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.

The irony of the situation is that the central banks of China, Russia, Brazil and other countries "diametrically opposed" to US foreign policy course are forced to stockpile dollars in the form of "safe" US Treasury debt in order to protect their economies, American-German researcher, historian and strategic risk consultant F William Engdahl stresses. The truth of the matter is that the role of the US dollar as the world's major reserve currency is the countries' economic Achilles Heel, the strategic risk consultant elaborates.

At the same time, by buying US Treasury debt in dollars, they are de facto financing Washington's "endless" overseas military operations. Fortunately, "that's quietly changing. In 2014 Russia and China signed two mammoth 30-year contracts for Russian gas to China. The contracts specified that the exchange would be done in Renminbi [yuan] and Russian rubles, not in dollars. That was the beginning of an accelerating process of de-dollarization that is underway today," Engdahl writes in his article for New Eastern Outlook.

The researcher points out that on November 27 Russia's Central Bank reported that it has included the Chinese Renminbi (yuan) into its official reserves for the first time. Furthermore, in August 2015 Russian currency traders bought almost 18 billion yuan and only 3 billion US dollars. It is obvious that Russia is gradually increasing the use of the yuan in Russian financial markets, substituting it for the US dollar.

"But the actions of Russia and China to replace the dollar as mediating currency in their mutual trade, a trade whose volume has grown significantly since US and EU sanctions in March 2014, are not the end of it," the researcher remarks. According to Engdahl, there are clear signs showing that gold "is about to make dramatic return to the world monetary stage."

Only a tiny number of such crimes are investigated, and even fewer cases end up in the courts, according to Die Zeit. The main finding by Die Zeit’s investigative team suggests there were 222 violent attacks recorded for this year alone and each of them involved human injuries or the risk of injuries. Of these 222, 93 arson attacks on refugee hostels happened with people inside, meaning that culprits cared little whether people could be seriously injured or killed.

But there have been only four known instances when courts convicted perpetrators and only eight cases in which charges were filed. And this despite the fact that 104 people altogether have been injured in the violence – “only by chance with no fatality,” Die Zeit writes. The number of arson attacks on refugee hostels, either inhabited or uninhabited, had skyrocketed by October 2015, the investigation reveals, with the majority of the offenses occurring in the state of Saxony which lies in Germany’s East.

Such statistics have apparently not boosted police efforts to prevent or effectively investigate the attacks, according to Die Zeit's study, as most of the crimes are committed at night and in remote areas where refugee shelters are located. Molotov cocktails could be thrown out of passing cars, and the resulting fires often destroy most clues. “In many places in Germany, there is a lack of police personnel to pursue criminals,” Die Zeit investigators write.

Europe is experiencing an overwhelming migrant crisis dubbed the worst since the Second World War. According to recent estimates, in 2015 Germany alone received around 800,000 asylum applications, with comparable numbers expected next year. A considerable part of the German population blames Angela Merkel’s government for its “open door policy,” with others fearing the influx will trigger a rise of right-wing movements and further radicalization of society.

A second E-3A of the Saudi Arabian air force took off from the Riyadh airbase. Both planes were executing a common task — determining the precise location of Russian aircraft. It is they that picked the “victim.” The American E-3A was supposed to determine the activity of the Su-24M2′s onboard targeting radar, to determine if it was in search mode or if it had already locked on to a target and was processing launch-data. It is known that the AWACS can direct the activity of aircraft in battle, conveying information to their avionics and flight computers.

The expert went on explaining the technical details of how the US and Saudi AF planes guided the Turkish F-16s to a sure missile launch in ‘target illumination’ mode, meaning that the radar was turned off as soon as the missile locket into its target. This elevates the US-NATO war crime on Russia to an even higher level.

To strengthen the task force, the Bundeswehr may send an additional unit of its elite Kommando Spezialkräfte (KSK) to Syria “in case of emergency,” Bild reports, citing its source in Bundestag’s defense committee. This was “made very clear” by German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen and Bundeswehr chief of staff General Volker Wieker during preliminary hearings at Bundestag’s defense committee on Wednesday, Bild claims, adding that it's unclear how many special troops could be sent to Syria.

The newspaper reports that possible missions for the KSK unit on the ground could be, among others, rescue operations to “liberate downed Tornado pilots.”

Of course this advice comes with a nifty set of instructions for how to spot a terrorist in your own home:

The first three “signs”:

• Out of character changes in dress, behaviour and changes in their friendship group;

• Losing interest in previous activities and friendships;

• Secretive behaviour and switching screens when you come near—

Imagine that– a teenager who doesn’t want mom and dad to see what he’s doing on his iPhone? Or a 14-year old who starts dressing differently and hanging out with a different group of friends? Funny, this sounds like… pretty much every teenager on the planet.

But even more unsettling are these:

• Showing a mistrust of mainstream media reports and belief in conspiracy theories;

• Appearing angry about government policies, especially foreign policy.

So apparently now questioning the propaganda and government policies are considered evidence of subversive, extremist behavior. If you don’t fall in line, you’re a radical. And the government now wants to train parents to rat out their own children. This is chilling. Disgusting. And unfortunately not too surprising from the country that was the backdrop for George Orwell’s 1984. Orwell’s dystopic view of the future is rapidly becoming reality in many countries across the West.