INDONESIA - A strong earthquake hit off the coast of Sumatra in Indonesia on Friday, the US Geological Survey reported. The 6.2-magnitude shook the Kepulauan Mentawai region. Its epicenter was 760 kilometers (470 miles) west-northwest of the capital, Jakarta, at a depth of 20 kilometers, according to the USGS. Last month, a 6.6-magnitude earthquake hit Palu city on the island of Sulawesi, killing at least six people. Indonesia is on the so-called Ring of Fire, an arc of fault lines circling the Pacific Basin that is prone to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

EGYPT - The US embassy in Cairo called out the Muslim Brotherhood on Twitter over differences between English and Arabic tweets about violent protests against an anti-Islamic video. The Muslim Brotherhood’s official English-language Twitter account @Ikwanweb reposted a message from the group’s deputy head, Khairat El-Shater, saying he was “relieved none of @USembassycairo staff was hurt” and expressing his desire that relations withstand the “turbulence” of events... The Brotherhood’s Arabic feed included messages that praised the protests, such as “Egyptians revolt for the Prophet’s victory in front of US embassy.”

CHINA/JAPAN - Six Chinese ships entered Japanese waters near a group of disputed islets claimed by both Beijing and Tokyo early on Friday, ignoring the Japanese coast guard's orders to vacate its territorial waters. The first two ships in the battalion entered the disputed waters at around 21:20 GMT on Thursday. After a few hours of “patrolling,” three of the ships have left the disputed waters, while another three stayed, local media reported. The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed that six of its surveillance ships had entered the waters near the islands. So far, Japanese border patrol ships have not taken any active measures against the Chinese vessels.

ESCUINTLA, GUATEMALA - A long-simmering volcano exploded with a series of powerful eruptions outside one of Guatemala’s most famous tourist attractions on Thursday, hurling thick clouds of ash nearly two miles (three kilometers) high, spewing rivers of lava down its flanks and prompting evacuation orders for more than 33,000 people from surrounding communities. Guatemala’s head of emergency evacuations, Sergio Cabanas, said the evacuees were ordered to leave some 17 villages around the Volcan del Fuego, which sits about six miles southwest (16 kilometers) from the colonial city of Antigua, home to 45,000 people.

USA - The US central bank has announced it will resume its policy of pumping more money into the economy via so-called quantitative easing. The Federal Reserve said it will buy "additional agency mortgage-backed securities at a pace of $40 billion (£25 billion) per month". The central bank also said it could increase the size of its purchases if the economy does not improve. The economy is a pivotal issue in this year's US presidential election.

EUROPE - The nations of the EU must join together in a federal state, if the euro is to be saved, the President of the European Commission declared today. Jose Manuel Barroso called for further integration among the states of the EU, calling for a 'federation of nation states of Europe.'

USA - The Federal Reserve is talking about “unlimited QE,” or money printing, to boost employment. Economist John Williams says, “That’s absolutely nonsense. The Fed is just propping up the banks.”

CHINA - The mainstream media in the United States is almost totally ignoring one of the most important trends in global economics. This trend is going to cause the value of the US dollar to fall dramatically and it is going to cause the cost of living in the United States to go way up.

USA - President Obama and other disarmament advocates continue to call for the total elimination of nuclear arms. This week, China’s government signaled its intention to move in the opposite direction and expand and speed up its large-scale nuclear buildup.

USA - [President] Obama invited Muslim Brotherhood Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi to meet with him in New York next week. But, not [Mr] Netanyahu. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lectured Barack Obama in the Oval Office on the dangers facing the Jews back in May 2011. But… Barack Obama won’t meet with Israeli leader [Mr] Netanyahu over the Iran row. UPDATE: [President] Obama told NBC tonight “I don’t think that we would consider Egypt an ally.” (Maybe he should have thought about that before he threw Mubarak under the bus!)

USA - The Obama campaign apparently didn't look backwards into history when selecting its new campaign slogan, "Forward" — a word with a long and rich association with European Marxism. Many Communist and radical publications and entities throughout the 19th and 20th centuries had the name "Forward!" or its foreign cognates. Wikipedia has an entire section called "Forward (generic name of socialist publications)." "The name Forward carries a special meaning in socialist political terminology. It has been frequently used as a name for socialist, communist and other left-wing newspapers and publications," the online encyclopedia explains.

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL – Israeli Arabs protest outside the US Embassy in Tel Aviv Thursday following the attacks on US compounds in Libya, Egypt and Yemen. A radical group called the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement led the demonstration, according to the Times of Israel. A top Israeli Arab Knesset official warned of “Armageddon” if the United Nations does not intervene. “If the UN does not mobilize to stop this erosion, it will be Armageddon,” MK Talab el-Sana told the Israeli paper. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the “Innocence of Muslims” movie disgusting and reprehensible.

EGYPT - There were violent scenes in Cairo last night during protests outside the US embassy. On Wednesday, demonstrators in Cairo angry at the film - Innocence of Muslims - breached the walls of the US embassy and tore down the flag.

SANAAN, YEMEN - Protesters angered by an anti-Islam film made in the US have stormed the grounds of the American embassy in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa. Police shot in the air in an attempt to hold back the crowds, but failed to prevent them gaining access to the compound and setting fire to vehicles. A number of people were reported to have been injured. They have now regained control of the Sanaa compound, but protests are continuing outside. On Tuesday, the US ambassador to Libya was killed in a fire started after the US consulate in Benghazi was stormed.

LIBYA - US President Barack Obama has vowed to bring to justice the killers of the US ambassador to Libya during protests against a film that mocks Islam. But he told reporters that the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi would not break the bonds between the US and the new Libyan government.