AUSTRALIA: The government admitted today that the illicit drugs trade is at an all-time high with nearly 20 tonnes of narcotics seized last year.

The Australian Crime Commission said the situation was “a gravely serious issue” with international cartels at the heart of the problem.

During the last financial year a record 101,749 arrests were made and there were 86,918 seizures of illicit drugs — a 66 per cent increase over the past decade.

SYRIA: Two car bombs exploded in a pro-government neighbourhood in Homs today, killing at least 36 people just hours after a mortar strike in the capital Damascus killed 14.

A government official said the Homs bombs exploded in the city’s predominantly Alawite district of Zahra. The attack also wounded 85.

GERMANY: The government has reported a rise in politically motivated crime over the last year and blamed spiking left-wing violence.

But the Interior Ministry also admitted today that the far-right accounted for most such crimes — 17,042 acts in 2013. 

More than two-thirds were classified as propaganda, such as displaying the swastika.

Nearly half of the 8,673 left-wing acts were property damage during demonstrations.

BRAZIL: Twenty youths from a northern suburb of Rio torched five buses on Monday night, shortly after a 17-year-old died in a shootout between criminals and police.

Military police claimed that the victim was in a stolen car and that a firearm was found by his side.

The clash came during a police crackdown on drug dealing and car thefts in the Morro de Chapadao slum.

TURKEY: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today that the government is to start extradition proceedings against US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Former ally Mr Gulen has been accused by Mr Erdogan of using his supporters to try to topple him during a string of corruption scandals.

The cleric denies mounting a campaign against Mr Erdogan.

EGYPT: Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie claimed today that this week’s mass death sentences would cause the government’s downfall.

“This ruling is the last nail in the coffin of the ruling powers,” said Mr Badie, who was condemned to death along with 682 supporters on Monday. “The regime is on the brink of collapse.”

United Nations human rights high commissioner Navi Pillay criticised the second mass death sentence as “outrageous.”

SPAIN: The unemployment rate climbed to nearly 26 per cent in the first quarter of 2014, official data showed today, as millions searched in vain for a job despite a claimed recovery from recession.

New figures showed Spain still failing to dent one of the highest unemployment rates in the industrialised world.

The unemployment rate climbed to 25.93 per cent in the first quarter of 2014, up from 25.73 per cent in the previous.

PALESTINE: Gaza’s Ark, a Palestinian-built protest boat which was preparing to run Israel’s naval blockade, was badly damaged in an explosion today that organisers blamed on Israel.

The blast in Gaza City port struck at around 3.45am. The ship was preparing to put to sea in June but it sustained major damage and sank in the shallow waters of the port.

Palestinian labourers and foreign activists have been working for more than a year to fit out the boat to carry goods and passengers to challenge Israel’s blockade.