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FARNBOROUGH, England – The British Royal Air Force plans to finish technological upgrades of as many as 59 Tornado aircraft by 2016 as part of a modernization plan to keep the plane relevant as the F-35 and Typhoon come on line, officials said at the Farnborough International Airshow. The upgrades included outfitting the planes with precision weapons, improved information exchange and secure communication technology, said Dave Waddington, Tornado Force Commander, RAF. Although at least eight upgraded Tornado aircraft have recently served in Afghanistan, the RAF plans to fully phase out the plane by 2019 as more Eurofighter Typhoons and F-35s...

*The largest ever study of the effects of the main psychoactive component of cannabis suggests that it can cause paranoia in vulnerable individuals* To discover whether cannabis really does cause paranoia in vulnerable individuals, we carried out the largest ever study of the effects of THC (∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the drug’s principal psychoactive ingredient). We recruited 121 volunteers, all of whom had taken cannabis at least once before, and all of whom reported having experienced paranoid thoughts in the previous month (which is typical of half the population). None had been diagnosed with a mental illness. The volunteers were randomly chosen to...

Ed Miliband Has An Image Problem. And the Labor Party Thinks Barack Obama Can Fix It. By Sebastian Payne July 14 Ed Miliband is desperate to meet Barack Obama. The BBC is reporting that Miliband, the leader of the opposition party in the United Kingdom, is lobbying heavily for a meeting with the president before next year’s general election. Obama is on a two day state visit to Britain. Why, you might ask, given that the pair met in Buckingham Palace three years ago? The Labor Party thinks that, to boost Miliband's chances of winning next year’s general election, they...

Opinion polls suggest the Scots will decide against leaving, but it is the nationalists who have fire in their bellies, and Alex Salmond, the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), is a strong finisher. The campaign has been a bad-tempered one, marked by growing Scottish anger at English complacency and indifference while English resentment of Scottish whingeing and freeloading has risen On economics, the nationalists say that Scots will be £1,000 a year better-off per head if they go it alone. That number, however, is based on implausible assumptions about the oil price, Scotland’s debt burden, demography and productivity....

As Christian religious belief declines in Europe, the continent’s pagan heart comes more and more to the fore, and England, is only the latest European country to witness this growing phenomenon. A major pedophilia scandal is currently rocking British society, in which as many as 20 prominent politicians, judges and other members of the British establishment are suspected of having abused children in the 1980s and 1990s as part of a pedophile ring. The victims were among society’s most vulnerable, being mostly boys from state children’s homes. And such abuse, it is suspected, may have been going on for decades....

It wasn't that long ago that those who claimed that there was a massive pedophile ring involving officials in the highest levels of government were written off as conspiracy theorists and kooks. That is no longer the case, at least in the U.K. It turns out that this so called conspiracy theory was true, and is finally being officially investigated. The coverup isn't going well at this point. The British government is even coming under heat for the convenient disappearance of key files regarding the allegations. At least forty British MPs are implicated, but this is really just the tip...

More criminals could be hired as police officers for the country’s biggest force after recruitment rules were relaxed. Reformed burglars, muggers and drug dealers may be on the beat for the Met Police after it vowed to look again at applicants who had previously been rejected because of their criminal past. The shake-up is part of efforts by the force to hire 5,000 staff by 2016 and also includes a ban on employing those who live outside London in order to ‘reflect the capital’s diversity’. A spokesman for the College of Policing told Metro that forces were advised that ‘it...

People who claim to worry about climate change use more electricity than those who do not, a Government study has found. Those who say they are concerned about the prospect of climate change consume more energy than those who say it is “too far into the future to worry about,” the study commissioned by the Department for Energy and Climate Change found. That is in part due to age, as people over 65 are more frugal with electricity but much less concerned about global warming. However, even when pensioners are discounted, there is only a “weak trend” to show that...

As many as a thousand boys aged 13 to 16 have disappeared from the registered school system in East London after their parents sent them to illegal religious schools where English is not spoken and academic subjects are not taught. Government documents obtained by Channel 4’s Dispatches and the Jewish Chronicle newspaper say that many of the schools are “operating illegally and without the most basic health, safety and child welfare checks”. Many boys in the Orthodox Jewish community in Stamford Hill, London, “will stop secular studies at the age of 13 or 14 and start attending ‘yeshivas’ where the...

Scientists and engineers at BAE Systems have released some interesting details about some futuristic technologies that could be operative by 2040. Or earlier. BAE Systems has been studying futuristic aircraft shapes for quite some time. The projects the British Defense company is working on were recently unveiled through a series of animations which show how civil and military aviation of the future could be based on 3D printers capable to print UAVs on-the-fly during a mission; aircraft that can heal themselves; a Transformer long range aircraft which splits into a number of smaller aircraft when it reaches its target, and...

Tony Blair faces being called to Parliament over a secret deal with Sinn Féin, which allowed suspected IRA bombers to avoid prosecution. The former Prime Minister is set to be summoned by the Northern Ireland select committee to explain the controversial “comfort letters” sent to on-the-run suspects telling them they were not being sought by the police. MPs are warning that if he fails to appear, there will be “bad publicity”. The policy led to the collapse of the trial of suspected Hyde Park bomber John Downing in March. The peace process plan agreed between Sinn Féin and Mr Blair’s...

Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators turned out on the streets of London, Paris, and Oslo on Friday to call for an end to Israeli military strikes on Gaza. Several thousand people crowded the streets outside the Israeli Embassy in west London, waving placards that read "Gaza: End the Siege" and "Freedom for Palestine." The crowds blocked an entire road, and several protesters managed to climb on top of a double-decker bus stuck in traffic, but police said the protest was largely peaceful. Norwegian news website The Local reported that some 3,000 protestors gathered in front of the Norwegian parliament in Oslo...

Every two years, a select group of Western fighter manufacturers touch down at Farnborough air show to promote their wares in what is perhaps the toughest of all sales categories. As the home show for Eurofighter partner company BAE Systems, the event offers a prime opportunity to highlight the credentials of the Typhoon, as it works with allies Airbus Defence & Space and Finmeccanica’s Alenia Aermacchi to add to their operators list. Austria, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Spain and the UK have together received more than a combined 400 examples so far, and Oman is under contract to field 12...

Multi-role functionality has been a long time coming for the Eurofighter Typhoon. But the four-nation industrial consortium building the combat jet says the Phase 1 Enhancements (P1E) package that is now entering service represents a “paradigm shift” in capability. The commander of the UK Royal Air Force (RAF) Typhoon force, Air Cmdr. Gary Waterfall, said the new package allows the RAF to drop 500-pound Paveway IV “smart” bombs “at the moment of our choosing, on targets of our choosing, with a multitude of fuse settings, impact angles and arrivals.” Laurie Hilditch, Eurofighter GmbH future capabilities manager, added, “The operator may...

Britain's Lost Freedoms: 'We're Living in a Madhouse' By Dale Hurd CBN News Sr. Reporter Tuesday, July 08, 2014 LONDON - America owes much of its freedom to its British heritage. But today, Britain is losing its freedom. Many Americans were stunned when British authorities arrested Liberty Great Britain party leader Paul Weston in April for publicly reciting Winston Churchill's criticism of Islam. The calendar might say it's 2014, but in Britain it's starting to feel like George Orwell's "1984" because "Big Brother" has decided that certain things can no longer be said. Arrested over Churchill Weston quoted from Winston...

Dwindling revenue from North Sea oil will increase the pressure on government finances over the coming decades, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). The OBR has cut its estimate of tax income from the North Sea between 2020 and 2041 by a quarter, to £40bn. The fall is down to lower production forecasts over the next few years. But its assessment was dismissed as "stuff and nonsense" by Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond. The Scottish government has argued that the OBR figures are based on a "very low estimate of future total production", which resulted in them being...

Britain may come away empty-handed when European Union leaders carve up a package of top EU jobs next week, due to its fierce opposition to Jean-Claude Juncker’s appointment as the next European Commission president. Prime Minister David Cameron angered his peers in June by breaking with a tradition of taking decisions by consensus and forcing them to vote on whether Juncker should head the EU executive. Only Britain and Hungary voted “no”. Cameron publicly branded Juncker a “career insider of Brussels” and said his selection was a bad day for Europe. “After the mess at the last summit, many leaders...

Kerry Admits: Iran Negotiations Not WorkingPosted By Majid Rafizadeh On July 10, 2014 @ 12:35 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | No Comments In less than two week, the interim nuclear deal will expire, most likely without a final deal being struck between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the G5+1 (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany).The Islamic Republic has been given years to come clean and halt its ideological and regional hegemonic ambitions of obtaining nuclear weapons. Nevertheless, the Obama administration believes that we need to give the Islamic Republic another chance, trusting the...

With the rise of Islamist organizations, repressive regimes, and civil conflicts which threaten regional stability, the promise of the Arab Spring of 2011 quickly devolved into an Arab winter. In an expansive article in The Economist, the threat to the Middle East is discussed in appropriately grave terms; Syria and Iraq are in flames while Jordan looms as the next domino to potentially fall. Libya and Yemen, where Islamic terror networks operate with impunity, are labeled “failed states.” Those Middle Eastern nations that are not in danger of imminent collapse are either absolute monarchies or counties which merely maintain...

Many of the graphic images being shared on social media are really from Syria or Iraq, finds the broadcaster. […] “A #BBCtrending investigation has found that many of these images are not from the latest conflict and not even from Gaza. Some date as far back as 2009 and others are from conflicts in Syria and Iraq.” …