BBC News

A Syrian-born American man has been charged in the United States with spying for Syria. The US Justice Department said Mohamad Anas Haitham Soueid had gathered information on people protesting in America against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad. He was allegedly directed by Syrian intelligence agencies to collect video and audio recordings, phone numbers and emails. Many Syrians abroad have complained of systematic harassment by agents of the Syrian government.

The president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, has set out a plan for tackling the crisis in the eurozone. He said it was time to remove doubts about whether the EU could cope. Part of the plan will be to strengthen banks against losses on loans to Greece, which is at risk of default. Mr Barroso said struggling banks must improve their capital reserves, or he said they should face a ban on paying dividends or bonuses.

Scientists have reconstructed the entire genetic map of the germ that caused the Black Death, the bubonic plague that has killed millions in the 14th century. Matt McGrath has the details.

Humans have rarely encountered an enemy as devastating as the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Between 1347 and 1351, it sparked the Black Death, an infection carried by fleas that spread rapidly across Europe, killing around 50 million people. Now scientists have uncovered some of the genetic secrets of the plague thanks to DNA fragments drilled from the teeth of victims buried in a graveyard in east London. The researchers say that all current strains circulating in the world are directly related to the medieval bacterium.