USA - Are you puzzled by the over-reaction and civil unrest over the George Zimmerman trial? Consider this: Communist front groups are throwing everything they have at fomenting and continuing the protests for their own agenda.
SAUDI ARABIA - One of the least commented aspects of ousting Egypt’s Morsi is the defiant act of the Saudi Royal House in backing the ouster of the Brotherhood and supporting the military restoration. The Saudi move is unprecedented in its open defiance of White House declared backing for the Muslim Brotherhood. The implications of the split are huge. Twilight in the desert?
TAIWAN - Taiwan is the frontline in an emerging global battle for cyberspace, according to elite hackers in the island's IT industry, who say it has become a rehearsal area for the Chinese cyberattacks that have strained ties with the United States.
DETROIT, USA - Detroit has become the largest US city ever to file for bankruptcy, with debts of at least $15 billion (£10 billion). The city, once a symbol of US industrial power, is seeking protection from creditors who include public-sector workers and their pension funds.
USA - Many local governments across the US face steep budget deficits as they struggle to pay off debts accumulated over a number of years. As a last resort, some filed for bankruptcy.
USA - On Tuesday night, a flash mob of some 40 to 50 teenagers invaded the busiest and most tourist-centric part of Hollywood, smashing windows, stealing cellphones, and assaulting passersby.
EUROPE - GM giant Monsanto is effectively pulling out of Europe after years of delays in trying to secure approval for ‘Frankenstein food’ crops. The US-based company is dropping all of its requests to launch insect and pesticide-resistant forms of corn, sugar beet and soya beans.
SPAIN - In 30 cities across Spain thousands of people protested government corruption and called for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s resignation. In solidarity with the demonstrations, ‘hacktivist’ group Anonymous knocked out the ruling People’s Party website.
GERMANY - Germany's Wolfgang Schäuble wants Europe to be his legacy. But his efforts to reform the EU and save the euro face many obstacles. One of them is his boss, Chancellor Angela Merkel.
USA - The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or Fatca, is forcing millions of Americans living abroad to reconsider their US citizenship, a lawyer, Colleen Graffy, writes in the Wall Street Journal.
USA - Former US President Jimmy Carter lambasted US intelligence methods as undemocratic and described Edward Snowden’s NSA leak as “beneficial” for the country.
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - An Islamic cleric warned the United States government last Friday in a sermon at the Temple Mount’s Al Aqsa Mosque to “take its hands off Muslims.”
USA - In what may be the single largest mass bumblebee die-off on record, some 50,000 plus bees were recently found littering the parking lot of a Target store in Wilsonville, Oregon recently after a landscaping company sprayed surrounding trees with the insecticide Safari.
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin (Likud) on Wednesday dismissed recent reports that Israel is planning to hand over control of the Tomb of King David to the Vatican.
UK - Britain has to be prepared to “go to war” if it wishes to restrain the Syrian regime by implementing no-fly zones and arming the rebels, the outgoing head of the armed forces warns today.