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The US investment bank said there is a danger Britain’s toxic mix of problems will come to a head as soon as next year, triggered by fears that Westminster may prove unable to restore fiscal credibility.

“Growing fears over a hung parliament would likely weigh on both the currency and gilt yields as it would represent something of a leap into the unknown, and would increase the probability that some of the rating agencies remove the UK’s AAA status,” said the report, written by the bank’s European investment team of Ronan Carr, Teun Draaisma, and Graham Secker.

“In an extreme situation a fiscal crisis could lead to some domestic capital flight, severe pound weakness and a sell-off in UK government bonds. The Bank of England may feel forced to hike rates to shore up confidence in monetary policy and stabilize the currency, threatening the fragile economic recovery,” they said.

Morgan Stanley said that such a chain of events could drive up yields on 10-year UK gilts by 150 basis points. This would raise borrowing costs to well over 5pc – the sort of level now confronting Greece, and far higher than costs for Italy, Mexico, or Brazil.

The missed deadline spells trouble for the White House’s promises to introduce an era of government openness, say advocates, who believe that releasing historical information enforces a key check on government behavior. They cite as an example the abuses by the Central Intelligence Agency during the Cold War, including domestic spying and assassinations of foreign officials, that were publicly outlined in a set of agency documents known as the “family jewels.’’

The documents in question – all more than 25 years old – were scheduled to be declassified on Dec. 31 under an order originally signed by President Bill Clinton and amended by President George W. Bush.

But now Obama finds himself in the awkward position of extending the secrecy, despite his repeated pledges of greater transparency, because his administration has been unable to prod spy agencies into conformance.

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The documents, dating from World War II to the early 1980s, cover the gamut of foreign relations, intelligence activities, and military operations – with the exception of nuclear weapons data, which remain protected by Congress. Limited to information generated by more than one agency, the records in question are held by the Central Intelligence Agency; the National Security Agency; the departments of Justice, State, Defense, and Energy; and other security and intelligence agencies.

None of the agencies involved responded to requests for comment, saying they could not discuss internal deliberations.

“They never want to give up their authority,’’ said Meredith Fuchs, general counsel at the National Security Archive, a research center at George Washington University that collects and publishes declassified information. “The national security bureaucracy is deeply entrenched and is not willing to give up some of the protections they feel they need for their documents.’’

The implant uses a camera mounted on spectacles to send wireless signals to nerves that control sight. The brain then decodes the image.

Peter Lane, 51, from Stretford, who began to lose his sight in his twenties, is one of 32 people taking part in an international trial.

The contract calls for the Iron Curtain with Darpa’s sniper-detection system, CROSSHAIRS. It detects and locates enemy shooters using radar and acoustic sensors, and is intended to work against Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs), missiles, bullets and mortar rounds. Iron Curtain itself is currently designed to deal with RPGs; the makers Artis LLC planning future developments to deal with more challenging threats.

Iron Curtain system detects and tracks the incoming rocket with a radar, which then cues an optical sensor — a smart camera, essentially. The optical sensor identifies and classifies the threat — pinpointing the location of the rocket with an accuracy of about half an inch — and selects an aim point.

Ninety-three percent of soybeans. Eighty percent of corn.

The seeds represent “probably the most revolutionary event in grain crops over the last 30 years,” said Geno Lowe, a Salisbury, Md., soybean farmer.

But for farmers such as Lowe, prices of the Monsanto-patented seeds have steadily increased, roughly doubling during the past decade, to about $50 for a 50-pound bag of soybean seed, according to seed dealers.

The revolution, and Monsanto’s dominant role in the nation’s agriculture, has not unfolded without complaint. Farmers have decried the price increases, and competitors say the company has ruthlessly stifled competition.

Now Monsanto — like IBM and Google — has drawn scrutiny from U.S. antitrust investigators, who under the Obama administration have looked more skeptically at the actions of dominant firms.

During the Bush administration, the Justice Department did not file a single case under antimonopoly laws regulating a dominant firm. But that stretch seems unlikely to continue.

This year, the Obama Justice Department tossed out the antitrust guidelines of its predecessor because they advocated “extreme hesitancy in the face of potential abuses by monopoly firms.”

“We must change course,” Christine Varney, the Obama administration’s chief antitrust enforcer, said at the time.

Of all the new scrutiny by Justice, the Monsanto investigation might have the highest stakes, dealing as it does with the food supply and one of the nation’s largest agricultural firms. It could also force the Obama administration, already under fire for the government’s expanded role in the economy, to explain how it distinguishes between normal rough-and-tumble competition and abusive monopolistic business practices.

Monsanto says it has done nothing wrong.

The National Media Council ordered the paper blocked by distributors without providing a reason, an executive at the paper in Dubai told Zawya Dow Jones.

The Sunday Times edition available in the U.A.E. on Nov. 29 featured a double-page spread graphic illustrating Dubai’s ruler Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum sinking in a sea of debt. The Times wasn’t given a reason for the block, or a timeframe when it will be lifted, the executive said.

The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 freighter aircraft was carrying “general cargo, such as electronics,” and “nothing of any sensitive nature,” said Simon Clarke, chief operating officer of Zimbabwe-based Avient Ltd.

China’s official Xinhua news agency said the plane was bound for Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, when it crashed Saturday morning in relatively good weather. Early reports indicated the tail of the three-engine jet may have struck the ground before the crash. A team of U.S. investigators, led by an expert on engines, was preparing to head to China in the next two to three days.

Mr. Clarke said the plane had entered Avient’s fleet only about a week before it crashed. But “the crew had all flown extensively on the type” of plane. “It remains very sketchy,” he said. “We are obviously working with the Zimbabwe and Chinese civil aviation authorities to ascertain what went wrong.”

Mr. Clarke said the seven-person crew included Americans and people of other nationalities. A U.S. Embassy spokesman said three Americans were killed and one was injured. Xinhua identified the injured crew members as nationals of the U.S., Indonesia, Belgium and Zimbabwe. The survivors were in stable condition in Shanghai hospitals Sunday.

Xinhua quoted Shanghai aviation authorities on Sunday as saying they had found the plane’s flight data recorder.

Shanghai television showed billows of black smoke rising high in the sky after the crash. Footage also showed the wrecked MD-11 fuselage lying in a wet field adjacent to the airport. Firefighters sprayed foam on the mangled wreckage. TV pictures showed a survivor, said to be an American co-pilot, on a hospital bed and breathing through a mask but alert enough to say “thank you.”

Avient, whose Web site says it was founded in 1993, has drawn scrutiny in the past because of accusations that it has supplied weapons to conflicts in Africa. A United Nations report in 2002 said Avient had been involved in illegal actitivies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The British government later investigated the charges but didn’t find evidence supporting them. The company has since been accused of other illicit activities by think-tanks that investigate conflicts around the world.

Mr. Clarke at Avient denied all accusations against the company. “We do not carry arms and ammunition,” he said.

Avient said on its Web site that it operated the MD-11 and that “preliminary information indicates that the accident occurred on takeoff.”

Mr. Clarke said the plane was a chartered freight flight carrying “general consumer goods such as electronics and clothes.” He said that, as with most cargo flights, the freight was arranged through brokers. He declined to name the company’s clients.

The aircraft’s tail struck the ground on takeoff, graphics shown on Shanghai television suggested. One illustration of the incident on local TV showed the plane striking a building shortly after takeoff. Xinhua said the plane hit lighting structures on the ground.

Local television and other local media said the accident closed runways at Shanghai Pudong International Airport and led to widespread flight delays.

The accident is the second fatal crash of a cargo plane on takeoff within six weeks. On Oct. 21, an aging Boeing 707 operated by Sudan Airways crashed on departure from Sharjah Airport in the United Arab Emirates. All six people onboard were killed. The cause of the accident remains unclear.