The European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the International Monetary Fund have all recently warned of a looming crunch, especially in Europe, where banks have enough trouble raising money as it is.

Their concern is that banks hungry for refinancing will compete with governments - which also must roll over huge sums - for the bond market's favor. As a result, credit for business and consumers could become more costly and scarce, with unpleasant consequences for economic growth.

"There is a cliff we are racing toward - it's huge," said Richard Barwell, an economist at Royal Bank of Scotland and formerly a senior economist at the Bank of England, Britain's central bank. "No one seems to be talking about it that much." But, he added, "it's of first-order importance for lending and output."

Banks worldwide owe nearly $5 trillion to bondholders and other creditors that will come due through 2012, according to estimates by the Bank for International Settlements. About $2.6 trillion of the liabilities are in Europe.

While the weak economy dominated the official agenda at the summer meeting here of the National Governors Association, concern over immigration policy pervaded the closed-door session between Democratic governors and White House officials and simmered throughout the three-day event.

At the Democrats' meeting on Saturday, some governors bemoaned the timing of the Justice Department lawsuit, according to two governors who spoke anonymously because the discussion was private. "Universally the governors are saying, 'We've got to talk about jobs,'" Governor Phil Bredesen of Tennessee, a Democrat, said in an interview. "And all of a sudden we have immigration going on." He added, "It is such a toxic subject, such an important time for Democrats."

But David Axelrod, the president's senior adviser, said on Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" that the president remained committed to passing an immigration overhaul, and that addressing the issue did not mean he was ignoring the economy. "That doesn't mean we can't have a good, healthy debate about the economy and other issues," Mr Axelrod said.

The nation's total federal debt next year is expected to exceed $14 trillion, and Mr Simpson, a former Republican senator from Wyoming, and Mr Bowles, a Democrat and the White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, offered a gloomy assessment if spending is not brought under control even more.

"This debt is like a cancer," Mr Bowles said. "IT IS TRULY GOING TO DESTROY THE COUNTRY FROM WITHIN."

Kahlili accused the Obama Administration of being naive. According to him, the American overtures are viewed by the Iranian regime as a sign of weakness, while the Iranian people consider the efforts to engage the regime an act of betrayal against their struggle for freedom.

"THIS IS A MESSIANIC REGIME. There should be no doubt - they are going to commit the most horrendous suicide bombing in human history. THEY WILL ATTACK ISRAEL, EUROPEAN CAPITALS, AND (THE) PERSIAN GULF REGION AT THE SAME TIME," said Kahlili in one of his first public appearances.

Kahlili said he joined the Revolutionary Guard following the Islamic revolution of 1979, but volunteered to work for the CIA when he became disillusioned with the Khomeini regime after witnessing acts of rape, torture and murder. For 10 years, under the code name "Wally," he relayed the secret operations of the IRGC back to American intelligence, eventually fleeing to the United States. In the aftermath of 9/11, Kahlili reestablished contact with his sources in Iran and began once again providing information to the CIA, according to the Washington Institute.

It would be only a temporary solution to the catastrophe that the federal government estimates has poured between 87 million and 172 million gallons of oil into the Gulf as of Saturday. Hope for permanently plugging the leak lies with two relief wells, the first of which should be finished by mid-August. The failure of the blowout preventer, a massive piece of equipment designed to stop the unchecked flow of oil, is partly to blame for the size of the spill. "That will be an important question to ask when we pull the blowout preventer up to the surface and we'll figure out where that pipe ultimately landed," Wells said.

After the flange transition spool is bolted in place, the new cap - called a capping stack or "Top Hat 10" - can be lowered. The equipment, weighing some 150,000 pounds, is designed to fully seal the leak and provide connections for new vessels on the surface to collect oil. The cap has valves that can restrict the flow of oil and shut it in, if it can withstand the enormous pressure. That will be one of the key items for officials to monitor, said Paul Bommer, a professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. "If the new cap does work and they shut the well in, it is possible that part of the well could rupture if the pressure inside builds to an unacceptable value," Bommer wrote in an e-mail Saturday.

The plan, which was accelerated to take advantage of a window of good weather lasting seven to 10 days, didn't inspire confidence in the residents of the oil-slicked coast. "This is probably the sixth or seventh method they've tried, so, no, I'm not optimistic," said Deano Bonano, director of emergency preparedness for Jefferson Parish.

"Shutting off the oil is a very important step, but we should not assume this disaster is over," said Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation. "I think it's important to recognize that there's an enormous amount of oil still in the Gulf."

The chemical in question, TERTIARY BUTYLHYDROQUIONE, is A PETROLEUM-BASED PRODUCT that can cause health effects such as stomach tumors in lab animals when administered in high doses. The compound, used in McDonald's Chicken McNuggets, meets Chinese food safety standards. However, Liu Qingchung, a nutritionist at the General Hospital of Armed Police Forces, was quoted in China Daily as stating that the chemical used in McDonald's chicken nuggets is "toxic to some extent."

The additive is also used in McDonald's restaurants in the US and Japan, where it also meets national health standards. Meanwhile, China's State Food and Drug Administration will continue to monitor the safety of McNuggets.

The situation is of particular concern in a nation where poultry is the second most-consumed meat after pork. Bloomberg Businessweek reports that demand this year is estimated at more than 12.6 million tons, adding that safety concerns about food have risen in China since contaminated milk powder killed at least six babies in 2008 and sickened about 300,000 children. That same year, pesticide-tainted dumplings imported from China sickened at least 10 people in Japan.

"The preliminary analysis was done at an academic analytical chemistry laboratory. Looking for the likely pollutants from the deep water Horizon Oil spill. It was focused on the detection of benzene and propylene glycol. Benzene and other highly toxic contaminants were very low however the concentration of propylene glycol was between 360 and 440 parts per million."

"Just 25 parts per million is known to kill most fish and propylene glycol is just one of many ingredients found in Corexit. In short, the Gulf is being poisoned by BP's usage of the dispersants even after the EPA asked them to stop back in May. We are willing to provide ANY respected/known laboratory these samples or provide them with more."

"This is very serious to all people and marine life in and around the Gulf."

Abbas, who is serving as head of the PA after unilaterally extending his term in office, has made several statements in recent years that have raised concerns as to his true intentions. In 2008, as Israel and the PA engaged in peace talks, Abbas told a Jordanian paper that he opposed terrorism "at present" but that "things may change."

In March 2010, the PA held a ceremony naming a main square in Ramallah for a terrorist who led a cell that murdered 37 Israelis. In June, a broadcast on official PA television referred to Jews as "our enemies" and to the entire state of Israel as "Palestine."

Earlier this week, Abbas eulogized terrorist Abu Daoud, the mastermind of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, calling him "one of the leading figures in Fatah. Israel has officially referred to Abbas as a "moderate" leader, as opposed to the leadership of Hamas, whose charter calls clearly for destroying Israel.

National Guard helicopters are also aiding the police "with observation, tracking, and finding illegal growing operations," another complete violation of the Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act, which substantially limit the powers of the federal government to use the military for law enforcement unless under precise and extreme circumstances.

Under the John Warner Defense Authorization Act, signed by President Bush on October 17, 2006, the law was changed to state, "The President may employ the armed forces to restore public order in any State of the United States the President determines hinders the execution of laws or deprives people of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by law or opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws." However, THESE CHANGES WERE REPEALED in their entirety by HR 4986: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, reverting back to the original state of the Insurrection Act of 1807

The military are now being called upon to undertake roles normally designated to police as Americans are incrementally acclimated to accept the presence of troops on the streets as an everyday occurrence. National Guard units are now being deployed for things like traffic control in places like Kingman Arizona, and providing security at sports events like the Kentucky Derby.

The routine use of military and Guard units in dealing with mundane law enforcement duties is part of an acclimation program TO MAKE AMERICANS ACCEPT THE SIGHT OF ARMED MEN IN MILITARY FATIGUES PATROLLING THE STREETS AS AMERICA sinks further into a Communist-style police state and a state of de facto martial law.

Consider the words of Dr Ahmed Zewail, this administration's first science envoy to the Middle East and appointee to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. After Obama's Cairo speech last June, Zewail wrote a very revealing op-ed in the Boston Globe, in which he professed that the way for Obama to stimulate an "Islamic Renaissance" would be to provide "investment in education" with a "new emphasis on science and technology." This ignores the fact that many militant Islamist leaders, from bin Laden to Zawahiri to most of the heads of the Muslim Brotherhood, are very scientifically educated. In fact, the Brotherhood (Ikhwan) is sometimes pejoratively referred to as the "Brotherhood of Engineers."

Zewail goes on to write: "Most Westerners today are unaware of the extent to which Nasser's regime promoted education as the vital engine of progress." How insulting: Gamal Abdel Nasser's legendary fascism, pan-Arabism, and socialism have become "engines of progress." Nasser infected the Middle East with a deeply corrupt ideology, yet Obama's science envoy is apologizing for the Egyptian despot.

The challenge is not science and technology. Real Muslim reform will only come from modernization of thought in the political sciences, liberal arts, free markets, theology, and philosophy. Theocratic Islamist movements are the primary obstacles to Muslim enlightenment - not the absence of space technology.

The issue could give Republicans a potent weapon in the November elections in which they hope to overturn the dominance in the Congress of Obama's Democrats. The Chamber of Commerce, a lobby that represents big businesses, is to lay out its concerns with Obama's policies at a "jobs for America" summit Wednesday in Washington. Chamber CEO Tom Donohue is to issue an open letter to Obama and Congress that will urge "immediate action to address the new regulatory stranglehold placed on America's job creators."

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, an economist who was a top adviser to 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain, said Obama's agenda has "nothing in it" for the business community. "We are growing too slowly," said Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office. "Households are broke. Governments have to retrench. The only places to get strong growth are in the business community and in net exports and that's where they have nothing."

Ivan Seidenberg, chief executive of Verizon Communications, in a speech last month said there was a "disconnect" between Washington and the business community that is harming job growth. "In our judgment, we have reached a point where the negative effects of the proposed policies are simply too significant to ignore," said Seidenberg, who is chairman of the Business Roundtable.

Temperatures are expected to stay fairly cool Saturday, with highs around 70 on the coast and in the 80s inland. Conditions will be a bit warmer on Sunday, according to the weather service. July has turned out to be cooler than normal. Instead of daytime highs approaching the mid-80s, downtown Los Angeles has experienced temperatures in the mid- to high 70s. From June 1 to July 5, daytime and nighttime temperatures have averaged a relatively cool 69.8 degrees.

That makes that stretch one of the cooler ones for that time of the year in the last 10 years, just slightly warmer than the same period in 2004 (69.4 degrees) and 2002 (68.9 degrees). The cooler ocean air early in the day has a moderating effect on daily temperature conditions. And low-lying clouds have been tempering the sun's heat.

Then in early June, as Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chairman, put it, the economy hit "an invisible wall". The US had a run of bad news - disappointing job growth; unexpectedly low employment; indices suggesting manufacturing and services losing momentum; renewed jitters from Europe's sovereign debt markets and its banks. While most economists think it unlikely this heralds the famous double-dip recession feared by policymakers, it does come at a time when America's monetary and fiscal authorities are struggling for room to manoeuvre.

Fiscal stimulus and companies rebuilding inventories have given the recovery a strong push start. But those are one-off effects; the recovery must now switch to power from its internal engine. "We haven't entered into that self-sustaining stage yet," says Gus Faucher of Moody's Analytics, who estimates the chance of a dip back into recession at 25 per cent.

The US economy is not yet in severe trouble. Rises in equity prices over the past few days have comforted optimists that confidence is returning. But the economy's sputter over the past month indicates just how fragile the recovery is and how dependent America is on generating its own demand. And if it starts to turn down rather than simply to decelerate, policymakers turning to their arsenal will find it dangerously depleted

Complete break-up would have EFFECTS THAT DWARF THE POST LEHMAN BROTHERS COLLAPSE. Governments would find themselves having to bail out banks again, worsening already fragile government finances. The risk of at least a temporary break-down in payments systems would be enormous, " said the report by Mark Cliffe, Maarten Leen, and Peter Vanden Houte.

"Initial trauma is sufficiently grave to give pause for thought to those who blithely propose EMU exit as a policy option," it said, a rebuke to those German politicians and economists who have talked openly of shaking out weaker members. The new Greek drachma would crash by 80 percent against the new Deutschemark. The currencies of Spain, Portugal, and Ireland would fall by 50 percent or more, causing inflation to soar into double-digits. "The impact is dramatic and traumatic," it said.

The German sphere would face a "deflationary shock". The US dollar would rocket to 85 cents against the euro equivalent, with a "temporary overshoot" to near 75 cents. This would tip the US into acute deflation, threatening North America with a double-dip recession. East Europe would contract 5 percent in 2011 alone. THIS IS THE PICTURE OF A WORLD FALLING APART.

The report said break-up talk is "NO LONGER JUST A FIGMENT OF FEVERED ANGLO-SAXON IMAGINATIONS". It has spread into top policy-making circles in the eurozone and must now be analysed as a serious tail-risk. A survey of 440 heads of global banks and companies by RBC Capital Markets found that 50 percent expect at least one country to leave EMU by 2013, and a quarter expect a complete collapse.

But when the IT worker showed his mobile phone photos of luggage-crammed aisles and exits he was told it is 'illegal' to take such pictures and threatened with prosecution. The inspector then demanded Mr Roberts' personal details. As soon as he boarded the train he saw the carriages were full of piled-up suitcases, bags and backpacks. Even the overhead racks were stuffed with heavy luggage - and vital passageways to the doors were also blocked.

'The train was full of passengers who had got off cruise liners and aircraft at Southampton who obviously all had luggage,' Mr Roberts said. 'And if the train had to make an emergency stop a 20kg medium-size suitcase travelling at 50mph would probably decapitate any passenger it hits - it would almost certainly kill them. A passenger announcement on the train invited us to raise any concerns with the ticket inspector, which I did because it was not the first time I had seen the problem first-hand on that route. I told him I was going to make a complaint to the Office of Rail Regulation because conditions on the train were unsafe.'

Mr Roberts added: 'But when I told him I had taken some photos he said it was illegal under the Terrorism Act and that I could be arrested and demanded my name and address. He said there were police officers on the train and I may be arrested for taking the photographs.'

'He said he had powers given to him under the Railways Act to ask me for the information and it was an even more serious offence for me not to comply. I FELT AS IF I WAS IN A POLICE STATE. He explained that for some reason it was for my own protection but my argument was that every passenger on the train would have needed protection in the event of an emergency. He told me he would make a note of our conversation so that they could be used in the event of a prosecution. He was pleasant enough but IT WAS A FRIGHTENING AND CHILLING EXPERIENCE FOR ME.'

"A global political recession" is how Tom Melia describes the current state of affairs. Melia is deputy director of Freedom House, a nonprofit that annually measures the state of liberty in every nation - and that has found "more countries seeing declines in overall freedom than gains" in recent years, Melia said last week. The world has transitioned from a "position of going from one breakthrough to another" into a "sustained period in which we are looking at regressions and setback," he said.

Fortunately, there is one factor stronger than all of these: people's desire to be free. Despite new methods of oppression, despite the fecklessness and disunity of democratic governments, despite everything, the impulse for dignity and self-rule emerges again and again. In Lebanon in 2005, in Burma in 2007, in Tibet in 2008, in Iran last year, ordinary people assumed unimaginable risks and confronted mortal danger because they do not want to live as captives.

Each of those movements has failed, for now, but in each of those countries the yearning for freedom has been banked, not extinguished. Over the weekend, democracy activists and democratic officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, gathered in Poland at a conference aimed at helping democracies fashion a reply to the ferocious authoritarian response of recent years. The Iron Curtain has fallen, Clinton noted. "But we must be wary of the steel vise in which many governments around the world are slowly crushing civil society and the human spirit." Recognizing the challenge is a good start.