BERLIN, GERMANY - Germany will block any new aid to ailing Greece if Athens does not fully comply with the terms of previous rescue packages, even if other countries support unlocking funds, a senior lawmaker said Sunday. The deputy head of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative parliamentary bloc, Michael Fuchs, told business daily Handelsblatt that Berlin was ready to use its veto if it is unhappy with findings from the Greece creditors "troika". "You can quote me: even if the glass is half-full, that is not enough for a new aid package," he said in an interview to appear in the paper's Monday issue. "Germany cannot and will not agree to that."

USA - “The vast majority of current programs are focused on making poverty more comfortable … rather than giving people the tools that will help them escape poverty.” The federal government is not making much headway reducing poverty despite spending hundreds of billions of dollars, according to a study by the libertarian Cato Institute. Despite an unprecedented increase in federal anti-poverty spending, the national poverty rate has not declined, the study finds. “Since President Obama took office [in January 2009], federal welfare spending has increased by 41 percent, more than $193 billion per year,” the study says.

INDIA - India will soon launch its first home-built nuclear submarine, capable of firing ballistic missiles, as the country escalates an arms race with China and Pakistan. INS Arihant, planned to be the first of five submarines of its class, will be ready to begin sea trials, said Admiral Nirmal Verma, the navy commander.

IRAN - Rescuers in Iran are searching through the rubble of collapsed buildings for survivors from two strong earthquakes which left at least 250 people dead. The 6.4 and 6.3 quakes struck near Tabriz and Ahar on Saturday afternoon, and more than 2,000 are believed injured, many in outlying villages. Thousands spent the night in emergency shelters or in the open and there have been more than 55 aftershocks. The magnitude of the disaster is so huge that officials are just managing to get enough people in from other provinces to help out," one Iranian Red Crescent worker told the AFP news agency. The numbers of victims is expected to rise.

USA - Tomorrow's soldiers could be able to run at Olympic speeds and will be able to go for days without food or sleep, if new research into gene manipulation is successful. According to the US Army's plans for the future, their soldiers will be able to carry huge weights, live off their fat stores for extended periods and even regrow limbs blown apart by bombs. The plans were revealed by novelist Simon Conway, who was granted behind-the-scenes access to the Pentagon's high-tech Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency.

CANARY ISLANDS - More than 4,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in Spain's Canary Islands because of forest fires that are difficult to control due to a heatwave and strong winds, authorities said on Sunday. The worst hit-areas are Tenerife, a popular tourist destination, and La Gomera, where temperatures have topped 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) since Friday, restarting fires that had been put out during the week after destroying more than 3,000 hectares of land since August 4.

SWITZERLAND - Swiss banks hoping to atone for decades of complicity in tax evasion may be left to sweat it out for months as the United States and Germany ponder the right level of punishment. Switzerland has long dodged US accusations of hiding money for wealthy Americans. But now eleven Swiss banks are under investigation in the United States and there is pressure too from Europe where burdened taxpayers want scalps after numerous banking scandals. The Swiss need a deal to remove the taint from their financial industry.

ISRAEL - An Israeli military attack on Iran would ignite a regional war, former IDF Operations Commander Yisrael Ziv told Army Radio Sunday. Reiterating other officials' observations that an attack cannot be compared with the aerial strike on the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981, Ziv said, “We are talking about a number of operations and not just one.” He also warned that a flood of statements from the offices of the Prime Minister and the Defense Ministry signal a “worrisome lack of security” in the government.

USA - The hottest July in US history has caused irreparable damage to crops, forcing corn farmers to abandon fields greater in area than Belgium and Luxembourg. The crisis has prompted the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to forecast record-breaking price rises, and some of the world's largest food manufacturers, including Kraft, Tyson and Nestle, have already indicated that they will pass on the increase to consumers. USDA now expects 10.8 billion bushels of corn to be produced this year - 2.2 billion bushels less than the projection it made last month. The problem could have far-reaching consequences internationally. In 2007-08, high food costs led to riots in more than 30 countries.

UK - Unmanned spy drones could patrol Britain’s shores looking for illegal immigrants and smugglers after a series of high-level meetings in Brussels, The Mail on Sunday has learned. The European Commission aims to spend £260 million on its ‘Eurosur’ project, which includes a plan for surveillance drones to patrol the Mediterranean coast. If the high-tech measures against terrorists, illegal immigrants and smugglers in the Mediterranean are successful, there would be pressure on the UK to follow suit.

ISRAEL - A nationwide SMS system for warning the public of an imminent missile attack was being tested in Israel on Sunday as new intelligence on a possible strike on Iran was leaked. With front page stories in two papers suggesting Tehran had made progress towards the manufacture and assembly of a nuclear warhead, Israel's Home Front Command began final tests of a public warning system which is expected to be operational by September. In recent days, talk of a possible strike on Iran has dominated the headlines, largely coming from unsourced officials quoting intelligence reports, none of which it was possible to verify.

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - Israel's prime minister and defence minister would like to attack Iran's nuclear sites before the US election in November but lack crucial support within their cabinet and military, an Israeli newspaper said on Friday. The front-page report in the biggest-selling daily 'Yedioth Ahronoth' came amid mounting speculation - fuelled by media leaks from both the government and its detractors at home and abroad - that war with Iran could be imminent even though it might rupture the bedrock ties between Israel and the United States.

IRAN - Iran has stepped up work to develop a nuclear warhead, Israeli newspapers said on Sunday, citing officials in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and leaked US intelligence. The front-page reports in the liberal 'Haaretz', a frequent Netanyahu critic, and in the conservative, pro-government 'Israel Hayom' could intensify Israeli debate about whether to go to war against Iran - and soon - over its disputed atomic projects.

MIDDLE EAST - Foreign ministers from the Arab League are due to meet in the Saudi city of Jeddah to debate the crisis in Syria. The ministers are expected to discuss a new envoy to Syria to replace Kofi Annan, who resigned earlier this month. The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the US and Turkey are working together on detailed plans to support the Syrian opposition.

GERMANY - The German military is considering the purchase of combat drones. But we should not allow ourselves to be seduced by the idea that an unmanned aircraft is a humane weapon. On the contrary, they expose the true nature of war in all its brutality.