ITALY - Two Moroccan students who attended a university in the central Italian city of Perugia were expelled from the country last month after it was discovered that they were conspiring to kill Pope Benedict. One of them allegedly said he wished to "earn a place in Paradise."
UK - Current efforts to reform financial regulation are "cosmetic" and won't prevent another crisis, economist Nouriel Roubini told an audience on Tuesday at the London School of Economics. "The way I think about this crisis is not in terms of black swans (a sudden, rare event), but white swan events," Roubini said. "Crises are much more common than we think."
USA - New rules to curb stock trading when markets plunge uncontrollably will kick in as early as mid-June for the largest US stocks, two sources familiar with regulators' plans said on Tuesday. The plan was hastily crafted by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the major US exchanges in response to the unexplained "flash crash" on May 6 that drove the Dow Jones industrial average down some 700 points within minutes.
EUROPE - European Union finance ministers have agreed to introduce tougher regulation of the hedge fund industry. Ministers overrode objections by the new UK government and the City of London, where 80% of European funds are based. They will now negotiate with the European Parliament to decide the exact shape of the legislation - which is due to come into force from 2012. However, the final deal would take account of UK concerns, the EU said.
ISRAEL - Dozens of rabbis from Religious Zionism movement pray at Western Wall, then visit Temple Mount under police protection, worship according to halacha, say 'essence of Jerusalem Day is not Kotel, but what lies beyond it, the site of our Temple.' Proximity talks have begun, and the Right to demonstrate its commitment to Jerusalem.
ISRAEL - As Jerusalem Day approaches, redoubled efforts are underway to increase Jewish awareness of the Temple Mount and to have the site included on the National Heritage Sites list. Highlights of the campaign include a visit by 43 rabbis to Judaism's holiest site on Monday and a petition to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to include the location on his recently-formulated list of National Heritage sites.
UK - The airport chaos that hit tens of thousands of travellers yesterday was based on a faulty ash cloud prediction. Officials closed south-eastern airspace for ten hours following a Met Office alert about dangerous levels of 'black' ash. Yet when the forecasters took fresh soundings, and sent up a plane to check, they found their assessment was flawed: there was no such ash.
FAR EAST - As regulators in developed markets step up oversight of hedge funds, these free pools of capital are increasingly set to make their home in Singapore and Hong Kong. That will accelerate the flow of talent and foreign funds into Asia's top two financial centers, at a time when asset managers are already eyeing the region's rising wealth and strong economic growth.
USA - There was some rich irony at the White House today - President Obama signed the Press Freedom Act, and then promptly refused to take any questions. The new law expands the State Department's annual human rights reports to include a description of press freedoms in each country. It seemed a good opportunity to showcase press freedom in this country.
PORTUGAL - Portugal's President Anibal Cavaco Silva says he will sign a law legalising same-sex marriage passed by parliament earlier this year. The law had been fiercely opposed by conservatives in the Catholic country. The ratification will make Portugal the sixth country in Europe to allow same-sex marriage after Belgium, Spain, Norway, the Netherlands and Sweden.
EUROPE - A key committee of Euro MPs has backed a directive that may lead to greater supervision of the hedge fund industry. The vote in Strasbourg comes one day ahead of a meeting in Brussels of EU finance ministers where hedge fund regulation will be under discussion. The Tuesday meeting will be an important test for the new UK chancellor, George Osborne, with 80% of European hedge funds based in London. Many blame hedge funds for worsening the effects of the financial crisis.
ISRAEL - As Palestinian Authority officials agree to indirect "proximity" peace talks with Israel, PA television sends a different message. A broadcast that was repeated twice last week called on Israelis to "return" to Europe and Ethiopia, so that PA Arabs can "return" to Israeli cities such as Akko (Acre), Haifa and Jerusalem.
EUROPE - "The euro is doomed," said Andrew Wilkinson, senior market analyst at Interactive Brokers Group LLC in Greenwich, Connecticut. "It's like a clown without its makeup. The strains among the partners are becoming clear and it's becoming harder to see global growth not being threatened by this."
EUROPE - In a speech at a prize-giving ceremony for Polish Prime Minster Donald Tusk yesterday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the eurozone crisis is "existential" and "must be overcome" in order to avoid "unforeseeable consequences" for the future of the EU. In order to do this it would have to "equip itself more strongly, both fiscally and economically".
USA - Storms may scuttle clean-up efforts, force containment vessels to retreat, or propel spilled crude and tar balls over vast expanses of sea and beach, scientists said. Meteorologists say that climate conditions are ripe for an unusually destructive hurricane season, the storm-prone period that runs from June 1 to the end of November in the Gulf. Oceanographers say that could hurt the clean-up.