USA - Former presidential hopeful Rick Santorum said Wednesday that President Barack Obama is "directly assaulting" religious freedom and that his administration has implemented policies that force Catholics to abandon their faith."We have a president who, for the first time in American history, is directly assaulting the First Amendment and freedom of religion,” Santorum said. “He is going to tell you what to do in the practice of your faith. He is forcing business people right now to do things that are against their conscience, that they will have to – if you're a Catholic – you'll have to go to confession … to confess that you are complying with a government program that is a sin in the Catholic Church.”

UK - Genetically screening our offspring to make them better people is just 'responsible parenting', claims an eminent Oxford academic. Professor Julian Savulescu said that creating so-called designer babies could be considered a "moral obligation" as it makes them grow up into "ethically better children". The expert in practical ethics said that we should actively give parents the choice to screen out personality flaws in their children as it meant they were then less likely to "harm themselves and others".

USA - Army suicides hit a new single-month record in July, when 38 active-duty and reserve soldiers took their own lives, according to official figures released Thursday. The toll, up from 24 in June, prompted a wave of renewed anger and frustration among Pentagon leaders and veterans advocates. Army officials said 187 active-duty and reserve soldiers have committed suicide so far in 2012. Last year’s total was 283.

USA/SYRIA - The United States and its allies are discussing a worst-case scenario that could require tens of thousands of ground troops to go into Syria to secure chemical and biological weapons sites following the fall of President Bashar al-Assad's government, according to US and diplomatic officials. These secret discussions assume that all of Assad's security forces disintegrate, leaving chemical and biological weapons sites in Syria vulnerable to pillaging. Two diplomatic sources, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said as many as 50,000 or 60,000 ground forces may be needed if officials' worst fears are realized, plus additional support forces.

USA - The White House is "dusting off old plans" for a potential release of oil reserves to dampen rising gasoline prices and prevent high energy costs from undermining the success of Iran sanctions, a source with knowledge of the situation said on Thursday. US officials will monitor market conditions over the coming weeks, watching whether gasoline prices fall after the September 3 Labor Day holiday, as they historically do, the source said.

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations has called an end to its military observer mission in Syria, days before its mandate expired. A small, civilian office will be set up instead to maintain political contacts. "The conditions to continue [the mission] were not filled," France's UN ambassador Gerard Araud said after a Security Council meeting. The UN mission had been part of envoy Kofi Annan's six-point peace plan. But continued violence made the observers' mission increasingly difficult.

SOUTH AFRICA - 34 people were killed when police clashed with striking miners at South Africa's Marikana mine on Thursday, the police minister has said. According to witnesses, police opened fire on strikers armed mostly with clubs and machetes. The Lonmin owned platinum mine has been at the centre of a violent pay dispute, exacerbated by tensions between two rival trade unions. Violence during the strike had already killed 10 people. The incident is one of the bloodiest police operations since the end of the apartheid in South Africa.

USA - While the pro-life women’s group Susan B Anthony List conducts its own bus tour, the abortion company Planned Parenthood will head out on the road as well in a bus tour covering 11 states. The tour will promote abortion and pro-abortion President Barack Obama.

PAKISTAN - A team of Taliban militants attacked a Pakistani air force base with suspected links to the country’s nuclear program before dawn Thursday, killing a security official in a heavy battle that ended with nine insurgents dead and parts of the base in flames, officials said.

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - MK Aryeh Eldad (Ichud Leumi) believes he has found a way for Israel to give Jews the freedom to pray at their holiest site, while avoiding Muslim violence. Jews should be granted certain times to ascend to the Temple Mount and pray, he said.

TEMPLE MOUNT, JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - A Palestinian flag is now flying on the Temple Mount, the most holy site on earth, where the First and Second Temples stood and the Holy of Holies was. Piece after piece of Eretz Israel is becoming a symbol of Arab nationalistic achievements.

ISRAEL - What will an Israeli strike on Iran look like? American blogger Richard Silverstein on Wednesday published what he claimed is an Israeli briefing document outlining Israel’s war plans against Iran. Silverstein, who authors the blog “Tikun Olam”, said the document was passed to him by a high-level Israeli source who received it from an IDF officer.

USA - New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has sent subpoenas to a number of major banks as part of his office's probe into the manipulation of Libor, the world's benchmark interest rate, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation. Barclays (BCS), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), Deutsche Bank (DB), HSBC (HBC), JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and UBS (UBS) have all received subpoenas, according to the source. The subpoenas are yet another sign that investigators are pushing forward with their probe into how banks allegedly manipulated this key interest rate.

IRAN - Israel will be obliterated by chemical, microbial and nuclear bombs, Iran is warning, but those weapons of mass destruction will be used first on Tel Aviv by Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad at the start of a decades-old Muslim dream of destroying the Jewish state. An alarming commentary last week in Mashregh, the media outlet of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, confirmed that the Islamic regime not only has WMDs but has armed its terrorist proxies with them. Mashregh speaks for the regime.

INDIA - India plans to launch a space probe that will orbit Mars, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh confirmed on Wednesday after press reports that the mission was scheduled to begin late next year. The project would mark another step in the country's ambitious space programme, which placed a probe on the moon three years ago and envisages its first manned mission in 2016. The United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and China have all sent missions to Mars.