Islam update

Prophecy News Update







May 7, 2007
Prayer Closet Hits the Ceiling!
What began years ago as a personal, private prayer commitment has taken hold of the hearts of supporters and listeners of The Prophecy Club. A recent report shows Building Your Prayer Closet: Protection in the Day of Trouble by Stan Johnson has become the favorite DVD in the last twelve months at The Prophecy Club. Comments from viewers say it has changed their prayer life. Many have begun to pray, others to pray in a much deeper way. Some say it has given them the missing peace in their heart as they look at what is to soon befall America. Stan hit a cord with serious students of Bible prophecy seeking the truth, especially protection in the day of trouble. They say it has been a real encouragement to them.
In addition, the #3 DVD, The Truth About the Rapture, the companion DVD to The Prayer Closet, has finally answered the festering question in the hearts of many Christians about when the rapture occurs and whether or not they can count on it to protect them from trouble. It has found a place in people’s hearts that desire the truth. The remarkable evidence that students of Bible prophecy have endorsed the DVD is the lack complaints. From automobile companies to shoe shine products will tell you the best measurement of success is the absence of complaints. In the case of The Truth About the Rapture, it has yet to receive one complaining letter stating a person watched every minute of the DVD and disagrees! The success of these two DVDs has been tremendous.
In This Issue
President says 'hate crimes' plan unneeded
Battle with feds brewing over 'superhighway'
Mexico announces date for trucks to roll in U.S.
Army Squeezes Soldier Blogs, Maybe to Death
Virulent New Strain of TB Raising Fears of Pandemic
The Sanhedrin’s peace initiative
Dome of the Rock: Target of Muslim Extremists?
European Parliament Passes Resolution Vowing to Take 'Homophobic' Countries to Court
US and EU agree 'single market'
Gay bishop and partner to unite
United Methodist Church criticized for pro-abortion alliance
How much longer will Google do no evil?
Britain becoming a Big Brother society, says data watchdog
Are we safe from robots that can think for themselves?
INTERNET PROVIDERS CENSORING CONSERVATIVE NEWS E-MAIL
Terror fear, climate change concerns make Aussies return to Church
Speaker of PA Legislature: Kill Every Last Jew & American
Earth's Climate Is Seesawing, According To Climate Researchers
Now U.S. trucks to cruise Mexico
Climate change hits Mars
America prepares to talk with Iran after 28 years of silence
Teachers insist: Being 'gay' good
A Candidate, His Minister and the Search for Faith
U.S. exercise prepares for Iran attack on the Fifth Fleet
Muslims believe U.S. goal to weaken Islam: poll
Palestinians disavow 'right of return'
'Lord' is fading at some churches
The marketers have your ear
Method and System for Facilitating a Shopping Experience
Tag elderly people, says science minister
India Is Now A Nuclear Super Power
RFID at the Car Wash
House OKs bill requiring waiting time, ultrasound before abortions
America In Prophecy
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President says 'hate crimes' plan unneededOne day after WND reported Christian activists were seeking a pledge from the president to veto a "hate crimes" bill now approved by the U.S. House, the White House issued a statement saying the proposal is "unnecessary and constitutionally questionable." The plan, H.R. 1592 by U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., is feared by opponents, as WND has reported, as a means to target Christians and to demolish both freedom of speech and religion in the United States. The House voted 237-180 for it today. "The administration favors strong criminal penalties for violent crime, including crimes based on personal characteristics, such as race, color, religion, or national origin. However … if H.R. 1592 were presented to the president, his senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill," the White House said. The statement said state and local criminal laws already provide penalties for the violence addressed by the new federal crime defined in the bill, and many carry stricter penalties than the proposed language.
"State and local law enforcement agencies and courts have the capability to enforce those penalties and are doing so effectively. There has been no persuasive demonstration of any need to federalize such a potentially large range of violent crime enforcement…" the statement said.
It said the administration believes all violent crimes are unacceptable, regardless of the victims, and should be punished "firmly."
"I think it's a good sign, for now," said Michael Marcavage, of Repent America, an organization whose members include several Christians jailed for proclaiming their beliefs on public streets in Philadelphia.
Former White House insider Chuck Colson, in his Breakpoint commentary, called it a "Thought Crimes" plan.
"It's called the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. But this bill is not about hate. It's not even about crime. It's about outlawing peaceful speech – speech that asserts that homosexual behavior is morally wrong," he said.
Leaders at Concerned Women for America had asked for the veto promise.
"This bill would grant individuals who engaged in homosexual behavior ("sexual orientation") or those who cross-dress ("gender identity") preferential treatment over other citizens by elevating them to a specially protected class of victim," the organization said.
Battle with feds brewing over 'superhighway'A battle between Texas and the Bush administration is brewing over construction of the Trans-Texas Corridor after the state legislature passed a two-year moratorium. The Texas House passed HB1892 Wednesday after the Senate last week approved an earlier version of the moratorium on a project some critics see as part of a "NAFTA superhighway" system and ties with Canada and Mexico that threaten U.S. sovereignty. The bill has been sent to Gov. Rick Perry for signature by May 14, but it passed with veto-proof margins of 27-4 in the Senate and 139-1 in the House. The Bush administration appears determined to fight the moratorium. WND reported last week FHWA Chief Counsel James D. Ray wrote a four-page letter to Michael Behrens, executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation, threatening the loss of federal highway funds if the legislature were to pass a two-year moratorium of the public-private partnership financed by Cintra, an investment consortium in Spain. WND previously has reported TTC-35, the nation's first NAFTA superhighway, is a four-football-field wide car-truck-train-pipeline toll road the Texas Department of Transportation plans to build parallel to Interstate 35 from Laredo, Texas, to the Texas-Oklahoma border south of Oklahoma City.
TTC is a public-private-partnership heavily promoted on the FHWA website, largely because the corridor will be financed by Cintra, an investment consortium in Spain that will manage the toll road under a 50-year lease.
On Tuesday, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R–Texas, wrote to the Federal Highway Administration objecting to a threatening letter the agency recently wrote the Texas Department of Transportation.
Hutchinson wrote J.Richard Capka, the FHWA administrator, charging that Ray's letter "placed a cloud over current actions being taken in the Texas Legislature."
Hutchinson further wrote that as "someone who has worked to increase Texas' share of federal transportation dollars, I understand the need to make sure that Texas has all options to leverage funds."
Mexico announces date for trucks to roll in U.S.With U.S. officials refusing to respond to key questions, Mexico announced the controversial truck demonstration project will begin July 15, with both Mexican trucks operating throughout the U.S. and American trucks allowed to travel south of the border.
WND has obtained a copy in Spanish of a news release issued Tuesday reporting on a press conference given April 24 by Manuel Rodriguez Arrequi, an undersecretary of the Mexican Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes, or SCT, the Mexican counterpart to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
According to the May 1 release, the Mexican Senate gave approval April 24 for the SCT to finalize negotiations with DOT to set the operating terms regarding what is now being called a "Cross-Border Demonstration Project."
The news release also stated that as a result of a series of meetings held between April 19 and 27, an agreement had been signed between SCT head Luis Téllez and his counterpart, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, formalizing the terms under which the project will be conducted.
Army Squeezes Soldier Blogs, Maybe to DeathThe U.S. Army has ordered soldiers to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages, without first clearing the content with a superior officer, Wired News has learned. The directive, issued April 19, is the sharpest restriction on troops' online activities since the start of the Iraq war. And it could mean the end of military blogs, observers say.
Military officials have been wrestling for years with how to handle troops who publish blogs. Officers have weighed the need for wartime discretion against the opportunities for the public to personally connect with some of the most effective advocates for the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq -- the troops themselves. The secret-keepers have generally won the argument, and the once-permissive atmosphere has slowly grown more tightly regulated. Soldier-bloggers have dropped offline as a result.
The new rules (.pdf) obtained by Wired News require a commander be consulted before every blog update.
"This is the final nail in the coffin for combat blogging," said retired paratrooper Matthew Burden, editor of The Blog of War anthology. "No more military bloggers writing about their experiences in the combat zone. This is the best PR the military has -- it's most honest voice out of the war zone. And it's being silenced."
Army Regulation 530--1: Operations Security (OPSEC) (.pdf) restricts more than just blogs, however. Previous editions of the rules asked Army personnel to "consult with their immediate supervisor" before posting a document "that might contain sensitive and/or critical information in a public forum." The new version, in contrast, requires "an OPSEC review prior to publishing" anything -- from "web log (blog) postings" to comments on internet message boards, from resumes to letters home.
Failure to do so, the document adds, could result in a court-martial, or "administrative, disciplinary, contractual, or criminal action."
Virulent New Strain of TB Raising Fears of PandemicMOSCOW -- A virulent strain of tuberculosis resistant to most available drugs is surfacing around the globe, raising fears of a pandemic that could devastate efforts to contain TB and prove deadly to people with immune-deficiency diseases such as HIV-AIDS.
Known formally as extensively drug-resistant TB, or XDR-TB, the strain has been detected in 37 countries. It arises when the bacterium that causes TB mutates because antibiotics used to combat it are carelessly administered by poorly trained doctors or patients don't take their full course of medication. Rather than being killed by the drugs, the microbe builds up resistance to them.
At least 50 percent of those who contract this strain of TB will die of it, according to medical experts. In trying to stop the spread of the disease, which can be transmitted through coughing, spitting or even speaking, health officials have imposed sometimes extreme controls on infected people.
Robert Daniels, a 27-year-old dual Russian-U.S. citizen, underwent months of treatment for TB in Russia, where he often led a homeless existence. After telling people he was feeling better, he flew from Moscow to New York on Jan. 14 last year, then on to Phoenix.
In fact, his disease had not disappeared. The microbe causing it had mutated, apparently helped by his failure to complete a drug regimen in Russia. Weeks after arriving in Phoenix, Daniels was again coughing, feeling weak and losing weight.
Doctors in Phoenix diagnosed his illness as the new resistant strain of TB. Daniels again failed to follow doctors' orders, authorities say. So health officials got a court order, and he was locked up in the prison wing of a Phoenix hospital, where he has spent the past nine months in hermetically sealed isolation.
"It's not right," Daniels said in a telephone interview. "I'm not a criminal."
Daniels has become a case study in the bleak choices society faces in dealing with the new strain and attempting to balance protection of individual rights with protection of the public.
Evidence of TB has been found in ancient skeletons and mummified remains. From the 17th century to the 20th, it was a major killer in the United States and Europe, taking the lives of such notable people as the poet John Keats, the composer Frédéric Chopin, the writer Stephen Crane and the actress Vivien Leigh.
The Sanhedrin’s peace initiativeIranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has been gearing up for an Israeli offensive in recent months, is bound to be surprised by the peace feelers he is set to receive from Jerusalem soon.
Without Saudi mediation or diplomatic procedures, the president will get a “Letter of Love and Peace”, accompanied by a historic invitation to visit Jerusalem, from The Supreme Judicial Court of the Jewish People, better known as the Sanhedrin.
After having tried their luck with the High Court of Justice and the government, the members of the Jewish group have set out on a new track in their struggle for the Temple Mount, aimed at rebuilding the Temple in the Jewish capital.
In recent days, the group members have drafted a letter that will be translated into 70 languages and sent to all government institutions in the world, including “the sons of Esau and Ishmael” who do not hold diplomatic ties with Israel.
Dome of the Rock: Target of Muslim Extremists?Concern has been raised in Israel that Islamic terrorists such as Hamas or Al-Qaeda may target the Muslim shrine of the Dome of the Rock or Al-Aksa Mosque, both of which sit atop the site of the Jewish Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
The Islamic terrorists would then blame Israel to arouse Muslim anger, in order to trigger a war in the Middle East. The subsequent loss of Muslim lives is of little concern to them. On the contrary, they even think this is the best way to get their fellow Muslims into their paradise, by making them shuhada (plural of shahid, martyr for Islam). We have already seen Shiite and Sunni Muslims target each others' mosques for demolition, and that both use their so-called "shrines" for the storage of weapons, explosives and safe houses for their terrorists. They do, however, expect Americans and Israelis to respect the self-proclaimed sanctity of their mosques and shrines.
Suspicions were raised in light of the frenzied reaction to Israel repairing a crumbling, earthquake-damaged earthen ramp that leads up to the site of the Temple Mount. Muslim leaders tried to assert that the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aksa Mosque were endangered by these repair measures - a rather ridiculous claim. It was also thought that Muslim terrorists were planning to collapse the shaky ramp on top of Jewish worshipers at the Western Wall. They may have intended to use this excuse to permanently close the Mughrabi Gate (the only gate up to the Mount open to non-Muslims) to the Temple Mount so no infidels (non-Muslims) could enter.
In this light, it is clear why Muslim leaders always opposed any infrastructure improvements in the area. With an anarchist agenda, they want people to get hurt and are happy to help the process along if it benefits their religious war against the Jews, Christians and all other non-Muslim infidels whom they must kill.
European Parliament Passes Resolution Vowing to Take 'Homophobic' Countries to CourtBy John-Henry Westen BRUSSELS, April 26, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a disgraceful debate in the European Parliament (EP) yesterday, Members of the European Parliament from France, the Netherlands and Italy, among others, vilified Poland as "hateful" and "repulsive" for refusing to allow promotion of homosexuality in schools.
A vote was held today to approve an EP resolution chastising Poland for 'homophobia.' The resolution - adopted by 325 votes to 124, with 150 abstentions - calls for a fact-finding mission to be sent to Poland, for "worldwide de-criminalisation of homosexuality" and for the Commission to take Member States to court if they breach their EU obligations.
At issue was a proposed law in Poland which would forbid "homosexual propaganda" in schools. Explaining the legislation earlier this year, Roman Giertych, Poland's minister of education: "One must limit homosexual propaganda so that children won't have an improper view of family"
Beginning the debate in the EP France's MEP Rour Martine called statements in defense of the traditional family by Polish parliamentarians, "diatribes" and noted that they "must stop", adding that they were "repulsive" and "hateful". "These are not Europe's values," she proclaimed.
The statements from France were supported by Sophia in't Veld of the Netherlands who also accused the Polish government of "hatred" and demanded action rather than words from the EU governing body.
Italy's Giusto Catania joined in the attack on Poland adding an attack on the church as well which he said never stopped in expressing hatred toward homosexuals.
Some of the MEPs from Poland and Northern Ireland walked out of the debate as a protest, however those who remained gave a strong defence of their positions. Poland's Konrad Szymanski said that the debate was evidence that the "European Paliament can be led by the nose by a group of extremist politicians."
But the most powerful response came from Poland's Bogdan Pek. "This was an artificial piece of theatre," he said. "An attempt to carry out an assault on a particular member state that a bunch of liberals and lefties disapprove of." Pek continued, "For God's sake, in the recent histories of your countries there has been persecution - persecution of Jews for example who took refuge in Poland."
"Poland is a tolerant, hospitable country. It is absurd to suggest that Poland is an island of intolerance in Europe. That is an insult and a lie. A cynical manipulation which is designed to pull the wool over the European public's eyes. I protest against that form of manipulation and falsehood," he concluded.
US and EU agree 'single market'The United States and the European Union have signed up to a new transatlantic economic partnership at a summit in Washington. The pact is designed to boost trade and investment by harmonising regulatory standards, laying the basis for a US-EU single market.
The two sides also signed an Open Skies deal, designed to reduce fares and boost traffic on transatlantic flights.
But little of substance was agreed on climate change.
However, EU leaders were pleased that the US acknowledged human activity was a major cause.
Richest regions
Economics rather than the environment or politics was the focus of the summit, says the BBC's Europe correspondent, Jonny Dymond, from Washington.
The two sides agreed to set up an "economic council" to push ahead with regulatory convergence in nearly 40 areas, including intellectual property, financial services, business takeovers and the motor industry.
The aim is to increase trade and lower costs.
Some reports suggest that incompatible regulations in the world's two richest regions add 10% to the cost of developing and producing new cars.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, said last month that if the US and EU could set business norms today, they would "secure the markets of tomorrow".
Since she came to office 18 months ago, she has made repairing damaged relations with the US a top priority.
Gay bishop and partner to uniteCONCORD, N.H. -- The Rev. V. Gene Robinson, the Episcopal Church's first openly homosexual bishop, and his partner want to be among the first homosexual couples in New Hampshire to officially unite under a soon-to-be-signed civil unions law.
New Hampshire is set to become the nation's fourth state to offer civil unions for homosexual couples after legislation approved by the state Senate on Thursday was sent to Gov. John Lynch, who has said he will sign it.
"I think this moves us one step closer to the American promise to all its citizens of equality under the law," Bishop Robinson told the Associated Press. "My partner and I look forward to taking full advantage of the new law."
Bishop Robinson, 59, was elected as Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire four years ago, a move that made him a household name but also divided the Anglican community. Earlier this year, Anglican leaders demanded the U.S. denomination step back from its support of homosexuals or risk losing its full membership in the world Anglican fellowship.
Bishop Robinson said his long journey began as a boy in Kentucky when he found he was not attracted to women. As an adult, he spent two years in therapy seeking a "cure" for his homosexual urges.
He told his girlfriend, Isabella, about his struggles, but they married anyway in 1972, moved to rural New Hampshire and had two daughters. Bishop Robinson eventually realized he would not change and the two divorced.
United Methodist Church criticized for pro-abortion allianceThe United Methodist Church is being criticized for its alliance with a pro-abortion coalition. The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice has come out against the U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the ban on partial-birth abortion, calling it a "serious setback." The pro-abortion group is supported by several mainline Christian denominations, including the United Methodist Church.
Mark Tooley with the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) says this alliance between the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and the United Methodist Church does not make sense. But unfortunately, he notes, "this has been the trend among liberal mainline Protestant denominations over the last 40 years."
It was several of these liberal denominations, not just the Methodists, that helped to create this abortion coalition back in the early 1970s, Tooley points out. "And unfortunately," he says, "the officers and the bureaucrats and the theologians of many of these mainline denominations heed the demands of feminist theology and the very aura of the sexual revolution." In that process, the IRD spokesman adds, these churches "set aside historic Christian teachings, which -- of course -- disapprove of abortion."
How much longer will Google do no evil?Google has been the most prominent company in the Web 2.0 revolution for some time. From Google Blogger, to Google Earth, to Google Desktop, to Google Calendar, and onward, there is almost nothing that Google doesn't provide a service for. Google is currently the third most trafficked site on the internet, reaching around 25 per cent of all users (mostly from the United States). This clear dominance has privacy advocates worried.
The amount of information that Google has access to on the web habits of users is immense. For instance, if you have a Gmail account, odds are that Google is tracking your web searches. (Check yourself at Google History). Google's bread and butter is advertising and it prides itself on placement of ads which are "context appropriate". That is, the Google ad service (AdWords) displays ads that are most likely to be of interest to the viewer. When you open your Gmail account, the ads shown at the side will be related to the contents of the email you are reading.
With the pending acquisition of DoubleClick, Google's ability to know more about its users increases substantially. DoubleClick reportedly reaches over 80 per cent of all internet users through its advertising service. (If you check your browser's cookies, you will very likely see one from doubleclick.com). Privacy advocates are concerned that this data collection puts the privacy of internet users at significant risk. Here are several ways that risk could be exploited.
The government could demand information through legal proceedings. It is not unheard of for a government agency to turn to Google for access to its massive data store. There is an ongoing lawsuit with Google against the Federal government which is requesting Google search records to defend a Federal anti-pornography law. (Microsoft, America Online, and Yahoo have all complied). The case is still pending but it shows the risk of having a large amount of information stored in a database… eventually the Government will want to get its hands on it.
The information could be leaked or directly compromised by a malicious individual or group. Will Google ever be hacked and its information stolen? Some would say that it is not likely. However, a few years ago people would never have imagined how frequently banks would be compromised. Every few months a bank or a large financial institution loses its customers' data or its backup tapes get stolen. Admittedly, it isn't extremely likely that Google break-ins will become commonplace. None the less, the more information that Google stores, the more likely attacks by sophisticated, greedy hackers become.
Britain becoming a Big Brother society, says data watchdog?Britain is in danger of "committing slow social suicide" as such Big Brother techniques as surveillance cameras and recording equipment spread into every aspect of our lives, the nation's information watchdog will warn this week.
A new report from Richard Thomas, the information commissioner, will say that the public needs to be made more aware of the "creeping encroachment" on civil liberties created by email monitoring, CCTV and computer tracking of our buying habits.
It is understood that one of the concerns in Mr Thomas's report is the use of special listening devices which can be placed in lamp posts, street furniture and offices. These are already widely used in the Netherlands to combat crime and anti-social behaviour.
More than 300 of the cameras with built-in microphones have been fitted in benefit offices and city centres. The equipment can pick up aggressive tones on the basis of decibel level, pitch and speed at which words are spoken.
Westminster council has already started piloting the listening devices, but experts say the use of these microphones raises questions about how surveillance can be used to intrude into the private lives of citizens.
He will also call for greater regulation of companies that supply surveillance technology which provides "convenience or safety for the more affluent majority", but not for the vulnerable such as children, immigrants and the elderly.
Are we safe from robots that can think for themselves?Robots that can think for themselves could soon be caring for our children and the elderly and policing our streets, say experts.
Scientists told yesterday of a new generation of robots which can work without human direction.
They predict that in the next five years robots will be available for child-minding, to work in care homes, monitor prisons and help police trace criminals.
And while it may sound like something out of a science-fiction film, the experts say advances in technology have made the thinking robot possible.
A group of leading robotic researchers called for an urgent public debate and legislation to prevent large numbers of autonomous robots being introduced into society without considering the potential risks to public safety.
Until now most robots have been operated by humans, usually by remote control or verbal commands. But now autonomous machines such as toys and vacuum cleaners which cover the room without needing any human instructions or guidance are being introduced.
Manufacturers are exploring ways to make robotic toys look after children, which experts say will lead to child-minding machines able to monitor youngsters, transmitting their progress to the parents by onboard cameras.
INTERNET PROVIDERS CENSORING CONSERVATIVE NEWS E-MAILSomething ominous and sinister has been happening on the Internet lately: two major internet service providers -- without any prior explanation or notice -- have been discriminating against conservative e-zines and web journals.
According to several subscribers to NewsWithViews.Com's newsletter, companies such as Earthlink and SBC Global are intentionally blocking delivery of NWV's e-mail to subscribers.
"When I wasn't receiving my NewsWithViews notices I called their office in Oregon to ask why. I was concerned they had closed down or worse. The gentleman I spoke with told me that all the Earthlink folks were being denied delivery of the daily posts from NWV," complains Jackie Juntti, a NewswithViews.com e-mail subscriber.
"I have to admit that shocked me as Earthlink has long had the reputation of sending EVERYTHING thru their servers -- no holds barred. I tried and tried to make an e-mail complaint about their blocking NWV from getting to me. I explained to them I SUBSCRIBED to that list and I WANT IT DELIVERED!! I tried several different Earthlink e-mail addresses and as of this moment I have yet to receive any response from Earthlink about my emailed complaints on this topic," said Ms. Juntti.
Terror fear, climate change concerns make Aussies return to ChurchSydney, Apr 6: Australians in recent years are attending Church services in large numbers, as fears of impending terror attack and the growing impact of global climatic change have prompted many to find solace in religion.
According to the Daily Telegraph, recent reports of Islamic terrorists planning to carry out bombings in different Australian cities have led faithful to seek guidance from their religion, and people are giving a second thought to their absent or misplaced religious beliefs.
The 2006 census of Australia, due out later this year, is expected to show an increase in church attendance, the paper said.
In his Easter message, Catholic Archbishop of Sydney George Pell said that God often struggled for press coverage, adding, "many Australians are uneasy about the climate including the continuing drought, irregular weather patterns and global warming".
According to the most recent data, there are more than five million Catholics Down Under who constitute 26 per cent of country's population.
Speaker of PA Legislature: Kill Every Last Jew & American(IsraelNN.com) In a televised address to a packed mosque, the Acting Speaker of the Palestinian Authority's Legislative Council called for the killing of every last Jew and American. His speech and murderous prayer were delivered in an unidentified packed mosque and broadcast on an official PA-controlled television station.
Click here to watch the PA TV video
According to a recording and transcript of the April 20th broadcast, translated and provided by Palestinian Media Watch, PLC Acting Speaker Ahmed Bahr called the Jews "the cancerous lump... in the heart of the Arab nation." He predicted that "America is on its way to disappear. America is wallowing [in blood] today in Iraq and Afghanistan. America is defeated and Israel is defeated, and was defeated, in Lebanon and Palestine."
Adopting the open-palmed gesture of Islamic prayer, as did his audience, the PA official intoned: "Allah, take hold of the Jews and their allies, Allah, take hold of the Americans and their allies.... Allah, count them and kill them to the last one and don't leave even one."
Earth's Climate Is Seesawing, According To Climate ResearchersDuring the last 10,000 years climate has been seesawing between the North and South Atlantic Oceans. As revealed by findings presented by Quaternary scientists at Lund University, Sweden, cold periods in the north have corresponded to warmth in the south and vice verse. These results imply that Europe may face a slightly cooler future than predicted by IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The research group, currently consisting of Svante Björck, Karl Ljung and Dan Hammarlund, has retrieved cores of lake sediments and peat along a north-south transect of Atlantic islands and adjacent land areas: Greenland, Iceland, Faroes, Azores, Tristan da Cunha, Isla de los Estados, and the Antarctic Peninsula. Based on detailed analyses of geochemistry, mineral magnetism and pollen content, hitherto unknown details of Atlantic climate dynamics have been resolved. Extensive radiocarbon dating and rapid sedimentation rates in the terrestrial deposits allow a much higher temporal resolution of the data than provided by marine sediment cores.
Our records reflect details of the climatic evolution in the Atlantic region since the end of the last Ice Age to the present day. We would have liked to compare our results to similar data sets from other parts of the South Atlantic, but no other records provide the same degree of resolution, says Professor Björck. After the end of the last Glacial both Hemispheres became warmer as a result of melting ice sheets, but during the last 9000 years we can identify a persistent "seesaw" pattern. When the South Atlantic was warm it was cold in the North Atlantic and vice versa.
This is most certainly related to large-scale ocean circulation in the Atlantic Ocean. The main current system - "the Great Ocean Conveyor" - is driven by sinking of dense, relatively cold and salty water in the northern North Atlantic. This results in southward-flowing deep-water that is replaced by warm surface water brought to high northern latitudes from the tropics and ultimately from the South Atlantic, says Svante Björck, and continues:
The deep-water formation in the north is dependent on cooling of surface water with a high salt content. If sufficiently large amounts of fresh water are supplied to the North Atlantic, such as from melting ice-sheets or major increases in precipitation, the deep-water formation, and hence the transport of warm surface water from the south, may cease or at least decrease substantially.
Now U.S. trucks to cruise MexicoSeeking to deflect growing criticism, the Department of Transportation made two surprise statements late yesterday, announcing modifications to its plan allowing 100 Mexican trucking companies to run their long-haul rigs throughout the U.S.
Responding to trucking industry criticism that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, or FMCSA, was not merely conducting a test but implementing a permanent program without public comment, the FMCSA for the first time posted to the Federal Register a proposed set of "demonstration project" rules.
Also amid criticism Mexico had not opened up its own road to U.S. trucks, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters announced in a DOT statement issued late yesterday that U.S. trucks will be allowed to operate in Mexico at the start of the demonstration project.
As WND previously reported, when the Mexican truck pilot project initially was introduced by Peters Feb. 23, the test was entirely one-way. Mexican trucks from 100 Mexican trucking companies were to be given free access to the U.S., but at that time, Mexico had not agreed to open up to U.S. trucks.
Climate change hits MarsMars is being hit by rapid climate change and it is happening so fast that the red planet could lose its southern ice cap, writes Jonathan Leake.
Scientists from Nasa say that Mars has warmed by about 0.5C since the 1970s. This is similar to the warming experienced on Earth over approximately the same period.
Since there is no known life on Mars it suggests rapid changes in planetary climates could be natural phenomena.
The mechanism at work on Mars appears, however, to be different from that on Earth. One of the researchers, Lori Fenton, believes variations in radiation and temperature across the surface of the Red Planet are generating strong winds.
In a paper published in the journal Nature, she suggests that such winds can stir up giant dust storms, trapping heat and raising the planet’s temperature.
Fenton’s team unearthed heat maps of the Martian surface from Nasa’s Viking mission in the 1970s and compared them with maps gathered more than two decades later by Mars Global Surveyor. They found there had been widespread changes, with some areas becoming darker.
When a surface darkens it absorbs more heat, eventually radiating that heat back to warm the thin Martian atmosphere: lighter surfaces have the opposite effect. The temperature differences between the two are thought to be stirring up more winds, and dust, creating a cycle that is warming the planet.
America prepares to talk with Iran after 28 years of silenceCondoleezza Rice held out the prospect yesterday of direct talks with her Iranian counterpart this week in what would be America’s most significant contact with the Islamic republic since ties were severed almost 30 years ago.
The US Secretary of State was speaking shortly after Iran said that Manouchehr Mottaki, its Foreign Minister, would on Thursday attend talks in Egypt on the future of Iraq.
“I will not rule out that we may encounter one another,” Dr Rice said in a series of interviews with Sunday talk shows. “This isn’t an opportunity to talk about US-Iran issues. This is really an opportunity for all of Iraq’s neighbours to talk about how to stabilise Iraq.”
The State Department has been more forthcoming, saying that there is a strong likelihood of bilateral talks in Egypt.
Although Colin Powell, Dr Rice’s predecessor, found himself embarrassingly seated next to Iran’s Foreign Minister at a dinner in 2004, there has been no meaningful dialogue between the two nations since the US introduced sanctions after the storming and occupation of its embassy in Tehran by revolutionary students in November 1979. But President Bush has come under pressure to rekindle diplomacy from Democrats in Congress, the bi-partisan Iraq Study Group and allies such as Tony Blair.
Teachers insist: Being 'gay' goodA nationally distributed training video produced by a "gay" advocacy group – which claims it's been shown on more than 100 public television stations – advises teachers to promote homosexuality as normal and healthy to children as young as kindergarten age, regardless of what values the child has been taught at home.
"We are asking kids to believe this [homosexuality] is right. Not as a matter of moral principle, but as a matter of, we're educating them and this is part of what we consider to be a healthy education," one unidentified teacher said during the videotaped meeting of educators preparing to teach – or as their critics charge, "brainwash" – their students.
That particular response was to a question from another teacher who wondered how to approach homosexual advocacy when a student comes from a background of biblical teaching, that is, that homosexuality is a sin.
"I don't know what to do about this but, as a school are we saying that kids have to support this? I guess that's what it sounds like to me that we're saying. If a child comes from a background that says homosexuality is not correct, are we telling that child that they're supposed to, this is what you are supposed to do?" asked the teacher.
A Candidate, His Minister and the Search for FaithCHICAGO — Members of Trinity United Church of Christ squeezed into a downtown hotel ballroom in early March to celebrate the long service of their pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. One congregant stood out amid the flowers and finery: Senator Barack Obama, there to honor the man who led him from skeptic to self-described Christian.
Twenty years ago at Trinity, Mr. Obama, then a community organizer in poor Chicago neighborhoods, found the African-American community he had sought all his life, along with professional credibility as a community organizer and an education in how to inspire followers. He had sampled various faiths but adopted none until he met Mr. Wright, a dynamic pastor who preached Afrocentric theology, dabbled in radical politics and delivered music-and-profanity-spiked sermons.
Few of those at Mr. Wright’s tribute in March knew of the pressures that Mr. Obama’s presidential run was placing on the relationship between the pastor and his star congregant. Mr. Wright’s assertions of widespread white racism and his scorching remarks about American government have drawn criticism, and prompted the senator to cancel his delivery of the invocation when he formally announced his candidacy in February.
Mr. Obama, a Democratic presidential candidate who says he was only shielding his pastor from the spotlight, said he respected Mr. Wright’s work for the poor and his fight against injustice. But “we don’t agree on everything,” Mr. Obama said. “I’ve never had a thorough conversation with him about all aspects of politics.”
U.S. exercise prepares for Iran attack on the Fifth FleetABU DHABI — Bahrain and the U.S. military have conducted an exercise that envisioned an Iranian assault on the U.S. Fifth Fleet.
U.S. Central Command contributed hundreds of troops for the Bahraini exercise on Tuesday, termed one of the largest ever in the Gulf Cooperation Council kingdom. The three-hour exercise, dubbed "Desert Sailor-2007," was meant to test Bahrain's response to a disaster and included the Defense Ministry, Health Ministry and Interior Ministry. The ministry contributed the Special Security Forces Command for the drill.
Bahrain hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet and Central Command Naval Forces, responsible for patrolling the Gulf. The U.S. Navy has been building forces in the Gulf and deployed two carrier strike groups in 2007.
Several GCC states have been exercising to prepare for an attack by Iran, Middle East Newsline reported. They include Gulf Arab states with a significant U.S. troops, such as Kuwait, Qatar and Oman.
"Our partnership and cooperative approaches to complex situations are key to tackling any situation that either of us may be confronted with," U.S. Naval Support Activity emergency management office director Robert Massie said.
Under the scenario, an Al Qaida-type group or Iran attacked NSA in Juffair. The facility, which contains up to 3,000 troops, was said to have sustained a bombing in which 20 people were killed and 20 others were injured.
Muslims believe U.S. goal to weaken Islam: pollNEW YORK (Reuters) - More than 70 percent of Egyptians, Pakistanis, Indonesians and Moroccans believe the United States is trying to weaken and divide the Islamic world, a poll released on Tuesday showed.
The survey by WorldPublicOpinion.org also showed more than 40 percent thought that was the primary goal of the U.S.-led war on terrorism, while only 12 percent believed Washington's aim was to protect the United States from attack.
"While U.S. leaders may frame the conflict as a war on terrorism, people in the Islamic world clearly perceive the U.S. as being at war with Islam," Steven Kull, editor at the Washington-based group, said in a statement.
The face-to-face survey, of between 1,000 and 1,200 people in each country from December to February, also found about 30 percent approved of attacks on U.S. military in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Gulf.
But 60 percent said suicide bombings were never justified and 67 percent believed Islam was opposed to attacks against civilians.
"Attitudes toward al Qaeda are complex. On average, only three in ten view Osama bin Laden positively. Many respondents express mixed feelings about bin Laden and his followers and many others decline to answer," WorldPublicOpinion.org said.
More than half believed al Qaeda's goals included achieving a strict application of Sharia law in every Islamic country, with more than 70 percent agreeing with that aim.
Palestinians disavow 'right of return'A large and growing number of young Palestinians born abroad have no interest in coming to the Palestinian Authority or Israel, Palestinians in London have told Ynetnews.
They expressed anger at Palestinian leaders for continuing to trumpet a "right of return," a call which is neither desirable nor realistic, the men said, adding that the demand is merely an attempt to force concessions out of Israel during peace talks.
Seeking a good standard of living, Palestinians born in Lebanon have left for Europe and North America to escape the state-imposed discrimination placed on them by the Lebanese government which does not grant them citizenship or basic rights, the men say.
"Most Palestinian refugees who live in Lebanon are not concerned about returning to Palestine or to Israel because we have been outside of Palestine for 60 years," Rami Abdel Rahim, a 26 year-old Palestinian living in London, said.
"If we returned to the Palestinian territories, we would feel like second class citizens," he added. "We have different accents. We don't have any homes in West Bank and Gaza. For us, it will be more desirable to live in Arab countries and Europe," he explained.
"No one wants to live there, not because we don't like our country Palestine, but because we can't live there," Rahim added. "If we all went, it would destroy the Palestinian economy. If we got an opportunity to live in Europe, we would enjoy a good standard of life. We can visit Palestine," he said.
'Lord' is fading at some churchesGod has no gender. And the Lord? There's not much Lord in this church service.
At Tucson's largest Episcopal church, St. Philip's in the Hills, the creators of an alternative worship service called Come & See are bucking tradition by rewriting what have become prescribed ways of worship.
For the faithful, that means God isn't referred to as "him," and references to "the Lord" are rare.
"Lord" has become a loaded word conveying hierarchical power over things, "which in what we have recorded in our sacred texts, is not who Jesus understood himself to be," St. Philip's associate rector Susan Anderson-Smith said.
"The way our service reads, the theology is that God is love, period," St. Philip's deacon Thomas Lindell added. "Our service has done everything it can to get rid of power imagery. We do not pray as though we expect the big guy in the sky to come and fix everything."
St. Philip's isn't the only local church to re-examine its language. Other local religious leaders already are eschewing the use of "Lord" for similar reasons.
First Congregational United Church of Christ in Midtown even has a different name for The Lord's Prayer. They call it "The Prayer of Our Creator."
The marketers have your earAdvertisers have a new way to get into your head.
Marketers around the world are using innovative audio technology that sends sound in a narrow beam, just like light, making it possible to direct messages right into consumers' ears while they shop or sit in waiting rooms.
The audio spotlight device, created by Watertown firm Holosonic Research Labs Inc., has been used to hawk everything from cereals in supermarket aisles to glasses at doctor's offices. The messages are often quick and targeted -- and a little creepy to the uninitiated.
Court TV recently installed the audio spotlight in ceilings of bookstores to promote the network's new murder-mystery show. A voice, whispering, "Hey, you, can you hear me? Do you ever think about murder?" was beamed toward customers as they browsed the mystery section in several independent bookstores in New York.
For advertisers, the audio spotlight is a way of marketing to consumers, sending tailored messages without disturbing an entire store with loudspeaker announcements such as Kmart's iconic "Blue Light Special." The flat disk speakers with precision targeting have made sound possible in unlikely places -- from Boston's Museum of Fine Arts to the New York Public Library -- and are increasingly attractive to merchants trying to improve the shopping experience with a peaceful environment.
Method and System for Facilitating a Shopping ExperienceU.S. Patent Application #20050038718 details the use of RFID readers that American Express calls "consumer trackers" to closely watch people in stores. The idea is that RFID-embedded objects carried by the shopper would emit a "consumer identification signal" when queried by consumer tracker devices in the environment. Businesses would pick up this signal and use it to identify shoppers, track their movements, and observe their behavior.
Fortunately, in a meeting last week with CASPIAN, American Express senior executives vowed not to engage in RFID-based consumer tracking without providing notice to consumers. See our press release, American Express Addresses RFID People Tracking Plans for more on this.
Here are a few troubling excerpts from the patent:
"...consumer interface [configured to...provide a consumer identity signal to a radio frequency identification reader via a radio frequency signal] may also collect and transmit time and location information regarding the path traversed by consumer within the merchant's facility. Such information may be acquired by consumer trackers situated at specific locations throughout the merchant's facility..." [Section 0212; Bracketed information from Section 16]
"...different aisles and/or checkpoints throughout the stores may be equipped with RFID readers to facilitate tracking the shopper's performance....By facilitating the shopping experience, the shopping identifier may be used to track a shopper..." [Section 0195]
"For example, in a hardware store, a fob [an RFID-tagged item carried by the customer] may be used in conjunction with RFID readers at the beginning and end of each aisle. Thus, when a shopper passes RFID reader, a performance tracking request [designed to identify the shopper] may be initiated and recorded..." [Section 0196]
"...it may also be desirable to acquire information about consumer behavior and their actions in response to specific stimuli. For example, suppliers of goods may wish to test the effectiveness of specific targeted offers, which may be tailored to individual consumers..." [Section 0004]
Tag elderly people, says science ministerElderly people should be "tagged" to enable the authorities to keep tabs on them, a government minister suggested today.
Science minister Malcolm Wicks said satellite technology could be used to allow families to monitor frail or elderly relatives, it was reported today.
According to the Mirror newspaper, Mr Wicks said many families worried about elderly relatives or "what's happening about an 80 or 90-year-old who may have Alzheimer's", and using the technology could let them know their loved one was safe.
Mr Wicks said: "Satellites currently monitor the planet in a variety of different ways. I'm raising this as an issue for discussion. Are there other uses of technology that could benefit society?
"We've got an ageing population with many people frail and many suffering from dementia, including Alzheimer's.
"How can we get the balance right so that these people have the freedom to live their lives, to go out in the community and go shopping?"
Similar technology is used to "tag" and keep track of convicted criminals who have been released from prison.
Paul Bates, a spokesman for charity Help the Aged, said he did not rule out Mr Wicks' suggestion.
"As long as this is sensibly handled, modern technology can play an important role in securing dignity for vulnerable older people," he said.
"Help the Aged would not dismiss this out of hand and we would not want to label this as 'tagging'. What this potentially could be is modern technology being used to bring reassurance and stability for families with vulnerable older relatives."
India Is Now A Nuclear Super PowerOn Thursday, April 12, 2007, India announced that it now had long-range nuclear capabilities.
The Agni III missile was launched from Wheeler Island, 110 miles (180 kilometers) northeast of Bhubaneswar, the capital of the eastern state of Orissa. The missile was in the air for approximately 15 minutes, and according to Indian officials, it reached all of its objectives.
The last time India attempted to test the Agni III was last July. The test failed when the missile crashed into the Bay of Bengal shortly after takeoff.
This time the testing was completely successful. W. Selvamurthy, a senior official with the Indian Defence Research and Development Organization, which designed the missile, told Reuters News "the test was absolutely successful. It took off at 10:50 am and landed at 11:05 am. We are absolutely satisfied with all the results and we have rectified the errors of last year’s failure. It met all the target coordinates."
According to a statement released by India’s Defence Ministry in New Dehli, the test "confirmed India’s strategic capability for minimum credible deterrence."
Indian security analysts also expressed their joy over the results. "…This gives India the strategic reach that…certainly the military wants," one analyst told reporters, Thursday.
Many see the test as a strike at China, and meant to counter China’s military strength in the region.
The Agni III is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead nearly 2,000 miles—far enough to reach Beijing or Shanghai, and even the Middle East. The Agni III will be able to carry a payload of 1.5 tons, and be fitted with conventional or nuclear warheads.
RFID at the Car WashApril 25, 2007—American drivers love to pamper their cars, but they don't like waiting in line at the car wash. Innovative Control Systems, a company that develops car-care technologies, has introduced an RFID-based automatic payment system designed to help streamline drivers' visits to the car wash and improve customer satisfaction. This system can also be used as part of a customer-loyalty program.
ICS partnered with RCD Technology, an RFID tag manufacturing startup based in Quakertown, Pa., to design an RFID tag able to fit ICS's requirements. The tag had to be low-cost, highly reliable and mountable on the inside of a car windshield.It also had to have a small profile so it would not create a visual hindrance for a driver. It also needed to be tamper-proof to prohibit a thief from removing it from the car to which it was issued.
"Initially, the tag size was about the size of a credit card," says Mike Ruiz, ICS' chief information officer. But RCD was able to reduce the size of the tag down to its current 7 by 1.2 centimeters—small enough to fit on the part of a car's windshield that the driver's rear-view mirror blocks from view. If someone removes the tag after it has been placed on a windshield, its strong adhesive forces the antenna to detach from the chip, making the tag unreadable. Printed on the tag is the ICS logo and a unique ID number, along with a bar-code version of the ID number, also encoded to the tag. This enables car-wash attendants two additional means of collecting the tag ID, should their RFID readers go down for maintenance or if there is some other reason they can't be read.
The ICS tags are compliant with the UHF EPC Gen 2 and ISO 18000-6C air-interface protocols. They contain the Higgs Gen 2 chip made by Alien Technology, as well as RCD antennas. RCD employs a proprietary method for creating its tag antennas, which involves the use of conductive inks and electroplating. The company says this provides a low-cost platform for customizing its antenna designs. It specializes in custom RFID applications such as the one developed by ICS.
House OKs bill requiring waiting time, ultrasound before abortionsTALLAHASSEE - A woman seeking an abortion in Florida would have to wait 24 hours before going through with it under a bill passed Friday by the state House. The measure could also make it more likely that she would see an ultrasound image of the fetus before undergoing the procedure.
The House may be as far as that idea goes this year, however, with the waiting period and the effort to require more pre-abortion ultrasounds unlikely to be accepted by the Senate.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Trey Traviesa, R-Orlando, would require abortion providers perform ultrasounds before almost all abortions, instead of just those in the second or third trimesters as required by current law.
Viewing the images would be optional, but women would have to sign waivers stating they declined the doctors' offers to do so.
The bill (HB 1497) passed 71-42, mostly along party lines with Republicans in favor.
The 24-hour waiting period and ultrasound sections of the bill were tacked onto what had started out as a less controversial measure that was meant to help judges make decisions in cases in which a minor is seeking to have an abortion without notifying her parents.