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World Bids Farewell to U.S. Dollar
Sep 25th, 2009
Daily NewsWND - Jerome Corsi and Chelsea Schilling
Categories: Today's Headlines;World Government

One of the world's largest banks is bidding farewell to the U.S. dollar – just as the dollar faces intense scrutiny at today's G-20 summit and the United Nations announces it wants a new global reserve currency replacement.

Wondering Why God Designed One Man to be With One Woman? These Statistics will Shock You
Sep 25th, 2009
Daily Newswww.telegraph.co.uk
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

The average British man or woman has slept with 2.8 million people -- albeit indirectly, according to figures released on Wednesday to promote awareness of sexual health. 

A British pharmacy chain has launched an online calculator which helps you work out how many partners you have had, in the sense of exposure to risk of sexually transmitted diseases (STIs). 

The "Sex Degrees of Separation" ready reckoner tots up the numbers based on your number of partners, then their previous partners, and their former lovers, and so on for six "generations" of partners. 

The average British man claims to have actually slept with nine people, while women put the figure at 6.3, giving an average of 7.65. 

"When we sleep with someone, we are, in effect, not only sleeping with them, but also their previous partners and their partners' previous partners, and so on," said Clare Kerr, head of sexual health at Lloydspharmacy. 

"It's important that people understand how exposed they are to STI's with every partner."

UN Climate Meeting Was Propaganda: Czech President
Sep 25th, 2009
Daily NewsReuters - Louis Charbonneau
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

UNITED NATIONS - Czech President Vaclav Klaus sharply criticized a U.N. meeting on climate change on Tuesday at which U.S. President Barack Obama was among the top speakers, describing it as propagandistic and undignified.

"It was sad and it was frustrating," said Klaus, one of the world's most vocal skeptics on the topic of global warming.

"It's a propagandistic exercise where 13-year-old girls from some far-away country perform a pre-rehearsed poem," he said. "It's simply not dignified."

At the opening of the summit attended by nearly 100 world leaders, 13-year-old Yugratna Srivastava of India told the audience that governments were not doing enough to combat the threat of climate change.

Klaus said there were increasing doubts in the scientific community about whether humans are causing changes in the climate or whether the changes are simply naturally occurring phenomena.

But politicians, he said, seem to be moving closer to a consensus on climate change.

"The train can't be stopped and I consider that a huge mistake," Klaus said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon organized the climate summit to help create momentum before a U.N. meeting in Copenhagen in December to reach agreement on new targets for reducing so-called greenhouse gas emissions.

However, new proposals by China and a rallying cry from U.S. President Barack Obama did little to break a U.N. deadlock about what should be done.

Klaus published a book in 2007 on the worldwide campaign to stop climate change entitled "Blue Planet in Green Chains: What Is Under Threat -- Climate or Freedom?"

In the book, Klaus said global warming has turned into a new religion, an ideology that threatens to undermine freedom and the world's economic and social order.

U.S. May Face 'armageddon' If China, Japan Don't Buy Debt
Sep 25th, 2009
Daily Newscnbc - : JeeYeon Park
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

The US is too dependent on Japan and China buying up the country's debt and could face severe economic problems if that stops, Tiger Management founder and chairman Julian Robertson told CNBC.

"It's almost Armageddon if the Japanese and Chinese don't buy our debt,” Robertson said in an interview. "I don't know where we could get the money. I think we've let ourselves get in a terrible situation and I think we ought to try and get out of it."

Robertson said inflation is a big risk if foreign countries were to stop buying bonds

"If the Chinese and Japanese stop buying our bonds, we could easily see [inflation] go to 15 to 20 percent,” he said.  “It's not a question of the economy. It's a question of who will lend us the money if they don't. Imagine us getting ourselves in a situation where we're totally dependent on those two countries. It's crazy.”

U.S. Bomb Plot Probe Shows Greatest Security Fears
Sep 25th, 2009
Daily Newsreuters.com
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

A suspected bomb plot under investigation in New York and Denver has the ingredients of a worst case scenario for U.S. security, experts say: an al Qaeda link, overseas training and free movement within U.S. borders.

Colorado airport shuttle driver Najibullah Zazi, who U.S. authorities say admitted to taking a bomb-making course at an al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan, is at the center of what they say could be a plot to blow up subways or other targets.

Zazi has maintained his innocence, as has his father and a New York City imam who have also been arrested. So far authorities have only charged the three Afghan-born men with lying to investigators, which carries an eight-year maximum sentence, and not a more serious terrorism-related charge.

Whether or not the allegations outlined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in court papers are true, the picture they paint would make this case among the most serious within U.S. borders since the attacks of September 11, 2001.

"Here's a guy who apparently was trained in Pakistan, had knowledge of bomb-making and was trying to assemble a team. That's our worst nightmare, quite frankly," said Michael Sheehan, a former counterterrorism chief for New York police and now a private consultant.

The case also underscores how, after the September 11 attacks and the transit bombings in Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005, U.S. law enforcement has been more aggressive in making arrests even as rights groups accuse them of being overly zealous.

Zazi, 24, was arrested with his father in Colorado on Saturday while the imam, a one-time police informant named Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, was arrested in New York. All three have been living in the United States for years.

The FBI says it found a laptop in Zazi's rented car with instructions on how to make, handle and detonate explosives.

When police on September 14 searched an apartment in the New York City borough of Queens that Zazi had visited, they told local media they confiscated cell phones and at least nine empty backpacks. The Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people involved backpacks stuffed with explosives that were detonated via cell phones.

The Knesset, Israel's legislative body, has in recent days focused on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem
Sep 25th, 2009
News UpdateJimmy DeYoung
Categories: Jimmy DeYoung News

The annual day of mourning for the destruction of the two Jewish Temples that once stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem focuses all Jews on the Temple Mount, but has also recently been the subject of discussions by Israeli Knesset members as they met to talk about the Temple, it's role in Jewish life and Israel's approach to the Temple Mount.

An expert on the subject, Dr. Mordechai Keidar, discussed the political implications of Israel's stance on the Temple Mount and said the struggle for Jerusalem is not territorial, it is theological and he downplayed the Palestinian claim for the Temple Mount since Jerusalem is not mentioned even once in the Koran.

The Moslem view of Judaism is the root of the PA's refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish nation and they firmly reject all Jewish claim to the Temple Mount while at the same time they reject that the Temple Mount is Judaism's most holy site.

Jimmy's Prophetic Prospective on the News

Judaism's claim that the Temple Mount is their most holy site and the rejection of that claim by the PA is setting the stage for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.

Dr. Mordechai Keidar speaking at the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, made a very profound statement that the struggle for Jerusalem is not territorial, but it is theological. The statement by the Moslem world that Judaism is no longer relevant will not make the controversy surrounding the Temple Mount go away.

However, when you turn to God's prophetic Word, we can see what the Lord has planned for this sacred site. The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 132:13-14 that God has chosen Jerusalem and especially the Temple Mount to dwell among His people, the Jewish people forever. The Lord made a covenant with the second Jewish king, King David, that one day He would bring all of the Jewish people to this spot and give them the land forever, II Samuel 7:10. On the Temple Mount one day there will be built a Temple where the Messiah, Jesus Christ, will rule and reign forever, Zechariah 6:13. In fact, Jesus will build that Temple, Zechariah 6:12.

If the discussions in the Israeli Knesset do not include these passages of Scripture, they are wasting their time.

Sunstein: Force Broadcasters to Air 'diversity' Ads
Sep 25th, 2009
Daily NewsWND - Aaron Klein
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

Obama chief argues media must not have final say in selection of commercials

JERUSALEM – The U.S. government should have the right to force broadcast media companies to air commercials that foster a "diversity" of views, argued President Obama's newly confirmed regulatory czar, Cass Sunstein.

"If it were necessary to bring about diversity and attention to public matters, a private right of access to the media might even be constitutionally compelled. The notion that access will be a product of the marketplace might well be constitutionally troublesome," wrote Sunstein in his 1993 book "The Partial Constitution."

In the book – obtained and reviewed by WND – Sunstein cites hypothetical examples of private groups or individuals attempting to buy advertising time in the broadcast media to promote a certain view only to have their ads rejected by a private media company.

"It is fully plausible that the refusal (of the media company), backed up by the law, violates the First Amendment, at least if other outlets are unavailable or far less effective," Sunstein posits in a radical interpretation of the Constitution.

Stakes High As Planned Parenthood Launches Major Assault on Abortion Laws
Sep 25th, 2009
Daily NewsADF
Categories: Today's Headlines

Outraged at a strong new Arizona law that protects women and preborn children, the nation's leading profiter from abortion has filed a lawsuit challenging the law's constitutionality.  The Center for Reproductive Rights has filed a similar lawsuit at the federal level.  Both suits ask that the courts strike down provisions of the law and grant a preliminary injunction to block them from taking effect, as scheduled, on September 30.  Two Arizona legislators, along with doctors and numerous organizations, filed motions Monday through ADF attorneys to intervene to defend these cases.

Planned Parenthood has reason to worry.  The law in question could have a far-reaching impact on abortion around the country and seriously cut into the organization's multi-million-dollar revenues.  The Arizona law requires, among other things:

• That women visit a doctor 24 hours prior to having the child removed to hear all the medical implications of the "procedure"
• That parents provide notarized consent for their minor children to have an abortion, or alternatively a judge can review the request
• That abortions be performed only by physicians, and not nurse practitioners
• That doctors, pharmacists, and other medical professionals be allowed follow their consciences and not be forced to participate in abortions or in the prescription and preparation of abortion-inducing drugs.

Planned Parenthood, meanwhile, contends that such regulations - designed to promote informed decisions for women and provide legal protections for medical professionals - impose an "undue burden" on women.  They say that the required doctor visit forces women to make two appointments (although every other kind of non-emergency invasive surgery requires more than one appointment), while allowing only doctors to perform abortions limits a woman's options.

In other words, after years of posing as the great defender of women's health, Planned Parenthood is now opposing laws that ensure strong medical care for pregnant women.  Why?  Because these laws will make a deep dent in the organization's income.  At three of their five Arizona clinics, abortions are currently performed by nurse practitioners - so enforcement of the new laws could easily mean 20-40 percent less money in Planned Parenthood's coffers.

Planned Parenthood and the pro-abortion advocacy groups make a lot of money advancing their agenda, and they won't surrender their profits without a fight.  These two cases are almost certain to have a nation-shaping impact.  Please be in special prayer for our attorneys and the many allied organizations standing with us in support of the sanctity of human life and the religious freedom of medical professionals to honor their conscience on this crucial issue.

Shomron Council to State Department Snoop: Obama Doesn't Get It
Sep 25th, 2009
Daily NewsArutz Sheva - Gil Ronen
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Peace Process

 
After a State Department official requested Jewish pioneers' reaction to U.S. President Barack Obama's speech at the United Nations General Assembly, the Shomron (Samaria) Liaison Office responded by explaining that the American leader failed to grasp the basic issues involved.

The American official, Cyndee Trinh of the Political Section of the U.S. Consulate-General in Jerusalem, sent an e-mail message Thursday to David HaIvri, Head of the Shomron Liaison Office, in which she asked him for a reaction to Obama's speech in New York on Wednesday. Obama said there that he “does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements" and called to "end the occupation that began in 1967."  

Trinh asked HaIvri: “I was wondering if you saw, heard, or read about President Obama’s speech before the UN yesterday, and if so, if you have any opinions or reactions you would like to convey to Washington?”

She added: “Your opinions and thoughts are important to us” and wished him “Chatima Tovah.”

HaIvri responded by writing that “President Obama's speech reflects his failure to understand the basic issues,” which he went on to list:

(1) The Jewish "settlements" in Judea and Samaria are not illegal; Geneva IV is not applicable.

(2) Israel has not illegally "occupied" anyone else's land.

(3) The Armistice lines of 1949 were never accepted by any Arab country as Israel's borders; nor does Israel consider them as such.

(4) A second (or third) Arab Palestinian state will not resolve core issues ("refugees," Jerusalem, etc) -- the solution is regional and comprehensive, not local and piecemeal.

(5) Opposition to Jewish building in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria is rank discrimination.

(6) "Palestinian" terrorism and incitement are ongoing and officially sanctioned; it must stop immediately before anything else.

A source in the Liaison Office said that while Trinh is officially an adviser to the Consul, her actual assignment is to keep tabs on settlement growth. “They come out to visit and ask for our explanations regarding building efforts, etc.,” the source said. “Unofficially, she is a spy. I heard from knowledgeable sources that she reports directly to [U.S. Middle East Special Envoy George Mitchell.”

Shocker: Kids Taught to Sing Obama's Praises
Sep 25th, 2009
Daily NewsWND
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

Lyrics to historic melody: 'Hooray, Mr. President, you are No. 1'

School children in New Jersey have been taught to both chant and sing praises to President Obama, with a YouTube video revealing them singing, "Mr. President, We Honor You Today" to the tune of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

The children also are seen being taught the chant: "Barack Hussein Obama."

The children are lined up in front of a stage, and an adult is teaching them the chant:

Uhm, uhm, uhm, Barack Hussein Obama
He said all should lend a hand to make the country strong again
Uhm, uhm, uhm, Barack Hussein Obama
He said we must be fair today, equal work means equal pay
Uhm, uhm, uhm, Barack Hussein Obama
He said take a stand, make sure everyone gets a chance
Uhm, uhm, uhm, Barack Hussein Obama
He said red, yellow, black and white, all are equal in his sight
Uhm, uhm, uhm, Barack Hussein Obama
YEAH. Barack Hussein Obama

Saudis May Let Israel Hit Iran's Nuke Ops
Sep 25th, 2009
Daily NewsFROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Riyadh concerned over potential threat from Tehran

LONDON – MI6 chief Sir John Scarlett has been told that Saudi Arabia is "seriously considering" whether Israel should be given permission to fly over the kingdom to bomb Iran's nuclear sites, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

The sites are seen as a major threat by both Tel Aviv and Riyadh.

The matter was discussed at a meeting between Scarlett, Meir Dagan, the ebullient chief of Mossad, and Saudi Arabian officials.

The meeting ostensibly was for Scarlett to introduce Dagan to Sir John Sawyers, who officially takes over MI6 in November.

 

It took place in London three weeks ago after Dagan had held secret talks with Saudi officials in Cairo.

But details of the discussion only began to circulate in Britain's intelligence community this week.

It followed after John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who was on his way back from a visit to the Gulf, told a closed-door meeting of intelligence analysts that it was "entirely logical" for the Israelis to fly over Saudi Arabia.

New World Economic Order Takes Shape At G20
Sep 25th, 2009
Daily NewsReuters - Lesley Wroughton
Categories: Today's Headlines;World Government

PITTSBURGH - The Group of 20 is set to become the premier coordinating body on global economic issues, reflecting a new world economic order in which emerging market countries like China are much more relevant, according to a draft communique.

Leaders of the G20 developed and developing nations also agreed to make the International Monetary Fund more representative by increasing the voting power of countries that have long been under-represented in the world financial body, said the draft G20 communique obtained by Reuters.

It called for a shift in IMF voting by at least 5 percent, although several G20 representatives said it was a 5 percentage point shift from developed to under-represented countries. Currently, the split in voting power is 57 percent for industrialized countries and 43 percent for developing countries. The shift would make the split nearly 50-50.

New Push for Global Currency
Sep 25th, 2009
Daily Newsyahoo.com
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

The embattled US dollar is expected to come under scrutiny at a summit of developing and industrialized nations following China-led calls to review its role as a reserve currency.

The dollar issue is bound to surface at the two-day meeting in Pittsburgh as US President Barack Obama and other leaders of the Group of 20 economies debate a new framework for tackling the so called global "economic imbalances" blamed for fuelling the latest financial crisis.

"Though not clear how the plan would be enforced, it would involve measures such as the US cutting its deficits and saving more, China reducing its reliance on exports and Europe making structural changes to boost business investment," analysts at French bank Societe Generale said in a report.

Some argue that the financial crisis resulted from imbalances between savings and investment in major economies, which have led to large current deficits, as evident in the United States, and surpluses, as enjoyed by China.

Beijing was the first to call for a new global currency as an alternative to the US dollar as the US deficit rocketed -- the White House estimates it could reach nine trillion dollars over a decade.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao expressed concern as early as March over the safety of his country's huge US bond holdings now worth more than 800 billion dollars, making it the largest creditor to the United States.

Then, Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan, who supervises more than two trillion dollars worth of dollar reserves, the world's largest, raised the stakes by calling for a new reserve currency in place of the dollar.

He wanted the new reserve unit to be based on the SDR, a "special drawing right" created by the International Monetary Fund, drawing immediate support from Russia, Brazil and several other nations.

"These countries realize that they would suffer losses if inflation eroded the value of the dollar securities they own," said Richard Cooper, a professor of international economics at Harvard University.

But he said there were no feasible alternatives to the US dollar as a widely used international currency, discounting even IMF's synthetic SDR currency, comprising a basket of the dollar, euro, yen and the pound.

"The dollar will remain the dominant world currency, thanks to the stability of our political system and the rule of law that isn't a feature of many other economies," said Irwin Stelzer, director of economic-policy studies at the Washington-based Hudson Institute.

Some groups, he said, were buying euros and other currencies from time to time, "but not in amounts that threaten the dollar's primacy."

Even the Chinese are stuck with nearly a trillion dollars worth of US bonds and are not likely to drive down the value of that hoard by selling large amounts of dollar-denominated assets, Stelzer said.

But what is baffling analysts is that a key UN agency -- the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, or UNCTAD -- has joined the chorus of calls for a new reserve currency.

An UNCTAD report this month endorsed a proposal that IMF-issued SDRs "could be used to settle international payments."

Until the current global economic crisis, SDRs issued by the IMF have been used by IMF member nation states "primarily as a reserve account to support international trade transactions, not as an alternative international currency available to settle international debt transactions in danger of default," said political scientist Jerome Corsi in "Red Alert," a global financial newsletter.

China, meanwhile, continues to flex its muscle.

It has proposed that the G20 economies consider setting up an international wealth fund that would invest a portion of its members' current-account surpluses in developing economies. 

"These comments reinforce their desire to diversify out of dollars and to encourage other nations to do so as well," said Kathy Lien, chief strategist for Global Forex Trading. 

A few Chinese deals were recently seen accepting payment in the currency of the buyer rather than in dollars, especially with Brazil, which the Asian giant is wooing as a future oil supplier. 

In addition, China -- the first nation to sign an agreement to buy IMF bonds -- took the unsual step of paying for the papers equivalent of 50 billion dollars with its yuan currency rather than dollars, which Beijing uses for much of its trade and other foreign transactions. 

Carl Weinberg, chief economist of High Frequency Economics, said he was surprised by the move but did not see it having any major impact on the dollar. 

"The transaction can now be clearly seen as a political move by Beijing to get more traction in the governance of the IMF, not as an effort by the PBOC (Chinese central bank) to reduce the share of dollars in its reserve asset," he said.

Holdren: Sterilize Welfare Recipients
Sep 25th, 2009
Daily NewsWND -Jerome R. Corsi
Categories: Today's Headlines;Moral Decline

Obama boss suggested ways to save planet, said fetus not a person

Obama science czar John Holdren stated in a college textbook that compulsory, government-mandated "green abortions" would be a constitutionally acceptable way to control population growth and prevent ecological disasters, including global warming, because a fetus was most likely not a "person" under the terms of the 14th Amendment.

Holdren further suggested government-mandated population control measures might be inflicted in the United States against welfare recipients, writing on page 840: "There has been considerable talk in some quarters at times of forcibly suppressing reproduction among welfare recipients (perhaps by requiring the use of contraceptives or even by involuntary sterilizations). This may sadly foreshadow what our society might do if the human predicament gets out of hand." (Parenthesis in original text.)

As previously reported, WND has obtained a copy of the 1970s college textbook "Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment" that Ehrlich co-authored with Malthusian population alarmist Paul R. Ehrlich and Ehrlich's wife, Ann. The authors argued involuntary birth-control measures, including forced sterilization, may be necessary and morally acceptable under extreme conditions, such as widespread famine brought about by "climate change."

Hamas Vocabulary Lesson: Many Ways to Say 'slaughter the Jews'
Sep 25th, 2009
Daily NewsArutz Sheva - Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
Categories: Today's Headlines;Antisemitism

 
A recent children's television program broadcast from Gaza teaches Muslim Arab children several different vocabulary words for "slaughtering" the Jews in the Land of Israel. The theme is hardly new for the Hamas-run station.

Al-Aqsa TV broadcasts a children's program called "Tomorrow's Pioneers" featuring a live child actor and an adult actor dressed in an animal costume. The current "animal" co-host is Nassur the Bear, introduced earlier this year, who follows in the footsteps of Nahoul the Bee, Assoud the Rabbit, and Farfour, who was a Mickey Mouse lookalike. Themes promoted by all the characters include Islamic triumphalism, anti-Semitism, self-sacrifice and violence.

As revealed by Palestinian Media Watch, the September 22 episode of the program includes exchanges between the co-hosts, and between them and a child caller, in which they discuss the "slaughter" necessary to rid the Land of Israel of Jews.

General Praise for Netanyahu's Historic UN Speech
Sep 25th, 2009
Daily NewsArutz Sheva - Hillel Fendel
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

 
Rare wall-to-wall praise was heard in Israel and abroad for Netanyahu’s historic speech in the UN on Thursday - though Hamas didn't like it.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who was present in the hall, was restrained in his praise: “It was a very persuasive speech, the hall was filled, there was great interest, and he did it well.”  Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who was also there, was more effusive: “The prime minister’s speech was a speech that will be imprinted in the world’s consciousness. He knows how to do it. The photograph of him with the plans for Auschwitz will be carved into international memory.”

President Shimon Peres and many government ministers called Netanyahu immediately afterwards to warmly congratulate him, and it took him some 40 minutes to exit the building because of all the well-wishers. He even received an embrace from a long-time guard at the UN who said he remembered Netanyahu from his days as Israel’s Ambassador from over 20 years ago.

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Michael Oren, called the speech, “Successful and even historic.” Oren told Army Radio that the speech received across-the-board support in the UN, adding, “In general this was a good week for Israeli diplomacy. Netanyahu had a very full and successful week – a historic week in terms of American-Israeli relations.”

Netanyahu was applauded twice during his speech: When he said that though the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish People, and despite the historic links between them, Israel is willing to allow a demilitarized PA state to be formed there; and when he concluded with quotes from Churchill and the Prophets.

Some criticism was leveled, both in Israel and in New York, at the fact that Netanyahu saw fit to go to such lengths to rebut Iranian President Ahmadinajad and prove the veracity of the Holocaust. On the other end of the spectrum, a Hamas spokesman lambasted Netanyahu's "crooked logic" and said he was merely trying to recruit the UN in his "Zionist-terrorist agenda."

The Palestinian Authority delegate walked out of the hall when Netanyahu spoke about Gaza, the thousands of rockets fired by Hamas, and Israel’s restrained response.

Netanyahu: We Have to Know if We Should Take Risks

Netanyahu blasted the international community for encouraging Israel to leave Gaza, and then condemning Israel in the Goldstone Report when it responded to the rocket attacks that resulted: “This biased and unjust report is a clear-cut test for all governments. Will you stand with Israel or will you stand with the terrorists?  We must know the answer to that question now, and not later.  Because if Israel is again asked to take more risks for peace, we must know today that you will stand with us tomorrow.  Only if we have the confidence that we can defend ourselves can we take further risks for peace.”

The Mattot Arim grassroots organization did not like that implication: “A thousand risks have already been taken, a thousand Israelis have already lost their lives, and the Netanyahu government must not repeat this pointless approach.”

G20 Takes Helm of World Economy
Sep 25th, 2009
Daily NewsReuters - Emily Kaiser and Darren Ennis
Categories: Today's Headlines;World Government

PITTSBURGH - The Group of 20 will become the forum for global economic management, giving rising powers such as China more clout, and roll out tougher rules on bank capital by the end of 2012, a draft communique said on Friday.

Western powers' standoff with Iran broke into attempts to ensure the world emerges from a savage recession with better safeguards against another crisis.

In Pittsburgh, U.S. President Barack Obama and the leaders of Britain and France will accuse Iran of concealing a covert nuclear plant, a senior White House official said.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog said earlier on Friday that Iran has told it of a second uranium enrichment plant under construction, a belated disclosure sure to heighten Western fears of an Iranian bid for atom bombs.

But how to ensure and sustain economic recovery remained the main topic at the summit, which includes the world's richest nations and emerging powers such as China, India and Brazil.

The G20 vowed to keep emergency economic support in place until a recovery was secured, according to the draft communique.

"We will avoid any premature withdrawal of stimulus," the draft obtained by Reuters said.

"At the same time, we will prepare our exit strategies and, when the time is right, withdraw ... extraordinary policy support in a cooperative and coordinated way, maintaining our commitment to fiscal responsibility," it said.

The document said G20 countries, which account for 90 percent of the world's output, would try to secure next year a deal in long-running world trade talks.

Bibi, Abbas: No Talks in Sight
Sep 25th, 2009
Daily NewsArutz Sheva - Maayana Miskin
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Peace Process

 
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas reiterated their demands on Thursday in interviews with Haaretz and Al-Hayyat, respectively. While Netanyahu expressed optimism following his meeting with Abbas and United States President Barack Obama this week, Abbas said he doubts the PA and Israel will restart talks in the foreseeable future.

Obama stated Wednesday that progress had been made in the three-way meeting. However, PA and Israeli officials have no current plans to hold negotiations. While both sides have agreed to meet with U.S. officials, it appears that they will not meet with each other.

Netanyahu said Thursday that he is willing to sit down to talk with Abbas with no preconditions, but will insist that under any peace deal the PA recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland. The PA has agreed to recognize Israel, but not as a Jewish state, and still demands that millions of foreign Arabs be granted Israeli citizenship.

Abbas repeated his demand that Israel cease all construction for Jews in Judea, Samaria or areas of Jerusalem east of the 1949 armistice line. The PA head rejected Netanyahu's proposed moratorium on the building of Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria, insisting that a construction freeze must include all buildings, not only homes, and must include Jerusalem.

Even a freeze on 95 percent of building “is still a continuation of settlement activities,” Abbas said.

Israeli officials have expressed surprise at Abbas's demands, noting that in the past, the PA head has not insisted on a cessation of building prior to negotiations. The PA held talks with Israel under former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with no building freeze in place.

Abbas has also demanded that negotiations resume with the offer made by Olmert still on the table – a demand that Netanyahu has flatly refused. Olmert reportedly offered Abbas almost all land in Judea and Samaria, with land from west of the armistice line offered in trade for settlement blocs, as well as much of Jerusalem and a land bridge between Judea and Gaza.

Atheists on the March in America
Sep 25th, 2009
Daily NewsTurkish Press.com
Categories: Today's Headlines;Moral Decline

When South Florida atheists held their first meeting, they were just five friends, having a beer at a bar.

Four years later, they've moved to a bigger place -- still a bar -- to hold their weekly meet-and-greets. Membership is up to almost 500, Darwin Day is in the planning stages and bumper stickers are on sale.

"There is no God, but ice-cream is great," reads one. "What schools need is a moment of science," reads another.

Atheist groups are growing all over the United States, challenging stereotypes and confronting what they consider a big backslide in the separation of church and state.

They are chatting online, picking up trash along "adopted" highways, and advertising on buses and billboards. In South Florida, they recently picketed a prayer meeting in a public safety building paid for with tax dollars.

"We're growing by leaps and bounds," said Bob Senatore, a retired teacher and one of the early members of the Florida Atheists and Secular Humanists, or FLASH. "The attitude is, 'If we don't do something about it now, we'll be living under a theocracy.'"

Polls show non-believers are on the rise in the United States, even in places like Florida, where, as Senatore sees it, "There's a church on every corner and a fish on every car."

The fish is one of the most common symbols of Christianity.

The American Religious Identification Survey recently found the number of people who claimed "no religion" had nearly doubled nationally over the last 18 years, to 15 percent. They were the only demographic that increased in all 50 states.

Some attribute the surge to outrage over former president George W. Bush and his courting of the religious right. Others mention a slew of best-selling books about atheism that have recently fueled debate.

But there's no doubt the Internet is playing a role too. It offers atheist dating services, and helps nonbelievers meet up -- people who might otherwise remain "loners."

'joseph - Era' Coins Found in Egypt
Sep 25th, 2009
Daily NewsJpost
Categories: Archaeology

Archeologists have discovered ancient Egyptian coins bearing the name and image of the biblical Joseph, Cairo's Al Ahram newspaper recently reported. Excerpts provided by MEMRI show that the coins were discovered among a multitude of unsorted artifacts stored at the Museum of Egypt.

According to the report, the significance of the find is that archeologists have found scientific evidence countering the claim held by some historians that coins were not used for trade in ancient Egypt, and that this was done through barter instead.

The period in which Joseph was regarded to have lived in Egypt matches the minting of the coins in the cache, researchers said.

"A thorough examination revealed that the coins bore the year in which they were minted and their value, or effigies of the pharaohs [who ruled] at the time of their minting. Some of the coins are from the time when Joseph lived in Egypt, and bear his name and portrait," said the report.

The discovery of the cache prompted research team head Dr. Sa'id Muhammad Thabet to seek Koranic verses that speak of coins used in ancient Egypt.

"Studies by Dr. Thabet's team have revealed that what most archeologists took for a kind of charm, and others took for an ornament or adornment, is actually a coin. Several [facts led them to this conclusion]: first, [the fact that] many such coins have been found at various [archeological sites], and also [the fact that] they are round or oval in shape, and have two faces: one with an inscription, called the inscribed face, and one with an image, called the engraved face - just like the coins we use today," the report added.