Using porous borders with Chad, Niger and Cameroon in the desolate scrubland around Lake Chad, they are smuggling bigger weapons, staging cross-border raids, killing and kidnapping in an escalation of violence that could further draw Nigeria's neighbors into its counter-insurgency fight, security officials say.

The Islamists now control at least 10 of the 27 local council areas in Borno state, Nigeria's most remote Northeastern region on the edge of the Sahara and a relic of one of Africa's oldest medieval Islamic empires, security sources there say. One says the real figure could be closer to 20, as local councillors fearing assassination have fled, leaving a power vacuum filled by bearded radicals with automatic rifles.

Boko Haram's struggle for an Islamic state has killed thousands since 2009 and is the main threat to Africa's top oil producer, although its fighters have so far not struck anywhere near the southern oil fields. In the meantime, Boko Haram's efforts to revive an Islamist theocracy in northeast Nigeria will cause more bloodshed yet.

Buried in the more than 800 pages of the bipartisan legislation is language mandating the creation of the innocuously-named “photo tool,” a massive federal database administered by the Department of Homeland Security and containing names, ages, Social Security numbers and photographs of everyone in the country with a driver’s license or other state-issued photo ID.

Employers would be obliged to look up every new hire in the database to verify that they match their photo. David Bier, an analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, agrees with the ACLU’s fears. “The most worrying aspect is that this creates a principle of permission basically to do certain activities and it can be used to restrict activities,” he said. “It’s like a national ID system without the card.”

Mr Johnson, the Mayor of London, said leaving the European Union would not be as “cataclysmic” as some people have predicted. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Johnson said: “My position is that I think the Prime Minister is completely right. What we need to do is to say to our friends and partners, ‘Listen chums, this thing isn’t working for either of us – your eurozone is causing all sorts of misery’.”

David Cameron is under pressure from backbench MPs to call a vote in the Commons before the 2015 election on a Bill allowing a referendum on EU membership. In an unprecedented move Mr Cameron yesterday indicated that he will allow Tory ministers to condemn the Queen’s Speech formally in Parliament because of its failure to legislate for an EU referendum.

Mr Johnson said that the UK needs to renegotiate its position with the EU. “We need a renegotiation,” he said. “We need to look at the way the thing is managed. We should be prepared to pull out. That goes without saying. You can’t go in to a negotiation like that without being willing to walk away.”

Speaking at the annual military parade, President Vladimir Putin claimed that Russia was the guarantor of world security. His short speech came at the culmination of the Victory Day parade which marks the defeat of Nazi Germany 68 years ago. It is Russia's most important secular holiday, honouring the huge military and civilian losses of World War II and showing off the country's modern arsenal.

Mr Putin told 11,000 servicemen standing in tight formation on the square and the war veterans in the spectator stands that "we'll do everything, everything in order that no one ever dare unleash [war] again. They will not threaten our children, our home, our land. We'll do everything to enforce safety on this earth," he said.

The Soviet Union lost an estimated 26 million people in the war, including 8.5 million soldiers.

The continuing mass death of honeybees, known scientifically as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and a “pollinator crisis,”could well strain production of over 100 crops in the US including apples, zucchinis, avocados and plums. The agriculture value of these products is estimated at over $200 billion globally per year.

In late April, the European Union voted to enact a two-year moratorium on the use of neonicotinoid pesticides (sulfoxaflor is considered by many to be a "fourth-generation neonicotinoid") in light of scientific studies that indicate their harm to bees.

Groups such as the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) have praised the continent-wide ban. “The EU vote comes after significant findings by the European Food Safety Agency that these pesticides pose an unacceptable risk to bees and their use should be restricted. Along with habitat loss and pathogens, a growing body of science points to neonicotinoid pesticides as a key factor in drastically declining bee populations,” said a statement by PAN.

On Friday at the Western Wall, several hundred female Jewish worshipers known as “Women of the Wall’’ were targeted by rock and bottle throwing from a crowd of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jewish demonstrators outraged by their use of prayer shawls and phylacteries traditionally restricted to men.

The image at the Western Wall evoked scenes of civil rights struggles from the 1960s. Some 500 Israeli police officers on hand formed a human barrier between the women worshipers and the surging crush of demonstrators, who taunted the women and blew whistles to drown out the worship.

The dispute could widen an already existing gap over Israeli policies toward the Palestinians between the more liberal Jewish community in North America and Israeli Jewry, said Yossi Klein Halevi, a fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.

“That is what makes this such a dangerous moment,’’ he said. “This is turning into an increasingly ugly confrontation between streams of Judaism. The Western Wall, which is supposed to unite Jews, is increasingly dividing us.’’

As ministers and central bankers met on Friday in a stately home set in rolling countryside 40 miles outside London, differences were also evident over whether to prioritize debt-cutting or promoting economic growth.

US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said Japan had "growth issues" that needed to be dealt with, but that its attempts to stimulate its economy needed to stay within the bounds of international agreements to avoid competitive devaluations. "I'm just going to refer back to the ground rules and the fact that we've made clear that we'll keep an eye on that," Lew told the CNBC business news channel.

Many militias are still intact, with no central command structure, and with some waging fierce battles against others. These conditions are not in Germany's economic and security policy interests. In fact, not only are there anti-western Islamist militias operating on Libyan territory, who have extended their range of activities to Northern Mali and Algeria, constituting a long term threat to western hegemony over the area.

The country has, at the same time, resumed being Germany's largest non-European oil supplier, and thereby, taken on a prominent significance in Germany's energy policy. The BASF subsidiary Wintershall, with headquarters in Kassel, produces a major portion of its oil in Libya, and is interested in taking over RWE Dea, also active in Libya. Battles between rival militias caused an interruption of Wintershall's production already last year.

The SWP (Berlin's Institute for International and Security Affairs) considers that "both the risks of long-term destabilization, as well as the opportunities, opened by a consolidated Libya," would be "reason" for comprehensive German activities in this North African country.

The fact that the visits were timed so the two leaders would not meet — Mr Abbas left Beijing on Tuesday, and Mr Netanyahu arrived Wednesday after a swing through Shanghai — signaled that neither they nor Xi Jinping, China’s leader, were ready for actual talks. But Mr Xi did present a four-point peace proposal to Mr Abbas, which, though it did not contain any breakthrough ideas, hinted that China had given some thought to playing a more energetic, if very limited, role as mediator in one of the world’s most protracted conflicts.

“As China’s economy, national strength and international status grow, Arab countries are looking more to China,” said Guo Xiangang, a vice president of the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing who follows China’s relations with Middle Eastern nations. “The expectations they place on China are growing.”

In their meeting on Wednesday afternoon, Prime Minister Li Keqiang of China told Mr Netanyahu that “the Palestinian issue is a core issue affecting the peace and stability of the Middle East, and a peaceful solution reached through dialogue and negotiations is the only effective answer,” according to Xinhua, the state news agency. “As a friend of both Israel and the Palestinians, China has always maintained an objective and fair stance, and is willing to strive together with all sides to actively advance the Middle East peace process,” Mr Li said.

The decision by the cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel came a day after Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, indicated that he supported moving ahead with efforts to create a banking union, despite Germany’s official stance that the step would ultimately require changes to European treaties.

The legislation, which awaits action by the German Parliament, would grant the ECB the authority to oversee the Continent’s largest lenders: those worth more than €30 billion, or $39.5 billion, or the three largest banks in each of the 17 European Union countries using the euro. While the German cabinet’s decision moves a banking union a step closer to becoming reality, it does not resolve arguments over how to unwind failing banks, one of the problems a banking union would address.

German officials, in particular, have been viewed as dragging their feet in arguing that establishing a sound, lasting bank supervision authority was more important than speed. Mr Schäuble has said that creating a mechanism would require changes to EU treaties, a process that could slow the effort considerably. Martin Kotthaus, a spokesman for Mr Schäuble, said Wednesday: “For a new central authority, we would need treaty change because there is no enabling power for such an authority.”

"We're concerned about the recent tensions surrounding the Temple Mount, Haram al-Sharif, including the detention today of the Grand Mufti," State Department deputy spokesman Patrick Ventrell, told reporters, according to AFP, using the Muslim name for the Temple Mount. "We understand that he was released," he said. "But we urge all sides to respect the status quo of this holy site and to exercise restraint and refrain from provocative actions."

Earlier Wednesday, Israeli police questioned and released Jerusalem's most senior Muslim cleric for suspected involvement in throwing chairs at a group of Jews on the Temple Mount. In response to the incident, Jordan MPs unanimously demanded that the government expel Israeli Ambassador Daniel Nevo.

After Israel liberated the Temple Mount during the 1967 Six Day War, it left the Waqf in charge of the compound. The Waqf, in return, has removed every sign of ancient Jewish presence at the Jewish holy site and has consistently destroyed Jewish antiquities on the Temple Mount in a direct violation of a ruling by the Supreme Court.

Assurances aside, the crew's failings appear unusually worrisome given its assignment: manning a nuclear missile base and being prepared at a moment's notice to launch a Minuteman 3 if ordered by the president. An investigation had revealed a force in disarray and resulted in the unprecedented removal of 17 launch officers from their duty at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, The Associated Press found.

Weapons safety rules were being violated and codes for the Air Force's most powerful nuclear missiles may have been compromised, among other failings cited in a report. Even the orders of superiors were being questioned, and they were not being shown the proper respect.

"We are, in fact, in a crisis right now," Lieutenant Colonel Jay Folds, deputy commander of the 91st Operations Group, told subordinates in an email obtained by the AP. The group is responsible for all Minuteman 3 missile launch crews at Minot.

Furthermore, it brands our government as unreliable and untruthful. Henceforth, diplomats and soldiers everywhere should beware of the “Benghazi Bus”, which could run over them at any inconvenient time. Getting Benghazied may even become a new verb in diplomatic language. Today’s live testimony of the “Benghazi Whistle blowers” before the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee could provide the testimony that takes down the Obama Administration.

The question is, will Congress have the guts to impeach the public officials who were responsible for the disaster and the subsequent coverup. Had the real facts been quickly known about the Benghazi attacks and how the Administration threw the Ambassador and others under the bus, the November 2012 elections would have gone badly for the Democrats. This additional pressure to cover up automatically became cover-up-at-all-costs.

Will all the facts ever be revealed?

Amid growing concerns over St Louis, Missouri-based Monsanto and the impact the company is having on agriculture, activists have planned rallies for later this month in 36 countries. Monsanto, a titan of the emerging biotech industry, has come under attack from environmentalists, agriculturalists and average consumers over the company’s conduct in the realm of genetically-modified organisms and genetically-engineered foods.

But even as the anti-Monsanto movement increases in intensity, the company itself continues to generate record-setting profits. In April the company announced a 22 percent increase in net profits, and representatives for the companies said they expect to see that trend continue.