MIDDLE EAST - The Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza on Sunday called for an escalation of terror attacks on Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria as an "expression of support" for the war on Israel being waged from Gaza. Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum told the Palestinian Arab Safa news agency that such terror attacks serve to wear down the "occupation" and press Israel to end the "aggression" in Gaza, by forcing it to open the blockade and submit to Hamas's demands.

TEMPLE MOUNT, ISRAEL - Deputy speaker of the Israeli Knesset Moshe Feiglin on Sunday morning toured the holy Al-Aqsa mosque compound under heavy escort by Israeli special forces. A Ma'an reporter in Jerusalem said that Israeli police closed most of the main gates of the compound, denying all Palestinian women and men under 50 access to the holy place, as the right-wing Israeli politician entered from the Moroccan Gate. Witnesses said Feiglin along with a group of right-wing Israeli Jews and a cameraman toured the compound before they left through the Chain Gate, adding that Feiglin had performed religious rituals beside the Dome of the Rock Mosque. Witnesses highlighted that Feiglin and his group toured the compound barefoot, apparently out of respect for the foundations of the Jewish temple they believe lies underneath the area.

IRAN - Iran’s President, Hassan Rouhani, made clear on Sunday that Tehran will reject any restraints on its nuclear operations outside the international rules set by the industry watchdog. "We will only accept the legal controls of the IAEA within the framework of the Non-Proliferation Treaty," he said during a visit by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano, according to AFP. "Any monitoring beyond those rules would be a precedent, against the interests of all developing countries," Rouhani said. Amano made a one-day visit to Tehran ahead of an August 25 deadline for Iran to answer decade-old allegations of past nuclear weapons research. Iran seems to have toughened its positions in negotiations with the West. Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, recently said Iran "needs" 19 times more nuclear centrifuges than the amount being offered by world powers.

USA - Billionaire investor George Soros has increased his financial bet that US stocks will collapse to more than $2 billion. The legendary hedge fund manager has been raising his negative bet on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index since late last year. The chairman of Soros Fund Management lifted his position to 11.3 million put options on the S&P 500 ETF (SPY), boosting the short position from 2.96 percent to 16.65 percent. The dollar value of the position soared to $2.2 billion from around $299 million. At 16.65 percent, that position is the biggest slice of the Soros firm's portfolio. Many experts see such a put position as a wager that the price of the stock market (in this case the S&P 500) will tumble. In September 1992, Soros made at least $2 billion on his shorting of the English pound forced the Bank of England to devalue the currency and leave the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM).

USA - Violence continues in Ferguson, Missouri. It began on August 9 with the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American teenager cut down by a white cop’s bullets. Peaceful demonstrations turned into looting, the local police went in with rubber bullets and tear gas, all hell broke loose and, eventually, Missouri’s governor pulled out the local police and sent in state officers instead. But the rioting only paused; it didn’t cease. And it may continue. That’s probably because it’s driven by a deep, deep anger that will take a long time to calm.

USA - Media magnate Rupert Murdoch warns that America will face more situations like the protests and riots in Ferguson, Missouri, unless moves are made to increase employment and improve educational opportunities. Protests have been underway since 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot to death by a police officer on August 9. The unarmed black teenager was shot by a white officer, Darren Wilson, a six-year veteran of the Ferguson Police Department. The major criticism of the department during ensuing peaceful protests and some rioting has been how the department quickly deployed what looked more like a war-zone occupation than traditional police presence.

USA - Los Angeles is showing its age, and city officials don’t have plans for financing the facelift. From buckling sidewalks to potholed thoroughfares to storm drains that can’t handle a little rain, the infrastructure that holds the second-largest US city together is suffering from years of deferred maintenance. Bringing pipes that deliver water to 3.9 million people up to snuff could cost $4 billion -- more than half the city’s annual operating budget. The bill for repaving streets will be almost that much, according to estimates from a city consultant, and patching or replacing cracked sidewalks will require $640 million.

IRAQ - Kurdish forces in northern Iraq are in near complete control of Iraq's largest dam after ousting Islamic State (IS) militants, Kurdish officials say. Ground forces supported by US air strikes launched the operation to take Mosul dam on Sunday morning. Kurdish sources said they were still trying to clear mines and booby traps from the area round the dam, a process which could take several hours. The strategically important facility was seized by IS militants on 7 August. It supplies water and electricity to northern Iraq and there had been fears the IS militants could use it to flood areas downstream.

SPAIN - Spain's public debt has topped one trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) for the first time, the central bank announced Thursday, despite years of government-imposed austerity. The nation's accumulated public debt mushroomed to 1.007 trillion euros at the end of June from 996 billion euros a month earlier, the Bank of Spain said in a report. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government has struggled to contain annual deficits by raising taxes, freezing public salaries and curbing spending on services such as education and health care despite angry street protests. Though the annual deficits are on the decline, they continue to push up the sovereign debt of the eurozone's fourth-largest economy.

WEST AFRICA - There is evidence the numbers of dead and sickened by Ebola in West Africa may "vastly underestimate the magnitude of the outbreak," the World Health Organization said Thursday. The UN health agency said it was prepared for the crisis to continue for months. With more than 1,060 deaths and 1,975 sickened, the Ebola outbreak is already the deadliest ever. Liberian officials faced a difficult choice Thursday: deciding which handful of Ebola patients will receive an experimental drug that could prove life-saving, ineffective or even harmful.

UK - The physical gold market (dealing in wholesale bullion delivery) is tiny in relation to its paper-based cousins (futures, options, leveraged trades, collateralised obligations, ETFs, etc). In fact, it’s estimated that the paper gold market – which should be a derivative of the physical market – is actually some 100 times larger than the physical market – ie, if everyone holding paper gold ‘stood for delivery’ at the same time, it would be impossible for every party to fulfil their obligations.

USA - A fabricated report was spread by the UK Guardian newspaper and BBC that a Russian armored convoy entered Ukraine and was destroyed by the Ukrainian military. The German media including Die Welt picked up the false report and spread the hysteria. Once again we have confirmation that the Western media is corrupt and unreliable.

USA - The events in Ferguson, Missouri this week are an uncomfortable reminder of the militarization of America's small town law enforcement agencies. The photos coming out of the town - of heavily armed officers in full combat gear squaring off against unarmed protesters - look like images we're used to seeing from places like Gaza, Turkey, or Egypt, not from a midwestern suburb of 21,000 people.

EUROPE - German bond yields plummeted to record lows and stock markets sold off across the world after Ukraine and Russia came to the brink of war, threatening to set off a financial shock and push Europe into deep recession. Flight to safety sent yields on German 10-year Bunds tumbling to 0.97 percent after Ukraine said its artillery had destroyed a “significant” part of a Russian armoured column that crossed the border into the Donbass. Yields on two-year notes turned sharply negative, implying that large investors are willing to pay the German state to look after their money.

UK - Out of 162 countries, 151 of the world's nations are currently involved in some form of conflict. Even more depressingly, the study from the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) shows that the world has been getting progressively less peaceful since 2007. Although the UK has managed to stay relatively free from internal conflict, the country only ranks 47th in this year's Global Peace Index.This is due to fighting in countries such as Afghanistan, as well as a fairly high level of militarisation.