Opponents of a planned Islamic community center two blocks from Ground Zero in New York shouted "Enough is enough" at supporters of the project, as the two sides squared off today in dueling demonstrations. The project, which is called Park51, has created a national debate over religious tolerance and sensitivity to the victims of the 9/11 attacks. The proposed center is two blocks from the site of the World Trade Center. It has often been referred to as the "Ground Zero Mosque," although its supporters say it would mainly be a community center, not principally a mosque. Critics charge that having what they call a mosque so close to what they consider hallowed ground is an insult to the 9/11 victims' families, especially because the attack was perpetrated in the name of Islam.

Bill Van Auken: The “Ground Zero mosque”: Obama cowers before right-wing hysteria
Arthur Silber: The Most Terrifying of All Battles: When the Enemy Lies Within Ourselves

Police have arrested the person who showed Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) can be tampered with in India in a sting operation. Today, at wee hours Maharashtra police landed up at the residence of Hari Prasad in Hyderabad, a technologist and Technical coordinator of VeTA to arrest him. The arrest was made on the flimsy charge of ‘theft of EVM’ used for vulnerability demonstration by Hari Prasad and a team of security researchers that included Alex Halderman, professor of computer science, University of Michigan and Rop Gonggrijp, a security researcher from Netherlands along with a team of their colleagues. Earlier, police came to Hyderabad in the first week of August and recorded a statement on the EVM they had used for exposing the vulnerability of EVMs. They summoned him to Mumbai for further questioning. Hari Prasad could not go as he was busy with his professional work. Then, the sudden arrest happened this morning. Over the past one year, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has been lying blatantly and willfully to ensure continued use of EVMs at all costs. It attributed all kinds of qualities to its EVMs: “totally tamper proof, perfect, fail safe and requiring no improvement” etc. etc. When Hari Prasad agreed to meet the ECI’s challenge to demonstrate tamperability of EVMs, the ECI backed out imposing silly, unscientific restrictions.

WARNING: Video contains graphic images.

Music: This music used for this video is by Craig Armstrong. The title of the track is 'Escape' and it is from the Plunkett and Macleane OST. Photography: Most of the photos are by Robert Knoth and are used with permission. The remaining photos are by Paul Fusco. Music © Warner Music Group/Craig Armstrong. Photography © Robert Knoth/Paul Fusco. Not all photos are related to this accident, some are added for effect. If you would like to help some of the victims of this terrible event, please visit: http://www.bridgestobelarus.org.uk/ (Registered UK Charity)

A top Iranian lawmaker warns Israel against a military strike on Iran's nuclear sites, saying any move against the country will lead to Israel's annihilation.

"Any military operation by the Zionist regime [Israel] against a nuclear facility of the Islamic Republic will definitely tantamount to the start of the regime's annihilation," Head of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Iran's Parliament (Majlis) Alaeddin Boroujerdi said on Saturday.

He added that Israel should "consider the issue very seriously" and recommended Israel not to commit such a mistake, ISNA reported. PressTV: 'Attack on Iran, a military suicide'.

Four Israeli warplanes and one spy drone have illegally flown over Lebanon's airspace in the third day of provocative violations of the country's sovereignty. On Friday, the Israeli aircraft entered the southern border town of Naqoura, the Lebanese Army said in a statement. The statement added that the aircraft flew over several areas before heading out. Several similar overflights have been reported since Wednesday, when 10 Israeli planes were spotted violating the country's airspace. Israel carries out such flights on an almost daily basis, claiming they are surveillance missions. These flights are in breach of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which obliges Israel to keep out of Lebanon following its 2006 war on the country, which left some 1,200 Lebanese dead.

BOB CAVNAR: “If it [oil & gas] comes into the formation, basically, you’ve got uncontrolled flow to the sea floor. And that is the doomsday scenario.”

Why is this important? At an August 19, 2010 press conference, National Incident Commander Thad Allen referenced the possibility that that formation around the wellbore may have collapsed.

As you might have heard, scientists are finding gigantic under oil plumes from the BP spill, including one that is more than 22 miles long, more than a mile wide and 650 feet deep. On Thursday, Dr. Ian MacDonald and and Dr. Lisa Suatoni testified to a Congressional subcommittee that the oil will stay toxic, and will not degrade much further, for decades. MacDonald is an expert in deep-ocean extreme communities including natural hydrocarbon seeps, gas hydrates, and mud volcano systems, a former long-time NOAA scientist, and a professor of Biological Oceanography at Florida State University. Suatoni has a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Yale, and is Senior Scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council's Oceans Program.

Dr. MacDonald told Congress that the oil has already degraded, emulsified and evaporated about as much as its going to, and it is going to very resistant for further biodegradation. The oil will be in the environment for a long-time, he said, and the imprint of the BP discharge will be detectable "for the rest of my life" (he's 58, and the average lifespan for American men is about 76; so that's some 18 years). Dr. Suatoni told Congress that oil which goes into low-oxygen zones will remain in a full toxic form for decades. Florida Oil Spill Law: ALERT: Divers find seafloor near beaches “COVERED” in “brown residue” from MS to Florida — KIDS swimming around “GIANT POOLS of oily tar balls” big as watermelons.

The former Israeli soldier whose Facebook photos of Palestinian detainees shocked the world, has today angered critics further by saying “it would be fun to kill Arabs, even slaughter them” during a public discussion on Facebook. The photos of former IDF soldier Eden Abergil’s posing with blindfolded Palestinian detainees has caused international outrage, and become the focus of Israeli media, but Abergil added fuel to the fire Thursday by writing that she would happily “kill or even slaughter” Arabs. AWIP: ‘Facebook soldier’: I'd love to butcher Arabs.

Redress: A case of decency deficit: Israel’s sickness goes beyond one soldier and her Facebook pictures. The problem goes beyond Eden Abargil. In fact she is only the latest public symptom of an indecent state and ideology (Zionism). For a long time both have done nothing but harm to the Jewish people and religion. It is for their sake, as well as for the long-suffering Palestinians, that the treatment of isolation must be attempted.

Assange: no case to answer: The founder of WikiLeaks said he was the victim of a smear campaign last night after Swedish prosecutors withdrew an arrest warrant involving a charge of rape. The warrant was withdrawn less than a day after being issued, with Swedish authorities saying it was based on an unfounded accusation. The accusation had been labelled a dirty trick yesterday by Julian Assange and his group, who are preparing to release a fresh batch of classified US documents from the Afghan war, despite the furore surrounding the last batch released. Yesterday morning, Swedish prosecutors had urged Assange - a 39-year-old Australian whose whereabouts were unclear - to turn himself in to police to face questioning in one case involving suspicions of rape and another based on an accusation of molestation. But later Eva Finnie, the chief prosecutor, said in announcing the withdrawal of the arrest warrant that: "I don't think there is reason to suspect that he has committed rape." She did not address the status of the molestation case, a less serious charge that would not lead to an arrest warrant.

Assange had dismissed the rape allegations in a statement on WikiLeaks' Twitter page, saying "the charges are without basis and their issue at this moment is deeply disturbing".

In a brief email to the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, Assange wrote: "Why these accusations have come at this time is an interesting question. I have not been contacted by the police. The claims are false." PressTV: Assange: Pentagon behind rape charges.

A lawyer representing the whistle-blowing Web site WikiLeaks says U.S. government officials have been given codes and passwords granting them online access to official U.S. government documents that WikiLeaks so far has not published. Timothy Matusheski, a lawyer from Hattiesburg, Miss., who says he represents whistle-blowers and has been in touch with both WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and at least one government official involved in investigations of WikiLeaks, said the site had set up a “secure channel” through which authorized users could access the unpublished material. He said credentials for using this channel had been forwarded to representatives of the U.S. government whom he did not identify. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian prime minister negotiates with independent lawmakers to hang on to power. Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she started negotiating with independent lawmakers Sunday in a bid to cling to power because no major party won a majority of parliamentary seats in Australia's general elections. Gillard said she hoped to enlist support for her center-left Labor Party and has held preliminary talks with three independents in the House of Representatives, an independent candidate whose seat is not yet assured and a lawmaker from the Greens party. Both the center-left Labor, which had ruled for the past three years, and the conservative Liberal Party-led coalition opposition have conceded that neither is likely to claim the 76 seats needed to form government in the 150-seat House of Representatives.

"It is clear that neither party has earned the right to government in its own right," Gillard told reporters. "It's my intention to negotiate in good faith an effective agreement to form government."

But Liberal leader Tony Abbott said the loss of voter support for Labor that cost the government so many of its 83 seats showed that Australians wanted the government to change. France24: Australian leaders court independents as hung parliament looms.

VERY LOUD SOUNDTRACK! TURN DOWN SPEAKER VOLUME BEFORE STARTING VIDEO!

The recent poll results that nearly one in five Americans believe (incorrectly) that Obama is a Muslim is just more evidence that a small but significant percent of Americans will believe just about any cockamamie story. Of course, it doesn’t help when you have people like Rev. Franklin Graham (son of Billy Graham) spouting nonsense like this on ABC:

I think the president’s problem is that he was born a Muslim, his father was a Muslim. The seed of Islam is passed through the father like the seed of Judaism is passed through the mother. He was born a Muslim, his father gave him an Islamic name.

Nevermind the truth — that Obama’s father was an atheist, not a Muslim. Not to mention that if being given an Islamic name makes you Islamic, then everyone named Jesus (or David or Ruth) must be a Jew. And if the seed of Islam is passed through the father and the seed of Judiasm is passed through the mother, then what is the child of a Muslim man and a Jewish woman? Or as PZ Myers speculates, are the offspring of Muslim women and Jewish men automatically atheists?