In the all the drama of the phone hacking scandal and the subsequent Murdoch meltdown over the past two weeks, it can be easy to forget there's still a world out there.
For a few weeks it seemed like the only story in town. However, while we watched on in amazement as various executives and politicians squirmed, resigned and apologised, there were significant developments at home and abroad.
Luckily the Huffington Post UK has wrapped up all the news you missed:
The British government must have realised this was the optimum time to leak some policies under the radar. One of these was the news that a badger cull is expected to go ahead. The Environment Secretary, Caroline Spelman, said that she was "strongly minded" to allow culling. If the consultation does not raise major obstacles, culling can be piloted next spring, with wider implementation in 2013.
The government also slipped out a review of arms sales to Arab regimes, after it emerged earlier this year that weapons supplied by Britain may have been used in Libya, Syria and Egypt against their own population. William Hague, the foreign secretary, said the government found that there was no evidence of any misuse of military equipment from the UK. But senior MPs rebuked him over the matter.
In Ireland, Prime Minister Enda Kenny, accused the Vatican of downplaying the child-abuse of Irish children by Catholic clerics. The archbishop of Dublin according responded by saying that the Kenny's attack should be a "wake-up call" for the Church.
The eurozone became ever more precarious. The Telegraph has been keeping a live blog of the currency crisis as it has unfolded. Italian MPs struggled to stem the tide of the growing debt problems it has. It is now feared that it is the next country to be hit by eurozone debt contagion. Few noticed, but Nick Clegg tried to convince the British public of the need to involve itself in preventing a possible break-up of the single currency.
Across the Atlantic, there was more economic doom and gloom on the horizon. The Federal Reserve is actively preparing for the possibility that the United States could default on its loans as a deadline for raising the government's $14.3 trillion borrowing limit looms.
President Bashar al-Assad's faltering regime has ramped up its mass arrests in cities across Syria. The situation there has deteriorated gravely over the past few weeks. Last Friday, more than one million people turned out on the streets, mainly in the cities of Hama and Deir Ezzor, to protest against the administration, but also to demand the release of hundreds of detainees seized at anti-government rallies.
On Tuesday, the European Union criticised Israel for its plan to build 300 settlements on the West Bank. "We reiterate that the EU considers that settlement activities in the West Bank are illegal under international law, undermine trust between the parties and constitute an obstacle to peace," a spokeswoman said.
In the past few days, an Israeli minister confirmed that Israel is "not ready to apologise" to Turkey over the killing of nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists last year. This came in the same week as a French boat that was attempting to defy the Gaza blockade was seized by the Israeli navy.
In Libya, it looked as though there might be an end to the months of stalemate as the Obama administration, and a group of over 30 foreign ministers from the Arab and Western world, decided to formally recognise Libya's main opposition group as the country's legitimate governing authority. There are now tentative steps to negotiate a settlement with Gaddafi.