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Updated 18:20. Wednesday news gathered by GenevaLunch from sources around the world

• Queen Rania of Jordan told Oprah on the US talk show that her husband barbecues and she prefers not to be addressed as "your Majesty," but she mainly talked about her effort to change the world, especially for women, saying "In my mind, poverty is a ‘she.’" CNN
• Barack Obama, on his first pre-presidential election visit outside the US, referred to Israel as a "miracle" during his Wednesday visit to Jerusalem, and he pledged "staunch support," reports Reuters, while "holding only a low-profile meeting with Palestinian leaders."
• The Italian parliament has approved a controversial measure that provides legal immunity to the country’s four top political leaders while they are in office, providing relief for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who faces corruption charges that he calls politically motivated. RTE, Ireland
• [Reuters video] Radovan Karodzic was captured in Belgrade Monday sporting a disguise of a long flowing beard and glasses, after 11 years on the run. His lawyer says he will fight extradition.
• Double-digit inflation is already hurting India and Vietnam and other Asian economies are starting to also see the inflationary impact of rising food and oil prices, reports the International Herald Tribune.
• The 38 million annual prescriptions for antibiotics in the UK and Wales must be reduced, the government is telling doctors, blaming the unnecessarily high level of use for superbugs. BBC
• Why Islam ads, a campaign that is scheduled to start running in September in New York, is causing a stir, not because of the content but because of some of the individuals behind it. CNN
• Simmering controversy in Canada over the use of tasers (called electronic control devices by the police) was sparked again Tuesday  when a Winnipeg man died after being shot by a taser. It is not yet known what role the taser played in his death. The death of a man after being shot with a taser at Vancouver Airport in September 2007 caused an outcry at the time. The Globe & Mail Meanwhile, in Mississippi in the US a police officer, now fired, may be charged with homicide after coroner said a man he shot nine times with a Taser who was already handcuffed, probably died after the seventh shot. CNN
• The Australian Bureau of Statistics says that the country’s cities are growing faster than outlying areas, that Australians are big on volunteering, with adults offering their time one evening every two weeks, and that the number of visits to alternative medicine practitioners has doubled in 10 years. Sydney Morning Herald
• Philadelphia has been watching an unusual TV news story, the tale of two news anchors, one a woman fired for a series of embarrassing incidents and now the other, a man, under investigation by the FBI for trying to get the woman in trouble:  he was charged Monday with hacking into her computer 537 times, well beyond the level of simple curiosity, the government noted. Information Week

Tuesday news by GenevaLunch gathered from sources around the world

• Radovan Karadzic has been arrested for war crimes, in the suburbs of Belgrade as he was changing buses, after 11 years on the run. He was considered one of the most wanted men in the world, accused of the deaths of 11,000 fellow citizens during his tenure as Bosnian Serb wartime president, when Sarajevo was bombed relentlessly during a siege that lasted 43 months. Reuters
• The sentiment in the Middle East appears to be clear: if Barack Obama is elected president of the United States, nothing substantial will change in the US-Israel relationship, reports the International Herald Tribune.
• Argentina has renationalized its airline Aerolineas, 20 years after it was privatized. BBC
• Tropical Storm Dolly is moving towards Texas and Mexico, with hurricane warnings issued for a 200-mile stretch of coast. CNN
• World trade talks this week in Geneva are at a crunch point for Africa, writes guest columnist Nkululeko Khumalo, a senior researcher on trade policy for the South African Institute of International Affairs in Johannesburg, in AllAfrica.
• [Reuters video] Hundreds of thousands of people marched in Colombia to protest kidnappings and hostages being held, with singer Shakira appealing for freedom for everyone.

Updated 15:44. Monday news by GenevaLunch, gathered from sources around the world

• Paul McCartney wowed the crowd with his classics, and he told Quebec’s citizens they should smoke the Pipes of Peace, after protests over his visit to the Plains of Abraham, where the British beat the French in 1759. CBC, BBC
• Carl Icahn will join the board of Yahoo, and the entire board will stand for election at the company’s annual general meeting 1 August, ending a battle between the board and the investor, who has a 5% share in the company. Financial Times, UK
• The US voting system may have trouble in November when a flood of new voters coupled with new technology in 11 states will put strains on the system, reports the New York Times. Long lines and late vote tallies could be a result, says the paper.
• Two violent bus blasts an hour apart in downtown Kunming, Yunnan in China, have killed three at least two people and injured 14 in an incident that is likely to fuel Chinese government security concerns ahead of the Olympics, which start in two weeks. The blasts appear to have been intentional. images, China.org  According to AFP there have also been protests in Yunnan in recent days. (See GenevaLunch blog, Editor’s Notepad, for word just in from Liam Bates in SW China)
• Zimbabwe’s two political parties are close to signing a deal that would provide a framework for talks, reports the BBC, with the outcome of the presidential election in the country still unresolved.
• An unnamed "senior French official" has outlined to the Financial Times the three-point programme drawn up by France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy to make the European Central Bank more politically accountable.
• Seven newspapers and France Télécom have joined forces to test a pilot programme that will allow people to read newspapers on a small screen, about half the size of an A4 sheet of paper. The Read & Go device resembles Amazon’s Kindle which offers US buyers 19 newspapers, but the French newspapers come with a difference: advertisements. International Herald Tribune
• Bombs have gone off in four Spanish resorts, part of what Reuters calls ETA’s summer bomb campaigns. There were no injuries, but areas in the resorts were closed off while investigations are carried out.
• US Senator and "presumptive" presidential candidate Barack Obama has arrived in Iraq for talks with military officials on the second leg of a tour that has so far taken him to Afghanistan. CNN
• Pope Benedict XVI met with a small group of victims sexually abused by the clergy during his trip to Australia. Sydney Morning Herald

Friday news by GenevaLunch gathered from sources around the world

• Britney Spears and Kevin Federline have apparently reached a settlement over custody of their children, in one of the most tabloid headline-making custody cases of the day. Reuters
• South Africa’s former President Nelson Mandela and the man "instrumental"  in ending apartheid is celebrating his 90th birthday in his home village, after a series of celebrations around the world. BBC
• Jean Ping of the African Union Commission, meets Friday with South African President Thabo Mbeki to discuss his role as the sole mediator in talks in South Africa between Zimbabwe’s two parties. The commission is pushing for a second mediator amid concerns that Mbeki favours Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PDF party. AllAfrica
• The US Environmental Protection Agency has issued a new report saying that climate change is having a significant impact. An official told Reuters ""Climate change poses real risk to human health and the human systems that support our way of life in the United States."
• China has been increasing its drug safety surveillance and by the end of 2007 it had 64,000 drug supervisors responsible for enforcement, reports Xinhua. 
• Gary Dean, a British millionaire, has posted online details of settlement when he and his wife of 20 years divorced, to end what he calls malicious rumours, reports the Times, UK. Ed. note: in Switzerland, this would probably be illegal because of privacy laws: "Blogbashing your ex, don’t do it in Switzerland," GenevaLunch
• Cina Ma, a five-year-old girl kidnapped Monday in New Zealand, who has been in headlines all week in the country, was found safe and returned to her family. Police are filing charges against a 25-year-old man. NZ Herald
• The FBI in the US is investigating the terrible death by fire of a man in Louisiana 40 years ago, part of some 100 unsolved crimes mainly involving blacks in the southern US, that the Justice Department decided to pursue last year. CNN

Thursday news by GenevaLunch gathered from sources around the world

• Sir Cliff Richard and Sir Paul McCartney will see their copyrights extended to cover their lifetimes, under new European Union laws announced Wednesday that protect artists for 95 years, up from the current 50. Times, UK
• Wall Street had a good day, up 2.5% at closing, helped by lower oil prices and US bank shares putting in their best performance in 16 years as Wells Fargo results were unexpectedly good. New York Times, Reuters
• Hezbollah cheers its soldiers, released by Israel, and works to rally Lebanon to its side. International Herald Tribune
• Iran and Iraq will hold the highest level talks in three decades Saturday (see GenevaLunch story on Geneva meeting) AFP
• A BBC undercover investigative news team in Britain has found a large community of illegal immigrants in London, surrounded by an active criminal network.
• An Australian man who began to drown his broken heart in beer five years ago and racked up seven drunk driving charges in the process and a 2,500 beers a month habit, has been banned by a judge from buying or even holding a beer. Reuters

[Update 18.10] Wednesday news by GenevaLunch gathered from sources around the world

• US inflation, up 1.1% in June, rose by the largest amount for a single month in 26 years. BBC, Washington Post
• Israel and Hezbollah today swap prisoners, in a UN-mediated exchange.  BBC and background feature story in the International Herald Tribune. According to 20 Minutes (Fre), the CICR (International Red Cross, based in Geneva) delivered the bodies of two Israeli soldiers Wednesday morning.
• A 10-year-old divorced bride in Yemen, and her family, tell CNN the child’s story, in the context of families marrying off their daughters young in the country.
• American League 4, National League 3 in baseball’s All-Star game in the US. New York Times
• Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke in what the Financial Times calls "sobering testimony" listed what he called the "numerous difficulties" the US economy faces including higher inflation and growth risks, in his semi-annual report Tuesday.
• The price of oil fell $6.45 a barrel, the largest drop in 17 years, on fears of a drop in US demand, following Fed chief Ben Bernanke’s speech. CNN
• The first film footage of interrogations at Guantanamo Bay, selected excerpts released by a Canadian court at the request of the lawyer’s for Omar Khad, 16 at the time, is provoking strong reactions in Canada, showing the youth frightened and crying. The Globe & Mail
• The US Congress overrode President George W Bush’s veto of a Medicare bill that reduced by 11% payments to doctors treating the elderly, in what Reuters says is likely "the last big showdown," between Bush and Congress.

Tuesday news by GenevaLunch gathered from sources around the world.

• [Reuters video] Joke-writers, cartoonists and late night talk show hosts are finding US
  presidential candidate Barack Obama a tough subject, reports the New York Times. The article follows a cover by the New Yorker that has sparked criticism from both Obama and McCain. BBC
• Sudan’s government has reacted angrily, and the UN is pulling non-essential foreign staff out of the country, following accusations of genocide by a prosecutor with the independent ICC (International Criminal Court), against Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir. The ICC has yet to decide if there is evidence enough to issue an arrest warrant for Bashir, who says the ICC has no authority in his country. AllAfrica, BBC
• Australia’s high court has knocked down an anti-annoyance law that would have kept protestors from wearing "no to the Pope" t-shirts with slogans such as "The Pope is wrong, put a condom on" and handing out leaflets  protesting the  Pope’s visit to the country.  Sydney Morning Herald
• World markets fell Monday (IHT) and the financial world’s eyes are on Ben Bernanke, US Federal Reserve chairman, who gives his semi-annual report on the economy to Congress today. Bloomberg
• Twelve people in Moscow have been confirmed with partial vision loss and another 17 are being checked for it following damage to their eyes at a rave with lasers. Reuters
• China and the BBC are sparring over whether or not the country is breaking an arms embargo of Sudan, with New York Times blogger Nicholas Kristof backing the BBC but international media reaction is more tempered. France24/AFP, UPI, Yahoo
• Still stripping, at age 80: a Las Vegas classic carries on doing her work and pulling in the crowds. CNN

Monday news by GenevaLunch gathered from sources around the world

• It’s Bastille Day in France, with 13 July evening celebrations mostly quiet in Paris, a few cars burned in the suburbs and President Nicolas Sarkozy celebrating the official kickoff to the Union pour la Méditerranée, designed to bring the European Union and African nations closer together. Le Monde (Fre)
• Australian researchers say they have made a major breakthrough in the fight against malaria, which kills a million people every year, many of them young children in sub-Saharan Africa. BBC
• Investors’ reactions have been mixed to a new US bailout plan for the country’s two largest mortgage lenders, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, unveiled by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Sunday, to prevent a "meltdown" in global markets, writes Reuters. Also frontpage news in: New York Times, Bloomberg, Financial Times
• Miss Venezuela won the Miss Universe contest, attributing her cool and poise to her experience as a kidnap victim, while for the second year in a row Miss USA tripped on her evening gown as she made her grand entrance. The previous Miss USA became "an unintended star on YouTube, where the video was shown over and over again," reports CNN. YouTube link
• The world’s biggest brewery is about to be born, with US Anheuser Busch agreeing to be bought by Belgian beermaker InBev for $50 million. Financial Times
• US forces in Afghanistan suffered heavy losses over the weekend, with nine soldiers dead after heavy fighting in the east of the country, an area where Taliban attacks have stepped up recently, "where NATO says militants have taken advantage of peace deals in Pakistan to cross the border," reports Reuters.
• Biofuels lie behind the current world food crisis, according to a "damning" unpublished World Bank document obtained by the Guardian.
• Million dollar babies have just been born in the south of France to celebrity couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt: photo agencies are estimating the value of their first official photos at $11-20 million. CNN
• Showdown Sunday at the Calgary Stampede pulled in hundreds of people for one of Canada’s biggest annual events. CBC, Canada

Friday news gathered by GenevaLunch from sources around the world

• The United Nations and Pakistan have agreed to set up a UN investigative panel to look into the death of Benazir Butto, presidential candidate, in Pakistan in December 2007. BBC
• A 29-year-old man who killed his adoptive parents and then held a party for his friends at the house is the second person in Texas to have been executed since the US Supreme Court raised its moratorium on capital punishment in April 2008. A man in Virginia who robbed his 79-year-old neighbour was also executed. Reuters
• Police in China are reportedly holding a local human rights activist in Sichuan who posted on his web site, which has pages in English, demands from parents’ for an investigation into the collapse of the school buildings where their children died. NY Times
• An 18-year-old man has been arrested in Anhui Province, China, hundreds of kilometres from where Canadian model Diana Gabrielle O’Brien was murdered, in her Shanghai apartment building. Police broke the case when neighbours of an Internet cafe noticed a bike that had been abandoned since the night of the murder. The youth was reportedly found with the woman’s laptop and other belongings. The Globe & Mail, Canada
• Travellers at Dublin Airport have been warned of major delays for a third day, due to problems with a radar system. Irish Times
• China’s shortage of experienced pilots, coupled with an expected 30% increase in air travel in the country by 2010, is leading to unusual treatment of pilots who try to leave their "lifetime contracts," reports Bloomberg.
• Zimbabwe’s two parties Thursday held "talks about talks," according to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangeri in Pretoria, South Africa, reports AllAfrica.

Thursday news gathered  by GenevaLunch from sources around the world

• Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index officially fell into a bear market as stock prices slid in New York, USA. New  York  Times
• A man charged with the weekend murder of two French graduate students is to appear in court in London, England and two other people are being held for questioning. BBC
• The family of JonBenet Ramsey has been definitely cleared of her murder in Colorado, USA, 12 years after the child beauty queen was found beaten and strangled at her home, thanks to new DNA test results. Reuters
• Total, the French energy company, says Iran is too risky and it will not invest there. BBC

Updated 12:30. Wednesday news gathered by GenevaLunch from sources around the world

• G8 and developing economies leaders have agreed to a  "shared vision" on climate change that calls for deep cuts in energy emissions – but without specific agreements. BBC
• Six US soldiers have been killed in Istanbul near the US Consulate in what is being described as a "shootout." CNN
• Nicolas Sarkozy will attend the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. Le Monde, France (Fre)
• Tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme are increasing as the country tests its long range missiles, capable of reaching Israel. BBC
• At least 250 civilians have been killed in incidents in Afghanistan since 4 July, reports the ICRC (International Red Cross), Geneva.
• A US army deserter in Vancouver could be deported to the US today, despite a judge’s ruling last week in another case, in favour of "war resisters." The Globe & Mail, Canada
• The Times, UK, says Barack Obama’s trip to Europe that starts next week will raise the question of his stance on US troops being pulled out of Iraq.
• The iPhone buzz has hit Asia, with New Zealanders lining up two days before the new generation Apple product hits the stores. Reuters
• The murder in Shanghai of a 22-year-old Canadian model, Danielle Gabriella O’Brien, is raising questions about the safety of young models working on contract in foreign cities. The agency that hired her in Shanghai shut down and disappeared within 48 hours of the murder. The Globe & Mail, Canada.

Tuesday news gathered by GenevaLunch from sources around the world

• Microsoft says it is still interested in Yahoo, but it wants to see the board ousted at the annual meeting 14 July. Financial Times
• The G8 countries meeting in Japan want a 2050 deadline to halve greenhouse gases, to be achieved by working with 200 countries participating in United Nations climate change talks, Reuters has learned ahead of the group stamping its approval on the paper.
• The California car as a second home is a way of life that laws are starting to dent, beginning with banning the cell phone to ear syndrome, says the New York Times.
• A suicide bomb attack Monday at the Indian Embassy in Kabul is the worst attack, with 41 dead and some 150 wounded, since the fall of the Taliban government. AFP
• One of the three US government contractors freed in Colombia with Ingrid Betancourt says he believes Farc is now retaliating by making the remaining hostages pay for the group’s freedom. CNN
• A report on 5,000 small and medium-sized businesses by the British Chambers of Commerce shows a serious danger of recession in coming months, due to rising costs and a credit crunch. BBC
• Briton Simon Mann, arrested in Zimbabwe in 2001 on charges of plotting to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea, has been sentenced to more than 34 years in prison for his mercenary activities. The government is still seeking the extradition of Mark Thatcher, son of the former UK prime minister, for his role in the operation. Al Jazeera
• BBC reporters took handheld PM10 pollution readers into the streets of Beijing and came back saying the city was over the World Health Organization acceptable levels six days out of seven, with just a month to go to the Olympics.

Monday news gathered by GenevaLunch from sources around the world

• Police in Britain Monday morning arrested a second man for the murder of two French graduate students in London who were knifed and then set on fire. The first was released Saturday. The deaths come shortly after the murder of a 16-year-old who was killed with a kitchen knife in broad daylight, bringing to 18 the number of deaths by stabbing in the city since January. BBC
• A suicide bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan targeted two diplomatic cars entering the Indian Embassy Monday morning, killing or wounding at least 30 people, according to Reuters.
• Doctors in the US have run a "barrage" of advertisements calling for Congress to reverse the 10.6% cut, which they blame on Republicans, in payments to doctors who care for older Americans on Medicare. NY Times
• Africa is at the top of the agenda as the G8 nations’ leaders meet in Japan, joined by eight African leaders for the first of three days. AFP
• Ireland says it may join a new French initiative designed to cut the number of illegal immigrants into the European Union. Irish Times
• A 70-year-old woman in India has given birth to twins in India, after IVF treatment. She and her 76-year-old husband wanted a boy who could carry on the family business and property. CCTV

Friday news gathered by GenevaLunch from sources around the world

• [Reuters video] Ingrid Betancourt, released Colombian hostage, insists that Farc, the rebel group, must free its hostages and that a humanitarian agreement with Farc is not a solution, saying that the rebels have already lost everything.
• A judge in San Francisco has ordered YouTube to turn over user data – who is viewing what videos – to Viacom, which is suing it for $1 billion  for copyright infringement, raising anew concerns about data collected by huge Internet companies like Google, as well as about who will eventually have access to it. New York Times,  Financial Times
• The European Central Bank Thursday raised its benchmark interest rate to 4.25%, bad news for Spanish and Irish homeowners hit hard by the collapse of their 10-year housing boom: with their housing industries accounting for 10% of their economies, twice the EU average, they are "particularly vulnerable," reports Bloomberg.
• American Independence Day is not yet being celebrated in Big Sur, one of California’s best known tourist towns, threatened by one of hundreds of forest fires raging in California. CNN
• Thirty-six direct flights between China and Taiwan begin this weekend, the first in 60 years. BBC
• Italians are shunning Alitalia and don’t support the government’s bailout, reports Bloomberg.

Read more…

Thursday news gathered by GenevaLunch from sources around the world

• [Reuters video] Ingrid Betancourt, held hostage by Colombian rebels for six years, was freed along with three Americans held hostage for several years, by soldiers posing as aid workers in what Reuters describes as "an action film ending to her captivity." In total 15 persons were freed, according to the Swiss government.
• Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said, in what appears to be a break from predecessor Vladimir Putin’s policies, that Moscow will have to cede some power to regions in order to successfully fight corruption, which he described as having become "a way of life." Moscow Times
• The first Braille coin’s prototype was unveiled in the US Wednesday, a silver dollar with the image of Louis Braille, who invented the reading system for the blind that carries his name. CNN
• Britain’s Andy Murray fell victim to an overpowering Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon, losing in straight sets. Times, UK
• Tyson Gay has run the fastest-ever 100 metres, 9.68 seconds, in a "wind-assisted" race that meant he did not break the world record. Reuters
• Broadband users in the UK who are sharing copyrighted material are getting letters from the UK trade body BPI, warning them of the consequences of the illegal action. BBC
• Herpes cold sores could soon be a thing of the past, if US researchers are right, according to a report on their work published in Nature magazine, says RSR, Swiss radio (Fre)

Previous international digest posts

Friday news gathered by GenevaLunch from sources around the world

• The Supreme Court in the US has for the first time in the country’s history ruled on the right of individuals to own guns, saying it is their right, in a Washington, DC, decision. New York Times
• The price of oil tipped over $140 a barrel on the New York Stock Exchange and Libya threatens to cut production. Al Jazeera
• Stock markets around the world fell on gloomy news about oil prices, the credit crunch and bank fears in the US, with the Dow Jones industrial average falling by more than 3%. BBC
• The second-largest bank, Bank of America, will cut 7,500 jobs over two years after its merger with Countrywide Financial Corp, the country’s largest mortgage company. Reuters
• Zimbabwe will go ahead with a one-candidate vote. Times, UK
• Tibet is reopening to foreign journalists. Xinhua

Previous international digest posts

Thursday news gathered by GenevaLunch from sources around the world

• .sex is just one of the many Internet domain name extensions that observers say could lead to an "auction frenzy" if Icann, the group responsible for managing Internet naming policy votes Thursday to relax the rules. Under consideration: non-Latin characters and up to 64 characters for extensions. CNN
• Nelson Mandela in South Africa at a dinner in London referred to a "tragic failure of leadership" in Zimbabwe and Britain’s Queen Elisabeth has stripped Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe of his knighthood, as newly homeless people gathered in front of the South Africa embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe. International Herald Tribune
• More than 300 people have been arrested in the US in a major sweep of child prostitution criminals. Reuters
• The Federal Reserve in the US held interest rates at 2%, citing inflationary fears. Financial Times
• The US Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty cannot be used for crimes of child rape. Al Jazeera
• Singer Madonna has reportedly hired Paul McCartney’s divorce lawyer. Xinhua,
• Neil Entwistle, 29, was found guilty of murdering his wife and child near Boston, then fleeing to his parents home in England. CNN
• A man and bear cub in India who developed an unusually close relationship have "fallen foul of forestry officials," with the bear being sent to a zoo. BBC

Previous international digest posts.

Updated daily!

Wednesday /

• Zimbabwe officials interrogate MDC man over amnesty deals. The Guardian
• Confusion marred French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s farewell to Israel, after a soldier shot himself dead during an airport departure ceremony. BBC
• List of the world’s millionaires reaches 10 million. CNN
• The European Union (EU) turns 50 but it seems no one is celebrating. New Zeland Herald
• Approval is near for a congressional bill to help U.S. homeowners and the sluggish economy. NYT

Tuesday /

• Zimbabwe’s UN delegate says elections will go ahead Friday despite a unanimous vote from the 15-member UN Security Council saying it should not, that free and fair elections are impossible. BBC
• Divers who were able to reach the capsized ferry Princess of Stars off the coast of Manila, Philippines, found no sign of life. The number of survivors is now 57 and the known dead total is 180, but with the vessel carrying 800 people, hundreds remain unaccounted for. New York Times
• Rising fuel costs could hit US airlines hard enough this year to cause companies to go under, with even one failure representing  30-75,000 jobs and disrupting travel for 200-300,000 passengers a day, says the US Business Travel Coalition. CNN
• Google is getting a new job: defining obscenity in court cases by helping legal teams look at popular search terms in a given community to decide what it considers acceptable standards. International Herald Tribune
• California has approved same-sex marriages, but Virginia has not and official there are now trying to decide if a couple broke the law when they married: the "shapely" bride was actually a man. CNN
• [Reuters video] New Speedo swimsuits could make or break swimmers at the Beijing Olympics in August 2008, but they are already have an impact on Japanese swimming gear designers fortunes.

Monday /

• [Reuters video] Morgan Tsvangirai has dropped out of the Zimbabwe presidential runoff after violence before the vote, leaving Robert Mugabe to claim "victory" with no opposition. Criticism is growing throughout the world. Al Jazeera, BBC, International Herald Tribune, Xinhua
• Rescue work continues in the Philippines after a ferry sank, with
  800 aboard, when it was hit by a typhoon: 32 people have been rescued,
  reports Xinhua. AFP
• Fighting broke out in Tripoli, just hours after all parties agreed
  to keep their fighters off the street and allow Lebanese security to
  patrol. An Al Jazeera reporter calls the situation "very dangerous," saying it is not organized but rather local "friction."
• Citigroup, the largest US bank, is set to cut 10% of its investment banking workforce, some 6,500 jobs, starting Monday. The bank employs 350,000 people worldwide. Hardest hit are likely to be mergers & acquisition staff. Reuters
• An autistic man, age 25, has been found alive and relatively well after being lost in the woods for a week, despite going without kidney transplant medication. Staff at the camp where he had just arrived say they suspect the popcorn-loving man had sneaked into the cafeteria to get more popcorn and disappeared when he was worried he might get in trouble. CNN
• Some of the world’s largest chemical companies, including Dupont and Dow, are developing plant-based bio-plastics using sugarcane and grains such as corn, as oil prices continue to rise. Times, UK
• A new analysis by PricewaterhouseCoopers, "Modelling Olympic Performance," predicts that China and the US will go head-to-head at the Olympics for medals. This third such study looks at past performance, economics and political planning.

Updated daily!

Friday /

• The 15-member United Nations Security Council has unanimously voted to classify rape as a weapon of war, despite reservations from some members. BBC
• The European Union is lifting sanctions against Cuba, ignoring US calls to remain tough, but its change is accompanied by demands that Cuba free political prisoners and address human rights issues. Reuters
• Cross-border online purchases should become easier in Europe if the EU’s consumer protection commissioner gets her way, reports the Financial Times.
• The New York Times reports Yahoo is suffering from a speeded-up exodus of  top managers, including three who have responsibility for key areas, this week.
• Officials are trying to learn if girls in a high school class in Gloucester, Massachussetts in the US had a pregnancy pact: 17 of them started their summer holidays pregnant. BBC
• The US House of Representatives Thursday approved unrestricted funding for the war in Iraq to mid-2009, more unemployment benefits and $2 billion in disaster aid for the flooded Midwest. A combined bill will now be sent to the Senate. CNN
• Medical examinations of 11 "former terrorism suspects" by Physicians for Human Rights provide what the group calls the most "detailed account, supplemented by medical evidence, of the detainees tortured at the hands of U.S. personnel," reports Reuters.
• Dennis Ray Driver was sentenced to life in prison in Texas, USA, for murdering his son, who died of a cocaine overdose after sucking his father’s cocaine-stained fingers. AP/Google

Thursday /

• Chinese people are now considered black in South Africa, following a Supreme Court ruling that has officially changed their colour so they can benefit from anti-discrimination programmes. BBC
• Tiger Woods will be out for the rest of the 2008 golf season to have reconstructive surgery on his knee and therapy. Reuters
• Electrical plants and major US interstate traffic routes are at risk as the Mississippi reaches flood crest level in the US Midwest, with some floodwalls giving way. Des Moines Register, CNN
• Zimbabwe’s government-run TV has now stopped running opposition ads in the run-up to a second presidential election, arguing that international coverage of the election has favoured opposition party MDC and has not given coverage to ruling party Zanu-PF’s position. BBC
• In "one of the bloodiest days yet for the coalition" Afghan and Nato forces targeted militants in villages near Kandahar. AFP
• An "uneasy" truce began early Thursday morning in Gaza. Al Jazeera
• Lawyers in The Netherlands are arguing that the UN can be taken to court in case of genocide, where its immunity should not apply, as they defend families of victims of the Srebrenica massacre in 1996. Al Jazeera

Wednesday /

• Voters in Harare are being told to vote for Robert Mugabe or get a bullet, according to reports in the Guardian, UK, on mounting intimidation there. US Ambassador James  McGee told reporters 13 June that the situation in the country is "deteriorating" and that Mugabe’s government will do anything, "including the harassment, and maybe even the harm, to diplomats to ensure that they [government] stay in power." GenevaLunch
• While Europe’s eyes were on football, the US was watching basketball: the Boston Celtics won a record 17 NBA championship, defeating the LA Lakers 131-92. Reuters
• Israel has agreed to a Gaza ceasefire with Hamas, to begin at 06:00 Thursday, following talks in Egypt. BBC
• John McCain, presumed Republican presidential candidate in the US, has been joined by President George Bush in calling for offshore oil drilling, notably in Alaska, to be resumed to reduce dependency on foreign oil. CNN
• The Olympic torch will be carried through Tibet this weekend, but only for one day. AFP
• Several Midwest towns in the US have flood systems that are out of date and likely not to hold against the Mississippi and other rivers, reports USA Today.

Tuesday /

• Golfer Tiger Woods won a 19-hole sudden death playoff against Rocco Mediate to take the US Open title in what he called "probably the greatest tournament I’ve ever had." New York Times
• A new study shows that in Asia, China ranks well below the US for "soft power" influence. Reuters
• The City in London expects interest rates to rise when the latest economic figures are released today. Guardian, UK
• It’s the season for odd news from Italy: first the ghastly main news story that a woman was held captive in gruesome conditions by her family for 18 years for becoming pregnant out of wedlock. CBS/AP And now a couple in Rome were arrested and repented after a night of drinking landed them in a confessional, where they had sex. Reuters Meanwhile, in Genoa, a man kidnapped his ex-girlfriend and forced her to clean his apartment and iron his clothes. Reuters
• UK primary school teachers could be sent to school for a week every year to brush up on mathematics, if a new government recommendation goes through. Times, UK
• Trouble, the dog millionaire hotelier Leon Helmsley left behind when she died in August 2007, had his share of her fortune cut from $12 to $2 million. CBS

Monday /

• Heavy rains have been falling in Sichuan Province in China and are expected to continue for the next three days, adding to post-earthquake misery in the region, where 1.23 million people are being relocated. AFP, Xinhua
• Violence in Zimbabwe has spread from rural areas to Harare townships, reports the BBC.
• Iran has begun a new crackdown on un-Islamic dress, reports Reuters, closing shops that sell unacceptable clothing and barbershops that offer Western haircuts.
• Flooding continues in Iowa and much of the rest of the Midwest, with rivers cresting at record levels in many areas. The University of Iowa in Iowa City has suspended classes for at least a week and the entire arts area of the campus has been hard hit, although the art collection was crated and shipped out a week ago. CNN
• European Union officials meet in Luxembourg today to begin discussions about what to do following Ireland’s "no" vote last week, on the Lisbon Treaty. Irish Times
• [Video] The mother of murdered 12-year-old Karissa Boudreau, found frozen in February, has been arrested on charges of first-degree, premeditated murder, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She earlier made a tearful public appeal for her daughter’s return. The Globe & Mail

Friday /

• The dollar has made its biggest weekly gain in two years, against the euro, in advance of G8 officials meeting Friday and Saturday, with speculation they will  discourage a falling dollar. Bloomberg
• Yahoo has turned down Microsoft again and is sealing a deal with Google to carry Google ads. Financial Times
• School officials in San Diego, California in the US have angered students by playing a hoax on them as the season for graduation parties arrives, trying frighten them into avoiding drinking and driving by calling a meeting to say several students had died. CNN
• One of the opposition leaders in Zimbabwe has been arrested on charges of treason as the situation in the control continues its new downward spiral. All Africa, Times, UK

Thursday /

• A naked woman painted to look like a cow and a man with a sexually excited animal hidden but publicly available on the web site of a circuit court judge are reported by the Los Angeles Times to have forced the judge to suspend an obscenity trial over which he was presiding.
• Ireland goes to the polls today, up until 22:00, to vote on the Lisbon Treaty, as the European Union watches nervously: the vote could make or break the EU reform treaty, says the BBC. Ireland is the only one of the 26 countries to hold a popular vote on the issue.
• Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper Wednesday officially apologized in the House of Commons for the government’s decades-long forced assimilation and residential schools policy, a move that was promptly "embraced" by the leader of the Assembly of First Nations, who said, "Never again will this House consider us the Indian problem just for being who we are." The Globe & Mail
• A Boy Scout camp in western Iowa, US, was hit by a tornado and four people were killed, 20 injured in the latest of a series of killer funnels crisscrossing the Midwest, where flood waters are also rising during one of the worst early summers for weather in 15 years. Des Moines Register, Reuters, USA Today
• Commodity prices continue to rise, pushing food prices up, as bad weather in the US Midwest destroys early crops. International Herald Tribune
• The US and Pakistan are exchanging barbs over a US bombing raid on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border that killed 11 Pakistani soldiers. AFP

Wednesday /

• [Reuters video] "It’s not being called a famine yet, but these children are facing starvation," says Reuters reporter Helen Long of the critical situation in Ethiopia, where a drought is worsening an already very difficult food situation.
• Iran is being warned by US and European leaders to stop its nuclear development programme, after a recent, highly critical UN observers’ report. AFP
• Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri are particularly hard hit as rising rivers threaten to flood many areas. The Mississippi River could rise within two weeks to 10 feet above flood stage in many areas, the National Weather Service warns, which would make it the worst flood since 1993. CNN
• Restoring hymens, to create the illusion of virginity, is an increasingly popular surgical procedure for young Muslim women in Europe, "caught between the freedoms that European society affords and the
  deep-rooted traditions of their parents’ and grandparents’ generations," reports the International Herald Tribune.
• The disturbing case of a 45-year-old man, brought to a hospital in Paris with signs of cardiac arrest, is causing much discussion in medical communities. He was being prepared for surgery to remove his heart and give it to someone else, after 1-1/2 hours of work to get his heart going failed, when he began to breathe and showed other signs of life. Le Temps, Fre

Tuesday /

• A Sudan Airways flight reportedly from Amman, Jordan left the runway after landing in Khartoum and burst into flames, killing more than 100 of the 200 passengers on board, according to early reports. Al Jazeera
• Twins joined at the top of the head appear to have been successfully operated on to separate them, in San Antonio, Texas. NPR
• Faster Internet access and a "pricetag as low as $199" for the third-generation iPhone unveiled 9 June is going to change the smart-phone market, reports Reuters. [Ed. note: Swisscom and Apple recently signed an agreement to sell the iPhone in Switzerland later in 2008]
• Storms and flooding across the middle of the United States are taking a heavy toll, while the East Coast sits in a sauna: New York City registered 99F Monday. CNN
• The already ravaged town of Beichuan in Sichuan, China, saw muddy waters rush in early Tuesday, after soldiers dynamited to widen a sluice in the nearby quake lake, to help drain it. IHT/Reuters, Xinhua
• Nine of 10 real estate agents in the UK report falling prices and home-buyers are disappearing, fueling inflation fears. The Guardian, UK. Meanwhile, reports the BBC, quoting US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, the US may have avoided a major downturn.
• The entire South Korean cabinet has offered to resign following an uproar over the planned resumption of US beef imports. International Herald Tribune
• A British man on trial in the US for shooting his wife and baby daughter, covering them with a heavy comforter, then flying back to the UK on a one-way ticket, may have been caught thanks to a verbal slip. CNN
• Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas in June 2006 in the Gaza Strip, has sent a letter to his family, the first time in months they have had an indication he is alive. Al Jazeera
• Beijing has done away with paper tickets for its subway, after 38 years. Xinhua

Monday /

• A hen that moved into a McDonalds in California, sometimes keeping customers waiting for their chicken nuggets while she blocked the drive-through lane, was finally caught after four months. CNN
• Two bombs exploded in separate attacks early Monday in eastern Algeria, killing 12 people, including police and a French engineer. TSR, Fre
• The price of gasoline in the US rose above $4 a gallon for the first time, after rising 20 cents in two weeks. CNN
• UK companies pay more in tax on wealth they create than those in Germany, France or Switzerland, a new UK government report shows. Financial Times
• Reuters says the five-year high jobless figure in the US can be blamed in large part on young people entering the market in May, with 60% of new entrants aged 18 to 24.
• In Tokyo a man drove his truck into a crowded shopping area and then stabbed several people, killing 7 and injuring 11 people. International Herald Tribune
• Sichuan province, China, remains on high alert as the Tangjiashan "quake lake" continues to rise despite two days of draining, following aftershocks that have caused massive mudslides. Xinhua
• Human Rights Watch and several Western diplomats report that Zimbabwe is stealthily being taken over by a military junta faithful to President Robert Mugabe, according to The Australian.

UPDATED DAILY!

Friday /

• Zimbabwe shocked the diplomatic and aid world Thursday by first stopping the cars of British and US diplomats, including the US ambassador, and detaining them for several hours, then extending to all international aid groups an order that they must stop their field work, indefinitely. BBC, Care International statement
• Twenty people were killed when a suspected bomb blast near Colombo, Sri Lanka, tore apart a bus. Al Jazeera
• Heated debates over farm export curbs were the biggest hurdle before the world food summit could agree to a statement on reducing world hunger. Reuters runs a series of articles.
• In the US presidential race, Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton met but agreed not to disclose the nature of the discussion. New York Times, NY Times video looking back at the Clinton campaign (10 minutes)
• A teacher in Australia has committed suicide and another man is hospitalized after what appears to be a suicide attempt. The two were taken in by police in a child pornography sweep that netted 90 people, several of them teachers or people working closely with children. AFP Australia
• The UK will offer free swimming to everyone by 2012, scrapping pool fees to encourage the population to be healthier, according to The Times.
• The Beijing Olympic torch relay is running in Guilin province in China: photo gallery, including Paralympics athletes, Xinhua
• Three of the men allegedly behind the 911 attacks in the US in September 2001 Thursday told a military hearing that they want the death penalty and seek to become martyrs. AFP
• The top two US air force officials were fired Thursday by Defense Secretary Robert Gates following nuclear weapons incidents that he said were due to "the gradual erosion of nuclear standards and a lack of effective oversight." Reuters
• Swiss tennis star Roger Federer is backing Chilean Nicolas Massu for one of six wildcard entries to the August Olympics Games. Massu is the defending Olympic gold medalist, but he sank too low in world rankings to qualify. Xinhua

Thursday /

• Aides to Hillary Clinton, US Democrat running for president, told the New York Times that she will suspend her campaign Friday and back Barack Obama, after pressure from her party’s leaders.
• The OECD says the world economic slump will last longer than expected. It has revised its projections for the UK, saying the country is "headed for a significant downturn that puts government spending plans in danger." writes the BBC.
• A California teachers pension fund is reconsidering including tobacco stocks in its portfolio after excluding them for eight years, saying that it has missed out on $1 billion in returns. Reuters
• Police in the UK are meeting with the prime minister over getting tougher with people who carry knives, following the stabbing deaths of 16 young people since January in London. In a recent sstop-and-search operation in the city 200 knives were confiscated. Times, UK
• The Detroit Red Wings won ice hockey’s Stanley Cub, beating the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2. San Jose Mercury
• Yahoo has re-set its annual general meeting for 1 August and responded angrily to raider Carl Icahn’s accusations that its board deliberately sabotaged merger discussions with Microsoft. BBC

Wednesday /

• A "quake lake" formed after the earthquake in Sichuan now holds the equivalent of 80,000 Olympic size swimming pools and is extremely dangerous, Chinese officials say. AFP
• The former live-in companion of a woman who was killed Thursday night in western France has admitted that he also tried to drown her eight-year-old son, whom he left for dead on the banks of a river. The boy was found by a passer-by and despite have a litre of water in his lungs and being in a coma for a day, he is in good condition and was able to tell police who committed the crimes. TSR, Fre
• In the US, Barack Obama Tuesday night clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, with a "last minute rush" of superdelegates moving to give him their support. Hillary Clinton did not quit, but paid tribute to Obama. BBC, New York Times
• $15-20 billion a year will be needed to overcome the world food crisis and production must double by 2030, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has told the international community at the world food crisis summit in Rome. Vancouver Sun
• Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s trip to Rome for the international food crisis summit has provoked outrage in many parts of the world. He is under a European travel ban, but United Nations meetings are an exception. ABC, Australia, AllAfrica, Xinhua
• Producer Mel Ferrer has died, age 90, in California. He was once married to actress Audrey Hepburn, who lived until her death in 1993, in Tolochenaz, Vaud. They had one son, Sean Ferrer, in 1960. The Age, Australia
• General Motors in the US is considering selling its hunky Hummer brand as it shuts down four truck and SUV (sports utility vehicles) plants in North America and focuses on more environmentally-friendly vehicles. BBC
• [Reuters accompanying video on growing nationalism] China’s 08 generation finds its voice, writes Reuters, in a lengthy analysis of the impact of recent events on youth in the country.

Tuesday /

• A girl who two days ago celebrated her 16th birthday was knifed to death Monday in London, the 16th teenager to be killed with a knife in the city since January. The Times, UK
• The world food crisis summit in Rome opens, with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon likely to demand the end to price controls in the face of the highest food prices in 30 years, which are credited with pushing 100 million people into hunger. AFP, BBC
• A judge in Texas, USA, has lifted her court order that removed 400 children, members of a polygamist sect, from their homes, starting the process of returning them to their families. The parents have been told to take parenting classes. Reuters
• The race for the Democrats’ candidate for the US presidential election is drawing to a close, with voting ending Tuesday, Barack Obama looking like he will be able to claim victory, but uncertainty in the air likely to continue until the weekend. New York Times
• Hugo Chavez is making sweeping changes to Venezuela’s intelligence agencies which have provoked outcries from human rights and other groups, International Herald Tribune.

Monday /

• Bo Diddley, a legend in the world of rock ‘n roll, died Monday, age 79, at his home in Florida. Obituary: New York Times
• [Update, 20:45, doctors call surgery "successful"] US Senator Ted Kennedy is having surgery Monday to treat a brain tumour. Reuters
• At least eight people have been killed and dozens injured in Islamabad, Pakistan, by a car bomb that exploded outside the Danish Embassy, leaving a large crater. AFP
• The Times, UK, carries a lengthy interview with Natascha Kampusch, the young Austrian women who was held prisoner in a cellar for several years: it is the first interview she’s agreed to without checking the final copy.
• Yves Saint Laurent, "one of the most influential couturiers of the second half of the 20th century" according to the New York Times, died in Paris Sunday.
• A Swiss-made Pilatus crashed near Toledo, Spain, killing two the day after it was used by Honda for a live ad that showed 14 skydivers doing a stunt. BBC
• Arthur Mutambara, an opposition leader in Zimbabwe, has been arrested on charges of publishing falsehood. allAfrica
• Some 500 firefighters fought a blaze that destroyed several buildings with famous movie props and sets, at Universal Studios in Hollywood, California in the US. Reuters

Updated daily!

Friday /

• Reuters carries four rare aerial photos of what is estimated to be one of 100 "uncontacted tribes" left in the world, on the Peru-Brazil border.
• Americans skipped 41 million air trips last year because of the hassles involved, the latest survey from the Travel Industry Association shows, costing the travel industry $18 billion. CNN
• The US has canceled the Fulbright grants offered to seven Palestinian students to pursue advanced degrees in the US starting in September because Israel is not granting them permission to leave. International Herald Tribune
• Sepp Blatter, president of Fifa, the football federation, is running up against the European Commission as he pushes a decision by his group to limit the number of foreign players on a team to five by 2012. The EU says the federation decision is discriminatory. BBC
• Africa’s mind is on football this weekend, as most national teams are playing in combined qualifying matches for the World Cup in South Africa, Africa’s first, and the next Cup of Nations in
  Angola, both of which will be held in 2010. AllAfrica

Thursday /

• Reuters video news report: global luxury brands are thriving in China and India
• Ten days of difficult negotiations in Dublin have resulted in an agreement by 111 countries to ban cluster bombs, but there are concerns that it lacks clout without the backing of major producers and stockpilers. AFP
• China and Taiwan have agreed to open bilateral negotiations, suspended 10 years ago. AFP, BBC, Taipai Times, Xinhua,
• Rising US exports may be the only bright spot in the US economy, but a group of analysts interviewed by Bloomberg say the economy fared slightly better than forecast, with 0.9% growth instead of 0.6%, during the first quarter.
• Five nations Wednesday signed a deal to avoid disputes over the Arctic, but critics call it a "carve-up" with oil and gas reserves as the target. Guardian, UK
• New York State in the US is preparing to recognize same sex marriages that were legally registered elsewhere, for example in California. New York Times
• Nature’s systems account for about half of the GDP of the world’s poorest people, who will be most hurt as ecosystems are reduced, says a new report to be presented to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Bonn. BBC

Wednesday /

• Michel Fourniret, 61, has been sentenced in France to life in prison without possibility of parole for seven murders, preceded by rape or attempted rape. His companion, Monique Olivier, 59, has been sentenced to life with a possibility of parole after 28 years. Le Monde, Fre and background on trial, Times, UK
• Nepal today becomes a republic after 240 years of royal rule, with its new assembly meeting. BBC
• US intelligence officials say there is no new evidence tha al Qaeda poses a direct threat or that it has weapons of mass destruction. Reuters
• Childhood obesity in the US has hit a plateau after two decades of cllimbing, reports the New York Times, but the reasons for the change and the implications are not yet clear.

Tuesday /

• Hollywood blockbuster-maker Sydney Pollack has died of cancer, age 73. New York Times lengthy obituary
• Canada’s Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier has resigned after admitting he left government documents in an unsafe place, at the flat of his then-companion Julie Couillard, who had earlier had relations with organized crime (motorcycle gangs), reports the BBC. Full story, The Globe & Mail.
• UK charity Save the Children has issued a report saying sexual abuse of children by aid workers from several agencies and the UN and UN peacekeepers is "rife," especially in emergency situations. It calls for a watchdog system to be set up this year. Reuters
• The family of Robert Knox, young Harry Potter actor who was knifed to death in London trying to defend his little brother against a man carrying two knives, has spoken out. Times, UK
• A fourth severed foot, still in its shoe, has washed up on an island off Vancouver, BC, Canada, but police say they are no closer to learning the identity of the victims – the first three were all right feet and each washed up on a separate island. Reuters
• In Belgium the trial of Abdallah Ait Oud has opened. He is accused of kidnapping, raping and murdering two young girls, a gruesome crime that recalls the Dutroux trial. TSR, Fre

Monday /

• A bomb blast has killed eight people on a Colombo suburban commuter train in Sri Lanka. BBC
• video: FT editor Lionel Barber interviews The Dalai Lama, who tells the Financial Times
  that his followers inside China are losing faith in him because of his
  failure to obtain an agreement with Chinese leaders over Tibet’s future.
• The first visit to China since 1949 by the head of a Taiwan political party begins today, the latest sign that relations between the two nations are warming. BBC
• Nasa’s Phoneix Mars Lander began sending back photos Monday morning, showing a barren and pock-marked landscape. New York Times and direct from Nasa
• The death of Colombian rebel group Farc leader Manuel Marulanda, apparently of natural causes at age 76, is raising hopes that a way might now be found to free hundreds of hostages. International Herald Tribune
• Dima Bilan added the latest in a string of Russian trophies by winning the Eurovison song contest Saturday, adding to football and hockey titles in the past two weeks. The Moscow Times
• Tornadoes again battered the Midwest in the US, killing six people in Iowa and a toddler in Minnesota, with marble-sized hail hitting Waterloo, Iowa. CNN

UPDATED DAILY!

Friday /

• Attacks on migrant workers have moved from Johannesburg, South Africa, to the country’s second largest city, Cape Town, where Somali and Zimbabwean workers were the victims Thursday. Hundreds were evacuated from their homes and police say they expect more violence over the weekend. Forty-two people have died and 25,000 "have been driven from their homes" in the past 12 days, reports Reuters.
• A huge tornado ripped through Windsor, Colorado, one of many twisters hitting the western US. CNN
• A Texas appeals court in the US has ruled that the state was out of bounds when it "illegally" seized 468 children from a polygamist ranch in April and put them in foster homes. New York Times
• Six people were killed and seven seriously injured when a bus carrying Moroccan tourists crashed into a bridge piling on the A10 autoroute near Blois, early in the morning. The tourist bus was heading for Paris with 32 passengers. Le Monde, Fre
• Quebec’s government in Canada will not remove a crucifix above the speaker’s chair in the parliament, with Premier Jean Charest saying it represents 350 years of the province’s history. The decision follows a report on the province and its minorities. BBC, Globe & Mail
• Yahoo announced it is delaying it annual general meeting from 3 July to the end of that month in order to give regulators time to review documents related to the board election. Bloomberg reports that the move gives the company time to deal with Carl Icahn, who is threatening to seek control of the board, or to make a deal with Microsoft.
• French bank Société Générale is firing the two managers immediately above trader Jérôme Kerviel for serious management failures, and they are blamed in a report to be released Friday, according to the International Herald Tribune.  Kerviel is accused of committing the biggest fraud in financial history, in 2007. 
• Asia’s recent natural disasters: in Myanmar/Burma, UN head Ban Ki-moon has met with junta leader Than Shwe to discuss disaster relief, reports AFP, while in China the government has now revised the earthquake death toll upwards to 55,239 with some 25,000 people officially listed as missing – and 89,000 people rescued. Xinhua The New York Times says authorities in China are beginning to assess the damage to temples and other ancient treasures.

Thursday /

• Only half of French trains were running Thursday and buses and underground systems were disrupted as thousands of transport union workers went on strike. Their main gripe is President Sarkozy’s move to increase the requirement for pensions from  40 to 41 years worked. BBC, Le Monde (Fre)
• Manchester United beat Chelsea 6-5 in a penalty shoot-out to win the European Cup final. The score was 1-1 after extra time. Details and more! The Sun, UK
• Oil rose to $135 a barrel, with the dollar weak and an unexpected reduction in supplies. Reuters
• UN leader Ban Ki-moon has arrived in Myanmar/Burma where he is trying to encourage the ruling junta to allow more aid into the country. He is meeting with the leader Senior General Than Shwe, who had earlier not returned his phone calls. International Herald Tribune
• Forget the line between university research and the tobacco industry: at Virginia Commonwealth University, professors need to clear their research with the US arm of Philip Morris before it is published, reports the New York Times.
• Eleven people were burned alive after being accused of witchcraft, in two Kenyan villages. MSNBC
• Brain cancer is not a death sentence, several Americans told CNN’s IReport, amid speculation about Senator Ted Kennedy’s chances for recovery after his brain tumour diagnosis.

Wednesday /

• Updates on US Senator and political patriarch Ted Kennedy’s brain tumour diagnosis from AFP, Boston Globe
• China is rushing to get aid to five million people following last week’s earthquake – and warning that corruption will not be tolerated and that transparency is crucial to ensure aid reaches those who need it. BBC
• Women are increasingly contracting Aids in Russia, with the figure now at 32% of the Aids patient population and up to 50% in Moscow, reports The Moscow Times. The reasons are not clear but experts point to changing social customs, with intravenous drug use still the main cause, but heterosexual intercourse increasingly transmitting Aids.
• Barack Obama says the nomination as the US Democrats candidate for the presidency is "within reach." New York Times
• A US study casts doubts on reports that teens engage in oral sex to technically remain virgins. Reuters

Tuesday /

• Senator Ted Kennedy in the US has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, his doctors announced. His glioma will be treated with chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Reuters
• US billionaire T Boone Pickens is "sinking billions of dollars into a wind farm" in Texas in what is likely to become the world’s largest single wind source. CNN
• Police continue fighting protestors in Johannesburg in what the Financial Times describes as "some of the most chilling scenes in South Africa since the end of
  apartheid, with at least 20 people killed and hundreds wounded in
  several days of mob violence."
• China earthquake: The International Herald Tribune reports that aftershocks much greater than those felt until now can be expected, but there is no way to predict when. The paper also carries a long article on the impact the earthquake is having on volunteer and charitable efforts in China, where the government has traditionally kept tight control. The public outpouring of help and donations has been massive, on a scale never seen before in the country.
• Senator Barack Obama in the US could well have enough delegates after votes Tuesday in Kentucky and Oregon, but he says the primary should not end until the Democrats meet at their convention 3 June. New York Times
• The Home Office in Britain is preparing a proposal to create a giant database for e-mails and text messages, part of its anti-terrorism plan, but the idea is generating opposition from those who fear its intrusion and experts who say it will be at risk from attacks. The Times reports that last year Britain had 57 billion text messages and that 3 billion e-mails are sent a day.
• Juan Jose Daboub, World Bank managing director, says world food prices will remain high, that this is not a temporary problem. Reuters

Monday /

• China’s three days of national mourning began Monday, with sirens wailing across the country exactly a week after the quake hit. This is the first time China has declared mourning after a natural disaster. Reuters, Xinhua The earthquake has now been revised upwards to 7.9 or 8.0 on the Richter Scale. Xinhua
• Twelve people were killed in Johannesburg, South Africa, as angry mobs turned on immigrants over housing and jobs issues. CBC, Canada and background, AllAfrica
• A senior Farc rebel fighter in Colombia, known as Karina, has turned herself in to the government after six years as a "priority target." BBC
• Yahoo and Microsoft appear ready to renew talks, but initially about an agreement that could stop short of Microsoft acquiring the search engine company. Bloomberg
• John Holmes, the UN’s top disaster person, has arrived in Myanmar/Burma to try to convince the ruling junta to open up the country to aid groups in order to get assistance moving faster, more than two weeks after it was hit by a cyclone. AFP
• China’s Sichuan Province was hit by the largest-yet aftershock, measuring 5.7 on the Richter Scale, just as the country was beginning three days of mourning for last week’s earthquake victims. Chinese authorities now put the number of dead at more than 34,000 and say they expect the final death toll to be 50,000. More than 4.8 million people have lost their homes. BBC, Xinhua
• A video tape posted on an Islamic site Friday shows al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden condemning Western leaders for joining Israel in celebrating its 60th birthday. Al Jazeera
• Nearly 33,000 acres of the Everglades in Florida, USA, burned in a forest fire over the weekend, the latest in a series of fires. CNN

Updated daily!

Friday /

• [Update, Friday 15:20, The UN has suspended aid to Burma after the government seized supplies the UN had already delivered.] The Burmese Embassy in Thailand, where most foreign aid workers are
  waiting for visas, has closed for a long weekend holiday, adding to the
  tensions over Burma/Myanmar’s reluctance to let in aid workers
  following the cyclone that appears to have killed as many as 100,000
  people. BBC
• Lebanon is veering towards civil war, reports AFP, in its third day of sectarian fighting, concentrated in west Beirut. Geneva-based ICRC, International Red Cross, is calling on groups in Lebanon to respect humanitarian principles.
•  A US marine accused of raping a Japanese woman in a headlines-making case in 2007 has been acquitted of rape but found guilty of wrongful sexual contact and indecent acts, in Tokyo. CNN
• The number one in women’s world tennis, Justine Henin, lost to Dinara Safina of Russia 7-5, 3-6, 1-6 in the German Open. Xinhua

Thursday /

• Concern is growing throughout the world that urgently needed aid and in particular food supplies are not being allowed into Myanmar/Burma. BBC, New York Times
• The Olympic flame reached the top of Mount Everest, known in the region as Qomolangma, carried by a 21-year-old Tibetan woman, Gyigyi, the youngest member of the climbing party of 31, 22 of whom are Tibetans. The group reached the summit two hours ahead of schedule. CNN, Xinhua
• Hillary Clinton has vowed to stay in the US Democratic party race until a candidate is chosen, but the view appears widespread that Barack Obama is now ahead of her, moving towards the finish line. Washington Post
• When the US began to put tariffs on cheap clothes hangers imported from China, the cost zoomed up – so dry cleaners in the US are now asking customers to return them so they can be reused. NPR
• Three large UK banks are raising service fees for some 7 million customers, in some cases up to 20 percent, ahead of a government ruling to cap fees. Times, UK

Wednesday /

• Cisco, US technology leader with a European office in Rolle, Vaud, Switzerland, announced better than expected sales, but said conditions are "still challenging." Reuters
• The dead are being dropped into rivers in myanmar/Burma, as the country tries to cope with the overwhelming chaos in the wake of the cyclone that left more  than 22,000 dead. CNN
• Barack Obama won in South Carolina and Hillary Clinton in Indiana in the US Democratic party presidential elections, continuing the neck-and-neck race. BBC
• Dmitry Medvedev is to be sworn in as Russian President today, but Vladimir Putin’s shadow remains strong. AFP

Tuesday /

• [dead and missing numbers still rising: NY Times reports 22,000 dead and 41,000 missing] The official death toll in Myanmar/Burma now stands at 15,000 dead from the cyclone that hit over the weekend. Aid agencies from around the world face a major logistical challenge trying to help: for the first time the Burmese government is accepting outside help on a large scale but the infrastructure is not well equipped for this.
• The American baby-boom generation is flocking to buy electronic products to revive flagging brains, reports the New York Times.
• The Dalai Lama’s envoy and Chinese government representatives have apparently agreed to meet again, with the envoy stating at the airport in Hong Kong before flying back to India only that the initial meeting was "a good first step." AFP
• The state of Georgia in the US is planning to execute a man today, the first case of capital punishment since the Supreme Court lifted a moratorium in April. Reuters

Monday /

• A brother and sister in Bonn, Germany, looking for a pizza discovered three frozen babies when they decided to clean out the freezer. Their mother has been arrested. AFP
• [Update, 14:40, the death toll is now 4,000 people, with 3,000 missing and basic necessities such as water in very short supply. BBC] A cyclone hit Myanmar/Burma hard, killing some 350 people in and around Rangoon, the capital, according to initial reports. Times, UK
• News analysts are focusing on why Microsoft suddenly decided not to pursue a Yahoo takeover and where Yahoo goes from here: Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, Reuters
• At least 15 people died when a boat ferrying more than 80 partygoers home sank in one of the largest tributaries of the Amazon in Brazil’s Amazon region. CNN
• Mega-investor Warren Buffett, says yes, the US economy is in recession, putting him at odds with the US Department of Commerce. Reuters
• [Reuters video] The Dalai Lama’s aides and Chinese authorities held an initial meeting in Shenzhen, in southern China, in renewed talks, the sixth set in six years.

ON THE GL HOME PAGE EVERY DAY!

Tuesday /

• Oil prices hit a new peak of $120 a barrel and long-term projections are for $130, with refineries in Britain and Nigeria shutting down and reducing world output. Reuters US President George W Bush told Americans that they will need to find alternative fuel sources and should try to increase domestic oil production. Reuters
• Three tornadoes hit Virginia, one of them knocking a hospital, leaving more than 200 people injured and a trail of massive damage to property. CNN
• Parents of an 11-year-old girl in Wisconsin face up to 25 years in prison each after watching their daughter die of untreated diabetes, a test of faith, according to the father. CNN
• Chinese students in the US are trying to "confront an image of their homeland that they neither recognize nor appreciate," in the wake of Tibet protests and calls for boycotts. International Herald Tribune China announced Tuesday that it has sentenced 17 people in connection with the riots in Tibet in March. BBC
• The train derailment in China that killed 70 and put 400 people in the hospital may have been caused by human error, first reports show, with the train going 131 kph in an 80 kph zone. The line is back in service, 20 hours after the accident, in time for the 1 May holiday, a very heavy travel period in China. Xinhua In other China travel news, the government has reopened Tibet to foreign tourist groups. Xinhua And Nepal has deported and banned for two years an American climber on Mt Everest found with a flag supporting Tibetan independence. Reuters
• Britain’s MI5 secret security service is being accused of colluding with brutal Pakistani security forces in torturing UK citizens arrested for questioning in Pakistan. Guardian, UK
• Thirty-one of 53 girls between 14 and 17 years of age, taken from a sect’s ranch in Texas, are or have been pregnant. Salt Lake City Tribune, Utah, US

Monday /

• [ITV video] Britain’s wealthiest 150 people includes Ernesto Bertarelli and British-born wife Kirsty at number six, with an estimated £5.65 billion, according to the Sunday Times, which doesn’t explain why the Bertarellis are considered British for this list, but which has the good grace to include wife Kirsty – unlike the Forbes list published in March which adds at the end: "married to British beauty queen."
• Update: the man in Austria who drugged, raped and kept imprisoned one of his daughters for 24 years has confessed to police, providing details of the sordid story which came to light when one of his children, age 19, who has lived her life in the cellar, was taken to the hospital where she is now in a coma. BBC
• The European Commission said Monday that inflation will be higher and growth slower than forecast in the euro zone. International Herald Tribune/Reuters
• The worst train disaster in China since 1997 has taken 66 lives, but with at least 50 people in critical condition the death toll could well rise, reports Xinhua. Two passenger trains apparently traveling at high speed crashed: one en route from Beijing to the seaside resort of Qingdao and the other going from Shandong’s Yantai to Xuzhou in eastern Jiangsu Province. The crash occurred at 4:40, when many passengers were sleeping. The cause is unknown.
• Police in Amstetten, 130km west of Vienna, are still trying to piece together the "incomprehensible" story of a 42-year-old woman imprisoned in the cellar by her father for 24 years, where she gave birth to seven of his children. Reuters
• Continental Airlines says it prefers to continue alone and will not pursue merger plans, surprising the US airline market, which was expecting it to merge with United. CNN

Friday /

• Police in Zimbabwe have arrested at least 100 and possibly up to 300 people at opposition headquarters in Harare in the worst crackdown since elections a month ago, reports the New York Times, citing Associated Press.
• A representative of the Dalai Lama and Chinese authorities will renew talks that were suspended several months ago, although according to Xinhua the door has remained open.
• Rice prices in Thailand, the world’s main exporter, have tripled since the start of 2008. Reuters video:

• CIA officials briefed the US Congress about a secret Syrian nuclear site that was built with help from North Korea and bombed in 2007 by Israel, according to the White House, which called for Syria to "come clean," reports the BBC.
• Biologists in California have created a wetsuit to help an aging African jackass penguin who was going bald. CNN
• Several people were hospitalized among the 90 who fell sick after they breathed poisonous gases when a 14-year-old girl in Japan committed suicide by mixing laundry detergent with a liquid cleanser. CNN
• The United States turned up the pressure on Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe Thursday, calling the opposition leader the "clear victor." International Herald Tribune
  

Thursday /

• Israel’s fuel blockade of Gaza has forced the United Nations to stop humanitarian aid supplies, the UN says. BBC
• China is recalling the goods shipped to but not yet delivered to Zimbabwe. AllAfrica
• The 437 children taken from a polygamist sect ranch in Texas are being put in foster homes where they will not immediately have contact with other children, to ease the shock as they enter "mainstream culture," reports CNN.
• China vows to be tough on people spreading Tibet rumours, noting that they range from the silly (bananas cause Aids) to those that provoke social unrest. Reuters The US State Department deputy John Negroponte Wednesday urged China to stop "villifying" the Dalai Lama and talk to him.

Wednesday (no news posted by GL)

Tuesday /

• A priest who was being carried by helium balloons has gone missing off the coast of Brazil. He wanted to raise money for a truckers’ spiritual rest stop by breaking the 19-hour record for flying with party balloons. CNN
• Air France-KLM has told Alitalia its offer to buy the ailing Italian airline is no longer valid. Reuters
• The Irish Government has broadened the list of crimes for which Garda (police) will be able to request Internet and e-mail evidence, to include "serious offenses" including "public order offenses, such as refusing to
  move on when asked to do so by a garda, or minor assault." Irish Times
• South Korean astronaut Yi So-yeon told a press conference that she was "very scared" during the unusually steep descent to Earth of the Russian Soyuz space capsule which landed over the weekend. Moscow Times

Monday /

• Chicago Board of Trade corn futures were up 50% over prices a year ago, which could add to world food prices woes. Reuters
• Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe’s opposition leader who has fled the country, insists he won the presidential election, the results of which have still not been announced weeks after the election. His party secretary general, Tendai Biti, has appealed to the United Nations and other countries to stop Zimbabwe from sliding into violence. BBC The New York Times reports that more than 1,000 people a day are fleeing the country.
• British drivers may soon see drink and drive limits lowered to 50mg (same as Switzerland), but to ease the transition the Government is proposing a two hits and you’re out system for those caught with too much alcohol in their systems. Times, London
• Pope Benedict closed his visit to the United States with a solemn moment at Ground Zero in New York City before saying mass at Yankee Stadium for a crowd of 57,000. AFP
• The Times, London, has published a Q&A about the British government’s planned £50 million bailout for homeowners.

Friday /

• Two women in their 70s were found guilty of murder in Los Angeles for befriending two homeless men, putting them in flats, taking out life insurance policies in their names and then drugging them and driving over them. BBC
• The head of the state-run Russian corporation responsible for preparing the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Semyon Vainshtok, has abruptly resigned "amid accusations of mismanagement and cost overruns," reports the Moscow Times. The state budget of $8.5 billion has already "ballooned" to $12b.
• It will no longer be possible to rib cricket players about their tradition-soaked and oddly stained baggy wool sweaters, with Adidas replacing these with figure-hugging tops that use a manmade fibre. The Times, London, quotes the England team managing director, "
  “England will be cooler, drier and more comfortable than ever before."
• Pope Benedict held an emotional meeting with sex abuse victims that was kept private until after it was over, that "capped three days of comments the pope has made expressing shame about the scandal that has rocked the US Church." Reuters
• Zimbabwe’s opposition leader, in an interview with the BBC, says he would need to "reconsider" earlier statements about avoiding a witchhunt, that if her came to power he might put President Robert Mugabe on trial for suppressing election results. Mugabe is expected later today to make his first major speech since the March elections. BBC
• Rice hit $1,000 a ton for the first time as "panicking importers rush to secure supplies," in the face of growing shortages in several Asian countries, reports the Financial Times.
• Thirty-three couples have been arrested in eight states in the US as part of a green card scam involving Eastern European women and American sailors. CNN
• South Africa is grappling with the problem of whether or not it can unilaterally refuse to import AK47 ammunition and weapons from China, destined for Zimbabwe, where there are fears the material will be used against Zimbabwe citizens. AllAfrica

Thursday /

• (BBC video of Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium) Reporters were for the first time allowed in to tour the new Bird’s Nest stadium, built by Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron, Thursday morning, as it nears readiness for the August 2008 Olympic Games (images on Inhabitat).
• A trapper in British Columbia found the main suspect in a manhunt, the father of three children killed a week ago. The Globe & Mail, Canada
• Europe prepares for cell phones on airplanes. The view from Los Angeles.
• A suicide bomber in Norther Iraq killed at least 45 people when he blew himself up inside a tent where a crowd had gathered to offer condolences to the families of two men killed earlier in the week. AFP
• Security forces are out in number in India as the Olympic torch relay continues through the country. India is home to the Tibetan government-in-exile and the Dalai Lama, as well as to the largest number of Tibetans outside Tibet. BBC
• In a 7-2 vote the US Supreme Court has agreed to allow executions to resume again by refusing a challenge to the lethal cocktail widely used. Reuters
• China has canceled plans to reopen Tibet to tourists 1 May, reports AFP.

Wednesday /

• China’s economy grew 10.6%, with inflation at its highest in 11 years. Bloomberg, Xinhua The consumer price index rose 8.3% in March, slightly less than in February, reports Xinhua.
• Pakistan began a heavy security operation Wednesday as the Olympic torch arrived to continue its journey in the country. AFP
• President George W Bush met Pope Benedict XVI at the airport in Washington, DC at the start of the Catholic Church leader’s six-day visit to the US, which comes at a time of change in the church. BBC, CNN
• A man and a woman who appeared to be "tussling" on the tracks in southern England were hit and killed by a commuter train with 300 people that was travelling at 80 kph. BBC
• The proposed bill in the US Congress to ease the housing credit crisis also gives big tax breaks to businesses in several industries, "which consumer groups and labour leaders say amount to government handouts to big business," reports the New York Times.
• In India, 40 people, mainly children, died when a bus crashed into a river (BBC). In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at least 21 people died when a plane taking off from Goma crashed in a crowded housing area. BBC Xinhua News reports 83 dead and UN staff among the survivors.

Tuesday /

• UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown is expected to tell banks in the UK today that they should cut rates to borrowers in the face of "a vicious
  downturn in the property market [which] is gathering pace." The Times, UK
• Biofuels are rapidly becoming the target of political debates as world food prices soar, writes the New York Times. In Switzerland, Jean Ziegler, UN rapporteur, accused Europe of agricultural dumping in Africa, calling biofuels a "crime against humanity." And France launched new calls for protectionism, arguing the need for greater food security. BBC
• Delta and American Airlines in the US have agreed to merge. The $3 billion deal is expected to encourage other mergers in the industry, allowing US airlines to cut costs and increase fares. Reuters
• Silvio Berlusconi has won a third term as prime minister in an election that   reduced the number of parties from 26 to probably six, with Berlusconi leading a majority in both houses. He has pledged to work with the opposition on economic reforms following the results which the BBC says "have reshaped Italian politics."
• JK Rowlings, author of the Harry Potter series, told a US court that she has stopped working because of the demands of a lawsuit over a Potter encyclopedia a US company plans to publish. Reuters
• Concerns are growing in Zimbabwe that an opposition strike which the opposition appears to be planning will lead to violence. A court Monday refused the opposition’s request to have election results issued immediately. AFP

Monday /

• Elections are in the news around the world with Maoists in Nepal having "extended their stunning surge to victory" (AFP), while in Zimbabwe a judge is expected to announce at noon today whether or not he will force the election committee to immediately release presidential election results (AFP). In Italy, "widely fed up" voters are expected to return conservative Silvio Berlusconi as prime minister for the third time (AFP).
• World Bank President Robert Zoellick says that 100 million people in developing countries risk slipping further into poverty as a result of rising world food prices. His proposal to increase long-term production was endorsed by the Bank and was part of weekend discussions between the Bank and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) in Washington. BBC
• An airplane returned shortly after takeoff from Shenzhen in southern China and five passengers, possibly Tibetans, were detained for making suspicious remarks. Chinese authorities also said several weapons were found in a monastery in Aba, western Sichuan. Reuters
• Canada’s Tory Government is trying to block hearings on whether Canadian troops turned arrested Talibans over to the Aghanistan government, knowing they would be tortured. The Globe & Mail
• Pouring rain drenched 35,000 runners in the London Marathon after weather forecasters predicted perfect conditions. BBC
• Religion is making headlines in the US, with Catholics preparing for a visit by Pope Benedict XVI and Democratic Party candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama talking about faith in an effort "to close the God gap" and the fear that Democrats lost the last two elections because of a perception that they "look down their nose at church-going Americans." New York Times