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{{Doctors say a British woman has given birth to the biggest baby ever born naturally in Spain – a girl weighing 6.2kg.}}

Maxime Marin, 40, had what doctors described as an “uncomplicated” delivery at the Hospital Marina Salud in Denia, Alicante.

The mother, who lives in Spain with her Colombian partner, said she knew the baby would be big “but not that big”.

“I did not even need an epidural,” Ms Marin is quoted as saying.

Both are believed to be doing well, although the newborn – Maria Lorena – remains in the neonatal care unit.

Larger babies are often delivered via caesarean section.

Maxime Marin’s three other children all weighed at least 4.5kg when they were born, media reported.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the world’s heaviest baby was born to Anna Bates of Canada in 1879.

The baby weighed 10.5kg but died 11 hours after birth. Both of the baby’s parents had giantism.

A woman in Brazil gave birth to a son weighing 8kg by caesarean section in 2005.

In March, George King became the UK’s second biggest baby born naturally – weighing in at 7kg.

BBC

{{Venezuela’s highest court has rejected an appeal by opposition leader Henrique Capriles against April’s contested presidential election result.}}

The Supreme Court of Justice described the appeal as “inadmissible”.

After the ruling Mr Capriles tweeted that there was a “lack of justice” in Venezuela.

Nicolas Maduro, Hugo Chavez’s handpicked successor, won the election by less than 1.5 percentage points – about 200,000 votes.

The opposition alleged that the vote had been marred by fraud.

In June the Venezuelan National Electoral Commission (CNE) confirmed President Maduro’s victory in an audit on millions of votes, but Mr Capriles denounced the audit as “a fake”.

In her ruling on Wednesday, Justice Gladys Gutierrez said the opposition had not not offered “sufficient proof” to back up their allegations.

The 10-point appeal had been lodged by Mr Capriles, the opposition coalition and several citizens.

On Tuesday, Mr Capriles criticised the court’s delay in making a ruling and said that he would take the case to “international bodies”.

April’s election was called after the death of President Chavez on 5 March following a long battle against cancer.

{agencies}

{{Russia has voiced disappointment with US President Barack Obama’s decision to cancel his Moscow summit with President Vladimir Putin, but said it remains ready to co-operate on bilateral and international issues.}}

Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters on Wednesday that Obama’s decision reflected the US’ inability to develop relations with Moscow on an “equal basis”.

At the same time, he said the invitation to the US president to visit Moscow next month still stands and added that “Russian representatives are ready to continue working together with American partners on all key issues on the bilateral and multilateral agenda”.

The cancellation of the summit underscores US dismay over Russia’s harbouring of National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, as well as disagreements on other key issues, such as missile defence and Russia’s human rights record.

Snowden, an NSA systems analyst accused of leaking highly secretive details about the agency’s surveillance programs, was stuck in the transit zone of a Moscow airport for more than a month before Russia granted him asylum for one year last week.

{agencies}

{{Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev vetoed a budget revision on Wednesday, saying the Socialist-led government had not shown enough transparency in its use of public money in the European Union’s poorest state.}}

Last Thursday parliament backed a plan to raise new debt in defiance of the government’s opponents, including protesters who have been demonstrating for weeks against corruption.

“I return the provisions about the revenues, expenses and planned new debt for reconsideration,” Plevneliev told a news conference. “It is correct for the expenses to be transparent so that we know what they will be spent on.”

Bulgaria’s president is chosen by popular vote.

Analysts expect the assembly to overturn Plevneliev’s veto. Parliament speaker Mihail Mihov said lawmakers would interrupt their summer holiday to hold an extraordinary session on August 30, to review the president’s statement “and make a decision about the justness of his arguments”.

The government has said it will increase the 2013 budget deficit to 2 percent of gross domestic product from 1.3 percent to spur a weak economy and help the needy, raising up to 1 billion levs ($681 million) in new debt to finance the shortfall and payments on maturing debt.

Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski said Plevneliev’s veto of his plan would hurt the country. “Even if the veto is overturned in the parliament, the effect of the delay remains,” he said.

The cabinet is composed of Socialists and the ethnic Turkish MRF and has been in power for just over two months. It controls barely half of the seats in parliament and relies on the passive support of Attack, a nationalist party, to stay in office.

Supporters of the revision say Bulgaria needs more money to issue food vouchers for employees and additional funds for employment programmes for the disadvantaged. However, many Bulgarians say extra spending would just fuel inefficiency.

($1 = 1.4693 Bulgarian levs)

{reuters}

{{Syrian rebels said on Thursday they targeted President Bashar al-Assad’s motorcade heading to a Damascus mosque to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, but state television showed him unharmed and the government denied he had been attacked.}}

The Tahrir al-Sham rebel brigade, a unit of the Free Syrian Army, said it fired several artillery shells towards Assad’s convoy in the heart of the capital and that at least some hit their target.

If confirmed, the attack would be one of the most direct against Assad in two years of conflict which have pitched mainly Sunni Muslim rebels against the Alawite president.

Rebels have targeted Assad’s residences in Damascus and a bombing in the capital last year killed four of his inner circle, but there have been no reports of Assad himself coming under fire.

Video footage distributed by the Tahrir al-Sham rebels showed smoke rising from what it said was the Malki district, where Assad and his close aides have homes. Other activists also reported rocket fire into the area.

Syria’s government denied the reports. “The news is wholly untrue,” Information Minister Omran Zoabi said.

Firas al-Bitar, head of the Tahrir al-Sham brigade, said his fighters had carried out reconnaissance of the route of Assad’s motorcade and fired 120 mm artillery towards the president’s convoy early on Thursday.

“The attack rattled the regime, even if Assad was not hit,” he told Reuters from an undisclosed location in the capital. “There were two motorcades, one containing Assad and a decoy. We targeted the correct one.”

Bitar’s brigade operates mainly in the Ghouta region on the eastern outskirts of the capital. Another official in Tahrir al-Sham said Assad’s forces fired rockets and artillery “like rain” on the region in response to the reported attack.

Following the statement, Syrian state television showed footage of Assad praying alongside ministers and other top officials. It said the footage was from Thursday’s Eid prayers at the Anas bin Malek Mosque in Malki.

Assad appeared unharmed and smiled at the worshippers as he entered the mosque.

Islam Alloush of the Liwa al-Islam, another rebel brigade, told Reuters earlier on Thursday that rebels fired rockets which struck Assad’s motorcade.

“Assad was not hit but the information we have based from sources within the regime is that there were casualties within his entourage,” Allooush said.

Other activists also reported rockets were fired into the Malki area, which was sealed off by security forces.

{agencies}