IMEMC report.

Israeli sources reported that Nuclear whistleblower, Mordechai Vanunu, was sentenced, Tuesday, to three months imprisonment after he refused to perform community service in West Jerusalem, fearing harassment from fundamentalist Jews.

Jerusalem Post report.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has accused Iran of trying to "stir up" a war between Israel and Syria.

Speaking during a tour of the IDF's Northern Command on Tuesday afternoon, Netanyahu said Iran was "spreading lies in order to escalate tensions."

Associated Press report.

Israel's deputy premier said Monday that Israel's air force has improved its capabilities and is better prepared for a war with Iran, considered a dangerous enemy because of its nuclear program.

Moshe Yaalon, a former military chief, says the air force now has better refueling and range, and has made "a massive improvement in the accuracy of ordnance and intelligence."

Guardian report.

The shock decision to mobilise hundreds of billions of euros does nothing to fix the fundamental malaise plaguing Europe -- the vast macro-economic imbalances within the eurozone. But the package takes the pressure off, removes the short-term likelihood of sovereign debt default in southern Europe, buys time for struggling countries to get their acts together, and for Brussels, Berlin, and Paris to enact new policies.

BBC report.

The US airbase at Bagram in Afghanistan contains a facility for detainees that is distinct from its main prison, the Red Cross has confirmed to the BBC.

[...]

The US military says the main prison, now called the Detention Facility in Parwan, is the only detention facility on the base.

Reuters report.

A $1 trillion global emergency package to stabilize the euro unleashed a spectacular rally in world stocks on Monday but analysts said EU leaders had only bought time to tackle deep-seated fiscal problems.

AFP report.

Uzi Even, a Tel Aviv University chemistry professor and former worker at Israel's Dimona reactor, said US President Barack Obama's campaign for global nuclear arms reduction is a sign of changing times and Israel must get in step.

"We could open Dimona to international inspection," the former member of parliament with the left-wing Meretz party told Israeli army radio on Monday.

BBC report.

More than 100 people have died and 350 been wounded in a series of shootings and suicide bombings in Iraq - the worst day of violence there this year.

The central city of Hilla saw the deadliest attack, when staff at a textiles factory were hit by three bomb attacks, killing at least 45 people.

Guardian report.

In private, diplomats in Kabul compare him to the head of a mafia-style criminal syndicate. But very few people will criticise him publicly, particularly anyone who lives in Kandahar. Some foreign policy analysts have broken the silence however, most notably Steve Coll, a former journalist and respected observer of Afghanistan, who wrote last month that Ahmed Wali "is the most visible, most intractable symbol of the corruption and the corporate self-interest of the Karzai government in southern Afghanistan".

[...]

Forsberg argues that Karzai's commercial empire does not just anger ordinary Kandaharis. "Many of the local powerbrokers who are excluded from Wali Karzai's network see the Taliban insurgency as the only viable means of political opposition," he said.

AlertNet story.

The United States is convinced that a Pakistani Taliban group closely allied with al Qaeda was behind the attempted bombing in New York's Times Square, administration officials said on Sunday.

[...]

Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Holder said it was unclear whether Shahzad will be tried in a civilian court or whether a trial will be necessary, raising the possibility that Shahzad might plead guilty.

"We have developed information that I think we can use in a civilian court," Holder said. "It's not even sure at this point whether or not there even has to be a trial."

Reuters story.

Rioting protestors and burning banks on the streets of Athens have clearly grabbed the limelight the over the past week. But from an investor standpoint, they have simply underlined the growing skepticism about whether the European Union can save the euro zone from a Greek default and spreading debt meltdown.

AlertNet story.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the U.S. military on Saturday it must rein in spending that he called out of sync with today's tough economic times, and said budget woes could be a factor in deciding whether to use force against Iran and others.

[...]

"I do think that as we look to the future, particularly for the next couple of years or so while we're in Iraq and Afghanistan, I think the Congress and the president would look long and hard at another military operation that would cost us $100 billion a year," Gates told reporters.

Interesting diagram from the New York Times.

Banks and governments in these five shaky economies owe each other many billions of euros -- converted here to dollars -- and have even larger debts to Britain, France and Germany.

Sydney Morning Herald report.

Investors are increasingly concerned that the €110 billion ($A157.5 billion) rescue package for Greece will not work, resulting in a full-blown sovereign debt crisis. Yields on two-year Greek government bonds were running at more than 18 per cent - equivalent to so-called junk bond levels. Yields on Spanish and Portuguese bonds climbed overnight.

Independent report.

The UK was warned yesterday that it is among the European Union states that faces the risk of contagion from the Greek crisis, with "very real, common threats" to its financial systems.

As a stunned Greece, still struggling to come to terms with the deaths of three people in protests on Wednesday, approved cuts to address its financial crisis, one of the leading credit ratings agencies said British banks were "vulnerable" to shocks of the kind now reverberating around the eurozone.

Economist article.

[...] By slashing pay in the public sector, raising taxes and (hesitantly) starting to reform the labour market, the plan aims to reduce the budget deficit from 13.6% of GDP in 2009 to less than 3% by 2014. But it will deepen the recession that is already hitting Greece, with a drop in GDP in 2010 of at least 4%, and a further fall expected in 2011.