UK - There are now 40 admirals and 260 captains in the Royal Navy. However, as a result of defence cuts, there are only 19 active warships.
GERMANY - One crisis has been averted, but another looms. While the eyes of the world have been on Washington, investors have all but forgotten a threat in Europe: any minute now, Germany's constitutional court could rule against the European Central Bank's bond-buying program.
FUKUSHIMA, JAPAN - Radioactivity levels in a well near a storage tank at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan have risen immensely on Thursday, the plant’s operator has reported.
USA - US banking giant JP Morgan is set for a record $13 billion (£8 billion) fine to settle investigations into its mortgage-backed securities, US media reports say.
FRANCE - France's top appeals court has upheld a fraud conviction and fines totalling hundreds of thousands of euros against the Church of Scientology, for taking advantage of vulnerable followers. The Cour de Cassation rejected the organisation's request that a 2009 conviction for "organised fraud" be overturned on the grounds it violated religious freedoms.
VATICAN - Pope Francis plans to visit Israel as soon as next year, the Vatican said, in what could be a landmark visit for a pontiff who has already won plaudits from the Jewish community for his strong condemnation of anti-Semitism.
UK - Since 2007, 45 teenagers have had gastric bands, bypasses or stomach staples in order to reduce the amount they can eat and help them lose weight. The youngest was 14.
CHINA - A Chinese ratings agency downgraded its US sovereign credit rating Thursday despite Washington's resolution of the debt ceiling deadlock, warning that fundamentals for a potential default remained "unchanged".
USA - The United States has temporarily avoided federal default. As the Republicans lick their wounds, the Democrats are triumphant. But no one should be happy, because the debacle has exposed just how broken the American political system truly is.
USA - Washington’s eleventh hour debt deal has averted an immediate crunch for US and the world, but the crisis now threatens to drag on through three successive deadlines until March.
USA - President Barack Obama launched a ferocious political attack on hardline Tea Party Republicans yesterday, accusing them of betraying the ideals of America by forcing a 16-day government shutdown that cost the economy at least $24 billion (£15 billion).
FRANCE - The leader of France’s far-Right party has vowed that the European Union would “collapse like the Soviet Union” as she conspired to form what would be the most radical faction yet seen in the European parliament.
ISRAEL - Talks in Geneva on Iran’s nuclear program are triggering fears within US intelligence agencies that Israel is hardening its stance on Iran and could conduct a military attack to stave off what the Jewish state believes is a delaying tactic for Tehran to buy time to build nuclear weapons.
IRELAND - Ireland has begun to say no. Its latest austerity budget - the seventh in six years - is a small act of defiance against the scorched earth policies of the EU-IMF Troika.
UK - The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) confirmed it was at the “early stage” of an inquiry into potential rigging of the $5.3 trillion (£3.3 trillion) daily global trade in currencies as part of an international probe into what could be the next scandal to hit the banking industry.