They were the usual words of reassurance and conciliation. "Content is more important than timing," EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger said on Thursday, addressing a disagreement in Brussels over "stress tests" for 143 European nuclear reactors. "The public expects credible tests that will cover all foreseeable risks and security concerns."

Like so much else in recent weeks, the safety tests for European nuclear plants have been a point of contention in Brussels. The meeting between Oettinger and representatives of the 27 member states ended without tangible results. In the wake of the Fukushima disaster the EU agrees that stress tests are important, but no one can agree on criteria. France and Great Britain, above all, have stonewalled detailed EU examinations - they see no reason to test their reactors with regard to anything besides natural catastrophes.

Nuclear stress tests are just one example, though, of an atmosphere at the EU in which communal feeling is crumbling. The financial crisis has split the continent, and "me first" has become the new credo in Brussels.

Denmark just this week shut its borders unexpectedly - stepping back from the Schengen Agreement on visa-free travel throughout the EU on account of a sudden wave of immigrants fleeing chaos from the Arab Spring. Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a prominent Green member of the EU parliament, suggested that Copenhagen should feel swift consequences. "The Danes have to decide: If they want to be serious about closing their borders then they need to resign from the Schengen Agreement," he said to Spiegel Online. "Then they'll need visas of their own to travel through Europe - one for each country."

You won't hear any of this from those in the political establishment who cravenly backed Tony Blair when he was madly trying to abolish the pound. Lord Mandelson, Nick Clegg, Lord Heseltine, Paddy Ashdown and Ken Clarke have all gone incredibly quiet on the subject of the single currency. And no wonder, considering the terrifying scale of the calamity unfolding in the eurozone.

The crisis is now very dangerously poised. Weaker countries on the periphery of the zone - Greece, Ireland and now Portugal - cooked their books, ran up vast debts and have had to be bailed out by the rest, as well as by the International Monetary Fund. The markets so distrust these countries - understandably given their reckless behaviour - that they are prepared to lend to them only at exorbitant interest rates. And this, in turn, worsens their debts. This week it became clear that last year's bailout of Greece has simply not worked. So out of control are the country's borrowings and spending - even after various austerity programmes - that it is in serious danger of defaulting on its loans.

To head off this possibility, some are suggesting a so-called 'restructuring' in which those institutions in the financial markets which loaned money to the Greeks are forced to accept that they will not get all of it back. Yet even this might not be enough to put an end to the problem. After crisis talks earlier this week, German sources suggested that it may be time for everyone to cut their losses and that Greece should leave the euro. Privately, the Greeks have also floated the idea. The countries that have been bailed out are in a terrible situation. They are contemplating years of recession or slow growth as they struggle to cope with the vast new debts they have taken on to keep the euro afloat.

Of the 27 members of the EU, 17 are in the eurozone. After the latest stage of the crisis, those in the euro will move much closer together. Led by France and Germany, they will have to integrate their economies even more to try to make the euro endure. The Germans will demand that countries agree to tight budget discipline so that debts don't get out of hand again, and will impose strict policies that suit German industry. Those countries outside the euro but in the EU will then be put in an interesting position. There will be a 'two-speed Europe' - with the more closely integrated eurozone members in one category and those outside the eurozone in another group.

The poll, published today to mark the first anniversary of the coalition, quizzed three different categories of people - those who voted Conservative in last year's election, those who considered doing so, but did not, and Tory party members. Mr Cameron, who has faced some criticism from within his party for failing to win last year's election outright, is warned that the Conservatives are still seen by many as the party of "the rich" and that some voters believe that government spending cuts are going too far, too fast.

On immigration, Tories and potential Tories were uncertain what had been achieved since the party came to power, and on the NHS voters were found to be "very sceptical of controversial proposed reforms". However, some clear policy successes are identified - particularly welfare reform. Asked what single thing their party could do which would be most likely to attract new voters in 2015, the most popular option was improving the economy, cutting the deficit and helping create jobs, backed by 19 per cent.

This was followed by taking a tougher stance on Europe, which could even include leaving the European Union, which had the support of 17 per cent of members, followed by dealing better with immigration (13 per cent).

According to the Italian Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, a slight increase in Etna's volcanic tremors had been recorded in recent months. It is thought of as a 'safe' volcano - paradoxically because it is so active. But last January's eruption was one of the biggest seen since massive outpourings of lava in the 1880s destroyed several villages. But they assure locals that it is highly unlikely to blow as Vesuvius did in AD79, wiping out the now extinct Roman town of Pompei. Etna is the highest active volcano in Europe at 3,295 metres (10,810 feet) above sea level.

Geologists have been warning since the late 1990s that Etna seems to be becoming more active. Ominously, the cone of the south-east crater has grown by 300ft since late 1998, showing that the forces underground are stretching the mountain to breaking point.

European Central Bank Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny appeared to give the first public confirmation that an EU/IMF inspection team visiting Athens has found shortcomings in Greece's implementation of the bailout plan. "Greece has apparently not fulfilled the conditions sufficiently of late. The issue of privatisations will be the most sensitive point here," Austria's Kronen Zeitung quoted Nowotny as saying.

Without a shift of course, Greek debt would rise to 157.7 percent of gross domestic product this year and to 166.1 percent in 2012, rather than be 145.2 and 148.8 percent as envisaged by the EU/IMF plan, the EU executive said. Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, hit back at criticism, saying euro zone countries must work together to shore up the common currency and tackle economic problems.

The yield on the 5-year Greek bonds dropped on Friday but was still near 21 percent, a level which makes borrowing from the markets completely prohibitive.

Prominent journalists like ABC's Christiane Amanpour and former Washington Post editor and now Vice President Len Downie serve on boards of operations that take Soros' cash. This despite the Society of Professional Journalists' ethical code stating: "avoid all conflicts real or perceived." This information is part of an upcoming report by the Media Research Centers Business & Media Institute which has been looking into George Soros and his influence on the media.

The investigative reporting start-up ProPublica is a prime example. ProPublica, which recently won its second Pulitzer Prize, initially was given millions of dollars from the Sandler Foundation to "strengthen the progressive infrastructure" - "progressive" being the code word for very liberal. In 2010, it also received a two-year contribution of $125,000 each year from the Open Society Foundations. In case you wonder where that money comes from, the OSF website is www.soros.org. It is a network of more than 30 international foundations, mostly funded by Soros, who has contributed more than $8 billion to those efforts.

One more thing: a 14-person Journalism Advisory Board, stacked with CNN's David Gergen and representatives from top newspapers, a former publisher of The Wall Street Journal and the editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster. Several are working journalists, including:

* Jill Abramson, a managing editor of The New York Times;

* Kerry Smith, the senior vice president for editorial quality of ABC News;

* Cynthia A Tucker, the editor of the editorial page of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

ProPublica is far from the only Soros-funded organization that is stacked with members of the supposedly neutral press. If journalists were more up front, they would have to admit NUMEROUS UNCOMFORTABLE CONNECTIONS WITH GROUPS THAT PUSH A LIBERAL AGENDA, MANY OF THEM FUNDED BY THE STRIDENTLY LIBERAL GEORGE SOROS. So don't expect that transparency any time soon.

The Forsa Institute just conducted a new poll for the newspaper Der Freitag in which a representative number of German residents were confronted with bare remarks by four European right-wing populists. The results are unexpectedly clear: Right-wing ideas appeal to an unexpectedly broad portion of the populace.

The voters most prone to express them are members of the conservative CDU/CSU (Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats and their Bavarian sister party), the FDP (the business-friendly Free Democrats) - and the Left Party, consisting of many former East German communists. Perhaps most alarming is that 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, attitudes nationwide have shifted closer to East German right-wing populism than to analogous ideas from the former West.

For example:

- 70 percent of those surveyed say Germany gives too much money to the EU

- Almost half want Germany to drastically reduce immigration

- 38 percent believe Islam doesn't fit into a German lifestyle and represents a threat to German values

- 30 percent want an "independent Germany, without the euro, where the EU holds no legal sway"

There are also sharp differences between eastern and western Germany: Euro-skepticism and anti-Muslim feeling are far more common, by at least a third, in the former East. Besides the Greens, in other words, all German parties are infected with some form of the right-wing virus.

About 27 percent of homes with mortgages were "underwater" in the fourth quarter, according to Zillow, which runs a website with property-value estimates and real-estate listings. Home prices fell 3 percent in the first quarter and will drop as much as 9 percent this year as foreclosures spread and unemployment remains high, Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries said. Prices won't find a floor until 2012, he said.

"We get tired of telling such a grim story, but unfortunately this is the story that needs to be told," Humphries said in a telephone interview. "Demand is still quite anemic due to unemployment and the fact that home values are still falling. And that tends to make people more cautious about buying."

The US unemployment rate rose to 9 percent in April, up from 8.8 percent in March, the Department of Labor reported May 6. Home prices have fallen almost 30 percent from their June 2006 peak, wiping out more than $10 trillion in equity, including $667.5 billion in the first quarter, Humphries said.

"The reality is that we are following virtually the same economic playbook as we did 80 years ago in dealing with the Great Depression, which resulted in a false recovery, followed by the most painful contraction in US history with a 25 percent unemployment rate," says Craig Smith, of Swiss America Trading Corp and the author of "Crashing the Dollar: How to Survive a Global Currency Collapse."

"In 1929 we decided to borrow, print and spend money that we did not have in order to prompt a 'recovery.' It didn't work then and it will not work now. In my opinion it is going to take not only a credit downgrade, but the potential loss of the US dollar's Global Reserve Currency status before the proper decisions are made to address the underlying problems. Get ready to have the value of your time, labor and dollar assets also headed for a major downgrade!" says Smith.

He cited the work of Shadowstats.com, which reveals that the Producer Price Index increased 0.7 percent last month, which equates to an 8.4 percent annual wholesale inflation in the pipeline for consumers. The group reported, "Prices are rising much faster than wages by any standard." John Williams of Shadowstats explained that since 1980, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics has changed the way it calculates the Consumer Price Index - in order to account for the substitution of products, improvements in quality and other things.

Recalculating the data without the methodological changes BLS began in 1990 reveals inflation getting worse, the organization said. "Near-term circumstances generally have continued to deteriorate," said Williams. "Though not yet commonly recognized, there is both an intensifying double-dip recession and a rapidly escalating inflation problem." Smith notes that Americans know inflation can be dangerous, so why do politicians and central bankers keep printing money?

"The answer is that inflation is many things in addition to devaluation of the currency," Smith said. "Inflation is literally becoming a new kind of governance," an "Inflatocracy," he said, "that imposes its own sinister rules and alternative values, values quite different from those of America's Founders."

A rate rise to 1 per cent would increase monthly repayments on an average 150,000 pounds variable rate mortgage by 43 pounds a month or 516 pounds a year. Two-thirds of homeowners have a variable rate mortgage, meaning nearly eight million households would pay more. On top of the rate rise warning, the Bank painted a bleak picture of soaring inflation, rising energy bills and sluggish economic growth. In addition, in its quarterly inflation report, the Bank revealed that the squeeze on household incomes - currently the worst in 80 years - is expected to continue for longer than previously predicted.

Until now, Bank of England Governor Mervyn King has urged caution because an early rate rise could plunge the economy back into recession. But yesterday he gave a heavy hint that the rise in inflation - which the Bank said could hit 5 per cent in the final months of the year - has tilted the balance of opinion towards an early increase. He said: 'Bank rates cannot stay at this level indefinitely and at some point it will return to more normal levels.'

Inflation of 5 per cent would be more than double the Government's target. Just three months ago the Bank said inflation would only hit 4.5 per cent this year. It is now described as 'volatile' and the Bank's quarterly inflation report notes: 'There is a great deal of uncertainty about the outlook for inflation.' It comes as household gas bills are set to jump by an average of 100 pounds and electricity bills by 50 pounds in the next nine months - with no respite for a further two years. At present, the average gas bill is 666 pounds a year and the average electricity bill is 473 pounds.

In its report, the Bank also downgraded its economic growth forecasts for this year from around 2 per cent to 1.75 per cent, and said the squeeze on living standards would last longer than initially thought. But an interest rate rise would come as a relief to Britain's army of savers, who have lost out since rates were pushed down during the depths of recession in March 2009. While borrowers would be hit almost immediately by an interest rate rise, savers often have to wait two or three months for the increase to be passed on.

Obama's involvement adds a sense of urgency to the discussions as the clock ticks for Congress to increase the nation's credit line before defaulting on its debt. The August 2 deadline to increase the debt limit has been pushed back already by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, who shifted around resources to prevent the US from hitting its debt ceiling and potentially losing its global credit rating.

Vice President Biden had been the administration's point man on budget talks and on several occasions had huddled with negotiators from the House and Senate to find ways to reduce spending by identifying domestic programs that both sides agree can be cut. But after meeting with congressional negotiators for two hours on Tuesday, Biden said the top House and Senate leaders may have to get involved to close any deal.

"American families should not be punished for the sins of Washington. According to the (Congressional Budget Office), we are going to spend $45 trillion over the next 10 years. Reports suggest that the Senate Democrat plan... will cut, or save, just $2 trillion," Sessions said.

Republicans say they want "trillions, not billions" cut from the spending side of the ledger. That means if the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling is increased by $2 trillion, as it was last year, spending cuts of the same amount would have to be included.

CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann reports that there are about 300 homes in Tunica Cutoff, and they have all been flooded. Other swamped communities may rebuild, but Tunica Cutoff may not. New housing codes mandate raising new homes above the 100-year flood plain. Most victims in Tunica had no flood insurance, and couldn't afford raising their homes. So here's their worry: Tunica Cutoff could be gone for good, flooded into history.

Tunica County, which contains the unincorporated Tunica Cutoff community, has little more than 10,000 residents, and a median family income of around $30,000, about half the national average, according to Census estimates. It is also about 70 percent black, whereas the national average is around 12 percent.

Update: The swollen Mississippi River set a record high water level at Natchez, Mississippi, on Wednesday - 10 days before its expected crest in the southern city. The level of the largest river in North America reached 58.48 feet at Natchez on Wednesday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service, above the record of 58.04 feet set in 1937. The river is expected to crest at 64 feet on May 21. Thunderstorms are also expected on Thursday night into Friday, which could bring another inch of rain into the area.

The US is selling $72 billion in new debt over three days this week. The Treasury auctioned $32 billion in three-year notes Tuesday and $24 billion in 10-year notes Wednesday, and will sell $16 billion in 30-year bonds Thursday. All of the auctions will settle Monday. As of Tuesday, total debt subject to the limit was $14.274 trillion, according to the Treasury Department. The Obama administration has asked Congress to raise the limit, warning that failure to act could lead the government to default by August 2 - and could spook investors even before then.

House Speaker John Boehner (Republican for Ohio) said Monday that any increase in the government's debt limit should be accompanied by trillions of dollars in spending cuts. "It's true that allowing America to default would be irresponsible. But it would be more irresponsible to raise the debt limit without simultaneously taking dramatic steps to reduce spending and to reform the budget process," he said.

The federal budget deficit widened in April, with the government spending $ 40.49 billion more than it collected last month, a Treasury Department report said Wednesday. The deficit was the 31st monthly shortfall in a row. With seven months of fiscal 2011 elapsed, the government has spent $869.90 billion more than it has collected. Even the most aggressive plans wouldn't wipe out budget deficits for years, meaning that debt will continue to mount.

Why does it surprise anyone that the latter, the eurozone, has a stronger currency than the former, the US? Because of peripheral countries' debt refinancing issues? And the potential for contagion? These are real and serious issues, but in our assessment, they should be primarily priced into the spreads of eurozone bonds, not the euro itself.

Think of it this way: in the US, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has testified that going off the gold standard during the Great Depression helped the US recover faster than other countries. Fast-forward to today: we believe Bernanke embraces a weaker currency as a monetary policy tool to help address the current state of the US economy. What many overlook is that someone must be on the other side of that trade: today it is the eurozone, which is experiencing a strong currency, despite the many challenges in the 17-nation bloc.

In the US, the day investors come to accept the reality that inflation, rather than fiscal discipline, is the path of least political resistance may be the day the bond market won't be as forgiving. Unlike the eurozone, where consumers stopped spending and started saving a decade ago, the highly indebted US consumer may not be able to stomach higher interest rates. The large US current account deficit also makes the dollar more vulnerable to a misbehaving bond market than the eurozone.

In the medium term, we are far more concerned about risks to the US dollar than those posed by the Greek drama to the euro.

A senior Navy official told Fox News the legal counsel determined the suspension would be necessary "until broader legal and policy questions are answered." The original memo would have allowed for Navy chaplains to perform gay marriages in states where it is legal only after the "don't ask, don't tell" policy is repealed. Military training to apply the new law allowing gays to serve openly began earlier this year and is expected to be completed by midsummer.

But House members wrote to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to object to the Navy's initial ruling, saying the service was violating the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act by appearing to recognize and support same-sex marriages. That law defines marriage as only between a man and a woman, and it also says states don't have to recognize gay marriages performed in other states where they are legal. "We find it unconscionable that the United States Navy, a federal entity sworn to preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States, believes it is their place alone to train and direct service members to violate federal law," said the lawmakers' letter, which was signed by 63 House members.

The lawmakers asked Mabus to direct the Navy to defend the Constitution, adding that individuals should not be allowed to pick and choose the laws they will follow. In addition, Representative Todd Akin, Republican for Missouri, plans to offer an amendment Wednesday that would bar military facilities from being used for same-sex marriages.