UKRAINE - Ukrainian Rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman, called on Kiev’s Jews to leave the city and even the country if possible, fearing that the city’s Jews will be victimized in the chaos, Israeli daily Maariv reported Friday. “I told my congregation to leave the city center or the city all together and if possible the country too,” Rabbi Azman told Maariv. “I don’t want to tempt fate,” he added, “but there are constant warnings concerning intentions to attack Jewish institutions.” According to the paper’s report Azman closed the Jewish community’s schools but still holds three daily prayers. He said the Israeli embassy told members of the Jewish community to avoid leaving their homes.

USA - US gun makers led by Sturm Ruger & Co and Smith & Wesson Holding Corp (SWHC) churned out a record number of firearms in 2012, government data show, continuing a trend of robust production during Democratic presidencies. More than 8.57 million guns were produced in 2012, up 31 percent from 6.54 million in 2011, according to data released this week by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which has been tracking the statistics since 1986. Almost as many guns - 26.1 million - were produced during Democrat Barack Obama’s first term as president as during the entire eight-year presidency of his Republican predecessor, George W Bush, the ATF data show.

CHINA - China wants to make World War Two a key part of a trip by President Xi Jinping to Germany next month, much to Berlin's discomfort, diplomatic sources said, as Beijing tries to use German atonement for its wartime past to embarrass Japan. China has increasingly contrasted Germany and its public contrition for the Nazi regime to Japan, where repeated official apologies for wartime suffering are sometimes undercut by contradictory comments by conservative politicians. Ties between the two Asian rivals worsened when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine on December 26, which China sees as a symbol of Tokyo's past militarism because it honors wartime leaders along with millions of war dead.

UK - Onshore wind farms are being paid £30 million a year to sit idle during the windiest weather. The payments are made because the cables which transmit power from the turbines to the National Grid cannot cope with the amount of electricity they produce during stormy conditions. Ministers are launching a fresh crackdown on the compensation charges – which ultimately end up on customers’ bills - and are threatening to force power companies to reduce the cost of the payments. Michael Fallon, the Energy Minister, has written to renewable power companies warning that he is ready to change the law to force wind farms to lower their prices if they fail to cut the costs voluntarily.

UKRAINE - The deadly protests that have broken out on the streets of Kiev are no longer just a Ukrainian issue. They might soon be an American one, too. As is the case in several conflicts across the world, Ukraine is just the next proxy battle between the United States and Russia.

USA - In order for our current level of debt-fueled prosperity to continue, the rest of the world must continue to use our dollars to trade with one another and must continue to buy our debt at ridiculously low interest rates. Of course the number one foreign nation that we depend on to participate in our system is China.

VATICAN - This is a story that is classic Pope Francis: in late December he picked up the phone and called a Pentecostal bishop, Tony Palmer, to invite him to visit. By all accounts, they had been friends for a number of years already and this was just a social visit, so it wasn’t planned and facilitated by Vatican staff.

IRAN - As a country, it faces threats of terrorism, nuclear power and frosty international relations with world leaders. But Iran is focusing on another problem - a shrinking lake. Lake Oroumieh, one of the world's biggest saltwater lakes, is in danger of completely drying up because of climate change, nearby farms using it for irrigation and the damming of rivers. It has shrunk more than 80 percent to 1,000 square kilometers (nearly 400 square miles) in the past decade, experts say. Salt-covered rocks that were once deep underwater now sit in the middle of desert. Experts fear the lake - famous in years past as a tourist spot and a favorite stopping point for migrating flamingos, pelicans and gulls - could disappear within two years if nothing is done.

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, the Imam of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, warned Israel on Friday against “harming” the mosque. Sabri, head of the Supreme Muslim Council, declared in a conversation with a Gaza-based news agency that Al-Aqsa was a “red line” for Arabs, adding, “We will not give up even one grain of earth (at the Al-Aqsa Mosque), since the Jews have no connection to it whatsoever.” Sabri’s comments are just the latest in a series of accusations that Arab leaders level at Israel concerning the Temple Mount and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

USA - Without a lot more rain and snow, many California farmers caught in the state's drought can expect to receive no irrigation water this year from a vast system of rivers, canals and reservoirs interlacing the state, federal officials announced Friday. The US Bureau of Reclamation released its first outlook of the year, saying that the state is in the throes of one of its driest periods in recorded history. Farmers who rely on the federally run Central Valley Project received only 20 percent of their normal water allotment last year and were expecting this year's bad news. Some communities and endangered wildlife that rely on the federal water source will also suffer deep cuts. The state's snowpack is at 29 percent of average for this time of year, which means that for farmers it's going to be a hard year.

USA - Secretary of state, who only learned his grandparents were Jews in 2004, says he understands Israelis’ reluctance to sign a deal. “It’s a connection that’s deep. I lost a great-uncle in the Holocaust and a great-aunt. I never knew that until then. To learn that, after years of being passionate about ‘never again,’ with respect to the Holocaust, and then to understand that you are biologically and personally connected to that, is very moving,” he said in an interview aired on Thursday by Israel’s Channel 2. “Israel itself has a special connection to me, not just because of that personal, now-known connection, but more importantly because of the amazing journey of the Jewish people,” he said in the interview, which was conducted last Tuesday at the State Department. “And now I’ve learned that, I have got a better sense of that.”

UK - The Archbishop of Canterbury has officially welcomed and commissioned four members of the international ecumenical community Chemin Neuf to take up residence at Lambeth Palace. Archbishop Justin Welby described it as a "radical and exciting new step" in ecumenical relations. Chemin Neuf, meaning the 'New Way' in English, is a Catholic ecumenical community founded in 1973 in Lyon and consisting of some 2,000 members from different church denominations across 30 countries. Archbishop Welby has longstanding connections with the Chemin Neuf community, having taken part in several retreats with them, including one he attended for a week before his ascension to spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

NEW YORK, USA - In 2012, there were more black babies killed by abortion in New York City than were born there, and the black children killed comprised 42.4% of the total number of abortions in the Big Apple, according to a report by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The numbers show that in 2012, there were 31,328 induced terminations (abortions) among non-Hispanic black women in New York City. That same year, there were 24,758 live births for non-Hispanic black women in New York City. There were 6,570 more abortions than live births of black children. In total, there were 73,815 abortions, which means the 31,328 black babies aborted comprised 42.4% of the total abortions.

USA - The United States Congress is the latest front in the battle over boycotting Israel. Two congressmen, Peter Roskam and Dan Lipinski - a Republican and Democrat respectively, both from the state of Illinois - have introduced a bill that would strip American academic institutions of federal funding if they choose to boycott Israel. The move follows a growing international movement to protest the Israeli occupation and violations of Palestinian human rights. Opponents of BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) say the movement - which calls for Palestinian refugees' right to return - is an attempt to delegitimise Israel and dilute its majority-Jewish population.

JAPAN - As experts warned last December, contaminated water at the site will continue to pose a major risk. Now a new incident, the plant’s operator announced Thursday, has seen 100 tons of highly radioactive water leak from a holding tank. It’s the worst leak since last August, when 300 tons of contaminated water were spilled. It’s a reminder that Tepco is nowhere near completing the decommissioning process, which will likely take decades and give the public reason for concern throughout. Last week, the company also revealed that it had detected 5 million becquerels per liter of radioactive strontium-90 in a groundwater sample taken about 25 meters (82 feet) away from the ocean last September. The legal limit for releasing strontium? A mere 30 becquerels per liter.