The war games cover a 1,250-mile (2,000-kilometer) stretch of sea off the Strait of Hormuz, northern parts of the Indian Ocean and into the Gulf of Aden, near the entrance to the Red Sea, state TV reported. The drill will be Iran's latest show of strength in the face of mounting international criticism over its controversial nuclear program, which the West fears is aimed at developing atomic weapons. Tehran denies those charges, insisting the program is for peaceful purposes only.

Navy chief Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said Iran is holding the drill to show off its prowess and defense capabilities. "To show off its might, the navy needs to be present in international waters. It's necessary to demonstrate the navy's defense capabilities," state TV quoted Sayyari as saying.

The Strait of Hormuz is of strategic significance as the passageway for about a third of the world's oil tanker traffic. Beyond it lie vast bodies of water, including the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The US Navy's Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet is also active in the area, as are warships of several other countries that patrol for pirates there. Both the US and Israel have not ruled out a military option against Iran over its nuclear program. Iranian hard-liners have come out with occasional threats that Tehran would seal off the key waterway if the US or Israel moved against the country's nuclear facilities.

Dozens of people suffered minor injuries but only 19 were admitted to hospital. It comes 10 months after swathes of the city were destroyed by another quake. Friday's first earthquake struck 26km (16 miles) north-east of the city at a depth of 4.7km. The second large event, with a magnitude estimated at 5.9, was in almost exactly the same place, the USGS said. Aftershocks rolled on throughout the afternoon, several of them with a magnitude greater than 5, according to New Zealand's GeoNet.

Buildings were damaged, power supplies cut and the city's airport had to be closed temporarily. There were rockfalls in some coastal suburbs of the city and the authorities have warned people to stay away from hillside areas. About 26,000 residents were without power at one point, but by 2200 local time the supply had been restored to all but about 400 customers in the New Brighton area, power company Orion said in a statement.

Big potholes have appeared in the roads in the Bexley district. A Radio New Zealand reporter, Bridget Mills, said in places the tarmac felt "like jelly", and there was fresh flooding caused by liquefaction. Liquefaction occurs when the soil and sediments lose their strength and stiffness in response to the changes in pressure caused by an earthquake, and temporarily behave like a liquid.

President Obama has just stated a policy that he can have any American citizen killed without any charge, without any review, except his own. If he's satisfied that you are a terrorist, he says that he can kill you anywhere in the world including in the United States. It is dangerous in a climate where you can be labeled as or suspected of being a terrorist simply for questioning war, protesting anything, asking questions about pollution or about Wall Street shenanigans, supporting Ron Paul, being a libertarian, holding gold, or stocking up on more than 7 days of food.

And it is problematic in a period in which FBI agents and CIA intelligence officials, constitutional law expert professor Jonathan Turley, Time Magazine, Keith Olbermann and the Washington Post have all said that US government officials "WERE TRYING TO CREATE AN ATMOSPHERE OF FEAR IN WHICH THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WOULD GIVE THEM MORE POWER", and even FORMER SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY - TOM RIDGE - ADMITS THAT HE WAS PRESSURED TO RAISE TERROR ALERTS TO HELP BUSH WIN RE-ELECTION.

And it is counter-productive in an age when the government - instead of doing the things which could actually make us safer - are doing things which increase the risk of terrorism.

[*Jonathan Turley: Is the second most cited law professor in the country and has worked as both the CBS and NBC legal analyst during national controversies. He ranks 38th in the top 100 most cited 'public intellectuals' in a recent study by a well-known judge and is one of the top 10 lawyers handling military cases. He has served as a consultant on homeland security and constitutional issues and is a frequent witness before the House and Senate on constitutional and statutory issues.

"You've now got a president who says that he can kill you on his own discretion. He can jail you indefinitely on his own discretion."]

Last night the Government was warned not to underestimate the "sabre-rattling" and the possibility that Argentina could "overreach" herself again by declaring war. The powder-keg problem is further complicated by the fact Prince William is due to be posted to the Falklands, a self-governing British overseas territory, next year. The Duke has been warned he will be flying into a potential war zone when he goes out in the New Year but he is adamant he still wants to go

The high-ranking security source said: "The Argentines have the plans ready. William has walked in to a highly sensitive situation. They have learned where they went wrong in 1982. Plans to once again seize the islands have been made and are being reviewed in Buenos Aires ready for the green light. Prince William is aware of the risks but is anxious to fly in harm's way." Argentina has said his six-week posting early next year as a search and rescue pilot shows the UK's "aggressive attitude".

MI6 and defence intelligence staff have warned of the bitter resentment over the future king's deployment. Intelligence analysts have warned that Argentine generals have "noted" that because of defence cuts Britain could no longer launch a full-scale Task Force as in 1982. That conflict lasted 74 days, claiming the lives of 255 British and 649 Argentine soldiers, sailors and airmen before the invaders surrendered. Three civilian Falkland Islanders also died. The Whitehall source added: "Britain could probably see off the immediate assault on the Falklands but anything more is no longer possible."

"Meanwhile the Argentines have been building up their military power especially air, navy and marine units. "They are only about 240 miles from the islands. Paratroopers and forces could be there overnight once the order goes out." Tensions between Britain and Argentina have mounted after an "aggressive" decision by the Mercosur group of countries, which includes Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, to ban ships bearing the Falklands Islands flag from docking at their ports. Relations between the two countries have soured since it was revealed British companies had started to explore for oil in the mineral-rich waters surrounding the islands.

A new pair costs about $180 (115 pounds), but they are already being listed on eBay for as much as $605. The ugly scenes recalled the violence that broke out in the early 1990s on streets across America as the shoes became popular targets for thieves. In the early hours of Friday, police used pepper spray on about 20 customers who started fighting at a mall in suburban Seattle, Washington state, as they waited in line to buy the black-and-white Air Jordan 11 Retro Concords.

One man was arrested for allegedly punching a police officer. "He did not get his shoes. He went to jail," Officer Mike Murphy said. He added: "It was not a nice, orderly group of shoppers. There were a lot of hostile and disorderly people."

In other disturbances:

- At least four people were arrested after customers broke down a door at a store selling the shoes in Lithonia, Georgia

- There was an attempted robbery on a victim who was mistakenly believed to have just bought the shoes in Stockton, California

- Aout 100 shoppers forced their way into a shopping centre in Taylor, Michigan

- A gunshot rang out as shoppers queued in Richmond, California, although no injuries were reported

- Disorder was also reported in Charlotte, North Carolina; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Omaha, Nebraska

News reports about Predator attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan are common if not always complete, but what's gotten much less attention is the increase in unarmed drones that are buzzing around within the US itself. Primarily, unarmed Predator B drones are only used by government agents to patrol the borders for illegal immigrants, but there are a (very large) handful of other agencies and companies that use smaller, unarmed drones for a slew of other purposes. And that number is only expected to grow.

The FAA says that as of September 13, 2011, there were 285 active Certificates of Authorization (COA) for 85 different users, covering 82 different unmanned unarmed aircraft types. Though the exact breakdown of the organizations who have authorization is unclear - and the FAA would not elaborate for "privacy" and "security" reasons - in January the Washington Post reported that as of December 1, 2010, 35% of the permissions were held by the Department of Defense, 11% by NASA, and 5% by the Department of Homeland Security. The FBI and law enforcement agencies also hold some, as do manufacturers and even academic institutions.

Between pressure from trade groups (like the drone manufacturers group the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International), proposed legislation from Senators Chuck Schumer (Democrat for New York) and Ron Wyden (Democrat for Oregon) to expand the number of drone testing sites in the US, and petitioning from states like Oklahoma for an approved 80-mile air corridor reserved exclusively for drone development and testing, there is great potential for drone use to expand within the US in the next few years.

The Americans have gone now, and Iraq's Christian communities - some of the world's oldest - are undergoing an exodus on a biblical scale. Of the country's 1.4 million Christians, about two thirds have now fled. Although the British Government is reluctant to recognise it, a new evil is sweeping the Middle East: religious cleansing. The attacks, which peak at Christmas, have already spread to Egypt, where Coptic Christians have seen their churches firebombed by Islamic fundamentalists. In Tunisia, priests are being murdered. Maronite Christians in Lebanon have, for the first time, become targets of bombing campaigns. Christians in Syria, who have suffered as much as anyone from the Assad regime, now pray for its survival. If it falls, and the Islamists triumph, persecution may begin in earnest.

When challenged, ministers deplore persecution in general - but, seemingly, not so much that they'd do something like pick up the phone to Ankara. Yet there is plenty Britain can do. Countries could be denied aid until Christians (or Jews, or Sunnis) are allowed to worship freely. British diplomats could be empowered, even instructed, to advocate freedom of religion. When a peer of the realm alerts the Foreign Office to some persecuted Anglicans, a red alert ought to sound. Mr Hague might even publish an annual audit of religious freedom in various countries, making clear its importance to Britain. It might make its own estimate about the scale of the flood of refugees.

The Foreign Office did not realise the full evil of ethnic cleansing in the Balkans until it was too late: it did not take civil tensions seriously enough. It can do better now, making clear that it regards religious cleansing as an emerging evil that ought to be confronted wherever it is being incubated. Article 18 of the UN Charter of Human Rights guarantees freedom of religion - and yet outright religious oppression is quietly ignored, from Saudi Arabia to the Maldives. For ages, Iran has been able to persecute Baha'is with a minimum of fuss kicked up in the West. The ayatollahs are now turning the screw on Christians, with 300 arrested in the past year.

Speaking in that House of Lords debate were men to whom the idea of religious cleansing is anything but abstract. Lord (Dolar) Popat fled Uganda when Idi Amin turned on the Indians in 1971. Hindus, he said, are taught that it is a sin to be prejudiced against anyone. But it is "an even greater sin to witness persecution, then sit back and do nothing to stop it". Lord Sacks, the Chief Rabbi, said his parents were once victims of the same evil that now confronts Christians. He quoted Martin Luther King: "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends."

Our friends in the Middle East are all waiting to hear from HM Government. Perhaps, in the new year, it might have something to say.

Officials said that 72 people had been confirmed dead, and 217 injured, with the figures still rising. Political leaders immediately connected the attacks to an angry breakdown this week in the relationship between the Shia prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, and the country's most senior Sunni figures. Within days of American troops withdrawing, Mr Maliki, whose Shia-led State of Law party is allied to a radical, anti-American and Iranian-influenced Shia group, on Monday demanded the arrest of Tareq al-Hashemi, the Sunni vice-president, accusing him of running a hit squad.

He also called for a vote of no confidence against Saleh al-Mutlaq, the Sunni deputy prime minister. "The timing of these crimes and the places where they were carried out confirm to all the political nature of the targets," Mr Maliki said last night in a statement, suggesting they were a revenge attack and hinting they had political support. "The criminals and those who stand behind them will not succeed in changing events or the political process, or in escaping punishment."

The worst single incident was a suicide attack near a government anti-corruption office in which a stolen ambulance packed with explosives was detonated by its driver, sending debris into the grounds of a nearby kindergarten. Police said 23 people were killed, including five investigators from the office. A string of three explosions killed 18 people at a construction site in central Baghdad. The series of attacks was the most lethal since August and the second worst this year.

There are an estimated 4.9 billion trees on 63 million acres of woodlands in Texas, said Chris Edgar, a forest resource analyst. Land is considered forested if it has at least 10 percent coverage of tree canopy, he said. "We were surprised by the number," he said. "We were hearing reports, and as I drive around the state, I've seen mortality that in some cases is quite extensive. To see these numbers it really brings it home."

And those figures don't include losses in urban areas or trees destroyed by wildfires that scorched nearly 4 million acres this year. "We don't have anything that we can compare to this mortality," Forest Service director Tom Boggus said. "This will probably set a benchmark." Boggus started working for the agency in the 1980s during a drought that killed trees, but it was nothing like this, he said. "What's significant is it's statewide. That's the big difference."

Washington sources report that the Islamic Republic crossed the red line President Barack Obama had set for the United States, ie, when Tehran begins using the technologies and fissile materials (enriched uranium) it has amassed for assembling a bomb or missile warheads. This marks the moment that Iran goes nuclear and only a short time remains before it has an operational nuclear weapon.

Washington has always claimed that when the order to build a weapon was given in Tehran, the United States would know about it within a short time.

The US stealth drone RQ-170 was sent into Iranian airspace for the first time to find evidence to support this suspicion. On December 4 the Iranians downed the unmanned reconnaissance craft by intelligence or cyber means not yet fully clarified. The US - and most probably Israel too - then turned to other intelligence resources to find out what Iran was up to. According to debkafile's military and intelligence sources, they found evidence that Iran has in fact begun putting together components of a nuclear bomb or warhead.

This discovery prompted the latest statements by Mr Panetta and General Dempsey. The defense secretary put it into words when he said Tuesday, December: "Despite the efforts to disrupt the Iranian nuclear program, the Iranians have reached a point where they can assemble a bomb in a year or potentially less." The next day, General Dempsey said, "My biggest worry is they will miscalculate our resolve. Any miscalculation could mean that we are drawn into conflict, and that would be a tragedy for the region and the world."

The deadline is approaching for Greeks who have not yet paid a new property tax attached to their electricity bills. Many could lose their power supply by the end of the month; others have been given until January to pay up. Such is the resentment towards the austerity levy that groups of activists have promised civil disobedience, including by-passing the electricity company to re-connect those who have been cut off.

Mr Dimitriadies has decided not to pay the electricity bill with the new property tax attached to it. He says he cannot afford it and won't borrow the money because he is angry there is no exemption for people in his position. "They are asking us to pay a tax that we paid when we bought the house and the constructor paid when he built the house," he tells the BBC World Service. "Now we are being asked to pay it a third time or they will cut off our electricity. We feel we are being held hostage by the government," he says.

In cafes and tavernas, talk of the tax seeps into almost every conversation and many refer to it as the "haratsi", a name for the hated levy imposed on them under the Ottoman occupation. Even the union representing electricity workers at state run company DEI has called on its members to boycott the tax, describing it as "barbaric". Some workers have said they will refuse to carry out government orders to cut the supply to households that cannot afford to pay.

The Greek government further alienated itself when Deputy Prime Minister Theodoros Pangalos, part of the government that devised the tax, told Mega TV channel that he could not afford to pay the 7,500 euros (6,250 pounds, $9,785) bill for the many properties he owned. Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said the levy was being imposed on electricity bills because of widespread tax avoidance. "It is the only measure that can be enforced immediately and produce results quickly because it does not depend on the tax collecting mechanism," he said.

The goal of greater union is embedded in the 1981 Gulf Cooperation Council charter, but became a point of serious discussion as the so-called Arab Spring has continued to reshape regional geopolitics. The six-member GCC, holding its highest-level meeting since a wave of protests swept the Arab world this year, pledged closer military and security integration in a final statement read out on Saudi state television.

They agreed on "adopting King Abdullah's suggestion of moving from cooperation to unity that would support our people overcome the challenges faced by the GCC," the statement said. Earlier this year the GCC members - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE - began serious discussions aimed at forming a unified diplomatic and security confederation.

They also moved to expand the union earlier this year - opening talks with Jordan and Morocco - hoping to include all eight Sunni Arab monarchies. Abdullah's call to create an Arab super-state comes only one day after GCC officials revealed they want to include Egypt in the alliance. Saudi Arabia has long accused Iran of expansionist ambition and suspects Tehran of attempting to develop a nuclear bomb.

Dock workers became suspicious after finding explosives poorly stored on open pallets, and the missiles were then found in containers marked "fireworks". The managing director of the ship's owner, Thorco Shipping, expressed surprise. Thomas Mikkelsen told AFP news agency from Denmark that he was unaware of the matter.

Another company official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the ship had been detained in Finland and said the missiles could have been loaded on to the vessel by mistake, AFP adds. Police did not confirm Finnish media reports that the ship had also been scheduled to stop in South Korea, Reuters news agency reports.

The MS Thor Liberty left port in Emden, northern Germany, on 13 December and docked two days later in Kotka, southern Finland, to pick up a cargo of anchor chains, said Finnish Customs spokesman Petri Lounatmaa. It was bound for the Chinese port of Shanghai but there was no indication for whom the military cargo was destined.

Routine checks by Finland's traffic safety authority revealed a load of up to 160 tonnes of improperly packed nitroguanidine, a low-sensitivity explosive with a high detonation speed. "Actually in our investigation at the moment, we have got the information that we found 69 Patriot missiles on the ship and around 160 tonnes of explosives," said Detective Superintendent Timo Virtanen from the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation.

"This is where terrorism starts, in the education system." Ali Al-Ahmed, director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs, told Fox News. Al-Ahmed, a Saudi national, said the textbooks, made and paid for by the Saudi government, were smuggled out of the kingdom through confidential sources.

In a textbook for 10th-graders, printed for the 2010-2011 academic year, al-Ahmed said teenagers are taught barbaric practices. "They show students how to cut (the) hand and the feet of a thief," he said. In another textbook, for ninth-graders, the students are taught the annihilation of the Jewish people is imperative. One text reads in part: "The hour (of judgment) will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them... There is a Jew behind me come and kill him."

According to the textbook translations provided to Fox News, women are described as weak and irresponsible. And al-Ahmed said the textbooks call for homosexuals to be put to death "because they pose a danger at society, as the Saudi school books teaches." Al-Ahmed says the textbooks are both a Saudi and an American problem. "If you teach six million children in these important years of their lives, if you install that in their brain, no wonder we have so many Saudi suicide bombers."

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, there was an intense focus on Saudi Arabia and its educational teachings because almost all of the attackers were from the kingdom. In 2006, Saudi Ambassador to the US Prince Turki al-Faisal told the Chicago Council on Foreign Relationships that the Saudi king was determined to eradicate this ideology of hate.

"In Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah recognizes that above all else education is the key, and he has put forth a program of reforms in this area," al-Faisal said. "In recent years, the kingdom has reviewed all of its education practices and materials and has removed any element that is inconsistent with the needs of a modern education. Not only have we eliminated what is objectionable from old textbooks that were in our system, we have also implemented a comprehensive internal revision and modernization plan."

But the new textbooks, most from the 2010-2011 academic year, show the hateful speech remains.

Nestled amid plains so flat the locals joke you can watch your dog run away for miles, Fargo treasures its placid lifestyle, seldom pierced by the mayhem and violence common in other urban communities. North Dakota's largest city has averaged fewer than two homicides a year since 2005, and there's not been a single international terrorism prosecution in the last decade. But that hasn't stopped authorities in Fargo and its surrounding county from going on an $8 million buying spree to arm police officers with the sort of gear once reserved only for soldiers fighting foreign wars.

Every city squad car is equipped today with a military-style assault rifle, and officers can don Kevlar helmets able to withstand incoming fire from battlefield-grade ammunition. And for that epic confrontation - if it ever occurs - officers can now summon a new $256,643 armored truck, complete with a rotating turret. For now, though, the menacing truck is used mostly for training and appearances at the annual city picnic, where it's been parked near the children's bounce house.

"Most people are so fascinated by it, because nothing happens here," says Carol Archbold, a Fargo resident and criminal justice professor at North Dakota State University. "There's no terrorism here." Like Fargo, thousands of other local police departments nationwide have been amassing stockpiles of military-style equipment in the name of homeland security, aided by more than $34 billion in federal grants since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a Daily Beast investigation conducted by the Center for Investigative Reporting has found.