WASHINGTON - The future of U.S. sea power is threatened by the erosion of the country's industrial base and its ability to build warships - even if the political will to do so is revived, says former Navy Secretary James, H. Webb Jr., now a Democratic senator from Virginia.
INTERNATIONAL - What he wanted to know was whether his high-powered visitors, among them Larry Page of Google, Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia and Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, thought global warming threatened the planet.
CHERBOURG, FRANCE - French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged on Friday to maintain a strong nuclear weapons program in order to defend his country against threats such as the possibility of a nuclear-armed Iran.
CUTUD, PHILIPPINES - Filipinos including a 15-year-old were nailed to crosses and scores more whipped their backs into a bloody pulp on Friday in a gory ritual to mark the death of Jesus Christ.
SAUDI ARABIA - is to retrain its 40,000 prayer leaders (also known as imams) in an effort to counter militant Islam. Details of the plan were revealed in the influential Saudi newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat.
UK - The leader of the Catholic church in Scotland has urged Gordon Brown to rethink "monstrous" plans to allow hybrid human-animal embryos.
USA - "THIS RECESSION WILL BE LONG AND DEEP and when we get out of it, we'll have inflation." Kenneth Rogoff, Harvard University. THIS IS CLEARLY A RUN ON AMERICA, its financial institutions, and of course the dollar.
LONDON - A leading City investment bank has uncovered a £1.4 billion scam by rogue traders desperately trying to protect their bonuses.
CAIRO, EGYPT - Pan-Arab Al-Jazeera TV on Thursday broadcast what it described as excerpts from a new audio tape by Osama bin Laden in which the Al Qaeda leader slammed Palestinian negotiations with Israel and urged holy war for the liberation of Palestine.
LONDON - The Bank of England has injected an extra £5bn into the money markets in an attempt to ease concerns about the liquidity of the banking system. The loans were added to the normal weekly funds offered to commercial banks, making £11bn now available.
JERUSALEM - Archaeologists working in the City of David in what was once the main drainage channel in Jerusalem have found a silver coin used to pay the half-shekel head tax.
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican rejected on Thursday fresh accusations from Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden that the publication of cartoons mocking Islam's Prophet Mohammad was part of a "new crusade" involving Pope Benedict.
THE HAGUE - The Netherlands is to refuse to sign off on the European Union's accounts in an attempt to force national governments to take more responsibility for the European money they spend.
LONDON - The hunt was on last night for greedy City traders who made hundreds of millions of pounds by forcing a dramatic plunge in the share price of Britain's biggest mortgage lender.
DUBAI - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden threatened the European Union with grave punishment on Wednesday for publication of cartoons mocking Islam's Prophet Mohammad.