USA - A former Al-Qaeda member has revealed a strong connection between the terrorist group and the Saudi Royal family in the 1990s. More notably, he alleges that Saudi princes and terrorists discussed a plan to shoot Air Force One out of the sky. The revelations came in the form of a testimony, delivered from a maximum-security prison, where Zacarias Moussaoui is incarcerated. According to the New York Times, Moussaoui submitted the claim on his own initiative. He sent a letter to the judge presiding over the lawsuit filed by family members of 9/11 victims against the government of Saudi Arabia. This is not the most convenient time for Moussaoui’s allegations to surface. It has only been two weeks since the death of King Abdullah, succeeded by King Salman – his brother – who Moussaoui had also allegedly been involved with.

JORDAN - Jordan has executed two convicts, including a female jihadist, following the killing of one of its air force pilots by Islamic State (IS) militants. The woman, failed suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi, and al-Qaeda operative Ziyad Karboli - both Iraqi nationals - were hanged at dawn, officials said. The executions came hours after IS posted a video appearing to show pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh being burned alive. He was seized after crashing during an anti-IS mission over Syria in December. Jordan had attempted to secure Lieutenant Kasasbeh's release in a swap involving Rishawi. She had been on death row for her role in attacks in Jordan's capital, Amman, which killed 60 people in 2005.

USA - Why did nearly half of Iraq open itself to Islamic State, a militant group seen as one of the most psychotic on record? Why have Boko Haram militants gained a solid foothold in northern Nigeria? Why aren’t the ranks of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula thinning, despite regular drone strikes in Yemen? Do these disparate countries have some trait in common? They do: the rampant corruption of their ruling elites.

GERMANY - Germany is rightly praised in the European Foreign Policy Scorecard 2015 for assuming more leadership in the diplomacy of the European Union. However, Berlin’s new foreign policy role (just like its engagement in solving the euro crisis) is still fragile and is based upon vulnerable domestic foundations. The reason is that Germany’s new responsibility means taking the lead in overturning a status quo that it would prefer to preserve. Berlin currently enjoys an unequalled position of power in Europe, and for many, the euro crisis has reignited the “German question”: Germany again faces an old dilemma, as a country that is too large for Europe but too small to succeed without the help of its partners.

GERMANY - According to a report in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, German security officials and military experts are urging the rapid purchase of armed drones. The defence policy spokesman for the Christian Democratic Union-Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) fraction in parliament, Henning Otte, told the newspaper, “Last year, we initiated a debate about the necessity of combat-ready drones and clearly spoke out in favour of this capability.” He went on to say that it was now time “to take the next step and secure drones with this capacity for the German army.” The defence spokesman for the CSU, Florian Hahn, expressed a similar view. He said that Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) had to “urgently take the decision this year.” The drones were “a key question for our sovereignty in defence policy and a key capability for a modern, efficient army,” he continued.

RUSSIA - A lawmaker representing the populist LDPR nationalist party wants to calculate all damages inflicted by Nazi Germany on Russia during World War II, in order to slap Berlin with a lawsuit that could amount to €4 trillion. “Germany didn’t pay any reparations to the USSR to compensate for destruction and brutalities committed during the Second World War. The Yalta agreement allowed the USSR to seize some German assets from the Soviet occupation sector, but these were mostly industrial machinery, furniture and clothing, that could be considered spoils of war and that could not compensate for the damage inflicted to the Soviet economy by the war,” MP Mikhail Degtyaryov said in an interview with the Izvestia daily.

MIDDLE EAST - The Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group released a video on Tuesday purportedly showing the burning alive of a Jordanian pilot it had captured in December. The video released online showed images of a man purported to be Maaz al-Kassasbeh engulfed in flames inside a metal cage. After al-Kassasbeh addresses the camera, terrorists ignite a line of flammable liquid leading into the cage, burning him alive. Last week ISIS demanded the release of a Jordanian-held female failed suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi in exchange for Kassasbeh and captive Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.

JAPAN - Experts agree Japan caught off-guard by ISIS beheadings, will now boost foreign intel, push debate on constitutional change for war powers. Japan's failure to rescue two hostages beheaded by Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists has raised doubts about the ability of the country that renounced war after World War II to handle an international crisis, as the country reels from news of journalist Kenji Goto's murder. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been pushing to alter the pacifist constitution to broaden the capability of its military, which since World War II has been restricted to a self-defense role. But the idea has been met with a lukewarm public response following decades of an emphasis on pacifism, and the hostage crisis has amplified misgivings over Abe's push to boost Japan's diplomatic role on the world stage.

UK - When he was installed as Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby met with all of his 37 fellow primates and committed himself to visit each of them in their own provinces within his first 18 months. Given his high profile interventions in the political and social life of his own country, and his various ecumenical visits, this was a demanding commitment which was brought to completion, on schedule, when Archbishop Justin visited his neighbouring primate, the Most Rev. David Chillingworth, of the Scottish Episcopal Church, in November of this year. This extraordinary personal effort puts flesh on the idea that the Archbishop of Canterbury is the first of four Instruments of Unity that bind the Anglican Communion together, the others being the Lambeth Conference, the Primates’ Meeting, and the Anglican Consultative Council. Archbishop Welby’s worldwide tour can be seen as a ministry in service of the Communion, a ministry of unity.

UKRAINE - Separatist rockets streaked across hills in eastern Ukraine on Monday as rebels pounded the positions of Ukrainian government troops holding a strategic rail town, while both sides prepared to mobilise more forces for combat. Talks between Ukraine, Russia and rebel officials in Minsk, Belarus, had raised hopes of a new ceasefire to stem the violence in a conflict that has claimed more than 5,000 lives. But they broke up without progress with Ukraine and the separatists accusing each other of sabotaging the meeting. The separatist rebellion erupted last April after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea in response to the ousting of a Moscow-backed president by street protests in Kiev which ushered in a government committed to integration with Europe.

USA - In an interview with the American TV Network CNN earlier today, US President, Barack Obama, underlined that austerity can no longer be imposed on people. In what is seen as a powerful appeal to European leaders and in direct support of Greece, Mr Obama highlighted that there should be a development strategy, adding that the reforms that must be put in place should not be based on austerity policies. Namely, the US President mentioned tax evasions and referred to the troubling inability to collect taxes. “It is very hard to initiate these changes if people’s standard of living is dropping by 25%. Over time the political system and the society cannot sustain it. My hope is that Greece remains in the Eurozone, and I think that will require compromise on all sides,” he said.

GREECE - The European Commission says the controversial EU-IMF troika supervising Greek finances could be replaced. The troika is a group of auditors representing the Commission, the European Central Bank and IMF. They carry out regular checks to see if Greece is sticking to its commitments under the EU-IMF bailout agreement. Greece's new left-wing government does not accept the troika's agenda. Instead it aims to renegotiate the bailout, to get a huge reduction in Greece's debt. Greece's current programme of loans ends on 28 February. There is no agreement yet on disbursement of the final bailout tranche of €7.2 billion - and Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has said Athens does not want it.

AUSTRIA - The anti-Islamisation movement Pegida, which originated in Germany, has held its first march in Austria. But while rallies in Germany have often attracted more than 20,000 people in recent weeks, only a few hundred took part in Monday's rally in Vienna. They found themselves outnumbered by police - and even more so by about 5,000 people who had gathered for a counter-demonstration. Austria is the latest European country to see anti-Islamisation protests. Marches on a smaller scale have since been held in the Czech Republic, Denmark and Norway and sympathiser groups have formed in a number of other European countries including Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

UK - The BBC risks turning its back on efforts to tackle extremism and intolerance in Britain simply to cut costs, Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders have warned. In a letter to The Telegraph they urged the corporation to reverse plans to axe its high-profile post of head of religion, currently held by Aaqil Ahmed, the first Muslim in the job, as part of an overhaul of its programme commissioning operations. Religion is to be merged with science, history and business issues under a new head of “factual” programming in a move the BBC claims will provide an “increased focus on leadership and creativity”. But the faith leaders said it “could not have come at a worse time” amid tensions relating to religion brutally demonstrated by the terrorist attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine and a kosher supermarket in Paris.

ICELAND - Icelanders will soon be able to publicly worship at a shrine to Thor, Odin and Frigg with construction starting this month on the island’s first major temple to the Norse gods since the Viking age. Worship of the gods in Scandinavia gave way to Christianity around 1,000 years ago but a modern version of Norse paganism has been gaining popularity in Iceland. The temple will be circular and will be dug 4 metres (13ft) down into a hill overlooking the Icelandic capital Reykjavik, with a dome on top to let in the sunlight. “The sun changes with the seasons so we are in a way having the sun paint the space for us,” Hilmarsson said. The temple will host ceremonies such as weddings and funerals. The group will also confer names to children and initiate teenagers, similar to other religious communities.