Some 130,000 participants are registered for the event that has as its theme "So That You Have Hope." On Wednesday night, 300,000 people formed a human chain and prayed the Our Father together through the streets of the city. On Friday, as part of the congress, participants will gather in Munich's Odeonsplatz for the celebration of Vespers according to the Orthodox tradition.

Then, the Christians of different Churches will sit outdoors at 1,000 tables, each with two benches to accommodate 10 persons. After singing hymns and offering prayers, they will hold an agape meal, in which they will share blessed bread, oil and wine. The congress aims to promote reflection on the way Christians can witness to their faith in modern secular society. This is the second congress of its kind; the first took place two years ago in Berlin with 500,000 participants.

The Briton insisted the oil slick and the estimated 400,000 gallons of dispersant pumped into the sea to try to disperse it were relatively 'tiny' amounts. 'The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean,' he said. 'The volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.' Mr Hayward promised that BP would bring an end to the disaster, which is on course to eclipse the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

'We will fix it. I guarantee it,' he said. 'The only question is we do not know when.'

Mr Hayward's comments came as dramatic footage of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico was released by BP. Taken by an underwater robotic camera, the rust-coloured liquid looks more like steam rushing from a geyser. As many as 5,000 barrels a day have been released into the ocean following the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig.

In his afternoon address to Catholic charity and social workers, the 83-year-old German Pope said he 'deeply appreciated' initiatives aimed at defending what he said were 'essential and primary values of life'. Among these values, he said, was 'the family, founded on indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman', which is Vatican-speak for its opposition to gay marriage.

The audience applauded when the Pope said abortion - which has been legal in Portugal since 2007 - and threats to heterosexual marriage were 'among some of the most insidious and dangerous challenges facing the common good today'. Portugal's parliament last January passed a bill by the minority Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Socrates that would legalise same-sex marriages.

The government rejected alternative proposals by the centre-right opposition for civil partnerships and a referendum on gay marriage. President Anibal Cavaco Silva is under pressure from the Church and conservative groups not to ratify the bill.

The world's economic output has increased about six-fold since 1980. Scale up the peak 30 years ago by that multiple, and the gold price could top out at around $5,300. Gold can also be regarded as an alternative to money. Broad global money supply, known as M3, is now in dollar terms about 10 times what it was in 1980. The total gold supply has also increased to some 170,000 tonnes from 110,000 tonnes over the same period as more of the metal has been mined. Scaling up by money supply and deflating by the gold supply, the 1980 peak price would be equivalent to about $5,700 an ounce today.

Looking at money supply another way, today's potential gold price would be a bit lower than that. A narrower measure of global money, M1, is currently estimated at about $17 trillion. If the 170,000 tonnes of gold mined through history were to substitute for this, the gold would be worth around $3,100 per ounce. But that wouldn't account for the tendency of the thinly-traded gold market to overshoot sometimes to the upside, as for instance in 1980, and sometimes to the downside.

Of course, there is a considerable chance that gold and other commodity prices will peak at a lower level. But if a four-fold increase over a couple of years from today's gold price to more than $5,000 an ounce seems impossibly extreme, that was the trajectory in 1978-1980. If governments continue to print money, whether for economic stimulus or to stave off defaults by themselves or others, fear of widespread currency debasement and the consequent inflation could create the conditions for just such a spike.

"This legislation would require that countries like Greece cut spending and put their own fiscal house in order," says Pence, backed up by other members of the House GOP, "instead of looking to the United States for a bailout. We face record unemployment and a debt crisis of our own, and American taxpayers should not be forced to bear the risk for nations that have avoided making tough choices."

"The American people are fed up with taxpayer-funded bailouts and deserve to know we are bailing out Greece and possibly other European countries. If the Obama Administration has its way, the US will contribute to a nearly trillion dollar bailout of European countries with economic crises that are a direct result of wasteful government spending."

Abu Dhabi's Emirates Palace Hotel became the first place outside Germany to install "gold to go, the world's first gold vending machine," said a statement from Ex Oriente Lux AG, the German company behind the vending machine. "In addition to one-gram, five-gram and 10-gram bars of gold, the machine also dispenses gold coins," it added.

Gold rates are constantly updated inside the shiny machine - itself gold-plated - in the hotel's lobby, courtesy of a built-in computer connected to a dealer which sells gold online. "This eliminates the risk premiums usually associated with precious metal trading," the German company said.

Hotel general manager Hans Olbertz said they wanted the hotel to be the first in the world to offer guests what he called "this golden service." The Emirates Palace is often used by visiting foreign dignitaries, and its top floor is reserved for the rulers of the UAE federation's seven emirates, each of whom has his own suite.

The law is aimed at so-called "birthers," who claim Obama is ineligible to be president. They contend the Democratic president was born outside the United States, and therefore doesn't meet a constitutional requirement for being president. Lingle didn't elaborate on her reasons for signing the bill, but state Health Director Dr Chiyome Fukino previously issued statements saying that she's seen vital records that prove Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen.

Both Fukino and the state registrar of vital statistics have verified that the Health Department holds Obama's original birth certificate. Health Department officials supported the law because the state still gets between 10 and 20 emails seeking verification of Obama's birth each week, most of them from outside Hawaii. Advocates for openness in government oppose the law because they fear it could be used to ignore legitimate requests for information.

But, as Jeremy Warner has written in today's paper, it was as if King had suddenly been unleashed. Bear in mind King is usually one of the most guarded policymakers in both British and central banking circles. Not yesterday. It isn't often one has the opportunity to get such a blunt and straightforward insight into the thoughts of one of the world's leading economic players. Most of this stuff usually stays behind closed doors, so it's worth taking note of. And I suspect that while George Osborne will have been happy to hear his endorsement of the new Government's policies, Barack Obama and the European leaders will have been far less pleased with his frank comments on their predicament.

America, and many other large economies including the UK, share some of the same problems as Greece with its public finances: Every country around the world is in a similar position, even the United States; the world's largest economy has a very large fiscal deficit. And one of the concerns in financial markets is clearly - how will this enormous stock of public debt be reduced over the next few years?

On why Europe will have to become a federalised fiscal union: I do not want to comment on a particular measure by a particular country, but I do want to suggest that within the Euro Area it's become very clear that there is a need for a fiscal union to make the Monetary Union work. But if that is to happen there needs to be also a mechanism to enable other countries that have lost competitiveness to regain competitiveness.

On the deficit: The most important thing now is for the new government to deal with the challenge of the fiscal deficit. It is the single most pressing problem facing the United Kingdom; it will take a full parliament to deal with, and it is very important that measures are taken straight away to demonstrate the seriousness and the credibility of the commitment to dealing with that deficit.

It is absolutely vital, absolutely vital, for governments to get on top of this problem. We cannot afford to allow concerns about sovereign debt to spread into a wider crisis dealing with sovereign debt. Dealing with a banking crisis was bad enough. This would be worse.

The two men joked together as they set out what they wanted to achieve with their unprecedented power sharing arrangement - which Mr Cameron said could mark a "seismic shift" in British politics. In Thursday's first meeting, Mr Clegg sat opposite Mr Cameron who was sat beside his Foreign Secretary William Hague.

In addition to Mr Clegg, four other Lib Dems were at the cabinet table. They were Vince Cable, who is business secretary; Chief Secretary to the Treasury David Laws; Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne; and Scottish Secretary Danny Alexander. There are expected to be 20 Liberal Democrat ministers at all levels across many departments, meaning nearly half of the parliamentary party will be members of the government.

The Labour Party has meanwhile started the process of choosing a new leader after the resignation of Gordon Brown, who stood down as prime minster on Tuesday when it became clear that the Lib Dems had decided to join the Tories in a coalition. Former Foreign Secretary David Miliband became the first potential candidate to announce plans to stand, saying he hoped others would follow suit. He has the backing of heavyweight figures including former home secretary Alan Johnson and acting Labour leader Harriet Harman, both of whom have ruled themselves out of the running.

"This shows me that there's faith and hope. There might be a domino effect, that's what I'm hoping for," said Joi-elle White, 35, a transgender member of Make the Road New York. The community group complained to Cuomo's office about what it called a pattern of discrimination against transgender job hunters. A probe confirmed the complaints, officials said. The retailer - which employs more than 2,000 people in its 61 New York stores - signed a settlement deal promising to change its policies and employee handbook.

"To avoid further expense and the distraction of a prolonged argument, we have agreed to a compromise settlement in this case, with the understanding that AEO is not admitting to the findings," a company spokeswoman said. "We wholeheartedly believe that transgender individuals should be treated equally," she added in a statement.

The chain store also has agreed to train its staff on transgender issues - like which pronouns to use when referring to workers and customers. The April settlement is the first crackdown against a retailer under the section of the state's Human Rights Law that bars employers from discriminating against applicants because of their gender identity.

But amid fears for the impact on the American economy, behind closed doors the US has been taking a far more active role. Mr Obama and his aides have privately pressured European leaders to take bold action to calm the storm in financial markets. Yesterday he called Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to discuss the importance of 'resolute action' by Spain.

Spain's public finances, along with Portugal's, have caused the most concern after those of Greece, which secured a European bailout. The White House said Mr Obama was actively engaged in ensuring that Europe's debt crisis did not hurt the global economy. There are fears that the state of the economies in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Ireland - who all currently have high levels of debt - could stall the US economy just as it was beginning to improve.

Mr Obama has held phone calls with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy about the European crisis in recent days. The message was clear: Act boldly. American officials urged that Mr Sarkozy and Mrs Merkel recall the US lesson of 2008-2009 when the Bush administration persuaded a reluctant Congress to approve a massive $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. While politically unpopular, the US rescue plan convinced markets that authorities were serious about keeping banks afloat.

Mr Obama's call yesterday to Mr Zapatero added an American voice to European pressure on Spain. Mr Zapatero has so far shied away from structural reforms opposed by trade unions but is now facing new calls from EU leaders to slash spending again and tackle his country's economic crisis.

Labelling the European debt crisis a 'wake-up call' for Americans, lawmakers also said Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke had helped explain why the US central bank was going to be using special 'swap lines' to aid its European counterparts. The swap lines ease pressure on European banks by letting them swap euros for dollars, if necessary, on short notice to handle emergency situations. Following a closed-door briefing by the Federal Reserve chief, Senator Richard Shelby of Tennessee said: 'Chairman Bernanke explained what was going on in Europe, it was basically a European problem but with ramifications, probably, on a lot of our banks and our banking system if there was no intervention.'

Department officials said that in prior years, there was a surplus during April in 43 out of the past 56 years. The government has now posted 19 consecutive monthly budget deficits, the longest string of shortfalls on record. For the first seven months of fiscal 2010, which ends September 30, the cumulative budget deficit totals $799.68 billion, down slightly from $802.3 billion in the comparable period of fiscal 2009. Outlays during April rose to $327.96 billion from $218.75 billion in March and were up from $287.11 billion in April 2009. It was a record level of outlays for an April.

Department officials noted there were five Fridays in April this year, which helped account for higher outlays since most tax refunds are issued on that day.

The US full-year deficit this year is projected at $1.5 trillion on top of a $1.4 trillion shortfall last year. White House budget director Peter Orszag told Reuters Insider in an interview on Wednesday that the United States must tackle its deficits quickly to avoid the kind of debt crisis that hit Greece.

French, Swedish and many Brussels officials have predicted that it is only a matter of time before Sterling is hit by the same market turbulence that came close to destroying the euro at the weekend. Jean-Pierre Jouyet, a former French Europe minister and the current chairman of France's financial services authority, yesterday predicted only "God would help" a rudderless Britain after it snubbed its euro zone neighbours.

"There is not a two speed Europe but a three speed Europe. You have Europe of the euro, Europe of the countries that understand the euro ... and you have the English," he said. "The English are very certainly going to be targeted given the political difficulties they have. Help yourself and heaven will help you. If you don't want to show solidarity to the euro zone, then let's see what happens to the United Kingdom."

French bank BNP Paribas yesterday warned that the post-election fallout could lead to Britain losing its high creditworthiness market rating, a move that could lead to a run on the pound. The UK is running an annual debt rate even higher than Greece. The German press has reacted with fury after Mrs Merkel cancelled popular tax cuts in order to pay for the new EU bail-out burden on German taxpayers. "Europe's jerks once again!," declared the headline on yesterday's front page of Bild, Germany's biggest-selling newspaper.

Meanwhile world stocks and the euro dropped sharply today as the massive relief rally triggered by the plan to contain Europe's debt crisis fizzled out. All the world's major indexes enjoyed one of their best days in months yesterday after the European Union unveiled the massive 750 billion euro financial support package to defend the euro and prevent the debt crisis that started in Greece from spreading to other big debtor countries like Portugal and Spain.

'Markets are giving up a portion of yesterday's sharp gains as some of the bailout-fuelled euphoria in Europe has died away,' said David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Index. Though the package has helped ease near-term concerns about a wave of defaults across Europe, concerns about the solvency of the indebted countries remain - whether governments, which are still running sky-high deficits, will be able to push through massive austerity measures for years to come.'

'Unless measures are taken to deal with the underlying structural problems affecting the most indebted of eurozone nations, then the bailout package merely kicks the can down the road,' said Michael Hewson, analyst at CMC Markets. In Germany, the uncertainties were having a far more immediate effect. Hard-pressed taxpayers - led by a flailing coalition government that could be the template for one soon to be assembled in the UK - are being asked for more sacrifices to save a currency they never wanted at a time when the country has record postwar debt. Now German citizens have also been told that a tax cut is shelved for at least two years, and will probably never materialise in the life of this administration.

Voters already delivered their verdict on Mrs Merkel's handling of the Greece crisis by punishing her in a regional election on Sunday which saw her party kicked out of power in North Rhine-Westphalia. The loss means she loses a majority in the upper-house of parliament in Berlin and will not be able to deliver reforming legislation without the consent of squabbling rivals - an almost impossible task. There are rumours that the right-wingers in her conservative CDU party are plotting a coup against her - rumours strengthened by the visceral distaste for her latest largesse in trying to prop up the common currency. Many observers see the measure as delaying the end of the euro, not preventing it.

The report includes familiar themes, emphasizing the importance of improved nutrition and physical activity. It also calls for some new and dramatic efforts to curtail marketing of unhealthy foods. "We have a roadmap for implementing our plan across our government and across the country," Michelle Obama told reporters today. But administration officials repeatedly emphasized the effort would rely on "bully pulpit" pressure and not any new federal mandates to push the changes.

Setting the tone for that pressure, the first lady said, "No one gets off the hook on this one from governments to schools, corporations to non-profits all the way down to families sitting around their dinner table." She said she would "focus my energy" to keep the issue at "the forefront of the discussion in society."

The task force wants junk food makers and marketers to go on what amounts to an advertising diet. It says media characters that are often popular with kids should only be used to promote healthy products. If voluntary efforts fail to limit marketing of less healthy products to young viewers, the task force suggests the FCC should consider new rules on commercials in children's programming. It also challenges food retailers to stop using in-store displays to sell unhealthy food items to children.