Prior to breaking the story of the Target breach on Wednesday, December 18, I spoke with a fraud analyst at a major bank who said his team had independently confirmed that Target had been breached after buying a huge chunk of the bank’s card accounts from a well-known “card shop” — an online store advertised in cybercrime forums as a place where thieves can reliably buy stolen credit and debit cards.

There are literally hundreds of these shady stores selling stolen credit and debit cards from virtually every bank and country. But this store has earned a special reputation for selling quality “dumps,” data stolen from the magnetic stripe on the backs of credit and debit cards. Armed with that information, thieves can effectively clone the cards and use them in stores. If the dumps are from debit cards and the thieves also have access to the PINs for those cards, they can use the cloned cards at ATMs to pull cash out of the victim’s bank account.

At least two sources at major banks said they’d heard from the credit card companies: More than a million of their cards were thought to have been compromised in the Target breach. One of those institutions noticed that one card shop in particular had recently alerted its loyal customers about a huge new batch of more than a million quality dumps that had been added to the online store. Suspecting that the advertised cache of new dumps were actually stolen in the Target breach, fraud investigators with the bank browsed this card shop’s wares and effectively bought back hundreds of the bank’s own cards.

The Japanese government approved its first national security strategy on Tuesday. Based on it, new defense program guidelines and a mid-term defense buildup plan were also adopted. "China is firmly opposed to Japan's relevant actions," said Defense Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng in a statement.

He said the three documents were aimed at playing up "China's military threat", increasing regional tensions and using the pretext of safeguarding Japan's own national security and regional peace for its military expansion. On the one hand, Japan claimed that it is a peace-loving country, and that it adheres to a defensive defense policy and will not be a military power. On the other hand, Japan is peddling the so-called "proactive pacifism", said Geng.

In its new defense program guidelines, Japan gave up the policy of building of a moderate self-defense force and proposed to revise the "Three Principles on Arms Exports". Japan also planned to purchase advanced armament like F-35 stealth fighters, surveillance drone fleet and Aegis destroyers and tried to form a fast-response-amphibious unit, said Geng. Where is Japan's military and security policy going? Geng questioned, adding that it causes great concerns from Japan's Asian neighbors and international society.

Most of China’s advanced surface warships are powered by German and French-designed diesel engines. Chinese destroyers have French sonar, anti-submarine-warfare helicopters and surface-to-air missiles. Above the battlefield, British jet engines drive PLA fighter bombers and anti-ship strike aircraft. The latest Chinese surveillance aircraft are fitted with British airborne early warning radars. Some of China’s best attack and transport helicopters rely on designs from Eurocopter, a subsidiary of pan-European aerospace and defense giant EADS.

But perhaps the most strategic item obtained by China on its European shopping spree is below the waterline: the German-engineered diesels inside its submarines.

Emulating the rising powers of last century - Germany, Japan and the Soviet Union - China is building a powerful submarine fleet, including domestically built Song and Yuan-class boats. The beating hearts of these subs are state-of-the-art diesel engines designed by MTU Friedrichshafen GmbH of Friedrichshafen, Germany. Alongside 12 advanced Kilo-class submarines imported from Russia, these 21 German-powered boats are the workhorses of China’s modern conventional submarine force.

With Beijing flexing its muscles around disputed territory in the East China Sea and South China Sea, China’s diesel-electric submarines are potentially the PLA’s most serious threat to its American and Japanese rivals. This deadly capability has been built around robust and reliable engine technology from Germany, a core member of the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The project is run by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a government body with close military ties that coordinates the country’s science-and-technology strategy. The academy has designated thorium as a priority for China’s top laboratories. The program has a budget of $350 million. And it’s being spearheaded by the influential son of a former Chinese president.

But even as China bulks up its military muscle through means ranging from espionage to heavy spending, it is pursuing this aspect of its technology game plan with the blessing – and the help – of the United States. China has enlisted a storied partner for its thorium push: Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The US government institute produced the plutonium used for the Manhattan Project and laid important groundwork for the commercial and military use of nuclear power.

The Tennessee lab, as it happens, helped pioneer thorium reactors. The Pentagon and the energy industry later sidelined this technology in favor of uranium. The Chinese are now enthusiastically tapping that know-how, in an example of how the rising Asian superpower is scouring the world for all sorts of technology needed to catch up to America in a broad array of scientific fields.

Several sources told Fox News that White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and other top officials had been calling top Democrats over the last 24 hours urging them not to move forward. After it was introduced, Obama's chief spokesman, Jay Carney, said the bill could "derail" nuclear talks and "divide the international community." The White House also threatened to veto.

But the senators pushed the legislation arguing that it could help bring about a better deal in the end. The bill calls for "prospective sanctions" that go into effect if Tehran violates the nuclear deal it reached with world powers last month or lets it expire without a long-term accord.

The measures include a global boycott on Iranian oil exports within one year and the blacklisting of Iran's mining, engineering and construction industries. The goal, according to supporters, is to strengthen the negotiating leverage of the Obama administration as it seeks to pressure Iran into a comprehensive agreement next year that would eliminate the risk of the Islamic republic developing nuclear weapons.

Like everything else, the storm was Divinely appointed, and if people suffered as a result of the “rains of blessing” that are supposed to be falling at this time of year, it is incumbent upon Jews to ask why G-d would allow that suffering. “We as G-d fearing Jews believe that everything comes from Heaven,” he told Arutz Sheva. “We cannot just look at the storm as a natural disaster.”

The reason that G-d caused suffering to Jews in Israel, said Rabbi Negari, is because Jews caused suffering themselves. “They are taking money away from children, yeshiva students, and Torah institutions,” he said. “The state was protected by Torah study, but they ignored this and now that protection has been compromised."

“They thought they would save the state money by cutting benefits to the poor and to yeshiva students, but now they will have to spend that money on paying for repairs to people whose homes were damaged in the storm,” he said. “It will cost us billions of shekels. This should be a wake-up call to the leaders of the nation. They must think about what they are doing and take actions that will bring us blessing, not the opposite G-d forbid.”

Pope Francis will arrive in the Jewish State for a whirlwind visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories on March 25, 2014. The trip will last less than 48 hours, as the Roman pontiff will arrive in the morning hours on Sunday and leave the following night. The forward delegation sent on behalf of the Vatican finished its initial visit to Israel on Tuesday, and preparations are underway for the Bishop of Rome's trip.

This will be Francis' first visit to Israel, and his first visit outside the Vatican – aside from a trip to Brazil which was scheduled by his predecessor. The visit to the Jewish State is essentially the first one initiated by Francis, though there is much disappointment in Israel because of the brief nature of his stay.

The timetable for the visit is loaded: Francis will be in Jordan on Saturday and fly on a helicopter Sunday from Amman to Ben Gurion Airport where he will receive the official State reception. During his visit, the Pope will meet with President Shimon Peres and with various religious leaders in Israel. The pope will tour Yad Vashem, the Western Wall, and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem. Unlike previous pontiffs, Francis will not visit Christian sites in northern Israel.

To the disappointment of many, Pope Francis will not host Mass for believers within Israel. The plan to host Mass in Jerusalem was cancelled because of the short nature of the visit. However, the pope will host a large Mass in Bethlehem – the headline event of his trip to the Holy Land. The Palestinian Authority will be the main beneficiary, as it will gain international prominence. In Israel, officials are still hoping the Vatican will reconsider its decision and have the Pope host a second Mass within the country.

The Federal Reserve will still be recklessly creating gigantic mountains of new money out of thin air and massively intervening in the financial marketplace. It will just be slightly less than before. However, this very well could represent a very important psychological turning point for investors. It is a signal that "the party is starting to end" and that the great bull market of the past four years is drawing to a close. So what is all of this going to mean for average Americans? The following are 8 ways that "the taper" is going to affect you and your family...

• Interest Rates Are Going To Go Up

• Home Sales Are Likely Going To Go Down

• Your Stocks Are Going To Go Down

• The Money In Your Bank Account Is Constantly Being Devalued

• Quantitative Easing Has Been Causing The Cost Of Living To Rise

• Quantitative Easing Did Not Reduce Unemployment And Tapering Won't Either

• The Rest Of The World Is Going To Continue To Lose Faith In Our Financial System

• The Economy As A Whole Is Going To Continue To Get Even Worse

So don't believe the hype. The economy is getting worse, not better. Quantitative easing did not "rescue the economy", but it sure has made our long-term problems a whole lot worse. And this "tapering" is not a sign of better things to come. Rather, it is a sign that the bubble of false prosperity that we have been enjoying for the past few years is beginning to end.

The massive data breach involving "unauthorized access to Target payment card data" occurred at stores across the country between November 27 and December 15, potentially exposing both cards issued by Target and major brands such as Visa and Mastercard.The stolen data includes customer names, credit and debit card numbers, card expiration dates and the three-digit security codes located on the backs of cards.

In a letter to consumers, Target recommended that anyone who shopped at the store during the two-plus-week security breach check their accounts and report any unauthorized purchases or suspicious activity. Consumers can also monitor their credit report moving forward to flag issues with their accounts. Target says anyone who suspects they are a victim of unauthorized activity should call them at 866-852-8680.

Hong Kong and Singapore are THE two dominant financial centers in Asia. For years they’ve been locked in competition with one another, much like New York and London. So their public partnership is a very big deal… indicative of the clear objective they have in front of them. Bottom line – finance executives in Asia see the writing on the wall. They can see that the dollar is in a period of terminal decline, and it’s clear that the Chinese renminbi is going to take tremendous market share away from the dollar. They want a big piece of the action.

The renminbi has already surpassed the euro to become the #2 most-used currency in the world when it comes to trade settlement, according to a report released yesterday by the Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT). Right now the renminbi has about an 8.6% share of the global market for trade settlement. Granted, the dollar has the lion’s share of trade settlement at more than 80%.

But just look at how quickly the renminbi has grown; in January 2012, its share of the global market was just 1.9%. So it’s grown by nearly a factor of 5x in less than two years. With today’s agreement between Hong Kong’s and Singapore’s financial exchanges, that growth will likely accelerate. As we’ve discussed before, the dollar is in a unique position simply because it is the world’s dominant reserve currency.

This means that when a rice distributor in Vietnam does business with a Brazilian merchant, they’ll close the deal by trading US dollars with each other… even though neither nation actually uses the dollar. It’s been this way since World War II, simply because there has been such a long tradition of trust in the United States, and a steady supply of dollars throughout the world. But this confidence is fading rapidly as merchants and banks around the world have been seeking alternatives, primarily the Chinese renminbi.

As trade in these renminbi products grows, the dollar will be closer and closer to its reckoning day. Years from now when this has played out, it’s going to seem so obvious. The warning signs are all in front of us. And last week’s agreement between Hong Kong and Singapore is one of the strongest signs yet.

Angela Merkel scored a personal triumph in the 2013 general election and has never been politically stronger. The grand coalition between Merkel's CDU-CSU Christian democrats and the SPD social democrats, now at last in place in Berlin, has an overwhelming majority in the Bundestag. No other significant nation in the current EU has both a strong economy and a strong government – certainly not France, clinging to the past and teetering on the brink of a new recession. Not Britain either, we should note.

The stage ought therefore to be set for a strong and broadly based new Merkel government to lead Germany and Europe on a new and more purposeful course. Some of us have tried from time to time to persuade ourselves that this may indeed now happen – that a third-term Merkel government might shake off the cautious, just-in-time approach that her earlier governments brought to the task of dealing with Europe's shared but unsolved problems.

We also speculated optimistically that an alliance with the SPD might provide the reassurance both for a bipartisan, reforming approach to Germany's own economic problems and for a less deflationary, austerity-driven approach to those of Greece, Spain and, Portugal and the rest of the eurozone.

He won't say it in public, but David Cameron continues to hope that the Merkel alliance is the key to Britain remaining a member of the EU. Cameron is hopeful that an ever-pragmatic Merkel will somehow help him to construct a plausible offer that a re-elected Tory premier can put to the British people in a referendum in 2017 with a good prospect of winning the vote to stay in the EU.

In an interview with Russia Today TV on December 7, Farouq Qaddoumi, the former political bureau head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said that Arabs were “enthusiastic supporters” of the Nazis during World War II.

“I don't think it would be wrong to say that we were enthusiastic supporters of Germany,” Qaddoumi said in the interview, when asked by the interviewer, “Were you sympathetic with Nazi Germany in WWII?” The interviewer, seeking to clarify, then said, “You supported Hitler and his people.” Qaddoumi replied, “Germany, yes. This was common among the Palestinians, especially since our enemy was Zionism, and we saw that Zionism was hostile to Germany, and vice versa.”

These remarks are just the latest evidence of the support by Arab nationalists for Nazism and for the genocide of Jews. Many Israelis point to the lionization of Nazi and other anti-Semitic figures as a reason to doubt the sincerity of the Palestinian Authority's commitment to any future peace agreement.

Those living on the margins are being drawn into “indiscriminate and violent protest, a sterile lurch towards total opposition”. His latest speech is a veritable Jeremiad. Thousands of companies are on the “brink of collapse”. Great masses of the working people are on the dole or at risk of losing their jobs. Very high rates of youth unemployment (41 percent) are leading to dangerous alienation.

“The recession is still biting hard, and there is a pervasive sense that it will be difficult to escape, to find a way back to full growth,” he said. Now why might that be? Might it not have something to do with the central overriding fact that Italy has a currency overvalued by 20 percent or more within EMU: that it is trapped in a 1930s fixed-exchange system run by a 1930s central bank that is standing idly by (for political reasons) as M3 growth stalls, credit contracts, and deflation looms?

Mr Napolitano offers no answer.

The orders from MI6's headquarters to intelligence officers came as Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, was telling MPs that anyone who is captured "should be treated humanely in accordance with the Geneva Convention". The report published by Sir Peter Gibson disclosed that in 2002 spies working for MI6 overseas were told to turn a "blind eye" to any evidence they witnessed of breaches of the Convention, which sets out how prisoners should be treated.

Documents uncovered by the inquiry showed that “officers were advised that, faced with apparent breaches of Geneva Convention standards, there was no obligation to intervene”, the report said. "Officers were also advised that such conduct should only be raised with the detaining authority ‘if circumstances allow’. Officers were not advised to cease any interview immediately if they felt that the detainee was not being treated in accordance with the appropriate standards.”

He spoke out after being given a formal warning by Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas and Justice Secretary Chris Grayling for judicial misconduct. An inquiry by the Office for Judicial Complaints, the body that polices the behaviour of judges, had found his speeches and newspaper articles were ‘incompatible with his judicial responsibilities’.

Last December the office advised Sir Paul to take a lower profile after he had protested about the devastating impact of family break-up on children, criticised cohabitation, and called for greater support for marriage. Sir Paul, who handles family cases as Mr Justice Coleridge, could have served for another five years and was effectively forced out.

He said: ‘I would like to refute the erroneous suggestion that my fellow judges are opposed to what I have been doing. With one or two exceptions they have been very, if quietly, supportive.’ Sir Paul said he was a whistleblower who needed to speak out against the collapse of family life.

Last week Sir Paul wrote an article in the Daily Mail in which he said people who wanted to be parents should get married and added that supporting marriage was ‘something our courts no longer seem able or willing to do’. He said: ‘The fact is that the single most vital factor, by far, in the successful development of children is a committed, healthy relationship between their parents.’