Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

UK Joins Project to Create Synthetic Organism from Scratch
Jul 11th, 2013
Daily NewsThe Guardian
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Britain’s latest bid to embrace the futuristic science of synthetic biology will be revealed by the government on Thursday when it announces plans to make new strains of brewer’s yeast.

Researchers will receive nearly £1m to create a synthetic chromosome for the single-celled organism that since Neolithic times has been exploited for its ability to turn sugar into alcohol.

The scientists are joining an international effort to build the world’s first synthetic yeast genome from scratch, using groundbreaking techniques that are set to transform the field of biology.

Experts from Britain, the US, China and India aim to make synthetic versions of all of the organism’s 16 chromosomes by 2017, and incorporate them into living cells a year later.

Once they have made all of the genetic parts of the yeast they hope to press ahead with designing new strains that churn out useful substances such as industrial chemicals, vaccines and biofuels.

Though practical applications are some way off, the painstaking work to recreate the organism’s genetic machinery will give scientists vital insights into the molecular biology of life.

David Willetts, the science minister, is expected to announce UK backing for the project at a synthetic biology conference at Imperial College London on Thursday.

“Using engineering techniques to construct or recreate genes is a technology that could massively improve human wellbeing. It could feed us, fuel us and heal us,” Willetts told the Guardian. “You transform the output of your agriculture, make much more environmentally friendly forms of energy, and use it for tackling diseases.

“It’s early stages, but Britain has a strong presence in this, and these technologies are already being used.”

The NSA Slide You Haven’t Seen
Jul 11th, 2013
Daily NewsWashington Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Recent debate over U.S. government surveillance has focused on the information that American technology companies secretly provide to the National Security Agency. But that is only one of the ways the NSA eavesdrops on international communications.

A classified NSA slide obtained by The Washington Post lists “Two Types of Collection.”

One is PRISM, the NSA program that collects information from technology companies, which was first revealed in reports by the Post and Britain’s Guardian newspaper last month. The slide also shows a separate category labeled “Upstream,” described as accessing “communications on fiber cables and infrastructure as data flows past.”

The interaction between Upstream and PRISM — which could be considered “downstream” collection because the data are already processed by tech companies — is not entirely clear from the slide. In addition, its description of PRISM as “collection directly from the servers” of technology giants such as Google, Microsoft and Facebook has been disputed by many of the companies involved. (They say access to user data is legal and limited.)

However PRISM works, the NSA slide makes clear that the two collection methods operate in parallel, instructing analysts that “You Should Use Both.” Arrows point to both “Upstream” and “PRISM.”

The overall heading of the slide is “FAA 702 Operations,” a reference to a 2008 law that enabled, without an individual warrant from a court, collection on U.S. soil of communications of foreigners thought to be overseas, including when the foreigners are communicating with someone in the United States. The law says the collection may be for a foreign intelligence purpose, which includes terrorism, nuclear weapons proliferation or cyber-security.

Saudi Arabia 'Targeting Iran and Israel With Ballistic Missiles'
Jul 11th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Images analyzed by experts at IHS Jane's Intelligence Review has revealed a hitherto undisclosed surface-to-surface missile base deep in the Saudi desert, with capabilities for hitting both countries, The London Telegraph reported Wednesday.
Analysts who examined the photos spotted two launch pads with markings pointing north-west towards Tel Aviv and north-east towards Tehran.

One Surveillance Camera for Every 11 People in Britain, Says Cctv Survey
Jul 11th, 2013
Daily NewsThe Telegraph
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Morsi Supporters Vow Jihad and to Burn Christians
Jul 11th, 2013
Daily NewsThe Clarion Project
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Islamist supporter of Mohammed Morsi

Pro-Morsi demonstrators on video saying they will carry out suicide bombing attacks against anti-Morsi Muslims and set Christians on fire.

The July 3 overthrow of Egyptian President Morsi by the military, spurred into action by mind-bogglingly large protests demanding that it step in, is being met with calls to Islamists at a pro-Morsi rally on July 4 were videotaped pledging to kill their political opponents and to set Christians “on fire.”

The first speaker in the news clip states that the pro-Morsi crowd will die fighting. He shouts, “I want to say to [Defense Minister] al-Sisi: Beware! Know that you have created a new Taliban and a new Al-Qaeda in Egypt.”

He explicitly states that he and his colleagues will become suicide bombers and that they’ll target all of their enemies. He tells al-Sisi that he “wrote the death sentence of all the members of Tamarod [the opposition]” and “of anyone who opposed President Morsi and opposed the legitimacy of the ballot box.”

Let the Headlines Speak
Jul 11th, 2013
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Earliest alphabetical inscription from Biblical times found in Jerusalem
The inscription is written in the Canaanite language, a Biblical people who lived in the present-day Israel, and is the only of its kind to be found in Israel. The artifact predates the previously oldest inscription found in the area by 250 years and predates the Biblical Israelites rule.  

Irish High Court refuses to arrest NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden if he lands in Ireland
Judge Mac Eochaidh said that he was satisfied that the application met most of the necessary requirements, but he also remarked that he was compelled to deny the request because it did not state specifically where these alleged offences took place.  

‘Arab Spring’ Prompts Israeli Christians to Break from Muslim Political Parties and Form New Movement
Israel’s Christian Arabs have been nervously watching the persecution of the Christian populations in neighboring Egypt and Syria in the wake of the ‘Arab Spring’ protests. Those observations have prompted a group of Christian Arabs to form a new political party in Israel, one which encourages serving side-by-side with Jewish Israelis in the Israel Defense Forces.  

Did a Little-Known Division of the DOJ Really Organize Trayvon Martin Protests and ‘Foment Unrest’?
A report circulating today and gaining attention asserts that the group – identified as the Community Relations Service (CRS) – “actively worked to foment unrest, spending thousands of taxpayer dollars on travel and hotel rooms to train protestors throughout Florida.”  

Merkel justifies NSA eavesdropping surveillance
Merkel has made her first detailed comment into the unraveling diplomatic scandal with the America’s National Security Agency (NSA) global telecommunication eavesdropping, including those of its European allies, Germany foremost among them. It emerged recently that Germany happens to be the most-snooped-on EU country by the American National Security Agency (NSA).  

Floods Top 2013 World Disaster Bill So Far
Inland flooding that affected parts of Europe, Asia, Canada and Australia caused about 47 percent of overall global losses and 45 percent of insured losses, said the leading reinsurance company based in Munich, Germany.  

Research pair find 5.9 year cycle of oscillations in length of day
A pair of researchers, Richard Holme of the University of Liverpool in the U.K. and Olivier de Viron of the University of Paris, in France has found that the length of Earth's days follows a cyclic oscillation pattern every 5.9 years. As the two describe in their paper published in the journal Nature, the variations in day length were discovered as part of a study examining day-length over the past 50 years.  

Taiwan evacuates 2,000 tourists as super-typhoon looms
The typhoon, packing gusts of up to 227 kilometres (140 miles) per hour, was 960 kilometres east of the island's southernmost tip as of 0300 GMT, Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said. Soulik is moving west-northwest towards Taiwan at about 22 kilometres per hour and could narrowly skip or make landfall in the north of the island sometime between late Friday and Saturday morning, the bureau said.  

Syrian Army seizes Massive Chemical Stockpile from Insurgents. Enough to Wipe Out Entire Country
While Russian experts have issued a report about an investigation into chemical weapons use in Syria, the Syrian Armed Forces seized a massive chemical depot from foreign backed insurgents after a heavy gunfight. The seized chemicals would, according to Syrian sources, have been sufficient to cause mass death on an unprecedented scale.  

UN Asks The Vatican To Disclose All Paedophilia Cases
In what is seen as a first the Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) has asked the Vatican to disclose all cases of thousands of pedophilia cases involving Catholic clergy, nuns and brothers. The UNCRC is a legally-binding instrument set up to protect the rights of all vulnerable people especially children in all United Nation member countries, but it is not known if the Vatican will, as they have done in the past refuse the request on the grounds of sovereign independence.  

Israeli Green Light for Big Egyptian Sinai Offensive, After Islamists Fail to Assassinate Egyptian G
Jul 11th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Israel Thursday July 11 approved a major Egyptian offensive for curbing the mounting aggression in Sinai of armed Salafis gangs, Muslim Brotherhood raiders and Hamas terrorists. A day earlier, Egypt’s Second Army commander, Maj.-Gen. Ahmad Wasfi, who is assigned to lead the offensive, escaped unhurt from an attempt on his life. Some of his bodyguards and soldiers were killed.

Maj.-Gen. Wasfi arrived in Sinai just four days ago to set up headquarters in the northern town of El Arish. He was targeted for the first attempt by radical Islamists to murder a high-ranking Egyptian general.  As a close associate of Defense Minister Gen. Fattah El-Sisi, Wasfi took part in the military coup which ousted President Mohamed Morsi in Cairo on July 3.

Around 30 Islamist gunmen laid in ambush for his convoy Wednesday, debkafile's sources report. As the cars drove past Sheikh Zuwayed, southwest of El Arish, they came under a hail of RPG anti-tank rockets and explosive devices. A minivan then drove the length of the convoy shooting heavy machine guns and armor-piercing bullets, trapping the Egyptian troops and officers in the blazing vehicles and gunning down those who tried to escape.

A fierce shootout ensued in which a number of attackers suffered losses, Egyptian military sources say. The minivan’s driver was captured and is under interrogation.

Tuesday, at the same location, two buses carrying Colombian peacemakers serving with the multinational force-MFO at the Sheikh Zuwayed base were also waylaid and shot up.

Of deep concern to the Egyptian and Israeli high commands is the Salafist assailants’ prior knowledge of the timing and route taken by Gen. Wasfi’s convoy in Sinai, because it means that Islamist terrorists have penetrated Egypt’s military apparatus in Sinai and gained an inside track on its activities.
With Israel’s consent (in line with the 1979 peace treaty), the Egyptian army last week withdrew substantial strength from the Suez Canal towns of Port Said and Ismailia and deployed the troops in Sinai ahead of the offensive.
On the other side of the Sinai border, Israeli Defense Forces are heavily deployed along the Sinai and Gaza border fences and in the southernmost sector of Eilat.
They are on high alert on intelligence that the armed Islamists plan to retaliate for an Egyptian assault by attacking Israel.

There is also concern that such attacks would draw in radical Palestinian Hamas fighters. They have nothing to lose after their Muslim Brotherhood patrons in Cairo were overthrown and have little to expect from the army. Indeed, the generals in Cairo suspect Hamas of abetting the Brotherhood’s declared “uprising” by organizing a center of armed resistance in Sinai as its launching base for a combined Islamist revolt against the new regime in Egypt.
Their suspicions were confirmed by the placards of Mohamed Morsi alongside black al Qaeda flags affixed to the armed minivans used by the Salafists.
For some days, Egyptian troops have been working non-stop to block the smuggling tunnels between Sinai and the Gaza Strip used hitherto to secrete weapons and fighters into Gaza. But now, the Egyptians are concerned to cut down the traffic of fighting men and weapons moving in the opposite direction to reinforce the Sinai Salafists.

A senior Egyptian official said Thursday that at least 150 Ezz a-Din al-Qassam operatives (members of the Gaza-based Hamas military wing) were seen heading into Sinai via the tunnels. Over the past few days, Egyptian security forces have killed and arrested around 200 militants in the Sinai Peninsula, killed 32 Hamas operatives and arrested another forty-five.

By joining up with fellow Islamists, debkafile reports, Hamas hopes to salvage something from its debacle in Cairo. An attack on Israel or even the threat of terrorist operations may be used as the Palestinian radicals’ bargaining chip with the Egyptian army for improving their position.

By joining up with fellow groups, Hamas hopes to salvage something from its debacle in Cairo. An attack on Israel - or even the threat of terrorist operations - may be used as the Palestinian radicals’ bargaining chip with the Egyptian army for improving their position.

Game - Changing U.S.-EU Trade Talks Alarm Chinese Leaders
Jul 11th, 2013
Daily NewsLignet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The United States and European Union have embarked upon one of the most ambitious trade negotiations in world history. And while recent revelations about the PRISM surveillance program have momentarily distracted public sentiments, the political will to press forward is present on both sides of the negotiating table. Now China is worried about the future, because a successful agreement would greatly diminish its place in the global economy.

Fukushima Radioactivity Readings Rocket
Jul 11th, 2013
Daily Newsnews24
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Toxic radioactive substances in groundwater at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant have rocketed over the past three days, its Japanese operator said on Tuesday, admitting it did not know where the leak was coming from.

Samples taken on Monday showed levels of possibly cancer-causing caesium-134 were more than 90 times higher than they were on Friday, at 9 000 becquerels per litre, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) revealed.

Levels of caesium-137 stood at 18 000 becquerels per litre, 86 times higher than at the end of last week, the utility said.

“We still don’t know why the level of radiation surged, but we are continuing efforts to avert further expansion of contamination,” a Tepco spokesperson stated.

Government guidelines permit caesium-134 and -137 at 60 becquerels per litre and 90 becquerels per litre respectively.

Once ingested, the substances accumulate in muscle and bone and are believed to cause cancers.

Groundwater

The new readings came two days after Tepco said tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen used in glow-in-the-dark watches, was present at levels 10 times the permitted rate.

Eurozone Faces Its Own Japanese - Style Lost Decade As Fiscal Worries Deepen
Jul 11th, 2013
Daily NewsFinancial Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;Revived Roman Empire

Monetary policy that cannot get traction; weak banks that cannot or will not lend; an economy trapped in a twilight world of low growth, haunted by the specter of deflation.

If this combination sounds familiar, that’s because it is.

The eurozone, still drowning in debt bequeathed by the great financial crisis, increasingly resembles Japan in the 1990s as it struggled with its own balance sheet recession brought on by the bursting of an almighty asset bubble.

Japan was long viewed with pity for its failure to shake off its torpor. Its central bank was criticized for policy timidity.

Now, though, the tables are turned. While new Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda has embarked on quantitative easing on an unprecedented scale, the European Central Bank is shrinking its balance sheet and contenting itself with ‘forward guidance’ to talk interest rates down.

In light of the eurozone’s wide output gap, reflected in record high unemployment, and the mountain of debt that governments and the private sector still need to pay down, some economists say inflation risks falling uncomfortably short of the ECB’s target of just below 2%.

In a new report, JP Morgan said it expects core inflation, excluding taxes, to drop below 1%, from 1.1% in the 12 months to May, and remain below that level at least until the end of 2015.

The downward pressure on prices is especially great in struggling countries on the eurozone periphery.

Britain Fears Chemical Catastrophe If Syria’s Assad Goes
Jul 11th, 2013
Daily NewsJpost
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Syria’s huge array of chemical weapons could fall into the hands of militants if President Bashar Assad was toppled, with “catastrophic” consequences, according to a report by senior British lawmakers published on Wednesday.

Britain’s foreign intelligence services had no doubt Syria owned “vast stockpiles” of such weapons, including mustard gas, sarin, ricin and VX, the deadliest nerve agent, parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) said in its report.

“There has to be a significant risk that some of the country’s chemical weapons stockpile could fall into the hands of those with links to terrorism, in Syria or elsewhere in the region – if this happens, the consequences could be catastrophic,” the committee said.

The conflict in Syria has killed 100,000 people, driven a 1.7 million more abroad as refugees and left swathes of urban Syria in ruins, although neither the violence nor economic collapse has truly shaken Assad’s power base.

Nonetheless there was a risk of “a highly worrying proliferation around the time of regime fall”, the head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service told the committee.

Both forces loyal to Assad and rebels involved in the two-year uprising against the president have been accused of using chemical weapons during fierce fighting.

Syria is one of seven countries not to have joined a 1997 convention banning chemical weapons.

12 Reasons Why Removing Morsi Was not a Coup
Jul 11th, 2013
Daily NewsThe Clarion Project
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

A loud chorus of media and political voices have been describing June 30th's Egyptian transition of governmental power as a military coup.  On the one hand, Egypt's military did midwife a power transition.  On the other hand, for at least 12 reasons the transition was an essential and admirable re-direction away from dictatorship, hopefully toward a more democratic future.

First, in a military coup the first step is usually taken by the military. On June 30 in Egypt the opposite happened.  More than 30 million Egyptians took to the streets in cities all across Egypt to demand the removal of then president Morsi.

This surge of voices included Muslims and Christians of all types: common people, business people, the professional class, media folks and even the police.  By contrast, only tens of thousands citizens, primarily members, protested  in support of Morsi.

The people of Egypt did vote; they voted by putting their feet on the street.  The military's subsequent action in removing Morsi from the government was a response to this dramatic and remarkably unified vote of the people against a tyrannical leader, not a step initiated by the military to rule the country.

Second, if there had been a military coup, a military general would have replaced Morsi.  In this instance, by contrast, as soon as the military had removed Morsi from power, military leaders selected a widely respected civilian leader to rule the country until new elections can be organized.

Third, if the balloting by which Morsi took office is the only factor to be considered, then Hosni Mubarak must still be considered the legitimate president of Egypt. Mubarak also came to power via an election.  Note also that he too was ultimately removed by the military.

Fourth, the argument that Mubarak's election had been fraudulent would apply equally to Morsi.  In June 2012, Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood supporters surrounded the Supreme Court judges who had the authority to declare the winner in the final presidential race.  They threatened to kill the judges and turn the country into a sea of blood if the judges should declare any candidate other than Morsi the winner. Can this  be described as legitimate balloting?

Fifth, breaking his presidential oath, Morsi had seized dictatorial control of all powers of the government.  To insure his power, he imprisoned and the shot with a bullet to the forehead many of the secular leaders who had launched the "Arab Spring" on social media.  Is this democracy?

Sixth, Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood regard elections as just a means to obtaining political power.  For example, Hamas in Gaza, a group with roots in the Muslim Brotherhood, used the power they obtained via elections to declare that there would be no further elections. As Erdogan in Turkey has often been quoted  as having said, "We ride the bus of democracy until it takes us where we want to go; then we get off the bus." That is, in the Muslim world, elections are as likely to signal the end as the beginning of democracy.

Seventh, the military deserves praise for having used relatively minimal violence, thus far at least, against Muslim Brotherhood protestors.   The military faces a difficult question with regard to how to deal with demonstrators who brutally aim to kill  anyone whose political preferences differ from theirs, and who carry explosives to use against police or military personally who attempt to intervene in their violent
rampages.

How would American police officers respond to armed political demonstrators who throw Molotov cocktails on the officers, purposely aiming to kill both innocent bystanders and the legitimate authorities?  A video circulating through Arabic social media offers a prime example of how Pro-Morsi Islamists treat those who oppose them.  The video shows Islamist supporters throwing their opponents from the roof-top of a building.

Eighth, words can have opposite meanings in different cultural contexts.  While the word "demonstrator" has positive connotations in America, "demonstrators" in  the context of Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood connotes violence and brutality.  Similarly, the word "coup" used in America sounds anti-democratic, and yet in Egypt the meaning and impact are the opposite.  "Coup" in the Egyptian case refers to the removal of a tyrant to "give peace a chance."

Ninth, some American voices are blaming the military for closing Islamists' media outlets.  Not so quick.  These media outlets were promulgating a religious fatwa (edict) that incited the killing of Anti Morsi demonstrators.  In Yemen, the US military killed American citizen Anwar Al-Awlaki because he issued similar fatwas encouraging Muslims to commit violent acts.

Tenth, Morsi had rejected the request from the opposition for early elections. Additionally, since nearly all elections and referendums that occurred since the Muslim Brotherhood came to power have been conducted dishonestly, Egyptians understood that the ballot box would be useless as long as Morsi remained in power.  Demonstrating in the streets with the hope that the military would hear their collective voice and take action on their behalf was their only remaining option for eliminating a corrupt dictatorship.

Eleventh, the military in Egypt serves a key role.  It is the only Egyptian institution with the power to save the country from chaos.  It also is the only Egyptian institution with potential power to rectify the country's increasingly non-viable economy.

Twelfth and lastly, Egypt's military is the country's only institution with close and positive ties to America.  If Americans call its action a coup, we would prevent our government from giving further aid to the country.  This pathway would directly punish our one ally within Egypt.  It would also block the only Egyptian institution with potential to bring democracy to the Egyptian people.

To conclude, the military's removal of Morsi from power must be seen as a legitimate pro-democracy step.  The military acted in response to the voice of Egypt's citizens, citizens who understood that they must remove an anti-democratic leader whose rule was leading the country into certain economic disaster, potential mass starvation and ever-increasing chaos.