US Secretary of State John Kerry is calling on bickering Egyptian leaders and opposition politicians to forge a consensus that will allow the country to emerge from economic crisis.

Mr Kerry, on his first overseas trip as a member of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet, was scheduled to meet with a number of opposition figures along with Egypt’s Foreign Minister yesterday.

He will see President Mohammed Morsi today.

US officials said Mr Kerry was particularly concerned that Egypt takes the reforms necessary to qualify for a €3.7 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan package.

One official said it was extremely important for the new Egypt for there to be a firm economic foundation, and that requires reaching agreement with the IMF. To get that, Egypt must make reforms, like increasing tax collections and curbing energy subsidies.

Man accused of sneaking into jail

Authorities in the US have accused a former inmate of the Rikers Island jail in New York City of sneaking back into the prison.

Yonkers resident Matthew Matagrano is charged with impersonating a Department of Correction investigator.

Officials say that, for at least a week, Matagrano used a badge and ID card to get into Rikers and roam the jail.

The 36-year-old has a lengthy list of convictions that includes one for sodomy and sexual abuse that landed him on the state’s sex offender registry.

It is unclear why he wanted to get into the jail, but he had also previously been caught posing as a Board of Education worker to enter schools.

It was not immediately clear whether Matagrano had a lawyer.

Polar bear cub makes debut at zoo

A smiling, playful three-month-old polar bear cub has made its public debut at the Buffalo Zoo in western New York.

The fluffy white cub was introduced on Friday as the zoo announced the next phase of fundraising for a new €14 million polar bear exhibit.

About €3 million is still needed.

The Buffalo Zoo says it is one of only two zoos in North America to have polar bear births in 2012.

The cub is still too small to exhibit but she is visible via closed-circuit television at the zoo on weekday afternoons.

Swiss vote on ‘rip-off initiative’

Foreign executives who moved their company headquarters to Switzerland to get better tax deals for their firms may find themselves paying the price for it this weekend.

A plan to crack down on excessive corporate pay packages is predicted to pass at the ballot box today.

If the ‘Rip-off Initiative’ succeeds, shareholders will be given the right to hold a binding vote on a company’s compensation of executives and directors. This includes both base salary and bonuses.

It would also ban ‘golden hellos’ and ‘golden goodbyes’ – one-time bonuses that senior managers often receive when joining or leaving a company, which can run into millions of pounds.

Finally, the proposal pushes greater corporate transparency, for example by requiring that all loans to executives be declared to shareholders.

Berlin Wall demolition set to continue

A German property developer has rejected calls to halt work to remove one of the last remaining stretches of the Berlin Wall, despite angry protests against the plan.

Maik Uwe Hinkel says work to move a 22-yard (20-metre) section of the three-quarters-of-a mile (1.2-km) section of the wall will resume this week. On Friday, hundreds of protesters stopped workers from moving the 19 concrete slabs, each about four feet wide, to make way for an access road to a luxury development being built on the banks of the reunited city’s Spree river.

Hinkel said his company has all necessary permits to move the mural-covered slabs and the road will also benefit the reconstruction of a bridge destroyed in World War II.