News Headlines - 27 June 2012

▽Queen shakes hands with Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness - The Independent

Anglo-Irish relations took a momentous step forward today when the Queen shook hands in public with Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness. The historic encounter between the former IRA commander - now Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister - and the Queen was unthinkable a little over 10 years ago.

▽AFP: House of Lords reforms face stormy ride

The government was to unveil its plans on Wednesday for a mainly elected upper house of parliament, in a draft law that faces fierce opposition from within the ruling coalition. Under the long-awaited legislation, 80 percent of the House of Lords would be elected, while its 800-strong membership would be reduced to 450.

▽gulfnews : Al Assad says country ‘in a state of war’

Syrian President Bashar Al Assad on Tuesday said his country was in state of war and ordered his new cabinet to crush the anti-regime uprising. Rebel forces and Syrian army units, meanwhile, engaged in deadly combat around elite Republican Guard posts in the suburbs of Damascus, as 116 people were killed across the country, a monitoring group said.

▽RBS clients may still take up Wimbledon seats | guardian.co.uk

The 528 seats that Royal Bank of Scotland had bought for the Wimbledon fortnight may not be left empty even after the bailed-out bank cancelled all its corporate hospitality to allow its top staff to focus on the ongoing computer crisis that has affected up to 13 million customers.

▽BBC News - Japanese nuclear companies face protests

Protests are expected outside the meetings of Japan's Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) and at Kansai Electric, the firm that will be the first to re-start two of it's nuclear reactors next week.