USA - Executives from BP PLC, Transocean Ltd and Halliburton Co began pointing fingers on Monday over who bears ultimate responsibility for the April 20 oil-rig explosion that took 11 lives and is spilling oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The question will loom large at a Senate hearing Tuesday that will hear from executives of the three companies.
USA - The typical regulatory agency rests atop a mountain of rules it has created, enforces those regulations selectively, and denies the property and liberty rights of those it accuses without ever having to prove that the rule violations have caused harm to anyone and without ever having to account for the agency's abuses. When law punishes those whose actions do not cause provable harm, the law is a tyrant.
USA - "Last week, the Obama Administration took its first major step in a plan to ban all firearms in the United States. The Obama Administration intends to force gun control and a complete ban on all weapons for US citizens through the signing of international treaties with foreign nations," according to journalist Joan Sharon.
UK - Anglican bishops meet Vatican officials to plot 'cloak and dagger' plan to convert to Catholicism. Leading bishops in the Church of England have secretly told Vatican officials they are ready to defect to Rome, it was claimed on Sunday. Traditionalists have been angered over the introduction of women bishops, due to be debated at a crucial General Synod meeting in July.
EUROPE - Europe has put up 750 billion euros in an effort to stop speculation against the European common currency. Still, it remains to be seen if financial markets will learn their lesson. After all, speculators aren't even being punished for the damage they have caused. But they should be.
EUROPE - European markets open stronger this morning after finance ministers agreed on a 650 billion pounds emergency bail out package to prevent Greece's debt crisis spreading to other countries. The three-year deal involves 388 billion pounds in loans or guarantees from the 16 eurozone countries, 52 billion pounds from the European Commission and 216 billion pounds from the International Monetary fund.
UK - Alistair Darling has denied that Britain is helping to prop up the euro after he agreed to a 750 billion euros (650 billion pounds) EU and International Monetary Fund rescue fund to shore up troubled eurozone economies. After a marathon 11-hour session of talks ministers settled on the package that they hoped would be big enough to prevent Greece's debt crisis from spreading.
MANILA, PHILIPPINES - After a decade of corruption-tainted politics and untamed poverty, Filipinos stood in long lines Monday to elect a new leader, and surveys indicate they're pinning their hopes on the son of democracy icons who electrified masses with his family name and clean image.
EUROPE - Global policymakers unleashed an emergency rescue package worth about $1 trillion to stabilize world financial markets and prevent the Greek debt crisis from destroying the euro currency. The rescue, hammered out by European Union finance ministers, central bankers and the International Monetary Fund in marathon talks at the weekend, was the largest package in over two years since G20 leaders threw money at the global economy following the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
UK - There's a crisis brewing, but it has nothing to do with the economic deficit or the current political uncertainty. Scientists are warning that rising levels of male infertility have become so perilous that it is a serious 'public health issue'. And some go even further.
NEW ORLEANS, USA - Concern grew Sunday that the US Gulf coast is facing a whole new level of environmental disaster after the best short-term fix for a massive oil spill ran into serious trouble. BP's giant containment box lay idle on the seabed as engineers furiously tried to figure out how to stop it clogging with ice crystals.
GERMANY - Chancellor Angela Merkel appeared to have been dealt a political body blow tonight when her Christian Democratic party recorded its worst ever result in crucial region elections. Exit polls in North Rhine Westphalia - Germany's most populous region with 18 million inhabitants - suggested that the Christian Democrats won barely 34 per cent of the vote and were like to be toppled from the regional government.
VIENNA, AUSTRIA - Israel's secretive nuclear activities may undergo unprecedented scrutiny next month, with a key meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency tentatively set to focus on the topic for the first time, according to documents shared Friday with The Associated Press.
CARACAS, VENEZUELA - Venezuela's annual inflation rate has surpassed 30 percent after consumer prices surged in April. The Central Bank and National Statistics Institute on Friday reported a 5.2 percent increase in consumer prices during April, driving up the annual rate to 30.4 percent.
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - Pakistan successfully test-fired two ballistic missiles Saturday capable of carrying nuclear warheads, the military said, as the Islamic nation's leader urged the world to recognize it as a legitimate nuclear power.