CHINA - The news this week of China's largest corporate bankruptcy - Haixin Iron & Steel Group - amid crashing iron ore and steel prices was followed by analysts noting it "will be followed by others," as the major flaw of producers of iron ore, the most traded commodity after oil, is they tend to be "over-bullish." Distressed debt funds are starting to circle in preparation for what they expect to be a bloodbath as Bloomberg reports, bad debts in China are well underestimated because authorities persist in propping up weak companies and bailing out local investors, according to DAC Management, "we've yet to see it because if you look at corporate defaults, they keep getting covered by the government. At some point, they can’t cover every single one." Most worryingly though, as KPMG [auditors] points out, "when you see restructuring advisers getting hired by SOEs [State-owned enterprises]… you know it's coming."

JAPAN - The damage from an overnight earthquake in a mountainous area of central Japan that hosted the 1998 winter Olympics proved more extensive than initially thought. A daylight assessment Sunday found at least 50 homes destroyed in two villages, and 41 people injured across the region, including seven seriously, mostly with broken bones, officials said. The magnitude-6.7 earthquake struck shortly after 10pm Saturday west of Nagano city at a depth of 5 kilometers (3 miles), the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

ISRAEL - Historic negotiations with Iran will reach an inflection point on Monday [24th], as world powers seek to clinch a comprehensive deal that will, to their satisfaction, end concerns over the nature of its vast, decade-old nuclear program. But sharing details of the deal under discussion with The Jerusalem Post on the eve of the deadline, Israel has issued a stark, public warning to its allies with a clear argument: Current proposals guarantee the perpetuation of a crisis, backing Israel into a corner from which military force against Iran provides the only logical exit.

USA - Multiple sources tell CBS News that the announcement of a grand jury decision in the Michael Brown shooting case is not expected before Monday. A 12-member jury is weighing whether to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who is white, with fatally shooting Brown, a black teenager who was unarmed, on August 9. The case triggered months of protests on the streets of Ferguson, some of which turned violent. Police arrested three protesters on Friday night, the third straight night of unrest.

Some activists are calling for widespread changes in the way police officers interact with the community, race relations and socioeconomic factors that led to the unrest. The community is bracing for the grand jury's report, with Brown's family joining President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder urging people to remain peaceful.

USA - In a city bracing for another convulsion, the waiting game looks like this: University students gather in a gym and rally for peace. Churches draw up plans for “safe spaces,” a refuge during potential chaos. Fringe groups pass out fliers advocating for various kinds of instigation if a grand jury decides not to indict a police officer who 3 1/2 months ago shot an unarmed teenager. It’s that decision, which authorities have for days signaled was imminent but now seems slow to come, that has brought St Louis into a bizarre holding pattern, with little agreement here about what will happen in the city after the grand jury resolution. Eyes were trained on this weekend as the decisive moment for an area that has been rocked by the shooting and the weeks of unrest, some of it violent, that immediately followed. But news came Saturday that the grand jury was still deliberating.

ISRAEL - The son of a founding member of Hamas, who worked as a spy for Israel’s security service for a decade, has denounced Palestinian state-building as nothing more than a “fantasy”. Mosab Hassan Yousef, the eldest son and expected heir to Sheikh Hassan Yousef, one of Hamas’ foremost leaders in the West Bank, said that governments pushing for a Palestinian state are “playing with fire”.

MIDDLE EAST - Revolutionary Guard general says nuclear reactor ‘an easy target’ for Lebanese terror group. Iran has supplied Lebanese terror group and Iranian proxy Hezbollah with missiles “that can reach Dimona,” according to a new report in the semi-official Fars news agency. The report said the Iranian Revolutionary Guards delivered a new class of missiles, “Fateh,” with ranges of 250-350 kilometers and which can fit a 500kg warhead.

ISRAEL - Hamas said Friday that Israeli leaders are legitimate targets for assassination, after it was revealed that a terrorist cell working with the organization had been planning a hit on Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman. While Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters that he did not have any specific information on that case, he stressed that “leaders of the Occupation (Israel) who are responsible for the killing of children and women and for defiling the sacred sites are legitimate targets for the resistance.” On Thursday the Shin Bet security service said Israeli forces foiled a Palestinian plan to kill Liberman during the summer war with Gaza. A group of Hamas members from near Bethlehem in the West Bank planned to purchase a rocket-propelled grenade, which would be shot at Liberman, who lives in an Israeli settlement in the area, the Shin Bet said.

FRANCE - The European Union will crumble if it does not return half of its powers to member states, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has said. Sarkozy, who is once again campaigning to lead the country, claims ’the system will explode’ if the EU continues to work in its current Brussels-centric form. The 59-year-old said the EU should only deal with industry, agriculture, competition, trade negotiations, energy and research. ‘I no longer believe in the possibility of changing things in Europe from the inside,’ he told the audience according to The Times. Sarkozy has promised that, if he is elected president in 2017, that he will withold all French business with the EU until Brussels meets his demands for reform.

ROMANIA - Under President-elect Klaus Johannis, Germany will greatly strengthen its influence on Rumania. This has been confirmed by a government spokesperson, who explained that Chancellor Angela Merkel explicitly assured Johann is "her support" in the "reinforcement of Rumania's European orientation" and agreed "to coordinate standpoints on important foreign policy issues with him in the future." This will particularly affect policies involving Russia.

VATICAN - The quest for Christian unity must be an ever-present concern for the Church, Pope Francis said in a message to the members of the Pontifical Council for Christian unity, which is meeting in Rome this week. In his written message the Holy Father welcomed the changes in attitude since Vatican II, but said that the spirit of ecumenism must be even more deeply embedded in the works of dioceses, parishes, religious communities, and lay movements. The Pope offered his thanks to everyone involved in ecumenical activities. The quest for Christian unity faces fresh challenges, the Pope acknowledged, because of new divisions on ethical and doctrinal issues. Yet he welcomed the growth of “spiritual ecumenism” — a greater willingness of Christians to pray together, to cooperate in good works, and to recognize martyrs for the faith.

VATICAN - Almost every papal trip abroad is a complex mix of the religious and political, and that will be especially true of Pope Francis' November 28-30 visit to Turkey. Given the country's crucial geographic position straddling Europe and Asia, its historic importance for both Christianity and Islam and the wars now raging in neighboring Syria and Iraq, Pope Francis will have to address a variety of urgent topics during his three-day visit. Though it has condemned such acts of terrorism, Turkey has proven a somewhat ambivalent member of the anti-Islamic State coalition, among other reasons, because of the Turkish government's opposition to Kurdish nationalists and the Syrian Bashar Assad regime, both of which are fighting the Islamic State. The pope is likely to tread lightly if at all on such geopolitical calculations, but he is sure to praise Turkey for accepting a vast number of refugees from the wars - as many as 1.6 million from Syria alone.

MIDDLE EAST - Israel and Egypt have Hamas pinned inside Gaza after destroying hundreds of tunnels leading out of the Palestinian enclave, but the terrorist group is coordinating its efforts in the West Bank with logistical help from a command center more than 500 miles away in Turkey, according to Palestinian Authority officials.

USA - If you could stay home and watch television, play video games and hang out with your friends all day at government expense, would you do it? Of course most Americans that collect money from the government each month are not abusing the system. Many truly are incapable of taking care of themselves, and others are just receiving government benefits (such as Social Security) that they feel that they have earned by a lifetime of hard work.

RUSSIA - Vladimir Putin told Russian security chiefs to do everything necessary to prevent "coloured revolutions" such as those seen in Ukraine from reaching Russia as it was announced that nearly 1,000 people have died there since the September truce. Russian officials also accused the United States of "destabilising" the situation in Ukraine on Thursday by considering supplying Kiev with weapons.