SYRIA - A record 4.1 million people in Syria received food rations in August due to more convoys being able to cross front lines and borders from Turkey and Jordan, the UN's World Food Program (WFP) said on Tuesday. "We are reaching more people every day with urgently needed food assistance – many of them have been going hungry for months," Muhannad Hadi, WFP's regional emergency coordinator for the Syria crisis, said in a statement. Over the last six weeks, WFP and partner agencies have crossed front lines to reach more than 580,000 people, over four times the 137,000 reached in the preceding six weeks, it said.

MIDDLE EAST - Pope, patriarchs and prelates are crying out for intervention. Where are the presidents and prime ministers? I've known Maronite leader Monsignor Sharbel Maroun for many years, talked with him on radio in 2006 after Telelumiere was nearly destroyed in the Lebanon War that summer, and many times before and after then about the ongoing work of unity and mutual respect of Christians and Muslims in the Middle East. He just returned from Lebanon recently, we talked again this week, and he is despondent.

EUROPE - Strong criticism of German predominance in last weekend's new appointments to EU top positions is being raised in France. The EU's designated Juncker/Tusk/Mogherini triumvirate "undoubtedly" carries the German signature, according to a longtime renowned EU political observer. After having imposed its austerity dictates on the EU over the past few years, Berlin has now actually taken over the designation of EU leadership personnel.

SAUDI ARABIA - A British businessman living in Saudi Arabia was set upon and beaten up by members of the country’s religious police after using a women-only cash till with his wife at a local supermarket. Peter Howarth-Lees, who is married to a Saudi woman, was knocked to the ground and kicked by three members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, known as the Mutawa, who followed the couple out of the shop. “While I was on the ground all three of them proceeded to kick me repeatedly in the head and back and then one of them stamped hard on my face,” he said in a statement to a local website. “On seeing this, my wife got out of the car and somehow managed to push them off me and I managed to stand up.” His wife was kicked in the stomach.

USA - The Argyle, Texas Independent School District has armed many of its educators for the upcoming school year. “Please be aware that the staff at Argyle ISD are armed and may use whatever force is necessary to protect our students,” a sign on all independent campuses reads. At the Argyle schools, any teacher who wishes to carry a firearm in class must first undergo special weapons training and pass a psychological test, ensuring that he is properly vetted and trained before carrying in the classroom.

ECUADOR - Ecuador is planning to create the world’s first digital currency issued by the country’s central bank, in what is seen by many as a step to abandon the US dollar, the currency now used by the Central American country. The currency is expected to start circulating in December, according to the country’s Central Bank. The technical details or the name of the currency have not been revealed, although the officials stated that it would not be a crypto-currency like Bitcoin. The new currency is expected to co-exist with the US dollar, the current official money Ecuador uses, and will be channeled for 2.8 million people in the country – 40 per cent of the participants in the economy – who are too poor to afford the usual banking.

UK - Nothing has been learnt from the madness of the 1929 stock market crash as once again traders reach for record amounts of debt to pile into rising share prices. The level of margin debt that traders are using to buy shares in the stock market reached the highest levels on record, according the latest data from the New York stock exchange. US traders borrowed $460 billion from banks and financial institutions to back shares, and once cash and credit balances held in margin accounts of $278 billion is subtracted this left net margin debt of $182 billion in July. Traders are now more exposed to a fall in share prices than at the height of the dot-com bubble at the turn of the century, and just before the financial crisis during the 2007 peak.

UK - Poor manufacturing data could signal the end of a hot streak for UK growth. Surveys of the nation's manufacturing sector saw an unexpected fall this August, as purchasing managers' index (PMI) figures dropped from 54.8 to 52.5. While still above 50 - suggesting that the sector continues to expand - the data pointed to a fall in the pace of growth. "While the worst days of the recession are definitely behind us", said Jeremy Cook, of currency firm World First, "PMI surveys also suggests that the finest days of the recovery are too."

MIDDLE EAST - Al QAEDA has called on terrorists to bomb British targets such as Sandhurst and the MI5 headquarters as well as famous department stores. A publication produced by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) this week has called for jihadists to launch deadly attacks during Friday prayers so as to avoid harming fellow Muslims. The sickening online magazine also suggests US targets for "lone-wolf" attacks such as New York City's Times Square and popular Las Vegas casinos and nightclubs. The news comes after the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) raised the terror threat to severe – the second-highest level. Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley National Policing Lead for Counter-Terrorism, said yesterday: “The threat level from international terrorism has changed from SUBSTANTIAL to SEVERE in response to the developments in Syria and Iraq. This means it is highly likely that a terrorist attack could happen in the UK.”

GERMANY - In an indication of Germany’s growing role on the world stage, the country’s top politicians on Sunday approved the delivery of thousands of machine guns and hand grenades, as well as hundreds of antitank missiles, to Kurdish forces battling Islamic militants in Iraq. Scarred by its militarism and two resounding defeats in the 20th century, Germany once shied away from conflict zones and limited its involvement to deliveries of humanitarian aid. But, although Chancellor Angela Merkel has yet to articulate a clear policy on intervention, she and her top ministers have dominated efforts to ease the Ukraine crisis. And on Sunday, they moved to approve the weapons for the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. A solid majority in Parliament backs sending weapons, while opinion polls indicate that up to two-thirds of Germans — weaned on decades of pacifism — oppose the move.

MIDDLE EAST - Advances by jihadists in Syria and Iraq, and US calls for a coalition against them, have made Gulf monarchies set aside disputes over Qatar’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood, analysts say. Wary of spectacular gains made by Islamic State jihadists, the oil-rich monarchies fear the militants could advance towards their own borders, where the extreme ideologies could find support. “The biggest danger (in the Gulf) comes now from these (emerging) terrorist groups, and not from the Muslim Brotherhood,” said Abdulaziz Sager, head of the Gulf Research Centre think tank. Qatar’s relations with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain sank to a new low in March when the three governments withdrew their ambassadors from Doha, accusing it of meddling in their affairs and supporting the Brotherhood — designated as “terrorist” by Riyadh.

UK - One of the greatest crimes in history is happening right now. Yet it is something almost nobody will discuss. No European capital has been brought to a standstill by a march expressing outrage. There are few calls for war-crimes trials of the perpetrators. The crime is the wholesale eradication of Christianity from the continent that gave it birth.

EUROPE - Mario Draghi, the European Central Bank president, has opened the door for member states to ease back on austerity to reduce unemployment and revive flagging economic growth in the region. “The long-term cohesion of the euro area depends on each country in the union achieving a sustainably high level of employment,” Mr Draghi said in a speech delivered at the global central bankers meeting in Jackson Hole. “And given the very high costs if the cohesion of the union is threatened, all countries should have an interest in achieving this.” Mr Draghi suggested that countries in Europe should be encouraged to increase spending within the existing rules designed to reduce deficits and rein in debt in order to boost economic reform and create more jobs.

EUROPE - Just a few months ago the euro zone’s leaders believed that, having weathered the storm, they were set fair at last. It was an illusion. In recent weeks the countries of the euro zone have begun to take in water once again. Their collective GDP stagnated in the second quarter: Italy fell back into outright recession, French GDP was flat and even mighty Germany saw an unexpectedly large fall in output.

GERMANY - Engineering company Trumpf is so proud of its machine tools that it displays them in a high-tech exhibition hall at its headquarters in southern Germany. The laser-cutting rig, the punching machine, and the state-of-the art combined laser-cutter and puncher mesmerise visitors with their unerring precision – turning out anything from jewellery to car door parts. Steel sheet is transformed into components in seconds. All would seem to be well with this family-owned business, which posted annual sales in the year to June of €2.6 billion, the highest in its 90-year history. But the Ukraine crisis is darkening even Trumpf’s horizon. Caution is spreading across Germany, driven by the worsening conflict in eastern Europe and the recent imposition of EU sector-wide economic sanctions on Russia, which are compounding domestic problems. As Joe Kaeser, chief executive of Siemens, says, geopolitical tensions now pose “serious risks” for Europe’s growth this year and next.