USA - A Florida Atlantic University student who filed a complaint against his professor after he was ordered to stomp on the name of Jesus has been brought up on academic charges by the school and may no longer attend class, according to documents obtained by Fox News.
EUROPE - Eurozone finance ministers have agreed a 10 billion euro bailout deal for Cyprus to prevent its banking system collapsing and keep the country in the eurozone. Laiki (Popular) Bank - the country's second-biggest - will be wound down and deposit-holders with more than 100,000 euros ($130,000; £85,000) will face big losses. However, all deposits under 100,000 euros will be "fully guaranteed".
CYPRUS - This was not a good weekend for Russian billionaires. First, Boris Berezovsky was found dead at his English country estate. Now, all the uninsured depositors (read: Russian plutocrats) at Cyprus’s two largest banks are going to be hit much, much harder than they feared they might be when the Cyprus crisis first erupted last week.
USA - First formulated in the Bush administration's 2002 ‘Nuclear Posture Review’, the pre-emptive nuclear war doctrine - integrated into the Global War on Terrorism - started to take shape in the immediate wake of the war on Iraq.
GALVESTON, USA - A vial containing a potentially deadly virus has gone missing from a secure biomedical research facility at The University of Texas Medical Branch’s Galveston National Laboratory. The medical branch made the announcement Saturday afternoon, while stressing that there was no reason to believe there is a threat to the public.
CHINA - China is on track to overtake America as the world's biggest economy in 2016 as its growth accelerates, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. China's economy expanded last year at 7.8 percent - its slowest pace in more than a decade - and recent data has fuelled concerns that any rebound in the country's growth is losing steam. However, the OECD was upbeat, predicting in a new survey of China's prospects that the country's economy could expand by 8.5 percent this year and by 8.9 percent in 2014.
TEMPLE MOUNT, ISRAEL - Jewish groups held a mock Passover sacrifice on Thursday opposite the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The ritual slaughter was not merely a historic re-enactment, but, they say, practice in advance of the reconstruction of the Temple.
ISRAEL - Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu explained Saturday evening on his Facebook page why he chose to apologize to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the Mavi Marmara incident, in a Friday telephone conversation.
UK - Britain's credit rating faces another downgrade in the next month after Fitch warned it is reviewing the country's "AAA" status in the wake of the Budget. The agency warned that there is a "heightened probability of a downgrade" as it conducts a review of the rating by the end of April. The move prompted foreign-exchange traders to sell the pound in late trading in the City and caps a torrid week for Chancellor George Osborne. The prospect of a downgrade by Fitch comes a month after Moody’s became the first of the three major credit rating agencies to strip the UK of the coveted AAA status.
CASTLE GANDOLFO, ITALY - There had been intense speculation about how Vatican protocol would deal with the first face to face meeting since the election of Pope Francis between the new Pope and the retired Pope. It was a carefully calculated mixture of formality and informality.
VATICAN - A "council of the crown" around the pope, with cardinals from the five continents. A drastic trimming of offices. A shakeup for the IOR [Institute for Religious Works]. Novelties and unknowns of the pontificate of Francis.
CYPRUS - Voting in the Cypriot parliament on an emergency bank restructuring plan, restrictions on cash machine withdrawals, money transfers, a new sovereign wealth fund and bank restructuring has been delayed after the eurozone and IMF troika rejected proposals from Cyprus.
CYPRUS - Comment by Chris Morris BBC News, Nicosia: The eurozone is really turning the screw on Cyprus, and it's being led by Germany. The message is crystal clear - your economic model has to change. They will no longer accept the idea of a national economy within the eurozone that is dependent on its reputation as an offshore tax haven. There is huge irritation with the way the Cypriots have handled things, and that has led to the imposition of deadlines which mean big decisions need to be taken very quickly. The cost of cleaning up the Cypriot banking system must be borne by investors in the Cypriot banking system - like it or lump it.
USA - The Department of Homeland Security has plans to buy enough ammunition to fight the equivalent of a 24-year Iraq War – on US territory – and even US congressmen don’t understand why. Speaking on the sidelines of the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC), Congressman Timothy Huelscamp said the DHS has refused to answer questions from “multiple” members of Congress regarding the plans.
UK - Salad labelled as "ready-to-eat" is more dangerous than beefburgers, one of Britain`s top food experts has said, following a spate of Cryptosporidium infections linked to the product.