Xstrata and Glencore were scrambling to sort out their differences yesterday ahead of Monday's deadline to agree the final terms of an $80bn (£50bn) mining and commodity trading mega-merger between the two.

A man who contracted a potentially fatal Sars-like virus is now in a stable condition.

Glencore's proposed £30bn takeover of Xstrata appeared to suffer a fatal blow yesterday as Qatar, a major shareholder with the power to virtually scupper the deal single-handed, said it would vote against the transaction.

Unicredit sucked into sanctions row

Glencore chief executive Ivan Glasenberg called Qatar's bluff yesterday, giving the strongest sign yet that he will not cave in to its demands to hike his £30bn offer for Xstrata.

The Qatari sovereign wealth fund has agreed to buy a fifth of BAA, the Heathrow Airport operator, for £900m in a transaction involving deals with three of its key shareholders.

Prime Minister David Cameron has intervened personally to help a 12-year-old boy who wrote him a letter last year pleading for help after his family allegedly took and kept him in Qatar under false pretences, Downing Street confirmed today.

Shooter Bahia Al Hamad became the first Qatari woman to compete in an Olympics when she began her qualifying round in the 10 metre air rifle event at the London Games this morning.

The Syrian regime admitted for the first time yesterday that it possesses weapons of mass destruction, as it dismissed as "flagrant interventionism" an Arab League offer to provide a safe exit for President Bashar al-Assad and his family if he steps aside.

If the Champions Series itself remains difficult to take seriously, even its harshest critic will celebrate the associated, twin blessings that were freshly amplified yesterday. One is the way it has caught the imagination of young, enormously wealthy sponsors from Qatar; the other is a Champions Day that needs only a better place in the calendar to complete its emergence as a legitimate new focus for the European Turf. Both those boons have now been reinforced by a new, five-year sponsorship deal with Qipco Holdings.

The Arab League's secretary general has offered Syrian president Bashar Assad a “safe exit” for him and his family if he steps down.

Valentino, one of Italy's most famous designers, has secured a spot in the vast wardrobe of Qatar's Royal family.

Mining giant Xstrata named 7 September as the new date for shareholders to vote on its controversial, £57bn merger with the Glencore commodities trading group.

Of the countries of the Arab spring that overthrew repressive regimes, the conflict in Libya was the most vicious and prolonged. This led to the conclusion that the people who would emerge in power would be the Islamist fighters who were increasingly in evidence.