Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)

President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) clashed during a White House meeting on Wednesday, with the Speaker telling the president that he was “not going to allow a debt ceiling increase without doing something serious about the debt,” Boehner’s office said.

The president convened the meeting of the bipartisan congressional leadership to discuss his “to-do list” for Congress, but an aide to the Speaker said the bulk of the meeting was spent on other issues, including a pile-up of expiring tax provisions and the next increase in the debt limit.

According to a readout of the meeting from the Speaker’s office, Boehner asked Obama if he was proposing that Congress increase the debt limit without corresponding spending cuts. The president replied, “Yes,” the Boehner aide said. At that point, Boehner told Obama, “As long as I’m around here, I’m not going to allow a debt ceiling increase without doing something serious about the debt.”

Shortly after the meeting, White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters that the president warned the leadership that he would not allow a repeat of last August’s debt ceiling “debacle,” which led to a downgrade in the U.S. credit rating.

The meeting came one day after Boehner delivered a speech to a fiscal summit in Washington in which he said he would once again demand spending cuts and reforms that exceed any increase in the nation’s borrowing limit that Congress approves.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) were also scheduled to attend the White House meeting.

Boehner’s office said the Speaker also pressed the president to approve the complete Keystone oil sands pipeline and to encourage Attorney General Eric Holder to provide information that congressional investigators have sought on the Fast and Furious operation.

On a lighter note, Obama served the leaders sandwiches from a local gourmet shop, and the Boehner aide said the Speaker “was very pleased with the sandwiches served.”

North Korea has started work to upgrade its Musudan-ri missile launch site and potentially make the facility capable of firing an intercontinental ballistic missile.

If “Facebook For Dummies” helped you find friends and post pictures on the world’s No. 1 online social network, then consider “Facebook IPO Confidential” which purports to teach you “How To Get Rich With The IPO Of The Century.”

The e-book is one of about eight self-help manuals that appear to have sprung up overnight to try to capitalize on the frenzy surrounding Silicon Valley’s biggest initial public offering.

With other titles such as “The Facebook IPO Pitch: Are You In?” and “How To Invest In Facebook”, these books are far from bestsellers. But, along with countless online forums and news articles about the IPO, they underscore the desire of ordinary people – many of whom have never invested in stocks before – to get in on the $15.2 billion share sale.

“If you can’t invent Facebook, the next best bragging rights would be to say that you had invested in the social media phenom when it was a dorm room project. If not then, perhaps the IPO,” Nancy Miller wrote in a guide titled “The Facebook IPO Primer.”

Many wealth managers are advising their clients to avoid Facebook, pointing to a sky-high valuation of up to $104 billion set by the IPO, and potentially much higher once it starts trading. The company also shows signs of slowing growth, has yet to figure out how to make money on mobile, and new shareholders will have little influence as nearly 56 percent of voting shares will be in the hands of one person: Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg.

But such warnings are falling on deaf ears as many people are drawn in by Facebook’s brand name and the fact that one in seven people around the globe are on the social network. Facebook Inc on Tuesday increased the size of its IPO by nearly 25 percent and raised the target price range.

“I can’t remember another IPO that got this much attention,” said Max Wolff, a senior analyst at GreenCrest Capital. “Half the people talking about the Facebook IPO probably don’t know what IPO stands for.”

The strong demand means that most retail investors will have to wait until Facebook begins to trade on the Nasdaq on Friday to get hold of the shares – and risk getting trampled. If the stock skyrockets, the average person might end up getting orders filled at a price much higher than they wanted and then face the possibility of losses as funds steamroll in and then zip back out, taking the price off its highs.

“I don’t know if buying on the day of the IPO is the best idea, but I like the novelty factor of it and being able to say that you bought on the first day,” said Micah Stubbs, a first-time investor who works in the oil and gas industry and lives in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

Facebook’s share price could surge 30 percent on debut day, said Reena Aggarwal, a professor of business administration and finance at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business in Washington. She suggested retail investors may be better off holding off for a few weeks until the share price settles.

“The market will try to figure out the right price for the stock and it’s going to open really high,” Aggarwal said. “There are lots of risks – the company is high growth but also high risk, and there is a lot of uncertainty, so retail investors have to be careful.”

SLIM CHANCES

Facebook is going public after accumulating almost a billion users, nearly $4 billion in annual revenue and a brand name augmented by the 2010 Oscar-winning film “The Social Network”, which charted the rise of Zuckerberg who started Facebook in his Harvard University dorm room.

Most ordinary people have only the slimmest of chances of getting hold of IPO shares as Facebook’s 33 underwriters, led by Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, are expected to give priority to their most important clients, usually institutional investors.

Typically, only 5 to 30 percent of IPO shares are set aside for retail investors, underwriters say.

Discount broker E*Trade Financial, which was added to the list of IPO underwriters at the last minute, offers some help. Last week, its home page threw up a pop-up box explaining what investors need to do to get in on IPOs.

Would-be buyers have to answer about 25 questions about their financial status and investment habits. They are then prompted to place a conditional offer for at least 50 Facebook shares and a maximum price they are willing to pay per share.

Online prediction market Intrade, which lets investors bet on major events such as the U.S. presidential election, offers another alternative. It started a contract on Tuesday for bets on where shares of the social network will close on their first day of trading.

DAY TRADERS

Facebook reported $205 million in first-quarter profit, down 12 percent from the same period a year ago. While sales leapt 45 percent year-on-year to $1.6 billion, that lagged the 55 percent growth of the fourth quarter.

On Tuesday, General Motors Co said it will stop advertising on Facebook, amid concerns that the ads have had little impact on consumer spending. The auto maker continues to use Facebook pages for marketing its vehicles, but the news underscored the risks Facebook faces as it tries to boost revenue from its huge user base.

RegentAtlantic Capital is among the wealth managers recommending clients stay away, without much success.

“Most clients or their children have some interaction with Facebook, so I believe the demand will be high,” RegentAtlantic wealth advisor Chris Cordaro said, warning that there could be “a lot of pain” ahead for investors who buy at inflated prices on Friday.

Because of such concerns, some retail investors plan to get in and get out of the stock quickly. That may be fine if they get in at the IPO price but if they end up buying once the shares have started trading up, they may not be so lucky.

“Retail participation is associated with more speculation and noise, and because of that there is more volatility,” said David Sraer, a professor of economics at Princeton University. “They tend to herd together and be on the same side of the market, which drives imbalance.”

Retired chemical engineer Alvan Sweet ordered through Schwab 10,000 Facebook shares worth $380,000 at the high end of the indicative IPO price range. If he is lucky enough to get an allocation, he plans to dump the shares on day one or two.

Sweet, whose son is a senior managing partner of the IPO Boutique advisory firm, has invested in IPOs before but says this is the first time friends in his Florida condo community have pestered him about getting shares. “They were hoping that because my son is in the business I would have access,” he said.

One of his friends, Lucky Bloch, admits to losing money on an IPO before. But he is confident this investment will pay off.

“Initially Over-Priced is what IPO should stand for,” he complained. “If you can get in before the first day, then sell a couple of days later, there’s money to be made,” he told Reuters. “Can you help me get shares?”

(Additional reporting by Alexei Oreskovic and Sarah McBride, editing by Edwin Chan, Tiffany Wuand Richard Chang)

The Republican Senate Budget Committee will release this new chart later today, showing that the “U.S. Spends More Per Person Than Portugal, Italy, Greece, Or Spain.”

According to the chart, the U.S. spends $20,000 per person, while Italy spends $16,900, Spain $13,100, Greece $12,500, and Portugal $10,200.

These dollar amounts “Includes spending from federal, state, and local government,” according to a note on the chart. “2011 general government expenditures per person, in nominal U.S. dollars.”

The chart is based on numbers from the World Economic Outlook produced by the International Monetary Fund.

A former Park Ranger, Mark Moffett, has tracked down what is apparently the largest insect in the world. Found on Little Barrier Island in New Zealand, the cricket-like creature, which has a wingspan of seven inches, weighs about the same as three mice.

It was quite friendly and sat in the former Park Ranger – Moffett’s – hand while eating a carrot. As an endangered species the “giant weta” as it is known, was not allowed to finish the carrot as there was concern it might get indigestion at the rate it was consuming the carrot.

The giant weta is the largest insect recorded according to official records.

Alina Sarag died of tuberculosis after her GP claimed she was 'lovesick' Photo: Newsteam

After contracting tuberculosis in 2009 from a girl at her school, Alina Sarag was prescribed a course of antibiotics, but the staff at Birmingham Chest Clinic in Britain never followed up on Alina’s treatment. Then in 2010, 15 year-old Alina was struck by tuberculosis again after returning from Pakistan.

Alina’s doctor said that she had “lovesickness” and that it was all in Alina’s head, and that she should see a psychiatrist or spiritual healer. Alina Sarag’s parents called their doctor more than 50 times about Alina’s ailing condition. The doctor accused Alina’s parents of mollycoddling her, and the doctor refused to test Alina for tuberculosis. In all 15 year-old Alina was seen by five doctors at four hospitals in Britain, but none of them detected the curable disease. At this point Alina was vomiting up to 10 times a day and could not walk on her own.

In January 2011 Alina was rushed to hospital with breathing difficulties where she died – at age 15 – of a cardiac arrest. The parents have hired a lawyer and an inquest is underway.

The Obama administration “strongly objects” to provisions in a House defense authorization bill that would prohibit the use of military property for same-sex “marriage or marriage-like” ceremonies, and protect military chaplains from negative repercussions for refusing to perform ceremonies that conflict with their beliefs, according to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

In a policy statement released Wednesday, the OMB outlined numerous objections to aspects of the fiscal year 2013 National Defense Authorization Bill (H.R. 4310). The bill was reported out of the House Armed Services Committee last week and is set to be debated in the House, beginning Wednesday. (See related story)

Overall, it recommends that President Obama veto H.R. 4310 if its cumulative effects “impede the ability of the Administration to execute the new defense strategy and to properly direct scarce resources.”

The veto warning is not specifically linked to the two provisions dealing with marriage, but they are listed among parts of the bill which the administration finds objectionable.

The memo said the two provisions “adopt unnecessary and ill-advised policies that would inhibit the ability of same-sex couples to marry or enter a recognized relationship under State law.”

Section 536 of H.R. 4310 states in part that no member of the armed forces may “direct, order, or require a chaplain to perform any duty, rite, ritual, ceremony, service, or function that is contrary to the conscience, moral principles, or religious beliefs of the chaplain, or contrary to the moral principles and religious beliefs of the endorsing faith group of the chaplain.”

Further, no member of the armed forces may “discriminate or take any adverse personnel action against a chaplain, including denial of promotion, schooling, training, or assignment, on the basis of the refusal by the chaplain to comply with a direction, order, or requirement” that is prohibited by the previous clause.

The OMB complained that, “in its overbroad terms,” section 536 “is potentially harmful to good order and discipline.”

Section 537 of H.R. 4310 states that “[a] military installation or other property owned or rented by, or otherwise under the jurisdiction or control of, the Department of Defense may not be used to officiate, solemnize, or perform a marriage or marriage-like ceremony involving anything other than the union of one man with one woman.”

That provision, the OMB said in the memo, would make it obligatory for the department “to deny Service members, retirees, and their family members access to facilities for religious ceremonies on the basis of sexual orientation, a troublesome and potentially unconstitutional limitation on religious liberty.”

Obama in December 2010 signed into law legislation repealing a ban on homosexuals and lesbians serving openly in the military. Last week he publicly endorsed same-sex marriage for the first time.

The House Armed Services Committee passed H.R. 4310 on May 9 by a 56-5 bipartisan vote, the only nays coming from Democratic Reps. Chellie Pingree (Me.), John Garamendi (Calif.), Tim Ryan (Ohio), Hank Johnson (Ga.) and Jackie Speier (Calif.).

The two provisions dealing with marriage were passed earlier the same day by much smaller margins, largely along party lines.

The amendment on the use of military installations for same-sex ceremonies, introduced by Rep. Steve Palazzo (R-Miss.), passed by 37-24, with only three Democrats – Reps. Mike McIntyre (N.C.), Madeleine Bordallo (Guam) and Larry Kissell (N.C.) – voting with the Republican majority.

The amendment establishing a conscience protection clause for military chaplains, introduced by Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), passed by 36-25, with North Carolina Democrats McIntyre and Kissell again voting in favor.

Oklahoma has become the 25^th state to affirm the right of law abiding citizens to openly carry  firearms for their personal protection. The law, signed by Republican Governor Mary Fallin, allows citizens who have a concealed carry permit to openly carry their firearms and recognizes the right of citizens to be armed on their own property.  The law goes into effect November 1st. Four states, Alaska, Arizona, Wyoming and Vermont  have what are called constitutional carry laws that allow citizens to carry their firearms openly or concealed without a permit from the government. All four states have low crime rates.

Prime Minister David Cameron speaks during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, London Photo: PA

David Cameron has told eurozone countries they must choose whether to “make up” or “break up” in his bleakest warning so far on the debt crisis.

Students supporting the same-sex couple congregated outside the school for their own prom Saturday night.

Two female students say they were not allowed to attend Lexington Catholic High School’s prom as a couple Saturday night, upsetting a number of students at the school.

Hope Decker, 18, a senior, and sophomore Tiffany Wright, 16, had already gotten their dresses for the event, but Friday afternoon they were told by school administrators they could not attend as a couple because of the church’s stance on same-sex relationships, Wright said.

In an email Sunday, Lexington Catholic president Steve Angelucci said, “As a Catholic high school, we uphold every teaching of the Catholic Church. The policies and procedures of our school reflect those teachings.”

When the couple tried to enter the school’s gymnasium, where the prom was held, they were turned away, so Wright said they held their own prom in the school’s parking lot.

Franciscan University, a Catholic institution in Steubensville, Ohio, is claiming that Obamacare has forced the school to end its student heath insurance program. The massive health care overhaul, the university says, has led to cost increases that no longer make offering the program a viable possibility.

Not surprisingly, President Obama’s controversial contraception mandate is one of the the provisions that caused Franciscan University to make its startling decision. In addition to the mandate, which the school says would force Catholics to violate conscience, another provision in the president’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — one that requires a maximum coverage amount to be increased to $100,000 for policyholders — was cited as the basis for the decision.

In an interview with Fox News, Mike Hernon, the university’s vice president of advancement, claimed that Obamacare would cause the $600 student policy to double in cost next fall. He also said that the same policy would triple in cost the following year.

“This is putting people in a position where they are having to choose between their faith and their morality, and now an unjust cost,” Hernon said. “These sorts of regulations from the government are forcing our hand in a way that’s really wrong.”

Obviously, this will be problematic for the students who rely on the plan for their health care needs. In the fall, it will no longer be an option for these individuals. Despite the planned closure of the student health plan, faculty coverage will continue.

While this is going to be problematic for some students, Obama‘s health care plan now allows young adults to remain on their parents’ insurance until they are 26 years of age. Thus, many students will be able to take advantage of this coverage opportunity.

“We encourage you to decide how you are going to provide for accidents or illnesses requiring visits to physicians, health clinics or the hospital emergency room while you are a student here,”the school proclaims on its web site. Here are some other portions of the statement:

The Obama Administration has mandated that all health insurance plans must cover “women’s health services” including contraception, sterilization, and abortion-causing medications as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Up to this time, Franciscan University has specifically excluded these services and products from its student health insurance policy, and we will not participate in a plan that requires us to violate the consistent teachings of the Catholic Church on the sacredness of human life.

Additionally, the PPACA increased the mandated maximum coverage amount for student policies to $100,000 for the 2012-13 school year, which would effectively double your premium cost for the policy in fall 2012, with the expectation of further increases in the future.

Due to these changes in regulation by the federal government, beginning with the 2012-13 school year, the University 1) will no longer require that all full-time undergraduate students carry health insurance, 2) will no longer offer a student health insurance plan, and 3) will no longer bill those not covered under a parent/guardian plan or personal plan for student health insurance. The current student health insurance plan will expire on August 15, 2012.

This is the latest development in the ongoing standoff between the Obama administration and the Catholic Church. The denomination, which contends that birth control is immoral, issued a 20-page warning on Tuesday to federal regulators. In the letter to officials, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops pledged to sue the federal government if Congress does not intervene to prevent the mandate from going into effect.

“Absent prompt congressional attention to this infringement on fundamental civil liberties, we believe the only remaining recourse … is in the courts,” lawyers for the bishops wrote. ”[Individual employers] can drop out of the health insurance marketplace altogether, or offer or provide the objectionable coverage.”

The Obama administration has made what it deems “accommodations” in light of the controversy surrounding the mandate, but the church argues that individual employers who object to birth control will still be forced to fund it. While most explicitly religious organizations will be exempt, Catholic business owners whose primary purpose isn’t faith-based will not be able to opt out. The bishops deem this unacceptable.

Armed nomads clashed with residents of a Libyan town on the border with Algeria on Wednesday, officials said, underlining the insecurity that continues to plague the country one month before elections.

Fighting erupted over control of a checkpoint on the edge of Ghadames on a desert route often used for smuggling, the officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Tensions has been building for days between locals and Tuareg tribesmen – nomads who roam the desert spanning the borders of Libya and its neighbors, said an officer at Ghadames local council.

“One person was killed. They are fighting over control of one of the main entrance gates,” resident Abdelgader Haiba said by phone.

A defense ministry official said two people were injured in the fighting in the town about 600km (370 miles) southwest of Tripoli, but he was not aware of any dead.

Libya’s interim rulers have struggled to impose their will on the vast country’s often fractious tribal groups after last year’s uprising against former leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Many Tuaregs backed Gaddafi during the fighting because he supported their rebellion against the governments of Mali and Niger in the 1970s and later allowed them to settle in southern Libya.

The tribe is important to regional security because it has huge influence in the empty desert expanses which are used by drug traffickers and Islamist militants.

Libya is set to hold elections for a national assembly on June 19, in the first free polls since last year’s war.

The vote will allocate power among competing regions and tribes and pave the way for a new constitution.

A medical report by George Zimmerman’s family doctor shows the neighborhood watch volunteer was diagnosed with a fractured nose, two black eyes and two lacerations on the back of the head after his fatal confrontation with Trayvon Martin.

The medical exam, which was taken a day after Zimmerman’s February 26 altercation with the unarmed 17-year-old, says Zimmerman suffered a “closed fracture” of his nose, according to two sources who have detailed knowledge of the investigation.

Zimmerman, 28, is accused of killing Martin on February 26 as the African-American teenager walked back to the Sanford, Florida, house where he was staying, after visiting a convenience store. Prosecutors have said Zimmerman, who is a white Hispanic, killed Martin unjustly after profiling him.

Zimmerman, who acknowledges shooting Martin but claims self-defense, has entered a not guilty plea in the case, which has not yet been scheduled for trial.

Zimmerman faces a second-degree murder charge in the case, which has gripped the country, caused nationwide protests and has shined a light on race relations and gun laws in Florida.

After the shooting, Zimmerman told police that Martin rushed him after they exchanged words, knocked him to the ground and repeatedly hit his head against a concrete sidewalk.

The medical report appears to lend support to Zimmerman’s claims. It also mirrors earlier statements made by Zimmerman’s father, brother and lawyer.

Zimmerman’s brother spoke of the medical reports in a March interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan.

“We’re confident the medical records are going to explain all of George’s medical history,” Robert Zimmerman Jr. said at the time. “You return force with force when somebody assaults you. George was out of breath, he was barely conscious. George (would have been) dead if he had not acted decisively and instantaneously in that moment.”

The Martin family has questions about the medical report, said Benjamin Crump, the family attorney.

“The family has very strong positions about this family physician’s report that was done the next day,” Crump said. “What we do know is on February 26, the ER personnel did not believe his injuries were significant enough for him to go to the hospital. They didn’t even put a Band-Aid on his head. That’s important.”

Also Tuesday, CNN affiliate WFTV reported that Martin’s autopsyshowed the teen had injuries to his knuckles when he died.

That evidence could also support the theory that Martin and Zimmerman fought.

Crump also responded to that report Tuesday night.

“He was fighting for his life,” he told Anderson Cooper. “Let’s not forget that Trayvon Martin was fighting a man with a 9-millimeter gun. We also have to remember that he didn’t start this fight. George Zimmerman got out his car and pursued Trayvon Martin.”

On the night of the shooting, Zimmerman had called 911 to complain about a suspicious person in the neighborhood, according to authorities.

In the call, Zimmerman said he was following Martin after the teen started to run, prompting the dispatcher to tell him, “We don’t need you to do that.”

Zimmerman apparently disregarded that advice.

A timeline of the case against George Zimmerman

Sanford police initially declined to arrest Zimmerman, saying there was no evidence to contradict his claim of self-defense under Florida’s “stand your ground” law, which allows people to use deadly force anywhere they feel a reasonable threat of serious injury or death.

After weeks of protests demanding his arrest, a special prosecutor appointed by Florida Gov. Rick Scott filed the second-degree murder charge against Zimmerman.

He was arrested on April 11 and briefly jailed. He has returned to hiding after his release on $150,000 bond.

There are some concerns that F-35 fighter jets (above) may have the same problem as the F-22 planes

The Pentagon has issued further safety procedures for its most advanced fighter jet after pilots complained of oxygen shortages during flights.

The rules include limiting the distance F-22 planes can travel from airstrips.

Defence Secretary Leon Panetta did not rule out grounding the jets again if necessary.

The Air Force banned its F-22s from flying for four months last year to investigate the oxygen-deficit problem, but its cause remains unclear.

The Air Force has introduced more than a dozen pilot safety rules in the F-22, and says oxygen issues are very rare, but some pilots have refused to fly the aircraft.

Dizziness and blackouts

The safety precautions announced on Tuesday mean the F-22 will have to abandon long-distance air patrol missions in Alaska, the Pentagon said. The jet has never been used in combat.

The defence secretary has also asked for a back-up oxygen system to be put into the planes, with the first of these due to be installed in December.

“We haven’t determined the root cause,” Pentagon spokesman George Little said. “It could be something connected to the oxygen system.

“It could be other aspects of the aircraft that could contribute to hypoxia-like [oxygen-deprivation] events, whether it’s G-forces, the altitude at which the plane flies.”

Twelve hypoxia-related incidents, including dizzy spells and blackouts, have been reported between April 2008 and January 2011.

There are worries that new F-35 fighter jets, which are being developed by Lockheed Martin, could pose similar problems.

“I think it’s safe to say that everybody in leadership is concerned about this,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

The F-35 will have many of the same features as the F-22, but cannot fly as high or as fast.

Greeks have been taking cash out of their bank accounts amid fears the country may not keep the euro

Greeks withdrew 700m euros ($894m; £560m) from the country’s banks in the week ending on Monday, according to the Greek president.

The action comes as fears increase that the country may be forced out of the eurozone and on to a weaker currency.

Greece’s president Karolos Papoulias revealed the outflows of cash in talks with rival political leaders.

He said the head of the Greek central bank had told him there was no panic yet, but that this could change.

Mr Papoulias said that the central bank governor, George Provopoulos, had said that the banks’ situation was very difficult and that the banking system was currently very weak.

“Mr Provopoulos told me there was no panic, but there was great fear that could develop into a panic,” the president was quoted as saying in minutes of the meetings with political leaders.

Uncertainty about the country’s future has intensified after Greece’s political parties failed to form a coalition government this week.

Recent elections saw votes widely split between parties, and another round of elections will now be held in June.

In February, former finance minister Evangelos Venizelos said Greeks had deposited 16bn euros overseas, including “32% in British banks and 10% in Swiss banks”.

The Justice Department said “the core questions” have been answered in the ongoing “Fast and Furious” gun-trafficking controversy, rejecting lawmakers’ complaints that the department has failed to cooperate with a congressional probe of the matter.

Deputy Attorney General James Cole on Tuesday called “unwarranted” a move by some lawmakers to begin contempt of Congress proceedings against Attorney General Eric Holder over the documents dispute.

Mr. Cole made his remarks in a letter to Rep. Darrell Issa, (R., Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, who in recent weeks has sought support from fellow Republicans for the contempt citation. Mr. Cole said department was withholding documents that could threaten disclosures of sensitive law enforcement information in ongoing cases, but held out hope for a “mutually acceptable resolution.”

The dispute centers on a 2009-2010 operation run by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Phoenix, Ariz., aimed at building a case against suspected firearms smugglers. The agents allowed suspected smugglers to buy about 2,000 firearms, without interdicting the weapons, and some have since turned up at crime scenes in the U.S. and Mexico.

Mr. Issa released a report earlier this month that laid out the case for contempt, citing what he said was the department’s failure to respond to subpoenas for documents, and for allegedly retaliating against whistleblowers who brought Fast and Furious to the attention of lawmakers.

Mr. Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley, (R., Iowa) have led the congressional probe of Fast and Furious and both have complained that the department has been slow to cooperate.

“The Justice Department’s failure to respond appropriately to the allegations of whistleblowers and to cooperate with congressional oversight has crossed the line of appropriate conduct for a government agency,” said Mr. Issa’s report, contained in a draft contempt citation.

Mr. Cole, in his letter, cited the fact that Congress has never held an attorney general in contempt over documents related to open criminal investigations. He said the committee’s request for information on wiretaps and about government informants working for U.S. law enforcement agencies would expose sensitive details of ongoing investigations and expose informants to retaliation from violent drug cartels.

Three UN observer vehicles were damaged in a blast in Khan Sheikhoun

At least 20 people have been killed by Syrian security forces in the north-western town of Khan Sheikhoun during a visit by UN observers, activists say.

Unconfirmed reports say the deaths occurred when security forces opened fire on a funeral procession in the town in Idlib province.

Three of the monitors’ cars were damaged in a blast in the town, but the observers were not hurt, the UN said.

This comes despite the UN-backed ceasefire in place since last month.

The Syrian government has so far not publicly commented on the incidents.

In a separate development, the head of Syria’s election committee announced that turnout in last week’s parliamentary elections was more than 50%.

The committee did not say who had won, but it is clear that the ruling Baath party has secured a substantial majority of the seats, the BBC’s Jonathan Head in neighbouring Turkey reports.

This was the first election in which the Baath party was not, in theory, guaranteed a majority, our correspondent says.

Opposition parties – which boycotted the election – have dismissed the vote as a sham.

As the parliament’s powers are poorly defined, he adds, there was no chance that the poll would dilute President Bashar al-Assad’s power, our correspondent says.

‘IED blast’

“The Syrian regime committed a massacre [on] Tuesday during a visit by UN monitors to Khan Sheikhoun,” the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday, according to the AFP news agency.

The group also called for an international investigation into the attack.

Separately, a spokesman for the UN-Arab Union envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, said the UN vehicles were damaged in Khan Sheikhoun.

Spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said the UN convoy was struck by “an explosion from an improvised explosive device”.

He added that the UN mission in Syria sent a patrol team to the area to evacuate the monitors.

The team of seven UN observers was in the town to observe a demonstration by opposition supporters at the funeral.

UN monitors were also hit by gunfire during an intense battle in the town of al Rastan on Monday, and the convoy of another UN team was struck by an explosion in Deraa last week.

The BBC’s Jonathan Head, in neighbouring Turkey, says that despite the announced ceasefire the levels of violence are steadily creeping up and may reach the level when the UN monitors can no longer operate.

The UN said over the weekend that it had 189 observers in Syria, some two-thirds of the total intended for deployment as part of a six-point peace plan mediated by Mr Annan.

Earlier this week, at least 30 people – including 23 soldiers – reportedly died in clashes in central Syria, in what would be one of the deadliest suffered by security forces in the 14-month-long uprising against President Assad.

The government in Damascus says it is fighting organised gangs.

The UN estimates at least 9,000 people have died since pro-democracy protests began in March 2011.

“The Syrian regime committed a massacre [on] Tuesday during a visit by UN monitors to Khan Sheikhoun,” the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday, according to the AFP news agency.

The group also called for an international investigation into the attack.

Separately, a spokesman for the UN-Arab Union envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, said the UN vehicles were damaged in Khan Sheikhoun.

Spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said the UN convoy was struck by “an explosion from an improvised explosive device”.

He added that the UN mission in Syria sent a patrol team to the area to evacuate the monitors.

The team of seven UN observers was in the town to observe a demonstration by opposition supporters at the funeral.

UN monitors were also hit by gunfire during an intense battle in the town of al Rastan on Monday, and the convoy of another UN team was struck by an explosion in Deraa last week.

The BBC’s Jonathan Head, in neighbouring Turkey, says that despite the announced ceasefire the levels of violence are steadily creeping up and may reach the level when the UN monitors can no longer operate.

The UN said over the weekend that it had 189 observers in Syria, some two-thirds of the total intended for deployment as part of a six-point peace plan mediated by Mr Annan.

Earlier this week, at least 30 people – including 23 soldiers – reportedly died in clashes in central Syria, in what would be one of the deadliest suffered by security forces in the 14-month-long uprising against President Assad.

The government in Damascus says it is fighting organised gangs.

The UN estimates at least 9,000 people have died since pro-democracy protests began in March 2011.

The FBI has opened a probe into trading losses at JPMorgan Chase & Co, stepping up the pressure on the bank after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve said they were also looking into the wrong-way bets that led to the losses.

Yet at the same time, shareholders backed embattled Chief Executive Jamie Dimon at the bank’s annual shareholders meeting in Tampa, Florida on Tuesday, voting against a proposal to split the jobs of CEO and chairman.

Though shareholders mostly gave Dimon a pass, pressure mounted on the bank to reclaim some of the millions of dollars it paid to the executives who oversaw the trades. Dimon said JPMorgan would pursue more disciplinary action against those who were responsible.

“We will do the right thing. That may well include clawbacks,” he told reporters after the annual meeting.

The timing on any such move was not clear, though, and the various regulatory probes could add complications. A source familiar with the FBI investigation, opened by the agency’s New York office, described it as being at a preliminary stage.

The probe was seen in some quarters as necessary, given the ongoing debate in Washington about bank regulation and reform, and one expert said it raised the level of concern around what happened.

“The FBI looks for evidence of crimes and goes after people who it alleges are criminals. They want to send people to jail. The SEC pursues all sorts of wrongdoing, imposes fines and is half as scary as the FBI,” said Erik Gordon, a professor in the law and business schools at the University of Michigan.

After two trading days of heavy losses, JPMorgan shares were up 3.4 percent to $36.99 in afternoon trade. The stock is down more than 9 percent since the trading losses were disclosed, wiping out $14.3 billion of market capitalization.

“It affects my opinion of the entire financial industry,” said Dennis Hong, principal with Altimeter Capital, a hedge fund that manages about $250 million.

“It’s really shocking because JPMorgan has been known as the most conservative in terms of managing their business risk. They may be losing their way,” Hong said at an event in Boston.

AFFIRMS ‘CASE FOR … REFORM’

In Washington, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said JPMorgan’s losses strengthened the case for reform.

“I think this failure of risk management is just a very powerful case for … financial reform,” Geithner told an event sponsored by the Peterson Foundation.

“The test of reform is not whether you can prevent banks from making mistakes … the test of reform should be: ‘Do those mistakes put at risk the broader economy, the financial system or the taxpayer?’”

Protests outside the annual meeting were relatively limited. Half a dozen Occupy Tampa protesters did media interviews and occasionally chanted, “hey hey ho ho, big banks have got to go.”

Nonetheless, retail shareholders expressed incredulity at the size of the losses.

“I am amazed that they think $2 billion is a bump in the road,” said A. Reihl, an 85-year-old shareholder who said she has owned the stock for more than a decade. “This is not the time to be taking risk.”

Father Seamus Finn of the Washington-based Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility described the outcome of the meeting as “pretty poor.”

“I don’t think we got any more clarity out of Mr. Dimon about what he got out of these recent experiences and what they’re going to do,” he said.

CLAWBACKS

New York City Comptroller John Liu, who oversees the city’s $400 million stake in JPMorgan, on Tuesday joined those calling for a “clawback” of compensation from executives responsible for the trading losses, including Ina Drew, chief of the hedging unit that racked up the losses.

She announced her retirement on Monday. Reuters was unable to reach Drew at her New Jersey home on Monday evening.

In its 2011 annual report, JPMorgan said its stock-based compensation awards were subject to clawback provisions. It said in its proxy filing that it could conduct a clawback review “as a result of a material restatement of earnings or by acts or omissions of employees.”

JPMorgan can cancel unvested awards or require that the value of distributed shares be repaid when “the employee engages in conduct that causes material financial or reputational harm to the firm or its business activities,” according to the proxy.

“We don’t know the facts and culpability, but it appears she (Drew) did have a responsibility here along with a number of others,” Sheila Bair, former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, said in an interview with Reuters Insider. “Clearly, the whole purpose of clawbacks is if you make a bad bet that results in losses, compensation should be clawed back.”

SPLIT PROPOSAL REJECTED

While regulators probe the losses, most shareholders at the brief annual meeting seemed more concerned with the bank’s mortgage servicing practices and with the proposal to split the roles of chairman and CEO.

That proposal, which was nonbinding, received 40.1 percent of the votes cast in favor. By way of comparison, 44 percent of AT&T Inc shareholders and 46 percent of Honeywell International Inc shareholders voted to separate the roles at their companies in meetings held last month.

“Obviously, all the media attention, all the political yammering of the past week, undoubtedly had some influence on people who had not voted up to that point,” said Marshall Front, chairman of investment manager Front Barnett Associates in Chicago, whose firm voted against the proposal.

(Reporting by David Henry and Barbara Liston in Tampa, Ross Kerber, Jim Finkle and Ben Berkowitz in Boston, Jed Horowitz, David Randall, Dan Wilchins, Basil Katz, Emily Flitter and Rhonda Schaffler in New York and Sinead Cruise in London; Writing by Ben Berkowitz; Editing byAlwyn Scott and David Holmes)

Presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney acknowledged to a crowd at Liberty University’s commencement that Mormonism and evangelicalism are different faiths, but he said people in both camps can work together on issues of “shared moral convictions.”

Romney’s invitation to speak at the evangelical university was controversial in some circles, mainly because of Romney’s religion. Yet Romney’s speech at Williams Stadium — where the football team plays — seemingly was well-received.

The values-laden speech May 12 touched on the issues of gay “marriage” and abortion, and Romney also listed a number of leaders admired by evangelicals: Chick-fil-A’s Truett Cathy, author C.S. Lewis and evangelist Billy Graham, among others.

“People of different faiths, like yours and mine, sometimes wonder where we can meet in common purpose, when there are so many differences in creed and theology,” Romney said. “Surely the answer is that we can meet in service, in shared moral convictions about our nation stemming from a common worldview. The best case for this is always the example of Christian men and women working and witnessing to carry God’s love into every life — people like the late Chuck Colson.”

Romney recounted a story Colson told about the days after Colson left prison: “He was assured by people of influence that, even with his prison record, a man with his connections and experience could still live very comfortably. They would make some calls, get Chuck situated and set him up once again as an important man. His choice at that crossroads would make him, instead, a great man.”

The graduates, Romney said, will enter a world where Christian beliefs are not always embraced.

“Your values will not always be the object of public admiration,” Romney said. “In fact, the more you live by your beliefs, the more you will endure the censure of the world. Christianity is not the faith of the complacent, the comfortable or of the timid. It demands and creates heroic souls like Wesley, Wilberforce, Bonhoeffer, John Paul II and Billy Graham. Each showed, in their own way, the relentless and powerful influence of the message of Jesus Christ. May that be your guide as well.”

Romney said “central to America’s rise to global leadership is our Judeo-Christian tradition with its vision of the goodness and possibilities of every life.”

“The American culture promotes personal responsibility — the dignity of work, the value of education, the merit of service, devotion to a purpose greater than self, and at the foundation, the pre-eminence of the family,” Romney said. “The power of these values, this culture, is evidenced by a Brookings Institution study that Sen. Rick Santorum brought to my attention. For those who graduate from high school, get a job and marry before they have their first child, the probability that they will be poor is 2 percent. But, if those things are absent, 76 percent will be poor. Culture — what you believe, what you value, how you live — matters.”

Romney then briefly touched on the definition of marriage. His speech came three days after President Obama declared his support for gay “marriage.”

“As fundamental as these principles are, they may become topics of democratic debate from time to time. So it is today with the enduring institution of marriage. Marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman,” he said to a standing ovation.

Religious liberty, Romney said, has “also become a matter of debate.”

“It strikes me as odd that the free exercise of religious faith is sometimes treated as a problem, something America is stuck with instead of being blessed with,” he said. “Perhaps religious conscience upsets the designs of those who feel that the highest wisdom and authority comes from government.

“But from the beginning, this nation has trusted in God, not man. Religious liberty is the first freedom in our Constitution. And whether the cause is justice for the persecuted, compassion for the needy and the sick, or mercy for the child waiting to be born, there is no greater force for good in the nation than Christian conscience in action.”

R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., applauded Romney for acknowledging that Mormonism is different.

“It was a healthy and honest and I would say necessary thing for Gov. Romney to say that,” Mohler said on his podcast May 14.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said Romney hit the right notes for evangelicals.

“Mitt Romney picked up on the message that energized Rick Santorum’s campaign: America’s financial greatness is directly tied to moral and cultural wholeness,” Perkins said. “Mitt Romney’s address gives me a sense of hope that he will build on this message at a time when millions of voters are reeling from President Obama’s endorsement for redefining marriage.”
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Michael Foust is associate editor of Baptist Press. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress) and in your email (baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp).

Lagging in two recent polls, President Barack Obama told donors at two separate fundraising events in New York that the November election will be very close.

“I’m going to need all of you. This is going to be a tough race. It is going to be a tight race,” the president told donors at a gathering at the Rubin Museum of Art. “Nobody should be taking this for granted, especially when I come to New York sometimes people go around and say, I don’t know anybody who is not supporting you, Barack. I say, you live in Manhattan, man.”

The line about Manhattan got a laugh.

“This is going to be a challenging race,” Obama added. “But we can win as long as all of you are activated, as long as all of you are motivated, as long as you’re doing everything you can – not just making phone calls, not just raising money, but I want folks out hitting the streets, knocking on doors, talking to your family, talking to your friends.”

Later that evening, Obama had a separate fundraising event at the home of Hamilton James, president of the Blackstone Group, a large private equity firm, where he repeated the assertion.

“This is going to be a tough election,” Obama said. “This is going to be a close election precisely because there are folks out there who are still hurting. But I’m pretty confident that if we work hard, if we stay true to that vision, that it’s the one that the American people believe in as well.”

A New York Times/CBS News poll released Monday shows Romney leading Obama 46-43 percent. Another Rasmussen poll released Monday shows Romney leading Obama 47-45.

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, has been scrutinized by conservatives for being too moderate.

However, speaking at the art museum, Obama said the 2012 race will be a much starker contrast than 2008, when he beat Arizona Sen. John McCain.

“John McCain believed in climate change and believed in immigration reform,” Obama told the donors. “On some issues, there was a sense of independence. What we’ve got this time out is a candidate who said he’d basically rubber-stamp a Republican Congress who wants us to go backwards and not forwards on a whole range of issues.”

Obama used familiar themes in the campaign, alleging Republicans want to make draconian cuts.

“One of the big arguments we’re going to have over the next four or five months is, how do we pay for stuff? And I happen to believe that it makes sense for us to make these investments, to make sure that Social Security and Medicare are still there for the next generation; to make sure that we’re not kicking poor kids and people with disabilities, and seniors who don’t have any other means off of Medicaid just to balance our budgets,” he said.

It has taken months of bad news, but Democrats increasingly believe that President Obama might just lose his re-election bid.

The latest wake-up call comes in the form of a New York Times/CBS poll showing Republican Mitt Romney in the lead not just among registered voters overall, but with women and independents.

The Times/CBS survey is unique in that the pollsters called back the same phone numbers they had a month before. In April, Obama and Romney were dead even. Now, Romney leads by 3 points overall. That’s still within the margin of error — a statistical tie.

But the shifts with women, moderates and independents are all statistically significant. Obama lost 5 points with each of those demographics.

Team Obama has for months been warning Democrats not to be overconfident and warning of a close election, with the president increasingly sounding the alarm for donors and activists in recent campaign appearances.

Since the general election season kicked off in earnest in the last week of March, Obama has had an almost unbroken string of losing weeks, starting with his overheard conversation with former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

There was the back-and-forth with the Supreme Court over his health law, the attack by one of Obama’s advisers on Ann Romney, the GSA Vegas scandal, the hookers in Cartagena and then the baffling case of the gay marriage half-reversion.

Some of the problems were just bad luck (hookers), some were just blunders (hot mic) but much of the rest has been about Obama trying to galvanize his base coalition and secure the massive donations he needs to finance the most expensive campaign in history.

His trip to New York on Monday was the best example yet. Obama delivered a groaner of a speech at Barnard College in which he did everything but shout “girl power” at the end.

And then in an appearance on a left-leaning ladies chat show, ABC’s “The View,” Obama rhapsodized about his partial reversion to previous support for gay marriage in advance of attending a fundraiser with his party’s fundraising shop for “gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender” Democrats that featured Ricky Martin, he of Menudo, bikini briefs and “She Bangs.”

You need money to win Ohio, but it may not be worth the price of all this gay pride to get it. As the Times poll showed, a huge majority believe Obama’s rhetorical reversion was about politics, not a personal moral journey. Even those who are fine with gay marriage, may find it unseemly to see Obama waving the rainbow flag so vigorously in pursuit of cash.

While Obama was in New York, he also stopped by to scoop up some money from Wall Streeters, including some private equity folks — an industry his campaign was simultaneously describing as parasites and vampires.

If you wonder why Obama felt the need to single out JP Morgan Chase and its CEO for praise despite a $2 billion shellacking the firm took on its own investments, fundraisers like these are a big part of the answer.

All of this pandering may be necessary to keep Obama’s campaign dreadnaught moving ahead, but it comes at a cost, especially when so much of it is contradictory or confusing.

Obama believes marriage is a human right regardless of the gender of one’s preferred spouse, but thinks states out to be able to suppress that human right. Okay.

Obama thinks Romney is a vampire, but is happy to take the money of his rival’s fellow bloodsuckers? Gotcha.

David Brooks, a New York Times columnist who is quite taken with Obama, writes in today’s paper that while Americans think Obama is doing a bad job on the economy and that the country is off track, Obama stands a good chance of being re-elected because of his demeanor: an “ESPN” brand of post-modern machismo cool.

When Obama supporters like Brooks make argument like these, they are engaged in willful self-deception.

There has been nothing very cool about the past 7 weeks for Obama. The president has twisted himself into a policy and rhetorical pretzel to win the support and money he needs from the members of the Democratic coalition.

The Times poll tells the tale: Obama’s nuzzling of the base, beseeching of donors and policy contortions have given Romney the chance to start winning over the narrow band of undecided persuadable voters.

If Democrats don’t want to see Obama defeated, they had better suck it up. Obama is not the superman they believe him to be, nor is his campaign the masterwork they have been led to believe.

The president knows how tight a spot he is in. His supporters are just now realizing it.

Spanish oil company Repsol has taken the first step in a process to pursue legal action against Argentina for seizing energy firm YPF.

Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez claimed that Repsol had not invested enough money in the assets. Repsol denies the claim Photo: Rex Features

The Brevard County SWAT team was called to the home after a report of a shooting.

Authorities found five people dead Tuesday at a Florida home following a SWAT team standoff with a suspected gunman.

Four people were found dead inside the home and one female was found dead in the yard, officials said. The gunman or gunmen appear to be among the dead, Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Tod Goodyear said.

“We have no idea on motive right now,” Goodyear said.

A SWAT team was called to the neighborhood after a report of a shooting at the home, the sheriff’s office told CNN affiliate WFTV.  The SWAT team entered the home just before 7 a.m. ET, Sheriff’s Office spokesman John Mellicksaid. CNN affiliate CNF13 reported police were in a standoff until 8 a.m.

Residents in the area told CNN affiliate WKMG that officers in camouflage and carrying assault rifles arrived. Some were allowed to evacuate the area, WKMG reported.

“If we’ve made contact with you, then you are free to leave,” Mellick told residents, according to WKMG.

EU forces have previously destroyed pirate ships at sea

EU naval forces have conducted their first raid on pirate bases on the Somali mainland, saying they have destroyed several boats.

The EU forces were transported by helicopter to the pirate bases near the port of Haradhere.

Anti-piracy forces have been reluctant to attack mainland bases, fearing for the crew of captured ships.

Somalia-based pirates have seized vessels across the Indian Ocean and demand huge ransoms for their release.

They are believed to be holding about 17 ships and 300 crew.

The latest incident involves the Greek-owned oil tanker Smyrni which was hijacked in the Arabian Sea last week.

The Liberian-flagged tanker carrying 135,000 tonnes of oil is reported to be heading for Somalia.

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says the attack on the land base is a significant development in the fight against Somali piracy.

The EU recently agreed to expand Operation Atalanta to allow forces to attack land targets as well as those at sea, and this is the first time its forces have used the new rules to attack a base on the mainland.

The attack was carried out overnight and, according to the European forces, no Somalis were hurt during the action.

The multinational forces used helicopters in conjunction with two warships to leave five of the pirates’ fast attack craft “inoperable”.

The European naval mission issued a statement saying: “The focused, precise and proportionate action was conducted from the air and all forces returned safely to EU warships on completion”.

A spokesman added that the operation was carried out with the full support of the Somali government after extensive surveillance, and the aim was to deny the pirates a safe haven onshore.

Military vessels from Nato countries, the US, China, Russia, Japan and India are also involved in patrolling an area of ocean which is about the same size as western Europe.

Two decades of war in Somalia have left the country without a fully-functioning government making it hard to deal with piracy.

The transitional government controls the capital Mogadishu, but al-Shabab militants hold many southern and central areas of the country.

Francois Hollande has been sworn in as president of France, becoming the first Socialist leader in 17 years to occupy the Elysee Palace.

He said he was aware of the challenges ahead, including the debt crisis, and vowed to “open a new path in Europe”.

He will later name his prime minister and fly to Berlin for talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Mr Hollande called for “a compromise” over the German-led focus on austerity as the way out of the eurozone crisis.

On Monday, the value of stock markets and the euro fell amid continuing political uncertainty in Greece.

The chairman of the eurozone finance ministers, Jean-Claude Juncker, insisted on Monday night that they would do “everything possible” to keep Greece in the euro.

‘Message of confidence’

Mr Hollande was sworn in for a five-year term at the Elysee Palace in central Paris.

Outgoing President Nicolas Sarkozy shook hands with his successor in the palace’s courtyard before leading him inside for a private meeting, at which France’s nuclear launch codes were handed over.

The new leader asked that the inauguration ceremony be kept as low-key as possible, and invited just three dozen or so personal guests to join the 350 officials attending. Neither Mr Hollande’s children nor those of his partner, Valerie Trierweiler, were there.

In his first presidential speech, Mr Hollande said he wished to deliver a “message of confidence”.

“My mandate is to bring France back to justice, open up a new path in Europe, contribute to world peace and preserve the planet.”

The new president said he was fully aware of challenges facing France, which he summarised as “huge debt, weak growth, reduced competitiveness, and a Europe that is struggling to emerge from a crisis”.

Mr Hollande also said he wanted other European leaders to sign a pact that “ties the necessary reduction of deficit to the indispensable stimulation of the economy”.

“I will tell them the necessity for our continent is to protect, in an unstable world, not only its values but its interests in the name of commercial exchange,” he added.

After the inauguration, Mr Hollande rode up the Champs Elysees in an open-topped car, waving to the crowd despite the rain, before laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe.

He then paid tribute to the 19th-Century educational reformer Jules Ferry and the Nobel Prize-winning chemist Marie Curie.

The BBC’s Christian Fraser in Paris says the 57-year-old has spent the past week preparing to take up the presidency, and now the work begins in earnest.

His first job is to name a new prime minister, who our correspondent says will most likely be Jean-Marc Ayrault, leader of the Socialist group in parliament, a German speaker and a close ally. Michel Sapin, a key economic adviser to Mr Hollande, is tipped to be finance minister.

‘Compromises’

On Tuesday afternoon, Mr Hollande will fly to Germany for dinner with Chancellor Merkel, who says she will welcome the new leader “with open arms”.

But her embrace will hide some embarrassment, says the BBC’s Europe editor Gavin Hewitt, after Mrs Merkel openly supported Mr Sarkozy in the election battle.

“We don’t think the same on everything,” Mr Hollande acknowledged on French television on Monday. “We’ll tell each other that so that together we can reach good compromises.”

Mr Hollande has demanded that a European fiscal pact that cracked down on overspending be renegotiated to include a greater emphasis on measures to stimulate growth, while Germany insists the treaty must be respected.

Whatever their differences, the crisis in the eurozone will put them under huge pressure to compromise, our correspondent says.

As the eurozone’s two biggest economies – and biggest contributors to its bailout funds – Germany and France are key decision-makers over the strategy supposed to pull Europe out of crisis.

According to official figures released on Tuesday morning, the French economy showed no growth in the first quarter of 2012. Growth in the final quarter of 2011 was also revised down to 0.1% from 0.2%.

However, Germany’s economy grew by a stronger than expected 0.5% in the first three months of the year.

Following his German trip, Mr Hollande will hold his first cabinet meeting on Thursday followed by a visit to Washington to meet US President Barack Obama on Friday.

Party leaders met on Tuesday for a final round of talks which ended without agreement on a new government

Greece is set to go to the polls again after days of coalition talks failed to produce agreement on a new government, says the leader of the Socialist Pasok party, Evangelos Venizelos.

A final round of talks on Tuesday morning broke up without a deal.

In elections on 6 May, a majority of Greek voters backed parties opposed to austerity plans demanded by the EU and IMF in return for two bailouts.

The Greek president will appoint a caretaker government on Wednesday.

President Karolos Papoulias will meet all political leaders at 13:00 local time (10:00 GMT) on Wednesday to put in place an interim government until the new vote, which is expected to take place on 10 or 17 June.

“Unfortunately, the country is heading again toward elections,” Mr Venizelos told reporters after the talks on Tuesday.

The euro fell sharply on the news, tumbling from $1.2842 to $1.2771 shortly after 13:15 GMT – its lowest value since 18 January.

Greek shares also fell before recovering slightly.

The leader of the right-wing Independent Greeks Party, Panos Kammenos, said: “The pro-bailout parties would prefer a government which will further torment the Greek nation, rather than finding a solution. They have offered a proposal that is too rigid for me to accept”.

Euro exit?

European leaders say that they will cut off funding for Greece if it rejects the bailout agreed in March.

This would mean effective bankruptcy for Greece and its all but certain exit from the European single currency, analysts say.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble again ruled out amending the bailout agreement.

“The people in Greece must know that what we have agreed for Greece and have set in train is an entirely unusual effort,” he said after talks in Brussels on Tuesday.

Polls suggest the leftist Syriza bloc, which came second in the 6 May vote and rejects all further cutbacks, could become the largest party after a new election.

Syriza wants to renegotiate the bailout package but also wants to keep Greece in the euro.

Greece must also decide whether to redeem an outstanding bond worth 436m euros ($558.67 million) which matures on Tuesday.

A Greek official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press that Athens would pay off the debt on schedule, thereby avoiding a default.

The chairman of the eurozone group of finance minister, Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg, said on Monday he wanted Greece to remain in the single currency but warned that Athens must keep to its commitments.

Pasok and New Democracy, which signed up to the bailouts and had previously dominated Greek politics for decades, saw their combined share of the vote drop from about 77% to about 33% on 6 May.

Americans have been told for decades that we are running out of oil. In his recent energy address President Obama said that we have 2% of the world’s oil reserves.  However in testimony given before the House Science Subcommittee on Energy and Environment on Thursday,Anu K. Mittal, the Government Accountability Office’s  director of Natural Resources and Environment, revealed that in one area in the west there as much oil as the rest of the world’s reserves combined. The Green River Formation, where Colorado, Utah and Wyoming come together, there are more than a trillion and a half barrels of recoverable crude oil. There is a problem, three-quarters of the reserves are on Federally controlled land making access problematic.

Falkland Islands are a British Overseas Territory

In the ongoing push by Argentine President Cristina Kirshner’s attempts to take control of the Falkland Islands, a British Overseas Territory, an Argentinian hockey player was dropped from Argentina’s final warm up event for the Olympics, and may be dropped from the Olympics altogether.

The hockey player, Fernando Zylberberg, was filmed in a state-run television advertisement running past symbolic landmarks on the Falklands and exercising on the steps of a Falklands war memorial to British soldiers. The International Olympic Committee and UK government condemned the desecration of the memorial, while Kirshner’s Argentinian government continues to air the ad.

Argentina continues to push the Falklands agenda, but at the end of the day, under United Nations self-determination rules, the Falkland Islands remain British as per the wishes of the islanders. President Kirshner needs to focus on the Argentinian homeland where all is not well, instead of attempting to move that focus to the Falklands which, after all, was the way the war started there in 1982 – and ended – obviously – not favorably for Argentina.

An announcement from Rep. Ron Paul indicates that the Republican presidential candidate will no longer actively campaign for the GOP nomination, but will continue to work to secure delegates at upcoming Republican state conventions.

“Moving forward, however, we will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted,” said Paul, in a statement released Monday afternoon. “Doing so with any hope of success would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have.”

As of April 1, Paul’s campaign had $1.8 million cash on hand.

But the longtime congressman from Texas, who’s making his third bid for the White House, says he’ll continue to try and secure delegates to the Republican convention in Tampa, Florida in late August.

“Our campaign will continue to work in the state convention process. We will continue to take leadership positions, win delegates, and carry a strong message to the Republican National Convention that Liberty is the way of the future,” adds Paul, in his statement.

As of April 1, Paul’s campaign had $1.8 million cash on hand.

With former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich having suspended their campaigns, Paul is the last remaining major candidate still standing against former Massachusetts Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

According to the most recent CNN estimate, Romney has secured 945 delegates, compared 286 for Santorum, 145 for Gingrich and 99 for Paul. One-thousand, one-hundred and forty-four delegates are needed to clinch the nomination.

Last Wednesday Paul told CNN that he doesn’t foresee lending his support to Romney any time soon, and that he’s staying in the race to impact the party’s agenda. He added that to reconcile his differences with Romney would, at this point, be “pretty hard.”

“It certainly isn’t for the reason of disrupting the convention,” said Paul, of his push for delegates at state party conventions. “I’m in it for very precise reasons: to maximize our efforts to get as many delegates as we can. I’m still a candidate, and to promote something that is very, very important, that is a change in the direction for the Republican Party.”

Irish vote in national referendum on EU treaty on May 31.

Laboring under an income tax rate of 48 percent, Irish citizens also have to pay an additional 4 percent Social Security tax and capital gains in Ireland are 25 to 30 percent – and that’s just a sampling of how the Irish government has been trying to bridge a big fiscal gap in the financial crisis.

Ireland is putting the EU austerity agreement to a national vote on May 31. This treaty is designed to control nations’ deficits and longer term debt, but the EU treaty ignores the need to stimulate growth.

If the Irish reject the treaty, and with Francois Hollande’s victory as France’s President, and the failure of Greece to form a coalition government supporting austerity, there will be a seismic shift in the Eurozone from less cutting to more government spending.

Where will German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Europe be then?

Muslim Brotherhood Presidential candidate Mohammed Mursi.

Egypt’s presidential elections are later this month.

There has been infighting and violence, but above all fear in the run up to the election of Egypt’s first post-Mubarak leader. The fear? That Egypt’s status of a moderate Arab country will turn to that of a radical Islamic state.

The top presidential candidate for the Muslim Brotherhood is fueling that fire, Mohammed Mursi is calling for a Constitution based on the Koran and Sharia law. Mursi recently said at Cairo University that the Koran is their Constitution, the Prophet their leader , Jihad their path and death in the name of Allah their goal.

It this the new face of democracy in the Middle East? Time will tell.

Can religious speech be stopped simply because the police say so? That’s the question that the courts will decide in the case of a Buffalo, New York man who was handing out religious literature at an open air festival. Gregory Owen was ordered by police to stop his activities saying that if he continued he would be arrested. When Owen asked what law was being broken the officers informed him that the Buffalo Police Department is the law and that he was to leave the area. Owen is being represented by the Alliance Defense Fund, a public interest law firm. Nate Kellum who is handling the case says, ”people of faith “shouldn’t be threatened with arrest for peacefully expressing their beliefs.”

Gulf leaders gathered in Riyadh on Monday to discuss developing their six-nation council into a union, a Saudi proposal likely to start with the kingdom and unrest-hit Bahrain.

Markets fell and bond yields rose on Monday morning prior to a meeting of eurozone finance ministers that will focus on the Greek political chaos and fears over the health of Spain’s banking sector.