"Jordan rejects Israel's installation of surveillance cameras on December 8 to monitor waqf officials and worshippers, particularly women," Information Minister Mohammad Momani told state news agency Petra.

"Jordan does not accept that Israel has set up a police station inside the compound. It is a flagrant military violation of the freedom of worshippers as well as an interference in the affairs of the Jordanian Islamic waqf [Islamic endowment],” he argued."Jordan will not stop efforts to prevent Israel from imposing a new status quo in Jerusalem,” Momani said.

Police have had to deal with many recent security disturbances at the Temple Mount as Muslim worshipers attack Jewish visitors. The attacks follow incitement from Muslim leaders, including calls to physically prevent Jews from visiting the holy site. Israel arrested a Hamas-linked terror cell that carried out attacks at the site in March, and in September, a wing of Fatah announced that it, too, plans to attack Israelis over Jewish visits to the Temple Mount.

Last week, Jordan’s parliament adopted a bill stating that violence against Israel is not a terrorist act.

Imagine the furore if German Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to visit a German war memorial that honored members of the SS and their role in the Second World War. It would immediately result in an avalanche of protest by the governments and citizens of those countries, which endured crimes of unspeakable barbarism at the hands of this fascist military organization – and understandably so.

The outrage expressed by China and South Korea over the recent visit to the Yasukini shrine in Tokyo honoring Japan’s 2.5 million Second World War dead – including mass murders and convicted war criminals – by Japan’s Prime Minister ShinzoAbe has to be viewed in the same context. It belongs in the same category as a German Chancellor paying homage to the SS.

Due to the attention given in the West to the European theater of the Second World War, the extent of the atrocities and war crimes committed by the Japanese armed forces during their occupation of South East Asia and China has never really been appreciated outside the region. The most notorious of those atrocities took place in December 1937, when the Japanese Imperial Army marched into Nanking – the then capital of the Republic of China – and proceeded to slaughter 300,000 of the city’s 600,000 residents over a six-week period.

Ann Furedi, of BPAS [British Pregnancy Advisory Service], said the law does not prevent women from choosing a termination on the grounds of gender and she even compared it to abortion after rape. Mrs Furedi's comments come weeks after it was disclosed that the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] had decided not to prosecute two doctors who were exposed by a Daily Telegraph investigation arranging terminations purely because the unborn baby was a girl.

A group of 50 MPs, drawn from across the party divide, then wrote to this newspaper warning that the decision was a “step back in the fight for gender equality” and effectively changes the law without proper authority. Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, has written to the Attorney General pressing for a full explanation.

However, Mrs Furedi – whose charity carries out more than a quarter of abortions in England and Wales, argued that if doctors believe going ahead with the pregnancy would damage the mental health of the mother, the abortion is within the law.

This practice has dire ramifications for human health, two experts warn, as the abundance of antibiotics in the food chain has resulted in drug-resistant bacteria that can leave people vulnerable to infections and other illnesses.

“Antimicrobial resistance is a critical threat to public health,” Aidan Hollis and Ziana Ahmed wrote in The New England Journal of Medicine. “The value of antibiotics for human health is immeasurable.” But, “the main use of this invaluable resource is rather disappointing: approximately 80% of antibiotics in the United States are consumed in agriculture and aquaculture,” they wrote.

“Modern medicine relies on antibiotics to kill off bacterial infections,” Hollis told Homeland Security News Wire. “This is incredibly important. Without effective antibiotics, any surgery — even minor ones — will become extremely risky. Cancer therapies, similarly, are dependent on the availability of effective antimicrobials. Ordinary infections will kill otherwise healthy people.” He added: “The real value of antibiotics is saving people from dying. Everything else is trivial.”

One child had a Body Mass Index (BMI) measurement of 35 - the equivalent of a six-foot man weighing 19st. (266lbs). It comes as an increasing number of parents give in to their children's cravings for unhealthy food - a phenomenon known as 'killing with kindness'. In the past year alone, five British children have been taken from their families because of overfeeding, according to a survey by the Sunday Express.

Britain's child obesity epidemic - which has seen hospitals deal with nearly 1,000 children in the past three years - is now thought to cost the NHS around £4.2 billion every year, according to estimates put forward by the Royal College of Paediatrics. Alarmingly, children as young as ten months old have been admitted to hospital because they are dangerously overweight, according to figures released in October.

The unidentified, morbidly-obese Year 6 pupil was the most extreme case recorded of six similarly-aged pupils all weighing in at more than 19 stone, the figures released to the Sunday Mercury show. Almost 50 children in Birmingham weighed in at more than 16 stone by the age of 11, according to the figures, which raise fresh fears about the scale of childhood obesity.

The statistic were compiled by the Health and Social Care information centre, and obtained by a Freedom of Information request. One quarter of year six children - typically aged 10 or 11 - are now classed as obese, while one in 10 children starting primary school is obese.

Financial campaigners have questioned whether investigations into LIBOR would confirm the presence of cartel like activity in currencies other than Japanese Yen, to which previous fines levelled against RBS, UBS, Barclays and ICAP relate.

LIBOR is set in 16 currencies. The top 5 traded currencies by volume being USD, Euro, JPY, Stirling, and AUD. With 16 globally traded LIBOR currencies, even 18 months after the first Barclays fine of June 2012, according to regulators only evidence of Yen manipulation has been uncovered. All of the UK and EU based charges against largely UK and EU banks have been curiously restricted to Japanese Yen LIBOR.

Despite beings the world’s number 1 traded currency, we are yet to see prosecution for US LIBOR manipulation, nor US trading banks.

“An advisory role has been entrusted to McKinsey & Company for the development — in close collaboration with the heads of the relevant offices — of an integrated plan to render the organization of means of communication within the Holy See more functional, effective and modern,” the Holy See press office announced December 19.

“The consultancy project will aim to provide the Commission with the information needed to make appropriate recommendations to the Pope,” the press office’s communiqué noted. The Vatican has six different communications departments: the press office; a television station; a radio broadcaster; a newspaper; an Internet office; and a communications council, which exercises an academic and policy-making role.

In addition to its communications makeover, the Holy See announced it is hiring Dutch-based KPMG to “align the accounting procedures of all agencies of the Holy See with international standards.” The hire of KPMG, a “global network of professional firms providing audit, tax and advisory services,” comes in the midst of ongoing financial reform at the Vatican, and is the latest in a series of external hires.

“We have undertaken ensuring that those chemicals are safely loaded onto Dutch and Norwegian container ships and safely transported while in Syrian waters. In other words, we will convoy these vessels,” Mikhail Ulyanov, head of the foreign ministry’s security and disarmament department, told RIA Novosti.

“We are not going to do this on our own, our Chinese partners will assist us,” he said. “It will be the first time when the military of Russia and China will perform their professional tasks side-by-side in a real-life crisis, not during joint drills.”

The operation to destroy the Syrian government’s arsenal of more than 1,000 metric tons of weapons-grade chemicals is due to take place in two stages. The most dangerous weapons have to be removed from Syria by the end of December and destroyed at sea by April, whereas the rest is slated for destruction by mid-2014.

Here is the mistake I believe will happen: Once consumer price inflation begins, it will not be possible to rein it in, the way Chairman Paul Volcker did in 1980 following the inflation brought by the Iranian Oil Shock of ‘79. The Fed will not want to rein it in, as they will see it as a sign that the economy is improving.

And once inflation reaches double digits — as it did just before Volcker slammed the brakes hard via 22% interest rates — the Federal Reserve under Janet Yellen will not have either the room-to-manoeuvre or the inclination to raise rates to fight inflation. Inflation can easily spiral out of control. I personally have seen it in South America — Chile, Argentina, Brazil. Once that genie is out of the bottle — and once a central bank proves itself unwilling to apply the strong medicine necessary to stop it — inflation will accelerate and blow up.

We are already seeing excessive asset price inflation due to the Federal Reserve’s QE and ZIRP policies: Equities are at historic highs while being completely divorced from fundamentals, bonds are yielding historic lows. Commodities are what you want to keep your eye on. Even as production and manufacturing slow down — as they currently are slowing to a crawl — you will see industrial commodities maintain their prices. Look at copper: $3.34 a pound, even as construction in China, the world’s largest consumer of copper, has virtually stopped.

As to precious metals, the lows we are seeing now are likely the calm before the storm. We are one good shove away from a dollar crash — and 2014 looks like it’ll be the year. The US economy is due for a recession, and the Federal Reserve will have to apply the same medicine of yore, QE. Only this time, it won’t succeed. Time to batten down the hatches, and get ready for a bumpy ride!

The Grocery Manufacturers Association has asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve their plan, which would mean any food containing GMO corn, sugar and other such ingredients could be sold as “natural.” One advocacy organization, the Environmental Working Group (EWG), blasted the food companies’ proposal.

Scott Faber, vice president of the EWG, called the association’s request “audacious.” “It’s like they’re trying to get the government to say night is day and black is white,” Faber told The New York Times. The request comes as food manufacturers are increasingly under attack from opponents of GM ingredients.

At least 65 lawsuits are pending in various courts aimed at forcing companies to stop using the word “natural” to describe products with GM elements.

David John Marotta, a Wall Street expert and financial advisor and Forbes contributor, said in a note to investors, “Firearms are the last item on the list, but they are on the list. There are some terrible people in this world. And you are safer when your trusted neighbors have firearms.” “I, along with many other economists, agree with many of the concerns expressed in these dire warnings.”

“The growing debt and deficit spending is a tax on those holding dollars. The devaluation in the US dollar risks the dollar's status as the reserve currency of the world. Obamacare was the worst legislation in the past 75 years. Socialism is on the rise and the NSA really is abrogating vast portions of the Constitution. I don't disagree with their concerns,” he wrote.

In his latest note, he said that Americans should have a survival kit to take in case of a financial or natural disaster. It should be filled with items that will help them stay alive for the first 72-hours of a crisis, including firearms.

Yet despite their be-prepared approach, BSA leaders are rooting for the change to be a non-event, comparable to another New Year's Day in 2000 when widespread fears of digital-clock chaos to start the new millennium proved unfounded. "My hope is there will be the same effect this January 1 as the Y2K scare," said Brad Haddock, a BSA national executive board member who chairs the policy implementation committee. "It's business as usual, nothing happens and we move forward."

Some churches are dropping their sponsorship of Scout units because of the new policy and some families are switching to a new conservative alternative called Trail Life USA. But massive defections haven't materialized and most major sponsors, including the Roman Catholic and Mormon churches, are maintaining ties.

The new policy was approved in May, with support from 60 percent of the 1,400 voting members of the BSA's National Council. The vote followed bitter nationwide debate, and was accompanied by an announcement that the BSA would continue to exclude openly gay adults from leadership positions.

The decision was made by US District Judge William H Pauley III shortly after US District Judge Richard Leon in Washington ruled that the NSA program “almost certainly” violated the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution against unreasonable searches. Judge Leon actually didn’t go far enough because it “most certainly” violates the Fourth Amendment. This new ruling by Judge Pauley proves without question that this man is mentally ill, a traitor, or he doesn’t know how to read and interpret the English language properly.

In his 50+ page opinion, Judge Pauley stated the following. "There is no evidence that the Government has used any of the bulk telephony metadata it collected for any purpose other than investigating and disrupting terrorist attacks.”

To conclude, US District Judge William H Pauley III is not fit to be in any position of power after making this ruling. If this world was sane he would be removed from the bench but considering how corrupt the federal government is he’ll probably be rewarded for his criminality.

There are even more Syrian refugees in Lebanon, who account for as much as 20 percent of the overall Lebanese population. According to the UN, the official number is a little under 800,000, but "Lebanese authorities say the exact number could be even higher since many of the Syrian refugees are unregistered and undocumented migrants".

A corruption scandal involving senior members of the Erdogan administration, including the Prime Minister, has led to huge protests and calls for Erdogan to step down from office. The scandal could get bigger in the coming weeks. Semih Idiz writes in, "Turkish corruption probe hurts foreign relations":

The massive corruption scandal, involving tens of millions of dollars, which has implicated four key ministers — all of whom have lost their jobs — is moving in a direction that could also involve members of Erdogan’s family, particularly his son Bilal whose name has started being bandied around in the press.

Turkey's policy towards Syria has changed since the war began three years ago, at least on the surface, with officials toning down their warmongering rhetoric, and calling for a ceasefire. Turkey still continues to harbor foreign Jihadists and provides them with medical treatment, housing, arms, and safe passage into Syria.