The Republican governor’s statement comes amid announcements the Obama administration will act later this month to impose stricter rules on the selling and purchase of firearms.

The president will meet with Attorney General Loretta Lynch Monday to discuss what actions can be taken to circumvent the Second Amendment without congressional authorization, the Washington Post reports. The new rules will reportedly seek to require private sellers to conduct background checks, as well as prevent people on the no-fly list from being able to purchase firearms.

Meanwhile, Governor Abbott has made a strong show of support for Texans’ Second Amendment rights. On Friday a new law came into effect allowing licensed citizens of the Lone Star State to openly carry holstered pistols.

The phrase “come and take it” was emblazoned on a flag flown by Texian forces during the Texas Revolution, chiefly at the battle of Gonzales, where Texian rebels revolted against the Mexican army and challenged them to retrieve a cannon loaned to them for protection.

Mr al-Maliki, who was prime minister of Iraq between 2006 and 2014, said in a statement that his countrymen "strongly condemn these detestable sectarian practices and affirm that the crime of executing Sheikh al-Nimr will topple the Saudi regime as the crime of executing the martyr al-Sadr did to Saddam," referencing the death of another prominent cleric in Iraq in 1980.

Hundreds of armoured vehicles were sent to Qatif in Saudi Arabia to contain protests in response to the execution, while demonstrators in Bahrain have been tear-gassed. Several protests have taken place in majority Shia Qatif and in Bahrain, following the execution of Sheikh al-Nimr and 46 others for ‘terrorism offences’.

Water levels will continue to rise in Memphis, Tennessee, and Greenville, Mississippi, as well as Baton Rouge, Louisiana, through the second week of January. Levees will be forced to hold back the rising water, but in some cases may fail, as has been seen in the past week. Residents in these areas will want to be prepared for historic flooding.

Flooding on the middle portion of the Mississippi River and some of its tributaries reached levels not seen during the winter months since records began during the middle 1800s. Communities near St Louis were devastated as the river entered major flood stage early on Wednesday morning. As of Saturday morning, the river was still considered at major flood stage. While the river has crested, several more days of flooding are still expected which will slow down cleaning and recovery efforts.

Flooding is also occurring along the Illinois, Bourbeuse, lower Missouri, lower Arkansas, Meramec, and part of the lower Ohio rivers. It may take a week or longer for water levels to fall below flood stage, following a crest. Periods of below-freezing temperatures will cause some flooded areas to turn icy and will add to the challenges of cleanup.

The formation of the new units, which follows Beijing's announcement that it was building a second aircraft carrier, comes with China acting more aggressively in territorial disputes in the South China Sea and East China Sea, drawing the ire of its neighbours and the United States.

Beijing in November said it planned sweeping changes in a move intended to enhance the ruling Communist Party's control over the People's Liberation Army (PLA). The latest reforms announced late Friday will see a new army unit set up to oversee China's arsenal of strategic missiles.

China’s vibrant military blogosphere presented a video this month revealing a missile-firing unmanned aerial vehicle in action, dropping bombs against ground targets. Photo analysis of the CH-4 shows the remote-controlled aircraft is very similar to the US military’s front-line combat UAV, the MQ-9 Reaper.

Both aircraft are about the same size and wing-span and both sport identical V-tails, landing gear, imaging pods and propeller-driven rear engines. The only major difference is the Predator’s engine intake is located on top of the aircraft while the CH-4’s is underneath. There is no evidence the Chinese directly stole design information through cyber attacks against the Reaper manufacturer, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.

But in the words of a former National Security Agency director, retired General Keith Alexander, the likelihood exists Beijing acquired drone designs and technology through cyber espionage. “There are two types of companies: those that have been hacked, and know it, and those that have been hacked and don’t know it,” Alexander said in a recent speech.

The Pentagon’s Defense Science Board warned in a 2012 report on automated defense systems that China was aggressively pursuing unmanned aircraft development and were “copying other successful designs” to speed up their drone programs. “The scope and speed of unmanned-aircraft development in China is a wake up call that has both industrial and military implications,” the report said.

Work at the test site at Punggye-ri was revealed in satellite imagery, showing fresh excavation and a canopy over a tunnel entrance, according to US group 38 North.

Previous excavations at the site have been signs of an impending nuclear test, according to the group, based at the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. North Korea has conducted three nuclear tests so far, and the country has claimed to have a hydrogen bomb.

Experts have largely dismissed that claim, but say that the dictatorship may be able to develop a less powerful thermonuclear weapon within five years. The weapon would still have more than seven times the power of the fission weapon dropped on Hiroshima.

"Some people are well-informed; they listen to the radio, read the newspapers or watch television, but they do so mechanically and without engagement," the Pontiff began. "They are vaguely aware of the tragedies afflicting humanity, but they have no sense of involvement or compassion. Theirs is the attitude of those who know, but keep their gaze, their thoughts and their actions focused on themselves."

"Sadly, it must be said that today’s information explosion does not of itself lead to an increased concern for other people’s problems, which demands openness and a sense of solidarity. Indeed, the information glut can numb people’s sensibilities..." He also spoke of the 'exasperating' "widespread and deeply rooted corruption found in many countries – in their governments, businesses and institutions."

"Communicators also have a responsibility for education and formation, especially nowadays, when the means of information and communication are so widespread. Their duty is first and foremost to serve the truth, and not particular interests.

Sweden’s prime minister headlined gala fundraisers, Swedish celebrities starred in telethons, and a country that prides itself on doing the right thing seemed to rally as one to embrace refugees fleeing for their lives. But after taking in more asylum seekers per capita than any other nation in Europe, Sweden’s welcome mat now lies in tatters.

Overwhelmed by the human tide of 2015, the center-left government is deploying extraordinary new border controls and slashing benefits in an unmistakable signal to refugees contemplating the long trek to Sweden in the new year: Stay out.

“We’re willing to do more than anyone else,” said Swedish Migration Minister Morgan Johansson. “But even we have our limits.” Those limits can be readily seen in a tent camp where dozens of migrants are bedding down in the frigid Nordic winter and at the train station where many new arrivals are turned back within minutes of setting foot on Swedish soil.

The move was prompted by threats from the World Trade Organization (WTO), which threatened to allow Mexico and Canada to hit the US with more than $1 billion in tariffs if it continued to require beef and pork labeling for foreign producers. The WTO said the labels discriminate against meat from animals raised and slaughtered outside the United States.

The labeling repeal wasn’t the only action by Congress affecting the beef industry. Lawmakers renewed a provision that prevents the Environmental Protection Agency from requiring greenhouse gas emission reports from livestock producers, which are one of the country’s largest sources of methane and carbon dioxide. Livestock producers account for about 15% of the world’s emissions of greenhouse gases, more than come from automobiles.

The legislation means the US government has no way of keeping track of how much cattle and dairy farms are contributing to global warming. The government does collect reports from 41 other sectors of the economy, “making the meat industry the only major source of greenhouse gases in the country excluded from filing annual reports,” according to Reveal News.

We learnt in the eurozone crisis that a single currency area is only as strong as its weakest link. Now we are learning a similar lesson when it comes to Europe’s single border. If people feel that their security, economic or personal, is being put at risk by integration, it will become that much harder to achieve the deeper co-operation that security and faster growth will probably require. Ask David Cameron, UK prime minister, whose team is terrified that the migrant issue will end up dominating the referendum campaign.

How much should we worry about Europe? At the height of the eurozone crisis the answer to that question was clear: the risks of broader contagion were such that policymakers, investors and ordinary humans all had to worry about Europe a lot. Now that the trouble has shifted from economics to geopolitics and migrants, it is not so obvious why investors should fret.

The short-term economic outlook looks calm but no one should be in any doubt that if these crises are handled badly, they hold long-term risks for Europe’s economy.