My Top News

The Runaway General

After a controversial interview General McChrystal had with Rolling Stone, the General reportedly tendered his resignation. In the interview McChrystal mocked civial superiors such as Ambassador Holbrooke and even the Vice President.

Breaking With Scientology

These are always news stories but I'll be mixing in other things, first with a great overview with some amazing insight into the world of Scientology. It discusses some of the former members, some very high ranking (previously) and the reprocussions of those that do decide to leave the church. A definite must read.

Son of Hamas founder spied for Israel

The son of one of Hamas’s founding members was a spy in the service of Israel for more than a decade, helping to prevent dozens of Islamist suicide bombers from finding their targets, it emerged yesterday. - Times Online

U.S. Marines, Afghan Taliban battle in Marjah

U.S. Marines at the tip of a NATO assault battled with Taliban militants on Saturday in the town of Marjah, the last big militant bastion in Afghanistan's violent Helmand Province. - Reuters

Terrorist attack foiled

An attempted terrorist attack on a Christmas Day flight began with a pop and a puff of smoke - sending passengers scrambling to subdue a Nigerian man who claimed to be acting on orders from al-Qaida to blow up the airliner, officials and travelers said. - AP

Bin Laden 'seen in Afghanistan in early 2009'

A Taliban detainee in Pakistan claims to have information about Osama Bin Laden's whereabouts in January or February of this year. The detainee claims to have met Osama Bin Laden numerous times before 9/11. - BBC

Bill would give president emergency control of Internet

Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet.

They're not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors and still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency. - CNET

UAE seized North Korean arms bound to Iran

The United Arab Emirates has seized a cargo of North Korean weapons being shipped to Iran, which would have violated a U.N. embargo on arms exports from the communist state, Western diplomats said on Friday.

The weapons seized on Aug. 14 included rocket launchers, detonators, munitions and ammunition for rocket-propelled grenades, they said. The ship, called the ANL-Australia, was Australian-owned and flying a Bahamas flag. - Reuters

US Missile Defense test a success

The latest US missile defence test, conducted last night in Hawaii waters, was deemed a success as tensions continue with North Korea over that country's missile programme.

A short-range ballistic missile was fired from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on the island of Kauai and then was shot down by a three-stage interceptor missile from a destroyer, the USS Hopper. - Daily Mail

Deadly blasts hit Indonesian Hotels

The death toll from bombings at two luxury hotels Friday morning in south Jakarta, Indonesia, has risen to eight, a presidential spokesman said. The number of wounded people was in the 40s, the spokesman said.

At the Ritz, windows were blown out on the second floor, as though the blast occurred from inside a hotel restaurant that would have been crowded with breakfast eaters at the time. - CNN