TEMPLE MOUNT, JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been accused of hypocrisy after criticizing Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas for incitement, while simultaneously "turning a blind eye" to Hamas-led incitement in the heart of Jerusalem. The past few days have seen renewed activity by Hamas on the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site, with Islamists literally taking it over for several hours on the eve of the Jewish festival of Pesach (Passover), in a successful bid to keep Jews from visiting the site.

USA - With a hot summer and wildfire season right around the corner, huge chunks of the western United States are experiencing record droughts. Parts of California, Nevada and Arizona are drier than they have been in 1,200 years, putting at risk millions of acres of farm and forest lands. Every inch of five states — California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Nebraska — are experiencing some level of drought. Much of the northern Texas Panhandle is under extreme or exceptional drought warning, as is most of California and parts of northern Nevada. A weekly snapshot of drought conditions shows 21 percent of the country is experiencing severe drought or worse; all told, 40.9 percent of the country is under some kind of drought watch or warning. California’s plight is particularly bad. Two-thirds of the state are experiencing extreme or exceptional drought. Not a single acre of the state’s land has a normal amount of precipitation.

USA - The Sunday Express has obtained a memo written by a long serving employee at the US company in which he complains he and other engineers have been given the “run around” over their fears. The engineer was so worried about the risk to passengers on board Boeing’s planes he told bosses he was amazed air safety regulators were not taking stronger action. He said in the email Boeing was fully aware of the issue and some of the events that had been witnessed, including blue clouds of chemical compounds circulating above passengers’ heads, were “significant”. The email was sent in 2007 and campaigners say it shows how much the aviation industry was concerned despite public statements even today that the air is safe. The issue of toxic air, which regularly forces pilots to don oxygen masks, is one of the most serious facing the aviation industry, yet passengers are generally unaware it even exists.

USA - If you listen very carefully, you will still hear absolutely nothing from any talking-heads of the utter collapse that the last few weeks have witnessed in the Baltic Dry shipping index. The Baltic Dry has dropped 12 days in a row and plunged back to $1061 - its lowest since August 2013. This is the worst start to a year on record… must be the weather. The Baltic Dry has dropped 12 days in a row and is now back to its lowest levels since August 2013… and almost post-crisis lows… Which is the worst start to a year since records began 30 years ago… The last time we saw a year start like this was 2012 which saw massive concerted co-ordinated central bank easing in QE3 to save us all… it seems that is not coming anytime soon this time…

UK - An EU Bill of Rights that overrides British laws is becoming a “reality”, the vice-president of the European Commission has said. Viviane Reding said that people in European member states will in future be able to “rely” on the EU charter of “fundamental rights”. The European Commission wants to enforce the charter, which enshrines 54 basic rights in EU law, in all member states.

USA - Buried deep on the website of the US Census Bureau is a number every American citizen, and especially those entrusted with public office, should know. It is 86,429,000. That is the number of Americans who in 2012 got up every morning and went to work — in the private sector — and did it week after week after week.

TEMPLE MOUNT, JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud) slammed the latest rioting incident on the Temple Mount Wednesday, calling Israel's control over Judaism's holiest site a "failure." "Over the last five days, the Temple Mount has not been occupied by the Jordanian army, but by a division of Hamas," Feiglin said. "The failure of the police to control events on the Temple Mount is, in fact, the failure of political leadership in keeping the heart of Jerusalem intact. Continuing to drag our feet [on the issue] will result in history remembering the Israeli government and its leader as having abandoned the Temple Mount to the Hamas regime," he added.

UK - Between April 2009 and March 2014, level 10 pollution - the highest category - was reached on 25 days. The environment ministry's website advises people to avoid going outside or exercising when this level is reached. The pollution cloud that hit the UK two weeks ago - dubbed 'killer smog' because of the risk it posed to health - was widely publicised. But new figures show that London, Yorkshire and Humberside, Northern Ireland, Merseyside and Manchester have been hit many times by similar levels of pollution. Data reveals that there were also 94 days over the five-year period where smog reached levels 7-9, designated as high. People with breathing difficulties and heart problems are strongly advised not to exercise or travel in this level of pollution.

UK - Interest rates are expected to rise sharply next year, experts have predicted, as official figures heralded the end of the squeeze on wages. A Treasury survey of City economists found that all now expected rates to rise, with some predicting them to more than triple to 1.75 per cent. Higher rates could provide respite to millions of pensioners who have seen the value of their savings shrink due to the impact of inflation and rock-bottom returns. However, it will leave many families paying significantly more on mortgages and debt repayments. David Cameron said that hundreds of thousands of people have been given the “hope of a brighter future” after official figures showed wages are going up faster than prices.

UK - Britain has accused Russia of a "deliberate destabilisation" of Ukraine as pro-Moscow separatists continued to seize yet another police building in the east of the country, ignoring the deadline to leave. Arriving for talks in Luxembourg with EU foreign ministers, Foreign Secretary William Hague called for a "clear and united international response" to the latest violations. He said that EU officials needed to press ahead with preparations for a new wave of hard-hitting economic sanctions against Russia if it continued its efforts to undermine its neighbour. "There do have to be consequences to a further and further escalation by Russia of this crisis," he told reporters.

TEMPLE MOUNT, JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - Eight Jews were arrested Monday for attempting to sacrifice a goat on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Judaism's holiest site. The group were making their way to the Mount in order to carry out the Pesach (Passover) Sacrifice, known as the Korban Pesach, on the eve of the seven-day festival. Jews are commanded to offer the sacrifice in commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt, during which God killed all firstborn Egyptians whilst passing over firstborn Jews.

UK - Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has underscored the value of continuing ecumenical dialogue at a “passionate theological level” while at the same time having “a closer relationship of action” that addresses the needs of the world in such areas as poverty and social justice. Ecumenism must be “something that is our burning desire,” Welby told a gathering of ecumenical guests at a reception at Toronto’s St James’ Cathedral Centre, during his “personal, pastoral visit” to the Anglican Church of Canada April 8 to 9. “In the last seven verses of John 17, Jesus prays with extraordinary passion and extraordinary directness about the absolute necessity of the visible unity of the church… Love one another.” The Guardian newspaper has noted that the move breaks five centuries of Anglican tradition and ushers “a further rapprochement between the churches of England and Rome.”

VATICAN - Catholics and Lutherans are urging their congregations to jointly discuss a co-publication entitled From Conflict to Communion as this helps bury past differences and brings the two Christian traditions closer together. In a joint letter The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) along with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) recommends the publication "From Conflict to Communion." Events in Christianity that led to the Reformation nearly half a millennium ago split the Roman Catholic Church, ushering in the advent of Protestant churches. When the 500th anniversary of the Reformation is commemorated in 2017, Lutherans and Catholics hope to be drawn closer in the quest for church unity.

USA - Could a series of “blood moon” events be connected to Jesus’ return? Some Christians think so. In the wee hours of Tuesday (April 15) morning, the moon slid into Earth’s shadow, casting a reddish hue on the moon. There are about two lunar eclipses per year, according to NASA, but what’s unusual this time around is that there will be four blood moons within 18 months — astronomers call that a tetrad — and all of them occur during Jewish holidays.

POLAND - The Church of Flying Spaghetti Monster is now accepted as an official religion in Poland after a 2013 ruling was overturned on Tuesday. The ruling was celebrated by a group of Pastafarians who gathered outside the courthouse on Tuesday and chanted “pasta." The FSM was first mentioned in 2005, in a satirical letter written by Bobby Henderson to the Kansas School Board of Education. He used the FSM to protest the public teaching of intelligent design in place of evolution. The supreme being of Pastafarianism is the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM). The main text is the Holy Book of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Pastafarianism opposes the idea of creationism and intelligent design and as a result its tenets are usually satires.