The head of Germany's second-largest bank, Commerzbank, Martin Blessing says Greece should declare itself insolvent and then restructure its debt.

BBC: Deadlock in the eurozone

Alone among the ten countries due to join the European Union next May, it had refused to declare itself officially in favour, preferring to let the people judge.

ECONOMIST: Baltic referendums

One alternative for China is to declare itself the buyer of last resort for gold, i.e. it will buy all that is offered for sale at their specified dollar price.

FORBES: Opium Wars Revisited: Will China Corner The Gold Market?

Stephen Pope, global equity strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald in London, says there are still a number of undetermined issues, including the pressure reading which is still short of the level that BP itself has said it needs to see to declare the well sound.

FORBES: Bottom-Fishers Still Leery Of BP Stock

This would enable the Bush administration to declare a kind of victory (for its latest strategy, if not for the war itself) and to begin drawing down the troop levels soon.

NPR: U.S. Troops Surge Toward an Exit in Iraq