Last Friday the subject was addressed in a forum made up by the president of the General Assembly of the United Nations, Nassir Adulaziz al-Nasser, the Italian minister for foreign affairs, Giulio Terzi, and the president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran. Al-Nasser expressed his concern over the numerous violations of religious liberty in many parts of the world and he promised that the United Nations would continue to monitor what is going on.

One of those taking part is the archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, and he spoke to Vatican Radio about it. The topic to be discussed this year at what is known as the “Ratzinger Summer School” is ecumenism. In particular it will address relations between Catholics, Lutherans and Anglicans, with reference to a book entitled "Harvesting the fruits", published in 2009 by Cardinal Walter Kasper, President-emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

The Lutheran Bishop Emeritus Ulrich Wilkens, a famous exegete, will discuss the development of ecumenism between Catholics and Lutherans, said Cardinal Schönborn. While the subject of the Anglicans will be addressed by Bishop Charles Morereau, the new bishop of Geneva, Lausanne and Fribourg. Cardinal Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, will also be present, and Cardinal Schönborn said that the fact that the [Pope] has chosen this theme for the meeting this year is a sign that the ecumenical question is of primary importance for him.

“With the [Pope], we expect a dialogue in truth and charity: In the truth that does not conceal the drama of division among Christians in Europe and, as a consequence, all over the world, but also the great issue of what is the reform of the Church, a theme of utmost importance to the [Pope],” Cardinal Schönborn told Vatican Radio.

“The Pope first and foremost is a man of reflection, what matters is the subject and the search for truth,” he said. “I think that this climate of searching for the truth - the historical, and philosophical and theological truth - has remained unchanged, but there is also a hint of friendship,” Cardinal Schönborn said.

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev last week immediately pardoned Ramil Safarov after he was extradited from Hungary, where he had been serving a life sentence for the 2004 killing. Safarov was also promoted to the rank of major, given a house and eight years' worth of back-pay after returning home to a hero's welcome, in defiance of assurances from Baku to Budapest that he would serve out his term in Azerbaijan.

Safarov hacked Armenian officer Gurgen Margarian to death at a military academy in Budapest where the servicemen were attending English-language courses organised by NATO. His lawyers claimed in court that he was traumatised because some of his relatives had been killed during Azerbaijan's war with Armenia, and alleged that Margarian had insulted his country.

Armenia and Azerbaijan are locked in a long-running conflict over the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh, where they fought a war in the 1990s. Armenia-backed separatists seized Nagorny Karabakh from Azerbaijan in the war that left some 30,000 people dead. The two sides have not signed a final peace deal since the 1994 ceasefire and there are still regular firefights along the front line. Analysts warn the frozen conflict risks slipping again into full-scale war.

And that is just for starters. We feed them insane amounts of sugar and high fructose corn syrup and then when they become overactive we pump them full of prescription drugs to calm them down. Instead of raising our children ourselves, we allow the government schools and the entertainment industry to do it. By the time they reach the age of 18, they have spent far more time with their teachers, their video games and the television than they have spent with us.

Our young people are #1 in a lot of global categories, but almost all of them are bad. Young people in the United States are more obese than anyone else in the world, more sexually active than anyone else in the world and they become pregnant more often than anyone else in the world. Of course it probably doesn’t help that we have the highest divorce rate in the world either.

Our families are a complete and total mess and it is our kids that are paying the price. On top of everything else, we have accumulated a 16 trillion dollar debt which we will be handing down to the next generation. I am sure that they will appreciate that.

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“The report is false and completely incorrect,” said Carney. “And we don't talk about hypotheticals,” he added. In the report, the newspaper had claimed the White House sent a secret message to Tehran through two unidentified European intermediaries, saying the US would not get involved if Israel decided to attack Iran's nuclear plants.

In return, the US asked that Iran avoid attacking American installations in the Persian Gulf region in any retaliatory action it might take against Israel, the newspaper reported. No source for the information was disclosed.

In an address to discuss the possibility of an attack on Israel in the event of a regional conflict, Nasrallah said Hizbullah had identified Israel's vulnerabilities. "We understand the weaknesses of Israel, its main economic and industrial sites, its chemical and nuclear installations,” Nasrallah told the gathering.

"If they do not have any limits, we will not have any either,” he warned, adding in an interview a few hours later with Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen television, “If Israel targets Iran, America bears responsibility.” He added that according to Iranian officials, if Israel were to attack Iran, “the response will not be just inside the Israeli entity; American bases in the entire region could become Iranian targets.”

It was just such a scenario that the United States allegedly attempted to avoid by proposing a secret deal with Tehran. The alleged proposal, officially and firmly denied by the White House, involved a “hands off” approach by the US if Israel were to attack Iranian nuclear installations, in exchange for a similar policy by Tehran towards US military installations in the Persian Gulf.

The German government on Monday reaffirmed its commitment to Israel after media reports said relations between the two countries had been damaged by an unconfirmed deal to supply Egypt with two German-made submarines. A German government spokesman declined to comment on an article which appeared in the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram last Friday and cited the commander-in-chief of the Egyptian navy, Osama al-Gindi, as saying: "We have agreed to a deal with Germany to procure two submarines of the latest 209 Class."

On Monday, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman said only: "There has been no change in the German government's position towards Israel, in the commitment the German government feels towards Israel's security." But he declined to comment on the supposed deal, saying the government maintained secrecy concerning matters dealt with by the Federal Security Council, a government committee that decides on sensitive weapons export deals.

Israeli newspaper Jediot Achronot reported on Sunday that ties between Israel and Germany had dramatically deteriorated because of the deal. The Israeli government declined to comment on Monday. Class 209 submarines are built by the companies HDW and Nordseewerke. Germany has sold some 60 of those vessels to 12 nations.

The stack of paper is thicker than a brick and heavier than the Berlin phone book. It contains 3,051 exhibits and 1,147 pages of classified information. These pages could soon form the basis for a decision to make a new attempt to ban Germany's far-right National Democratic Party (NPD). Only a little over a week ago, on August 28, German President Joachim Gauck urged such bold action against neo-Nazis during his speech to mark the 20th anniversary of racist riots in the northeastern city of Rostock. [Mr] Gauck spoke of a state that "is able to defend itself."

Now, this dossier, which has been in its final version since late last week, is supposed to be the weapon in that fight. It is the weapon of a democracy that defends itself against its enemies - a democracy that is vigilant and alert, not frail and weak.

Bavarian Governor Horst Seehofer, who heads the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), wants to deploy this weapon at all costs. He is determined to show decisiveness in the fight against right-wing extremism, and thus add momentum to his campaign ahead of the Bavarian state election in the fall of 2013 - "if necessary, single-handedly," as he says.

By contrast, his fellow party member, Hans-Peter Friedrich, who bears responsibility for the initiative as German interior minister, is afraid that the bid to ban the NPD will be rejected by the German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, as happened with a previous attempt to ban the party in 2003. Typically, German Chancellor Angela Merkel remains noncommittal. She is merely observing.

Exports are a major pillar of the German economy, but now the sector is starting to feel the impact of the euro crisis and the global economc slowdown. German export orders fell in August by the highest rate in more than three years, the Markit financial information company announced Monday after conducting a survey of 500 industrial firms.

"Survey respondents commented on a general slowdown in global demand and particular weakness in new business inflows from Southern Europe," the institute said. The firms hardest hit by declines are manufacturers of machinery and other investment goods as well as producers of intermediate goods such as chemicals. In the first half of 2012, German exports had still grown thanks to demand from Japan, the United States and Russia. But it was already evident then that exports to crisis-hit countries were falling sharply, and that trend is now continuing.

Markit economist Tim Moore said the German industrial sector is going through its worst quarter - the three months to the end of September - in more than three years. "The new orders figures are especially disappointing, with export work dropping at the fastest pace since April 2009 amid an ongoing deterioration in global demand," he said in a statement.

Following General Martin Dempsey's statement that "I don’t want to be complicit" if Israel chooses to attack Iran, the Journal writes acidly: ”We don’t know what exactly General Dempsey thinks American non-complicity might entail in the event of a strike. Should the Administration refuse to resupply Israel with jets and bombs, or condemn an Israeli strike at the UN? Nor do we know if the General was conducting freelance diplomacy or sending a signal from an Administration that feels the same way but doesn’t want to say so during a political season."

The editorial sides with Israel, and says it's no wonder the Israelis are upset at the US Administration. "It’s one thing to hear from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that he wants to wipe you off the map: At least it has the ring of honesty. It’s quite another to hear from President Obama that he has your back, even as his Administration tries to sell to the public a make-believe world in which Iran’s nuclear intentions are potentially peaceful, sanctions are working and diplomacy hasn’t failed after three and half years."

"The irony for the Administration is that its head-in-the-sand performance is why many Israeli decision-makers believe they had better strike sooner than later. Not only is there waning confidence that Mr Obama is prepared to take military action on his own, but there’s also a fear that a re-elected President Obama will take a much harsher line on an Israeli attack than he would before the first Tuesday in November ".

The Obama Administration should be making an effort to show Israel that it takes the Iranian threat seriously, the newspaper opines. Instead, it is doing the opposite. "Since coming to office, Obama Administration policy toward Israel has alternated between animus and incompetence. We don’t know what motivated General Dempsey’s outburst, but a President who really had Israel’s back would publicly contradict it." As Arutz Sheva noted, General Dempsey's statement means, in essence, that the US does not "have Israel's back," in contradiction to the pledge made by [Mr] Obama earlier in the year.

In addition to increasing US naval activity in the region, Washington is also preparing to intensify economic sanctions against Iran’s oil industry, the New York Times reported. The US – along with 25 other countries – will conduct extensive joint minesweeping exercises in the Persian Gulf in October. The move aims to increase pressure on Iran and prevent it from closing the Strait of Hormuz.

“It will not be the case that the south will get the so-called wealthy states to pay. Because then Europe would fall apart.” Thus spoke Horst Köhler, former German president, finance secretary and IMF head, almost two decades ago.

[Mr] Köhler’s remarks are worth pondering. A series of multi-billion-euro bail-outs – and more to come – have now planted a north-south political divide at the heart of the European project. Taxpayers in Europe’s north resent underwriting their southern neighbours, while voters in the south are equally frustrated at having austerity imposed upon them from abroad. As has been noted repeatedly, this is the greatest tragedy of this crisis: a project that was meant to bring people together, now risks driving them further apart. Alas, events in the eurozone this autumn could further exacerbate this tension.

There are at least five key stand-offs to watch over the next few months:

Greece v Germany: Greece managed narrowly to escape running out of money today by raising almost 4 billion euros in short-term debt. But Athens will face an excruciating autumn. On almost every count, Greece is miles away from meeting its EU-mandated austerity targets, which raises the question of whether Germany – or the IMF – will pull the plug on the country in October when its next progress report is due.

Spain v the North: Amid continued problems, Spain could possibly request EU cash as early as September. But the country is simply too big for a Greece-style bail-out, while Madrid would not accept having its economic policies fully decided in Brussels and Berlin. Instead a third way must be found involving less money and softer conditions, probably with heavy and controversial ECB involvement.

The bail-out funds v national democracy: On September 12, Germany’s constitutional court will rule on whether the eurozone’s permanent bail-out fund – the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) – is compatible with the country’s “basic law’, following a host of complaints. Though unlikely, should it strike it down, the markets will go absolutely crazy.

The Dutch v Europe: September 12 will also see another example of national democracy reasserting itself: the Dutch elections. Geert Wilders, leader of the super-populist PVV, is seeking to turn the campaign into a referendum on Europe, hoping to tap into the Dutch anti-bail-out mood. At the same time, the Dutch socialists – currently leading in the polls – have vowed to resist both the EU fiscal treaty and further transfers of power to the EU without approval in referendums.

Germany v France: This autumn will also see negotiations over whether the eurozone will take the next big leap towards an economic union, with an October EU summit tasked with providing a “road map” for more integration. Ideas include a banking union (with a single supervisor and joint backstop) and collective government borrowing in the form of eurobonds. The issues are tremendously complicated, subject to a cobweb of disagreements and will take years to clear away. But importantly, this could widen the gap between Germany and France, with the two disagreeing fundamentally on the order of events.