USA - The US Armed Forces recently sent soldiers to Turkey amid the incidents in Syria and the soldiers deployed in Turkey have been sharing intelligence, US Army Europe Commander Lieutenant General Mark Hertling has said, according to USNews.com. “We have had a relatively few number of US Army Europe personnel in Turkey recently,” the general said. “Some of that has been sharing intelligence.” Turkey is concerned about how to handle the humanitarian crisis on its border with Syria, Hertling added.

USA - Hurricane Sandy will probably grow into a “Frankenstorm” that may become the worst to hit the US Northeast in 100 years if current forecasts are correct. Sandy may combine with a second storm coming out of the Midwest to create a system that would rival the New England hurricane of 1938 in intensity, said Paul Kocin, a National Weather Service meteorologist in College Park, Maryland.

BAMAKO, MALI/PARIS, FRANCE/BERLIN, GERMANY - The German government has announced that the Bundeswehr will intervene in Mali. Following Chancellor Merkel's declarations on Monday, Foreign Minister Westerwelle confirmed yesterday, Tuesday, that Berlin wants to "stabilize" Mali and therefore send soldiers, to train Mali's military for the war against the insurgents in the North of this West African country.

BERLIN, GERMANY - Two democratic US Senators and the head of Germany’s 105,000 member Jewish community urged German deputies, from the Bundestag’s German-Iranian parliamentary group, to pull the plug on their slated trip to the Islamic Republic on October 27. Critics of the trip such as Dr Wahied Wahdat-Hagh see the human rights argument as a mere cover for the German deputies to advance economic interests. Germany is Iran’s largest trade partner, with bilateral trade hovering around 4 billion euros each year, and the members of the FDP have strong business ties with Iranian companies.

USA - The Pentagon said yesterday it plans to send a US air force detachment to Poland to support fighter jets and transport planes, marking the first time that US soldiers have been stationed there. The announcement was made at the end of talks between US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and his Polish counterpart Tomasz Siemoniak. The detachment “will arrive this fall to support quarterly F-16 and C-130 deployments beginning in 2013 and will be the first US forces stationed on Polish soil,” Pentagon spokesman George Little said in a statement. “The arrival of this detachment will mark a new step forward in the relationship between the United States and Poland and enable closer military cooperation.”

LEBANON - Hezbollah’s launching of a pilotless spy plane, which was shot down by Israel’s air force in the southern part of the country in early October, has been seen as more evidence that the Lebanese militia is preparing for war. Israelis assume that the drone was gathering visual intelligence to help Hezbollah in its goal of bombarding distant targets with long-range surface-to-surface missiles.

EUROPE - Germany and France are being sucked into the abyss as the crisis in the eurozone deepens, economists warned last night. The slump that began in Greece has spread to the core – with the region’s two biggest economies now heading for recession. Research group Markit said its closely watched index of activity for private firms in the eurozone – where anything below 50 represents decline – fell from 46.1 in September to 45.8 this month. It is the worst reading since June 2009 and indicates that the recession across the region is deepening. But even more worrying is the slump in Germany – Europe’s biggest economy – where the barometer of activity has fallen from 49.2 to 48.1.

GERMANY - Germany withdrew two thirds of its vast holdings of gold from Bank of England vaults shortly after the launch of the euro more than a decade ago, according to a confidential report by German auditors. The revelation came as Germany's budget watchdog demanded an on-site probe of the country's remaining gold reserves in London, Paris, and New York to verify whether the metal really exists.

NORTH KOREA - A North Korean army minister was executed with a mortar round for reportedly drinking and carousing during the official mourning period after Kim Jong-il's death. Kim Chol, vice minister of the army, was taken into custody earlier this year on the orders of Kim Jong-un, who assumed the leadership after the death of his father in December. On the orders of Kim Jong-un to leave "no trace of him behind, down to his hair," according to South Korean media, Kim Chol was forced to stand on a spot that had been zeroed in for a mortar round and "obliterated."

CUBA - Sandy has reached south-east Cuba and strengthened into a strong category two hurricane. The hurricane was carrying maximum sustained winds of 175km/h (110mph) as it hit land just west of Santiago de Cuba, said the US-based National Hurricane Center (NHC). On Wednesday, one man was killed as Sandy swept over Jamaica. A hurricane watch is in place in the Bahamas, and Florida has been placed on tropical storm watch.

UPDATE: PHILADELPHIA, USA - The latest edition of the GFS model has just rolled out, and it has finally jumped on board with most of the others, discarding the idea of a new coastal low and bringing Sandy in towards Long Island as a tropical storm or hurricane by Tuesday. We may need to be prepared for widespread power outages even farther inland thanks to the deluge of wind and rain that Sandy will produce.

ISRAEL - A majority of Israeli Jews admit they are living in an apartheid state, a recent survey claimed. Many also believed that Palestinians should be denied the right to vote, and suggested that Jewish citizens should be given preferential treatment. Some 500 Jewish adults took part in the survey, answering questions put together by a group of civil rights activists and academics, Haaretz newspaper reported on Tuesday. The survey’s findings revealed that 39 percent of respondents believe there is a ‘slight’ form of apartheid in the country, while 19 percent admit that there is ‘heavy’ apartheid.

VATICAN - “The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council.” This first sentence of “Unitatis Redintegratio,” the council’s Decree on Ecumenism, is still surprising to many Catholics. Ecumenical relationships are a school of virtue. To engage others we need humility, honesty, patience and gentleness. Sometimes we see these in our ecumenical partners. I hope they see them in us. I believe that we need saints to lead us on the road to unity.

USA - For days Donald Trump teased ahead to a big reveal about President Barack Obama, saying his announcement would be made with the best interest of the United States of America in mind. Basically, the announcement, made at noon, comes down to the birth certificate controversy and question of [Mr] Obama’s college records. If President Obama releases his college records and his passport records, then [Mr] Trump says he will give a $5 million check to a charity. [Mr] Trump says he will release the check within an hour of receiving the records. The caveat, he says, is that they have to be submitted by October 31.

USA - Despite the issue garnering a significant amount of media interest as well as the attention of the Secret Service, Obama supporters continued their threats to riot and assassinate Mitt Romney if [Mr] Obama loses in the aftermath of last night’s presidential debate. As we reported last week, Twitter has been flooded recently with violent comments from Obama supporters. The increase in volume of the comments seemed to coincide with [Mr] Romney’s poll numbers edging higher against [Mr] Obama.

USA - The US faces many pressing issues in the near future. But none of them got much air time on Monday night in the debate between President Barack Obama and his challenger Mitt Romney. Instead, the two candidates appear stuck in the Bush worldview, and reveal a global power on the decline.