In the news:

A LOT of interesting news stories today; I'll keep the quotes brief:

Mysterious Explosion Damaged Iranian Nuclear Site

The explosion earlier this week that Iran said was at a uranium enrichment site actually damaged a nuclear plant and was far from accidental, The London Times reported Wednesday. The newspaper quoted Israeli intelligence officials as saying that satellite photos revealed extensive damage from the explosion at Isfahan, near Tehran. The Israeli sources, so far unconfirmed, added that smoke was seen pouring out from a conversion plant and that it was clear that the blast was not accidental.

Consider the prophetic implications of this next article:

Former Mossad Chief: Israeli Strike On Iran Will Lead To Regional War

Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan said in a television interview on Tuesday that if Israel attacks Iran, it will be dragged into a regional war. According to Dagan, Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas will respond with massive rocket attacks on Israel. In that scenario, Syria may join in the fray, Dagan said on the television program “Uvda”.

4 Scenarios For Oil If Israel Attacks Iran

Fresh from PIMCO on Tuesday is a new report highlighting four oil price scenarios if Israel attacked Iran, from a spike of US$140 a barrel to a “Doomsday” situation where regional war causes prices to soar. The report, from PIMCO portfolio manager Greg Sharenow, comes as the media has increasingly speculated whether Israel might engage in a pre-emptive strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.

“Whenever the global economy is in a fragile state, as it is today, geopolitical concerns such as the possibility of a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities become much more exaggerated,” Mr. Sharenow said.

“Although we cannot (and will not) predict whether an attack is imminent, or even likely, our experience and research tells us that any major disruption in the supply of oil from Iran could have either subtle or profound global repercussions,” he said. “Especially as excess capacity is virtually exhausted and we doubt that other OPEC nations would be able to compensate for a reduction in Iranian oil production.”

Iranian Protesters Storm British Embassy: Video Update

William Hague Warns Iran It Faces 'Serious Consequences" For British Embassy Attack In Tehran

Following Iran's decision to downgrade diplomatic ties with the UK after the imposition of fresh sanctions, Iranian protesters broke into the grounds of the British Embassy in Tehran.

Protesters threw petrol bombs and climbed over the gates of the embassy to loot the building.

William Hague said Iran had "committed a grave breach" of the Vienna Convention, which demands protection of diplomats and diplomatic premises under all circumstances.

Mr Hague added: "We hold the Iranian government responsible for its failure to take adequate measures to protect our embassy as it is required to do.

"Clearly there will be other, further, and serious consequences. I will make a statement updating Parliament on this tomorrow," Mr Hague added.

New Tahrir Square Violence Mars Elections

Fresh violence at Cairo’s Tahrir Square wounded 88 people by early Wednesday during the second day of legislative elections.

More than two dozen people were hospitalized after clashes with anti-regime protesters, who have said that the election process cannot be trusted because it is being run by the same officials who brutally dispersed demonstrations last week.

Despite the protests, elections continued Tuesday as the Muslim Brotherhood, under the guise of the “Freedom and Justice” party, deployed activists who violated electoral regulations at polling stations to encourage voters to back their party, the most well-organized in the country.

Predictably (many prophecy watchers predicted this at the beginning of the Egyptian "overthrow") we see this:

Egypt's Brotherhood Leading In Vote Count

The Muslim Brotherhood's list leads in initial counting of results from the first round of Egypt's parliamentary election, with about 40% of party-list votes, a party source said on Wednesday.

It remains difficult to assess the precise impact of such a result on an election that will take six weeks for voting to be complete and uses an extremely complex system for allocating seats.

Eurozone Debt Crisis Worsens As Financial World Holds Breath Over Impending Financial Apocalypse

“The world is watching Europe, waiting upon a solution. It’s not just the euro that’s at stake. If the euro fails, so too does the 27-nation European Union. Bank lending would freeze, stock markets would likely crash, and Europe’s economies would follow. Nations in the euro-zone would see their economic output decline, though temporarily, by as much as 50%, according to UBS forecasters. That economic meltdown would then spread to the U.S. and Asia, who would find themselves caught up in the credit freeze while their exports to Europe would collapse.”

The High Price Of Abandoning The Euro

Which is one reason I don't see it happening...The antichrist needs to show up soon to fix this mess - or at least appear to fix it. Seriously.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski made a dramatic appeal to Germany on Monday to prevent a collapse of the currency union, saying: "We are standing on the edge of a precipice."

The economist Nouriel Roubini, known as "Dr. Doom" because he predicted the 2008 financial crisis, recently put the likelihood of the euro zone collapsing at 45 percent. But such expert forecasts sound abstract to most people.

That wouldn't be as easy as euroskeptics are arguing. The European treaties don't envisage nations leaving the euro zone -- a country can only quit the European Union as a whole. Such a departure would take a long time, and investors could use that time to withdraw their capital, warns economist Karsten Junius in a research note for DekaBank. So the country in question would suffer economic damage on its path back into a national currency.

It is also unclear what would happen to a country's sovereign debt if it left the euro zone. When the single currency was set up, national debt was converted into euros. In many cases, that conversion was enshrined in bond contracts as a one-way street, meaning that a return to national currencies wasn't provided for.

Senate Passes Bill Allowing Indefinite Detention Of Americans

Is this the bill that sets the stage for future persecution of Christians in America?


The Senate passed a bill today allowing indefinite detention of American citizens living within the U.S.

While some have claimed that this is incorrect, and that American citizens would be exempted from the indefinite detention within U.S. borders authorized by the Act, the Committee chairman who co-sponsored the bill – Carl Levin – stated today in Senate debate that it could apply to American citizens.

Levin cited the Supreme Court case of Hamdi which ruled that American citizens can be treated as enemy combatants:

“The Supreme Court has recently ruled there is no bar to the United States holding one of its own citizens as an enemy combatant,” said Levin. “This is the Supreme Court speaking.“
Under questioning from Rand Paul, co-sponsor John McCain said that Americans suspected of terrorism could be sent to Guantanamo.

You can hear the statements from Levin and McCain on today’s broadcast of KFPA’s Letters and Politics.

And this:

The provision would authorize the military to indefinitely detain individuals — including U.S. citizens — without charge or trial.

“If these provisions pass, we could see American citizens being sent to Guantanamo Bay,” Rand said in the video. “This should be alarming to everyone watching this proceeding today. Because it puts every single American citizen at risk.”

“There is one thing and one thing only protecting innocent Americans from being detained at will at the hands of a too-powerful state — our Constitution, and the checks we put on government power,” he continued. “Should we err today and remove some of the most important checks on state power in the name of fighting terrorism, well, then the terrorists have won.”

“Detaining citizens without a court trial is not American. In fact, this alarming arbitrary power is reminiscent of Egypt’s ‘permanent’ Emergency Law authorizing preventive indefinite detention, a law that provoked ordinary Egyptians to tear their country apart last spring and risk their lives to fight.”

Rand Paul: Americans Could Be Sent To Gitmo Under 'Indefinite Detention' Bill

Senator Rand Paul told Judge Andrew Napolitano last night that Americans could be stripped of their rights and sent to Guantanamo Bay under the terms of the ‘indefinite detention’ provision of the National Defense Authorization Act

Appearing on Napolitano’s Fox Business show, Paul said it perplexed him “how anyone could vote to send an American citizen who’s been accused of a crime to a detention center in a foreign land without due process”.

Paul has offered an amendment to the NDAA bill that would completely strip Section 1031 from the legislation, although it’s unlikely to pass following yesterday’s rejection of Senator Mark Udall’s weaker amendment that would have merely provided more oversight.

Secretive Air Force Space Plane Nears Orbital Record

The secretive X-37B robotic space plane is about to set its own space-endurance record on a hush-hush project operated by the U.S. Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office.

The craft, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle-2, was boosted into Earth orbit atop an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on March 5. Tomorrow (Nov. 30), the X-37B spacecraft will mark its 270th day of flight — a lifetime in space that was heralded in the past as the vehicle's upper limit for spaceflight by project officials.

"It's still up there," U.S. Air Force Maj. Tracy Bunko of the Air Force Press Desk at the Pentagon, told SPACE.com, noting that project officials planned for a 9- month-plus mission, "so we're close to that now."

The X-37B's staying power is made feasible by its deployable solar array power system, unfurled from the vehicle's cargo bay.

The X-37B resembles a miniature version of NASA's space shuttle. Two X-37Bs could fit inside the 60-foot (18-meter) cargo bay of a space shuttle.

Airport Body Scan Debate Heats Up After European Ban

The controversy over airport body scanners – and how safe they are – is taking on new urgency after European authorities this month banned the machines after studies linked them to a small number of cancer cases.

The same type of backscatter scanners, which emit low-level radiation, are used at dozens of U.S. airports, including Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood and Orlando international airports.

Steve Landes, director of the South Florida Airline Commuters Association, which has several hundred frequent flier members, said those who have to fly two to three times a week might want to avoid the scanner.

"Let's put it this way, I would have to be a fool to say I wouldn't have any concerns," said Landes, of Boynton Beach.

Helping to convince European authorities to impose the ban was a recent PBS Newshour/ProPublica report, which said: "Research suggests that anywhere from six to 100 U.S. airline passengers each year could get cancer from the machines." Scientific American also ran a story, detailing the results of the PBS/ProPublic investigation.

Scientists Create Lethal Human Strain Of Avian Flu In Test Tube - Now Seek To Publish Formula

The H5N1 flu- more frequently referred to as avian or bird flu- has long been identified as one of those great threats to public health throughout the world. Should the bug ever mutate into a form that passes as easily between humans as it does among birds and other animals, we would have a very serious problem on our hands.

Now, Scientist Magazine is reporting that medical researchers in the Netherlands have intentionally engineered a strain of the H5N1 virus that can pass as easily between people as any other flu virus. Clearly, if this one should ever get out of the laboratory, we are all in seriously big trouble.

Flu Shots May Build Fewer Antibodies In Kids

New research has found the flu vaccine may weaken some children’s immune systems to other influenza viruses.

Researchers from the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, collected blood samples from 27 healthy, unvaccinated children with an average age of 6 years old, and 14 children with cystic fibrosis who received an annual flu shot. Children with chronic illnesses like cystic fibrosis are required to get flu shots in the Netherlands.

Children who were not vaccinated built up more antibodies across a wider variety of influenza strains than kids who were vaccinated, the small study found.

Massive Sinkhole Appears Overnight

Is it just me, or does there appear to be similar sinkholes occurring all around the world these days? What's going on?

Residents in Beckham County near Sayre say a massive sinkhole suddenly appeared overnight. They say it's so big a small house can fit inside it. Jack Damron cares for the property and says the hole formed just two days after Oklahoma's last earthquake about two weeks ago.

...the hole is still growing day by day.

"Kind of spooky. You don't want to mess with it today," Damron said.

Because whatever lies beneath the flat Oklahoma soil, isn't quite finished.

"We've got to let it finish settling, because we don't know how deep it's going to get. It's still growing," he said "When it first formed you could actually sit here for 30 minutes and see stuff just move."

6.0 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Off Coast Of Philippines

A 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of the Philippines this morning, roughly 142 miles (230km) west-northwest of the capital Manila, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported.

The earthquake, which struck at a depth of 9.1 miles (14.6km), occurred shortly before 8.30am local time in the West Philippine Sea.