WEST AFRICA - There is evidence the numbers of dead and sickened by Ebola in West Africa may "vastly underestimate the magnitude of the outbreak," the World Health Organization said Thursday. The UN health agency said it was prepared for the crisis to continue for months. With more than 1,060 deaths and 1,975 sickened, the Ebola outbreak is already the deadliest ever. Liberian officials faced a difficult choice Thursday: deciding which handful of Ebola patients will receive an experimental drug that could prove life-saving, ineffective or even harmful.

UK - The physical gold market (dealing in wholesale bullion delivery) is tiny in relation to its paper-based cousins (futures, options, leveraged trades, collateralised obligations, ETFs, etc). In fact, it’s estimated that the paper gold market – which should be a derivative of the physical market – is actually some 100 times larger than the physical market – ie, if everyone holding paper gold ‘stood for delivery’ at the same time, it would be impossible for every party to fulfil their obligations.

USA - A fabricated report was spread by the UK Guardian newspaper and BBC that a Russian armored convoy entered Ukraine and was destroyed by the Ukrainian military. The German media including Die Welt picked up the false report and spread the hysteria. Once again we have confirmation that the Western media is corrupt and unreliable.

USA - The events in Ferguson, Missouri this week are an uncomfortable reminder of the militarization of America's small town law enforcement agencies. The photos coming out of the town - of heavily armed officers in full combat gear squaring off against unarmed protesters - look like images we're used to seeing from places like Gaza, Turkey, or Egypt, not from a midwestern suburb of 21,000 people.

EUROPE - German bond yields plummeted to record lows and stock markets sold off across the world after Ukraine and Russia came to the brink of war, threatening to set off a financial shock and push Europe into deep recession. Flight to safety sent yields on German 10-year Bunds tumbling to 0.97 percent after Ukraine said its artillery had destroyed a “significant” part of a Russian armoured column that crossed the border into the Donbass. Yields on two-year notes turned sharply negative, implying that large investors are willing to pay the German state to look after their money.

UK - Out of 162 countries, 151 of the world's nations are currently involved in some form of conflict. Even more depressingly, the study from the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) shows that the world has been getting progressively less peaceful since 2007. Although the UK has managed to stay relatively free from internal conflict, the country only ranks 47th in this year's Global Peace Index.This is due to fighting in countries such as Afghanistan, as well as a fairly high level of militarisation.

UK - Travelodge has been slammed by the Church of England who described the decision as "tragic and bizarre", because they argue Bibles in hotel rooms are important to provide hope, comfort and inspiration to travellers. The chain, which runs 500 hotels, said the decision to remove the Bibles from the bedside table of every bedroom reflected the increasingly multi-cultural nature of the UK. Guests can still request a copy of the Bible, provided for free by the Gideon Society, which are being stored behind reception instead. Despite not having received any complaints from guests, the hotel said they introduced the new policy on the grounds of "diversity". "With the country being increasingly multicultural, we didn’t feel it was appropriate to just have the Bible because there are people of other religions," a Travelodge spokesman said.

SOUTH KOREA - He urged those in affluent societies to listen to “the cry of the poor” among them. The Pope also beatified 124 Korean martyrs killed for refusing to renounce Christianity in the 18th and 19th centuries. Pope Francis, on a five-day visit to the country, said of the martyrs’ charity and courage: “Their example has much to say to us who live in societies where, alongside immense wealth, dire poverty is silently growing.” Later he flew by helicopter to a church-run hilltop centre for the sick, disabled and homeless. The Catholic Church has grown rapidly in South Korea, doubling in 25 years to about 11 per cent of the 50 million population.

EUROPE - A baying mob surrounds a synagogue chanting “Death to Jews”, a gang of men storms a Jewish school bus screaming “Heil Hitler” and a cafe owner puts up a sign saying “dogs are allowed, but Jews are not.” It could have been Germany in the 1930s when a wave of anti-Semitic hatred carried Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party to power, paving the way for the Holocaust during the Second World War. Yet these disturbing events have taken place in France, Australia and Belgium within the past fortnight, leaving Jewish communities reeling at the sudden rise in anti-Semitic attacks and abuse. There is a growing fear, however, that the conflict in the Middle East is being used as an excuse to vent prejudice against Jews across Europe. Demonstrations against the Gaza conflict in France, Belgium, Italy, Holland, Hungary and Sweden have quickly turned from being anti-Israel to open hatred of Jews in general. Chants of “Gas the Jews” at protests in Germany have provided flashbacks to the Holocaust unleashed by the Nazis.

UK - Some demonstrators targeted the store in Hodge Hill, Birmingham, because it claimed that the supermarket was selling Israeli produce. A protest outside the store by around 100 demonstrators turned serious when some stormed into the building as families shopped on Saturday. Shoppers and staff were left watching in horror as the protestors "became aggressive" and started hurling produce around from the shelves. Police who were called to deal with the protest were attacked and one person was arrested for assaulting a police officer as others were led from the store. A spokesman for Tesco said it was aware of the "small number" of protests outside its stores but said it would not be stopping stocking produce linked to Israel. A campaign group has threatened the Government with legal action over its failure to suspend exports of military equipment to Israel.

USA - From a cheap student staple to a pricey bowl of broth, noodle dishes are soaring in popularity. But they could also wreak havoc with your health, a new study warns. US scientists found people who ate noodle dishes two to three times a week - including the Japanese noodle soup dish ramen - had an increased risk of developing cardiometabolic syndrome.

USA - In the 1970s, Monsanto introduced a new chemical to kill weeds. Known commonly as Roundup, it was capable of killing whatever weed got in its way. Seed companies later developed varieties of plants that were immune to Roundup’s killing power, enabling farmers to use one herbicide — Roundup — for all their crops.

USA - North Carolina officials say there has been a huge increase over the past two years in the number of Tar Heel families who have pulled their kids out of public schools and begun educating them at home. The number of homeschools has jumped 27 percent since the 2011-12 school year, NewsObserver.com reports. As of last year, 98,172 North Carolinian children were homeschooled; that’s 2,400 students more than the number who attended a private school. While the sputtering economy is the reason families are choosing homeschooling over private schooling, the nationalized learning experiment (Common Core) is the main reason families are leaving the public schools in the first place. “Common Core is a big factor that I hear people talk about,” Beth Herbert, founder of Lighthouse Christian Homeschool Association, told NewsObserver.com. “They’re not happy with the work their kids are coming home with. They’ve decided to take their children home.”

USA - The United States military has concluded that there are too few Yazidi refugees still trapped in the mountains of northern Iraq to warrant mounting a potentially risky rescue, the Pentagon said late Wednesday.

Military advisers who earlier in the day visited the Sinjar mountains, where as many as 30,000 people were thought to still be trapped, said that they found “far fewer” Yazidis than expected and that those who were there were in better condition than anticipated. Food and water dropped in recent days have reached those who remain, the Pentagon statement said. The Pentagon said the visit proved that the actions the United States had taken in recent days had succeeded in preventing the Islamic State from capturing and executing the Yazidis, members of a religious sect that Sunni extremists view as heretics.

USA - A new report reveals that US President Barack Obama's administration stopped a shipment of missiles to Israel late last month and tightened weapons shipment procedures to Israel, as tensions between the two nations grow amid Operation Protective Edge. The report in the Wall Street Journal, released Wednesday night, cites US officials in Obama's administration, who say they discovered Israel had requested a large number of Hellfire missiles directly through military-to-military channels. An initial batch of the missiles was about to be shipped, according to sources in Israel and the US Congress.