San Diegans could face 6 years in prison and fines of $100,000 dollars a day for washing their car in the driveway or failing to pick up dog poop under new EPA-mandated environmental regulations related to water quality. - Although residents of the city are forced to drink toxic waste in their water supply in the form of sodium fluoride, measures imposed as a consequence of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water Act would turn the most mundane of activities into a criminal offense.

“California’s latest experiment in faith-based policymaking is being unleashed today on the San Diego public, as regional water-quality officials begin hearings on new regulations that seem crafted to turn most owners of a car, house or dog into criminals within a decade or so. We wish we were exaggerating.” (Source)

According to numerous media reports and witnesses, alleged Newtown, Connecticut shooter Adam Lanza was a 'genius' with computers. And yet, we are told that Lanza apparently left no online footprint. The question must be asked: Was the electronic history of Adam Lanza scrubbed?

Many articles, including witnesses' accounts, have described Adam Lanza's advanced skills with computers, a skill-level common with Asperger's sufferers. Indeed, many computer hackers have Asperger's syndrone -- Adrian Lamo, Ryan Cleary, and Gary McKinnon, for example. And yet, Adam Lanza 'left no online footprint?' A Honolulu Star Advertiser/New York Times article noted the alleged shooter's lack of electronic footprints. "In his brief adulthood [Adam] Lanza had left few footprints, electronic or otherwise. He apparently had no Facebook page, unlike his older brother, Ryan... Lanza did belong to a technology club at school that held 'LAN parties' -- short for local area network -- in which students would gather at a member's home, hook up their computers into a small network and play games, The Associated Press reported." Anyone with enough computer knowledge to attend and participate in LAN parties would likely have an online footprint. Where's Adam Lanza's?

Kerry, who was rumored to be Clinton's choice to follow her to the State Department, currently chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. - President Obama has chosen Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, according to a report. Obama will announce his choice of Kerry in the coming weeks, the Chicago Sun-Times reported, citing a source. The White House has not confirmed the selection. It is widely known that Kerry was interested in the job, and the former presidential nominee emerged as the clear favorite after another contender, UN Ambassador Susan Rice, withdrew from consideration last week. Rice, who many believe was Obama's first choice, backed out before facing a contentious confirmation battle. Several key Republicans vowed to fight her selection, believing that she misled Congress and the American public about the investigation into September's deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

CBS Local: Obama Picks Kerry For Next Secretary Of State

Syria rebels behind Aqrab massacre, not Assad forces. - A British media report has revealed that anti-Syrian government rebels are responsible for the feared massacre of hundreds of civilians in the town of Aqrab rather than the government forces. The eye-witness accounts in the Channel 4 report aired on Friday also suggest the rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad government forces are not Syrian freedom fighters as propagated by western-affiliated media and are rather terrorists exported to the Middle Eastern country to topple Assad.

Planned deployment of US-made Patriot missiles in Turkey is a "provocative" action which could bring about "uncalculated" results, Iran's foreign minister said on Sunday.

"The deployment of Patriot missiles will achieve nothing but to provoke and, God forbid, result in being forced into an uncalculated action," Ali Akbar Salehi said in remarks reported by the official IRNA news agency. "Their deployment will be more provocative rather than deterrent," he said and warning that the Patriot missiles would not "help regional security." "The Patriot (missiles) are threatening. Each one of them is a black dot on the map, (setting the stage) to create a world war," said General Hassan Firouzabadi, Iran's armed forces chief of staff. "This is very dangerous for everyone, and even for the future of Europe," he said.

His comments came a day after Iran's top general issued a stern warning to Ankara over its planned hosting of the missile batteries, saying it was part of a Western plot to "create a world war."

Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy Rear-Admiral Ali Fadavi says Iran has launched the production line of ScanEagle drones. - “The production line of ScanEagle drones has been launched in Iran and it has already been employed by the IRGC Navy and Aerospace Division,” Fadavi said on Monday. Fadavi added that the US ScanEagle drone recently captured by the IRGC in the Persian Gulf was the third aircraft of its kind downed by Iranian forces; the capture of the previous two ScanEagles had not been publicized. Fadavi announced on December 4 that a US ScanEagle drone had been captured by Iranian forces over the Persian Gulf upon the aircraft’s intrusion into the Iranian airspace. Iran has released footage of the captured drone, which is a long-endurance aircraft manufactured by Insitu, a subsidiary of Boeing.

Packed into hand luggage and tucked into jacket pockets, roughly hewed bars of gold are being flown out of Kabul with increasing regularity, confounding Afghan and American officials who fear money launderers have found a new way to spirit funds from the country.Most of the gold is being carried on commercial flights destined for Dubai, according to airport security reports and officials. The amounts carried by single couriers are often heavy enough that passengers flying from Kabul to the Persian Gulf emirate would be well advised to heed warnings about the danger of bags falling from overhead compartments. One courier, for instance, carried nearly 60 pounds of gold bars, each about the size of an iPhone, aboard an early morning flight in mid-October, according to an airport security report. The load was worth more than $1.5 million. The gold is fully declared and legal to fly. Some, if not most, is legitimately being sent by gold dealers seeking to have old and damaged jewelry refashioned into new pieces by skilled craftsmen in the Persian Gulf, said Afghan officials and gold dealers. But gold dealers in Kabul and current and former Kabul airport officials say there has been a surge in shipments since early summer. The talk of a growing exodus of gold from Afghanistan has been spreading among the business community here, and in recent weeks has caught the attention of Afghan and American officials. The officials are now puzzling over the origin of the gold — very little is mined in Afghanistan, although larger mines are planned — and why so much appears to be heading for Dubai.

A Palestinian woman stands on her land that was
bulldozed by Israeli forces in Qalqilya.

Israeli Forces Continue Systematic Attacks against Palestinian Civilians and Property in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt)

During the reporting period, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian child in the West Bank. In addition, a Palestinian civilian and a member of an armed group died of wounds they had sustained in the latest Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces also wounded 8 Palestinian civilians, including 1 child; 6 civilians were wounded in the West Bank while 2 others were wounded in the Gaza Strip. In the West Bank, in an example of excessive use of lethal force, on 12 December 2012, Israeli forces killed a 17-year old Palestinian child when a female Israeli soldier from the Border Guard Forces opened fire at him and killed him. According to the findings of investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 18:30 on Wednesday, 12 December 2012, Mohammed Ziad Awad al-Salayma, 17, was on his way home after buying a cake to celebrate his birthday, which was on the same day. When he arrived at an Israeli checkpoint that is established at the entrance of al-Masharqa neighborhood, Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint were detaining a child, who had a plastic pistol. Once al-Salayma reached the checkpoint, an Israeli female soldier fired at him from a close range; as a result, he was hit by three bullets that penetrated his body and killed him immediately. Israeli forces kept his body for over two hours before delivering him to an ambulance belonging to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS). As a precondition for the release of his body, Israeli forces prohibited the burial of al-Salayma in a cemetery close to the limitation zone in al-Sheikh area in the centre of the Old City. On 11 December 2012, Israeli forces wounded 1 Palestinian civilian when they moved into Ni'lin village, west of Ramallah, where dozens of boys were protesting. Israeli forces opened fire and wounded 1 Palestinian civilian in the left leg.

Break-in at home of reporter who probed military intelligence activities. - Reporters Without Borders urges the Chilean authorities to conduct a full and rapid investigation into yesterday’s burglary of the Santiago home of Mauricio Weibel, the correspondent of the German news agency DPA and Reporters Without Borders and president of the South American Press Correspondents Union. It was no ordinary burglary. Those who broke into Weibel’s home knew what they wanted and found it – Weibel’s laptop containing the files from his investigation into the role played by Chile’s military intelligence agencies during the 1973-1990 military dictatorship. The files were the basis of a book by Weibel entitled “Illegal association: the dictatorship’s secret archives,” which the Chilean publishing house Ceibo published in October.