USA - On what forecast do brilliant minds from the right, left and middle agree? The looming collapse of Western civilization. That's according to a new DVD set called "The Fall Of America And The Western World," released by The Entertainment Career Connection Inc to serve not only as a warning but as a teaching tool.
UK - The leaders of some of Britain's biggest unions saw their pay and perks rocket by up to 30 per cent last year, despite the impact of the recession on their members. Official figures reveal that some union barons have fared far better in the downturn than the 'fat cat' company directors they criticise, whose pay rose an average 10 per cent last year. Many union chiefs are earning six-figure pay packages.
UK - In the beginning, the elders gathered and set up a mighty cry: How are we to get young people into church? And, lo, they decreed: Let there be rap. In a move which risks ridicule, the Church of England has turned to street culture in the hope of attracting new blood.
MIDDLE EAST - The anti-Semitic blogosphere and many Arab and Muslim media outlets are aflutter in recent days over accusations of an international Jewish conspiracy to kidnap Algerian children and harvest their organs.
USA - This story has everything you could ever want – corruption, sleazy actions at tax-funded organizations, firings, government ties, sex, hookers. IT IS A NETWORK NEWS DIRECTOR'S DREAM. Imagine the ratings. BUT ALMOST NO ONE IS COVERING IT.
INDONESIA - Indonesia's province of Aceh has passed a new law making adultery punishable by stoning to death, a member of the province's parliament has said. The law also imposes severe sentences for rape, homosexuality, alcohol consumption and gambling.
UK - The head of Britain's trade union movement has rejected government claims that the UK is coming out of recession. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber told the body's Congress in Liverpool that recovery would only take root when unemployment starts to fall.
USA - Cheers to Representative Joe Wilson, Republican for South Carolina, for having the courage, in reality, the guts, to call Barack Obama what he is – a liar. Wilson's two words – "You lie" – came during the president's speech to a joint session of Congress, which in reality was another Obama sales pitch to promote votes for his drastic revision of health care for this country.
SOUTH AFRICA - Broadband promised to unite the world with super-fast data delivery - but in South Africa it seems the web is still no faster than a humble pigeon.
UK - A British film about Charles Darwin has failed to find a US distributor because his theory of evolution is too controversial for American audiences, according to its producer.
USA - A new tape purported to be an "address to the American public" from Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, has been released by the militant network's media branch, according to a US-based terror monitoring group.
USA - Scientist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug, who developed a type of wheat that saved one billion people from starvation, has died. Borlaug, 95, died on Saturday from complications of cancer at his Dallas home.
UK - A growing lack of adult authority has bred a 'spoilt generation' of children who believe grown-ups must earn their respect, a leading psychologist has warned. The rise of the 'little emperor' spans the class divide and is fuelling ills from childhood obesity to teenage pregnancy, Aric Sigman's research shows.
USA - Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize- winning economist, said the US has failed to fix the underlying problems of its banking system after the credit crunch and the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
UK - Public spending cuts would create a "double-quick, double-dip" recession and push unemployment over four million, the TUC's leader has warned. Brendan Barber called it "astonishing" that demands for reducing the budget deficit were being seen as a priority, rather than funding economic revival.