BERLIN, GERMANY - A well-known German historian declared Germans "perhaps the most important people of Europe," and predicted a return to singing the official first stanza of the German national anthem ("Germany, Germany above everything").
UK - They are the texts which, in generations past, every schoolboy and schoolgirl knew by heart. But passages such as the Lord’s Prayer, the 10 Commandments or the Beatitudes are now so unfamiliar to a modern audience that the Church of England is introducing what is being likened to “Sunday school for adults” to revive their use.
JAPAN - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is stepping up his moves to change the government’s traditional interpretation of the Constitution’s war-renouncing Article 9, which holds that Japan cannot exercise the right to collective self-defense — the use of military power to repel attacks on a country that has close ties with Japan even if Japan is not directly attacked.
AUSTRIA - Austrians voted on Sunday to re-elect their current coalition government. But the country's two largest parties saw their worst nationwide election results since World War II while the right-wing populists made substantial gains.
USA - For a country that is supposed to be the most powerful in the world, the fact that Americans have today woken up to find large swathes of their nation closed for business is humiliating.
USA - Investors are braced for a market rout, as the US government edged closer to its first shutdown in nearly 20 years and heightened fears that it will bust through its debt ceiling next month.
USA - The dollar has fallen to an 8-month low against a range of currencies, driven by fears that a partial shutdown of the US government will hit the economy. Analysts said the fall in the dollar had not been more pronounced as the shutdown had been expected.
VATICAN - As a group of eight Catholic cardinals handpicked by the Pope to shake up the Vatican’s murky and autocratic bureaucracy prepares to meet, the group’s leader has said they plan to rip up and rewrite the apostolic constitution which apportions power at the Holy See.
EUROPE - Scientists working on the most authoritative study on climate change were urged to cover up the fact that the world’s temperature hasn’t risen for the last 15 years, it is claimed. A leaked copy of a United Nations report, compiled by hundreds of scientists, shows politicians in Belgium, Germany, Hungary and the United States raised concerns about the final draft. Published next week, it is expected to address the fact that 1998 was the hottest year on record and world temperatures have not yet exceeded it, which scientists have so far struggled to explain.
RUSSIA - Russia has dispatched a "carrier killer" missile cruiser and other ships to the eastern Mediterranean in its largest naval deployment since Soviet times.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The US and Russian foreign ministers are due to hold their second round of talks in Geneva on how to secure Syria's chemical weapons. US officials said Thursday's meeting was comprehensive and lasted about an hour. Talks may continue beyond Friday.
USA - Five years after Lehman fell, taking the global economy along with it, a roll call of Wall Street CEOs serving time for their role in the crisis looks something like this: No one. Wall Street's lawyers are amazing.
VATICAN - The Pope’s new right-hand man has called for ‘discussion’ on the issue of celibacy within the Catholic Church. Archbishop Pietro Parolin, the new secretary of state of the Vatican, told Venezuelan newspaper El Universal that celibacy is tradition rather than law, and should be open to discussion.
TEMPLE MOUNT, JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - Thousands of Muslims are expected to riot after Friday prayers on the Temple Mount as Fatah’s armed branch, the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, has declared war and announced that it would give the “green light” to terrorist attacks targeting Israelis beginning on the eve of Yom Kippur.
VATICAN - In comments likely to enhance his progressive reputation, Pope Francis has written a long, open letter to the founder of La Repubblica newspaper, Eugenio Scalfari, stating that non-believers would be forgiven by God if they followed their consciences.