Both the right-leaning daily "Le Figaro" and former communist paper "L'Humanite" led with "Le Choc" ("The Shock") on their respective Monday front pages. According to estimates by the French interior ministry, the National Front led the first round with 28 percent of the vote, while Nicolas Sarkozy's center-right alliance - now called The Republicans - claimed 27 percent. French President Francois Hollande's ruling Socialist Party and its allies came in third with 23.5 percent.

Le Pen's National Front took advantage of fears across the country by campaigning on an anti-immigration, anti-EU and often Islamophobic platform to garner support in the aftermath of deadly attacks in the nation's capital Paris. The far-right party's Twitter account shared comments made by party strategist Florian Philippot on Monday that were critical of the country's handling of the terrorist attacks as well as a wave of migration.

"We must stop subsidizing the reception of migrants, we must defend our local artisans," Philippot said to French satellite channel BFM TV. "We must defend the security of our transport and our schools, we must defend our local craftsmen and producers," Philippot said.

“Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the Lord and did not stop following him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.”

According to Hebrew University, the inscription reads: “Belonging to Hezekiah [son of] Ahaz king of Judah.” It also bears a “two-winged sun, with wings turned downward, flanked by two ankh symbols symbolizing life.” As Reuters reports, excavators believe Hezekiah may have made the seal himself and that “the back side of the clay imprint of the seal had markings of thin cords that were used to tie a papyrus document.” The seal is said to be the first mark from an Israelite or Judean king ever found during a scientific excavation, which is noteworthy because it links the artifact to the location.

“It’s always a question, what are the real facts behind the biblical stories,” said Dr Eilat Mazar, who led the excavation. “Here we have a chance to get as close as possible to the person himself, to the king himself.”

Anonhq.com reports:

“The program costs millions of dollars, and is designed to derive “warfighter-relevant insights”. According to the Pentagon the purpose is for senior officials and decisions makers in “the defense policy community” to come up with contingency plans should widespread social unrest occur. The Minerva Initiative has existed as far back as 2008, and the operation began as the global financial crisis first struck. A full list of the studies being done can be found on the Minerva Initiative’s own website.

Known as the “Minerva Research Initiative”, the DOD had partnered with universities in 2008 in order “to improve DoD’s basic understanding of the social, cultural, behavioral, and political forces that shape regions of the world of strategic importance to the US.”

“Conspiracy Theorists” who believe that Jade Helm amounts to training for an eventual US-based scenario, who are skeptical of the sudden militarization of the police force, the spike in police murders as well as Homeland “Security’s” decision to purchase 1.6 billion extremely lethal hollow-point rounds (which are forbidden by international law for use in war), have just been vindicated by the actions of the US military itself. In the face of an ever-worsening wealth-gap between the richest and the poorest, it would defy logic for the government to NOT be preparing to protect itself from you.

Of course, it’s a conspiracy theory to ever question your betters, or to think critically of the same regime that murdered 500,000 to 1.3 million people in Iraq for fake nuclear WMDs…”

After seeing ships of the British fleet at Portsmouth and Plymouth when he was a boy, Kaiser Wilhelm II decided that he wanted to build such a fleet for Germany, and embarked on a "building spree [which] took Germany from the sixth largest navy in the world to number two," Miles writes in an article for Foreign Policy magazine.

"One hundred years later, China is rapidly and steadily building up its blue water fleet," and though times have changed, there are several similarities to take note of, particularly the rapidity of the improvement. Quoting a report by the Center for Naval Analysis, FP highlights that by 2020 China "will be the second most capable 'far seas' Navy in the world."

Building up its military will help to deter the prospect of conflict over Taiwan, writes Miles, as well as enable China to take part in international naval exercises and security missions around the globe. In contrast, the US navy has shrunk during the same period; after having almost 600 ships in 1989, George W Bush inherited 316 ships, but the Obama administration now has just 270, "the smallest navy since 1916."

The increase was also necessary "because from January a new labour law takes effect and round-the-clock service for basic operations will quite rightly no longer be permissible," he said. Wuestner added that the reduction in the Bundeswehr‘s numbers had gone too far in the past. "In the reform of 2011 nobody could foresee the crisis Ukraine or the fight against Islamic State," he said.

Politicians did not know then that there would be 20,000 troops needed in 2016, for military activities and similar duties such as dealing with the refugee crisis. "Now the Afghan mission will be extended and we will soon increase our involvement in northern Iraq and Mali," he said, adding that the upper limit for troop numbers must be increased and equipment improved.

The German government rebuked the BND agency for making such suggestions about Saudi Arabia, an important business partner that is involved in international talks to find a political solution to the Syria crisis. "We need Saudi Arabia to solve the regional conflicts," Sigmar Gabriel, the head of the Social Democrats (SPD) who share power with conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel, told the mass-circulation newspaper Bild am Sonntag.

"But we must at the same time make clear that the time to look away is past. Wahhabi mosques are financed all over the world by Saudi Arabia. In Germany, many dangerous Islamists come from these communities," he said. Saudi Arabia follows the ultra-conservative Wahhabi form of Islam, and some outsiders see it as a cause of the international jihadist threat.

Why do you glorify spending our tax dollars on establishing a military presence in Syria and Iraq for your stated purpose of obliterating ISIS - a group of ‘radical Muslims’ who barbarically behead human beings — all while the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has been responsible for at least 152 public beheadings of their own since January 1, 2015?

If you don’t consider a nation that sentences a man to decapitation for writing love poems (which Saudi Arabia recently did) to be “radical,” then you are deranged. Why do one group’s human rights violations warrant swift military action while another group that commits the same transgressions is heralded as an ally?

Should you continue your flagrant support of Saudi Arabia by way of foreign aid and weapons sales, you are no longer to be trusted to hold an elected position of influence. You should therefore resign, effective immediately. The question is: Is your allegiance to the people of the United States, or are you beholden to another kingdom?

Backed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the move was opposed by more than half of the Japanese people and resulted in massive demonstrations in Tokyo and a fist fight on the floor of parliament. “The new measures adopted by Japan today will contribute to international peace and security while strengthening the vital alliance between our two countries,” the bipartisan leadership of the Senate Foreign Relations and the Armed Services committees said on September 19.

On Tuesday cabinet minister Taro Kono said Japan is worried about a terrorist threat following the Paris attacks. “What we need to be most concerned about is Islamic State progressing to cyber attacks on important infrastructure from using the Internet for public relations and recruiting,” Kono said.

Kono said Japan is working closely with the CIA and MI6 to gain expertise and prepare for the 2020 Olympics to be held in Japan. It may also be preparing to send troops to Syria to join the coalition conducting airstrikes against the Islamic State.

"The declarations of the Pentagon and the State Department seem like a theatre of the absurd," the statement added, suggesting that Washington "watch the videos taken by its (own) drones which have recently been three times as numerous over the Turkey-Syria border and above the oil zones".

US special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs, Amos Hochstein, on Friday said the amount of oil smuggled into Turkey from areas of Syria controlled by the Islamic State group is "of no significance from a volume perspective - both volume of oil and volume of revenue". His comments came after Moscow accused Ankara of profiting from the trade.

Russia and Turkey have in recent days traded allegations that they are involved in the illegal trade, further ratcheting up tensions after Turkish jets downed a Russian bomber on the Syrian border.

“Finally, our colleagues from the State Department and the Pentagon have confirmed that the photo-proof, which we presented at a briefing [on December 2], of the origin and destination of the stolen oil, coming from the areas controlled by the terrorists, is authentic,” Major General Igor Konashenkov, a Defense Ministry spokesman, told a media briefing on Saturday.

“However, the US claim that they ‘don’t see the border crossings with tanker trucks crossing the border,’ raises a smile, if only, because the photos are still images,” he added. The spokesman advised the American side to have a look through the videos, which were also presented by the Russian Defense Ministry, showing “how the tanker trucks not only drive through checkpoints at the Turkish border, but pass through them without even stopping.”

For generations the German brand has thrived on a reputation for engineering excellence created and delivered with a clinical efficiency. No matter what other national characteristics were suggested by history, this one has been swallowed whole, and it has generated billions of dollars in sales. In truth it was often a masterful project in deception, reinforced by persistently brilliant marketing – or political black propaganda.

Spectacular new evidence (to be added to a long list of forerunners) has been produced by the Volkswagen debacle in which the company faked the emissions tests of its diesel-powered vehicles, a crime that will cost it at least $32 billion in fines, lawsuits and recalls to fix the problem, as well as being a disaster for its reputation and sales worldwide.

At the core of the Volkswagen scandal is a simple question: What on earth drove a small cadre of the company’s top managers (yet to be named) to cheat?

The pilgrimage occurs from the 8th to 12th of Dhu al-Hijjah, the last month of the Islamic calendar, and that is when the enormous tent camp is used. The rest of the year it is empty. Saudi oil reserves are the second largest in the world, and Saudi Arabia is the world’s leading oil exporter and second largest producer. In other words, wealthy beyond belief. The six wealthy Gulf countries – Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain – have offered to receive exactly zero Syrian refugees.

Did you ever wonder why these countries won’t help their fleeing Arabic Muslim companions?

One word: Hijra.

Hijra is the Arabic word for “migration”, used to besiege new territories, as the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers did when they besieged Medina in the year 622, and the same way 56 nations have become Islamic until now.

Some research suggests that the exact opposite is the truth and Women’s Health recently looked into some of the research and cautions people to be well aware of how going meatless can impact your mental health. The article cites an Australian study from last year which found that vegetarians reported that they were less optimistic about their future more often than people who kept meat in their diets.

That same study found that vegetarians were 18 percent more likely to report having depression and 28 percent more likely to experience panic attacks and anxiety. The question that people considering a vegetarian diet have to consider is whether or not the gains outweigh the risks. Will the number drop on the scale be worth it in the long run if you feel more sluggish or anxious than usual?

While there might be some clear reasons to avoid meat, it has benefits as well that impact your mind and your mood. B Vitamins, zinc, iron and tryptophan are all found in abundance in meat and are often time in low quantities, or missing altogether, in vegetarian diets.