UK - A Christian bakery firm which refused to make a cake supporting gay marriage with a picture of the Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie has been warned it will be taken to court unless it apologises and pays immediate compensation. Ashers Baking Co, based in Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland, was told by a Government equalities agency that it was guilty of “unlawful religious, political and sexual orientation discrimination” for its stance on the Sesame Street-themed dessert. But the family-run firm said it was ready for a “David and Goliath battle” over the cake insisting it was “what God would want us to do”. Simon Calvert, deputy director of the Christian Institute, which is supporting the firm, said: “It is simply baffling for a body supposedly working for equality to be threatening a Christian family with legal action, all because of a cake.

TURKEY - Recep Tayyip Erdogan's new residence is four times the size of Versailles, comfortably exceeding the grandeur of Louis XIV of France. Turkey’s new president has been accused of behaving like a “sultan” after he installed himself in the biggest residential palace in the world, built for a price tag of £384 million. Recep Tayyip Erdogan now resides in the White Palace, which was constructed in breach of court orders in protected forest land in the capital, Ankara. Boasting 1,000 rooms covering a total floor area of 3.1 million square feet, the palace is four times the size of Versailles, allowing Mr Erdogan to exceed the residential grandeur of Louis XIV, the “Sun King” of France.

UK - Anglicans are increasingly looking to the Vatican to take the lead in standing up for Christians around the world, a prominent bishop has said. The Right Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the former bishop of Rochester, also called on the West to put an international force of soldiers on the ground in Iraq to safeguard its religious minorities against Islamic State. In an address to the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, a body set up in 2011 allowing Anglicans to join the Roman Catholic Church, Bishop Nazir-Ali said that the Holy See was the main voice defending Christians under threat.

USA - The White House said today: “History shows that a free press remains a critical foundation for prosperous, open, and secure societies, allowing citizens to access information and hold their governments accountable. Indeed, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reiterates the fundamental principle that every person has the right ‘to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers’.”

SAUDI ARABIA - Bloomberg's Richard Breslow noted: Riyal forwards have jerked notably higher (implying weakness expected) and the Tadawul All Share Index has dropped 7% in the last 2 days after the killing of Shi'ites by unknown parties and now news that a pipeline has exploded. As Breslow warns, "if that indeed signifies the spread of Islamic State into Saudi Arabia, it would be the first time they crossed Saudi borders. That would be a big deal and a major escalation of problems over in that part of the world, far beyond what it would do to capital markets."

EUROPE - Critics attack the EU for demanding that David Cameron pays a £1.7 billion bill despite an official audit failing to give a clean bill of health to more than £100 billion of Brussel's spending. The European Union was last night accused of “breathtaking hypocrisy” for continuing to demand that David Cameron pays a £1.7 billion bill despite its own auditors failing to give a clean bill of health to more than £100 billion of spending by Brussels.

EUROPE - As the Continent's two largest economies find themselves in trouble for very different reasons, is it time they finally get punished? Paris and Berlin have flouted the EU's budget rules before. Will they get away with it again?

CANADA - Nine short months ago, the clever people running the show in Europe suggested a number of measures including "unpaid work for the young and unemployed up to 24 years old, so that companies would have a strong motive to hire young employees". 'Unpaid' work sounded a lot like slavery to us then but it seems the arrogance is contagious as Canada - that bastion of freedom - suggests that the employment situation is so bad that young people should consider working for free. As The Globe & Mail reports, Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz said 'Adult children stuck in their parents’ basements because they can’t find adequate employment should take unpaid work to bolster résumés as they wait for the recovery to take hold'.

JAPAN - This is the big problem with fiat currency - eventually the temptation to print more of it when you are in a jam becomes too powerful to resist. In a surprise move on Friday, the Bank of Japan dramatically increased the size of the quantitative easing program that it has been conducting. This sent Japanese stocks soaring and the Japanese yen plunging. The yen had already fallen by about 11 percent against the dollar over the last year before this announcement, and news of the BOJ's surprise move caused the yen to collapse to a seven year low. Essentially what the Bank of Japan has done is declare a currency war.

RUSSIA/CHINA - Recently, China and Russia have challenged the international order by giving each other diplomatic backing to confront Ukraine and Hong Kong, respectively. But Western observers have mostly misunderstood the countries' reasons for building closer ties with each other. They have been motivated less by shared material interests than by a common sense of national identity that defines itself in opposition to the West and in support of how each views the legacy of traditional communism. Moscow and Beijing have disagreements about the future order they envision for their regions. But they agree that the geopolitical order of the East should be in opposition to that of the West — and that has led to significantly closer bilateral relations.

ISRAEL - Israeli Housing Minister Uri Ariel says Israel will eventually replace Al-Aqsa Mosque with a Jewish temple. According to the Middle East Monitor, Ariel told Israeli radio station Kol Berama - controlled by the Jewish extremist movement Shas - the status quo could not continue at the Al-Aqsa Mosque as it "was built in the place of the holiest place for Israel". Ariel added that the construction of a third Jewish temple at the site is the primary demand of the Torah "as it is at the forefront of Jewish salvation", the report from Middle East Monitor said.

ISRAEL - Deputy Minister of Transportation Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) arrived this morning at the Temple Mount. "We must change the status quo on the Temple Mount, and we must return it to being a house of prayer for Jews," MK Hotovely stated. "The attempted assassination of Yehuda Glick was an endeavor to distance us from here, but the response that is needed is to strengthen Jewish presence on the Temple Mount," she added. “This reality has to change,” she added. “Jews' prayers must be heard on this Mount. This is the holiest place for the Jewish people and the status quo must change. I am here today in order to effect this change along with other members of the government,” declared Hotovely. “Together, from above and below, through a large movement of people who come to this mountain, and the understanding that as long as Jews are threatened for the very act of ascending to this place, the Israeli government must do everything to change the status quo.”

UK - Sex between 13-year-olds is 'safe and healthy' behaviour, according to controversial guidance offered to schools to teach youngsters about relationships. Family campaigners warned teachers were being urged to encourage behaviour which was against the law, while MPs said youngsters should be told that under-age sex is 'harmful' and 'dangerous'.

UK - More than half of Britons believe religion does more harm than good, with less than a quarter believing faith is a positive force, according to a new survey. Even 20% of British people who describe themselves as being ''very religious'' said religion was harmful to society. The study for the Huffington Post UK revealed that only 8% of Britons describe themselves as very religious, with more than 60% saying they were not religious at all. The poll shows more people believe being an atheist is likely to make you a good person than being religious. In fact, one in eight Britons said atheists tend to be more moral, compared to just 6% who say atheists are less moral, challenging widely held beliefs that religion is one of the last remaining bastions of British morality.

USA - It may come as no surprise to many ordinary Americans that they are far worse off now than in the past. Just how so, has recently become evident from a new report, as well as recent comments from Janet Yellen, the Federal Reserve Board Chairwoman.