JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - Israel should have hit Iran’s nuclear program already, says longtime activist Dr Joseph Frager, speaking to Arutz Sheva. Now that the ideal time has passed, Israel’s best chance is to strike before the US elections, he said. “This is the time when [Mr] Obama really can’t apply too much pressure back,” he explained. US officials have sought to reassure Israel in recent weeks, emphasizing their inside knowledge of Iran’s nuclear program and stating that America will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.

USA - The money the US government owes to foreign entities rose to a record $5.2923 trillion in June, according to data released by the US Treasury Wednesday afternoon. In May, the US Treasury had owed $5.2581 trillion to foreign entities. On net, in June, the US government borrowed an additional $34.2 billion from foreign entities in order to fund US government operations. The US government’s indebtedness to foreign interests has grown by 72.3 percent during President Barack Obama’s term in office.

SAUDI ARABIA - There was little unity on display at an Islamic summit in Mecca earlier this week when the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation suspended Syria despite Iran's objections. Speaking at the emergency summit, Ahmadinejad said Western powers could never be a role model for the Islamic world. "Freedom and democracy will not come from the barrels of NATO guns and the interference of Western nations," he said. Shi'ite Iran has watched in dismay as rebels drawn mainly from Syria's Sunni Muslim majority try to oust Assad, whose country has been a vital part of Iran's "axis of resistance" against Israel, Sunni-ruled Arab states and the West.

AFRICA - It's a reference to the fact that some metals used to make smartphones and other electronic gadgets are sourced from war-torn areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Experts say these "conflict minerals" help fuel one of the world's deadliest conflicts. An estimated 5.4 million people have died there from war-related causes, including disease and malnutrition, since 1998, according to the International Rescue Committee.

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.