Let's hope Friday's big blowout is a right royal good time. Because thanks in part to a quirk in the calendar, it's set to take a pretty heavy toll on Britain's economy -- which isn't in great health already.

Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that Friday will be a national holiday -- or Bank Holiday, as it's known here -- so that everyone can enjoy the day.

But according to the consulting firm Investec, a day without work could knock as much as a quarter of a percent off growth for the quarter, translating to a loss to the economy of as much as $50 billion. "You will basically lose a day of output, and largely speaking that will be that," Philip Shaw, an Investec economist, has said.

FBI agents joined state and local police in New Hampshire in the search for a missing Maine woman whose 14-month-old child was found inside her still running car.

Krista Dittmeyer, 20, of Portland, Maine has been considered a missing person since her black Nissan Sentra was found early Saturday morning in a New Hampshire recreational facility parking lot. The car was idling with flashers on and the baby inside, police said.

The FBI joined an investigation already underway by New Hampshire State Police and the Conway Police Department.

Search teams with dogs scoured the area surrounding the Mt. Cranmore Resort in Conway, New Hampshire, said Lieutenant Chris Perley, local police spokesman.

A 911 call released by Florida police reveals how a toddler allegedly shot and killed his mother when he picked up a loaded gun, wsvn.com reports.

According to Miramar Police, Troy Bailey Sr. called 911 late Wednesday and said that his 2-year-old son grabbed his gun and shot his mother, 33-year-old Julia Bennett.

"Oh God, I can't believe this," Bailey is heard saying on the recording. "He shot his mom. God in heaven, help me please."

When the 911 operator asked who shot Bennet, Bailey Sr. said, "I was taking the gun from him. I was trying to take it from him...from my son, from my son. He's right here."

Bailey Sr. goes on to say how he tried to take the gun from Troy Bailey Jr. when it went off.

"Jesus Christ, God. Why did you put my son in this spot?" he said over the phone. "Oh, God, no. He's my life. I've never gone through something like this."

Several Canada Revenue Agency auditors allegedly sought cash payoffs from Montreal restaurant owners in order to avoid an audit, according to court documents obtained by the Radio-Canada program Enquête.

RCMP are investigating the allegations, which involve four restaurants, including a small family-run Italian eatery in the city's west end.

The owners of that restaurant told police that they received a visit from an auditor who commented on how busy their business was. Shortly after that, the owners said they received a letter from the Canada Revenue Agency noting their restaurant was about to be audited. They were told to speak with a specific auditor.

The auditor told them they were in serious trouble. He met with the couple in a park near their restaurant and told them they were on the hook for $250,000. He then offered to make the problem go away if they paid him $50,000 in cash.

A recent FBI law enforcement bulletin says child sex trafficking is a "problem of epidemic proportion" that threatens 300,000 American children.

The report said victims are often forced to travel far from home and their lives revolve around "violence, forced drug use and constant threats."

According to the Washington-based FAIR Fund international nonprofit organization, most of the child victims come from poor neighborhoods and broken families.

Metal thefts across the Bradford district have reached "epidemic" proportions, it was claimed today. As the price of metal continues to rise sharply, thieves are ripping lead from church roofs, gully lids from roads, metal barriers from parks and even railings from children's play areas.

Figures obtained by the Telegraph & Argus reveal that metal thefts from churches in the Bradford Diocese have cost at least £300,000 during the last four years.

Bosses at Ecclesiastical Insurance described the situation in Bradford Diocese as an "epidemic" and said they believed the cost to church leaders probably runs to hundreds of thousands of pounds as the insurance payouts only cover the loss of metal - not the cost of replacing it.

Citizens in our (once) free republic founded under the English common law system, have both the power and the right to vote according to conscience when they sit on a jury and can vote not guilty even in the face of the law and in the face of the evidence. The defendant also has a right to expect that his jury will be fully informed of their rightful power to vote "not guilty" if they believe justice requires it, regardless of the evidence. Anything less is not a real jury trial.

The jury issues no opinion, gives no explanation of its decision. It simply renders its verdict, and if the verdict is "not guilty," that acquittal cannot be questioned or overturned by any court. It is telling that a conviction can be overturned, but an acquittal cannot - the deck is stacked on the side of the liberty of the individual on trial. While a judge can overturn a jury conviction that in his judgment is unsupported by the evidence, or where the jury harbors prejudicial animus toward the defendant, the judge cannot overturn an acquittal even if the evidence is overwhelming - even if the defendant admits on the stand that he did the actions of which he is accused.

A landmark case in jury history is that of William Penn, the Quaker preacher who would later found Pennsylvania. He was put on trial in England for the "crime" of preaching a non-government approved religion on a public street corner. He did not deny that he had preached as a Quaker. He proudly proclaimed it. There was no doubt that English law at the time considered his actions criminal. That too was plain. And yet, the jury acquitted him in spite of the obvious, undisputed facts, and in the face of the clear law. That jury was initially held in contempt and jailed by the trial judge, but on appeal, the English appellate courts ruled that the jury has an absolute power to acquit despite the facts and in the face of the law, and that it cannot be punished for exercising its power. That acquittal helped to establish the free practice of religion.

A new survey of Egyptians' attitudes two months after President Hosni Mubarak's departure depicts a society in which the Muslim Brotherhood is broadly popular, the United States is not, and more than half the country would like to scrap Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.

Muslim respondents in the poll, conducted by the Pew Research Center, were almost equally divided between those who say they agree with Islamic fundamentalists (31 percent) and those who say they do not (30 percent).

Sixty-two percent said Egypt's laws should strictly follow the teachings of the Qur'an, while only five percent said laws should not be influenced by Qur'anic teachings. Another 27 percent favored another option - that laws should follow the values and principles of Islam but should not strictly follow the teachings of the Qur'an.

Washington - The State Department on Monday told American citizens to leave Syria as soon as they can and ordered some personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Damascus to depart the country, as the Syrian government steps up a brutal crackdown against pro-reform demonstrators.

In a new warning, the department urged Americans to defer all travel to Syria, advised those already in the country to depart while commercial transportation is available and to limit nonessential travel within the country. Nonessential U.S. embassy staff and the families of all embassy personnel have been ordered to leave Syria. It said the embassy would remain open for limited services.

The warning said that Syrian government restrictions, including the short-term detention of foreign diplomats, made it difficult for the embassy to assess the security situation and that attempts by authorities to blame the unrest on outsiders could contribute to anti-foreigner sentiment.

The move came as thousands of Syrian soldiers backed by tanks and snipers moved in to the southern city of Daraa and opened fire on civilians, killing at least 11 people, witnesses said. More than 350 people have been killed in the violence since mid-March.

London - Leaked U.S. military documents reveal that a Guantanamo Bay detainee was freed after informing on 123 other prisoners, despite concerns about the reliability of his evidence, a British newspaper reported Tuesday.

The Guardian, The New York Times and El Pais are publishing details of more than 750 leaked U.S. military dossiers on terrorist suspects held at Guantanamo. They reveal that the detainees ranged from close associates of Osama bin Laden to seemingly innocent men held even though they were judged to pose little threat.

The Guardian said the prolific informer, a Yemeni man captured in Pakistan in December 2001, gave detailed information about al-Qaida activity in Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountains and identified other detainees as militants.