USA - A landmark study by Federal Reserve economists found that large US banks enjoy a "too-big-to-fail" advantage in financial markets, confirming the suspicions of many Wall Street critics more than five years after the financial crisis. The series of research papers, published on Tuesday by the US central bank's influential New York branch, suggests the biggest and most complex banks benefited even after the financial crisis from lower funding and operating costs compared to smaller firms. The researchers used data through 2009. The biggest banks also, Fed economists found, can take bigger risks than their smaller peers.

USA - Parents will have little choice over whether or not to have their children vaccinated in Colorado now, due to a bipartisan measure passed by Colorado’s House Health, Insurance and Environment Committee this past Thursday. Parents who intended to claim the ‘opt out’ available in a current rendition of Colorado’s current law, due to religious or personal beliefs, will find it much more difficult to do so. HB 14-1288, which gained traction after recent whooping cough outbreaks, will require parents to complete an online ‘education’ module and get the signature of their health care providers confirming that parents have been informed of health risks and a ‘possible detriment to the community’ if their children go unvaccinated.

ITALY - With a turnover of 53 billion euros ($73 billion) in 2013, the 'Ndrangheta mafia from southern Italy made more money last year than Deutsche Bank and McDonalds put together, a new study said Wednesday. The study by the Demoskopika research institute detailed the international crime syndicate's sources of revenue, including drug trafficking - which brought in an estimated 24.2 billion euros - and the illegal garbage disposal business, which earned it 19.6 billion euros. The southern Italian mafia earned the equivalent of 3.5 percent of Italy's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) last year, said the report based on analysis of documents from Italy's interior ministry and police, parliament's anti-mafia commission and the national anti-mafia task force.

USA - What, if anything, helps Americans grow in their faith? When Barna Group asked, people offered a variety of answers — prayer, family or friends, reading the Bible, having children — but church did not even crack the top-10 list. Although church involvement was once a cornerstone of American life, US adults today are evenly divided on the importance of attending church. While half (49%) say it is "somewhat" or "very" important, the other 51% say it is "not too" or "not at all" important. While America is evenly split on the question, "Do we still need churches?" Christians need to be able to answer the obvious follow-up: "Why do we still need churches?"

USA - Some of the people working in the Obama administration and in the White House are trying to “completely secularize our military” and are “hostile to Christians,” to the point that they “are anti-Christ in what they say and in what they do,” said Christian evangelist Franklin Graham, the son of world-renowned preacher Billy Graham.

VATICAN - They are an unlikely pair with seemingly much in common: an Argentine pope and an American president who each burst onto the global scene as a history-making change agent, each promising to promote a new post-partisan ethos, each having made the cover of Rolling Stone. But when President Obama and Pope Francis meet on Thursday, the question is whether the common arcs of their political biographies also amount to true political common ground. Having spent the first leg of his European tour consumed by the Ukraine crisis, Mr Obama arrives at the Vatican hoping to change the subject to income inequality and America’s struggling middle class, a topic in which his aides see similarities to the antipoverty economic themes embraced by the pope in his first year.

USA - President Barack Obama meets Thursday for the first time with Pope Francis, whose image among Americans has become more favorable over the first year of his papacy. More than three in four Americans currently view the pope favorably. Obama and Pope Francis, meeting at the Vatican, are expected to focus on the concerns both men have about inequality and the rising gap between rich and poor in the world today. Obama might well hope to benefit from his association with the popular pope. In the same February poll in which Pope Francis received his 76% favorable, 9% unfavorable rating from Americans, Obama's image was much more divided, at 52% favorable and 46% unfavorable.

BRAZIL - The Brazilian authorities are poised to send the army into the slums of Rio de Janeiro less than three months before the World Cup. The move follows attacks on police that have resulted in the most tense standoff for years in the favelas. The Rio state governor, Sérgio Cabral, has requested the reinforcements after assaults on police bases, apparently co-ordinated by the city's biggest gang, Comando Vermelho. An escalation of murders, revenge killings and fire-bombings have prompted talk of a war between the police and gangsters. Favela residents and NGOs say the situation is now more tense than at any time since 2010, when the authorities began a "pacification" programme to regain control of communities from armed traffickers.

EGYPT - A court in Egypt convicted 529 supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and sentenced them to death on charges of murdering a policeman and attacking police in one of the largest mass trials in the country in decades. The majority of the defendants were tried in absentia while more than 150 stood trial in unprecedentedly rushed hearings that lasted only two days. Sixteen suspects were acquitted. The mass nature of the trial testifies to the determination of Egypt's military-backed government to break the Muslim Brotherhood group and leave no room for political reconciliation with the country's largest Islamist bloc, from which Morsi hails.

EUROPE – ...does it mean that everyone saw right through the endless bluster, hollow rhetoric and empty promises of the man tasked with reading from a teleprompter, and currently in charge of one of the world's most totalitarian states? Because either someone is getting fired for forgetting to turn on the "applause" sign, or Europeans no longer care for the lies uttered by Obama on all topics NSA-related (and all other topics too). One wonders: how long until the US president finally gets the same treatment in his own country?

USA - We are sure the weather is to blame but what happens when pent-up demand (from a frosty east coast emerging from its hibernation) bumps up against a drought-stricken west coast unable to plant to meet that demand? The spot price (not futures speculation-driven) of US Foodstuffs is the best performing asset in 2014 - up a staggering 19%...

CHINA - Responding to rumors that Jiangsu Sheyang Rural Commercial Bank, Sheyang county’s largest bank with 44 branches, is in financial trouble, depositors have been flocking to branches in at least three villages since March 24. Another bank in the farming county, the Rural Commercial Bank of Huanghai, was also bombarded with wary savers wanting to take their money out, according to state media. “It’s all pretty much elderly people who are taking part in the bank run,” Miao Dongmei, manager of a baby supply store across the Yancheng branch of the bank told Reuters. “Like our grandparent’s generation, they don’t have much money after a lifetime’s worth of hard work and they don’t want to be tricked again.”

TURKEY/SYRIA - Tensions have risen once again along the Syrian-Turkish border as Turkey downs a Syrian warplane and terrorists backed by Turkish troops storm across the border and down Syria’s western coast in Latakia province. Turkey’s renewed vigour appears to be in part a result of pressure placed on Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan by US-backed mobs who have been taking to the streets for months seeking his ouster. That the plane was shot down while conducting air raids against militants crossing over the Syrian-Turkish border, and even fell within Syrian territory – suggests that not only did Turkey unreasonably target a Syrian warplane it knew posed no threat to Turkey, but did so while providing anti-air support for internationally designated terrorists it is harbouring within its territory.

USA - With anywhere from 200 to 300 residents, “The Jungle” has been described as one of the largest homeless encampments in the nation. Sitting on the banks of San Jose’s Coyote Creek, health officials say it’s become a breeding ground for sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. Mercy Egbujor, a nurse with Valley Homeless Healthcare, said there’s been a disturbing rise in the number of HIV cases at the encampment as well as other communicable diseases like gonorrhea and Chlamydia. The news didn’t surprise one Jungle resident, who did not want to give his name. He said he’s heard of other residents engaging in promiscuous behavior. Health officials and lawmakers are looking into whether or not they need to distribute more clean needles and condoms, and how to better inform people about having safer sex.

GERMANY - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has spent many years trying to understand Russian President Vladimir Putin. But even she didn't expect him to annex Crimea. Now, she and her European counterparts are struggling to come up with a response.