves. "There are already elements of fragility," he said. "Everybody's kicking the can down the road of too much public and private debt. The can is becoming heavier and heavier, and bigger on debt, and all these problems may come to a head by 2013 at the latest."

Elevated US unemployment, a surge in oil and food prices, rising interest rates in Asia and trade disruption from Japan's record earthquake threaten to sap the world economy. Stocks worldwide have lost more than $3.3 trillion since the beginning of May, and Roubini said financial markets by the middle of next year could start worrying about a convergence of risks in 2013.

Roubini is among analysts who predicted the global financial crisis of 2007-2009 that was triggered by a collapse in the value of US mortgage securities.