A Chinese drugmaker with close military ties is seeking fast-track approval for a drug that it says can cure Ebola, as China joins the race to help treat a deadly outbreak of a disease that has spread from Africa to the United States and Europe.

Finance and development ministers from around the world next week will warn of considerable downside risks to the global economy, and call for an effort to protect the world's poor, according to the draft of a communique they plan to issue after a meeting on Saturday.

Opinion polls conducted by the Israeli foreign ministry in France, Germany and Britain indicate that residents of these countries hold Israel and Hamas responsible in equal measure for the death toll in Operation Protective Edge, the Israeli website Ynet reported.

In the US, where rules on the disclosure are stricter, technology groups report far higher spending on lobbying. Google, for example, spent $8.85m in the first half of 2014 alone in the US – nearly four times what it said it spent lobbying the EU for the whole of 2013. Google declined to comment on this article. But its efforts in Europe are part of its “soft power” approach towards influencing policy makers.

According to the Kremlin, Putin has had 35 phone calls with German Chancellor Angela Merkel so far this year - more than three times the number of calls he has had with President Barack Obama, and six times the number of phone conversations he’s had with UK PM David Cameron. Both Putin’s close neighbours, Nazarbayev and Lukashenko, had more phone time with the Russian president than Cameron. 

Soft power – using diplomacy, co-operation and the powers of attraction rather than coercion – has become a more potent force in international relations over recent decades. During the Ukrainian crisis, Germany, with its conciliatory, sanctions-focused approach, has been a leading exponent of the approach. Yet faced with what looks increasingly like the use of "hard power" by Russian soldiers on Ukrainian soil, its limits are being tested.

A high level Eritrean delegation led by Mr. Osman Saleh, Foreign Minister, conducted working visit to Finland from 25 to 30 August 2014. In the course of its visit the delegation has met with Foreign Minister MR. Erkki Tumoioja and Mr. Pekka Haavisto, Minister of International Development Cooperation and discussed bilateral and regional issues especially with regards educational cooperation and in the development of higher learning and vocational education.