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A decommissioning ceremony has been held for a Plymouth-based submarine. The service marked the end of the Royal Navy's Trafalgar Class submarine HMS Turbulent's service after nearly 30 years. The Tomahawk-equipped submarine returned to its Devonport base in December after a 284-day deployment - 190 of which were spent submerged. During the deployment HMS Turbulent fired its missiles to provide cover during Nato operations in Libya. The Royal Navy said the submarine - the second oldest of its class - had had a distinguished service, but had come to the end of its natural operational life.

US SECRETARY of State Hillary Clinton has been taunted by chants of "Monica, Monica" by tomato-throwing demonstrators as she visited the Egyptian port city of Alexandria. The chants, referring to the Monica Lewinsky scandal when her husband, Bill Clinton, was president, were heard outside the US consulate as she visited for its reopening. An embarrassed Egyptian security official said they were chanting "Monica, Monica" and "Irhal, Clinton" (Get out, Clinton.) Tomatoes, shoes and a water bottle were thrown at part of Mrs Clinton's motorcade as it pulled up, protected by riot police, although a US official said Mrs Clinton's...

Scotland's 'explosive' push to secede from the U.K. Scotland's first minister promises to hold a referendum on Scottish independence. Could it really succeed? POSTED ON JANUARY 13, 2012, AT 5:21 PM Scottish nationalists have dreamed of independence for centuries, and now, Scotland First Minister Alex Salmond is really trying to pull it off. Salmond has announced plans to hold a referendum in fall 2014 on breaking away from the United Kingdom, setting off a week of friction between Edinburgh and London. Will Scotland and the U.K. really part ways? Here's what you should know: What exactly is Scotland's relationship to...

Thousands of doctors and nurses may be sacked unless they agree to drastic changes to their pay and conditions as hospitals strive to make billions of pounds worth of savings, it has been claimed. NHS bosses have suggested terminating all staff contracts and reoffering them on different terms, according to a leaked document obtained by The Sunday Times. New terms could include pay cuts of up to 5%, an end to overtime for nights, weekends and bank holidays, and reduced holiday leave, the newspaper said.

Reagan and John Paul shared a conviction that communism was a moral evil, not just a bad economic system. And Lech Walesa, founder of the Solidarity movement that led the anti-communist struggle in Poland, has often paid homage to both men and told the AP in a recent interview that he deeply respected Reagan. "Reagan should have a monument in every city," Walesa said.

I’m in Vilnius, Lithuania, where I just finished speaking to a regional conference of the European Students for Liberty. I subjected the kids to more than 90 minutes of pontificating and 73 PowerPoint slides, but I could have saved them a lot of time if I simply showed them this Rahn Curve video and then posted just one slide – the one showing that the burden of government spending in Europe used to be very small.This slide shows that government spending used to consume only about 10 percent of European economic output in the 1800s and less than 15 percent...

GDANSK, Poland — Polish officials unveiled a statue of former President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II on Saturday, honoring two men widely credited in this Eastern European country with helping to topple communism 23 years ago.

Earlier this week, Greek leaders suggested they would ask for more time to hit austerity targets demanded by their creditors. Germany, though, is opposed, according to Friday media reports. IMF head Christine Lagarde also said it is "premature to discuss extension." The idea doesn't seem to have gone down well. On Thursday, Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras indicated that the leaders of the three parties represented in the country's governing coalition had agreed to ask for more time to make billions in cuts that have been demanded in exchange for emergency international aid. Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras also said...

Nawaf Fares, a former regime hardliner and security chief who was Syria's ambassador to Iraq, spoke out in an exclusive interview with The Sunday Telegraph yesterday - his first since announcing his dramatic decision to quit last week. .... Mr Fares's most damaging allegation is that the Syrian government itself has a hand in the nationwide wave of suicide bombings on government buildings, which have killed hundreds of people and maimed thousands more. By way of example, he cited the twin blasts outside a military intelligence building in the al-Qazzaz suburb of Damascus in May, which killed 55 people and...

You may know more Sanskrit than you realize. In fact, the word know comes from the same Indo-European root for the Sanskrit jnana. A Greek form of the root inflected by Latin gives us the English term gnostic, referring to knowledge of spiritual mysteries. You, faithful reader, know what agnostic means. Have you ever watched or created a video? Again, an IE root is the source of the term. Some scholars think the Sanskrit vidya, another word for knowledge, arose from a lexeme for seeing. With the twists and turns of consonants and vowels as language developed, we have an...

ON the night of December 14, 2010, US Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was shot and killed while on patrol in an Arizona canyon near the US-Mexico border. Two guns found at the scene were linked to an investigation being run by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) called “Operation Fast and Furious,” sparking a congressional inquiry into the program and generating considerable criticism of the ATF and the Obama administration. Because of this criticism, in August 2011 ATF acting director Kenneth Melson was reassigned from his post and the US attorney for Arizona was forced...

Sensing increasing resistance to a Navy biofuels testing program, the White House on Wednesday convened biofuels proponents for a strategy session about the energy source. Ex-military, agriculture, industry and government officials all met in the Roosevelt Room for the talk, retired U.S. Marine Brig. Gen. Stephen A. Cheney said Thursday at a Washington, D.C., event hosted by The Truman Project. Though the Pentagon, including Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, has said the Armed Forces need biofuels for energy security, lawmakers have made it more difficult for the DOD to procure biofuels.

 “When they cut it out of the NDAA (defense authorization...

Lawmakers were livid to discover that the United States’ Olympic team uniforms were made in China. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) even suggested “they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them and start all over again.” The company who designed the uniforms, Ralph Lauren, has received less scrutiny. Few outlets have noted that Ralph Lauren himself is a prominent contributor to President Obama and the Democratic Party.

Exclusive: Larry Klayman spotlights examples of Obama's sympathies for Islam If Newsweek can dub President Barack Hussein Obama, as it did on a recent cover, “the first gay president” because of his affinity for gays and their agenda, he deserves even more the mantle of “the first Muslim president” for the same reason. Obama has spent the better part of the last week mercilessly attacking Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney over his ties to the investment firm Bain Capital, which Obama and his enablers in the mainstream media claim helped export American jobs overseas. Coupled with this is an even...

GDANSK, Poland (AP) — Polish officials unveiled a statue of former President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II on Saturday, honoring two men widely credited in this Eastern European country with helping to topple communism 23 years ago. The statue was unveiled in Gdansk, the birthplace of Lech Walesa's Solidarity movement, in the presence of about 120 former Solidarity activists, many of whom were imprisoned in the 1980s for their roles in organizing or taking part in strikes against the communist regime...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday that she is outraged by reports of a new massacre in Syria. The Associated Press reported that Clinton demanded that the UN Security Council take action to stop the violence in Syria. Clinton said in a statement that Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime is deliberately murdering innocent civilians as it tries to put down 16 months of unrest and that history will judge the Security Council if it fails to act. “History will judge this council,” she said, according to AP. “Its members must ask themselves whether continuing to allow the...

program providing training and scholarships to Indonesian professionals is about to be expanded by the Obama Administration, which hopes to increase the “number of Indonesian future leaders holding advanced degrees (Masters) from U.S. and in-country institutions of higher education.” According to a Statement of Work (SOW) posted today to the FedBizOpps database, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is seeking contractors capable of carrying out Phase II of the “Program to Extend Scholarships and Training to Achieve Sustainable Impacts," or PRESTASI. (Solicitation #SOL-497-12-000004). The selected vendor will continue to assist existing Phase I participants while identifying and placing new...

Tultitlan, Mexico (CNN) -- Neighbors on this tiny, sun-soaked street know each other's names. They pray together at a church with stained-glass windows that they can see from their front steps. But for years, they say, immigrants have been pushing their community apart. Residents here say they stopped feeling safe when strangers started lingering on street corners and leering at locals. They created neighborhood watch patrols to keep crime in check. "It's not that we're against immigrants," Osvaldo Espinosa says. "We just want them to get rid of that house." 'Train of death' drives migrant American dreamers It's the kind...

He just keeps going.

QUETTA, (The Express Tribune) — Two bodies, including one identified of an Imam Bargah prayer leader, have been recovered from the Mian Gundi area on the outskirts of Quetta on Wednesday.According to the police, some people informed the police about the presence of the bodies in a mountain near Mian Gundi area. Officials rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area after discovering the bodies.The bodies were shifted to the Bolan Medical Teaching Hospital for an autopsy.“They were slaughtered and beheaded in a brutal manner,” hospital sources said adding that their ages ranged between 28-30 years of age.They were...

USS HARRY S. TRUMAN, At Sea (NNS) -- The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) conducted a full power run and rudder swing checks during sea trials July 8. The ship rolled more than 13 degrees in each direction. "After weeks of calibrations and testing, the ship's steering was finally put to the test," said Lt. Kasey Vowell, assistant auxiliary division officer for engineering department. Truman maxed out at 30 plus knots during the run.

"The commanding general of the 18th Airborne Corps, Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick, has agreed to take jurisdiction of Eisenhauer's criminal case, but only if Cumberland County District Attorney William West asks. "We worked very hard to convince the military that the fair and appropriate thing for them to do was request prosecutorial jurisdiction, and they have agreed to do that," said Mark Waple, Eisenhauer's attorney and a West Point-educated former Army attorney. "Now the ball is in the court of the Cumberland County district attorney's office. We hope to have a response from them within the next few days. What...

XINING - Every summer, Tibetan antelopes in China's remote northwest follow a certain pattern of migration that is key to the endangered species' survival. Normally, around 30,000 pregnant gazelles migrate, some travel for thousands of miles, in June and July to the heart of Hoh Xil nature reserve on the eastern edge of Qinghai-Tibetan plateau to deliver calves. Scientists have not been able to explain why the gazelles favor this place to give birth. But there are worrying signs that this pattern might change before they even have another calf -- due to climate change. In recent months, melting glaciers...

As the French people celebrate their revolution on Saturday, Bastille Day, the founding principles — liberte, egalite and fraternite — seem to be alive and well. New President Francois Hollande embraced equality on the campaign trail this spring. To reduce the French deficit, he proposed raising taxes on large corporations and the super-rich. Hollande's proposal would slap a 75 percent tax rate on anyone making more than 1 million euros a year, a huge jump from the current rate. It would also reinstate some wealth taxes Sarkozy got rid of. Many wealthy French have already gone abroad.

As the news stories mount regarding Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s decision to move his chemical weapons stockpile from storage to areas closer to rebel locations, there is one thing the mainstream media is not commenting on: How Syria acquired what is reported to be one of the world’s largest arsenals of bio-chemical WMD? More to the point, what they are not reporting is this: From where did the Assad regime acquire their bio-chemical WMD? In 2006, former Iraqi general, Georges Sada, who served under Saddam Hussein before he defected, wrote a comprehensive book detailing how the Iraqi Revolutionary Guard...

China now boasts 73 of the biggest global companies – stealing the number two spot on the Fortune 500 list from Japan. China has landed 73 companies on the list, Japan has 68 and the U.S. has 132. Although the U.S. has a clear margin, China added 12 companies to the list since last year while the amount of U.S. companies has dropped by 14. In the last decade, the amount of U.S. companies on the list has fallen from 197 to 132. Conversely, China only had 11 companies on the list in 2002 compared to today’s 73. …

An interview with a veteran Afghan Taliban commander published in the New Statesman offered a rare insider’s account into the declining level of morale within the seemingly-ascendant Islamist militant group. The commander, who was given the alias Mawlvi for the interview, confessed that he did not believe insurgent forces could win the war against the Afghan state, insisting the Taliban would ultimately have to come to the negotiating table because capturing Kabul was a “dim prospect.” In another surprising revelation, the commander claimed that large sections of the Taliban were frustrated with al Qaeda, even admitting he was relieved to...

In recent weeks there have been several notable defections from the Syrian regime including Brigadier General Manaf Tlass of the elite Republican Guard and son of a former Syrian defense minister. Also defecting was Nawaf Fares, Syria’s envoy in Iraq and the first senior diplomat to abandon President al-Assad. General Fayez Amro of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) revealed that there are a total of 15 generals who have abandoned the Syrian regime and made the case that foreign intervention is not only necessary but just. General Amro was quoted as saying, “This has become an international humanitarian crisis, and...

Schematic diagram of experimental configuration used for 1064nm SORS measurementsA team working in the UK have demonstrated that spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS) using short wave infrared can detect chemicals through physical barriers such as containers, which is a step forward in detection and security.The performance of SORS compared to conventional Raman (CR) spectroscopy to detect the sub-surface layer beneath a barrier is better because of its ability to suppress fluorescence and Raman scattering from the target container. However, there is still a problem with the fluorescence of the target chemical beneath, as this can mask the useful Raman...

The Jesse Lee Peterson Radio Show, Uniting the Races with Truth,Instead of Dividing Them with Lies LISTEN TO THE REAL REVEREND JESSE ON THE INTERNET OR A RADIO STATION IN YOUR AREA......BOND Action, Inc...Educating, Motivating and Rallying Americans! The Jesse Lee Peterson Radio Show Streamed live online from 6-9 a.m. PST / 9-12 a.m. EST. Call in the same times usually. For Live Questions or Comments Call 1-888-77-JESSE(5-3773) You can email comments and questions to radio@bondaction.org For more information on getting The Jesse Lee Peterson Show picked up on a station in your local area call Ermias Alemayehu at 1-877-WE...

Europe and the U.S. may be in grim economic straits, but the Islamic Republic of Iran is doing just fine—at least if Iran's leaders are to be believed. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has insisted relentlessly that his country's economy is healthy, while Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has christened the current Iranian calendar year as the "Year of Domestic Production and Support for Iranian Capital and Labor." The truth, of course, is very different. Iran's economy faces rising inflation and a significant depreciation of the rial due to tightening international sanctions. Against this backdrop, it is only natural for Iran's leaders to...

Bikini-clad, gun-toting Israeli woman becomes an Internet sensation A photo of a gun-wielding, bikini-clad woman standing on a crowded Tel Aviv beach has become an Internet sensation, with thousands of viewers curious about whether the brunette beauty is part of Israel's military and why she wasn't in uniform with her weapon in tow. The newspaper Haaretz notes that 'To an Israeli, the photo makes perfectly practical sense. When soldiers take their weapon off military premises, they must guard it closely and keep it on their person, at all times. Having one's weapon stolen is harshly punished with time in military...

A US federal grand jury has indicted two men, one from Iran and the other from China, on charges of conspiring to send materials from the United States to Iran for the purpose of enriching uranium, the US Justice Department said on Friday. Using a Chinese company as a go-between to avoid trade sanctions, the men tried for three years to obtain US materials, such as high-strength steel, that could be used in an Iranian nuclear program, the department said. Iranian citizen Parviz Khaki was arrested in May in the Philippines, while the other man, Zongcheng Yi of China, remains...

Egypt's Islamist president flew to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday at the start of his first foreign trip, underscoring the traditionally close ties between the two regional powerhouses.

Well, now at least the debate is in the open and we can see just how questionable are the talking points of those who claim the United States has nothing to fear from Islamists. The New York Times publishes an article with the promising title of “Fast-Changing Arab World is Upending U.S. Assumptions,” yet sadly, the article shows that certain assumptions are not changing at all. Indeed, are not even discussed. To summarize the article’s thesis: before Obama’s election, the United States thought that pro-American regimes were good and radical Islamists were bad — but now we know better. For...

If you believe the French weekly Le Point, Thomas Hollande, the 27-year-old lawyer and son of President François Hollande and his former partner, Ségolène Royal, blasted his father’s current partner in an interview for “putting private life in the public domain” by backing a political opponent of his mother. If you believe Thomas Hollande, on the other hand, there was no such interview, just a conversation with a young woman who twisted his words. “I deny giving an interview to Le Point,” he told Agence France-Presse on Wednesday evening. “The comments reported, some of which are distorted or out of...

The plea agreement drops robbery and battery charges against the man, who was to be released. A man who grabbed a stranger in downtown Roanoke in March pleaded guilty Thursday to attempted abduction. Mauricio Ramirez-Diaz, 22, initially had been charged with assault and battery and attempted robbery, but in June a Roanoke grand jury added abduction with attempt to defile and misdemeanor sexual battery to the counts against him. Through a plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed the robbery and battery charges and amended the abduction charge to a lesser felony. Ramirez-Diaz, who had been held since March, was given a two-year...

July 13, 2012 Dear Ms. ****, Thank you for contacting me about Senate ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). I appreciate hearing from you. As you may know, UNCLOS is the international agreement that resulted from the third U.N. Conference on the Law of the Sea (1973-1982). The treaty would establish territorial sea limits, navigational rights, rules to govern commercial and military use of the sea, and a system for settling disputes between nations. It would also include environmental provisions. I share your concerns about the possible impact of this proposed treaty and oppose...

A small cargo ship sailed into Havana Bay on Friday with the first maritime shipment from Miami to Cuba in 50 years. The Ana Cecilia carried just one container filled with food and other items, but it was the beginning of what shipper International Port Corp hopes will be a weekly service linking the United States and Cuba, longtime ideological foes. There are other shipping services between the two countries, but none linking Miami, center of the Cuban exile community in the United States and opposition to Cuba's communist government, to Havana. The company was granted a license by the...

MADRID, Spanish workers blocked streets and railways in Madrid on Friday in protests against new austerity measures they said hurt ordinary people more than the bankers and politicians they blame for the economic crisis. As the Spanish government approved the deepest cuts in 30 years, including a second round of wage cuts and reduced benefits for civil servants, Spain's main unions called on public workers to strike in September. Traffic was blocked in central Madrid for hours as hundreds of public workers - many wearing black t-shirts in support of striking miners or green ones for public school teachers -...

When Souly Farag was growing up in Egypt, Christian houses were marked with crosses for burning. Coptic Christians were second-class citizens. Forty-four years ago, Mr. Farag emigrated to the United States to provide a better future for his family. But even in the wake of the ouster of longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak and Egypt's first democratic elections, the Farag family is in no hurry to return to their homeland. Read more: http://times247.com/articles/47egyptian-copts-fear-persecution-under-muslim-brotherhood3#ixzz20WoihDwR

The head of the Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip said on Friday he was confident Egypt's new president would shield the Palestinian enclave from Israeli attack and fully open its borders to end a trade blockade. Mohamed Mursi, who won power in last month's presidential election in Egypt, is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and ideologically close to Hamas. The Gazan Islamists long complained that his predecessor Hosni Mubarak, ousted from power last year in a popular revolt, sided not just with Israel, but also with their political rival - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement.

Imagine you have a brother and he’s an alcoholic. He has his moments, but you keep your distance from him. You don’t mind him for the occasional family gathering or holiday. You still love him. But you don’t want to be around him. This is how I lovingly describe my current relationship with the United States. The United States is my alcoholic brother. And although I will always love him, I don’t want to be near him at the moment. I know that’s harsh, but I really feel my home country is not in a good place these days. That’s...

Syria has begun moving parts of its vast arsenal of chemical weapons out of storage facilities, U.S. officials said, in a development that has alarmed many in Washington, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The State Department's top official for Africa this week defended the decision not to designate Boko Haram as a "foreign terrorist organization" (FTO) -- but then used the term "terrorist organization" in reference to the Nigerian Islamist group, CNSNews.com reports. A Nigerian Christian leader criticized the move, saying failure to designate Boko Haram as an FTO emboldened the group and signaled that its targeting of Christians was acceptable. The administration on June 21 listed three Boko Haram leaders as "specially designated global terrorists" (SDGTs) but stopped short of listing the group as an FTO under U.S. law, a step some...

Syrian troops fire mortars into the outskirts of Damascus as former ambassador calls on army to "turn your guns" on the government.

Osama bin Laden wasn’t articulate and media savvy like Bill Clinton who was the leader of the United States between January 1993 and January 2001. After all, whatever Osama bin Laden was he did at least speak honestly with regards to his intentions. However, Bill Clinton had a host of special advisors, an unquestioning media to ply his propaganda, and he could keep a straight face when manipulating language in order to fulfill his policy agenda. Today all over the world people have to pay enormous airport taxes because of tightened security after September 11. This is also ironic. After...

Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01) boldly asked in the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, "Who is protecting the people?" He passionately talked about Seal Team Six and the lack of integrity the Obama Administration displayed by outing the specific team that targeted Osama bin Laden. VIDEO

OTTAWA -- Calls for the Iranian embassy to be closed grew louder Wednesday following claims it is abusing its diplomatic immunity and using intimidation tactics to invigorate loyalty among Iranian-Canadians. "We're very concerned about the role of Iran in fomenting unrest and inappropriate violent behaviour," Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said. "We don't approve of any foreign country recruiting Canadian nationals for the type of purposes described by some of the media." The Iranian embassy's cultural counsellor recently posted a message on a Farsi-language website noting the need "very concentrated cultural programs to enhance and nurture the culture in this...

In an unusually public forum, the head of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, MI6, has forecast that Iran would likely achieve a nuclear weapons capability within two years, a British newspaper reported Friday. The newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, quoted Sir John Sawers, once the ranking British diplomat on the Iranian nuclear issue and now head of the Secret Intelligence Service, as making the disclosure last week to a gathering of around 100 high-ranking civil servants. The reported remarks play into a highly contentious debate over Iran’s intentions and capabilities, in which estimates have varied widely. American intelligence agencies have cited a...