* Iran crossed nuclear tech threshold Israel acknowledged for the first time that Teheran had mastered the technology to make a nuclear bomb.

* N Korea warning over satellite North Korea has warned that any attempt to shoot down a satellite it says it plans to launch will result in war.

* US says 12,000 troops to leave Iraq by September About 12,000 U.S. soldiers will leave Iraq by September, officials said.

* Israeli demolitions fuel conflict, EU diplomats say Israel is damaging the prospects for peace with Palestinians by grabbing land and violating civil liberties in East Jerusalem.

* EU ministers draft finance chapter of spring summit EU finance ministers will meet in Brussels on Tuesday to prepare a number of key policy documents.

* Illinois pastor deflected gunshot with Bible A pastor shot and killed during his Sunday sermon deflected the first of the gunman’s four rounds with a Bible.

* World Bank offers dire forecast for world economy In a bleaker assessment than those of most private forecasters, the World Bank predicted Sunday that the global economy would shrink in 2009 for the first time since World War II.

* Obama bid to turn to moderate Taliban ‘will fail’ Co-opting fighters unlikely to succeed, say critics

* Pope confirms Israel visit in early May Pope Benedict XVI will visit Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories between May 8 and 15, the leader of the Catholic church confirmed during Sunday’s mass at St. Peter’s in the Vatican.

* US envoy finds ‘common ground’ in Syria A top US diplomat called his talks in Damascus on Saturday “very constructive.”