SPAIN - Yesterday the Parliament of Catalonia adopted a law (with 106 votes “for” and 26 votes “against”) entitling it to hold the referendum without the sanction of the Spanish government. It’s expected that a few days after the law is published Artur Mas, President of Catalonia, will announce the referendum to be held on November 9. The new law on referendum, the decision on which was taken as far back as January, has to be adopted as the Constitutional Court of Spain recognizes people’s vote to be illegal. “Results of the referendum in Scotland don’t put an end to possible future independence of Catalonia. Probably, Catalonia is destined to be the first. All we want is a chance to vote”, Mas said.

AFRICA - Since the start of the outbreak, the Ebola virus has infected 5,357 people, killing 2,630, according to the WHO; and as the UN explains, the outbreak is the largest the world has ever seen with the number of cases doubling every three weeks. As Sierra Leone instigates a 3-day nationwide shutdown to contain the deadly virus, the UN Secretary-General explains "Ebola matters to us all," as we noted previously the odds of the infection coming to America is around 18% by year-end. The CDC [Center for Disease Control], however, hot on the heels of the UN's proclamation that "the gravity and scale of the situation now require an unprecedented level of international action," has warned that unless government intervention is increased significantly, 550,000 people could be infected by the end of January.

Scotland has voted to stay in the United Kingdom after voters decisively rejected independence. With the results in from all 32 council areas, the "No" side won with 2,001,926 votes over 1,617,989 for "Yes". Scotland rejected independence by 55% to 45%.

The referendum over Scottish independence has had the world holding its breath. And even though there is deep affection across the globe for Scotland's distinct identity, the news that it is not going to leave the UK will mean many governments are heaving a sigh of relief.

USA - Like his predecessor, George W Bush, President Obama keeps repeating that America is not at war with Islam. Obama even added that ISIL “is not what Islam is about.” President Obama’s attempts to distinguish between ISIL and Islam were recently challenged by Brother Rachid, a Moroccan Muslim who spent 20 years studying Islam and eventually converted to Christianity.

USA - Around five football fields of tropical forest have been illegally cleared every minute between 2000 and 2012 according to a new report. The authors say that consumer demand in Europe and the US for beef, leather and timber is driving these losses. The vast majority of this illegal deforestation for commercial agriculture took place in Brazil and Indonesia. The authors say the practice is spreading rapidly in Asia and Africa. The research has been carried out by Forest Trends, a US based, non-governmental organisation that includes environmentalists, industry and the financial sector. This new study argues that in the first 12 years of this century, 49% of tropical deforestation was due to illegal conversion for commercial agriculture.

AUSTRALIA - Teenagers who start smoking cannabis daily before the age of 17 are seven times more likely to commit suicide, a study has found. According to the paper, published in the Lancet Psychiatry journal, youths who smoke marijuana on a daily basis are also 60% less likely to finish high school. Researchers led by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of New South Wales analysed results of three large, long-running studies from Australia and New Zealand involving nearly 3,800 people. The findings showed a link between a considerable use of cannabis and a high risk of suicide as well as poor educational outcomes.

HAWAII - Businesses in a small Hawaii town are facing a slow-motion disaster as lava from Kilauea volcano oozes toward roads connecting them to the rest of the Big Island. Tiffany Edwards Hunt, who owns a surf shop with her husband, said the lava could hit buildings while smoke from fires sparked by the lava could damage merchandise. If lava crosses the highway leading into town, it could cut the town off. "There is the threat of this very historic, very quaint, eclectic village becoming a ghost town because of the isolation," Hunt said after a meeting between merchants and county civil defense authorities. Kilauea has been erupting continuously since 1983.

EUROPE - Mankind is undergoing a major evolutionary transition comparable to the shifts from prosimians to monkeys, monkeys to apes, and apes to humans, according to Cadell Last, an evolutionary anthropology PhD student and researcher at the Global Brain Institute. Human life expectancy has already increased from about 45 at the start of the 20th century to 80 today. Last predicts it will increase to 120 as soon as 2050 — a concept known as radical life extension — through a combination of new technology, behavior, and natural selection. In addition to longer lives, humans will demonstrate delayed sexual maturation and biological reproduction, according to Last. Taken together, these changes could signify a new type of human. Last makes his case in a paper from the most recent issue of Current Aging Science.

USA - It looks like a growing number of professional investors are preparing for a stock market crash, as hedge fund filings for the second quarter show a spike in defensive positions. In particular, legendary billionaire George Soros made a huge bet against the market. He increased his short position on the Standard & Poor’s 500 by a startling 605%. Soros also added significantly to several gold positions, a “safe haven” move that’s typically made when investors suspect a stock market crash is on the horizon.

CHINA - China began deploying 700 soldiers to a United Nations peacekeeping force in South Sudan to help guard the country's embattled oil fields and protect Chinese workers and installations, a spokesman for the African nation's president said Tuesday. The airlift of the Chinese infantry battalion to the South Sudanese states of Unity and Upper Nile, the site of the only operating oil fields still under control of the central government in Juba, was expected to take several days, spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said. While Beijing's troops will operate under UN command, their posting to South Sudan marks a sharp escalation of China's efforts to ensure the safety of its workers and assets in Africa, and guarantee a steady flow of energy for domestic consumption. The deployment marks the first time Beijing has contributed a battalion to a UN peacekeeping force, UN officials said.

MEXICO - Gaze across Lake Cajititlán here in western Mexico and normally you’ll see fisherman cutting their nets and tourist boats gliding over the blue-green water. But that picturesque scene turned grim last week when more than 4 million dead fish suddenly surfaced, turning the water a sinister shade of gray. It’s still unclear what killed the fish, but the incident was the worst in a spate of environmental disasters in Mexico this year. Early last month, a river in the northern state of Sonora took on a sickly brown-red color after workers from a nearby mine dumped thousands of gallons of sulfuric acid into the water. In Veracruz state, near the Gulf of Mexico, a gasoline spill contaminated almost 5 miles of a small river near the town of Tierra Blanca. What ties them together, critics say, are lax environmental standards, a complete lack of industry oversight and an inability to penalize people and companies that pollute.

USA - Washington has spent nearly $3 million (£1.82 million) studying lesbian obesity to find out why they are among the hardest hit. The study being carried out by the National Institute of Health, now in its fourth year, has another two to run. It comes after official data released earlier this year showed 69 per cent of American adults over 20 are classified as overweight or obese. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, nearly three quarters of America’s lesbian population falls into one or other of these categories – compared with half of the heterosexual female population.

MEXICO - Mired in the drought that has dried up so much of the Southwest, Texas is losing patience with Mexico, which owes the state millions of gallons of water. Under the terms of a 1945 agreement, Mexico and Texas are supposed to send each other a certain amount of water. Texas’ share comes from the Colorado River, while Mexico’s originates along the Rio Grande.

EUROPE - European Union judges have ruled that parody is not acceptable when it goes beyond "an expression of humour or mockery" and contains a "discriminatory message". EU courts, not known for a sense of humour, have made a judgement under European copyright law after a far-Right Belgian party used a parody of cult comic characters to make a political point about immigration. "If a parody conveys a discriminatory message, a person holding rights in the parodied work may demand that that work should not be associated with that message," said the European Court of Justice. Paul Nuttall, the deputy leader of Ukip, accused the EU judges of self-parody. "Can they not see in this judgement , great material for a parody themselves? Judges don't normally make good comedians but some of the judgements out of the ECJ actually do make people laugh," he said.