
A complex targeted cyber-attack that collected private data from countries such as Israel and Iran has been uncovered, researchers have said. Russian security firm Kaspersky Labs told the BBC they believed the malware, known as Flame, had been operating since August 2010.

A top ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives appealed to the opposition Social Democrats and Greens to refrain from playing political games and back the government to endorse Europe's new fiscal pact and permanent bailout fund.

Sweden's premier defense and security company, Saab, is strengthening its relationship with a Brazilian integrator of aero-structures. Saab, manufacturer of the Gripen jet fighter that has partnered in the past with the company Akaer, said it is now financially investing in the company.

Indonesia has stopped imports of US beef, following a case of mad cow disease that was detected in California, reports Farming News Daily. Indonesia Agriculture Minister Suswono said the government had no time frame, but said the suspension applied to all beef shipped after April 24.

The UN Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, also known as the Special Committee of 24, will hold its regional Pacific seminar on decolonization in Quito, Ecuador, from 30 May to 1 June 2012.

The United Nations International Labor Organization on Monday selected a former trade union leader, Guy Ryder of Britain, to become its new director general, a position that puts him at the forefront of an agency pushing to improve labor conditions around the world.

FIFA, the official international governing body of football is set to appoint top human rights lawyer Luis Moreno Ocampo as the first head of the new Ethics committee’s investigation arm.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy called for a show of force from European authorities as his government sought ways to avoid tapping markets to fund the bailout of the nation’s third-biggest lender.

Spain’s leading bank Santander denied any plan to sell its Brazilian affiliate full or partly, as was published in the Sao Paulo media following discussions with Bradesco, another top listed Brazilian bank.

Spain’s King Juan Carlos will be travelling to Brazil and Chile in the first week of June to strengthen ties with two strategic associates and in preparation of the Ibero-American summit to take place in Cadiz. The King will be accompanied by Foreign Affairs minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo and a business delegation.