One day after the army moved into the Red Shirt protestor encampment in the centre of the capital, sparking a night of violence in which 35 buildings were torched, residents of Bangkok were struggling to regain some sort of normality. But the extension of the first curfew in 18 years was a sign that the chaos of recent months and days had not been banished by the extensive army deployment.

The government quelled most of the violence in the battered Thai capital after a major military operation that killed at least 13 people and left 88 wounded. But underlying political divisions that caused Thailand's crisis may have been exacerbated, and unrest spread to provinces in the north and northeast. While leaders of the anti-government Red Shirt movement surrendered, sporadic clashes between troops and remaining protesters continued.

As night fell on Wednesday, the skyline was blotted by flashes of fire and black smoke from more than two dozen buildings set ablaze including Thailand's stock exchange, main power company, banks, a movie theatre and one of Asia's largest shopping malls.

The organisation, which carried out 65,000 abortions last year, has circumvented a ban on the commercials because it is a charity and does not make a profit from its services. But the move has been condemned by viewer watchdogs, religious groups and family campaigners, who claim it is "grossly inappropriate" to "sell abortions" alongside products such as soap powder and cars. They are now launching a legal battle against the move.

The charity, which carries out most of its abortions on behalf of the NHS, said it was right to advise people on their choices as a YouGov poll of over 2,000 adults showed only 42 per cent would know where to go if they or their partner were in such a dilemma. Julie Douglas, marketing manager at the charity, said: "We thought it was the right to bring abortion out into the open. It has been legal for 40 years, one in three women will have one before they are 45. It doesn't help to keep it under wraps."

The commercial advertising of abortion services is currently banned by the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) but it only applies to private profit making companies. Anthony Ozimic , spokesman for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said: "Marie Stopes may claim to be a non-profit organisation, but they have a financial interest in drumming up demand for abortion. Neither Marie Stopes nor any similar organisation should be allowed to advertise the killing of unborn children. We are taking advice regarding the legality of the scheduled advertisement."

Power lines are also down in some places. Kingfisher County Emergency Management Director Steve Loftis says the town of Kingfisher, about 45 miles northwest of Oklahoma City, is without power. The National Weather Service says it also received reports of a series of brief, small tornadoes in southwest Kansas. The service says they aren't related to the supercell tornado outbreak in Oklahoma.

As floods caused by days of heavy rain in Central Europe slowly started to subside on Wednesday morning, the German authorities are now preparing for the flooding to reach them. Stefan Laps of the weather service, Meteomedia, told Spiegel Online that the high waters would reach the Oder River, in the area around Frankfurt, between Friday and Saturday. Additionally heavy rain and thunderstorms are also expected toward the weekend.

Although by Tuesday evening the number of flood alarms had been reduced and some of those evacuated from their homes had been allowed to return, there were still thousands of houses, fields and streets under water in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia and Hungary. A total of seven people have lost their lives in the flooding, while thousands were evacuated from residential areas near flooded rivers and for the first time ever, the memorial on the site of the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau was closed due to threat of flooding.

The Polish cities of Warsaw and Krakow were both threatened by the flooding as was the regional capital of Opole in the south of Poland. Bridges and roads were closed and train travel was disrupted, cutting off some districts. Additionally thousands of households in the eastern Czech Republic were still without power and the Serbian town of Trgoviste, population around 2,000, was without drinking water after a flash flood.

Germany's surprise ban of naked short-selling in some securities spooked financial markets and hammered the euro to a four-year low against the dollar. The unilateral step suggested Europe remained unable to form a united front in addressing its debt crisis. It worried investors by increasing uncertainty over market regulation.

Worries about the crisis intensified in recent weeks and risk-averse investors have begun pulling out of Asian stocks. Wall Street slipped on nervousness about the disarray in Europe and on worries the crisis would hurt growth. That came on the heels of losses in Europe for the third in four sessions. "Investors are entitled to be a little hesitant about putting a toe into the shark-filled waters," said Richard Morrow, director at EL&C Baillieu Stockbroking. "Only one thing is certain: this volatility is likely to stay around at least in the short term. This is a trader's market."

South Korean assets were dealt an extra blow by rising tensions in the Korean peninsula as Seoul exchanged tough rhetoric with its northern neighbor over the cause of a navy ship sinking that killed 46 sailors from the south.

North Korea is clearly responsible for the sinking of a South Korean navy ship and there is sufficient evidence to take the issue to the United Nations, South Korea's top diplomat said Wednesday. Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan's comments came a day before the release of a much-anticipated report on the incident and are the first by a South Korean official clearly saying North Korea was behind it.

Speculation has steadily increased that a North Korean torpedo brought down the 1,200-ton Cheonan on March 26 in the Yellow Sea near the two countries' disputed western sea border. A total of 46 sailors from the 104-man crew died.

The government launched a joint military-civilian probe with help from foreign countries including the United States. It has determined that a "strong underwater explosion generated by the detonation of a torpedo" caused the ship to split apart and sink, Yu said in a speech to Seoul-based European business executives.

Cramer said Europe's debt woes have sunk price-to-earnings multiples here in the States, but to such levels that could only be justified by a Lehman Brothers-type event. If we don't get that event, then American investors are going to have to readjust to a Europe that's merely bad, one where austerity reigns, business slows and the euro continues to decline.

As of yet, though, nothing he has seen justifies that "dramatic" drop in PE ratios, which means that stocks just might snap back. "Something bad has to happen soon," Cramer said. "Or else [the US] market's going to go higher."

The euro hit another a four-year low against the dollar. It fell to below $1.215 before recovering to $1.222. Analysts said comments by German chancellor Angela Merkel that the "current crisis" facing the euro was "the biggest test Europe has faced in decades" were doing nothing to help stop the euro's falls.

Meanwhile oil fell to $68 a barrel, as concern over tighter financial regulation sparked a move away from riskier assets.

The German financial regulator has banned traders in the country from "naked" short-selling of euro-denominated government bonds and of shares in the country's 10 most important financial institutions. Short-sellers usually borrow shares, sell them, then buy them back when the stock falls and return them to the lender, keeping the difference in price. "Naked" short selling occurs when a trader sells a financial instrument that has not yet been borrowed.

BBC business editor Robert Peston said the regulator saw a ban on the shorting of government bonds - or debt - as an attempt to stop "what it would see as mischievous bets by investors that the financial difficulties of the likes of Greece and Portugal will worsen. It thinks that such bets are what force down the price of Greek and Portuguese government bonds, which then spook investors, and make it much more difficult and expensive for the likes of the Greek and Portuguese governments to borrow vital new money," he added.

The reordering of power will sweep away Labour legislation and new criminal offences deemed to have eroded personal freedom. It will involve the end of the controversial ID cards scheme, the scrapping of universal DNA databases - in which the records of thousands of innocent people have been stored - and restrictions placed on internet records. The use of CCTV cameras will also be reviewed.

Dubbed the "Great Reform Act", the measures will close down the ContactPoint children's database. Set up by Labour last year, it includes detailed information on all 11 million youngsters under 18. In addition, schools will not be able to take a child's fingerprint without parental permission. In an attempt to protect freedom of speech, ministers will review libel laws, while limits on peaceful protest will be removed. Mr Clegg said the Government wanted to establish "a fundamental resettlement of the relationship between state and citizen that puts you in charge".

In a speech in London he will say: "This Government is going to transform our politics so the state has far less control over you, and you have far more control over the state. This Government is going to break up concentrations of power and hand power back to people, because that is how we build a society that is fair."

Mr Clegg will add: "It is outrageous that decent, law-abiding people are regularly treated as if they have something to hide. It has to stop. This will be a government that is proud when British citizens stand up against illegitimate advances of the state. That values debate, that is unafraid of dissent."

In quick succession Tuesday night, the jittery inhabitants of Washington's marble halls found three more reasons to worry about their staying power. Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter, the Senate's patron saint of resilience, was turned out in a Democratic primary in favor of an unwanted rival, Representative Joe Sestak, who had neither major union support nor White House support.

In Arkansas, Senator Blanche Lincoln, a model of southern Democratic moderation, was forced into a primary runoff by a self-styled outsider, Bill Halter, challenging from her left. And in Kentucky, the Washington establishment's chosen Republican Senate candidate, Trey Grayson, fell to the son of a libertarian outlier who carried the flag of another party. "I have a message, a message from the Tea Party, a message that is loud and clear and does not mince words: We've come to take our government back," declared Rand Paul, son of Representative and former presidential candidate Ron Paul, upon winning by a double-digit margin.

With less than six months to go before the midterm elections on November 2, all signs are pointing to a tidal wave. Electoral railbirds, steeped in historical stats, point to the many bad signs for Democrats. In polls, Republicans and conservatives demonstrate much more enthusiasm than Democrats and liberals. The President's approval rating is below 50%, and more registered voters say they expect to vote for Republicans than Democrats for Congress. "This is as favorable an election for Republicans, as hostile for Democrats, as any in recent memory," says Mark Blumenthal, the editor of Pollster.com.

According to Italian weekly newspaper Panorama, conversations intercepted by Italian authorities led to the arrest and deportation of the two suspects. The order for expulsion reportedly included the transcript of a conversation in which one of the students, Mohammed Hlal, said that he wished "death to the head of the Vatican City State" and was "ready to assassinate him to earn a place in Paradise."

The 26-year-old Hlal was speaking over the phone with 22-year-old Ahmed Errahmouni when he made the statements which earned them the attention of the local police and a trip back to Morocco. They were deemed a "threat to national security" in the document signed by the Italian Minister of the Interior and expelled on April 29, Panorama reports.

"We need more radical reforms," he added. "The idea that we'll be able to close down an institution like Goldman (Sachs) in an orderly way - a business that operates in nearly a hundred countries - is absurd." Roubini, an NYU professor who has been called "Dr. Doom" for his dire economic outlook, said the three main problems with big banks like Goldman were that they were 1) Too big to fail, 2) Too big to be bailed out and 3) Too big to be risk managed.

Attempting to manage the risk of the largest financial institutions is "mission impossible," according to Roubini, a task that "even the most amazing risk manager can't do" because financial institutions are far too complex. "Experience has shown that 'economies of scale' achieved by the largest banks as a result of Glass-Stegall have been very small," Roubini said. "The cost of being too big to fail has been much larger."

He tiptoed around the question of whether the financial crisis is over. "Maybe not," Roubini said. "There is a risk of ending up in another crisis, as the world found itself in the Depression in 1933." The world is now faced with a choice between default or inflation, according to Roubini.

Roubini suggested three remedies to restore competitiveness in Western economies: deflation, structural reform and weakening of the euro. But he warned that the EU could break apart if not all countries adhere to the same fiscal discipline.

Regulators are still trying to pinpoint the cause of the market free-fall and are expected to disclose preliminary findings later on Tuesday. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler called the report "very preliminary." He added: "There is still a great deal of work to do and a great deal of information to be reviewed." Gensler spoke to reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Washington.

Regulators and the exchanges have been under intense pressure to zero in on what triggered the May 6 meltdown and to find ways to uphold the integrity of the US markets. A circuit breaker or a mechanism to halt trading across markets and in a single stock has emerged as one of the key solutions to protect investors. The breakers will act as "speed bumps to help the market adjust quickly to the high levels of volatility," SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said by video link from Washington at a conference in Boston.

The SEC and exchanges will propose later on Tuesday a circuit breaker that would halt trading in a company's stock if it fell more than 10 percent in 5 minutes, multiple sources have said. It was not clear how long the trading halt would last. The circuit breakers need to be in place and operational by June 14, one of the sources said on Tuesday. The new curbs would align US markets more closely to European markets, which have more muscular safeguards.

A UK Treasury spokesman said this was a "very good result in the circumstances, the best outcome we could have expected". But there are concerns about implications for London's hedge fund industry, particularly that the rules will make it harder for fund managers to find investors across the EU's 27 countries.

Some European governments, notably France and Germany, have long suggested that hedge funds pose a risk to the stability of the world's financial system and so need more regulation. "We are determined to accelerate the pace of regulation," said Wolfgang Schaeuble, Germany's finance minister. "Up until now this was not regulated. This hole will now be closed."

The EU said the directive it had agreed was aimed at fulfilling commitments made after the financial crisis to regulate "all players in the market that might pose a risk to financial stability". Hedge funds use sophisticated, complex investment strategies to make returns, and often make money when markets are falling. The US government has objected to the plans to restrict trade, labelling them protectionist.

On the eve of the 43rd Jerusalem Day, 43 rabbis, mainly from the Religious Zionism movement, visited the Temple Mount on Monday, in the largest group of rabbis to visit the site since 1967. The event was coordinated with the Jerusalem Police and was held under security. This is the third time in recent years that a group of rabbis gathers to visit the Temple Mount, and the event has become a tradition since the 40th anniversary of Jerusalem's liberation.