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A copper awl is the oldest metal object unearthed to date in the Middle East. The discovery reveals that metals were exchanged across hundreds of miles in this region more than 6,000 years ago, centuries earlier than previously thought, researchers say.

What a difference a year makes. Around this time last year, the West was gearing up for military action against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who was accused of carrying out chemical weapons attacks on his own people. That intervention never came to pass, not least because domestic public opinion in countries such as Britain and the United States was opposed to further entanglements in the Middle East. Now, the U.S. is contemplating extending airstrikes on Islamic State militants operating in Iraq in Syria — fighters belonging to a terrorist organization that is leading the war against Assad....

CNN host Jake Tapper had some discouraging news for those who would prefer to see not only Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson go to trial but be convicted for his role in the slaying of 18-year-old Michael Brown. Getting a conviction, let alone creating a case which would see the inside of a courtroom, will be difficult for prosecutors. In an interview with Georgetown University Law Professor Paul Brown, Tapper asked what evidentiary thresholds prosecutors must clear in order to create a strong case against Wilson. Tapper observed that the grand jury hearing the details of the case is made...

UK media darling Mehdi Hasan frequently dissembles about how Islamic jihadists use the texts and teachings of the Qur’an and Sunnah to justify hatred, violence and supremacism, and this piece is a particularly clever example, chock full of his trademark diversions and sleights of hand. Here he extrapolates from the apparent fact that two jihad terrorists ordered copies of Islam for Dummies and The Koran for Dummies to argue that “the 1,400-year-old Islamic faith has little to do with the modern jihadist movement.”He claims, you see, that the fact that these jihadis ordered these books shows that they didn’t know...

The Islamic State, which metastasized from a group of militants seeking to overthrow the Syrian government into a marauding army gobbling up chunks of the Middle East, gained momentum early on from a calculated decision by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to go easy on it, according to people close to the regime. Earlier in the three-year-old Syrian uprising, Mr. Assad decided to mostly avoid fighting the Islamic State to enable it to cannibalize the more secular rebel group supported by the West, the Free Syrian Army, said Izzat Shahbandar, an Assad ally and former Iraqi lawmaker who was Baghdad's liaison...

The US has lodged a formal protest with Beijing after a Chinese fighter jet conducted a barrel roll "very, very close" over an American Navy plane this week, the Pentagon has said. Rear Admiral John Kirby said the Chinese plane exposed its undercarriage to show that it was armed to the P-8 anti-submarine warfare aircraft during Monday's incident in international airspace near Japan. He said the Chinese aircraft came within 30ft (9 metres) of the American plane, while the wing tips of the two aircraft were just 20ft apart.

My wife just found out today that her store will close in about two months and she may be laid off. That will leave only my small V.A. pension and that won't cut it. Plus she won't have health insurance. We need your prayers. Thanks.

Since Barack Obama was elected president, only 10 percent of Americans believe that race relations have gotten better, according to a New York Times/CBS Poll published today. The poll found 17 percent of blacks and 8 percent of whites believe race relations have improved under Obama. Thirty five percent of Americans believe that race relations have gotten worse in the Obama era -- including 40 percent of whites and 21 percent of blacks. Fifty-two percent of Americans polled said that race relations have stayed about the same.

In the long term any country’s demographic trajectory is ultimately reliant on its Total Fertility Rate (TFR) the number of children born to the average woman. Mortality matters, but if a country has a super low TFR it can have the best healthcare in the entire world and nothing will prevent its population from collapsing. Anyone who doubts this should consider the example of Japan, which boasts extremely high life expectancy but which is nonetheless caught in a demographic “death spiral.” Despite it’s excellent healthcare and the outstanding health of its people, Japan’s TFR has been so low for so...

More than 1,000 U.S. retailers could be infected with malicious software lurking in their cash register computers, allowing hackers to steal customer financial data, the Homeland Security Department said Friday. The government urged businesses of all sizes to scan their point-of-sale systems for software known as "Backoff," discovered last October. It previously explained in detail how the software operates and how retailers could find and remove it. Earlier this month, United Parcel Service said it found infected computers in 51 stores. UPS said it was not aware of any fraud that resulted from the infection but said hackers may have...

Obama May Seek New Funds To Battle Islamic State: Senate Aide By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama could ask the U.S. Congress in coming weeks to approve new funds for airstrikes against Islamic State targets, according to a congressional aide, following the militants' beheading of an American journalist and activities in Iraq. A Senate Democratic aide on Friday said the Obama administration could detail by early to mid-September the amount of additional money it wants for the military operations, although the aide did not estimate the size of the possible funding request. The administration has indicated it...

I had my Australian Shepard put down today. Her name was Sidney, as in the city in Australia. She was 15 Years 3 months. She had had dementia for the last year or so. For the last year she hadn't been able to control her bowels. She could hold the pee, but number 2 just came when it was ready. Today when I got home, she couldn't stand up. Her back legs just wouldn't work. I took her outside and laid her in the nicest part of the grass. She looked peaceful as the wind blew her face. On the...

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SACRAMENTO — Democratic state Sen. Ben Hueso was arrested Friday on suspicion of drunken driving, the latest black eye for the state's majority party and the 40-member chamber that suspended three other Democrats facing legal troubles. Hueso, 44, of San Diego, was arrested at 2:39 a.m. and booked into Sacramento County Jail, said sheriff's Sgt. Lisa Bowman, after the California Highway Patrol stopped him going the wrong way on a one-way street. He was released shortly before noon after posting bail of nearly $1,500 and was expected to appear in court Tuesday. "I think I have the right to pursue...

Jim Hoft and Fox News say he did, CNN says he didn’t, and now here’s WaPo saying yep, he did. Your move, New York Times. The signs of easing tensions came as a family friend of the officer who fatally shot Brown came forward to offer a version of the incident with new details, saying that the officer suffered a fracture to his eye socket in a scuffle with the unarmed teenager before opening fire. Hospital X-rays of the injury have been taken and will be shared with a grand jury that is weighing evidence to determine whether Officer Darren...

A man was killed in a shooting at an Albanian mosque in St. Gallen, Switzerland, and another man was arrested, Swiss police said on Friday. Police arrested a man with a handgun after they were called to the mosque in a suburb of the town after reports of gunfire, a spokesman for the cantonal police said. They said they have not yet been able to ascertain beyond doubt the identities of either man. The body of a man was found in the prayer room of the mosque, the spokesman said, adding it was too early for the police to say...

U.S. Marine Matt Bussen was on a plane, flying home from training in Alabama, when the flight attendants asked him to sing to the passengers over the intercom. A video uploaded to YouTube documents his stunning performance.

White House: That round of golf after the Foley video was released doesn’t show the depth of Obama’s grief Oh, I don’t know. He seems pretty grief-stricken here, no? [see embedded Tweet at link] Ask yourself this, though. Is “optics” really just a Beltway parlor game? My hunch about most low-information voters, a.k.a. most voters, is that they’d struggle to name who the vice president is when asked. We’re lucky if they’re cognizant of what happened to James Foley at all, let alone Obama’s reaction to it.

Link only per agreement with Gannett - click on image to enlarge

General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a Pentagon briefing Thursday that “because of open borders and immigration issues,” the Islamic State of Iraq is an “immediate threat.” During the briefing, held by Dempsey and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, a reporter asked: “Is it the calculation that ISIL presents a 9/11 level threat to the United States?” Hagel responded first: “ISIL is as sophisticated and well-funded as any group that we have seen. They’re beyond just a terrorist group. They marry ideology, a sophistication of strategic and tactical military prowess. They are tremendously well-funded.” [T]his...