News for January 20, 2006

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Bin Laden warns of new US attacks - Osama bin Laden warned that al Qaeda was preparing new attacks inside the United States, but said the group was open to a conditional truce with Americans, according to an audio tape attributed to him on Thursday. It was the first purported tape by bin Laden since 2004. Al Jazeera television, which aired the tape, said it was recorded in December. “The operations are under preparation and you will see them in your houses as soon as they are complete, God willing,” said the speaker on the audio tape, who sounded like bin Laden. In the tape, bin Laden said al Qaeda was willing to “respond” to U.S. public opinion in favor of withdrawing troops from Iraq. He did not specify conditions for the truce, but indicated that it was linked to U.S. troops quitting Iraq. “Based on the substance of the polls, which indicate Americans do not want to fight Muslims on Muslim land, nor do they want Muslims to fight them on their land, we do not mind offering a long-term truce based on just conditions that we will stand by,” he said. “There is nothing wrong with this solution except that it deprives the influential people and warlords in America from hundreds of billions of dollars, -- those who supported Bush’s election campaign with billions of dollars.” Responding to the truce offer, the White House said that the United States “does not negotiate with terrorists.” Bin Laden also offered a truce to Europe in a tape in April 2004 but not to the United States. Jazeera declined to give any details about how it had obtained the tape and an editor said there was a reference in the recording that indicated it had been made in December. more...

Iran Moving Its Foreign Currency Reserves (January 20, 2006) - Iran is moving its foreign currency reserves out of European banks as a pre-emptive measure against any possible U.N. sanctions over its nuclear program, the Central Bank Governor said Friday. Ebrahim Sheibani told reporters that Iran has started transferring the foreign currency reserves from European banks to an undisclosed location, the semiofficial Iranian Students News Agency reported. “We transfer the foreign exchange reserves to wherever we deem fit,” Sheibani was quoted by ISNA as saying. “We have begun transferring. We are doing that.” Sheibani would not say how much money was involved and it was not immediately clear whether Iran’s investments in Europe would be affected by the move. Iran is facing possible referral to the U.N. Security Council for its refusal to give up its uranium enrichment program. The council has the power to impose economic and political sanctions. more...

Egyptian church clash injures 12 (January 20, 2006) - At least 12 people were injured in clashes in Upper Egypt when a group of Muslims attempted to stop Christians converting a house into a church. Security officials said the Muslims set fire to building materials for the building in Odaysat, near Luxor. Several members of both communities were reported injured in the subsequent clashes, as well as two policemen. It is the latest in a series of violent sectarian incidents in Egypt in the past few months. A security source quoted by Reuters said the Christians did not have official permission to build the church. Police arrested 10 young men and the owners of the house, reports say. Correspondents say curbs on building churches have been one of the main grievances among Copts, although these restrictions have been eased recently by presidential decree. The Coptic Christian community is believed to make up 10% percent of Egypt’s population of about 70 million.

Awaiting the Coming Apocalypse (January 19, 2006) - In November, Iranian president Ahmed Ahmadinejad startled the world when he announced that felt ‘the hand of Allah’ entrancing world leaders as he delivered a speech to the UN General Assembly last September. According to Ahmadinejad, during his UN address, he suddenly felt himself surrounded by light. It wasn’t the stage lighting, he said -- it was light from heaven. Ahmadinejad related his otherworldly experience in a videotaped meeting with a prominent ayatollah in Tehran. (A transcript of his comments and sections of the videotape wound up on a hardline, pro-regime internet site, baztab.com.) According to the transcript, Ahmadinejad said a member of his entourage at the UN meeting first told him of the light. “When you began with the words ‘In the name of God’, I saw a light coming, surrounding you and protecting you to the end (of the speech),” the member said. Ahmadinejad confirmed sensing a similar presence. “I felt it myself, too, that suddenly the atmosphere changed and for 27-28 minutes the leaders could not blink ... They had their eyes and ears open for the message from the Islamic Republic,” he told Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli. Ahmadinejad’s “vision” at the UN could be dismissed as political posturing if it weren’t for a string of similar statements and actions that suggest he believes he is destined to bring about the “End Times” -- the end of the world -- by paving the way for the return of the Shia Muslim messiah. more...

Vatican Paper Hits ‘Intelligent Design’ (January 19, 2006) - The Vatican newspaper has published an article saying “intelligent design” is not science and that teaching it alongside evolutionary theory in school classrooms only creates confusion. The article in Tuesday’s editions of L’Osservatore Romano was the latest in a series of interventions by Vatican officials - including the pope - on the issue that has dominated headlines in the United States. The author, Fiorenzo Facchini, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Bologna, laid out the scientific rationale for Darwin’s theory of evolution, saying that in the scientific world, biological evolution “represents the interpretative key of the history of life on Earth.” He lamented that certain American “creationists” had brought the debate back to the “dogmatic” 1800s, and said their arguments weren’t science but ideology. “This isn’t how science is done,” he wrote. “If the model proposed by Darwin is deemed insufficient, one should look for another, but it’s not correct from a methodological point of view to take oneself away from the scientific field pretending to do science.” Intelligent design “doesn’t belong to science and the pretext that it be taught as a scientific theory alongside Darwin’s explanation is unjustified,” he wrote. “It only creates confusion between the scientific and philosophical and religious planes.” more...

Feds want Google search records (January 19, 2006) - The Bush administration on Wednesday asked a federal judge to order Google to turn over a broad range of material from its closely guarded databases. The move is part of a government effort to revive an Internet child protection law struck down two years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court. The law was meant to punish online pornography sites that make their content accessible to minors. The government contends it needs the Google data to determine how often pornography shows up in online searches. In court papers filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Justice Department lawyers revealed that Google has refused to comply with a subpoena issued last year for the records, which include a request for one million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period. The Mountain View-based search engine opposes releasing the information on a variety of grounds, saying it would violate the privacy rights of its users and reveal company trade secrets, according to court documents. Nicole Wong, an associate general counsel for Google, said the company will fight the government’s effort “vigorously.” “Google is not a party to this lawsuit, and the demand for the information is overreaching,” Wong said. The government argues that it needs the information as it prepares to once again defend the constitutionality of the Child Online Protection Act in a federal court in Pennsylvania. The law was struck down in 2004 because it was too broad and could prevent adults from accessing legal porn sites. more...

Dissatisfied Jews, Christians Share Ideas (January 19, 2006) - Every time Rabbi Dov Gartenberg led the Sabbath service at Congregation Beth Shalom, he would see bored faces among the worshippers and wonder how long he could hold their interest. “I could say, ‘That person’s going to leave in 30 minutes and that person’s going to leave in 45 minutes.’ And I was right,” he said. “I was powerless to stop it. I felt like I was in chains.” Frustrated, Gartenberg quit his congregation two years ago and opened a nonprofit for Jews who feel most synagogues have forsaken them. This week, Gartenberg took another unusual step: He and 15 other Jewish leaders met with evangelical Christians who set out on a similar path a decade ago and sparked a mini-revolution in the process. Over two days, representatives from nearly 30 emergent Jewish and Christian worship groups talked about abandoning traditional worship in search of a more personal connection with God that they said they can’t find in temple or church. They also shared their vision with more traditional Jewish leaders who hope this new “emergent Judaism” might help bring young Jews back at least to some variation of the faith. more...

Israel’s chief of staff rules out attack on Iranian nuclear site (January 18, 2006) - Israel’s army chief has ruled out a pre-emptive attack against Iranian nuclear sites, despite that nation’s apparent effort to build nuclear weapons, an Israeli newspaper reported Wednesday. The international community has been scrambling to cobble together a program for pressuring Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions. Iran removed U.N. seals from its main uranium enrichment facility Jan. 10 and resumed its research on nuclear fuel. Iran says its program is simply meant to develop peaceful nuclear energy, but the West and Israel believe Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. Israel considers Tehran to be its greatest threat, and recent statements by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calling for Israel’s destruction have only fueled those fears. Israel has been working to try to create an international coalition to pressure Iran to stop its nuclear program. A team of top Israeli security officials was in Russia on Wednesday to seek support against Tehran in the U.N. Security Council. more...

Jews to be banned from Israeli highway? (January 18, 2006) - In what some here regard as a sign Israel is contemplating a future large-scale withdrawal from the West Bank, the military is reportedly debating closing to Jewish traffic the main highway that stretches across the territory, forcing Jewish motorists to use farther away, more dangerous routes. “The government now led by [Interim Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert has taken the decision of withdrawing Jews from the West Bank, but before embarking on such a huge operation they want to start by making life uncomfortable and dangerous so many Jews leave first on their own,” charged Knesset Member Effie Eitam of Israel’s National Union Party. “There is no logical reason to close the road other than to precipitate a withdrawal from the area,” Eitam told WND. A division of the Israeli Defense Forces has reportedly drafted a proposal to restrict major portions of Highway 60, which runs directly alongside many of the West Bank’s Jewish communities, allowing only Palestinian vehicles to travel along the road. Palestinian cars bare distinct green license plates. Israeli vehicles have yellow markers. Highway 60 was constructed in the early 1990s to ease traffic for Arab and Jewish commuters, and to make it safer for Jews to travel throughout the West Bank by bypassing major Arab cities from which snipers had fired on Jewish vehicles. It connects large Jewish communities such as Be’er Sheva in the Negev to Hebron, Bethlehem, Beit El, Shiloh, Eli, Nablus, Jenin, Afula and Nazareth, and extends to an entrance to Jerusalem. If implemented, the plan would force many of the West Bank’s roughly 200,000 Jewish residents to use a series of roads that run dozens of miles away from the area’s Jewish communities. Instead, residents would need to travel alongside some major Arab cities on roads previously plagued by shooting attacks. more...

Israel Attacks ‘Axis of Terror’ (January 20, 1999) - Israel has accused Iran and Syria of complicity in a suicide attack that injured at least 30 people in Tel Aviv.more...

Border Patrol Warned: Brace for Violence (January 20, 2006) - Federal officials say Border Patrol and other federal agents working chronic drug-smuggling routes along the U.S. boundary with Mexico could be targets for retaliation by well-armed cartels from south of the Rio Grande, after a new enforcement push has dramatically curbed the importation of contraband. “I do think we have to be prepared for the fact that as we press hard on these criminal organizations, some of them will want to fight back,” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told reporters earlier this week. Admitting there had already been an “uptick in violence” against federal officers in recent months because of increased anti-smuggling operations, Chertoff said agents were not only targeting drug rings but also human smugglers as well. Despite the threats of retaliation, however, Chertoff insisted: “We want to make it very clear that ... will not cause us to back off” the current enforcement push. As the Mexican drug and smuggling wars become increasingly violent, they are more frequently spilling across the border into the United States. Hundreds of people have been killed and wounded in the violence, especially near cities like Laredo, Texas and its Mexican sister city, Nuevo Laredo, right across the border. Chertoff warned the situation was especially volatile for civilians. more...

Iran President Meets Palestinian Militants in Syria (January 20, 2006) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on a visit to regional ally Syria, pledged support to militant Palestinian factions at a meeting with their leaders in Damascus on Friday, a Palestinian group said. The talks came a few hours after Israel’s defence minister accused Iran and Syria of being directly responsible for Thursday's suicide bombing in Tel Aviv which wounded 30 people. “The Iranian president stressed that Iran strongly stands behind the Palestinian people and their just struggle,” Maher al-Taher, senior official of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, told Reuters. “He said the Palestinian people will be victorious as a result of their steadfastness, sacrifices and heroism.” Ahmadinejad and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad reiterated after talks on Thursday that they backed the right of the Palestinians and Lebanese to resist Israeli occupation. Israel’s Haaretz daily reported that Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said Israeli authorities had “decisive proof that the attack in Tel Aviv was a direct result of the Axis of Terror that operates between Iran and Syria”. more...

Cradle of the Apocalypse By NICK PARKER (Chief Foreign Correspondent) (January 20, 2006) - The Sun brings you a chilling frontline report from deep inside the nuclear powderkeg of Iran. Chief Foreign Correspondent Nick Parker and photographer Ray Collins secretly slipped into a country that is defying the world in its determination to develop nukes. They found ordinary Iranians terrified at the prospect of fanatical president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad getting his hands on the bomb. Our men also got close to the secret complex that has sparked world outrage — the uranium enrichment plant at Isfahan.

In Iran’s bleak and forbidding landscape Iranians fear their fanatical leader is plotting a nuclear apocalypse. Yesterday I got within a mile of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s doomsday factory — and found a nation filled with dread. In the capital Tehran, one woman shuddered at the prospect of the zealot getting his hands on a nuclear bomb. The 35-year-old bookseller warned: “He could soon have his finger on a nuclear button. “We all tell ourselves the unthinkable could never happen — and that he is not lying when he says Iran has no need of nuclear weapons. “But how can we trust a man who has told the world he is on a mission from God?” A former soldier sipping tea in a café put it more bluntly. The former lieutenant declared: “We fear we have elected a madman.” more...

Phenomenon of Synchronism: Mere Coincidence or God’s Will? (January 20, 2006) - Strange things happen to everyone. Science can not interpret them in a logic or reasonable way, and therefore they are regarded as mere coincidences. For example, an old friend calls you up a minute after a distant recollection flashes through your head. Or somebody pays you back when you desperately need money. There are other coincidences that are a lot complex and even more astounding, they make you think about the inexplicable and the divine intervention. Who do they happened contrary to all laws of nature and science? A ship sunk near the shores of Wales on December 5, 1664. Another ship went down on the same location on December 5, 1785. A third ship sunk to the bottom of the sea on the same location on December 5, 1866. Each of the shipwrecks had only one survivor. In all the three cases, a survivor’s name was Hugh Williams.There is another story of amazing coincidence relating to the fate of U.S. President John Kennedy and U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. The simplest coincidence has to do with the surnames of the two presidents. Both surnames are made up of seven letters. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in a theater, his assassin tried to hide in a warehouse. Lee Harvey Oswald fired his rifle from the position in a warehouse, he tried to hide in a theater. President Lincoln had a secretary called Kennedy; President Kennedy had a secretary called Lincoln. more...

91,700 Abortions in New York City (January 20, 2006) - For every 100 babies born in New York City, women had 74 abortions in 2004, according to newly released figures that reaffirm the city as the abortion capital of the country. And abortions for out-of-town women performed in the city increased from 57 to 70 out of every 1,000 between 1996 and 2004, a subtle yet noticeable trend that experts say may reflect growing hurdles against the procedure in more conservative parts of the country. The new Vital Statistics report released by the city Department of Health this month shows there were 124,100 live births, 11,700 spontaneous abortions and 91,700 induced abortions in the city in 2004. That means 40 out of 100 pregnancies in the city ended in a planned abortion - almost double the national average of 24 of 100 pregnancies in 2002, estimated by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a Manhattan-based nonprofit group that researches reproductive health issues. more...

Magnitude 5.8 Quake Strikes in Northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge (January 20, 2006) - A moderate earthquake occurred at 08:53:53 (UTC) on Friday, January 20, 2006. The magnitude 5.8 event has been located near the NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE. (This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.)

Storms Rage North to South in Norway (January 20, 2006) - A sudden dump of snow over the past few days has cut power lines, and around 3,000 households in Agder were without power on Wednesday. Crews worked to repair the damage, but by Thursday morning, more problems were being reported. “The weather conditions are leading to a steady stream of more broken power lines in the same areas,” said Realf Ottesen of Agder Energi. He said the worst-hit areas included Gjerstad, Akland, Søndeled and Holt. Around 2,500 households around southern Norway were without power. Snow continued to fall around the Oslo metropolitan area as well, with up to 15 centimetres expected on Thursday and more on Friday. Temperatures sunk to minus-9C in some areas, and while skiers were delighted, motorists endured slick roads and traffic snarls. Commutes that should take just 15 minutes were taking more than an hour Thursday morning. more...

40 Miles SE of Sonora, CA - Exploding UFO Filmed (January 20, 2006) - Posted: January 20, 2006 Date: January 18th, 2006 Time: Noticed first at 5:22pm and lasted till about 5:42pm Good Day, At approximately 5:02pm (PST) I went into the backyard to see why my dog was barking. While I was out there I did my general habit of scanning the skies for anything out of the unusual. A few clouds in the background along with mostly blue skies and nothing else. I decided to rake some leaves as we had had a storm blow thru and knock off the last of them. At about 5:22pm I had finished and again glanced around the skies. This time there was what I thought was either a very bright star or perhaps even Venus in the Southern region. I thought this rather strange as I would’ve thought that nothing could be seen yet as the Sun was just starting to set. I observed this object for a good 3 or 4 minutes and it didn’t appear to be moving which just increased my curiousity. I decided to retrieve my binoculars and get perhaps a closer look of this bright star or planet. A few minutes later I’m zeroing in on this bright object and could tell right off that this wasn’t a star or planet as I’ve observed both from the same vantage point and this object was much to big to be either. Since I had a teleconversion lens already attached to my camcorder I decided to tape a bit of it as one never knows. After a few more minutes I had my tripod set up and zoomed in on the object. I was able to use a normal viewing mode with no need to use nitevision as there was still more than enough available ambient light. Then I noticed something peculiar. more...

Interceptor Body Armor (January 19, 2006) - Interceptor Multi-Threat Body Armor System is made up of two modular components: the outer tactical vest and small-arms protective inserts, or plates. The new body armor, which is unisex, is equipped with removable throat and groin protectors, as well as front and back removable plates, which can stop 7.62 mm rounds. It weighs 16.4 pounds; each of the two inserts weighs 4 pounds, and the outer tactical vest weighs 8.4 pounds. The previous body armor, the flak jacket, weighed 25.1 pounds. The Interceptor body armor’s lighter weight provides more mobility than the older flak vest. The new armor also has an outer tactical vest made of Kevlar weave that’s capable of stopping a 9 mm bullet, plus the webbing on the front and back of the vest permits attaching other small pieces of equipment. The small-arms protective inserts are made of a boron carbide ceramic with a spectra shield backing that's an extremely hard material. Soldiers in Iraq benefited from DARPA investments in advanced materials in the 1990s. DARPA developed and demonstrated personal body armor inserts made of boron carbide. These boron carbide inserts are lighter weight than the previous materials, and are being used in the Army Interceptor Body Armor system in Iraq, which weighs 35 percent less than the former vest. more...

Oregon Evangelist Videotapes 240,000 Souls Saved During Pakistan Event (January 17, 2006) - With support from a group of Portland, Oregon businessmen, evangelist Hamilton Filmalter -- a South African native -- and a 19-member team from River of Life Ministries returned to Pakistan for a third time to hold a crusade in the city of Lahore; population 6 million. Pastor Anwar Fazal of Eternal Life Ministries in Lahore, partnered in the crusade. “Conservatively, 400,000 people attended over three nights, Nov. 9-11, with 240,000-plus accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior,” stated Filmalter in an e-mail to supporters of his outreach. “Wonderful miracles of healing and deliverance proved to the people that Jesus is alive.” “A simple gospel message was followed by an altar call and prayer for healing and deliverance,” the e-mail continued. “Tens of thousands, many of them Muslims, stood to their feet to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. People got out of wheelchairs right before our eyes, and the beaming face of a man born blind, now able to see, was an unforgettable sight ... Glory to God for this great harvest in Pakistan!” more...

Actor Stephen Baldwin Taking His Faith to the Street in Protest of “Adult” Entertainment (January 18, 2006) - Actor Stephen Baldwin -- the youngest of the brother actors, Alec, Billy and Daniel -- is on a new crusade to shut down businesses along Route 59 in Nyack, New York, that show pornographic movies. According to a WorldNetDaily report, Baldwin has “planted himself on the sidewalk outside a new adult entertainment business located about one mile from his home and is photographing workers and their vehicles as they prepare the store for opening.” Baldwin fully intends to stand outside the store every day and photograph license plates of its patrons until the business closes. He is also threatening to identify the store’s customers and pay for a one-page newspaper ad each month to publish their names. “I won't stop until it shuts down,” Baldwin told the Westchester Journal News. “I don’t want it this close to my house. I’m personally not OK with pornography. I definitely think that it adds to the moral decay or our culture.” Last summer, Baldwin, along with several neighbors, unsuccessfully protested the business’s application to open, but were told by officials their only legal authority was regulation, not prohibition. Baldwin became a Christian in the wake of 9-11. “In my position, I just don’t think I’m supposed to keep my faith to myself,” Baldwin told a group of Texas Southern Baptists in 2004. “I’m just doing what the Lord's telling me to do. You know, if the Lord’s not telling anybody else [in Hollywood] to [talk publicly about their faith], well, then God bless ‘em. But I don’t think that’s the case. I think there are a lot of people who don’t put their faith before everything else, you know. And that’s a big problem. I’m just doing what the Lord’s calling me to do. Period.” more...

‘The Bible Game’ tests your knowledge of the Old Testament (January 18, 2006) - If the television show Jeopardy was written by Sunday school teachers, the result might be The Bible Game, a new trivia game for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Game Boy Advance that casts players as contestants in a game show about the Old Testament. While kids may not be tempted to reach for this disc on store shelves, this wholesome multiplayer title is ideal for the entire family — and one video game mom and dad will endorse for a change. Playable for up to four gamers on the same television, The Bible Game first asks that you choose a male or female character before meeting the other three contestants for the virtual television show, “Do Unto Others!” Contestants not controlled by a human player will be handled by the game’s artificial intelligence. As the comedic show host explains, the round begins with you pressing a button on your controller to see which square you land on. This will determine the kind of game you will play, such as “Testament Trivia.” You must quickly buzz in to answer the question; doing so correctly gives you points while incorrectly answering it takes away points, and hands control of the board over to the next contestant. The game contains 1,500 trivia questions, all based on familiar stories such as Jonah and the Whale, David and Goliath, Adam and Eve and Noah’s Ark. more...