USA - America’s largest bio-agriculture company and the biggest retailer in the country are joining forces, but a happy ending isn’t necessarily in sight. Walmart will soon be stocking their shelves with GMO corn made by Monsanto.
USA - President Obama wasn’t the only big winner on Tuesday: the Monsanto Co and the billion-dollar business behind genetically modified foods were victorious in California, where a measure that would've required the labeling of GMOs lost at the polls. Proposition 37, a state-wide initiative that aimed to increase consumer awareness about the food industry’s growing use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), was defeated by a margin of 53 to 47 percent, with nearly all of the polls accounted for Wednesday morning.
BRUSSELS, EUROPE - European finance ministers have reached a deal on rules for supervising eurozone banks ahead of an EU summit. Around 200 of the biggest banks will come under the direct oversight of the European Central Bank, which will act as chief supervisor of eurozone banks. The agreement - a key step towards banking union - will be put before European leaders later on Thursday.
USA - The Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced a new easing program to boost the US economy and said for the first time that it will keep interest rates near zero until unemployment falls below a newly established threshold of 6.5 percent.
VATICAN - ‘Christian Unity: illusion or promise? Ecumenical aspects of the Year of Faith’ That was the title of a lecture given at the Lateran University on Monday by Swiss theologian Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican's top astronomer has some assurances to offer: The world won't be ending in about two weeks, despite predictions to the contrary. The Reverend Jose Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory, wrote in Wednesday's Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that "it's not even worth discussing" doomsday scenarios based on the Mayan calendar that are flooding the Internet ahead of the purported December 21 apocalypse.
UK - Today's Census figures show that 176,632 people in England and Wales identify themselves as Jedi Knights, making it the most popular faith in the "Other Religions" category on the Census and the seventh most popular faith overall.
USA - The Kansas City Star, in a yearlong investigation, found that the beef industry is increasingly relying on a mechanical process to tenderize meat, exposing Americans to higher risk of E. coli poisoning. The industry then resists labeling such products, leaving consumers in the dark. The result: Beef in America is plentiful and affordable, spun out in enormous quantities at high speeds, but it's a bonanza with hidden dangers. E. coli 0157:H7 is a potentially deadly bacterium that can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration and, in severe cases, kidney failure. The very young, seniors and people with weak immune systems are most at risk.
BRUSSELS, EUROPE - The relationship between the US and Europe has historically been about diplomacy. But in these economically-straitened times, the focus on foreign policy has shifted. Indeed, negotiations on a bilateral trade accord are set to be at the heart of the relationship between the US and the EU in the second term of US President Barack Obama's administration. To be honest, it is surprising that the US is one of only a handful of World Trade Organisation (WTO) members not to have a free trade deal with the EU.
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - Europe has “slapped itself in the face” by ignoring Hamas’ threats as it ignored the Nazi death camps in the Holocaust, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman charged on Tuesday, a day after Europe condemned Israel for construction plans for Jews in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.
LONDON, UK - Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain faced more pressure over his country’s fraught relationship with the European Union on Monday when an influential former cabinet minister said Britain should threaten to quit the bloc if it cannot negotiate much looser ties.
BRUSSELS, EUROPE - The EU's justice commissioner, Viviane Reding, said in comments published Monday that she views a "United States of Europe" as the "right vision" for overcoming the current crisis over the medium term, according to German daily Rheinische Post. She said that means that the European Commission has to become a European government, particularly in economic policy, according to the newspaper. The European Parliament would watch over the commission, she added.
PARIS, FRANCE - It was a political protest with shock value, the likes of which has never been seen on French TV news: a group of young people stormed a mosque in the city of Portiers, going to the roof and unfurling a banner calling for a national referendum on Muslim immigration.
UK - The number of foreign-born residents in England and Wales has risen by nearly three million since 2001 to 7.5 million people, the 2011 census shows. The most common birthplaces outside of the UK for residents are India, Poland and Pakistan. The number of ethnic white British has dropped to 80%. The number of people living in England and Wales is up 7% to 56.1 million. The Office for National Statistics said the findings showed a "diverse" and "changing" picture. Muslims now make up 4.8% of the population of England and Wales.
USA - One in three homeless people in Boston are clinically obese, says a survey by Harvard and Oxford universities. The study supports the “hunger-obesity paradox” that flags obesity among the poor as the source of increasing health problems in the US. Researchers tested the body mass index (BMI) of 5,632 homeless men and women in the city of Boston, revealing that over a third of those tested were obese. “This study suggests that obesity may be the new malnutrition of the homeless in the United States,” wrote the researchers, led by Harvard Medical School. They found that only 1.6 percent of the homeless surveyed could be classified as underweight.