PATNA, INDIA - Farmers in an eastern Indian state have asked their unmarried daughters to plow parched fields naked in a bid to embarrass the weather gods to bring some badly needed monsoon rain, officials said on Thursday.
BERLIN - The German foreign intelligence service is predicting shifts in the global power constellation and is demanding "a geo-strategic debate in Germany."
JERUSALEM - Ynet learns Netanyahu canceled at last minute decisive discussion aimed at setting a date for start of construction of new Mugrabi Gate in Jerusalem. Security sources express their fear of violent outbreak on eve of Ramadan fast.
UK - Shocking figures today revealed sharp increases in cocaine use across Britain. The number of working age adults snorting the class A drug last year hit a 12-year high, with nearly a million confirmed users.
FRANCE - British schoolchildren with swine flu were treated like 'dangerous criminals' before being kicked out of France. The 14-year-olds and their teachers were forced to wear surgical masks and shoes while being treated by medics in anti-contamination suits.
EUROPE - The EU data protection authority has set alarm bells ringing over proposed rules governing intelligent transport systems (ITS), which are aimed at improving road safety but pose potential risks for citizens' privacy.
POLAND - French Foreign Minister: "No more issues should be decided in one country - they must all be considered in Europe"
WASHINGTON - Massive crop devastation, melting glaciers, water shortages, millions of displaced people - all of these will drag the US military into conflict if global climate change goes unchecked, a Senate panel was warned today.
WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday fought hard to protect the independence of the US central bank and keep responsibility for consumer protection on financial products in its hands.
BASEL, SWITZERLAND - Swiss drugmaker Roche (ROG.VX) gave a bullish forecast for the next two years after its $47 billion acquisition of Genentech and said it would expand capacity for H1N1 flu drug Tamiflu.
TOKYO - Japan's main opposition party, WHICH UNTIL RECENTLY TOUTED PLANS TO STAND UP TO THE UNITED STATES AND FORM CLOSER TIES IN ASIA, is taking a more pragmatic line toward Tokyo's top ally ahead of a likely election victory.
UK - Swine flu has spurred the Church of England to revive a rule drawn up more than 450 years ago when bubonic plague swept the land.
USA - The Science and Public Policy Institute announces the publication of Climate Money, a study by Joanne Nova revealing that the federal Government has a near-monopsony (monopsony means a market with only one buyer) on climate science funding. This distorts the science towards self-serving alarmism.
UK - GlaxoSmithKline was today accused of profiteering from the swine flu pandemic after it emerged that it is making a 600 per cent mark-up on its vaccine for the virus.
UK - A mass vaccination programme moves ever closer. Orders have been placed; priority groups identified. There will be enough swine flu vaccine to inoculate the entire population, starting with NHS staff, in an attempt to halt the spread of the disease and save lives.