17 June 2013 Last updated at 07:54 GMT
G8 Northern Ireland summit: Syria set to top agenda
The leaders of the G8 nations are to begin a summit in Northern Ireland, with Syria's conflict set to dominate.
UK PM David Cameron met Russian leader Vladimir Putin - Syria's key ally - on Sunday. They will each hold separate talks with President Barack Obama, who has indicated he will arm the rebels.
Mr Cameron, the host, is also keen to focus on global economic issues.
He hopes to oversee the launch of talks for an EU-US free trade deal and achieve progress on tax transparency.
The 39th Summit of the Group Of Eight (G8) will be held in Lough Erne, County Fermanagh, on Monday and Tuesday.
GREECE
Attac study says where rescue funds for Greece end up
The anti-globalization pressure group Attac has published a study indicating that the bulk of the rescue funds made available for Greece have tended to go to help banks. Ordinary people haven't profited at all, it said.
More than three quarters of all rescue funds for Greece went directly to banks and rich investors, German daily newspaper "Süddeutsche Zeitung" claimed Monday, quoting a fresh study by the anti-capitalist pressure alliance Attac.
The group said out of the 207 billion euros ($276 billion) earmarked so far by international creditors, 160 billion euros ended up with Greek lenders and investors.
"Political elites have not been trying to rescue the Greek population, but the finance sector," said Lisa Mittendrein from Attac Austria.
World Cup: Fifa investigation puts Ethiopia progress in doubt
Ethiopia's progress to the final round of African World Cup qualifying is in doubt after Fifa opened disciplinary proceedings
Earlier in the day, the East Africans beat South Africa 2-1 in Addis Ababa to seemingly reach the African play-offs.
However, they now face accusations they fielded an ineligible player in the 2-1 win over Botswana on 8 June.
Fifa rules state any team found guilty of that offence "will be sanctioned by forfeiting the match".
Mexico in the middle? Slowly, more people leave the lower class.
Some 39 percent of the Mexican population, or 44 million people, is now considered middle class.
In the geographic heart of Mexico City, the borough of Benito Juarez offers a vision for Mexico’s middle class future.
When low-cost mass merchandiser Comercial Mexicana opened its first upscale grocery, City Market, it did so on a corner in the Colonia Del Valle neighborhood in Benito Juarez. Shoppers crowd the aisles of polished organic produce, pay $30 for Scottish smoked salmon, and sip cappuccinos at an in-house café.
Benito Juarez doesn’t contain the capital’s richest neighborhoods, where mansions hide behind enormous walls. But it doesn’t contain the poorestbarrios, either. It’s solidly middle class. And the rest of the country may be headed in that direction, too, albeit slowly
Booming population, rising seas threaten
future of island nation
The ocean laps against a protective seawall outside the maternity ward at Kiribati's Nawerewere Hospital, marshaling itself for another assault with the next king tide.
Inside, a basic clinic is crowded with young mothers and newborn babies, the latest additions to a population boom that has risen as relentlessly as the sea in a deeply Christian outpost where family planning is still viewed with skepticism.
It is a boom that threatens to overwhelm the tiny atoll of South Tarawa as quickly as the rising seas. Some 50,000 people, about half of Kiribati's total population, are already crammed onto a sand and coral strip measuring 6 square miles.
Hope grows that Iran could pull back from nuclear standoff
President-elect Hassan Rowhani has experience in avoiding nuclear sanctions and has shown his interest in easing them. He also has a good rapport with the ayatollah.
By Patrick J. McDonnell and Ramin Mostaghim, Los Angeles Times
BEIRUT — The surprising election of Hassan Rowhani, a moderate cleric, as Iran's president has prompted a wave of speculation about a crucial question: Will Iran's new leadership be more willing to compromise on its nuclear program?
No one knows for sure, but some Iranians express hope that Rowhani has both the credentials and the personal relationships necessary to make headway on the issue, which has wreaked havoc with Iran's international relations and led to sanctions that have all but crippled the nation's economy. Essentially, they say: If anyone can do it, he can.
"He is a moderate, he has promised to improve the economy, and he knows that one way to do that is to roll back the sanctions," said Farshad Qorbanpour, a political analyst in Tehran, the Iranian capital.
Which isn't to say that Rowhani's landslide election Saturday will ensure a departure from the hard-line position of the man he will succeed, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
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