SYRIA - A predicted drought in Syria could affect the next harvest and put 6.5 million lives at risk, the World Food Program said in a report released Tuesday. Syria was affected by a drought in 2008, which lasted until 2010. Food shortages and rising prices came prior to the civil war, which began in 2011. The potential of a looming drought in northwest Syria could lead to acute food shortages and requests for humanitarian aid, according to the “WFP Special Focus Syria.” Rainfall in the area has been only one-half inch since September, said WFP spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs, adding, “There is only one month left in the rainfall season that lasts until mid-May and with three quarters of the rainfall season gone, it is unlikely there will be a significant recovery in this agricultural season.”

EUROPE - European Parliament chief Martin Schulz has admitted that some of London's concerns about the EU are valid and that it is no longer acceptable to dismiss those who are critical of the EU as simply being eurosceptic. In a press conference to mark the new year Schulz said he shared some of the "unease" with the EU that UK prime minister David Cameron outlined in a widely-reported speech earlier in the week. "This unease with the EU as it now is, is something that I share. I think there are many people in Europe who also have this unease" said Schulz. "And that's why I would really recommend that we don't label everyone who criticises the EU as a eurosceptic. The EU is not in a good state. We have to do better."

USA - Last month, The Wall Street Journal gave us quite a scare. "The US could suffer a coast-to-coast blackout if saboteurs knocked out just nine of the country's 55,000 electric-transmission substations on a scorching summer day," Rebecca Smith wrote. It's no secret that North America's three massive power grids, the interconnected systems that transmit electricity from power plants to consumers, are not invincible. In other words, the grid may be not be the "right" size — big enough to distribute power efficiently, but small enough to prevent widespread blackouts, such as the 2003 blackout that cut power to 50 million people in the US and Canada for two days. The US power grid is, in fact, big enough to fail.

USA - The former United States president appeared on Wednesday’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” He ended up discussing, among other things, extraterrestrial life. Given the size of the universe, and the continued discovery of new planets, Clinton believes we’re not alone. “If we were visited someday I wouldn’t be surprised,” Clinton said. “I just hope it’s not like ‘Independence Day.’” Clinton went on to discuss some of the potential benefits to an alien invasion, framing his argument around the 1996 sci-fi disaster movie. “It may be the only way to unite this increasingly divided world of ours … all the differences among people of Earth would seem small if we felt threatened by a space invader,” Clinton said.

USA - Tensions between China and the United States were on full display on Tuesday as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel faced questions in Beijing about America's position in bitter territorial disputes with regional US allies. Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan, standing side-by-side with Hagel, called on the United States to restrain ally Japan and chided another US ally, the Philippines.

USA - Fears that high-speed traders have been rigging the US stock market went mainstream last week thanks to allegations in a book by financial author Michael Lewis, but there may be a more serious threat to investors: the increasing amount of trading that happens outside of exchanges. Some former regulators and academics say so much trading is now happening away from exchanges that publicly quoted prices for stocks on exchanges may no longer properly reflect where the market is. And this problem could cost investors far more money than any shenanigans related to high frequency trading.

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - The Knesset Interior Committee's Subcommittee on Temple Mount Issues, led by MK David Tzur, held its first meeting Monday. During the meeting, MKs discussed what rights, if any, Jews had on the Temple Mount. Speaking at the meeting, Temple Mount rights activist Rabbi Yehuda Glick, who is on a hunger strike because of a police order preventing him from visiting the Mount, said that “Jews on the Temple Mount are subject to being arrested for illegal assembly just for being there, to being victims of riots, and to being forced to flee because of unrest.”

ISRAEL - The Tel Aviv Municipality has approved an amendment to a municipal bylaw that, if ratified, would allow hundreds of neighborhood markets and kiosks and perhaps other types of businesses to operate on Shabbat on designated streets throughout the city. In addition, all types of businesses would be able to open on Shabbat in three locations: Tel Aviv Port, Jaffa Port and Hatahana D – the New Station compound.

USA - How long can America continue to burn up wealth? How long can this nation continue to consume far more wealth than it produces? The trade deficit is one of the biggest reasons for the steady decline of the US economy, but many Americans don’t even understand what it is. Basically, we are buying far more stuff from the rest of the world than they are buying from us. That means that far more money is constantly leaving the country than is coming into the country.

VATICAN - Any Roman Catholic prelate who missed the message from Pope Francis that he wanted “a church which is poor and for the poor” certainly had to pay attention last month when the Vatican forced the resignation of the bishop of Limburg, Germany, because of his taste for opulent housing worthy of the Holy Roman Empire.

UK - Parents should be issued with a checklist of “essential skills” to teach their children because large numbers of infants are starting school unable to speak properly or even use the toilet, according to the head of Ofsted. Sir Michael Wilshaw called for new “minimum requirements” to be introduced for all under-fives to make sure they are properly prepared for full-time education. He said it was necessary for parents to teach boys and girls how to act from a young age, insisting that the “family is the great educator” in a child’s life. Every parent should be issued with a simple checklist of skills children should master by the age of five, he said, including toilet training, behaviour boundaries, recognising their own name, putting on a coat and shoes and talking in sentences.

FRANCE - France's far-right National Front, coming off a historic electoral victory at home, is marching toward a new target: the European Parliament. Party chief Marine Le Pen is leading the charge for continent-wide elections next month like the general of a conquering army, and hoping to attract kindred parties around Europe in a broad alliance. As the extreme right rises across Europe, Le Pen wants to seize the momentum - raising the voice of her anti-immigration National Front and amplifying it through a broad parliamentary group. These parties, leveraging public frustration with the EU, want to weaken the bloc's power over European citizens from within Europe's premier legislative institution.

MIDDLE EAST - Turkey is not alone in supporting jihadis in the battles in Latakia’s northern countryside [in Syria]. Recent information revealed the existence of an airbridge between Jordan and Turkey, transporting jihadis after they are trained on Jordanian soil. Syria’s southern battlefront front has been moved to the north. Al-Akhbar received information suggesting an active and growing Jordanian role in the fight for Kasab and its surrounding territory. The information referred to an airbridge carrying hundreds of fighters from Marka airport in Amman to Antakya in the Iskenderun province in Turkey. According to a Syrian opposition source, more than a thousand jihadis were transported in the past three days and they immediately joined the fierce battles in Latakia’s northern countryside. The information “was confirmed by accurate Jordanian sources,” the Syrian opposition source maintained.

BRAZIL - It’s a story we all know — Christopher Columbus discovers America, his European buddies follow him, they meet the indigenous people living there, the indigenous people die from guns, smallpox and other unknown diseases, and the Europeans get gold, land, and so on. It’s still happening today in Brazil, where 238 indigenous tribes have been contacted in the last several decades, and where between 23 and 70 uncontacted tribes are still living. A just-published report that takes a look at what happens after the modern world comes into contact with indigenous peoples isn’t pretty: Of those contacted, three quarters went extinct. Those that survived saw mortality rates up over 80 percent. This is grim stuff.

USA - The United States has no intention of joining in a pre-emptive Israeli strike on Iran and expects the Islamic Republic to refrain from attacking US targets in the case of such an attack, senior Washington officials told their Iranian counterparts, according to a report in Yedioth Ahronoth on Monday.