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Hamas, which wants to drive the Jews into the sea, has a leadership that takes very good care of itself. Nothing but the best will do, up to and including refuge in 5 star hotels in the UAE after starting a war with Israel. So when the daughter of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh required emergency care after she suffered “complications from a routine procedure” in a Gaza hospital, naturally she was rushed to Israel for treatment. According to the Reuters dispatch linked above, nobody is speaking on the record, citing medical confidentiality, but such “humanitarian cooperation” is far from unknown....

An Obama administration health official said Sunday that U.S. protocols on Ebola failed because they originally were intended for African field hospitals, while the White House came under another round of attacks for its refusal to restrict travel from nations suffering epidemic outbreaks. Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the original Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instructions for dealing with the virus were taken from the World Health Organization’s protocol for Africa, where conditions are much different from those in U.S. hospitals. Two nurses caring for an Ebola patient flown into...

In response to fears of Ebola spreading within the U.S., the Pentagon is forming a “quick strike team” consisting of 30 people. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced Sunday that the medical support team will feature 20 critical care nurses, five doctors and five trainers who specialize in infectious disease protocols. The team is composed of civilian health care providers though no names have been released at this point. The team was created in response.....

‘Liaoning’ shut down during recent sea trials There’s no more of a conspicuous and potent symbol of China’s growing naval power than the aircraft carrier Liaoning. But the 53,000-ton, 999-foot-long carrier could be dangerous to her crew and prone to engine failures. If so, that makes the vessel as much of a liability as an asset to Beijing. The ex-Soviet carrier once went by the name Varyag until a cash-strapped Ukraine sold the ship to Beijing in 1998. The Chinese navy has since invested considerable resources into modernizing the warship and testing her at sea. But on at least one...

India is also looking to upgrade the first set of three Project 11356 frigates that were purchased in the early 2000s. Russia offered India three additional Project 11356 or Talwar class frigates, after New Delhi made a formal request, Vladimir Spiridopulo, the general director working on this project at the Northern Design Bureau, said. Negotiations have been taking place since this spring, TASS said. India to spend $3 billion for 3 more Talwar-class frigates Russia supplied India with two sets of three Project 11356 frigates, with the last one being the INS Trikand. “Negotiations on the third set of three...

This is a little longer than the videos to which you’re accustomed. That’s because it’s taken from my live radio show (which is available for free as a podcast). Why do this?

The first thing the firefighters saw was the arm sticking out of the barred window on the second floor of the factory. Flames reached through the partially collapsed roof and a high column of smoke darkened the winter sky. This fire had been burning for some time. The fire station is two minutes from the Teresa Moda garment factory, on the edge of the main industrial zone of Prato, a town outside Florence. The zone was developed for Italian textile manufacturers in the 1980s but now is predominantly Chinese. […] Prato is the epicenter of a thriving, illicit Chinese economy...

... On Sunday, Mr Barroso told the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show that the influence of the British prime minister would be “zero” if Britain left the bloc.

American C-130 military transport aircraft made "multiple" airdrops of weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to Kurdish fighters fending off Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists in the strategic Syrian town of Kobane, despite Turkey labeling the Kurds "terrorists." According to US Central Command on Monday, the drops consisted of equipment from Kurdish authorities in Iraq, and were "intended to enable continued resistance against Isil's (ISIS - ed.) attempts to overtake Kobane," reports BBC. The US-led coalition against ISIS has already conducted over 135 airstrikes against ISIS over the past several weeks to defend Kobane, located strategically along the Syrian and Turkish border....

Taiwan's navy successfully test-fired two anti-ship missiles from a submarine, in the first such exercise since the weapons were acquired from the United States. The Harpoon missiles were launched from Hai Hu (Sea Tiger), a Dutch-built conventional submarine, during a drill last week, the Liberty Times and the United Daily News said, citing unnamed naval sources. The navy started taking delivery of the missiles last year to arm two submarines. The missiles, which have a range of 278 kilometers, would boost the attack capabilities of the two submarines previously only armed with torpedoes with a limited range, naval sources were...

Fifty years ago, the world woke up to news the nation - then at odds with Moscow and Washington - had detonated its own atomic bomb China's first atomic test on October 16, 1964, in Xinjiang. Mao wanted to prove the nation was a global power. Photo: SCMP Pictures Fifty years ago yesterday, China detonated its first atomic bomb, joining the United States, Soviet Union, Britain and France as the only nuclear powers at the time. The explosion in Lop Nur in eastern Xinjiang paved the way for the nation's further development of nuclear weapons and its emergence as a...

STOCKHOLM – The Swedish military has presented photographic evidence of a mysterious “foreign vessel” off the coast of Stockholm but rejected reports it was on the “hunt” for a damaged submarine. Ever since the armed forces received a tip-off about a “man-made object” off the coast of Stockholm on Friday, 200 men, several stealth ships, minesweepers and helicopters have been searching the sea around islands about 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of the Swedish capital. “This is not ours, it’s a foreign vessel,” Rear Admiral Anders Grenstad told reporters, pointing to a grainy photo taken on Sunday morning by a...

Representatives of Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv confirmed on Sunday evening that treated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's daughter. The hospital said that Haniyeh's daughter had been admitted for a number of days, noting that she was one of over a thousand Gazans that the hospital treats every year.

The Bible says if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him something to drink—doing so will “heap burning coals” of shame on his head. But there is no evidence that the militants of the Islamic State, widely known as ISIS or ISIL, feel any sense of disgrace or indignity (and certainly not gratitude) receiving charity from their foes. Quite the reverse, the aid convoys have to pay off ISIS emirs (leaders) for the convoys to enter the eastern Syrian extremist strongholds of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, providing yet another income stream for ISIS militants,...

The U.S. military said late Sunday that it had dropped weapons, ammunition, and medical supplies to Kurdish forces battling to hold the Syrian border town of Kobani against Islamic State militants. The airdrops were the first of their kind and followed weeks of U.S. and coalition airstrikes in and near Kobani. Earlier Sunday, U.S. Central Command said that it had launched 11 airstrikes overnight in the area. CentCom said U.S. C-130 cargo planes made multiple drops of arms and supplies provided by Kurdish authorities in Iraq. It said they were intended to enable continued resistance to Islamic State efforts to...

Obama Sees an Iran Deal That Could Avoid Congress By DAVID E. SANGER OCT. 19, 2014 WASHINGTON — No one knows if the Obama administration will manage in the next five weeks to strike what many in the White House consider the most important foreign policy deal of his presidency: an accord with Iran that would forestall its ability to make a nuclear weapon. But the White House has made one significant decision: If agreement is reached, President Obama will do everything in his power to avoid letting Congress vote on it. Even while negotiators argue over the number of...

The bidding process for the 2022 Olympics was a disaster for the International Olympic Committee. Democratic nations are no longer buying the argument that hosting the games is a wise investment. Every potential 2022 host city with a democratic government eventually pulled out of the bidding, many over economic concerns, leaving Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan, as the IOC's only two options. Academics have been saying for years that hosting the Olympics doesn't make economic sense. The costs are typically larger than expected, the infrastructure needed for a big sporting event isn't the same as the infrastructure needed for daily life,...

<p>Louise Troh, whose fiance Thomas Eric Duncan,became the first person in the U.S. to be diagnosed with Ebola, says she and her family are showing no signs of the deadly disease after a 21-day quarantine.</p> <p>Duncan died on October 8.</p>

The collapse in oil prices is already a major cause of concern for countries heavily reliant on exports of the commodity. For some, it could be a matter of avoiding a severe recession. Here's why: For governments in oil-exporting countries to meet their spending commitments they need oil to remain above a certain price. With oil prices under $87 a barrel, countries that rely on high oil prices, including Venezuela, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, may have a reason to be concerned. This chart shows the price per barrel that the six most exposed countries need to meet their national budgets....

No one knows if the Obama administration will manage in the next five weeks to strike what many in the White House consider the most important foreign policy deal of his presidency: an accord with Iran that would forestall its ability to make a nuclear weapon. But the White House has made one significant decision: If agreement is reached, President Obama will do everything in his power to avoid letting Congress vote on it.