UK - Archbishop of York John Sentamu issued an unprecedented rebuke to members of the Church of England over women bishops - calling on them to 'start behaving like Christians'. In his sermon to members of the General Synod, Dr Sentamu, the Church's second most senior cleric, attacked a lack of agreement between warring factions.
RAMALLAH, PALESTINE - The Palestinian president, who is under US pressure to resume direct talks with Israel, said that doing so under current circumstances would be pointless. Mahmoud Abbas sounded determined not to return to the table unless Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commits to an internationally mandated settlement freeze and agrees to pick up talks where they left off under the Israeli leader's predecessor in December 2008.
KAMPALA, UGANDA - Simultaneous explosions tore through crowds watching the World Cup final at a rugby club and an Ethiopian restaurant, killing at least 64 people including one American, officials said. Police feared an Al Qaeda-linked Somali militant group was behind the attacks.
BOSTON, USA - The co-chairmen of President Obama's debt and deficit commission offered an ominous assessment of the nation's fiscal future here Sunday, calling current budgetary trends a cancer "that will destroy the country from within" unless checked by tough action in Washington.
FRANKFURT, GERMANY - The sovereign debt crisis would seem to create worry enough for European banks, but there is another gathering threat that has not garnered as much notice: the trillions of dollars in short-term borrowing that institutions around the world must repay or roll over in the next two years.
BOSTON, USA - In a private meeting with White House officials this weekend, Democratic governors voiced deep anxiety about the Obama administration's suit against Arizona's new immigration law, worrying that it could cost a vulnerable Democratic Party in the fall elections.
USA - A former fighter in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) turned US spy offered a rare glance into one of the most complex countries in the Middle East. During a conference held at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Friday, Reza Kahlili (pseudonym) estimated that IRAN WILL EVENTUALLY ATTACK ISRAEL, EUROPE AND THE PERSIAN GULF STATES. He called for a preemptive strike on the regime in Tehran, but not on the Iranian people or the country's infrastructure.
NEW ORLEANS, USA - Robotic submarines working a mile underwater removed a leaking cap from the gushing Gulf oil well Saturday, starting a painful trade-off: Millions more gallons of crude will flow freely into the sea for at least two days until a new seal can be mounted to capture all of it. There's no guarantee for such a delicate operation almost a mile below the water's surface, officials said, and the permanent fix of plugging the well from the bottom remains slated for mid-August.
CHINA - The chemical name is harder to pronounce than "two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, etc." Still, it's causing McDonald's representatives in China to insist that the additive - used in Chicken McNuggets - is "harmless," despite claims to the contrary by some medical experts.
USA - Yet another data point on why the Obama administration and BP are both so concerned about media access to spill areas - "Oil and water samples were taken from both the Shores of Grand Isle and from 20 miles out."
MIDDLE EAST - "If you want war, and if all of you will fight Israel, we are in favor. But the Palestinians will not fight alone because they don't have the ability to do it," Abbas quoted himself as having said at the March Arab League Summit in Libya.
USA - Under the umbrella of the "war on drugs" and in complete violation of Posse Comitatus, National Guard units in New York are engaged in a "domestic fight" targeting American citizens with new ionization swabbing technology that enables them to "find drugs or weapons" via undervehicle inspections of cars based on the flimsiest of pretexts.
USA - The Obama administration decided to dispatch Charles Bolden, head of NASA, to do "public diplomacy" on Al Jazeera, where he said that President Obama wanted him to "find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering." He then announced that our deficit-ridden US government will begin a new fund "to support technological development in Muslim-majority countries."
USA - Some business groups, upset about budget and regulatory policies they say are costing jobs, are accusing President Barack Obama of pursuing an agenda that is hurting the US economic recovery. The criticism comes amid a tepid pace of private-sector job creation and the White House is responding by saying a lack of regulations triggered the economic crisis and that a balance is needed to protect Americans.
USA - Unusually cold temperatures in Southern California continued, with Los Angeles International Airport setting a record low on Friday. LAX got to only 67 degrees, breaking a record set in 1926, according to the National Weather Service.