UK - “They are definitely getting bigger” is one of those phrases that men like chief pest control officer Colin Watts utter with just a hint of glee. On the streets where he operates, there have been 5,100 rat sightings in the past year, some the size of small cats. Watts recalls encountering one two-foot hulk as “wide as a brick”. Others he has trapped have weighed the equivalent of two bags of sugar.

USA - Scores of scientists have condemned a journal editor's retraction of a study that reported a number of serious side effects in lab rats that consumed Monsanto's genetically modified maize and Roundup herbicide. In all, according to a press release by a group called End Science Censorship, the number of scientists decrying the retraction has climbed to 150.

USA - Has the United States ever experienced a time when a foreign nation has attempted to buy up so much of our land all at once? As you will read about in this article, the Chinese are on a real estate buying spree all over America. In fact, in some cases large chunks of land are actually being given to them. Yes, you read that correctly. China is on the way to becoming the dominant land owner in the entire country, and that is starting to alarm a lot of people. Do we really want a foreign superpower to physically own so much of our territory?

USA - An Obama administration plan to give up oversight of certain technical Internet functions could open the door to a takeover by authoritarian regimes, Republican lawmakers claimed Wednesday. If Russia or China gain new influence over the management of the Internet, they could begin censoring content or blocking websites, the Republicans warned. "Make no mistake: Threats to the openness and freedom of the Internet are real," said Republican Representative Greg Walden, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee, which held a hearing on the issue Wednesday. "Leaders such as Vladimir Putin have explicitly announced their desire to gain control of the Internet."

USA - The US stock market is rigged in favor of high-speed electronic trading firms, which use their advantages to extract billions from investors, according to Michael Lewis, author of a new book on the topic, "Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt."

UK - Britain’s first same-sex marriages took place this last weekend. In May Sir Elton John and his partner David Furnish plan to exchange vows, making them spouses as well as parents to their two sons, Zachary and Elijah. Jubilant campaigners say that fears of an impending social calamity are nonsense.

UK - Parents who starve their children of love and affection face prosecution under a “Cinderella Law”, The Telegraph can disclose. Changes to the child neglect laws will make “emotional cruelty” a crime for the first time, alongside physical or sexual abuse. The Government will introduce the change in the Queen’s Speech in early June to enforce the protection of children’s emotional, social and behavioural well-being. Parents found guilty under the law change could face up to 10 years in prison, the maximum term in child neglect cases.

UK - Schools watchdog Ofsted has downgraded a nursery because it has too few multi-cultural resources in its play area. Stunned staff were also rebuked for not using self-evaluation forms well enough but were praised for the bond they have with the children. The pre-school centre was rated as “requiring improvement” in Ofsted’s latest report. It claimed that children’s understanding of the world was not being developed. Angry parents protested at what they saw as unfairness and a case of political correctness gone mad. One mother said: “It’s ridiculous that a superb nursery is being downgraded over something as silly as this.” Another disgusted parent said: “They are being ticked off for not filling in self-assessment forms well enough. Yet they are highly praised for how they look after the children and how they bond with them. That to me is far more important than filling in a few official forms.”

USA - Despite Wall Street’s booming recovery, Main Street continues to struggle with high unemployment and low wages, making another bust more likely. And, the “too-big-to-fail” banks may be more vulnerable than they appear, writes Danny Schechter.

POLAND - A Polish priest has warned parents to be on their guard against Lego, warning the plastic blocks are a tool of Satan and can "destroy" children's souls. In a presentation aimed at parents, Father Slawomir Kostrzewa said the popular Danish toy company had taken a lurch to the dark side with its series of Monster Fighters and Zombie mini-figures, and that they "were about darkness and the world of death".

GERMANY - German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen has demanded a stronger NATO presence in Eastern Europe. But that makes some in Chancellor Merkel's government uncomfortable. As the alliance moves to reassure eastern allies, Berlin considers its options.

CHILE - A quake of 8.2 magnitude has struck off northern Chile, triggering a tsunami alert and killing at least five people. The US Geological Survey said the quake struck at 20:46 local time (23:46 GMT) about 86km (52 miles) north-west of the mining area of Iquique. Waves of up to 2.1m (6ft) have hit some areas in Chile, and there have been power cuts, fires and landslides. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated in affected areas, where a state of emergency has been declared. At least eight strong aftershocks followed in the few hours after the quake, including a 6.2 tremor. Chile is one of the most seismically active countries in the world.

USA - A US Energy Department investigator has lashed nuclear-arms offices for failing to keep a detailed paper trail of how they build and care for each bomb. The National Nuclear Security Administration has not consistently tracked each of the thousands of nuclear weapons under its charge with a comprehensive file of "drawings, specifications, engineering authorizations, manufacturing records" and other documents from its assembly and maintenance, says a new report by the Energy Department's inspector general. The missing data exposes the US nuclear arsenal to an array of unnecessary costs and risks, Gregory Friedman said his team had found. In one case, officials incorrectly approved two components to be added to a variant of the W-76 nuclear warhead. The error, they said, cost between $20 million and $25 million, and held up preparation of new parts by an extra 12 months.

JAPAN - Three years after the Fukushima disaster prompted the closure of all Japan's nuclear reactors, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is moving to revive nuclear power as a core part of the energy mix, but many of those idled reactors will never come back online. Fewer than a third, and at most about two-thirds, of the reactors will pass today's more stringent safety checks and clear the other seismological, economic, logistical and political hurdles needed to restart, a Reuters analysis shows.This means Japan is likely to remain heavily reliant on imported fuel to power the world's third-largest economy, straining a trade balance that has been in the red for nearly two years. Electric utilities will face huge liabilities to decommission reactors and pay for fossil fuels. Japan had 54 nuclear reactors supplying about 30 percent of the nation's electricity before an earthquake and tsunami destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in 2011.

SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi Arabia has introduced a series of new laws which define atheists as terrorists, according to a report from Human Rights Watch. In a string of royal decrees and an overarching new piece of legislation to deal with terrorism generally, the Saudi King Abdullah has clamped down on all forms of political dissent and protests that could "harm public order". The new laws have largely been brought in to combat the growing number of Saudis travelling to take part in the civil war in Syria, who have previously returned with newfound training and ideas about overthrowing the monarchy. Article one of the new provisions defines terrorism as "calling for atheist thought in any form, or calling into question the fundamentals of the Islamic religion on which this country is based".