ISRAEL - Hamas on Thursday slammed comments by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas advocating security cooperation with Israel. As far as the terrorist group is concerned, “all options are open in dealing with Israeli aggression.” At a press conference in Gaza, Hamas spokesperson Sami abu Zuhri said that the “Palestinian resistance has a legitimate right to do anything necessary to free its land and its holy places, the Palestinian people and the prisoners.”

ISRAEL - Some forty young yeshiva students from the Alon Moreh Yeshiva [University], located in the town of the same name in the northern Shomron, ascended the Temple Mount today in purity, led by Rabbi Yaakov Savir and with the blessing of Rabbi Eliyakim Levanon, the dean of the yeshiva. The boys ascended the Temple Mount for the purpose of praying for the safety and release of the three young Jewish students who were kidnapped five days ago by Hamas terrorists. Eyal Yifrach, Naftali Frenkel and Gilad Sha’ar were kidnapped Thursday evening as they were on their way home from school. For the forty students from Alon Moreh this was their first time on the Temple Mount. Since last week’s kidnapping hundreds of Jews have ascended the Temple Mount to pray on behalf of the boys’ safety and release from captivity.

USA - President Barack Obama says the US will send 300 military advisers to Iraq to help fight Islamist-led insurgents. Mr Obama said the US was prepared for "targeted and precise military action, if and when… the situation on the ground requires it", but added that US troops would not fight in Iraq. He went on to insist there was "no military solution" and urged the Shia-led Iraqi government to be "inclusive". Iraq has asked the US for air strikes against the Sunni militants. The gunmen - spearheaded by the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) - have made major territorial gains in the past 10 days. Mr Obama said it was not the US's place to choose Iraq's leaders.

PHILIPPINES - Neither China nor the US are interested in full-on military confrontation but both want to play up the potential for it as it allows them to divert more government funds to the defense sector, editor of an independent news website James Corbett told RT. Amid increasing tension in the South Pacific region, especially over America’s growing military footprint, it is reported the Philippines is transforming Ulugan Bay and nearby villages into a major naval base that may host US warships. Ulugan is only 160 kilometers from the Spratly archipelago, a fiercely contested area in the South China Sea.

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL - "World’s best gay city" shows off its pride with 16th-annual Gay Pride Parade. According to organizers, an estimated 30,000 tourists had traveled to Tel Aviv to take part. Many flew their national flags, often adorned with rainbows. Some came from nations with harsh anti-LGBTQ laws and policies. Clearly, the focus on Friday in Tel Aviv was pride, the triumphs of the country’s gay population and the challenges it still faces. It was readily apparent that in Israel, the LGBTQ culture is a central and thriving aspect of the country’s national identity.

IRAQ - The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, buoyed by its recent successes in Iraq, wants to expand its regional reach. Reports that Iraq has withdrawn forces from western towns close to its 180-kilometer (110-mile) border with Jordan have left Amman feeling vulnerable, and the Hashemite kingdom, certainly a target of interest for the jihadist movement, has deployed additional security personnel along the border.

IRAQ - Islamist militants in Iraq have taken over a military complex containing a stockpile of old chemical weapons from Saddam Hussein's era. According to the UK Ministry of Defence, the Al Muthanna chemical complex "was the principal manufacturing plant for both chemical agents and munitions during Saddam Hussein's rule." The facility, located in the desert some 80km northwest of the Iraqi capital, was used in the 1980s to produce and store chemical weapons, reportedly including Sarin and Mustard Gas. "We do not believe that the complex contains CW materials of military value and it would be very difficult, if not impossible to safely move the materials," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told the Wall Street Journal. Psaki however added that the US remained "concerned about the seizure of any military site by the Isis."

EUROPE - David Cameron has hit out at European leaders who have failed to support him publicly in his efforts to block Jean-Claude Juncker becoming president of the European Commission. In an apparent rebuke to Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, Mr Cameron suggested that European leaders have expressed scepticism in private about Mr Juncker’s appointment but have failed to nail their colours to the mast in public.

USA - Rarely has a US president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many. Too many times to count, Mr Obama has told us he is "ending" the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — as though wishing made it so. His rhetoric has now come crashing into reality. Watching the black-clad ISIS jihadists take territory once secured by American blood is final proof, if any were needed, that America's enemies are not "decimated." They are emboldened and on the march. [Article written by Mr Dick Cheney, former US Vice President.]

GERMANY - Just how far can the German president go, and what are the limits of his competencies? That question was answered by Germany's highest court a few weeks ago. The Constitutional Court ruled that Germany's president is allowed to, in short, use blunt speech to express his opinion. Before the decision, a statement by Joachim Gauck himself was read out in which he gave his view on the matter. "The federal president acts through words," is how Gauck defines the president's job, adding that essentially the president can "only act through speeches and conversations."

ISRAEL - Hamas is using the Islamic Movement in Israel as a front organization to promote its goals and activity in Jerusalem. The Shabak [Israeli security service] lifted last week a gag order on the arrest of a senior Hamas terrorist in April 2014. The Shabak arrested Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Tuama as he tried to enter Israel from Jordan via the Allenby Border Cross. Tuama was born in 1951 and is married with 8 children. Originally from Tul Karem, he has been residing in Saudi Arabia since the 1970's. He joined the Muslim Brotherhood in 1983 and joined Hamas as early as 1987 when the terror organization was established.

UK - Jihadists fighting in Iraq and Syria are planning attacks on British soil, David Cameron has said. The Prime Minister warned that the current crisis in Iraq must not be dismissed as a foreign problem because the same fighters are planning to “attack us here at home in the United Kingdom”. He made his intervention amid growing concern over the number of Britons leaving the UK to fight alongside extremist groups abroad. Earlier Baroness Neville-Jones, the former security minister, warned that Britain was “exporting” more young jihadists to fight abroad than any other European country. “A sufficient number will be radicalised and will be radicalised in ways where this notion that it’s the West’s fault will get embedded in their thinking and they will come back with the intention of doing damage,” she said.

IRAQ - Iraq has formally called on the US to launch air strikes against jihadist militants who have seized several key cities over the past week. "We have a request from the Iraqi government for air power," confirmed top US military commander General Martin Dempsey in front of US senators. Earlier the Sunni insurgents launched an attack on Iraq's biggest oil refinery at Baiji north of Baghdad. Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki earlier urged Iraqis to unite against the militants. Government forces are battling to push back ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) and its Sunni Muslim allies in Diyala and Salahuddin provinces, after the militants overran the second city, Mosul, last week.

UK - Number 10 is unlikely to be a regular subscriber to China’s Global Times, a furiously nationalistic, conspiracy-packed tabloid that is controlled by the official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party. But had David Cameron scanned its leading articles this morning over breakfast he would almost certainly have spilt muesli on his trousers.

USA - Fear is the ultimate enemy of liberty. Since 9/11 our “leaders”, the smiling wolves in sheep’s clothing, have capitalized on the fear of the people to lead us down the thorny path of slavery. Thirteen years after 9/11 we are less free, and less secure than we have ever been. This is not a result of the shooters, or the terrorists, but a result of the utter failure of the people to stand up for their essential liberties from those who seek to deny them to us. In short, the problem is not in our constitution, but in ourselves. It is a symptom of our failure as a people to honor our essential liberties that has led us to the sorry state that we find ourselves in. We take a knee jerk reaction to crisis; foolishly believing that denying our essential liberties will eliminate abuses by the few.