Continuing a practice that had been criticized when Nicolas Sarkozy was president, France has dismantled two camps of Roma in Lille. It's the first raid on a camp since Francois Hollande took office in May.

Thursday's camp raids came as 240 Roma - sometimes called gypsies - were deported from Lyon back to Romania.

In Lille, police descended on the camps in the early morning hours Thursday, clearing one camp of around 150 people and another of 50.

"The tensions with (local residents) had become untenable," said Maryvonne Girard, deputy mayor of the town of Villeneuve d'Ascq, near where one of the camps had been located.

Athletes and artists are listed on party tickets for Ukraine's parliamentary election this October. But some observers say that this time around they may be more than just glamorous extras.

Almost all of Ukraine's leading parties are relying on stars from the sports and entertainment world in their bid to take the parliamentary election on 28.

More than 30 leading German businesses have asked Berlin to ratify an international anti-corruption convention. The companies say keeping out of the convention hurts Germany's business reputation abroad.

Since it got off the ground nine years ago, the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (CAC) has been signed by 160 countries. The agreement commits nations to take action against corrupt officials and members of parliament within their own borders. The convention also calls on signatories to work on fighting corruption on an international level together.

Conservatives and EU to Blame

The conservatives became the country's biggest arsonists, heating up the real estate mania with their neoliberal land and building policies, fires they are now expected to put out too. But the EU also shares some of the blame, because it neglected to require Spain to employ targeted planning procedures and was also sloppy when it came to monitoring the funds. As a result, Spain was never able to completely shed the protectionism inherited from the Franco era and become competitive. Instead, it developed a superficial dynamism based on borrowed money. The perceived rise in the value of real estate from year to year enabled Spaniards to continue borrowing money and leading increasingly luxurious lives. Almost unavoidably, education and innovation were neglected, while the sweet, slow poison of debt led to a dependency that has now become all but inescapable.

If Spain does indeed require the full program of a European bailout, at an estimated cost of least €300 billion, and if the feared "men in black" from the troika, consisting of the European Commission, the ECB and the International Monetary Fund, assume control, it will put an end to Rajoy's political career. A prominent former party member is already calling for early elections. For too long, the prime minister believed that his mere presence at the head of the government was enough to ensure that Spain would stop "being a problem and become part of the solution."

...

And now the government also wants to weaken the social safety net -- a culture shock in a society that has always emphasized solidarity with the family. As a result, even fathers and grandmothers have joined the protests. The Spaniards are unwilling to accept without complaint the notion that the weakest members of society are to be deprived of the social safety net, but they are expressing their displeasure without being aggressive. In Spain, unlike Greece, the demonstrations have remained nonviolent.

Unemployment in Greece has hit a new high with the country weighed down by internationally brokered austerity measures. But industrial output has increased slightly, providing a silver lining for Athens.

Greece's unemployment rate rose to a record 23.1 percent in May, up from 22.6 percent in the previous month and up from 16.8 percent year-on-year, the national statistics office Elstat reported on Thursday.

It said joblessness was particularly high among the under-25-year-olds, standing at 54.9 percent in May. Some economists in Greece claimed the sharp rise in unemployment was a direct result of austerity measures forced upon Athens by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in return for urgently needed bailout loans.

Germany's second-biggest lender, Commerzbank, says it will no longer participate in market speculation on basic food prices. The bank says it has removed all agricultural products from its funds for moral reasons.

Commerzbank of Germany confirmed on Thursday it had withdrawn from market speculation on prices for basic food items. The country's second-largest lender said it had removed all agriculture products from its ComStage ETF CB Commodity fund.

Commerzbank stated that the move came in response to a series of international studies claiming that similar agricultural funds had played no small role in artificially pushing up food prices, contributing to widespread hunger in many parts of the world.

The UK's biggest trade deficit since modern records began 15 years ago prompted calls for the government to provide more help for exporters struggling to cope with weakening global demand for their products.

The British Chambers of Commerce called on the business secretary, Vince Cable, to boost infrastructure spending, create a new investment bank and assist with trade finance after the latest official figures showed the gap between imports and exports widened from £2.7bn to £4.4bn in June.

China's highest profile trial in decades has come to an end. A verdict is due at a later date as to whether Gu Kailai, the wife of the disgraced politician Bo Xilai, murdered a British businessman.

A court official said the trial lasted some seven hours and that neither Gu Kailai or her co-accused aide, Zhang Xiaojun, contested the murder charges against them.

"The trial finished this afternoon and the court adjourned," official Tang Yigan told reporters. "The trial committee will announce the verdict after discussion. The date of the verdict will be announced."

Instability continues to grip the Sinai Peninsula, in the worst violence the region has seen in decades. Clashes have erupted again as the Egyptian military sends reinforcements to root out suspected Islamist militants.

Egyptian state television reported that police and gunmen clashed again in northern Sinai on Thursday, just two days after the country's military launched an offensive against Islamist militants in the region, which shares a border with neighboring Israel.

Iran is to host an international conference on the conflict in Syria on Thursday, but it is still unclear who exactly is going to attend. Syria has meanwhile appointed a new prime minister.

Iran's deputy foreign minister in charge of Arab affairs, Amir Abdollahian, told state television channel IRIB that "representatives of more than 20 countries" were to attend the conference in Tehran.

However, he did not identify those countries or say at what rank they would be represented, and there are signs that Tehran's stated goal of gathering at least a dozen foreign minsters would not be reached.

While it may not be easily detected at first glance, the foreign policy of a President Romney would look very different from that of President Obama, argues Henry Nau in a piece for Transatlantic Voices.

Berlin is actively promoting the search for a solution to the Mali conflict. Development Minister Dirk Niebel holds talks in Bamako one day before a deadline on a government of national unity expires.

Speaking in the Malian capital Bamako, German development minister Dirk Niebel said Berlin "wants a political solution to the Mali crisis without the inclusion of leading members of the coup or al-Qaeda terrorists."

The minister also said a government of national unity should "clarify its interim objectives for the restoration of constitutional order." He added this would be of key significance if the state was to reassert its authority in the north of Mali.

Top Afghan peace negotiator Salahuddin Rabbani has cancelled his Pakistan visit amid speculations that the Afghan government is unhappy with Islamabad's handling of a border shelling dispute.

On Thursday, the Afghan embassy in Islamabad confirmed that Salahuddin Rabbani, head of the High Peace Council of Afghanistan, had cancelled his Islamabad visit.

MercoPress, Chile: Police in Santiago used water cannons and tear gas as thousands of students took to the streets, raging against the government's policy on education. Vandals set buses ablaze and attacked government property amid violence that left 49 Carabineros injured and 75 people arrested.

Colombia Reports: The UN representative for indigenous rights, James Anaya, encouraged the Colombian government Thursday to advance in dialogues with an indigenous movement in the southwestern Cauca department that has been calling for the military to leave the territory, report local media.  Relations between the government and the indigenous movement have been especially strained in recent months, with the former demanding all armed actors exit the territory-- Colombian security forces and left-wing FARC rebels alike-- arguing that the constant fighting has put community members' lives at risk.

Colombia Reports: The former partner of ex-President Alvaro Uribe's late brother was "at the center of an international narco-trafficking ring," U.S. authorities said Thursday. Dolly Cifuentes was extradited to New York, United States on Tuesday and charged before a Florida court on Wednesday.

WSJ, BOGOTA, Colombia -- A small group of former workers for General Motors Co. in Colombia on Wednesday began their second week of a hunger strike, during which they have sewn shut their mouths as they continue to protest in front of the U.S. Embassy in Bogota. The hunger strike by the former workers at GM's Colombian unit Colmotores marks the latest labor problems to hit GM's South American branches. In Brazil, GM agreed not to cut 1,840 jobs at a factory there following union protests and government threats that the job cuts could lead to the reinstatement of taxes cut earlier

Honduras Culture and Politics: General Rene Osorio Canales announced Tuesday that selection had already begun for the new elite military unit, Los Tigres (The Tigers), who will function like a police SWAT team. The unit, when organized, will have 200 members.  Osorio Canales revealed that the officers from the military and police assigned to the group will recommend the function, organization, and training of the Tigers.

Huffington Post: Bain executive Harry Strachan suggested that Romney meet with a group of Central American oligarchs who were looking for new investment vehicles as turmoil engulfed their region. Romney was worried that the oligarchs might be tied to "illegal drug money, right-wing death squads, or left-wing terrorism," Strachan later told a Boston Globe reporter, as quoted in the 2012 book "The Real Romney." But, pressed for capital, Romney pushed his concerns aside and flew to Miami in mid-1984 to meet with the Salvadorans at a local bank.

The US sprayed millions of gallons of Agent Orange on the jungles of Vietnam during its war there, creating long-term adverse health effects. Decades later, the former enemies are cooperating to clean up the chemical.

The United States began helping Vietnam clean up the toxic chemical defoliant Agent Orange for the first time on Thursday, nearly 40 years after the end of Washington's bloody war with the Southeast Asian communist nation.

The US and Vietnam plan to decontaminate some 73,000 cubic meters (2.5 million cubic feet) of soil surrounding the Da Nang airport in the central part of the country. American forces stored and loaded Agent Orange onto planes at Da Nang during the war, which ended in 1975. Between 1,000,000 and 2,500,000 Vietnamese died in the war and over 58,000 Americans.

Before last year's triple disaster in north-east Japan, Tsuchiyu Onsen drew tens of thousands of tourists in search of the recuperative qualities of its piping hot spring water.

Almost 18 months after the nuclear accident at nearby Fukushima Daiichi power plant, that same natural resource is about to turn this spa resort into a trailblazer for the country's push towards renewable energy.

By spring 2014, Tsuchiyu, 9 miles (15km) from Fukushima, will be generating 250 kilowatts of electricity - about a quarter of the city's total needs - at a geothermal plant hidden away in the surrounding mountains.

Chinese petrochemical giant Sinopec promised on Thursday to help clean up a big spill of tiny plastic pellets in Hong Kong waters which have washed onto many beaches and begun killing fish in fish farms.

Making their first media appearance 17 days after the spillage, Sinopec executives said the cargo belonged to the company and it had set aside HK$10m (US$1.28m) for the clean-up, and would spend more if necessary.

"We want to clean up the pellets that are still at large and find the sixth container," Lu Dapeng, a spokesman for Sinopec, told reporters.

The six containers fell off a freighter on 23 July during Hong Kong's worst typhoon in 13 years, spilling 150-tonnes of pellets into the sea. One container is missing.

David Cameron has been urged to stand up for renewable energy against what environmental campaigners see as attacks by the Treasury.

More than 170 green businesses signed a letter to the prime minister, drafted by the Renewable Energy Association, calling for a public declaration of support for green energy and a resolution of the uncertainty that surrounds government plans for renewable power subsidies.

July was the hottest month the continental US has seen since records began, federal scientists have said.

Last month, the average temperature was 77.6F (25.3C), hotter than the old record from July 1936, during a period of severe drought known in the US as the Dust Bowl.

The last 12 months were the warmest since modern records began in 1895.

Climate scientist Jake Crouch, from the National Climatic Data Center in North Carolina, attributed the phenomenon to both localised heat and drought, as well as global warming, according to the Associated Press.

MidWest has lost both corn and soybeans.  Farmers are plowing them under because it's not worth harvesting.


Ever since I learnt about confirmation bias I've started seeing it everywhere

Amsterdam and Antwerp are known for their high use of cocaine. But a probe of European waste water has shown that use of the drug in Switzerland is just as prevalent.

Figures from a new international study suggest about 356 kilograms of cocaine are used every day in Europe. But the stimulant is more popular in central and western Europe than in the east or the north.

Swiss cities are among the places where consumption is highest. In cities like Zurich, Geneva and Bern, an average of 1.5 grams are consumed daily per 1000 people - the same as in cities like Antwerp and Amsterdam.

Google has settled over allegations that it bypassed the privacy settings of users of Apple's Safari web browser, albeit admitting no liability in the case. US authorities described Google's response as "troubling."

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will receive $22.5 million (18.3 million euros) as a settlement from Google, though the payment spares the Californian company from admitting fault.

Russian media are reporting the discovery of an Islamic sect that has lived underground without daylight for years. Its members include young children.

The underground compound belonging to the Muslim sect was discovered on the outskirts of the city of Kazan in central Russia, some 800 kilometers (497 miles) east of Moscow.

The Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper reported, quoting doctors, that some 70 sect members, including more than 20 children, had been living in an eight-story underground bunker without heat or sunlight for almost a decade.

Half a century after his death, the works of Nobel Prize-winning author Hermann Hesse are back on the shelves. He's one of the most popular German authors in the world - even though he'd long been written off.

In 1962, just after Hermann Hesse had died of a heart attack at the age of 85, the German newspaper Die Zeit wrote that the author had become obsolete. The paper, however, would eat its words.

In the meantime, Hesse's works have been translated into nearly 60 languages, and at least 125 million copies have been sold worldwide.

Hermann Hesse knew from early on in his life that he would one day become a writer, yet his parents thought differently. They expected young Hermann to become a man of the cloth, like his father who had worked as a missionary in India before he was born, and his mother, the daughter of a missionary.

Gay rights groups in France have reacted angrily to the Catholic Church after it issued a call to prayer to protect the sacriment of marriage from same-sex couples.

The controversial "Prayer for France" has been sent out to churches across the country to be read out on August 15 to mark the feast of the Assumption.

The prayer's subject matter is designed to mobilise Catholics against François Hollande's Socialist Party government, which recently affirmed plans to open up marriage and adoption to gay couples.

In a thinly veiled reference to the proposed gay marriage bill Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois asked church goers to pray for "newly elected officials" to put their "sense of common good over pressure to meet special demands."

Yesterday, MailOnline published an article about double Olympic gold medal-winning cyclist Laura Trott. She was pictured sat next to Prince Harry at the beach volleyball and so the MailOnline gossip-mongers felt they could speculate about what was going on:

In the record book of unintended consequences, this one's sure to be a groan-worthy entry: A frightening rise in addiction to the drug OxyContin prompts a reformulation that makes the prescription pain medication harder to abuse. So addicts switch to heroin instead.

Clearly, not the hoped-for effect. But according to a letter published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, it's a switch that appears to be happening across the country -- especially in rural and suburban communities, where OxyContin abuse and addiction had gained a firm foothold.

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron has rebuked the French for continuing to harbour suspicions over the Olympic success of Britain's track cyclists.

In an interview broadcast on TV channel FRANCE 2 on Wednesday evening, Cameron was asked whether he could guarantee there had been no cheating by the British cycling team.

His response was curt. "I know this is difficult for France being such a great cycling nation," he said. "But we have done very well and if France had done very well in cycling I would say 'well done.'"

Great Britain won gold in seven out of ten events in the Olympic Velodrome, including two dramatic final wins against the French team.