GERMANY - Nearly half of Germans believe their country would be better off out of the EU, a new poll has revealed. Germany, which has been a champion of the EU since its beginning, is for the first time, experiencing a surge in the number of people believing the country would be better off out. According to a poll by the Bertelsmann Foundation, 49 per cent said that things would be improved by leaving the European Union altogether - the greatest figure of discontent in the country since the European currency began.

EUROPE - A gang of 11 European nations ignited anger last night by calling for sweeping new powers in Brussels including the command of a European army. The Future of Europe Group, which excludes the UK, wants the EU to be turned into a global superpower. A report following a meeting of foreign ministers in Warsaw, admitted the euro’s problems had brought a “crisis of confidence” that needed to be tackled with more centralised decision making. Critics warned that the plans exposed the ambitions of many European politicians for a fully-fledged federal Europe.

USA - Facebook has an ugly little secret, a number disclosed nowhere in its voluminous filings to become a public company and now only vaguely addressed by corporate officials. An estimated 5.6 million Facebook clients - about 3.5 percent of its US users - are children who the company says are banned from the site. Facebook and many other web sites bar people under age 13 because the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires websites to give special treatment to children 12 or younger. The law aims to stop marketers prying personal information from children or using their data to advertise to them.

AFGHANISTAN - Whatever is going to happen to Afghanistan will happen anyway, heedless of what our troops do between now and packing their bags. The courage and tactical successes of our soldiers count for nothing when there is no coherent local political structure for them to join up to.

CHINA - A senior advisor to the Chinese government has called for an attack on the Japanese bond market to precipitate a funding crisis and bring the country to its knees, unless Tokyo reverses its decision to nationalise the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea. Jin Baisong from the Chinese Academy of International Trade – a branch of the commerce ministry – said China should use its power as Japan’s biggest creditor with $230 billion (£141 billion) of bonds to “impose sanctions on Japan in the most effective manner” and bring Tokyo’s festering fiscal crisis to a head.

ISRAEL - The Israeli Defense Force has begun surprise live-fire war games on the Golan Heights, bordering unstable Lebanon and Syria. Officially, the Israeli military is practicing combat readiness to repel possible sudden attack from Lebanon-based Hezbollah. The Chief of IDF General Staff Lieutentant General Benny Gantz ordered troops from the Northern and Central commands, reinforced by reservists, to simulate an emergency. The IDF insists the drill is a routine scheduled event, but for unknown reasons withheld from making public how many troops and what military vehicles are being involved in the war games.

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - Jews around the world are observing Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. In Israel, the mood is sober. Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the Jewish High Holy Days and is a time of reflection and prayer. Israelis ushered in the New Year with a sense of uncertainty amid tensions with Iran that have heightened fears of war. One man on the street in Jerusalem says Israel may have no other choice. “It is a very dangerous situation to allow a very disturbed and unstable nation like Iran to develop weapons of mass destruction,” he stated. The fear is that an Israeli attack could spark a catastrophic regional war.

USA - The Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank’s new rounds of quantitative easing could herald a new era of “currency wars”, according to Bank of New York (BNY) Mellon research. The dollar fell to a seven-month low against the yen and a four-month low against the euro last week after the Fed announced a new round of quantitative easing (QE3) on Thursday. Under the latest plan, the Fed will buy up $40 billion of mortgage-backed securities a month in order to stimulate the US economy. On Friday, the ratings agency Egan-Jones cut the US sovereign rating to AA-minus from AA, saying the Fed’s QE3 would reduce the value of the dollar, rather than reduce national debt.

USA - By mid morning on Monday, September 17, as Occupy Wall Street protesters marched around the perimeter of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, all signs that an FRPD (Federal Reserve Police Department) existed had disappeared. The FRPD patrol cars and law enforcement officers had been replaced by NYPD patrol cars and officers. That decision may have been made to keep from drawing attention to a mushrooming new domestic police force that most Americans do not know exists. Quietly, without fanfare or Congressional hearings, the USA Patriot Act in 2001 bestowed on the 12 privately owned Federal Reserve Banks, domestic policing powers.

UK - David Cameron risks going down in history as a "guilty man" for ordering defence cuts which make Britain more vulnerable to war, experts warned yesterday. His defence policy is likely to lead to more wars in the future because Britain will appear weak, two reports by the UK National Defence Association said. And in a hard-hitting foreword Tory historian Andrew Roberts said the prime minister and his Cabinet risk going down in history as “Guilty Men” such as Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain who oversaw defence cutbacks even as Hitler rose to power. Mr Roberts warned: “Nothing can ruin a British statesman’s reputation quicker or more completely than being suspected of having neglected the nation’s defences.”

UK - Pressure for a referendum on leaving the European Union stepped up a gear yesterday when two Tory heavyweights backed radical change and a national vote. Former Prime Minister Sir John Major and ex-Defence Secretary Liam Fox said Britain’s relationship with the EU must be redrawn and the results endorsed in a referendum. Dr Fox said that ultimately the country’s “fate and destiny” must be placed in the people’s hands – and that they could decide to quit if Europe refused our terms. Campaigners pressing for a straight in-out referendum said their comments marked some progress but that the Conservatives must move much more quickly to promise people a clear vote on whether to stay in Europe.

INDIA - The army’s defences on the China border will get a major offensive boost with the impending deployment of two tank brigades, one each in Ladakh and north-east India. This is the first time that India will deploy armoured formations on the China border. Such formations, equipped with main battle tanks and BMP-II infantry combat vehicles, are traditionally used for striking into enemy territory.

CHINA - Mass protests have taken place in dozens of Chinese cities since Japan announced it had nationalised the Senkaku islands – known as the Diaoyu in China – islands last week. The protests were fanned on Tuesday by the 81st anniversary of the Mukden Incident, a staged bombing on a Japanese railway that gave the Imperial Japanese army a pretext for invading China in 1931. Largely forgotten in the West, in China the anniversary is remembered as the National Day of Humiliation.

BEIJING, CHINA - Amid a raging dispute with Japan over islands in the East China Sea, the Chinese army has scaled up its military exercises on all fronts including aerial drills by its air force in Tibet as well as by Special Forces. Special operations forces from the PLA have begun an annual set of military drills aimed at training reconnaissance capabilities and survival skills, state-run CCTV reported.

MIDDLE EAST - Battleships, aircraft carriers, minesweepers and submarines from 25 nations are converging on the strategically important Strait of Hormuz in an unprecedented show of force as Israel and Iran move towards the brink of war.