UK - I long ago decided that the only wise thing to do would be to make the thief a cup of tea and ask him to sign a release form confirming that I had not harmed him in any way. I advise all my readers to do the same. The solution to the problem does not lie in our having the freedom to bash burglars.
CHINA - It is getting harder for governments to buy United States Treasuries because the US's shrinking current-account gap is reducing supply of dollars overseas, a Chinese central bank official said yesterday.
IRAQ - America's top military officer has voiced concern about an incursion by Iran into Iraq that ended with Iranian soldiers seizing an Iraqi oil well. Admiral Mike Mullen said he had spoken to Iraq's defence minister, but it was for leaders in Tehran and Baghdad to resolve the dispute.
EUROPE - The top cops in Europe say carbon-trading is an organized crime scheme that has robbed the continent of $7.4 billion - a massive fraud that lawmakers and energy experts say should send a "red flag" to the US, which approved cap-and-trade legislation over the summer amid stiff opposition.
LONDON, UK - Scotland Yard has warned businesses in London to expect a Mumbai-style attack on the capital. In a briefing in London 12 days ago, a senior detective from SO15, the Metropolitan police counter-terrorism command, said: "Mumbai is coming to London."
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK - The Copenhagen climate summit ended in chaos and acrimony, forcing leading nations back to the drawing board in the search for a legally binding deal on emissions.
YEMEN - The politically sensitive strikes Thursday signal an escalation of the Obama administration's fight against the terrorist organization. The US has launched two missile strikes against Al Qaeda targets in Yemen, two US officials told Fox News, signaling an escalation of the Obama administration's fight against the terrorist organization.
USA - Tapping into drones' video feeds was just the start. The US military's primary system for bringing overhead surveillance down to soldiers and Marines on the ground is also vulnerable to electronic interception, multiple military sources tell Danger Room.
UK - The burden of the banking bailout has been heavier in Britain than the rest of the western world, according to alarming figures published today. The UK has committed public funds worth almost 75 per cent of national income, or around £1trillion, to saving the City, according to the Bank of England.
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK - As the Copenhagen climate conference staggers toward the finish line of a star-studded plenary of political leaders on Friday, a number of influential countries — including France and Britain — have been calling for the creation of a new, global regulator to act as the world's environmental steward, equipped with still unspecified powers.
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK - Negotiators facing a Friday deadline hammered out an initial draft UN climate pact overnight that calls for a two degree Celsius cap on global temperatures and billions in aid for poor nations, sources said.
UK - The UK's financial system has become "significantly more stable over the past six months", the Bank of England has reported. It said the situation had improved on the back of its efforts to assist the sector, such as its quantitative easing (QE) programme and 0.5% interest rates.
UK - The number of council-operated CCTV cameras has nearly trebled in a decade, privacy campaigners say. There are now said to be 60,000 cameras run from town halls across the UK.
USA - The Pentagon has an evocative term for the level of spending on a war: burn rate. In Afghanistan, it has been running at around $5 million every hour for much of the year. The burn rate will begin going up next week when the first of an additional 30,000 US troops arrive.
IRAQ - Insurgents in Iraq have hacked into live video feeds from unmanned American drone aircraft, US media reports say. Shia fighters are said to have used off-the-shelf software programs such as SkyGrabber to capture the footage.