The Fed has emerged as one of Wall Street's biggest customers during the financial crisis, buying massive amounts of securities to help stabilise the markets. In some cases, such as the market for mortgage-backed securities, the Fed buys more bonds than any other party. The resulting profits represent a relatively hidden form of support for banks, and Wall Street has geared up to take advantage. Barclays, for example, e-mails clients with news on the Fed's balance sheet, detailing the share of the market in particular securities held by the Fed.

"YOU CAN MAKE BIG MONEY TRADING WITH THE GOVERNMENT," said an executive at one leading investment management firm. "The government is a huge buyer and seller and Wall Street has all the pricing power." Barney Frank, chairman of the House financial services committee, said the potential profiteering may be part of the price for stabilising the financial system.

"YOU CAN'T RESCUE THE CREDIT SYSTEM WITHOUT BENEFITING SOME OF THE PEOPLE IN IT." Still, Mr Frank said Congress would be watching. "We don't want the Fed to drive the hardest possible bargain, but we don't want them to get ripped off." Brad Hintz, an analyst at AllianceBernstein, said he doubted that spreads would ever return to those levels, a development that could be pleasing to THE FED. "THEY WANT TO HELP WALL STREET MAKE MONEY," HE SAID.

Higher oil prices brought on by a rapid increase in demand and a stagnation, or even decline, in supply could blow any recovery off course, said Dr Fatih Birol, the chief economist at the respected International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris, which is charged with the task of assessing future energy supplies by OECD countries.

In an interview with The Independent, Dr Birol said that the public and many governments appeared to be oblivious to the fact that the oil on which modern civilisation depends is running out far faster than previously predicted and that global production is likely to peak in about 10 years – at least a decade earlier than most governments had estimated.

But the first detailed assessment of more than 800 oil fields in the world, covering three quarters of global reserves, has found that most of the biggest fields have already peaked and that the rate of decline in oil production is now running at nearly twice the pace as calculated just two years ago. On top of this, there is a problem of chronic under-investment by oil-producing countries, A FEATURE THAT IS SET TO RESULT IN AN "OIL CRUNCH" WITHIN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS which will jeopardise any hope of a recovery from the present global economic recession, he said.

In a stark warning to Britain and the other Western powers, Dr Birol said, "One day we will run out of oil, it is not today or tomorrow, but one day we will run out of oil and we have to leave oil before oil leaves us, and we have to prepare ourselves for that day," Dr Birol said. "The earlier we start, the better, because all of our economic and social system is based on oil, so to change from that will take a lot of time and a lot of money and we should take this issue very seriously," he said.

Pneumonic plague, which attacks the lungs, can spread from person to person, or from animals to people. Initial symptoms include fever, headache and shortness of breath. Local officials in north-western China have told the BBC that the situation is under control, and that schools and offices are open as usual.

But the authorities have sealed off Ziketan, which has some 10,000 residents. No-one is being allowed leave the area, according to one official, and authorities are trying to track down people who had contact with the men who died. The local health bureau has also warned anyone with a cough or fever who has visited the town since mid-July to seek medical treatment.

According to the World Health Organization, pneumonic plague is the most virulent and least common form of plague. UNTREATED, IT HAS A VERY HIGH CASE-FATALITY RATIO, the WHO says. The WHO was informed on Saturday of the outbreak but has not been asked for help.

The news comes at a time when commanders are desperately fighting for more troops to be sent to the province to replace those who have been injured or killed. According to the emergency memo, a 'worrying trend of obesity' is preventing soldiers from being deployed to the province.

It raises concerns that soldiers are failing to carry out the basic minimum of two hours physical exercise a week. The document, obtained by the Observer, also warns that Britain's 'operational effectiveness' is being undermined by low levels of fitness and raises concerns that lives could be lost because some soldiers are not fit enough to cope with the challenging conditions in Afghanistan.

'The numbers of personnel unable to deploy and concerns about obesity throughout the army are clearly linked to current attitudes towards physical training,' the memo from Major Brian Dupree of the army physical training corps in Wiltshire states.

Pew research poll found that 53 per cent of white voters approved of Mr Obama's job performance before his prime-time intervention in the furore over whether Sergeant Joseph Crowley, a white officer, was right to arrest Henry Louis Gates Jr, a black studies professor.

This dropped to 46 per cent in just two days as many white supporters reacted with dismay to Mr Obama's statement, which he tried to rectify by arranging a "beer summit" at the White House in which he and Vice President Joe Biden sipped their chosen brews in the Rose Garden under the gaze of the media.

Mr Obama's overall popularity remains just over 50 per cent but his failure to secure a health care bill before the August congressional recess, partly attributable to the distraction caused by the race debate, could be an ominous portent.

Some residents were saved just minutes before fire engulfed their homes. Several dozen homes in the town of Fuencaliente were gutted. There are fears the flames could spread to an observatory housing the world's largest telescope. The Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory has been operating for more than 20 years, and a new telescope was inaugurated last month.

Fresh teams of firefighters have been brought in from other parts of the Canary Islands, and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has also arrived in La Palma to inspect efforts to tackle the fire. The fire is thought to have been caused by a stray firework let off during local fiestas.

La Palma is a small, relatively undeveloped island, with a resident population of about 85,000. It is dominated by a dormant volcano, and is renowned as one of the greenest of the Canary Islands. But its lush vegetation has been seared by the high temperatures of recent days. Smaller fires have broken out on other Canary Islands, including Tenerife and Gran Canaria, but are expected to be brought under control soon.

But researchers have now discovered an HIV infection in a Cameroonian woman which is clearly linked to a gorilla strain, Nature Medicine reports. HIV originated from a similar virus in chimpanzees called Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV).

Although HIV/Aids was first recognised by scientists in the 1980s, it is thought it first entered the human population early in the twentieth century in the region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The virus probably originally jumped into humans after people came into contact with infected bush meat. SIV viruses have been reported in other primates, including gorillas.

Professor Paul Sharp, from the University of Edinburgh, said the virus probably initially transferred from chimpanzees to gorillas. "So the virus could be cryptically spreading in the population." However, he said that he would guess it would not spread widely and become a major problem. "Although the patient with this virus was not ill, there is no reason to believe that it will not lead to Aids," he added.

The Tabb Group, a financial services industry research firm, recently estimated that the 300 securities firms and hedge funds that specialize in rapid-fire algorithmic trading took in some $21 billion in profits last year. But when pressed on how it arrived at this figure, Tabb representatives won't say. My colleague Felix Salmon, on his Reuters blog, says the Tabb figure "is not obviously unreasonable," but he would like to know more about how the firm got the figure. So would I, and until Tabb comes forward with more information, I'm not sure how reliable a statistic it is to keep quoting.

Of course, the dozen or so Wall Street firms and hedge funds that are the leaders in high-frequency trading — either serving as a market maker or trading for their own account — aren't much help either. Most prefer to say simply nothing on the subject, leaving us in a very dark pool on the issue of high-frequency profits. By comparison, the high-frequency options volume leader is the giant hedge fund Citadel Investment Group, controlling some 25 percent of the daily trading activity.

By its own admission, Citadel "has expended and continues to expend hundreds of millions of dollars" on building and maintaining its high-frequency trading platforms. Add it all up and that's a lot of money Wall Street is committing to high-frequency trading. And if we know anything about Wall Street, it doesn't invest money in something unless it can generate a sizable return on investment

Deliveries have already been suspended to north Uganda, Ivory Coast and Niger. The organisation has issued similar warnings in the past when facing funding shortages. The UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS), operated by WFP, has a budget for 2009 of $160m (£96m) but has received less than $90m in fees and contributions this year.

WFP spokesman Greg Barrow said UNHAS was "a vital component of humanitarian operations across the world. But because of a funding shortfall there is now a grave risk that the air service... could literally be grounded in the next few weeks due to a lack of funds," he said. Pierre Carrasse, Chief of WFP's Aviation Branch, asked how workers could reach the often remote areas affected by conflict without the airline.

"How will WFP reach the hungry? How will doctors reach their patients? How will people have clean water if the engineers who help to build wells can't get there," he asked. Shortages have already led to UNHAS closing its service in Ivory Coast in February. The Niger service, also suspended that month, is expected to resume in August after a recent donation from the UN Common Emergency Relief Fund. The UN says 102 million people in 78 countries received food aid last year.

In most other democracies the judiciary is separate from the legislature - the people who assess whether laws are being properly applied are different from those who write them. But in Britain the House of Lords - a legislative body - has also been the nation's highest court: the supreme court of appeal for the whole of the UK in civil cases and for England, Wales and Northern Ireland in criminal cases.

But from October, as a result of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, the UK will for the first time have a separate Supreme Court. When the new UK Supreme Court opens the Law Lords will become its first justices. In short, the act provides for the separation of the Supreme Court from Parliament and from government. The gradual, centuries-old separation of constitutional powers within the UK will finally be complete.

EBay admitted in a regulatory filing that it might have to close down the company. It said it was trying to develop alternative software but if that did not work, or if eBay lost the right to the original software: "Skype would be severely and adversely affected and the continued operation of Skype's business as currently conducted would likely not be possible."

The dispute also threatens eBay's plan to spin off Skype, scheduled for next year. Earlier this year, Skype filed a claim in London against Swedish company Joltid, which is controlled by Skype co-founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. Skype is seeking resolution on a dispute over a software licensing agreement between the parties that Joltid was seeking to terminate.

"In particular, Joltid has alleged that Skype should not possess, use or modify certain software source code and that, by doing so, and by disclosing such code in certain US patent cases pursuant to orders from US courts, Skype has breached the license agreement," eBay said in the filing.

Joltid brought a counterclaim, reiterating that it held the rights to the peer-to-peer technology and that Skype was in violation of the original agreement. A court hearing has been set for June 2010 in London.

She died of a treatable disease - undiagnosed diabetes - at home in rural Wisconsin in March last year, as people surrounded her and prayed. Neumann's wife, Leilani Neumann, was convicted earlier this year. The couple, who were both convicted of second-degree reckless homicide, face up to 25 years in prison when they are sentenced in October. A lawyer representing Dale Neumann said he would appeal.

During the trial, medical experts told the court that Neumann's daughter could have survived if she had received treatment, including insulin and fluids, before she stopped breathing. On Thursday Neumann, who is 47 and studied in the past to be a Pentecostal minister, said he thought God would heal his daughter. "If I go to the doctor, I am putting the doctor before God," he said.

He also said he thought his daughter had had flu or a fever, and that he had not realised how ill she was. Neumann's lawyer said he had been convinced that his "faith healing" was working, and that he had committed no crime. The prosecution argued that Neumann had minimised his daughter's illness and that HE HAD ALLOWED HER TO DIE AS A SELFISH ACT OF FAITH.

In an email this morning, a WHO spokesperson claimed there are no Minutes of the meeting that took place on July 7th in which GUIDELINES ON THE NEED FOR WORLDWIDE VACCINATIONS THAT WHO ADOPTED THIS MONDAY WERE FORMULATED and in which Baxter and other pharma executives participated.

Under the International Health Regulations, WHO GUIDELINES HAVE A BINDING CHARACTER ON ALL OF WHO'S 194 SIGNATORY COUNTRIES IN THE EVENT OF A PANDEMIC EMERGENCY of the kind anticipated this autumn when the second more lethal wave of the H1N1 virus — which is bioengineered to resemble the Spanish flu virus emerges.

In short: WHO has the authority to force everyone in those 194 countries to take a vaccine this fall at gunpoint, impose quarantines and restrict TRAVEL. THERE IS VERIFIABLE, CLEAR AND UNAMBIGUOUS PROOF THAT WHO SUPPLIED THE LIVE BIRD FLU VIRUS TO BAXTER'S SUBSIDIARY IN AUSTRIA, which was used by Baxter to manufacture 72 kilos of vaccine material in Febuary.

Baxter subsequently sent this material out to 16 labs in four countries under a false label designating the contaminated product as vaccine material, so nearly triggering a global pandemic. Because Baxter must adhere to strict biosafety level 3 regulations when handling a dangerous virus such as the bird flu virus, THE PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF SO MUCH PANDEMIC MATERIAL CANNOT HAVE BEEN AN ACCIDENT BUT MUST HAVE BEEN DONE BY BAXTER WITH CRIMINAL INTENT. The Austrian police are now investigating after I filed criminal charges in April.

The officials would not be identified because the proposal from US Northern Command's General Victor Renuart has not been approved by the secretary. The plan calls for military task forces to work in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. There is no final decision on how the military effort would be manned, but one source said it would likely include personnel from all branches of the military.

Civilian authorities would lead any relief efforts in the event of a major outbreak, the official said. The military, as they would for a natural disaster or other significant emergency situation, could provide support and fulfill any tasks that civilian authorities could not, such as air transport or testing of large numbers of viral samples from infected patients. As a first step, Gates is being asked to sign a so-called "execution order" that would authorize the military to begin to conduct the detailed planning to execute the proposed plan.

Mike Adams, the Health Ranger comments:- When it comes to the US military, the word "assist," of course, could mean almost anything. Typically, the US military offers assistance at the end of a rifle. THIS "ASSISTANCE" COULD MEAN ASSISTING WITH QUARANTINES, ASSISTING WITH ROUNDING UP INFECTED PEOPLE OR ASSISTING WITH ARRESTING AND IMPRISONING PEOPLE WHO RESIST VACCINE SHOTS.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp was appointed receiver of the five banks. The agency shut down Integrity Bank of Jupiter, Florida, with $119 million in assets and $102 million in deposits, and First BankAmericano, based in Elizabeth, New Jersey, with $166 million in assets and $157 million in deposits.

Also closed were Peoples Community Bank, West Chester, Ohio, with $705.8 million in assets and $598.2 million in deposits; First State Bank of Altus, in Altus, Oklahoma, with $103.4 million in assets and $98.2 million in deposits; and Mutual Bank of Harvey, Illinois, with $1.6 billion in assets and $1.6 billion in deposits.

Mutual Bank was the largest of the five. It was closed Friday by the Illinois Department of Financial Professional Regulation's division of banking, which appointed the FDIC as receiver. United Central Bank of Garland, Texas, is assuming the deposits and essentially all of the assets. In addition, the FDIC and First United Central Bank entered into a loss-sharing agreement covering $1.3 billion of the assets of Mutual Bank. Its 12 branches will reopen Saturday as offices of United Central Bank.

THE 69 BANK FAILURES NATIONWIDE THIS YEAR COMPARE WITH 25 LAST YEAR AND THREE IN 2007.