Both sides warned of a decisive struggle for the future of the Arab world's most populous country, convulsed by political and economic turmoil since the 2011 uprising that ended 30 years of autocratic rule by Hosni Mubarak.

Army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has called Egyptians into the streets to give the military a "mandate" to confront weeks of violence unleashed by his July 3 overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi. A military official said the army had given Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood a Saturday deadline to end its resistance and join a military-set roadmap to fresh elections, signaling a turning-point in the confrontation.

His book is not a historian’s report on Jesus. It is an educated Muslim’s opinion about Jesus - yet the book is being peddled as objective history on national TV and radio. Aslan is not a trained historian. Like tens of thousands of us he has been formally educated in theology and New Testament Greek. He is a bright man with every right to hold his own opinion about Jesus - and to proselytize his opinion.

As a sincere man, Aslan’s Muslim beliefs affect his entire life, including his conclusions about Jesus. But this is not being disclosed. “Zealot” is being presented as objective and scholarly history, not as it actually is - an educated Muslim’s opinions about Jesus and the ancient Near East.

“Zealot” is a fast-paced demolition of the core beliefs that Christianity has taught about Jesus for 2,000 years. Its conclusions are long-held Islamic claims - namely, that Jesus was a zealous prophet type who didn’t claim to be God, that Christians have misunderstood him, and that the Christian Gospels are not the actual words or life of Jesus but “myth.”

Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth Reyes is a Christian chaplain currently serving in the US Air Force. He is stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska. As an ordained clergyman whose duties are to provide religious instruction and spiritual counseling, he has a page on the base’s website called “Chaplain’s Corner.”

Reyes recently wrote an essay entitled, “No Atheists in Foxholes: Chaplains Gave All in World War II.” This common saying is attributed to a Catholic priest in World War II, made famous when President Dwight D Eisenhower said during a 1954 speech: "I am delighted that our veterans are sponsoring a movement to increase our awareness of God in our daily lives. In battle, they learned a great truth that there are no atheists in the foxholes."

As reported by Fox News’s Todd Starnes, when Reyes referenced this famous line in his essay, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) contacted the base commander, Colonel Brian Duffy, demanding he take action on Reyes’s “anti-secular diatribe.” MRFF’s letter says that by Reyes’s “use of the bigoted, religious supremacist phrase, ‘no atheists in foxholes,’ he defiles the dignity of service members.” They accuse him of violating military regulations.

Despite ministers’ claims that welfare costs are being brought under control, figures show that the Coalition has failed to cut the share of Britain’s wealth that is dispensed in benefits.

In a report released tonight, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said that the proportion of GDP spent on jobseekers’ allowance, pensions and other “public social spending” stood at 23.8 per cent — the same as it was in 2010. The Paris-based think tank warned that unless action was taken to cut the cost to the state of Britain’s rapidly rising elderly population, the health and pensions systems could collapse.

The report underlined the size of the task facing David Cameron and George Osborne as they seek to get a grip on the budget deficit, with fresh cuts already planned for beyond the next election in 2015.

And what makes this crisis even more unprecedented is that everyone on the planet is using fiat currency that is backed up by nothing. It is all just a bunch of paper and data points that people have faith in. Right now, confidence in this system is being shaken as debt levels skyrocket to extremely dangerous levels. Many are openly wondering how much longer this can possibly go on.

Just consider what is going on over in Europe right now. Even the countries that have supposedly "tried austerity" continue to rack up debt at a mind blowing pace. New numbers that have just been released show that government debt to GDP ratios for some of the most financially troubled nations in Europe are absolutely soaring. Meanwhile, the debt to GDP ratio in Japan is now well past the 200% mark and continues to march upward with no apparent end in sight.

In China, the big problem is the absolutely stunning growth of private domestic debt. According to a recent World Bank report, the total amount of credit in China has risen from 9 trillion dollars in 2008 to 23 trillion dollars today. That increase is roughly equivalent to the entire US commercial banking system.

At this point, the US already has more government debt per capita than Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland or Spain. It is a giant mess, and yet our politicians continue to recklessly spend more money. And of course state and local governments all over the nation are drowning in debt too. The bankruptcy of Detroit is forcing people to come to grips with how bad things really are. Sadly, as Meredith Whitney explained the other day, there are going to be a lot more municipal bankruptcies coming down the pipeline...

The truth is that the real storm has not even hit yet. When the debt bubble finally bursts, we are going to see economic chaos in this country unlike anything that we have ever experienced before.

I hope that you are getting ready.

We have in the past discussed the possibility of the Chinese pegging their currency to gold bullion. This decision, if taken, may lead to huge volatility in foreign exchange markets, a depreciating dollar and ultimately an international monetary crisis.

John Butler in his book ‘Golden Revolution’ and Jim Rickards in his book ‘Currency Wars’ have warned that China and or Russia could move to back their currencies with gold which would then lead to the US and EU having to follow suit in order to prevent currency crises thereby leading to a new gold standard.

According to media reports, the People's Bank of China is considering phasing out the dollar as the reference currency or peg for the yuan, and to start using gold as the reference point. The reports have not been confirmed officially, but there has been official comments to that effect in recent years and Chinese academics have advocated backing the renminbi or yuan with gold.

Beijing's possible move to back the yuan with gold would be a strategic move in order to lessen the risk of inflation, increase the yuan’s attractiveness as an investment medium and create faith in the yuan as a reserve currency.

Although the Queen could hardly not have given her assent to the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, David Cameron promised guests at a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender reception in Downing Street on Wednesday that he intended to thank her “personally” for signing it at his audience with her that evening.

“I had a constituent with a straight son and a gay daughter come to see me and she said how delighted she was that she would now be able to attend both their weddings,” the Prime Minister said on the day that the Act became law.

Mr Cameron told guests at the same reception one year on that Britain was now “the best place to be gay, lesbian or transgender anywhere in Europe”. He added: “That is a great achievement. That’s not my measure; that is an internationally recognised measure. But there’s still a lot more work to be done.”

Thanking the ministers and civil servants who helped to pass the legislation into law despite objections from the Tory Right, he said: “It’s been a real pleasure to work with you and to deliver this landmark social change for our country, which to me still comes back to the simple word of commitment.” He said that he wanted to "export" same sex marriage around the world so other countries could follow suit.

He said: “I’ve told the Bill team I’m now going to reassign them because, of course, all over the world people would have been watching this piece of legislation and we’ve set something, I think, of an example of how to pass good legislation in good time. Many other countries are going to want to copy this. And, as you know, I talk about the global race, about how we’ve got to export more and sell more so I’m going to export the bill team. I think they can be part of this global race and take it around the world.”

In his speech he told guests four times how proud he was to have been Prime Minister when same sex marriage was legalised in Britain...

“This whole matter of diplomatic negotiations is absurd. The whole Middle East is going up in flames, there’s chaos in Syria, Egypt, and Iraq – and the Americans are only worried about us,” he said. “It’s clear as day that any agreement signed with Abbas isn’t worth the paper it’s written on,” he argued. “Abbas cannot sign anything real. After all, as soon as we expelled the Jews from Gush Katif, Fatah was pushed out of Gaza, so his signature means nothing.”

Abbas’ PA currently has effective control only in Judea and Samaria, while Hamas controls Gaza. In addition, Abbas’ term in office expired in 2009. Aumann expressed doubt that Israel and the PA would even reach the point of a signed agreement. “They are not willing anymore to make do with Ariel, Gush Etzion and Amona,” he warned. “They want Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa, and there is no way that will happen, because Netanyahu will not give them Tel Aviv.”

The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology claims that decontamination will cost at least 3.13 trillion yen ($32 billion) and the sum could rise to 5.81 trillion yen ($58 billion). The current state budget earmarked for the clean-up is only one trillion yen.

The potential variations are accounted for by “the effects of several decontamination scenarios,” say the authors. In one scenario, the contaminated earth which stretches for tens of miles around the half-destroyed plant could be turned over. In another, it is to be transported in huge quantities. The price will also depend on how many of the 300,000 people displaced by the tsunami and earthquake disaster in March 2011 will choose to return to their old residential area.

The steps include tax breaks for small businesses, reduced fees for exporters and opening up of railway construction. China's economic growth rate has slowed for two quarters in a row and there are concerns that it may slow further.

But the cabinet said the economy was in a reasonable shape and it was pushing for reforms to stabilise growth. "The economy is still running in a reasonable range," the cabinet said. "We must look at now and beyond to let restructuring and reform play an active role in stabilising growth."

Today, some of the most celebrated individuals and institutions are ensconced within the financial industry; in banks, hedge funds, and private equity firms. Which is odd because none of these firms or individuals actually make anything, which society might point to as additive to our living standards. Instead, these financial magicians harvest value from the rest of society that has to work hard to produce real things of real value.

While the work they do is quite sophisticated and takes a lot of skill, very few of these firms direct capital to new efforts, new products, and new innovations. Instead they either trade in the secondary markets for equities, bonds, derivatives, and the like, which perform the 'service' of moving paper from one location to another while generating 'profits.' Or, in the case of banks, they create money out of thin air and lend it out – at interest of course.

Josiah Stamp – Bank of England Chairman, 1920s (wrote)

“Banking was conceived in iniquity and was born in sin. The bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take away from them the power to create money, and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear, and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But, if you wish to remain the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create money.”

Money is power. And history has shown that power is never ceded spontaneously or willingly.

Director of Military Intelligence Major General Aviv Kochavi warned that Syria is posing a regional threat as it attracts thousands of global jihadists and Muslim extremists from around the world. "A center of global jihad of vast proportions is developing on our very doorstep," Israeli media quoted Kochavi as saying. "It is liable to affect not only Syria or Israeli borders, but also the borders of Lebanon, Jordan and the Sinai Peninsula, and have implications for the region as a whole," he said at a graduation ceremony for Military Intelligence commanding officers.

Kochavi argued that the extremists will not stop at toppling Assad, but will go further and try to establish a state based on Islamic religious law, or Sharia law. The UN reported in July that the Syrian conflict is “drastically deteriorating” with up to 5,000 people a month dying and the total death toll reaching 100,000 people in over two years.

The sanctions bill requests that the US president, under his authority provided by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, come up with a strategy within two months to cut Iran’s remaining export sales of roughly a million barrels a day.

After a year, exemptions granted to countries such as China, Japan, Turkey and South Korea – which continue to import Iranian oil – will no longer be granted. Companies in those countries doing business with Iran previously given a pass will be cut off from the US economy.

American officials are confident there is spare capacity in the global market to replace Iran’s exports. Libya is back to producing oil since its revolution ended in 2011, and Saudi Arabia is prepared to accommodate Iran’s customers, with spare production capacity of 2 million to 2.5 million barrels a day.

Previous US efforts cut Iranian oil exports by more than 65 percent, devastating the economy of the Islamic Republic.