The World This Week...

There was a military coup in Honduras after Manuel Zelaya, the leftist president, tried to organise an unconstitutional referendum to allow him to stand for a second term.

Around 4,000 American marines, backed by NATO aircraft, launched a big offensive against the Taliban in Afghanistan's southern Helmand river valley.

Bernard Madoff was sentenced by a judge in Manhattan to 150 years in prison, the maximum term allowed, for operating a $65billion Ponzi scheme. He pleaded guilty to possibly the the biggest fraud in history.

High street and online retailers reported that sales of Michael Jackson's albums and songs surged after his death from an apparent heart attack on June 24th. Amazon sold more of the pop star's recordings in the 24 hours following his demise than in the whole of the past decade.