By David R. Sands - Can the Law of the Sea restrain the race to the Pole?
An old-fashioned, flag-planting, claim-staking fight for the Arctic has broken out just as the Senate prepares for a difficult ratification vote on the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea treaty.
The North Pole knockdown, featuring the U.S., Russia and three other Arctic states, adds fresh fuel to the heated debate over a treaty that has languished in Congress for more than a decade.
"We are an Arctic nation because of Alaska," said Alaskan Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who broke from fellow conservative Republicans to back the Law of the Sea treaty last month at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
"It's incredibly important to us to be sitting at the table with the Russians and others when the decisions about the Arctic are being made," she said.
Some 155 nations have ratified the treaty since it was signed in 1982. President Reagan refused to sign the pact, objecting to provisions for the international regulation of deep-sea mining. President Clinton sent an amended version of the treaty to the Senate in 1994, but it repeatedly has failed to win approval, most recently in ...   more »

By John Glover
 Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Losses from the falling value of subprime mortgage assets may reach $300 billion to $400 billion worldwide, Deutsche Bank AG analysts said.
Wall Street's largest banks and brokers will be forced to write down as much as $130 billion because of the slump in subprime-related debt, according to a report today by Mike Mayo, a New York-based analyst. The rest of the losses will come from smaller banks and investors in mortgage-related securities.
Citigroup Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and Morgan Stanley led more than $40 billion of writedowns of assets as record U.S. foreclosures plundered asset prices. About $1.2 trillion of the $10 trillion of outstanding U.S. home loans are considered to be subprime, Mayo said in the note.
``We're not out of the woods yet,'' said Mondher Bettaieb- Loriot, who helps manage the equivalent of about $58 billion at Swisscanto Asset Management in Zurich. ``There are more losses to be taken and there's more negative news to come. At some point it will be a buying opportunity but we're not there yet.''
Deutsche Bank expects 30 percent to 40 percent of subprime debt to default. Losses on loans to people with ...   more »

Emergency dig finds tower built by Bible's Nehemiah
Present-day wall of Jerusalem
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may want to see Israel wiped off the map and its Jews sent to Europe or Alaska, but an archaeological discovery announced this week marks an event recorded in the Bible when his country – Persia, at the time – literally helped put the Jewish people back on the map in their capital city of Jerusalem.
Dr. Eilat Mazar, one of Israel's top archaeologists, ended her presentation Wednesday to the 13th Annual Conference of the Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies on "New Studies on Jerusalem," with a surprise announcement. She had discovered remnants of the fifth century B.C. wall built by Nehemiah, the account recorded in the Old Testament book of the same name.
According to the biblical account, Nehemiah served as cupbearer for the Persian King Artaxerxes in the city of Susa. The Persians had conquered the Babylonian empire that had destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C. and taken most of the inhabitants of Judah into captivity in what is now modern Iraq.
The account reads:
In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, ...   more »

JERUSALEM (AFP) — An Israeli deputy prime minister said on Saturday after a US visit that "all options are on the table" to halt Iran's nuclear drive , which Israel considers a threat to its existence.
"The strategy for now is one of sanctions, of a united front of nations in that context, and the strategy of declaring without any doubt that all options are on the table," Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz told public radio.
Israel and the United States accuse Iran of pursuing atomic weapons under the guise of a peaceful nuclear energy programme, charges Tehran has repeatedly denied.
"I think like others that the option of using military force is the last resort," Mofaz said.
But "it's clear that the opportunity for a negotiated solution is diminishing if by the diplomatic path we should not succeed to stop the advancement of the Iranian nuclear programme," he added.
Israel and the United States agreed to appoint two working committees to hone a joint strategy against Iran's nuclear ambitions, public radio reported on Friday, following the talks which Mofaz held in Washington this week.
Israel -- the region's sole if undeclared nuclear power -- has been pressing the UN ...   more »

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The leader of the militant Hezbollah group said Sunday Israel’s recent military exercises near the Lebanese border were intended to prepare for a new war on Lebanon.
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah added that Hezbollah had recently held military maneuvers in southern Lebanon in response to the Israeli drills and to send a clear message’ to the Jewish state that his fighters were ready to defend Lebanon if it was attacked again.
The (Israeli) enemy has been conducting military maneuvers for months. The latest maneuvers occurred a few weeks ago near the Lebanese border in which 50,000 Israeli officers and soldiers participated,’ Nasrallah told a Hezbollah rally in south Beirut.
These maneuvers are to prepare for an attack on Lebanon,’ he said.
The pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al Akhbar reported that thousands of unarmed Hezbollah fighters took part in the organization’s own maneuvers, which was later confirmed by a senior Hezbollah official who would not give further details.
Prime Minister Fuad Saniora downplayed the event as just a simulation and UN peacekeeping force patrolling a zone along the border in southern Lebanon said no maneuvers were observed in their area of operations.
The newspaper said Nasrallah personally supervised the maneuvers, which ...   more »

WASHINGTON (AFP) - For the first time in 70 years, the US Supreme Court may decide next week whether to examine the question of the right to bear arms, something which is fiercely upheld by millions of Americans.  
The US capital of Washington, which is trying to stem a wave of violence in its seedier neighborhoods, has lodged a case with the nine Supreme Court judges seeking to maintain its three-decade ban on individuals carrying handguns.
The judges were due to have an initial discussion on Friday, and their decision on whether or not to examine the question could be announced as early as Tuesday.
The case goes right to the heart of the American constitution, which in its second amendment declares that: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
Washington, which is also home to the president and the government, has interpreted the amendment to mean that there is a collective right to bear arms for those who are part of a police force or a security force.
But since 1976, it has banned residents from carrying handguns, ...   more »

By MATTHEW HICKLEY
When the U.S. Navy deploys a battle fleet on exercises, it takes the security of its aircraft carriers very seriously indeed.
At least a dozen warships provide a physical guard while the technical wizardry of the world's only military superpower offers an invisible shield to detect and deter any intruders.
That is the theory. Or, rather, was the theory.
Uninvited guest: A Chinese Song Class submarine, like the one that sufaced by the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk
American military chiefs have been left dumbstruck by an undetected Chinese submarine popping up at the heart of a recent Pacific exercise and close to the vast U.S.S. Kitty Hawk - a 1,000ft supercarrier with 4,500 personnel on board.
By the time it surfaced the 160ft Song Class diesel-electric attack submarine is understood to have sailed within viable range for launching torpedoes or missiles at the carrier.
According to senior Nato officials the incident caused consternation in the U.S. Navy.
The Americans had no idea China's fast-growing submarine fleet had reached such a level of sophistication, or that it posed such a threat.
One Nato figure said the effect was "as big a shock as the Russians launching Sputnik" - a ...   more »

By Eric Gorski, Associated Press
Following last month's Values Voter Summit in Washington, conservative Christian power-broker Gary Bauer sent an e-mail to supporters.
He ticked off the issues dear to activists in attendance. Opposition to "abortion-on-demand" and preservation of traditional marriage led the way.
Then the one-time presidential hopeful turned his attention to a different threat, one social conservative leaders hope will shake their constituents from their apathy about the 2008 presidential race.
"The war against Islamofascism is in many respects a 'values issue,"' Bauer wrote. "That may seem like an odd statement at first glance, but, as I have often said, losing Western Civilization to this vicious enemy would be immoral."
From one perspective, branding "radical Islam" as a family values issue is yet another example of the broadening of the evangelical agenda. But next November, it also could energize one of the Republican Party's key voting blocs, much like anti-gay marriage measures did in 2004.
"It's the ultimate life issue," said Rick Scarborough, president of the Texas-based conservative Christian group Vision America. "If radical Islam succeeds in its ultimate goals, Christianity ceases to exist."
That might sound alarmist, but Scarborough's words illustrate how many conservative Christian leaders view ...   more »

WASHINGTON - U.S. defense officials have signaled that up-to-date attack plans are available if needed in the escalating crisis over Iran's nuclear aims, although no strike appears imminent.
The Army and Marine Corps are under enormous strain from years of heavy ground fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Still, the United States has ample air and naval power to strike Iran if President Bush decided to target nuclear sites or to retaliate for alleged Iranian meddling in neighboring Iraq.
Among the possible targets, in addition to nuclear installations like the centrifuge plant at Natanz: Iran's ballistic missile sites, Republican Guard bases, and naval warfare assets that Tehran could use in a retaliatory closure of the Straits of Hormuz, a vital artery for the flow of Gulf oil.
The Navy has an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf area with about 60 fighters and other aircraft that likely would feature prominently in a bombing campaign. And a contingent of about 2,200 Marines are on a standard deployment to the Gulf region aboard ships led by the USS Kearsarge, an amphibious assault ship. Air Force fighters and bombers are available elsewhere in the Gulf area, including a variety of warplanes in Iraq and ...   more »

Washington-based cleric working toward 'Islamic State of North America' by 2050
By Art Moore
Logo of D.C. imam's movement
A Washington, D.C., imam states explicitly on the website for his organization that he is part of a movement working toward replacement of the U.S. government with "the Islamic State of North America" by 2050.
With branches in Oakland, Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento and Philadelphia, the group As-Sabiqun – or the Vanguard – is under the leadership of Abdul Alim Musa in the nation's capital.
Musa's declaration of his intention to help lead a takeover of America was highlighted by noted Islam observer Robert Spencer on his website Jihad Watch.
Spencer told WND that figures such as Musa should not be ignored, "Not because they have the power to succeed, but because they may commit acts of violence to achieve their purpose."
Musa's website declares: "Those who engage in this great effort require a high level of commitment and determination. We are sending out a call to the believers: Join with us in this great struggle to change the world!"
Musa launched the group in the early 1990s at the Al-Islam mosque in Philadelphia. His group says it is influenced ...   more »

Venezuela's leader had called former Spanish prime minister a fascist
The Associated Press
updated 4:28 p.m. CT, Sat., Nov. 10, 2007
SANTIAGO, Chile - The Ibero-American summit ended on an unusually heated note Saturday, when an angry verbal spat culminated with the king of Spain telling Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to "shut up."
Chavez, the outspoken leftist leader who called President Bush "the devil" on the floor of the United Nations last year, triggered the exchange by repeatedly referring to former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar as a "fascist."
Aznar, a conservative and a close Bush ally who backed the U.S.-led war in Iraq, "is a fascist," Chavez said in a speech to leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal. "Fascists are not human. A snake is more human."
Spain's current socialist prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, responded during his own allotted time by urging Chavez to be more diplomatic in his words and respect other leaders despite political differences.
"Former President Aznar was democratically elected by the Spanish people and was a legitimate representative of the Spanish people," he said, eliciting applause from the gathered heads of state.
Chavez repeatedly tried to interrupt, but his microphone was ...   more »

Texas congressman takes shots at the Federal Reserve during Chairman Bernanke's testimony.
 By Jeff Poor
     Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke appeared before the Congressional Joint Economic Committee on November 8, but had to face criticism from Republican presidential candidate and Texas congressman Ron Paul.
     Paul made accusations the Federal Reserve was stealing people’s money.
      “There is a dollar crisis out and people’s money being stolen,” Paul said. “People who have saved, they’re being robbed. I mean, if you have a devaluation of the dollar at 10 percent, people have been robbed of 10 percent.”
     Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke attempted to dispel the notion people were being “robbed” of their money by explaining the relativity of the dollar in a local economy.
     “If somebody has their wealth in dollars and they’re going to buy consumer goods in dollars, then as a typical American … then the decline in the dollar – the only effect it has on their buying power is that it makes imported goods more expensive,” Bernanke replied.
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