Israel has "eight days" to launch a military strike against Iran's Bushehr nuclear facility and stop Tehran from acquiring a functioning atomic plant, a former US envoy to the UN has said.

Iran is to bring online its first nuclear power reactor, built with Russia's help, on August 21, when a shipment of nuclear fuel will be loaded into the plant's core.

At that point, John Bolton warned Monday, it will be too late for Israel to launch a military strike against the facility because any attack would spread radiation and affect Iranian civilians.

Read more at Yahoo

Iran plans to begin construction of 10 uranium enrichment centers across the country by next year, state-run media is quoting Iran's nuclear chief as saying.

Read more at CNN

Ignoring a US warning, Arab nations urged Washington and other powers to end support of Israel's nuclear secrecy and to push Israel to allow international inspections of its program, diplomats told The Associated Press Sunday.

Islamic nations have long called for Israel to open its nuclear program. But the fact that the Arab League has directly approached Washington and other Israeli allies for support at the September meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency is significant, considering that US President Barack Obama last month warned against using that forum to single out Israel.

Read more at jpost

North Korea warned the South Sunday it would stage a "merciless" retaliation against the joint South Korean-US military maneuvers planned this week.

After South Korea's president called on the North to embrace "courageous change" toward peace, the North Korean military responded by saying their retaliation would be "the severest punishment no one has ever met in the world," and a "merciless counterblow to US imperialists and the Lee Myung-bak group of traitors."

Read more at jpost

News that Vladimir Putin’s regime will proceed to fueling Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor on August 21^st is the strategic equivalent of a high-Richter-scale tectonic shift.  It is likely to trigger the most far-reaching shockwaves with incalculable repercussions.

Read more at Big Peace

Al Qaeda's No. 2 urged the Turkish people in an Internet message posted on Sunday to pressure their government to sever ties with Israel and withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.  This is significant because Turkey is part of the military force that will attack Israel at Armageddon.

Read more at Reuters

Tensions in the Middle East are spiking with news that Russia next week will help Iran’s first nuclear power facility go “hot” as early as next week. Analysts had originally been expecting this to happen in August. Then the Russians said it would be delayed until September. The Israeli government has not commented yet. But the big question is whether Prime Minister Netanyahu sees this as a “red line” that if crossed would trigger an Israeli military strike.

Read more by Joel Rosenberg

United Nations aid agencies have provided assistance to hundreds of thousands of victims of Pakistan's worst floods in decades but relief operations have yet to reach an estimated six million people.

The lives of 20 million people -- nearly 12 percent of the population -- have been disrupted by one of the worst catastrophes in Pakistan's history. Six million still need food, shelter and water, the UN said in a statement.

Read more at Reuters

3. Holocaust denial and Holocaust fears

2. Fear that Iran is 'meshugana'

1. A nuclear Iran would shift the regional strategic balance

Read more at the CSM

President Obama has abolished the position in his White House dedicated to transparency and shunted those duties into the portfolio of a partisan ex-lobbyist who is openly antagonistic to the notion of disclosure by government and politicians.

Read more at Washington Examiner