Cancer costs EU $170bn annually: study
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IMF chief warns a US default could spark recession
Angry protests took place outside the White House on Sunday, as Mark Mardell reports
The head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, has warned that a US default could tip the world into recession.
In a US TV interview she said a default would result in "massive disruption the world over".
The US Treasury will start to run short of funds on Thursday if no agreement is reached for it to raise its debt limit.
Democratic and Republican leaders in the Senate held direct talks for the first time in weeks on Saturday.
But there is little sign of any breakthrough, correspondents say.
In an interview with ABC's Meet the Press Christine Lagarde said America must now raise the debt ceiling before Thursday's deadline.
"If there is that degree of disruption, that lack of certainty, that lack of trust in the US signature, it would mean massive disruption the world over and we would be at risk of tipping yet again into recession," she said.
World Bank
The president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, has also expressed his concern over the situation.
He warned that the United States is just "days away from a very dangerous moment" because of the government's borrowing crisis.
Mr Kim urged US policymakers to reach a deal to raise the government's debt ceiling before Thursday's deadline.
He warned this could be a "disastrous event" for the world.
"The closer we get to the deadline the greater the impact will be for the developing world.
"Inaction could result in interest rates rising, confidence falling and growth slowing," said Mr Kim, speaking at the World Bank's annual meeting in Washington.
"If this comes to pass it could be a disastrous event for the developing world and that will in turn greatly hurt the developed economies as well," he added.
Watch: The US debt ceiling explained
'Uneasy'
If the US does run short of cash, this could cause it to default on its debts, a development which would be likely to have a severe effect on financial markets around the world.
The BBC's Andrew Walker said that finance ministers from other countries think the US probably won't default, but they are uneasy and want the crisis resolved very soon.
Republicans and Democrats failed to come to an agreement on Saturday, but Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat, said the aim was to reach a deal on extending the debt limit before markets reopen on Monday.
The White House rejected a deal for a short-term increase to the borrowing limit.
"It wouldn't be wise, as some suggest, to just kick the debt ceiling can down the road for a couple of months, and flirt with a first-ever intentional default right in the middle of the holiday shopping season," said President Barack Obama.
Shutdown
The US government has been in partial shutdown since Congress missed a 1 October deadline to pass a budget, with politicians being unable to agree funding for current spending.
This has resulted in hundreds of thousands of federal employees being sent home and government offices closing.
Republicans refused to approve the new budget unless President Obama agreed to delay or eliminate the funding of the healthcare reform law of 2010.
US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has estimated that each week the government is shut down, 0.25% is shaved off economic growth, which was already expected to be a sluggish this quarter.
Mr Lew has also has warned that letting talks over the debt ceiling go down to the wire "could be very dangerous".
The current debt limit of $16.699 trillion was reached in May.
Since then the US Treasury has been using what are called extraordinary measures to keep paying the bills, but those measures run out on 17 October.
Every week, the Treasury also has to refinance $100bn worth of debt in the form of US government bonds known as treasuries.
The US also has to pay interest on its huge debt burden.
An inability to pay that interest, or pay back debt if required, would put the US into default.
On Saturday, Jamie Dimon, boss of the American bank JP Morgan said the possible repercussions did not bear thinking about.
"You don't want to know [what would happen]," he said.
"It would ripple through the world economy in a way that you couldn't possibly understand."
Testing the bicycles of the future
Click's LJ Rich and Spencer Kelly put some new personal transport devices to the test at the Japanese technology show, Ceatec. The battery-powered personal transport devices are intended to be an economical way of getting round town and be a life changer for older people losing their mobility.
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Italy steps up migrant boat patrols after tragedies
Italy says it intends to triple its presence in the southern Mediterranean
Italy is stepping up sea and air patrols following the deaths of hundreds of migrants sailing in overcrowded boats from North Africa.
Prime Minister Enrico Letta said an "air and naval package" would start on Monday south of Sicily.
On Friday at least 33 people died when their boat capsized between Malta and the Italian island of Lampedusa.
A week earlier, more than 350 migrants died in another shipwreck off Lampedusa.
Italy has previously called for EU help in dealing with the thousands of desperate migrants who wash up on its beaches every year. Many are families fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East who hope for a better life in Europe.
But the recent loss of life has led to further calls for EU action.
Italian Defence Minister Mario Mauro said the country intended to triple its presence in the southern Mediterranean.
It had become necessary "in part by the fact that Libya is currently a 'non-state'," he told Italian newspaper Avvenire.
"We need strong action to stop these shipwrecks," he added.
Italian media reported that unmanned drone aircraft based in Sicily could also be used to identify boats in trouble.
Foreign Minister Emma Bonino said the patrols would be to rescue migrants rather than "telling them to stay where they are".
In addition to coastguard and border police vessels, the Italian navy currently has three ships supported by four helicopters patrolling the area. It can also call on two surveillance aircraft with night-vision capabilities.
A spokesman for the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, in Lampedusa told the BBC that Italy is also planning to increase its capacity for receiving migrants from 8,000 to 16,000.
"[Migrants] should be transferred to the mainland, to the proper reception system. It's a huge effort [Italy] is making... the reception capability will be raised starting from next January," Maurizio Molina said.
Migrants who survived Friday's capsize say they were were shot at as they left Libya.
One survivor told the BBC that some on board were shot and that bullet holes caused the boat to start sinking.
Some have suggested that the Libyan coast guard had fired at the boat, though other accounts suggested that rival trafficking gangs or Libyan militiamen may have been to blame.
Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat visited Libya on Sunday where he discussed the issue of migrant boats with his Libyan counterpart Ali Zeidan.
"We are determined to deal with the problem," Mr Zeidan said.
"Several measures have been taken in terms of equipment and the addition of maritime police to increase the monitoring of our shores," he added.
"But, as you know, human traffickers have gained considerable expertise on this matter and despite tightening measures sometimes it is out of the hands of the authorities."
Armed militias still hold some power in parts of Libya since they helped topple Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Mr Zeidan was himself seized by militiamen last Thursday and held for several hours before being released.
Mr Muscat has called on EU states to act over the migrant boats, saying that a "cemetery" was being created in the Mediterranean.
According to the UN, some 32,000 migrants have arrived in Malta and Italy this year.
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Counting down Top Gear’s 41 most memorable moments
If ever there was a Top Gear moment where the promises of the passenger automobile were realised, it was here, where Jeremy managed to shoe-horn his frame into the Peel P50. Encounters with irate motorists and befuddled BBC staff ensue.
Iran insists on ‘absolute right’ to enrich uranium
TEHRAN : Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif insisted on Monday that his country has the “absolute right” to enrich uranium on its soil, ISNA news agency reported.
“The mastery of civil nuclear technology, including the enrichment of uranium, on Iranian soil is the absolute right of Iran,” Zarif said at a meeting in Tehran with the visiting Swiss deputy foreign minister, Yves Rossier. “The events of recent years have shown that the approach of threats and sanctions have not ensured the interests and objectives of the other party, and the continuation of this approach is the repetition of past mistakes which cannot prevent Iran from mastering civilian nuclear technology,” he added. The West and Israel have long accused Iran of seeking to develop nuclear bombs in the guise of a civilian programme, charges Tehran has always vehemently denied.
Iran and six world powers — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, the United States — are set to resume negotiations in Geneva on October 15 to try to find a solution to the nuclear issue.
They would be the first talks between Iran and the six since the election in June of moderate President Hassan Rouhani, who has called for a speedy settlement of an issue that has been stalled for eight years.
At meetings in Almaty this year, the six proposed Iran suspend uranium enrichment at the 20 percent level it says it needs for a medical research reactor, and to halt enrichment at its underground plant at Fordo.
In return, they would ease some sanctions on trade in gold and petrochemicals.
However, Zarif said on Sunday the offers were now “history” and that the group “should come to the negotiating table with a new approach”.
US Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday urged Iran to come up with new proposals.
“The group of six put a proposal on the table at Almaty and I don’t believe as of yet Iran has fully responded to that particular proposal. So I think we are waiting for the fullness of the Iranian difference in their approach now,” Kerry told reporters in Indonesia after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
“So what we need are a set of proposals from Iran that will fully disclose how they will show the world that their programme is peaceful,” he added.
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Pakistani Taliban vow to attack Malala again
MIRANSHAH: The Pakistani Taliban on Monday said schoolgirl campaigner Malala Yousafzai had "no courage" and vowed to attack her again if they got the chance.
Gunmen sent by the Taliban tried to kill Malala on her school bus on October 9 last year. She amazingly survived being shot in the head and has become a global ambassador for the right of all children -- girls as well as boys -- to go to school.
Having spread a message of "education for all" across the globe, the 16-year-old is now among the favourites for the Nobel Peace Prize, which will be awarded on Friday.
But Shahidullah Shahid, spokesman for the main Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) umbrella group, slammed Malala and said they would try again to kill her.
"She is not a brave girl and has no courage. We will target her again and attack whenever we have a chance," Shahid told AFP.
In an interview with the BBC, Malala dismissed the threats against her life and repeated her desire to return to Pakistan from Britain, where she was flown for treatment after the attack and where she now goes to school.
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