UK - The UK Scout Association is considering an alternative oath for atheists. The 105-year-old movement is launching a consultation to see if members would back a Scout Promise for those who feel unable to pledge a "duty to God".

UK - London should be stripped of its status as Europe's main financial hub and sidelined to allow the eurozone to “control” transactions within the 17-nation bloc, the governor of the Bank of France has said.

CHINA - Chinese investors have purchased the elite Chateau Bellfont-Belcier vineyard in the Bordeaux region of France. Similar deals have caused outrage among some French politicians who are concerned the country is selling its wine heritage. The sale of the 20 hectare Bellfont-Belcier vineyard was first reported in September, and was priced at up to two million euros per hectare according to the French media. Le Figaro newspaper describes the investor as simply Wang. The wine from the Chateau is the best quality and is classified as Grand Cru, and it’s the first such in the region to be bought by the Chinese.

CHINA - In just five years, China surpassed the US as leading a trading partner in the world. With 124 countries considering China their largest trading partner and only 76 having that relationship with the US, the Asian country’s influence is on the rise. In 2006, the US was the larger trading partner for 127 countries, while China dominated among 70. In 2011, the numbers reversed, with China dominating trade among 124 countries and the US being the top trade partner for only 76, the Associated Press reported. Some US allies even consider China their top trading partner, including Australia and South Korea.

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - Israel says it will not back down over a plan to erect 3,000 houses in disputed land on the West bank and East Jerusalem, an official stated. The plan stirred international condemnations with Israeli envoys being summoned by several countries.

NATO - NATO foreign ministers will agree on Tuesday to send Patriot missiles to beef up Turkey's air defenses and calm Turkey's fears that it could come under missile attack, possibly with chemical weapons, from Syria, diplomats said. Turkey last month asked NATO for Patriots, which can be used to intercept missiles and planes, after weeks of talks with allies about how to shore up security on its 900-km (560-mile) border with Syria, which is immersed in civil war.

INDIA/CHINA - India has declared itself ready to deploy naval vessels to the South China Sea to protect its oil-exploration interests there, a potential new escalation of tensions in a disputed area where fears of armed conflict have been growing steadily. India's naval chief made the statement on Monday just as Vietnam's state oil and gas company, Petrovietnam, accused Chinese boats of sabotaging an exploration operation by cutting a seismic cable being towed behind a Vietnamese vessel.

PHILIPPINES - More than 40,000 people have been moved into shelter as a powerful typhoon hits the southern Philippines. Typhoon Bopha made landfall on Mindanao early on Tuesday, bringing heavy rain and wind gusts of 210 km/h (130mph). The storm has caused widespread power cuts, travel disruption and flooding in areas at risk of landslides. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Bopha comes a year after Typhoon Washi killed more than 1,500 people in the southern Philippines.

GERMANY - David McAllister speaks English with a distinct Scottish brogue and has a name that most Germans struggle to pronounce. But he is already a powerful figure in the centre-Right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), as leader of Lower Saxony, one of the country's richest and politically most powerful states. As the CDU opens its annual conference in his home state tomorrow (Tuesday), Mr McAllister will be presented as the standard bearer of Chancellor Angel Merkel's efforts to win a third general election victory next autumn. "He is the next in line for Angela Merkel's job. Right now he has the star power in German politics," said Dirk Banse, a Hanover political reporter.

UK - A top Bank of England official has told the BBC the banking crisis has been as bad for the economy as a world war - and that bankers' pay should fall.

EUROPE/VATICAN - All references to Europe’s Christian character have been expunged by the EU bureaucrats. Europe is now officially secular. Pope Benedict XVI identified our real crisis with terrifying clarity: “The EU is godless. But then it is unthinkable that the EU could build a common European house while ignoring Europe’s identity. Europe is a historical, cultural and moral identity before it is a geographic, economic or political reality. It is an identity built on a set of values which Christianity played a part in moulding.”

EUROPE/ISRAEL - International pressure is mounting against Israeli settlement plans in a strategically sensitive area near East Jerusalem. UN head Ban Ki-moon called it a ‘fatal blow’ to a two-state solution, while the UK and France may withdraw envoys from Israel. This comes as Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the construction of thousands of new homes in Jewish settlements in the area known as E1, between Ma’aleh Adumim and Jerusalem – a step widely seen as retaliation for recognition of Palestine as a non-member state by the United Nations. “This time it won’t just be a condemnation, there will be real action taken against Israel,” a senior European diplomat told Haaretz daily.

ISRAEL - Israel has seized more than $120 million (£75 million) in tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority in response to last week's overwhelming vote at the UN general assembly to recognise the state of Palestine. The move came as the PA president, Mahmoud Abbas, returned to cheering crowds in Ramallah in the West Bank following Thursday's vote, in which 138 countries backed enhanced "non-member state" status for Palestine. Only nine countries opposed the move and 41 abstained. The financial sanction is Israel's second punitive response to the vote. On Friday, it announced a big settlement expansion programme.

VATICAN - Vatican clergy and employees will be issued with an identity card complete with a microchip-tracking device in sweeping new security measures designed to prevent a repeat of the Vatileaks scandal. Much tighter controls have already been introduced for anyone seeking access or photocopies of the Holy See's archives, dossiers and documents. The Papal Apartments, which include the living quarters of Pope Benedict XVI and the offices of his personal staff inside the Apostolic Palace, are totally off limits to anyone without strict authorisation.

USA - The US Navy has executed the first launch of a stealth drone set to be the first robot aircraft piloted by artificial intelligence. The “killer robot” might be the next step in the development of machines with the power to decide who lives or dies. Landing on a flight deck just might be the most difficult thing a naval pilot can do. But if the United States Navy has its way, it might be an operation no pilot ever has to complete again. After five-years in the making, the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) demonstrator completed its first land-based catapult launch, “marking the start for a new era of naval aviation,” the navy announced on Thursday.