JAPAN - Iran's nuclear program is a clear and present danger and the country cannot be allowed to get the capability to make nuclear arms, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Monday described as "stupid and idiotic" Western expectations for his country to curb its missile development, taking a defiant tone ahead of another round of nuclear talks. In Japan for meetings with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other officials, Netanyahu compared the danger posed by Iran to that of North Korea, which this weekend renewed a threat to conduct a nuclear test amid rising worries that the reclusive state may set off an atomic device for the fourth time.

UK - Children at Church of England schools must be taught to “revere” and “honour” gay and lesbian people despite its centuries-old teaching that homosexual acts are a sin, new rules published by the Archbishop of Canterbury insist. Guidelines intended to combat homophobic bullying, make clear that words such as gay must not be used in a “derogatory” or “negative” way in Anglican schools. The Most Rev Justin Welby, insisted that the Church’s official stance - that sex between people of the same gender is sinful - had been clear “for centuries” and had not changed. But he said that even if the Church taught that it is “wrong”, that did not justify bullying or discrimination.

WILLIAMS, ARIZONA, USA - In the northern Arizona city of Williams, restaurant patrons don't automatically get a glass of water anymore. Residents caught watering lawns or washing cars with potable water can be fined. Businesses are hauling water from outside town to fill swimming pools, and building permits have been put on hold because there isn't enough water to accommodate development. Officials in the community about 60 miles from the Grand Canyon's South Rim have clamped down on water use and declared a crisis amid a drought that is quickly drying up nearby reservoirs and forcing the city to pump its only two wells to capacity. The situation offers a glimpse at how cities across the West are coping with a drought that has left them thirsting for water.

SCOTLAND - An independent Scotland faces the risk of “capital flight” if it cannot strike a deal to keep the pound, Europe’s largest investment bank has warned. “If Scotland votes 'Yes' in September there will be a substantial amount of negotiations which need to be conducted, the most important financially being the choice of monetary regime, allocation of oil revenues and apportionment of public debt,” said Deutsche Bank in a 16-page analysis of the financial implications of Scotland splitting from the Union should Alex Salmond’s Yes campaign succeed. The German lender has detailed a possible scenario comparable to that seen in some eastern European countries following the collapse of the Soviet sphere of influence in the early 1990's, whereby money would flow unchecked out of Scotland while Edinburgh frantically tried to persuade Westminster to allow it to keep sterling.

UK - The mindless and fearful consequences of decades of overindulgence of our youth, the crazed and misguided obsession with seeking to elevate their status almost to the level of an oppressed minority and the craven acceptance of wilful and unacceptable behaviour reached its inevitable peak with the shocking death of a teacher in front of her class last week. Treat kids as adults and adults as kids, and this is what you get.

UK - Almost four in 10 young people fear they are addicted to the internet, according to new research, prompting fears from children’s campaigners that youngsters could leave themselves vulnerable to cyber bullying. Two thirds of 11 to 17-year-olds take their tablet, smartphone or laptop to bed and use the devices to talk to friends online, play games and watch films, the survey, of more than 2,200 young people, found. Of those taking their internet devices to bed, only a third were doing homework, while two-thirds were talking to friends on social networks or watching films and videos. One 12-year-old girl said: “The internet nearly always controls my actions. I have been told that I am addicted to the internet, and prefer its company rather than being with other people. I feel lost without the internet.”

RUSSIA/CHINA - Russia proposes to tap Chinese money as European and American sanctions over Ukraine threaten to push the world's largest energy producer into recession, according to two senior Russian government officials. Moscow is looking to boost growth and funds from the world's second largest economy could find their way into a host of industries such as natural resources, housing and infrastructure construction, the unnamed officials told Bloomberg. Russia's relations with China are growing steadily, despite other issues, and no "special" government meetings are being planned on China, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Bloomberg.

ISRAEL/USA - Israeli Defense Minister Moshe ‘Bogge’ Ya’alon has long been pushing for increased budgets, just as every other defense minister of the planet does, but this week revealed a rather shocking turn of events, the Israeli military is broke. Despite billions of annual military aid from the US, Ya’alon announced next month’s “Turning Point 8″ military exercise is cancelled, and all other drills are expected to follow, because Israel flat out can’t afford them. Uncle Sam’s always good for a bit more though, right? That’s what Ya’alon is hoping, as he and other officials are pressing the US not only to announce an extension of their annual $3 billion in military aid to the country beyond 2017, when the current pledge expires, but to beef it up to something more like $3.5 billion annually for the next decade-long commitment.

USA - In a new policy directive from the Obama administrative, national security and other government officials will no longer be allowed to publicly discuss or even reference news reporting that is based on “unauthorized leaks.” President Obama once promised the American people that his administration would be the most transparent in history, but after years of fights with civil libertarians trying to obtain legal memos used to justify the president’s overseas assassination program, an unprecedented pattern of prosecuting government whistleblowers, the targeting of journalists, and all the secrecy and obfuscation related to the NSA’s mass surveillance programs made public by Edward Snowden, that claim is now met with near universal laughter, if not scorn, by critics.

USA - The US Department of Defense, working with top computer scientists, philosophers, and roboticists from a number of US universities, has finally begun a project that will tackle the tricky topic of moral and ethical robots. This multidisciplinary project will first try to pin down exactly what human morality is, and then try to devise computer algorithms that will imbue autonomous robots with moral competence — the ability to choose right from wrong. As we move steadily towards a military force that is populated by autonomous robots — mules, foot soldiers, drones — it is becoming increasingly important that we give these machines — these artificial intelligences — the ability to make the right decision. Yes, the US DoD is trying to get out in front of Skynet before it takes over the world. How very sensible.

USA - Governor Peter Shumlin's signature yesterday marked a landmark moment as Vermont became the first state to enact a no-strings attached law mandating the labeling of genetically modified food and preventing GMO foods from being labeled as "natural." In response, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents food and beverage industry giants like Pepsico and Cargill and poured millions into defeating measures in California and Washington, said it would sue the state — likely an unsurprising development to Vermont, which has already set up a Food Fight Fund site to "mount a powerful defense" against legal battles. The GMA issued a statement on Thursday cheering GMO crops as having "important benefits for people and our planet" and calling Vermont's law "critically flawed and not in the best interests of consumers."

USA - While the plot of the hit Hollywood film "Gravity" is fictional, the United States must bolster efforts to address the alarming amount of space junk surrounding Earth, or risk potentially catastrophic collisions in orbit, lawmakers said today (May 9). Such real-life accidents could resemble the horrifying destruction depicted in the movie, they said. In a hearing before key members of the US House of Representative's Committee on Science, Space and Technology, experts discussed the challenges of managing the growing threat of space junk. "Orbital debris, or space junk as it is sometimes called, is not science fiction. It is a growing problem," Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson (Democrat for Texas) said in her opening remarks. "Dealing with the increase in orbital debris will not be easy."

UK - Most people who are aged over 70 feel "uncomfortable" with homosexuality and are "disconcerted" by same-sex marriage, Nigel Farage has said. The Ukip leader defended Roger Helmer, an MEP fighting the Newark by-election for the party who has previously suggested gay relationships are "viscerally repugnant" Mr Farage told Sunday Politics on BBC One: "As I say, when Roger grew up and, indeed, when he was an adult, homosexuality was illegal in this country, and he held that view for some period of time. And actually, if we asked the 70s and over in this country how they felt about it, most of them still feel uncomfortable. There are a lot of people in this country who are disconcerted by the change in the traditional meaning of marriage, and I think in a tolerant society we understand that some people have different views."

EUROPE/UKRAINE - The IMF loan to Ukraine is eurocratization of Ukraine without Ukraine’s having signed the Association Agreement with the EU that president Yanukovych decided not to sign. It was his decision not to sign that led to Maidan and the struggles over the future of Ukraine. The EU has been expanding and NATO along with it as part of the process of eurocratizing all of Europe. If Yanukovych had signed the Association Agreement with the EU, it meant merging with the EU and at some point joining NATO. Economically, financially and politically, it meant giving eurocrats and eurocrat rules a high degree of control (or sovereignty if you will) over Ukraine’s fiscal, trade, financial and monetary policies for a long time to come. The EU is a growing supra-national institution. It’s an empire and it’s expansive.

KENYA - China on Sunday signed a deal to build a $3.8 billion rail link between Kenya's Indian Ocean port of Mombasa and Nairobi, the first stage of a line that will eventually link Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan. Under the terms of the agreement, Exim Bank of China will provide 90 percent of the cost to replace the crumbling British colonial-era line with a 609.3 kilometre (379 mile) standard-gauge link and Kenya the remaining 10 percent. Construction is due to start in October and take three-and-a-half years to complete, with China Communications Construction Co as the main contractor. Once the Mombasa-Nairobi line is completed, construction would begin to link east Africa's largest economy with Kampala, Kigali, Bujumbura and Juba.