IRAN - Just over half of Iran's parliament has backed a draft law to block the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to close the Gulf to oil tankers in retaliation against European sanctions. Lawmaker Javad Karimi Qodoosi, who drafted the document, said 150 of parliament's 290 members had signed the bill, describing the strait as "the world's lock" to which Iran holds the key, the lawmaker said.

JAPAN - A company charged with decontaminating the devastated Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant encouraged its workers to falsely lower their radiation dosimeter readings by covering the devices with lead, according to a leaked tape of an internal meeting. A senior executive gave the team at the site lead boxes that they were told to make into shields. Fukushima was severely damaged during a tsunami and earthquake last March. Three of its reactors suffered full meltdowns, releasing potentially fatal doses of radiation exceeding the normal levels by a factor of thousands. The government says it will launch an investigation.

CHINA - The heaviest rainfall to hit China's capital Beijing in 60 years has left 10 people dead and stranded thousands at the main airport. The deluge struck on Saturday afternoon and continued into the night, flooding major roads, state media said. Roof collapses, lightning strikes and electrocution from downed power lines were among the causes of the deaths. State news agency Xinhua said 460mm (18.1 in) fell in the capital's Fangshan district. It said 14,500 people, mostly in outlying districts, had to be evacuated.

RUSSIA - Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed the bill ratifying the country's accession into the World Trade Organization after 18 years of complicated negotiations. The measure making Russia the 156th WTO member will become law within 30 days, after the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, approved it on July 10 and the upper house, the Federation Council, on Wednesday. Under the agreement, Russia would reduce average import tariffs to 7.8% from 10% and open up investment in sectors such as telecommunications.

USA - Study estimates staggering size of offshore economy. Private banks help wealthiest to move cash into havens. A global super-rich elite has exploited gaps in cross-border tax rules to hide an extraordinary £13 trillion ($21 trillion) of wealth offshore – as much as the American and Japanese GDPs put together – according to research commissioned by the campaign group Tax Justice Network.

RUSSIA - Moscow Region is closing half of its landfills as they are overfilled with garbage. The news has sparked fears of a rubbish crisis in the Russian capital. “As many as 18 landfills out of 41 are overfilled with garbage,” Valery Shkurov, the head of Moscow Region utilities, told Rossiyskaya Gazeta. “We are closing them in 2012. Another 14 will be closed in 2013-15.” With Moscow dumping over 9.7 million tonnes of garbage every year, the remaining landfills will be filled in three to four years.

USA - Some world cities are becoming crippled by garbage, and the problem is only worsening as governments struggle to cope. According to a new report by the World Bank, urban rubbish generation is set to increase twofold over the next 15 years. The authors of the report warn of an impending crisis as the countries with the highest cleanup bills will be among the poorer nations, who are the least able to afford it.

USA - Military suicides reach terrifying rate. More US soldiers are losing their lives to suicide than from enemy forces, the Pentagon reports this week. In just the first 155 days of the year, 154 soldiers have committed suicide, a statistic only made more ghastly by comparing it to the number of American troops killed by insurgency this year — the website iCasualties.org reports that only 139 US soldiers died in battle this year.

USA - All of the US has turned to Aurora, Colorado after a Friday morning shooting left more than a dozen movie-goers dead. But while the latest massacre has scarred millions of Americans, it's also just another item added to a list of gruesome sprees. According to an ongoing tally kept by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the United States is experiencing an average of around 20 mass shootings each year.

NEW ZEALAND - The US Geological Survey says a magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck Saturday off the east coast of New Zealand at a depth of 20 kilometers. No immediate reports of any injuries or damage have been released. In February 2011, a 6.3 earthquake near the country’s southern city of Christchurch caused massive destruction and the deaths of 185 people.

JAPAN - An unmanned HTV3 spacecraft has been launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in South Western Japan. The vehicle is to deliver its 4.6-ton cargo of food, clothes and equipment to the International Space Station on July 27.

EUROPE - The European Central Bank turned up the heat on Greece on Friday ahead of a review of its bailout program, saying it would stop accepting Greek bonds and other collateral used by Greek banks to tap ECB funding, at least until after the review. Greek leaders this week pushed back talks to hammer out nearly 12 billion euros of austerity cuts demanded by their lenders until next week after a deal proved elusive.

BRUSSELS, EUROPE - Intergenerational Solidarity was at the heart of this year’s annual summit meeting of European Faith leaders with the Presidents of EU Institutions. This was the eighth such high-level meeting, and took place at the invitation of President José Manuel Barroso and was co-chaired by Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council and László Surján, Vice-President of the European Parliament.

VATICAN - Anti Mafia prosecutors have asked the secretive Vatican Bank to disclose details of an account held by a priest in connection with a money laundering and fraud investigation, it emerged on Sunday.

USA - This Libor thing has really annoyed people. Yet anyone who cared to look knew that Libor was a wobbly benchmark. Of course, the blatancy of the rigging, and the arrogance of the banks, has been a big factor in the public outcry.