AFRICA - During a talk to the US embassy staff in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at the first stop on his trip to Africa, Secretary of State John Kerry remarked about what he called the "different cross-currents of modernity" and the challenges they present on the African continent. The comments contain a veiled reference to religion, and the part that religion might be playing in some of the current conflicts in Africa: “This is a time here in Africa where there are a number of different cross-currents of modernity that are coming together to make things even more challenging. Some people believe that people ought to be able to only do what they say they ought to do, or to believe what they say they ought to believe, or live by their interpretation of something that was written down a thousand plus, two thousand years ago. That’s not the way I think most people want to live.”

USA - Mile for mile, there are almost as many earthquakes rattling Oklahoma as California this year. This major increase in seismic shaking led to a rare earthquake warning today (May 5) from the US Geological Survey and the Oklahoma Geological Survey. In a joint statement, the agencies said the risk of a damaging earthquake - one larger than magnitude 5.0 - has significantly increased in central Oklahoma.

NIGERIA - Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram has threatened to "sell" the hundreds of schoolgirls it abducted three weeks ago. Militant leader Abubakar Shekau sent a video obtained by the AFP news agency, in which he said for the first time that his group had taken the girls. About 230 girls are still believed to be missing, prompting widespread criticism of the Nigerian government. The Boko Haram insurgency has left thousands dead since 2009. The girls were taken from their boarding school in Chibok, in the northern state of Borno, on the night of 14 April. The girls were in their final year of school, most of them aged 16 to 18.

GERMANY - Following revelations that the NSA had been listening to Merkel’s telephone conversations for over a decade, Obama promised he would discontinue monitoring her communications. He was unwilling, however, to give similar assurances to other top ranking German officials. The fate of an NSA listening station based in the American Embassy in Berlin also remains unknown. Meanwhile, on Thursday the German government blocked former NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden from giving personal evidence in front of the parliamentary inquiry regarding the agency’s surveillance. In a letter to members of the panel obtained by Süddeutsche Zeitung, government officials said a personal invitation to the former NSA contractor would "run counter to the political interests of the Federal Republic," and "put a grave and permanent strain" on US-German relations.

CHINA - China has drawn up detailed contingency plans for the collapse of the North Korean government, suggesting that Beijing has little faith in the longevity of Kim Jong-un’s regime. Documents drawn up by planners from China’s People’s Liberation Army that were leaked to Japanese media include proposals for detaining key North Korean leaders and the creation of refugee camps on the Chinese side of the frontier in the event of an outbreak of civil unrest in the secretive state. The report calls for stepping up monitoring of China’s 879-mile border with North Korea.

UK - Almost one in three people in Britain will be from an ethnic minority within a generation, a report suggests. Non-white people will make up between 20 and 30 per cent of the population by 2050, Policy Exchange says. The current share is around 14 per cent. The report could also raise questions about the future of the English national identity, which it found is primarily adopted by white people. The think tank, which has close links to the Conservative Party leadership, also highlights differences in the political leanings of different ethnic groups, advising politicians not to treat minority voters as a bloc. Over the past decade, the white population has remained roughly the same while the minority population has almost doubled, accounting for 80 per cent of population growth, it adds.

UK - Membership of the EU has not given the UK any "insider advantages" in trade with other European countries, social policy think tank Civitas says. In a study it finds "no discernible impact on UK exports of goods to other member countries" from membership of the EU or its single market. The study also questions claims that collectively negotiated EU free trade agreements (FTAs) benefitted the UK. It seems to contradict analysis by the Confederation of British Industry. The report concludes: "The evidence presented contradicts again and again those who wish to claim that the UK has enjoyed insider advantages in the single market."

ISRAEL - As detailed in a recent report released by the National Insurance Institute (NII), a total of 2,495 Israeli civilians have been murdered in terrorist attacks since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Those victims have left behind 2,853 orphans - 99 of whom lost both parents in terrorist atrocities. 978 people were widowed as the result of terrorism. Perhaps the most painful statistic of all are the 800 parents in Israel today who have lost at least one child to terrorism. That number does not count parents who lost children but have since passed away themselves.

MIDDLE EAST - While the unity deal between Hamas and Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction have spelled the death of the peace talks, further evidence documents how Fatah's position mirrored that of Hamas even at the height of talks. Last December, while US Secretary of State John Kerry was planning a diplomatic "January offensive" to force Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to submit to US peace plans demanding massive Israeli concessions, Fatah official Tawfiq Tirawi was busy expounding his own plans of another kind of "offensive."

ISRAEL - Hamas will never recognize Israel and will not accept the conditions laid out by the Middle East peacemaking Quartet, according to the Islamist movement's deputy leader. Speaking late on Saturday, Mussa Abu Marzuq said Hamas, which recently signed a reconciliation deal with the Western-backed Palestinian leadership in Judea and Samaria, would never agree to recognize Israel. "We will not recognize the Zionist entity," he said at a press conference in Gaza City. Under terms of the deal, Gaza's Hamas rulers and the Palestine Liberation Organisation of Mahmud Abbas are to work together to form a new unity government which will prepare for national elections. Hamas won a landslide victory in the last parliamentary election, held in 2006, prompting a Western boycott of the Palestinian Authority.

SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA, USA - This seaside city thought it had the perfect solution the last time California withered in a severe drought more than two decades ago: Tap the ocean to turn salty seawater to fresh water. The $34 million desalination plant was fired up for only three months and mothballed after a miracle soaking of rain. As the state again grapples with historic dryness, the city nicknamed the "American Riviera" has its eye on restarting the idled facility to hedge against current and future droughts. This community can't conserve its way out of this drought as it currently has been unfolding - it's just been unprecedentedly dry.

JAPAN - Japan marked the 67th anniversary of its postwar constitution Saturday with growing debate over whether to revise the war-renouncing charter in line with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push for an expanded role for the military. The ruling conservative party has long advocated revision but been unable to sway public opinion. Now Abe is proposing that the government reinterpret the constitution to give the military more prominence without having to win public approval for the revisions. His push, backed by the US which wants Japan to bear a greater burden of its own defense, has upset the liberals who see it as undermining the constitution and democratic processes. An Abe-appointed panel of defense experts is currently finalizing a recommendation to allow collective self-defense, expected in mid-May, which would pave the way for a Cabinet approval.

IRAN - There are no limitations on German banks opening branches and offices in Iran, Behrouz Alishiri, the head of Iran’s Organization for Investment and Economic and Technical Assistance, said. In a meeting with a delegation of German businessmen in Tehran, Alishiri said the volume of trade between Iran and Germany has dropped in the past two years due to international economic sanctions imposed on Iran, the Mehr News Agency reported on Saturday.

USA - Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Anglican church, whose ordination split the church in the United States, is to divorce his husband after four years of marriage. The 66-year-old retired bishop married in 2010 when the state of New Hampshire legalised gay marriage, but had been in a relationship with his partner, Mark Andrew, for more than 25 years before announcing the split in an email to the diocese of New Hampshire last weekend. In an article explaining the divorce, Bishop Robinson said that specific reasons would be remain private, but said responsibility fell “on the shoulders of both parties” while paying tribute to Mr Andrew as one of the “kindest, most generous and loyal human beings on earth”.

VATICAN/ISRAEL - In his trip to Jordan, West Bank and Israel between May 24-26, Pope Francis will visit sites important to Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. After spending Saturday, May 24 in Jordan, Pope Francis will arrive in the West Bank on May 25. He will meet with leaders of the Palestinian Authority, and then conduct a holy mass at Manger Square, an important city square in central Bethlehem. The square is home to the Church of the Nativity – the birthplace of Jesus Christ, according to Christian tradition.