The FDIC’s latest quarterly banking profile generally shows an industry nursing itself back to health. Total quarterly earnings of $21.6 billion compared to losses of $4.4 billion in the year-ago quarter. And the $40.3 billion that banks set aside for loan-losses is the lowest level since Q1 2008.

But the industry still has a long way to go, and one obvious statistic is that the total number of problem institutions hit a new high in Q2. When this starts coming down, that will be a reason to rejoice.

Sarkozy, who faces mass protests in coming days over his security stance and pension reform, has looked increasingly at odds with his troops since figures like Prime Minister Francois Fillon and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner voiced dissent.

The demolition of illegal camps and repatriation of Roma has drawn fire from the left-wing opposition, members of the Catholic church and rights groups including the United Nations human rights body.

“Somebody needs to send one great big message, bigger than the World Trade Center,” Cromitie, 44, of Newburgh, New York, told the informant, Shahed Hussain, 53, in an excerpt of a recording made while the two were returning from a Muslim conference in Philadelphia in November 2008.

American officials told US media outlets that the bizarre incident could have been an attempt to test what items could pass through airport security, in possible preparation for a future attack.

In the hours that followed the arrests, there were conflicting theories about whether the episode was a misunderstanding or a genuine threat.

There were also questions about how the men were able to fly to Amsterdam after US airport security official flagged bags belonging to at least one of them.

The idea of the draft has become an anachronism in the post-cold-war world, where security concerns have shifted, demanding smaller, professional militaries to deal with hot spots around the world and to combat terrorist threats. Most of the West long ago abandoned conscription.

But Germany’s history and a deep attachment to the draft by the conservative parties have until now meant clinging to conscription, even as it became largely symbolic. Few young men served, and those who did usually served just six months. The draft was instituted in 1956 to develop an army of so-called “citizens in uniform,” creating an armed force integrated with society, loyal to the civilian leadership and immune to the kind of elitist force that dominated state affairs during the years of the Weimar Republic and before.

Michael Enright, the 21-year-old accused of telling the driver to “consider this a checkpoint” before allegedly stabbing him last week, waived his right to be in court as his indictment was announced Monday. He was being held without bail in a psychiatric ward until an arraignment next month on charges of attempted murder and assault, both as hate crimes.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has faced mounting pressure over errors in its last major assessment of climate science in 2007.

The review commends the IPCC on the way it carried out previous assessments.

But the report recommends changes to the way the body is run and the way science is presented.

Critics have previously called on the UN panel’s chair, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, to resign. Responding to the report at a news conference in New York, Dr Pachauri said he wanted to stay to implement changes at the organisation.

Latest reports say four women and two men were killed in the incident, in the Devinska Nova Ves district, on the north-western outskirts of Bratislava.

Now his future may hang on whether he can strike one last bargain: trading what American officials believe is his vast insider’s knowledge of global criminal networks in exchange for not spending the rest of his life in a federal prison.

People are called to go out on the streets nationwide, with protests scheduled for September 4 in dozens of cities and towns across the country.

The protest is organized by 30 French civic and human rights organizations.

Representatives of both leftist and rightist parties are expected to participates, as well as people from France’s powerful trade unions. The protest will also be directed against Sarkozy’s overall reforms introduced in the country.

The organizations behind the planned protests are calling out against what they see as “xenophobia and pillory politics” of the French government and press for equality for all people.

In a clarification of a policy announced this year, mortgage giant Fannie Mae now says that applicants will need to come clean about any debts they’ve incurred since they submitted their mortgage application — or debts they never disclosed during the application. But a formal pre-closing credit report will not be mandatory to confirm their creditworthiness.