The end of Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko's era appears to be approaching, as thousands take to the streets in Minsk to protest against the country's economic crisis. The Internet-savvy demonstrators are finding ever-more-creative ways to voice dissent, but Lukashenko is responding with violence.

This story was posted over at spiegel.de yesterday...and is Roy Stephens first offering of the day. The link is here.

In spite of massive cash transfusions and bailout packages, the euro-zone has started trembling again over its weakest members. The future of the common currency is, again, at stake. Ireland and Portugal will receive billions of euros in support, and a second bailout for Greece is in the works. And just as European politicians were starting to think about their summer vacations, Italy's public debt has slipped into focus.

This is another story from spiegel.de...and is, once again, courtesy of Roy Stephens. The link is here.

Fund manager Felix Zulauf of Zulauf Asset Management in Switzerland told King World News yesterday that he fears capital controls and oppressive government regulation of the economy will result from the impending economic collapses in Europe and the United States. An excerpt from the interview is headlined "Felix Zulauf: Collapse Will Cause Governments to Change Rules".

I stole this KWN blog, and Chris Powell's introduction to it, from a GATA release...and the link is here.

Here's something else from GATA...and rather than cut and paste Chris Powell's preamble...here's the entire GATA release, with the KWN blog of the Davies interview imbedded. It's well worth the read...and the link is here.

Washington state reader S.A. sent me this press release from the Sprott website yesterday where they announced that they are doing an offering for PHY.U/PHYS. It will be of great interest to see how much money they raise, as there hasn't been one for quite a while...and the gold price is at a record high.

I'll report on this as soon as I find out...and the link to the press release is here.

Here's the first of three in a row from Roy Stephens...and the first is a Reuters piece filed from Hong Kong early Friday morning.

When I first posted this story last last night, it had the above headline...but when I was checking the links to see if they worked before hitting the 'send' button...it had been changed to read as follows..."Stocks, euro fall before Europe bank stress tests". It's obvious that the 'thought police' are ever present at all news services.

Gold slipped on Friday though was on track to match its biggest winning streak in four decades, with debt crises in the eurozone and the United States leaving investors few alternatives but to keep piling into the metal.

The link is here.

Finance ministers set to call emergency meeting as Greece inches towards default – and US hints it may have to print more money.

Panicky investors drove the price of gold to an all-time high yesterday, amid renewed fears for the future of the European and US economies and rumours that European finance ministers are set to call yet another crisis meeting this Friday, presumably to coincide with what are expected to be disappointing results from so-called "stress tests" on the strength of leading Italian, French and German banks.

This story is posted over at independent.co.uk...and the link is here.

Roy's last gold-related story of the day is this piece by columnist Peter Brimelow over at marketwatch.com that was filed late last night from New York.

"A great day for gold — and the bugs (mostly) think more are to come.

"European sovereign-debt markets in chaos threatening the viability of the euro — budget deadlock in Congress — Ben Bernanke implying yet more monetary ease — and this evening Moody’s threatening a downgrade on U.S. debt … and gold goes to new highs?

"Duh! Many would say: How could it not?"...and the link to this must read story is here.

Eric King of King World News fame sent me this Jim Sinclair blog in the wee hours of this morning. I haven't read it yet, but I'm sure it's worth your time...and the link is here.

Here's another GATA release where Chris has already done the heavy lifting...so I'll let him tell you what this story is all about...and the link is here.

Here's an Ambrose Evans-Pritchard article that was posted over at The Telegraph late last night...and found it's way into a GATA release.

As the twin pillars of international monetary system threaten to come tumbling down in unison, gold has reclaimed its ancient status as the anchor of stability.

On one side of the Atlantic, the eurozone debt crisis has spread to the countries that may be too big to save - Spain and Italy - though RBS thinks a €3.5 trillion rescue fund would ensure survival of Europe's currency union.

On the other side, the recovery has sputtered out and the printing presses are being oiled again. Brinkmanship between the Congress and the White House over the US debt ceiling has compelled Moody's to warn of a "very small but rising risk" that the world's paramount power may default within two weeks. "The unthinkable is now thinkable," said Ross Norman, director of thebulliondesk.com.

"It is very scary. The flight to gold is accelerating," said Peter Hambro, chairman of Britain's biggest pure gold listing, Petropavlovsk. "One of the big U.S. banks texted me today to say that if QE3 actually happens, we could see gold at $5,000 and silver at $1,000. I feel terribly sorry for anybody on fixed incomes tied to a fiat currency because they are not going to be able to buy things with that paper money."

This is another must read story, of course...and the link is here.