UK - Stock markets could be heading for a "scary" crash that may wipe up to 60 percent off the value of the world's leading companies, an analyst has warned. Just a day after America’s S&P 500 index closed above 2,000 for the first time, Abigail Doolittle, founder of Peak Theories Research, said the Federal Reserve's reluctance to raise interest rates from record lows could spark a market correction to rival the slump seen in 2007, during the global recession.

VATICAN - In a recent article, the head of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham said that Pope Benedict’s decision to establish ordinariates for Anglicans who wish to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church was a fulfilment of the Second Vatican Council’s teaching on ecumenism.

IRAN - Iranian military leaders on Tuesday vowed that Tehran would take military action against Israel in response to an alleged Israeli drone that was shot down in Iran on Sunday. Iran “will not give a diplomatic response,” but will air its grievances with Israel on the “battlefield,” senior Iranian generals were quoted as saying on Tuesday. “Our response to this aggression will not be diplomatic, we will retaliate in the battlefield, but will not necessarily announce it,” Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the Lieutenant Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) was quoted as saying during a ceremony on Tuesday meant to commemorate “martyred” Iranian military personnel.

MIDDLE EAST - Islamist opposition fighters in Syria, including members of an Al Qaeda affiliate, took control of the Quneitra crossing point on the demarcation line with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, activists said on Wednesday. The move could bring Islamist forces within 200 yards of territory controlled by Israel. An activist in the area, contacted by Skype, said a coalition of Islamists, including members of the Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, opened an assault on the government-held crossing early Wednesday. The status of a United Nations force that is supposed to monitor the crossing point was unclear.

ISRAEL - The chilling black flag of the Islamic State is popping up on social media in Israel, including one image of the terror banner snapped against the backdrop of the nation's holiest site - prompting fears the ultra-violent jihadist group could have sympathizers inside the Jewish state. A photo that recently appeared on Twitter showed the flag held aloft on the Temple Mount, the most sensitive religious site in the Old City of Jerusalem, that includes the Golden 'Dome of the Rock' mausoleum and the ‘Al Aqsa’ Mosque, sacred to Muslims, adjacent to the Western Wall, the holiest place for Jews. Other online postings have shown the flag being flown in Nazareth, where the fast-growing Muslim community lives side-by-side with Christian Arabs in a sometimes tense environment, and also in Acre, the ancient port city close to Israel’s border with Lebanon in the north. The images have stirred fears the terror group previously known as ISIS has sympathizers in Israel.

UK - The sexual abuse of about 1,400 children at the hands of Asian men went unreported for 16 years because staff feared they would be seen as racist, a report said today. Children as young as 11 were trafficked, beaten, and raped by large numbers of men between 1997 and 2013 in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, the council commissioned review into child protection revealed. And shockingly, more than a third of the cases were already known to agencies.

USA - On the surface, the cases appear nearly identical: Michael Brown and Dillon Taylor, two young, unarmed men with sketchy criminal pasts shot to death by police officers two days apart. But while the world knows of the highly publicized situation involving 18-year-old Mr Brown, whose August 9 death in Ferguson, Missouri touched off violence, protests and an angry national debate, most people outside Utah have never heard of 20-year-old Mr Taylor.

USA/CHINA - A few days ago I had a conversation with the Chief Operating Officer for our agricultural fund in Chile. We were discussing water, and he told me that roughly 60% of California right now is suffering “extreme drought” conditions. 30% of the state is in “severe drought”. And 10% of the state is only under “drought”. In other words, roughly the entire state – the 8th largest economy in the world– is facing a severe shortage of water. But if you think that’s bad, China is about to take over the spotlight yet again.

MIDDLE EAST - In 1981 six Arab monarchies, which today control about a fifth of the world’s oil supply, formed the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC). As the war between Iraq and Iran intensified, the Sunni Arab sheikhdoms of the Gulf peninsula - Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar - originally came together in theory to form a Middle Eastern version of the European Union. Although the group has no formal political charter like the EU, it still provides the only official forum where all six leaders of these oil-rich countries can sit down together to debate and agree on mutually beneficial policies in the region.

MIDDLE EAST - A ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinians aimed at ending their seven-week conflict in Gaza went into effect on Tuesday and joyous Palestinians streamed into the streets of the battered enclave to celebrate. No clear victor emerged from what had become a war of attrition between the Middle East's most powerful armed forces and the dominant Hamas militant movement in the Gaza Strip.

UKRAINE - In the framework of the 4-country agreement signed on 8 August between Ukraine, the Netherlands, Belgium and Australia, information on the progress and results of the investigation of the disaster will remain classified. This was confirmed at a briefing in Kiev under the auspices of the office of the Prosecutor General Yuri Boychenko. In his words, the results of the investigation will be published once completed only if a consensus agreement of all parties that have signed the agreement prevails.

UK - Britain is at risk of being “sanitised” of faith because an “aggressive form of secularism” in workplaces and public bodies is forcing Christians to hide their beliefs, a former attorney general has warned. Dominic Grieve said he found it “quite extraordinary” that people were being sacked or disciplined for expressing their beliefs at work. He described Christianity as a “powerful force for good” in modern Britain and warned that Christians should not be “intimidated” and “excluded” for their beliefs. He said that politicians and public figures should not be afraid of “doing God” and that they have a duty to explain how their beliefs inform their decisions.

USA - The US FDA prevents such things as artisanal cheese and butter being imported from Europe, products that have been in use for hundreds of years and don't make people sick, but - speaking of sick - this breathtakingly corrupt agency is allowing big food processors to grow food in the US but then process it in China in facilities with far less stringent regulation, and send it back here for us to eat! Worse, the producers only have to say where it was grown, not where it was processed! There would appear to be no good explanation for this except corruption at the highest levels - not necessarily illegal corruption, but friendly handshaking between the executives of big food processors and FDA administrators. One thing is very clear: of least importance to the FDA is its obligation to protect us and our children. Far more important is to enable big food processors to increase their profits.

UK - Depending on the force of the explosion, minute particles thrust beyond the earth’s atmosphere can trigger DECADES of chaotic weather patterns. Tiny pieces of debris act as billions of shields reflecting the sun’s light away from earth meaning winter temperatures could plunge lower than ever before while summer will be devoid of sunshine. The first effect could be a bitterly cold winter to arrive in weeks with thermometers plunging into minus figures and not rising long before next summer. Weathermen say the effect in the UK could be nothing short of catastrophic if an explosion is strong enough.

UK - Inbuilt GPS is an essential feature of most modern mobile phones, with Google Maps, one of the most widely-downloaded apps on the App Store, a must for pinpointing your location and getting around. But did you know that your iPhone is using that GPS to track your every move, and store data about your whereabouts every time you use your device? Privacy campaigners were outraged in 2011 when two British software developers discovered that Apple had been tracking users' location in a hidden data file. The latest discovery, which most iPhone users will have turned on without thinking, is likely to raise more than a few questions about just why this data is being stored, and who has access to it.