USA - Many local governments across the US face steep budget deficits as they struggle to pay off debts accumulated over a number of years. As a last resort, some filed for bankruptcy.
USA - On Tuesday night, a flash mob of some 40 to 50 teenagers invaded the busiest and most tourist-centric part of Hollywood, smashing windows, stealing cellphones, and assaulting passersby.
EUROPE - GM giant Monsanto is effectively pulling out of Europe after years of delays in trying to secure approval for ‘Frankenstein food’ crops. The US-based company is dropping all of its requests to launch insect and pesticide-resistant forms of corn, sugar beet and soya beans.
SPAIN - In 30 cities across Spain thousands of people protested government corruption and called for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s resignation. In solidarity with the demonstrations, ‘hacktivist’ group Anonymous knocked out the ruling People’s Party website.
GERMANY - Germany's Wolfgang Schäuble wants Europe to be his legacy. But his efforts to reform the EU and save the euro face many obstacles. One of them is his boss, Chancellor Angela Merkel.
USA - The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or Fatca, is forcing millions of Americans living abroad to reconsider their US citizenship, a lawyer, Colleen Graffy, writes in the Wall Street Journal.
USA - Former US President Jimmy Carter lambasted US intelligence methods as undemocratic and described Edward Snowden’s NSA leak as “beneficial” for the country.
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - An Islamic cleric warned the United States government last Friday in a sermon at the Temple Mount’s Al Aqsa Mosque to “take its hands off Muslims.”
USA - In what may be the single largest mass bumblebee die-off on record, some 50,000 plus bees were recently found littering the parking lot of a Target store in Wilsonville, Oregon recently after a landscaping company sprayed surrounding trees with the insecticide Safari.
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin (Likud) on Wednesday dismissed recent reports that Israel is planning to hand over control of the Tomb of King David to the Vatican.
UK - Britain has to be prepared to “go to war” if it wishes to restrain the Syrian regime by implementing no-fly zones and arming the rebels, the outgoing head of the armed forces warns today.
UK - The terror threat can be exaggerated because it can boost funds and careers for politicians, the military and the police, a watchdog has warned.
CHINA - If you think China's Communist Party fully understands the mess it has created by ramping credit to 200 percent of GDP and running the greatest investment bubble known to man, read its shockingly complacent response to warnings from the International Monetary Fund.
UK - Gay rights activists are celebrating an “historic” moment after same-sex marriage was officially legalised – but churches claimed marriage has been “stripped” of its meaning.
UK/USA - The end of quantitative easing in the Western world loomed closer after both the UK and the US signalled a potential retreat from the controversial crisis policy.