June 3, 2012 | 8:47 pm

Report: Israel fitting German subs with nuclear missiles

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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Technically, Israel doesn’t have nuclear weapons. But no one actually believes that. JTA reports on a story in Der Spiegel:

Israel is equipping submarines built in Germany with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles, according to Der Spiegel magazine.

The magazine also reported Sunday that the German government has known about Israel’s nuclear weapons program for decades, despite its official denials.

Last month, Israel received its fourth Dolphin–class submarine from Germany, which is slated to become operational in 2013. Germany largely has funded Israel’s purchase of the submarines.

According to Spiegel, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the magazine that Germans should be “proud” that they have secured Israel’s existence “for many years.”

Read the rest here.

June 2, 2012 | 6:21 pm

Tibetan monks continue self-immolation to protest Chinese rule

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Photo by Wikipedia/John Hill

This is still happening to protest Chinese rule of Tibet, via the New York Times:

One young Tibetan monk walked down a street kicking Chinese military vehicles, then left a suicide note condemning an official ban on a religious ceremony. Another smiled often, and preferred to talk about Buddhism rather than politics. A third man, a former monk, liked herding animals with nomads.

All had worn the crimson robes of Kirti Monastery, a venerable institution of learning ringed by mountains on the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau. All set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule. Two died.

At least 38 Tibetans have set fire to themselves since 2009, and 29 have died, according to the International Campaign for Tibet, an advocacy group in Washington. The 2,000 or so monks of Kirti Monastery in Sichuan Province have been at the center of the movement, one of the biggest waves of self-immolations in modern history. The acts evoke the self-immolations in the early 1960s by Buddhist monks in South Vietnam to protest the corrupt government in Saigon.

Read the story about the Tibetan monastery at the heart of the immolations here.

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June 2, 2012 | 4:04 pm

Southern Baptist’s Richard Land loses radio program over plagiarism accusations

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Photo by Wikipedia/Ser Amantio di Nicolao

Richard Land, the embattled Southern Baptist leader who had been accused of plagiarism when he claimed on his radio program that civil rights leaders and President Obama were using the Trayvon Martin case to fuel racial tension, has been stripped of his radio show. He will, however, keep his post as head the the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

Religion News Service reports:

The [Southern Baptist] investigators chided Land for “his hurtful, irresponsible, insensitive, and racially charged words” in a broadcast of the “Richard Land Live!” show in which Land accused Obama and black civil rights activists of using the Trayvon Martin shooting to foment racial strife and boost the president’s re-election chances.

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Land initially dismissed criticism of the racial tenor of his comments, but two weeks later it emerged that his comments were lifted from a Washington Times column without attribution.

Read the rest here. The Washington Times column from which Land allegedly lifted is here. And for a “layered” look at Land that gets beyond the typical hero or villain “cardboard cutouts,” Bobby Ross points to this story in the Tennessean.

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