ISRAEL - Yehuda Glick, the head of the Temple Mount Heritage Foundation which campaigns for Jewish rights on the Temple Mount, has denounced news that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has agreed to tighten Jordanian control over the holy site, and maintain a blanket ban on any forms of Jewish worship. "Prayer is a internal, spiritual act that no military or police can prevent," said Glick.
WALES - Grub Kitchen will serve a variety of insect-based dishes, with grasshopper, crickets and mealworms all on the menu. Insects will be the order of the day at Grub Street. Bug burritos, cricket crepes and cheesy locust croquettes will all be on the menu when Britain’s first insect restaurant opens its doors this week.
ARGENTINA - The vast majority ‒ 85 percent ‒ of tampons, cotton and sanitary products tested in a new Argentinian study contained glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, ruled a likely carcinogen by the World Health Organization. The results of the study were first announced to the public last week at the 3rd National Congress of Doctors for Fumigated Communities in Buenos Aires.
UK - Long-term intake of Monsanto’s most popular Roundup herbicide, even in very small amounts lower than permissible in US water, may lead to kidney and liver damage, a new study claims. The research, conducted by an international group of scientists from the UK, Italy and France, studied the effects of prolonged exposure to small amounts of the Roundup herbicide and one of its main components – glyphosate.
BRAZIL - The Amazon river has long been a crucial part of the daily lives of thousands of Brazilians living in the remote stretches of the rainforest but now communities have been left devastated after the country suffered its worst drought in 100 years.
Afghanistan - At least 30 people have been killed after a powerful earthquake of 7.5 magnitude struck north Afghanistan, sending tremors through India and Pakistan. The quake epicentre was near Feyzabad in a remote area of Afghanistan in the Hindu Kush mountain range, 45km (28 miles) south-west of Jarm. At least 30 people have died in the earthquake, which is said to have lasted around a minute. The National Disaster Management Authority says aftershocks are expected in the next 24 hours. Strong tremors were also felt in the Pakistani cities of Lahore, Faisalabad and the mountainous region of Chitral and New Delhi, Islamabad and Kabul. The earthquake struck almost exactly six months after Nepal suffered its worst quake on record, on April 24. Including the toll from a major aftershock in May, 9,000 people lost their lives and 900,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.
DENMARK - Shares dip to two-year low after company says demand in the shipping container market has fallen. Moeller-Maersk cut its profit outlook for 2015 citing a weaker global container shipping market. That’s their weakest level since September 2013. Nordea said the profit warning wasn’t unexpected, but bigger than estimated, according to a note published by senior equity specialist Jesper Grandjean Bamberger. Container rates have been falling amid concern that China’s economic growth is slowing.
EUROPE - THE European Union's "dream" of integration is falling apart and member states face economic decline, a senior official has admitted. Jean-Claude Juncker said the EU is "not going very well" and will soon be eclipsed by booming economies and population growth elsewhere.
RUSSIA - Russian President Vladimir Putin today accused the West of playing a "double game" with terrorist groups in Syria, where a US-led coalition is conducting a bombing campaign.
POLAND - Final surveys ahead of Sunday’s (25 October) elections in Poland show the right-wing Law and Justice party surging ahead, in a development which could spell trouble for Polish solvency and EU relations.
SAUDI ARABIA - A SAUDI official has blasted Russia's bid to wipe out the Islamic State terror group branding it "very dangerous". The Middle East nation's foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir said Moscow's bombing campaign was fuelling the Syria crisis rather than helping to end it.
SAUDI ARABIA - Eight of the 12 surviving sons of Saudi Arabia’s founding monarch are supporting a move to oust King Salman, 79, the country’s ailing ruler, and replace him with his 73-year-old brother, according to a dissident prince.
RUSSIA - On October 14th, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the US government had turned down the proposal from Russia’s President Vladimir Putin for the US and Russia to cooperate together to eliminate ISIS and other jihadists in Syria and in Iraq.
USA - Have you noticed that the United States and Russia are heading in two very different directions? United behind a very strong leader with an 89.9 percent approval rating, Russia is stunning the world with the efficiency with which it is striking ISIS in Syria. Of course Vladimir Putin is far from perfect, and there are real questions about what Russia’s true motives in Syria and elsewhere are, but this is a leader and a country that have shown that they can get things done.
USA - In the months after September 11, 2001, as US security officials assessed the top targets for potential terrorist attacks, the small town of Cushing, Oklahoma, received special attention. Even though it is home to fewer than 10,000 people, Cushing is the largest commercial oil storage hub in North America, second only in size to the US government's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The small town's giant tanks, some big enough to fit a Boeing 747 jet inside, were filled with around 10 million barrels of crude at the time, an obvious target for someone looking to disrupt America's economy and energy supply.