Hessian prosecutors were the first to receive complaints about the matter, but that is likely to grow precipitously after German media outlets reported the US surveillance has collected more than half a billion phone calls and emails per month in Germany alone.

Though broad internal surveillance is also an issue in the US, the NSA’s policies don’t make spying on Germans illegal as such. The US lists Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand as “second party” nations exempt from surveillance, but considers Germany fair game. The program also explicitly targeted European Union diplomats.

Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said the US policy was “beyond comprehension,” and said that such “Cold War” methods were unacceptable toward allies. Officials are urging the EU to take direct action to stop the surveillance.

EU leaders are demanding answers after leaked NSA documents revealed the US was tracking diplomatic communications, an accusation, if proved true, which could derail the historic free-trade deal. Both France and Germany, Europe’s largest and second largest economies have responded strongly to the alleged spying practices.

Germany has officially summoned US Ambassador Philip Murray to the Berlin Foreign Ministry over the alleged spying. If the reports are confirmed, Chancellor Merkel said it would be “unacceptable Cold War-style behavior.” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius also spoke out against the alleged spying program, calling for an explanation “as quickly as possible” and Hollande said it must “immediately stop”.

The deal – which has been in the works for decades – will offer ‘huge economic benefits’ both for the US and EU, Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, said after the announcement was made at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland. “We cannot negotiate over a big transatlantic market if there is the slightest doubt that our partners are carrying out spying activities on the offices of our negotiators,” EU Commissioner for Justice Viviane Reding said.

“Partners do not spy on each other,” said Reding, forewarning a possible breakdown in treaty negotiations.

Last Tuesday, the foreign ministers of the European Union visibly had to pull themselves together when their German counterpart began to speak. Guido Westerwelle voiced his opposition to entering into EU accession negotiations with Serbia this year. The politician, a member of the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP), noted that the German parliament, the Bundestag, would not support negotiations this year and proposed postponing until January 2014.

Westerwelle also said that the heads of state and government should handle the issue, which is not customary. Finally, Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn had had enough. "We're not the African Union," he said angrily. "Why don't we just write that the Bundestag should make the decision?" The other foreign ministers grumbled in assent.

The dispute is symptomatic of the relationship between Berlin and its EU partners. There is growing resentment in Brussels and other European capitals over the new anti-Europe course the German government has adopted in the election campaign. "A national election has never dominated European policy to this extent," says a senior official with the European Commission.

The German government reacted strongly on Monday to media reports that the United States has spent years spying on the European Union and on specific European countries. Meanwhile, European Union leaders have both reviled the US for allegedly bugging EU diplomatic missions in Washington, DC, and New York and ordered that bloc facilities be searched for American eavesdropping equipment.

"The monitoring of friends - this is unacceptable. It can't be tolerated," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday through her spokesman Steffen Seibert. "We are no longer in the Cold War." Seibert said that Merkel had already communicated her displeasure to the US. "Trust has to be the basis of our cooperation," Seibert said. "When it comes to this affair, trust has to be re-established."

Channel 4’s head of factual programming Ralph Lee said the channel would act as a ‘nationwide tannoy system’ for Britain’s 2.8 million Muslims while they observed Ramadan. He said almost five per cent of the British population would ‘actively engage’ in Ramadan this month, adding: ‘Can we say the same of other national events that have received blanket coverage on television such as the Queen’s coronation anniversary?’

Critics questioned whether the decision to transmit the call to prayer was a ‘publicity-seeking stunt’ by the controversial broadcaster. Mr Lee said: ‘The calls to prayer prompt Muslims to carry out quiet moments of worship, but hopefully they’ll also make other viewers sit up and notice that this event is taking place.’

But everyone is being distracted. The amnesty argument has concealed the sinister, rotten core of this sweeping new legislation. A little known provision embedded in the bill is set to require all American workers to possess a biometric ID card. According to the New York Times, driver's licenses, photographs, and biometric information of most Americans "would be accessible through an expanded Department of Homeland Security nationwide computer network."

What does biometric information entail? Fingerprints, DNA, eye scans - all logged into a database, retrievable by the federal government's Homeland Department of "Security."

The new legislation lays out more than a path to citizenship. The bill calls for implementing "photo tools." It lays the groundwork for a sweeping new database, cataloging people, learning every last detail about everyone... Is this how ordinary Americans must be treated to accommodate illegal immigrants? Should everyone's privacy be stripped and stored all for the sake of this?

This out of control nationwide computer network is nothing more than a plan to centralize government power to monitor and manipulate people. Under the guise of "cracking down on illegal immigration," this new system strips Americans of their individual privacy and turns them into a traceable data in a federal information bank.

Emerging markets suffered as China created a cash squeeze and protests turned violent from Turkey to Brazil. The $41 trillion of bonds in the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Broad Market index lost an average 1.4 percent in June. The MSCI All-Country World index of equities declined 3.1 percent as emerging markets erased 6.8 percent of their value. The Standard & Poor’s 500 fell for the first time in eight months. The US Dollar Index ended 0.3 percent lower after falling as much as 3.5 percent.

Valley Meat Co in Roswell, New Mexico, is being green-lighted by the USDA, which will routinely send inspectors to make sure it is slaughtering horses and processing horse meat in a “clean” way. Additional horse meat plants are expected to be approved by the USDA in Missouri and Iowa. While horse meat can’t legally be sold in the USA for human consumption, it can be used in pet food.

It may also turn up in the US food supply despite its legal status because it can be sold to Mexico for human consumption, then re-labeled and shipped back into the USA for use as a low-cost meat filler. Horse meat has already been identified in a scandalous food operation in Europe, where meatballs sold throughout European grocery stores were found to be made with horse meat. The USDA says, "it was required by law to issue the grant of inspection because Valley Meat met all federal requirements," reports Reuters, which also says that 130,000 horses are slaughtered each year in Canada and Mexico.

US companies want a piece of that business, it seems, because horses can be acquired for virtually free.

It is no longer an implausible prospect. "We cannot be seduced," she said, brimming with confidence after her party secured 46 percent of the vote in a by-election earthquake a week ago. Her candidate trounced the ruling Socialists in their own bastion of Villeneuve-sur-Lot. "The euro ceases to exist the moment that France leaves, and that is our incredible strength. What are they going to do, send in tanks?" she told the Daily Telegraph at the Front National's headquarters. "Europe is just a great bluff. One side there is the immense power of sovereign peoples, and on the other side are a few technocrats," she said.

Mrs Le Pen said her first order of business on setting foot in the Elysee Palace will be to announce a referendum on EU membership, "rendez vous" one year later. "I will negotiate over the points on which there can be no compromise. If the result is inadequate, I will call for withdrawal," she said.

The four sticking points are the currency, border control, the primacy of French law, and what she calls "economic patriotism", the power for France to pursue "intelligent protectionism" and safeguard its social model. "I cannot imagine running economic policy without full control over our own money," she said. Asked if she intends to pull France out of the euro immediately, she said: "Yes, because the euro blocks all economic decisions. France is not a country that can accept tutelage from Brussels," she said.

Officials will be told to draw up plans for the restoration of the franc.

As TheBlaze reported last week, Murad, 49, was setting up a monastery in Gassanieh, northern Syria. Last Sunday, on the Christian leader’s Sabbath, extremist militants trying to topple President Bashar Assad breached the monastery and grabbed Murad. Catholic Online reported Saturday: “The Vatican is confirming the death by beheading of Franciscan Father, Francois Murad, who was martyred by Syrian jihadists on June 23.”

In video [footage] posted by Live Leak purporting to show the execution, dozens of men and boys are seen cheering on as three men are seated on the ground awaiting their grisly fate. The men are methodically beheaded one at a time by men holding what appears to be a simple kitchen knife after which the heads are placed on top of the bodies. According to Catholic Online, the first victim was Murad.

Catholic Online is raising alarm that western nations are providing support to the rebels who have shown a proclivity toward persecuting Christians: This should make it clear to Christians around the world what jihadists are about. Make no mistake. Catholics and [other] Christians around the globe are under dire threat, particularly from the spread of militant Islam. Until the threat is recognized and taken seriously, martyrdoms like this will continue.

Franciscan Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa told the Vatican News Agency, “The world must know that the support of gunmen by the west is helping extremists in killing Syrians.”