NIGERIA - Boko Haram's attacks in northern Nigeria have been well documented in the past year, but now its aim of forming an Islamic caliphate in the region is becoming a reality in the predominantly Christian Yobe and Borno States. But while the British and American forces support the Kurdish Peshmerga forces in northern Iraq, the Nigerian Army struggles to combat the surprisingly sophisticated militant group with limited international support. "The possible dangers for Nigeria and the region if this insurgency is not contained may have been underestimated, as has Boko Haram's military capacity," says Dr Khataza Gondwe, team leader for Africa and the Middle East at Christian Solidarity Worldwide. It is not known how large Boko Haram is, but it is clear that it has now spread from its original base in northern Nigeria and has begun recruiting in Cameroon, Niger and Chad. It is said to have killed 13,000 people since it became active in 2009.

RUSSIA - Russia's food ban could eventually cost Europe 6.7 billion euros ($8.9 billion) and result in 130,000 job losses, analysts at Dutch bank ING said Wednesday, the Prime news agency reported. Earlier this month Russia imposed a one-year embargo on meat products, fruit, vegetables and dairy products from the European Union, the US, Australia, Canada and Norway in response to Western sanctions against Moscow over its role in the Ukraine crisis. The food import ban will be particularly painful for Poland, which could lose about 23,000 jobs in agriculture, ING analysts said. The blow comes at a bad time for Europe, which is teetering on the brink of a recession, figures released by the EU earlier this month indicate.

EUROPE - An array of Nobel economists have launched a blistering attack on the eurozone's economic strategy, warning that contractionary policies risk years of depression and a fresh eruption of the debt crisis. "Historians are going to tar and feather Europe's central bankers," said Professor Peter Diamond, the world's leading expert on unemployment.

UK - Interest rate setters voted just 7-2 to hold policy at their August meeting, the first dissent among members of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee since July 2011. Both Martin Weale and Ian McCafferty voted to increase interest rates from an all-time low of 0.5 percent to 0.75 percent, according to the minutes of the MPC meeting earlier this month. Despite the unexpected hawkishness from two members, Samuel Tombs, of Capital Economics, still expected to see that the MPC would not raise rates until next year. "Inflation still looks on track to ease much further than the MPC expects this year, and to remain weak in 2015", said Mr Tombs.

USA - In the last several years, Warren Buffett went out and bought the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railroad. He didn’t just buy some stock, he bought the whole thing, took it private... A railroad is nothing but hard assets. It’s right of way, mining rights adjacent to the right of way, rail, rolling stock, yards, switches, signals, buildings, it’s all hard assets.

USA - California has approved water rights agreements for a whopping five times as much water as it actually has, according to a study published Tuesday in Environmental Research Letters. In fact, the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), which manages the allocation of water rights to various agencies and districts, has been over-promising water rights for the last 100 years. In some cases, there is a tenfold difference between the amount of water allocated and the genuine water flow in the state.

USA - In a recent essay entitled, “The Strategic Significance of the Internet Commons,” former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff describes cyberspace and the Internet as a “global commons” that must come under “global governance.” This is the latest salvo in an ongoing campaign by a disparate congeries of internationalists, socialists, communists, and jihadists to turn over control of the Internet to some sort of regime under the United Nations. Unbeknownst to most Americans, the effort to transfer that control to the UN — including Internet taxing, censoring, and surveillance powers — is already far advanced. As The New American reported in March of this year, the Obama administration has already begun the phased transfer of Internet control to a nebulous and uncertain governance structure that has been set up as an innocent-appearing transition platform that, ultimately, is set for transfer to UN control.

UK - Following the recent conflict between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza, there have been reports from a number of countries of attacks targeting Jews. But does the evidence support claims that anti-Semitism is on the rise? In France and Germany, synagogues and Jewish community centres have been firebombed. In Britain, a rabbi was attacked near a Jewish boarding school. And in Australia, a bus carrying Jewish schoolchildren was targeted by teenagers shouting "Heil Hitler" and threatening to slit the children's throats. As a result, newspapers have reported a "rising tide of anti-Semitism in Britain", that Europe is facing the "worst times since the Nazis'' and that we're witnessing a "dramatic rise in global anti-Semitism". "Among Jews in Europe today there's real fright, there's real anxiety," says Mayer.

MIDDLE EAST - Hamas has denied that the head of its military wing was killed in an Israeli air strike, as it warned international airliners against flying into Tel Aviv amid a re-escalation of the Gaza conflict. Israel launched a targeted attack on a house in Gaza where Mohammed Deif, the leader of the al-Qassam Brigades, was thought to have been staying with his family on Tuesday evening. While thousands of mourners took to the streets of Gaza on Wednesday for the funeral of Mr Deif's wife and seven-month-old child, Hamas officials insisted Mr Deif had not been killed. "You have failed and you have missed", said a Hamas spokesperson in an official statement. But question marks remained over an as yet unidentified dead body of a male in his 50s which was found in the rubble of the bombed house.

EUROPE - Experts at a European Union (EU) think-tank are demanding that the EU prepare to put down strikes and protests with military force. Due to the deepening social inequality in a globalised economy and growing military conflicts within the EU’s borders, such outbursts will inevitably increase. In the study by the European Union Institute for Security Studies, the authors bluntly state that in the face of these developments, the army will have to be used increasingly for policing duties to protect the rich from the anger of the poor.

RUSSIA - The events in Ferguson, Missouri, should sober the US government or race-related conflicts may become more frequent, Russian Foreign Ministry Human Rights Commissioner Konstantin Dolgov said in an interview with Rossiya 24 news channel. “We think US authorities should pay closer attention to burning internal problems, including those related to ethnicity and race that still exist in the United States. Try to solve them via legal constitutional practices rather than unjustified and inadequate violence,” Dolgov said. “What is happening in Missouri right now should have a sobering effect on US society and authorities. They are systematic problems. They are by no means limited to one particular city or state,” the commissioner added.

MIDDLE EAST - Islamic State insurgents posted a video on Tuesday purportedly showing the beheading of US journalist James Foley and images of another US journalist whose life they said depended on how the United States acts in Iraq. The video, titled "A Message To America," presented President Barack Obama with bleak options that could define America’s next phase of involvement in Iraq and the public reaction to it, potentially deepening his hand in a conflict he built much of his presidency on ending.

USA - The White House has confirmed that a jihadist video showing the beheading of American journalist James Foley is authentic. The Islamic State (IS) group released the video on Tuesday, saying Foley's killing was revenge for US air strikes on its fighters in Iraq. The US, UK and France have expressed abhorrence at the video. Foley's mother Diane said he "gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people." These grisly murder videos are abhorrent to most Muslims and non-Muslims alike and they've even been discouraged by Osama Bin Ladin's successor as a "vote loser".

GERMANY - Because of the continued conquests of the terrorist organization, the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS), the German government has announced that it will supply Iraq with military equipment. To stop this onslaught, the Kurdistan Regional Government's armed forces are to serve as ground troops in tangent with the US Air Force. This week, Berlin may deliver armored vehicles, night vision instruments and body armor to northern Iraq.

ISRAEL - A rocket barrage from Gaza on Tuesday evening targeted Jerusalem. Sirens were heard in the capital and its vicinity shortly before midnight. The Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepted a rocket over the region. There were no physical injuries or damages. The attack on Jerusalem follows a barrage of rockets that hit southern and central Israel beginning shortly before 11:00 pm. The last rockets fired at Israel by Hamas came last Wednesday night when the ceasefire was extended. That night, Hamas fired eight rockets between the three hours before and up to an hour after the extension went into effect.