VATICAN - Pope Benedict marks two milestones this week and while his health appears stable, signs of frailty have again prompted speculation over whether he will be the first pontiff in seven centuries to resign. Benedict, one of the oldest popes in history, turns 85 on Monday, and on Thursday he marks the seventh anniversary of his election as successor to the immensely popular John Paul II.
CHEYENNE, WYOMING, USA - Former Vice President Dick Cheney walked onstage without any assistance and spoke for an hour and 15 minutes without seeming to tire in his first public engagement since he underwent a heart transplant three weeks ago.
USA - Standing before a crowd of McDonald's Corp shareholders at its headquarters last spring, an unlikely investor prepared for battle. Paul Shapiro, a senior official of the Humane Society of the United States, brandished a sheet of paper. The fast-food chain was serving eggs to Americans from caged chickens, he said, each living in a space smaller than the paper rectangle. Why was that?
JAPAN - Asian shares and the euro fell on Monday as a surge in Spanish government bond yields renewed concerns about Europe's sovereign debt crisis and undermined investor appetite for riskier assets.
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount won a legal victory Sunday, with police deciding they will no longer record the names of Jewish entrants to the holy site. The decision came after activists threatened to take the matter to the High Court.
INDIA - India's Wular Lake, a popular picnic and tourist spot nestled in the Kashmir Valley, is an unlikely site for conflict. But India's plan to build a structure on the Jhelum River at the mouth of the lake that will allow it to release water during the river's lean winter months has outraged neighboring Pakistan, which believes the project will give India the power to control how much water flows downstream to its farmers.
LONDON, UK - Waitrose and Marks & Spencer are among hundreds of firms told to step up security at their warehouses to stop terrorists planting a bomb in lorries entering the Olympic Park. The move is part of a £1 billion security operation – the biggest in post-war Britain – aimed at thwarting any planned attacks during this summer’s Games in London.
UK - British taxpayers should get priority in the social housing queue over new migrants, David Cameron’s poverty tsar has said. Frank Field called for the shake-up after a study revealed up to half of all social housing lets are given to those born abroad. At the same time, nearly five million families are languishing on waiting lists for subsidised housing in England.
UK - Half of Britain is now in drought as the country faces its most severe water shortage since 1976, the Environment Agency warns today. More than 35 million people are now living in drought-affected areas, with water shortages today declared across the Midlands and South West.
VATICAN - The Vatican newspaper on Wednesday suggested those responsible for revealing sensitive internal documents alleging corruption and a cover-up were irresponsible, undignified "wolves," the latest twist in what has become known as "Vatileaks."
VATICAN - After several years of scandal in which the Catholic Church has faced allegations of financial impropriety, paedophile priests and rumours of plots to kill the Pope, the Vatican is now facing a new €600 million-a-year tax bill as Rome seeks to head off European Commission censure over controversial property tax breaks enjoyed by the Church.
OKLAHOMA CITY, USA - Tornadoes raking communities across the Midwest and Plains left five people dead and at least 29 injured in Oklahoma, damaging a hospital, homes and other buildings as a vast severe weather front plunged eastward Sunday across the nation's midsection.
LONDON, UK - With Iran forced into nuclear talks, Syria’s ceasefire barely holding and North Korea snubbing the West, could these rogue states threaten global stability?
HUNGARY - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban attacked the European Union for imposing political conditions on an EU-IMF loan desperately needed by Budapest, in an interview on Friday. "Creating political conditions - for example over the justice system - would amount to blackmail, which is unacceptable within the European Union," Orban told national radio MR1 in his weekly interview.
USA - A spate of tornadoes tore through parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa on Saturday, churning through Wichita and other areas while causing property damage but no immediate reports of deaths or widespread injuries.