Watchman News House Republicans delay recess over border dispute

House Republicans postponed their August recess in an effort to salvage a border funding bill that collapsed Thursday under the weight of conservative opposition.

“We’re trying to work through this, and I actually think we will still get there,” said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla. Republicans were working late into Thursday evening and were scheduled to meet again Friday morning to see whether they could put together a legislative package that could clear the chamber on the strength of Republican votes.

The exercise is largely political because whatever Republicans ultimately pass will face Senate opposition and a White House veto threat. However, lawmakers are wary of heading home for a month-long break in an election year without casting a vote on how to address the thousands of undocumented minors along the southwest U.S. border.

“(The House Republican) Conference was essentially unanimous that it needs to stay. It did not want to go home,” Cole said. “If we have to work longer through the weekend, I think there is a genuine desire to do that.”

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Watchman News CIA admits it spied on Senate computers to access upcoming torture report

CIA employees improperly accessed computers used by the Senate Intelligence Committee to compile a report on the agency’s now defunct detention and interrogation program, an internal CIA investigation has determined.

Findings of the investigation by the CIA Inspector General’s Office “include a judgment that some CIA employees acted in a manner inconsistent with the common understanding reached between SSCI (Senate Select Committee on Intelligence) and the CIA in 2009,” CIA spokesman Dean Boyd said in a statement.

The statement represented an admission to charges by the panel’s chairwoman, Dianne Feinstein, a Californian Democrat, that the CIA intruded into the computers her staff used to compile the soon-to-be released report on the agency’s use of harsh interrogation methods on suspected terrorists in secret overseas prisons during the Bush administration.

CIA Director John Brennan briefed Feinstein and the committee’s vice chairman, Saxby Chambliss, on the CIA inspector general’s findings and apologised to them during a meeting on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Boyd said.

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Watchman News California sheriff’s office admits to cell-phone spying

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department broke its silence on controversial cellphone spying devices Thursday and said it possesses and utilizes the technology.

Sheriff Scott Jones had previously refused to answer questions about documents indicating that his department owned a cellphone spying device called a Stingray. A federal grant application from the San Jose Police Department says that department consulted several departments with the technology, including the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department.

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Watchman News US new home for Sudanese Christian woman Meriam Ibrahim, after beating death sentence for apostasy

A SUDANESE woman who refused to recant her Christian faith in the face of a death sentence, which was later overturned, left Europe on Thursday for the United States, where she will make her new home.

Meriam Ibrahim, her husband and their children were due to arrive in Philadelphia on Thursday on a flight from Rome, where last week they met privately with Pope Francis.

The Rev William Devlin, a New York City pastor who has helped the family, said they would be flying onto Manchester, New Hampshire.

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Watchman News By April, IDF knew Hamas was preparing for ‘summer war’

Several months ago, the IDF became aware of Hamas’s intention to launch a war in the summer, a senior military source said on Thursday.



In April, Chief of Staff Lt.- Gen. Benny Gantz alerted the military that a clash with Hamas might likely start in July.



Hamas’s scheme involved simultaneous terrorist attacks against Israeli communities, IDF bases and army border patrols.



In recent months, the IDF has added large forces to the Gaza Division in preparation.



Most of the scenarios the army discussed in April have come true in the current war.



The IDF’s attacks on Hamas, which have destroyed 4,000 targets, have set the terror group’s capabilities back by four to five years, the source said.

“It can rebuild, and we will monitor that. Our deterrence was achieved by making clear that Israel does not fear a ground offensive, and by harming their capabilities.



Not enough Hamas commanders have been hit, but many of their other assets, like rocket launchers, have been,” stated the source.

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Watchman News USB device viruses could evade all known security

USB devices such as keyboards, thumb-drives and mice can be used to hack into personal computers in a potential new class of attacks that evade all known security protections, a top computer researcher revealed on Thursday.

Karsten Nohl, chief scientist with Berlin’s SR Labs, noted that hackers could load malicious software onto tiny, low-cost computer chips that control functions of USB devices but which have no built-in shields against tampering with their code.

“You cannot tell where the virus came from. It is almost like a magic trick,” said Nohl, whose research firm is known for uncovering major flaws in mobile phone technology.

The finding shows that bugs in software used to run tiny electronics components that are invisible to the average computer user can be extremely dangerous when hackers figure out how to exploit them. Security researchers have increasingly turned their attention to uncovering such flaws.

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Watchman News As curiosity over the roaming Woman in Black consumes the U.S., she disappears into a Virginia town

Cloaked in a black robe with a fabric bag over her shoulder and a walking stick in her hand, the woman got into a police cruiser on the side of the highway. She had been at the centre of a media frenzy for days, and on Wednesday she appeared to have had enough.

“Please respect the privacy of the Woman in Black,” read the police alert in Wincester, Virginia. Officers swept her away from an anxious crowd of 50 who were waiting for to get a glimpse of her.

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Watchman News Octopus mom protects her eggs for 4.5 years

Octopus mom protects her eggs for an astonishing 4-1/2 years.

If someone were to create an award for “mother of the year” in the animal kingdom, a remarkably dedicated eight-limbed mom from the dark and frigid depths of the Pacific Ocean might be a strong contender.

Scientists on Wednesday described how the female of an octopus species that dwells almost a mile below the sea surface spends about 4-1/2 years brooding her eggs, protecting them vigilantly until they hatch while forgoing any food for herself.

It is the longest known egg-brooding period for any animal, they wrote in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.

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Watchman News Ebola fears grow as European and Asian countries on alert

A LEADING medical charity has warned that the outbreak of the deadly west African Ebola virus is out of control and there are fears it “can only get worse”.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says the crisis gripping Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone could spread to other continents and warns there is no overarching strategy to handle the world’s worst-ever outbreak of the disease.

In the UK, a man has been tested for Ebola in Birmingham after arriving back there from Nigeria via Paris.

Although the man was given the all-clear, the case has prompted fears that the deadly disease could spread to Britain.

Bart Janssens, MSF’s director of operations, warned that governments and global bodies had no “overarching view” or vision of how to tackle the outbreak.

“This epidemic is unprecedented, absolutely out of control and the situation can only get worse, because it is still spreading, above all in Liberia and Sierra Leone, in some very important hotspots,” he said.

“If the situation does not improve fairly quickly, there is a real risk of new countries being affected,” he told La Libre Belgique newspaper.

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Watchman News Killer Ebola is a threat to Britain as experts warn virus is worst world has seen

Cobra, the Government’s emergency committee, met to discuss the growing threat of the killer virus, which has so far killed more than 670 people in west Africa.

Mr Hammond said that no British national had been affected by the outbreak, although several have been tested.

However experts in Africa warned funding was running out to solve the problem and charity Action Aid said the current outbreak was the worst the world had seen.

Mike Noyes, the head of humanitarian response at the organisation, called on the government to take a “wider view of the crisis rather than put up barriers.”

He said: “In Sierra Leone we have 45 days’ funding to tackle this outbreak in some of the most highly infected areas.

“We are about halfway through that and in 20 days this situtation will not be resolved. This is the worst Ebola outbreak the world has ever seen and the most worrying thing about it is not just the numbers of people dying, but how long it is going on for.

“Most outbreaks last six weeks to two months, they flare up and then die down again. This one began in February and is speeding up rather than slowing down.

“If anyone could answer the question ‘Why?’, we might be able to stop it. Instead, the reach of the spider web of infection is growing.”

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Watchman News Airports alert over Ebola: Passengers from Africa who show symptoms will be sent straight to secure isolation units Read more: http://ift.tt/1nVfm7c

British airports and airlines are on high alert to prevent the deadly Ebola virus from reaching this country.

Passengers thought to have the virus will be barred from boarding flights heading to the UK – and will be held at immigration if they appear ill on arrival.

They will then be quarantined in highly secure isolation units, such as those at the Royal Free Hospital in North London.

But because it takes up to three weeks for symptoms to appear, there are fears some victims will slip through the net.

Doctors have been told to look out for symptoms of the disease and travellers returning from West Africa are urged to seek immediate medical help if they develop flu-like symptoms.

One of the deadliest diseases known to man, Ebola has already claimed more than 670 lives in its worst-ever outbreak.

For the first time, the virus, which kills up to 90 per cent of its victims, has spread out of the countryside to large towns and cities, raising fears it will arrive in Britain on an international flight.

It can be spread through sweat and saliva and there is no vaccine or cure.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, who chaired a meeting of the Government’s Cobra emergency committee on the outbreak yesterday, said Ebola was a ‘very serious threat’.

But he sought to calm fears, saying it ‘most unlikely’ that Ebola could spread within the UK because of ‘frankly different’ standards of infection control here.

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Watchman News Beijing tests anti-satellite missile: Voice of Russia

China has taken another step towards challenging US supremacy in the space race after successfully testing a “non-destructive” anti-satellite missile on July 23, reports the Chinese-language website of the Voice of Russia, the Russian government’s international radio broadcasting service.

According to China’s official Xinhua news agency, the country’s Ministry of National Defense announced a successful missile intercept test that “achieved the preset goal,” which sources from the US State Department confirmed with “high confidence” was an anti-satellite missile that aims to destroy targets through impact and does not cause an explosion.

“We call on China to refrain from destabilizing actions–such as the continued development and testing of destructive anti-satellite systems–that threaten the long term security and sustainability of the outer space environment, on which all nations depend,” the US State Department said in a July 25 email to SpaceNews. “The United States continuously looks to ensure its space systems are safe and resilient against emerging space threats.”

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Watchman News Global QE ends as China opens second front in bond tapering

The spigot of global reserve stimulus is slowing to a trickle. The world’s central banks have cut their purchases of foreign bonds by two-thirds since late last year. China has cut by three-quarters.

These purchases have been a powerful form of global quantitative easing over the past 15 years, driven by the commodity bloc and the rising powers of Asia.

They have fed demand for US Treasuries, Bunds and Gilts, as well as French, Dutch, Japanese, Canadian and Australian bonds and parastatal debt, displacing the better part of $12 trillion into everything else in a universal search for yield. Any reversal would threaten to squeeze money back out again.

Jens Nordvig, from Nomura, said net foreign reserve accumulation by central banks fell to $63bn in the second quarter of this year, from $89bn in the first quarter, and $181bn in the fourth quarter of 2013. These data are adjusted for currency swings, and are fresher than the delayed figures published by the International Monetary Fund.

“There are major shifts going on global capital markets. People have been lulled into a false sense of security by low volatility and they haven’t paid attention. We’re not seeing any risk aversion in financial markets,” he said.

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Watchman News Calls for NRA lobbyist who invoked Holocaust to resign

The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle has called for the resignation of a National Rifle Association lobbyist who reportedly linked gun control to the Holocaust.

NRA spokesman Brian Judy reportedly compared the promotion of stricter gun control laws to policies in Nazi Germany while referring to a Jewish donor during a meeting in opposition to a Washington ballot measure that would expand background checks for gun purchases.

Judy is a senior state lobbyist for the NRA based in California.

“Now [Seattle entrepreneur Nick Hanauer is] funding, he’s put half a million dollars, toward this policy, the same policy that led to his family getting run out of Germany by the Nazis. You know, it’s staggering to me, it’s just, you can’t make this stuff up. That these people, it’s like any Jewish people I meet who are anti-gun, I think, ‘Are you serious? Do you not remember what happened?’ And why did that happen? Because they registered guns and then they took them,” he said at the meeting.

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Watchman News Russian, Indian Central Banks Could Use National Currencies in Payments

The Bank of Russia and the Reserve Bank of India have agreed to set up a working group to devise tools to use national currencies in bilateral payments, the Russian regulator said Wednesday.

The group, that may involve representatives of banks and also ministries and agencies of both countries, will be controlled by the central banks of Russia and India.

The decision was announced at the meeting of a group overseeing banking and financial issues at the Russian-Indian commission on trade and economic, scientific, technical and cultural cooperation.

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Watchman News Obama administration’s mismanagement led to Obamacare rollout fiasco, probe concludes Read more: http://ift.tt/1tvGoUB

A non-partisan congressional investigation has concluded management failures by the Obama administration set the stage for the computer woes that paralyzed the rollout of President Barack Obama’s health-care program last year.

The findings are in a report to be released Thursday by the Government Accountability Office, which has spent months investigating the chaotic rollout of Mr. Obama’s signature program and its website.

Republicans have hammered at the president over the Affordable Health Act, also known as “Obamacare,” hope to capitalize on its problems in the November congressional elections.

The new law is intended to extend insurance coverage to millions of Americans who had lacked it. Republicans have long opposed it particularly its requirement for Americans to carry insurance or face penalties.

Mr. Obama has already survived the worst fallout from the bungled launch, so the report is unlikely to create major political problems for the White House and Democrats generally. But it does shine light on what went on behind the scenes even as administration officials gave the impression signing for health care would be simple, like shopping online.

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Watchman News Hamas Training in Malaysia for ‘Advanced’ Terror Attacks

Israeli security forces have captured a senior Hamas commander in the city of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip – and in doing so thwarted a creative plan to infiltrate Israel to commit a terrorist attack.

The terrorist – said to be a member of an elite commando unit within Hamas’s “military wing”, the Ezzadine Al Kassam Brigades – was interrogated by the Shabak (Israel Security Agency), and confessed to having been sent to Malaysia to gain paragliding training, which he was to use to infiltrate into southern Israel to carry out an attack – potentially a kidnapping – in the event of an Israeli operation like the one launched 23 days ago.

The terrorists also told interrogators that he had coordinated anti-tank ambushes and set up sniper positions against IDF forces during Operation Protective Edge. The sniper positions were placed in the tenth floor of the Red Cross building in Khan Younis, in line with Hamas’s doctrine of using sensitive civilian buildings as military posts to make it more difficult for Israel to strike them without incurring civilian casualties.

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Watchman News Brussels Airport starts facial recognition trials

Brussels Airport plans to introduce facial recognition scanners next year, the management company said. The technology is already in use at other major airports in Europe, including Heathrow (pictured) and Schiphol.

Six of the so-called e-gates that use facial recognition software will be introduced in a pilot project for citizens of EU member states travelling from outside the Schengen area, which consists of 22 of the 28 EU member states, as well as EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

Facial recognition systems use “landmarks” on faces such as size and place of significant features, which can then be compared in photo and real-time versions…

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Watchman News Huge crop circles appear in field in Germany

The ornate design printed into the crops was discovered by a balloonist last week and news of the find quickly spread online.

The circle, which appeared in a wheat field bordering the Raisting Satellite Earth Station communications facility, resembles an ornament with ring-shaped features.

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Watchman News Guns, vandals and thieves: Data shows U.S. networks under attack

Early one morning in April last year, someone accessed an underground vault just south of San Jose, California, and cut through fiber-optic cables there. The incident blacked out phone, Internet and 911 service for thousands of people in Silicon Valley.

Such incidents, often caused by vandals, seem fairly common, but exactly how often do they occur? Since 2007, the U.S. telecom infrastructure has been targeted by more than a thousand malicious acts that resulted in severe outages, according to data obtained by IDG from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under the Freedom of Information Act.

The FCC requires carriers to submit reports when an outage affects at least 900,000 minutes of user calls, or when it impacts 911 service, major military installations, key government facilities, nuclear power plants or major airports.

The reports themselves are confidential for national security and commercial reasons, but aggregate data provided by the FCC shows there were 1,248 incidents resulting in major outages over the last seven years.

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Watchman News Admiral: World Getting ‘Numb’ to North Korean Missiles

Amid concerns about its development and testing of nuclear weapons, North Korea may be lulling the world into largely accepting its advances in missile technology, the admiral in charge of American forces in Asia and the Pacific said Tuesday.

Adm. Samuel Locklear told a Pentagon news conference that he is concerned by North Korea’s frequent testing of ballistic missiles. Locklear heads U.S. Pacific Command, and his responsibilities include military relations with longtime U.S. ally South Korea.

North Korea often test-fires missiles, artillery and rockets, but the number of weapons tests it has conducted this year is much higher than previous years.

“Every time they do something that the international community has told them not to do, particularly as it relates to missile technology or nuclear technology, you have to assume that it’s a step forward in technology,” Locklear said. “Otherwise, they probably wouldn’t be doing it.”

Locklear said he worries that “you become somewhat numb” to reports of another North Korean missile test, adding, “you start to say, well, it’s not such a big deal.”

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Watchman News Driverless cars heading onto British roads in 2015

Driverless cars will start appearing on British roads next year, ministers will announce on Wednesday.

The Government wants to change the rules to allow companies to start running trials of cars that do not need a human driver on UK streets, industry sources said.

It means the first computer-controlled vehicles will be seen on quiet British streets by January next year.

Ministers will update the law to ensure that driverless cars can take to the streets – a move which will require a change in the Highway Code.

The new generation of vehicles work by using GPS technology to locate the vehicle’s position on an electronic map.

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Watchman News Coordinated Sanctions Aim at Russia’s Ability to Tap Its Oil Reserves

Watchman News Internet ‘tax’ may fund new spy laws

Phone and internet customers could face a ”surveillance tax” of up to $100 a year if the federal government implements a scheme requiring companies to store customer data for two years, the telecommunications sector warns.

Attorney-General George Brandis has said a compulsory data-retention scheme, which security agencies argue is necessary to combat terrorism, is ”under active consideration by the government”.

The Communications Alliance, representing telecommunications companies, estimates the compulsory data retention scheme could cost the industry $500 million to $700 million a year – an amount that would be passed on to consumers.

Steve Dalby, chief regulatory officer at iiNet, estimates consumers could be hit by cost rises of $5 to $10 extra a month to cover the costs of collecting and storing the data – an impost Mr Dalby has described as a ”surveillance tax”.

Australian Consumer Communications Action Network CEO Teresa Corbin said mandatory data retention was ”likely to impose a significant cost to consumers, with unproven benefits to law enforcement”.

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Watchman News CDC urges U.S. health workers to be vigilant as Ebola virus’s toll grows in Africa

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday that the risk of Ebola spreading to the United States was low, but it nevertheless issued a Level 2 health alert, advising U.S. health workers to be vigilant.

The largest outbreak of the Ebola virus on record has spread across the West African nations of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia since first detected in March, with more than 670 deaths, according to the CDC.

Two Americans working in Liberia were diagnosed with the virus last week. That raised fears that the virus could be spread to the United States by those traveling from the region.

But the CDC played down the possibility. “The likelihood of this outbreak spreading outside of West Africa is low,” said Stephan Monroe, deputy director of the agency’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. Still, he said in a teleconference with reporters, “the CDC has to be prepared for the remote possibility.”

The alert advised U.S. doctors to check patients’ travel histories to identify those who might have recently traveled to West Africa. The CDC also urged physicians to learn the symptoms of Ebola, which include fever and diarrhea, and the immediate treatment necessary if they suspect it. The agency warned travelers going to West Africa to avoid contact with bodily fluids or blood of anyone in the affected areas.

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Watchman News Iran: Hezbollah Can Fire Rockets ‘Nonstop’ at Israel

Iranian officials are closely studying the progress of Operation Protective Edge, in light of concern over Israel airstrikes on its nuclear facilities and its ongoing quest to destroy Israel.

Hossein Salami G’anshin, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, said in this context that the war in Gaza is an introduction prior to the collapse of Israel, noting that Hezbollah has become a very powerful factor that can launch missiles “non-stop” on all the cities of Israel.

The Naval commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Ali Fadawi, said at a meeting with senior officers that following the war, the Iranian army should place emphasis on strengthening deterrence and defense capabilities in order to bring down Israel.

According to Fadawi, the Iranian army closely monitors the IDF’s activities and is engaged in the development of plans for the protection of Iranian assets in accordance with Israeli “threats” and the different possible scenarios.

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Watchman News EU to Unveil New Sanctions Targeting Putin’s Inner Circle Wednesday

The European Union is to adopt and publish Wednesday a new list of individuals close to Russia’s president inner circle and entities to be subject to sanctions over their “role” in taking decisions on Crimea and Ukraine, an EU source said.

“Coreper agreed to add further persons and entities supporting or benefitting from Russian decision makers (“cronies”) to the list of those subject to an asset freeze and a ban from entering the EU. It also reached agreement to target further entities responsible for action against Ukraine’s territorial integrity,” the EU official said.

“The legal acts bringing these agreements into force will be adopted by written procedure closing on Wednesday…

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Watchman News Jeff Sessions on Obama’s Executive Amnesty: Congress Faces ‘Time of Choosing’ at ‘Perilous Hour’

It’s now or never for opponents of President Barack Obama’s lawlessness on illegal immigration.

Saying America faces a “perilous hour,” and members of Congress are entering a “momentous week” when it comes to the future of the separation of powers, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) urged his colleagues on Monday to “be counted” and “stand up” to Obama’s “lawless actions, and sponsor legislation that will block him” from granting amnesty to millions more illegal immigrants.

He also urged colleagues to “oppose any border supplemental that does” not prevent Obama from using federal money to implement more executive actions on immigration. Simply put, Sessions said, there is “no middle ground” when it comes to Obama’s potential nullification of federal immigration laws.

Obama has indicated that he will enact more executive actions and grant work permits–in contravention of federal law–to possibly eight million more illegal immigrants once Congress leaves for its August recess after this week. Sessions has been urging Congress to support bills like Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) that would prevent Obama from granting temporary amnesty to future illegal immigrants.

“Our response now is of great import,” Sessions said on the Senate floor. “It will define the scope of executive and congressional powers for years to come. If President Obama is not stopped in this action, and he exceeds his powers by attempting to execute such a massive amnesty contrary to law, the moral authority for any immigration henceforth will be eviscerated.”

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Watchman News Obama considers large-scale move on immigration

White House officials are making plans to act before November’s midterm elections to grant work permits to potentially millions of immigrants in this country illegally.

The move could scramble election-year politics and lead some conservative Republicans to push for impeachment proceedings against President Barack Obama.

Advocates and lawmakers who’ve been in touch with the administration say officials are weighing a range of options including changes in the deportation system and ways to grant relief from deportation to targeted populations in the country.

That might include parents or legal guardians of U.S. citizen children – which could be around 3.8 million people – or parents of immigrants brought here illegally as kids who’ve already received executive relief from Obama. That could be an additional 500,000 to 1 million people.

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Watchman News North Korea Threatens Nuclear Strike on White House

A top-ranking North Korean military official has threatened a nuclear strike on the White House and Pentagon after accusing Washington of raising military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The threat came from Hwang Pyong-So, director of the military’s General Political Bureau, during a speech to a large military rally in Pyongyang Sunday on the anniversary of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

Hwang, who holds the rank of vice marshal in the Korean People’s Army, said a recent series of South Korea-US military drills, one of which included the deployment of a nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier, had ramped up tensions.

“If the US imperialists threaten our sovereignty and survival … our troops will fire our nuclear-armed rockets at the White House and the Pentagon — the sources of all evil,” Hwang said in his speech broadcast Monday on state television.

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Watchman News N. Korea has world’s largest submarine fleet: U.S. media

North Korea possesses the world’s largest number of submarines, followed by the U.S., according to a U.S. online media outlet.



Business Insider said that the North has a total of 78 regular and midget submarines, while the U.S. has 72 submarines. Its analysis is based on data from the Global Firepower, a military power evaluation organization.



China ranked third with 69 submarines, followed by Russia with 63 submarines and Iran with 31 submarines. South Korea has only 14 submarines while Japan has 16 submarines, according to the BI analysis.



Business Insider pointed out that the North’s lead is merely because of the “pure numbers,” not the quality of its submarine fleets.

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Watchman News Unbelievably Disturbing — Obama Thanks Muslims For “Building The Very Fabric Of Our Nation”

As Muslims throughout the United States and around the world celebrate Eid-al-Fitr, Michelle and I extend our warmest wishes to them and their families. This last month has been a time of fasting, reflection, spiritual renewal, and service to the less fortunate. While Eid marks the completion of Ramadan, it also celebrates the common values that unite us in our humanity and reinforces the obligations that people of all faiths have to each other, especially those impacted by poverty, conflict, and disease.

In the United States, Eid also reminds us of the many achievements and contributions of Muslim Americans to building the very fabric of our nation and strengthening the core of our democracy. That is why we stand with people of all faiths, here at home and around the world, to protect and advance their rights to prosper, and we welcome their commitment to giving back to their communities.

On behalf of the Administration, we wish Muslims in the United States and around the world a blessed and joyous celebration. Eid Mubarak.

Source: White House

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Watchman News US federal appeals court upholds judge’s ruling that gay marriage ban is unconstitutional

Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Monday, one of more than 20 legal decisions around the country favouring gay marriage proponents since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the Defence of Marriage Act last year.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond is the second federal appellate court to overturn gay marriage bans, after the Denver circuit, and is the first to affect the South, where states’ rights have held particular sway for generations.

More than 70 cases have been filed in all 31 states that prohibit same-sex marriage. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia allow such marriages.

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper quickly announced Monday that his office will stop defending his state’s ban, saying, it is “time to stop making arguments we will likely lose.” But a spokesman for South Carolina’s attorney general, Alan Wilson, said he sees no need to change course.

Cooper joins a growing number of top state lawmen, including Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, who have refused to defend their state bans.

“I am proud that the Commonwealth of Virginia is leading on one of the most important civil rights issues of our day,” Herring said. “We are fighting for the right of loving, committed couples to enter the bonds of marriage.”

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Watchman News John Kerry and White House fire back at scathing criticism of failed U.S. ceasefire plan

The Obama administration pushed back strongly Monday at a torrent of Israeli criticism over Secretary of State John Kerry’s latest bid to secure a ceasefire with Hamas, accusing some in Israel of launching a “misinformation campaign” against the top American diplomat.

“It’s simply not the way partners and allies treat each other,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

Her comments were echoed by the White House, where officials said they were disappointed by Israeli reports that cast Kerry’s efforts to negotiate a ceasefire as more favourable to Hamas. Tony Blinken, President Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser, said the criticism was based on “people leaking things that are either misinformed or attempting to misinform.”

Kerry himself, in a speech to the Center for American Progress, noted the criticism but did not give ground.

“Make no mistake, when the people of Israel are rushing to bomb shelters, when innocent Israeli and Palestinian teenagers are abducted and murdered, when hundreds of innocent civilians have lost their lives, I will and we will make no apologies for our engagement,” he said.

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Watchman News Muslim Mob Burns Three Girls To Death

A MOB burned to death a woman member of a religious sect and two of her granddaughters and burned down several homes after a sect member was accused of posting blasphemous material on Facebook.

Police in Pakistan said the homes and the dead, which included a seven-year-old girl and her baby sister, belonged to the minority Ahmadi Muslims in the country’s east. Nine other people were also badly burned, The International News reported.

The Ahmadiyya Islamic religious movement, which believes in a prophet after Mohammed, consider themselves Muslims but a 1984 Pakistani law declared them non-Muslims and many Pakistanis consider them heretics.

Police official Zeeshan Siddiqi said the rioting in the city of Gujranwala, 220km southeast of the capital, Islamabad, erupted late Sunday after claims that an Ahmadi had posted a blasphemous photo of the Kaaba — the cube-shaped structure in the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, that observant Muslims around the world face in prayer five times a day.

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Watchman News Manliest Man Ever Saves A 375 Pound Black Bear From Drowning

Watchman News PLA holds 3-month long exercises

The People’s Liberation Army launched large-scale exercises that will last for three months and involve multiple branches and military regions on Friday, reports our Chinese-language sister newspaper Want Daily.

The move is a response to the joint military exercise held by the United States, India and Japan off Japan’s southern coast from July 25 to 30, according to Agence France-Presse.

Chinese president Xi Jinping and the Central Military Commission recently approved the exercises named Huoli-2014, which will include ten cross-district army exercises from July to September and mobilizes seven military zones, air forces, four colleges and multiple bases and shooting ranges. The China Maritime Safety Administration also announced it is to hold live-fire military exercises in the East China Sea from 12am to 6pm daily between July 29 and Aug. 15.

The Chinese military has held ten cross-district live fire drills since mid-July. The country’s six military regions are expected to dispatch ten army troops with long-range rockets, artillery units and air defense brigades to take part in the drill soon.

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Watchman News PLA Navy conduct naval exercises to ‘take back’ lost sea territories

The People’s Liberation Army Navy is ready to launch two major exercises in the disputed South and East China Seas between July 26 and Aug. 1 to demonstrate its fighting prowess to Vietnam, the Philippines and Japan, according to the Hong Kong-based Ta Kung Pao.

China’s State Oceanic Administration of China announced that the exercises will take place in the Gulf of Tonkin, a body of water off the coast of northern Vietnam and southern China, and the East China Sea, where the disputed Diaoyutai (Senkaku) islands are located. No civilian vessels and aircraft are allowed to enter the region between July 27 and Aug. 2, according to official Chinese statement. Any ships operating near the regions must obey orders given by China’s coast guard vessels.

Airports and flights connecting through cities near China’s east coast, including Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Jinan, Hefei, Wuxi, Ningbo, Qingdao, Zhenzhou and Lianyungang, have been cancelled and delayed…

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Watchman News Banks accused of rigging silver price

Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Bank of Nova Scotia have been accused of attempting to rig the price of silver, in a lawsuit filed in the US.

The plaintiff alleges the banks, which set the price of silver each day, abused their position in the market.

Deutsche Bank and HSBC have not commented on the filing, while Bank of Nova Scotia told Bloomberg news agency it would “vigorously defend” itself.

The lawsuit follows similar filings in the gold price-fixing market.

Earlier this year, Barclays Bank was fined £26m ($44m) by UK regulators after one of its traders was discovered attempting to fix the price of gold.

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Watchman News Will tragedy derail Pope Francis on Christian unity?

History sometimes turns on tragedies, leaving people to ponder what might have been. A new Catholic focus for that question is a random motorcycle accident last Sunday in England, and whether it may change the arc of Pope Francis’ papacy on ecumenism, meaning the push for unity among Christians.

Christians, of course, are fond of preaching peace and brotherhood, but anyone looking at the notoriously splintered Christian landscape can see they often don’t practice that gospel. Thoughtful leaders on all sides have long tried to mend differences, with little effect, and there has been mounting hope that Pope Francis will be the one to finally move the ball, in part because of his long history of friendship with other Christians.

Francis is set to travel on Monday to the southern Italian city of Caserta to see a few of his old Protestant friends, and to pray with them. The get-together unfolds under the shadow of the loss of someone who was supposed to be there, Bishop Tony Palmer of the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches, who got to know the future pope while ministering in Argentina.

Born in England and raised in South Africa, Palmer was riding his motorcycle July 20 on a highway near Bath in the United Kingdom when he crashed head-on into a car driving in the wrong lane. A 10-hour emergency surgery failed to revive him. In his early 50s at the time, Palmer leaves behind his wife and two teenage children.

Palmer had emerged as a new ecumenical star in January when he visited Pope Francis in Rome and recorded a video message from the pope on his iPhone for a conference of Pentecostals in Texas hosted by American televangelist Kenneth Copeland. It was an impromptu appeal for unity and friendship, with Francis passing along a “spiritual hug.”

Francis, of course, knows plenty of people all over the world, and one shouldn’t oversell how close his connection with Palmer actually was. Although Palmer described the pontiff as one of his three “spiritual fathers,” a Vatican spokesman last week balked at characterizing them as “friends,” preferring the formula “close acquaintances.”

Yet Palmer clearly had entrée. He told Copeland’s assembly that he believed God intended to use their connection to accomplish something big, saying he and Francis had made a covenant to work together for the “visible unity of Christians.”

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Watchman News Scientist Sues Calif University for Firing Him After His Dinosaur Discovery Supported Creationism

A scientist has filed a lawsuit against the California State University, Northridge saying he was terminated from his job due to his religious views after he discovered soft tissue on a triceratops fossil which supported his creationist view.

Mark Armitage, a former scientist at CSUN in Los Angeles, was terminated after he discovered supposedly the largest triceratops horn ever unearthed at the Hell Creek Formation excavation site in Montana, according to attorney Brad Dacus of Pacific Justice Institute, who’s filed the lawsuit.

“Since some creationists, like [Armitage], believe that the triceratops bones are only 4,000 years old at most, [Armitage's] work vindicated his view that these dinosaurs roamed the planet relatively recently,” states the complaint filed against the CSUN board of trustees in Los Angeles Superior Court, according to CBS News.

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Watchman News Rep. Scalise Calls Out Obama: ‘First White House In History Trying To Start Narrative Of Impeachment’

New House GOP Whip Steve Scalise called President Obama’s extended discourse on his own impeachment nothing but a political game, noting this “might be the first White House in history trying to start the narrative of impeaching their own president.”

Scalise spoke with Fox New’s Chris Wallace on Sunday about the president’s impending plan for executive action on immigration — which many suspect will include amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants.

“You’re already suing the president for overreach,” Wallace noted, asking if House Republicans will consider impeachment should the White House move around Congress on yet another major issue.

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Watchman News Judge Strikes Down DC Ban on Handguns Outside Home

A federal judge struck down the District of Columbia’s ban on carrying guns outside of a person’s home, concluding it violates Second Amendment rights.

The ruling from U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Scullin is the latest in a protracted fight over gun laws in Washington. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark decision striking down the city’s 32-year-old ban on handguns. Since then, the city has rewritten its laws, lawsuits have been filed and even Congress has waded into the fight.

In a decision made public Saturday, Scullin concluded that the Second Amendment gives people the right to carry a gun outside the home for self-defense. He cited two U.S. Supreme Court cases as important to his ruling — the 2008 opinion striking down the District of Columbia’s ban and a 2010 ruling involving Chicago’s handgun ban.

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Watchman News Germany to Kill Canada-EU Trade Agreement, May Axe US-EU Deal Too

Germany is to scupper a free trade agreement between the European Union and Canada because the clauses giving legal protection to investors would give them too much power, according to a report in a leading Germany newspaper.

The Canada deal is considered a template for the United States-EU free trade agreement, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which is still under negotiation. If Germany rejects the Canada agreement, then the American deal looks likely to fail, too.

A senior European Commission official in Brussels told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung: “The free trade treaty with Canada is a test for the agreement with the United States.” If the one with Canada is rejected, “then the one with the United States is also dead.”

German diplomats in Brussels confirmed to the newspaper that the Berlin government would not sign the agreement “as it has been negotiated now.” The chapter on legal protection for investors is “problematic.”

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Watchman News The militarization of America’s police

How heavily armed are the police?

Many small-town police departments now boast the same weaponry once wielded by U.S. military units in Afghanistan — including tanks with 360-degree rotating turrets, battering rams, and automatic weapons. Those weapons are today deployed against Americans suspected of crimes in their own homes. Every day, Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams connected to local police conduct 124 paramilitary-style raids in the U.S., according to a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union. One of them recently drew national attention when a SWAT team in Atlanta burst into a private home and threw a live flash grenade into a 2-year-old’s crib, severely injuring the toddler. Most raids by SWAT teams are conducted against suspected drug dealers, but they’ve also been deployed against a private poker game; a gay bar in Atlanta; a New Haven, Connecticut, bar suspected of serving minors; and even people suspected of credit card fraud. “Neighborhoods are not war zones,” says the ACLU in its report, “and our police officers should not be treating us like wartime enemies.”

Why do police have SWAT teams?

The first SWAT team was created by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1967 and reserved for the most extreme circumstances: riots, hostage scenarios, and active-shooter or sniper situations. But the “war on drugs,” coupled with the sense of danger promoted by tragedies like the Columbine massacre in 1999 and the 9/11 terror attacks, encouraged police departments even in small towns and rural areas to create special units equipped and trained for worst-case scenarios. “There’s violence in schools, and there’s violence in the streets,” said Sheriff Michael Gayer of Pulaski County in Indiana. “If driving a military vehicle is going to protect officers, that’s what I’m going to do.”

How do police get military equipment?

In recent years, the Department of Homeland Security has provided $35 billion to local police throughout the country to help buy weapons for “the war on terror.” The rest can be traced to the Pentagon, which has off-loaded $4.2 billion of surplus armored vehicles, rifles, and equipment to police departments…

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Watchman News National Guard in Texas Could Get Arrest Power

Watchman News Arrest Warrant Issued for Possible Illegal Alien with Drug-Resistant Strain of Tuberculosis

Prosecutors in Central California have obtained an arrest warrant for a tuberculosis patient who they say is contagious and has refused treatment.

San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Stephen Taylor said Thursday that police are looking for 25-year-old Eduardo Rosas Cruz, a transient who comes from a part of Mexico known for a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis.

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Watchman News Honduran children may be allowed to apply for U.S. admission from home

The White House is considering a proposal that would allow Honduran children to apply for admission to the United States as refugees or on humanitarian grounds while still in their native country.

It is one of several plans under review to deter Central American kids from making the difficult and dangerous journey to the Southwest border, White House officials said Thursday. If successful, the program could be expanded to include other volatile nations, such as Guatemala and El Salvador.

Under the plan, children fleeing dangerous street gangs plaguing cities in Honduras, or other threats, would be interviewed by American immigration officials and temporarily sheltered in Honduras while their cases are considered.

Supporters of the plan said it would help children who are genuinely in danger and reduce the number of minors traveling along smuggling routes through Mexico. Critics said it would only increase the number of refugees and worsen the current backlog of applications from Central America.

The idea is similar to a proposal from Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake, both Republicans, to boost the number of visas by 5,000 for young people coming from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Of the 57,000 unaccompanied minors apprehended at the Southwest border since Oct. 1, more than 45,000 have been from these three countries…

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Watchman News Border official points gun at Boy Scout

A central Iowa Boy Scout troop just returned from a three-week trip they will likely never forget.

About 10 days into the trip, an innocent action by one of the nearly two dozen Scouts at the Canadian border into Alaska set off a chain of events that lead to a U.S. border official pointing a gun at a scout’s head.

Boy Scout Troop 111 Leader Jim Fox spelled out what happened to him and the Mid-Iowa Boy Scout Troop 111 as four van-loads of Scouts and adult volunteers tried to drive from Canada into Alaska.

Fox said one of the Scouts took a picture of a border official, which spurred agents to detain everyone in that van and search them and their belongings.

“The agent immediately confiscated his camera, informed him he would be arrested, fined possibly $10,000 and 10 years in prison,” Fox said.

Fox said he was told it is a federal offense to take a picture of a federal agent.

Not wanting things to escalate, Fox said he did not complain.

Another of the Scouts was taking luggage from the top of a van to be searched when something startling happened.

“He hears a snap of a holster, turns around, and here’s this agent, both hands on a loaded pistol, pointing at the young man’s head,” Fox explained.

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Watchman News Obama’s dumbest move to date… seizing a foreign bank??

Ten dark suited men entered the premises of FBME bank in Cyprus on Friday afternoon and took it hostage.

It must have looked like a scene from the Matrix. And given the surrealism of how this conflict is escalating, maybe it was.

The men were from the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC). And they commandeered FBME because an obscure agency within the US government recently issued a report accusing the bank of laundering money.

It just so happens that FBME… and Cyprus in general… is where a lot of wealthy Russians hold their vast fortunes.

Bear in mind, there has been no proof that any crime was committed. There was no court hearing. No charges were read. It wasn’t even the government of Cyprus who accused them of anything.

There was just a generic report penned by some bureaucrat 10,000 miles away.

Funny thing—when HSBC got caught red-handed laundering funds for a Mexican drug cartel last year, the US government gave them a slap on the wrist. HSBC got off with a fine.

Yet when the US government merely hints that FBME could be laundering money, the bank gets taken over at gunpoint.

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Watchman News A Chinese Gold Standard?

Watchman News Federal judge urges return of firing squad

An influential federal appeals court judge said Thursday that the nation’s third lethal injection execution to go awry in six months underscores his call to bring back firing squads.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said lethal injection was a “dishonest” attempt to disguise the brutal nature of capital punishment.

Kozinski first wrote of his distaste for lethal injection in a decision Monday, even while arguing against delaying the execution of Joseph Rudolph Wood III in Phoenix. Wood gasped for breath for more than 90 minutes and took nearly two hours to die Wednesday after receiving a lethal injection for killing his estranged girlfriend and her father.

Kozinski said properly trained firing squads are a “foolproof” way to quickly execute an inmate and avoid complications surrounding lethal injection.

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Watchman News European court condemns Poland over secret CIA torture prisons

Europe’s top human rights court condemned Poland on Thursday for hosting secret CIA prisons, saying Warsaw knowingly abetted unlawful imprisonment and torture of two Guantánamo-bound detainees.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled in favour of a Palestinian and a Saudi national locked up in a US “black site” for several months in Poland in 2002-2003 before being transferred to Guantánamo Bay, where they are still being held.

The Polish government “enabled the US authorities to subject the applicant to torture and ill-treatment on its territory”, the ECHR said in its rulings over the cases of Palestinian Abu Zubaydah, 43, and Saudi Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, 49.

Their lawyers told the Strasbourg court the men were repeatedly tortured by waterboarding.

The ECHR also found Warsaw guilty of allowing the men to be sent to places where they faced torture, further detention and “flagrant denial of justice”.

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Watchman News Al Qaeda Targeting U.S. Infrastructure for Digital 9/11

Al Qaeda, nation states, and criminals are preparing for major cyber attacks against U.S. infrastructure that could be comparable to the devastating September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, a senior Justice Department official said on Thursday.

“We’re in a pre-9/11 moment, in some respects, with cyber,” said John Carlin, assistant attorney general for national security in the Justice Department.

Carlin also said during remarks at a security conference that China’s government dared the Obama administration to provide court-level evidence of Chinese military hacking against the United States.

The dare resulted in the May 1 indictment of five members of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) hacking group known as Unit 63198, he said.

On cyber terrorist attacks, Carlin said: “It’s clear that the terrorists want to use cyber-enabled means to cause the maximum amount of destruction to our infrastructure.”

“It’s clear because they have said it,” he told the Aspen Security Forum, an annual gathering at the mountain resort town of senior, current, and former national security and military officials.

Carlin said al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri recently issued a videotape statement indicating the group is planning cyber attacks against U.S. infrastructure—such as the electrical grids or financial networks.

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Watchman News Homeschoolers Confident They Can Sink Disability Convention

A controversial treaty on the rights of the disabled has reappeared in the Senate two years after it was defeated, with Democrats believing this time around they can muster the votes needed for ratification.

Fierce opposition, however, is once again emanating from a surprising source: the American homeschooling community.

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) was negotiated under President George W. Bush, signed by President Barack Obama in 2009, and has been ratified by 146 countries thus far, but in December 2012 it fell several votes short of the 67 needed for full ratification in the U.S. Senate.

On Tuesday, the treaty appeared once more before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which approved it 12 to 6. All ten Democrats voted in favor, as did two Republicans, John McCain of Arizona and John Barasso of Wyoming.

The measure is strongly backed by hundreds of disability organizations, as well as many veterans groups such as the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars. However, strident opposition has arisen from the American homeschooling community, spearheaded by conservative activist and homeschooling pioneer Michael Farris.

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Watchman News MH17: Russia accuses US of fabricating evidence

Russia suggested on Thursday that the United States was trying to fabricate evidence that separatists in eastern Ukraine shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17.

Anatoly Antonov, deputy defence minister, said Washington’s claims that pro-Russian rebels fired a missile that hit the plane on July 17 “mostly cited social networks” and did not correspond to reality.

Alexander Yakovenko, Russia’s ambassador to Britain, also poured scorn on the widespread belief that Moscow is supplying the rebels, saying: “Russia doesn’t supply weapons to local de facto (separatist) authorities in eastern Ukraine” and that “no evidence whatsoever has been presented that the Russian government has been doing this”.

The ambassador’s comment came after a Nato source told Reuters news agency the alliance was seeing a rising flow of arms into the conflict zone from Russia.

Mr Antonov said US intelligence experts had claimed they could “prove the guilt of the [pro-Russian] militia and almost Russia itself” and were in possession of technical data and satellite photographs to back up their accusation.

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Watchman News One of the few U.S. Democrats with a military background found to have plagiarized at military college

Democrats were thrilled when John Walsh of Montana was appointed to the U.S. Senate in February. A decorated veteran of the Iraq War and former adjutant general of his state’s National Guard, Walsh offered the Democratic Party something it frequently lacks: a seasoned military man.

On the campaign trail this year, Walsh, 53, has made his military service a main selling point. Still wearing his hair close-cropped, he notes he was targeted for killing by Iraqi militants and says his time in uniform informs his views on a range of issues.

But one of the highest-profile credentials of Walsh’s 33-year military career appears to have been improperly attained. An examination of the final paper required for Walsh’s master’s degree from the U.S. Army War College indicates the senator appropriated at least a quarter of his thesis on American Middle East policy from other authors’ works, with no attribution.

Walsh completed the paper, what the War College calls a “strategy research project,” to earn his degree in 2007, when he was 46. The sources of the material he presents as his own include academic papers, policy journal essays and books that are almost all available online.

Most strikingly, the six recommendations Walsh laid out at the conclusion of his 14-page paper, titled “The Case for Democracy as a Long Term National Strategy,” are taken nearly word-for-word without attribution from a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace document on the same topic.

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Watchman News Germany to ‘spy on US and UK intelligence gathering’ for the first time in 45 years

Germany has ordered surveillance of British and American intelligence gathering on its soil to begin for the first time since 1945, according to reports.

Under the decision, US and British intelligence operations in Germany will be subject to the same counter-espionage measures as those of Russia, China and Iran.

“We need to send a strong signal,” a source close to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government told Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. The unprecedented move is a direct response to a series of spy scandals that have rocked British and American relations with Germany in the past year.

Mrs Merkel’s government has given the go-ahead to surveillance plans that first emerged after two suspected double agents were found allegedly spying for the Americans inside the German security establishment a few weeks ago.

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Watchman News European Central Bank says it was victim to extortion attempt after database hacked

The European Central Bank said Thursday that email addresses and other contact information have been stolen from a database that serves its public website, though it stressed that no internal systems or market-sensitive data were compromised.

The security breach involved a database serving part of the website that gathers registrations for ECB conferences and other events, the Frankfurt-based central bank for the 18 nations that share the euro said in a statement.

Although most of the information on the database was encrypted, email addresses and other contact information left by people who registered were stolen, the bank said.

About 20,000 email addresses may have been compromised, along with a much smaller number of phone numbers and street addresses.

The ECB discovered the theft when it received an anonymous email on Monday night seeking money for the data.

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Watchman News Jihadists seize Iraq monastery

Jihadist militants have taken over a monastery in northern Iraq, one of the country’s best-known Christian landmarks, and expelled its resident monks, a cleric and residents said Monday.

Islamic State (IS) fighters stormed Mar (Saint) Behnam, a 4th century monastery run by the Syriac Catholic church near the predominantly Christian town of Qaraqosh, on Sunday, the sources said.

“You have no place here anymore, you have to leave immediately,” a member of the Syriac clergy quoted the Sunni militants as telling the monastery’s residents.

He said the monks pleaded to be allowed to save some of the monastery’s relics but the fighters refused and ordered them to leave on foot with nothing but their clothes.

Christian residents from the area told AFP the monks walked several miles along a deserted road and were eventually picked up by Kurdish peshmerga fighters who drove them to Qaraqosh.

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Watchman News UN launches probe into alleged Israeli crimes in Gaza after 650 deaths

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The United Nations on Wednesday launched an international inquiry into human rights violations and crimes that may have been committed by Israel during its military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The UN Human Rights Council condemned the Israeli assault which it said had involved “disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks”, including aerial bombing of civilian areas, collective punishment, and the killing of more than 650 Palestinians.

At the end of an emergency session, the 47-member forum adopted a resolution presented by Palestinians by a vote of 29 states in favour, 1 against (the United States) with 17 abstentions (including all nine European Union members).

“We came here to try to achieve together with you at least minimum justice for children who are being dismembered, for women whose bodies are lying in the streets, to find some justice for those who are being exterminated,” said Ibrahim Khraishi, ambassador of the Palestinian observer mission to the UN in Geneva.

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Watchman News European airlines extend Ben-Gurion flights ban as Israel mulls diverting plans to Eilat

Lufthansa, Air Berlin extend cancellations, Air France imposes open-ended ban; Netanyahu urges Kerry to renew US flights as Bloomberg takes El Al flight to ‘show solidarity’.

Air France and Germany’s two largest airlines on Wednesday canceled more flights to Tel Aviv because of ongoing safety concerns amid the fighting between Israel and Hamas.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a 24-hour prohibition on flights by US carriers to Israel Wednesday after a rocket fired from Gaza struck near Ben-Gurion International Airport, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. Israeli air flight officials have said Israel could begin to divert flights to Ovda Airfield, situated in the resort town of Eilat at the southern tip of Israel.

Germany’s Lufthansa and Air Berlin extended their cancelations through Thursday and Air France said it was suspending its flights “until further notice.”

Polish state airline LOT also said Wednesday that it has suspended its flights to Israel from Warsaw until Monday because of concern for passengers’ safety.

“This is caused by the tense situation in the region,” LOT added in a statement. “The connection will be re-established as soon as possible and when we are sure that our operations are hundred percent safe.”

The European Aviation Safety Agency late Tuesday said it “strongly recommends” that airlines refrain from operating flights to and from Tel Aviv. It said it would “monitor the situation and advise on any update as the situation develops.”

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Watchman News Month of PLA drills disrupts skies over eastern China

Delays and cancellations of flights at 12 airports in eastern and central Chinese cities which are under large-scale air traffic controls due to intensive military exercises have made international headlines, reports China’s Global Times. It is widely held that the controls signify a major People’s Liberation Army Air Force drill to take place soon involving the disputed East China Sea.

From July 20 to Aug. 15, 12 airports in eastern China will be affected by orders for airlines to reduce flights by 25% due to the occupation of airspace by “other users,” reported Hong Kong’s Ming Pao.

The airports affected by the air traffic control include Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport, Shanghai Pudong International Airport, Nanjing Lukou International Airport, Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport, Hefei Xinqiao International Airport, Jinan Yaoqiang International Airport, Wuxi Sunan Shuofang International Airport, Ningbo Lishe International Airport, Qingdao Liuting International Airport, Lianyungang Baitabu Airport, Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport, and Wuhan Tianhe International Airport. Passengers have been forewarned of inevitable delays or even cancellations of flights.

Over 200 flights had been canceled at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport and Shanghai Pudong International Airport up to July 22, including China Eastern Airlines flights MU724 and MU504 of from Hong Kong to Shanghai. The Civil Aviation Department in Hong Kong told Ming Pao however that it did not receive notification of air traffic control as a consequence of military exercises. It would have informed related departments and responded to the notification, it said.

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