Spanish police have arrested three suspected members of al Qaeda. The suspects were in possession of explosives and were allegedly planning an attack within Europe, Spain's interior minister has said.

Spain's Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz confirmed the arrests of the three suspected members of al Qaeda at a press conference on Thursday, describing one detainee as "extremely dangerous."

"One of the suspects is a very important operative in al Qaeda's international structure," Diaz said.

Prosecutors the southern German state of Bavaria are investigating fresh claims that over 20 liver transplants were manipulated in the city of Regensburg. It comes after similar cases came to light in northern Germany.

The 23 suspected cases of manipulation took place in the Regensburg's university hospital between 2004 and 2006, according to chief prosecutor Wolfhard Meindl.

"We have asked the hospital to give us a detailed description of their allegations," he said, after the clinic had pressed charges following an internal investigation.

Neither Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's party nor the opposition has made EU integration part of their parliamentary election platforms. Many Ukrainians view entry into the European Union as utopian.

Unlike in the campaigns for the 2010 presidential election, in which all the candidates promised a quick convergence with the European Union, the once popular subject of EU accession barely even appears in the party and candidates' slogans of the current parliamentary election campaign, which officially kicked off in Ukraine on July 30 and will run until election day on October 28.

BRUSSELS - The political crisis in Romania is to drag on until 12 September at least after judges on Thursday (2 August) postponed their decision on the validity of last weekend's referendum.

Cabinet ministers of France's barely two-month-old Socialist government are learning all about short leashes. President François Hollande's rooky pack is out for the summer and has 15 days to enjoy the sunshine before returning to work, but was discharged on Wednesday with this warning: stay in France and stay on call.

REUTERS - The billionaire heiress to the L'Oreal beauty goods empire, Liliane Bettencourt, has sold a Seychelles island at the heart of a tax evasion case, the archipelago's government said.

France's richest woman sold the Indian Ocean island to an offshore company affiliated with Switzerland-based campaign group Save our Seas Foundation for $60 million plus $10.5 million for stamp duty and other taxes, ministers said.

Bettencourt, 89, bought D'Arros island in 1997. Her ownership came to light through media reports in 2010 claiming the island was undeclared to French authorities.

Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks was formally charged with phone hacking and will appear in court next month, Scotland Yard have said.

Brooks, 44, answered bail at Lewisham police station and will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 3 September.

Six other journalists from the News of the World, including David Cameron's former spin doctor Andy Coulson, have been officially charged and will appear at the same court on 16 August.

The seven stand accused of one general charge of alleged phone hacking between October 2000 and August 2006 that could affect as many as 600 victims.

Atos, the firm that runs the work capability assessment designed to encourage people to move off benefits and into employment, has won contracts worth more than £400m to test whether disabled people should continue receiving benefits..

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) announced the award of three contracts in England and Wales, with Atos unexpectedly winning the lion's share of the work. The smaller of the three contracts, covering Wales and parts of central England, was won by the outsourcing company Capita.

Truly appalling news - the assessments have caused endless problems, largely by apparently only having the aim of getting people off benefits, not genuinely assessing what level of benefit is really needed.

Ad astra per aspera

You can say many things about our Prime Minister, but he's not stupid. Nor is he completely without guile when it comes to managing the media.

Yesterday was Golden Thursday, today the highlight of the Olympics - the athletics - kicks off. As I noted earlier this week, no-one cares about politics at the moment.

So what better time to bury bad news - and a coalition?

French police are investigating a software company accused by human rights groups of complicity in torture by supplying Syria with intelligence technology used to spy on and track its citizens, a judicial source told Reuters on Thursday.

Paris prosecutors ordered the preliminary inquiry into Paris-based Qosmos after France's League of Human Rights and the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) filed a complaint alleging "complicity in acts of torture".

If charged, executives could face prison time under French law, although there is no guarantee that the probe will lead to charges or a deeper investigation.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's has confirmed its top-notch AAA ranking for Germany. Unlike Moody's ratings agency, S&P trusts in the country's ability to foot the eurozone rescue bill.

Due to Germany's "strong economic fundamentals," S&P not only renewed its triple-A rating, but maintained a stable outlook for the country's long-term sovereign debt as well, the international ratings agency said in a statement Thursday.

"Germany has a highly diversified and competitive economy with a demonstrated ability to absorb large economic and financial shocks," S&P said in the statement.

European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi has announced that the ECB is ready to intervene on bond markets to lower borrowing costs for debt-laden eurozone nations. But key interest rates were left unchanged.

Mario Draghi said that the ECB was willing to "undertake outright market operations of a size adequate to reach its objective," adding that details of related ECB action would be worked out "in the coming weeks."

Following a closely watched ECB meeting Thursday, Draghi also said that current exorbitantly high borrowing costs for debt-laden countries such as Spain and Italy were a result of fears about the "irreversibility of the euro."

Lufthansa has nearly made up for huge first-quarter losses, surprising analysts with positive figures for the second quarter in both operating profit and revenue. But major restructuring costs still weigh on net profits.

Germany's national carrier logged an operating profit of 361 million euros ($442.2 billion) in the second quarter of 2012 - a rise by 27.6 percent compared with the previous quarter.

Revenues grew by more than six percent to 7.89 billion euros, Lufthansa said Thursday, as passenger numbers rose slightly to 27.5 million between April and June.

The US secretary of state is on a seven nation tour of Africa, where she has called for a greater emphasis on democracy. The US and China, the world's largest economies, are competing for African investment partners.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has begun her 11-day tour of Africa by emphasizing democracy, a rhetorical jab aimed at growing Chinese influence on the resource rich continent.

Clinton began her seven nation Africa tour in Senegal on Wednesday, where she called on the continent's leaders to "accept accountability, treat their people with dignity, respect their rights, and deliver economic opportunity."

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is quitting as the UN-Arab League envoy to Syria. UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Annan had decided not to seek an extension to the mandate first handed to him in February.

Announcing Annan's resignation at the UN in New York, Ban said the UN and the Arab league were in discussions on appointing a successor to Annan.

"Mr. Annan has informed me, and the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Mr. Nabil Elaraby, of his intention not to renew his mandate when it expires on 31 August 2012."

"I wish to express my deepest gratitude to Mr. Annan for the determined and courageous efforts he has made as the joint special envoy for Syria," Ban said.

July was the deadliest month in Iraq in two years, according to Baghdad. Continued instability in Iraq coupled with civil war in Syria and tensions over Iran have raised concern of a possible broader regional conflict.

Violence escalated across Iraq during July after al-Qaeda launched a renewed offensive in the country, making it the deadliest month in nearly two years.

Iraq's health, interior and defense ministries reported on Wednesday that 325 people were killed in July, including 241 civilians, 40 police officers and 44 soldiers. Nearly 700 people were injured, the vast majority of them also civilians. That makes it the worst month since August 2010, when 426 people were killed.

What will become of the hundreds of NATO bases in Afghanistan after foreign troops withdraw from the country? NATO wants to destroy most of them - to the dismay of the Taliban and the Afghan government.

Last Friday (July 27), the radical Islamist Taliban laid their claim to NATO-military bases in Afghanistan on the internet for all to read. They said that while the withdrawal of NATO troops should be seen as a positive step, it would at the same time be irrational if the "foreign invaders" destroyed the military infrastructure - facilities on Afghan soil and in part financed with Afghan money. The Taliban said this was enough to entitle the Afghan population the "right to use these facilities."

Aurora, Colo., shooting suspect James Holmes came to the attention of the threat assessment committee at the University of Colorado but no further action was taken because he left the school more than a month before the attack that killed 12 and injured 58, sources told ABC News.

ABC News has learned that Dr. Lynne Fenton, the psychiatrist who was treating Holmes, 24, at the school, was also a key member of the university's threat assessment team. The group of experts were responsible for protecting the school from potentially violent students.

KMGH-TV, ABC News' affiliate in Denver, reported exclusively that, according to sources, by early June, Fenton had informed other members of the team about her concerns regarding Holmes.

But on June 10 -- three days after Holmes bought an assault weapon and added it to his already growing arsenal -- he suddenly told the university that he was dropping out of the neurosciences doctoral program with no explanation.

Mitt Romney is now the laughing stock of East Jerusalem. This morning when I bought minutes for my telephone, a clerk inputted them as he was chatting to a fellow customer. Then he looked at me and said, "I know-- you think we are not culturally modified to do multitasking." Another shopkeeper asked me if I had seen "His Excellency on his tour."

The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency warned its employees and contractors last week to stop using their government computers to surf the Internet for pornographic sites, according to the agency's executive director.

Driving rain and high winds from Typhoon Saola lashed Taiwan on Thursday, killing at least six people and forcing nearly the entire island to shut down. This comes after the storm walloped the Philippines.

The storm first made landfall in Taiwan at before dawn on Thursday near the city of Hualien on Taiwan's eastern coast, with sustained winds of 118 kilometers (73 miles) per hour and gusts of 155 kilometers per hour. After weakening into a tropical storm, it then made a second landfall in the country's northeast, Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said.

The extent of India's recent blackout - which left 600 million people without electricity for two days - was huge. Twenty states were affected. The unprecedented glitch came at a high price for the country's image.

Speculation over the causes of India's worst power outage ever abounds in the country's media. On Monday, July 30 and Tuesday, July 31, 20 of 28 states were without power. The Economic Times titled a story referring to the event "Super power India, rest in peace." The influential Times of India criticized Indian authorities and the country's leadership, referring to them as "powerless and clueless."

It has been 26 years since India embarked on a lofty plan to restore the heavily polluted Ganges river. But the project has seen many setbacks. Now, with fresh cash from the World Bank, the river might make a recovery.

On its journey south and east from the Western Himalayas, through the Gangetic Plain of North India and on to the Bay of Bengal, the Ganges flows for over 2,500 kilometers (1,553 miles). More than 400 million people dwell in its basin and depend on its life source. It's one of the world's 20 largest rivers - and also one of the most polluted on the planet.

In places, the once sacred, life-giving Ganges has become a cesspool, polluted with fecal waste, semi-cremated bodies, and water-borne disease.

A Russian spacecraft has slashed the usual time taken to reach the International Space Station (ISS). The achievement has set a new record and standard for future missions.

Six hours was all it took for the International Space Station to welcome its newest guest, fresh from its Earthly takeoff.

Using a new approach manoeuvre, the unmanned Russian spacecraft 'Progress' docked at the ISS slightly ahead of schedule.

The reason for its speedy ascent was that it took only four orbits to reach the ISS, located around 350 kilometres above the earth, instead of the usual 34.

The Syrian conflict is filling social networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Supporters and opponents of the Syrian regime are engaged in a fierce propaganda battle.

"Here are e-mail addresses and passwords of Al Jazeera employees" reads a message on the website of the "Syrian Electronic Army." The message goes on to say that the group has 40 British and 150 US news pages under its control as well as the websites of Syrians abroad "who are supporting the terror against our country."

The Internet portal is conceived as a propaganda arm of Bashar Assad's regime, encouraging its users to support the beleaguered dictator through spam attacks. The attacks are targeted at media critical of the Assad regime.

Security forces are nearly non-existent on the streets of Egypt and an increasing number of women fall victim to sexual harassment. Harassers target protesters in what some call politically motivated abuse.

When Nihal Saad Zaghloul sleeps, she comes face-to-face with the men who assaulted her at Tahrir Square. They stand in front of her grab and grope at her until she wakes up. It was a Friday at the end of June when Nihal went to Tahrir Square with her friends to demonstrate with her friends as she often did. But that Friday was one she will never forget.

"I was separated from my friends, men tore off my headscarf and groped at me," she said. "There were more than 15 men. Their hands were everywhere. I was more scared than I have ever been in my entire life."

A teddy bear invasion by a Swedish advertising company demanding free speech in Belarus caused a stir in the country - the authorities wanted to keep it a secret. DW spoke to one of the pilots about the stunt.

Photographer and filmmaker Benedikt Fuhrmann has an exhibition in Munich that shows Iran apart from the Ayatollah and its nuclear policy. He hopes his photos will promote international peace and understanding.

Benedikt Fuhrmann set out with a friend and his old VW Polo-turned-camper-van on July 20, 2005, leaving behind his hometown Bad Tölz and knowing where the journey would end: Vietnam. Equipped with audio recorders, film and video cameras, the photographer and filmmaker intended to follow the historic east-west trade route, known as the Silk Route, all the way to Southeast Asia.

These plans changed when the two Germans had to leave Turkey and enter Iran, the first real border they had to cross on their trip.

Utrecht University students are learning to become sustainable entrepreneurs with a serious game called Solar Tycoon. But serious games a substitute for real experience?

It all started when Geoscience professors at the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands discovered that their students were missing a link. They were having trouble connecting theory about innovation and sustainable technologies with real life situations on the market. They lacked the practical experience.

This, in part, had to do with the limited number of work experience placements available to students.

So - almost paradoxically - the faculty decided to develop a virtual marketplace to teach students about the realities of selling green technology. Together with a design firm called Digital Dreams, they developed the serious game, Solar Tycoon.

The weeks of inter-ethnic violence that followed Kenya's last presidential election four and a half years ago have left deep wounds on the population. Our Observer, who photographed the clashes, believes that to heal these wounds, Kenyans need to remember what happened and talk about it. For the past four years, he's travelled from town to town to display an exhibition of harrowing photos. This isn't to everyone's liking.   On Sunday, without warning, police took down his photos in Naivasha, a town in Rift Valley, one of the areas hardest-hit by the clashes that followed the disputed December 2007 election. The violence, which claimed more than 1,200 lives nationwide, erupted after police ejected election observers from polling stations and the electoral commission declared the ruling Party of National Unity's candidate, Mwai Kibaki, the winner. The opposition candidate from the Orange Democratic Movement, Raila Odinga, accused Kibaki of rigging the vote. Only after weeks of clashes between tribes allied with each candidate were international mediators able to broker a coalition government, with Kibaki as president and his rival Odinga as prime minister.

AP - The wife U.S. Republican candidate Mitt Romney said Thursday her horse Rafalca "thrilled me to death" with a solid performance at the Olympics, where the presidential campaign crossed paths with the equestrian sport of dressage.

One has acquired more Olympic medals than any other athlete in history. The other was knocked out of the Games after just 250 seconds. But Michael Phelps and Ashley McKenzie, the 23-year-old British No 1 judoka, have one thing in common: both have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as does another high-profile Olympian, British gymnast Louis Smith, who this week helped win the first British men's gymnastics team medal for a century.