UK - Former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher has died "peacefully" at the age of 87 after suffering a stroke, her family has announced. Successor David Cameron called her a "great Briton" and the Queen spoke of her sadness at the death. Lady Thatcher was Conservative prime minister from 1979 to 1990. She was the first woman to hold the role.
USA - There are clear signs that China is losing patience with North Korea, America's former top diplomat in Asia has said. For several decades, China has been North Korea's closest ally, largest trade partner and primary source of aid.
UK - British Foreign Secretary William Hague has called for calm over the North Korean crisis. Despite the "paranoid rhetoric" from Pyongyang, it was important to remain "firm and united," he said, warning of the dangers of a "miscalculation" by North Korea. China's leader Xi Jinping said no country could be allowed to throw the region "into chaos for selfish gains". North Korea has made a series of direct threats against the US and South Korea.
SOUTH KOREA - First the US fanfared the placement of two F-22 Raptors in the Osan airbase of South Korea. Then it demonstratively launched a B-2 stealth bomber on a training mission over a South Korean gunnery range. Then it deployed an anti-ballistic missile defense system to Guam and positioned two guided-missile destroyers in the waters near Korea.
SOUTH KOREA - Contingency plans to evacuate more than 3,000 British nationals from South Korea have been drawn up by military leaders. Senior sources said Foreign Office ministers have seen the plans, as tensions in the Korean peninsula reach their highest pitch in five decades. Last night a former US government official put the seriousness of the North Korean threat for the Pentagon as eight out of 10, “where one is strategic patience and 10 is political freak out”. Britain has already sent a team of plain-clothes operators to South Korea from Joint Forces Headquarters in Northwood to make ground preparations for a mass evacuation.
IRAN - US Secretary of State John Kerry has warned Iran that talks on its nuclear programme cannot last forever, after a new round failed to make progress. "This is not an interminable process," he said after arriving in Istanbul, at the start of a 10-day trip to the Middle East, Europe and Asia. World powers failed to make headway at two days of talks with Iran in Almaty. Mr Kerry also called on Turkey and Israel to restore good relations without delay.
GERMANY - At first glance, Bernd Lucke seems an unlikely character to be causing sleepless nights for the high command of the European Union. Boyish-looking, softly-spoken and an economics professor, he is almost unheard of outside of his homeland, and far from a household name even within Germany.
ARGENTINA - Argentina's Navy is so poorly funded that only 14 of its 42 vessels are operational - and these can only sail for 10 days at a time. The news emerges just days after Argentine President Kristina de Kirchner met new Pope Francis I and pleaded with him to intervene in the Falklands dispute. Last year, while still Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he declared that the South Atlantic islands had been "usurped" by Britain. With seaborne assault out of the question, diplomatic pressure is now all she can hope for. Argentina is now struggling with 25 per cent inflation and owes many billions in foreign debts.
PORTUGAL - Portugal was teetering on the brink of a new political crisis after its high court blocked austerity plans presented in the 2013 budget, a move that threatened to derail its bailout commitments with European partners.
UK - Fears over a bird flu epidemic in China and the health of the US economy saw almost £24 billion wiped off the value of Britain’s top companies yesterday. The FTSE 100 was down 1.49 per cent after figures showed America created far fewer jobs in March than expected. The London market was 94 points lower at 6249, while on Wall Street the Dow Jones also weakened. Economic fears were compounded by nervousness about an outbreak of bird flu in China which has so far claimed six lives. A third day of falls has seen the FTSE shed £40 billion in value since Tuesday.
USA - On March 23, my colleague Mark Finkelstein noted how MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry considers the unborn child a "thing" which takes a "lot of money" to "turn into a human," costing thousands of dollars to care for each year of his/her life. Now it appears that Harris-Perry thinks that, after they're born, children fundamentally belong to the state.
UK - Vegetarian or vegan employees with deeply held beliefs should be allowed to exert their rights in the workplace by refusing to sit on leather chairs or clean out office fridges containing meat or dairy products, according to new guidance.
IRAN - Talks between world powers and Iran on its nuclear programme have ended without agreement, with the EU saying their positions "remain far apart". Over two days of talks in Almaty, Iran was asked to give up work on its most sensitive nuclear activities in return for an easing of sanctions. Iran said it was up to the world powers to demonstrate willingness to take confidence-building steps. World powers suspect Iran of a covert nuclear weapons programme.
JAPAN - The Bank of Japan unleashed the world's most intense burst of monetary stimulus on Thursday, promising to inject about $1.4 trillion into the economy in less than two years, a radical gamble that sent the yen reeling and bond yields to record lows.
AUSTRALIA - The cascade of WikiLeaks-style revelations shedding light on the often murky world of offshore tax havens began when Gerard Ryle received a mysterious letter in the post.
“Just what is an APOSTLE?”
Today we find the Church of God in a “wilderness of religious confusion!”
The confusion is not merely around the Church – within the religions of the world outside – but WITHIN the very heart of The True Church itself!
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