MAIL OnLine: US Missiles Hit Iranian Village!!

Two American missiles struck a village in south-west Iran early today, based on a report by the country's Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). IRNA had said yesterday that three people were injured when an earlier US missile struck an oil depot in Abadan. The state-run news agency also said British and American jets had entered Iranian airspace several times. The two rockets hit Manyuhi village near the border with Iraq's Al-Faw Peninsula, an Iranian military commander told IRNA. He gave no details of casualties or damage. "In the border city of Arvand-Kenar, the invading American and British airplanes violated the airspace of the Islamic Republic of Iran three times," the commander said. "In two cases, two rockets hit the Manyuhi village." The governor of Abadan told IRNA that three people, including a guard at the oil depot, had been released from hospital after receiving treatment. Iran has strongly condemned the US-led military assault on Iraq.

Donald Kirk: Uncle Jang emerges as real power in North Korea.

North Korea's anointed "Great Successor" Kim Jong-un will have to rule from under the thumb of an uncle widely regarded as "the regent" who is both coaching him on how to govern, and telling him what to do. That is the view of South Korean analysts as Kim Jong-il lies in a glass coffin in Pyongyang, and weeping mourners file by for a last glimpse of the man who ruled North Korea for 17 years, before dying last Saturday. Behind the scenes of the mourning, a backstage plan to ensure a smooth transition of power has thrust Jang Song-thaek into the spotlight. The brother-in-law of the former leader is thought to wield the most power in the North Korean administration and is joined by his wife Kim Kyong-hui, and the highest ranking military commander, General Ri Young -ho in the country's most powerful decision-making group. Ha Tae-keung, director of a small short -wave radio station that broadcasts news into North Korea for two hours a day, believes Jang exercises the most power of all those now scheming for influence in this time of transition. "It's not a junta," Mr Ha said. "One person has the most power, and that's Jang." Kim Jong-un, his father's third son, appears to be the unquestioned heir to the appearance of power, but clearly will be following Jang's advice before attempting to assert his own authority.

Phoebe Greenwood:If Jesus were to come this year, Bethlehem would be closed!

If Joseph and Mary were making their way to Bethlehem today, the Christmas story would be a little different, says Father Ibrahim Shomali, a parish priest in the town. The couple would struggle to get into the city, let alone find a hotel room. "If Jesus were to come this year, Bethlehem would be closed," says the priest of Bethlehem's Beit Jala parish. "He would either have to be born at a checkpoint or at the separation wall. Mary and Joseph would have needed Israeli permission, or to have been tourists. "This really is the big problem for Palestinians in Bethlehem: What will happen when they close us off completely?" Bethlehem is the heart of Christian Palestine, and it swells with pride every Christmas. Manger Square is transformed into a grotto of lights and stalls crowned by a towering Christmas tree. Strings of illuminated angels, stars and bells festoon the streets. But just a few minutes' drive to the north,the festive atmosphere stops abruptly. A strip of Israeli settlements built on 18 square km of what was once northern Bethlehem threatens to cut the city off from its historic twin, Jerusalem. To the Israeli authorities, these have been neighborhoods of Jerusalem since 1967. One of the settlements, Har Homa, is built on land where angels are said to have announced the birth of Christ to local shepherds. A narrow corridor of land between Har Homa and another settlement, Gilo, still connects Bethlehem to Jerusalem but the construction of Givat Hamatos, a new settlement announced in October will fill this in a matter of years!

The Telegraph: Too Late for Research into Deadly Bird Flu Strain!

The US government is unlikely to succeed in suppressing details of controversial experiments that have created highly infectious forms of the bird flu virus, experts have warned. Two scientific journals have come under pressure not to publish findings of research on the mutant strains of H5N1 over fears that terrorists could use the information to create bio-weapons. However, scientists claim that the plea from the US National Science Advisory Board for Bio-security (NSABB) comes too late because details of the research have already been shared among flu experts: "This horse is out of the barn," Professor Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist and bio-defense expert at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey, told the journal Nature. "At this point, it is utterly futile to be discussing restricting the publication of this information." He added: "The work should have been reviewed at the national or international level before being performed, and should have been restricted at a national or international level before being performed." Others argue that keeping the science secret could hamper efforts to find new vaccines and drugs to combat an infectious form of human H5N1 .

Bill Frezza: Exactly What is Crony Capitalism?

President Obama, progressive politicians, Occupy protesters, and leftist intellectuals are having a field day attacking what they call the failures and excesses of capitalism. They declare wealth to be prima facie evidence of perfidy, making no distinction as to how it was obtained. They preach equality, not just in opportunity but in economic outcome. In their eyes, all members of 1% are already guilty, so economic justice demands that the rich be heavily taxed, not just to lift others up, but to bring them down. Some defenders of capitalism draw a sharp distinction between those who obtained their wealth by satisfying willing customers through free exchange, and these are called Crony Capitalists, although they should be called "Market Capitalists". If the defenders of capitalism hope to win over fair-minded fellow citizens, we need to define these terms and answer some basic questions. In what way are Crony Capitalists and Market Capitalists the same, and in what way are they different? What makes the former immoral and the latter virtuous? Why are Crony Capitalists a threat to democracy and prosperity, while Market Capitalists are essential to both? How is it that an ever larger number of Market Capitalists are being corrupted, turning into Crony Capitalists, and what can we do to reverse that trend?

Pravda: Russia Works on 100-Ton Ballistic Missile!

In connection with the plans of the United States to develop the air defense system in Europe, in close vicinity to Russia's borders, and because of the unwillingness of the US side to provide any guarantees, the Russian Federation continues to take measures to preserve parity in the field. In particular, Russia's Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) will be renovated with the help of state-of-the-art Topol-M and Yars complexes during the upcoming ten years. In addition, Russia will pass into service a new intercontinental missile of enormous power. "The decision about the creation of the new silo-based missile system with a liquid-fuel heavy missile has been made. The complex will have increased possibilities in overcoming the prospective missile defense system of the United States," Sergei Karakev, the commander of the missile troops said. The new missile, with a mass of 100 tons, is said to replace the world-known "Voevoda" ICBM. In the West, this missile is known as "Satan." In the meantime, Russia has already started working to create the middle-class newly equipped missile. The new missile is to be passed into service in 2015, according to Ria Novosti. "Russia does not stand against the US missile defense system, but against the creation of the missile defense system which would be directly aimed to reduce the possibilities of the Russian nuclear containment forces."

George Russell: EPA Ponders Expanded Regulatory Power.

The US Environmental Protection Agency wants to change how it analyses problems and makes decisions, in a way that would give it vastly expanded power to regulate businesses, communities and ecosystems in the name of "sustainable development," the centerpiece of a global United Nations conference slated for Rio de Janeiro next June. The major focus of the EPA thinking is a weighty study the agency commissioned last year from the National Academy of Science. Published in August, the study, entitled "Sustainability and the US EPA," cost nearly $700,000 and involved a team of a dozen outside experts, and about half as many National Academies staff. Its aim is how to integrate sustainability as one of the key drivers within the regulatory responsibilities of EPA. The panel who wrote the study declares part of its job to provide guidance to EPA on how it might implement its existing statutory authority to contribute more fully to a more sustainable develop -ment trajectory for the United States, or, in other words, how to use existing laws to new ends. According to the Academies, the sustainability study both incorporates and goes beyond an approach based on assessing and managing the risks posed by pollutants that has largely shaped environmental policy since the 1980's.