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.

SOLOMON ISLANDS - An earthquake of magnitude 7.6 has hit near the Solomon Islands, with a tsunami warning issued for surrounding areas in the Pacific Ocean. The undersea quake was registered at a depth of 29km (18 miles), 100km (60 miles) south-east of Kira Kira. A tsunami warning for the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia has been issued. The Solomon islands suffered severe flash floods just over a week ago in which at least 16 people died. Thousands more had to abandon their homes.

NICARAGUA - An earthquake earlier Friday injured 200 and was linked to one death. The president of Nicaragua issued the country’s highest earthquake alert level Friday as ongoing aftershocks rock the area after a 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck the country earlier in the day, the Associated Press reports. The alert forced some schools to close and 155 people in at-risk areas to be evacuated. The government said 200 people were injured and one 23-year-old woman died of a heart attack after the initial earthquake. It also said 800 homes were damaged in the town of Nagarote, about 30 miles northwest of the capital, Managua.

TEMPLE MOUNT, JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - As part of the Jewish Passover, which begins on Monday and runs for a week, a nationalist Jewish group plans to conduct the 'ritual sacrifice' of a lamb on the Temple Mount for the first time, where 2,000 years ago the Temple of Jerusalem was located. The nationalists' plan to carry out a Jewish rite in one of the main holy sites of Islam has alarmed Palestinian Muslim leaders as well as Jerusalem police, who in order to prevent public disturbances will be obliged to adopt severe security measures. "This year we will not be celebrating Passover at home…"

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - Al-Aqsa Foundation of Heritage and Islamic Waqf said, on Wednesday, that the so-called "Temple Mount" organizations have announced a set of activities to be held in al-Aqsa Mosque courtyards and lasting for a week, starting today [Thursday, April 10, 2014].