Headlines:

• US Study Endorses Islam as Fastest Growing Religion, Popular in Youth
• End of Syria Regime 'Matter of Time': Turkey Minister
• Iran Warns Patriot Missiles in Turkey Could Lead to World War III
• Food Shortage Threatens to Kill Thousands of Yemeni Children
• More British Troops to Leave Afghanistan by Summer 2013
• America Pays Kayani and Zardari $688 million for being Its Watchdogs

Details:

US Study Endorses Islam as Fastest Growing Religion, Popular in Youth:

A recent study by a US forum has endorsed that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world and extremely popular in youth who are enthusiastic and curious to know the facts and conduct research to reach the truth. According to the recent study conducted by the Washington-based Pew Forum, Islam, the second largest religion in the world, is rapidly increasing across the globe and has the lowest median age as half of the Muslims are 23-year-old or younger, compared to 28 for the whole world population. Exact numbers for religious populations are impossible to obtain and estimates for the size of the larger faiths can vary by hundreds of millions. The study by Pew Forum appears to be one of the most extensive to date. There are about 1.6 billion Muslims around the world, or 23 percent of the global population. "The overwhelming majority (87-90 percent) are Sunnis, about 10-13 percent are Shia Muslims," the study said. Pew Forum demographer, Conrad Hackett, informed that the 2,500 censuses, surveys and population registers used to compile the report did not allow a further breakdown to estimate the world population of atheists and agnostics. He said, "It's not the kind of data that's available for every country." "A census will typically ask what your religion is and you can identify a number of particular affiliations or no religion," he added. An age breakdown showed Muslims had the lowest median age at 23 years, compared to 28 for the whole world population. The median age highlights the population bulge at the point where half the population is above and half below that number.

End of Syria Regime 'Matter of Time': Turkey Minister:

The fall of the Syrian regime is "only a matter of time", Turkey's Foreign Minister said on Wednesday, calling on other countries to help make the transition period as brief as possible. "It is clear that if a regime loses legitimacy and fights against its own people, that regime will lose that fight," Ahmet Davutoglu said at a press conference after meeting with his Finnish counterpart Erkki Tuomioja in Helsinki. "As to timing: now we can be more sure than before... it is only a matter of time. But it is up to the international community how to make the transition as fast as possible... in order to prevent further disasters," he added. The Turkish foreign minister said he was not in favour of international military intervention in the Syrian conflict, echoing the views of Tuomioja, who said he didn't think such a move was "on the table at all". The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights puts the overall death toll from the 21-month uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime at more than 43,000 people, based on accounts from activists and medics on the ground.

Iran Warns Patriot Missiles in Turkey Could Lead to World War III:

Iran's Army Chief of Staff warned NATO on Saturday that stationing Patriot anti-missile batteries on Turkey's border with Syria was setting the stage for world war. General Hassan Firouzabadi, whose country has been a staunch supporter of President Bashar al-Assad throughout the 21-month uprising against his rule, called on the Western military alliance to reverse its decision to deploy the defence system. "Each one of these Patriots is a black mark on the world map, and is meant to cause a world war," Firouzabadi said, according to the Iranian Students' News Agency. "They are making plans for a world war and this is very dangerous for the future of humanity and for the future of Europe itself."

Food Shortage Threatens to Kill Thousands of Yemeni Children:

For decades Yemen has suffered critical food shortage affecting nearly half the country's population of 25 million, including hundreds of thousands of children. A popular uprising against a decades-old dictatorship and the consequent instability further damaged the country's already poor infrastructure and weakened the government's ability to provide basic services to the poor. About 60 percent of Yemeni children were chronically malnourished and about 15 percent - 257 thousand children under the age of five- suffer from acute malnourishment, according to a report by UNICEF Yemen. At least 700,000 are reportedly suffering from Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM). Jeremy Hopkins, acting Head of Office UNICEF Yemen, said Yemeni children suffer the second highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world.

More British Troops to Leave Afghanistan by Summer 2013:

Almost half the British troops still serving in Afghanistan will return home by the end of next year, the prime minister has announced. David Cameron told MPs that around 3,800 servicemen and women will come back to Britain by the end of 2013. Numbers are already being reduced from 9,500 to 9,000 before this Christmas. All military operations are due to finish by the end of 2014, with Afghanistan's own forces taking over responsibility for security. The British troops in Afghanistan are part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (NATO-ISAF) mission, trying to make the country more stable. NATO-ISAF has tens of thousands of troops in Afghanistan from 49 different countries including America, Germany and France. The decision to bring all troops home by 2014 was agreed at a meeting of the National Security Council on Tuesday. David Cameron also discussed Afghanistan in an hour-long video call with US President Barack Obama. They agreed that NATO's plan to bring troops home was "on track".

America Pays Kayani and Zardari $688 million for being Its Watchdogs:

The United States has decided to reimburse Pakistan $688 million for the cost of providing support for some 140,000 troops on the border with Afghanistan. Deputy Defence Secretary Ashton Carter notified Congress that the US would make the payment to Islamabad for expenses incurred from June through November 2011. "In making this determination, I find that the reimbursement is consistent with the national security interest of the United States and will not adversely affect the balance of power in the region," Carter wrote in the Dec. 6 letter. Lawmakers have expressed frustration with Pakistan, questioning its commitment in the fight against terrorism and using the foreign aid budget to punish Islamabad. The anger boiled over after the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in May 2011, with suggestions that the country was harbouring the terrorist leader.

Abu Hashim