The five permanent Security Council members have directed the International Atomic Energy Agency to remand Iran's case to them. From Reuters:

The foreign ministers from China, Russia, the United States, France and Britain as well as Germany and the European Union, said after a dinner in London that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) must decide to bring Iran's case before the Council when the agency meets on Thursday in Vienna.

A senior U.S. official said the statement meant Russia and China were now on board with the United States and the European powers that there must be strong action taken by the IAEA in Vienna to discourage Tehran from pursuing atomic research which could enable the country to build a nuclear bomb.

"This is the most powerful message we could have hoped for," said a senior U.S. official, who said the discussions over dinner had been animated.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the ministers shared serious concerns about Iran's nuclear programs and agreed that an extensive period of "confidence-building" was required from Iran.

The Council could ultimately impose sanctions against Iran but there are many steps before this could happen.

Also posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto and Vince Aut Morire.

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(Moscow) This story is breaking world wide but little has come out of Russia.

From Reuters:

Russia's intelligence services accused British embassy officials on Monday of spying in Moscow after state television said diplomats had used a transmitter in a fake rock to secure state secrets.

"Yes. I can confirm that everything that was shown was true and based on our information," a spokesman for FSB intelligence told Reuters.

"The diplomats were shown to be involved in activities that were incompatible with their diplomatic status," he said, using diplomatic jargon to refer to spying.

"Four British diplomats are suspected," a Federal Security Service (FSB) spokesman said. "I am not ready to give their names yet but this is all being investigated."

"This was absolutely new spy technology."

Companion post at Interested-Participant.

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(Berlin) Two news outlets reported on Wednesday that German intelligence agents assisted the United States military during the invasion of Iraq. The German Foreign Minister has denied the allegations.

From Deutsche Welle:

In a front page story in the respected Suddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), renowned investigative journalist Hans Leyendecker and colleague Wolfgang Krach quoted a high-ranking German security source as saying that two Federal Intelligence Agency agents (BND) in Baghdad helped the US military assess targets during the air invasion of Iraq in the war's opening weeks.

The office of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who thrust US-German relations into an ice age through his disapproval of the Iraq invasion, reportedly knew about the cooperation and approved of it, according to the article. The cooperation was made after a "political decision" by Schroeder's coalition government. "This wasn't the decision of some department head," the SZ quoted their source as saying.

The report was indirectly confirmed by a former US defense official in the German television program "Panorama." Whereas the article in the SZ said the agents were involved in reporting targets on the ground that shouldn't be attacked, the US defense official claimed the agents did much more.

The BND gave "direct support" in "selecting targets," said the official. One example of that support: a BND agent drove to the Baghdad district Mansur in an armored limousine in order to confirm US suspicions that a caravan of cars carrying Iraqi officials, including Saddam Hussein, was driving through the area. The information he relayed on April 7, 2003, was reportedly used in an immediate bomb attack on a complex of buildings in which at least 12 people died.

All the German leftists are having a fit.

Companion post at Interested-Participant.

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Yes, that Paris. The one in Fwance. If you were in London anyway, and you had the time and money, would you go?

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Reports are circulating that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has died. Certainly he is very ill and he may very well be brain dead. Reports of favorable brain scans are for bleeding only.

World Tribune : Sharon was declared dead by physicians at Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital before 1 p.m. Israeli time [6 a.m. EST]. Authorities have already been notified of the death, and a government announcement was expected to be issued over the next hour.... Â… A computed tomography scan taken on Friday morning showed little to no brain activity in Sharon. At that point, Sharon's son, Omri, called aides and senior officials to the hospital to prepare for an announcement of the prime minister's death.

Hat Tip : Filthy and Jay at Stop the ACLU who put it best.

If he isnÂ’t dead, he is at deathÂ’s doorway.

Also Michelle Malkin has updates and a roundup of Sharon Related links.

No major MSM source so far has confirmed this. But considering the complications Mr. Sharon has suffered the last 24 hours I feel it is likely that he may indeed pass on.

CBC's Adrienne Arsenault reports the following :

The CBC's Adrienne Arsenault, who has outside the hospital awaiting word of Sharon's condition, said there is intense interest in his prognosis, and some incorrect information is circulating. "There have been many rumours over the past 24 hours that Sharon had, in fact, actually died or was on life support," she said.

Developing....

Mere Rhetoric has more

Another doctor they got on the phone: "... despite this good news, the damage is undoubtedly extensive..."

Updated: Mr Sharon has indeed survived and is showing some response to pain. Demosophist adds that sever strokes can be survived. I agree My grandfather had two in a row and althouhg it took two years he did recover very well. So it's possible Mr. Sharon will do OK. But it''s a long hard road back and only time will tell.

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Well, we haven't even gotten a full week into 2006 and the Idiot of the Year has already reared his ugly head. There may be bigger idiots as the year goes on, but I certainly don't see how at this point.

This idiot makes the ACLU look almost tame by comparison as he attempts to fell the entire Catholic Church in one fatal blow. Luigi Cascioli of Italy has decided to try and force the Italian court system to prove that Jesus never existed.

"I started this lawsuit because I wanted to deal the final blow against the Church, the bearer of obscurantism and regression," Cascioli told Reuters.

Cascioli says Righi, and by extension the whole Church, broke two Italian laws. The first is "Abuso di Credulita Popolare" (Abuse of Popular Belief) meant to protect people against being swindled or conned. The second crime, he says, is "Sostituzione di Persona", or impersonation.

"The Church constructed Christ upon the personality of John of Gamala," Cascioli claimed, referring to the 1st century Jew who fought against the Roman army.

Now, I'm no lawyer, but I seem to see a TON of loopholes here. First and foremost being that even a large number of athiests admit that Jesus was a real person. They don't necessarily attribute any diety to Him, but they do admit his existence. Heck, even Muslims go that far. It would seem to me that you're going to have an extraordinarily hard time convincing a judge of ANY stripe to conclusively rule that Jesus never existed.

Secondly, you're going to have just as hard a time trying to find a judge that will label the entire Catholic Church as a giant "pyramid scheme." That's just ludicrous to begin with. The public fallout of such a decision would be disasterous. Not to mention the political hornet's nest you'd open up.

Yes, I know there have been specific churches that have been called up on charges of fraud and other such activities. I have never denied that there are some corrupt pastors who use God to make money. But I'd think if you're going to target an entire religion, you might want to start with one that everyone (except Tom Cruise) recognizes as a scam. Even L. Ron Hubbard admitted that Scientology is nothing but a joke.

At least the Italian court is attempting to do the right thing. According to the story, the judge had tried several times to dismiss the case, but only ends up getting tangled up in appeals from the plaintiff. I'm fairly sure of the outcome of this idiot's case, but I'll have to follow the story closely anyway to make sure.

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(Tallmansville, West Virginia) Contrary to earlier reports that twelve miners survived, officials are reporting that there is only one survivor.

From NBC4i.com:

Mine company officials have confirmed that only one of the 13 miners who hadn't been heard from since an early Monday morning explosion at an Upshur County, W.Va., mine survived the ordeal.

Ben Hatfield, CEO of Sago Mine owner International Coal Group, told reporters that there was a "miscommunication" earlier when rescuers in the mine that had indicated all 12 miners were alive.

Hatfield said the initial report from the rescue team to the command center indicated multiple survivors, but that information was incorrect.

Condolences to the families who lost their loved ones.

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Russian Programmer Develops Unofficial Fix

All versions of Microsoft Windows are now thought to be vulnerable to viruses and spyware exploiting Windows Metafile (WMF) files.

From Financial Times via The Drudge Report:

The flaw, which allows hackers to infect computers using programs maliciously inserted into seemingly innocuous image files, was first discovered last week. But the potential for damaging attacks increased dramatically at the weekend after a group of computer hackers published the source code they used to exploit it. Unlike most attacks, which require victims to download or execute a suspect file, the new vulnerability makes it possible for users to infect their computers with spyware or a virus simply by viewing a web page, e-mail or instant message that contains a contaminated image.

“We haven’t seen anything that bad yet, but multiple individuals and groups are exploiting this vulnerability,” Mr Hyppönen said. He said that every Windows system shipped since 1990 contained the flaw.

...some security experts were urging system administrators to take the unusual step of installing an unofficial patch created at the weekend by Ilfak Guilfanov, a Russian computer programmer.

Also posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto.

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