"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.

The police have also fired a number of plastic bullets. Greater Ardoyne Residents Collective (GARC) which opposes the Orange parade passing through the nationalist Ardoyne held a protest in response to the Parades Commission decision to allow the march to pass the shops. The Orange parade has now passed through the area.

Last year, there were several days of rioting after the parade was allowed to walk past the shops. A car has been set alight nearby on the Crumlin Road. On Monday night, 22 police officers were injured during serious rioting in several nationalist areas of west and north Belfast. An investigation is continuing into the possibility that shots were fired during the trouble in west Belfast.

An ambulance and a fire engine were also attacked. More than 40 petrol bombs were thrown at police, who said crowds of about 150-200 people were involved in the violence at Broadway and about 200 in both the Oldpark and New Lodge areas of north Belfast.

Saudi Arabia, which has already been receiving combat aircraft ("Eurofighters") as well as French/German produced command and control operation centers, as well as other military equipment, holds sixth place on the customer list for German combat material - NATO customers included. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) even holds second place - immediately behind the United States.

Saudi Arabia, which has been producing under license the German-origin G3 assault rifle, has now been furnished a factory for the production of the G3's successor - G36 assault rifle - under license from the Heckler and Koch gunsmith company in Southern Germany. The buildup of arms in Saudi Arabia and the other dictatorships at the Gulf is not only being implemented on the premise of the arms business' seeking to maintain a top position on the global arms market - Germany is the third largest weapons vender in the world.

There are also geostrategic reasons: Since the breakup of Iraq, Iran has the potential to become the leading power in the resources rich region of the Persian Gulf. Its local rivals are being called upon to block this development, so that western hegemony will continue to reign over the Middle East.

Also known as Archduke Otto of Austria, Otto was the eldest son of Blessed Charles I of Austria, the last emperor of Austria-Hungary. The empire dissolved in 1918, at the end of the First World War, and the Habsburg family was forced into exile. Otto would never become an emperor or a king, but rather he dedicated himself to a lifelong career in politics, during which he worked tirelessly to unify a divided Europe, and remind the continent of its Christian roots.

Benedict XVI stated in his message, sent Sunday to Karl von Habsburg, that Otto had "been a witness to the changing face of Europe." "Trusting in God and aware of a significant heritage," the Pope added, Otto had "been a committed European tirelessly working for freedom, for the unity of peoples and for a just order in this continent."

After being exiled from Austria, the Habsburgs lived in Switzerland, Portugal and Spain. Otto's father, Charles I, died in 1922, leaving his eldest son as pretender to the imperial throne. In 2004, Pope John Paul II beatified his father. In 1933, Otto graduated with a doctorate in political and social sciences from the University of Louvain in Belgium.

During World War II, Otto was a fearless critic of the Nazi party in Germany. Upon annexing Austria, Adolf Hitler had not only ordered the death of Otto von Habsburg, but also revoked his citizenship, as well as the citizenship of the imperial royal family. Otto, who was left stateless, spent the better part of World War II in the United States, and he wouldn't regain his citizenship until 1965.

In the 1960s, after renouncing his claim to the Austrian throne, Otto embarked on a long political career. He served as president of the International Paneuropean Union from 1973-2004, and from 1979-1999 he was a member of the European Parliament.

Otto was an organizer of the Pan-European Picnic at the Hungary-Austria border on August 19, 1989, which allowed some 700 East Germans to escape to the West, and is considered a turning point in the collapse of the Iron Curtain that divided Europe.

The doses of drugs were far too small to have an effect on anyone drinking them, but the results highlight how man-made chemicals are now found throughout the food chain. The highest quantities of medicines were found in cow's milk. Researchers believe some of the drugs and growth promoters were given to the cattle, or got into milk through cattle feed or contamination on the farm.

The Spanish-Moroccan team analysed 20 samples of cow's milk bought in Spain and Morocco, along with samples of goat and breast milk. Their breakdown, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, revealed that cow's milk contained traces of anti-inflammatory drugs niflumic acid, mefenamic acid and ketoprofen - commonly used as painkillers in animals and people.

It also contained the hormone 17-beta-estradiol, a form of the sex hormone oestrogen. The hormone was detected at three millionths of a gram in every kilogram of milk, while the highest dose of niflumic acid was less than one millionth of a gram per kilogram of milk. However, the scientists, led by Dr Evaristo Ballesteros, from the University of Jaen in Spain, say their technique could be used to check the safety of other types of food.

Last year Portsmouth University scientists found that fish were being contaminated with the anti-depressant Prozac. The drug enters rivers from the sewer system and tinkers with the brain chemistry of fish, the researchers claimed. Previous studies have shown that caffeine is released into our waterways after surviving the sewage treatment process.

The hormones from the contraceptive pill and HRT have been blamed for feminising fish, leading to male fish producing eggs. The effects of antibiotics, blood pressure drugs and cholesterol-lowering drugs on wildlife are also being studied around the world.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2012050/The-cocktail-20-chemicals-glass-milk.html#ixzz1Rs9bqpfS

British banks and investment houses risk losses of 7.9 billion euros if the Italian government defaults on its debts and another 5.7 billion euros if Italian banks collapse. Financial firms face losing another 29.2 billion pounds should Italian companies fold as the debt crisis spirals. Chancellor George Osborne was travelling last night to Brussels for a meeting of the EU's 27 finance ministers today.

Last night, a meeting of Eurozone ministers, to which Britain is not invited since the UK is not part of the single currency, discussed plans for a fresh bailout of Greece. A Treasury source said: 'The important thing is to get the Greek bailout sorted out, which will spread confidence through the Eurozone.'

But Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income at Evolution Securities, said: 'Italy with a debt to GDP ratio of 120 per cent and debt of 1.6 trillion euros is a pretty big elephant to have in the room. You have to stop the contagion getting to Italy.' Yesterday the Milan stock market plunged by 3.4 per cent, wiping billions off the value of Italian companies.

British taxpayers have already contributed 12.5 billion pounds in aid to Greece, Ireland and Portugal but the Government has refused to join a second EU bailout fund for Greece. The Rome government has already announced 40 billion pounds of cuts after Italy's credit rating was downgraded last month. Jane Foley, analyst with finance house Rabobank, said: 'The fact that contagion is spreading marks the failure of politicians to draw a line under the euro-crisis.'