EGYPT - A court in Egypt convicted 529 supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and sentenced them to death on charges of murdering a policeman and attacking police in one of the largest mass trials in the country in decades. The majority of the defendants were tried in absentia while more than 150 stood trial in unprecedentedly rushed hearings that lasted only two days. Sixteen suspects were acquitted. The mass nature of the trial testifies to the determination of Egypt's military-backed government to break the Muslim Brotherhood group and leave no room for political reconciliation with the country's largest Islamist bloc, from which Morsi hails.

EUROPE – ...does it mean that everyone saw right through the endless bluster, hollow rhetoric and empty promises of the man tasked with reading from a teleprompter, and currently in charge of one of the world's most totalitarian states? Because either someone is getting fired for forgetting to turn on the "applause" sign, or Europeans no longer care for the lies uttered by Obama on all topics NSA-related (and all other topics too). One wonders: how long until the US president finally gets the same treatment in his own country?

USA - We are sure the weather is to blame but what happens when pent-up demand (from a frosty east coast emerging from its hibernation) bumps up against a drought-stricken west coast unable to plant to meet that demand? The spot price (not futures speculation-driven) of US Foodstuffs is the best performing asset in 2014 - up a staggering 19%...

CHINA - Responding to rumors that Jiangsu Sheyang Rural Commercial Bank, Sheyang county’s largest bank with 44 branches, is in financial trouble, depositors have been flocking to branches in at least three villages since March 24. Another bank in the farming county, the Rural Commercial Bank of Huanghai, was also bombarded with wary savers wanting to take their money out, according to state media. “It’s all pretty much elderly people who are taking part in the bank run,” Miao Dongmei, manager of a baby supply store across the Yancheng branch of the bank told Reuters. “Like our grandparent’s generation, they don’t have much money after a lifetime’s worth of hard work and they don’t want to be tricked again.”

TURKEY/SYRIA - Tensions have risen once again along the Syrian-Turkish border as Turkey downs a Syrian warplane and terrorists backed by Turkish troops storm across the border and down Syria’s western coast in Latakia province. Turkey’s renewed vigour appears to be in part a result of pressure placed on Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan by US-backed mobs who have been taking to the streets for months seeking his ouster. That the plane was shot down while conducting air raids against militants crossing over the Syrian-Turkish border, and even fell within Syrian territory – suggests that not only did Turkey unreasonably target a Syrian warplane it knew posed no threat to Turkey, but did so while providing anti-air support for internationally designated terrorists it is harbouring within its territory.

USA - With anywhere from 200 to 300 residents, “The Jungle” has been described as one of the largest homeless encampments in the nation. Sitting on the banks of San Jose’s Coyote Creek, health officials say it’s become a breeding ground for sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. Mercy Egbujor, a nurse with Valley Homeless Healthcare, said there’s been a disturbing rise in the number of HIV cases at the encampment as well as other communicable diseases like gonorrhea and Chlamydia. The news didn’t surprise one Jungle resident, who did not want to give his name. He said he’s heard of other residents engaging in promiscuous behavior. Health officials and lawmakers are looking into whether or not they need to distribute more clean needles and condoms, and how to better inform people about having safer sex.

GERMANY - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has spent many years trying to understand Russian President Vladimir Putin. But even she didn't expect him to annex Crimea. Now, she and her European counterparts are struggling to come up with a response.

GERMANY - Mounting tension in the Crimea is prompting calls for compulsory military service to be reintroduced in Germany. A number of German ex-generals have raised fears over the nation's military strength should it be drawn into a Nato-led conflict. "We need compulsory military service. There is no other way for Germany to guarantee national defence within the Nato mutual defence alliance," retired Nato general Egon Ramms told Bild newspaper. "It certainly can't be done on a voluntary basis." Ramms was commander of the Allied Joint Forces Command between 2007 and 2010, one of the highest-ranking positions in the Nato alliance.

USA - Detroit's emergency manager expects the city's $18 billion bankruptcy plan to win court approval by the fall despite obstacles such as a dispute over swap agreements and a vote by retirees on the plan that could potentially slow or derail the process.

AUSTRIA - Austria’s Jewish community was outraged on Monday, after a local politician compared the European Union (EU) to the Third Reich in Nazi Germany, Reuters reported. Following the comments by Andreas Moelzer, co-lead candidate for Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPO), the leader of Austria’s Jewish community called on him to drop his campaign for re-election to the European Parliament. The German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung had quoted Moelzer as calling the EU a dictatorship that made the Third Reich look “informal and liberal” by comparison. The Third Reich “certainly did not have as many rules and regulations, commandments and bans,” Moelzer was quoted as telling a gathering in Vienna last month. In response, Austrian Jewish leader Oskar Deutsch said on Monday that Moelzer’s refusal to distance himself from the comment showed he was apparently unable to come to grips with the fact that proponents of extreme-right thought shared responsibility for Nazi crimes.

CHILE - More than 300 earthquakes have shaken Chile's far-northern coast the past week, keeping people on edge as scientists say there is no way to tell if the unusual string of tremors is a harbinger of an impending disaster. The unnerving activity began with a strong magnitude 6.7 quake on March 16 that caused more than 100,000 people to briefly evacuate low-lying areas, although no tsunami materialized and there was little physical damage from the shaking. But the land has not settled down. More than a dozen perceptible quakes were felt in the city of Iquique just on Monday. "The situation is out of the ordinary. There's a mix of a string of tremors and their aftershocks that make things more complex to evaluate," Mario Pardo, deputy head of the Universidad de Chile seismology center, told the local newspaper La Tercera. "We can't rule out a larger quake."

BELGIUM - As Belgium's capital and host to the EU and Nato, Brussels is used to deploying heavy security when big names pop by. But US President Barack Obama's visit on Tuesday will strain the city like never before with €10 million (£8.4 million) of Belgian money being spent to cover his 24 hours in the country. The president will arrive on Tuesday night with a 900-strong entourage, including 45 vehicles and three cargo planes. Advance security teams orchestrating every last detail have combed Brussels already, checking the sewers and the major hospitals, while American military helicopters were last week given the green light for overflights. The city hosts at least four EU summits a year, with each of these gatherings costing €500,000 in extra police, military and transport expenses. "But this time round, you can multiply that figure by 20," said Brussels mayor, Yvan Mayeur.

SYRIA - Jabhat al-Nusra, a Syrian salafist organization that is identified with Al Qaeda, has uploaded to Youtube a video documenting the preparations by one of its members for a suicide mission, in Edra, east of Damascus. The mission led to the overrunning of Syrian army positions and to the capture of officers and soldiers from the Syrian army.

ISRAEL - MK Motti Yogev (Jewish Home) said on Monday that he was “absolutely in favor” of ending the talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA). "I'm not in favor of continuing negotiations. I am in favor of us creating peace on the ground, first and foremost by annexing Judea and Samaria in stages, first in area C,” he told Arutz Sheva. “The Arabs would have better lives under Israeli sovereignty than anywhere else. Let’s take things into our hands and give the Palestinians better lives than they would get in any other state. We should continue our relationship with the Palestinians, but not necessarily with the PA which seeks our destruction, and educates its children and its future generations towards that destruction,” he said. “There's nothing to talk to them about and certainly we should not make any ‘gestures’ to them. As for the American pressure, we have to know how to handle it.”

USA - You will be shocked at what some Americans actually believe. For example, close to 90 percent of us believe that we are eating a healthy diet, and yet more than third of the population is officially obese. 65 percent of all Americans say that they are dissatisfied with the government, and yet nearly a third of us would be willing to submit to a "TSA body cavity search" in order to get on an airplane. Americans are angrier and more frustrated with government and with their lives than ever before, but we also exhibit almost unbelievable levels of sloth and apathy.