USA - HSBC provided a conduit for "drug kingpins and rogue nations", according to a US Senate committee investigating money laundering claims at the bank. Its report said suspicious funds from countries including Mexico, Iran and Syria had passed through the bank. BBC New York business correspondent, Michelle Fleury said, "The scandal over the manipulation of the Libor inter-bank lending rate hasn't exactly inspired confidence and has also been under scrutiny in Congress on the same day. The idea though that one of the world's biggest banks would be facilitating violent crime threatens to cast an even darker shadow over banks and bankers."

USA - On February 24, Ukrainian authorities made an alarming discovery: bones and other human tissues crammed into coolers in a grimy white minibus. Investigators grew even more intrigued when they found, amid the body parts, envelopes stuffed with cash and autopsy results written in English. The seized documents suggested that the remains of dead Ukrainians were destined for a factory in Germany belonging to the subsidiary of a US medical products company, Florida-based RTI Biologics. In the US alone, the biggest market and the biggest supplier, an estimated two million products derived from human tissue are sold each year, a figure that has doubled over the past decade.

USA - The Boy Scouts of America today reaffirmed its policy of excluding gays from joining or being leaders, disappointing gay rights groups. A special committee of Scout executive and adult volunteers formed in 2010 concluded unanimously that the anti-gay policy was the "absolute best" for the 100-year-old organization, national spokesman Deron Smith, told the Associated Press. The scouts' chief executive, Bob Mazzuca, told the Associated Press that both leaders and scouts overwhelmingly support the policy.

USA - The Pentagon will see massive cuts over the next decade to adjust the ever-expanding US deficit. A new study reveals, however, that the immediate impact of those adjustments could cost 2 million Americans their jobs in the next year alone. The Aerospace Industries Association released the findings of a report on Tuesday that suggest that the automatic cuts in federal spending slated to kick in on January 2 have the potential of being far more damaging than imagined.

UK - A team of scientists based in the UK has shown that genetically-modified mosquitoes could prove effective in eradicating mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever, but critics claim that the proposal is being rushed and is risky. Scientists have created male mosquitoes which are genetically modified so that their offspring die before reproducing, or they themselves fail to find a mate. Scientists are in effect creating a sterile mosquito. Scientists at Oxitec’s Oxford headquarters insist that there is no danger and no chance that the genetically-modified mosquitoes could cross mate with other species.

SAN BERNARDINO, USA - The consequences of the city’s fiscal crisis took a trashy turn during a hearing Monday night when San Bernardino officials noted garbage pick-up was among the obligations they might not be able to afford after turning their government into a cash-only operation. City of San Bernardino can no longer pay for anything on credit, such as gasoline for its fleet of garbage pick-up trucks. As a result, taxpayers may be left holding the bag for taking away their trash promptly as early as Wednesday. The city faces a roughly $45 million budget shortfall even after slashing spending.

USA - The Economic Cycle Research Institute in America has doubled down on its recession call. A fresh US slump is not just a risk any longer. It has already begun. Output slowed to stall speed over the winter. The US economy tipped into outright contraction in the second quarter, even before facing the "fiscal cliff" later this year – tightening of $600 billion or 4% of GDP unless action is taken to stop it.

UK - The manipulation of key interest rates by Barclays is just 'the tip of the iceberg', the City's regulator warned yesterday. Barclays was fined a record £290 million and its three most senior managers have been forced to resign over its involvement in the rigging of Libor, the inter-bank lending rate.

USA - America has announced the deployment of a US carrier group to the Gulf as it moved to strengthen its forces surrounding Iran while simultaneously embarking on an diplomatic offensive to reassure Israel of its resolve in the Middle East.

USA - Corn and soybeans in the US Midwest baked in an unrelenting heat wave on Monday with fears rising of big crop losses that will boost food and fuel prices and cut exports and aid from the world's top shipper of the key crops.

USA - It’s been more than 50 years since a drought this extensive has afflicted the Lower 48 states. That’s the conclusion of NOAA’s latest report on drought, released today. Through the end of June, some 56 percent of the continental US was designated in some form of drought, the largest percentage since December, 1956. “... indicators suggest that the 2012 drought is similar to the 1950s drought in extent, pattern, and intensity, although not in duration,” the report said.

UK - Motorists may have been paying too much for their petrol because banks and other traders are likely to have tried to manipulate oil prices in the same way they rigged interest rates, an official report has warned. Politicians and fuel campaigners last night urged the Government to expand its inquiry into the Libor scandal to see whether oil prices have also been falsely pushed up. Concerns are growing about the reliability of oil prices, after a report for the G20 found the market is wide open to “manipulation or distortion”. Traders from banks, oil companies or hedge funds have an “incentive” to distort the market and are likely to try to report false prices, it said.

UK - Heavy rain this summer has destroyed crops and hiked up food prices. The damp conditions and dull June have been devastating for farmers. Fruit and vegetable producers across the UK are struggling to protect their crop and there is a particular shortage of strawberries, peas, broccoli and cauliflowers. It means supermarkets are being forced to buy more supplies from abroad. Worryingly, the UK is becoming more and more reliant on imports like tomatoes, cucumbers, spring onions, runner beans and mushrooms. As a result, the strength of the UK's food chain has been brought into question by the National Farmers' Union (NFU).

EGYPT - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was taunted by chants of "Monica, Monica" by tomato-throwing demonstrators as she visited the Egyptian port city of Alexandria on Sunday. The chants, referring to the Monica Lewinsky scandal when her husband, Bill Clinton, was president, were heard outside the US consulate as she visited for its reopening. "I want to be clear that the United States is not in the business, in Egypt, of choosing winners and losers, even if we could, which, of course, we cannot," Clinton said at the opening of the consulate.

BRUSSELS - Taxes in Greece continue to slip through state scrutiny as some corporations, wealthy Greek-ship owning families, and the Greek Orthodox Church are either exempt or use loopholes to hide millions of euros. In the first five months of 2012, the Greek ministry of finance registered a €300 million shortfall in collected taxes. The shortfall, notes the ministry, is primarily due to corporations having not submitted their taxes on time. The country’s largest property owner - Greek Orthodox Church – is under intense scrutiny following a real-estate scandal that apparently swindled millions of euros from Greek tax payers.