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Newspaper to Obama, "Shove it Mr. President"
“Take your jobs plan and shove it, Mr. President: Your policies have harmed Chattanooga enough,” said a commentary in the Chattanooga Times Free Press. “Forgive us if you are not greeted with the same level of Southern hospitality that our area usually bestows on its distinguished guests. You see, we understand you are in town to share your umpteenth different job creation plan during your time in office. If it works as well as your other job creation programs, then thanks, but no thanks. We’d prefer you keep it to yourself,” the newspaper said.

It Appears That Eight SEALS Thought To Be Blown Up over Afghanistan fought on the ground until they were killed by the Taliban
After Vice President Joe Biden revealed that SEAL Team 6 carried out the operation that killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011, Strange said the members of his son’s team gave startling indications to their families they were about to meet their demise.

Chunk of Sun Headed Toward Earth at 2 Million Miles an Hour
Corey Powell, Editor of Discover Magazine, joined Bill Hemmer on America’s Newsroom this morning to explain the giant black hole, and what it means for us here on Earth. “The reason it’s dark is that whole chunk of the sun basically ripped off, blew out and is coming our way at about two million miles an hour,” said Powell. Well, that doesn’t sound good. Powell explained that this phenomenon happens frequently, but we don’t often see something this large.

Devious election plot bypasses Constitution
The National Popular Vote effort, which could see only 14 states – those with the largest populations – decide the presidency for voters in all 50 states, is fully partnered with a George Soros-funded election group. The group, the Center for Voting and Democracy, received original seed money in 1997 from the Joyce Foundation, a non-profit that boasted President Obama served on its board at the time of the grant. Obama was a board member from July 1994 until December 2002.

U.S. intelligence: Al Qaida plotting attacks on U.S. civilian jetliners
Officials said the intelligence community has traced a plot by Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula to blow up a commercial airliner or cargo plane. They identified the AQAP planner as Ibrahim Hassan Al Asiri, believed to have taken over the Al Qaida network in Saudi Arabia and Yemen in wake of the U.S. assassination of Said Al Shihri, deemed the deputy commander of the insurgency movement.

Washington D.C. is least honest city in America, study says
For the second year in a row, residents of our nation’s capital have proven themselves the most likely to steal a dollar from your pocket. At least, that’s according to one unusual new study, which found Washington, D.C. to be the least honest city or state in the nation.

'Comet of the Century' already may have fizzled out
"The future of comet ISON does not look bright," astronomer Ignacio Ferrin, with the University of Antioquia in Colombia, said in a statement on Monday. Ferrin's calculations show the comet, which is currently moving toward the sun at 16 miles per second, has not brightened since mid-January. That may be because the comet is already out of ice particles in its body, which melt as the comet moves closer to the sun, creating a long, bright tail.

Mexico keeps constant eye on Popocatepetl volcano
Mexico's National Disaster Prevention Center laboratory keeps a round-the-clock watch on Popocatepetl, with anywhere from six to 15 technicians analyzing data for signs of a full-scale eruption, which they can never fully anticipate. Though lava or glowing rock would only travel so far, an explosion could be deadly for 11,000 people in three farming villages within 10 miles (16 kilometers) of the base because of landslides and hot gas.

What role for US in new Israel-Palestinian peace talks?
With Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat at his side, Secretary of State John Kerry announced at the State Department Tuesday that all of the so-called final-status issues that stand in the way of settlement of the decades-old Mideast conflict will be on the table when talks resume in either Israel or the Palestinian territories in two weeks.

Obama: Top Tax Rate Should Be 28% for Corporations, 40% for Small Business
The New York Times reports that President Obama is reviving an old proposal to lower the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 28 percent (and 25 percent for manufacturers). Obama's push to lower the corporate tax rate to 28 percent comes less than a year after he raised the top individual income tax rate, paid by many small businesses, to 39.6 percent.

7 reasons the Americans think this time will be different
Undeterred by widespread Israeli and Palestinian skepticism, John Kerry is convinced he can broker a permanent accord. What does he know that we don’t? Here are 7 reasons the Americans, if not too many others, believe this time could be different.

China issues heat alert as 'hottest July' hits Shanghai
Temperatures in parts of China have hit record highs, prompting an emergency level-two nationwide heat alert for the first time. In Shanghai, at least 10 people have died from heatstroke, as the city experiences its hottest July in 140 years, reports say. Local journalists have demonstrated the heat by frying meat on the pavement.

‘PM cuts secret deal with Jewish Home on settlements’
According to the report, members of the religious-nationalist Jewish Home party were convinced to swallow what they saw as the bitter pill of the prisoner release — and not threaten to walk out of the government — for the sake of furthering their cause of fortifying the settlement enterprise.

Honduras declares state of emergency over dengue fever
Honduras has declared a state of emergency after an outbreak of dengue fever which has killed 16 people so far this year. More than 12,000 people have been diagnosed with the disease, which causes high fever and joint pains. Officials say that in more than 1,800 cases, there is a risk of internal bleeding and death.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS FINALLY OPEN COFFIN FOUND NEAR RICHARD III’S BURIAL SITE — AND ARE SURPRISED AT WHAT THEY FIND
Scientists think the lead coffin – which has a hole through which the deceased’s feet can be seen – could contain one of the friary’s founders, a medieval monk, or the remains of a 14th-century medieval knight, Sir William Moton.

France and Germany seek to revive EU defence policy
The EU needs to do more for international security France and Germany have said as they call for improved battlegroups and the use of drones in civilian airspace. In a joint letter and ideas paper, dated Friday (26 July), the foreign ministers of both countries say that amid "asymmetrical threats" the EU needs to "assume increased responsibility for international peace and security."

Analysts predict Iran able to produce atom bomb by mid-2014
Iran is expected to achieve a "critical capability" to produce sufficient weapon-grade uranium by mid-2014, without being detected, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) said in a report on Tuesday. According to the Washington-based think tank, Iran would achieve this capability by implementing its existing plans to install thousands more IR-1 centrifuges at its declared Natanz and Fordow centrifuge sites.

San Antonio Proposal Could Bar Christians From City Council
Churches across San Antonio are expressing outrage over a proposed anti-discrimination law that would protect LGBT workers but would not provide a religious exemption and would effectively prohibit anyone who opposes homosexuality from holding public office or getting a city contract.


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Will Turkey’s Military Emulate Egypt’s?
That is the important question asked by Steve Coll: Will Egypt’s counter-revolution inspire Turkey’s fragmented, avowedly secular military—which once dominated the country’s politics, via coup-making—to reorganize and reassert itself? Could the military do so if it tried? … recent events in Egypt will surely stir and tempt Atatürk’s heirs in the opposition.

El Nino Euro model (ECMWF) vs. JMA CMC UKMET GFS July 31, 2013 by Meteorologist Rob Guarino
The waters off the coast of Mexico are warm and continue to spawn a now active Pacific Hurricane season from Mexico to Hawaii. The ocean flow above shows warmer waters pooling in the Western Pacific Ocean at this hour and this may be a "small" sign of a transport east over the next 6 months.

NSA director heckled at hacker conference
Alexander spent much of his 45-minute address explaining how government methods used to collect telephone and email data helped foil 54 terror plots since 1993. He was interrupted at times by hecklers, but also drew applause. "Our nation takes stopping terrorism as one of the most important things," he said, standing in short sleeves with a slide on the screen behind him showing a timeline and the number of foiled plots.

Is New York City the Next Detroit?
New York State has the 33rd highest unemployment rate in the country. New York City’s unemployment rate is even higher at 8.3%. In June, New York City, with a population of 8 million, added just 3,100 jobs. Most of those jobs were in the city’s tourism trade which bulks up during the summer. While Bloomberg was playing hooky, using city resources to push gun laws in other states, the specter of Motown was creeping over the Big Apple.

Santa not swimming: No lake at North Pole, scientist says
Amid all the frenzy caused by photos that appear to show a lake where one would expect to find the polar ice cap, scientists are just now starting to explain what exactly the images are portraying.

'The Israeli Government Has Surrendered the Temple Mount'
Activists call for mass-protests after police say Judaism's holiest site will be closed to Jews at least until after Ramadan, on August 11. In an "unprecedented" move, police on Wednesday informed Jewish groups that the Temple Mount will be closed to all non-Muslims until at least the end of Ramadan, on 11th August. The announcement has provoked renewed anger over anti-Jewish discrimination on the Temple Mount, and sparked calls by activists for a mass-protest on 7th August, at the start of the Hebrew month of Elul.

Five indicted in massive hacking scheme
Five men from Russia and Ukraine have been indicted in New Jersey for charges they conspired with each other in a worldwide hacking scheme targeting major corporate networks that compromised more than 160 million credit card numbers, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. The men allegedly attacked the networks of several companies, including Nasdaq, 7-Eleven, JCP, Dow Jones and Hannaford, the DOJ said. Companies reported $300 million in losses from the attacks, the DOJ said in a press release.

Mutilated Cows Found at Missouri Farm, Police Not Ruling Out the Possibility of Aliens
Who would cut the tongues and take the reproductive organs from several cows? That’s the mystery police in a small town 90 miles away from Kansas City are dealing with. Robert Hills, Henry County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy, says the first cow was discovered in December of 2011, the second and third this summer. All were female cows and were owned by rancher Lyn Mitchell.

New Snowden leak: NSA program taps all you do online
You've never heard of XKeyscore, but it definitely knows you. The National Security Agency's top-secret program essentially makes available everything you've ever done on the Internet — browsing history, searches, content of your emails, online chats, even your metadata — all at the tap of the keyboard. ...XKeyscore is its "widest reaching" system for developing intelligence from the Internet.

NSA’s XKeyscore program has nearly limitless access to all Internet activity
PowerPoint training materials obtained by The Guardian show how analysts could use the system to mine sprawling agency databases consisting of a vast reservoir of data. At least 41 billion records were collected and stored in a single 30-day period in 2012, according to the report, which also says XKeyscore collects more than 20 terabytes of information daily, including emails, chats, social media interactions, and even browsing histories—all in real-time.

US and Pakistan to resume key high-level security talks
US Secretary of State John Kerry has agreed to resume high-level talks over security issues with Pakistan. The agreement was made after Mr Kerry met senior Pakistani politicians, including new PM Nawaz Sharif. The talks were stalled after 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in US air strikes on a Pakistani post on the Afghan border in 2011.

Message decoded: 3,000-year-old text sheds light on biblical history
The mysterious language is actually the oldest form of written Hebrew, placing the ancient Israelites in Jerusalem earlier than previously believed.

Honduras declares state of emergency over dengue fever
Honduras has declared a state of emergency after an outbreak of dengue fever which has killed 16 people so far this year. More than 12,000 people have been diagnosed with the disease, which causes high fever and joint pains. Officials say that in more than 1,800 cases, there is a risk of internal bleeding and death.

Brazil refused to back more IMF money for Greece
Brazil's executive director at the IMF Wednesday (31 July) revealed he did not support a decision earlier this week for the fund to continue supporting Greece. Paulo Nogueira Batista’s highly unusual comments came as the IMF the same day said that Greece is facing a €10.9bn gap in its government finances - €4.4bn for 2014 and €6.5bn for 2015.

Days before Rouhani to be sworn in, US House sends message to Iran with harsh new sanctions
The US House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday containing punishing new sanctions against Iran, entrenching the US position on the Islamic Republic's controversial nuclear program just days before the inauguration of their new president, Hassan Rouhani. The Senate is expected to support the legislation...targeting what remains of Iran's oil sector...

The CommonWealth of Abrahamic States
The reason I am not optimistic about this round of talks succeeding is that whatever the Netanyahu government and the United States are offering the Palestinians, it will be less than what they think they will get if they pursued the path of the United Nations and internationalization of the conflict. There are no indications that Palestinians are getting ready to end their struggle

Syrian president tells troops he is sure of victory
The Syrian president has lauded his military troops, saying they are fighting the “fiercest” war but that he is confident they will win in the country’s conflict.


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Muslim Brotherhood Kills Its Own to Demonize Egyptian Military
New evidence indicates that some of the pro-Morsi protesters reportedly killed by the Egyptian military, after the Muslim Brotherhood president’s ouster, were actually killed by fellow pro-Morsi protesters. They did this, according to the report, to frame the military, incite more Islamist violence and unrest, and garner sympathy from America, which has been extremely critical of the military, especially in the context of the post-Morsi violence.

Archaeologists’ Shock Claim: A Piece of Jesus Christ’s Crucifixion Cross Was Potentially Found
"We have found a holy thing in a chest. It is a piece of a cross, and we think it was [part of the cross on which Jesus was crucified]," lead excavator Professor Gülgün Köro?lu told Hurriyet Daily News.

NEW WORLD ORDER QUOTES
“Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men’s views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the Field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.”

The Name Of Jesus Has Become A Dirty Word In Politically Correct America
In the United States today, there are very few words that provoke as much outrage as the name of Jesus. It is being banned from graduation ceremonies, chaplains all over America are being forbidden from using His name in their prayers, and many school officials all over the nation have become absolutely fanatical about eliminating every trace of Christian expression from their schools.

Iran: Armageddon at hand, prepare for war
Iran is again asserting that Armageddon is at hand and that the Islamic regime’s followers, indeed all of Islam, must prepare for a monumental change in the world.

5.4 Earthquake Rocked Region of Jammu in India Triggering Panic
early Friday morning at approximately 8:00 a.m. local time, there was a 5.4 earthquake 13 km SE of Kishtwar, which rocked the Jammu region of India. It was an earthquake of modern intensity, triggering panic among the people, according to an official of India’s meteorological office. According to initial reports, the epicenter of the earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale occurred at the GPS coordinates 33.233°N 75.876°E at a depth of 15.8 km (9.8mi).

Yellowstone volcano (USA): Steambot Geyser eruption
The famous Steamboat Geyser erupted again during the past night breaking a 8 years period of dormancy. Known as the currently largest geyser in the world, its jets are known to reach up to 90 m height.

Global Water Shortages Grow Worse But Nations Have Few Answers
As we have been hearing, global water shortages are poised to exacerbate regional conflict and hobble economic growth. Yet the problem is growing worse, and is threatening to deal devastating blows to health, according to top water officials...

New Benghazi Details Revealed in Bombshell CNN Report: ‘Unprecedented’ Effort Underway to Keep Secrets From Leaking
The CIA is polygraphing its operatives on a regular basis in an “unprecedented” effort to prevent Benghazi secrets from leaking out, CNN’s Drew Griffin is reporting, citing unnamed inside sources. “Since January, some CIA operatives involved in the agency’s missions in Libya, have been subjected to frequent, even monthly polygraph examinations, according to a source with deep inside knowledge of the agency’s workings,” the bombshell report reveals. “The goal of the questioning, according to sources, is to find out if anyone is talking to the media or Congress.”

Australia unveils levy on bank deposits
Australia has unveiled a levy on some bank deposits to raise money towards a fund aimed at safeguarding against a banking collapse. Deposits up to A$250,000 will have to pay a levy of 0.05% from January 2016. It will be imposed on banks and not account holders. But banks have warned costs may be passed on to customers.

Egypt army 'restoring democracy', says John Kerry
US Secretary of State John Kerry has said Egypt's military was "restoring democracy" when it ousted elected President Mohammed Morsi last month. Mr Kerry said the removal was at the request of "millions and millions of people". His remarks came as police prepare to disperse two pro-Morsi sit-ins in the capital, Cairo.

U.S. intelligence: Al Qaida plotting attacks on U.S. civilian jetliners
Officials said the intelligence community has traced a plot by Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula to blow up a commercial airliner or cargo plane. They identified the AQAP planner as Ibrahim Hassan Al Asiri, believed to have taken over the Al Qaida network in Saudi Arabia and Yemen in wake of the U.S. assassination of Said Al Shihri, deemed the deputy commander of the insurgency movement.

Iranian President-Elect Rouhani: Israel a 'wound' that must be removed
Iranian President-Elect Hassan Rouhani on Friday referred to Israel as a "wound" that has afflicted the Muslim world for years and must be removed, Iran's Mehr News Agency reported. "The Zionist regime is a wound that has sat on the body of the Muslim world for years and needs to be removed," Rouhani said at a demonstration in Tehran marking Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day, an annual show of support for the Palestinian cause.

U.S. to Close Embassies in Middle East
Well, this is straight out of an episode of Homeland. According to a CNN investigation, dozens of CIA operatives were on the ground in Benghazi, Libya, for a top-secret operation on the night of the September 11 attack that killed four Americans. Sources say that since then, the agency has been conducting polygraph examinations with an unprecedented frequency to ensure that no one has revealed the mission to the media or Congress. “Initially they were not afraid to come forward. They wanted the opportunity, and they wanted to be subpoenaed, because if you're subpoenaed,

Massive solar flare narrowly misses Earth, EMP disaster barely avoided
The earth barely missed taking a massive solar punch in the teeth two weeks ago, an "electromagnetic pulse" so big that it could have knocked out power, cars and iPhones throughout the United States. Two EMP experts told Secrets that the EMP flashed through earth's typical orbit around the sun about two weeks before the planet got there. "The world escaped an EMP catastrophe," said Henry Cooper,

‘Battle won, war continues’: Snowden asylum victory is just the beginning – WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks has declared a major victory following Russia granting Edward Snowden temporary asylum. But although one battle has been won, the war for transparency and government accountability continues, WikiLeaks’ spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson told RT.

Hezbollah threatens 'We're coming' in banner hanged across border
Ahead of Al-Quds Day held on Friday, Hezbollah hung a large banner in front of the Israeli border reading, in Hebrew and Arabic, "We're coming." Next to the inscription, the banner was adorned with an image of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

US embassies to shut down Sunday due to terror threat
US embassies and consulates across the Middle East and Asia — including in Israel — will be closed on Sunday due to an al-Qaeda-related terror threat, officials said Thursday.

Brent tops $110 for first time since April on economic data
Brent crude futures climbed on Friday above $110 a barrel for the first time since early April, as upbeat economic data raised the prospects for better global oil demand amid supply disruptions in Africa and Iraq.

After Snowden, no business as usual for U.S. and Russia
After causing weeks of embarrassment for the U.S. intelligence community, the Edward Snowden saga has now cast a shadow over international efforts to end the Syrian civil war and deal with Iran, and could also undermine White House hopes for a nuclear arms reduction deal.


Me and My Obamaphones
Confession: You’re paying my phone bill. In the past month, I have received three shiny new cell phones, courtesy of American taxpayers, that should never have fallen into my hands.

Will Iran Get a Bomb—or Be Bombed Itself—This Year?
That Iran's nuclear challenge poses the most urgent threat to peace and security today is widely agreed across the national security community, and many argue that 2013 will be the decisive year for this issue. As former Mossad head Ephraim Halevy notes, Israel "has long believed that mid-2013 would be an hour of decision in its dealings with Iran." Henry Kissinger has recently warned that "we are in the last year where you can say a negotiation can conceivably succeed.... If nothing happens, the president will have to make some really tough decisions."

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Turkey appoints new military commanders as government asserts control
Turkey appointed new military commanders on Saturday in an overhaul of its top ranks that underlined the government’s control over armed forces which once dominated political life.NATO’s second largest army is facing multiple challenges as conflict in neighbouring Syria spills across the border and a peace process with Kurdish militants looks increasingly fragile. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who chaired the Supreme Military Council meeting, has eroded the army’s power since his Islamist-rooted AK Party first came to power in 2002.

Interpol issues global security alert, cites jailbreaks across Mideast
Interpol on Saturday issued an alert advising its 190 members to step up their vigilance against possible terror attacks after a series of recent prison breaks from Libya, Iraq, and Pakistan and six other countries that involve hundreds of terrorists and other criminals. The agency said al-Qaeda may have been involved in some of the incidences, and that it was trying to determine if the different events were somehow linked.

Giant Pentagram Seen in Kazakhstan
Conspiracy theorists, start your engines: On the wind-blown steppes of central Asia, in an isolated corner of Kazakhstan, there's a large pentagram etched into the Earth's surface.

Former Archbishop Desmond Tutu Says He Would Choose Hell Over 'Homophobic' Heaven
Speaking recently at the United Nation's launch of its "Free & Equal" campaign to promote fair treatment of LGBT persons, former archbishop and South African anti-apartheid activist Desmond Tutu declared that the issue was so close to his heart that he "would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven" and instead choose "the other place."

Syria rebels seize arms dump near Damascus
Syrian rebels have captured an arms and ammunition dump in Qalamun, near Damascus, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. ...Several groups, including the jihadist Al-Nusra Front, were behind the capture of the depot of anti-tank weapons and rockets, according to the group.

Germany ends spy pact with US and UK after Snowden
Germany has cancelled a Cold War-era pact with the US and Britain in response to revelations about electronic surveillance operations. Details of snooping programmes involving the transatlantic allies have been leaked to the media by former US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden. The revelations have sparked widespread outrage in Germany, where elections are due next month.

US worldwide travel alert over fear of al-Qaeda attack
The US state department has issued a global travel alert because of fears of an unspecified al-Qaeda attack. The department said the potential for an attack was particularly strong in the Middle East and North Africa. The US intercepted electronic communications between senior al-Qaeda figures, according to officials quoted by the New York Times.

Study: Record Number 21 Million Young Adults Living With Parents
A new study from Pew Research finds that 36 percent of Millennials – young adults ages 18 to 31 – are living at their parents’ homes, the highest number in four decades. A record 21.6 million young adults were still living at home last year.

UN: Syrian Rebels Suspected of War Crimes
United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay is calling for an independent investigation into war crimes allegedly committed by Syrian rebel fighters. Pillay said Friday that a U.N. team in Syria found evidence that rebels executed at least 30 people last month in Aleppo. Most of the victims were Syrian soldiers. She said the killings were captured on video, calling the incident "deeply shocking."

Hassan Rouhani officially takes over as Iran president
Hassan Rouhani is set to officially replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president of Iran. Mr Rouhani's election will be endorsed by the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at a ceremony in the capital, Tehran. The cleric, who won the presidential poll in June, has promised reform and to end Iran's international isolation.

Egypt army 'restoring democracy', says John Kerry
US Secretary of State John Kerry has said Egypt's military was "restoring democracy" when it ousted elected President Mohammed Morsi last month. Mr Kerry said the removal was at the request of "millions and millions of people". His remarks came as police prepare to disperse two pro-Morsi sit-ins in the capital, Cairo.

Dems Favor Federal Bailout of Detroit, But Majority of Public Opposed
A new national poll from Quinnipiac University shows that a majority Democrats believe the federal government should bail out Detroit, but an even larger majority of Americans oppose such a move. Fifty-one percent of Democrats support Washington providing federal assistance to Detroit, which last month became the largest American city ever to seek bankruptcy protection.

Cleveland Police Disciplining 75 Cops After An Unarmed Couple Was Shot 137 Times
Cleveland police officials said Friday they're disciplining 75 of officers for their involvement in a police chase that ended in the shooting deaths of an unarmed man and woman, The Plain Dealer reports.

Hezbollah leader slams Israel in rare public speech
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah emerged from hiding on Friday to deliver his first major speech in years, addressing a rally in his southern Beirut stronghold in support of the Palestinian conflict against Israel. "Israel poses a danger on all people of this region...including Lebanon, and removing it is a Lebanese national interest," Nasrallah told hundreds of supporters in his half-hour speech.

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Feiglin Declares 'It's Time to Flood the Temple Mount'
n an "unprecedented" move, police on Wednesday informed Jewish groups that the Temple Mount will be closed to all non-Muslims until at least the end of Ramadan, on 11th August. The announcement has provoked renewed anger over anti-Jewish discrimination on the Temple Mount, and sparked calls by activists for a mass-protest on 7th August, at the start of the Hebrew month of Elul.

Al-Qaeda Leader: Egypt’s Coup Proof That Democracy Is Corrupt and the Only ‘Legitimacy is the Shariah’
Al-Qaida’s leader said Egypt’s military coup that ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi provides proof that Islamic rule cannot be established through democracy, and urged the Islamist leader’s followers to abandon the ballot box in favor of armed resistance. ...Ayman al-Zawahri also lashed out at the Egyptian military, the country’s secular and liberal elites as well as the Coptic Christian minority...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to take oath of office
The inauguration of Iranian cleric Hassan Rouhani as president is due to take place in parliament. Mr Rouhani, elected in June, will be sworn in before MPs and representatives of more than 50 countries, according to Iranian media. Mr Rouhani was formally endorsed by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at a ceremony on Saturday.

Bishop to apologise for abuse at Fort Augustus School
One of Scotland's most senior clerics is to apologise for decades of physical and sexual abuse of pupils at a Catholic boarding school. The Bishop of Aberdeen, Hugh Gilbert, will address the parish at Fort Augustus in the Highlands. His statement comes after the BBC found evidence of physical and sexual abuse by monks at Fort Augustus Abbey School and its prep school in East Lothian.

Obama 'Leaking Info on Israeli Strikes in Syria'
he U.S. intelligence community has been leaking information on Israeli air strikes in Syria, and U.S. President Barack Obama is behind the leaks, according to a report in the World Tribune.

Kansas Sinkhole: Massive 200 Foot Sinkhole Still Growing, Locals Warned to Stay Away
The Kansas sinkhole has been measured at 200 feet across and 90 feet deep, but has still not stopped swallowing up the land. Officials have warned those in the local area that the sinkhole is continuing to swallow up the ground, and that those in the nearby proximity should be on alert and stay clear of the danger. The sinkhole is said to have made a massive pasture disappear in West Kansas. Officials are still waiting for experts to reach the area to examine the massive hole. At the moment they are still uncertain as to what exactly caused the huge sinkhole to appear, as there are no nearby irrigation wells or oil drilling happening anywhere in the region.

Erekat, Livni: Israel to release first of Palestinian prisoners by mid-August
Israel was expected to release 26 Palestinian prisoners on August 13 to constitute the first of four stages of prisoner releases as a gesture for resuming direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat said Saturday.

Syrian conflict: Many dead in Lebanon border air strike
At least six people have been killed in a Syrian war plane attack on the town of Yabroud, just across the border from Lebanon, reports from Lebanon say. Nine people were wounded in the attack near the Lebanese town of Arsal, which hosts many refugees from Syria.

Germany ends information sharing pact with Britain, United States
Germany has canceled a decades-old agreement on information-sharing with Britain and the United States, in the wake of controversy sparked by American leaker Edward Snowden's disclosures about mass surveillance programs.

The decline of the Liberal Media: Newsweek sold to all-digital news company
Newsweek, the iconic news magazine whose print version was abandoned late last year, has been sold to an all-digital news company, IBT Media.

Thousands rally to support embattled Tunisia government
Tens of thousands of Tunisians came out in a show of force for the country's Islamist-led government on Saturday, in one of the largest demonstrations since the 2011 revolution. Supporters of the ruling Ennahda party crowded into Kasbah Square next to the prime minister's office in the capital, Tunis. Ennahda officials said more than 150,000 attended. Fireworks flashed overhead and red Tunisian flags fluttered over a sea of demonstrators. "No to coups, yes to elections," the crowd shouted, in a reference to the army-backed ouster of Egypt's elected Islamist president last month.

Is Egypt On The Verge Of Engineered Civil War?
For thousands of years, Egypt has been one of the primary pillars of the Eastern world. When Egypt falls into turmoil, a shockwave is felt by all other nations that heralds great change and perhaps even great catastrophe. The West's longtime interest in maintaining a solid foothold in Egypt is based on this reality; even in our modern age, when Egypt is in your corner riches can be accumulated, and power can be gathered.

Suicide Attack on India Consulate in Afghanistan as Ties Deepen
An attack near an Indian consulate in eastern Afghanistan was the latest to target the nation’s interests in the country, where deepening economic and military ties risk inflaming tension

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5.5 Magnitude Earthquake in Russia Rattled the Countryside
This is the area where the Pacific plate subducts into the mantle beneath the Okhotsk microplate, part of the larger North America plate. This subduction is responsible for the generation of the Kuril Islands chain, which are actually active volcanoes located along the entire arc, and the deep offshore Kuril-Kamchatka trench.

GEOMAGNETIC UNREST
A solar wind stream is buffeting Earth's magnetic field, causing minor geomagnetic storms around the poles. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.

Study: MERS virus may be deadlier than SAR
Since last September, the World Health Organization has confirmed 90 cases of MERS, the Middle East respiratory syndrome, including 45 deaths. Most cases have been in Saudi Arabia, but the mysterious virus has also been identified in countries including Jordan, Qatar, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Tunisia. MERS is related to SARS and the two diseases have similar symptoms including a fever, cough and muscle pain. “At the moment, the virus is still confined (to the Middle East),” said Dr. Christian Drosten of the University of Bonn Medical Centre in Germany, who wrote an accompanying commentary. “But this is a coronavirus and we know coronaviruses are able to cause pandemics.”

El Ninos are growing stronger, NASA/NOAA Study Rob Guarino Mark Levitt August 2013
A relatively new type of El Niño, which has its warmest waters in the central-equatorial Pacific Ocean, rather than in the eastern-equatorial Pacific, is becoming more common and progressively stronger, according to a new study by NASA and NOAA. The research may improve our understanding of the relationship between El Niños and climate change, and has potentially significant implications for long-term weather forecasting.

Earthquake of 5.7 magnitude rattles Canada's Vancouver Island
A moderate earthquake struck off Canada's southern Pacific coast early Sunday, rattling parts of Vancouver Island. There were no reports of damage or injuries. Earthquakes Canada said the 5.7-magnitude quake hit about 6:20 a.m. local time. The U.S. Geological Survey reported the same magnitude and said it struck about 96 miles (108 kilometers) south of Port Hardy on Vancouver Island.

Sinkhole Takes On “Volcano-Like” Quality: Is This More Proof That The Louisiana Sinkhole Is Actually A Volcano?
The Bayou Corne sinkhole is now 20X bigger than it was this time last year, and “it has taken on a volcano-like quality”. We KNOW for a fact that an ancient volcano was in the area as shared in this story and the must watch 2nd video below. With the area receiving many recent tremors, has the ‘Louisiana Sinkhole Volcano’ come back to life again? John Boudreaux smelled petroleum in the air when he arrived at work at 5:30 a.m. on Aug. 3 of last year. More than two months into an emergency response for unexplained bayou bubbles and tremors, Boudreaux was working in Bayou Corne at a command post set up to investigate the mysterious goings-on that had baffled residents, Assumption Parish officials and state regulators.

Watch Issa’s stinging rebuke of IRS chief for obstruction: I’m issuing subpoena!
Clearly angry, and at times standing, Issa accused Werfel and IRS Chief Counsel William Wilkins – the only IRS official other than Werfel appointed directly by President Obama – of deliberately withholding information by redacting the documents it did provide the committee to the point of uselessness. At one point, Issa displayed a sheet of paper almost entirely blacked out. “These are important fact to get out and you’re obstructing them,” Issa said, overriding Werfel’s attempts at denial.

A new low for Jesse Jackson
Well, they’ve sent in the clowns. Radical black activist Jesse Jackson has hustled down to Florida, toting his fundraising arm, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. “The Rev” came all the way down to tell us that “Florida is an apartheid state” and “the Selma of our time” — and to help his accomplice in blackmail, Al Sharpton, with Big Al’s campaign to boycott the state. Florida Gov. Rick Scott has denounced Jackson’s remarks, saying the so-called civil rights leader owes all Floridians an apology.

Shameful: Even Putin calls to end Christian persecution, as Obama is ‘silent’
..you know “it’s a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world” when Russian president Vladimir Putin becomes the leading voice for stopping the violent persecutions against Christians while the president of the United States stands silent.

94-year-old Billy Graham's warning for America
At a time when many believe the midnight hour on God’s prophetic clock is fast approaching, major evangelists – Billy Graham, Franklin Graham, Bonnke, Laurie, Chuck Smith, Banning Liebscher and others – are turning their attention toward America in the hope of helping ignite an end-times awakening.

Elevated seismicity continues at Mount Rainier and near Mount Saint Helens volcanoes - Washington Cascades, US
..elevated seismicity continues at Mount Rainier (station STAR) and near Mount Saint Helens (station SHW) volcanoes in the Washington Cascades, US. Event depths at Mount Saint Helens average around 13 km and form a radial pattern in relation to the volcano, nearly opposite the northeast-trending spoke of seismicity which had affected the volcano through most of this summer.

Strong earthquake M 6.0 struck near crippled ********* Dai-ichi plant
A strong earthquake registered as M 6.0 (JMA) on Richter scale struck northeastern Japan on August 4, 2013 at 03:28 UTC. JMA reported depth of 50 km. This earthquake was 41 km away from March 11, 2011 devastating M 9.0 "Tohoku earthquake" and about 109 km away from crippled ********* nuclear power plant.

No Changes to Planned Putin-Obama Meeting - Kremlin Spokesman
Russia has not received any official notification that US President Barack Obama intends to cancel a planned bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next month, Putin’s spokesman said Monday. A series of senior US officials have called on Obama to cancel the scheduled meeting with Putin amid an apparent deterioration in the bilateral relationship between the two countries after Russia’s decision last week to grant asylum to fugitive US intelligence expert Edward Snowden.

Hog Producers Battling to Contain Virus That Has Killed Piglets by the Thousands
The outside world is not allowed in a sanitized and isolated pig farm here, not far from the Iowa border. Visitors must shower before entering, scrubbing from head to toe, trading their street clothes for disinfected coveralls that have never left the premises. Everything inside the temperature-controlled barn housing 3,000 sows has been blasted with antiseptic.

Lebanese Christian leader assails Hezbollah for provoking Israel
Ethnic tensions in Lebanon are resurfacing over what some say is Hezbollah’s destabilizing role in the region. In a local television interview, Samir Geagea, a prominent Lebanese Christian, accused the Iranian-backed Shi’ite militia on Sunday of “dragging the country into war against the wishes of its leaders,” Israel Radio reported.

Kenyan Man Tries to Overturn the Death Sentence of Jesus Christ
Kenyan lawyer Dola Indidis is on a mission: to get the International Court of Justice at the Hague to overturn the conviction and death sentence of Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago.

US to extend some embassy closures over security concerns
The US says it will keep a number of embassies in north Africa and the Middle East closed until Saturday, due to a possible militant threat. Twenty-one US embassies and consulates closed on Sunday. The state department in Washington said the extended closures were "out of an abundance of caution", and not a reaction to a new threat.

US official visits senior Egypt Islamist in jail
A top U.S. diplomat met early on Monday a jailed senior leader in the Muslim Brotherhood, part of mediation efforts to end the standoff between Egypt's military-backed government and protesters supporting the ousted president, government officials said.

Deaths from heavy rains up to 53 in Pakistan
Heavy rains that caused flash floods and collapsed houses in different parts of Pakistan have killed 53 people over the past three days, an official said Monday. Civil and military authorities have launched rescue and relief efforts to deal with the crisis, said Brig. Kamran Zia, a senior member of the National Disaster Management Authority. He said the deaths from the flooding span the entire

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Court to Feds: Explain Marine's Facebook-Postings Arrest
A federal judge in Richmond, Va., has refused to dismiss from a lawsuit several FBI and Secret Service agents as well as local police officers who arrested a military veteran based on an opinion from a counselor who had never met him that he might be a danger. The officers had confronted the veteran, Brandon Raub, after he expressed criticism of the U.S. government on a social networking page. They arrested Raub and kept him in custody for an evaluation based on the long-distance opinion from Michael Campbell, a psychotherapist hired by the local county. But when the case came before a judge, his ruling found the concerns raised by the officers were “so devoid of any factual allegations that it could not be reasonably expected to give rise to a case or controversy.” Raub then sued the officers for taking him into custody.

Is it hopeless? Should we give up?
So why should Americans today throw up their hands in apathy? Because they don’t believe in miracles. They don’t believe in the power of prayer. They don’t have the faith of a mustard seed. That’s what’s really lacking in us today.

Billy Graham: If Ever There Was a Time America Needed God's Intervention, It's Now
"If ever there was a time this country needed the intervention of God, it is now," writes Graham in the letter published on the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association website. "We can and should pray for America as a whole, but remember that when God sets out to change a nation, He begins by changing people. It starts with individuals." Graham said that there are a lot of things that his health and strength no longer permit him to do, but that there are still many things he can do, "and one of them is pray." He writes that he is praying fervently for "a fresh spiritual awakening in America."

‘Hey Obama, You Are Stupid, Bad Man’: Viral Egyptian Music Video Accuses Obama of Supporting Terrorism, Muslim Brotherhood
A music video featuring an Arabic-singing belly dancer voicing profanity-laced lyrics that accuse President Barack Obama of supporting terrorism and the Muslim Brotherhood has gone viral in Egypt.

Britain withdraws all staff from Yemen embassy
Britain said on Tuesday it had withdrawn all staff from its embassy in Sanaa, Yemen's capital, and extended the closure of the mission until further notice. "Due to increased security concerns, all staff in the British Embassy have been temporarily withdrawn and the Embassy will remain closed until staff are able to return," the Foreign Office said on its website.

Exclusive: U.S. directs agents to cover up program used to investigate Americans
A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans. Although these cases rarely involve national security issues, documents reviewed by Reuters show that law enforcement agents have been directed to conceal how such investigations truly begin - not only from defense lawyers but also sometimes from prosecutors and judges.

Bedeviling Phenomenon: What Do You Make of the 1,200-Foot Wide Pentagram on Google Maps?
It’s found on the southern shore of the Upper Tobol Reservoir where there are almost no other signs of humanity; the closest settlement is the city of Lisakovsk, about 12 miles to the east, according to Yahoo News. Adding fuel to the proverbial lake of fire are reports that you zoom into the center of the pentagram on Google Maps, you can see two spots highlighted by previous visitors to the topographical app: “Adam” and “Lucifer”—and you know what figure that name is connected with…

Billionaire Hugo Salinas Price - Elites Plan to Control the World
Hugo Salinas Price told King World News in stunning fashion what he believes to be the frightening plan to control the world going forward. He described the people planning this as “barbarians,” and said, “this is not going to end well.” He also issued this ominous warning, “I have very serious doubts about the survival of our civilization under such people.” Hugo Salinas Price: “With regards to the social question in the world, in 1929 a Spanish thinker by the name of Ortega y Gasset wrote a book that really shook up the world titled, ‘The Revolt of the Masses.’ He was talking about the appearance on the world stage of new individuals.

200,000 mandatory RFID-chipped patrons enjoy slave-training at Lollapalooza in Chi-town
Hundreds of thousands of young and old alternative music fans have lined up and willingly received RFID micro-chipped non-removable wristbands to gain entrance to the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago's Grant Park, which began Friday August 2nd. On their website, festival organizers put a positive spin on the RFID tags, explaining "We're saving paper and saving you the hassle of redeeming a paper ticket for your wristband!"

Al-Qaeda chief’s intercepted message about plans for major terror attack caused embassy closures: officials
An intercepted secret message between al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri and his deputy in Yemen about plans for a major terror attack was the trigger that set off the current shutdown of many U.S. embassies, two officials told The Associated Press on Monday.

Egypt crisis: Talks gather pace as US senators arrive
US senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham have joined top diplomats in Cairo to help find a peaceful solution to Egypt's political stalemate. The Pentagon said Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel had called army chief Gen Abdul Fattah al-Sisi to discuss mediation progress by US and EU envoys. US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns also visited Muslim Brotherhood deputy head Khairat al-Shater in jail.

EU needs 'German standards' on data privacy
The EU needs a set of data privacy rules that will keep surveillance by foreign intelligence services in check, Germany's justice minister has said. Speaking to Die Welt newspaper in the aftermath of revelations about the extent of US surveillance operations in Europe, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said EU data rules should be as stringent as those in Germany.

Israel formulating response to EU settlement guidelines before start of Horizon 2020
The European Union is willing to discuss Israel’s objections to its recently published “settlement guidelines,” but its degree of flexibility on the matter is unclear, and Israel needs to draw its own “red lines,” a senior Israeli official said Monday. ...Those negotiations are set to begin a week from Wednesday.

US, UK to citizens in Yemen: Leave immediately
The United States and Britain told their citizens in Yemen on Tuesday to leave the country immediately. The State Department also said it had ordered non-essential US government staff in Yemen to leave the country, due to the threat of "terrorist attacks", the US State Department said in a statement.

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Activists Demonstrate Against Temple Mount Discrimination
The mass protest was prearranged following an announcement by Police Commander Avi Bitton that the Temple Mount will remain closed to Jews and tourists at least until after the end of Ramadan’s closing festival of “Eid” which is to be next Sunday, the 11th of August. For many of the activists, showing solidarity today was a reminder that this is in fact the holiest place for the Jewish people. -“People have come far to be here early in the morning to make this statement, to make this prayer to the Almighty, as we begin this special month of repentance" said Rabbi Chaim Richman, the international director of the Temple Institute.

In rebuke, Obama cancels Moscow summit with Putin
In a rare diplomatic rebuke, President Barack Obama on Wednesday canceled his Moscow summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The decision reflected both U.S. anger over Russia's harboring of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden and growing frustration within the Obama administration over what it sees as Moscow's stubbornness on other key issues, including missile defense and human rights.

Israeli gas group in talks on pipelines to Turkey, Jordan, Egypt
A group of energy companies that discovered large amounts of natural gas off Israel’s Mediterranean coast said they were in talks to export the gas to Europe via a pipeline to Turkey, Reuters reported late Aug. 6. They were also studying options to export gas to Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, Avner Oil & Gas said. -Recoverable gas in the Levant Basin, which lies largely in Israeli and Cypriot waters in the eastern Mediterranean, holds some 3.5 trillion cubic meters of gas, the U.S. Geological Survey has estimated.

Iran To Boost Relations With Turkey Under Rowhani
Iran's new administration will boost bilateral relations with Turkey, Iran's president Hassan Rowhani underlined during a phone talk with Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Mehr news agency reported. Iran will cooperate with Turkey in regional and global issues Rowhani said, adding that, "we all should effort for restoring peace and stability in the region". He expressed hope that Iran-Turkey cooperation would prevent violence in the region.

Javier Solana suggests Iran and US to create communication channel
Reaching an international agreement is necessary because Iran's nuclear issue is important for the international community, Solana said. He underlined that, Rouhani`s election as president is the opportunity for achieving a solution on Iran's nuclear issue. -"I have no authority, but still have the influence which can be used for proceeding the negotiations," he said.

Report: State funds groups that advocate building Third Temple
“The Institute is dedicated to every aspect of the Biblical commandment to build the Holy Temple of G-d on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem,” the group’s website reads. “Our short-term goal is to rekindle the flame of the Holy Temple in the hearts of mankind through education. Our long-term goal is to do all in our limited power to bring about the building of the Holy Temple in our time.”

Reports: US files first charges in Benghazi attack
The officials confirmed that a sealed complaint was filed in US District Court in Washington against an unspecified number of individuals in the September 2012 attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. One official said those charged included Ahmed Abu Khattala, the head of a Libyan militia. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss a sealed indictment.

EU, Israel headed for showdown over settlement rules
Despite heavy criticism from Israel, the European Union will not cancel, modify or delay the implementation of recently published guidelines that block EU funding from Israeli institutions located beyond the Green Line, a top EU official said this week.

63% of Israeli Jews oppose major West Bank pullout, poll finds
Israeli Jews would oppose a peace agreement with the Palestinians if it included a full West Bank pullout with land swaps to let Israel retain major settlement population centers, according to a new poll that appears to contradict the conclusions of other recent surveys.

Russian scientists: Earth can expect a new ice agel
“Everything on Earth is cyclical — a warm period is followed by a cold one, and vice versa. We are currently in a warm period. However, unlike past periods, it is advancing too quickly. Over the last 100 years, we have seen a drastic migration of animals and plants to the North.” Thus every year, trees are rising by about 1.5 feet toward the peaks of the northern mountains, and they are encroaching on the tundra.

Japan warship: Biggest since World War II
A new Japan warship was revealed that is the largest for the country since World War II. The 820-foot helicopter carrier is to be used for national defense measures. According to United Press International on August 6, 2013, it will also allow them to better support relief efforts in the case of emergencies like the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The Izumo, which had been under construction since 2009, was introduced this week as Japan and China continue a dispute over several islands located between southern Japan and Taiwan."

Fort Hood trial turns bizarre as shooter grills witnesses
He said Hasan then jumped up and ordered the one civilian in the room to leave before shouting, “Allahu akbar” and opening fire. Panic set in among the soldiers, who crowded toward a rear door, which was jammed. Lunsford said he sprinted for the door at one point while Hasan was shooting, then turned around to see the gunman’s laser sight pointing at him before being shot in the head.

Moderate earthquake strikes south of Mexico City, shaking buildings
The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 5.1 and struck at 3:17 p.m. local time Tuesday (2019 GMT) about 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of the capital. The epicenter was 8 kilometers (5 miles) northwest of the town of Xochistlahuaca in Guerrero state. It had a depth of 30 kilometers (18 miles).

US Embassy Closings Expose Barack Obama’s Lies About Al-Qaeda & Benghazi
How is it that Al Qaeda, the group that Barack Obama stated many times during his re-election campaign were on the run and nearly wiped out, have now, just some 12 months or so later, bloomed into a huge threat that is not isolated but now encompasses nearly the entire Middle East? Obama did state that Al Qaeda was on “a path to defeat” just this past May, and yet it seems they are now powerful enough to cause the closing of scores of U.S. facilities in the very places Obama had stated they were on the run in! Just how can that be? Could that be because Obama is weak?

George Soros-funded Foundations Contribute to Anti-Israel Groups
The report by NGO Monitor tracks the finances of the Open Society Foundations (OSF), which are headquartered in New York City and provide grants to numerous domestic and international programs—including several in the Middle East. OSF’s global network spent almost $910 million in 2012. Several of the OFS-sponsored groups support boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaigns against Israel, equate Israel’s settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with South Africa’s former apartheid regime, and in some cases deny Israel’s right to exist.

Earthquake rattles Greek capital; no injuries, damage reported
ATHENS, Greece - An earthquake which the US Geological Survey says had a preliminary magnitude of 5.1 has rattled central Greece and was felt in the country's capital, Athens. There were no immediate reports of any damage or injuries.

Obama’s Congress Opens With Muslim Imam’s Prayer To Allah
One nation under Allah. On July 31, 2013, Imam Talib Shareef of Masjid Muhammad in Washington, D.C., opened a session of the United States Congress with a prayer on Capitol Hill. This is the America that Obama has been working so hard to create.

Japan says ********* leak worse than thought, government joins clean-up
Highly radioactive water from Japan's crippled ********* nuclear plant is pouring out at a rate of 300 tonnes a day, officials said on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered the government to step in and help in the clean-up. The admission indicates that two and a half years after the plant was hit by a huge earthquake and tsunami, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), which only recently admitted water had leaked at all, has yet come to grips with the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

What caused a giant sinkhole in a Kansas pasture?
“Man had nothing to do with this. This is a God thing,” said Larry Townsend, Wallace County Sheriff. “There’s no oil well around here. There are no irrigation wells anywhere near. This is something that just happened.”

Bird flu strain in China 'passed between humans'
Researchers have reported the first case of human-to-human transmission of the new strain of bird flu that has emerged in China. The British Medical Journal said a 32-year-old woman was infected after caring for her father. Both later died. Until now there had been no evidence of anyone catching the H7N9 virus other than after direct contact with birds.

Obama urges 'wind down' of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
US President Barack Obama has urged a revamp of the housing market that would "wind down" government-owned mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Speaking in Arizona, Mr Obama said action was needed to ensure that the rebounding US property market does not simply "re-inflate the housing bubble". He wants to replace the two lenders with a system leaving the onus of loan risk primarily on the private sector.

The Sun's Magnetic Field is about to Flip
Something big is about to happen on the sun. According to measurements from NASA-supported observatories, the sun's vast magnetic field is about to flip. "It looks like we're no more than 3 to 4 months away from a complete field reversal," says solar physicist Todd Hoeksema of Stanford University. "This change will have ripple effects throughout the solar system."

Disturbing report alleges killings of 450 Kurds in Syria
According to Iranian TV channel Al-Alam, militants from the Jabhat al-Nusra Front attacked the town of Tal Abyad on Monday, killing 120 children and 330 women and elderly near the Turkish border.

Republicans open pre-emptive strikes on Clinton, undecided yet formidable in 2016
The most recent effort came Monday when the Republican National Committee threatened to boycott any presidential primary debates with CNN and NBC unless the networks pull their upcoming TV specials on Clinton's life.

Raising More Benghazigate Questions
Jake Tapper peeked recently into that dark room wherein the Obama Administration and its allies in the MSM have consigned the Benghazigate Scandal. Tapper's was the first and only major report to appear in the MSM, and CNN will air a special on Benghazigate tonight at 10:00 PM EDT. It should be a "must watch" for anyone interested in understanding the event, its genesis, and its consequences. The MSM (except in a blog here) has not touched Tapper's report, and the special may serve as a second prod to get its members off their collective duffs. One little fact Tapper's in piece is being said to have been unreported earlier other than in alternative media: that a total of seven persons were injured in the attacks.

Syrian army kills 62 rebels east of Damascus
Sixty-two rebel fighters were killed in a Syrian army ambush at dawn on Wednesday near the town of Adra, east of Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group opposed to President Bashar al-Assad, said.

California seeks to move inmates to private prisons
California officials say they will seek to move thousands of inmates to private prisons in a last-ditch attempt to avoid releasing violent offenders to ease prison crowding. Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard told The Associated Press on Monday that the state will take the step after the U.S. Supreme Court last week refused to delay a lower court order requiring California to free nearly 10,000 inmates.

Ted Koppel: America's Chronic Overreaction to Terrorism
June 28, 2014, will mark the 100th anniversary of what is arguably the most eventful terrorist attack in history. That was the day that Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb, shot and killed the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. Terrorism, after all, is designed to produce overreaction. It is the means by which the weak induce the powerful to inflict damage upon themselves—and al Qaeda and groups like it are surely counting on that as the centerpiece of their strategy.

World stocks down, Fed official flags stimulus end
World stock markets fell Wednesday, led by a plunge in Japan's benchmark index, as expectations mounted that the U.S. central bank will begin to phase out its monetary stimulus next month.

As al-Qaida grows, leaders remain a global threat
Far from being on the brink of collapse, al-Qaida's core leadership remains a potent threat — and one that experts say has encouraged the terror network's spread into more countries today than it was operating in immediately after 9/11.


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Blue Cross, Aetna, United, Humana Flee Obamacare Exchanges
Major health insurance companies--Blue Cross, Aetna, United, Humana--have decided not to participate in various states in the Obamacare health-insurance exchanges that will be the only place Americans will be able to buy a health insurance plan using the federal subsidies authorized under the Obamacare law.

Surprise! IRS assault on churches started with Holder
The seeds of the IRS targeting of conservative groups were planted by Eric Holder in 2001 when as deputy attorney general under President Bill Clinton he convinced incoming Attorney General John Ashcroft to seize the building of a conservative megachurch, says the church’s retired pastor.

Person-to-Person H7N9 Transmission: First Case Detailed in New Report
The case of a father and daughter in China who both became infected with H7N9 bird flu provides the strongest evidence yet that the virus can transmit from person to person, experts say.

Spectacular filament eruption & Earth directed CME - August 6, 2013
A spectacular filament eruption was observed.... A strong Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) has been seen following this energetic impulsive eruption and it does seem to have an earth-bound component which should impact the Earth late on the August 10.

Earthquake: 3.0 quake strikes near Pine Valley, Calif.
A shallow magnitude 3.0 earthquake was reported Wednesday evening 16 miles from Pine Valley, Calif., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The temblor occurred at 6:15 p.m. at a depth of 3.1 miles.

Ex-Border Patrol Agents Warn: Politicians Helping Cartels in U.S.
In an open letter to the public in late July, several retired Border Patrol agents wrote on behalf of the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers to warn that Mexican drug cartels are actively operating inside the United States spending millions every year to try to build their networks here. They argued that American politicians are protecting their activities as well.

Obama Diminished Presidency by Talking National Security on Leno
"The president of the United States went to a late-night comedy show for his first-ever statement about this increased terror threat. A late-night comedy show." Limbaugh added that though there is "nothing wrong with late-night comedy shows," this "would not have happened with any prior president." "Matters of such consequence, matters of such seriousness would have been dealt with in a far more serious and appropriate way and forum and time of day," Limbaugh said. "There were serious items on the agenda in our relationship with Russia, and all of it was treated as a joke. All of it was treated as unserious, halfhearted, nothing to really be concerned about."

Pakistan Ramadan Massacre: Karachi Motorcycle Bomb Kills Child Footballers
Motorcycle bomb kills 11 victims, mainly children and teenagers...

Obama administration using housing department to compel diversity in neighborhoods
...the Department of Housing and Urban Development is imposing a new rule that would allow the feds to track diversity in America’s neighborhoods and then push policies to change those it deems discriminatory. The policy, "Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing," will require HUD to gather data on segregation and discrimination in every single neighborhood and try to remedy it.

Exclusive: IRS manual detailed DEA's use of hidden intel evidence
Details of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration program that feeds tips to federal agents and then instructs them to alter the investigative trail were published in a manual used by agents of the Internal Revenue Service for two years. The practice of recreating the investigative trail...is now under review by the Justice Department. Two high-profile Republicans have also raised questions about the procedure.

Egypt crisis: US-EU call to end 'dangerous stalemate'
The US and the European Union have called on all sides in Egypt's political crisis to end "a dangerous stalemate" after the interim government said foreign mediation had failed. In a joint statement, they said the Egyptian government bore a special responsibility to begin this process. The army-backed government says it will break up sit-ins in Cairo being held by supporters of ousted President Morsi.

EU refreshes diplomatic contacts with Iran
The EU has reacted to Iran's appeal for better ties with a series of informal meetings and friendly statements. French foreign minister Laurent Fabius met with Iran's ambassador to France, Ali Ahani, in Paris on Tuesday (6 August), while Italy's deputy foreign minister, Lapo Pistelli, the same day went to Tehran for a two-day visit.

Egypt Islamists stage Eid protests after military holds back
Islamist supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi began marching to demand his restoration on Thursday after the military-led authorities that removed him held off from carrying out a threat to clear protest sit-ins by force. Interim President Adli Mansour declared ...that international diplomatic efforts... had failed and...warned protesters to leave their protest camps...

Report: Iran launch site 'likely for testing ballistic missiles'
Iran has built a new rocket launch site which is likely to be used for testing ballistic missiles, The Daily Telegraph cites military analysts as saying. According to the report, satellite images of the structure taken last month and published by IHS Jane’s Military and Security Assessments shows a 23 meters tall launch tower sitting on a launch pad. The images also shows a 125 meters long exhaust deflector.

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Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan 'gunned down pleading pregnant woman'
Nidal Hasan gunned down 13 fellow soldiers including a pregnant woman who pleaded for the life of her unborn child and screamed "My baby, my baby, my baby," a court martial heard. Private Francheska Velez, 21, who had become pregnant while serving in Iraq, was one of those killed in the massacre carried out by Hasan, an American-born Muslim, in a medical building at the Fort Hood military base in Texas on Nov 5, 2009.

Agent: IRS Still Targeting Tea Party Groups
The Internal Revenue Service is still targeting tea party and conservative groups in their applications for tax-exempt status, a full three months after the scandal first erupted. "In plain English, the IRS is still targeting tea party cases," an aide to Rep. Dave Camp, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, told The Washington Examiner.

Hubble Finds Source of Magellanic Stream: Astronomers Explore Origin of Gas Ribbon Wrapped Around Our Galaxy
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have solved a 40-year mystery on the origin of the Magellanic Stream, a long ribbon of gas stretching nearly halfway around our Milky Way galaxy.

African Bishop Anathematizes Episcopal Presiding Bishop
An Anglican Catholic Church (ACC) bishop from Southern Africa has anathematized the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church Katharine Jefferts Schori, saying that she has committed the one unforgiveable sin: that of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. He accused the Episcopal Presiding Bishop of saying that "all the writings of St. Paul are satanically inspired. I pronounce publicly that she is anathema!

Rand Paul OpEd: Obama Should Be Held Accountable For Benghazi
CNN now reports that at least 35 American agents were in Benghazi and the CIA is doing everything possible to prevent them from testifying to Congress. Did Clinton lie because the CIA program was classified? Is it OK to lie to Congress about classified programs? Obama's national intelligence director, James Clapper, lied to the Senate in March of this year when he testified that no American records were being collected by the NSA. He tried to explain his prevarication by saying that he responded in the least untruthful way he knew how because the program was classified.

Obama Lies To Leno: We Don't Have A Domestic Spying Program
Obama tells comedian Jay Leno that "We don’t have a domestic spying program." He made the comment during a taping of Leno's TV show. Obama also says the U.S. is not overreacting by closing some U.S. embassies for a week. The president tells Leno, "The odds of dying in a terrorist attack are a lot lower than they are of dying in a car accident, unfortunately."

Congress Gets Their Obamacare Exemption
When Congress passed the health reform law known as Obamacare in 2010, an amendment required that lawmakers and their staff members purchase health insurance through the online exchanges that the law created. They would lose generous coverage under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.

Snowden link to encrypted email service closes
Two encrypted email services have closed down for reasons linked to US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden. Texas-based Lavabit service has shut down but said legal reasons prevented it explaining why. Correspondents say Lavabit appears to have been in a legal battle to stop US officials accessing customer details.

Obama’s $195 Million Aid Package for Al Qaeda-Led Syrian Rebels
President Barack Obama’s announcement of an additional $195 million in humanitarian and food aid to Syrian rebels came a day after Al Qaeda-linked forces led those same rebels in an offensive that landed them control over a strategic military airport. The aid package is the latest gesture of support...to forces that have become dominated by elements the U.S. has been fighting against since the days following 9/11.

U.S. declares 'unusual mortality event' as dolphin deaths rise
Federal scientists investigating an unusually high number of dead bottlenose dolphins washing up on the East Coast said on Thursday the carcasses are showing up at a rate that is seven times higher than usual. More than 120 dead animals have been discovered since June from New Jersey to Virginia, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service said.

Deadly floods hit central US with Missouri worst affected
Up to three people have died in flash floods that have sparked alerts in several US states. A child was killed and his mother is presumed dead after their car was swept away in Missouri, which has suffered the worst of the deluge. Another woman died as her car drove over a bridge in rapidly rising waters in the same state.

US speaks to Israel over its approval of 147 new settler homes and plans for 949 more
The United States has called Israel over its approval of 147 new West Bank settler homes and its decision to advance plans for 949 other units just one week after direct peace negotiations resumed in Washington. The second round of talks is to be held in Jerusalem on August 14, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki confirmed on Thursday at a press briefing in Washington.

Greek unemployment rate hit record high in May
Greece's unemployment rate hit another record high in May of 27.6%, according to the country's statistics body. The figure, from the Hellenic Statistics Authority, compares with a jobless rate of 23.8% in May last year.

US withdraws diplomats from Lahore consulate in Pakistan
The US has ordered all non-essential government personnel to leave its consulate in the Pakistani city of Lahore. A senior State Department official said the move was in response to a "credible threat" to the consulate. US personnel remaining in Lahore should limit non-essential travel within the country, the official said.

Egypt's coup puts fearful Christians in a corner
It was nighttime and 10,000 Islamists were marching down the most heavily Christian street in this ancient Egyptian city, chanting "Islamic, Islamic, despite the Christians." A half-dozen kids were spray-painting "Boycott the Christians" on walls, supervised by an adult.

Obama’s Putin snub puts new focus on Moscow’s China ties
When leaders of the G20 assemble in St Petersburg next month, all eyes will be on the body language between the host Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama, who this week snubbed the Russian leader by cancelling a separate summit in Moscow. But the cameras will also be keen to capture the chemistry between Mr Putin and Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader who has quietly encouraged the growing rapprochement between the two nations.

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Abortion Clinic Sends Coupons to Low-Income Women, Save $50 on Sundays
An abortion center that’s open seven days a week in Florida is giving away coupons to poor women in a crisis pregnancy so they can save money on their abortions! Florida Right to Life investigated this “open on Sundays” abortion center and learned that one of the doctors at this location is the notorious Dr. James Scott Pendergraft.

Five dead in Indonesian eruption
Five people have been killed in a volcanic eruption on a tiny island in Indonesia, officials have said. Mount Rokatenda, on the island of Palue some 2,000km (1,250 miles) east of Jakarta, spewed ash and rocks hundreds of metres into the air. Disaster officials said hot ash covered a nearby beach, leaving three adults and two children dead.

Food-Stamp Use Rises; Some 15% Get Benefits
Food-stamp use rose 2.4% in the U.S. in May from a year earlier, with more than 15% of the U.S. population receiving benefits. (See an interactive map with data on use since 1990.) One of the federal government’s biggest social welfare programs, which expanded when the economy convulsed, isn’t shrinking back alongside the recovery.

U.S. angry over release of Mexican drug lord
U.S. law enforcement officials expressed outrage over the release from prison of Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero and vowed to continue efforts to bring to justice the man who ordered the killing of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent.

Turkey issues travel alert after pilots abducted in Lebanon
Turkish Foreign Ministry has warned its citizens against non-essential travel to Lebanon and called those already in the country to return home after two Turkish pilot were kidnapped in Beirut on Friday. Earlier in the day, a Turkish Airlines pilot and his assistant were kidnapped in an ambush on a bus in Lebanon's capital of Beirut, a security source told Xinhua.

Americans Giving Up Passports Jump Sixfold as Tougher Rules Loom
Americans renouncing U.S. citizenship surged sixfold in the second quarter from a year earlier as the government prepares to introduce tougher asset-disclosure rules. Expatriates giving up their nationality at U.S. embassies climbed to 1,131 in the three months through June from 189 in the year-earlier period, according to Federal Register figures published today. That brought the first-half total to 1,810 compared with 235 for the whole of 2008.

US embassies to reopen after al-Qaeda terror alert
The US says 18 of the 19 diplomatic missions recently closed due to security threats will reopen on Sunday. The state department says its embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa will stay closed "because of ongoing concerns". The US closed 19 diplomatic missions in the Middle East and Africa last Sunday in response to what it said was a threat of a terrorist attack. The consulate in the Pakistani city of Lahore, which closed after a separate threat, will also not reopen yet.

Barack Obama pledges greater surveillance transparency
President Barack Obama has promised "appropriate reforms" to guarantee greater oversight of controversial US surveillance programmes. At a White House news conference, he proposed "safeguards against abuse", including amending legislation on the collection of telephone data. Mr Obama also urged appointing a lawyer to challenge the government at the nation's secretive surveillance court.

U.S., Russia agree to prepare for Syria peace talks
U.S. and Russian officials agreed on Friday on the need to convene a long-delayed Syrian peace conference in Geneva as soon as possible, but they offered no concrete plan to bring the warring government and rebels to the table.

Calif. faces longer, tough wildfire season
California truly is the Golden State this summer — golden brown — and that has fire officials worried heading into the peak of the wildfire season. It's still weeks before the fire-fanning Santa Ana winds usually arrive and already it's been a brutal fire season, with nearly twice as many acres burned statewide from a year ago, including 18,000 scorched this week in a blaze still raging in the mountains 90 miles east of Los Angeles.

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Iran to Sign New Nuclear Power Plant Deal with Russia – Minister
Iran intends to sign an agreement with Russia soon on the construction of a new nuclear power plant in the Islamic Republic, Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Sunday, citing Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.

Israel to build 1,200 new homes in Jerusalem, West Bank
Israel’s housing minister has given final approval for the construction of 1,187 new housing units in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, just three days before Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are set to resume in Jerusalem. Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) announced Sunday that 793 new apartments would be built in Jerusalem, and 394 in large settlement blocs in the West Bank. “No country in the world takes orders from other countries where it can build and where it can’t,” Ariel said in his statement. “We will continue to market the homes, and to build in the entire country… This is the right thing at the present time, for Zionism and for the economy.”

‘Just Go Ahead and Defy the IRS’: Rep. King Fires Up Conservative Conference, Stands with Non-Profits
In a stirring address, King told the audience that “when we lean across our backyard fence, or when you step up to the pulpit or when you sit in the pew, when you profess the things that we believe in, and you’re a 501(c)3 and you’re afraid of the IRS, just go ahead and defy the IRS on that. “I’ll stand there with you. If we can’t preach the word in America, where can we preach it?”

Putin's antics prompt US to take stock of Russia policy
Vladimir Putin might lead the world’s biggest country and command more nuclear warheads than any other man on the planet, but the Russian leader’s “slouch” makes him look to Mr Obama like a “bored kid in the back of the classroom”. The president’s bluntness carried a straightforward message: the “reset” of US-Russia relations that was a theme of foreign policy in his first term is now itself being reset.

GOP Rep. Schock Claims Majority of House GOP support Cantor's DREAM Act
...Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL) suggested that a majority of House Republicans support granting amnesty through a GOP version of the DREAM Act to young illegal aliens who were brought to America as minors by their parents. Schock, a member of the whip team led by House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, was laying out for constituents his stances on immigration and the House GOP leadership’s plan to deal with the issue later this year.

Mugabe signs secret deal to sell uranium to Tehran
Zimbabwe’s Government has signed an agreement with Iran to sell raw materials for a nuclear weapon in direct breach of international sanctions, a senior government official has told The Times. The move by Harare and Tehran is expected to provoke international outrage because of the attempt to circumvent punitive Western sanctions imposed on the two regimes.

Critics question IRS initiative targeting small businesses
Small business owners across the country are receiving letters from the IRS questioning if they are reporting all of their cash income, in a new push by the agency some are saying could unnecessarily create fear in the small business community. The Wall Street Journal reports the initiative is an attempt to respond to what the agency feels is a widespread failure by small businesses to report all their cash sales.

Obama warns disabled veterans prolonged sequester could put their benefits in jeopardy
President Obama took his case for ending the sequester to hundreds of disabled veterans Saturday, saying he protected their benefits from the “reckless” cuts to the federal budget but suggesting next year might be different. ...“But I want to tell you going forward the best way to protect the VA care you have earned is to get rid of this sequester altogether.”

Egypt crisis: Al-Azhar proposes reconciliation talks
The Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Egypt's top Islamic institution, has begun inviting different political forces to talks on ending the country's political crisis. Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyib hopes to oversee a national reconciliation meeting. Over the past three days, numbers have swelled at two protest camps where people are demanding the reinstatement of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.

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Man in coma after black mob of 50 pummels him
A St. Paul, Minn., man is in a coma today, fighting for his life after a black mob beat him, stripped his clothes off and left him for dead. Even if he recovers, he will have permanent brain damage. Ray Widstrand thought he had nothing to fear from moving into a black neighborhood on the East Side of St. Paul. This young white guy and aspiring filmmaker thought he had nothing to fear when he decided to take a Sunday night stroll through his adopted part of town. Nothing to fear from a crowd of 50 black people fighting outside a nearby party. So he stopped to check it out. Soon, however, the mob’s attention turned on him.

Agencies buying hotel rooms for surge of Mexican illegal immigrants, others released
EXCLUSIVE: A sudden influx of illegal immigrants from Mexico requesting asylum is overwhelming immigration agents in San Diego, forcing agencies to rent hotel rooms for some undocumented families and release others to cities around the U.S. Documents obtained exclusively by Fox News show Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been paying for hotel rooms for dozens of recently arrived families to relieve overcrowding inside the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa, Calif., processing centers.

Mark Carney
Carney has been credited with shielding Canada from the worst effects of the late-2000s financial crisis, and has earned recognition by the Financial Times and Time magazine as a top figure in the financial world.

Peru Earthquake 2013: Strong Quake Hits Off Northern Coast
The U.S. Geological Survey says a strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 has struck off the coast of northern Peru. The quake struck at 4:49 a.m. local time and was centered 58 miles (94 kilometers) west-southwest of the city of Paita. The USGS says it was at the relatively shallow depth of 10 miles (16 kilometers).

Earthquake shakes Darwin from 500km away
It was felt widely across Darwin, and reached as far south as Katherine. Geoscience Australia says the 6.2 magnitude quake originated 500 kilometres north of Darwin, at a depth of 100 kilometres. Darwin resident Mick says he felt his house in the suburb of Malak shaking.

Pope urges respect between Christians, Muslims
Pope Francis departed from his prepared remarks to recall that this coming Thursday is the solemnity of Mary’s Assumption into Heaven and said on that day we will honour Her. He then said he wished to send greetings to Muslims, our brothers, throughout the world...

India launches first home-built aircraft carrier
India has launched its first domestically built aircraft carrier on Monday, joining the world’s military elite. It comes two days after the activation of India’s first nuclear submarine, a move hailed as a "giant stride in technological capabilities.”

Revival in America? Time to Get off the Sidelines!
First there was the removal of the Bible from public schools; then there was the legalization of abortion. And just last month the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in support of same-sex marriage. All of this has evangelical Christians hoping and praying for a spiritual revival in America. But are too many Christians sitting on the sidelines both spiritually and politically?

Saudi prince defects: 'Brutality, oppression as govt scared of Arab revolts'
Saudi Prince Khaled Bin Farhan Al-Saud confirms reports of increased prosecution of anti-government activists and says that it’s exactly what forced him to defect from his family. He accuses the monarchy of corruption and silencing all voices of dissent and explains how the Saudi mechanism for suppression functions.

Air Force Says Drag Acts Symbolize Gay Pride
The U.S. Air Force said that a well-known drag queen group was invited to perform on base during a “Diversity Day” celebration because drag is a “symbol of gay pride and unity. But the performance sparked outrage among some airmen who called the drag show “totally offensive and inappropriate.”

How you're tracked digitally all day (and what you can do about it)
It's not just high-priority targets and would-be terrorists that leave a digital trail as they go about their business — millions of Americans each produce gigabytes of data associated with themselves just by walking down the street, browsing the Internet, and using their mobile phone. PRISM and XKeyscore may be in the news, but we've been tracked by other means for a long time.

This is no way to build trust
While the headlines in Israeli newspapers have dealt extensively with the criticism leveled by the families of victims killed by the prisoners to be released, on the Palestinian side there has been no shortage of voices expressing disappointment in the make-up of the list.

Retailers keeping tabs on consumers' return habits
It's not just the government that might be keeping tabs on you. Many retailers are tracking you, too - or at least your merchandise returns. The companies say it's all in the name of security and fighting fraud. They want to be able to identify chronic returners or gangs of thieves trying to make off with high-end products that are returned later for store credit.

4.8 earthquake near Volcano shakes, wakes Hawaii Island
Hawaii County Civil Defense sent out a quick alert on the quake, which was at first measured at a magnitude 4.6, assuring the public that no tsunami was generated as a result.

Magnitude 5.7 earthquake strikes Tibet: USGS
The epicenter of the quake, which was initially reported as magnitude 6.1, was located 89 miles south-southeast of Qamdo, Xizang Province in China. A magnitude 5.7 quake is considered moderate and capable of causing considerable damage.

5.2 Magnitude Earthquake Nearing Tezu, Arunachal Pradesh, India
As seen below the town of Tezu is has more recently experienced multiple earthquakes ; they have had four earthquakes in the past year with three of them occurring today.

Magnitude 6.3 Earthquake Strikes Kepulauan Babar, Indonesia - USGS
There were no immediate reports of casualties, damages or tsunami. The earthquake struck at 9:35 local time (0053 GMT), 189 kilometers of Saumlaki, Indonesia, at a depth of 92 km, the USGS said.

Sudden Flood of Asylum Requests at U.S./Mexico Border
At the Otay crossing near the San Diego border last Monday, about 200 people coming from Mexico gained entry to the United States all using the same key phrase; they claimed they had a 'credible fear' of drug cartels. According to KSAZ FoxPheonix: So many were doing this that they had to close down the processing center and move the overflow by vans to another station.

6.5 Magnitude Earthquake Struck Maluku Islands in Indonesia
On Monday, an earthquake measuring 6.5 magnitude on the Richter scale struck the Maluku Islands in Indonesia. The Meteorlogy and Geophysics Agency said that there was no potential that a tsunami would result, as the epicenter of the earthquake was very deep. Initial reports mentioned that the earthquake was one of 6.0 magnitude, but a report in The Hindu has raised it to one of 6.5 magnitude.

Israel names 26 Palestinian prisoners for release
Israel's government has given details of 26 long-term Palestinian prisoners to be freed as part of a deal which will see peace talks resume this week. A list of names chosen by a ministerial committee was published overnight. The prisoners will be freed on Tuesday. The delay allows time for last-minute legal challenges by victims' families.

Destruction of Israel guaranteed, ayatollah says
The ayatollah promises a restructuring of the Middle East: “Palestine will be free, have no doubt in this. … Palestinians will return there and there will be a Palestinian government … and that is based on the truth revealed by God. A new Middle East will be … an Islamic Middle East.”

Pope Francis reaches out to Muslims at end of Ramadan
Pope Francis has urged Christians and Muslims to work together to promote mutual respect, particularly by educating new generations of believers. He greeted Muslims around the world during his Sunday blessing of pilgrims gathered in St Peter's Square in Rome. He said that "our brothers'' the Muslims had just concluded their holy month of Ramadan, dedicated to fasting, prayer and alms-giving.

Egypt pro-Morsi protest camps braced for crackdown
Supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi have been preparing for action from the interim authorities after reports emerged of plans to break up two protest camps. An interior ministry source said an operation would begin just before dawn. Egypt's foreign minister said the sit-ins could not continue "endlessly".

Assange says Obama's NSA reform vindicates Snowden
Assange, the head of the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, released a statement Saturday, just a day after Obama drafted steps to reform intelligence gathering measures, CNN reported. Assange has been living in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London for over a year after losing appeals fighting extradition to Sweden for questioning in a sexual assault case.

Egypt braces for bloodshed; police poised to end sit-ins
The military-led government gave no official statement as of early Monday, but Interior Ministry officials told The New York Times and security sources told al-Jazeera police would make their move around daylight, first completely encircling the encampments of tens of thousands of people, including women and children, at Cairo University and Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque.

Pakistan accuses India of shelling, killing man
Pakistan accused Indian troops of shelling its territory along the disputed Kashmir border on Monday and killing a civilian, the latest in a series of allegations by both sides over the past week.

Typhoon Utor leaves 1 dead, 23 missing in Philippines
The strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year flattened houses and triggered landslides in remote towns Monday, killing at least one person and leaving 23 others missing, authorities said. With wind gusts of 200 kilometres (124 miles) an hour, authorities said they feared many people may have died as Typhoon Utor swept across coastal and mountainous regions of the northern Philippines.

Egypt pro-Morsi protest camps braced for crackdown
Supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi have been preparing for action from the interim authorities after reports emerged of plans to break up two protest camps. An interior ministry source said an operation would begin just before dawn. Egypt's foreign minister said the sit-ins could not continue "endlessly". But there was no sign of police activity at the camps outside the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in eastern Cairo and at Nahda Square, to the west.

Israel approves nearly 1,200 more settlement homes
Israel approved building nearly 1,200 more settlement homes Sunday and agreed to release 26 long-held Palestinian security prisoners — highlighting an apparent settlements-for-prisoners trade-off that got both sides back to peace talks after a five-year freeze.

Manila, Washington begin talks to increase U.S. troop rotations
The United States and the Philippines begin formal negotiations this week to increase rotational presence of U.S. forces in the former U.S. colony, deploying aircraft, ships, supplies and troops for humanitarian and maritime security operations.


On Closed Embassies, the Worldwide Travel Alert, and Wimpitude
In April, the city of Boston was effectively under military curfew because two terrorists were on the loose. Now, fears of al-Qaeda attacking has led the U.S. government temporarily to close 21 U.S. embassies in Muslim-majority countries and then issue a worldwide travel alert announcing that “Terrorists may elect to use a variety of means and weapons and target both official and private interests. U.S. citizens are reminded of the potential for terrorists to attack public transportation systems and other tourist infrastructure.”

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Minor Earthquake Charted in Tennessee
The U.S. Geological Survey says a magnitude-3.3 earthquake has been recorded in West Tennessee. The agency's website says the event occurred around 4:45 p.m. CDT Monday about five miles west of Obion. That location would be about 15 miles north of Dyersburg.

400 Surface-to-Air Missiles Were Stolen from Libya and Are Now ‘in the Hands of Some Very Ugly People’, Says Whistleblowers’ Attorney
A former U.S. attorney representing Benghazi whistleblowers is claiming that 400 surface-to-air missiles were “stolen” and “taken from Libya” and are now “in the hands of some very ugly people.” He also said the Obama administration is “deeply concerned” that the weapons may be used to shoot down airliners.

INCREASING CHANCE OF FLARES
Two new sunspots are growing rapidly in the sun's southern hemisphere. One of them, AR1817, is directly facing Earth and poses a threat for X-class solar flares.

How The Corrupt Establishment Is Selling Moral Bankruptcy To America
They must first sell the public on the idea that they hold the exact same values of natural law as everyone else. The public must at first believe that the criminal leaders are pure in their motives and have the best interests of the nation at heart, even if they secretly do not.

‘Sinister’: Turkey Installing Tip Boxes Encouraging Neighbors to Spy on Each Other
The Turkish government is launching a new campaign encouraging neighbors to tattle on each other by placing anonymous notes in boxes to be installed nationwide. The plan has elicited criticism from journalists who are using terms such as “sinister” and “troubling” and comparing the plan to Nazism, Stalinism and the Stasi, saying it will peel away the trust between citizens and will inevitably lead to abuse.

Netanyahu: EU directives undermine efforts to achieve peace
In a meeting with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu attacked the new EU directives restricting interaction with Israeli entities beyond the pre-1967 lines, saying they "undermine efforts to achieve peace."

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory signs voter ID law
North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory has signed into law a controversial bill requiring voters to show photo IDs when they go to the polls. His state becomes the first in the US to impose restrictions on voters since the Supreme Court struck down part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act in June.

For the first time, Iron Dome intercepts missile fired at Eilat
Terrorists fired a missile at Eilat shortly before 1 a.m. on Tuesday morning, triggering an air raid siren and activating the Iron Dome anti-rocket battery, which is stationed at the Red Sea city. The Iron Dome system intercepted at least one missile, according to initial IDF assessments. The incident marked the first time that Iron Dome has ever intercepted a rocket fired at Eilat.

Earthquake damages houses, roads in Tibet
A strong 6.1-magnitude earthquake followed by several aftershocks on Monday hit parts of China's Tibet province, destroying at least 21 homes and damaging 17 others in the remote Himalayan region. However, no casualties have been reported so far.

Poll: Palestinian support for peace down
While a majority of Palestinians support the resumption of peace talks with Israel, their number has decreased since April, a Palestinian poll indicates. A poll conducted by Arab World for Research and Development, based in Ramallah, indicated 67 percent of Palestinians support renewed talks if Israel agrees to a settlement freeze, a 9 percent drop from April.

When It Comes To Internet Porn, The US Is Firmly Ahead Of Everyone
the Top Ten nations and Top Twenty states that serve up the most illicit content... and the winner is U-S-A! 66% of the porn hosted in the US comes from California and interestingly only 0.62% of all porn sites use the ".xxx" domain name. Of course, hard numbers are tough to come by, but as ExtremeTech illustrates, Xvideos - the largest porn site on the web - gets a stunning 4.4 billion page-views per month...

Video shows child praying to Barack Obama
A controversial YouTube video posted Sunday by Fox News’ Todd Starnes shows a child praying to Barack Obama. “Barack Obama, thank you for doing everything and all the kind stuff,” the young boy starts. “Thank you for all the stuff that you helped us with. Thank you for taking the courage and all the responsibility for everything you have done for us and God has gave you special powers.”

Russia says Syria peace talks unlikely before October
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said more talks were expected at the end of August on preparing the so-called Geneva-2 conference, aimed at bringing Syrian rebels and President Bashar al-Assad's government together. "It (the peace conference) is unlikely to happen in September because there are different events, including the 'ministerial week' at the U.N. General Assembly," Gatilov told Interfax news agency.

The Rise Of The Bear: 18 Signs That Russia Is Rapidly Catching Up To The United States
The Russian Bear is stronger and more powerful than it has ever been before. Sadly, most Americans don't understand this. They still think of Russia as an "ex-superpower" that was rendered almost irrelevant when the Cold War ended. And yes, when the Cold War ended Russia was in rough shape.

Earthquake in NE Bulgaria causes material damages
Cracks on buildings’ walls have been registered in the region of the town of Devnya, Northeast Bulgaria, after the earthquake that stirred up the region at around 9 a.m. this morning. Mayor of Devnya, Atanas Kuzev, announced the news

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Magnitude 5.1 Earthquake Hits Mexico City, No Damages Reported
The epicenter of the earthquake was registered near Mexico's southwestern coast in Ometepec, Guerrero around 11:50 Tuesday morning. No damages have been reported from the earthquake.

EU: "Reports of Egyptian Deaths Extremely Alarming"
The European Union issued a statement regarding the reports of numerous casualties among protesters in Egypt. The EU called the reports "extremely alarming" and called for restraint by Egyptian authorities.

Warning: cyber attack will trigger bank crash
The financial industry is preparing for a massive attack by Islamist hackers. In a study of the American Clearinghouse DTCC acknowledges: The financial system has become too complex to operate it safely. The enigmatic travel warning, the U.S. could have to do with the fear of Americans just before this bank crash.

Snowden: NSA targeted journalists critical of government after 9/11
Edward Snowden accused the National Security Agency of targeting reporters who wrote critically about the government after the 9/11 attacks and warned it was “unforgivably reckless” for journalists to use unencrypted email messages when discussing sensitive matters.

Networks Do 92 Climate Change Stories; Fail to Mention 'Lull' in Warming All 92 Times
Stories citing experts or the latest studies promoting alarmism get covered more than 8 times as often as critical experts and studies. Although many scientists say no, ABC, CBS and NBC continue to link weather events like tornadoes, hurricanes, heat waves and more to climate change nearly one-fourth of the time.

America Is #1 at Something — Unfortunately, It’s Porn Websites
America is once again leading the world at manufacturing something, unfortunately it’s not cars, or the latest smart phones or tablet computers. We’re leading the world in the hosting of internet porn websites. And we lead by a lot. ...the USA hosts 60 percent of all the porn websites online. That figure translates to 428 million webpages. The next closest on the porn hosting list...is the Netherlands.

CIA Director Brennan Confirmed as Reporter Michael Hastings Next Target
This week Elise Jordan, wife of famed journalist Michael Hastings, who recently died under suspicious circumstances, corroborated this reporter's sources that CIA Director, John Brennan was Hastings next exposé project (CNN clip). Last month a source provided San Diego 6 News with an alarming email hacked from super secret CIA contractor Stratfor’s President Fred Burton. The email (link here) was posted on WikiLeaks and alleged that then Obama counter-terrorism Czar Brennan, was in charge of the government's continued crackdown or witch-hunt on investigative journalists.

Israel launches Gaza air raid after rocket attack
The Israeli air force targeted rocket launch sites in Gaza hours before the resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians, after rockets were fired from the area, the Israeli army said. "The raid targeted two rocket launch sites after rockets were fired on Tuesday from the Gaza Strip, one of which exploded on Israeli territory," said an army spokesman. No one was injured in the attack.

Mexico Earthquake Today 2013: 5.3 Magnitude Terremoto Hits Ometepec
Officials tell news that a 5.3 magnitude Mexico earthquake today struck just after 9:50 am local time. The quake had a moderate depth. It struck just twenty-one miles below ground level. As a result the quake could be felt across the vicinity.

No damage reported after quake off Colombia coast
The U.S. Geological Survey put the intensity of the quake at a higher magnitude of 6.7 and said it happened at a shallower depth of 10 km (six miles).

Israel-Palestinian talks set to resume in Jerusalem
The first direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in three years are set to begin in Jerusalem. Few details have been released about the location, timing or agenda of the talks and both sides have been cautious about achieving any breakthrough. Overnight, Israel freed 26 Palestinian prisoners as part of the deal to restart negotiations.

Panama: UN probes North Korea arms shipment
UN officials have begun inspecting an arms shipment found on a North Korean ship, Panama's security minister says. The Chong Chon Gang was seized last month on the Panama Canal. Inspectors looking for drugs found Cuban arms and two Soviet-made MiG-21 fighter jets. Cuba says the weapons were being sent to North Korea for refurbishment.

Switzerland nominates Hezbollah advocate for UN Human Rights Council
The Swiss government has nominated Jean Ziegler–-a former Social Democratic MP who has praised Hezbollah as a legitimate national movement–- to serve as an adviser to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The formal notification of Ziegler’s nomination to UN diplomats took place last week, sparking sharp criticism on Monday from a UN watchdog group.

Zimbabwe: Robert Mugabe claims mandate for 'black empowerment' asset grab
President Robert Mugabe said today that his party had won “a resounding mandate” from voters to complete a sweeping “black empowerment” programme, taking over foreign and white-owned assets.

Departure of UN chemical experts to Syria delayed
UN chemical weapons experts have delayed a trip to Syria because the United Nations and the Syrian government haven’t agreed on arrangements for the investigation of alleged chemical weapons use, a spokesman for the world body said Tuesday.

Celebrations in Gaza, West Bank for freed Palestinian prisoners
Twenty six convicted Palestinian terrorists were freed by Israel overnight Tuesday, and welcomed home to the West Bank and Gaza, as part of the US-brokered deal that enabled the resumption of peace talks.

What Global Warming? 2012 Data Confirms Earth In Cooling Trend
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently released its “State of the Climate in 2012” report, which states that “worldwide, 2012 was among the 10 warmest years on record.” But the report “fails to mention [2012] was one of the coolest of the decade, and thus confirms the cooling trend,” according to an analysis by climate blogger Pierre Gosselin.

Netanyahu: Threat from Iran ‘dwarfs’ other challenges
The threat of Iran attaining nuclear weapons “dwarfs” the other security challenges facing Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday night, at the start of talks with the visiting US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey.

Egyptian troops move against pro-Morsi camps; deaths reported
Casualties have been reported after Egyptian security forces moved on Wednesday to clear two sit-in camps that have sprung up in Cairo in support of ousted President Mohammed Morsi, state television and security officials said.

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Hamas claims Abbas agreed to security fence border, forfeited right of return
In a statement published on its official website, the Islamic movement claimed that Abbas and Kerry agreed that the security barrier built by Israel will constitute the provisional border of the future Palestinian state and that the PA would agree to allow only a token number of Palestinian refugees into the West Bank. (The security barrier takes in about 7% of the West Bank.)

Danish Psychologist: “Serious consequences of Muslim inbreeding”
Muslim culture still practices inbreeding and has been doing so for the better part of 1400 years. Consanguineous marriages were originally sanctioned by Islam’s prophet Muhammed, who had a very liberal view on men’s sexual relationships. In addition his many sex slaves, he married several cousins, the divorced wife of his own adopted son and the six year old Aisha, with whom he had sex with when she was nine.

More 'Fast and Furious' weapons appear at Mexico crime scenes
First reported earlier this week that the guns had been tracked down. According to Justice Department documents, all three are described as WASR-10 .762-caliber Romanian rifles and all three were traced to a gun shop in Glendale, Arizona. The exact locations where the guns were recovered, and what crimes the guns may have been used in, was not immediately clear.

Egypt's Churches Aflame as Brotherhood Targets Christians
Muslim Brotherhood fanatics are taking their frustrations out on Egypt's Coptic Christians, burning their churches and homes.

Remote Alaska volcano emits lava flow, ash plume
Scientists at the Alaska Volcano Observatory say seismic activity and satellite imagery indicated Veniaminof (VEN'-ee-ah-mean-off) Volcano was again emitting a low-level lava flow after a week's hiatus. There also have been a few short ash plumes since the volcano began erupting in June. The largest of those happened Monday with a plume up to 12,000 feet before it quickly dissipated.

Christians Who Were Arrested for Reading Their Bible In Front of Calif. DMV Found ‘Not Guilty’
Two Christians who were arrested and charged after reading the Bible outside of a DMV location in Hemet, Calif., have been found not guilty. As TheBlaze previously reported, Mark Mackey, 60, a member of Reconciled Christian Fellowship and Pastor Bret Coronado, 44, were facing misdemeanor charges after reading the gospel outside of the public building back in 2011.

Lingering heat wave in Japan leaves 19 dead, 9,800 in hospital
At least 19 people are dead and 9,800 hospitalized in Japan as a heat wave drove temperatures to record levels, officials said. The southern city of Shimanto recorded a 104 degree temperature for a record fourth day, Jiji Press reported Wednesday. By 4 p.m. Tuesday, 650 of 927 observation points had recorded temperatures of 86 degrees or higher.

Million Muslim March Planned in DC on Anniversary of 9-11
A group called The American Muslim Political Action Committee (AMPAC) is planning a one million Muslims march to Washington D.C. on September 11th. The timing of the group's march is seen by many as tasteless (to say the least) considering it is scheduled for the anniversary of the worst domestic massacre in American history perpetrated in the name of Islam. AMPAC ups the tasteless quotient by issuing "demands" for the American government...

DC Obamacare exchange awards $375k grant to Planned Parenthood
Washington, D.C.’s health insurance exchange has awarded a $375,000 grant to abortion provider Planned Parenthood to help enroll participants in Obamacare, the exchange announced on Tuesday. As part of its effort to boost enrollment in the exchange created by President Obama’s health care law, the D.C. Health Benefit Exchange doled out $6.4 million to 35 DC-based groups.

Mideast peace talks 'long and serious,' Israel says
The first direct Mideast peace talks in five years were "long and serious," Jerusalem said before U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's follow-up visit Thursday. "The meeting between the teams of negotiators ended near midnight," a spokeswoman for Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Israel's chief negotiator, said in a Twitter message. "Both parties described the meeting as a long and serious one and were determined to continue the talks soon," Mia Bengel said.

Brotherhood vows to continue protests as death toll breaks 500
Egypt faced a new phase of uncertainty on Thursday after the bloodiest day since its Arab Spring began, with 525 people reported killed and thousands injured as police smashed two protest camps of supporters of the deposed Islamist president.

UN team to investigate alleged chemical attacks in Syria
The UN says weapons inspectors are to depart shortly for Syria to investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons. Under an agreement reached with Damascus, the UN team is to visit three sites over two weeks, including a northern town at the centre of allegations of chemical weapons use. Some 26 people were killed in the attacks in Khan al-Assal in March.

Talks resume as Israel frees Palestinians, pursues settlements
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators reconvened U.S.-brokered peace talks in Jerusalem on Wednesday amid little fanfare and low expectations, dogged by plans for more Jewish settler homes on occupied land. An Israeli official, who declined to be named and who was briefed on the talks that were held at an undisclosed Jerusalem location, described them as serious and said the parties agreed to meet again soon.

Netanyahu to Dempsey: Iranian Threat Dwarfs All the Others
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met on Tuesday evening in the Prime Minister’s Residence with the U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin E. Dempsey. Dempsey arrived in Israel on Monday for a visit that will deal with the Syrian civil war and Sinai terrorism. During the visit, General Dempsey met with IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz and other IDF commanders to discuss cooperation and common security challenges.

EU diplomat: Egyptian army rejected peace plan
The EU's special envoy to the Middle East, Bernardino Leon, has said the Egyptian army rejected a peace deal with the Muslim Brotherhood a few hours before the killing in Cairo began. He told Reuters that he and US diplomat William Burns in recent days brokered an agreement between the military and the brothers on how to end their month-long sit-ins in two city squares.

US weighs canceling military exercise with Egypt
The United States is considering calling off a major military exercise with the Egypt after Egyptian security forces killed scores of protesters on Wednesday, US officials said. The bloodshed appears to have forced US President Barack Obama's administration to consider adopting a more muscular stance toward the Egyptian military, which toppled Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, on July 3.

Former aide: Obama played cards during bin Laden raid
“Most people were like down in the Situation Room and [the president] was like, ‘I’m not going to be down there, I can’t watch this entire thing.’ So he, myself, Pete Souza, the White House photographer, Marvin [Nicholson], we must have played 15 games of spades,” former Obama aide Reggie Love said at an event in Los Angeles sponsored by The Artists & Athletes Alliance in July.

What can Israel do about Egypt?
...Israel is following events in Egypt with great trepidation, in the knowledge that there is little it can do. But it is not entirely impotent: Israel has been engaging in some diplomatic lobbying...with the intent of persuading those governments against rushing to step up their condemnation of the latest Egyptian military operation to remove the pro-Muslim Brotherhood protesters from the streets of Cairo and other cities.

Bloody reckoning: Crisis-torn Egypt’s future on a knife edge after crackdown on Islamists
The Egyptian military’s crackdown on supporters of ex-President Mohamed Morsi has plunged the world’s most populous Arab nation into its worst violence for decades. The country is teetering between a return to Mubarak-era autocracy and civil war.

CORONAL HOLE
A coronal hole has formed in the sun's northern hemisphere, and it is spewing solar wind into space. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed the UV-dark gap during the early hours of August 14th.



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16 Aug 13

Muslim group blasted for planning mass demonstration on Sept. 11
Critics say a Muslim group picked the wrong day – Sept. 11 - to march on Washington to complain about religious profiling and President Obama’s handling of an investigation into the terror attacks that rocked America 12 years ago.

NSA documents challenge Obama claim that surveillance programs ‘not abused’
The Washington Post reported on an audit and other secret documents that allegedly show the NSA broke privacy rules and overstepped its authority thousands of times since it was granted new powers in 2008. The May 2012 audit specifically tallied 2,776 incidents from the prior year where communications were improperly gathered and handled. Some of the alleged abuses were inadvertent, stemming from typos and other errors, while others were more severe.

California Considers Punishing Youth Groups Against Homosexuality as ‘Bathroom Bill’ Becomes Law
On the same day that the governor of California signed a bill into law mandating that boys who identify as girls be allowed to use girls’ bathrooms and vice versa, a California committee approved legislation which would cause any non-profit organizations that do not embrace homosexuals to lose tax-exempt status.

Video: Obama Backed Militants Execute Teenage Boys
A shocking new video out of Syria shows Obama-backed militants executing two teenage boys whom they accused of supporting the Assad regime, yet another reminder that the White House is arming jihadist extremists.

Rodger Wilson volcano overview of August 15
Veniaminof volcano (Alaska Peninsula) (station VNWF) rumbles-on today with strong volcanic tremor and presumably, eruptive activity. Earthquake activity continues both at and near Cascade arc (WA and OR) volcanoes: Mounts Saint Helens, Rainier and Hood. Earthquake activity has recently also become more frequent near Lassen Peak volcano (Cascade arc) (CA). Small earthquakes continue along the southern boundary of Long Valley Caldera (CA) (station MCM) today as well.

Is Everybody Blind?’: City Council Meeting Erupts in Applause After Ex-Marine Issues Dire Warning About U.S. ‘Building a Domestic Army’
A former member of the United States Marine Corps on Monday night voiced his serious concerns about the U.S. “building a domestic Army” during a local city council meeting in Concord, N.H. In his impassioned testimony, the ex-Marine said he believes that the recent push for local police forces to bulk up on military-grade equipment is disturbing and represents a very real threat to Americans.

EU officials to hold crisis meeting on Egypt
High-level European officials will hold a crisis meeting to consider actions to take in response to Egypt's bloody crackdown on protesters, a spokesman said. The decision to hold the Monday meeting came the same day Britain, France and Germany summoned the Egyptian ambassadors in their respective countries, and EU member Denmark said it cut off $5.3 million in annual job aid to Egypt.

Islamists take to streets across Cairo in ‘Day of Rage’ against army
Tanks deploy around capital ahead of expected return to violent clashes between pro-Morsi supporters and Egyptian forces

Quantum Teleportation: Transfer of Flying Quantum Bits at the Touch of a Button
By means of the quantum-mechanical entanglement of spatially separated light fields, researchers in Tokyo and Mainz have managed to teleport photonic qubits with extreme reliability. This means that a decisive breakthrough has been achieved some 15 years after the first experiments in the field of optical teleportation. The success of the experiment conducted in Tokyo is attributable to the use of a hybrid technique in which two conceptually different and previously incompatible approaches were combined.

COLORFUL SPRITES OVER NEBRASKA
First documented in 1989 by scientists from the University of Minnesota who photographed strange flashes coming out of the tops of thunderstorms, sprites remain a mystery today. Neither their basic physics nor their effect on the surrounding atmosphere is well understood.

GEOMAGNETIC UNREST
A high-speed solar wind stream is buffeting Earth's magnetic field, and this is causing minor geomagnetic storms around the poles.

World powers condemn Egypt bloodshed, as death toll rises to 525
Egypt’s military rulers on Thursday faced international condemnation over the bloody crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood protesters, with France warning of the threat of “civil war” and Turkey demanding UN action. At least 525 people were killed in Wednesday’s assaults on two Cairo protest camps of supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in the worst violence the country has seen in decades. The United States led global condemnations overnight against the “deplorable” violence, while Paris, London and Berlin have summoned Egypt’s ambassadors to voice their strong concern. Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for an urgent UN Security Council meeting over Egypt’s “massacre” of Morsi supporters.

If This Guy Is What The Future Of America Looks Like, We Are In Big Trouble
Should taxpayer dollars be used to buy sushi and lobster for a young man whose future plans consist entirely of surfing and partying as much as he possibly can? When I first saw the video that I am about to share with you, I was absolutely floored.

Indonesia: Evangelists Sentenced to Three Years in Prison
Kashfi and Jalaudin, two Christian brothers, were sentenced to three years in prison on Aug. 2, 2013, after being convicted of "evangelizing Muslims," Voice of the Martyrs reports. On March 20, 2013, their home was attacked by an angry mob of about 200 Muslims. Police stopped the attack on their home and then arrested the two brothers. The brothers were convicted despite their lawyers' insistence in court that the trial violated their human rights.

Edward Snowden documents show NSA broke privacy rules
The US National Security Agency (NSA) broke privacy rules and overstepped its legal authority thousands of times in the past two years, according to documents leaked by Edward Snowden. The incidents resulted in the unauthorised electronic surveillance of US citizens, according to documents published by the Washington Post. Mr Snowden, a former NSA contractor, has leaked top secret documents to the US and British media.

Egypt crisis: Defiant Muslim Brotherhood plans marches
The Egyptian capital Cairo is poised for renewed protests by supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi. They are expected to take place two days after authorities broke up Muslim Brotherhood protest camps in Cairo with the loss of at least 638 lives. Mr Morsi's supporters plan to converge on central Ramses Square from city mosques after Friday prayers.

Rumors Of 10 Year Peace Accord – Will It Be Reduced To A Prophetically Significant 7?
Hamas on Wednesday claimed it had obtained the contents of meetings held between US Secretary of State John Kerry and PA President Mahmoud Abbas last month, with an outline of proposed agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.

Obama tells Egypt 'traditional cooperation cannot continue'
US President Barack Obama notified the Egyptian military by phone on Thursday that “traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual” between the two nations so long as civilian demonstrators are being shot and killed in the streets of Egypt. ...Obama lamented that Egypt’s military has chosen to walk down a “dangerous path,” as the death toll climbed past 550 and thousands more were reported wounded in two days of bloodshed.

Iran appoints new nuclear program chief
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani appointed outgoing Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi to head the Atomic Energy Organization on Friday...replacing a hardliner with a so-called pragmatist to take charge of Tehran's nuclear program. Rouhani, described a relative moderate ...has pledged to improve Iran's ties with the outside world and ease stringent international sanctions on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program.

Major earthquake rocks New Zealand
WORKERS have fled New Zealand's capital, Wellington, after a severe earthquake measuring a magnitude of 6.6 rocked the nation. New Zealanders huddled under desks as strong tremors struck the country -- as far north as Auckland and as far south as Dunedin -- at around 2:31pm local time.

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Earthquake shakes Mexican capital
An earthquake has shaken Mexico's capital with authorities putting it at a moderate magnitude of 5.3.

Gunmen Indiscriminately ‘Massacre’ Christians in Syrian Village, Women & Children Among Dead
Gunmen shot dead 11 people, mostly Christians, in central Syria on Saturday...A witness described what appeared to be a sectarian attack indiscriminately targeting members of the minority. A resident in the area told The Associated Press that the gunmen randomly opened fire on a street as Christians were celebrating a feast day. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Middle East Expert Erick Stakelbeck Warns: ‘There Is a Bullseye on the Back of Every Christian Living in Egypt’
Erick Stakelbeck, author of “The Brotherhood: America’s Next Great Enemy,” discussed the widespread attacks on Christians in Egypt in recent days on TheBlaze TV on Friday. “Christians, in the birthplace of Christianity, are on the run,” he said. “What we’re seeing right now in Egypt is literally a pogrom, where Christians are systematically being targeted.”

Breast implants suicide bomb threat: Heathrow on high alert over “credible” intelligence
Heathrow Airport is on high terror alert amid fears women suicide bombers are ready to strike with ­explosives concealed in breast implants. Security checks have been beefed up after “credible” intelligence that al-Qaeda is plotting attacks on airlines flying out of London. One staff member said: “There are genuine fears over this.

Iraq seeks help from US amid growing violence
A resurgence of violence and a renewed threat from al-Qaida have recently revived flagging U.S. interest in Iraq, officials said Friday as Baghdad asked for new help to fight extremists less than two years after it forced American troops to withdraw.

Israel Keeps a Wary Eye on Turmoil in Egypt
Before the violence this week in Cairo, the Israeli government was quietly pleased with the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi and the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, which has always been hostile to Israel. But now the mass killings have left Israel in the uncomfortable position of being a spectator to the crisis unfolding in Egypt, though one with a huge stake in the outcome.

Beirut bomb: Hezbollah's Nasrallah blames Sunni radicals
The leader of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group, Hassan Nasrallah, says radical Sunni Muslim militants bombed a Beirut suburb, killing 22 people. Mr Nasrallah's Shia group supports the government of President Assad in the civil war in neighbouring Syria. "I will go myself to Syria if it is necessary in the battle against the takfiris (Sunni radicals)," Mr Nasrallah said, on his own TV channel.

Brotherhood claims spritual leader’s son killed in Cairo clashes
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood says a son of its spiritual leader was killed during fierce clashes in downtown Cairo, as hundreds of Islamists supporters of the country’s ousted president remained barricaded inside a mosque. The group’s political arm said on its official website on Saturday that Mohammed Badei’s son Ammar was killed on Friday. That’s when the Muslim Brotherhood took to the streets in a “Day of Rage” ignited by anger at security forces over clearing two sit-in camps earlier in the week, leaving hundreds dead.

Area 51 'declassified' in U-2 spy plane history
The CIA has officially acknowledged the secret US test site known as Area 51, in a newly unclassified internal history of the U-2 spy plane programme.

Egypt crisis: Tense stand-off at Cairo mosque
Egyptian security forces have surrounded a mosque in the capital, Cairo, amid a stand-off with barricaded Muslim Brotherhood supporters. Dozens remain, refusing to believe the authorities' pledge of a safe exit. The tense stand-off follows a day of bloody clashes on Friday in which more than 80 people died and 1,000 Brotherhood supporters were arrested.

Christie gives conditional OK to broader medicinal marijuana use
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a potential 2016 presidential contender, gave conditional approval to legislation that would allow wider use of medicinal marijuana in his state Friday, including making it available to children in edible form.

1,600 Idaho homes evacuated as wildfire grows
Evacuation orders were expanded to 1,600 homes Friday as a growing Idaho wildfire burned near the Sun Valley resort area, a second home to the rich and famous. "Pack your essential belongings, family and pets, and GO NOW," the Blaine County Sheriff's Office instructed residents as the 100-square-mile Beaver Creek Fire burned near the central Idaho mountain resort and the the towns of Hailey and Ketchum.


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UN inspectors arrive in Damascus on chemical probe
U.N. inspectors arrived Sunday in the Syrian capital on a mission to investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons, as Syria's government vowed to fully cooperate with them. Syrian plainclothes security men whisked away the 20-member team, led by Swedish chemical weapons expert Ake Sellstrom, from a crush of waiting reporters and cameramen as they arrived at their five-star hotel in the heart of Damascus. Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad told the Associated Press before their arrival that Syria will "fully cooperate" with the team.

Philadelphia Borrows So Its Schools Open on Time
Just a month after Detroit became the largest American city to file for bankruptcy, and with major cities like Chicago and Los Angeles struggling, this former manufacturing behemoth is also edging toward a financial precipice. But here the troubles are centered on the cash-starved public schools system.

Judge approves man's sterilisation in legal first
A High Court judge has sanctioned the sterilisation of a man "in his best interests" in a landmark legal ruling. The 36-year-old, from the Midlands, has learning difficulties and already has a son, born in 2010, with his girlfriend. Mrs Justice Eleanor King ruled that a vasectomy could take place after hearing that another child could cause the man "psychological harm".

IDF strikes Syrian army post following mortar shells falling on Golan
The IDF fired a Tamuz surface-to-surface missile at a Syrian army post on Saturday, after several Syrian mortar shells exploded in the Golan Heights. The Tamuz - a guided missile - accurately struck its target. Earlier on Saturday, Syrian shells fell in open areas on the Golan Heights, near the Israeli-Syrian border. No injuries or damages were reported.

US House Majority Leader Cantor: America should not cut aid to Egypt
Now is not the time for the US to cut off military assistance to Egypt, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) told The Jerusalem Post on Friday. Cantor, heading a 28-member Republican congressional delegation on a one-week trip to Israel that concluded on Saturday night, said that US military assistance to Egypt was “obviously strategically important for a number of reasons.”

Radioactive Water Leaking From ********** Why Millions Of Lives Are At Stake
In lieu of the Japanese government doing the right thing and finally coming clean about the epic environmental catastrophe that is ********** which it hopes to simply dig under the rug even as the inconvenient reality gets worse and thousands of tons of radioactive water make their way into the ocean, one is forced to rely on third-party sources for information on this tragedy.

Syrian Rebels Kill 11, Mainly Christians, in Checkpoint Attack
Syrian rebels killed at least 11 people, including civilians, in an attack on a checkpoint west of the city of Homs on Saturday that official state media described as a massacre.

Massive Flooding Hits Russia's Far East
The worst flooding in more than a century is ravaging Russia's Far East, displacing thousands near the Amur River, which forms the border with northeastern China. Russian authorities say 17,000 people had been evacuated by Saturday, and warned that figure could reach 100,000 in the coming days.

Mexican army captures leader of Gulf cartel
The leader of the Gulf cartel, one of Mexico's oldest drug-running organizations, was captured by the Mexican army Saturday, officials said, dealing a new blow to a decades-old enterprise whose power has waned in recent years with the rise of other criminal groups.

Lawyer: Cleric cleared in Pakistan blasphemy case
A Pakistani court on Saturday dismissed charges against a cleric who accused a young Christian girl of blasphemy and who was arrested last year for allegedly forging evidence against her, his lawyer said.

Sunni leader: Hezbollah dragging Lebanon into war
One of Lebanon's most powerful Sunni politicians accused the leader of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah on Saturday of dragging the country further into neighboring Syria's civil war.

Iran has 18,000 uranium centrifuges, says outgoing nuclear chief
Iran has installed 18,000 uranium-enrichment centrifuges, the country's outgoing nuclear chief was quoted as saying by Iranian media on Saturday. The U.S. and its Western allies are pressing Iran to curb its uranium enrichment program, which they suspect is aimed at developing a nuclear weapons capability, but Iran refuses and insists its nuclear activity is for purely peaceful purposes.

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NSA documents challenge obama claim that surveillance programs not abused
Newly uncovered documents directly challenge statements made by President Obama and other officials who insisted that the National Security Agency was not abusing its authority or knowingly violating Americans' privacy. The Washington Post reported on an audit and other secret documents that allegedly show the NSA broke privacy rules and overstepped its authority thousands of times since it was granted new powers in 2008.

New earthquake country: Youngstown
Since records began in 1776, the people of Youngstown, Ohio, had never experienced an earthquake. However, from January 2011 to February of last year, 109 tremors were recorded and new research published in the journal in Geophysical Research-Solid Earth points to shale fracking as a possible culprit.

Spying on Its Own: The NSA's Deep Bag of Tricks
Spy on US citizens? We don't do that, the American government claimed. But new NSA documents published by the Washington Post show that the intelligence service violates the law in thousands of instances. Analysts with the agency are free to pick targets as they choose.

Egypt turmoil deepens; militants kill 25 policemen
Islamic militants on Monday ambushed two mini-buses carrying off-duty policemen in the northern region of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, killing 25 of them execution-style in a brazen daylight attack that deepens the turmoil roiling the country and underscores the volatility of the strategic region.

Israel quietly maintains ties with Egyptian army
Israel is quietly and carefully watching the turmoil in neighboring Egypt while maintaining close contacts with the Egyptian military amid concerns that the escalating crisis could weaken their common battle against Islamic militants in the Sinai Peninsula, officials said.

M, F or Blank: 'Third Gender' Official in Germany from November
The option of selecting "blank", in addition to the standard choices of "male" or female" on birth certificates will become available in Germany from November 1. The legislative change allows parents to opt out of determining their baby's gender, thereby allowing those born with characteristics of both sexes to choose whether to become male or female in later life. Under the new law, individuals can also opt to remain outside the gender binary altogether.

Voyager 1 Has Left the Solar System
Voyager 1 appears to have at long last left our solar system and entered interstellar space, says a University of Maryland-led team of researchers.

Israel urges Europe, U.S. to support Egypt
Israel will intensify efforts this week, urging Europe and the United States to back the interim Egyptian government and army, a senior Israeli official said. The Egyptian army is the only hope to prevent further chaos in Cairo, the senior Israeli official told The New York Times Sunday.

Why The 2,776 NSA Violations Are No Big Deal
Thanks to more documents leaked by Edward Snowden, this time to the Washington Post, we learned last week that a secret May 2012 internal audit by the NSA revealed 2,776 incidents of “unauthorized” collection of information on American citizens over the previous 12 months. They are routinely breaking their own rules and covering it up. The Post article quotes an NSA spokesman assuring the paper that the NSA attempts to identify such problems “at the earliest possible moment.” But what happened to all those communications intercepted improperly in the meantime? The answer is, they were logged and stored anyway.

Russia’s Far East hit by biggest floods in 120 years
Floods are currently affecting over 32,500 locals living in over 5,000 homes. Over 17,000 residents have already left the area over the disaster. Viktor Ishayev, Russia’s Minister for the Far East, said that "in the worst-case scenario up to 100,000 people could be evacuated" from the Amur, Khabarovsk and Jewish Autonomous Regions.

Islamist mob parades nuns in Cairo as prisoners of war...
A mob marched nuns through the battle-torn streets of Cairo ‘like prisoners of war’ in the latest outrage against Egypt’s Christian minority. Sister Manal, principal of a Franciscan school in suburban Cairo, watched for six hours as a mob looted the building, knocked the cross off the gate and replaced it with a black banner resembling the flag of Al Qaeda.

American al-Qaeda terrorist urges attacks on US diplomats
An American al-Qaeda terrorist has called for more attacks on Western diplomats in the Arab world, praising the killers of the US ambassador to Libya on Sept. 11 last year, a US-based monitoring group said on Sunday. Western nations shut embassies across the Middle East and North Africa early this month, after a warning of a possible terror attack.

Sakurajima Volcano Erupts in Japan: Largest Eruption in Decades Sends Ash Plume Thousands of Feet High
Sakurajima, one of Japan's most active volcanoes, experienced one of its most powerful eruptions in decades Sunday, sending an ash plume thousands of feet into the air.

Russia battles huge far east flood - 20,000 evacuated
More than 20,000 people have been evacuated from flood-stricken areas in Russia's far east, where the Amur river has burst its banks after heavy rain. The army and emergency workers have set up 166 temporary shelters across three regions, providing drinking water, hot food and medical supplies, RIA Novosti news agency reports. But Russian Vesti TV reports that many people do not want to be evacuated.

New Zealand gay couples hold first weddings
The first same-sex weddings have taken place in New Zealand after the country became the first in the Asia-Pacific region and 14th in the world to legalise same-sex marriage. Thirty-one same-sex couples had been due to marry on Monday, according to the Department of Internal Affairs. It comes after New Zealand's parliament passed a bill in April amending the country's 1955 marriage act.

Many dead as floods and rainfall hit China
At least 91 people have died and 111 are missing after days of torrential rain and floods in north-east and southern China, state media report. More than 840,000 people have been evacuated from Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning and Guangdong provinces. Almost eight million people are thought to be affected by the floods.

‘Israel intensifying bid to rally support for Egypt military rule’
It’s ‘army or anarchy,’ Israeli official tells NY Times, rebuffing claims that Jerusalem is ‘undercutting’ Western efforts.

Magnitude 5.6 earthquake hits South Cotabato
A magnitude-5.6 quake struck South Cotabato province early Monday, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said in an update.

Egypt army on high alert in Sinai, Gaza border said shut following deadly ambush
Egyptian authorities on Monday were on high alert after suspected Islamist militants killed at least 24 Egyptian policemen in the Sinai peninsula... Egyptian daily Al-Ahram quoted security officials as saying that military and police have declared a state of emergency in northern Sinai, deploying roadblocks in the area in an effort to combat terrorists.

CME OFF-TARGET
According to NOAA analysts, a CME hurled into space by an M3-class solar flare on August 17th will probably miss Earth. However, Earth will pass through the wake of the CME after the cloud itself passes by. This could trigger polar geomagnetic storms despite the CME being off-target.

SUNDIVING COMET
A small comet is diving toward the sun today, and it is visible in SOHO coronagraphs. To see the death plunge, first check the finder chart, then play the movie. The comet is Kreutz sungrazer.

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Obama Asks Supreme Court To Allow Warrantless Cell Phone Searches
Last week the Obama administration asked the Supreme Court to resolve the issue and rule that the Fourth Amendment allows warrantless cellphone searches.

Obama urges renewed push for Wall Street overhaul
Obama prodded the nation's top financial regulators on Monday to act swiftly and finish writing rules designed to prevent a recurrence of the 2008 financial crisis that helped precipitate a damaging recession from which the country is still recovering.

Vote set for proposed new state in northern Colorado
When voters in Colorado's Weld County head to the polls in November, they'll be asked to consider a proposal backed by several counties to form a new state called North Colorado. Weld County commissioners unanimously voted Monday morning to place a 51st state secession initiative on the ballot, The Greeley Tribune reported.

8.19.13: An early fall for Wall Street?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average’s 225-point decline on Thursday marked its biggest drop since June 20, followed by a lacklustre Friday that left the benchmark average down nearly 3% so far this month. The blue-chip average has suffered back-to-back triple-digit-point declines and 10 drops in the past 14 trading sessions. U.S. Treasury bond yields rose to their highest level in two years last week.

Teleported! Bits vanish here, reappear there
For the first time, researchers have teleported 10,000 bits of information per second from point A to point B across a distance of about six millimeters and inside a solid state circuit, similar to a computer chip.

Clinically dead woman revived after 42 minutes
Doctors say Vanessa Tanasio, 41, a mother of two from the suburb of Narre Warren, needed numerous defibrillator shocks, including one in the ambulance on her way to hospital. In a telephone interview from the hospital, she said she was eager to get home. "I'm feeling excellent. For someone who has been dead for nearly an hour of this week I am feeling tremendously well."

Gulf nations split with West to back Egyptian military
Efforts by the West to pressure Egypt’s new government to end its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood could be moot thanks to Saudi Arabia’s oil money – and whole-hearted backing of the military.

Terrorists ‘aim to hit Israeli, Jewish targets worldwide’ in coming weeks
Israeli and Jewish targets all over the world are likely to be sought out by terrorist organizations in the coming weeks, the Israeli government’s Counter-Terrorism Bureau warned in strikingly strident tones on Monday, listing dozens of countries where it said it had “concrete” indications of a terrorist threat.

TSA to purchase 3.5 million rounds of ammunition
Although TSA agents in airports are currently unarmed, last month the TSA announced its plan to hire the use of a firing range within a 20 mile radius of LaGuardia Airport in order to train TSA workers. The Transportation Security Administration is set to purchase 3.5 million .357 SIG caliber bullets, enough for its agents to fire 9,400 rounds a day, every day of the year.

********* nuclear plant: Radioactive water leak found
Radioactive water has leaked from a storage tank into the ground at Japan's ********* plant, its operator says. Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said the leak of at least 300 tonnes of the highly radioactive water was discovered on Monday. ...A puddle of the contaminated water was emitting 100 millisieverts an hour of radiation, Kyodo news agency said.

Egypt Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie held
The most senior leader in Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie, has been arrested at a flat in Nasr City, Cairo, say officials. Mr Badie had been on the run since an arrest warrant was issued over alleged incitement to violence and murder. A state of emergency is in force amid a crackdown on Islamists opposed to the army's ousting of Mohammed Morsi.

Pope electors told of 'Smoke of Satan' in Vatican
It’s a matter so dark and serious it has only been whispered about behind closed doors in Vatican circles by courageous priests such as the late John F. O’Connor, Alfred Kunz and the late Malachi Martin. “Suddenly it became unarguable that now… the Roman Catholic organization carried a permanent presence of clerics who worshipped Satan and liked it.”

New Zealand volcano lets off steam
A volcano off New Zealand sent a plume of steam two kilometers (1.24 miles) into the air Tuesday, although volcanologists described the eruption as small and said it was over in minutes. The GeoNet monitoring service said White Island, an uninhabited landmark off the North Island’s Bay of Plenty, erupted at 10:23am (2223 Monday GMT).

Erdogan: Israel orchestrated Morsi overthrow, Egypt unrest
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of orchestrating the Egyptian military’s overthrow... Morsi. “Israel is behind the coup in Egypt, we have evidence,” Erdogan was quoted as saying... The Turkish premier cited a conversation he had with a “French Jewish intellectual” who predicted that the Muslim Brotherhood would not be permitted to rule even if it won an election “because democracy is not the ballot box.”

Newly Discovered Ocean Plume Could Be Major Source of Iron
Scientists have discovered a vast plume of iron and other micronutrients more than 1,000 km long billowing from hydrothermal vents in the South Atlantic Ocean. The finding, soon to be published in the journal Nature Geoscience, calls past estimates of iron abundances into question, and may challenge researchers' assumptions about iron sources in the world's seas.

How Obama is deliberately crippling U.S. economy
Ever since Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, Americans have heard a lot about “progressivism,” Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” and the “Cloward-Piven Strategy” of orchestrated chaos – basically, intentionally causing an existing system to break down in order to “rescue” it by instituting a new system. In other words, a “fundamental transformation.” Conservatives believe this is Obama’s playbook.

Public School Promotes 5 Pillars of Islam
Parents at a Wichita, Kan. elementary school were shocked to discover a giant wall display inside the building promoting the five pillars of Islam.

Floods Recede in Manila as Thousands Evacuated
Flooding caused by some of the Philippines' heaviest rains that submerged more than half the capital began receding Tuesday even as authorities evacuated thousands of residents along Manila's overflowing rivers and braced for more chaos in outlying provinces.

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Israel, Palestinians hold third round of peace talks
Israelis and Palestinians held a third round of negotiations on Tuesday, and Israel's chief representative at the talks predicted the U.S.-brokered peace process would lead to dramatic Israeli decisions.

Moderately strong earthquake shakes Mexico coast and capital; some damage, no deaths
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake at 7:38 a.m. (8:38 a.m.; 1238 GMT) had a magnitude of 6.2. It was centered near the Pacific coast and about 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of Acapulco.

********* alert level rise 'significant'
The increase of the severity level of a radioactive water leak at the ********* plant is being regarded as a "significant" rise in Japan. The leak was first classified as level one, but has now been upgraded to level three of a possible seven on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale.

Arab perceptions of U.S. weakness may lead to unlikely new alliances with Israel
Israeli generals and politicians lament the increasingly widespread perception in the Arab Middle East of a weak and vacillating United States that is losing much of its influence and sway. For Israel, they say, a diminished America is very bad news.

Atlantic Ocean Floor Unexpectedly Pumping Iron
The oceanic iron cloud spreads for more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) across the Atlantic from west of Angola, Africa, to northeast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The iron-rich waters flow 1,500 to 3,500 meters (4,921 – 11,482 feet) beneath the surface of the ocean. The complete extent and shape of the iron plume remains to be discovered.

Al-Jazeera America Opens with Endorsements from McCain, Hillary
McCain recently suggested that he may consider voting for Clinton, despite her role in the Benghazi terror attack scandal, if she won her party's nomination and ended up facing Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) in the 2016 presidential contest. Multiple images of President Barack Obama showed up in the montage, as did an image of Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Report: NSA’s Broad Reach Covers 75 Percent of ALL U.S. Internet Traffic
The broad reach of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance network has the ability to cover roughly 75 percent of all U.S. Internet traffic, the Wall Street Journal reported late Tuesday. The alarming report suggests the agency’s digital spying capabilities are even more encompassing than officials have publicly disclosed.

No, This Isn’t a UFO — It’s Eerie Footage of One of the Government’s Newest Weapons
The F-35B recently completed its first vertical landing at night on the USS Wasp. When visualized through a night vision lens, the F-35B looked just like what you might expect of a Hollywood-stylized UFO.

Report: NSA’s Broad Reach Covers 75 Percent of ALL U.S. Internet Traffic
The broad reach of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance network has the ability to cover roughly 75 percent of all U.S. Internet traffic, the Wall Street Journal reported late Tuesday. The alarming report suggests the agency’s digital spying capabilities are even more encompassing than officials have publicly disclosed.

Ritualistic animal killings investigated by police
The “deeply disturbing” incidents all took place in Devon’s Teign Valley, an area which has be dogged by rumours of satanic slaughter for years. They follow a number of pony mutilations nearby on Dartmoor.

ANOTHER CME IS ON THE WAY
As Earth passes through the wake of one CME, which did little to stir geomagnetic activity on Aug. 20th, another CME is on the way. NOAA forecasters expect a coronal mass ejection hurled into space yesterday by an erupting magnetic filament to deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field on Aug. 23rd.

Russia to create ‘cyber-troops’ – Ministry of Defense
The main tasks of these ‘troops’ include monitoring and processing external information, as well as fighting cyber threats, said Deputy Defense Minister Colonel General Oleg Ostapenko, as cited by RIA Novosti news agency.

Egypt PM says country can survive without US military aid
Egypt’s interim prime minister said it would be a mistake on the part of the US to halt its substantial military aid to Cairo, while indicating in a defiant tone that Egypt would "live with the circumstances" if Washington decided to cease aid.

Lyme Disease Far More Common Than Previously Known
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 300,000 Americans are getting Lyme disease every year, and the toll is growing. "It confirms what we've thought for a long time: This is a large problem," Dr. Paul Mead tells Shots. "The bottom line is that by defining how big the problem is we make it easier for everyone to figure out what kind of resources we have to use to address it."

Facial Scanning Is Making Gains in Surveillance
The federal government is making progress on developing a surveillance system that would pair computers with video cameras to scan crowds and automatically identify people by their faces... The Department of Homeland Security tested a crowd-scanning project called the Biometric Optical Surveillance System — or BOSS — last fall after two years of government-financed development.

Syrian opposition: Over 50 killed in chemical attack
Local activists say dozens killed in heavy bombardment of rebel-held areas around Damascus, claim chemical agents used by Assad's army

Al Jazeera launches US television news service
Al Jazeera is launching a new TV news channel in the United States. Al Jazeera America will be available in almost 48 million US households, offering 14 hours of news each day. The new network replaces Current TV, the cable television network founded by former US Vice President Al Gore, which the Qatar-owned broadcaster acquired in January 2013 for around $500m (£308m).

EU states debate response to Egypt's deadly crisis
The EU's top foreign policy official, Catherine Ashton, has offered to return to Egypt to help mediate a political solution to the crisis in the country. "I am more than willing to go back... if they wish me to," she said. She was speaking to reporters in Brussels ahead of an extraordinary meeting of EU foreign ministers, who will discuss whether to continue with a 5bn-euro (£4.3bn) aid package to Egypt.

Muslim Brotherhood taking out rage on Christian churches, businesses
The Christian groups said the Brotherhood torched at least 40 churches in eight provinces. “It’s Christians in Egypt who pay the price to overthrow tyranny,” Antoine Adel, spokesman for the Maspero Youth Union, said. The Interior Ministry has confirmed that Islamist supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi were targeting churches.

Spanish Bad Loans Re-Spike To 50-Year High
As European stock and bond markets suffer their worst 2 days in 2 months, Spanish bad loans (after a very brief pause in the exponential surge that also provided hope that the worst was over) have re-surged to a new all-time record high. At 11.61% of total lending, bad loans are now at their highest since records began in 1962.

Syria conflict: 'Chemical attacks' near Damascus
Chemical weapons attacks have killed dozens on the outskirts of Damascus, Syrian opposition activists claim. Rockets with toxic agents were launched at the suburbs of the Ghouta region early on Wednesday as part of a major bombardment on rebel forces, they say.

Japan's ********* nuclear crisis deepens, China expresses 'shock'
apan's nuclear crisis escalated to its worst level in two years on Wednesday, with its nuclear watchdog saying it feared more tanks were leaking contaminated water and China expressing its shock over the disaster. Japan's nuclear regulator also said it feared the disaster exceeded the ability of the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, to cope "in some respects".

Egyptian court could free Mubarak as crisis deepens
Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak could be freed from jail after a court reviews his case on Wednesday, potentially stirring more unrest in a country where army-backed authorities are hunting down his Muslim Brotherhood foes. The court will convene at the Cairo prison where Mubarak is being held, judicial sources said, and review a petition from his lawyer demanding the leader overthrown in a 2011 revolt be freed.

Dempsey: Syrian rebels wouldn't back US interests
The Obama administration is opposed to even limited U.S. military intervention in Syria because it believes rebels fighting the Assad regime wouldn't support American interests if they were to seize power right now, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote to a congressman in a letter obtained by The Associated Press.

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Muslim Brotherhood Killing Christians in Egypt; Jihadist Violence Threatens Interests of U.S. and Key Allies
As Christians in the U.S. begin to understand that they have spiritual brothers and sisters being persecuted in the Middle East, scores of Copts are being slaughtered and churches burned in the latest round of violence fomented by the Muslim Brotherhood. Since Muhammad Morsi was deposed several weeks ago, the Brotherhood has asserted itself in a classic case of pushback against the ruling military authorities.

The ground-based squadron guarding the Syrian border
With Wednesday’s alleged use by Assad’s forces of chemical weapons plunging the Syrian conflict to a new nadir, the Tammuz missile provides a vital line of defense on the northern frontier.

Russia suggests Syria ‘chemical attack’ was ‘planned provocation’ by rebels
The Russian Foreign Ministry, citing its sources, said that a homemade rocket carrying unidentified chemical substances had been launched from an area controlled by the opposition.

Gallup: Unemployment Rate Jumps from 7.7% to 8.9% In 30 Days
Outside of the federal government's Bureau of Labor statistics, the Gallup polling organization also tracks the nation's unemployment rate. While the BLS and Gallup findings might not always perfectly align, the trends almost always do and the small statistical differences just haven't been worthy of note. But now Gallup is showing a sizable 30 day jump in the unemployment rate, from 7.7% on July 21 to 8.9% today.

Tropical System To Impact Southwestern United States Weather Friday into The Weekend
A tropical system currently down south of Baja, California is developing. This should become a Hurricane over the lifetime, weakening before hitting the Southwestern USA, and slamming the region with strong tropical moisture and upper dynamics for widespread flooding, severe thunderstorms, and maybe even tornadoes with the strongest storms. Cruise lines and passengers should be on alert.

Syrian forces bomb area of alleged chemical attack
President Bashar Assad's forces pressed on with a military offensive in eastern Damascus on Thursday, bombing rebel-held suburbs where the opposition said a chemical weapons attack the day before killed over 100 people. The government has denied allegations it used chemical weapons in artillery barrages on the area known as eastern Ghouta on Wednesday as "absolutely baseless."

POLAR STORM WARNING
Two CMEs are heading for Earth. The plasma clouds were expelled from the sun on August 20-21 by a pair of erupting magnetic filaments. NOAA forecasters expect the CMEs to arrive on August 23-24, possibly sparking geomagnetic storms around the poles.

Catholic Church Plans Massive Push for Amnesty
Last week, the Catholic Church announced a massive, coordinated effort to press Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship. Catholics make up the largest single religious group in Congress.

Effort to defund ObamaCare gaining GOP support
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said late Wednesday that his effort to block any funding resolution that includes money for implementing ObamaCare is gaining the support of his GOP Senate colleagues. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) on Wednesday became the 14th senator to sign on to his letter to defund ObamaCare, Lee said.

Palestinian official: Negotiators met in Jerusalem
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met secretly in Jerusalem on Tuesday, a senior Palestinian official said, a week after US-brokered peace talks were re-launched in the Holy City. Both sides described the talks as "serious" after the meeting, and agreed to reconvene soon.

Turkey says all 'red lines' in Syria have been crossed
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday "all red lines" had been crossed in Syria and criticised international inaction after the opposition accused Syrian government forces of gassing hundreds in a chemical weapons attack. "All red lines have been crossed but still the UN Security Council has not even been able to take a decision

Polio virus heads north, found near Hadera
A wild strain of the polio virus was found on Tuesday in a sewage treatment plant in Baqa al-Gharbiyye, near Hadera, marking the northernmost point in which the virus has been sampled.

Indonesia Warns of Rising Volcanic Activity in East Province
Indonesian authorities have been warning local villagers in East Nusa Tenggara Province about increasing volcanic activities in the area in recent days. The agency reported on Tuesday two volcanoes in the East Nusa Tenggara Province have shown “increasing activities.” The volcanoes are subsea Mount Hobalt and and Mount Ili Werung.

Strong and shallow earthquake M6.2 struck Guerrero, Mexico
A strong and shallow earthquake with recorded magnitude of 6.2 (USGS) struck Guerrero, Mexico on August 21, 2013 at 12:38 UTC. USGS measured depth at 20 km (12.4 miles), EMSC reports magnitude 6.2 earthquake at depth of 30 km.

Poas volcano eruption 2013
Poas volcano eruption was first observed at 9:55 a.m. and reached a height of between 2 to 3 meters. While at 11:16 a.m., the second eruption occurred reaching an estimated height of 10 to 15 meters.

Signs Pointing Toward More Active Tropics
Although we have entered the heart of hurricane season from a climatological standpoint, the Atlantic Basin remains void of tropical storms and hurricanes at this time. The most active part of the season is typically from mid-August through September. During this time, it is common for clusters of rain and thunderstorms to move westward off Africa and into the eastern Atlantic.

Germany urges access for UN to check Syria chemical attack reports
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle demanded on Thursday that Syria grant full access to United Nations chemicals weapons experts to investigate allegations that the Syrian government used chemical weapons in an attack on civilians.

Benedict XVI: ‘God told me’ to resign
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI resigned from the papacy because “God told me” to, according to a report by a Catholic news agency.

Thailand court jails Iranians over bomb plot
A court in Thailand has jailed two Iranian men for their roles in an attempted bomb plot in the capital, Bangkok, in February 2012. The two men said they were innocent, but the court found them guilty of charges that included illegal possession of explosives.

Egypt's Mubarak to be placed under house arrest
Egypt's deposed autocrat Hosni Mubarak is expected to be freed from prison and placed under house arrest on Thursday after being ordered released the previous day, following more than two years in detention.

France says force needed if Syrian chemical attack proved true
France said on Thursday that the international community would need to respond with force if allegations that the Syrian government was responsible for a chemical attack on civilians proved true. "There would have to be reaction with force in Syria from the international community, but there is no question of sending troops on the ground," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told French television network BFM.

Radioactive Leaks in Japan Prompt Call for Overseas Help
The crippled nuclear plant at ********* is losing its two-year battle to contain radioactive water leaks and its owner emphasized for the first time it needs overseas expertise to help contain the disaster.

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23 Aug 13

Russians Inspect Missile Defense Base in California
Russian officials this week carried out a secret inspection of the U.S. strategic missile defense base in California as part of the New START arms treaty, according to Obama administration officials. The inspection of five missile defense interceptors is the only one allowed under the 2010 arms accord. The treaty requires cuts of U.S. and Russian deployed strategic warheads to 1,550.

NM Supreme Court Finds Refusing to Photograph Gay Wedding Illegal
The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that, by refusing to photograph a gay wedding, a photography studio violated the New Mexico Human Rights Act (NMHRA). The court found that Elane Photography’s refusal to serve Vanessa Willock violated the act, which “prohibits a public accommodation from refusing to offer its services to a person based on that person’s sexual orientation,” according to the ruling.

Report: Syrian rebel forces trained by West are moving towards Damascus
Guerrilla fighters trained by the West began moving towards Damascus in mid-August, French newspaper Le Figaro reported on Thursday. Le Figaro reported that this is the reason behind the Assad regime's alleged chemical weapons attack in Damascus on Wednesday morning, as UN inspectors were allowed into the country to investigate allegations of WMD use.

Lebanon: Two blasts rock city of Tripoli
Two explosions have rocked the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, with reports of casualties. At least one of the blasts happened near al-Taqwa Mosque, as Friday prayers were ending, initial reports say. Emergency services have rushed to the scenes of the blasts which have left thick plumes of black smoke over the area.

Sudan deadly floods affect 300,000 people - WHO
More than 300,000 people across Sudan have been affected by floods that have killed nearly 50 people in August, the World Health Organization has said. It said the region around the capital Khartoum had been particularly badly hit and was experiencing the worst floods in 25 years. One of the major risks to health was the collapse of more than 53,000 latrines, the WHO added.

Wildfire near Yosemite park sends tourists fleeing
A huge wildfire near Yosemite National Park in California has forced scores of tourists to flee during peak season and is threatening thousands of homes. The week-old Rim Fire more than tripled in size on Thursday and now spans at least 84 square miles (217 sq km). More than 1,300 firefighters have been tackling the blaze in difficult terrain but have contained only 1% of it.

Putin warns Ukraine against EU pact
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned Ukraine he will take "protective measures" if it signs an EU free trade pact. ...he said: "If our neighbours opt to significantly liberalise customs rules with the European Union, the Ukrainian market will inevitably be flooded with high quality goods … and Ukrainian goods will be forced out of the Ukrainian market."

PM: Iran watching carefully how world responds to Syrian chemical weapons atrocities
Iran is using Syria as a testing ground and carefully watching how the world responds to Damascus’s use of chemical weapons against its own people, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Thursday. This was Netanyahu’s first public comment on reports of the massacre on Wednesday of hundreds of Syrian civilians by President Bashar Assad’s forces, using chemical weapons.


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Defense Department Education Materials Warn of ‘Extremists’ That Speak of ‘Individual Liberties, States’ Rights, and How to Make the World a Better Pl
U.S. Department of Defense education materials obtained by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, warn of “extremists” that will “talk of individual liberties, states’ rights, and how to make the world a better place.” Judicial Watch and other conservative media outlets claim the disclosure indicates the department is teaching that conservative views are “extremist” in nature.

Islamic Extremists Slit Throats of 44 Villagers, Gouge Out Eyes of Surviving Victims
An official says suspected Islamist extremists killed at least 44 villagers in continuing attacks in an Islamic uprising in northeast Nigeria. The official of the National Emergency Management Agency says the attackers hit Dumba village in Borno state before dawn Tuesday and slit their victims’ throats — a new strategy since gunfire attracts security forces.

Gaza: Hamas urges Egypt to reopen Rafah crossing
Officials from the Islamist group Hamas are urging Egypt to reopen the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip. The Egyptian authorities closed the crossing point this week after more than 20 Egyptian policemen were killed near the border by suspected militants. Thousands of Palestinians, including students and medical patients, wanting to leave or enter Gaza have been stuck.

The Thug Culture That Killed Chris Lane
In a testament to the depravity of thug culture, an Australian collegiate baseball player attending school in America was killed by three teenagers looking for fun, police reported. Christopher Lane, who was out for a jog in the town of Duncan, Oklahoma where his girlfriend and her family live, was targeted at random after he passed a home where the boys were staying. ”They saw Christopher go by, and one of them said: ‘There’s our target,’” said Police Chief Danny Ford. ”The boy who has talked to us said, ‘We were bored and didn’t have anything to do, so we decided to kill somebody.’”

Obama: Republicans privately ‘agree’ with me
President Barack Obama argued some Republicans secretly side with him on wanting to avoid a government shutdown, but they’re afraid they may face backlash from the conservative right. "Sometimes they say to me privately, 'I agree with you, but I'm worried about a primary from, you know, somebody in the Tea Party back in my district,' or, 'I'm worried about what Rush Limbaugh is going to say about me on the radio,'” Obama said in an exclusive interview with CNN "New Day" anchor Chris Cuomo.

Al Qaeda blames Hezbollah for Lebanon bombings
Al Qaeda's North African branch blamed Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim militant group Hezbollah for twin bombs that hit the northern city of Tripoli on Friday and threatened retribution, a U.S.-based intelligence monitoring website reported on Saturday.

US forces move closer to Syria as options weighed
U.S. naval forces are moving closer to Syria as President Barack Obama considers military options for responding to the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Assad government. The president emphasized that a quick intervention in the Syrian civil war was problematic, given the international considerations that should precede a military strike.

Sales of New U.S. Homes Fell More Than Forecast in July
Purchases of new U.S. homes plunged 13.4 percent in July, the most in more than three years, raising concern higher mortgage rates will slow the real-estate rebound. Sales fell to a 394,000 annualized pace, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. The reading was the weakest since October and was lower than any of the forecasts by 74 economists Bloomberg surveyed.

Syrian soldiers see chemical agents in rebel tunnels: state TV
Syrian state television said troops found chemical agents in rebel tunnels in a Damascus suburb on Saturday and some soldiers were "suffocating", intensifying a dispute over blame for a reported nerve gas attack that killed hundreds this week. The top U.N. disarmament official arrived in Damascus on Saturday to seek access for inspectors to the site of the attack and the United States was realigning naval forces in the region to give President Barack Obama the option for an armed strike on Syria.

Bombings Strike Lebanon, as Mosques Are Targeted in Growing Violence
Car bombs exploded outside two Sunni mosques in this northern Lebanese city on Friday as many worshipers were just finishing prayers, killing dozens of people, wounding hundreds and sending new sectarian shudders through the country, already deeply unsettled by the conflict in neighboring Syria.

California Gov. declares state of emergency as wildfire spreads into Yosemite
California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for San Francisco late Friday after electrical infrastructure serving the city was damaged by a giant wildfire raging out of control on the western edge of Yosemite National Park. The fire has damaged San Francisco city and county electrical equipment and poses an "imminent threat to critical infrastructure assets" of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, according to a news release.

Pat Buchanan: U.S. has been ‘de-Christianized’
The United States has lost one of its core guiding lights — its Judeo-Christian focus — said one conservative pundit, reflecting on the tragic and senseless shooting death of an Australian man in Oklahoma on a baseball scholarship, whose life was allegedly snipped by three self-proclaimed bored teens.

Putin bans protests during Olympics
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday banned rallies and demonstrations during the Winter Olympics in Sochi, a move that could be aimed at curbing dissent over the country’s anti-gay laws.

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Russia: 'Tragic mistake' to quickly blame for Syrian chemical attack
Russia said on Sunday that assigning blame too soon over the alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria would be a "tragic mistake", ahead of a United Nations' investigation on Monday. "We strongly urge those who by trying to impose their opinion on UN experts ahead of the results of an investigation ... to exercise discretion and not make tragic mistakes," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Iran army warns US of 'harsh consequences' over Syria
A top Iranian military chief warned on Sunday that the US will face "harsh consequences" if it intervenes in ally Syria over claims of chemical attacks, Fars news agency reported.

Russian MP Says Obama ‘Clones’ Bush in Drive For War
The United States is moving towards war with Syria, a senior Russian lawmaker said Sunday lashing President Barack Obama as “clone” of George W. Bush in his drive for war.

Churches changing bylaws after gay marriage ruling
Worried they could be sued by gay couples, some churches are changing their bylaws to reflect their view that the Bible allows only marriage between one man and one woman. Although there have been lawsuits against wedding industry businesses that refuse to serve gay couples, attorneys promoting the bylaw changes say they don't know of any lawsuits against churches.

3,600 Syrians Treated For 'Neurotoxic Symptoms'
Around 3,600 Syrians have been treated for "neurotoxic symptoms", and 355 of them have died, says the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders (MSF). ... MSF said the victims flooded into three Syrian hospitals on the day that hundreds of people were apparently killed in a "chemical massacre". They all arrived within less than three hours of each other, said MSF director of operations Bart Janssens.

Marine Biologist: Hundreds Of Dolphins Could Be Dying From Measles-Like Virus
...So far this summer, there have been about 230 dolphin deaths along the East Coast, prompting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to declare an unusual mortality event. That clears the way for an intensive scientific inquiry into what is causing the deaths. No definitive conclusions have been reached, but many suspect the morbilli virus.

U.S. government sues to block vouchers in some Louisiana school systems
The U.S. Justice Department is suing Louisiana in New Orleans federal court to block 2014-15 vouchers for students in public school systems that are under federal desegregation orders. ...Under the lawsuit, the state would be barred from assigning students in those systems to private schools unless a federal judge agreed to it.

US moves forces toward Syria, inquiry continues
U.S. intelligence officials sought Saturday to determine whether Syria's government unleashed a deadly chemical weapons attack on its people. At the same time, the Obama administration prepared for a possible military response by moving naval forces closer to Syria. ...The Syrian government denies the claims. It also has warned the U.S. against taking military action, saying such a step would set the Middle East ablaze.

Tunisia opposition in rally against Ennahda-led government
Thousands of Tunisians have rallied in front of the National Assembly in the capital Tunis calling for the Islamist-led government to resign. The opposition National Salvation Front has called for a week of protests over what it says is the government's inability to guarantee security. The protests come a month after the assassination of a prominent opposition politician.

PM: Israel's 'finger on the pulse' of Syria developments, if necessary will also be 'on the trigger'
Israel's "finger is on the pulse" following the situation in Syria, and – if needed – will also be on the trigger, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday in his first public comments on reports that hundreds of Syrian were killed last week by chemical weapons. What is happening in Syria is both a horrible tragedy and crime, he said at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting.

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European Union Foreign Ministers Look To Create Super President For The European Union
This proposed new super president of the European Union would be the overall powerful leader of Europe with responsibility over Europe's economic matters, all foreign policy, and any European military operation. This report is almost like reading the prophetic scenario that can be found in Bible prophecy for the last days.

Where’s Obama?: If I Had A Son, He’d Look Like One Of Those Bored Kids Who Shot Christopher Lane
The white victim’s name is Christopher Lane. The young man was an Australian native who was attending college in the United States on a baseball scholarship But 15-year-old James Edwards Jr. and his bored “niggas” were evidently so disgusted and enraged by Lane’s skin pigment that they pulled up behind him as he jogged and shot him in the back. Three days before the shooting, the suspect tweeted: "With my ****** when it’s time to start taken life’s"

PM: Israel's 'finger on the pulse' of Syria developments, if necessary will also be 'on the trigger'
Syria's use of chemical weapons against its own people "simply demonstrates" what will happen if Iran gets even deadlier weapons, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday before a meeting with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. What we see in Syria is how extremist regimes have no reservations whatsoever about using these weapons even when they use it against innocent civilians, against their own people," he said.

American Legion suspects it was targeted by IRS
The American Legion is raising concerns about also being a victim of IRS targeting, prompting a Republican senator to demand answers from the agency. The veterans’ service group says it recently learned about a so-called IRS “audit manual” that requires American Legion posts to keep dates of service and member records or perhaps face a $1,000-a-day fine, according to The Daily Caller.

Earthquake New York 2013: Tremors felt in Glens Falls, Queensbury
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake's epicenter was located 13 km WNW of Glens Falls and 77 km N of Albany. It was 6.3 miles deep. Tremors were felt by the people of Corinth, Fort Edward, Gansevoort, Glens Falls, Hudson Falls, Lake George, Lake Luzerne, Queensbury and South Glens Falls.

Volcanic ‘geyser’ erupts close to Rome airport
Italian experts have been puzzled by the overnight appearance of a geyser crater spraying clouds of gas 15 feet in the air, yards from the end of the runway at one of Europe’s busiest airports.

How the West could smash Assad's arsenal: UK and US military chiefs drawing up a list of targets for precision-guided bombs and missiles
WHAT TARGETS WOULD THE COALITION HIT? The favoured option among top brass is for limited Western action using ‘stand-off’ weapons from long distance to disrupt Assad’s ability to carry out chemical attacks and damage his military machine. Intelligence on targets would come from pilotless drones patrolling the skies above Syria and special forces on the ground.

‘I Don’t Know What to Think’ About White House’s Silence on Chris Lane Killing, Says Oklahoma Governor
“What do you make of the silence of people like Al Sharpton, and, quite frankly, the silence of the president?” Chris Wallace, host of Fox News Sunday, asked Fallin. “I don’t know what to think about that,” Fallin replied. “It would be nice if our nation were to certainly express their condolences.”

Russia Compares Syria War Drums to Iraq Invasion, Warns of Consequences of Intervention
In a pair of statements, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman drew comparisons between the current situation in Syria and the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and urged countries “not to repeat the mistakes of the past.” Responding directly to comments by Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel about military contingency planning, Alexander Lukashevich said such remarks were “alarming.”

Volcanic 'geyser' erupts close to Rome airport
Italian experts have been puzzled by the overnight appearance of a geyser crater spraying clouds of gas 15 feet in the air, yards from the end of the runway at one of Europe’s busiest airports. Motorists on Saturday were alarmed to notice hot, stinking gas spurting from a newly formed crater in the middle of a roundabout close to the perimeter fence of Rome’s Fiumicino airport...

CME MISSES EARTH, AURORAS APPEAR ANYWAY
The double-CME expected to hit Earth's magnetic field over the weekend either is late or missed entirely. In Alaska, the Northern Lights appeared anyway:

Marine Corps to open infantry training to enlisted women
The Marine Corps will allow enlisted women to participate in basic infantry training beginning this fall as part of ongoing research to determine what additional ground combat jobs may open to female personnel. New female enlisted Marines will volunteer for spots in the service’s Infantry Training Battalion...according to an official planning document obtained by Marine Corps Times.

Yosemite wildfire threatening San Francisco's water and power supply, as well as giant sequoias
A massive wildfire racing through the Yosemite wilderness -- fueled by high winds -- is threatening San Francisco's fresh water and power supply as well as California's famous giant sequoias. It's one of several fires statewide being fought by more than 8,000 firefighters across nearly 400 square miles. The fire has consumed approximately 225 square miles of picturesque forests. Officials estimate containment at just 7 percent.

Obama Admin Defies UN on Syria Inspections
It is a striking gesture of defiance from an administration that came to power preaching the importance of the UN, and suggests that President Barack Obama has already decided on military action against the Syrian regime, prior to--and, indeed, in the complete absence of--any authorization from the UN Security Council.

Egyptian Pol: 'Very Strong Perception' Obama Backs Muslim Brotherhood
Speaking on August 22, the head of Egypt's Social Democratic Party Mohamed Abou El-Ghar said: "America is losing Egypt... There is a very strong perception that they are supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and they are against other parties."

Russia warns U.S. not to repeat in Syria past mistakes in region
Russia warned the United States on Sunday against repeating past mistakes, saying that any unilateral military action in Syria would undermine efforts for peace and have a devastating impact on the security situation in the Middle East. The Russian Foreign Ministry said its statement was a response to U.S. actions to give it the option of an armed strike against Syria.

Iran army warns US of 'harsh consequences' over Syria
A top Iranian military chief warned on Sunday that the US will face "harsh consequences" if it intervenes in ally Syria over claims of chemical attacks, Fars news agency reported. "If the United States crosses this red line, there will be harsh consequences for the White House," armed forces deputy chief of staff Massoud Jazayeri was quoted as saying.

Syria crisis: UN team visiting 'chemical attack' site
UN experts are visiting the sites of suspected chemical weapons attacks in which hundreds died last Wednesday in the Syrian capital Damascus. The Syrian government and the rebels agreed to a ceasefire to allow the inspectors to collect evidence. However, Western officials said Syria took too long to give permission, and evidence could have been destroyed.

Greece 'may need 10bn euros more' in aid - Stournaras
Greece may need a third bailout but would not accept new austerity measures, the Greek finance minister has said. Yannis Stournaras said: "If there is need for further support to Greece, it will be in the order of about 10bn euros (£8.6bn; $13.4bn), or much smaller than the previous programmes." Greece has already received two bailouts totalling about 240bn euros.

Yosemite boundary burns in California Rim Fire
Firefighters in California are struggling to gain control of a huge wildfire which has reached the edge of Yosemite National Park. Known as the Rim Fire, it covers an area of nearly 203 sq miles (526 sq km) and threatens a major reservoir serving San Francisco. The fire is now 7% contained, officials say, up from 2% on Friday.

Fears of food, water poisoning after Damascus chemical weapons attack
Days after a suspected poison gas attack killed hundreds of people in crop-growing suburbs, residents of the Syrian capital say they are afraid their food and water supplies may be contaminated. Western countries believe President Bashar Assad's forces carried out the worst chemical weapons attack since Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein gassed thousands of Kurds in 1988.

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Obama’s Foreign Fiasco
It’s a privilege to be an American who works on foreign policy, as I have done since the late 1970s, participating in a small way in the grand project of finding my country’s place in the world. But now, under Barack Obama, decisions made in Washington have dramatically shrunk in importance. It’s unsettling and dismaying. And no longer a privilege.

Ethiopian-Israelis to protest end of aliya tomorrow
While the remaining Falash Mura are not Jewish according to traditional religious definitions, among them, many activists say, are individuals who would qualify as Jewish under the law of return, which stipulates that one only need have a grandparent who is Jewish to qualify. However, it may not be that simple, as too much time has passed and insufficient documentation exists to prove a Jewish genealogy to the satisfaction of the Interior Ministry.

Russia warns of 'catastrophic consequences' if Syria hit
"Attempts to bypass the Security Council, once again to create artificial groundless excuses for a military intervention in the region are fraught with new suffering in Syria and catastrophic consequences for other countries of the Middle East and North Africa," foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.

"The speaker made clear that before any action is taken, there must be meaningful consultation with members of Congress, as well as clearly define
“You know, privately there are a lot of Democrats that tell me that they are just distressed over what Obama has done to the health care industry and to jobs. They are afraid to say anything about it because of recriminations, because this regime fights back. I mean, this regime does not take internal criticism at all, just like they try to eliminate all conservative opposition.” Limbaugh also said “it could be curtains” for any member of the Democratic Party who decides to go public with the “slightest disagreement or problem with what Obama’s doing” to the health care industry.

Boehner to White House: Consult Congress before any Syria action
"The speaker made clear that before any action is taken, there must be meaningful consultation with members of Congress, as well as clearly defined objectives and a broader strategy to achieve stability," Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said in a statement.

Earthquake Rattles Northern Nevada
The unexpected shake lasted about 15 seconds, but it made a big enough impact to have people talking. While no injuries were reported...it was more than just a small rumble for some people in the valley.

US gave Saddam blessing to use toxins against Iranians
As Washington ponders over whether to hammer Damascus over unidentified use of toxic agents in Syria, declassified CIA documents reveal that 25 years ago the US actually indulged ruthless Saddam Hussein to use chemical warfare gases in war with Iran. The recently declassified documents at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, suggest that the US was closely following the use of chemical weapons by the Saddam Hussein’s regime both against the enemy in the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) and against Iraq’s Kurdish population, reports Foreign Policy magazine.

Massive Dolphin Die-Off Could Be From Measles-Like Virus
Some 70 miles away, dolphins are turning up dead along the Jersey shore and other coastal communities and, at this point, the cause still remains largely unknown. More than 200 dolphins have washed ashore since June and many have ended up on UPenn’s New Bolton Center research tables where veterinarians look to find an answer. The UPenn lab was specifically called upon for this task due to close ties with the Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC) in Brigantine, NJ, which handled many of the deceased creatures that turned up on nearby shorelines.

New Chinese Bird Flu May Be Worse Than H7N9 Virus
A team of Hong Kong researchers found the virus in about 25 percent of the fowl sampled, many of which also had the H7N9 virus. By testing the H7N7 virus on ferrets, the researchers found that it can be transmitted to mammals. “If (we) let this H7N7 continue circulating in chickens, I am sure that human infection cases will occur,” study co-author Guan Yi at the University of Hong Kong told AFP.

Skirting the ground: How the West will attack Syria
The British Daily Mail newspaper revealed on Monday the American-British target list in Syria and the forces likely to participate in a military operation – be it a short or a long one – in the torn Arab country.

Syria says it will defend itself against attack
He said that Syria had two choices, either to surrender or to fight back, and it would choose the latter. He declined to elaborate or say to what specific means he was referring.

Syria crisis: Russia and China step up warning over strike
Russia and China have stepped up their warnings against military intervention in Syria, with Moscow saying any such action would have "catastrophic consequences" for the region. The US and its allies are considering launching strikes on Syria in response to deadly attacks last week. The US said there was "undeniable" proof of a chemical attack, on Monday.

Dem bill would trigger huge new taxes on guns, ammo
A pair of Democratic lawmakers are proposing steep new taxes on handguns and ammunition, and tying the revenues to programs aimed at preventing gun violence. Called the “Gun Violence Prevention and Safe Communities Act," the bill sponsored by William Pascrell, D-N.J., and Danny Davis, D-Ill., would nearly double the current 11 percent tax on handguns, while raising the levy on bullets and cartridges from 11 percent to 50 percent.

Boy dies of plague in Kyrgyzstan
A 15-year-old herder has died in Kyrgyzstan of bubonic plague - the first case in the country in 30 years - officials say. The teenager appears to have been bitten by an infected flea. The authorities have sought to calm fears of an epidemic and have quarantined more than 100 people.

US Inches Toward Decision on Syria
Administration officials, signaling they might not wait until U.N. inspectors finalize their own investigation, now say that the international community must respond to the use of chemical weapons. The comments from top U.S. officials on Monday signaled a shift in tone, with military action looking more likely than it did just a day or two ago.

Mexico mudslides and flash flooding kill 14
More than a dozen people have died in eastern Mexico, in landslides triggered by heavy rain caused by tropical depression Fernand. Thirteen people were killed when mud engulfed their homes on hillsides in Veracruz state. Another man drowned after being swept away by fast-flowing floodwaters in neighbouring Oaxaca.

U.S. will hit debt limit in mid-October, treasury secretary warns
Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew is telling Congress that the U.S. government will hit its borrowing limit in mid-October and urged lawmakers to raise it before then. Lew said in a letter to Speaker John Boehner released Monday that the government is running out of accounting manoeuvres it has used to avoid hitting the US$16.7-trillion borrowing limit. He pressed Congress to act so Treasury can keep paying the government’s bills.

Germany not keen to join France and UK in Syria strike
Germany has indicated it will not take part in any military strike on Syria, as France and the UK signal readiness to join a US-led intervention. Philipp Missfelder, the foreign affairs spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party, said in the Leipziger Volkszeitung daily on Tuesday (27 August) that: "The [German] army has, through its current international operations, already reached the breaking point."

Attacking Israel would be self-destructive act for Assad
Washington is facing...pressure to punish the Syrian regime for last week’s chemical massacre...and the US...is likely planning its military strike. Any US military step will probably serve as a “slap” to the Syrian regime...Hence, it would be an act of self-destruction on Assad’s part to drag Israel into the conflict...would endanger the very existence of the embattled regime in Damascus.

California Rim Fire showers ash on reservoir
A huge fire in and around California's Yosemite National Park has continued to spread and now covers almost 230 sq miles (600 sq km), officials say. The Rim Fire is now raining ash on a key reservoir that supplies water and hydro-electric power to San Francisco. City officials say they are moving water to lower reservoirs and monitoring supplies for contamination.

Huge aquifer that runs through 8 states quickly being tapped out
Nearly 70 percent of the groundwater stored in parts of the United States' High Plains Aquifer — a vast underground reservoir that stretches through eight states, from South Dakota to Texas, and supplies 30 percent of the nation's irrigated groundwater — could be used up within 50 years unless current water use is reduced, a new study finds.

Iran warns of grave consequences of Syria attack
Iran has warned a visiting top UN official of "serious consequences" for the region if there is international military action in Syria, foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi said Tuesday.

Despite "Austerity" Greek Debt Is Rising At Its Fastest Rate Since March 2010
The total amount of Greek government debt outstanding has grown so much over the last 15 months that it has retraced over 60% of the 'haircut'-based reduction and has jumped a stunning 14.5% in that period.

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Fears of a Larger War in the Middle East
“The direction of events in Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Iran should keep us awake at night. History is taking a dangerous turn,” he writes. “The region certainly cannot sustain two wars — Syria’s bloody insurgency and a near-civil war in Egypt — without wrecking established peace treaties and the normal mechanisms for defusing conflict.”

33 House Members Demand Authorization for Strike on Syria
A letter was sent to President Barack Obama yesterday, demanding Obama consult with Congress and seek authorization before any military strikes are launched against Syria. The letter is below. Thirty-three members have signed the letter.

Earthquake felt in Cantwell, Fairbanks
The quake occurred at 1:41 p.m., according to the Alaska Earthquake Information Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. It was centered 54 miles southeast of Cantwell, which is about 150 miles south of Fairbanks.

Intended Knockout Game victim shoots back
Smith and Wesson trumps faulty stun gun. The newspaper in Lansing, Mich., came so close to getting it right: An intended victim of the Knockout Game pulled a gun and shot and his attacker. So far so good.

About that violent gang, the 'Obama Boyz'
There are four felony counts of first-degree assault, four felony counts of armed criminal action and two felonies for allegedly firing a gun from a vehicle and hitting people pending against a St. Louis suspect whom police identified as being a member of the “Obama Boyz” gang.

5.1-magnitude quake jolts SW China
An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale jolted the junction area of Southwest China's Yunnan and Sichuan provinces on Wednesday. No casualties have been reported, although the quake has destroyed dozens of houses ...

Moon Water Discovery Hints at Mystery Source Deep Underground
Evidence of water spotted on the moon's surface by a sharp-eyed spacecraft likely originated from an unknown source deep in the lunar interior, scientists say. The find — made by NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument aboard India's Chandrayaan-1 probe — marks the first detection of such "magmatic water" from lunar orbit and confirms analyses performed recently on moon rocks brought to Earth by Apollo astronauts four decades ago, researchers said.

Obama’s NSA review board proving the cynics right
This panel of “outside experts” would draft a report by the end of the year for “better understanding of how these programs impact our security, our privacy, and our foreign policy.” Of course, the more cynical among us (myself included) immediately dismissed this idea of an NSA review board knowing full well that review boards are DC speak for “kick the can down the road.” And now that we know who’s sitting on this review board of “outside experts,” our cynicisms are well-founded. The first two outsiders are national security insider Richard Clarke and CIA insider Michael Morell.

China has much at risk but no reach in Middle East
The worsening Syria conflict has exposed an uncomfortable truth behind China's cherished policy of non-interference: Beijing cannot do much to influence events even if it wanted to. With weak and untested military forces unable to project power in the Middle East, China can only play a low-key role in a region that is crucial for its energy security.

NORTHERN CORONAL HOLE
The solar wind stream is heading for Earth, due to arrive on August 30-31. Its impact will not be a major event. Nevertheless, it could spark geomagnetic storms and auroras at high latitudes.

Syria, Iran issue first explicit warning to Israel if US attacks
A senior Syrian official on Monday issued a first direct warning that if attacked, his country would retaliate against Israel. Khalaf Muftah, a senior Baath Party official who used to serve as Syria’s assistant information minister, said in a radio interview that Damascus would consider Israel “behind the [Western] aggression and [it] will therefore come under fire.”

Exclusive: Syria strike due in days, West tells opposition - sources
"The opposition was told in clear terms that action to deter further use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime could come as early as in the next few days, and that they should still prepare for peace talks at Geneva," one of the sources who was at the meeting on Monday told Reuters.

Temple Institute Preparing for 'Perpetual Offering
On Tuesday the 20th of August, the Temple Institute, along with various other organizations tasked with the rebuilding the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, held a special practice drill in preparation for the reinstitution of the 'daily perpetual offering' recorded in the book of Leviticus. This is the first time such an event has taken place in over 1900 years, since the destruction of the Second Temple by the hands of the Romans in 70 AD.

Bubonic plague outbreak feared in central Asia
Health officials fear an outbreak of bubonic plague in central Asia after a teenage boy died from the disease and three more were admitted to hospital in Kyrgyzstan.

Israel says it won't stay on sidelines if Syria attacks
During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Israel endured dozens of Scud missiles launched by Saddam Hussein's forces, but refrained from retaliating because of U.S. concern that Israeli involvement would fracture the international coalition it had built against Iraq. As the United States prepares for a possible military attack against the Syrian government over its alleged use of chemical weapons, Israeli leaders are making it clear that they have no intention of standing down this time if attacked.

After Syria chemical allegations, Obama considering limited military strike
Obama is weighing a military strike against Syria that would be of limited scope and duration, designed to serve as punishment for Syria’s use of chemical weapons and as a deterrent, while keeping the United States out of deeper involvement in that country’s civil war, according to senior administration officials.

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Partial Israeli reserves call-up. US beefs up Qatar air base. Syria moves units into sheltered sites
Ahead of the US strike on Syria, the Israeli security cabinet in special session Wednesday, Aug. 28, ordered the partial mobilization of select, qualitative IDF reserve forces: Rocket, Air Force, missile interception, Home Defense command and intelligence units. Anti-missile Arrow, Patriot and Iron Dome systems were spread out more widely than ever before across the country. US and Syria wound up last military preparations for the US strike. Barring last-minute hold-ups, debkafile’s military sources report the American operation is scheduled to start Friday night, early Saturday Aug. 30-31.

France: political solution the ultimate goal for Syria
French President Francois Hollande said on Thursday that Syria needed a political solution, but that could only happen if the international community could halt killings like last week's chemical attack and better support the opposition.

Another bird flu outbreak reported in Italy
A chicken farm located between the Italian cities of Bologna and Ravenna is the site of a new outbreak of bird flu, authorities in central Italy said Wednesday. As a result of the discovery some 150,000 chickens will have to be destroyed, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

Europe warns Assad against attacking Israel
According to the officials, Assad realizes that a potential Western assault would be a response to his army's use of chemical weapons and not as a means to affect the current balance of power in Syria.

Report: Russia to send two ships to east Mediterranean
Russia's Interfax news agency says anti-submarine vessel, missile cruiser will be sent in coming days because of 'well-known situation'; UN inspectors to leave Syria Saturday

'A coward, a traitor, and a murderer': Fort Hood gunman sentenced to death
A court-martial jury of 13 retired military officers deliberated for just under two hours before they unanimously agreed on the maximum penalty of lethal injection. The sentence also included dismissing Hasan from the Army and stripping him of his military pay.

Putin Orders Massive Strike Against Saudi Arabia if syria attacked Russian Government outraged by Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultans terrorist threats
According to leaked information Putin became “enraged” after his early August meeting with Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan who warned that if Russia did not accept the defeat of Syria, Saudi Arabia would unleash Chechen terrorists under their control to cause mass death and chaos during the Winter Olympics scheduled to be held 7-23 February 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Putin was quoted as saying to officials afterwards WHO THE HELL DO THESE PEOPLE THINK THEY ARE DEALING WITH.

RF, China walk out of UN SC meeting after US call for immediate action in Syria
The Russian and Chinese officials walked out of the U.N. Security Council meeting in New York on Wednesday, August 28, after U.S. Permanent Representative Samantha Power had called for an immediate action in Syria. The permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - Russia, Britain, China, the U.S. and France - had been invited to the closed meeting. An hour later the Russian and Chinese diplomats left the meeting and headed to the Security Council’s main conference room where debates on Haiti was taking place.

Peres: We will respond with 'full force' to any Syrian attack
Israel will respond with "full force" to any Syrian counter-attack, President Shimon Peres warned Thursday morning, commenting on reports emerging from radical corners of the Arab world that have threatened Israel in retaliation if the West attacks Syria.

Archbishop: Christians must repent for homophobia
Christian malice toward homosexuals and homosexuality is "totally wrong" and "demands repentance," Britain's archbishop of Canterbury told evangelical leaders.

Obama should be stripped of his Nobel Peace prize if he starts Syria war
Papadopoulos added that the US and the West have no right to intervene in the affairs of another foreign state. “America and its allies are not the policemen of the world. America has no moral or legal right to attack an independent sovereign country,”

IRAN: 'Thousands of missiles' to rain on Israel
Iran is threatening to launch a massive missile strike against Israel if the United States attacks Syria for using chemical weapons against its own people, which could touch off a full-blown war in the region. “The day of reckoning is near,” according to Hossein Shariatmadari, the chief editor of Keyhan newspaper, an outlet controlled by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran has boosted nuclear capabilities, says IAEA
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says Tehran has now installed more than 1,000 advanced centrifuges at its Natanz enrichment plant. It comes as the IAEA says it will resume talks with Iran on 27 September - the first such negotiations since President Hassan Rouhani was elected.

House speaker presses Obama for answers on Syria
House Speaker John Boehner called on President Barack Obama on Wednesday to deliver a specific rationale for using U.S. military force against Syria as a growing number of congressional Republicans and Democrats expressed concerns about war with a Mideast nation roiled by civil conflict.

Ethiopia's Falash Mura repatriated to Israel
About 450 Ethiopians of Jewish descent have been repatriated to Israel, concluding an Israeli government-backed scheme to relocate the community. Their migration was "historic", Israel's Minister of Absorption Sofa Landver is quoted as saying. Many members of the Falash Mura community lived in poor conditions in northern Ethiopia.

Iranian officials rush to Syria as drums of war beat louder
An Iranian delegation of senior parliamentarians is to visit Syria on Saturday in an effort to "study Syria's conditions" as Western powers rush to debate their next move to deter the use of chemical weapons, Fars News Agency, which claims to be independent but which is widely known to have close ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guards reported.

As Syria strike looms, Israeli gas mask centers get extended opening hours
The Israel Defense Forces Home Front Command has extended the opening hours for gas mask distribution centers to cope with the massive demand of recent days, Army Radio reported Thursday. Anxious Israelis have flooded the centers, anticipating an attack on Israel in response to any strike by the US and its allies on Syria over the regime’s probable use of chemical weapons.

Amid Syria tensions, Russia sends more warships to Mediterranean
Russia will send two ships to the east Mediterranean to strengthen its naval presence because of the "well-known situation" there, Interfax news agency said on Thursday referring to the Syria crisis. The agency quoted a source in the armed forces' general staff as saying an anti-submarine vessel and a missile cruiser would be sent in the coming days because the situation "required us to make some adjustments" in the naval force.

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The Pros and Cons of Attacking Syria
Go after the dog’s master, not the dog. Kudos to Michael Ledeen for explaining that the road to Damascus starts in Tehran. As Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu explained on Aug. 25, “Assad’s regime isn’t acting alone. Iran, and Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, are there on the ground playing an active role assisting Syria. In fact, Assad’s regime has become a full Iranian client and Syria has become Iran’s testing ground. … Iran is watching and it wants to see what will be the reaction to the use of chemical weapons.”

The west is playing in to Moscow’s hands on Syria
It is, of course, very easy to picture the US as a global bully ever bent on inventing pretexts for aggression. Iran will be jubilant. Many people in Syria will be inclined to resist a new imperialist crusade. Upping the ante is advantageous for Moscow. The more the western powers are involved in the conflict, the more deeply they are immersed, the more opportunities emerge for Russia to back the Assad regime as a “legitimate authority under attack”.

MAJOR FIREBALL EVENT, UPGRADED
NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office has upgraded its estimates of a major fireball that exploded over the southeastern USA on August 28th. Lead researcher Bill Cooke says " the fireball reached a peak magnitude of -13, brighter than a Full Moon, and cast shadows on the ground.

Gay Spouses in All States Now Married Under U.S. Tax Law
Gay spouses in all U.S. states will be treated as married under federal tax law even if local authorities don’t recognize their marriages... The decision by the Treasury Department today implements the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in June to overturn part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which had forbidden the Internal Revenue Service from letting married homosexual couples file joint tax returns.

CME WILL NOT HIT EARTH, STORMS POSSIBLE ANYWAY
A coronal mass ejection (CME) propelled into space yesterday by an erupting solar filament will not hit Earth. However, a solar wind stream will. The stream, which is flowing from a coronal hole in the sun's northern hemisphere, is expected to arrive on August 30-31, possibly sparking polar geomagnetic storms.

Immigration Reform 2013: House Gang Preps Comprehensive Bill For October Push
Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez has said earlier this week, while speaking in Republican territory in Virginia, that he’s already signed off on the measure and eager to introduce it. Now we know that all the Democrats within the bipartisan gang remain unified on the agreement and are waiting on their Republican counterparts to sign off on it. When the Republicans give the go signal, the group will wait for what it believes is the “right bipartisan moment” to introduce the bill, which members believe is in October. By that time they hope Congress will be over the budget fight, with an appropriations bill passed to avert the threat of a government shutdown.

France's Hollande backs US on Syria action
The French president has said a vote by UK MPs against involvement in military strikes on Syria has not changed France's resolve to take firm action. Francois Hollande said all options were being considered, and that a strike within days was not ruled out. His comments came after US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said Washington would continue to seek a coalition for possible military action.

King Abdullah of Jordan has audience with Pope Francis
Pope Francis met Thursday with King Abdullah II and Queen Rania of Jordan in an audience at the Vatican. Abdullah also held a discussion with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, and Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, secretary of state for international relations, Vatican Radio reported. Francis thanked the king for arranging a conference, to be held in Amman in September, on the role of Christians in Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East.

Fifth American destroyer heads to Mediterranean in build-up of possible Syria strike
A few hours after reports surfaced that Russia sent two missile ships into the Mediterranean Sea due to the Syria crisis, the US sent another destroyer, their fifth so far, towards the center of the build-up and probably increases the possibility of an attack on Syria. According to an American security source quoted in the Daily Star, "the US is expected to make the 'Stout' destroyer available for an imminent attack against Syria."

MIT professor: global warming is a ‘religion’
...there has been no rise in global temperatures for the past 15 years.

Mystery grows: Journalist died prepping Obama exposé
Major probe tied to agent suspected of sanitizing president's passport records Before his death in a fiery car crash, Michael Hastings was preparing to publish a major investigative piece tied to the undercover agent who is suspected of sanitizing President Obama’s passport records prior to the 2008 presidential election. The mystery has only deepened since the Los Angeles Coroner’s Office ruled that drugs in his system at the time of the June 18 crash, including amphetamines and marijuana, likely did not contribute to the crash.

New Snowden Leak Reports ‘Groundbreaking’ NSA Crypto-Cracking
“Also,” Clapper writes in a line marked “top secret,” “we are investing in groundbreaking cryptanalytic capabilities to defeat adversarial cryptography and exploit internet traffic.”

United Launch Alliance Rocket Puts US Spy Satellite Into Orbit
A top secret payload was launched from a Delta IV Heavy rocket on Wednesday morning. The rocket lifted off at 11:03 am PDT from the Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in California, carrying a US spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Officials at United Launch Alliance said the rocket launch was successful, despite a ten minute delay due to minor issues.

Massive Canyon Discovered Beneath Greenland Ice Sheet
One of the largest canyons in the world has been discovered beneath the Greenland ice sheet, according to new research appearing in the latest edition of the journal Science. Lead author Jonathan Bamber, a professor at the University of Bristol’s School of Geographical Sciences, and colleagues report that the canyon is at least 460 miles (750km) long, up to 2,600 feet (800m) deep in places.

Colcord, Oklahoma, residents told to watch out for blood worms in water supply
There are no known health effects from the worms, which range from about a quarter to a half inch in length. But local officials aren't taking any chances, hand-delivering letters to residents warning them to stick to bottled water for the time being.

British MPs reject military intervention in Syria
Any possibility of British involvement in a military campaign in Syria has been effectively ruled out after British lawmakers voted down the prospect in parliament, costing the US the nation’s closest ally in a potential strike.

Obama Weighs Solo Action on Syria
Obama finds himself on the verge of pursuing the very kind of go-it-alone approach in Syria that he accused his predecessor of using in Iraq after British lawmakers reject measure to give preliminary approval to military action.

Obama Uses Executive Actions to Bypass Congress on Gun Control Again
On August 29, Vice President Joe Biden announced two new gun control measures implemented by President Obama via executive actions. Fox News reports the measures target military surplus weapons and the method in which certain guns are registered in the United States.

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