Pilloried for nearly three months as it tried repeatedly to stop the leak, BP PLC capped the nearly mile-deep well Thursday and wants to keep it that way. The government's plan, however, is to eventually pipe oil to the surface, which would ease pressure on the fragile well but would require up to three more days of oil spilling into the Gulf.

"No one associated with this whole activity... wants to see any more oil flow into the Gulf of Mexico," Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer, said Sunday. "Right now we don't have a target to return the well to flow." An administration official familiar with the spill oversight, however, told The Associated Press that a seep and possible methane were found near the busted oil well. The official spoke on condition of anonymity Sunday because an announcement about the next steps had not been made yet.

The concern all along - since pressure readings on the cap weren't as high as expected - was a leak elsewhere in the wellbore, meaning the cap may have to be reopened to prevent the environmental disaster from becoming even worse and harder to fix. The official, who would not clarify what is seeping near the well, also said BP is not complying with the government's demand for more monitoring.

Authorised overdrafts are charging an average of 32% interest, despite advertised rates of around 19%. In response to the findings, Mr Cable said: "When we talk about restructuring the banks what's going to come out of this is a more competitive system where the customers are not ripped off."

He said customers are paying the price for a lack of healthy competition in a banking marketplace dominated by a few big players. "One of the negative side effects of this crisis is that our banking system that was already very concentrated is now even more concentrated so there's less competition, less choice and bigger temptation for banks to earn margins at the expense of their customers," he said.

Christine Ross, head of financial planning at SG Hambros which examined the true cost of overdrafts, urged consumers to read the fine print on their account details. Mr Cable also issued a renewed attack on the morality of the City over bonus payments: "I think the bonus culture which continues is unacceptable". According to the Office of Fair Trading, in 2006, Britain's banks earned 2.6 billion pounds in profit from penalty charges.

There were exceptions: June was cooler than average across Scandinavia, southeastern China, and the northwestern USA, according to NOAA's report.

Marc Morano, a global-warming skeptic who edits the Climate Depot website, says the government "is playing the climate fear card by hyping predictions and cherry-picking data." Joe D'Aleo, a meteorologist who co-founded The Weather Channel, disagrees, too. He says oceans are entering a cooling cycle that will lower temperatures.

He says too many of the weather stations NOAA uses are in warmer urban areas. "The only reliable data set right now is satellite," D'Aleo says. He says NASA satellite data shows the average temperature in June was 0.43 degrees higher than normal. NOAA says it was 1.22 degrees higher.

In a statement, Admiral Allen said: "Based on the data and pressure readings compiled to date, the test has provided us with valuable information which will inform the procedure to kill the well and a better understanding of options for temporary shut-in during a hurricane. "As we continue to see success in the temporary halt of oil from the leak, the US government and BP have agreed to allow the well integrity test to continue another 24 hours."

Correspondents say this switch-over will see crude oil flowing into the Gulf once again, on temporary basis, as pressure is relieved. BP is drilling relief wells which aim to intercept the leaking one at the end of July, enabling it to be sealed by mid-August. Admiral Allen's statement concluded: "Progress also continues on the two relief wells the federal government has required BP to drill. The relief well remains the ultimate step in stopping the BP oil leak for good." The spill has been described as the worst environmental disaster the US has ever seen

That, they say, resulted in shareholders losing millions. The court now needs to give its approval before payments can be made. A first payment of $175 million is scheduled within days of the court's approval, however, while AIG is expected to raise the further $550 million through the issuing of new shares.

AIG is now 80% owned by the US government following a massive bailout of the company at the height of the financial crisis. Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, who represented the Ohio funds, said total payouts from AIG to shareholders would now total $1 billion, including previous settlements. AIG said it was "pleased to have resolved this matter", adding that it could now focus on paying back taxpayers the $182 billion used to rescue it.

Not understood by the American people about the worst environmental catastrophe in their history is that it falls under the responsibility of NATO and not the US government due to the recently adopted provisions of the "Alliance Reborn: An Atlantic Compact for the 21st Century" major policy report outlining the responses of Member Nations in the event of natural disasters and other such catastrophes.

Curiously, this report continues, President Obama continues his fight to retain control over this historic catastrophe for his intelligence services instead of his military forces, chief among them the United States Coast Guard which is the defacto naval force for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) who he has placed in charge of this disaster with BP, both of whom this past week threatened journalists with felony arrests and $40,000 fines for reporting on the truth of what is happening.

Interesting to note is that Obama's stance in refusing to allow his military forces to use their vast power against this catastrophe has put him at odds with former President Bill Clinton, who just this past week called for the US Navy to be put in charge so they can blow up the leaking well and avert an even greater disaster than what is now unfolding.

Though Clinton called for the use of conventional explosives to stop this oil leak, other experts, especially Russian scientists, (who are the only people in the World to have actually sealed these types of deep oil wells once they blew out) state that only nuclear weapons can be used as the Gulf of Mexico seafloor is now so fractured only this most radical of solutions should even be considered.

Spurring Admiral Di Paola into action, this report continues, was Obama's statements about this catastrophe made to other World leaders at the recent G8 summit where he warned that "millions, perhaps tens of millions" could die due to this disaster while at the same time he had ordered his government to refuse all International aid. This information is critical to know as new reports arrive to us every day of new toxic oil rains falling across this devastated region, and as we had warned would happen in our May 23rd report titled "Toxic Oil Spill Rains Warned Could Destroy North America".

Making this dire situation even worse are reports stating that the water temperature of the Gulf of Mexico have risen by as much as 7 degrees making the likelihood of a major hurricane a virtual certainty, and as evidenced by Hurricane Alex, that was this region's first June hurricane storm since 1995 and described by Mexico's Notimex News Service as "an extraordinary phenomenon that has never been seen before".

At the weekend, the temperature was forecast by the state weather centre to hit 37 degrees in central Russia. An emergency drought situation has been declared in 19 of Russia's 83 regions with crops dying on an estimated 9.6 million hectares of fields. The drought-struck areas were suffering "colossal destruction," Agriculture Minister Yelena Skrynnik said Tuesday at a meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev.

The coldest place on earth in winter, Oimyakon in the Sakha region, was forecast to swelter at 32 degrees centigrade on Friday, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported. In Moscow, people paddled in fountains to escape the heat and bought record amounts of ice cream. Alexei Lyakhov, the head of the Moscow and Moscow region weather centre, said in televised comments on Friday that temperatures would hit 36 degrees in Moscow on Saturday and no rain was expected over the next five days.

Known as the "polio of agriculture," wheat rust is a devastating fungus that attacks the stem of wheat. Like polio, we thought we had this disease licked. Half a century ago and after a decade of research, agronomist Norman Borlaug isolated a gene, Sr31, that rendered wheat immune to wheat rust. As a bonus, the gene also increased crop yield. Farmers were eager to plant these resistant and bountiful wheat varieties, and they became so widespread and ubiquitous that by the 1970s it was thought that wheat rust was extinct.

Unfortunately, the disease was merely in hiding. In 1999, a new strain of wheat rust, one that's immune to the Sr31 gene, was discovered in wheat fields in Uganda. In the mere decade since it was discovered, this new strain, dubbed Ug99, has spread alarmingly quickly to several countries throughout Northern Africa and the Middle East. After infecting Iran, the disease is now poised to invade Punjab, one of the world's top wheat-growing areas. It was also discovered in South Africa, where scientists fear trade winds may carry spores to Australia, the fifth largest wheat-growing nation in the world.

Wheat provides a full one-fifth of the world's food calories, and a large global infestation could result in the starvation of millions. Scientists say that mere luck and uncommonly dry conditions are all that have prevented true disaster from striking already, and that will inevitably run out. Fungicides can help to lessen crop loss, but they are a temporary solution, and most of the world's poor farmers, like those currently affected, just can't afford them.

To make matters worse, a less devastating form of the disease known as "stripe rust" has remained a threat, and now we are realizing that the extent of the current outbreak is far more serious than we realized. Unlike wheat rust, stripe rust is a problem in the US already, and it's getting worse. If wheat rust also manages to make its way through our borders, as it is likely to do eventually, the combo of wheat rust and stripe rust could spell disaster.

We have no knockout gene for this new variety, and the types of mild resistance found in the wheat gene pool merely slow the fungus down. But it is thought that a variety containing several of these smaller barriers will be able to stop the disease. In addition, relying on a whole arsenal instead of a single gene means that the disease is far less likely to be able to mutate its way out of trouble this time. A single gene will always be overcome eventually, but diverse defenses are more likely to keep a plant healthy. GM crop supporters, please re-read this paragraph several times over.

Until the end, the bill was the source of bitter battles on Capitol Hill, with Democrats urging action to protect the economy and rein in Wall Street, and Republicans portraying the measure as a massive government intrusion on the private sector. The GOP is hoping that its message of big government over-reach proves more attractive to voters this fall than Democrats' appeal to popular anger at Wall Street.

The final vote was 60-39, with every Democrat voting for the bill except Senator Russ Feingold (Democrat for Wisconsin) who has maintained that it doesn't go far enough to crack down on Wall Street firms. President Obama is expected to sign the bill when it reaches his desk. The 2,300 page financial reform bill is designed to prevent future financial meltdowns like the one that doomed Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and AIG while plunging the economy into a deep recession. The measure would give federal regulators the power to seize failing financial institutions that post a "systemic risk" to the economy.

The bill would also give regulators tighter control of hedge funds and private equity firms, as well as the complex financial derivatives at the heart of the sub-prime mortgage debacle. And it would create a new consumer protection agency designed to combat lending abuses. Republicans blasted the bill as a big government jobs killer. "We're going to be driving jobs and business overseas with this massive piece of legislation," said Senator Saxby Chambliss (Republican for Georgia).

"The potential for an Israeli military strike on Iran over its nuclear program has grown sharply, but its consequences would be devastating and would lead to a long war," warns ORG's Paul Rogers in his report "Military Action Against Iran: Impact and Effects". The report analyzes recent developments and argues that Israel is now fully capable of attacking Iran, having deployed new systems that include long-range strike aircraft and armed drones.

It predicts that a strike by the Jewish state would be "focused not only on destroying 'military real estate' - nuclear and missile targets - but also would hit factories and research centers, and even university laboratories, in order to do as much damage as possible to the Iranian expertise that underpins the [nuclear] program." Furthermore, the Israeli campaign "would not be limited to remote bases but would involve the direct bombing of targets in Tehran," ORG conjectures. "It would probably include attempts to kill those technocrats who manage Iran's nuclear and missile programs."

Rogers says that there would be numerous civilian casualties, not just among people who staff Iran's nuclear and missile programs, but also among their families - because living quarters would be hit - and the help staff in factories, research stations and university departments. Iran's nuclear and missile programs would be heavily damaged, the report says, but Iranian political unity would increase, making President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's hold on power more stable.

In response, Iran could withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and take immediate action to develop nuclear weapons, using "deeply-buried facilities that are reported to be under construction." There would be missile attacks on Israel; actions to cause a sharp rise in oil prices by closing the Straits of Hormuz; paramilitary and/or missile attacks on western Gulf oil production, processing and transportation facilities, and "strong support" for militias in Iraq and Afghanistan that oppose the US and its allies..

The report warns: "An Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities would almost certainly be the beginning of a long-term process of regular Israeli air strikes to further prevent the development of nuclear weapons and medium-range missiles. Iranian responses would also be long-term, ushering in a lengthy war with global as well as regional implications."

Even since the fall of communism, while the period of conscription has been repeatedly shortened, few have seriously considered converting the Bundeswehr into an exclusively professional army.

In recent months, however, an increasing number of leading politicians in Germany have begun considering a fundamental reform of the country's military - including the abolishment of conscription. In an interview with the daily Hamburger Abendblatt, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, head of Merkel's coalition partner the pro-business Free Democrats, reiterated his support for eliminating the draft.

"I am convinced that we should turn the Bundeswehr into a professional army," Westerwelle said. "It would be the correct decision to end conscription as quickly as possible." He said he thinks it would be possible to end Germany's system of conscription before the next general elections, currently set for 2013.

Westerwelle's comments come just weeks after Chancellor Angela Merkel's government agreed to cut conscription from nine months to six months, a reduction that went into effect on the first of July. But with Berlin hoping to reduce spending by 80 billion euros by 2014, some have suggested that cutting conscription entirely could be a good way to save money.

The new site will be found at BBC.com. Currently that address has redirected to the bbc.co.uk site which, like the vast majority of BBC's operations, is funded by a license fee paid by every British household. The BBC receives a guaranteed 3.6 billion pounds ($5.4 billon) each year from the license fee.

While BBC's TV, radio and web operations in the UK do not feature any advertising, the bbc.co.uk global website features ads when viewed by users in the US. Miranda Cresswell, senior vice president of BBC.com, said in a statement: "You're going to see more analysis, more insight and more perspective that connects the dots on events and issues that affect us all in the US."

Such an approach will undoubtedly see the BBC compete more directly with US newspapers and broadcasters for local and regional stories. Until now, most of BBC's US coverage has focused on major national stories, usually with an international impact. This also means that the BBC's US site will be competing for advertising dollars with the web operations of commercial newspapers and broadcasters who do not have any other source of revenue.

In the UK, it has come under fierce attack from broadcaster BSkyB and other commercial rivals experiencing a severe advertising slump. James Murdoch, seen as heir to his father Rupert Murdoch's News Corp's media empire, has described the broadcaster's scale and ambitions as "chilling". The amount of free content the BBC already makes available online has discouraged many UK newspapers from attempting to charge readers for content on the web.

Goldman has also consented to an agreement that when it puts together new mortgage securities, it'll run any prospectuses or term sheets by its legal or compliance departments. As if it wasn't doing that already. And there's lots more like that: people on the mortgage desk have to attend training seminars on disclosure! Goldman "shall provide for appropriate record keeping"! And so on and so forth.

Meanwhile, the closest thing to an admission of wrongdoing coming from Goldman is this: It was a mistake for the Goldman marketing materials to state that the reference portfolio was "selected by" ACA Management LLC without disclosing the role of Paulson & Co Inc in the portfolio selection process and that Paulson's economic interests were adverse to CDO investors. Goldman regrets that the marketing materials did not contain that disclosure.

This doesn't even rise to the level of an apology: it's just a "regret". Meanwhile, Goldman will be more than happy to wire $150 million to IKB and $100 million to RBS, as detailed in the proposed judgment. Technically the judgment is contingent on being approved by the New York judge, but that's just a formality. As a way of getting out from under this suit, it would be cheap at twice the price.

The UK's Royal Bank of Scotland, which is now 84% owned by the UK taxpayer and lost about $840 million in investments, will receive $100 million compensation. German bank IKB Deutsche Industriebank will receive $150 million, with the remaining $300 million going to the US Treasury. Terms of the settlement are subject to approval by a federal judge.

The SEC said Goldman had acknowledged that marketing material contained "incomplete information". In a statement, Goldman did not admit legal wrongdoing but said the move was "the right outcome for our firm, our shareholders and our clients". Despite the record fine, Goldman shares rose by 4.5%, reflecting the fact that many analysts felt the firm had got off lightly.

"They pay $550 million and they get an $800 million pop in their stock price... they got off easy," said Kevin Caron at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. Goldman made a profit of $3.5 billion in the first three months of this year.

BP executive Kent Wells said the oil had been stopped at 1425 local time (1925 GMT) and he was "excited" by the progress. "It is very good to see no oil go into the Gulf of Mexico," said Mr Wells. BP shares rose in New York trading on Thursday after the flow was stopped, having already performed well over the day. But BP is stressing that even if no oil escapes for 48 hours, that will not mean the flow of oil and gas has been stopped permanently.

BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles emphasised that there was no reason for "celebration" yet, particularly for those in areas already damaged by oil. "The job is not finished," he said. The pressure testing is necessary to check the strength of the well. If the pressure within the cap on top is low, that could indicate oil is leaking out further down the well.

If the pressure remains high, BP and the government will have to decide whether to try to keep the well shut or to leave it open and pipe oil to four vessels on the surface. The US government's incident commander, Admiral Thad Allen, said even if it was successful, the well would be reopened and oil capture by ships on the surface would restart while a seismic test was done.