In an effort to attract a booming class of wealthy Muslim investors, Britain will be the first non-Islamic country to issue sovereign Islamic bonds, Prime Minister David Cameron has announced on Tuesday. Islamic finance is an opportunity not to be missed: Islamic investments have jumped 150 percent in the last seven years, and are due to be worth $2.1 trillion (£1.3 trillion) by 2014; Cameron told... 

Controlling social behavior: Proposal could ban criticism of Islam, feminism! A frightening proposal currently being considered by the European Parliament would direct governments to monitor citizens deemed “intolerant” and could even lead to a ban on all criticism of Islam and feminism. The European Framework National Statute for the Promotion of Tolerance (PDF), which was drafted by the European... 

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has censured alleged spying by the US National Security Agency (NSA) on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone communications. “Nobody, no democratic nation, will permit this violation of sovereignty and human and civil rights,” Rousseff said on Thursday, adding, “There will be a growing reaction” from... 

Press TV has conducted an interview with David Duke, former member of the House of Representatives, about Iran’s deputy ambassador to the UN warning Netanyahu against any miscalculation by planning to attack Iran in response to Netanyahu’s threat of acting alone to stop Iran nuclear program. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview. Press TV: First of all, what do you... 

“I was very shocked and couldn’t believe what I was hearing.” During a pre-deployment briefing, Fort Hood soldiers were told that Christians, Tea Party supporters and anti-abortion activists were a radical terror threat, enemies of America, and that anyone found to be supporting these groups would be subject to discipline under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. That’s the explosive claim... 

EU leaders say their relations with the US have been undermined by reports of NSA spying on European leaders and ordinary citizens. A partnership with America should be built on respect and trust, they said in a joint statement. The statement was released Friday amid the ongoing summit of top European politicians in Brussels. It said the reports of American surveillance in Europe have raised “deep... 

North Korea, not exactly known as a vacation destination, has opened a water park to improve its seriously dismal image. The Munsu Water Park, located east of the capital of Pyongyang, recently hosted an ostentatious opening. See photos here. Of course, the average citizen will not be able to afford the fun of a water slide. “The standard of living has deteriorated to extreme levels of deprivation... 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called President Obama over the German government’s suspicions the US could have tapped her mobile phone. Barack Obama assured Merkel that his country is not monitoring her communications. Earlier, the German government spokesman said that Berlin had information the US National Security Agency (NSA) could have been spying on Merkel. “We swiftly sent a request... 

The German ambassador in Athens Wolfgang Dold, spoke of investments planned to take place in Greece by German companies. When will they invest? After the EU, IMF and others directed entirely from Berlin, are finished looting everything in our country. Then the Germans and other foreign entities that exploit human souls will “invade” to analyze everything. Public property already is being sold... 

General practitioners in England have been receiving £50 bonuses for placing patients on controversial ‘death lists’ in order to reduce the number of occupied hospital beds. The move is yet another tactic aimed at cutting NHS costs, UK media reported. Each death which occurs outside an NHS hospital has been calculated to save the health system some £1,000 ($1,600) in England. On average, deaths... 

While in the West hundreds of thousands of demonstrators are protesting against the wide spread of genetically modified foods, Russia has taken a complex stance in relation to GMOs. On the one hand, the Russian President is hinting at the possibility of a total ban of such products, while on the other hand Russia has ratified international agreements that do not allow such bans. Meanwhile, a clear... 

Facing a shortage of supplies for lethal injections, US law enforcement officials have begun executing prisoners with an animal anesthetic that has not been approved at the federal level, with the first such execution coming this week. European pharmacies, citing a moral issue with capital punishment, have stopped sending certain drugs to regions of the US that still carry out the death penalty, areas... 

North Korea has slammed the three-nation naval drills involving US, South Korean and Japanese warships, threatening to ‘bury in the sea’ a US aircraft carrier. The Friday warning came a day after the US started a two-day joint military exercise with South Korea and Japan off the southern coast of the peninsula. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington, guided-missile ships, anti-submarine... 

A UK advertising watchdog has banned a controversial Home Office advert suggesting that illegal immigrants in the UK to ‘Go home or face arrest,’ saying that it was misleading. However, the ad was not ruled to be ‘offensive’ or ‘distressing.’ The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) absolved the government campaign of either attribute, despite the widespread belief that it was offensive... 

Highly-redacted documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws show the Australian Attorney-General’s Department prepared a secret briefing on the US PRISM spying program months before it was exposed in Edward Snowden’s leaks. The documents in question were requested and obtained by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). They reveal that the Attorney-General’s Department had a...