SOMALIA - First, the US State Department offered up to $33 million for help in catching the leaders of radical Islamist group Shabab, which controls much of Somalia. But Shabab has made a counter-proposal: a bounty of 10 camels for [Mr] Barack Obama.
IRAN - Lack of progress in talks between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency is disappointing and it shows Tehran's continued failure to abide by its commitment to the UN nuclear watchdog, a US envoy said on Saturday.
YEMEN - Yemen's military said it launched air strikes on Thursday against Islamist fighters linked to al Qaeda in the south of the country, where residents and aid agencies say a month-old offensive has cut off supplies of food and medicine.
WEST AFRICA - An additional £10 million ($15 million) will be provided by the UK for countries in West Africa facing the threat of drought, the government has announced. Estimates suggest 1.5 million children in the Sahel region face starvation. International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell urged other nations to follow the example of the UK, which has already committed £10 million to the crisis.
USA - Investors are losing faith in the computer-based trading models that made them millions in the bull market years, as Europe's financial convulsions have shown how poorly they cope with the unpredictable.
SPAIN - Spain is to get up to €100 billion ($125 billion; £80 billion) in loans from eurozone funds to try to help shore up its struggling banks. The move was agreed during emergency talks with eurozone finance ministers. Spain's Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said his country would shortly make a formal request for assistance.
IRAN - With Western pressure growing on Bashar Assad over the latest massacres of defenseless women and children in Syria, Iranian officials again are warning the world against any action against the Middle East dictator.
EUROPE - Spending time with top European policymakers at the moment is scary and slightly nauseating, like the final, slow-motion moments before a car accident, when you can see precisely both how you will probably crash and what it would take, if only you could force your paralyzed muscles into action, to swerve to safety.
MIDDLE EAST - Iran and Syria make for strange allies. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, leads a religious administration. Syria's President Bashar al-Assad heads a secular and socialist government. One country is Persian, the other Arab. But since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, the two have found reason to stick together.
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - The personal ordinariate for Australian Anglicans seeking full communion with Rome will get its first ordinary on June 15, the Archdiocese of Melbourne reported. The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, as it is to be named, will be under the patronage of St Augustine of Canterbury who was sent by Pope Gregory the Great in 596 AD to evangelize the English.
USA - What in the world is going on? Yes, we face the very real possibility of an economic collapse in the not-too-distant future. But is it possibly we're already imploding culturally? The country is deep in a full blown political war between Democrats and Republicans, but do we honestly believe either party - or either presidential nominee - knows how to fix the mess we're in?
EUROPE - Half a century ago, no one would’ve predicted this: Germany, who have been accused of twice destroying Europe in the last 100 years, find themselves in a situation where they’re heading a historic shift from a common currency to something resembling a common European state.
UK - David Cameron promises to 'protect' Britain from German plans for a eurozone superstate with common banking and political systems. The Prime Minister dismissed as “nonsense” a suggestion from Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, that the European Union should eventually have a single national identity and described as “nonsense” the idea of loyalty to a common European flag.
EUROPE - Time is running out for Europe. As Spain’s banking crisis deepens, politicians on the continent remain in denial. The only solutions in their mind involve borrowing or subsidies from German taxpayers. With the International Monetary Fund (IMF) acting as their enabler, Europe’s high-debt countries may be able to put off the required reforms, but delaying the inevitable is taking a toll on their economies.
GREECE - A series of vicious slaps and a glass of water to the face were unleashed on two left-wing female deputies by the spokesman for Greece’s neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party during a live TV debate. A warrant for the politician’s arrest has been issued.