THE MOST IMPORTANT NEWS

The most important news for Tuesday, July 20th, 2010....

The Jerusalem Post is reporting that Israel has managed to convince the Obama administration to put the option of a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities back on the table.

Iran says its homemade missiles are capable of targeting enemy positions across the Middle East regardless of their number or nature.

The CIA is investigating whether Shahram Amiri, the Iranian nuclear scientist who defected to the U.S. but last week flew back to Tehran, was a double agent.

Top Secret America - the two-year Washington Post investigation that has the U.S. intelligence community in a state of panic.

The Obama administration is warning that the Washington Post article could blow the cover of contract companies doing top-secret work for the government.

The United States is sending the aircraft carrier USS George Washington to South Korea this week in a display of "the strength of our alliance and our constant readiness to defend the Republic of Korea," the ship's commander said on Monday.

China will have 2,000 missiles aimed at its rival Taiwan by the end of the year, several hundred more than the current number.

Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro took his warning of impending nuclear war to Cuba's Foreign Ministry on Friday, where he explained the reasons for his dire prediction in his fifth public appearance in 10 days.

Tests on the ruptured BP well in the Gulf of Mexico will go on for another 24 hours as federal and company officials try to explain "anomalous" pressure readings and possible leaks.

The federal government's oil spill response director says testing has revealed that there is a "detected seep a distance from the well" and has ordered BP to quickly notify the government if other leaks are found.

It is being reported that BP is claiming that any new leak discovered near the damaged well might be natural seep.

Louisiana Republican Senator David Vitter is accusing Barack Obama of trying to move the BP oil disaster off the front page.

More than 2,000 firefighters have finally extinguished a fire that raged for more than 15 hours after two oil pipeline exploded at a Chinese port.

According to an audit by the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the Treasury Department's push to have General Motors and Chrysler quickly shrink their dealership networks failed to properly consider economic issues such as lost jobs and lost auto sales and was based on false assumptions of cost savings.

Faced with a $118 million budget deficit, the city of San Jose, California recently decided it could no longer afford its own janitors. So the city's budget called for dropping its custodial staff and hiring outside contractors to clean its city hall and airport, saving about $4 million.

Moody's has downgraded Irish government bonds, blaming banking liabilities, weak growth prospects and a substantial increase in the debt to GDP ratio.

European equity and credit markets are bracing for volatile trading after the International Monetary Fund and the European Union dramatically withdrew a multibillion financing deal for Hungary over the weekend.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will need to hire about 800 new people to carry out the Wall Street reform legislation, the head of the regulatory agency plans to tell lawmakers.

Are we approaching the end of a debt supercycle?

Shocked by past deals with Italy and Greece, European governments are now excluding Goldman Sachs from sovereign bond sales.

Prominent economists in China are calling for their government to sell off U.S. Treasuries in favor of tangible assets such as gold.

Is the world credit bubble getting ready to pop?

Now major newspapers around the globe are offering "deflation strategies" to investors.

U.S. regulators on Friday shut down three banks in Florida, two in South Carolina and one in Michigan, bringing to 96 the number of U.S. banks to succumb this year to the recession and mounting loan defaults.

China has passed the U.S. to become the world's biggest energy consumer, according to new data from the International Energy Agency.

When you break down the national debt of Japan, the government of Japan owes approximately $80,000 for each of the 126 million people living in that nation.

Will the waves of Baby Boomers now retiring end up overloading the Social Security system?

According to a new poll, six of 10 non-retirees believe that Social Security won't be able to pay them benefits when they stop working.

Halliburton's second-quarter net income climbed 83% on an uptick in its North American land-drilling business and overseas growth.

Vice President Joe Biden says that next summer's planned military U.S. troop drawdown in Afghanistan may not be so big after all.

Are the Democrats starting to panic as the reality of the midterm elections begins to set in?

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 23% of voters nationwide believe the federal government today has the consent of the governed.

It turns out that Obamacare has imbued the IRS with massive new powers.

The American Spectator has a really good article on "America's ruling class".

The battle over the new Arizona immigration law is rapidly turning bitter.

To cries of "Kill them all!" gunmen opened fire at a weekend birthday party Sunday, mowing down at least 17 people in an attack that laid bare the brutality of Mexico's long-running drug war.

At a time when the prospects for immigration overhaul seem most dim, supporters have unleashed a secret weapon: a group of influential evangelical Christian leaders.

In the U.K., blind passengers are being ordered off buses or refused taxi rides because Muslim drivers or passengers object to their "unclean" guide dogs.

A senior U.S. law enforcement official has told CNN that U.S. intelligence believes the principal author of the new online al-Qaeda magazine is an American citizen who left for Yemen in October 2009.

Is radical Islam spreading faster than ever across the United States?

Rioters in the French city of Grenoble shot at police and torched cars over the weekend as the authorities struggled to restore order.

Dengue Fever is reaching epidemic stages across the Caribbean, with dozens of deaths reported and health authorities concerned it could get much worse as the rainy season advances.

A massive sinkhole caused an apartment building and a parking garage to collapse on Friday.

Ramps to a major highway in Kansas City are shut down because of a growing sinkhole in the pavement.

One horse recently fell 30 feet into a giant sinkhole that had recently opened up.

A strong 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck Papua New Guinea on Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, around 30 minutes after a similar quake shook the same area.

A magnitude-5.3 earthquake struck off the coast of Northeast Taiwan’s Ilan County on Sunday.

A huge 10,000 foot volcano on the ocean floor has been erupting for days near Tonga.  Out of the water smoke, steam, and ash have been blasting hundreds of feet into the sky.
 
A nearly 2,000-year-old gold coin discovered by a West Virginia University student at an archaeological site in the upper Galilee has proven to be the find of the season.

Maryland will join Pennsylvania as the second state to use federal tax dollars to pay for abortions under the new health care law signed by Barack Obama in March, according to information released by Maryland’s State Health Insurance Plan.

Lastly, it is being reported that the Oakland City Council on Tuesday will look at licensing four production plants where marijuana would be grown, packaged and processed into items ranging from baked goods to body oil.