LONDON (CNNMoney.com) -- Dealmakers, investors and home owners in the United States are facing a grim summer as conditions for borrowers get worse.

      Until recently, there has been a seemingly unlimited supply of cheap money to fuel leveraged buyouts and other takeovers. There was also an easy flow of mortgage money available before the housing market turned south and the crisis erupted in subprime mortgages made to borrowers with poor credit.

      But now investors are showing a greater disdain for risky debt - and fears about a looming credit crunch have shaken investor confidence worldwide. The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 311 points Thursday - its second-worst day of the year - and sent global stock markets reeling. The Dow opened lower Friday as well but later stabilized and was little changed in mid-morning.

      Besides triggering a global stock selloff, the jitters are casting a shadow on the buyout boom and could slow down everything from private equity deals to corporate restructuring plans.

      The housing market, meanwhile, is still struggling to find a bottom. The subprime meltdown started the worries in credit markets - and the extent of the problems in the subprime mortgage market remains uncertain.

      "The ultimate outcome of the decline in mortgage credit quality is not wholly predictable," Moody's Economy.com said in a July 26 report. While there are efforts being made to forestall the surge in foreclosures, "the downside risks outweigh the positives," the report said.

      Credit markets have been roiled as investors have begun shying away from risk, demanding better terms on corporate bonds and loans, meaning the old days of cheap, easy money for corporations may be past.

      "This is part of a process of removing liquidity and increasing the expected returns required of people to tolerate risk," Charles Diebel, an analyst at Nomura International, said about the turbulence in the market.

      The party is over, but nobody wants to stick around and help clean up this mess.

      NEW YORK (Reuters) - "U.S. oil prices jumped $2 to near $77 a barrel on Friday as supply concerns and signs of U.S. economic growth helped counter worries about falling stock markets.

      U.S. oil traded up $1.97 at $76.92 a barrel by 1806 GMT, while benchmark London Brent crude rose $1.20 to $76.38 a barrel, after ending $1.14 lower on Thursday.

      U.S. gross domestic product rose at a 3.4 percent annual rate -- the fastest since 4.8 percent in the first quarter of 2006 -- after growing at a downwardly revised 0.6 percent pace in the first quarter, the Commerce Department said on Friday.

      "This morning's GDP figure seems to have instilled renewed confidence in the market that was somewhat shaken yesterday," said Mike Fitzpatrick, vice president at MF Global.

      Crude fell on Thursday as more signs of deterioration in the U.S. housing market and problems in financing corporate takeovers sent stock markets lower, stirring concerns about energy demand growth.

      U.S. stocks slid again on Friday, sending the benchmark S&P 500 index down more than 1 percent as the concerns persisted.

      Oil has surged over the past month to near record highs over $78 as supply concerns helped draw investor interest.

      Government inventory data on Wednesday showed a third straight decline in U.S. crude stocks, and analysts said output curbs by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries would ensure a continuing decline through the third quarter.

      Wales, U.K. (BBC) - "Heavy rain is forecast for Saturday night and Sunday, bringing the risk of more flooding in England and Wales.

      Gloucestershire Police have said anyone caught damaging water containers or causing public disorder at water points could expect a custodial sentence.

      Residents have been warned not to use water bowsers with broken seals after someone urinated into one of them.

      Around 130,000 homes in Gloucestershire are still without running water and the situation is likely to last for days.

Rain warning

      Gloucestershire Police said people causing problems would be dealt with "robustly", but Chief Constable Tim Brain added there had been few reports of such incidents.

      Mr Brain said six million litres of bottled and bulk water had been supplied to Gloucestershire on Thursday and efforts were being made to step up the number of times the bowsers were refilled to four a day.

      Heavy rain is forecast for south Wales and central and southern England on Saturday night and Sunday morning.

      But Mr Brain said it was unlikely to cause the same level of flooding as last week.

      Water firm Severn Trent will start supplying water from its flooded Mythe plant near Tewkesbury on Tuesday but it will not be safe to drink..."

      NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Stocks plummeted on Thursday, with the Dow industrials tumbling more than 300 points, on signs of further weakness in the housing market and deteriorating conditions for corporate buyouts.

      The S&P shed about $300 billion in market value in the worst single session since the February 27 global market sell-off, with surprisingly weak earnings reports also weighing on stocks. Even with the sharp decline, the Dow and S&P 500 are within 5 percent of their respective record highs.

      A drop in quarterly profit at Exxon Mobil Corp., helped wipe out more than $16 billion in market value of the world's largest publicly traded company.

      The daily drumbeat of bad news on housing on Thursday came from two of the largest home builders, as D.R. Horton Inc and Beazer Homes posted quarterly losses.

      Financial shares took a beating on growing evidence that problems in the subprime mortgage market are spreading, making financing the corporate buyouts that drove the market's spring rally more difficult.

      "It was easy credit that helped fuel stock prices," said Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak & Co. in New York. Worsening credit conditions means "less liquidity for private equity, stock buybacks, business expansion, consumer spending, global growth."

      The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 311.50 points, or 2.26 percent, to close at 13,473.57. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 35.43 points, or 2.33 percent, at 1,482.66. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 48.83 points, or 1.84 percent, at 2,599.34.

      Like the S&P, the Dow suffered its worst one-day percentage loss since February 27. In late morning, the NYSE imposed trading curbs as losses mounted to restrict large-block sales when a stock is falling. The Dow had tumbled more than 400 points by the afternoon.

      It's getting really ugly.  Don't look kids.

      SINGAPORE (Reuters) - "Oil rose on Friday, holding firm above $75 a barrel as traders bet that fears of tight summer supplies would offset a fresh wave of risk aversion that struck U.S. equities and dragged oil down a day ago.

      London Brent crude gained 41 cents to $75.59 a barrel by 0340 GMT, after ending $1.14 lower on Thursday. U.S. crude rose 43 cents to $75.38, after a loss of 93 cents the previous day, when it rallied more than $1 midsession to trade at a premium to Brent.

      Traders saw an opportunity to buy after Thursday's dip, felt across commodity markets, which came as weak U.S. housing data revived worries about the economy of the world's biggest oil consumer and sparked a flight from risky assets.

      "The upward movement again shows the market is tight on supply because of the peak demand period," said Gerard Burg, an oil and gas analyst from National Australia Bank.

      Oil's pick up came despite a fall in Asian shares on Friday, which tracked losses on Wall Street where the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial index fell 2.3 percent in its worst drop since the last global sell-off in late February.

      Despite concerns of the potential for weaker U.S. demand, government inventory data on Wednesday showed a third-straight draw in U.S. crude stocks, including a 1.4 million-barrel fall at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery point for U.S. oil futures.

      The drop for the ninth-straight week at Cushing helped boost U.S. crude prices rally to a premium over Brent on Thursday for the first time since February, before the market pull-back.

      Sentiment over global tight supply prevailed as OPEC's oil output curbs could ensure a continuing decline in U.S. crude stocks through the third quarter, analysts said.

      WASHINGTON (Reuters) - "More U.S. or international sanctions will not persuade Iran to back down on its nuclear program and could lead to "confrontation" with the West, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in an interview published on Thursday.

      Speaking this week to National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" program, Mottaki dismissed two sets of U.N. sanctions imposed on Iran since December and said tougher penalties would not work.

      "In today's world, the instrument of sanctions is no longer effective," he said according to a report on the NPR Web site which was to be broadcast by the network later on Thursday.

      U.S. officials and experts have insisted for some time that U.S. and U.N. sanctions are having a significant effect on Tehran, especially on its ability to access the international financial system.

      A third U.N. sanctions resolution is under discussion by the United States, other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- China, Britain, France and Russia -- and Germany.

      Mottaki told NPR the new resolution would not force Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program, which the United States and its allies say is aimed at fueling nuclear weapons but Tehran insists is intended to produce electricity.

      "It will be the start of a confrontation," he said.

      Canada (Gander Beacon) - "Black Tuesday — Oct. 29, 1929. That’s the date identified as the start of the Great Depression. It swept across North America, Europe and affected virtually every country on the planet.

      While it was a period of intense hardship many agree it didn’t have the same devastating affect on much of Newfoundland, particularly rural areas, as it did in the industrial, farming and urban centres of what was then Canada.

      Some might argue that was because the people of Newfoundland and Labrador had little to begin with.

      That may have been true, but it was also due to the fact people in this province knew how to be self-sufficient.

      Fish was readily available, and many people grew their own vegetables and took advantage of what nature had to offer, whether it was berries, a brace of rabbits or a caribou.

      If would be a different story if the depression were to happen today. It’s a simple fact that much of the developed world has lost touch with its food supply and agriculture in general.

      Food is essential for life. But food has become more than a component of survival. It has become a commodity, and, in some cases, a luxury.

      The sad fact is few people know how food is grown, harvested and processed. And with that lack of knowledge people have literally lost control over the food they eat.
     
      And it’s a situation that is not being addressed.

      Federation of Agriculture President Merv Wiseman said this province only produces 1.5 per cent of the red meat consumed here, and only has the capacity to produce about 10 per cent of the vegetables.

      The bottom line is this province is not capable of being self-sufficient.

      So what’s the problem? The supermarket shelves are full, Newfoundland and Labrador is part of a developed nation, and it’s unlikely another Great Depression will hit anytime soon.

      Unfortunately, another depression is the least of the concern when it comes to food.

      With the increasing amount of imported foods from other countries, there are issues of food safety and security. From last year’s E-coli tainted spinach to raspberries from Guatemala linked to cyclosporiasis outbreaks in Ontario in1998, there is the risk of bacterial contamination leading to food-borne illness.

      And few people have given much thought to the economic impact of the latest craze — biofuels. In a world increasingly obsessed with climate change these fuels — touted as the clean alternative to fossil fuels — have garnered a lot of attention from governments.

      Currently, the most common biofuel is ethanol — an alcohol fuel derived from sugars and starch found in plants such as corn, soybeans and wheat. The same grains used to feed humans and livestock.

      What happens when farmers, trying to get a better price for their grains sell more of their harvest to the companies producing biofuels? There’s less for human and livestock consumption.

      What happens when more farmers see the economic benefits of planting those types of crops to get those higher dividends? They grow less of other food crops.

      Under the basic rule of supply and demand that means food prices climb.

     Go to your cupboard and look at the labels. How much of it contains ingredients derived from corn or other grains that are used to produce biofuels?

      And you think a T-bone steak is expensive now. How much will it cost when livestock feed prices skyrocket?

      In the meantime across this province, good agricultural land is being swallowed up by development. Whether it is urban sprawl, mining or tourism, good arable land is being lost.

      Agriculture — including food safety and security — is simply not getting the attention it deserves. Society and government seem apathetic towards it.
Look at the last provincial budget. Less than $10 million was allocated to an agriculture industry worth hundreds of millions to the provincial economy.

     The provincial government is constantly talking about sustainable development, bolstering the rural areas of the province, being the masters of its own house, etc.

     Premier Williams wants the province to become an energy warehouse. It will all be laid out in the much-anticipated Energy Plan.

     Oil and gas, hydroelectricity, mining — these are all very important elements of the provincial economy.

     But shouldn’t food and agriculture be as well?

     So where’s the province’s agricultural plan? Where’s the plan to guarantee food safety and security? What’s the plan if there is a food shortage?

     Are the people of the province supposed to pay a visit to the tourists and celebrities camped out at the local resort — that was built on good agricultural land — to ask for the scraps form their table?

     Here is an industry vital to the people and economy of this province and it doesn’t even have its own government department. Instead it is tucked away in the Department of Natural Resources alongside mining and oil and gas.

     How can one minister effectively oversee government’s largest portfolio and give more than lip service to the province’s agricultural needs.

     That is not a criticism of Natural Resources Minister Kathy Dunderdale; it’s a criticism of governments past and present. Each and every elected official in this province should take agriculture and feeding people safely very seriously.

     This is an issue that needs more action than a Sustainability Act or a partisan Land Use Authority.

     Oil and gas, mining and tourism dollars might help fill the provincial coffers but they won’t do much to fill an empty belly."

      The main article may be from Canada, but in this instance our fates are inexorably linked; and this article hits many key points right on the head.

      TEHRAN (Reuters) - "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday Tehran would never yield to international pressure to suspend its nuclear program.

      "Iran will never abandon its peaceful (nuclear) work. Our nuclear work is legal and why should we stop it?" Ahmadinejad told state television.

      The United States and other Western powers suspect Iran has a secret program to build nuclear weapons. The oil-producing Islamic Republic says its nuclear program is only for generation of electricity for the benefit of its economy.

      Two sets of U.N. sanctions have been imposed on Iran for defying Security Council resolutions demanding it suspend all nuclear fuel activity.

      Ahmadinejad said any further U.N. resolutions would not prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear technology.

      "Let's say they issue resolution number 300 ... what will happen? It should be remembered that Iran is obtaining nuclear technology. They have to eventually accept that," he said.

      In an attempt to avert tougher sanctions, Tehran has agreed to increase cooperation with the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to clarify the scope of its atomic work.

      Peru (BBC) - "At least 70 children have died during a spell of freezing weather in the Andean regions of Peru, officials have said.

      The children, all under five years old, died of pneumonia and other respiratory illnesses over the past three months.

      They lived in rural areas at high altitude, where temperatures in some cases are reported to have plummeted to as low as -20C (-4F).

      Peruvian Health Minister Carlos Vallejos said almost 2,000 medics had been deployed in the affected areas.

      He told the BBC he expected the situation to get worse before it improves.

      The National Civil Defence Institute (Indeci) has launched a campaign to provide clothing and shelter to the worst affected areas.

      The institute's General Luis Salomino said he had collected 300 metric tons of clothes and other supplies from businesses, individuals and government departments in the capital, Lima.

      Forecasters in Peru are predicting the cold spell will continue until September.

      Even low-lying jungle regions are facing unusually cold weather, with temperatures dropping to 10C (50F).

      Many adults have also died during the harsh winter, and thousands of people are suffering from pneumonia and other respiratory infections..."

33 deaths in Romania, 5 in Greece as some areas top 110 degrees

      New York (MSNBC) - "U.S. stocks reached record levels last week. Earnings season is under way, with many expecting a modest rise in corporate profits. Unemployment is very low. So far problems with housing haven't infected the rest of the economy, which seems poised to bounce back from slow growth in the first quarter.

      So what is there to worry about? Plenty. No matter how wonderful things look, the good times won't last forever. Even as most market observers remain bullish, we asked them what could derail this bull market. Stocks could keep setting records for months or even years, but it pays for investors to know what dangers are lurking out there. This Five for the Money column lists the five biggest threats to the stock market rally.

Earnings
      Will any stocks and sectors step up to the plate to push the market even higher? Investors are closely watching corporate earnings for clues.

      Earnings season began this month and so far it's not clear whether corporate profits will keep pace with expectations. Expect a lot of volatility in the market as big players surprise investors with good or bad news. David Scott, chief investment officer of the Chase Large Cap Growth Fund, expects less support for the rally from financial and health-care stocks. So he's watching tech stocks closely. "They're a large enough part of the market that they can provide solid leadership," Scott says. Disappointments from big tech firms or key players in other sectors could scare the bulls in a big way.

Consumer spending
      Consumers drive the U.S. economy, and so far they've held up well despite housing problems and high gas prices. Perhaps that's because unemployment is low — at 4.5% in June.

      What are the risks for consumer spending? Charles Dumas of Lombard Street Research believes the U.S. economy is growing much more slowly than many on Wall Street think. One reason is weakening consumer spending. "Gas prices are really knocking the stuffing out of people's buying power," he says.

      Some think Americans, who save very little and borrow a lot, are about to be hit by the realization that they need to cut up the credit cards. "We've been addicted to spending and borrowing, and we need to stop that," says Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital.

      Watch closely for data later this summer on the back-to-school season, which is an important time for retailers. "If this back-to-school season is bad, it could really highlight some weakness in the consumer," says Neil Cataldi of Susquehanna Financial Group. High energy prices might also catch up to consumers later this year, if heating costs rise as the weather turns colder.

Inflation
      "Inflation is still a concern out there," says Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at Standard & Poor's. Several factors could push inflation higher, including rapid global growth, the tightness in the job market, or higher commodity prices. For example, S&P forecasts oil, now about $75 per barrel, could be headed above $80.

      Why are rising prices such a big deal? "The Fed has said, 'We will stop at nothing to defeat inflation,'" says Richard Sparks of Schaeffer's Investment Research. The faster prices rise, the more likely that Federal Reserve policymakers could decide to hike interest rates later this year. That would cool off the economy. The biggest worry is that the Fed is forced to raise rates while the economy is still growing only slowly, forcing the economy into a recession.

Subprime and housing
      O.K., here's the really scary one. Many on Wall Street believe the problem with subprime mortgages is limited and under control. They may be right, but it's impossible for anyone to predict how many debtors will ultimately default on their obligations. Many home buyers used creative financing to buy expensive houses in the years of booming home prices. "It's a tough one to get a handle on because we're not really sure what's truly at risk," Scott says. "It could spring on us suddenly."

      What other forms of risky credit threaten debt markets beyond subprime? Bill Larkin, portfolio manager of fixed income at Cabot Money Management, believes he's already seeing signs that subprime worries are spreading, rocking other areas of the credit market. He sees a "flight to quality," with many bond investors fleeing not just subprime but anything with a hint of risk.

      If the trend accelerates, it becomes even tougher for home buyers to get mortgages, pushing home prices lower. It also becomes more expensive for companies and hedge funds to borrow. That could cut off the flow of money into stock buybacks, mergers, and acquisitions, especially the private equity buyouts that have fueled the bull market. "Just like raising rates, this acts as an economic brake," Larkin says.

      "People are starting to get nervous," Larkin adds, but it takes a while for these trends to show up. "It doesn't just — boom — happen." Are there lots of other forms of bad debt out there? Are lenders — as Larkin jokes, "using their garage door as collateral?" No one knows. "That's where the risk is," he says. "There's not a lot of transparency here."

      Pimco bond guru Bill Gross has warned investors not to think subprime is only a problem for a few hedge funds or investment banks. The problem affects millions of home buyers who financed their houses with cheap money but are now seeing mortgage payments rise along with defaults. Gross wrote in his July investment outlook, "This problem — aided and abetted by Wall Street — ultimately resides in America's heartland, with millions and millions of overpriced homes and asset-backed collateral with a different address — Main Street."

Shiny happy investors
      As markets rise, the bulls' success may be their biggest weakness. Too much optimism can derail a rally as quickly as too much gloom and doom.

      It's a cliché on Wall Street that markets like to climb a "wall of worry." The more doubts about a rally, the more headwinds it faces on the way up, the more likely a bull market has a firm foundation. "We like to see some pessimism in the market," Schaeffer's Sparks says. Concerns about interest rates, terrorism, gas prices, or inflation? "Those are the bricks in the wall of worry."

      Despite the index's record-breaking pace recently, experts like Sparks still see signs of skepticism. To gauge this, investors can look at the amount of short-selling—trades betting stock prices will fall — or ratios between puts and calls.

      Bailout time?  If you're asking that question now you've waited too long.

      YREKA, Calif. (Fox) — "Fire managers worried Tuesday that lightning could spark more blazes in the West, while investigators tried to determine why a helicopter crashed while delivering water to firefighters in the Klamath National Forest, killing the pilot.

      The helicopter went down Monday in rugged mountains about 12 miles southeast of Happy Camp, said Duane Lyon, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman. It had been carrying a large water container to refill backpacks for firefighters on the ground, and several firefighters saw it crash.

      The pilot, the only person on board, was under contract with the Forest Service, Lyon said.

      More than 1,100 fire crews were battling the cluster of about 30 lightning-sparked fires covering 14 square miles near the Oregon state line. The fires started July 10 and had threatened up to 550 homes near the town of Happy Camp.

      Fire crews have been wrestling with dozens of huge wildfires across the West, primarily in Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Utah, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

      Fire managers worried Tuesday that dry lightning storms in some of those states could start more blazes, though the systems also were expected to bring rain, the agency said.

      "It's great to have rain, but there's always the possibility of a downdraft and erratic winds. There's a high concern over additional lightning strikes," said Ricardo Zuniga, a fire information officer in Utah, where a blaze has charred more than 33 square miles and forced the evacuation of several communities.

      Fire lines built along the east side of the Utah blaze held during the night, protecting the town of Fountain Green, home of about 1,000 people about 90 miles south of Salt Lake City.

      "We didn't have any big advances on the fire anywhere," fire information officer Terry McDonald said Tuesday. Fountain Green was not evacuated, but residents were told to leave the small towns of Oaker Hills, Indian Ridge, Elk Ridge, Indianola and Holiday Oaks, officials said.

      In southwestern Utah, a fire in and around backcountry areas of Zion National Park was 80 percent contained after burning 14 square miles.

      Mandatory evacuation orders remained in effect for tiny Jarbidge, Nev., within a mile of a blaze that had blackened more than 880 square miles on the Idaho-Nevada line, fire information officer Bill Watt said. While roughly 90 percent of the fire was in Idaho, the most active part was in Nevada and was 15 percent contained, he said..."

      Kenya (National Geographic) - "The tremors began on July 12, so faint that they were barely noticed. A week later, a couple of good jolts sent people fleeing their offices in downtown Nairobi. Then the tremors were gone. Scientists are still unsure about what exactly caused this "earthquake swarm"—a cluster of relatively mild shakes spaced out over several days in Kenya and Tanzania. The quakes—one of which reached magnitude 5.9—caused little damage but spread fear that a big quake was imminent.

      Was it fault activity along the Rift Valley, where the African tectonic plate is stretching? Or was it Ol Doinyo Lengai, a Tanzanian volcano that sits near the swarm's epicenter?

"Mountain of God" Takes the Heat

      So far, government officials have pushed the theory that rumbling in Ol Doinyo Lengai—whose name means "Mountain of God" in Masai, was to blame for the tremors.

      Fears that a massive eruption was near triggered several hundred people to evacuate its slopes, and the Tanzanian government warned tourists to stay away.

      Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua reported that the 9,470-feet (2,886-meters) tall volcano had erupted Friday and that the eruption had eased the pressure that caused the swarm of at least a dozen mini-quakes.

      Scientists at Dar es Salaam University in Tanzania said there was indeed evidence of some sort of eruption at the volcano and that they would climb the mountain to investigate.

      The mountain has a history of playing tricks on people. Tremors can loosen rocks that create dust as they tumble down the side, resembling lava flows leaving a trail of ash and steam down the mountain.

      In March 2006 such a scare caused an evacuation, when smoke from a grass fire on the slope created the appearance of an eruption, said Celia Nyamweru, an anthropology professor at St. Lawrence University in New York.

Rift Valley Rumblings

      TOKYO (Reuters) - "The dollar fell to a two-month low against the yen and hovered near a record low against the euro on Tuesday as worries about U.S. subprime mortgage woes hurting the credit market and the economy still weighed.

      Traders said market sentiment remained bearish for the dollar, and players were awaiting U.S. economic data later in the week for clues on whether the problems in the housing sector were spreading to broader economic activity.

      Concerns about a credit market crunch and wider fallout from the subprime mortgage troubles prompted some investors to unwind yen carry trades, in which the low-yielding yen is sold to invest in higher-yielding currencies and assets, traders said.

      "The dollar selling is driven by subprime mortgage concerns while the yen's rise is due to some unwinding of carry trades," said Shogo Nagaya, a forex manager at Nomura Securities.

      "But the basic trend of investors favoring high-yielding currencies and those with clear prospects of rising interest rates remains intact," Nagaya said.

      Earlier in the session, sterling rose to a fresh 26-year high against the dollar while the Australian dollar hit an 18-year peak and the New Zealand dollar scaled its strongest level since it was floated in 1985.

      The dollar fell 0.39 percent to 120.57 yen <JPY=>, a two-month low.

      The euro inched up 0.14 percent to $1.3829 <EUR=>, nearing a record high of $1.3846 struck on Monday on electronic trading platform EBS..."

      Same crap, different day.

      United Kingdom (BBC) - "The Chinese and Singapore governments have become key investors in Barclays, helping the UK firm to raise its offer for the Dutch bank ABN Amro.

      The China Development Bank (CDB) and Temasek, the investment arm of the Singaporean government, have invested £2.4bn (3.6bn euros) in Barclays.

      And they will invest a further £6.5bn if the ABN takeover goes through.

      Barclays has said it will now pay £45.4bn (67.5bn euros) in cash and shares for the Dutch bank.

Business opportunity

      A group led by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is also vying for ABN and its current offer is higher than Barclays' revised bid.

      Shares in Barclays -rose after details of the Asian tie-ups emerged, closing 3% higher at 735 pence.

      The BBC's Business Editor Robert Peston revealed on Sunday that the Asian deals were being negotiated.

      He said that Barclays would be hoping that its new relationship with the CDB would yield it hundreds of millions of pounds in extra profits from doing new business in the Chinese economy.

      If Barclays acquires ABN, the Chinese state would emerge with a shareholding of 7.7% in the enlarged group.

      It has pledged not to raise its stake to more then 9.9% of the group over the next three years.

      A smaller stake of about 3% would be taken by Temasek - which is owned by the Singapore government but says all investment decisions are made independently.

      The company, whose chief executive is the wife of Singapore's prime minister, has about $80bn under management.

      CDB is state-owned, though is seen by analysts as one of the country's most commercial institutions, financing industries including petrochemicals and railways..."

      LONDON (Fox) — "Emergency workers rescued hundreds of trapped people Monday as water swallowed swaths of central England in the worst flooding to hit the country for 60 years.

      Officials said some rivers were still rising, with the western section of the rain-swollen River Thames on the verge of bursting its banks.

      Roads and parking lots were submerged, trains suspended, buses canceled. Hundreds of thousands of people were without electricity or drinking water, and farmers saw their summer crops destroyed.

      Torrential rains have plagued Britain over the past month — nearly 5 inches fell in some areas on Friday alone — and more downpours were predicted this week.

      "This emergency is far from over and further flooding is extremely likely," Environment Secretary Hilary Benn told lawmakers in the House of Commons.

      On the outskirts of Oxford, 60 miles west of London, about 50 elderly people were evacuated to a stadium from a retirement community overlooking the swollen River Ock.

      "People look at me and say I look fine, but inside I'm all churned up," said Sylvia Williams, a 69-year-old widow among the evacuees.

      The stadium was stocked with blankets, food and bedding for up to 1,500 people in case the Thames burst its banks. Flood defenses in the center of the town — home to the renowned 800-year-old university — were holding so far, but Thames water levels were not expected to peak until midnight.

      The worst-hit areas Monday were farther west, where cars were submerged and streets turned into canals. Thousands of people were forced to leave their homes and businesses, as rescue workers in helicopters and dinghies scooped stranded residents onto dry land.

      The Ministry of Defense said military helicopters rescued more than 120 people from the rising floodwaters, including 87 people trapped in a trailer park in Gloucestershire county, central England.

      Among the hardest hit areas was the medieval market town of Tewkesbury, 110 miles northwest of London, where the cathedral and a few blocks of nearby houses stood like an atoll in a vast stretch of muddy water that stood 5 feet deep in places.

      "It was just devastation — total chaos, cars floating past, rubbish, all kinds," said John King, a 68-year-old retired firefighter from Tewkesbury. "You just can't stop water of that power.

      He said he saw goldfish swimming in his driveway.

      Some residents lined up for free water at local grocery stores, while others took to canoes and small boats to ferry food and water to housebound residents.

      The last time Britain saw similar flooding was in 1947, according to the Environment Agency. No deaths or serious injuries have been reported in the current flooding.

      The Severn Trent Water company said at least 350,000 homes in Gloucestershire, in western England, were without water after flooding shut down a water treatment plant.

      The Ministry of Defense said water was being cleared after flooding at a nuclear weapons-manufacturing site at Burghfield, about 40 miles west of London. Officials said there was no risk of a radiation leak..."

      TOKYO (Reuters) - "The dollar fell to a record low against the euro on Monday and a six-week low against the yen, hurt by continuing worries about the U.S. subprime mortgage sector and some unwinding of yen carry trades.

      The yen seesawed, sliding broadly in early Asian trading and hitting record lows against the euro in a move that traders attributed to speculative buying of sterling against the yen.

      But the Japanese currency later rebounded to hit a six-week peak against the dollar of 120.80 yen on electronic trading platform EBS, the yen's highest level since early June.

      The yen extended its gains after rallying on Friday, when a fall in U.S. equities dampened investors' appetite for risk and prompted them to unwind some bets against the low-yielding currency.

      "It seems like there is some risk reduction taking place, I guess some unwinding of yen carry trades," said Yuji Matsuura, joint general manager for Aozora Bank's forex and derivatives trading group.

      "There was a strange move around 4 a.m. to 5 a.m. this morning," said Matsuura, referring to the yen's early morning fall. "But after that, the market has been persistently selling dollars and euros against the yen.

      Carry trades involve the selling of low-yielding currencies such as the yen to invest in higher-yielding currencies and assets.

      The euro stood at $1.3830 as of 0201 GMT, hovering near a record high of $1.3846 struck earlier on Monday on EBS.

      The Fed is still playing the Economic Limbo with the U.S. Dollar.  Apparently, it can go pretty low.

      SYDNEY (Reuters) - "Oil prices fell on Monday, on expectations of higher U.S. refinery production and after remarks by OPEC that it is ready to pump more oil if needed.

      London Brent crude currently seen as more representative of the world market, slid 36 cents to $77.28 a barrel by 0444 GMT, after easing 3 cents on Friday. U.S. crude for September traded 22 cents lower at $75.57.

      The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is concerned about the potential impact of near-record oil prices on the world's economy, but has seen little sign that growth has been hit by higher energy costs, the group's president said on Sunday.

      OPEC stands ready to pump more oil if needed, but it is not clear whether the group will need to boost output before the end of the year, OPEC President and United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Mohammed al-Hamli told Reuters in an interview on Sunday.

      But analysts said OPEC's comments are unlikely to have a lasting impact on oil prices as supply worries continue to loom.

      "We have seen those comments from OPEC for the last three years and it seems like these are merely attempts to reassure the market that supply will be available," said Gerard Burg, an oil and gas analyst at National Australia Bank.

      "These comments does not mean that there is going to be a change in OPEC policies or a move to increase supply soon."

      Despite supply concerns and surging oil prices, OPEC has yet to relax supply curbs in place since last November.

      BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- "A wildfire grew by an estimated 200 square miles in 24 hours, blackening grazing land Sunday as it threatened thousands of southern Idaho homes and facilities at an Air Force training range, fire officials said Sunday.

      Two large wildfires along the Nevada line combined Saturday to create the 800-square-mile blaze, which burned grass and brush and was less than a mile from a training range of Mountain Home Air Force Base.

      No one has been seriously hurt, but the homes of about 7,500 people in the sparsely populated region were threatened, said Chuck Dickson, a fire information officer.

      The wildfire was only about 5 percent contained, Dickson said, and mandatory evacuations remained in effect for the towns of Murphy Hot Springs, Idaho, and Jarbidge, Nevada.

      The fire was near Mountain Home's Saylor Creek range, which pilots use before heading to Iraq and Afghanistan. Dickson said tracking and radar facilities were at risk, but he was not sure what else was on the range.

      "When a fire moves as quickly as this one does, pushed by the wind, it creates a very hot heat front," Dickson said. "That will impact even steel structures quite easily."

      Officials with the base's security and fire departments on Sunday declined to comment about what type of facilities, if any, were at risk or how vulnerable they might be.

      Dickson said that ranches in the area also were threatened, that a lot of grazing area had been lost, and that cattle likely had died in the fast-moving blaze. He didn't have an estimate of how many cattle were on grazing allotments within the fire's perimeter.

      Dozens of other large fires were burning across the West on Sunday, primarily in Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Utah, according to the National Interagency Fire Center..."

      ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (Reuters) -- "The United Nations said on Saturday it had suspended a Moroccan military contingent from its peacekeeping mission in Cote d'Ivoire while it investigated allegations of widespread sexual abuse.

      "It means they don't participate in our operations," said Hamadoun Toure, spokesman for the U.N. mission in Cote d'Ivoire (ONUCI). "Those who are found guilty will be sent back home."

      The world body said the measure was in addition to a decision to confine the entire battalion of 734 soldiers to barracks.

      U.N. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Friday the investigation involved Moroccan soldiers having sex with a large number of underage girls in the West African country's northern rebel stronghold of Bouake.

      Toure said the allegations had come to light after the mission ran a campaign against sexual exploitation in which it asked local people to inform it about abuses. It then sent a team to carry out interviews and gather information.

      The Cote d'Ivoire mission numbers just over 9,000 uniformed personnel from more than 40 countries. Moroccans make up the bulk of the force in Bouake with some Bangladeshi police, Pakistani engineers and Ghanaian medical personnel.

      Before they just stood idly by while the country they were "peace-keeping" in massacred each other.  Now they're joining in the meyhem.  Useless Nations should really be dissolved; what a waste of time, resources and silly globalist ideals.

      NEPHI, Utah (AP) -- "A wildfire that may have been started by sparks from a flat tire raced across thousands of acres toward a small town Friday, a day after burning through a campground and motel and forcing rescues.

      With a highly skilled team on its way from Florida, 150 area firefighters were battling the 20-square-mile fire against a backdrop of extraordinary heat and drought, with no immediate relief predicted.

      "It only takes a cigarette or a match and this stuff will explode," said Fred Burns, owner of Burns Brothers Ranch RV Resort in Fountain Green, which was nearby but not affected.

      The fire was burning toward the tiny community of Indianola, and residents in at least two dozen homes were advised to be ready to leave.

      The wildfire began Thursday in a private campground in Salt Creek Canyon, 85 miles south of Salt Lake City. The campground was not a total loss, although a motel on site and some vehicles and trailers were burned, the U.S. Forest Service said.

      Emergency calls show that a motorist may have sparked the fire by riding on the rim of a flat tire on a highway that is an access route to the forest, Forest Service spokeswoman Loyal Clark said.

      Temperatures hit 100 degrees Friday in many spots. The National Weather Service has already recorded 10 days of 100 degrees or higher in Salt Lake City. The summer average is five days.

      Precipitation is more than 4.5 inches below normal. The Salt Lake area went 41 days without any measurable rain before a hundredth of an inch fell Tuesday.

      The nation's firefighting preparedness has moved to its highest level this week because of bone-dry conditions in the West and the number of fires.

      Almost half the 72 large fires burning nationally are in Nevada and Idaho. Two tiny towns on the states' shared border were evacuated Thursday.

      The 40 or so residents of Jarbidge, Nevada, were ordered to leave because of fears that a nearby 195-square-mile fire could spill into the steep, narrow canyon where the town is located.

      A 280-square-mile wildfire crept within a mile of Murphy Hot Springs, Idaho, on Friday, but so far none of the town's 50 homes has burned, fire managers said.

      Firefighters started sprinklers in the yards nearest the fire, said Brock Astle of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The mandatory evacuation order imposed Thursday won't be lifted until at least Friday evening, the sheriff's office said.

      Regular work schedules resumed Friday at the Idaho National Laboratory, where more than 700 workers had been asked to stay home the previous day because of a wildfire. No facilities at the nuclear research site were in danger.

      KNIPPA, Texas (AP) -- "Storms dumped more than a foot of rain on parts of Texas on Saturday, stranding more than 170 passengers on an Amtrak train for hours and forcing rescue crews elsewhere to pull at least 50 people to safety.

      Water covering the tracks in Knippa, about 75 miles west of San Antonio, stopped a westbound Amtrak train carrying 176 passengers around 9 a.m. CDT (10 a.m. ET).

      Buses were arrived around 7:30 p.m. to take passengers to El Paso. There they were to board another train, said Amtrak spokeswoman Vernae Graham.

      No serious injuries were reported in Texas' latest round of flooding, which closed many roads and forced evacuations.

      In southern Guadalupe County overnight, a possible tornado damaged four businesses and at least one house, said Sheriff's Department Cpl. John Batey.

      Parts of northern Uvalde and Medina counties got as much as 17 inches of rain between 10 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday, said Pat McDonald, a National Weather Service forecaster.

      Seco Creek overflowed, inundating the town of D'Hanis near San Antonio, said Medina County Sheriff Randy Brown. Many businesses were flooded with 3 to 4 feet of water.

      Boats, firetrucks and helicopters rescued stranded residents, but only one minor injury was reported, Brown said. A shelter was opened in nearby Hondo, but Brown said he didn't know how many residents would stay there.

      "The water is going down. Things are getting better," Brown said.

      In Bexar County, which contains San Antonio, rescuers had responded to more than two dozen calls for high-water rescue by Saturday afternoon, officials said. Campgrounds along the Medina River in Bandera County were being evacuated.