Guardian report.

MI5 warned todaythat disclosing information on why it had failed to investigate the ringleader of the terror attacks of July 2005 could give al-Qaida plotters an "invaluable weapon".

Bereaved families want to ask security officials, during the coming inquests into the deaths of those killed in the London bombings of 7 July five years ago, why Mohammad Sidique Khan was not followed up after being seen meeting known terror suspects.

MI5 told a hearing at the royal courts of justice, set up to decide the scope of the inquests, that disclosing such information would aid those planning another atrocity.

Guardian report.

The US has given private assurances to encourage the Palestinians to join indirect Middle East peace talks, including an offer to consider allowing UN security council condemnation of any significant new Israeli settlement activity, the Guardian has learned.

Press Association report.

The US government has warned Iran and Syria that America's commitment to Israel's security was unshakeable and they should understand the consequences of threats to the Jewish state. In a speech, secretary of state Hillary Clinton said Syrian transfers of increasingly sophisticated weaponry, including rockets, to militants in southern Lebanon and Gaza could spark new conflict in the Middle East.

Reuters report.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has refused to confirm or deny Israeli allegations his group has obtained long-range Scud missiles from Syria.

Independent report.

A secret Iraqi government prison, where detainees were subjected to horrific abuse and at least one died from his injuries, was described yesterday as being "worse than Abu Ghraib".

Its prisoners, who were mainly Sunni Arabs, included a wheelchair-bound British national. Freed captives told the New York-based organisation Human Rights Watch that they were raped, tortured with electric shocks and suffocated.

Guardian report.

Leading the field is the tabloid Bild, hammering home the alarming message that: "The Greeks want even more of our billions!" The headline is crowned by the ominous figure: "25,000,000,000 euro!", the proportion of the bailout package Germany can expect to pay.

"Will Greece become a bottomless pit for German taxpayers?" the paper asks.

Guardian report.

Fears of a fresh banking crisis stalked the markets today as the risk of Greece defaulting on its debt repayments raised concerns about the exposure of major banks to indebted countries in Europe.

Guardian report.

The Taliban leader in Pakistan, Hakimullah Mehsud, survived an American drone strike in January and is alive and well, a senior official with Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency told the Guardian today.

Mehsud was reported to have died in a CIA drone strike in South Waziristan in January but, although Pakistan's interior minister claimed he had been killed, the death was never confirmed by either US or Pakistani intelligence.

Ynetnews report.

The Iranian struggle against sanctions steps up a notch: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is planning to arrive in New York Monday in order to participate in the convention of 189 countries signed on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

From Human Rights Watch.

Detainees in a secret Baghdad detention facility were hung upside-down, deprived of air, kicked, whipped, beaten, given electric shocks, and sodomized, Human Rights Watch said today. Iraq should thoroughly investigate and prosecute all government and security officials responsible, Human Rights Watch said.

BBC report.

It would "impossible" to reveal secret MI5 files about the 7/7 London terror attacks, a court has been told.

The claim has been made at a hearing to decide the format of inquests into the deaths of those killed in 2005.

BBC report.

Greece's debt has been downgraded to junk status by ratings agency Standard & Poor's amid mounting fears its debt crisis is getting out of control.

Reuters report.

The head of a hardline Iranian political party warned the United States Tuesday against attacking Iran, saying it could hit back by choking "the West's throat" at a waterway crucial for global oil supplies.

BBC report.

Mr O'Connor strongly criticised MI5's involvement in the 7/7 case, saying the agency demonstrated flaws in its assessment policy, record-keeping and co-operation with other agencies.

He said of the second ISC report: "We submit that by contrast with its simple conclusion exonerating MI5, the material detailed in it exposes a profound criticism of MI5 and raises many more questions than answers.

"Those criticisms may well arguably become very considerably more powerful upon a proper analysis of the primary material."

Guardian report.

Rescuing the Greek economy could require a €150bn (£130bn) bailout over the next three years, according to Goldman Sachs, but this would be politically impossible for European leaders to swallow.

In a note to clients this morning, Goldman's chief European economist, Erik Nielsen, said that the €45bn bailout currently on the table is not large enough to cover Greece's borrowing needs.

Guardian report. The article by Nigel Inkster and Alexander Nicoll is here.

A former senior MI6 officer has criticised the torture and abuse of terror suspects and says the US response to the threat posed by al-Qaida has been exaggerated and counterproductive.

Stinging criticism of the US is made in the Guardian by Nigel Inkster, assistant chief of MI6 until 2006.