Tensions in the Middle East are spiking with news that Russia next week will help Iran’s first nuclear power facility go “hot” as early as next week. Analysts had originally been expecting this to happen in August. Then the Russians said it would be delayed until September. The Israeli government has not commented yet. But the big question is whether Prime Minister Netanyahu sees this as a “red line” that if crossed would trigger an Israeli military strike.

Read more by Joel Rosenberg

United Nations aid agencies have provided assistance to hundreds of thousands of victims of Pakistan's worst floods in decades but relief operations have yet to reach an estimated six million people.

The lives of 20 million people -- nearly 12 percent of the population -- have been disrupted by one of the worst catastrophes in Pakistan's history. Six million still need food, shelter and water, the UN said in a statement.

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3. Holocaust denial and Holocaust fears

2. Fear that Iran is 'meshugana'

1. A nuclear Iran would shift the regional strategic balance

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President Obama has abolished the position in his White House dedicated to transparency and shunted those duties into the portfolio of a partisan ex-lobbyist who is openly antagonistic to the notion of disclosure by government and politicians.

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“For the Obama administration, the prospect of a nuclearized Iran is dismal to contemplate— it would create major new national-security challenges and crush the president’s dream of ending nuclear proliferation. But the view from Jerusalem is still more dire: a nuclearized Iran represents, among other things, a threat to Israel’s very existence. In the gap between Washington’s and Jerusalem’s views of Iran lies the question: who, if anyone, will stop Iran before it goes nuclear, and how? As Washington and Jerusalem study each other intensely, here’s an inside look at the strategic calculations on both sides—and at how, if things remain on the current course, an Israeli air strike will unfold….."

Read more by Joel Rosenberg

More horrifying than the plague of Black Death across Europe. More costly in lives than World War II. Financially it could make the Katrina look like a pocketful of change. And it's not a matter of if, but when.

That's the alarming warning being issued by John G. Kappenman, owner of Storm Analysis Consultants and an expert of the dangers of electromagnetic pulse damage to modern society, with a list of qualifications after his name as long as a phone book.

The issue of EMP dangers to the Earth, either from a CME, a coronal mass ejection, which basically is an eruption of power from the sun, or from a nuclear-triggered EMP wave that truly is intended to destroy a society, have been the subject of multiple reports in recent months.

Read more at WND

Russia's nuclear agency said Friday that it will load fuel into Iran's first nuclear power plant next week, defying U.S. calls to hold off the start of the launch.

Rosatom spokesman Sergei Novikov said Friday that uranium fuel shipped by Russia will be loaded into the Bushehr reactor on Aug. 21, beginning the startup process.

Read more at My Way News

urkey and Iran are rumored to be helping Hizbullah obtain new weapons, Italian daily Corriere Della Sera reported on Wednesday evening.  Turkish intelligence chief Hakan Fidan reportedly met with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Taeb to discuss relations between the two countries.

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The consensus among some 40 Israeli, Arab and US officials – past and present – is that there is a better than 50 percent chance Israel will launch an attack against Iran by next July, US journalist Jeffrey Goldberg wrote in a just published article for the September edition of The Atlantic magazine.

In a massive 10,000 word piece titled “The Point of No Return,” Goldberg – who culled extensively from an interview he conducted, and previously wrote about, with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu before he was sworn in as prime minister last year – said that “based on my conversations with Israeli decision-makers, this period of forbearance, in which Netanyahu waits to see if the West’s nonmilitary methods can stop Iran, will come to an end this December.”

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A strong 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck Ecuador on Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.The quake struck at 1154 GMT and was centered 87 miles east of Ambato, at a depth of 115 miles. The USGS initially reported the quake as 6.7 magnitude, then revised the strength to 7.2, before putting the figure at 6.9.

Read more at Reuters