Olmert's office denies WND report
Top diplomatic sources say secret talks held on handing territory to Abbas
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Posted: January 23, 2007
5:43 p.m. Eastern
By Aaron Klein
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office today denied a WND report quoting top Egyptian and European diplomatic sources stating Israel and the Palestinians have been conducting behind-the-scenes negotiations regarding handing over most of the West Bank to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
The diplomatic sources said they were directly involved in the negotiations, which they said were mediated by Egypt and the European Union, with U.S. input. The sources said major changes in Israeli-Palestinian affairs are expected within a few weeks to two months.
"There were no negotiations regarding a West Bank withdrawal. This would go contrary to other things we have said in the recent past," said Olmert's spokesperson, Miri Eisin.
"Perhaps the officials talking to WorldNetDaily were referring to general expectations for movement in the Israeli-Palestinian arena," Eisin said.
But the European and Egyptian sources today stood by their statements that Israel agreed in principal to transfer security control to Abbas of most of the West Bank. The territory borders Jerusalem and is within rocket-firing range of Tel Aviv and Israel's international airport.
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Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Feds arrest 761 in illegals sweep
Feds arrest 761 in illegals sweep
Authorities tout series of raids as among biggest in history
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Posted: January 23, 2007
5:00 p.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Describing it as one of the biggest illegal immigrations sweeps in U.S. history, authorities arrested 761 in the Los Angeles area in a week-long series of raids.
The raids targeted illegal immigrants who previously had been deported for crimes or had ignored final deportation orders, the Associated Press reported.
A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told AP 338 illegals were arrested in their homes and another 423 were identified in local jails. The jailed illegals will be transferred to federal custody after serving their state sentences, said Virginia Kice.
The raids were part of a major crackdown called Operation Return to Sender, which has resulted in 13,000 arrests nationwide since June. Another 3,000 illegals identified in state and local jails will be deported.
Last June, federal authorities announced the arrest of 2,100 in a two-week sweep nationwide. Marc Raimondi, a spokesman for the immigration section of the Department of Homeland Security, said at the time the agency was "watching the country's borders from the inside."
In June, officials estimated there were more than 500,000 "fugitive aliens" who had been deported by judges and either returned to the country or never left.
However, that number apparently has jumped, with Kice estimating now 600,000 illegal immigrants who have ignored deportation orders are still at large.
The Southern California sweep this week netted illegal immigrants from 14 countries, including Mexico, Honduras, Ukraine, India, Japan, Poland and Trinidad, AP said.
As WND reported, more than 9,000 sex offenders have been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials through a series of stings called Operation Predator in three years of operation, a 2006 Department of Homeland Security Report says. But some experts are wondering if the efforts are enough to protect innocent American children from being preyed on by returning criminal alien sex offenders.
Foreign nationals account for roughly 85 percent of child sex offenders arrested by the operation, which was launched by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge in July 2003, officials say. And as WND previously has reported, authorities also have linked illegal aliens to a wave of gang-rapes across the U.S.
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Authorities tout series of raids as among biggest in history
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: January 23, 2007
5:00 p.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Describing it as one of the biggest illegal immigrations sweeps in U.S. history, authorities arrested 761 in the Los Angeles area in a week-long series of raids.
The raids targeted illegal immigrants who previously had been deported for crimes or had ignored final deportation orders, the Associated Press reported.
A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told AP 338 illegals were arrested in their homes and another 423 were identified in local jails. The jailed illegals will be transferred to federal custody after serving their state sentences, said Virginia Kice.
The raids were part of a major crackdown called Operation Return to Sender, which has resulted in 13,000 arrests nationwide since June. Another 3,000 illegals identified in state and local jails will be deported.
Last June, federal authorities announced the arrest of 2,100 in a two-week sweep nationwide. Marc Raimondi, a spokesman for the immigration section of the Department of Homeland Security, said at the time the agency was "watching the country's borders from the inside."
In June, officials estimated there were more than 500,000 "fugitive aliens" who had been deported by judges and either returned to the country or never left.
However, that number apparently has jumped, with Kice estimating now 600,000 illegal immigrants who have ignored deportation orders are still at large.
The Southern California sweep this week netted illegal immigrants from 14 countries, including Mexico, Honduras, Ukraine, India, Japan, Poland and Trinidad, AP said.
As WND reported, more than 9,000 sex offenders have been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials through a series of stings called Operation Predator in three years of operation, a 2006 Department of Homeland Security Report says. But some experts are wondering if the efforts are enough to protect innocent American children from being preyed on by returning criminal alien sex offenders.
Foreign nationals account for roughly 85 percent of child sex offenders arrested by the operation, which was launched by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge in July 2003, officials say. And as WND previously has reported, authorities also have linked illegal aliens to a wave of gang-rapes across the U.S.
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Sex assaults by teachers on students an 'epidemic'
Sex assaults by teachers on students an 'epidemic'
Organization fights uphill battle in system that protects predators
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Posted: January 23, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
Editor's note: At this link, WND has documented an alarming list of female teachers who have assaulted male students, part of the problem of teacher-on-student assaults estimated to include millions of victims.
By Bob Unruh
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
An estimated 5 million students in United States schools have been assaulted sexually by teachers, according to a congressional report. But no one is calling for investigations or law enforcement crackdowns, there have been no campaigns to ban the offenders from schools, and in many states there aren't even any requirements such predator attacks be reported to education licensing agencies.
"We have approximately 5 million children suffering and no one is calling for an investigation, for any kind of data to be collected to find out why that many children are being hurt by teachers," said Terri Miller, who runs probably the only organization in the nation that focuses specifically on assaults by educators on students. "This is an epidemic."
In fact, in many cases, especially where the attacker is a woman and the student a male, such assaults are treated as a joke, with a hand-slap for the teacher, and some ribald locker room humor directed at the student.
WND has documented in recent months an alarming string of dozens of cases of female teacher-on-male student sexual assaults, but those are just part of the overall problem, Miller said.
Her volunteer group, called Stop Educator Sexual Abuse, Misconduct and Exploitation, often feels overwhelmed by the dearth of information, injuries to students, and obstacles posed by opponents such as the National Education Association.
But she says it's a do-or-die battle.
"I won't give up trying. I have vowed to keep trying until we have good strong legislation to hold the perpetrators criminally responsible," she told WND.
She said the problem easily could be many times larger than the scandals involving Catholic Church priests molesting children, and the hundreds of millions of dollars in civil liabilities already determined in those cases.
"You are not mandated to send your children to church, but you are mandated by law to send your children to school," she said. "And, by God, schools better be mandated to keep them safe."
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Organization fights uphill battle in system that protects predators
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Posted: January 23, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
Editor's note: At this link, WND has documented an alarming list of female teachers who have assaulted male students, part of the problem of teacher-on-student assaults estimated to include millions of victims.
By Bob Unruh
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
An estimated 5 million students in United States schools have been assaulted sexually by teachers, according to a congressional report. But no one is calling for investigations or law enforcement crackdowns, there have been no campaigns to ban the offenders from schools, and in many states there aren't even any requirements such predator attacks be reported to education licensing agencies.
"We have approximately 5 million children suffering and no one is calling for an investigation, for any kind of data to be collected to find out why that many children are being hurt by teachers," said Terri Miller, who runs probably the only organization in the nation that focuses specifically on assaults by educators on students. "This is an epidemic."
In fact, in many cases, especially where the attacker is a woman and the student a male, such assaults are treated as a joke, with a hand-slap for the teacher, and some ribald locker room humor directed at the student.
WND has documented in recent months an alarming string of dozens of cases of female teacher-on-male student sexual assaults, but those are just part of the overall problem, Miller said.
Her volunteer group, called Stop Educator Sexual Abuse, Misconduct and Exploitation, often feels overwhelmed by the dearth of information, injuries to students, and obstacles posed by opponents such as the National Education Association.
But she says it's a do-or-die battle.
"I won't give up trying. I have vowed to keep trying until we have good strong legislation to hold the perpetrators criminally responsible," she told WND.
She said the problem easily could be many times larger than the scandals involving Catholic Church priests molesting children, and the hundreds of millions of dollars in civil liabilities already determined in those cases.
"You are not mandated to send your children to church, but you are mandated by law to send your children to school," she said. "And, by God, schools better be mandated to keep them safe."
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'Boys as victims' don't fit expectations
'Boys as victims' don't fit expectations
But experts say they are hurt by attacks, just like girls
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Posted: January 23, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
WND has documented dozens of recent cases of women teachers assaulting underage male students, probably the least documented type of educator sexual misconduct even though almost no comprehensive statistics are kept on any category of such attacks.
The few experts on such conduct say that males can be assaulted and victimized as well as females, only for young boys society's treatment is different.
Terri Miller, who runs Stop Educator Sexual Abuse, Misconduct and Exploitation, said she does hear from men who were victims of female teachers. One man was 53, and never had been able to establish a normal relationship since he was assaulted by a female teacher at age 12.
She said the second generation of crime even could be blamed on female assailants. "Because they are not able to report with the expectation they're going to receive justice like a girl would … what ends up happening in many cases with boys [they] overcompensate and end up becoming domestically violent abusers, rapists – because of the fact a woman dominated them," she said.
Steve Braveman, a therapist who has posted an article on the SESAME website, noted that about one in six of all American boys is molested by the time he reaches 18.
Since statistics are virtually unavailable, he noted, it's not clear exactly who is molesting them every time, but he said the vast majority appear to have been victimized by someone they know. "Someone they trust very much. Someone in a position of authority."
"So, if boys are being molested by all of these kinds of people, why doesn't the public hear more about this? Part of the answer may lie in the fact than an estimated 50 percent of all molests, males and females combined, are never reported. It is also estimated that only 10 percent of molested boys ever make such reports. … Many of these unreported molestations of boys are suspected to be at the hands of a teacher, educator and/or other person in position of authority."
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But experts say they are hurt by attacks, just like girls
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: January 23, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
WND has documented dozens of recent cases of women teachers assaulting underage male students, probably the least documented type of educator sexual misconduct even though almost no comprehensive statistics are kept on any category of such attacks.
The few experts on such conduct say that males can be assaulted and victimized as well as females, only for young boys society's treatment is different.
Terri Miller, who runs Stop Educator Sexual Abuse, Misconduct and Exploitation, said she does hear from men who were victims of female teachers. One man was 53, and never had been able to establish a normal relationship since he was assaulted by a female teacher at age 12.
She said the second generation of crime even could be blamed on female assailants. "Because they are not able to report with the expectation they're going to receive justice like a girl would … what ends up happening in many cases with boys [they] overcompensate and end up becoming domestically violent abusers, rapists – because of the fact a woman dominated them," she said.
Steve Braveman, a therapist who has posted an article on the SESAME website, noted that about one in six of all American boys is molested by the time he reaches 18.
Since statistics are virtually unavailable, he noted, it's not clear exactly who is molesting them every time, but he said the vast majority appear to have been victimized by someone they know. "Someone they trust very much. Someone in a position of authority."
"So, if boys are being molested by all of these kinds of people, why doesn't the public hear more about this? Part of the answer may lie in the fact than an estimated 50 percent of all molests, males and females combined, are never reported. It is also estimated that only 10 percent of molested boys ever make such reports. … Many of these unreported molestations of boys are suspected to be at the hands of a teacher, educator and/or other person in position of authority."
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Republican revolt builds over border agents
Republican revolt builds over border agents
House resolution calls for tossing Ramos, Compean convictions
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Posted: January 23, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
At least 70 Republican Congress members are co-sponsoring a House resolution ordering that the convictions and sentences of Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean be vacated and that they be released from custody immediately.
Even after suggestions last week that President Bush plans to review the Ramos and Compean case, the White House has continued reaching out for support to several prominent conservatives who, so far, are rebuffing administration requests to back the Justice Department on this case.
The resolution, H.R. 563, is being introduced by Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination.
Despite public suggestions to the contrary, the White House on background has continued indicating to prominent national conservative leaders that their heels are dug in on this case, denying at this point any plan to pardon the agents. Some critics contend the Bush administration's open border policy is behind its unwillingness to defend Ramos and Compean.
White House talking points continue to stress themes articulated by prosecuting U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton in El Paso, who in an exclusive interview last week with WND claimed the two agents "shot 15 times at an unarmed, fleeing man," after which the agents "decided to lie about it, cover it up, destroy the evidence, pick up all the shell casings and throw them away where we couldn't find them, destroy the crime scene and then file a false report."
In a series of briefings with conservative leaders prior to the State of the Union message scheduled for this evening, the White House indicated that while the issue of immigration will be mentioned, it will not be a major theme. The president is expected to repeat his support of a "comprehensive immigration reform" plan that would include a guest worker program, prefacing re-introduction of legislation similar to the bill co-sponsored in the previous Congress by Sens. Edward Kennedy D-Mass., and John McCain R-Ariz.
While the speech is expected to sound the theme of border security, the president is not expected to give a commitment that the administration will press Congress to appropriate all the funds needed to build the full 770-mile double-layered fence Congress approved in a Sept. 29 vote just prior to the mid-term elections. Instead, the president is expected to emphasis electronic means to secure a virtual border and what the White House believes has been recent success slowing the number of "OTMs," or "Other Than Mexicans," who illegally cross the southern border.
President Bush has no plans to mention the Ramos and Compean case in the State of the Union speech.
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House resolution calls for tossing Ramos, Compean convictions
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Posted: January 23, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
At least 70 Republican Congress members are co-sponsoring a House resolution ordering that the convictions and sentences of Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean be vacated and that they be released from custody immediately.
Even after suggestions last week that President Bush plans to review the Ramos and Compean case, the White House has continued reaching out for support to several prominent conservatives who, so far, are rebuffing administration requests to back the Justice Department on this case.
The resolution, H.R. 563, is being introduced by Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination.
Despite public suggestions to the contrary, the White House on background has continued indicating to prominent national conservative leaders that their heels are dug in on this case, denying at this point any plan to pardon the agents. Some critics contend the Bush administration's open border policy is behind its unwillingness to defend Ramos and Compean.
White House talking points continue to stress themes articulated by prosecuting U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton in El Paso, who in an exclusive interview last week with WND claimed the two agents "shot 15 times at an unarmed, fleeing man," after which the agents "decided to lie about it, cover it up, destroy the evidence, pick up all the shell casings and throw them away where we couldn't find them, destroy the crime scene and then file a false report."
In a series of briefings with conservative leaders prior to the State of the Union message scheduled for this evening, the White House indicated that while the issue of immigration will be mentioned, it will not be a major theme. The president is expected to repeat his support of a "comprehensive immigration reform" plan that would include a guest worker program, prefacing re-introduction of legislation similar to the bill co-sponsored in the previous Congress by Sens. Edward Kennedy D-Mass., and John McCain R-Ariz.
While the speech is expected to sound the theme of border security, the president is not expected to give a commitment that the administration will press Congress to appropriate all the funds needed to build the full 770-mile double-layered fence Congress approved in a Sept. 29 vote just prior to the mid-term elections. Instead, the president is expected to emphasis electronic means to secure a virtual border and what the White House believes has been recent success slowing the number of "OTMs," or "Other Than Mexicans," who illegally cross the southern border.
President Bush has no plans to mention the Ramos and Compean case in the State of the Union speech.
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Border Patrol agent held in solitary confinement
Border Patrol agent held in solitary confinement
'They act like he's Charles Manson,' father-in-law tells WND
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Posted: January 23, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Imprisoned former Border Patrol agent Ignacio Ramos not only is being held in prison for trying to halt a fleeing drug smuggler, he's being held in solitary confinement treated as if he were Charles Manson, a relative told WND in an exclusive interview.
Joe Loya, Ramos' father-in-law, told WND that Ramos is being held in conditions usually reserved for extraordinarily dangerous or trouble-making inmates.
"They have Ignacio in a 6 foot by 12 foot cell," Loya told WND in a telephone interview from El Paso. "There are no bars, just a steel door, and no window. He has no television and nothing to do. He is fed in his cell and let out only for one hour after 23 hours in the cell. He is then taken to a room with a television where he is allowed to watch the TV for an hour before he is returned to solitary confinement."
Loya said his daughter met with her husband for an hour on Friday.
"Ignacio was heavily shackled," Loya said, "and he could barely hold the telephone to speak."
Loya explained that his daughter met with her husband in the prison in a room where they were separated by a glass barrier.
"It was just like Ignacio was Charlie Manson," Loya explained. "My daughter couldn't believe how her husband was being treated."
Loya told WND that the family believes that the federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, introduced into the trial inaccurate or incomplete testimony provided by the drug dealer, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, as well as from other Border Patrol agents who the federal prosecutors had pressured prior to the trial.
"I can't believe how Ignacio is being treated," Loya told WND. "He has been a federal agent for years and he has been involved in many drug busts. I am convinced that the U.S. attorney has a grudge against my son-in-law and I cannot believe how mean and determined Johnny Sutton has been to see my son imprisoned for doing nothing more than trying to stop a drug smuggler he and Jose Compean believed was armed and dangerous."
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'They act like he's Charles Manson,' father-in-law tells WND
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: January 23, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Imprisoned former Border Patrol agent Ignacio Ramos not only is being held in prison for trying to halt a fleeing drug smuggler, he's being held in solitary confinement treated as if he were Charles Manson, a relative told WND in an exclusive interview.
Joe Loya, Ramos' father-in-law, told WND that Ramos is being held in conditions usually reserved for extraordinarily dangerous or trouble-making inmates.
"They have Ignacio in a 6 foot by 12 foot cell," Loya told WND in a telephone interview from El Paso. "There are no bars, just a steel door, and no window. He has no television and nothing to do. He is fed in his cell and let out only for one hour after 23 hours in the cell. He is then taken to a room with a television where he is allowed to watch the TV for an hour before he is returned to solitary confinement."
Loya said his daughter met with her husband for an hour on Friday.
"Ignacio was heavily shackled," Loya said, "and he could barely hold the telephone to speak."
Loya explained that his daughter met with her husband in the prison in a room where they were separated by a glass barrier.
"It was just like Ignacio was Charlie Manson," Loya explained. "My daughter couldn't believe how her husband was being treated."
Loya told WND that the family believes that the federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, introduced into the trial inaccurate or incomplete testimony provided by the drug dealer, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, as well as from other Border Patrol agents who the federal prosecutors had pressured prior to the trial.
"I can't believe how Ignacio is being treated," Loya told WND. "He has been a federal agent for years and he has been involved in many drug busts. I am convinced that the U.S. attorney has a grudge against my son-in-law and I cannot believe how mean and determined Johnny Sutton has been to see my son imprisoned for doing nothing more than trying to stop a drug smuggler he and Jose Compean believed was armed and dangerous."
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Cruise 'is Christ' of Scientology
Cruise 'is Christ' of Scientology
By EMILY SMITH
US Editor
January 23, 2007
TOM Cruise is the new “Christ” of Scientology, according to leaders of the cult-like religion.
The Mission: Impossible star has been told he has been “chosen” to spread the word of his faith throughout the world.
And leader David Miscavige believes that in future, Cruise, 44, will be worshipped like Jesus for his work to raise awareness of the religion.
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By EMILY SMITH
US Editor
January 23, 2007
TOM Cruise is the new “Christ” of Scientology, according to leaders of the cult-like religion.
The Mission: Impossible star has been told he has been “chosen” to spread the word of his faith throughout the world.
And leader David Miscavige believes that in future, Cruise, 44, will be worshipped like Jesus for his work to raise awareness of the religion.
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Monday, January 22, 2007
Super Bowl coaches Dungy, Smith known for Christian testimony
Super Bowl coaches Dungy, Smith known for Christian testimony
Jan 22, 2007
By Art Stricklin
Baptist Press
MIAMI (BP)--Super Bowl XLI will feature two teams making their first super game appearance in two-plus decades, two Midwestern teams separated by only a couple hundred miles, but most importantly two coaches who are strong believers in Jesus Christ.
Head coaches Tony Dungy of Indianapolis and close friend and fellow Christian Lovie Smith of Chicago gave credit to God following their respective teams' victories in the conference championships Jan. 21.
“The Lord set this up in a way that no one would believe it,” Dungy said following the Colts' win over New England. “The Lord tested us a lot this year, but He set this up to get all the glory.”
The news that two witnesses for their personal faith in Jesus Christ would have a two-week international spotlight for their beliefs thrilled Christian leader William Pugh, executive director of sports ministry Athletes in Action, a branch of Campus Crusade for Christ.
“We are so excited to see the Bears and Colts in the Super Bowl,” Pugh, a close friend of both head coaches, said. “We could not have picked two better coaches to represent all that is good about sports.”
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Jan 22, 2007
By Art Stricklin
Baptist Press
MIAMI (BP)--Super Bowl XLI will feature two teams making their first super game appearance in two-plus decades, two Midwestern teams separated by only a couple hundred miles, but most importantly two coaches who are strong believers in Jesus Christ.
Head coaches Tony Dungy of Indianapolis and close friend and fellow Christian Lovie Smith of Chicago gave credit to God following their respective teams' victories in the conference championships Jan. 21.
“The Lord set this up in a way that no one would believe it,” Dungy said following the Colts' win over New England. “The Lord tested us a lot this year, but He set this up to get all the glory.”
The news that two witnesses for their personal faith in Jesus Christ would have a two-week international spotlight for their beliefs thrilled Christian leader William Pugh, executive director of sports ministry Athletes in Action, a branch of Campus Crusade for Christ.
“We are so excited to see the Bears and Colts in the Super Bowl,” Pugh, a close friend of both head coaches, said. “We could not have picked two better coaches to represent all that is good about sports.”
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LIFE DIGEST: Bush policy may be seen as turning point in stem cell research, columnist says; pro-life students win
LIFE DIGEST: Bush policy may be seen as turning point in stem cell research, columnist says; pro-life students win
Jan 22, 2007
By Tom Strode
Baptist Press
WASHINGTON (BP)--A federal government official recently criticized President Bush’s restrictive policy on funding destructive embryonic stem cell research, but a physician-turned-columnist said the chief executive’s rule may be viewed one day as a decision that led to the most significant breakthrough for such experimentation.
Story Landis of the National Institutes of Health told a Senate committee Jan. 19 the president’s stem cell policy has caused researchers to miss “out on possible breakthroughs,” Reuters News Service reported.
Since August 2001, Bush has barred federal funds for research that requires the destruction of embryos. His policy permits grants for experiments on embryonic stem cell lines already in existence when his rule was announced.
Despite legislative action in its last session, Congress was unable to achieve a two-thirds majority to override Bush’s veto.
There is a “compelling need to pursue both embryonic and non-embryonic stem cell research,” said Landis, director of the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. “Science works best when scientists can pursue all avenues of research. If the cure for Parkinson’s disease or juvenile diabetes lay behind one of four doors, wouldn’t you want the option to open all four doors at once instead of one door?”
Charles Krauthammer, a syndicated columnist with a medical degree, said in a Jan. 12 commentary Bush may deserve the gratitude of future generations for his stand.
They “may nonetheless thank Bush for standing athwart history, if only for a few years,” wrote Krauthammer, who favors liberalizing the president’s policy. “It gave technology enough time to catch up and rescue us from the moral dilemmas of embryo destruction.”
The recent discovery of versatile stem cells in amniotic fluid may make all the difference in such research, said Krauthammer, a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics.
Stem cells in amniotic fluid not only are uncontroversial, because they do not require a donor’s destruction, but they are vast and may prove more useful than embryonic cells, he said. Embryonic stem cell research has been plagued by the development of tumors in laboratory animals.
“If it is proved that these are the Goldilocks of stem cells, history will record the amniotic breakthrough as the turning point in the evolution of stem cell research from a narrow, difficult, delicate and morally dubious enterprise into an uncontroversial one with raw material produced unproblematically every day,” Krauthammer wrote.
“It will have turned out that Bush’s unpopular policy held the line, however arbitrary and temporary, against the wanton trampling of the human embryo just long enough for a morally neutral alternative to emerge,” he wrote. “And it did force the country to at least ponder the moral cost of turning one potential human being into replacement parts for another.”
Pro-life advocates consider the embryo, which is normally less than a week old when it is destroyed for the harvesting of stem cells, to be a human being, not a “potential human being.”
The Senate is expected to vote in February on a bill to liberalize Bush’s stem cell funding rule. On Jan. 11, the House of Representatives voted 253-174 for a measure to provide funds for research using stem cells extracted from embryos stored at in vitro fertilization clinics.
The House vote was a gain from its last effort but still well short of that needed to override a veto. A veto override would require 290 votes to succeed if all House members vote. In July 2006, the House voted 235-193 in an unsuccessful effort to overturn Bush’s only veto so far.
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Jan 22, 2007
By Tom Strode
Baptist Press
WASHINGTON (BP)--A federal government official recently criticized President Bush’s restrictive policy on funding destructive embryonic stem cell research, but a physician-turned-columnist said the chief executive’s rule may be viewed one day as a decision that led to the most significant breakthrough for such experimentation.
Story Landis of the National Institutes of Health told a Senate committee Jan. 19 the president’s stem cell policy has caused researchers to miss “out on possible breakthroughs,” Reuters News Service reported.
Since August 2001, Bush has barred federal funds for research that requires the destruction of embryos. His policy permits grants for experiments on embryonic stem cell lines already in existence when his rule was announced.
Despite legislative action in its last session, Congress was unable to achieve a two-thirds majority to override Bush’s veto.
There is a “compelling need to pursue both embryonic and non-embryonic stem cell research,” said Landis, director of the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. “Science works best when scientists can pursue all avenues of research. If the cure for Parkinson’s disease or juvenile diabetes lay behind one of four doors, wouldn’t you want the option to open all four doors at once instead of one door?”
Charles Krauthammer, a syndicated columnist with a medical degree, said in a Jan. 12 commentary Bush may deserve the gratitude of future generations for his stand.
They “may nonetheless thank Bush for standing athwart history, if only for a few years,” wrote Krauthammer, who favors liberalizing the president’s policy. “It gave technology enough time to catch up and rescue us from the moral dilemmas of embryo destruction.”
The recent discovery of versatile stem cells in amniotic fluid may make all the difference in such research, said Krauthammer, a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics.
Stem cells in amniotic fluid not only are uncontroversial, because they do not require a donor’s destruction, but they are vast and may prove more useful than embryonic cells, he said. Embryonic stem cell research has been plagued by the development of tumors in laboratory animals.
“If it is proved that these are the Goldilocks of stem cells, history will record the amniotic breakthrough as the turning point in the evolution of stem cell research from a narrow, difficult, delicate and morally dubious enterprise into an uncontroversial one with raw material produced unproblematically every day,” Krauthammer wrote.
“It will have turned out that Bush’s unpopular policy held the line, however arbitrary and temporary, against the wanton trampling of the human embryo just long enough for a morally neutral alternative to emerge,” he wrote. “And it did force the country to at least ponder the moral cost of turning one potential human being into replacement parts for another.”
Pro-life advocates consider the embryo, which is normally less than a week old when it is destroyed for the harvesting of stem cells, to be a human being, not a “potential human being.”
The Senate is expected to vote in February on a bill to liberalize Bush’s stem cell funding rule. On Jan. 11, the House of Representatives voted 253-174 for a measure to provide funds for research using stem cells extracted from embryos stored at in vitro fertilization clinics.
The House vote was a gain from its last effort but still well short of that needed to override a veto. A veto override would require 290 votes to succeed if all House members vote. In July 2006, the House voted 235-193 in an unsuccessful effort to overturn Bush’s only veto so far.
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China Denies Intent to Militarize Space
China Denies Intent to Militarize Space
Jan 22 3:04 PM US/Eastern
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Chinese Foreign ministry officials have told a visiting U.S. diplomat that China's successful test of an anti-satellite weapon should not be seen as a threat and does not signal the beginning of a race to militarize space, the State Department said Monday.
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill raised the issue with Chinese officials over the weekend in Beijing. China has not made a public announcement of the Jan. 11 test, in which it shot down one of its own old weather satellites, but officials acknowledged it during their meeting with Hill, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Hill, who heads the State Department's East Asia bureau, told the Chinese they should be more forthcoming about their military activities and their defense budget. These issues have been a long- running concern of the United States, and McCormack said the Chinese have taken only "baby steps" thus far toward more openness.
McCormack said the United States seeks "greater understanding of exactly what their intent was" in testing the anti-satellite weapon. He said Hill also asked for details of the test and what plans China may have for future tests.
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Jan 22 3:04 PM US/Eastern
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Chinese Foreign ministry officials have told a visiting U.S. diplomat that China's successful test of an anti-satellite weapon should not be seen as a threat and does not signal the beginning of a race to militarize space, the State Department said Monday.
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill raised the issue with Chinese officials over the weekend in Beijing. China has not made a public announcement of the Jan. 11 test, in which it shot down one of its own old weather satellites, but officials acknowledged it during their meeting with Hill, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Hill, who heads the State Department's East Asia bureau, told the Chinese they should be more forthcoming about their military activities and their defense budget. These issues have been a long- running concern of the United States, and McCormack said the Chinese have taken only "baby steps" thus far toward more openness.
McCormack said the United States seeks "greater understanding of exactly what their intent was" in testing the anti-satellite weapon. He said Hill also asked for details of the test and what plans China may have for future tests.
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Iran Bars 38 U.N. IAEA Inspectors
Jan 22, 11:41 AM (ET)
By NASSER KARIMI
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran said Monday it has barred 38 members of a U.N. nuclear inspection team from entering the country, in what appeared to be retaliation for sanctions imposed last month.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said some inspectors were admitted, but maintained that Iran could decide who should be turned away.
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By NASSER KARIMI
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran said Monday it has barred 38 members of a U.N. nuclear inspection team from entering the country, in what appeared to be retaliation for sanctions imposed last month.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said some inspectors were admitted, but maintained that Iran could decide who should be turned away.
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Poland silent on U.S. anti-missile shield deal
WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland said on Sunday it was still in talks with the United States about the possibility of allowing it to base an anti-missile system on its soil, and had no comment on a report a final deal had been agreed upon.
Washington is investing $10 billion a year in developing the system, which would use rockets to shoot down hostile missiles.
Diplomats say Poland is considered one of the best potential locations for rocket batteries. The Czech government said on Saturday the United States had asked permission to build a radar base on its territory that would form part of the defense system.
A State Department spokesman said basing missile defense assets in Europe would help protect allies and the United States from the evolving threat of ballistic missiles from the Middle East.
"Toward this defensive goal, the United States, Poland and the Czech Republic have agreed to conduct detailed discussions regarding the possible basing of missile defenses in their countries," said the spokesman, Edgar Vasquez.
Plans to deploy the anti-missile shield on Polish soil have met with strong criticism from Russia, which sees the move as an attempt by the United States to destabilize the balance of power in central Europe.
Moscow has warned it will take unspecified measures against Poland, a member of the Russian-dominated "Warsaw Pact" military alliance until the fall of communism in the early 1990s, if it accepts the defense system.
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Washington is investing $10 billion a year in developing the system, which would use rockets to shoot down hostile missiles.
Diplomats say Poland is considered one of the best potential locations for rocket batteries. The Czech government said on Saturday the United States had asked permission to build a radar base on its territory that would form part of the defense system.
A State Department spokesman said basing missile defense assets in Europe would help protect allies and the United States from the evolving threat of ballistic missiles from the Middle East.
"Toward this defensive goal, the United States, Poland and the Czech Republic have agreed to conduct detailed discussions regarding the possible basing of missile defenses in their countries," said the spokesman, Edgar Vasquez.
Plans to deploy the anti-missile shield on Polish soil have met with strong criticism from Russia, which sees the move as an attempt by the United States to destabilize the balance of power in central Europe.
Moscow has warned it will take unspecified measures against Poland, a member of the Russian-dominated "Warsaw Pact" military alliance until the fall of communism in the early 1990s, if it accepts the defense system.
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Russia sees threat from US plan for missiles in eastern Europe
Jan 22 12:19 PM US/Eastern
A top Russian general warned that a missile defense system that the United States wants to deploy in eastern Europe would pose a "clear threat" to his country.
The United States confirmed it would soon begin formal talks on deploying the system in the Czech Republic and Poland, aimed at warding off rocket attacks from North Korea or Iran.
But General Vladimir Popovkin, who commands Russia's space forces, said that "our analysis shows that the location of the US base would be a clear threat to Russia."
The system would include 10 interceptor missiles and a radar which could be split between the Czech Republic and Poland.
"It's doubtful that Iranian or North Korean rockets would go across Poland or the Czech Republic," the general was quoted as saying by Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency.
"The radar in the Czech Republic would be able to monitor rocket installations in central Russia and the Northern Fleet."
The US embassy in Prague said in a statement that the United States had contacted the Czech and Polish governments "and will begin negotiations on the possible deployment of US missile defense assets on Czech and Polish territory."
"No final decision has been made and no timetable for negotiations has been established; however, the United States and the Czech Republic expect that these negotiations will begin soon."
Czech and Polish leaders rejected Russia's fears as groundless.
Czech Defence Minister Vlasta Parkanova retorted that "the Russian Federation is perfectly aware that it is not threatened by this system."
She said the statements coming out of Moscow smacked of "political propaganda."
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A top Russian general warned that a missile defense system that the United States wants to deploy in eastern Europe would pose a "clear threat" to his country.
The United States confirmed it would soon begin formal talks on deploying the system in the Czech Republic and Poland, aimed at warding off rocket attacks from North Korea or Iran.
But General Vladimir Popovkin, who commands Russia's space forces, said that "our analysis shows that the location of the US base would be a clear threat to Russia."
The system would include 10 interceptor missiles and a radar which could be split between the Czech Republic and Poland.
"It's doubtful that Iranian or North Korean rockets would go across Poland or the Czech Republic," the general was quoted as saying by Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency.
"The radar in the Czech Republic would be able to monitor rocket installations in central Russia and the Northern Fleet."
The US embassy in Prague said in a statement that the United States had contacted the Czech and Polish governments "and will begin negotiations on the possible deployment of US missile defense assets on Czech and Polish territory."
"No final decision has been made and no timetable for negotiations has been established; however, the United States and the Czech Republic expect that these negotiations will begin soon."
Czech and Polish leaders rejected Russia's fears as groundless.
Czech Defence Minister Vlasta Parkanova retorted that "the Russian Federation is perfectly aware that it is not threatened by this system."
She said the statements coming out of Moscow smacked of "political propaganda."
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Docs in Iraq reveal plan for attack in U.S.
Details Emerge About Possible Terror Threat
By PIERRE THOMAS
WASHINGTON, Jan. 22, 2007 — Mimicking the hijackers who executed the Sept. 11 attacks, insurgents reportedly tied to al Qaeda in Iraq considered using student visas to slip terrorists into the United States to orchestrate a new attack on American soil.
Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, recently testified that documents captured by coalition forces during a raid of a safe house believed to house Iraqi members of al Qaeda six months ago "revealed [AQI] was planning terrorist operations in the U.S."
At the time, Maples offered little additional insight into the possible terror plot. ABC News, however, has learned new details of what remains a classified incident that has been dealt with at the highest levels of government.
Watch Pierre Thomas' full report tonight on "World News with Charles Gibson."
Sources tell ABC News that the plot may have involved moving between 10 and 20 suspects believed to be affiliated with al Qaeda in Iraq into the United States with student visas — the same method used by the 19 al Qaeda terrorists who struck American targets on Sept. 11.
U.S. officials now require universities to closely track foreign nationals who use student visas to study in the United States. University officials must report international students who fail to arrive on campus or miss class regularly.
In August, the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement alerted intelligence agencies and state and local law enforcement about 11 Egyptian students who had failed to report to their classes at Montana State University. The students were ultimately apprehended.
Still, despite the heightened precautions, some security analysts fear that skilled terrorists — handpicked because of their clean records and because they are carefully trained — could still slip through an academic setting.
The plot was discovered six months ago, roughly the same time that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, was killed by coalition forces. Sources tell ABC News that the suspects involved in the effort to launch the U.S. attack were closely associated with Zarqawi.
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By PIERRE THOMAS
WASHINGTON, Jan. 22, 2007 — Mimicking the hijackers who executed the Sept. 11 attacks, insurgents reportedly tied to al Qaeda in Iraq considered using student visas to slip terrorists into the United States to orchestrate a new attack on American soil.
Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, recently testified that documents captured by coalition forces during a raid of a safe house believed to house Iraqi members of al Qaeda six months ago "revealed [AQI] was planning terrorist operations in the U.S."
At the time, Maples offered little additional insight into the possible terror plot. ABC News, however, has learned new details of what remains a classified incident that has been dealt with at the highest levels of government.
Watch Pierre Thomas' full report tonight on "World News with Charles Gibson."
Sources tell ABC News that the plot may have involved moving between 10 and 20 suspects believed to be affiliated with al Qaeda in Iraq into the United States with student visas — the same method used by the 19 al Qaeda terrorists who struck American targets on Sept. 11.
U.S. officials now require universities to closely track foreign nationals who use student visas to study in the United States. University officials must report international students who fail to arrive on campus or miss class regularly.
In August, the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement alerted intelligence agencies and state and local law enforcement about 11 Egyptian students who had failed to report to their classes at Montana State University. The students were ultimately apprehended.
Still, despite the heightened precautions, some security analysts fear that skilled terrorists — handpicked because of their clean records and because they are carefully trained — could still slip through an academic setting.
The plot was discovered six months ago, roughly the same time that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, was killed by coalition forces. Sources tell ABC News that the suspects involved in the effort to launch the U.S. attack were closely associated with Zarqawi.
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Al-Qaida No. 2 mocks Bush strategy
Jan 22 5:22 PM US/Eastern
By NADIA ABOU EL-MAGD
Associated Press Writer
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Al-Qaida's deputy leader mocked President Bush's plan to send 21,000 more troops to Iraq, challenging him to send "the entire army" and vowing insurgents will defeat them, according to a new videotape released Monday by a U.S. group that tracks al-Qaida messages.
The Washington-based SITE Institute said it had intercepted the video from Ayman al-Zawahri, which had not yet been posted on Islamic militant Web sites, where his messages are usually posted. SITE did not elaborate on how it received the message.
Al-Zawahri said the U.S. strategy for Iraq, outlined by Bush in a Jan. 9 speech, was doomed to fail.
"I ask him, why send 20,000 (troops) only _ why not send 50 or 100 thousand? Aren't you aware that the dogs of Iraq are pining for your troops' dead bodies?" said al-Zawahri in the footage released by SITE, which assesses and analyzes intelligence related to terrorism.
"So send your entire army to be annihilated at the hands of the mujahideen (holy warriors) to free the world from your evil," he said, "because Iraq, land of the Caliphate and Jihad, is able to bury ten armies like yours, with Allah's help and power."
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By NADIA ABOU EL-MAGD
Associated Press Writer
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Al-Qaida's deputy leader mocked President Bush's plan to send 21,000 more troops to Iraq, challenging him to send "the entire army" and vowing insurgents will defeat them, according to a new videotape released Monday by a U.S. group that tracks al-Qaida messages.
The Washington-based SITE Institute said it had intercepted the video from Ayman al-Zawahri, which had not yet been posted on Islamic militant Web sites, where his messages are usually posted. SITE did not elaborate on how it received the message.
Al-Zawahri said the U.S. strategy for Iraq, outlined by Bush in a Jan. 9 speech, was doomed to fail.
"I ask him, why send 20,000 (troops) only _ why not send 50 or 100 thousand? Aren't you aware that the dogs of Iraq are pining for your troops' dead bodies?" said al-Zawahri in the footage released by SITE, which assesses and analyzes intelligence related to terrorism.
"So send your entire army to be annihilated at the hands of the mujahideen (holy warriors) to free the world from your evil," he said, "because Iraq, land of the Caliphate and Jihad, is able to bury ten armies like yours, with Allah's help and power."
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New Muslim congressman called for terrorist's release
New Muslim congressman called for terrorist's release
Ellison spoke at fund-raiser for woman from group that tried to kill Feinstein
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7:00 p.m. Eastern
By Jay Baggett
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined Minnesota freshman Rep. Keith Ellison for his recent swearing-in ceremony, the controversy over his taking the oath of office on the Quran overshadowed his earlier role in supporting a terrorist whose group tried to kill policemen and allegedly twice tried to murder Pelosi's fellow San Francisco lawmaker Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
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Ellison spoke at fund-raiser for woman from group that tried to kill Feinstein
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7:00 p.m. Eastern
By Jay Baggett
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined Minnesota freshman Rep. Keith Ellison for his recent swearing-in ceremony, the controversy over his taking the oath of office on the Quran overshadowed his earlier role in supporting a terrorist whose group tried to kill policemen and allegedly twice tried to murder Pelosi's fellow San Francisco lawmaker Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
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The dilemma of a deadly disease: patients may be forcibly detained
The dilemma of a deadly disease: patients may be forcibly detained
Doctors fear TB strain could cause a global pandemic if it is not controlled
Chris McGreal in Johannesburg and Sarah Boseley, health editor
Tuesday January 23, 2007
The Guardian
South Africa is considering forcibly detaining people who carry a deadly strain of tuberculosis that has already claimed hundreds of lives. The strain threatens to cause a global pandemic, but the planned move pits public protection against human rights.
The country's health department says it has discussed with the World Health Organisation and South Africa's leading medical organisations the possibility of placing carriers of extreme drug resistant TB or XDR-TB under guard in isolation wards until they die, but has yet to reach a decision.
Pressure to take action has been growing since a woman diagnosed with the disease discharged herself from a hospital last September and probably spread the infection before she was finally coaxed back when she was threatened with a court order.
More than 300 cases of the highly infectious disease, which is spread by airborne droplets and kills 98% of those infected within about two weeks, have been identified in South Africa.
But doctors believe there have been hundreds, possibly thousands, more and the numbers are growing among the millions of people with HIV, who are particularly vulnerable to the disease. Their fear is that patients with XDR-TB, told that there is little that can be done for them, will leave the isolation wards and go home to die. But while they are still walking around they risk spreading the infection.
Now a group of doctors has warned in a medical journal that if enforced isolation is not introduced XDR-TB could swamp South Africa and spread far beyond its borders. Regular TB is already the single largest killer of people with Aids in South Africa.
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Doctors fear TB strain could cause a global pandemic if it is not controlled
Chris McGreal in Johannesburg and Sarah Boseley, health editor
Tuesday January 23, 2007
The Guardian
South Africa is considering forcibly detaining people who carry a deadly strain of tuberculosis that has already claimed hundreds of lives. The strain threatens to cause a global pandemic, but the planned move pits public protection against human rights.
The country's health department says it has discussed with the World Health Organisation and South Africa's leading medical organisations the possibility of placing carriers of extreme drug resistant TB or XDR-TB under guard in isolation wards until they die, but has yet to reach a decision.
Pressure to take action has been growing since a woman diagnosed with the disease discharged herself from a hospital last September and probably spread the infection before she was finally coaxed back when she was threatened with a court order.
More than 300 cases of the highly infectious disease, which is spread by airborne droplets and kills 98% of those infected within about two weeks, have been identified in South Africa.
But doctors believe there have been hundreds, possibly thousands, more and the numbers are growing among the millions of people with HIV, who are particularly vulnerable to the disease. Their fear is that patients with XDR-TB, told that there is little that can be done for them, will leave the isolation wards and go home to die. But while they are still walking around they risk spreading the infection.
Now a group of doctors has warned in a medical journal that if enforced isolation is not introduced XDR-TB could swamp South Africa and spread far beyond its borders. Regular TB is already the single largest killer of people with Aids in South Africa.
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Jews flee homes after Muslim death threats
Jews flee homes after Muslim death threats
Accused of 'serving global Zionism,' paid special taxes for protection
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: January 22, 2007
10:05 a.m. Eastern
By Aaron Klein
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM – Many of Yemen's Jews this weekend fled their homes for a hotel after receiving death threats from Islamic militants accusing the country's tiny Jewish community of serving as agents for "global Zionism."
The Jews said they feared for their lives. It was disclosed they had been forced to pay special taxes that Islam imposes on Jews and Christians in return for protection and security.
About 45 Jews left their village in Sa'ada county in Yemen after Dawoud Yousuf Mousa, one of the heads of the local Jewish community, was warned Jan. 10 if the Jews don't leave within 10 days they would be exposed to killings, abductions and looting.
Four masked militants approached Mousa and delivered a letter to him warning the Jewish community had been under Islamic surveillance.
"After accurate surveillance over the Jews residing in Al Haid, it has become clear to us that they were doing things which serve mainly global Zionism, which seeks to corrupt the people and distance them from their principles, their values, their morals, and their religion," the letter stated.
"Islam calls upon us to fight against the disseminators of decay," the letter said.
The threats have been attributed to disciples of Shiite religious leader Hossein Bader a-Din al-Khouty.
Mousa reportedly told local authorities the militants told him if the Jews don't flee within 10 days "the Jewish community would bear the consequences."
According to a recent Yemeni immigrant to Israel with contacts in Sa'ada, the Jewish community there received another letter Friday warning, "whoever remains at his home, will be killed or his children will be taken away."
Sa'ada's Jewish community had lived in the village for generations.
They were forced to evacuate their homes and leave some of their possessions with local sheiks.
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Accused of 'serving global Zionism,' paid special taxes for protection
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: January 22, 2007
10:05 a.m. Eastern
By Aaron Klein
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM – Many of Yemen's Jews this weekend fled their homes for a hotel after receiving death threats from Islamic militants accusing the country's tiny Jewish community of serving as agents for "global Zionism."
The Jews said they feared for their lives. It was disclosed they had been forced to pay special taxes that Islam imposes on Jews and Christians in return for protection and security.
About 45 Jews left their village in Sa'ada county in Yemen after Dawoud Yousuf Mousa, one of the heads of the local Jewish community, was warned Jan. 10 if the Jews don't leave within 10 days they would be exposed to killings, abductions and looting.
Four masked militants approached Mousa and delivered a letter to him warning the Jewish community had been under Islamic surveillance.
"After accurate surveillance over the Jews residing in Al Haid, it has become clear to us that they were doing things which serve mainly global Zionism, which seeks to corrupt the people and distance them from their principles, their values, their morals, and their religion," the letter stated.
"Islam calls upon us to fight against the disseminators of decay," the letter said.
The threats have been attributed to disciples of Shiite religious leader Hossein Bader a-Din al-Khouty.
Mousa reportedly told local authorities the militants told him if the Jews don't flee within 10 days "the Jewish community would bear the consequences."
According to a recent Yemeni immigrant to Israel with contacts in Sa'ada, the Jewish community there received another letter Friday warning, "whoever remains at his home, will be killed or his children will be taken away."
Sa'ada's Jewish community had lived in the village for generations.
They were forced to evacuate their homes and leave some of their possessions with local sheiks.
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Secret talks handing West Bank to Abbas
Secret talks handing West Bank to Abbas
Top diplomatic sources tell WND
'historic changes' coming in weeks
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: January 22, 2007
5:19 p.m. Eastern
By Aaron Klein
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM – Israel and the Palestinians have been conducting behind-the-scene negotiations regarding handing over most of the West Bank to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, according to top Egyptian and European diplomatic sources who told WND they were directly involved with the talks.
The West Bank borders Jerusalem and is within rocket-firing range of Tel Aviv and Israel's international airport.
The Egyptian and European sources told WND the negotiations for an Israeli withdrawal were mediated by Egypt and the European Union, with U.S. input. The sources said major changes in Israeli-Palestinian affairs are expected within a few weeks to two months.
According to an aid to European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, speaking on condition of anonymity, there will be a "historic political evolution and movement in negotiations in the next few weeks and few months, unseen since the Camp David peace talks in 2000."
During the Camp David talks, then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered late-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and eastern sections of Jerusalem.
According to the top diplomatic sources speaking to WND, Israel has agreed in principal to hand over most of the West Bank in deal with Abbas.
The sources said Israel is studying the transfer of responsibility in the central and southern West Bank to Abbas' security forces, which reportedly are receiving aid, weapons and training from the U.S.
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Top diplomatic sources tell WND
'historic changes' coming in weeks
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: January 22, 2007
5:19 p.m. Eastern
By Aaron Klein
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM – Israel and the Palestinians have been conducting behind-the-scene negotiations regarding handing over most of the West Bank to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, according to top Egyptian and European diplomatic sources who told WND they were directly involved with the talks.
The West Bank borders Jerusalem and is within rocket-firing range of Tel Aviv and Israel's international airport.
The Egyptian and European sources told WND the negotiations for an Israeli withdrawal were mediated by Egypt and the European Union, with U.S. input. The sources said major changes in Israeli-Palestinian affairs are expected within a few weeks to two months.
According to an aid to European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, speaking on condition of anonymity, there will be a "historic political evolution and movement in negotiations in the next few weeks and few months, unseen since the Camp David peace talks in 2000."
During the Camp David talks, then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered late-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and eastern sections of Jerusalem.
According to the top diplomatic sources speaking to WND, Israel has agreed in principal to hand over most of the West Bank in deal with Abbas.
The sources said Israel is studying the transfer of responsibility in the central and southern West Bank to Abbas' security forces, which reportedly are receiving aid, weapons and training from the U.S.
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Their Government: Shocking Egypt Police Video Stirs Debate
By MAGGIE MICHAEL
Associated Press Writer
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- The footage is shocking: A man lies screaming on the floor of a police station as officers sodomize him with a wooden pole.
Compounding the shock, it turns out that it was the police who made the film, and that they then transmitted it to the cell phones of the victim's friends in order to humiliate him.
For Egypt, the ordeal of 21-year-old Emad el-Kabir has been something of a Rodney King moment _ a sudden, stark glimpse of a reality which authorities routinely deny, but which human rights groups say is part of a pattern of police brutality.
But unlike the tape of the Los Angeles police beating up King in 1991, which was aired almost immediately, the attack on el-Kabir happened a year ago, and has only became public months later after an Egyptian blogger posted it on his site and it reached YouTube.
A newspaper, al-Fagr, then published a story about it, and appealed to el-Kabir to come forward. He did, giving a TV interview and filing a complaint against the police officers with the state prosecutor.
That's where the Rodney King analogy ends. Few people in this nation of 74 million have Internet access, and no TV station has shown anything of the offending footage. There have been no demonstrations or riots or high-profile lawsuits. The only person so far to be sentenced is the victim himself, who police say injured an officer with a broken bottle. On Jan. 9, he was jailed for three months.
Human rights activists say police brutality is deeply entrenched in Egyptian life.
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Associated Press Writer
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- The footage is shocking: A man lies screaming on the floor of a police station as officers sodomize him with a wooden pole.
Compounding the shock, it turns out that it was the police who made the film, and that they then transmitted it to the cell phones of the victim's friends in order to humiliate him.
For Egypt, the ordeal of 21-year-old Emad el-Kabir has been something of a Rodney King moment _ a sudden, stark glimpse of a reality which authorities routinely deny, but which human rights groups say is part of a pattern of police brutality.
But unlike the tape of the Los Angeles police beating up King in 1991, which was aired almost immediately, the attack on el-Kabir happened a year ago, and has only became public months later after an Egyptian blogger posted it on his site and it reached YouTube.
A newspaper, al-Fagr, then published a story about it, and appealed to el-Kabir to come forward. He did, giving a TV interview and filing a complaint against the police officers with the state prosecutor.
That's where the Rodney King analogy ends. Few people in this nation of 74 million have Internet access, and no TV station has shown anything of the offending footage. There have been no demonstrations or riots or high-profile lawsuits. The only person so far to be sentenced is the victim himself, who police say injured an officer with a broken bottle. On Jan. 9, he was jailed for three months.
Human rights activists say police brutality is deeply entrenched in Egyptian life.
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Female Muslim cop refuses to shake chief's hand
I cannot shake your hand, sir. I'm a Muslim and you're a man
'How the heck is she going to make an arrest if she refuses to touch men?'
By MARTIN SMITH
A Muslim woman police officer has sparked a new debate by refusing to shake hands with Britain's most senior police chief for religious reasons.
The incident happened at a passing-out parade where Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair was inspecting a line-up of 200 recruits.
In addition to refusing a traditional congratulatory handshake from Sir Ian, the WPC - who wore a traditional Muslim hijab headscarf - also declined to be photographed with him as she did not want the picture used for 'propaganda purposes'.
The woman had earlier insisted that it was contrary to her religious teaching for her to touch a man.
Now The Mail on Sunday has learned that her gesture has sparked top-level discussions at Scotland Yard.
Some officers argue that her attitude towards men might impede her ability to detain offenders.
However, it is clear that she is happy to come into contact with men, just not shake their hand or kiss them.
An inquiry has now been launched and the unidentified WPC - described as 'a non-Asian Muslim' - could face the sack if it is considered that her strict religious beliefs prevent her performing as an effective police officer.
However, senior commanders are worried that dismissing her would deepen the atmosphere of mistrust between the police and the Muslim community.
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'How the heck is she going to make an arrest if she refuses to touch men?'
By MARTIN SMITH
A Muslim woman police officer has sparked a new debate by refusing to shake hands with Britain's most senior police chief for religious reasons.
The incident happened at a passing-out parade where Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair was inspecting a line-up of 200 recruits.
In addition to refusing a traditional congratulatory handshake from Sir Ian, the WPC - who wore a traditional Muslim hijab headscarf - also declined to be photographed with him as she did not want the picture used for 'propaganda purposes'.
The woman had earlier insisted that it was contrary to her religious teaching for her to touch a man.
Now The Mail on Sunday has learned that her gesture has sparked top-level discussions at Scotland Yard.
Some officers argue that her attitude towards men might impede her ability to detain offenders.
However, it is clear that she is happy to come into contact with men, just not shake their hand or kiss them.
An inquiry has now been launched and the unidentified WPC - described as 'a non-Asian Muslim' - could face the sack if it is considered that her strict religious beliefs prevent her performing as an effective police officer.
However, senior commanders are worried that dismissing her would deepen the atmosphere of mistrust between the police and the Muslim community.
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Sunday, January 21, 2007
Christian believers executed in North Korea
Christian believers executed in North Korea
Refusal to worship Kim Jong-il, being caught worshiping God brings harsh penalty
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: January 21, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Michael Ireland
© 2007 Assist News Service
Reports about four Christians being executed for their faith in North Korea are circulating in the Christian media.
According to Mark Kelly of Baptist Press: "The Democratic People's Republic of North Korea is well-known as a country where Christians are persecuted for their faith. Because the government there keeps a tight lid on communication, however, only rarely does specific information leak out."
Quoting the World Bible Translation Center's Gary Bishop in a conversation with Mission Network News, Kelly reports that one man who worked as an evangelist was executed after being caught with two Korean New Testaments in his possession.
Bishop says North Korean Christians are becoming increasingly uneasy about possessing a Bible.
He said: "A man that's known to be an evangelist. He's probably not an evangelist to anyone other than his family members, but he was caught with two of our Korean New Testaments in his possession and he was executed for that."
Kelly writes that Bishop also told Mission Network News: "A woman and her grandmother were washing clothes when a New Testament fell out of the woman's clothing. Somebody reported it, and both she and her grandmother were quickly executed. And an army general who had become a believer was caught evangelizing men in his unit and was executed by a fellow officer."
Kelly says Bishop told MNN that despite the oppression – or perhaps because of it – God seems to be working.
Bishop said: "In response to a very, very oppressive government (and) human injustices, people are looking for an answer other than their own government. And, I believe that's awakening the resilience of believers in North Korea to say, 'We have another answer. There is another way to believe.'"
MNN reports that thousands of North Korean Christians have been killed for their faith. Many more are in work camps.
According to Bishop, there's no sign of the persecution easing any. "What you have is a leader who is proclaiming himself to be god. It's prescribed that they daily worship him. And, refusal to do that and being caught worshiping God just brings that kind of governmental response. And, as best we can tell, the tempo of that is not lessening."
Bishop says it's obvious what that increasing pressure on Christians is doing to Bible smuggling. "It becomes more and more difficult to get a person to risk their life to carry those in to North Korea." With rivers frozen, it's a prefect time to smuggle Bibles into the country.
While persecution continues, World Bible Translation Center has no intention of stopping the flow of Bibles into the country. "We do need to begin reprinting and get text ready as God enables people to take those in."
Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)
Refusal to worship Kim Jong-il, being caught worshiping God brings harsh penalty
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: January 21, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Michael Ireland
© 2007 Assist News Service
Reports about four Christians being executed for their faith in North Korea are circulating in the Christian media.
According to Mark Kelly of Baptist Press: "The Democratic People's Republic of North Korea is well-known as a country where Christians are persecuted for their faith. Because the government there keeps a tight lid on communication, however, only rarely does specific information leak out."
Quoting the World Bible Translation Center's Gary Bishop in a conversation with Mission Network News, Kelly reports that one man who worked as an evangelist was executed after being caught with two Korean New Testaments in his possession.
Bishop says North Korean Christians are becoming increasingly uneasy about possessing a Bible.
He said: "A man that's known to be an evangelist. He's probably not an evangelist to anyone other than his family members, but he was caught with two of our Korean New Testaments in his possession and he was executed for that."
Kelly writes that Bishop also told Mission Network News: "A woman and her grandmother were washing clothes when a New Testament fell out of the woman's clothing. Somebody reported it, and both she and her grandmother were quickly executed. And an army general who had become a believer was caught evangelizing men in his unit and was executed by a fellow officer."
Kelly says Bishop told MNN that despite the oppression – or perhaps because of it – God seems to be working.
Bishop said: "In response to a very, very oppressive government (and) human injustices, people are looking for an answer other than their own government. And, I believe that's awakening the resilience of believers in North Korea to say, 'We have another answer. There is another way to believe.'"
MNN reports that thousands of North Korean Christians have been killed for their faith. Many more are in work camps.
According to Bishop, there's no sign of the persecution easing any. "What you have is a leader who is proclaiming himself to be god. It's prescribed that they daily worship him. And, refusal to do that and being caught worshiping God just brings that kind of governmental response. And, as best we can tell, the tempo of that is not lessening."
Bishop says it's obvious what that increasing pressure on Christians is doing to Bible smuggling. "It becomes more and more difficult to get a person to risk their life to carry those in to North Korea." With rivers frozen, it's a prefect time to smuggle Bibles into the country.
While persecution continues, World Bible Translation Center has no intention of stopping the flow of Bibles into the country. "We do need to begin reprinting and get text ready as God enables people to take those in."
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Iran Plans 3 Days of Missile War Games
Iran Plans 3 Days of Missile War Games
Jan 21 1:30 PM US/Eastern
By NASSER KARIMI
Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran plans three days of military maneuvers, including short-range missile tests, beginning Sunday _ its first since the U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions against it in late December, state-run television said.
"The elite Revolutionary Guards plans to begin a three-day missile maneuver on Sunday near Garmsar city," said the broadcast. The city is located in northern Iran on the edge of Kavir desert, about 60 miles southeast of Tehran.
"Zalzal and Fajr-5 missiles will be test fired in the war game," the television quoted an unnamed commander of the guards, as saying. Both are considered short-range missiles.
Iran conducted three large-scale military exercises last year as tensions with the West and the United States rose.
In November, for example, it test-fired dozens of missiles, including the Shahab-3 that can reach Israel, in military maneuvers that it said were aimed at putting a stop to the role of world powers in the Persian Gulf region.
Sunday's maneuvers are to be the first by Iran since the U.N. Security Council imposed limited sanctions on the country on Dec. 23, banning selling materials and technology that could be used in Iran's nuclear and missile programs and freezing assets abroad of 10 Iranian companies and individuals.
Iran regularly holds large maneuvers, often using them to test weapons developed by its arms industry.
The latest Iranian maneuvers also come just days after the U.S. announced it would deploy a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf, the USS Stennis.
That appeared to have alarmed some in Iran's hard-line leadership. A prominent member of a powerful cleric-run body this week warned that the U.S. plans to attack Iran in the coming months, possibly by striking its nuclear facilities.
The United States has said it is focusing on diplomacy but will not rule out other options.
Washington has accused Iran of backing militants fueling Iraq's violence and has tried to rally its Arab allies in isolating Tehran.
Last year, Iran held three large-scale military exercises. In April, Iran tested what it called an "ultra-horizon" missile, fired from helicopters and jet fighters, and the Fajr-3 missile, which can reportedly evade radar and use multiple warheads to hit several targets simultaneously.
While U.S. officials have suggested that Iran is exaggerating the capabilities of its newly developed weapons, Washington and its allies have been watching the country's progress in missile technology with concern.
Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)
Jan 21 1:30 PM US/Eastern
By NASSER KARIMI
Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran plans three days of military maneuvers, including short-range missile tests, beginning Sunday _ its first since the U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions against it in late December, state-run television said.
"The elite Revolutionary Guards plans to begin a three-day missile maneuver on Sunday near Garmsar city," said the broadcast. The city is located in northern Iran on the edge of Kavir desert, about 60 miles southeast of Tehran.
"Zalzal and Fajr-5 missiles will be test fired in the war game," the television quoted an unnamed commander of the guards, as saying. Both are considered short-range missiles.
Iran conducted three large-scale military exercises last year as tensions with the West and the United States rose.
In November, for example, it test-fired dozens of missiles, including the Shahab-3 that can reach Israel, in military maneuvers that it said were aimed at putting a stop to the role of world powers in the Persian Gulf region.
Sunday's maneuvers are to be the first by Iran since the U.N. Security Council imposed limited sanctions on the country on Dec. 23, banning selling materials and technology that could be used in Iran's nuclear and missile programs and freezing assets abroad of 10 Iranian companies and individuals.
Iran regularly holds large maneuvers, often using them to test weapons developed by its arms industry.
The latest Iranian maneuvers also come just days after the U.S. announced it would deploy a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf, the USS Stennis.
That appeared to have alarmed some in Iran's hard-line leadership. A prominent member of a powerful cleric-run body this week warned that the U.S. plans to attack Iran in the coming months, possibly by striking its nuclear facilities.
The United States has said it is focusing on diplomacy but will not rule out other options.
Washington has accused Iran of backing militants fueling Iraq's violence and has tried to rally its Arab allies in isolating Tehran.
Last year, Iran held three large-scale military exercises. In April, Iran tested what it called an "ultra-horizon" missile, fired from helicopters and jet fighters, and the Fajr-3 missile, which can reportedly evade radar and use multiple warheads to hit several targets simultaneously.
While U.S. officials have suggested that Iran is exaggerating the capabilities of its newly developed weapons, Washington and its allies have been watching the country's progress in missile technology with concern.
Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)
Mom, meet your (unborn) child!
Mom, meet your (unborn) child!
Pregnancy centers use ultrasounds to give women opportunity to bond
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: January 21, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Pro-life advocates are adopting a new tactic to reduce the demand for abortion, and it has proven so successful it already is being credited with saving tens of thousands of lives: They just introduce the mother to her child.
They do it with an ultrasound machine, which can provide a real-time video image of the unborn child throughout the pregnancy, and the simple medical procedure could reduce the demand by mothers for abortion to a fraction of its current level, according to Kim Conroy, director of sanctity of human life issues for the Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family.
That group about three years ago launched its national Option Ultrasound program which helps provide the expensive machines to pregnancy centers, helps train people to accurately run the procedures, and helps advance the status of the centers from counseling offices to medical clinics.
The first goal of the ultrasound is to confirm a pregnancy, something abortion clinics use the same technology to reveal (although standard abortion clinic policy is to prevent the mother from seeing the image under any circumstance), but then something else happens in a pregnancy crisis center.
"In the course of that, this miraculous thing that happens is this woman comes face to face with her unborn child," Conroy told WND. "Before it was theoretical information, but now it's 'This is not a blob of tissue, it's not some undefined mass,'" she said. "We want women to have all the facts that they need to make a good healthy decision for themselves and their baby.
"We have had incredible results reported back, both anecdotally, where centers have told us 'We have had this most phenomenal experience,' and statistically," Conroy said. "Eighty-seven percent of the women who are at risk for abortion who undergo both counseling within the centers and ultrasounds are changing their minds and making a statement of their intention to carry their babies."
"This is just a huge response," she said. "We're projecting that up to this date, 31,000 babies may have received life because of these centers' intervention."
And that's with 281 ultrasound units installed through the program so far. The program's goal is to have 650 operating by the year 2010.
"Women deserve factual information regarding their pregnancy. There are significant health risks with abortion, and at the very least they have a right to know the truth regarding this risky procedure from professionals who will not benefit financially from their decision. They also need to know there are positive alternatives for them and their babies," Conroy said
"Women have been fed a lie by abortionists," she said. "Those who are considering an abortion need to know the emotional and physical toll this procedure could have on them – and they deserve the chance to see their baby face to face before they make this life-changing decision."
Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)
Pregnancy centers use ultrasounds to give women opportunity to bond
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: January 21, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Pro-life advocates are adopting a new tactic to reduce the demand for abortion, and it has proven so successful it already is being credited with saving tens of thousands of lives: They just introduce the mother to her child.
They do it with an ultrasound machine, which can provide a real-time video image of the unborn child throughout the pregnancy, and the simple medical procedure could reduce the demand by mothers for abortion to a fraction of its current level, according to Kim Conroy, director of sanctity of human life issues for the Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family.
That group about three years ago launched its national Option Ultrasound program which helps provide the expensive machines to pregnancy centers, helps train people to accurately run the procedures, and helps advance the status of the centers from counseling offices to medical clinics.
The first goal of the ultrasound is to confirm a pregnancy, something abortion clinics use the same technology to reveal (although standard abortion clinic policy is to prevent the mother from seeing the image under any circumstance), but then something else happens in a pregnancy crisis center.
"In the course of that, this miraculous thing that happens is this woman comes face to face with her unborn child," Conroy told WND. "Before it was theoretical information, but now it's 'This is not a blob of tissue, it's not some undefined mass,'" she said. "We want women to have all the facts that they need to make a good healthy decision for themselves and their baby.
"We have had incredible results reported back, both anecdotally, where centers have told us 'We have had this most phenomenal experience,' and statistically," Conroy said. "Eighty-seven percent of the women who are at risk for abortion who undergo both counseling within the centers and ultrasounds are changing their minds and making a statement of their intention to carry their babies."
"This is just a huge response," she said. "We're projecting that up to this date, 31,000 babies may have received life because of these centers' intervention."
And that's with 281 ultrasound units installed through the program so far. The program's goal is to have 650 operating by the year 2010.
"Women deserve factual information regarding their pregnancy. There are significant health risks with abortion, and at the very least they have a right to know the truth regarding this risky procedure from professionals who will not benefit financially from their decision. They also need to know there are positive alternatives for them and their babies," Conroy said
"Women have been fed a lie by abortionists," she said. "Those who are considering an abortion need to know the emotional and physical toll this procedure could have on them – and they deserve the chance to see their baby face to face before they make this life-changing decision."
Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)
Planned Parenthood access to public purse in jeopardy
Planned Parenthood access to public purse in jeopardy
Rapists protected when rules ignored –
grounds for clinics to lose Title X money
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: January 21, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Al Capone, one of the biggest influences in the annals of American crime, was brought down by the paperwork requirements of the federal tax system. Now pro-life activists believe the nation's abortion industry could face a similar collapse, all because of the paper trail that they believe shows the industry has failed to follow the rules and file the proper reports.
"It's a simple audit function," Mark Crutcher, the chief of Life Dynamics, told WND. "All you have to do is go into a state … and look at Title X applications and service reports. Look for all the girls they provided treatment to – pregnancy tests, STD treatments, abortion or birth control. If they provided one of those services to a girl beneath the state's age of consent, that triggers a report."
"Then go to the … Department of Child Protective services (and look at reports). If those numbers don't match, you've got a violation," he said.
He said his research shows that the abortion industry "services" provided to underage girls across the nation outnumber the "reports" of suspicion of assault on a child by 11-1 – under the best of circumstances. "And most reports are not by providers; they're made by pediatricians and emergency room physicians," he said.
So what's the big deal with the numbers aligning – or not? Money, money and more money. Millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars. And the Title X funding mechanism for the nation's abortion industry that requires industry members to follow state laws, including those pesky reporting requirements – or lose the money.
Crutcher, in a Life Dynamics report, said the information about the reports comes from government sources, medical journals, independent researchers and the abortion industry itself.
"The fact that these family planning facilities are in clear violation of child abuse or statutory rape reporting requirements creates an environment for us to demand that their funding be immediately cut off," Crutcher said. "Given their heavy reliance on state and federal tax dollars, losing that money would be nothing less than a financial catastrophe for these organizations.
"Better yet, their failure to adhere to state and federal law means that funds allocated in past years were obtained fraudulently. Because of that, we may be able to force a return of those funds. Needless to say that could literally cripple the entire abortion industry," he concluded.
That means, according to Crutcher and Troy Newman of Operation Rescue, if the report numbers don't line up, the abortion industry could be liable to return hundreds of millions of dollars in past and current payments.
"In all 50 states, sexual activity with underage children is illegal. Also, every state mandates that if a healthcare worker has reason to suspect that an underage girl is being sexually abused, they are required by law to report that information to a designated law enforcement or child protective services agency. That agency is then responsible to investigate the possibility that the child may be the victim of sexual abuse or statutory rape," according to Life Dynamics.
A pregnancy in an underage girl is evidence of sexual abuse, and "any healthcare worker who has contact with a pregnant underage girl has an obligation to initiate a report to the state," the report said.
Abortion industry lawyers repeatedly have claimed that their clients follow the law, including a special case in Kansas recently where a local prosecutor held a news conference to say late-term abortionist George Tiller had followed those reporting requirements, even though a case that had been brought against him didn't make that accusation.
Government budgets show that in 2004 alone U.S. taxpayers allocated more than $280 million for birth control functions, focusing mostly on abortion services, including an estimate of between $50 million and $60 million just for Planned Parenthood, the industry's biggest chain of businesses.
"If you're not following state law, you're not entitled to Title X funds," Newman told WND. "As soon as you defund abortion clinics, they dry up and blow away."
The U.S. "is funding the nation's largest perpetrators of child-murder-by-abortion, Planned Parenthood (report murdering over 200,000 unborn children annually by surgical abortion alone), through both Medicaid (Title XIX) and Title X, with over $50 million per year through each program," said Steve Lefemine, who was the Constitution Party's candidate for Congress in South Carolina's 2nd District.
Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)
Rapists protected when rules ignored –
grounds for clinics to lose Title X money
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: January 21, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Al Capone, one of the biggest influences in the annals of American crime, was brought down by the paperwork requirements of the federal tax system. Now pro-life activists believe the nation's abortion industry could face a similar collapse, all because of the paper trail that they believe shows the industry has failed to follow the rules and file the proper reports.
"It's a simple audit function," Mark Crutcher, the chief of Life Dynamics, told WND. "All you have to do is go into a state … and look at Title X applications and service reports. Look for all the girls they provided treatment to – pregnancy tests, STD treatments, abortion or birth control. If they provided one of those services to a girl beneath the state's age of consent, that triggers a report."
"Then go to the … Department of Child Protective services (and look at reports). If those numbers don't match, you've got a violation," he said.
He said his research shows that the abortion industry "services" provided to underage girls across the nation outnumber the "reports" of suspicion of assault on a child by 11-1 – under the best of circumstances. "And most reports are not by providers; they're made by pediatricians and emergency room physicians," he said.
So what's the big deal with the numbers aligning – or not? Money, money and more money. Millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars. And the Title X funding mechanism for the nation's abortion industry that requires industry members to follow state laws, including those pesky reporting requirements – or lose the money.
Crutcher, in a Life Dynamics report, said the information about the reports comes from government sources, medical journals, independent researchers and the abortion industry itself.
"The fact that these family planning facilities are in clear violation of child abuse or statutory rape reporting requirements creates an environment for us to demand that their funding be immediately cut off," Crutcher said. "Given their heavy reliance on state and federal tax dollars, losing that money would be nothing less than a financial catastrophe for these organizations.
"Better yet, their failure to adhere to state and federal law means that funds allocated in past years were obtained fraudulently. Because of that, we may be able to force a return of those funds. Needless to say that could literally cripple the entire abortion industry," he concluded.
That means, according to Crutcher and Troy Newman of Operation Rescue, if the report numbers don't line up, the abortion industry could be liable to return hundreds of millions of dollars in past and current payments.
"In all 50 states, sexual activity with underage children is illegal. Also, every state mandates that if a healthcare worker has reason to suspect that an underage girl is being sexually abused, they are required by law to report that information to a designated law enforcement or child protective services agency. That agency is then responsible to investigate the possibility that the child may be the victim of sexual abuse or statutory rape," according to Life Dynamics.
A pregnancy in an underage girl is evidence of sexual abuse, and "any healthcare worker who has contact with a pregnant underage girl has an obligation to initiate a report to the state," the report said.
Abortion industry lawyers repeatedly have claimed that their clients follow the law, including a special case in Kansas recently where a local prosecutor held a news conference to say late-term abortionist George Tiller had followed those reporting requirements, even though a case that had been brought against him didn't make that accusation.
Government budgets show that in 2004 alone U.S. taxpayers allocated more than $280 million for birth control functions, focusing mostly on abortion services, including an estimate of between $50 million and $60 million just for Planned Parenthood, the industry's biggest chain of businesses.
"If you're not following state law, you're not entitled to Title X funds," Newman told WND. "As soon as you defund abortion clinics, they dry up and blow away."
The U.S. "is funding the nation's largest perpetrators of child-murder-by-abortion, Planned Parenthood (report murdering over 200,000 unborn children annually by surgical abortion alone), through both Medicaid (Title XIX) and Title X, with over $50 million per year through each program," said Steve Lefemine, who was the Constitution Party's candidate for Congress in South Carolina's 2nd District.
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Exodus Int'l says 'hate crimes' bill a threat to religious speech
By Jim Brown and Jody Brown
OneNewsNow.com
The largest Christian referral network dealing with homosexual issues is voicing opposition to a federal "hate crimes" bill introduced in the House. The legislation, says Exodus International, threatens religious freedom.
Hear This Report
The bill introduced by Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas earlier this month would create additional penalties for felonies committed because of the victims' "perceived or actual" identity, such as sexual orientation, gender, or disability. It expands the scope of current federal hate crime law -- which addresses crimes that prevent an individual from engaging in federally protected rights (voting, for example) -- to include any violent crime, regardless whether it affects the victim's ability to exercise a federally protected right.
In a CNSNews.com report, a spokesman for the National Prayer Network describes the bill as "the most dangerous legislation ever to come before Congress" that "sets us on a slippery slope" toward limiting speech that is offensive to the protected groups.
Randy Thomas, executive vice president of Exodus International, agrees. He says the bill would jeopardize his group's ability to express its opinions on homosexuality from a biblical viewpoint, and to spread the message that there is freedom from homosexuality through Christ.
"In America, in this day and age, where [we have] freedom and speech and freedom of religion -- as well as freedom of assembly -- we have the right to have our support group meetings; we have the right to express our opinions that people can and do overcome homosexuality," says the Exodus spokesman. "If those are deemed criminal, they could close down our groups."
In 2004, for example, 11 volunteers with the Christian ministry Repent America were arrested and jailed for preaching the gospel at a homosexual pride event in Philadelphia. The Exodus International website also notes other examples from around the world where hate crime law has been used to punish, fine, and even imprison pastors for speaking out against "protected" persons or quoting Scripture verses about homosexuality.
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OneNewsNow.com
The largest Christian referral network dealing with homosexual issues is voicing opposition to a federal "hate crimes" bill introduced in the House. The legislation, says Exodus International, threatens religious freedom.
Hear This Report
The bill introduced by Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas earlier this month would create additional penalties for felonies committed because of the victims' "perceived or actual" identity, such as sexual orientation, gender, or disability. It expands the scope of current federal hate crime law -- which addresses crimes that prevent an individual from engaging in federally protected rights (voting, for example) -- to include any violent crime, regardless whether it affects the victim's ability to exercise a federally protected right.
In a CNSNews.com report, a spokesman for the National Prayer Network describes the bill as "the most dangerous legislation ever to come before Congress" that "sets us on a slippery slope" toward limiting speech that is offensive to the protected groups.
Randy Thomas, executive vice president of Exodus International, agrees. He says the bill would jeopardize his group's ability to express its opinions on homosexuality from a biblical viewpoint, and to spread the message that there is freedom from homosexuality through Christ.
"In America, in this day and age, where [we have] freedom and speech and freedom of religion -- as well as freedom of assembly -- we have the right to have our support group meetings; we have the right to express our opinions that people can and do overcome homosexuality," says the Exodus spokesman. "If those are deemed criminal, they could close down our groups."
In 2004, for example, 11 volunteers with the Christian ministry Repent America were arrested and jailed for preaching the gospel at a homosexual pride event in Philadelphia. The Exodus International website also notes other examples from around the world where hate crime law has been used to punish, fine, and even imprison pastors for speaking out against "protected" persons or quoting Scripture verses about homosexuality.
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VOM initiative getting Bibles into hostile lands, hungry hands
By Allie Martin
OneNewsNow.com
Voice of the Martyrs is making it possible for American Christians -- without leaving their homes -- to get the Word of God into the hands of fellow believers in persecuted nations. Just a few "mouse clicks" and a few dollars a month make it all possible.
Hear This Report
For nearly a year now, Voice of the Martyrs has made it possible for Christians to get Bibles to other nations through its "Bibles Unbound" program. Those who take part receive five or more New Testaments each month, along with the addresses of Christians in other countries who are in need of Bibles. Supporters can participate in an "operation" in one of four countries where believers are gathering names and addresses from their community.
VOM spokesman Todd Nettleton says the initiative makes it easy to get God's Word into the hands of believers in persecuted countries -- and the program appears to be achieving its objective.
"As of right now, we've mailed over a 100,000 New Testaments into restricted nations like China, like Egypt, like Columbia and Indonesia," says Nettleton. "At this point, we have more than 17,000 New Testaments being mailed every single month."
For a monthly donation of $30, Bibles Unbound sends participants five New Testaments each month, along with everything needed for getting the Word to Christians in persecuted nations. "The Voice of the Martyrs provides the New Testaments, the envelopes, the shipping labels -- and all the postage [for mailing to the restricted nation] is included," he explains. The packages prepared by the donors are then returned to a "re-mail" center for transport to their final destination.
Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)
OneNewsNow.com
Voice of the Martyrs is making it possible for American Christians -- without leaving their homes -- to get the Word of God into the hands of fellow believers in persecuted nations. Just a few "mouse clicks" and a few dollars a month make it all possible.
Hear This Report
For nearly a year now, Voice of the Martyrs has made it possible for Christians to get Bibles to other nations through its "Bibles Unbound" program. Those who take part receive five or more New Testaments each month, along with the addresses of Christians in other countries who are in need of Bibles. Supporters can participate in an "operation" in one of four countries where believers are gathering names and addresses from their community.
VOM spokesman Todd Nettleton says the initiative makes it easy to get God's Word into the hands of believers in persecuted countries -- and the program appears to be achieving its objective.
"As of right now, we've mailed over a 100,000 New Testaments into restricted nations like China, like Egypt, like Columbia and Indonesia," says Nettleton. "At this point, we have more than 17,000 New Testaments being mailed every single month."
For a monthly donation of $30, Bibles Unbound sends participants five New Testaments each month, along with everything needed for getting the Word to Christians in persecuted nations. "The Voice of the Martyrs provides the New Testaments, the envelopes, the shipping labels -- and all the postage [for mailing to the restricted nation] is included," he explains. The packages prepared by the donors are then returned to a "re-mail" center for transport to their final destination.
Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)
Unequally Yoked, but Already Married?
Semper Reformanda
By: Pastor Gary Fox
How does a Christian woman handle a situation wherein her husband is not a believer, does not know God and because of that is unable to pray? Or what does a women do if her husband has backslidden away from the Lord and is not serving Him? Thirdly, is a Christian women expected to submit to her husband if he is an irresponsible, foolish, man? We have already explained that wives are not commanded to or expected to submit to abuse. So, for the purposes of this article we are going to work with the assumption that physical and emotional abuse is not in the equation.
First, what if a women’s husband is not saved? Well, Saint Peter the Apostle gave fairly straight forward instruction, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in his first general epistle to the Church. “Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.” 1 Peter 3:1-2 niv. The Bible is filled with examples of God leading unbelievers to accomplish his will. Look at the brothers of Joseph, they were not aware of it, but God was using them to accomplish His will. Judas Iscariot is another example. So also would be Pontius Pilate. We could go on and on about how God uses even the unbeliever to accomplish his will. So the logic that: 1. my husband is not a believer, therefore 2. he can not hear from God, therefore 3. I do not need to submit to him because he can not hear from God, is a faulty line of reasoning. Unbelievers can be and are led by God without their knowledge…a mystery of His sovereign rule of His universe…a topic for another day! Saint Peter plainly commands the wives within the Church to be submissive (which is not an action but a “heart condition”) to their unbelieving husbands. Even while their husbands are not believers they as wives must trust that God will protect them and will guide their husbands in the leading of the family. And that is what this entire issue boils down to anyway, trust…not in a husband…but in God. Saint Peter then explains that God might use the testimony of a Godly, loving and submissive wife in the life of her husband as a means to draw him to faith. Of course, Saint Peters line of reasoning is flawless…why would any man submit to Christ if his own wife who claims to submit to Christ is confrontational, argumentative, sarcastic, manipulative, inflexible, cold, irreverent and unsubmissive to him as he leads the family?
The same line of reasoning ought to be used with a backslidden husband.
What of the women who is married to a fool? How do we advice the women who is married to an irresponsible or lazy man? I know a situation wherein a woman was married to the same man for over thirty five years…and the man had many more jobs than they had years of marriage. In the five or six years I knew the couple the man had about ten jobs or more. Each time he was fired or let go it would take him two or three weeks to get a new job…and then a week or two before his first pay check. So once or twice a year he would go a month or so with no income. They went bankrupt more than once during that time…twice in about six years…and then lost their home to foreclosure. You see, not only was the man not able to hold down a job (something that was always a problem for the first thirty years of their marriage. It suddenly became an epidemic the last five or six years of the marriage) but he also enjoyed spending money…especially at random times for random things…which kept his wife in a constant state of fear and anxiety. It led as I said to ruin. What was this woman to do? Their children were all grown. He was active in the church. He was not a carouser. He was not an adulterer. He was not a drunkard or gambler. He did not beat his wife and I don’t think he was particularly mean or disrespectful in the way he spoke with her, I’m sure all husbands and wives are short and disrespectful at times, but I don’t think that issue was a stand out defect in him. He was just so foolish that he wrecked the financial stability of their home.
She divorced him. I was against it…I saw it as a desperate move by a desperate women, decisions like that ought not be made while in desperation. But she would not listen to me, she divorced him.
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By: Pastor Gary Fox
How does a Christian woman handle a situation wherein her husband is not a believer, does not know God and because of that is unable to pray? Or what does a women do if her husband has backslidden away from the Lord and is not serving Him? Thirdly, is a Christian women expected to submit to her husband if he is an irresponsible, foolish, man? We have already explained that wives are not commanded to or expected to submit to abuse. So, for the purposes of this article we are going to work with the assumption that physical and emotional abuse is not in the equation.
First, what if a women’s husband is not saved? Well, Saint Peter the Apostle gave fairly straight forward instruction, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in his first general epistle to the Church. “Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.” 1 Peter 3:1-2 niv. The Bible is filled with examples of God leading unbelievers to accomplish his will. Look at the brothers of Joseph, they were not aware of it, but God was using them to accomplish His will. Judas Iscariot is another example. So also would be Pontius Pilate. We could go on and on about how God uses even the unbeliever to accomplish his will. So the logic that: 1. my husband is not a believer, therefore 2. he can not hear from God, therefore 3. I do not need to submit to him because he can not hear from God, is a faulty line of reasoning. Unbelievers can be and are led by God without their knowledge…a mystery of His sovereign rule of His universe…a topic for another day! Saint Peter plainly commands the wives within the Church to be submissive (which is not an action but a “heart condition”) to their unbelieving husbands. Even while their husbands are not believers they as wives must trust that God will protect them and will guide their husbands in the leading of the family. And that is what this entire issue boils down to anyway, trust…not in a husband…but in God. Saint Peter then explains that God might use the testimony of a Godly, loving and submissive wife in the life of her husband as a means to draw him to faith. Of course, Saint Peters line of reasoning is flawless…why would any man submit to Christ if his own wife who claims to submit to Christ is confrontational, argumentative, sarcastic, manipulative, inflexible, cold, irreverent and unsubmissive to him as he leads the family?
The same line of reasoning ought to be used with a backslidden husband.
What of the women who is married to a fool? How do we advice the women who is married to an irresponsible or lazy man? I know a situation wherein a woman was married to the same man for over thirty five years…and the man had many more jobs than they had years of marriage. In the five or six years I knew the couple the man had about ten jobs or more. Each time he was fired or let go it would take him two or three weeks to get a new job…and then a week or two before his first pay check. So once or twice a year he would go a month or so with no income. They went bankrupt more than once during that time…twice in about six years…and then lost their home to foreclosure. You see, not only was the man not able to hold down a job (something that was always a problem for the first thirty years of their marriage. It suddenly became an epidemic the last five or six years of the marriage) but he also enjoyed spending money…especially at random times for random things…which kept his wife in a constant state of fear and anxiety. It led as I said to ruin. What was this woman to do? Their children were all grown. He was active in the church. He was not a carouser. He was not an adulterer. He was not a drunkard or gambler. He did not beat his wife and I don’t think he was particularly mean or disrespectful in the way he spoke with her, I’m sure all husbands and wives are short and disrespectful at times, but I don’t think that issue was a stand out defect in him. He was just so foolish that he wrecked the financial stability of their home.
She divorced him. I was against it…I saw it as a desperate move by a desperate women, decisions like that ought not be made while in desperation. But she would not listen to me, she divorced him.
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Media watchdog says 'Wife Swap' insulted Christians
By Ed Thomas
OneNewsNow.com
The President of the Michigan-based American Decency Association (ADA) says despite the appearance of good intentions in including a Christian family on the popular ABC program Wife Swap, network television once again took the opportunity to try to cast a negative light on Christians and their belief system.
Hear This Report
Christians should not be fooled by the notion that the January 8 episode of Wife Swap presented an opposing but equally respectful view of wives from Christian and atheist families, and their beliefs, the ADA's Bill Johnson warns. He says the show, which "swapped" mothers between the believing and atheist families, portrayed the Christian mom as oppressive and narrow-minded and the atheist mom as normal, rational, and open-minded.
Despite some letters the ADA received from Christians who saw positives about their beliefs on the show, Johnson feels more mockery than respect for those beliefs was depicted. "For every positive portrayal of Christianity there were many negative misrepresentations of our faith," he says. "For every time the Bible was referred to as God's word, it was shown being beaten on, thrown in the trash, and mocked."
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OneNewsNow.com
The President of the Michigan-based American Decency Association (ADA) says despite the appearance of good intentions in including a Christian family on the popular ABC program Wife Swap, network television once again took the opportunity to try to cast a negative light on Christians and their belief system.
Hear This Report
Christians should not be fooled by the notion that the January 8 episode of Wife Swap presented an opposing but equally respectful view of wives from Christian and atheist families, and their beliefs, the ADA's Bill Johnson warns. He says the show, which "swapped" mothers between the believing and atheist families, portrayed the Christian mom as oppressive and narrow-minded and the atheist mom as normal, rational, and open-minded.
Despite some letters the ADA received from Christians who saw positives about their beliefs on the show, Johnson feels more mockery than respect for those beliefs was depicted. "For every positive portrayal of Christianity there were many negative misrepresentations of our faith," he says. "For every time the Bible was referred to as God's word, it was shown being beaten on, thrown in the trash, and mocked."
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Pro-Israel ministry objects to Muslim named Ambassador to UN
By Chad Groening
OneNewsNow.com
Pro-Israel activist Jan Markell says she cannot understand why there is has been virtually no coverage of President Bush's recent announcement that he is appointing a Muslim to the be the next U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
Hear This Report
Markell, founder and director of Olive Tree Ministries, says she had to scour the Internet to learn anything about the man Bush is entrusting with one of the most important diplomatic jobs in the U.S. -- Zalmay Khalilzad, a native of Afghanistan who previously served as America's ambassador to Iraq.
"What it always goes back to is who do we trust in the Islamic world," the ministry leader contends. "How do we know that they will put the American flag and the U.S. Constitution ahead of the Koran?" By definition, she asserts, a true believer in Islam "cannot put national self-interest above the duty of the worldwide cause of Islam and remain faithful to the Koran. If one is a good Muslim, one cannot represent interests contrary to the interests of worldwide Islam."
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OneNewsNow.com
Pro-Israel activist Jan Markell says she cannot understand why there is has been virtually no coverage of President Bush's recent announcement that he is appointing a Muslim to the be the next U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
Hear This Report
Markell, founder and director of Olive Tree Ministries, says she had to scour the Internet to learn anything about the man Bush is entrusting with one of the most important diplomatic jobs in the U.S. -- Zalmay Khalilzad, a native of Afghanistan who previously served as America's ambassador to Iraq.
"What it always goes back to is who do we trust in the Islamic world," the ministry leader contends. "How do we know that they will put the American flag and the U.S. Constitution ahead of the Koran?" By definition, she asserts, a true believer in Islam "cannot put national self-interest above the duty of the worldwide cause of Islam and remain faithful to the Koran. If one is a good Muslim, one cannot represent interests contrary to the interests of worldwide Islam."
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EDITORIAL: Choosing life is the right choice
EDITORIAL: Choosing life is the right choice
By Will Hall
Baptist Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Take a good look at Jacob Barker Hall. Whether in person or by photo it’s hard not to see his bright eyes and engaging smile and not know the joy and the zest that define this 9-year-old’s life. His speech and his physical awkwardness give glimpses of his Down Syndrome, but any signs of motor or mental difficulty are overshadowed by the special person he is as a child of God.
Jacob is a great name for my youngest son. Roughly translated into “supplanter,” a more practical definition for his personality would be “steals the show,” but not in a bad way. He showers others with love and encouragement, likely to say “good job” loudly to the choir or the pastor (along with a visible “thumbs up”) -- without concern for when he says it during the service (I finally figured out it’s his way of saying “amen”).
He runs to give hugs to old and young alike, but he especially delights in carefully approaching a baby, gently cupping his hands along the child’s jawline and slowly, tenderly stroking forward until the heels of his palms meet at the baby’s chin.
His affection is authentic and so are his prayers, and he’s likely to pray anytime, anywhere.
One of the most memorable times was during his first trip to see someone at a hospital, an older lady from church. He was six, and not sure about where he was, or what “ministry” meant or “hospital visitation.” But as soon as he saw his “friend” lying in bed, he grabbed her hand and everyone else joined the circle. Jacob has delayed speech, and no one could discern the jumbled words he was trying to say ... yet everyone understood his prayer.
Click here for the full story! And to see a picture of this gift from God!
By Will Hall
Baptist Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Take a good look at Jacob Barker Hall. Whether in person or by photo it’s hard not to see his bright eyes and engaging smile and not know the joy and the zest that define this 9-year-old’s life. His speech and his physical awkwardness give glimpses of his Down Syndrome, but any signs of motor or mental difficulty are overshadowed by the special person he is as a child of God.
Jacob is a great name for my youngest son. Roughly translated into “supplanter,” a more practical definition for his personality would be “steals the show,” but not in a bad way. He showers others with love and encouragement, likely to say “good job” loudly to the choir or the pastor (along with a visible “thumbs up”) -- without concern for when he says it during the service (I finally figured out it’s his way of saying “amen”).
He runs to give hugs to old and young alike, but he especially delights in carefully approaching a baby, gently cupping his hands along the child’s jawline and slowly, tenderly stroking forward until the heels of his palms meet at the baby’s chin.
His affection is authentic and so are his prayers, and he’s likely to pray anytime, anywhere.
One of the most memorable times was during his first trip to see someone at a hospital, an older lady from church. He was six, and not sure about where he was, or what “ministry” meant or “hospital visitation.” But as soon as he saw his “friend” lying in bed, he grabbed her hand and everyone else joined the circle. Jacob has delayed speech, and no one could discern the jumbled words he was trying to say ... yet everyone understood his prayer.
Click here for the full story! And to see a picture of this gift from God!
‘Memorial to the Missing’ gathers pennies to remember abortion’s toll on innocent life
‘Memorial to the Missing’ gathers pennies to remember abortion’s toll on innocent life
By Gregory Tomlin
Baptist Press
EDITORS’ NOTE: Sunday, Jan. 21, is Sanctity of Life Sunday in the Southern Baptist Convention.
JACKSON, Miss. (BP)--Alone, the penny is the least of U.S. currency. Few things, if any, can be bought with it. The U.S. government has proposed no longer producing it, feeling it insignificant and often unused.
But Baptists all over the state of Mississippi now pay attention to pennies even on the sidewalk or in a parking lot, knowing that each one has value.
These Mississippi Baptists don’t pocket the pennies for themselves. They have been bagging the pennies and shipping them in bulk to the Baptist Building in Jackson. Or they may even tape a few pennies to a piece of paper and send them through the mail. Each penny will go to a special place because it represents something -– rather, someone -– special.
However they are shipped, the pennies will find their home among millions of others at a special “Memorial to the Missing,” the Baptist convention’s tribute to the nearly 50 million children aborted in the United States since the Supreme Court legalized abortion in the landmark Roe v. Wade case in 1973.
To date, Baptists in the state have contributed more than 26 million pennies to the project toward the goal of 50 million. Dropping the pennies in the 12-by-16-foot covered, bullet-proof glass enclosure that makes up the memorial is their way of showing the world that no life is insignificant.
“It’s not the 50 million pennies that are important,” said Jimmy Porter, executive director of the convention’s Christian Action Commission. “It’s the 50 million children.”
And though the number of abortions has declined annually in recent years, it is almost impossible to keep up with them. “There is an abortion in this country every 20 to 22 seconds,” Porter said.
The effects of abortion on children are well-known. But since the Supreme Court legalized the practice in all 50 states, it has also wrecked the lives of countless women who have had them and their extended families as well, said Jim Futral, the state convention’s executive director-treasurer.
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By Gregory Tomlin
Baptist Press
EDITORS’ NOTE: Sunday, Jan. 21, is Sanctity of Life Sunday in the Southern Baptist Convention.
JACKSON, Miss. (BP)--Alone, the penny is the least of U.S. currency. Few things, if any, can be bought with it. The U.S. government has proposed no longer producing it, feeling it insignificant and often unused.
But Baptists all over the state of Mississippi now pay attention to pennies even on the sidewalk or in a parking lot, knowing that each one has value.
These Mississippi Baptists don’t pocket the pennies for themselves. They have been bagging the pennies and shipping them in bulk to the Baptist Building in Jackson. Or they may even tape a few pennies to a piece of paper and send them through the mail. Each penny will go to a special place because it represents something -– rather, someone -– special.
However they are shipped, the pennies will find their home among millions of others at a special “Memorial to the Missing,” the Baptist convention’s tribute to the nearly 50 million children aborted in the United States since the Supreme Court legalized abortion in the landmark Roe v. Wade case in 1973.
To date, Baptists in the state have contributed more than 26 million pennies to the project toward the goal of 50 million. Dropping the pennies in the 12-by-16-foot covered, bullet-proof glass enclosure that makes up the memorial is their way of showing the world that no life is insignificant.
“It’s not the 50 million pennies that are important,” said Jimmy Porter, executive director of the convention’s Christian Action Commission. “It’s the 50 million children.”
And though the number of abortions has declined annually in recent years, it is almost impossible to keep up with them. “There is an abortion in this country every 20 to 22 seconds,” Porter said.
The effects of abortion on children are well-known. But since the Supreme Court legalized the practice in all 50 states, it has also wrecked the lives of countless women who have had them and their extended families as well, said Jim Futral, the state convention’s executive director-treasurer.
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Iraqi Christians May Face Extinction
Iraqi Christians May Face Extinction
By Wendy Griffith
CWN News
CWNews.com – Look into their faces and you can see one of the world's oldest Christian communities searching for hope in the midst of desolation.
Iraq's Christians are wounded, killed, and grieving in the violence that's shaking their country. But this isn't just fallout from the fighting between Shia and Sunni Muslims.
Christians in Iraq are deliberately targeted.
"It is too dangerous for Christians in Baghdad we didn't go to church because we were afraid they would blow it up,” said Nadua Khamwa.
More than 15 churches have been attacked since the fall of Saddam in 2003 and hundreds of Christians have been killed. In the past six months alone, seven priests have been kidnapped and two of them murdered.
To understand the significance you must look at the history.
The bloodlines of about 70 percent of Iraq's 750,000 Christians reach back to the Chaldeans or Assyrians, prominent peoples in the Old Testament. Their ancestors began worshipping in Iraq more than 500 years before the birth of Mohammed and Islam.
Many Assyrian Christians still speak and worship in Aramaic-the ancient language of Jesus.
But today fear is widespread throughout the traditional Iraqi church. Last Christmas, Chaldean and Assyrian clergy urged their members to stay home and avoid public celebrations for fear of reprisals.
And it's not just in Baghdad. Even in northern Iraq churches are on edge.
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By Wendy Griffith
CWN News
CWNews.com – Look into their faces and you can see one of the world's oldest Christian communities searching for hope in the midst of desolation.
Iraq's Christians are wounded, killed, and grieving in the violence that's shaking their country. But this isn't just fallout from the fighting between Shia and Sunni Muslims.
Christians in Iraq are deliberately targeted.
"It is too dangerous for Christians in Baghdad we didn't go to church because we were afraid they would blow it up,” said Nadua Khamwa.
More than 15 churches have been attacked since the fall of Saddam in 2003 and hundreds of Christians have been killed. In the past six months alone, seven priests have been kidnapped and two of them murdered.
To understand the significance you must look at the history.
The bloodlines of about 70 percent of Iraq's 750,000 Christians reach back to the Chaldeans or Assyrians, prominent peoples in the Old Testament. Their ancestors began worshipping in Iraq more than 500 years before the birth of Mohammed and Islam.
Many Assyrian Christians still speak and worship in Aramaic-the ancient language of Jesus.
But today fear is widespread throughout the traditional Iraqi church. Last Christmas, Chaldean and Assyrian clergy urged their members to stay home and avoid public celebrations for fear of reprisals.
And it's not just in Baghdad. Even in northern Iraq churches are on edge.
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British Airways to let workers wear crosses
British Airways to let workers wear crosses
Woman had been suspended for refusing to take off Christian necklace
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
British Airways, which had banned employees from wearing crosses on necklaces but had endorsed hijabs and turbans for Muslims, is changing its policies to allow those tiny emblems of Christianity, according to a report.
The report from the BBC said the airline had considered allowing the crosses only on lapel pins, but ultimately decided that wouldn't be satisfactory.
The issue arose last year when Nadia Eweida, a check-in worker at Heathrow Airport, challenged a company rule against wearing a cross necklace that was visible. The changed policy now will allow religious symbols on items such as lapel pins and will include "some flexibility for individuals to wear a symbol of faith on a chain," according to the report.
British Airways said earlier that the Muslim garb could be visible since those items could not be worn underneath clothing, but that argument was condemned by both politicians and bishops in the United Kingdom.
It even attracted the attention of Prime Minister Tony Blair, who told airline officials that they should "do the sensible thing."
Eweida has been on unpaid leave since September because she wouldn't stop wearing her cross, and she told the BBC that she's going to return to work as she always worked.
"My dignity has been restored. I've suffered for my faith," she told the network.
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Woman had been suspended for refusing to take off Christian necklace
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
British Airways, which had banned employees from wearing crosses on necklaces but had endorsed hijabs and turbans for Muslims, is changing its policies to allow those tiny emblems of Christianity, according to a report.
The report from the BBC said the airline had considered allowing the crosses only on lapel pins, but ultimately decided that wouldn't be satisfactory.
The issue arose last year when Nadia Eweida, a check-in worker at Heathrow Airport, challenged a company rule against wearing a cross necklace that was visible. The changed policy now will allow religious symbols on items such as lapel pins and will include "some flexibility for individuals to wear a symbol of faith on a chain," according to the report.
British Airways said earlier that the Muslim garb could be visible since those items could not be worn underneath clothing, but that argument was condemned by both politicians and bishops in the United Kingdom.
It even attracted the attention of Prime Minister Tony Blair, who told airline officials that they should "do the sensible thing."
Eweida has been on unpaid leave since September because she wouldn't stop wearing her cross, and she told the BBC that she's going to return to work as she always worked.
"My dignity has been restored. I've suffered for my faith," she told the network.
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Modern Pagans Honor Zeus in Athens
Modern Pagans Honor Zeus in Athens
Jan 21 1:12 PM US/Eastern
By PARIS AYIOMAMITIS
Associated Press Writer
ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- A clutch of modern pagans honored Zeus at a 1,800-year-old temple in the heart of Athens on Sunday _ the first known ceremony of its kind held there since the ancient Greek religion was outlawed by the Roman empire in the late 4th century.
Watched by curious onlookers, some 20 worshippers gathered next to the ruins of the temple for a celebration organized by Ellinais, a year- old Athens-based group that is campaigning to revive old religious practices from the era when Greece was a fount of education and philosophy.
The group ignored a ban by the Culture Ministry, which declared the site off limits to any kind of organized activity to protect the monument. But participants did not try to enter the temple itself, which is closed to everyone, and no officials sought to stop the ceremony.
Dressed in ancient costumes, worshippers standing near the temple's imposing Corinthian columns recited hymns calling on the Olympian Zeus, "King of the gods and the mover of things," to bring peace to the world.
"Our message is world peace and an ecological way of life in which everyone has the right to education," said Kostas Stathopoulos, one of three "high priests" overseeing the event, which celebrated the nuptials of Zeus and Hera, the goddess of love and marriage.
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Jan 21 1:12 PM US/Eastern
By PARIS AYIOMAMITIS
Associated Press Writer
ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- A clutch of modern pagans honored Zeus at a 1,800-year-old temple in the heart of Athens on Sunday _ the first known ceremony of its kind held there since the ancient Greek religion was outlawed by the Roman empire in the late 4th century.
Watched by curious onlookers, some 20 worshippers gathered next to the ruins of the temple for a celebration organized by Ellinais, a year- old Athens-based group that is campaigning to revive old religious practices from the era when Greece was a fount of education and philosophy.
The group ignored a ban by the Culture Ministry, which declared the site off limits to any kind of organized activity to protect the monument. But participants did not try to enter the temple itself, which is closed to everyone, and no officials sought to stop the ceremony.
Dressed in ancient costumes, worshippers standing near the temple's imposing Corinthian columns recited hymns calling on the Olympian Zeus, "King of the gods and the mover of things," to bring peace to the world.
"Our message is world peace and an ecological way of life in which everyone has the right to education," said Kostas Stathopoulos, one of three "high priests" overseeing the event, which celebrated the nuptials of Zeus and Hera, the goddess of love and marriage.
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Thursday, January 18, 2007
Controversial Senate ethics bill SB-1 on hold...
By Jim Brown
OneNewsNow.com
January 18, 2007
An attempt by Democrats to push through ethics reform legislation that some warn would label churches and other non-profits as "grass roots lobbying firms" has been temporarily stalled.
Hear This Report
Wednesday night a vote on the controversial grassroots lobbying bill SB-1 was delayed after Democrats came nine votes short of the 60 they needed to end debate and vote on the measure. The bill could come up again for a vote either Thursday or Friday. A companion piece of legislation is expected to be introduced in the House next week.
American Center for Law and Justice Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow has mounted a campaign against the legislation, arguing it would restrict the work of Christian TV and radio ministries and pro-family groups. He remains hopeful an amendment stripping the grassroots prohibitions will pass.
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OneNewsNow.com
January 18, 2007
An attempt by Democrats to push through ethics reform legislation that some warn would label churches and other non-profits as "grass roots lobbying firms" has been temporarily stalled.
Hear This Report
Wednesday night a vote on the controversial grassroots lobbying bill SB-1 was delayed after Democrats came nine votes short of the 60 they needed to end debate and vote on the measure. The bill could come up again for a vote either Thursday or Friday. A companion piece of legislation is expected to be introduced in the House next week.
American Center for Law and Justice Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow has mounted a campaign against the legislation, arguing it would restrict the work of Christian TV and radio ministries and pro-family groups. He remains hopeful an amendment stripping the grassroots prohibitions will pass.
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Congress preparing to criminalize critics?
Congress preparing to criminalize critics?
Senate bill would 'create most expansive
intrusion on First Amendment rights ever'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5:00 p.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
The Senate is considering legislation that would regulate grassroots communications, with penalties for critics of Congress.
"In what sounds like a comedy sketch from Jon Stewart's Daily Show, but isn't, the U. S. Senate would impose criminal penalties, even jail time, on grassroots causes and citizens who criticize Congress," says Richard A. Viguerie, chairman of GrassrootsFreedom.com
Section 220 of S. 1, the lobbying reform bill before the Senate, would require grassroots causes, even bloggers, who communicate to 500 or more members of the public on policy matters, to register and report quarterly to Congress, as lobbyists are required.
"Section 220 would amend existing lobbying reporting law by creating the most expansive intrusion on First Amendment rights ever," Viguerie said.
For the first time in history, he stated, critics of Congress will need to register and report with Congress itself.
"The bill would require reporting of 'paid efforts to stimulate grassroots lobbying,' but defines 'paid' merely as communications to 500 or more members of the public, with no other qualifiers," Viguerie said.
The Senate passed an amendment on the bill Jan. 9 to create criminal penalties, including up to one year in jail, if someone "knowingly and willingly fails to file or report."
Viguerie said the legislation regulates small, legitimate nonprofits, bloggers, and individuals, but creates loopholes for corporations, unions, and large membership organizations that would be able to spend hundreds of millions of dollars, yet not report.
"Congress is trying to blame the grassroots, which are American citizens engaging in their First Amendment rights, for Washington's internal corruption problems," he said.
Christian leader James Dobson -- along with Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer and Don Wildmon -- spoke out about the provision on a recent "Focus on the Family" radio broadcast.
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Senate bill would 'create most expansive
intrusion on First Amendment rights ever'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5:00 p.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
The Senate is considering legislation that would regulate grassroots communications, with penalties for critics of Congress.
"In what sounds like a comedy sketch from Jon Stewart's Daily Show, but isn't, the U. S. Senate would impose criminal penalties, even jail time, on grassroots causes and citizens who criticize Congress," says Richard A. Viguerie, chairman of GrassrootsFreedom.com
Section 220 of S. 1, the lobbying reform bill before the Senate, would require grassroots causes, even bloggers, who communicate to 500 or more members of the public on policy matters, to register and report quarterly to Congress, as lobbyists are required.
"Section 220 would amend existing lobbying reporting law by creating the most expansive intrusion on First Amendment rights ever," Viguerie said.
For the first time in history, he stated, critics of Congress will need to register and report with Congress itself.
"The bill would require reporting of 'paid efforts to stimulate grassroots lobbying,' but defines 'paid' merely as communications to 500 or more members of the public, with no other qualifiers," Viguerie said.
The Senate passed an amendment on the bill Jan. 9 to create criminal penalties, including up to one year in jail, if someone "knowingly and willingly fails to file or report."
Viguerie said the legislation regulates small, legitimate nonprofits, bloggers, and individuals, but creates loopholes for corporations, unions, and large membership organizations that would be able to spend hundreds of millions of dollars, yet not report.
"Congress is trying to blame the grassroots, which are American citizens engaging in their First Amendment rights, for Washington's internal corruption problems," he said.
Christian leader James Dobson -- along with Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer and Don Wildmon -- spoke out about the provision on a recent "Focus on the Family" radio broadcast.
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Muslim group threatens boycott of Northwest Airlines
By Niraj Warikoo
Detroit Free Press
DETROIT — A group of Detroit residents is threatening to lead a boycott of Northwest Airlines over what they say is a pattern of profiling against Muslim passengers.
Imam Hassan Al-Qazwini, head of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Mich., was in a group of about 40 pilgrims who were prevented from boarding a connecting flight in Germany to Detroit on Jan. 7 while returning from a trip to holy cities in Saudi Arabia. The Muslim group, most of whom are Lebanese-American Shiites, held a news conference Tuesday at the Dearborn mosque to describe what they say happened to them. They called for Northwest to apologize, compensate them, and discipline the employees they said profiled them.
"Otherwise," Al-Qazwini said, "if Northwest will not do that, then probably we have to call all Muslim organizations to encourage Muslims from not flying on Northwest."
With tens of thousands of Muslim customers, Northwest could be hurt financially by such a boycott, Al-Qazwini suggested, adding that "I hope Northwest will be wiser."
But Northwest officials defended their actions Tuesday, repeating that the 40 or so pilgrims were unable to board because they weren't at the gate in time.
"They showed up at the gate late," said Dean Breest, a spokesman for Northwest Airlines. "All customers need to be on time."
Northwest Airlines requires passengers to check in for international flights at least 60 minutes prior to departure and to be on board the aircraft at least 30 minutes prior to the scheduled departure time, according to a statement it issued.
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Detroit Free Press
DETROIT — A group of Detroit residents is threatening to lead a boycott of Northwest Airlines over what they say is a pattern of profiling against Muslim passengers.
Imam Hassan Al-Qazwini, head of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Mich., was in a group of about 40 pilgrims who were prevented from boarding a connecting flight in Germany to Detroit on Jan. 7 while returning from a trip to holy cities in Saudi Arabia. The Muslim group, most of whom are Lebanese-American Shiites, held a news conference Tuesday at the Dearborn mosque to describe what they say happened to them. They called for Northwest to apologize, compensate them, and discipline the employees they said profiled them.
"Otherwise," Al-Qazwini said, "if Northwest will not do that, then probably we have to call all Muslim organizations to encourage Muslims from not flying on Northwest."
With tens of thousands of Muslim customers, Northwest could be hurt financially by such a boycott, Al-Qazwini suggested, adding that "I hope Northwest will be wiser."
But Northwest officials defended their actions Tuesday, repeating that the 40 or so pilgrims were unable to board because they weren't at the gate in time.
"They showed up at the gate late," said Dean Breest, a spokesman for Northwest Airlines. "All customers need to be on time."
Northwest Airlines requires passengers to check in for international flights at least 60 minutes prior to departure and to be on board the aircraft at least 30 minutes prior to the scheduled departure time, according to a statement it issued.
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3,000 Christians added daily in China
3,000 Christians added daily in China
Faithful undefeated by beatings, arrests, confiscations and destruction of churches
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: January 18, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Worship services are being broken up by baton-wielding police officers, participants arrested, Bibles confiscated and Christian church buildings demolished. But still, an estimated 3,000 people every day come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ in China.
The report comes from Voice of the Martyrs, a U.S.-based Christian group that works specifically to help those members of the persecuted Christian church worldwide.
The most recent arrests happened just a few days ago, when a house church meeting in Henan province was broken up and 11 people arrested, the organization said.
"Police from Yongfeng township police station in Xiuwu county, Henan province, raided a Christian meeting in a home in Chencun village. Eleven Christians were arrested, two were released the next day and nine remain in jail," the report said.
"Police broke in and proclaimed the gathering a cultic and illegal activity," the report said.
Legal and financial help is being provided to those people during their detention.
However, VOM said that a more than 50-year campaign to eradicate Christianity from China has left that nation with the equivalent of a new mega-church being added each day.
"Chairman Mao Zedong declared the Peoples Republic of China in 1949 and quickly sought to purge society of anything religious, causing China's people to endure great hardship ever since," a VOM analysis of the nation said. "Mao's Great Leap Forward in the late '50s and the Cultural Revolution in the '60s and '70s left millions of his countrymen dead or victimized.
"Today, with its policies of forced abortion and sterilization, China's human rights record is one of the worst in the world. Authorities reportedly sell the organs of executed prisoners to meet the demand for transplants. It system of 're-education through labor' detains hundreds of thousands each year in work camps without even a court hearing. China's 'strike-hard' policy, presented as a crackdown on criminals, is hardest on Christians, putting more believers in prison or under detention than in any other country. The confiscation of church property and Bibles continues – even Bibles officially printed by the government," the report said.
"Yet the church grows: an estimated 3,000 Chinese come to Christ each day. China's house church movement, which comprises approximately 90 percent of China's Christians, endures unimaginable persecution, yet stands on its commitment to preach the gospel no matter the cost."
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Faithful undefeated by beatings, arrests, confiscations and destruction of churches
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: January 18, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Worship services are being broken up by baton-wielding police officers, participants arrested, Bibles confiscated and Christian church buildings demolished. But still, an estimated 3,000 people every day come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ in China.
The report comes from Voice of the Martyrs, a U.S.-based Christian group that works specifically to help those members of the persecuted Christian church worldwide.
The most recent arrests happened just a few days ago, when a house church meeting in Henan province was broken up and 11 people arrested, the organization said.
"Police from Yongfeng township police station in Xiuwu county, Henan province, raided a Christian meeting in a home in Chencun village. Eleven Christians were arrested, two were released the next day and nine remain in jail," the report said.
"Police broke in and proclaimed the gathering a cultic and illegal activity," the report said.
Legal and financial help is being provided to those people during their detention.
However, VOM said that a more than 50-year campaign to eradicate Christianity from China has left that nation with the equivalent of a new mega-church being added each day.
"Chairman Mao Zedong declared the Peoples Republic of China in 1949 and quickly sought to purge society of anything religious, causing China's people to endure great hardship ever since," a VOM analysis of the nation said. "Mao's Great Leap Forward in the late '50s and the Cultural Revolution in the '60s and '70s left millions of his countrymen dead or victimized.
"Today, with its policies of forced abortion and sterilization, China's human rights record is one of the worst in the world. Authorities reportedly sell the organs of executed prisoners to meet the demand for transplants. It system of 're-education through labor' detains hundreds of thousands each year in work camps without even a court hearing. China's 'strike-hard' policy, presented as a crackdown on criminals, is hardest on Christians, putting more believers in prison or under detention than in any other country. The confiscation of church property and Bibles continues – even Bibles officially printed by the government," the report said.
"Yet the church grows: an estimated 3,000 Chinese come to Christ each day. China's house church movement, which comprises approximately 90 percent of China's Christians, endures unimaginable persecution, yet stands on its commitment to preach the gospel no matter the cost."
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Pelosi Turns Up Heat On Global Warming
Jan 18, 2007 11:34 am US/Central
Pelosi Turns Up Heat On Global Warming
Speaker Ignoring House Traditions To Force Legislative Action On Climate Change
(AP) WASHINGTON House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, intent on putting global warming atop the Democratic agenda, is shaking up traditional committee fiefdoms dominated by some of Congress' oldest and most powerful members.
She's moving to create a special committee to recommend legislation for cutting greenhouse gases, most likely to be chaired by Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a Democratic leadership aide said Wednesday.
Markey has advocated raising mileage standards for cars, trucks and SUVs and is one of the House's biggest critics of oil companies and U.S. automakers,
Pelosi has discussed the proposal with at least two Democratic committee chairmen: fellow Californian Henry Waxman of Oversight and Government Reform, and West Virginia Rep. Nick Rahall, who heads the Natural Resources panel. Pelosi intends to announce the move this week, said the leadership aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because not all of the details have been worked out.
The move, to some degree, would sidestep two of the House's most powerful Democratic committee bosses, in shaping what's expected to be at least a yearlong debate on global warming:
# Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell of Michigan, a defender of the auto industry and at 80 the longest serving member of the House.
# New York Rep. Charles Rangel, who as the 76-year-old chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, would have to clear any tax on carbon-based fuels like coal, oil or natural gas, which have been blamed for warming the atmosphere. A chief advocate of such a tax is former Democratic Vice President Al Gore.
Rahall said he had spoken with Pelosi about the idea of a new select committee. Rahall's panel oversees energy development on public lands, including coal, oil and natural gas as well as cleaner, non-carbon sources such as geothermal and windmills.
"I've been assured that no legislative jurisdiction would be taken away from any committee," Rahall said. "No legislative responsibility would be shifted from any committee."
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Pelosi Turns Up Heat On Global Warming
Speaker Ignoring House Traditions To Force Legislative Action On Climate Change
(AP) WASHINGTON House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, intent on putting global warming atop the Democratic agenda, is shaking up traditional committee fiefdoms dominated by some of Congress' oldest and most powerful members.
She's moving to create a special committee to recommend legislation for cutting greenhouse gases, most likely to be chaired by Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a Democratic leadership aide said Wednesday.
Markey has advocated raising mileage standards for cars, trucks and SUVs and is one of the House's biggest critics of oil companies and U.S. automakers,
Pelosi has discussed the proposal with at least two Democratic committee chairmen: fellow Californian Henry Waxman of Oversight and Government Reform, and West Virginia Rep. Nick Rahall, who heads the Natural Resources panel. Pelosi intends to announce the move this week, said the leadership aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because not all of the details have been worked out.
The move, to some degree, would sidestep two of the House's most powerful Democratic committee bosses, in shaping what's expected to be at least a yearlong debate on global warming:
# Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell of Michigan, a defender of the auto industry and at 80 the longest serving member of the House.
# New York Rep. Charles Rangel, who as the 76-year-old chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, would have to clear any tax on carbon-based fuels like coal, oil or natural gas, which have been blamed for warming the atmosphere. A chief advocate of such a tax is former Democratic Vice President Al Gore.
Rahall said he had spoken with Pelosi about the idea of a new select committee. Rahall's panel oversees energy development on public lands, including coal, oil and natural gas as well as cleaner, non-carbon sources such as geothermal and windmills.
"I've been assured that no legislative jurisdiction would be taken away from any committee," Rahall said. "No legislative responsibility would be shifted from any committee."
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Iraqi PM: 400 Shiite Fighters Detained
Jan 18, 8:38 AM (ET)
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said 400 fighters from a key backer of the Shiite-led government have been arrested, and a government spokesman said Thursday the U.S. is not giving Iraqi security forces enough money for training and equipment. Al-Maliki's claim sought to address doubts about his willingness to take on the Shiite militiamen, especially the Mahdi army that is loyal to his key supporter, the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Many of the militiamen are believed responsible for much of the sectarian violence in Baghdad in the past year.
In Baghdad on Thursday, bombers and gunmen killed at least 19 more people in a series of morning attacks as the capital faces a surge in violence ahead of a planned U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown.
The Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported that al-Maliki was deeply critical of President Bush during a briefing with a small group of reporters.
"The situation would be much better if the United States had immediately sent our security forces more adequate weapons and equipment. If they had committed themselves more and with greater speed we would have had a lot fewer deaths among Iraqi civilians and American soldiers," the newspaper quoted al-Maliki as saying.
However, the premier stopped short of openly criticizing Bush's plan to send 21,500 more troops to join the estimated 130,000 already there.
"We have to see how the situation in the field will go," he said. "We cannot rule out that the situation will drastically improve, allowing U.S. troops to leave the country in great numbers in three to six months."
The newspaper quoted the embattled Iraqi leader as saying Bush had capitulated to domestic pressure when he criticized the hanging of former leader Saddam Hussein. Al-Maliki further struck back at comments by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that suggested he was in a weak position and on borrowed time.
He said such remarks were giving aid and comfort to militants fighting to drive out U.S. troops and unseat his government.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the Iraqi military budget this year is $8 billion, but it needs more for proper training, recruiting and equipment.
"We feel Iraqi needs for equipment (are) more than that money," he said, speaking in English. "We are expecting also assistance and help from the multinational forces in order to have proper training and manning as well as arming the Iraqi force."
Al-Dabbagh also said coalition troops could start withdrawing from Iraq by the end of the year as more security control is handed over to the Iraqis.
"We can say in 2007 the Iraqis will have more control on the troops, and the decision will be Iraqi, and this will entitle (us) to reduce the multinational force," he said.
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By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said 400 fighters from a key backer of the Shiite-led government have been arrested, and a government spokesman said Thursday the U.S. is not giving Iraqi security forces enough money for training and equipment. Al-Maliki's claim sought to address doubts about his willingness to take on the Shiite militiamen, especially the Mahdi army that is loyal to his key supporter, the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Many of the militiamen are believed responsible for much of the sectarian violence in Baghdad in the past year.
In Baghdad on Thursday, bombers and gunmen killed at least 19 more people in a series of morning attacks as the capital faces a surge in violence ahead of a planned U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown.
The Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported that al-Maliki was deeply critical of President Bush during a briefing with a small group of reporters.
"The situation would be much better if the United States had immediately sent our security forces more adequate weapons and equipment. If they had committed themselves more and with greater speed we would have had a lot fewer deaths among Iraqi civilians and American soldiers," the newspaper quoted al-Maliki as saying.
However, the premier stopped short of openly criticizing Bush's plan to send 21,500 more troops to join the estimated 130,000 already there.
"We have to see how the situation in the field will go," he said. "We cannot rule out that the situation will drastically improve, allowing U.S. troops to leave the country in great numbers in three to six months."
The newspaper quoted the embattled Iraqi leader as saying Bush had capitulated to domestic pressure when he criticized the hanging of former leader Saddam Hussein. Al-Maliki further struck back at comments by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that suggested he was in a weak position and on borrowed time.
He said such remarks were giving aid and comfort to militants fighting to drive out U.S. troops and unseat his government.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the Iraqi military budget this year is $8 billion, but it needs more for proper training, recruiting and equipment.
"We feel Iraqi needs for equipment (are) more than that money," he said, speaking in English. "We are expecting also assistance and help from the multinational forces in order to have proper training and manning as well as arming the Iraqi force."
Al-Dabbagh also said coalition troops could start withdrawing from Iraq by the end of the year as more security control is handed over to the Iraqis.
"We can say in 2007 the Iraqis will have more control on the troops, and the decision will be Iraqi, and this will entitle (us) to reduce the multinational force," he said.
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Democrat chairman flips on Iraq policy: Recommended troop surge, then opposed when Bush proposed it
Inside the Beltway
By John McCaslin
January 18, 2007
Tough month
On Dec. 5, Newsweek magazine touted an interview with then-incoming House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Rep. Silvestre Reyes as an "exclusive." And for good reason.
"In a surprise twist in the debate over Iraq," the story began, Mr. Reyes "said he wants to see an increase of 20,000 to 30,000 U.S. troops as part of a 'stepped up effort to dismantle the militias.' "
"We have to consider the need for additional troops to be in Iraq, to take out the militias and stabilize Iraq," the Texas Democrat said to the surprise of many, "I would say 20,000 to 30,000."
Then came President Bush's expected announcement last week, virtually matching Mr. Reyes' recommendation and argument word-for-word -- albeit the president proposed only 21,500 troops.
Wouldn't you know, hours after Mr. Bush announced his proposal, Mr. Reyes told the El Paso Times that such a troop buildup was unthinkable.
"We don't have the capability to escalate even to this minimum level," he said.
The chairman's "double-talk" did not go unnoticed. Among others, Rep. Joe Wilson, South Carolina Republican and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, says such blatant "hypocrisy" undermines both national security and the war on terrorism.
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By John McCaslin
January 18, 2007
Tough month
On Dec. 5, Newsweek magazine touted an interview with then-incoming House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Rep. Silvestre Reyes as an "exclusive." And for good reason.
"In a surprise twist in the debate over Iraq," the story began, Mr. Reyes "said he wants to see an increase of 20,000 to 30,000 U.S. troops as part of a 'stepped up effort to dismantle the militias.' "
"We have to consider the need for additional troops to be in Iraq, to take out the militias and stabilize Iraq," the Texas Democrat said to the surprise of many, "I would say 20,000 to 30,000."
Then came President Bush's expected announcement last week, virtually matching Mr. Reyes' recommendation and argument word-for-word -- albeit the president proposed only 21,500 troops.
Wouldn't you know, hours after Mr. Bush announced his proposal, Mr. Reyes told the El Paso Times that such a troop buildup was unthinkable.
"We don't have the capability to escalate even to this minimum level," he said.
The chairman's "double-talk" did not go unnoticed. Among others, Rep. Joe Wilson, South Carolina Republican and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, says such blatant "hypocrisy" undermines both national security and the war on terrorism.
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Gates, Commanders Ready Buildup in Gulf
Jan 18, 10:51 AM (ET)
By ROBERT BURNS
MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with senior U.S. and coalition naval commanders Thursday to plan operations in the Persian Gulf, including the arrival next month of another U.S. aircraft carrier and more Patriot missiles meant in part as a warning to Iran. This tiny state in the northern Gulf is headquarters to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet and Central Command's naval staff.
Gates also flew to nearby Qatar for a private meeting and lunch with that nation's leader, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. Later he was visiting an air base that hosts a high-tech war room that is the nerve center of all U.S. and coalition air operations throughout the Middle East and Central Asia. Under ground rules imposed by U.S. officials, reporters traveling with Gates were prohibited from identifying the base or the country in which it is located.
In Bahrain, a British Royal Navy officer who is the No. 2 commander for coalition naval forces in the Central Command area of responsibility told reporters that the exact role and missions of the aircraft carrier USS John Stennis, which is due to arrive in the Gulf area next month, have not yet been worked out.
British Commodore Keith Winstanley said the Stennis deployment should not be seen entirely as a move aimed at Iran, but he added, "I'm sure there's a message there for Iran."
He said Iranian naval operations have not changed in any significant way since President Bush announced last week that he was sending a second carrier to the Gulf, and Winstanley said at-sea contacts with the Iranian navy have been "extremely cordial."
Earlier, Gates spoke of possibly sending more troops to Afghanistan, where there are now about 24,000 U.S. troops. But the question is how many more can be contributed at a time when Bush is ramping up U.S. firepower in Iraq and the Persian Gulf.
Gates said that he wants to ensure that gains made against extremism in Afghanistan since the U.S. invaded to topple the Taliban regime in October 2001 are not lost as the Taliban re-emerges.
"I think it is important that we not let this success here in Afghanistan slip away from us and that we keep the initiative," he told reporters at Bagram Air Base, the main U.S. military air hub in Afghanistan. "There's no reason to sit back and let the Taliban regroup."
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By ROBERT BURNS
MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with senior U.S. and coalition naval commanders Thursday to plan operations in the Persian Gulf, including the arrival next month of another U.S. aircraft carrier and more Patriot missiles meant in part as a warning to Iran. This tiny state in the northern Gulf is headquarters to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet and Central Command's naval staff.
Gates also flew to nearby Qatar for a private meeting and lunch with that nation's leader, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. Later he was visiting an air base that hosts a high-tech war room that is the nerve center of all U.S. and coalition air operations throughout the Middle East and Central Asia. Under ground rules imposed by U.S. officials, reporters traveling with Gates were prohibited from identifying the base or the country in which it is located.
In Bahrain, a British Royal Navy officer who is the No. 2 commander for coalition naval forces in the Central Command area of responsibility told reporters that the exact role and missions of the aircraft carrier USS John Stennis, which is due to arrive in the Gulf area next month, have not yet been worked out.
British Commodore Keith Winstanley said the Stennis deployment should not be seen entirely as a move aimed at Iran, but he added, "I'm sure there's a message there for Iran."
He said Iranian naval operations have not changed in any significant way since President Bush announced last week that he was sending a second carrier to the Gulf, and Winstanley said at-sea contacts with the Iranian navy have been "extremely cordial."
Earlier, Gates spoke of possibly sending more troops to Afghanistan, where there are now about 24,000 U.S. troops. But the question is how many more can be contributed at a time when Bush is ramping up U.S. firepower in Iraq and the Persian Gulf.
Gates said that he wants to ensure that gains made against extremism in Afghanistan since the U.S. invaded to topple the Taliban regime in October 2001 are not lost as the Taliban re-emerges.
"I think it is important that we not let this success here in Afghanistan slip away from us and that we keep the initiative," he told reporters at Bagram Air Base, the main U.S. military air hub in Afghanistan. "There's no reason to sit back and let the Taliban regroup."
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Congress in no hurry for border fence
Congress in no hurry for border fence
The Associated Press
A law to erect hundreds of miles of fence on the U.S.-Mexico border is on the books and money to start it has been OK'd, but Republicans are nervous that now that they've lost control of Congress, they'll never see it built.
The law passed last year says Congress, now in control of Democrats who generally oppose the fence, doesn't have to release money to build it until lawmakers approve how the fence will be built.
Based on the comments of some Democrats, there's no rush to make that happen.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, House Homeland Security Committee chairman, said he wants to see a plan for securing the northern and southern borders from the Department of Homeland Security and hold a hearing on those plans instead of focusing only on fence construction and funding.
"My preference is to delay the construction of a fence until we have a plan," said Thompson, D-Ga.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said this week Democrats still want to secure the border but want "the best possible way to do it."
Hoyer voted against the fence last year, along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Thompson and 128 other Democrats in the House. In the Senate, 26 Democrats voted for the fence law, including Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who chairs the Appropriations Committee. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada voted against the fence.
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The Associated Press
A law to erect hundreds of miles of fence on the U.S.-Mexico border is on the books and money to start it has been OK'd, but Republicans are nervous that now that they've lost control of Congress, they'll never see it built.
The law passed last year says Congress, now in control of Democrats who generally oppose the fence, doesn't have to release money to build it until lawmakers approve how the fence will be built.
Based on the comments of some Democrats, there's no rush to make that happen.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, House Homeland Security Committee chairman, said he wants to see a plan for securing the northern and southern borders from the Department of Homeland Security and hold a hearing on those plans instead of focusing only on fence construction and funding.
"My preference is to delay the construction of a fence until we have a plan," said Thompson, D-Ga.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said this week Democrats still want to secure the border but want "the best possible way to do it."
Hoyer voted against the fence last year, along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Thompson and 128 other Democrats in the House. In the Senate, 26 Democrats voted for the fence law, including Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who chairs the Appropriations Committee. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada voted against the fence.
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7 Texas border mayors say no to fence
7 Texas border mayors' message on the wall: No
Capitol Hill policymakers told fence would harm trade and relations
By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — Texas border mayors carried a clear message Wednesday to federal policymakers: Walling off the United States from Mexico is a costly, foolish idea that will harm commerce, travel and foreign relations.
The seven mayors, representing cities that stretch from El Paso to Brownsville, raced from meeting to meeting on Capitol Hill, urging Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and lawmakers to abandon Congress' mandate to build 700 miles of fence and instead rely on other border security measures.
"It's a united front: No to the wall," said Laredo Mayor Raul Salinas. "It's just money misspent."
Call for sensors, lights
Instead of fencing off more than 300 miles of the Texas-Mexico border, the mayors recommended that Chertoff and Congress improve border security by using technology such as motion detection sensors and lighting as a "virtual" fence, or by adding more Border Patrol manpower.
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Capitol Hill policymakers told fence would harm trade and relations
By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — Texas border mayors carried a clear message Wednesday to federal policymakers: Walling off the United States from Mexico is a costly, foolish idea that will harm commerce, travel and foreign relations.
The seven mayors, representing cities that stretch from El Paso to Brownsville, raced from meeting to meeting on Capitol Hill, urging Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and lawmakers to abandon Congress' mandate to build 700 miles of fence and instead rely on other border security measures.
"It's a united front: No to the wall," said Laredo Mayor Raul Salinas. "It's just money misspent."
Call for sensors, lights
Instead of fencing off more than 300 miles of the Texas-Mexico border, the mayors recommended that Chertoff and Congress improve border security by using technology such as motion detection sensors and lighting as a "virtual" fence, or by adding more Border Patrol manpower.
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