LONDON, UK – Claims that the Arctic Sea – the Russian ship apparently hijacked and missing for two weeks – was carrying a nuclear weapon bound for Osama bin Laden are being investigated by agents for the British intelligence service MI6.
CHINA - China reduced its holdings of US government debt by the largest margin in nearly nine years in June, according to data from the US Treasury. China holds more US government debt than any other country and cut its holdings of US securities by more than 3% in June, said the BBC's Chris Hogg.
WASHINGTON, USA – Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei yesterday called on Muslim nations around the world to unite militarily in response to the imminent coming of Islam's messianic savior – the Mahdi.
USA - The city of Chicago has shut down all "non-essential" public services for a day in an attempt to claw back a $300m (£184m) budget deficit.
LOS ANGELES USA - The amino acid glycine, a fundamental building block of proteins, has been found in a comet for the first time, bolstering the theory that the raw ingredients of life arrived on Earth from outer space, scientists said on Monday.
SWEDEN - Scientists have warned Asian countries that they face chronic food shortages and likely social unrest if they do not improve water management. The water experts are meeting at a UN-sponsored conference in Sweden.
EUROPE - The Irish Sunday Business Post reported that a new publication from the EU-funded European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) says that the EU needs to significantly develop its military capacity in the next decade if it wishes to have a credible foreign and security policy.
UK - Hundreds of Britons are expected to be extradited across Europe for trivial offences after Britain signed up to a new arrest warrant scheme. The Home Office believes the number sent to face justice overseas is likely to treble when the draconian new agreement comes into force next April.
VATICAN - The Vatican has accused Britain and the US of complicity in the Nazi extermination of Jews. It claims the Allies deliberately did nothing to either rescue Jews or destroy the death camps. An article in L'Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper, says Allied governments knew the Nazis were planning to exterminate the Jews as early as 1942.
USA - In some large US cities evidence of "dirty money" is even stronger. Analysis of bank notes from Washington DC showed that 95 per cent of them carried minute amounts of the class A drug. The study was the biggest ever undertaken of cocaine contamination of bank notes.
INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA, USA - Inside an aging sports arena, where rows of dental chairs and a hospital smell have replaced the former Los Angeles Lakers basketball court, thousands of Americans are seeking free healthcare.
MIAMI, FLORIDA, USA - The first two named tropical storms of the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season, Ana and Bill, formed over the Atlantic on Saturday and moved westward, and the National Hurricane Center said Bill was expected to become a hurricane in 3-4 days.
FINLAND - Pirates last night demanded a ransom of almost £1million for the release of the cargo ship which sparked an international search after vanishing from the English Channel a fortnight ago.
UK - A street preacher is at the centre of a row over freedom of speech after police threatened to arrest him for reading the Bible in public. Lawyers acting for Miguel Hayworth, 29, have demanded an explanation over the alleged intimidation and abuse of power by three officers.
UK - A warning that the new swine flu jab is linked to a deadly nerve disease has been sent by the Government to senior neurologists in a confidential letter. The letter from the Health Protection Agency, the official body that oversees public health, has been leaked to The Mail on Sunday, leading to demands to know why the information has not been given to the public before the vaccination of millions of people, including children, begins.