Soaring house prices and persistently high levels of household debt could drive Britain's economy back into recession, the Bank of England's governor has warned. Challenged by Treasury select committee MPs on the subject of Britain’s financial stability, Mark Carney admitted the threat of a UK property bubble posed the most substantial risk to the state’s economic recovery. [...]

Washington is supplying some Syrian rebels with both "lethal and non-lethal" aid, according to National Security Adviser Susan Rice, who confirmed the longstanding suspicion that the Obama administration is arming anti-Assad forces. “That’s why the United States has ramped up its support for the moderate vetted opposition, providing lethal and nonlethal support where we can to support both the [...]

The Israeli military has been accused of using flechette shells during its offensive in Gaza, which can cause widespread harm and death to civilians. The weapons, though legal in Israel and internationally, have been slammed as inhumane by rights groups. The munitions are normally fired by tanks and contain thousands of small darts, which are released when the shell explodes in midair. The flec [...]

The arrest of a German intelligence employee for allegedly spying for the US has caused an uproar among German politicians. The country’s foreign minister has demanded an immediate clarification of the situation from Washington. "If the reports are true, then we're not talking about trifles," Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on a visit to Mongolia, DPA reports. [...]

An artillery shell from Ukraine has hit a private house in the Rostov region of Russia, killing a citizen and leaving two more injured. The Russian Foreign Ministry promises heavy consequences. Reportedly up to six mortar shells exploded on Sunday in the small Russian town of Donetsk, which has the same name as the Ukrainian city and is situated right on the Ukrainian border. [...]

Giles Parkinson: As early as 2018, solar could be economically viable to power big cities. By 2040 over half of all electricity may be generated in the same place it's used. Centralised, coal-fired power is over. Last week, for the first time in memory, the wholesale price of electricity in Queensland fell into negative territory – in the middle of the day. [...]

As militias vow to protect the Texas border from illegal immigrants, Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas) said he believes the president has an ulterior motive for not moving quickly to prevent the overwhelming numbers of immigrants crossing the border. Between January 1 and June 15, 2014, more than 52,000 unaccompanied alien children have been apprehended after crossing the Mexican border into the US [...]

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff symbolically handed over the World Cup to her Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Sunday, as Russia is set to host the 2018 tournament. The two were joined by FIFA president Sepp Blatter. The ceremony took place inside Maracana Stadium before the Germany-Argentina final in Rio de Janeiro. [...]

America’s public debt will rise to 106 percent of GDP in the next 25 years, a level seen just once in US history - just after World War II, the US Congressional Budget Office (CBO) warned. US debt has skyrocketed to over $17 trillion, and is now about 74 percent of total gross domestic product, the CBO said on Tuesday. [...]

Case risks further straining ties with Washington in wake of last year's revelations of NSA's monitoring of Angela Merkel's phone. The German government has demanded an explanation from Washington over the US intelligence services' apparent contact with a German man arrested last week on suspicion of being a double agent, the interior minister said in a newspaper interview. [...]

Vladimir Putin has acknowledged that Russia-US relations are currently not at their best in a congratulatory Fourth of July note to Barack Obama. The Russian president said he was sure, however, that the two countries "must cooperate." The Independence Day greetings from Russia come at a time when relations between the two countries are at their lowest in years, mostly over differences in approach [...]

Ukraine's gas bill has risen another $838 million, after Kiev failed to make a payment for 1.7 billion cubic meters of Russian gas supplied in the first half of June. “The deadline for paying June bills expired yesterday; we again didn’t receive the money from Naftogaz Ukraine. As a result Ukraine’s debt to Gazprom for the 1.7 billion cubic meters supplied from June 1 through June 16 rose to [...]

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier calls the downing of the Malaysian Airlines passenger jet over Ukraine "appalling" in an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE. He also discusses the flare-up in the Middle East and US espionage in Germany. The news that a passenger plane had possibly been shot down over eastern Ukraine on Thursday reached German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier a [...]

Seasonal allergies can already be uncomfortable enough for some people, but a new medical report suggests that iPads and other electronic devices that contain nickel could cause rashes and require the use of antibiotics. [...]

Air travel in the US is set to become more expensive beginning next week - but airline profits and jet fuel costs aren't to blame this time. Instead, the price hike will come as a result of a TSA fee increase. The Transportation Security Administration’s fee – known as the ‘Civil Aviation Security’ or the ‘9/11 Security’ fee – helps fund the agency. [...]

Former NSA agents-turned-whistleblowers are testifying before a German parliamentary committee as the Bundestag investigates America's wiretapping methods with one of them branding the NSA approach "totalitarian." It is hoped that evidence from the two US citizens, William Binney and Thomas Drake, will shed light on the methods of surveillance used by the American National Security Agency (NSA) [...]

A number of major US and European airlines are immediately suspending flights to and from Israel after a rocket attack near Ben-Gurion International Airport. US Airways, Lufthansa and Delta are some of the companies grounding their planes. [...]

A leaked memorandum from the RAND corporation think tank suggests the Ukrainian govt should engage in an all-out war in eastern regions, including shutting down all communications, putting citizens in internment camps and kill all who resist such actions. [...]

In what amounts to a diplomatic earthquake, Berlin has asked the country's top CIA official to leave Germany. The measures comes in response to the second allegation in a week of a German government employee spying for the US. [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin believes it is necessary to call on Kiev to observe the ceasefire, which should last while investigations into the MH17 crash are ongoing. Putin said that Ukrainian troops attacked self-defense units near Donetsk almost at the same time anti-government forces were handing over the black boxes from the MH17 crash to international experts. [...]

A 6 year-old boy from Florida born with right arm deficiency has received a prosthetic arm. Now climbing a tree and catching a ball will become easier for him. Students from Florida University made it on a 3D printer for just $350 in just 8 weeks. [...]

Facial recognition surveillance software being tested by British cops that allows "faster than ever" data searching and tracking of subjects is raising concerns among privacy activists. NeoFace software analyses dozens of facial features from digital CCTV images or police body cameras and matching them with the 90,000 photos stored on Leicestershire Police's database, which had become the first un [...]