According to Northern Ireland's Public Prosecution Service (PPS), McConnell — whose sermon was streamed live on the Internet — violated the 2003 Communications Act by "sending, or causing to be sent, by means of a public electronic communications network, a message or other matter that was grossly offensive."

Pastor McConnell's prosecution is one of a growing number of examples in which British authorities — who routinely ignore incendiary speech by Muslim extremists — are using hate speech laws to silence Christians. In what was described as an "extraordinary morning," more than 1,000 people appeared outside the courthouse singing hymns and waving placards — declaring "Christianity under persecution" and "Evil Sharia law is not welcome in our country" — in a mass show of solidarity for McConnell, who was cheered and applauded as he entered and exited the courthouse.

Preaching with an oratorical flourish common to traditional Protestantism, McConnell said that it is impossible that the God of the Hebrew and Christian Bible is the Allah of the Koran. He said:

"To judge by some of what I have heard in the past few months, you would think that Islam was little more than a variation of Christianity and Judaism. Not so. Islam's ideas about God, about humanity, about salvation are vastly different from the teachings of the Holy Scriptures. Islam is heathen. Islam is satanic. Islam is a doctrine spawned in Hell."

The blowback was as swift as it was predictable. The Belfast Islamic Center, which claims to represent all of the 4,000 Muslims thought to be living in Northern Ireland, complained to police, who dutifully launched an investigation into whether there was a "hate crime motive" behind McConnell's remarks.

McConnell later issued a public apology, but he refused to recant. He also rejected a so-called informed warning. Such warnings are not convictions, but they are recorded on a person's criminal record for 12 months. Anyone who refuses to accept the warning can be prosecuted, and McConnell now faces six months in prison. The case has been adjourned until September 3.

Rouhani referenced the libel at a meeting for International Mosques Day on Thursday, reports the semi-official Fars News Agency. Speaking about the arson, he said, "that event meant that the aggressor and occupier Zionist regime does not respect any social and human principle, doesn’t show mercy to the people, children and women, continues massacre and aggression and even desecrates the Muslim world's first Qibla and a place which is also respected by other divine religions."

His talk of the "first Qibla" refers to a Muslim tradition not found in the Koran, which claims Mohammed originally prayed towards the Temple Mount copying Jewish prayers. After a few years he allegedly changed the practice and faced towards the Kaaba in Mecca, which Muslims tradition says houses the stone on which Abraham sacrificed Ishmael, in a distortion of the original Torah story.

Rouhani went on to say the 1969 arson is a "warning to Muslims to be vigilant against the Israeli plots," as paraphrased by Fars. He also called for Muslim unity against Israel. There's just one problem with Rouhani's Al-Aqsa arson libel - an insane Australian Christian did it, not Israel. Denis Michael Rohan of Australia lit a fire in the mosque on August 21, 1969, before Israeli firefighters quickly put out the flames, and the damage was then repaired.

Rohan soon confessed to the arson, and after being arrested by Israel he was found to be mentally insane and hospitalized in a mental institution before being deported back to Australia in 1974 for continued mental treatment. He had set the fire to try and clear the Mount of the mosque so that the Third Temple could be built, given his evangelical Protestant Christian beliefs that Jesus would return after it was built. And yet the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Arab world at large quickly invented the lie that Israel was responsible for the arson, alternately claiming that a Jew set the fire, or else that Israel paid Rohan to launch the arson.

In 1982 UK forces defeated Argentine troops, who had invaded the Falklands. The war left Argentina and the UK still disputing the islands' sovereignty - but a UN resolution has called for dialogue to reach a settlement. The sign held by the Pope on Wednesday said: "It's time for dialogue between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands.''

Vatican official Ciro Benedittini said that "during the general audience many people hand the Pope different items". He said the Pope was unaware of the message on the sign, "so there is no endorsement of what was written".

However, Mr Hoyo told Argentina's Clarin newspaper that "when he (the Pope) passed by, I explained what this was about and he kindly took the placard and got the picture taken. He could have chosen not to do it, but he did."

Alexander Yakovlev, a top Communist Party ideologue and functionary for many decades, said that the KGB "directly ran" the Orthodox Church and controlled all religious activity in the USSR. Many believe that the KGB's successor, the Federal Security Service (FSB), still has close links to top clerics.

According to Alexander Dugin, a prominent Russian ideologue banned in Ukraine, Russia's role is to advocate conservatism as a weapon against the West's "ultra-liberal values" such as same-sex marriage.

Fifteen years ago, the prominent political analyst Samuel Huntington, professor of the science of government at Harvard, warned in the establishment journal Foreign Affairs that for much of the world the US was “becoming the rogue superpower… the single greatest external threat to their societies.”

Shortly after, his words were echoed by Robert Jervis, the president of the American Political Science Association: “In the eyes of much of the world, in fact, the prime rogue state today is the United States.” As we have seen, global opinion supports this judgment by a substantial margin.

But Americans don’t know any of that. We assume the rest of the world loves and respects us, as we are spoon-fed the “World’s Greatest” and “Exceptional Country” pablum from the mainstream media.

The decision to cut the yuan’s value showed that Beijing had become scared, they said, suggesting that the world’s second-largest economy is in a far more precarious position than outsiders had assumed. Stephen King, a senior economic adviser to HSBC, said that since the crisis China had done more than any other to provide “the heavy lifting to support global economic growth”, but that it may not step in to keep the world’s financial system afloat again.

His comments came as leading ratings agency Moody’s singled out the prospect of a Chinese hard landing as one of the biggest risks to global growth this year. A sharp correction in Chinese stocks - shaving up to 32 percent from the value of equities traded on its largest index - was indicative of the country’s economic slowdown, it said.

As Japanese and European central banks have weakened their own currencies, they have raised the cost of imports and fended off damaging deflation. Mr King said: “To the extent that a weaker yen and euro imply a stronger renminbi, it looks as though the world economy has been engaged in a game of deflationary pass-the-parcel. The country that finally gets to unwrap the prize is the loser, not the winner.”

It is still unclear whether the agreement lists three or four missile systems. Russian state arms producer Almaz-Antey in June said it would supply Iran with a modernized version of the S-300, among the world's most capable air defense systems, once a commercial agreement was reached.

Russia says it canceled a contract to deliver S-300s to Iran in 2010 under pressure from the West. But President Vladimir Putin lifted that self-imposed ban in April following an interim nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one of the most vocal critics of last month's final nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, has expressed Israel's "dismay" at Russia's decision to supply the S-300s to Tehran.

After discussions in Egypt, the Hamas delegation, headed by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, will travel to Qatar and Turkey for more input on the deal, which is being brokered by former Quartet envoy and ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The Hamas sources said the current version of the truce, as accepted in theory by Hamas’s politburo, includes a Hamas pledge to stop all rocket fire from Gaza and to cease digging tunnels into Israel. Hamas also agreed not to operate within 30 meters of the Israeli border, the sources said.

In return, the Hamas sources said, Israel agreed to allow thousands of Palestinians from Gaza to enter the Jewish state for work, a detail that cannot be confirmed with Israeli diplomatic sources. The Hamas sources said Israel will allow for a larger “fishing zone” off the Gaza coast along with a corridor to connect the Gaza coastline to international waters. Israel, however, would still monitor and inspect ships in the area.

In response to the truce reports, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office released a statement to the media that “there are no meetings with Hamas. There are no direct contacts, no contacts through other countries and no contacts through intermediaries.” The statement, however, did not confirm or deny that truce proposals are in the works. Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported while the “denial published by the prime minister’s bureau is not false” a more complex picture emerges from conversations with a number of Israeli officials, including those involved with the issue.

“Israel is not holding negotiations on a cease-fire with Hamas, but it is certainly checking the feasibility of the matter,” one of the Israeli sources told Haaretz.

Germany's farmers' association, the DBV, released new figures on the harvesting season on Tuesday, showing that a long spell of unusually hot weather in the first half of this year severely affected crop output. "The severe drought seen in large parts of Germany since May has left its mark on the grain harvest," DBV said in its report, which showed that only 46.5 million tons of the crop staple were harvested so far this year - a shortfall of 11 percent from last year's record 52 million tons.

The heatwaves also battered other crops, such as rapeseed and vegetables, the DBV said, while apple growers were expecting a harvest of not more than 885,000 tons, down 21 percent from last year. The asparagus harvest was also reduced by the dry spell, coming in 5 percent lower, DBV added.

DBV President Joachim Rukewied told journalists in Berlin that regions in central Germany were hit hardest, suffering crop slumps of between 40 and 50 percent. Crop-growing regions in the North and the South suffered less due to more rainfall there. Rukewied also said that farmers expected crops to be harvested later in the year to be negatively impacted, too, as the unusual summer heat had continued this month.

“Margaret Sanger believed that certain people, including blacks, were inferior and that the way you strengthen society is you get rid of them.” Carson added. Sanger’s name has been back in the spotlight following the revelations that Planned Parenthood is involved in selling aborted body parts to bio-medical companies, sometimes without the consent of patients having abortions, according to whistleblowers.

“One of the reasons you find most of their clinics in black neighborhoods is so that you can find ways to control that population,” Carson said. “And I think people should go back and read about Margaret Sanger who founded this place — a woman who, by the way, Hillary Clinton says she admires,” Carson added, “Look up and see what many people in Nazi Germany thought about her — a great person.”

“Instead of addressing your class using “boys” and “girls,” try something new. Words like “friends,” “students” or “scholars” allow all students to feel included, expand student vocabulary and model inclusive language and behavior for other students and teachers,” states the guide. Asking students to identify as male or female on paperwork is also vehemently discouraged, with the guide encouraging schools to, “consider adding a third write-in option for those who have non-binary gender identities.”

A link to another resource shows a ‘gender inclusive registration form’ which gives children the option to pick their own “gender preferred pronoun.” The guide also urges schools not to include the words “mother” or “father” on any forms in case someone is offended. Teachers are also encouraged to take advantage of “teachable moments” where they can explain to children why a student may have “two moms” or two dads, and how not just a man and a woman are capable of having a baby.

The guide also advises teachers not to restrict certain activities to one gender, for example by encouraging boys to take part in girls’ dance lessons. According to CNN, the HRC boasts 700,000 members, making it the largest LGBT lobby group in the country.

Last month we also reported on how the University of Wisconsin (Stevens Point) was teaching faculty members that all manner of harmless behaviors and phrases were examples of “racial microaggressions.” Examples included; Asking someone where they are from or where they were born, telling someone they speak good English, telling someone that you have several black friends, saying that you’re not a racist, and complimenting an Asian person by telling them they are very articulate.

There are signs, however, that Tokyo has come to regard defence exports not just as a matter of industrial policy, but also as an important element of its diplomatic strategy in a region unsettled by the rise of China. With such high stakes, Japan appears determined to overcome any obstacles.

“Working with friendly countries on equipment or technology contributes to bilateral security and defence co-operation, while joint development projects can strengthen our defence industry and technological base, raising the defence capability of our country,” says Akira Sato, state minister of defence, in an interview with the Financial Times. “Strategically, I think there are many areas Japan will want to pursue.”

In theory, Mr Abe’s move opened the international market to an estimated 3,000 private Japanese companies involved in producing military hardware and its components. No longer would the ambitions and finances of those manufacturers be inhibited by the relatively small $7 billion annual procurement budget of Japan’s Self Defence Forces — in effect their sole customer since the 1950s.

Foreign sales would lower unit costs and, critically for Japan’s own needs, keep many small, struggling suppliers in business. In reality, a more select group is likely to benefit from the lifting of the ban. Industry consultants estimate that fewer than 300 Japanese companies derive more than half their income from defence. One reason Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Komatsu, IHI and other leading contractors speak so seldom about defence is that it only represents between 1 and 11 per cent of total revenues. By contrast, the biggest US contractors draw between 60 and 90 per cent of their revenues from defence.