ITALY - Italy’s bishops have adopted a policy, with backing from the Vatican, that states they are not obliged to inform police officers if they suspect a child has been molested. The Italian Bishops’ Conference said the guidelines published on Friday reflected suggestions from the Vatican’s office that handles sex abuse investigations. Victims have denounced how bishops systematically covered up abuse by moving priests while keeping prosecutors in the dark. Only in 2010 did the Vatican instruct bishops to report abuse to police — but only where required by law.

HUNGARY - Hungary’s radical nationalist Jobbik party has dismissed proposals to transform the EU into a “united states of Europe” as absurd, and voiced commitment to a “Europe of nations”. Jobbik lawmaker Gabor Staudt told a press conference on Monday that the leftist opposition Democratic Coalition’s recently promoting such a transformation was “shocking”. He said it was the first time a party openly undertook the support of the “superstate concept”. Staudt said that if Europe were to be restructured as a “superstate”, it would be “the end” for nation states and argued that “Brussels, which is strongly influenced by multinational companies, would pass all decisions”. A restructured EU would “only retain its countries as provinces”, he insisted. Jobbik believes in a “Europe of nations” based on peaceful, economy-based cooperation, Staudt added.

HUNGARY - A new and strong Europe of united states should be the long-term aim in a more successful world, Democratic Coalition leader Ferenc Gyurcsany said at a campaign-opening event on Sunday. Gyurcsany, who tops the DK’s list for the European elections, said the united states should watch over each citizen, ensure they had access to freedom of thought, education and knowledge and banned state powers to interfere in their thinking, world views, religious and moral freedoms. “These things are the private affairs of European families, European people,” he said. Gyurcsany said he would like to see a Europe where men and women were equal and they could all choose where they wanted to live. A stronger Europe would give protection against authoritarian regimes, he added. He said his DK party called for a European prosecution office where corruption linked to politicians in any member state would be examined.

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - Muslim rioters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli Police forces on the Temple Mount Sunday morning, prompting the Mount to be closed to visitors until further notice. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP that violence erupted when police opened one of the walled compound's gates to non-Muslim visitors, according to the regular visiting hours.

SOLOMON ISLANDS - Just 24 hours after a 7.8 earthquake hit the Solomon Islands, the area has again been shaken by a quake of a similar magnitude. The first quake occurred at a depth of 18 miles, the second at a depth of 22 miles.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre (PTWC), which had just cancelled an earlier warning, had to issue a fresh one that tsunamis may affect the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. The latest quake was 12 miles beneath the seabed.

USA - On April 8, 2014, Metropolitan Gerasimos of San Francisco and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordelione, participated in a joint ecumenical prayer service to commemorate the upcoming 50th anniversary of the meeting of Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras in Jerusalem. This seems to have been an event that has been taking place for a number of years. This is a reminder that the Ecumenical Patriarchate still continues to embrace the ecumenical movement.

USA - Drought in the US, past and present, might make 2014 one of the more volatile years for food prices and supplies globally. US consumers may get a preview of what's coming at the salad bar. The main culprit is the parched land of California's Central Valley, which grows a large share of US vegetables, fruits and nuts. Conditions are so dry that some farmers aren't even bothering to plant. That might have even bigger implications for food prices than the 2012 drought that baked the Corn Belt, US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said this week.

UK - The City must brace itself for a new wave of market volatility amid looming interest rate rises and the possibility of harsher Russian sanctions, the Chancellor has said, as he insisted that the Treasury was prepared "for any eventuality" on the Ukrainian crisis. George Osborne said the gradual tapering of US asset purchases, which triggered a major emerging market sell-off last year, showed it was important that policymakers provided clear communication to the market about future policy actions. "We all need to be ready for an increased level of volatility in line with historic trends," Mr Osborne said on Friday. "It is something we need to be communicating more so that it is priced in and people expect this return of normal volatility and it's not a surprise when it happens."

UK - A priest has become the first in Britain to defy the Church of England’s ban on gay clergy marrying. Canon Jeremy Pemberton, 58, a divorced hospital chaplain, wed his long-term partner Laurence Cunnington, 51, on Saturday afternoon. Campaigners expressed delight that the couple had taken advantage of Britain’s newly-introduced gay marriage laws and urged bishops to “bless” their partnership. They predict he will be the first of many gay clergy to marry. But a leading member of the Church’s conservative evangelical wing called for “discipline” of any clergy seen to be breaking the rules. He warned of a “crisis” if the leadership failed to take action.

UK - As global membership to the world’s biggest infidelity site soars to over 24 million, its founder explains the international appeal of adultery. He receives regular death threats, websites are devoted to his demise, the Vatican has sent letters of complaint and the Queen of Spain has sued him. The man in question is not a criminal, a terrorist or a dictator. Instead, he is the businessman behind the world’s biggest website for extramarital affairs.

ISRAEL - The Chairman of Religious-Zionist youth movement Bnei Akiva, Rabbi Haim Druckman, supports Jewish Home's threat to leave the coalition government if Arab citizens of Israel were included in a possible deal to free more Arab terrorists and freeze construction. "Free murderers to get our enemies agree to talk to us? This is morally wrong," Rabbi Druckman stated Friday. "It is absolutely impossible to agree."

EUROPE - The eurozone debt crisis is deepening and threatens to re-erupt on a larger scale when the liquidity cycle turns, a leading panel of economists warned in a clash of views with German officials in Berlin. "Debts above 130 percent of GDP for Italy and 170 percent for Greece are a recipe for disaster once we go into the next downturn," said Professor Charles Wyplosz, from Geneva University. "Today's politicians believe the crisis is over and don't want to hear any more about it, but they have not tackled the core issues of fiscal union and public debt," he said, speaking at Euromoney's annual Germany conference.

USA - Come grilling season, expect your sirloin steak to come with a hearty side of sticker shock. Beef prices have reached all-time highs in the US and aren't expected to come down any time soon. Extreme weather has thinned the nation's beef cattle herds to levels last seen in 1951, when there were about half as many mouths to feed in America. "We've seen strong prices before but nothing this extreme," said Dennis Smith, a commodities broker for Archer Financial Services in Chicago. "This is really new territory."

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - Head of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) at the German Federal Foreign Office, Dieter W Haller, on Tuesday expressed his interest in further developing the positive economic partnership between the UAE and Germany. Haller’s comments came when he met his Emirati counterpart, Hammad Abdullah Al Mass, Executive Director of the International Economic Relations Sector at the ADDED. Both officials met at the Hannover Messe 2014. Commenting on the relationship between the UAE and Germany, Haller said that the UAE’s increased participation at the Hannover Messe was an important step towards achieving positive outcomes in the UAE/Germany trade links.

NIGERIA - Gunmen have killed 135 civilians in north east Nigeria since Wednesday, a senior official from the region has told the BBC. Borno state senator Ahmed Zannah said the killings took place in at least three separate attacks in the state. The attackers are suspected to be from the Islamist Boko Haram movement. At least 1,500 people, half of them civilian, have been killed in the restive north-eastern region this year, according to Amnesty International. The organisation blamed both "an increase in attacks by Boko Haram and uncontrolled reprisals by Nigeria's security forces" for the high death toll.