USA - James Holmes, the alleged "Joker" gunman, described his fascination with altered states of mind in a lecture to other students, and dosed up on prescription medication before the atrocity, it emerged on Sunday. The first video footage of the suspect showed him as an awkward, nervous 18-year-old giving a talk at a science summer camp in San Diego on "temporal illusions".

RUSSIA - Customs officials have stopped 300 radioactive cars from getting into Russia from Japan since the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year, as part of an ongoing monitoring operation. "We have inspected 150,000 vehicles as part of this monitoring mission. Three hundred units that have been seized indicated a level of radioactivity,” said Gennady Onishchenko, the head of Russia’s consumer rights watchdog.

USA - The recent slowdown in US economic growth is forcing the Federal Reserve to consider something for which it has always set the bar very high: a third round of quantitative easing. A decision on whether to launch another round of asset purchases remains in the balance as the central bank wrestles with a complicated economic outlook and uncertainty about the costs and benefits of its easing tools.

SPAIN - Forest fires raging in Spain's north-eastern Catalonia region have left three people dead, officials say. Two French nationals drowned in the sea close to the border with France while trying to escape the flames, Catalonia's interior minister said. Strong winds gusting up to 90km/h (55mph) have rendered one fire "out of control", he said. All residents of the county of Alt Emporda - about 135,000 people - have been ordered to stay indoors.

FAR EAST - Global insurance companies are struggling to get a grip on their flood exposure in Asia nearly a year after one of the world's costliest disasters hit Thailand, with executives fearing an even worse event looms in the region. Some firms learnt from the Thai floods, with new defenses built to protect multi-billion dollar industrial estates in the country. Insurance premiums have also gone up, but factory construction in flood-prone areas remains rampant across Asia. Insurance executives say the industry is vulnerable to another major flood, with scientists identifying the coastal plains of southern China as one area at greatest risk.

USA - US prosecutors and European regulators are close to arresting individual traders and charging them with colluding to manipulate global benchmark interest rates, according to people familiar with a sweeping investigation into the rate-rigging scandal. Federal prosecutors in Washington, DC, have recently contacted lawyers representing some of the individuals under suspicion to notify them that criminal charges and arrests could be imminent, said two of those sources who asked not to be identified because the investigation is ongoing.

VATICAN - The Pope's butler has been released from custody and moved to house arrest. The Vatican said that Paolo Gabriele will remain under house arrest pending a decision on whether he should stand trial for leaking confidential papers to the media. He was charged in May after a series of leaks exposed alleged corruption and internal conflicts at the Holy See. Mr Gabriele's lawyer Carlo Fusco said his client had operated on his own in an "act of love" toward the Pope.

SPAIN - Spain's financial woes have deepened despite eurozone finance ministers approving a deal to lend up to €100 billion (£78 billion) to bolster its banks. The heavily-indebted Valencia region requested an undisclosed loan from a new rescue fund set up last Friday. And the yield on Spanish 10-year bonds shot up a quarter percentage point to 7.28%, a rate regarded by analysts as unsustainable in the long run.

BRUSSELS, EUROPE - Excerpts from a speech by President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso to the meeting of ‘Faith Leaders’ in Brussels.

LONDON, UK - Israel reportedly fears Iran or a proxy organization may seek to attack Israelis during the Olympic Games, set to begin later this week, The Sunday Times reported.

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.