CHICAGO, USA - Raised in a $1.5 million Barrington Hills, Illinois home by their attorney father, two grown children have spent the last two years pursuing a unique lawsuit against their mom for "bad mothering" that alleges damages caused when she failed to buy toys for one and sent another a birthday card he didn't like.
USA - Politicians, the media and the Hurricane Irene apocalypse that never was. For the television reporter, clad in his red cagoule emblazoned with the CNN logo, it was a dramatic on-air moment, broadcasting live from Long Island, New York during a hurricane that also threatened Manhattan.
EUROPE - Another week, another crisis in the eurozone and another heart attack in the markets. The FTSE is yo-yoing around the 5,000 danger mark in febrile trading and there has been a rush for safe havens: the Swiss franc, the Japanese yen and US Treasury bonds at lower yields than in the Thirties. Meanwhile, fear pushed up the price of gold, the blood-pressure monitor of the world economy.
JAPAN - Areas around the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant could remain uninhabitable for 20 years, Japan warned yesterday. The plant is still leaking low-level radiation nearly six months after the earthquake and tsunami triggered a nuclear meltdown. About 80,000 people were evacuated and many are still living in shelters.
EUROPE - The new head of the IMF on Saturday called on global policymakers to pursue urgent action, including forcing European banks to bulk up their capital, to prevent a descent into a renewed world recession. "Developments this summer have indicated we are in a dangerous new phase," International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said at a conference for top officials and leading economists from around the globe.
USA - Last week, China quietly launched the aircraft carrier Varyag from the port of Dalian. The ship is expected to be deployed to Hainan province in close proximity to the strategic regions of Taiwan and the South China Sea. Amidst an atmosphere of existential gloom triggered by the debt-ceiling debacle and the deeper economic crisis, the reaction in the United States was dominated by the fear of a rising, militarist China challenging America's global superiority.
MANILA, PHILIPPINES - Slow-moving Typhoon Nanmadol remained dangerous Sunday despite weakening as it struck the tip of the mountainous northern Philippines, leaving at least eight people dead and scuttling a visit by a US Navy battleship group, officials said. Taiwan issued sea and land warnings and planned to evacuate about 3,700 people in its eastern and southern regions as it braced for the typhoon. Troops and rescue equipment have been deployed in advance for any contingency, Taiwan's Defense Ministry said.
USA - Ferocious winds from Hurricane Irene have begun to hammer New York, bringing torrential rain and the threat of flooding in the financial district. New York City's public transport system has been closed and the mayor said it was now too late for people to leave.
NIGERIA - At least 18 people have been killed in an apparent suicide car bombing at the United Nations headquarters in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. The powerful blast destroyed the lower floors of the building. Dozens have been injured, some critically. A spokesman for the Islamist group Boko Haram told the BBC in a phone call that it had carried out the attack.
GERMANY - Muslims in Germany have been accused of many things, from threatening the feminist cause to trying to destroy German society through "demographic jihad." It isn't the Muslims that are the problem, however, but rather our obsession with Islam.
GERMANY - Berlin may have stayed out of the fight for Libya, but German companies hope to profit from its reconstruction. Several economic leaders have already visited the war-torn country to investigate business opportunities. But competition is fierce.
ISRAEL - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Iran was determined to eradicate Israel, ISNA news agency reported Thursday.
TOKYO, JAPAN - Prime Minister Naoto Kan announced Friday he was resigning after almost 15 months in office amid plunging approval ratings over his government's handling of the tsunami disaster and nuclear crisis. In a nationally televised speech, Kan said he was stepping down as chief of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, effectively ending his tenure as leader of the country.
JAPAN - Japan's government estimates the amount of radioactive caesium-137 released by the Fukushima nuclear disaster so far is equal to that of 168 Hiroshima bombs. Government nuclear experts, however, said the World War II bomb blast and the accidental reactor meltdowns at Fukushima, which has seen ongoing radiation leaks but no deaths so far, were beyond comparison.
USA - The head of the US central bank, Ben Bernanke, is preparing to give a key speech that will be closely watched by markets for any hint of new stimulus. He will speak at a meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Last year, his speech paved the way for $600 billion (368 billion pounds) of quantitative easing - injecting cash into the financial system to try to boost the economy.