MIDDLE EAST - Islamist insurgents have issued an ultimatum to northern Iraq's dwindling Christian population to either convert to Islam, pay a religious levy or face death, according to a statement distributed in the militant-controlled city of Mosul. The statement issued by the Islamic State, the al Qaeda offshoot which led last month's lightning assault to capture swathes of north Iraq, and seen by Reuters, said the ruling would come into effect on Saturday. It said Christians who wanted to remain in the "caliphate" that the Islamic State declared this month in parts of Iraq and Syria must agree to abide by terms of a "dhimma" contract - a historic practice under which non-Muslims were protected in Muslim lands in return for a special levy known as "jizya". "We offer them three choices: Islam; the dhimma contract - involving payment of jizya; if they refuse this they will have nothing but the sword," the announcement said.

UKRAINE - Western countries have demanded that Russia put pressure on Ukrainian rebels to allow unhindered access to the site of Thursday's Malaysia Airlines crash. Dutch PM Mark Rutte said he had told Russian President Vladimir Putin that time was "running out" to show he could help. Most crash victims were Dutch. The US and Britain also told Russia full access to the area was needed. International observers have had their movements restricted by pro-Russia militiamen who control the crash site. Ukraine has accused militiamen at the site of the Malaysia Airlines crash of trying to destroy evidence of an "international crime".

MIDDLE EAST - Some 20 rockets were found Wednesday in a school in Gaza operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the organization confirmed Thursday. The weapons were found in “the course of the regular inspection of its premises,” UNRWA said in a statement, adding that the school was vacant. “UNRWA strongly condemns the group or groups responsible for placing the weapons in one of its installations. This is a flagrant violation of the inviolability of its premises under international law,” the statement read. The discovery would seem to confirm Israel’s oft-repeated claim that Hamas and other Gazan terror groups use civilian infrastructure to hide weapons.

EUROPE - Mario Draghi’s newest stimulus tool will hand banks more than 700 billion euros ($950 billion) of cheap funding, economists say. The European Central Bank president’s targeted lending program for banks will boost credit for the real economy as planned, and at the same time help keep the financial system flush with cash, according to the Bloomberg Monthly Survey of 45 economists. Draghi highlighted the measure in testimony to lawmakers today in Strasbourg, saying that it has “strong incentives” built in to spur lending. The ECB has identified loans to companies and households as a key weakness in the euro area’s fragile recovery. The so-called TLTRO program, part of a wider package of measures announced in June, offers as much as four years of low-cost funding tied to bank lending that Draghi said this month could ultimately provide as much as 1 trillion euros.

UK - Thought the future was going to be all flying cars and space elevators? You might also have to take into account acute water shortages, unprecedented natural disasters, and disease-spreading insect-machine hybrids. Those are all part of the vision of the future presented in a think tank report published by the UK’s Ministry of Defence. The “Global Strategic Trends Out to 2045” report sets out a future context for defence and security. And wow, is it a bit grim. In a video intro, a creepily hypnotic and emotionless voice lists some of the major changes we can expect to see: an increase in population of three billion, scarcity of resources, increased vulnerability of overpopulated cities, and so forth. “Inequality will endure, and the world will remain fraught with conflict and complexity,” the voice says, and animations map imagined disasters across the globe. It certainly shows the less shiny side of the future.

USA - The highly-regarded Pew Research Center on Wednesday published the results of a survey on how Americans feel about different religious groups. It found that the most popular religious group in America is … the Jews. A mammoth, nationally representative sample of 3,217 Americans – which would include only about 2 percent Jewish respondents – gave Jews a 63 rating out of a possible 100. Second were the Catholics, with a 62. Out of the eight religious groups rated, including atheists – who are notoriously disliked in America – Muslims finished last with a rating of 40, lower than the atheists' 41.

USA - A wildfire raging east of Washington state's Cascade Mountains has destroyed about 100 homes and displaced hundreds of people, an emergency official said on Saturday, with cooler weather not expected to provide relief for another day. The four-blaze Carlton Complex fire destroyed homes in and around the town of Pateros, about 120 miles (193 kms) northeast of Seattle, said Mark Clemens, a spokesman for the Washington Emergency Management Division. The town's 650 people were under mandatory evacuation orders, though some began returning on Friday to survey the charred remains of their homes and belongings. The fire is among more than two dozen burning from southern California to Idaho as drought-parched Western states enter their annual fire season.

USA - More than 80% of California is now in an extreme drought, according to new data by the National Weather Service. The NWS' Drought Monitor Update for July 15 shows 81% of California in the category of extreme drought or worse, up from 78%. Three months ago, it was 68%. Saying that it was time to increase conservation in the midst of one of the worst droughts in decades, the State Water Resources Control Board adopted drought regulations that give local agencies the authority to fine those who waste water up to $500 a day. Many Southern California cities, including Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Long Beach, already have mandatory restrictions in place.

USA - A mega-quake in America's second most populous city is long overdue, and 50-year-old buildings could come crashing down, killing thousands. Next year residents of Los Angeles will flock to cinemas to see a blockbuster called San Andreas in which their city will be wiped out by an apocalyptic earthquake. Kylie Minogue and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, one of Hollywood's current most bankable stars, will be seen roaming the wreckage after the City of Angels is mercilessly flattened by the "Big One".

USA - A new US geological survey indicates that some parts of the US are at an increased risk of earthquakes, especially along the east coast. New seismic hazard maps updated for the first time since 2008 show highest risk west but also increased risk east. "The eastern US has the potential for larger and more damaging earthquakes than considered in previous maps and assessments," the report states. The 16 states at highest risk are: Alaska, Arkansas, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

ISRAEL - Israel stepped up its ground offensive in Gaza early on Friday pounding targets with artillery fire and using tanks and infantry to battle Hamas fighters. Orange flashes illuminated the eastern Gaza Strip as Israeli gunboats off the Mediterranean coast fired shells and tracer bullets, and helicopters fired across the border. Hamas fired rockets back into Israel towards the southern towns of Ashdod and Ashkelon.

UKRAINE - World leaders demanded an international investigation into the shooting down of a Malaysian airliner with 298 people on board over eastern Ukraine in a tragedy that could mark a pivotal moment in the worst crisis between Russia and the West since the Cold War. One US official said Washington strongly suspected the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 was downed by a sophisticated surface-to-air missile fired by Ukrainian separatists backed by Moscow.

USA - Fears of a strike or lockout at the west coast ports that handle more than 40 per cent of all container imports to the US are disrupting businesses’ supply chains, as shippers anticipating a stoppage divert cargo to Canadian ports. Canada’s largest rail network has already imposed restrictions on handling goods bound for the US after a surge in cargo diverted to the ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert in British Columbia.

RUSSIA - The anti-dollar alliance among the BRICS has successfully created a so-called "mini-IMF" since the BRICS are clearly furious with the IMF as it stands currently: this is what the world's developing nations just said on this topic: "We remain disappointed and seriously concerned with the current non-implementation of the 2010 International Monetary Fund (IMF) reforms, which negatively impacts on the IMF’s legitimacy, credibility and effectiveness."

USA - When President Obama refused to allow the prosecution of George W Bush and Dick Cheney for their manifest crimes, after they had been in office (their having lied this country into invading a country that was no imminent threat to the United States, tortured people, violated the 4th Amendment by unleashing the NSA against the American public, unleashed Wall Street crooks against the American people via MBS frauds, etc), Obama thereby took upon himself Bush’s and Cheney’s crimes, as being his own. Those crimes still need to be prosecuted — now by America prosecuting Obama himself, for his covering them up: he still does it, after all of these years.