The proposal of $15 billion in weapons contracts was allegedly made during the July 31 meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and influential intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Reuters reported. Neither Moscow nor Riyadh has officially commented on the agenda of the talks, but a Thursday AFP report revealed new details of the negotiations.

According to an undisclosed European diplomat, Prince Bandar proposed the deal and told Putin that "whatever regime comes after" Assad will be "completely" in Riyadh’s hands. The Prince reportedly stated that if the deal was accepted, Saudi Arabia would not sign any contracts damaging Russian interests by allowing Gulf countries to transport its gas across Syria to Europe.

The terms included Moscow dropping its support of President Bashar Assad, as well as not opposing any future Security Council resolutions on Syria. "President Putin listened politely to his interlocutor and let him know that his country would not change its strategy," a separate Arab diplomat told AFP.

But defence officials have revealed that three of them – the frigate Westminster and two support vessels – will call in at the British sovereign base at Gibraltar for three days, beginning on August 19. In a show of force, the warships will practise ‘a range of operations’ including ‘deterring adversaries’.

Although diplomatic relations between Britain and Spain over Gibraltar have plunged into the deep freeze, the Ministry of Defence insisted that the mission, called Cougar ’13, is a long-planned exercise. But senior government sources conceded that the timing is convenient since it will reassure the people of Gibraltar after Spain imposed draconian border checks in a dispute over fishing.

And while the deployment could have been delayed to avoid upsetting the Spanish government, it was not.

His frankness contrasts sharply with Tony Blair, who was advised by his spin doctor Alastair Campbell he should not ‘do God’ as it could put voters off. He said: ‘I’m a Christian and I’m an active member of the Church of England, and like all Christians I think I sometimes struggle with some of the sayings and some of the instructions.’

‘But what I think is so good about Jesus’s teachings is there are lots of things that he said that you can still apply very directly to daily life and to bringing up your children. Simple things like do to others as you would be done by; love your neighbour as yourself, the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount. To me they’re still pretty fresh and good instructions... but the particular one that you mention, I find a little bit more difficult.’

After 30 years of a double-digit economic growth average, China now "has arrived at the point," where it translates its "economic strength into political influence and military power," according to last year's colloquium held in the German capital by the Federal College for Security Studies (BAKS).

Various experts have now drawn the conclusion that the Peoples Republic of China's primary objective is to ward off from the China Seas, extraneous powers' offensive operations running counter to China's interests, as well as to protect its own maritime trade routes westward.

Currently, these are under the control of western nations, who, at any time could decide to put Beijing under strong pressure. In fact, Berlin is expanding its military policy activities along China's maritime trade routes. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the EU must enhance its influence in East and Southeast Asia.

And yes, when the Cold War ended Russia was in rough shape. I got the chance to go over there in the early nineties, and at the time Russia was an economic disaster zone. Russian currency was so worthless that I joked that I could go exchange a 20 dollar bill and buy the Kremlin. But since that time Russia has roared back to life. Once Vladimir Putin became president, the Russian economy started to grow very rapidly.

Today, Russia is an economic powerhouse that is blessed with an abundance of natural resources. Their debt to GDP ratio is extremely small, they actually run a trade surplus every year, and they have the second most powerful military on the entire planet. Anyone that underestimates Russia at this point is making a huge mistake.

The Russian Bear is back, and today it is a more formidable adversary than it ever was at any point during the Cold War. Unfortunately, whenever I write an article about Russia I find that most people simply do not get it. They will make statements such as "the Cold War is over" or "Russia is our friend" which show a complete and total lack of understanding of the current geopolitical situation. Russia has been steadily building a stronger relationship with China, and collectively they represent the number one strategic threat to the United States.

It is the latest move to stamp out abuses at the Vatican bank, which handles funds for the Catholic Church. The Pope recently set up a commission to investigate the bank and report back to him personally. Last month the Vatican froze the account of a senior cleric, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, suspected of involvement in money-laundering. He and two others were arrested by Italian police in June on suspicion of trying to move €20 million ($26 million; £17 million) illegally.

Pope Francis's number one priority this summer is to sort out the financial mess at the Vatican bank and a parent body which looks after the financial assets of the Holy See, the BBC's David Willey reports from Rome. The new decree is intended to tackle "money-laundering, the financing of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction", the Vatican said.

The Vatican bank, which is known officially as the Institute for Religious Works, handles the payroll for some 5,000 Vatican employees. It also handles the funds for the central administration of the Catholic Church and holds the accounts of cardinals, bishops, priests, nuns and religious orders around the world. It does not lend money and has assets worth $8.3 billion (£5.4 billion; €6.2 billion).

The announcement came a day after Chinese scientists reported the first likely case of person-to-person transmission of the H7N9 virus, which has killed 43 of the 134 people infected since March according to official figures.

US health authorities said any new H7N9 experiments that seek US funding would undergo a new, strict safety review, after concerns over such research on another bird flu, H5N1, in December 2011 raised fears that terrorists could unleash a virulent lab-grown strain and cause mass deaths.

In an ideal world, such findings might be interpreted as smart women making smart choices, but instead it seems that this research is just adding fuel to the argument that women who don't have children, regardless of the reason, are not just selfish losers but dumb ones as well.

Satoshi Kanazawa, the LSE psychologist behind the research, discussed the findings that maternal urges drop by 25% with every extra 15 IQ points in his book The Intelligence Paradox. In the opening paragraph of the chapter titled "Why intelligent people are the ultimate losers in life", he makes his feelings about voluntary childlessness very clear:

If any value is deeply evolutionarily familiar, it is reproductive success. If any value is truly unnatural, if there is one thing that humans (and all other species in nature) are decisively not designed for, it is voluntary childlessness. All living organisms in nature, including humans, are evolutionarily designed to reproduce. Reproductive success is the ultimate end of all biological existence.

That said then, Kanazawa finds it paradoxical that intelligent women apparently don't possess the desire to pursue what should be the ultimate goal of their biological existence (hence the loser reference). He says that it's not yet known why intelligent women are having less babies but says it's not the reason most people assume, that women with higher IQs are more likely to go to college and have demanding careers. Basically he seems to come to the paradoxical conclusion that intelligent women just aren't all that wise.

Anyone who is genuinely concerned with falling birthrates should be supporting policies such as paid maternity leave, subsidized day care, flexible work schedules, affordable health care and so on that would make it feasible for more women who want babies to have them. As for the women who don't, we should be grateful in the knowledge that they are intelligent enough to make the choice that is best for them and then back off with the judgement.

Unveiling a radical policy of “forward guidance” that has never been tried in the UK, the Bank’s new Canadian Governor committed to keep rates on hold until the official measure of unemployment falls from the current rate of 7.8% to 7%. Mr Carney said it meant that more than 750,000 extra jobs would have to be created before the end of 2016 for rates to start rising again.

The pledge came despite a big improvement in the Bank’s outlook for the UK. It upgraded its growth forecast for this year from 1.2% to 1.4% and for next year from 1.7% to 2.5%. Reflecting the recent strong economic data, Mr Carney said “a renewed recovery is now underway”, pinned largely on an improvement in consumer spending.

However, he was keen to stress that the UK had not reached “escape velocity” – his phrase for self-sustaining growth and the point at which low rates and the £375 billion quantitative easing (QE) programme could be reversed. “This is the slowest recovery on record... There is understandable relief that the economy has begun growing again. But there should be little satisfaction,” he said. “We’re approaching levels of growth that could begin to be described as the historical average.”

“Tepco lacks a sufficient sense of urgency for this crisis,” Shinji Kinjo, a high-level official at the country’s nuclear regulatory watchdog, said Tuesday in an interview. Tepco now says the groundwater is emptying into the plant’s man-made harbor at a rate of 400 tons a day. While the company did not specifically say how much of the water was contaminated, it offered a calculation for the amount of tritium being released that assumed all of the water was contaminated.

Some critics contend that the plant has emitted far more radioactive materials than it is saying, based in part on levels of contaminants discovered in the harbour. Mr Kinjo said that the levels of contamination in the water that had collected in the reactor buildings was too low to account for the radiation levels seen in the groundwater now flowing into the ocean. The most likely source appears to be pools of highly radioactive water that collected in the plant’s maze of underground conduits.

Khamenei praised the “selection of a worthy individual who has more than three decades of service to the system of the Islamic Republic… and who from the time of the revolutionary struggle… has resisted the enemies of the Islamic Revolution.” Outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad left office predicting the complete destruction of Israel was increasingly close at hand. “I swear to God that a ferocious storm is coming and it will uproot the Zionist entity,” Ahmadinejad declared on Friday, which was “Quds Day,” the day Muslims mark each year in opposition to Israel and the Jewish people controlling Jerusalem and vowing to reclaim Jerusalem and all of “Palestine” for Islam.

Also speaking on Friday, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah — a key agent of Iran — also called for the destruction of Israel. “The elimination of Israel is not only a Palestinian interest,” said Nasrallah. “It is the interest of the entire Muslim world and the entire Arab world.” The Hezbollah leader also said Israel is a “cancer” in the region and declared that “the only solution is to destroy it without giving it the opportunity to surrender.”

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu warned that while the face of the Iranian regime has changed, the objectives have not, and hinted that Israel was fully prepared to take military action if necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring and deploying nuclear weapons. “Rouhani’s true face has been revealed earlier than expected,” Netanyahu said. “Even if they will now rush to deny his remarks, this is what the man thinks and this is the plan of the Iranian regime. These remarks by President Rouhani must rouse the world from the illusion that part of it has been caught up in since the Iranian elections.”

“The President there has changed but the goal of the regime has not: To achieve nuclear weapons in order to threaten Israel, the Middle East and the peace and security of the entire world. A country that threatens the destruction of the State of Israel must not be allowed to possess weapons of mass destruction.”

Rouhani is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Ahmadinejad was a wolf in wolf’s clothing. Rouhani is perceived widely in the White House and in the Western media as a moderate. But he is certainly not. He was part of the inner circle of the Ayatollah Khomeini. He has been a long-time member of the inner circle of the pro-terrorism, pro-Radical Islam leader of Iran, the Ayatollah Khamenei.

But perhaps the man who knew Rouhani best was his eldest son who committed suicide a number of years ago, and this is what he said in his suicide note: “I hate your government, your lies, your corruption, your religion, your double acts and your hypocrisy. I am ashamed to live in such environment where I am forced to lie to my friends each day, telling them that my father isn’t part of all of this. Telling them my father loves this nation, whereas I believe this to be not true. It makes me sick seeing you, my father, kiss the hand of Khamenei.”

New plans from Brussels threaten the German economy according to the "Made in Germany" label. "The label 'Made in Germany' is in serious danger," said the head of the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), Eric Schweitzer, the "world".

Anton Börner, president of the trade association, BDI, warned that the EU is "trying to compromise through the back door under the guise of consumer protection, our proven German quality indicator". Börner warned the agency responsible for the plans EU Commission: "Hands off 'Made in Germany'!"

Shortly afterwards Downing Street announced that Mr Rajoy had agreed to scale down strict new border controls between Spain and Gibraltar which have caused long traffic jams for residents of the Rock. But within minutes a statement from the Spanish government made no mention of any concessions to Britain and defended border checks.

A later call between Foreign Secretary William Hague and his opposite number Jose Garcia-Margallo – who recently threatened a £43 crossing fee – seemed to have been less cordial in tone. The disagreement flared after claims an artificial reef of concrete blocks created by Gibraltar to protect its waters has damaged fishing grounds and nets used by Spanish fishermen.

Mr Cameron said his 15-minute conversation with Mr Rajoy was “clear and constructive”. Mr Cameron added: “We agreed to make some progress but I will only really be satisfied when this is properly de-escalated and the interests of people in Gibraltar are properly looked after.” But a statement by the government in Madrid insisted the border controls were legal and necessary to stop smuggling, although it did not explicitly refuse to reduce them.

The Saudi politician has orchestrated his country’s foreign policy in recent months. "Bandar offered to intensify energy, military and economic cooperation with Moscow," a senior Syrian opposition figure told Reuters. "Bandar sought to allay two main Russian fears: that Islamist extremists will replace Assad, and that Syria would become a conduit for Gulf, mainly Qatari, gas at the expense of Russia."

The $15 billion figure was touted by a representative of the anti-Assad opposition, which Saudi Arabia has strongly backed throughout the rebellion in Syria which has lasted more than two years. Meanwhile, a Gulf source claimed that no specific figure was involved.

Moscow and Riyadh, which traditionally acquires its arms from the United States, have had a massive contract on ice since 2008. Under Saudi Arabia’s terms, Russia would supply a huge assortment of equipment, including 150 T-90 tanks and more than 100 attack helicopters. In the past, Moscow has supplied billions of dollars worth of weapons to Assad, as well as maintained a naval base in Syria.