Israel has the political will and the military muscle to execute an attack against Iran's nuclear facilities. The range may be beyond anything attempted by the Israeli Air Force, but Iran's conventional forces are outdated and defences weak. It is assumed that Arab states, whose airspace Israeli bombers and fighters would have to fly through to reach Iran, would secretly cooperate on a mission to blunt the Persian threat.

THAT IS WHY TEHRAN IS INVESTING SO HEAVILY IN ITS LEBANESE PROXY HEZBOLLAH. The Shia Muslim militia has rebuilt and strengthened its arsenal since the bloody war it fought with the Israelis in 2006. It has amassed tens of thousands of rockets and missiles capable of bombarding half the country.

Israeli planners have no doubt that should they make the fateful decision to attack Iran, they will provoke massive retaliation on an unprecedented scale. The most densely populated areas of the country would come under Hezbollah range, INCLUDING TEL AVIV, HAIFA AND BEN GURION, ISRAEL'S ONLY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT.

According to Israeli, United Nations and Hezbollah officials, the Shia Muslim militia is today stronger than it was in 2006 when it took on the might of the Israeli army in a war that cost the lives of 1,191 Lebanese and 43 Israeli civilians. Hezbollah has stockpiled up to 40,000 rockets and is training its forces to use ground-to-ground missiles CAPABLE OF HITTING TEL AVIV AND ANTI-AIRCRAFT MISSILES THAT COULD CHALLENGE ISRAEL'S DOMINANCE OF THE SKIES OVER LEBANON.

Brigadier-General Alon Friedman, the deputy head of Israel's Northern Command, told The Times from his headquarters overlooking the Israeli-Lebanese border that the current stability was "in danger". He added that the peace, which has reigned over the rolling Biblical landscape for the past three years, could "EXPLODE AT ANY MINUTE".

His concerns were partly due to threats from Hezbollah's leadership. Last month, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, warned that if the southern suburbs of Beirut were bombed as they were in the last war, he would strike back against Tel Aviv, Israel's largest city. "We have changed the equation that had existed previously," he said. "Now the southern suburbs versus Tel Aviv, and not Beirut versus Tel Aviv."

Circuit Judge Joseph L Boohaker ruled that leaders in Jefferson County — now trying to head off a municipal bankruptcy filing of historic proportions — could go ahead with plans to slash $4.1 million from the budget of Sheriff Mike Hale, who had filed a lawsuit that temporarily blocked spending cuts for his office.

About 1,000 county workers already are on unpaid leave because courts threw out a key county tax, and Hale has warned that reductions to his budget would mean fewer patrols by deputies and decreased courthouse security. A spokesman for Hale, Randy Christian, said the sheriff told Governor Bob Riley after the ruling that state assistance may be needed to perform basic law enforcement tasks once the department's current funding is exhausted in early September.

"We will certainly be looking at calling in the National Guard," said Christian. Hale may have to cut as many as 188 deputies and almost 300 civilian workers out of more than 700 employees total because of Boohaker's ruling, Christian said. That would leave just enough workers to staff the county's two jails, which hold about 1,000 prisoners on average.

The preacher, who is not a British citizen, declared that the Queen should be tried for "the extermination of a nation," the London Sun reported. Labor party Member of Parliament Andrew Dismore responded that Choudary himself should be prosecuted. "It's about time he was busted," he added.

The House of Commons Counterterrorism sub-committee chairman, MP Patrick Mercer, said the preacher's statements are "weapons being wielded by Al-Qaeda and the Taliban." Choudary said last September that Britain will become a Muslim country in the future. Last year, he praised the terrorist attack in Mumbai and previously has called for stoning homosexuals and for assassinating the Pope.

The Temple Institute has already built several of the Temple vessels such as the Ark and the menorah, and has now embarked on an ambitious project to build the altar, which will ultimately measure 3 meters wide by 3 meters long and 2 meters tall. During Thursday's ceremony, which took place in Mitzpe Yericho just east of Jerusalem, the Temple Institute laid the cornerstone for the altar and demonstrated how tar will be used to cement the stones together.

The Institute plans on bringing the altar to its proper place on the Temple Mount when the Temple is rebuilt. "Today, Tisha B'av, is not just a time to mourn the destruction of the Temple," said Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, the head of the Temple Institute. "IT IS ALSO A TIME TO BUILD." Rabbi Ariel thanked the more than 100 people who came to the event despite their fasting for Tisha B'Av, and despite the hot weather. The main force behind the construction of the altar, Yonaton Tzadok, was also on hand to explain why its stones were taken straight from the Dead Sea.

"The altar is supposed to represent going back to our roots, to the time of creation when everything was pure," he said. "We took rocks from the Dead Sea, where it is likely that they were never touched by human hands."

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights said the structures for supervision were woefully deficient and accused ministers of refusing to give adequate answers to its detailed questions about torture. It said "MINISTERS ARE DETERMINED TO AVOID PARLIAMENTARY SCRUTINY AND ACCOUNTABILITY" over allegations of complicity in torture, and concluded: "In view of the large number of unanswered questions... there is now no other way to restore public confidence in the intelligence services than by setting up an independent inquiry."

"The allegations we have heard about UK complicity in torture are extremely serious," said Committee chairman Andrew Dismore, the Labour MP for Hendon. "As to what may have happened in the past, general assertions of non-complicity are no longer an adequate response to the many detailed allegations."

"An independent inquiry is the only way to get to the bottom of these stories, clear the air and make recommendations for the future conduct and management of the security services. The recent allegations should be a wake-up call to ministers that the current arrangements are not satisfactory. We look to the Government to respond positively to our recommendations AND NOT TO CONTINUE TO HIDE BEHIND THEIR WALL OF SECRECY."

About 6 percent of people were prescribed an antidepressant in 1996 - 13 million people. This rose to more than 10 percent or 27 million people by 2005, the researchers found. "Significant increases in antidepressant use were evident across all sociodemographic groups examined, except African Americans," Dr Mark Olfson of Columbia University in New York and Steven Marcus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia wrote in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

"Not only are more US residents being treated with antidepressants, but also those who are being treated are receiving more antidepressant prescriptions," they added. More than 164 million prescriptions were written in 2008 for antidepressants, totaling $9.6 billion in US sales, according to IMS Health.

Technology capable of distinguishing friend from foe reliably was at least 50 years away, he added. However, he said that for the first time, US forces mentioned resolving such ethical concerns in their plans. "ROBOTS THAT CAN DECIDE WHERE TO KILL, WHO TO KILL AND WHEN TO KILL IS HIGH ON ALL THE MILITARY AGENDAS," Professor Sharkey said at a meeting in London. "The problem is that this is all based on artificial intelligence, and THE MILITARY HAVE A STRANGE VIEW OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE BASED ON SCIENCE FICTION."

Professor Sharkey, a professor of artificial intelligence and robotics, has long drawn attention to the psychological distance from the horrors of war that is maintained by operators who pilot unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), often from thousands of miles away. "These guys who are driving them sit there all day... they go home and eat dinner with their families at night," he said. "It's kind of a very odd way of fighting a war - it's changing the character of war dramatically."

The US air force published its "Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight Plan 2009-2047" in July, predicting the deployment of fully autonomous attack planes. The document suggests that humans will play more of a role "monitoring the execution of decisions" than actually making the decisions. "Advances in AI will enable systems to make combat decisions and act within legal and policy constraints without necessarily requiring human input," says the report.

However, he warned that work toward ever more autonomous killing machines is carrying on, noting the deployment of Israel's Harpy - A FULLY AUTONOMOUS UAV THAT DIVE-BOMBS RADAR SYSTEMS WITH NO HUMAN INTERVENTION.

Police have set up checkpoints around Ziketan, as medics are disinfecting the area and killing rats and insects. Pneumonic plague, which attacks the lungs, can spread from person to person or from animals to people. A spokeswoman for the World Health Organization, Vivian Tan, earlier said an outbreak such as this was always a concern, but praised the Chinese for reacting quickly and for getting the situation under control.

A BBC correspondent in Beijing, Michael Bristow, says that unlike in the past the authorities are being very open about this outbreak. According to the WHO, pneumonic plague is the most virulent and least common form of plague.

It is caused by the same bacteria that occur in bubonic plague - the Black Death that killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe during the Middle Ages. But while bubonic plague is usually transmitted by flea bites and can be treated with antibiotics, PNEUMONIC PLAGUE IS EASIER TO CONTRACT AND IF UNTREATED, HAS A VERY HIGH CASE-FATALITY RATIO.

Patriotism is personal. It is a love affair. We hope people will love this country. But we cannot enforce these things and we cannot legislate them. That is the road to fascism.

Once the government has the chance to define patriotism, it will immediately conflate it with government itself, because it is in its political interests to do so. You can hear the opening salvos of that battle now, in the way GORDON BROWN SUGGESTED THAT QUESTIONING GOVERNMENT STRATEGY OR FUNDING PRIORITIES IN AFGHANISTAN WAS UNFAIR TO OUR TROOPS AND ALMOST AKIN TO BEING UNPATRIOTIC. THAT'S THE FIRST STEP.

The next step is that adopted by George Bush when he was US president, IN WHICH CRITICISM OF HIM WAS TREATED AS ANTI-AMERICAN.

THE THIRD STEP GOES TO A VERY BAD PLACE INDEED, WHERE INDEPENDENT THOUGHT IS TREASON.

Britain is not its government, or its state. PATRIOTS ARE NOT NECESSARILY PEOPLE WHO AGREE WITH EVERYTHING THE GOVERNMENT DOES - in fact they rarely are. And patriotism is not a tool for the government to use in its political manoeuvres ahead of an election.

The document lists Obama's parents as Barack Hussein Obama and Stanley Ann Obama, formerly Stanley Ann Dunham, the birth date as August 4, 1961, and the hospital of birth as Coast General Hospital in Mombasa, Kenya. No doctor is listed. But the alleged certificate bears the signature of the deputy registrar of Coast Province, Joshua Simon Oduya. It was allegedly issued as a certified copy of the original in February 1964.

WND was able to obtain other birth certificates from Kenya for purposes of comparison, and the form of the documents appear to be identical. Last week, a counterfeit document purporting to be Obama's Kenyan birth certificate made the rounds of the Internet, but was quickly determined to be fraudulent. The new document released by Taitz bears none of the obvious traits of a hoax.

One of the issues Taitz must deal with will be the authentication of the document. Critics immediately jumped on the February 17, 1964, date for the document, explaining that the "republic" of Kenya wasn't assembled until in December of that year. Media Matters wrote, "Sorry, WorldNetDaily: Kenya wasn't a republic until December 1964." But Kenya's official independence was in 1963, and any number of labels could have been applied to government documents during that time period. The 1963 independence is corroborated by several other information sources, including the online African History.

Even the People Daily news agency cited, on December 12, 2005, the "42nd independence anniversary" in Nairobi. "The country gained independence from Britain on December 12, 1963," the report said. An online copy of the Kenya Constitution, "adopted in 1963, amended in 1999," states: "CHAPTER I - THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA, Article 1, Kenya is a sovereign Republic. Article 1A, The Republic of Kenya shall be a multiparty democratic state…"

Taitz's most celebrated case involved a military officer, Major Stefan Cook, WHOSE ORDER TO DEPLOY TO AFGHANISTAN WAS REVOKED WHEN HE CHALLENGED OBAMA'S ELIGIBILITY TO HOLD OFFICE. That case has now been refiled in federal court in Florida, raising the specter of a class-action claim among members of the military that their orders aren't valid because of questions surrounding Obama's constitutional eligibility. Taitz told WND she plans to file additional paperwork with the Florida court tomorrow, adding the alleged Kenyan birth certificate to Major Cook's case.

COMPLICATING THE SITUATION IS OBAMA'S DECISION TO SPEND SUMS ESTIMATED IN THE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS TO AVOID RELEASING A STATE BIRTH CERTIFICATE THAT WOULD PUT TO REST ALL OF THE QUESTIONS. WND has reported that among the documentation not yet available for Obama includes his kindergarten records, his Punahou school records, his Occidental College records, his Columbia University records, his Columbia thesis, his Harvard Law School records, his Harvard Law Review articles, his scholarly articles from the University of Chicago, his passport, his medical records, his files from his years as an Illinois state senator, his Illinois State Bar Association records, any baptism records, and his adoption records.

Zawahri also accused US President Barack Obama of conducting a policy on Israeli-Palestinian issues that was bound to end in failure for the Palestinians, Reuters reported, saying that Obama wanted a Palestinian state that would serve as "an extension of the CIA."

"Israel is a crime that should be removed," the news agency quoted Zawahri as saying in an interview with al Qaida's media arm As-Sahab, posted on an Islamist website on Monday. Al-Qaida has repeatedly lashed out at Obama since he was elected, a move some analysts believe indicates the terrorist organization is worried he will be effective in improving the US image in the Muslim world.

Zawahri criticized Obama's trip to Israel before he was elected president and his visit to the Western Wall, where he wore a yarmulke. "The White House said that Obama will send a message from Egypt to the Islamic world, but they forgot that his messages have already been received by the Islamic world when he visited the Wailing Wall, put on his head the Jew's cap and prayed their prayers, though he claims to be Christian," said Zawahri.

That was widely regarded as a "ceasefire" between liberal and conservative factions in the Episcopal Church and the wider 80-million-member Anglican Communion. The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles said it had nominated six priests for December's election of two suffragan bishops, who act as assistants to the bishop of a diocese.

They include the Reverend John Kirkley of San Francisco and Canon Mary Douglas Glasspool of a Baltimore-based diocese, both of whom are homosexual. Church unity has been strained since 2003, when the Episcopal Church consecrated Gene Robinson of New Hampshire as the first bishop in Anglican history known to be in an openly homosexual relationship.

The ordaining of homosexual clergy has already prompted some congregations to leave the Episcopal fold and form a rival North American church that claims to have 100,000 members. Anglican churches in Africa have also broken ties with their more liberal American brethren. Further divisions could emerge within both the US Episcopal Chuch and the wider Anglican Communion, whose branches are essentially offshoots of the Church of England.

Since Mr Obama took office, the rate of threats against the president has increased 400 per cent from the 3,000 a year or so under President George W. Bush, according to Ronald Kessler, author of In The President's Secret Service.

Some threats to Mr Obama, whose Secret Service codename is Renegade, have been publicised, including an alleged plot by white supremacists in Tennessee late last year to rob a gun store, shoot 88 black people, decapitate another 14 and then assassinate the first black president in American history. Most however, are kept under wraps because the Secret Service fears that revealing details of them would only increase the number of copycat attempts. Although most threats are not credible, each one has to be investigated meticulously.

According to the book, intelligence officials received information that people associated with the Somalia-based Islamist group al-Shabaab might try to disrupt Mr Obama's inauguration in January, when the Secret Service co-ordinated at least 40,000 agents and officers from some 94 police, military and security agencies. More than a dozen counter-sniper teams were stationed along the inauguration parade route and the criminal records of employees and hotel guests in nearby buildings were scrutinised.

There were several moderate temblors in the same part of the Gulf of California before the 6.9 earthquake struck, and officials said this might be a quake swarm. A 5.8 quake struck before the 6.9 temblor, and a 5.0 and 5.9 hit soon after.

Officials have not issued a tsumani warning in the wake of the quakes. A preliminary estimate placed the temblor's epicenter about 4 1/2 miles underground. According to the USGS's Did You Feel It? Web page, the quake was felt in San Diego, Phoenix, Tucson, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Long Beach, Orange and elsewhere.