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World Bank Says Don't Take Dollar's Place for Granted
Sep 28th, 2009
Daily NewsReuters
Categories: Today's Headlines;World Government

WASHINGTON  – World Bank President Robert Zoellick said the United States should not take the dollar's status as the world's key reserve currency for granted because other options are emerging.

In excerpts released on Sunday from a speech that he is to deliver on Monday, Zoellick said global economic forces were shifting and it was time now to prepare for the fact that growth will come from multiple sources.

"The United States would be mistaken to take for granted the dollar's place as the world's predominant reserve currency," he said. "Looking forward, there will increasingly be other options."

Zoellick said that a meeting of Group of 20 rich and developing countries in Pittsburgh on Thursday and Friday had made "a good start" toward increased global cooperation but they will have accept global monitoring of their activities.

"Peer review will need to be peer pressure," he said.

Zoellick said that the G20, as the new chief forum for international economic cooperation, also must not forget the 160 countries left outside its structure and should try to open opportunity for them.

"We need a system of international political economy that reflects a new multi-polarity of growth," Zoellick said. It needs to integrate rising economic powers as 'responsible stakeholders' while recognizing that these countries are still home to hundreds of millions of poor and face staggering challenges of development.".

Right Takes Control of Reins in Germany
Sep 28th, 2009
Daily NewsEUobserver - HONOR MAHONY
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Germans are to have a new centre-right and liberal coalition government following elections on Sunday (27 Septemebr). But the results of the vote mean the new coalition may not be any easier for returning Chancellor Angela Merkel to manage than the outgoing government of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats.

"We have reached our election goal of a stable majority for a new government," said a victorious Ms Merkel on Sunday, as the results mean that her preferred coalition could be formed without having to rely on controversial "overhang" mandates - votes given to an individual rather than a party.

However, the centre-right performed relatively poorly at the polls, meaning that Ms Merkel's continued reign is largely thanks to the record performance by the free-market liberals of the Free Democratic Party (FDP).

Early results on Sunday evening gave the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) 33.6 percent - the poorest showing at the polls for over 60 years - while the liberals gained five percent over the last elections to secure a result of 14.6 percent.

The Social Democrats, in power for the last four years with Mrs Merkel, saw their worst performance since 1949, receiving 23.1 percent of the vote.

The far left Die Linke managed to haul in 12.1 percent of the vote, a record for the relatively new party, while the Greens received 10.5 percent, according to results by German public television ARD. Around 6 percent of Germans voted for a series of minor parties including the far-right NPD, which failed to make the five percent threshold for getting a seat in parliament.

German papers noted that the centre-right acknowledged their middling result by constantly repeating that they had realised their "goal of the election."

Philippine Floods Test Rescuers
Sep 28th, 2009
Daily NewsBBC News
Categories: Today's Headlines

Rescue workers are being overwhelmed by the scale of floods in the Philippines that are estimated to have killed at least 140 people, officials say.

The head of the National Disaster Co-ordinating Council, Anthony Golez, said resources were being spread too thinly.

Torrential rains from Tropical Storm Ketsana flooded the capital, Manila, and 25 nearby provinces on Saturday.

Some 80% of Manila was submerged, displacing 450,000 people. More than 115,000 are now in makeshift shelters.

"We are concentrating on massive relief operations. The system is overwhelmed, local government units are overwhelmed," Mr Golez told reporters.

Jews in Jerusalem and around the world mark Judaism's holiest day, Yom Kippur
Sep 28th, 2009
News UpdateJimmy DeYoung
Categories: Jimmy DeYoung News

As Jewish people in Jerusalem and around the world stop for a fast day to mark Judaism's Holiest Day, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, Israel shuts off the Palestinian territories and at the same time remembers the surprise assault by Egypt and Syria that sparked a war some years ago.

The entire nation of Israel shuts down for the twenty-five hour fast as the Jews seek forgiveness from God for the last years transgressions, using the fast day in lieu of the Yom Kippur sacrifice at the temple since there is no temple in Jerusalem.

Jimmy's Prophetic Prospective on the News

Yom Kippur, the Jewish Holy Day of Atonement, looks back to Biblical times. It also has a prophetic significance, that is according to Bible prophecy.

As Jews in Jerusalem and around the world stop to observe the Jewish Holy day of Yom Kippur, they are reminded how the High Priest at the temple in Jerusalem would enter into the Holy of Holies with the sacrificial blood to pour it on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant.

During the ten days leading up to Yom Kippur, starting on Rosh Hashana, Jews were to seek forgiveness from family, friends, loved ones and neighbors for any trespass over the last year.

This act of seeking forgiveness is a part of the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, as the Jews seek to be included in the Book of Life and during temple times their sins would be covered for one year, until the next Yom Kippur.

Now without the Temple, Jews give money, do good deeds and pray, along with the twenty-five hour fast on Yom Kippur. Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah, will in the future fulfill the prophetic aspect of Yom Kippur as He did the other Jewish Feast Days, in the spring, 2,000 years ago.

Jesus was crucified on Passover, buried on Unleavened Bread, and rose from the dead on the Feast of First Fruits. Jesus, in the future, will come back to earth on Rosh Hashana, and ten days later will enter the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur, for the purpose of giving salvation to all Jews at that time, Zechariah 3:9 and Ezekiel 43:1-7. Indeed Bible prophecy will be fulfilled.

Jewish Tourists Attacked in Temple Mount Clashes
Sep 28th, 2009
Daily NewsWND - Aaron Klein
Categories: Today's Headlines;Anti-Israel

Palestinians hurl stones in suspected pre-planned aggression

JERUSALEM – The Palestinian Authority was behind violent clashes on the Temple Mount today that left 24 people wounded hours before the start of the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, according to both Israeli security sources and a source inside the PA.

Earlier today, clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian worshipers erupted at the Temple Mount and at several sites throughout Jerusalem's Old City.

The incidents reportedly took place just as a group of Jewish visitors ascended the Mount –the holiest site in Judaism.

Much of the Palestinian news media is claiming the Jewish worshipers were right-wing Israeli extremists who ascended the Mount to threaten the site. In actuality, many of the Jewish dozen or so visitors today were tourists and were part of a guided group that regularly ascends the Mount during daily hours when Jewish visitors are permitted.

According to multiple witnesses as well as to Israel's police spokesman, Shmulik Ben Ruby, the clashes began as soon as the Jewish group entered the site.

Immediately, about 150 Palestinian worshipers hurled rocks at the Jewish group and at policemen who were escorting them, slightly wounding two policemen. Police responded with stun grenades while whisking the Jewish visitors away.

Palestinians at several areas in Jerusalem's Old City also began hurling rocks at Jews today.

Today's clashes had all the trappings of a pre-planned Palestinian campaign.

Indeed, Israeli security officials told WND they have specific information that Ahmed Rweihi, the chief of the PA's so-called Jerusalem unit, was in touch with demonstration leaders at the Temple Mount the past few days and personally incited today's violence.

An official in the PA, speaking on condition of anonymity, did not deny Rweihi helped incite the clashes.

The PA has in the past orchestrated riots on the Temple Mount that later escalated into massive terrorist campaigns to pressure Israel into extreme concessions.

In September 2000, the Palestinians started their intifada by throwing stones at Jewish worshipers after then-candidate for prime minister Ariel Sharon visited the Mount.

At first, the Palestinians claimed the stone throwing was spontaneous. Later, top PA officials, including PLO leader Yasser Arafat and his deputy, Marwan Barghouti, admitted the Temple Mount clashes were pre-planned.

The 2000 intifada began after Arafat turned down an Israeli offer of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and eastern Jerusalem.

Clashes follow Obama's demand for '1967 borders'

Today's clashes follow a three-way meeting last week between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Obama and PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

During his speech to the U.N. General Assembly last week, Obama used strongly worded language to call for the creation of a "viable, independent Palestinian state with contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began in 1967."

The term "occupation" routinely is used by the Palestinians as well as some countries hostile to the Jewish state in reference to Israel's presence in the West Bank and Jerusalem. It is unusual for U.S. presidents to use the term, although Jimmy Carter once famously called Israel's presence in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem "illegal."

"Occupation that began in 1967" is a specific reference to the lands Israel retained after the Six Day War of that year, particularly the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount.

Temple Mount: No pray zone

Israel recaptured the Temple Mount during the 1967 Six Day War. Currently under Israeli control, Jews and Christians are barred from praying on the Mount.

The Temple Mount was opened to the general public until September 2000, when the Palestinians started their intifada by throwing stones at Jewish worshipers during Sharon's visit.

Following the onset of violence, the new Sharon government closed the Mount to non-Muslims, using checkpoints to control all pedestrian traffic for fear of further clashes with the Palestinians.

The Temple Mount was reopened to non-Muslims in August 2003. It remains open, but only Sundays through Thursdays, 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., and not on any Christian, Jewish or Muslim holidays or other days considered "sensitive" by the Waqf.

During "open" days, Jews and Christian are allowed to ascend the Mount, usually through organized tours and only if they conform first to a strict set of guidelines, which includes demands that they not pray or bring any "holy objects" to the site. Visitors are banned from entering any of the mosques without direct Waqf permission. Rules are enforced by Waqf agents, who watch tours closely and alert nearby Israeli police to any breaking of their guidelines.

Muslim holy site?

King Solomon built the First Temple in the 10th century B.C. The Babylonians destroyed it in 586 B.C. The Jews built the Second Temple in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. The Romans destroyed the Second Temple in A.D. 70.

The First Temple stood for about 400 years, the Second for almost 600. Both temples served as the center of religious worship for the whole Jewish nation. All Jewish holidays centered on worship at the temple – the central location for the offering of sacrifices and the main gathering place for the Jewish people.

According to the Talmud, God created the world from the foundation stone of the Temple Mount.

The site is believed to be the biblical Mount Moriah, where Abraham fulfilled God's test of faith by demonstrating his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Jewish tradition also holds that Mashiach – literally "the anointed one," the Jewish Messiah – will come and rebuild the third and final temple on the Mount in Jerusalem and bring redemption to the entire world.

The Western Wall, called the Kotel in Hebrew, is the one part of the Temple Mount that survived the Roman destruction of the Second Temple and stands to this day in Jerusalem.

The Temple Mount has remained a focal point for Jewish services for thousands of years. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple have been uttered three times daily by religious Jews since the destruction of the Second Temple. Throughout all the centuries of Jewish exile from their land, thorough documentation shows the Jews never gave up their hope of returning to Jerusalem and reestablishing their Temple. To this day Jews worldwide pray facing the Western Wall, while Muslims turn their backs away from the Temple Mount and pray toward Mecca.

Muslims constructed the al Aqsa Mosque around A.D. 709 to serve as a place of worship near a famous shrine, the gleaming Dome of the Rock, built by an Islamic caliph, or supreme ruler.

Muslims later began to associate al Aqsa in Jerusalem with the place Muhammad ascended to heaven. Islamic tradition states Muhammad took a journey in a single night from "a sacred mosque" – believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia – to "the farthest mosque," and from a rock there ascended to heaven to receive revelations from Allah that became part of the Koran.

While Palestinians and many Muslim countries claim exclusivity over the Mount, and while their leaders strenuously deny the Jewish historic connection to the site, things weren't always this way. In fact, historically, Muslims never claimed the al Aqsa Mosque as their "third holiest site" and always recognized the existence of the Jewish temples.

According to an Israeli attorney, Dr. Shmuel Berkovits, Islamic tradition mostly disregarded Jerusalem. He points out in his book "How Dreadful is this Place!" that Muhammad was said to loathe Jerusalem and what it stood for to the other monotheistic faiths.

Muhammad also made a point of eliminating pagan sites of worship and sanctifying only one place – the Kaaba in Mecca – to signify the unity of Allah. As late as the fourteenth century, Islamic scholar Taqi al Din Ibn Taymiyya, whose writings later influenced the ultraconservative Wahhabi movement in Arabia, ruled that sacred Islamic sites exist only on the Arabian Peninsula, and that "in Jerusalem, there is not a place one calls sacred, and the same holds true for the tombs of Hebron."

Iran Tests Longest Range Missiles
Sep 28th, 2009
Daily NewsBBC News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

Iran has successfully test-fired some of the longest range missiles in its arsenal, state media say.

The Revolutionary Guards tested the Shahab-3 and Sajjil rockets, which are believed to have ranges of up to 2,000km (1,240 miles), reports said.

The missiles' range could potentially permit them to reach Israel and US bases in the Gulf, analysts say.

The tests come amid heightened tension with the big international powers over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Last week, Iran disclosed it was building a second uranium enrichment plant, despite UN demands that it cease its enrichment activities.

Iran is due to hold crucial talks with the five UN Security Council members plus Germany on Thursday on a wide range of security issues, including its nuclear programme.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said the missile tests were merely part of an annual military drill, known as Sacred Defence Week, to commemorate its war with Iraq in the 1980s.

It was not a reaction to the nuclear crisis, he added.

"Many countries have these [displays] and it has nothing to do with Iran's peaceful nuclear technology," he told a news conference.

France called on Tehran to immediately stop "these deeply destabilising activities".

In a statement, the foreign ministry urged Iran to co-operate "by responding without delay to the demands of the international community to reach a negotiated settlement on the nuclear question".

But Russia appealed for restraint, saying the world should not "succumb to emotions" in dealing with Iran.

"The main thing is to launch productive negotiations [with Iran]," a foreign ministry source told Interfax news agency.

Heightened State of Alert As Yom Kippur Approaches
Sep 28th, 2009
Daily NewsIsraelNN.com - Hana Levi Julian
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Anti-Israel

The State of Israel is on a heightened state of alert across the country as the start of the holiest day of the Jewish year approaches, and remain that way throughout Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

A curfew was initiated at midnight Saturday in Judea and Samaria, and will be lifted at midnight after the end of Yom Kippur. During that period, Palestinian Authority Arabs will only be allowed to cross the pre-1967 border into the areas of Israel controlled solely by Jerusalem for unusual medical or humanitarian reasons. Each individual case will be first reviewed and approved by the Civil Administration.

Prior to the start of the Day of Atonement, security is being provided at cemeteries around Jerusalem.

On Yom Kippur itself, vehicular traffic from eastern Jerusalem will be blocked from passing into the other areas of the city. The measure was taken as a means of minimizing the security risks as well as any friction between Arabs and Jews. Security forces will also be deployed around synagogues in the city.

Euro Star: Could Tony Blair Become the First EU President?
Sep 28th, 2009
Daily NewsThe Independent
Categories: Today's Headlines;Revived Roman Empire

Since 2007, he has quietly built a new role as Middle East envoy. But our former prime minister has set his sights on being the first EU president. Could it happen? Donald Macintyre joins him in Jerusalem to find out.

In blue suit, crisp white shirt, the hair – matching his tie – a little greyer now, the right arm outstretched to make sure he understands exactly where the old road crossed the border, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is standing on the edge of a bleak tract of waste land in south-western Qalqilya. It is overlooked by the forbidding eight-metre slabs of concrete wall, a few defiantly decorated with murals of the black, green, white and red Palestinian flag, that unbreachably divides the town from Israel. Beside him, Qalqilya's Fatah governor Rabeeh Khandaqji is explaining how the road we are on – now, thanks to the barrier, a dead end – was once among the busiest in the West Bank, connecting the town to the Israeli workplaces of almost 80 per cent of its labour force. The international community's Middle East envoy tells the Governor he noticed the boarded-up shops as his convoy made its way towards the wall, and listens carefully as he is told they are among 450 businesses which have closed in his town in the past decade. "We hope Mr Blair is going to help us in Qalqilya," Mr Khandaqji explains, "in the same way that he has helped Nablus and Jenin."

The Governor's remark is made to a mere handful of mainly local Palestinian journalists covering the envoy's visit, underlining how far Blair has been from the international spotlight in recent months. That is almost certainly about to change. For if the Irish public vote "yes" in their second referendum on the Lisbon EU Treaty on 2 October then the debate will start in earnest about who can best fill the big brand-new job of full-time EU president the treaty will create. The Irish referendum is not the only hurdle left for the Treaty to clear since the fiercely-eurosceptic Czech President Václav Klaus is still trying to delay his country's ratification. But an Irish vote in favour of Lisbon will be enough to trigger a wave of speculation on who will emerge in what could be the role of "Mr Europe" over the next five years. And without even uttering a word to say he wants the job, Mr Blair is already being discussed in Brussels and across the capitals of the 27 member states as the biggest figure among the potential candidates. If all goes to plan, a decision could be taken at next month's EU summit. It's just possible that, however disappointingly for Mr Khandaqji, Blair will no longer be available, at least in his present post, to try and secure Qalqilya the better economic deal it badly needs.

The words the Governor uses to underline the importance he clearly attaches to the envoy's visit are nevertheless instructive. For the first time since Blair was appointed the international Quartet's representative in June 2007, West Bank Palestinians are beginning to see some change – albeit severely limited – for the better; checkpoints have been eased round Nablus and between it and Jenin. Nowhere is cause and effect cloudier than in the Middle East, and Blair is careful to tell the reporters in Qalqilya today that a major reason for the easing of conditions is that "the Obama administration

has been fully behind it", many critics argue that Benjamin Netanyahu's government is doing this as a substitute for rather than a complement to the real political progress that diplomats – including Mr Blair – repeatedly point out is essential for a lasting improvement to day to day life for Palestinians.