They should be out-of-this-world experiences. But United States experts have warned that sex in space will bring problems, not pleasure, for men and women heading to the moon and Mars. A panel of scientists has told Nasa that interplanetary passion could cause chaos to its latest plans to send humans on long missions.

Under massive international condemnation, Iran moved rapidly to explain that its president’s call for Israel to be ”wiped off the map” should in no way be taken as a threat of violence. As a growing chorus condemned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s remarks, diplomats and officials sought to defuse the row.

Hundreds of French youths fought with police and set cars ablaze in a northern Paris suburb early on Saturday morning in a second successive night of rioting. The disorder was triggered last week when two teenagers were electrocuted and killed in a local substation while fleeing from police.

An embattled President George Bush sought on Saturday to shift the focus away from a host of domestic political crises by calling for the American people to back the struggle for democracy in Iraq. A disastrous week for the White House culminated in the indictment and resignation of senior aide Lewis ”Scooter” Libby.

According to a study into conditions inside Indian call centres conducted by a government-funded research institute, Indian ”cyber coolies” — expensively educated, highly intelligent graduates — are wasting their talents performing exhausting, mindlessly repetitive tasks for the call-centre industry.

The people of Côte d’Ivoire woke up to an uncertain future on Sunday, the day that was to have marked the end of President Laurent Gbagbo’s five-year mandate. Gbagbo has said he will remain in office until elections are held, a process the international community wants within 12 months.