(AP) – Tourists were largely gone from North Carolina’s Outer Banks, but those resolute residents who stayed behind say they were prepared Thursday to potentially face down the most powerful hurricane to threaten the coast in years. Hurricane Earl with winds swirling at around 140 mph continued to barrel toward the Eastern Seaboard and forecasters [...]

(THE GUARDIAN) — The body of an official investigating the massacre of 72 Central and South American migrants killed in a ranch in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas was found today dumped beside a nearby road alongside another unidentified victim, according to local media. via Mexican massacre investigator found dead | World news | [...]

(WASHINGTON POST) — The CIA is making secret payments to multiple members of President Hamid Karzai’s administration, in part to maintain sources of information in a government in which the Afghan leader is often seen as having a limited grasp of developments, according to current and former U.S. officials. The payments are long-standing in many [...]

Is there any question now about the spiritual nature of Glenn Beck’s mission to save America? While that’s not a bad thing in and of itself, we Christians must recognize that Beck, if he believes the teachings of his Mormon faith, worships a different God. — PID (CNN) — Conservative talk show host Glenn Beck [...]

(WORLDNETDAILY) — The Saudi prince whose post-9/11 relief check was rejected by former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani has found a more willing recipient in the city for his millions: the head of the Ground Zero mosque project. The same Saudi potentate, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, owns the biggest chunk of the parent company [...]

(ARMY TIMES) — As the final convoy of the Army’s 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, based at Fort Lewis, Wash., entered Kuwait early Thursday, a different Stryker brigade remained in Iraq. Soldiers from the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division are deployed in Iraq as members of an Advise and Assist [...]

(CNN) — Rescue workers in Chile are preparing tubes packed with flashlights, food and medicine after learning that 33 miners trapped for nearly three weeks are still alive in an underground shelter. Officials cautioned that it could take four months to rescue the workers. But family members cheered as Chilean President Sebastian Pinera held a [...]

(DEBKAfile) — The Obama administration and Netanyahu government greeted the start-up of Iran’s first nuclear reactor at Bushehr with extraordinary meekness, given the grim military and strategic hazards it represents for the region and Israel in particular. Yet nary a squeak of protest came from Washington or Jerusalem when Russian technicians began loading 162 rods [...]

(CNN.com) — Swedish authorities say they have revoked an arrest warrant that had alleged rape against Julian Assange, the founder and editor of the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, less than a day after issuing it. Assange is “no longer wanted” and “is not suspected of rape,” Chief Prosecutor Eva Finne said in a statement posted on [...]

(AP) — Trucks rumbled into Irans first reactor Saturday to begin loading tons of uranium fuel in a long-delayed startup touted by officials as both a symbol of the countrys peaceful intentions to produce nuclear energy as well as a triumph over Western pressure to rein in its nuclear ambitions. The Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power [...]

(DEBKAfile) — War preparations are reported by DEBKAfile‘s military sources in Tehran and Damascus. In Tehran, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced Friday, Aug. 20: “IRGC is in full readiness to encounter firmly with the stupidity of the US and the Zionist regime.” In Damascus, Syrian prime minister Naji al-Otari gathered his ministers and heads of security [...]

(BBC News) — Young people will resort to changing their names in order to escape their previous online activity, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt has said. Mr Schmidt told the Wall Street Journal he feared they did not understand the consequences of so much information about them being online. The company has invested considerably in [...]

(ST. PETERSBURG TIMES) — A month after the Deepwater Horizon disaster began, scientists from the University of South Florida made a startling announcement. They had found signs that the oil spewing from the well had formed a 6-mile-wide plume snaking along in the deepest recesses of the gulf. The reaction that USF announcement received from [...]

(REUTERS) — Girls in the U.S. may be continuing to hit puberty at earlier ages, according to new research. The findings suggest earlier development than what was reported in a 1997 study and show a worrying pattern, say the study’s authors, led by Dr. Frank Biro of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Girls who hit [...]