SWITZERLAND - Switzerland has announced it is considering stationing a tank battalion at its southern border with Italy, after news that Austria is ready to completely shut down the Brenner Pass between Italy and Austria.

SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi Arabia has told the Obama administration and members of Congress that it will sell off hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets held by the kingdom if Congress passes a bill that would allow the Saudi government to be held responsible in American courts for any role in the September 11, 2001, attacks.

USA - The German Air Force is terminating its contract to train its pilots at Holloman Air Force Base, a potentially major economic blow to the Alamogordo region. The Luftwaffe has had a presence at Holloman since 1992, but the cancellation of the contract to train German pilots in Tornado aircraft means the mission will end by 2019. The German defense ministry said the decision affects approximately 450 military staff and their families as well as the 14 Tornado weapon systems stationed at Holloman. The decision had been expected, though political and business leaders in New Mexico had been lobbying the Germans to continue the mission. Colonel Heinz-Josef Ferkinghoff, the Commanding Director of the German Air Force Flying Training Center said the main reason why the ministry is terminating their training at Holloman is due to tactical and logistical reasons more so than finances.

JAPAN - Forty-one earthquakes in 7 days show a clear pattern: the southern island of Kyushu, Japan seems to be splitting apart! Gaping cracks, 100's of feet wide and hundreds of yards long have appeared in the ground. The media has been calling them "landslides" but what they actually look like from the air is an enormous crack forming in the island; a crack showing the island is breaking apart. It appears that Kyushu is breaking apart, in a similar manner to the way Shikoku broke away from the main island of Honshu. One can almost draw a straight line through the middle of the quakes, to get from Kumamoto to Yufu, in the Oita province to get an approximation of how the island may split apart …the flooding may not be from rivers, it may be the ocean pouring in!

USA - It's harmful to call breastfeeding "natural," says CNN in this astonishing demonstration of medical illiteracy, because it might encourage women to engage in other "natural" behaviors. CNN, which is funded by pharmaceutical interests, harkens back to the days when infant formula manufacturers told women that breastfeeding was a barbaric practice and should be replaced with factory-made infant formula.

ECUADOR - A powerful earthquake killed at least 77 people, injured hundreds more, ravaged coastal towns and sent residents fleeing for higher ground in Ecuador on Saturday night. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck off Ecuador's Pacific coast and was felt hundreds of miles (km) away in the capital of Quito as well as in the large commercial city of Guayaquil, where rubble lay strewn in the streets and some buildings were cracked or partially collapsed. A bridge in the city collapsed on top of a car, crushing it. The earthquake was Ecuador's worst in decades and officials said the death toll was likely to rise even higher as rescue teams headed into the hardest-hit areas.

TONGA - A 5.8-magnitude has hit the coast of the Pacific island nation of Tonga, USGS reported. The tremor with a depth of 66km, struck 287km from the county’s capital of Nuku'alofa. The part of the South Pacific Ocean where Tonga lies is considered to be one of the most seismically active areas in the world due to convergence between the Australia and Pacific plates, the USGS said. In March, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck off Tonga and the Samoa islands, Geoscience Australia and the US Geological Survey (USGS) reported. The quake occurred just 96km from the town of Hihifo in Tonga.

USA - Bernie Sanders took a private jet to the Vatican to address a conference on wealth inequality on Friday, hours after attacking Hillary Clinton over her stance on fossil fuels. He told the audience that rather than a world economy that looks out for the common good, "we have been left with an economy operated for the top 1 percent, who get richer and richer as the working class, the young and the poor fall further and further behind". "We don't choose to politicise the pope," Mr Sanders told attendees, "but his spirit and courage and the fact, if I may say so here, that his words have gone way, way, way beyond the Catholic Church".

UK - Quitting the EU would leave Britain facing "more complex problems", the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales has claimed. Cardinal Vincent Nichols called on voters to think about the human impact that leaving would have, insisting "economics is not the crucial issue in this debate". The intervention came after a "good-spirited debate" between the bishops about the historic in/out referendum on June 23. Cardinal Nichols said he believed that the UK would face "more complex problems" than if it played an "active" role within the 28-member bloc. He also claimed "the Catholic stance towards an effort such as the EU is largely supportive". In a statement, the bishops acknowledged the "justifiable concerns that many people have in relation to the European Union". But they warned the "outcome will have consequences for the future not only of the United Kingdom, but for Europe and for the world".

AFRICA - Food shortage fears over a drought in southern Africa have prompted Malawi to declare a state of national disaster and Mozambique to issue a "red alert". Mozambique raised alert levels for southern and central regions. Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Zambia are also suffering food shortages, while South Africa says its drought is the worst in a century. Over 10 million people across the region will need food aid in the coming year, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). Food prices in Zambia have sharply risen while low water levels at the Kariba dam have hit hydro-electric energy production. An unusually strong El Nino weather phenomenon has been blamed for the drought, as well as extreme weather in countries across the globe.

GERMANY - The German Government is developing a major programme to protect its computer networks and supply systems. A new institution - the National Cyber Defence Centre (Nationales Cyber-Abwehrzentrum) – will be responsible for detecting potential threats, analysing them and coordinating the necessary measures to disable the threat. In addition, a National Cyber Security Council will be established. Defending Germany’s infrastructure from direct cyber attacks has become routine for the Government’s IT specialists. According to experts, Germany suffers four to five such attacks every day. Bearing in mind that much of Germany’s military coordination, water resource management, electricity, nuclear power and banking are among the systems managed by computers, the risks of such attacks are clear.

PHILIPPINES - In a military build up certain to inflame tensions with China, the United States said Thursday it will send troops and combat aircraft to the Philippines for regular, more frequent rotations, and will conduct more joint sea and air patrols with Philippine forces in the South China Sea. The increased troop presence is part of a broader US campaign to expand its assistance to the Philippines as America shores up its allies in the Asia-Pacific that are roiled by China's building of man-made islands in the South China Sea. While the military boost does not include permanent basing for US troops, China views any increased US military presence and activities in the region as a threat.

UK - The firm behind Dolmio pasta sauces and Uncle Ben's rice says some products should only be consumed once a week due to high salt, sugar or fat content. Mars Food said it would distinguish between "everyday" and "occasional" items on packs and website. The company said some foods were higher in salt, sugar or fat to maintain the "authentic" taste of products. The advice is part of its Health and Wellbeing Ambition to "create and promote healthier food choices". Mars told the BBC that just 5% of its products would be labelled "occasional". These include Dolmio lasagne sauces, pesto, and carbonara and macaroni oven kits, and Uncle Ben's oriental sauces.

CHINA - The global ‘Robotics Race’ is in high gear with China, Japan, US, Russia and Germany all competing for supremacy. Loosely championed by the Transhuman community, it is hoped that one day Artificial Intelligence will be developed that will allow a human ‘soul’ to be ‘transplanted’ so that immortality can be achieved. In the meantime, large-scale manufacturing of task-oriented robots will soon flood the world.

UK – You probably skipped past it on the news pages last week. I know I did. Why bother reading about yet another case when the details are so numbingly familiar? Let me guess. Ten or twelve men of Pakistani origin? Check. Grooming and pimping? Check. White girls in care or from chaotic homes coerced into sexual slavery? Check. Vile and sadistic crimes that “defy description”? Check. Jail sentences of up to 25 years that astonish the men in the dock because they don’t think what they did was bad? Again, spot on.