The blaze has forced scores of tourists to flee during peak season and is threatening thousands of homes. More than 2,000 firefighters have been tackling the flames in difficult terrain. It is just 2% contained. California Governor Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency for San Francisco 150 miles away as the blaze is threatening power lines that bring electricity to the city.

Two of three hydroelectric power stations serving the city have been shut down. The city's water supplies could also be hit if a reservoir, four miles from the fire, is affected. A spokeswoman for the US Forest Service said 4,500 homes, hotels, businesses and several campsites were under threat as of Friday, up from 2,500 the day before.

Lee Bentley of the US Forest Service told CBS News earlier this week: "We've got a monster on our hands. This fire is making its own weather. It's going every which direction. This is one of the worst I've ever been on. I've been doing it for quite a few years." The area's steep hills and rugged terrain are hampering firefighters' efforts, officials say.

The 'Beaver Creek' fire in Idaho has destroyed some 45,000 hectares near the ski resort of Sun Valley. Meanwhile, five wildfires in Yellowstone National Park have scorched about 18 square miles of mostly remote areas.

The SCO summit is highly important for the Islamic republic, and President Rouhani will hold talks with the heads of states of the SCO member countries on the sidelines of the meeting. The Bishkek visit would be Rouhani's first foreign trip since taking office on August 4. The SCO is a Eurasian political, economic and military organization which was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

It allows Microsoft to control the computer remotely through a built-in backdoor. Keys to that backdoor are likely accessible to the NSA – and in an unintended ironic twist, perhaps even to the Chinese. The backdoor is called “Trusted Computing,” developed and promoted by the Trusted Computing Group, founded a decade ago by the all-American tech companies AMD, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and Wave Systems. Its core element is a chip, the Trusted Platform Module (TPM), and an operating system designed for it, such as Windows 8. Trusted Computing Group has developed the specifications of how the chip and operating systems work together.

Its purpose is Digital Rights Management and computer security. The system decides what software had been legally obtained and would be allowed to run on the computer, and what software, such as illegal copies or viruses and Trojans, should be disabled. The whole process would be governed by Windows, and through remote access, by Microsoft.

Now there is a new set of specifications out, creatively dubbed TPM 2.0. While TPM allowed users to opt in and out, TPM 2.0 is activated by default when the computer boots up. The user cannot turn it off. Microsoft decides what software can run on the computer, and the user cannot influence it in any way. Windows governs TPM 2.0. And what Microsoft does remotely is not visible to the user. In short, users of Windows 8 with TPM 2.0 surrender control over their machines the moment they turn it on for the first time.

“There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Mr Margallo is going to get bilateral talk on the sovereignty of Gibraltar,” the 41-year-old leader told the Daily Telegraph in an interview at his office. “Spain will not even get the opportunity to talk, discuss, negotiate about the sovereignty of Gibraltar if the people of Gibraltar don’t say to the UK that we are content with them having that discussion. I have made very clear that there is no question of Gibraltar consenting to any such talks occuring,” he said.

Mr Picardo gave the interview a day after Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, the Spanish foreign minister, penned an article in the Wall Street Journal insisting on the removal of an artificial reef created by Gibraltar to boost fishing stocks, from waters that he said were “undoubtedly Spanish”. The chief minister hit back arguing that they are recognised as British Gibraltar territorial waters in a UN charter accepted by all countries excepting Spain.

Moscow continues to monitor closely the event surrounding the “alleged” chemical attack near Damascus, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aleksandr Lukashevich, said in a statement. “We’re getting more new evidence that this criminal act was of a provocative nature,” he stressed. “In particular, there are reports circulating on the Internet, in particular that the materials of the incident and accusations against government troops had been posted for several hours before the so-called attack. Thus, it was a pre-planned action.”

The Damascus chemical attack accusations indicate the launch of “another anti-Syrian propaganda wave” and, in this context, the calls on the UN Security Council to immediately use force in Syria “heard from some EU capitals” are “unacceptable”, Lukashevich said.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman said that Assad’s government has demonstrated a “constructive approach” to the chemical weapons issue by allowing UN experts into the country. But it’s alarming that the “same signals” aren’t coming from the Syrian opposition, which so far hasn’t displayed willingness to ensure the safety and efficient operations of UN investigators on the territory it controls, he said.

Police have three suspects, two black and one white. The former said they were bored and decided to shoot Lane for “the fun of it.” As Lane was white and the shooter black, racism has surfaced as a motive. Thursday came reports that killing a white man may have been an initiation rite for the black teens in joining some offshoot of the Crips or Bloods.

What happened in Oklahoma and the reaction, or lack of reaction to it, tells us much about America in 2013, not much of it good. Teenagers who can shoot and kill a man out of summertime boredom are moral barbarians, dead souls.

But who created these monsters? Where did they come from? Surely one explanation lies in the fact that the old conscience-forming and character-forming institutions – home, church, school and a moral and healthy culture fortifying basic truths – have collapsed. And the community hardest hit is Black America. Black mobs routinely terrorize cities across the country, but the media and government are silent.

In the real America, interracial violence is overwhelmingly black-on-white. Even if the media will not report it, everybody knows it. And journalists will not dig into the numbers that prove it, for the truth would undermine their ideology and contradict the narrative that governs and gives meaning to their lives.

A prominent bishop has called on Christian Guide and Brownie volunteers across the country to follow the example of a group of leaders who are defying official policy over the issue. The Right Reverend Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Bishop of Rochester, said that he hoped “many others” would adopt the stance taken by the women in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, who have vowed to continue using the traditional membership promise, with its references to “God” and “country”, after it is abolished next month.

He warned the organisation could even face a split if it refuses to compromise and allow two pledges. Meanwhile supporters of the women insist they are simply giving members a choice over the matter – in stark contrast, they claim, to the leadership. But Gill Slocombe, the Chief Guide, underlined the crisis facing the organisation insisting that the rebel leaders “need to accept this change” adding pointedly that she “sincerely hopes” they will not have to leave.

But the incident had all the earmarks of the three waves of denial-of-service attacks that have bedevilled US financial institutions, including stock brokerages, since last September. An Iranian hacking collective — Cyber Fighters of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam — has claimed credit for orchestrating sophisticated attacks that have overwhelmed the expensive security systems US banks have put into place to keep their online banking services up and secure.

"My first thought is that it is a denial-of-service attack, but I'm not sure," says Gartner banking security analyst Avivah Litan. "It's a very attractive target. It's very visible, and that's what these Iranian state attacks are all about, making a political statement by disrupting a visible website."

Saudi Arabia remains a relatively closed society; gender mixing is restricted to a tight circle of relatives and family friends, and direct criticism of the ruling family or powerful conservative clergy is frowned upon. Morality police patrol the kingdom's few public spaces such as shopping malls to enforce rigid social rules.

Cyberspace presents considerably more complicated challenges than a shopping centre, however, and Saudi authorities are alarmed by the unfettered contact that the Internet allows, including for activists who spread news and information not covered by state media. With just under half the kingdom's nearly 27 million population younger than 25, according to the CIA Factbook, Saudis are avid users of social media of all kinds.

"People use social media ... more than asking to meet in person. It's safer," said a Jeddah-based activist, who like others interviewed for this story asked not to be named because he feared reprisals from state authorities. "We know they are watching us, but they cannot control us on social media."

Ofer Shelah of the Yesh Atid (There Is a Future) party, Netanyahu’s biggest coalition partner, made the comments earlier this week in a Tel Aviv “pub talk” hosted by the left-wing group Peace Now. Many in the Israeli media jumped on the fact that Shelah — a former journalist like his friend and party founder Yair Lapid — seemed to be endorsing a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that contradicts the party line, as well as that of Netanyahu’s Likud.

“Jerusalem will remain united under Israeli sovereignty,” the Yesh Atid party wrote in its founding declaration of principles, “because Jerusalem is not just a place or a city, but the center of the Jewish-Israeli ethos and the holy place for which Jews longed throughout all generations.”

“People say that after signing a peace agreement we will still demand Haifa, Acre and Safed,” he said. “That is not true. Signing the agreement will signal the end of the conflict.” Abbas further clarified that in any peace settlement the Palestinian state would agree to be demilitarized. He noted that during earlier negotiations with former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert there was an agreement to post American soldiers in the West Bank to help maintain security.

“We don’t need planes or missiles. All we need is a strong police force,” said Abbas. “On the other hand, we want sovereignty and independence. I was criticized for saying that I don’t want a single Israeli soldier or settler in the Palestinian state. I meant any Israeli that is part of the occupation. I didn’t mean that I don’t want Jews or Israelis in the Palestinian state. We’ll welcome them as tourists or as people coming to do business. We just don’t want occupation forces.”

"The IAF [Israeli Air Force] targeted a terror site located between Beirut and Sidon in response to a barrage of four rockets launched at northern Israel yesterday," a statement from the military read. "The pilots reported direct hits to the target." The attack took place near Naameh, according to defense sources, AP reported.

The Abdullah Azzam Brigades - an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group that had claimed similar rocket attacks on Israel in 2009 and 2011 – claimed responsibility for Thursday's missile salvo. At least three rockets were launched at Israel from southern Lebanon, setting off air raid sirens in the Nahariya and Acre areas, Haaretz reported on Friday.

Lebanese sources said that four Katyusha rockets were launched at Israel. One of the rockets was intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system, IDF Spokesman Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai said. The Israeli army said it does not believe that Hezbollah was responsible for the attacks. Israel invaded Lebanon during an inconclusive 2006 conflict with Hezbollah forces.

Now, officials are taking one drastic step to save the Earth from catastrophe. And it’s so dangerous, they may wipe out half of mankind in the process. To stop the complete and total meltdown of Japan’s nuclear reactors, authorities have proposed a dangerous plan. The biggest problem is Fukushima’s Reactor Number 4. The reactor’s cooling pool for spent nuclear rods is located on the top floor of the TEPCO building. And that building was heavily damaged by the 2011 quake. Due to its instability, authorities say they must move the 400 tons of spent fuel rods right away.

Spent fuel rod transfers occur on a fairly regular basis, but always under the most secure and controlled setting due to the potential nuclear catastrophe that would happen if just one spent rod is mishandled. In the case of Fukushima’s Reactor 4, officials will attempt to remove 1,300 spent fuel rods from a structurally unsafe building in a highly contaminated environment.

The first casualty of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown was the truth. Most of the devastating revelations exposed over the past two years were first vehemently denied by Japanese, American and corporate leaders. The truth is, within days of the four nuclear meltdowns, western North America was slammed with a massive dose of radiation that contaminated everything in its path as the world slowly spun and the invisible radiation cloud moved eastward.

Summing up where mankind is right now in the fight to save humanity from global devastation, the report leaves readers with this final warning, ‘We have three 100-ton melted fuel blobs underground, but where exactly they are located, no one knows. Whatever barriers TEPCO has put in place so far have failed. Efforts to decontaminate radioactive water have failed. Robots have failed. Camera equipment and temperature gauges… failed. Decontamination of surrounding cities has failed. If and when the corium reaches the Tokyo aquifer, serious and expedient discussions will have to take place about evacuating 40 million people.’

"Many other countries outside of Japan have experienced decommissioning reactors, so we hope we can consult them more and utilize their experience,” TEPCO’s vice president, Zengo Aizawa, said at a news conference on Wednesday night. "In that sense, we need support, not only from the Japanese government but from the international community to do this job."

The call comes after one of the 1,060 temporary tanks used to store highly contaminated water sprang a leak on Wednesday, discharging as much as 300 tons of radioactive liquid containing large amounts of cesium. Further tests revealed excessive radiation levels elsewhere in the facility.

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) rated the incident 3 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, which spans from 1 to 7. "The current situation is at the point where more surveillance won't be enough to keep the accidents from happening," declared Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the NRA.

“Unfortunately, TEPCO waited until a severe emergency arose to finally report how bad things really are. Historically, everything TEPCO says always turns out to be much worse than they initially admit,” nuclear accident researcher Christina Consolo told RT. Most experts say that it could take between four decades and a century to eliminate the impact of the Fukushima disaster.

Other Scottish bishops had agreed the inquiry should go ahead. Archbishop Conti told the Catholic paper he was confident the percentage of priests involved in abuse was small. The Catholic Church has said it will engage in any process which allows "lessons to be learned". Commenting on the continuing investigation into allegations of sexual and physical abuse at Fort Augustus School, Archbishop Conti said he would have alerted the proper authorities if the allegations had been made to him while he was Bishop of Aberdeen.

Pointing out that the Bishops' Conference decided in 2013 to publish audits by the National Safeguarding Office, it added: "The Church remains willing to engage in any process which allows lessons to be learned and survivors to be supported."