BERLIN - At the very moment when Irish voters are being reassured that the Lisbon Treaty will not threaten their country's cherished constitutional neutrality, the German Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, has spoken of the need for a European army.
JERUSALEM - Quoting from Israel's criminal legislation at a meeting of the Knesset Golan Lobby on Monday, Knesset Member Aryeh Eldad (National Union-National Religious Party) said that relinquishing territory to Syria is a crime that entails the death penalty.
ISRAEL - The Israeli shekel has become legal tender internationally, now that Israel has been made an official member of the international CLS (continuous linked settlement) clearing system.
BRUSSELS - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso yesterday again "warned" Ireland of the implications of voting 'no' to the Lisbon Treaty.
LONDON - SECRET plans to set up a single European police force are being drawn up in Brussels. The move - which could see foreign police officers patrolling our streets - sparked a furious reaction in Britain last night.
LONDON - MEPs are not required to disclose their expenses. Open Europe, a lobby group, has been conducting a survey asking British MEPs about how they spend their staff allowances, and whether they are properly accounted for.
BRUSSELS - The European Parliament is unlike any other. There is no executive formed by a majority party and there is no official opposition. As befits the complex diversity of the union it serves, the parliament is pluralism personified.
CHINA - Two further aftershocks have destroyed more than 420,000 houses in the Chinese region hit by a massive earthquake two weeks ago, state-run media say. Many of the homes appear to have been empty, but six people are said to have been critically injured in the tremors.
U.K. - An Asian mosquito species is poised to arrive in Britain, bringing with it the risk of a potentially lethal disease that the insect can pass from one person to another.
BEIJING - Chinese officials said Monday that the country's one-child policy exempts families with a child killed, severely injured or disabled in the country's devastating earthquake.
LONDON - Speculators are largely responsible for driving crude prices to their peaks in recent weeks and the record oil price now looks like a bubble, George Soros has warned.
USA - Coca-Cola is phasing out a controversial additive that has been linked to damage to DNA and hyperactivity in children. Sodium benzoate, also known as E211, is used to stop fizzy drinks going mouldy.
USA - Does Al Gore know about this? While the former vice president is leading the charge for drastically changing the way humans do business in a bid to avert catastrophic, man-made global warming, scientists reported today there is noticeable climate change taking place on Jupiter, too.
JERUSALEM - As Israel pursues peace talks with Syria, speculation is growing that the Jewish state will seriously consider unilateral military action against Iran within the next year.
USA - The 2008 winter was the coldest in 40 years for the upper Midwest, Plains states and most of Canada. Minnesota newspapers report that this year's opening of the locks to Mississippi barge traffic, delayed by three weeks, was the latest since the modern waterway opened in 1940.