Elections in the United States are being held throughout 2014, with the general elections scheduled for 4 November. During this midterm election year 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 33 of the 100 seats in the Senate will be contested; along state and territorial governorships, state legislatures and numerous state and local races. Leaders of four major ministry coalitions have sensed a call from God to hold a National Prayer Assembly in Washington prior to Election Day on 29-30 October  and some time will be spent praying on-site in downtown Washington. The chairman of America’s National Prayer Committee believes the event comes at a crucial time in the nation’s life. It's not a time for politicking or posturing, but for passionate prayer for a fresh move of God for the transformation of America. The prayer focus will be on repentance, reconciliation and revival in the spirit of God’s restoration promise in 2 Chronicles 7:14.

Japan has many of the world’s largest companies, the world’s third largest economy, and educated and peaceful population and is the second largest un-reached people group in the world. 1.5 million young people (mostly men) have Hikikiimoro (an extreme depression that exists only in Japan) They completely withdraw from society. Some have not spoken or seen anyone for over two years.It's like internal suicide or living like a corpse. Japan also has the world’s largest sex industry, a significant proportion involves underage girls. (It’s largely Japanese money funding sex industries in Thailand and Vietnam.) Many Japanese live with no hope and no desire to change. 35% of high school students feel they have no worth as a person. 0.22% of the population attend church. With 100% freedom of religion Japan still has the lowest rate of Christian workers in the world. The good news is when Japanese people visit the West, a high percentage of them become Christians.

A small but high-risk group of radicals in Australia are causing concern to Corrective Services by preaching a misrepresented Islam to Aboriginal inmates in prisons. Sheikh Omar Habbouche said Islam was taught face-to-face and knowledge needed to be properly explained. He cited British soldier Lee Rigby's murder as being due to a wildly misinterpreted sentence in the Koran ‘kill unbelievers wherever you see them’. On Monday IS called for Australian Muslims to kill Australians indiscriminately. On Tuesday Melbourne Police shot dead a ‘known terror suspect’ after he stabbed two officers in a chaotic scuffle. Last Thursday 800+ police were involved in a security operation in Sydney and Brisbane to thwart an IS plot to behead a member of the public. Two men recently photographed holding the severed heads of Syrian soldiers were Australian IS members. (The Aboriginal recruitment article was reported by the Australian Prayer Network.)

Ebola could become a major humanitarian crisis if it is not stopped soon enough. Political systems and infrastructures are fragile after years of civil wars. Hospitals and clinics in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are overwhelmed by what the World Health Organisation is calling the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history. New cases are increasing exponentially, the situation is a dire emergency with unprecedented dimensions of human suffering, men, women and children are just sitting, waiting to die. On Tuesday America promised to send troops, building materials for field hospitals, health care workers, community care kits and badly needed medical supplies. President Obama said, ‘We know how to fight Ebola. We know how to prevent it from spreading. We know how to care for those who contract it. If we take the proper steps we can save lives. But we have to act fast.’

28 Christians holding a prayer meeting were arrested by Saudi Arabian police last week. They were abducted from the home of an Indian Christian in Khafji, near the Kuwaiti border. They have not been heard from since their arrest. According to Fox News a Saudi government minister claimed to have no knowledge of the arrests, which have been reported in several Saudi news outlets. Arabic-language news site Akhbar-24 said the religious police were tipped off about the house church meeting. There are contradictory reports about the group that has been captured. Some say that just adults were arrested while the Saudi Gazette reported men, women and children were taken. Several Bibles were also confiscated in the raid.

UN peacekeepers withdrew from all of their posts in the Syrian Golan Heights on Monday as regime forces and rebel factions battled for control of the areas adjacent to the Syrian-Israeli border. The UN has called it a ‘deteriorating situation.’ The withdrawal came as rebels gained control of almost the entire Syrian border with Israel a UN spokesperson said. Syrian armed groups posed a ‘direct threat to safety and security.’ Fighting from Syria spilled over into Israel on Monday morning again as a mortar shell struck near the Israeli side of the Quneitra crossing in the Golan Heights. Artillery fire from Syria has landed frequently on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights over the past few weeks. These evacuations mean that there is no longer a 1,200-strong UN force monitoring the buffer zone between Syria and Israel.

Australia’s G20 presidency runs from 1st December 2013 to 30th November 2014. Hosting the G20 gives Australia a valuable opportunity to influence the global economic agenda and strengthen engagement with the world’s major economies. During the presidency Australia is leading a series of preparatory meetings that will culminate in the November G20 Summit. Earlier this week in Melbourne a pivotal meeting of the world’s Labour and Employment Ministers put the world's 168 million child labourers firmly on the G20's radar. They heard that one in ten of the world's children aged over five are labouring to the detriment of their health, education and their future. The scale of this issue and the complexity of global supply chains, many of which rely on exploitative labour, means a co-ordinated global effort is needed to reduce demand for products made off the back of children living in poverty.

Even though the Middle East seems to be more conservative in terms of moral values, dress code etc, it is no strange thing to see Gypsy women standing next to the highway in Lebanon (even in daylight) ready to be picked up by men. Also Gypsy women are pressured to bring in the money as Gypsy men quite often don't work and are not ashamed to send  their daughters, or even wives off for prostitution, begging or to dance in nightclubs in other countries. This issue is not limited to Gypsies anymore. Also Syrian women are exposed to prostitution as they suddenly have no means of income. Child brides are becoming more common as parents are forced to 'sacrifice' the one daughter in order for the rest of the family to survive.

When fighters last month took the town of Gwoza murdering inhabitants and raising its jihadist flags, a video was released declaring the area was ‘now part of the Islamic Caliphate and Gwoza has nothing to do with Nigeria.’ Intelligence agencies believe that what were once symbolic links between IS and Boko Haram have developed into a practical relationship with the Islamic State offering advice on strategy and tactics. Emboldened by the success of IS and now equipped with armoured vehicles and artillery Boko Haram is beginning to operate more like a conventional army in Borno Adamawa and Yobe states. Since 2009 terrorists have attacked government buildings, bombed churches and killed; but recently entire towns have been captured and bases to control the territory are being established, a move that parallels IS. Christian leaders report tens of thousands of Christians and Muslims fleeing northern Nigeria where towns are being captured, including Michika earlier this week. See: - and - and also  

Hundreds of thousands of people remain stranded in India and many more have been warned to leave their homes in Pakistan amid some of the worst flooding in the region in decades. The death toll in the two countries has passed 450 with troops deployed to rescue people and provide relief. Officials say 400,000 people are stranded in Indian-administered Kashmir, where 200 people have died. In Pakistan, 254 people have died and thousands have been asked to evacuate. Pakistan's Minister for Water and Power Khwaja Mohammad Asif, was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying that some 700,000 people had been told to leave their homes, which could be inundated in the next four days. Hundreds of people are trying to leave Srinagar, the main city of Kashmir. Although the rains have subsided, many areas of the city are still water-logged, including neighbourhoods around the Dal Lake.