March 8 - 12 2010

Weekly News Archive

Broadcast Notes

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CHRISTIAN MEDIA
WORLDWATCH

MONDAY MARCH 8, 2010

Iran unveils first cruise missile before Ahmadinejad trip to Kabul

If the Iranians are to be believed, they have launched production of their first cruise missile, the short-range Nasr 1 (Victory 1), which was claimed by Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi Sunday, March 7 to be capable of destroying warships of up to 3,000 tons when launched from the ground or sea vessels.
The new weapon imperils US naval carriers and US and Israeli submarines stationed in the Persian Gulf.
The next Nasr version will be designed for launching from helicopters and submarines, said Vahidi.
Last month, Tehran inaugurated production lines for new Qaem (Rising) ground-to-air and Toofan (Storm) surface missiles.
DEBKAfile's Iranian sources say Tehran and its allies Syria and Hizballah feel they are in the midst of rapid military and diplomatic momentum compared with American ineptness and Israeli inertia.
Sunday, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suddenly announced he would pay an official visit to Kabul Monday and hold talks with Afghan president Hamid Karzai. He prepared his visit 48 hours earlier by calling the September 11 attacks on the Twin Towers of New York "a big fabrication" and "a provocation" to justify America's war on terror and invasion of Afghanistan.
The Iranian president has therefore embarked on a verbal offensive to undermine the legitimacy of the US military presence in Afghanistan in the eyes of its population, at a time when the new Afghan strategy composed by Barack Obama last year is in full swing with 30,000 extra US troops on the way.
In Kabul, he is expectedly to call stridently for an immediate pull-out of US troops.
Ahmadinejad used the same trick when he denied the Nazi Holocaust ever happened in order to question Israel's right to exist.
This time, he is aiming at two targets: He arrives in Kabul at around the same time that US Vice President Joe Biden lands in Israel. Biden's overriding mission (alongside the US envoy George Mitchell's effort to revive Israel-Palestinian peace talks) is to make sure Israel does not exercise its military option against Iran's nuclear facilities in view of the fading prospects of international harsh sanctions.
The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman poured salt on Western wounds Sunday by asserting that "sanctions would not materialize" in view of the lack of consensus among the six powers working to halt Tehran's nuclear program. [no further content, emphasis added]

Source: debka.com LINK

Note: see also Iran Says It Has Started Cruise Missile Production LINK

Israel treading carefully to avoid war with Syria

In the last few weeks, Israel has been at pains to cool tensions with Syria and prevent misunderstandings that could spiral into confrontation on its northern border.
A huge central command training exercise, "Firestones 12", which took place in the north last week, conspicuously omitted simulations of war with Syria. Instead, the IDF fought mock battles in preparation for clashes with Hezbollah in Lebanon or Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The army also cancelled emergency call-up drills for large numbers of regular forces and reserves, fearing Syria might mistake such a move as mobilization for war. At the same time, the government exploited both public and covert channels to send soothing messages to Damascus.
Recent weeks have seen increasingly frequent references by senior figures in Iran, Syria and Hezbollah of the prospect of war with Israel, which they accuse of planning a confrontation . . . .
Israel's effort to avert another escalation in the north, closely coordinated with the United States, is twofold, combining both assuagement and deterrence. The government is placating Syria with the message that it has no interest in war; but it also making threatening noises about the need to prevent arms smuggling to Hezbollah.
A senior IDF intelligence officer told the Knesset this week that Syria had supplied Hezbollah with "components" more significantly sophisticated than in the past. And the Lebanese newspaper al-Hayat reported that that U.S. Secretary of state Hilary Clinton had warned Nabih Beri, speaker of the Lebanese parliament, that the U.S. might be hard pushed to restrain Israel from an excessive response if the flow of arms to Hezbollah continued.
Participants in last week's exercises returned encouraged by IDF commanders' professionalism - but depressed by the underlying reality. If war returns to the north, Israel may struggle to find a winning formula. Certainly, the air force could easily rain destruction on Lebanon and its infrastructure, but there is no way of cutting drastically Hezbollah's ability to bombard northern Israel with Katyusha rockets, or launch even heavier ordnance at Tel Aviv . . . .
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said last week at a Washington Institute memorial lecture for Haaretz correspondent Ze'ev Schiff that Hezbollah has around 45,000 missiles and rockets in Lebanon. This is considerably higher than Israel's previous estimates.
"We cannot accept these artificial differentiations between the terrorists of Hezbollah and the state of Lebanon and their sponsors," Barak said.
He continued: "We don‘t need this conflict but if it is imposed upon us, we will not run after every individual terrorist but we will take both the Lebanese government and other sources of sponsorship, but mainly the Lebanese government and the Lebanese infrastructure, as part of the equation facing us."

Source: haaretz.com (Israel) MORE

More Radical Palestinian unrest in store to torpedo talks

Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, accusing Israel of stirring up a religious war, appealed to the UN Security Council Friday, March 5 to put a stop to Israeli actions on Temple Mount, Jerusalem. He was referring to a clash earlier [that] day, in which Israeli riot police stormed the mosques from which Palestinian youths hurled rocks at the Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall shrine below, forcing its hurried evacuation. Some 50 Palestinian rioters and 18 police officers were injured before order was restored . . . .
The Obama administration understood the Jerusalem riots had been provoked deliberately to destroy the indirect Israel-Palestinian peace track - which has taken more than a year to set up - just before it was due to start rolling.
Three hands stirred the pot: The Iranian-backed Palestinian Hamas, the Tahrir Islamists, who control the technical administration of Temple Mount, and the radical Northern Wing of the Israeli Arab Muslim Movement.
They figured that spiraling Temple Mount violence with many Palestinians injured and some even dead would make it impossible for Abbas to sit down with Israel - even for indirect talks.
Now they are planning to accompany the arrival of American Vice President Joe Biden on March 8 with spreading unrest to common Jewish-Muslim holy sites and flashpoints outside Jerusalem, like the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. The extremists believe such dramas will force the American visitor to address the crisis and, in any event, make the Obama administration acknowledge that no Middle East accommodation is feasible without co-opting Hamas and the other Palestinian Islamic radicals, including Israel Arab extremists.
Washington hopes to launch the indirect talks in the coming week, if US presidential envoy George Mitchell can swing it. Both Israel and the Palestinian Authority have been lining up their chips in recent weeks for the bargaining ahead . . . .
Furthermore, both Israel and the Palestinian Authority discreetly instructed their respective security forces to keep things quiet for now. Abbas ordered his US-trained and funded special units not to allow demonstrations to erupt on the West Bank in the run-up to the talks. And in fact they stepped in to keep the lid on in Hebron, with Israeli forces forming a protective cordon around them.
Israeli police swiftly brought the Temple Mount riots under control Friday.
But DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources estimate that Hamas and other Islamic extremists will to their utmost to generate pandemonium for Biden' visit, possibly even attempting acts of terror. It will then be up to Israeli and Palestinian leaders to avoid trading recriminations and join hands to get the talks started. US determination will also be put to the test.

Source: debka.com MORE

Note: see these related stories:

Barak: Israel Would Rather Be Negotiating Face To Face - "Proximity talks won't stop until we have found a way to direct dialogue between us and the Palestinians, in which every issue can be laid on the table," Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak said ... Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Monday that U.S.-mediated indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians will be a last chance to keep the Middle East peace process alive LINK

Abbas: Israel Crossed Red Lines In Jerusalem LINK

'Israeli Actions Against International Law' - The PA president urged the US and the international community to intervene and stop tensions from escalating further LINK

Cyber-war declared as China hunts for the West's intelligence secrets

Urgent warnings have been circulated throughout NATO and the European Union for secret intelligence material to be protected from a recent surge in cyber-war attacks originating in China.
The attacks have also hit government and military institutions in the United States, where analysts said that the West had no effective response and that EU systems were especially vulnerable because most cyber security efforts were left to member states.
NATO diplomatic sources told The Times: “Everyone has been made aware that the Chinese have become very active with cyber-attacks and we’re now getting regular warnings from the office for internal security.” The sources said that the number of attacks had increased significantly over the past 12 months, with China among the most active players.
In the US, an official report released on Friday said the number of attacks on Congress and other government agencies had risen exponentially in the past year to an estimated 1.6 billion every month . . . .
Sources at the Office for Cyber Security at the Cabinet Office in London, set up last year, said there were two forms of attack: those focusing on disrupting computer systems and others involving “fishing trips” for sensitive information. A special team has been set up at GCHQ, the government communications headquarters in Gloucestershire, to counter the growing cyber-threat affecting intelligence material. The team becomes operational this month.
British and American cyber-defences are among the most sophisticated in the world, but “the EU is less competent”, James Lewis, of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said. “The porousness of the European institutions makes them a good target for penetration. They are of interest to the Chinese on issues from arms sales and nuclear non-proliferation to Tibet and energy.” . . . .
Jonathan Evans, Director-General of MI5, warned in 2007 that several states were actively involved in large-scale cyber-attacks. Although he did not specify which states were involved, security officials have indicated that China now poses the gravest threat. Beijing has denied making such attacks . . . .
British officials said that everyone in sensitive jobs had been warned to be especially cautious about disseminating intelligence and other classified information. Whether British intelligence is involved in retaliatory attacks is never confirmed. However, officials said that there was a significant difference between being part of an information war and indulging in aggressive attacks to disrupt another country’s computer systems.
Dr Lewis said that neither the US nor any of its Western allies had formed an effective response to the Chinese threat, which has its origins in a massive boost to Chinese technology ordered by Deng Xiaoping, the late Chinese leader, in 1986. The West’s own cyber offensives have so far been directed largely at terrorists rather than nation states, giving China virtually free rein to penetrate Western systems with its own world-class hackers and increasingly popular Chinese-made components.

Source: timesonline.co.uk MORE

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NEWS BRIEFS
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U.S.-Israel tough sanctions strategy falls apart ... Tehran is sitting pretty

The US-led Western powers are scrapping tough measures incorporated in the original motion they drafted for a UN Security Council sanctions resolution against Iran, according to diplomats at the UN Center. To make the draft more acceptable to Russia and China, the blacklisting of Iran's central bank has been replaced by a decision to "strengthen vigilance" over the bank's transactions, leaving only new overseas Iranian banks to be targeted. The text earlier dropped the restrictions proposed by France against Iran's oil and gas industries, as well as the original US plan to halt supplies of gasoline and other refined oil products to Iran. As the haggling goes on, Moscow refuses to endorse a full arms embargo similar to the regime in place against North Korea. DEBKAfile reports: By the time it is tabled, the sanctions resolution will be toothless as an instrument for holding back Iran's dash for a nuclear bomb and its weapons of delivery. Tehran already senses the new penalties will leave it sitting pretty with its economy, military assets and commercial ties unimpaired. MORE

Jane's: New Iran rocket launch site shows North Korea links

LONDON -- Iran is building a new rocket launch site a short distance from an existing complex and seems to be working with North Korea, information group IHS Jane's said Friday. Construction visible from satellite imagery of the new site, near the city of Semnan east of Tehran, suggests that Iran has been collaborating with Pyongyang, said the London-based defence intelligence group. Iran unveiled the Simorgh (Phoenix) space-launch vehicle (SLV) on February 3 but has not publicly revealed the location of the rocket's launch complex, it reported . . . "It appears midway towards completion," it said, adding that the launch pad could easily accommodate the 27-metre Simorgh if the gantry were to be extended by an additional 10 metres. And it added: "The development of the Semnan facility and the Simorgh SLV both demonstrate the likelihood of collaboration with North Korea in Iran's missile programme . . . "Similarly, the first stage of the Simorgh strongly resembles the North Korean Unha-2, with four clustered engines and nearly the same dimensions." The respected information group concluded that Iran appears to be forging ahead with developing its missile and rocket capabilities despite US-led diplomatic pressure, including threats of new United Nations sanctions. "Given these investments in its missile infrastructure, and despite the United States attempting to garner support for further sanctions against Iran for its nuclear programme, Tehran appears determined to continue developing its missile and rocket capabilities in the foreseeable future," it said. The West suspects Iran of secretly trying to build an atomic bomb and fears the technology used to launch space rockets could be diverted into developing long-range ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. MORE

Petraeus warns Iran becoming 'thugocracy'

WASHINGTON -- General David Petraeus, the head of US Central Command, warned Sunday that Iran is becoming a "thugocracy" in attempts to suppress popular anger over last year's contested presidential vote results. "I think you have heard it said by pundits that Iran has gone from being a theocracy to a thugocracy," Petraeus, whose command stretches from Egypt to Pakistan and includes Iran, said on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS". "And that is again because of the emergence of this reform movement of the citizens who are outraged at the hijacking of the election that took place back last summer." Iran has executed protesters who took to the streets to demonstrate against the presidential election in June 2009 that saw Mahmoud Ahmadinejad returned to power despite widespread allegations of fraud . . . Petraeus said it was not clear whether Tehran had definitively decided to pursue nuclear weapons, as many Western nations fear. But he said such a decision was "a little bit immaterial at this point in time, because all of the components of a program to produce nuclear weapons ... have been proceeding." . . . Petraeus said Iranian actions were making it easier for the United States to build a coalition and added: "President Ahmadinejad is often our best recruiting officer." MORE

A Detention Bill You Ought to Read More Carefully

Why is the national security community treating the "Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010," introduced by Senators John McCain and Joseph Lieberman on Thursday as a standard proposal, as a simple response to the administration's choices in the aftermath of the Christmas Day bombing attempt? A close reading of the bill suggests it would allow the U.S. military to detain U.S. citizens without trial indefinitely in the U.S. based on suspected activity. [see text of bill LINK (pdf format)] According to the summary, the bill sets out a comprehensive policy for the detention, interrogation and trial of suspected enemy belligerents who are believed to have engaged in hostilities against the United States by requiring these individuals to be held in military custody, interrogated for their intelligence value and not provided with a Miranda warning. (There is no distinction between U.S. persons - visa holders or citizens - and non-U.S. persons.) It would require these "belligerents" to be coded as "high-value [detainees]" to be held in military custody and interrogated for their intelligence value by a High-Value Detainee Interrogation Team established by the president ... MORE

Banned in 160 Nations… Yet U.S. FDA Regards it as Safe?

A livestock drug banned in 160 nations and responsible for hyperactivity, muscle breakdown and 10 percent mortality in pigs has been approved by the FDA. The beta agonist ractopamine, a repartitioning agent that increases protein synthesis, was recruited for livestock use when researchers found the drug, used in asthma, made mice more muscular. Ractopamine is started as the animal nears slaughter. How does a drug marked, "Not for use in humans. Individuals with cardiovascular disease should exercise special caution to avoid exposure. Use protective clothing, impervious gloves, protective eye wear, and a NIOSH-approved dust mask" become "safe" in human food? With no washout period? The drug is banned in Europe, Taiwan and China, and more than 1,700 people have been "poisoned" from eating pigs fed the drug since 1998, but ractopamine is used in 45 percent of U.S. pigs and 30 percent of ration-fed cattle ... MORE

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MORE NEWS & COMMENTARY
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Note: Views expressed in the commentaries on this website are those of individual authors and not necessarily those of Christian Media Daily or our host - Christian Media Network. Quotes are obviously the opinion of the source. A quote is just a quote and these are offered without comment. Use of a news story or commentary is not an endorsement of the source website.

Report: SENATE REJECTS BONUS FOR SENIORS (Jayme Levy)

A measure to give older adults, veterans, and persons with disabilities a $250 check has been rejected by the Senate in a vote of 50-to-47. The payments would have added $13 billion to a $108 billion job-creation package pending in the Senate. Congress approved payments last year as part of the $862 billion stimulus package.
Seniors aren't receiving the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for the first time since 1975 because of a series of events that began with the 2008 increase in energy prices. That increase helped seniors because it led to a larger-than-usual 5.8% adjustment last year in Social Security benefits. Because inflation is now lower, no increase is due this year.
The plan would have been attached to a $150-billion measure to extend unemployment benefits through the rest of this year, provide $25 billion to state governments, extend miscellaneous tax cuts and prevent cuts in Medicare payments to doctors.
It is sad news for people that depend on a yearly COLA to make ends meet. Republicans argue that it is only $250 and it wouldn't make much of a difference, but to low-income seniors living in America, it is needed. [no further content]

Source: examiner.com LINK

Note: see also No Bonus For Social Security Recipients LINK

Opinion: MASSIVE FRAUD CRACKDOWN GOES NOWHERE (William Campbell Douglass)

I hope you’ve got a little extra in the piggy bank - because ObamaCare is going to need a lot more help.
Don’t want to pay? Tough. Don’t have the money? Too bad. The key word here is sacrifice - and you’re playing the part of the lamb while the Washington party rolls on.
The little Bolsheviks behind ObamaCare claim one of the ways they’ll pay for their socialist medicine scheme is through cost savings … like eliminating the $60 billion lost each year to Medicare fraud.
There’s just one problem: We’ve either got the world’s smartest crooks, or the Keystone Kops have been placed in charge of catching them.
Two years into a major crackdown on Medicare freeloaders, fraudsters and other crooks … and we’ve got practically nothing to show for it. Medicare fraud prosecutions were up just 2 percent last year.
That’s it - 2 percent.
Since this crackdown began under President Bush in 2007, it’s proof that failure is truly a bipartisan effort. That’s two different administrations who’ve tried - and failed - to rein in Medicare fraud.
And as a taxpayer, you’re getting the bill three times over. The first bill is for those $60 billion in fraudulent claims paid each year. The second bill is to pay for all those Kops, investigators and prosecutors who aren’t cracking down on it (I’m sure they’re enjoying those nice offices in Miami, though). And the third bill will come due with ObamaCare - when you’ll be forced to pony up extra bucks because the savings never materialized.
I’ve done the math. For many Americans, their monthly ObamaCare bills will be the biggest cost in their household - even more expensive than mortgage payments, and that’s if you believe the numbers they’re throwing around right now.
Trust me, it’ll be more - a lot more.
Remove those imaginary savings from the equation, and when the real bill comes due, no health-care system in the world will be able to ease the pain.
They can’t seem to find the freeloaders and fraudsters - but they’ll sure as heck find you. And then, Obama’s call for change will turn into cries of, “Buddy, can you spare some change?” [no further content]

Source: douglassreport.com LINK

Commentary: The Financial Coup d'Etat: Consolidation of America's Economic Elite (David DeGraw)

Excerpt:
Every step of the way, the economic terrorist organization led by Paulson, Geithner and Bernanke held our economy hostage by declaring that all their demands must be met or the entire economy would be destroyed, as a result of the very actions the players being rewarded had taken. (I don’t use the words “economic terrorists” as hyperbole. The threat posed by them and the amount of death, destruction and misery they have already caused the United States is much greater than that caused by Bin Laden and al-Qaeda - it’s not even close.)

Through the crisis, the fundamental structure of the stock market has been proven to be a scam. The Ponzi scheme activities, outright market manipulation and massive worldwide fraud perpetrated by Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, AIG, the three major ratings agencies and several other Wall Street elite firms are blatant. Just in the housing and oil futures markets alone, the criminal activity and economic theft is in the multi-trillions.

By looking the other way, the SEC, Congress and Presidents Bush and Obama are complicit. An analysis of actions taken, or most often not taken, by the leaders of both the Republican and Democratic parties prove that they are now accomplices. They have not only let it happen; they continue to look the other way and have been stonewalling laws, investigations and prosecutions in what is clearly criminal activity.

If we had a nation of law, none of these things would have happened. This proves to anyone who cares to look that we now live in a Banana Republic. Our democracy has clearly become a farce.

The overwhelming majority of our politicians are now on the Economic Elite payroll. This financial coup started under Hank Paulson in the Bush Administration and has been carried through, without even the slightest hitch, under Geithner in the Obama Administration, and all along Ben Bernanke has been leading the Federal Reserve. Bernanke’s reconfirmation shows you who the co-conspirators are - just look at the members of Congress who voted for it.

All three branches of our government are now complicit in what is literally the greatest theft of wealth in history, along with a mainstream “news” media that keeps going about their “reporting,” as if this wasn’t a crime, business as usual. Nothing to see here ...

Source: ampedstatus.com (2-21-10) MORE

Note: The above commentary is from part 4 of a six part report by this author. See also:

Part 1: Economic Terrorism: The Consequences Are Poverty And Mass Unemployment LINK

Part 2: The American Nightmare: US Economic Elite Wages War On The American People LINK

Part 3: The Axis of Greed: The Nature And Structure Of The Economic Elite LINK

Part 5: Overcoming The Divide And Conquer Strategy LINK

Part 6: How To Fight Back And Win: Common Ground Issues That Must Be Won - The Economic Elite vs. The People Of The USA LINK

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ADDITIONAL NEWS & ANALYSIS
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Iraq holds landmark vote ... attacks kill 38 LINK

PM Maliki emerges as front-runner after Iraq vote LINK

Timetable for U.S. Troop Withdrawal on Track, Obama Says, After Iraqis Vote LINK

Iran tells Russian pilots to leave LINK
Iran gives commercial pilots two months to leave country as tension mounts over S-300 missile deal

Reported Arrest of American Militant in Pakistan Could Lead to First Treason Trial in Decades LINK

China foreign minister says U.S. ties ['seriously disrupted'] LINK

Acting TSA Head: Agency to Continue Using only Small Portion of Terror Watch List to Screen Passengers LINK

[analysis]: Should an Internet Tax Pay for Cyber-security? LINK

[analysis]: The decline of the international civil servant LINK

Four U.S. Banks Shut Down as Failure Count This Year Reaches 26 LINK

Big bank oversight to stay with Fed LINK

Postal Service Urged to Weigh Three-Days-a-Week Mail LINK

FDA is the Only Government Agency to Get Budget INCREASE LINK

Obama policies projected to add $9.7 Trillion to U.S. debt by 2020 LINK

Volcker Says Euro to Survive as Greek Budget Crisis Manageable LINK

Iceland rejects plan to pay back Britain (Followup) LINK

Beijing studies severing peg to U.S. dollar LINK

U.S. currency soon to be radically altered LINK
In 2002 an advocacy group – the American Council of the Blind - filed a lawsuit interpreting the "Rehabilitation Act" as requiring the government to design its currency in such a way as to be easily identifiable by the blind and the visually-impaired

Prices skyrocket after cold snap decimates Florida tomato crop LINK

Upper Midwest braces for severe spring flooding LINK

6.6 and 6.0 Magnitude Earthquakes Hit Chile LINK

Strong [magnitude 6.0] quake kills 57 in Turkey LINK

Panic Alert: Methane bubbles in Arctic seas stir warming fears LINK
It is unclear, however, if the Arctic emissions of methane gas are new or have been going on unnoticed for centuries ...

Catholic School Kicks Out Preschooler with Lesbian Parents (Colorado) LINK
The statement says students in Catholic schools are expected to have parents who abide by policies of the school and church

Neglected by 'lazy' nurses, [patient] rang the police to beg for water (UK) LINK

Expansive food recall leaves consumers asking: What is HVP? LINK
Hydrolyzed vegetable protein, like monosodium glutamate, is a salty and savory flavor enhancer used in thousands of processed foods such as "soups, sauces, chilis, stews, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, gravies, seasoned snack foods, dips and dressings"

HEALTH HIGHLIGHTS: MARCH 5, 2010 LINK

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"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms ... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes ... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
President Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence
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CHRISTIAN MEDIA
WORLDWATCH

TUESDAY MARCH 9, 2010
- no news edition -

CHRISTIAN MEDIA
WORLDWATCH

WEDNESDAY MARCH 10, 2010

Appeals for calm after Nigerian sectarian slaughter

JOS, NIGERIA -- UN chief Ban Ki-moon appealed Monday for "maximum restraint" amid revulsion at the slaughter of more than 500 Christians in Nigeria, as survivors told how the killers chopped down their victims.
Funerals began taking place for victims of the three-hour orgy of violence on Sunday in three Christian villages close to the northern city of Jos, blamed on members of the mainly Muslim Fulani ethnic group.
While troops were deployed to the villages to prevent new attacks, security forces detained 95 suspects but faced bitter criticism over how the killers were able to go on the rampage at a time when a curfew was meant to be in force.
Newspapers reported that Muslim residents of the villages in Plateau state had been warned by phone text message, two days prior to the attack, so they could make good their escape before the exit points were sealed off.
Survivors said the attackers were able to separate the Fulanis from members of the rival Berom group by chanting 'nagge', the Fulani word for cattle. Those who failed to respond in the same language were hacked to death.
One local paper said the gangs shouted Allah Akhbar before breaking into homes and setting them alight in the early hours of Sunday. Churches were among the buildings that were burned down.
The Vatican led a wave of outrage with spokesman Federico Lombardi expressing the Catholic Church's "sadness" at the "horrible acts of violence".
Ban told reporters he was "deeply concerned".
"I appeal to all concerned to exercise maximum restraint," he said . . . .
The death toll was initially put at a little over 100 but then shot up. The information ministry said pregnant women were among those killed and around 200 people were being treated in hospital.
"We have over 500 killed in three villages and the survivors are busy burying their dead," said state information commissioner Gregory Yenlong.
"People were attacked with axes, daggers and cutlasses - many of them children, the aged and pregnant women." . . . .
"The attack is yet another jihad and provocation," the Plateau State Christian Elders Consultative Forum (PSCEF) said in a statement.
However the archbishop of the capital Abuja, John Onaiyekan, told Vatican Radio that the violence was rooted not in religion but in social, economic and tribal differences.
"It is a classic conflict between pastoralists and farmers, except that all the Fulani are Muslims and all the Berom are Christians," he said . . . .
Locals said that the attacks on Sunday were the result of a feud which had been first ignited by a theft of cattle and then fuelled by deadly reprisals.
Acting President Goodluck Jonathan's office said the security services in Plateau and neighbouring states had been placed on red alert to ensure that the violence did not spread.

Source: AFP / channelnewsasia.com MORE

Mitchell: Direct Israeli-Palestinian talks to start next week in Washington

The delegations will be headed by Israeli prime minister's adviser Yitzhak Molcho and senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. DEBKAfile's Middle East sources disclose that Special US Middle East Envoy George Mitchell notified Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas Monday, March 8, that his mission on behalf of president Barack Obama was to get direct peace talks started without delay at a venue near Washington. The US president, he said, was out of patience with the two sides' objections, gripes and maneuvers.
According to our Washington sources, administration officials were charged with finding a location around the US capital isolated enough for Israel and Israeli negotiators to talk in private. They recommended the 11th Wing's facility at Bolling Air Force base, which best answered the White House's request for a venue where the Israeli and Palestinian delegations could be kept out of reach of US, Israeli and Palestinian media, so that Mitchell could act as the negotiations sole spokesman.
The US envoy's immediate plan now is to ensconce the two delegations for a couple of days in separate rooms at a place in Israel still to be selected to preserve the semblance of indirect talks. After that, they will be transferred to Washington early next week.
DEBKAfile's sources stress that the reports leaked from Israeli and Palestinian quarters about the subjects of the talks are irrelevant because the US envoy is still pondering the agenda and has not yet decided where it will start.
Our sources disclose that the Palestinians spent most of Monday finding ways to clamp their delegation's wheels because Fatah does not trust Erekat enough to give him a free hand. His opponents finally established a "national committee" to monitor his decisions at the negotiating table. Its members are Jibril Rajoub, Muhammad Dahlan and Nasser al Kidwa.
The Palestinian team will therefore operate under the close scrutiny of two commissions, one Palestinian, the other appointed by the Arab League.
The Israeli prime minister and defense minister Ehud Barak both warned Mitchell against Abbas' plan to attach representatives of Palestinian terrorist groups to the monitoring commission, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Damascus-based extremist groups, all of whom are determined to derail the US peace initiative. [emphasis added]

Source: debka.com MORE

Note: see these related stories:

Biden Says There Is A 'Moment Of Opportunity' For Peace LINK

U.S. Pledges 'Unvarnished' Commitment To Israel's Security LINK

U.S. Says Tentative Mid East Peace Talks Under Way - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he would attend an Arab League summit in Libya later this month to push forward the Middle East peace process LINK

Israel Asks UN To Press For Direct Israel-Palestinian Talks - Ban confirmed that he planned to attend a meeting of the diplomatic Quartet in Moscow on March 19 to encourage an early resumption of direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians LINK

Bill Gates: Use vaccines to lower population
Billionaire advocates curbing CO2 by reducing earth's inhabitants

One of the world's wealthiest men and the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, has suggested vaccines as one method of reducing the world's population.
Gates made his remarks to the invitation-only Technology, Entertainment and Design 2010 Conference in Long Beach, Calif. His February address was titled, "Innovating to Zero!"
He presented a speech on global warming, stating that CO2 emissions must be reduced to zero by 2050. Gates said every person on the planet puts out an average of about five tons of CO2 per year . . . .
Discussing . . . [population], he stated, "Let's take a look. First we got population. The world today has 6.8 billion people. That's headed up to about 9 billion. Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent" . . . .
Gates' comments immediately raised questions in the blogosphere about whether the billionaire was advocating dissemination of sterilization agents.
In 1995, UNICEF's anti-tetanus vaccinations were found to contain B-hCG, a pregnancy hormone that can permanently sterilize women. An estimated 3 million women between the ages of 12 and 45 received that vaccine. Another UNICEF polio vaccination campaign in Nigeria was suspected of sterilizing women in 2004.
However, according to LifeSite News, the Gates Foundation claims Gates actually advocates using vaccines to decrease child mortality – something he believes would actually serve to decrease population growth. In his 2009 annual letter, he wrote that a "surprising but critical fact [is] that reducing the number of [infant] deaths actually reduces population growth."
Gates contends that parents have more children when infant mortality rates are high so they can be sure several children will survive to care for them later in life.
"And so, if they think having six children is what they need to do to have at least two survive, that's what they'll do," he told CNN in 2008. "And amazingly, across the entire world, as health improves, then the population growth actually is reduced." [This sounds reasonable, but it may still be a cover for a more ominous agenda. Especially given the history of misuse of vaccines. -Ed.] . . . .
In addition to Gates, the meeting included some of the biggest names in the "billionaires club," according to the London Times – David Rockefeller, Ted Turner, Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffett, George Soros and Michael Bloomberg . . . .
Taking their cue from Gates, the report said, they agreed population control was the No. 1 issue . . . .
A guest at the meeting said population growth would be addressed as a potentially disastrous environmental, social and industrial threat.
"This is something so nightmarish that everyone in this group agreed it needs big-brain answers," said the guest. "They need to be independent of government agencies, which are unable to head off the disaster we all see looming." [Emphasis added by source website]

Source: wnd.com MORE

ID Card for Workers Is at Center of Immigration Plan

Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill have settled on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain.
Under the potentially controversial plan still taking shape in the Senate, all legal U.S. workers, including citizens and immigrants, would be issued an ID card with embedded information, such as fingerprints, to tie the card to the worker.
The ID card plan is one of several steps advocates of an immigration overhaul are taking to address concerns that have defeated similar bills in the past.
The uphill effort to pass a bill is being led by Senators Chuck Schumer (D-New York) and Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), who plan to meet with President Barack Obama as soon as this week to update him on their work. An administration official said the White House had no position on the biometric card.
"It's the nub of solving the immigration dilemma politically speaking," Mr. Schumer said in an interview. The card, he said, would directly answer concerns that after legislation is signed, another wave of illegal immigrants would arrive. "If you say they can't get a job when they come here, you'll stop it."
The biggest objections to the biometric cards may come from privacy advocates, who fear they would become de facto national ID cards that enable the government to track citizens.
"It is fundamentally a massive invasion of people's privacy," said Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. "We're not only talking about fingerprinting every American, treating ordinary Americans like criminals in order to work. We're also talking about a card that would quickly spread from work to voting to travel to pretty much every aspect of American life that requires identification."
Mr. Graham says he respects those concerns but disagrees. "We've all got Social Security cards," he said. "They're just easily tampered with. Make them tamper-proof. That's all I'm saying."
U.S. employers now have the option of using an online system called E-Verify to check whether potential employees are in the U.S. legally. Many Republicans have pressed to make the system mandatory. But others, including Mr. Schumer, complain that the existing system is ineffective . . . .
A person familiar with the legislative planning said the biometric data would likely be either fingerprints or a scan of the veins in the top of the hand. It would be required of all workers, including teenagers, but would be phased in, with current workers needing to obtain the card only when they next changed jobs, the person said.

Source: wsj.com (Wall Street Journal) MORE

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Peres calls for 'total' world isolation of Ahmadinejad

President Shimon Peres on Tuesday said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad must face "total" international isolation, adding that his anti-Israel rhetoric was only a cover for his ambitions for Iranian hegemony in the Middle East. "A person like Ahmadinejad, who calls openly to destroy the state of Israel, cannot be a full member of the United Nations," Peres said, as he met visiting U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden in Jerusalem. "A man who calls for acts of terror, and who hangs people in the street ... he should be placed in his proper definition. He cannot go around almost like a cultural hero," Peres said. "Ahmadinejad has to be isolated and not be welcomed in the capitals of the world," Peres said. Peres urged Washington to "surround Iran with an envelope" to protect Israel against Tehran's "missiles and nuclear threat". "We have trust in President [Barack] Obama," Peres told visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. But when it comes to Iran's contentious nuclear program, said Peres, "Nobody knows exactly what they are doing." . . . Biden's main task during his visit is to assuage the Israeli leadership and ensure that it is not planning any preemptive strike against Iran's nuclear sites which would disrupt the Obama administration's efforts to form a broad international front that would impose tough sanctions on Tehran. MORE

Biden says Israeli housing starts 'undermining' trust

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Vice President Joe Biden denounced a decision to authorize new Jerusalem housing starts as "undermining the trust" that he needs to advance peace while in Israel. "I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem," Biden said in a statement issued Tuesday, the second day of a visit that had been aimed at underscoring the closeness of the U.S.-Israel relationship. "The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I've had here in Israel." . . . Biden was referring to the announcement Tuesday by the Jerusalem District Planning Committee that it had authorized 1,600 units in Ramat Shlomo, an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood. The committee is jointly run by the Interior Ministry and the Jerusalem municipality. A statement Tuesday evening by the Interior Ministry said that the authorization was merely "procedural," that the plan had been in the works for more than three years and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not have prior knowledge of the plan. MORE

Turkey, Angry at U.S., Pledges Support for Iran

(CNS News) -- As the Obama administration scrambles to contain the diplomatic fallout with Turkey over the “Armenian genocide” resolution in the U.S. Congress, Turkey’s tilt towards Iran continues largely unnoticed. Turkey’s “formerly Islamist” president, Abdullah Gul, in a weekend telephone conversation with his Iranian counterpart called for a deepening of bilateral relations and voiced support for Iran in international forums. Turkey is non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council ... MORE

Note: see these related items:

[Turkey]: Heritage Sites Will Never Be Jewish - Turkish prime minister says Rachel's Tomb, Cave of Patriarchs will forever be Islamic sites LINK

Commentary: Bad Things Happen When Empires Fall Apart - Harking back to Armenia in 1915 will only drive modern Turkey into China’s arms LINK

Oil Traders Dump Iran

(Israel National News) -- The three largest oil trading firms in the world – Glencore, Trafigura and Vitol – announced Monday that they would no longer do business with Iran. A report in the London Financial Times said that the companies had concluded that there was too much risk and not enough profit in supplying Iran. The three companies had been responsible for supplying Iran with about half its daily oil use. [no further content] LINK

U.S. Scientist: Developing Nations to Adopt GM Crops Faster

NEW DELHI -- Developing countries led by China and Brazil will overtake rich nations in adopting genetically modified crops over the next two-three years, as they strive to raise yields to meet demand from their growing population, a top farm scientist said. Currently, 46% of the land under genetically modified crops is in developing countries, but their share will increase to more than half in two-three years, Clive James, chairman of the U.S.-based International Service For the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), told Dow Jones Newswires Wednesday . . . India, a major user of Bt cotton seeds, has witnessed a sharp rise in areas under the genetically modified variety since the introduction of it in 2002, and domestic cotton industry experts expect the growth to continue. However, the country's federal government last month had put on hold the commercial cultivation of Bt brinjal, or genetically modified eggplant, for exhaustive tests after protests from environmental groups and farmers. Mr. James still expects India to be a major user of genetically modified seeds. "China, Brazil, India, Argentina and South Africa are the big five that will drive rise in Bt crop areas as they try to improve yield when arable land growth is stagnant." He said as much as 60 million hectares of land would come under genetically modified rice and maize (aka corn) in equal proportions in China over the next three years, as that country has granted a critical regulatory approval for both the crops. Globally, the cultivation area under genetically modified crop is expected to rise to 200 million hectares by 2015 from 134 million hectares now. Of the 25 countries that grow genetically modified crops currently, U.S. accounts for the maximum acreage - 64 million hectares, according to ISAAA data. MORE

Culled out
Public input period for federal fishery strategy has ended

The Obama administration will accept no more public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing some of the nation's oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters. MORE

Note: see also Fishermen's Fear: Public's 'Right To Fish' Shifting Under Obama? - Sport fishermen worry about an eroding 'right to fish' as the Obama administration shifts fishing policy to include United Nations objectives LINK

Christian's speech deemed 'hateful propaganda'

A Christian student in the Los Angeles Community College District is carrying his free-speech case to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Jonathan Lopez had an assignment in a public speaking class and was required to give an informative speech on any topic. Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorney David Hacker tells OneNewsNow that Lopez chose to speak about his Christian beliefs. "And during that speech, when he mentioned that marriage is between a man and a woman according to his Christian beliefs, the professor called him this horrible name, refused to let him finish the assignment, and told other students in the class, 'If you're offended, you can leave,'" Hacker explains. When no students left, the professor dismissed the class. Hacker adds that Lopez is an "A" student - "but the problem is he never got a grade on that informative speech, and in fact, the professor wrote on his evaluation form, 'Ask God what your grade is.'" The ADF attorney argues that demonstrates the hostility towards religion on many college campuses. The lower court in Los Angeles issued a preliminary injunction against the school, saying its speech code - allowing administrators to punish Lopez's "hateful propaganda" - is unconstitutional. That has been appealed to the Ninth Circuit. [no further content] LINK

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Commentary: INSURERS' PROFITS AREN'T THE PROBLEM (Jeffrey H. Anderson)

. . . . According to the most recent Fortune 500 rankings, health insurers are not even among the top-30 United States industries in profit-margin. Health insurers rank 35th, with a profit-margin of just 2.2 percent - less than one-fifth the profit-margin of railroads. None of the ten largest American health insurers made profits of more than 4.5 percent, and two of them lost money. Health insurers’ collective profit-margin is less than one-eighth that of drug companies and less than one-seventh that of companies that sell medical products or equipment. It’s also less than that of medical facilities. Yet when was the last time you heard President Obama rail against greedy hospitals?
The combined profits of America’s ten largest health insurers are $8.3 billion. That’s less than two-thirds of the profits of Wal-Mart alone, less than half of the profits of General Electric alone, and less than one-seventh of what Medicare loses each year to fraud. Health insurers collectively have one-eighth the profit-margin of McDonald’s or Coke, one-ninth that of eBay, and one-fifteenth that of Merck.
Why don’t these much more profitable companies or industries need to be taken over by the federal government? Why don’t they need to be subjected to something like President Obama’s proposed Health Insurance Rate Authority, which would be run by the same U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that already loses $60 billion of taxpayer money to Medicare fraud each year? (Not that I want to give the Obama administration any ideas.)
In all, the combined profits of the 14 largest American health insurers (the ones who crack the Fortune 1000) are $8.7 billion. That’s less than 0.4 percent, or 1/250th, of overall U.S. health-care costs, which are $2.5 trillion.

Source: nationalreview.com (2-24-10) MORE

Note: see also Commentary: Obama Seeks To Vilify Health Insurers ... [And] Give Them $336 Billion Check - [Sounds a little hypocritical, eh? - Ed.] LINK

Commentary: DO YOU LOVE GOD? (Paul Proctor)

And this is love, that we walk after His commandments. [2 John 1:6]

. . . . [“Love”] is clearly more than an emotion and even more than a religious or benevolent act. The world is full of good feelings, good words and good works, which may or may not have anything to do with Jesus Christ or loving God.

You see, Jesus defines “love” . . . as obedience to His commandments – that is to say, His Word. If we obey His Word, then we demonstrate our love for Him. When we disobey or ignore His Word, we show that we in fact do not love Him regardless of the loving things we might say about Him or to Him in public or in private.
It is our obedience to His Word that reveals our love for Him – not our loving words, good intentions or good deeds. Why do you think Jesus said: This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoureth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me. [Matthew 15:8]
What would you think if your husband or your wife told you and everyone else that they loved you, but always ignored you or did whatever they wanted to do day after day without considering your wishes? Their profession of love wouldn’t mean much, would it? You’d know they were either lying or that they don’t really know what the word “love” means. So, it is when we tell Jesus how much we love Him while ignoring or disobeying His Word to do whatever we want to do.

To make matters worse, Satan has taken advantage of our biblical ignorance, willful disobedience and overall confusion and has formed a very unbiblical theology out of it, persuading Christians through various movements, programs and para-church organizations that proclaiming and obeying God’s commands is not “love” at all, but “legalism.”
Consequently, Christians who proclaim the Whole Counsel of God and quote the Bible in response to sin are regularly rebuked as “legalists” and called “Pharisees” by those they offend . . . .
[But] Jesus didn’t call the Scribes and Pharisees “legalists” – He called them “hypocrites.”
Consider carefully what Jesus said in Matthew 23:1-4: Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to His disciples, Saying The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. [Matthew 23:1-4]
He’s telling them to do whatever the Pharisees instruct them to do, but not to be a hypocrite and merely claim to do it and teach others to do things they won’t do themselves . . . .

Loving the Lord means we take up our cross, follow Him and obey His Word – all of it – even though many will call us “legalists,” “fundamentalists” and “extremists” for doing so.

Source: newswithviews.com MORE

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ADDITIONAL NEWS & ANALYSIS
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No more food aid, Haitian leader urges LINK
President Rene Preval said international food aid to Haiti has to be scaled back so the quake-ravaged nation can find its feet through its own domestic production and employment ... He also said Haiti's priorities now were to prepare for the coming hurricane season, which starts in June, and to get children back to school

Haitians wary of U.S. military reduction LINK
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Citizens' Rights Alert: Virginia health bill could foil Obama proposal LINK
State questions constitutionality

Silver bullet from U.S. states kills 'mandatory' Obamacare LINK
36 legislatures fight for citizens' rights to opt out of health-coverage demand

[analysis]: Reconciliation bill will be hard for GOP to derail LINK

Senator Feingold Admits Ultimate Goal of Healthcare Reform (Video) LINK
The Obama Administration and the Democratic leadership have known for a long time that they have no chance of passing single-payer legislation ... And so they have devised another strategy for getting there – the so called “public plan option” ... All the while vigorously denying that the real agenda is to ultimately end up with a single-payer system ...

Rep. Schakowsky Admits Goal of Healthcare Reform is to Destroy Private Insurance Industry (Video) LINK
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Iraqi PM Maliki sweeps polls, defeats pro-Iranian bloc LINK

Israel: Outlook for tough U.N. steps on Iran 'grim' LINK

[analysis]: Jerusalem expansion spurred by Biden's clampdown on Israeli action on Iran LINK

Israel 'to unveil plans to build nuclear power plant' LINK

Israel, Syria eye nuclear power plants LINK
The new Israeli plant would be a joint project between Israel and Jordan

Lebanon Resumes 'National Dialogue' ... But Hezbollah Refuses to Discuss Its Weapons LINK

[analysis]: U.S.-NATO versus Russia: Towards a Regional War in the Caucasus? LINK

[analysis]: THE GROUP OF TWENTY and THE EVOLUTION OF GLOBAL GOVERNANCE LINK
Who really runs the country and the world? ... He who has the gold makes the rules and it is not governments! (9-28-09)

Misinformation Alert: Marjah: The Non-Existent City the Military Said We Conquered in Afghanistan LINK
Marjah isn't even a town, but rather one of the clearest and most dramatic examples of a war of perception as outlined in the US' counter-insurgency doctrine

U.S. 'Jihad Jane' arrested for terror recruiting LINK

Chief justice unsettled by Obama's criticism of Supreme Court LINK
He objected to criticism in such a public setting, where the justices had no choice but to sit silently

Crackdown on dangerous dogs in UK to make microchips compulsory for all LINK

Program to pay homeowners to sell at a loss LINK
Obama administration’s latest attempt to stem the housing crisis ... For the administration, there is also the concern that millions of foreclosures could delay or even reverse the economy’s tentative recovery - the last thing it wants in an election year

[analysis]: Are unemployment benefits no longer temporary? LINK
Under multiple extensions enacted by the federal government in response to the downturn, workers can collect the payments for as long as 99 weeks [and still counting! - Ed.] in states with the highest unemployment rates - the longest period since the program's inception

Failed Banks May Get Pension-Fund Backing as FDIC Seeks Cash LINK

Public pension funds are 'going to Vegas' LINK
States, government bodies are increasing investment risk to raise returns ... Trying a wide range of investments: commodity futures, junk bonds, foreign stocks, deeply discounted mortgage-backed securities and margin investing ... And some states that previously shunned hedge funds are trying them now [?!]

Dollar Gains as Ratings Agencies Warn on Europe LINK

[analysis]: Billionaires and Mega-Corporations Behind Immense Land Grab in Africa LINK
20+ African countries are selling or leasing land for intensive agriculture on a shocking scale in what may be the greatest change of ownership since the colonial era

IMF Suggests How to Raise Climate Change Funds LINK
Proposed that countries adopt a quota system similar to the one the Fund uses to raise its own money ... The organization will release a paper later this week with full details

Chile quake moves city more than 10 feet [and shortens length of day] LINK
The results were reached via global positioning satellite measurements taken before and after the February 27 quake ... NASA scientists have also credited the quake with shifting the Earth's axis enough to create shorter days: Each day should be 1.26 microseconds shorter, according to preliminary calculations ... A microsecond is one-millionth of a second

CUFI Alert: Text of [Israeli] PM Netanyahu's Address to the Christians United For Israel Jerusalem Summit LINK
"Remind the world that the land of the Bible is not in the heavens but right here on earth ... And that the people of the Bible, are on the land of the Bible"

1 of 2 arrested U.S. missionaries released in Haiti LINK

Church renames Jesus' resurrection after pagan goddess (Video) LINK
Richard Rives explains how synod co-opted worship of sun queen

Health Alert: Rise of the Superbugs: Why We Are Increasingly at Risk From Antibiotic-Resistant Diseases (Followup) LINK
The evidence is overwhelming that these new superbugs are at least partially a result of dosing farm animals with sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics added to their feed

Patients' medical records go online without consent (UK) LINK
Patients’ confidential medical records are being placed on a controversial NHS database without their knowledge, doctors’ leaders have warned

[analysis]: Are Veterans Being Given Deadly Cocktails to Treat PTSD? LINK
A potentially deadly drug manufactured by pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has been linked to the deaths of soldiers returning from war ... Yet the FDA continues to approve it ... The deadly drug cocktail combines the antidepressant Paxil, the mood stabilizer Klonopin, and a controversial anti-psychotic drug manufactured by pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, called Seroquel

Pet Food Recall Expanded LINK
A recall of Nature's Variety raw, frozen chicken-flavored pet food has been expanded ... The pet food is being recalled because it may be contaminated with salmonella

Two Flavors of Pringles Chips Recalled LINK [scroll down]
Two types of Pringles chips [Cheeseburger and Taco Night] have been recalled because of concerns about possible Salmonella contamination

HEALTH HIGHLIGHTS: MARCH 9, 2010 LINK

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Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked Him a question, tempting Him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.
Matthew 22:35-38 KJV
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