ISRAEL - German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed public support Tuesday for Israel’s security requirements and its demand to be recognized by the Palestinians as a Jewish state, giving a boost to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s flagship positions while also backing ongoing peace talks. Merkel, in the country for an intergovernmental meeting, also reiterated her opposition to Israeli expansion of West Bank settlements, saying they make a positive outcome of the talks less likely. “We in the federal government support a two-state solution – a Palestinian state and a Jewish state of Israel,” the German leader said at a press conference in Jerusalem’s King David Hotel. “We also support Israel’s security requirements to be able to finally live in secure borders.”

VATICAN - Pope Francis's shake-up of the sclerotic Vatican has begun. Today he appointed the Australian Cardinal George Pell to head a new department: he'll leave Sydney to become Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy “which will have authority over all economic and administrative activities within the Holy See and the Vatican City State”. The new Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, effectively the Vatican's prime minister and foreign secretary, is making very significant cuts to his operations. This is from a priest contact in Rome: “The new secretary of state has written a letter to all offices saying that massive cuts are being imposed on all Vatican offices. All temporary contracts are being eliminated and no new employees are being hired.”

UNITED NATIONS - Former Deputy Foreign Minister and Ambassador to the US Danny Ayalon has appeared in a new video entitled "The truth about the UN (United Nations)." In the video, Ayalon reveals the structural flaws that have turned the international body into a critic and enemy of the Jewish state.

ISRAEL - Economics Minister and Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett recently appeared on the BBC, where he argued the two-state solution has failed, and that Israel needs to reaffirm its Jewish nature.

GERMANY - In the aftermath of the Western-oriented putsch in Kiev, German politicians are preparing German public opinion for the disastrous deterioration of the Ukraine economic situation. Even though it was most recently suggested that the country could only expect a thriving development by linking up to the EU, it is now - truthfully - being announced that Ukraine is practically bankrupt.

RUSSIA - Those tracking the developments in the Ukraine, and specifically the Russian response to this weekend's coup, will be interested to note that according to the Russian flot.com website, the large landing ship Nikolai Filchenkov, previously known for its participation in the Syrian naval arms build up, is expected to arrive in the Crimean port of Sevastopol carrying 200 armed soldiers, sent from the nearby Black Sea town of Temryuk. This appears to not be an isolated move as the naval build up seems to be escalating. In a concurrent release, Izvestia Kiev reported that out of Kubinka, four ships carrying special forces, are being relocated to Anapa. From there, in four hours, they will depart for Sevastopol at a speed of 10-15 knots, citing "Izvestia in Ukraine" as a source.

EUROPE - Africa is expected to be the next target of GM food companies, as European scientists and policymakers travel to Ethiopia to boost the prospect of growing more of the controversial crops on the continent. Anne Glover, the chief scientific adviser to the European commission, and other prominent pro-GM researchers and policymakers from European countries including Germany, Hungary, Italy and Sweden will this week meet Ethiopian, Kenyan, Ghanaian and Nigerian farm ministers as well as officials from the African Union. Critics, however, said the meeting was a thinly disguised attempt to promote GM farming at a governmental level, whether or not it was good for local farmers.

USA - The US Federal Reserve knew about Libor rigging three years before the financial scandal exploded but did not take any firm action, documents have revealed. According to newly published transcripts of the central bank’s meetings in the run-up to and immediate aftermath of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, a senior Fed official first flagged the issue at a policy meeting in April 2008. William Dudley expressed fears that banks were being dishonest in the way they were calculating the London interbank offered rate – a global benchmark interest rate used as the basis for trillions of pounds of loans and financial contracts.

VENEZUELA - The game changed in Venezuela last night. What had been a slow-motion unravelling that had stretched out over many years went kinetic all of a sudden. What we have this morning is no longer the Venezuela story you thought you understood. Throughout last night, panicked people told their stories of state-sponsored paramilitaries on motorcycles roaming middle class neighborhoods, shooting at people and storming into apartment buildings, shooting at anyone who seemed like he might be protesting. What we saw were not “street clashes”, what we saw is a state-hatched offensive to suppress and terrorize its opponents.

RUSSIA - Many have been surprised by the lack of public response by Russia to the ongoings in Ukraine. Aside from some comments by Siluanov, the response has been concerning in its absence from the iron fist. However, quietly and with little new coverage, RiaNovosti reports that the combat capability of Russia’s naval task force in the Mediterranean will increase significantly - for the first time in decades - following the first deliveries of Varshavyanka-class submarines (with advanced stealth technology dubbed "black holes in the ocean") to the Black Sea Fleet.

VATICAN - We are galloping toward a one-world melding of religions, and the ramifications are staggering. Pope Francis has now sent a video message to Word of Faith father Kenneth Copeland, urging reconciliation between Catholics and Charismatics.

CANADA - What are we going to do about those little monsters called children? They won’t be quiet, won’t sit still and won’t pay attention. They aren’t succeeding in school, and no matter how many drugs we pump into them, they don’t seem to get any better.

VATICAN - The Vatican bank is one of the world's most secretive financial institutions. A new department at the Vatican has been created by Pope Francis to oversee its finances following scandals at the institution. The new ministry would study the "organisational and economic problems of the Holy See", said the Vatican. An auditor will also oversee the department's dealings, it said. In January, Italian police reported a senior Italian cleric was charged with laundering millions through the Vatican Bank. But the change would not immediately affect the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), said a spokesperson. The IOR is one of the world's most secretive organisations. It has 114 employees and 5.4 billion euros of assets.

USA - US doctors are warning of an emerging polio-like disease in California where up to 20 people have been infected. A meeting of the American Academy of Neurology heard that some patients had developed paralysis in all four limbs, which had not improved with treatment. The US is polio-free, but related viruses can also attack the nervous system leading to paralysis. Polio is a dangerous and feared childhood infection. The virus rapidly invades the nervous system and causes paralysis in one in 200 cases. It can be fatal if it stops the lungs from working.

MIDDLE EAST - Lawmakers from Hamas on Sunday warned Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas against recognizing Israel as part of the ongoing peace process. The lawmakers said that recognition of Israel as a Jewish state would be a “death sentence” against the PA. Ibrahim Dahbour, one of Hamas’s representatives in the Palestinian Legislative Council, warned Abbas against giving up any of the "fundamental principles of the Palestinian people" in the negotiations with Israel, in particular with regards to the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.