JERUSALEM (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will begin laying the ground for a Mideast peace conference in a visit to Israel on Wednesday, hoping to push Israelis and Palestinians closer to renewing talks.
Building on warming ties between Israel and moderate Arab countries, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said Wednesday that Israel hopes "many Arab countries will attend this international meeting, including Saudi Arabia."
The statement came in reaction to an announcement Wednesday by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal that his country would seriously consider attending the gathering if invited. Speaking at a press conference with Rice and U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Saud said his government would "look very closely and very hard at attending" if the conference dealt with "issues of real substance, not form."
A meeting between Israeli and Saudi representatives would be a major diplomatic breakthrough. Though Israel and Saudi Arabia are both U.S. allies, representatives of the countries have never officially met and Saudi Arabia has never recognized the Jewish state.
At a press conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Jerusalem later Wednesday, Rice said she was "encouraged by the attitude that I have seen here among ...   more »

European and Asian stock markets plummeted Wednesday, mirroring heavy losses the previous day in New York, on mounting fears that weakness in the US housing sector could infect the world economy.
In London, Frankfurt and Paris the main share indices were down almost 2.0 percent nearing the half-way stage. 
The yen meanwhile hit a four-month high against the dollar and oil traded close to an all-time peak in New York as investors exited risky investments and turned to safe-havens, dealers said.
Wall Street took a pounding Tuesday, with its three main markets closing down more than 1.0 percent as news of spreading troubles in the US mortgage sector prompted investors to bank profits.
Japanese stocks slumped by more than two percent on Wednesday, with the Nikkei-225 index ending below 17,000 points for the first time in more than four months.
Economists said there were growing jitters about the potential fallout from problems in US subprime lending sector, where mortgages are provided to people with questionable credit histories.
Analysts are concerned that growing mortgage defaults will hurt banks and finance companies enough to curb the availability of credit on which the economy feeds.
That, in turn, could affect private equity groups ...   more »

By Stan Goodenough
Aug 01, 2007
The United States of America Tuesday put its official stamp on the Saudi Arabian plan that calls for Israel's surrender for all time of the land returned to Jewish rule in 1967.
According to a report in Haaretz, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrote her signature alongside those of Egypt, Jordan and six Persian Gulf states endorsing the 2002 plan as a foundation for Middle East peace.
With the move, the Bush administration gave Israel yet another shove down the road towards completing its severance from its biblical heartland and the cradle of Jewish nationhood.
The Saudi Plan offers full normalization of relations between Israel and the Arab world in exchange for Israel's withdrawal from Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights.
(Gaza was included in the original draft, but Israel in 2005 already abandoned that strip of land to the Palestinian Arabs who, instead of starting to build themselves a state there, turned it into a haven for terrorists and a launching pad for increased terrorism.)
Rice's signature moved her country a few steps nearer to Saudi Arabia and the Arab world, and a few steps further away from Israel.
On Monday evening, upon ...   more »

Two major arms sales were announced over the weekend. First, the US announced that it is planning to sell Saudi Arabia $20 billion in advanced weapons systems, including Joint Direct Attack Munition kits or JDAMs that are capable of transforming regular gravitational bombs into precision-guided "smart" weapons.
Largely in an attempt to neutralize Congressional opposition to the proposed sale, the Bush administration also announced that it plans to increase annual military assistance to Israel by some 25 percent next year and that it hopes that next year's increase in assistance will be maintained by the next administration.
The second arms sale was the reported Russian agreement to sell Iran 250 advanced long-ranged Sukhoi-30 fighter jets and aerial fuel tankers capable of extending the jets' range by thousands of kilometers. Russia's massive armament of Iran in this and in previous sales over the past two years make clear that from Russia's perspective, all threats to US interests, including Shi'ite expansionism, work to Moscow's advantage.
ON THE face of it, these contrasting US and Russian announcements seem to signal that geopolitics have reverted to the Cold War model of two superpowers competing for global power by, among other things, assisting their proxies ...   more »

Jennifer Green, The Ottawa Citizen
When is a Christian radio station not a Christian radio station? For the hour or so a day that it must air the views of other faiths to satisfy the CRTC's "balance" policy.
"It's ridiculous," says Bob Du Broy, vice-president of Ottawa's CHRI Christian music station. "It's like asking a rock station to play an hour of classical music." CHRI's announcers also find themselves in the bizarre situation of working for a Christian station without being able to talk much about Christianity for fear of triggering the "balance" issue.
Because CHRI 99.1 FM plays mostly music, its requirements for offsetting Christian proselytizing have been minimal at just over 30 minutes a week.
But now Mr. Du Broy wants to start a new Christian station, WORD FM, aimed at the growing radio audience older than 45, many of whom want Christian programming, but not the racket of rock music.
It would offer more than two-thirds spoken-word broadcasting with programs such as Billy Graham's Hour of Decision and James Dobson's Focus Weekend.
Religious music needn't be offset with other faiths, but the broadcast regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, does require that spoken-word programming offer differing ...   more »

by: Brian Flynn
I have had many questions regarding the Harry Potter books. Many of the critiques I have read are coming from Christian groups stating that is Satan’s book and it will destroy children’s minds. Although I agree with some of the criticisms that this is a book that introduces witchcraft to children like no other, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will become witches and disavow their Christian faith.
However, keep in mind that children have not yet formulated clearly their faith or the concepts of absolute truth like adults. I have read letters from parents stating that they have read the Harry Potter books with their children and have not noticed any negative effects that would undermine their faith. My question would be, how do they know? These concepts and ideas may not come to fruition for years.
When I was introduced to Tarot cards and Quija boards in my pre-teen years I would have said that they had no negative effect on me. In fact, I thought they were fun. But they introduced me to a concept that contacting spirits was okay and that the spirits were friendly. Therefore, it was easier for me to get ...   more »

To messers. Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, & Stephen S. Nelson, a committee of the Danbury Baptist association in the state of Connecticut.
Gentlemen
The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest satisfaction. my duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, & in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments ...   more »

House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) on Tuesday became the latest Republican to predict a government shutdown this fall when Congress and the White House spar about the size of an annual spending package that is assured to eclipse President Bush's request.
"It is inevitable," Blunt said. The Senate isn't expected to take up most of its annual spending bills by the start of the new fiscal year, Oct. 1; this would create a logjam that would force Congress to approve a stopgap measure in order to consider a massive omnibus spending package to fund the federal government.
Despite sagging approval ratings, Bush is expected to veto any package that exceeds his initial request to the Congress. Republicans on the Hill would then be forced to sustain that veto.
Blunt, the top GOP vote-counter in the House, predicts his members would support their president, forcing a perilous showdown with major political stakes for either party.
Republicans are bracing for the prospect of a spending fight by positioning themselves before lawmakers leave for the monthlong summer recess.
The biggest variable at this stage remains when Democrats choose to address the measure. By starting the process earlier, both sides could expedite a ...   more »

The planned crescent-shaped "memorial to heroes" of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania is nothing less than a huge outdoor mosque that pays homage to Islam, charges the author of a new book.
Alec Rawls' "Crescent of Betrayal: Dishonoring the Heroes of Flight 93," published by World Ahead documents a long list of Islamic and terrorist memorializing features in the Flight 93 National Memorial.
The primary feature, he says, is the giant central crescent of what originally was called the "Crescent of Embrace" design. A person facing into this half-mile wide crescent – still present in the superficially altered "Bowl of Embrace" redesign – will be oriented almost exactly at Mecca.
That is significant, Rawls said, because a crescent that Muslims face to point them in the direction of Mecca – called a "mihrab" – is the central feature around which every mosque is built.
Rawls said it seems impossible such startling revelations could go unreported, but Pennsylvania newspapers have ignored him.
He learned from a reporter at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that editors knew about the Mecca orientation of the giant crescent in September 2005 when the design was first unveiled. But the editors decided the information should not be published, ...   more »