• Nervousness over Canada’s outlook and falling house prices have cast a cloud over Mark Carney’s last few months as Bank of Canada governor.
• Cyprus is still waiting for international funding, despite having requested a bailout seven months ago — there are fears in the EU that the island is a haven for Russian dirty money.
• Herman Van Rompuy will unveil a compromise proposal for the EU’s long-term budget today and creative accounting is set to play a role in reconciling British demands for a budget freeze and French calls for more robust spending. Also to be decided is Europe’s future commitment to creating a new European-controlled version of America’s GPS.
• John Brennan’s confirmation hearing could provide a rare moment of public scrutiny over the topic of drone strikes.
• The surge of diplomatic, commercial and scientific activity that has accompanied the melting of Arctic ice is unleashing a scramble to exploit oil and gas deposits.
• Jemima Khan explains how Julian Assange alienated his supporters: “The problem is that WikiLeaks… has been guilty of the same obfuscation and misinformation as those it sought to expose…”
• A video of a labourer being stripped and beaten outside the presidential palace has brought attention to the lack of reform in the Egyptian police force. They have been weakened, caught between the people and the institutions of the country.
• Rebecca Rosen has examined how hundreds of homing pigeons, released between 1968 and 1987, disappeared and never found their way home.
• Rather than drowning in the sewers after Hurricane Sandy, New York rats have just relocated, further inland.

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