GRNLive, correspondents bringing you global news now

A MAN who claimed to be an internationally revered spiritual guru in order to rape and sexually assault potentially hundreds of women has been jailed for 10 years by a British judge. London's Wood Green Crown Court was told yesterday that Michael Lyons, 52, known as Mohan Singh, drugged and sexually assaulted women he had "groomed" with lies that he was a spiritual leader who had treated the Queen and counted the Dalai Lama and Hollywood actor Steven Seagal among his friends. Ja...

BBC: North Korea's foreign minister has arrived in Burma for talks with top leaders, reports from the region say. It is thought to be the first visit by Pak Ui-chun since the two countries resumed formal ties in 2007. Mr Pak will travel to the capital, Naypyitaw, for talks with counterpart Nyan Win, officials said. Analysts have raised concerns in recent months that Burma is co-operating with Nort...

BBC: The Greek government has used a rare emergency order to force lorry drivers back to work after a three-day strike. The drivers have until later on Thursday to return to the roads or face arrest and the loss of their licenses. Most petrol stations in Athens are out of fuel and shops and factories are running low on supplies. The drivers oppose government plans to open the industry to more competition as part of ...

Al-Jazeera: Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah is scheduled to arrive in Damascus, the Syrian capital, on the second-leg of his four-nation "Arab unity tour". King Abdullah was in Egypt on Wednesday and held talks with its president Hosni Mubarak on the Arab-Israeli peace process. He is scheduled to meet Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, on Thursday...

LA Times: As peat fires raged on the outskirts of town, shrouding Moscow in a thick cloud of smog, residents Wednesday sought to cope with a record-breaking heat wave that is expected to intensify further. Public health officials urged workers in non-essential jobs to stay home and people not to drive their cars as weather forecasters predicted temperatures exceeding 102...

AFP: Floodwaters have washed 3,000 barrels of explosive chemicals into a major waterway in northeastern China, state media said Thursday, much more than originally reported.Water supplies to the nearby city of Jilin were cut after the incident, leaving 4.3 million people dependent on bottled water, but the local government said the move was unrelated and caused by an electricity main...

Reuters: Japanese shipper Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd said on Thursday it has hired a specialist on military attacks to help it investigate the cause of damage to a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. The supertanker was diverted to a UAE port on Wednesday where officials said the damage, which stirred fears of an attack in the strait, was caused by a freak wave.

Forty percent of the world's seabo...

Haaretz -   Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has conditioned upgrading to direct negotiations with Israel on a continued halt on West Bank construction. Continuing the construction freeze in West Bank settlements after it expires on September 26 would be impossible politically and would bring down the coalition, Prime Minister Ben...

BBC - The Catalan parliament voted to ban bullfighting in an emotional session packed full of deputies, activists and observers, says the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Barcelona.

In the end the vote passed by an absolute majority - a wider margin of victory than animal rights campaigners had dared hope for. Sixty-eight deputies voted in favour of the ban; 55 were opposed. Related stories In pictures: The l...

D.Mail -  A couple have been arrested in northern France after eight newborn babies were discovered hidden in their house and buried in their garden. Police in Villers-au-Tertre, near Douai, made the gruesome discovery using sniffer dogs. All of the children are believed to have been born to the man and woman, who are aged around ...