From the Washington Times: JERUSALEM — Israel’s defense minister hinted strongly over the weekend that his country would act unilaterally if necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Shaul Mofaz, who hails from the same hometown as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, also warned the Iranian leader that his policies risked bringing destruction to his […]

Defense Dept. to hold second anti-terror drill. From WND: The Defense Department has scheduled a second major, three-day exercise to combat nuclear terrorism in the Charleston, S.C. area. The goal is not prevention, but coping with the catastrophic results of a terrorist nuclear attack on a major U.S. port city. The military’s Joint Task Force-Civil […]

Sudan is seeking to head the African Union which has peacekeeping troops within Sudan in an effort to halt the jihad carnage in Darfur, which is reported to be supported by the Sudanese government. If Sudan were to control the AU, they would also control the peacekeepers. Nice work, if you can get it. From […]

From Reuters: China and Saudi Arabia signed several deals on Monday, including one on energy and possibly a refinery, during King Abdullah’s first official visit to the world’s second-biggest oil consumer. The king met Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing on Monday afternoon as both sides sought to use their burgeoning oil business as a […]

Attacks on police and their families continue, but still no word on the fate of Jill Carroll. From AP: BAGHDAD, Iraq “” Insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at a policeman’s home northeast of Baghdad on Sunday, killing his four children and his brother and raising to at least 23 the number of Iraqis killed in attacks […]

From AP: DAMADOLA, Pakistan – Sympathy for al-Qaida has surged after a U.S. airstrike devastated this remote mountain hamlet in a region sometimes as hostile toward the Pakistani government as it is to the United States. A week after the attack, villagers insist no members of the terror network were anywhere near the border village […]

From AA: The Washington administration has reportedly decided to allocate about two million dollars in financial to support the al-Fatah organization, campaigning against the Islamic Resistance Movement, HAMAS, in the January 25 Palestinian elections. US Consulate East Jerusalem Representative Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm told the New York Times the money will also be used to support efforts […]

From CBC: Turkey has dropped charges of insulting the national identity laid against the country’s best-known author, Orhan Pamuk, a Turkish TV station said Sunday. Pamuk was charged after he told a Swiss newspaper last year that discussion of Turkey’s role in the deaths of Armenians in World War One and Kurds in the 1980s […]

From the Toronto Star: RAMALLAH, West Bank- If the plan was simply to wet its toes in the churning waters of Palestinian democracy, Hamas must brace for a shock. Ready or not, the militant Islamic group now finds itself plunging head first into the deep end. Quite possibly, it will form the government. According to […]

From the New Duranty Times: UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 20 – Mukhtar Mai, the Pakistani woman whose defiant response to being gang-raped by order of a tribal court brought her worldwide attention, was denied a chance to speak at the United Nations on Friday after Pakistan protested that it was the same day the country’s prime […]