USA - It’s ‘McRib season’, and thousands across the nation are scrambling to use online websites like the ‘McRib locator‘ to stuff the McDonald’s McRib sandwich down their throats. A sandwich that is not only full of genetically modified ingredients, a medley of toxic fillers and preservatives, but also some ingredients that are actually banned in other nations around the world. But honestly, are you surprised? It’s not actually a rib. Instead, it’s a combination of unwanted animal scraps processed down in major facilities and ‘restructured’ into the form of a rib. Then, 70 additives, chemicals, fillers, and GMO ingredients later, you have a ‘meat’ product that tastes like ribs.

USA - Chinese foreign direct investment in the United States hit record levels in 2012 and shows little sign of slowing, despite lingering worries among some that the inflow of Chinese money presents a growing security risk to the country. Chinese companies concluded deals worth $6.5 billion in 2012, an increase of 12 percent from the record $5.8 billion in 2010, according to a new report by New York-based Rhodium Group, which tracks Chinese FDI.

UK - It sounds like a radically modern idea. With the Royal Navy now downsized to a mere shadow of its former glory how do you protect commercial shipping, not to mention human cargo, in pirate-infested waters? Answer: bring in a private navy. And in a couple of months that is precisely what corporations or indeed governments will be able to do when Typhon, a privately owned and run British maritime force, goes into operation. Set up by British businessman Simon Murray, Typhon will provide an armed escort for shipping off the east of Africa which has long been plagued by Somali pirates.

WASHINGTON, USA - US banks have taken another step to clear away the wreckage of the 2008 financial crisis by agreeing to pay $8.5 billion to settle charges that they wrongfully foreclosed on millions of homeowners. The deal announced Monday could compensate hundreds of thousands of Americans whose homes were seized because of abuses such as “robo-signing,” when banks automatically signed off on foreclosures without properly reviewing documents. The agreement will also help eliminate huge potential liabilities for the banks.

UK - Much as Britain is uncertain about its future relationship with Europe, so Europe is divided about what it wants from Britain. On a range of issues the UK has strong allies. Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark are just three countries who share many of the same instincts as London and would want to keep Britain in the EU.

USA - "All political power comes from the barrel of a gun. The communist party must command all the guns, that way, no guns can ever be used to command the party" - Mao Tse Tung

"After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military" - William Burroughs

USA - What we are hearing from bloviating gun control advocates in America is nothing short of emotionally driven irrationality. According to statistics assembled from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Center for Disease Control and the Federal Government, firearms related homicides are minuscule in comparison to the other “big killers” in the United States.

USA - The White House is weighing a far broader and more comprehensive approach to curbing the nation’s gun violence than simply reinstating an expired ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition, according to multiple people involved in the administration’s discussions.

ARGENTINA - Argentina's latest lunge for the Falklands is part of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s plan to run for an unprecedented third term in office, analysts said last night, writes Marco Giannangeli. Argentina published an advert last week in a UK newspaper demanding David Cameron agree to sovereignty talks. Services Institute think-tank, said it was a “distraction technique” to steer attention away from the failing economy towards foreign policy. He said Argentina’s constitution bars [Mrs] Kirchner from standing for a third term but it was “not unlikely” she was trying to change this.

USA - Unless the rice you buy is certified organic, or comes specifically from a farm that tests its rice crops for genetically modified (GM) traits, you could be eating rice tainted with actual human genes.

BERLIN, GERMANY - When Chancellor Angela Merkel hosted a recent reception for military families, she greeted parents, wives and children whose loved ones were spending their holidays in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Kosovo and off the Horn of Africa. German deployments overseas, Ms Merkel said, “will soon encompass the entire globe.”

USA - In the past several years, people worldwide are slowly beginning to shed the web of deceit woven by the banking elite and learning that many topics that were mocked by the mainstream media as conspiracy theories of the tin-foil hat community have now been proven to be true beyond a shadow of a doubt.

BEIJING, CHINA - China is experiencing unusual chills this winter with its national average temperature hitting the lowest in 28 years, and snow and ice have closed highways, cancelled flights, stranded tourists and knocked out power in several provinces. In some areas - north-eastern China, eastern Inner Mongolia, and north part of far-western Xinjiang province - the low has hit -40 degrees C (-40 degrees F), the administration said. The state-run, English-language China Daily reported Friday that about 1,000 ships were stuck in ice in Laizhou Bay in eastern China's Bohai Sea.

USA - The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is warning the flu season appears to be bad this year - spreading faster and earlier than usual. Officials with the CDC have said the South and Southeast sections of the country are getting hit hard. Even people who received the flu shot can still get sick, they said. There is one theory that the outbreak may be due in part to the possibility that the flu vaccine does not include the strain that is currently spreading across the country.

LONDON, UK - The Catholic Church will stop gay-friendly Masses in the central London church that has held them for the past six years, London's archbishop said on Wednesday. The 18th-century church in Soho, the heart of London's gay scene, has been hosting the twice-monthly Masses with the support of the local Church hierarchy, but Archbishop Vincent Nichols said in a statement that gay Catholics should attend Mass in their local parishes rather going to separate services. The Vatican teaches that gay sex is sinful but homosexuals deserve respect.