By Daphna Berman   
Recent success by controversial religious group Jehovah's Witnesses to bring in local Israelis has anti-missionary activists accusing the group of using devious recruitment methods. The Witnesses, as they are known, have had a presence here since the state's founding but say their active missionary work - an obligation for members - has gained traction in recent years, bringing in several hundred additional members. They now number an estimated 2,500 in Israel.
Missionary work is not illegal here, though the law forbids proselytizing to minors or proselytizing with promises of financial or material gain. Still, missionary attempts rile up many Israeli Jews. Last week, a teenager from Ariel whose family is part of the city's small Messianic Jewish community was seriously injured after a bomb, disguised as a Purim package, went off in his apartment. The incident marks what some onlookers are calling an escalation in tension between religious groups that proselytize and the ultra-Orthodox Jews who actively oppose them. Meir Cohen, coordinator of the anti-missionary department at Yad L'Achim, says his ultra-Orthodox organization receives about a dozen calls a day from people complaining about Jehovah's Witnesses who come to their door.
Accusing the Witnesses of targeting ...   more »

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER   
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is proposing a sweeping overhaul of the way the government regulates the nation's financial services industry from banks and securities firms to mortgage brokers and insurance companies.
The plan would give major new powers to the Federal Reserve, according to a 22-page executive summary obtained by The Associated Press.
The Fed would be given broad authority to oversee financial market stability. That would include new powers to examine the books of any institution deemed to represent a potential threat to the proper functioning of the overall financial system.
The proposal, which will be outlined Monday in a speech by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, is certain to set off heated debates within different sectors of the financial services industry and in Congress, where some Democrats are likely to complain that the proposal does not go far enough to crack down on abuses. 
The administration divided its recommendations into short-term goals that could be adopted quickly, intermediate recommendations and an "optimal" regulatory framework, which contains a radical restructuring of how the government supervises banks and other financial institutions.
The recommendations are the product of a yearlong review that was begun in an ...   more »

By GRETCHEN MORGENSON and JONATHAN D. GLATER
NOBODY wins when a home enters foreclosure — neither the borrower, who is evicted, nor the lender, who takes a loss when the home is resold. That’s the conventional wisdom, anyway.
The reality is very different. Behind the scenes in these dramas, a small army of law firms and default servicing companies, who represent mortgage lenders, have been raking in mounting profits. These little-known firms assess legal fees and a host of other charges, calculate what the borrowers owe and draw up the documents required to remove them from their homes.
As the subprime mortgage crisis has spread, the volume of the business has soared, and firms that handle loan defaults have been the primary beneficiaries. Law firms, paid by the number of motions filed in foreclosure cases, have sometimes issued a flurry of claims without regard for the requirements of bankruptcy law, several judges say.
Much as Wall Street’s mortgage securitization machinery helped to fuel questionable lending across the United States, default, or foreclosure, servicing operations have been compounding the woes of troubled borrowers. Court documents say that some of the largest firms in the industry have repeatedly submitted erroneous affidavits when ...   more »

  NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer warned outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview published Friday against the use of "unhelpful rhetoric" at next week's NATO summit in Romania.
Speaking to the Financial Times from Brussels, Scheffer said the success of the meeting of the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) at the April 2-4 summit would depend largely on the tone that Putin, who will make way in May for his hand-picked successor Dmitry Medvedev, takes at the summit.
"Let's try to avoid unhelpful rhetoric, like 'We will target missiles on nations A, B and C'," Scheffer told the business daily.
"That is not only unhelpful but it makes me remember a time when I was growing up when there was a Berlin wall and an Iron Curtain ... So let us refrain from rhetoric."
He continued: "The volume of music we get next week will to a large extent depend on the tone that President Putin uses in the NRC. I do not know what that tone will be."
The NATO chief added that he had seen "hopeful, positive results" after US-Russia talks on American plans for a missile defence shield in eastern Europe.
He also said that he ...   more »

abour’s controversial Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill has left figures within the community considering their position this week ahead of a crunch vote in parliament.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has allowed a free vote on three controversial issues of the Bill regarding stem cell research, human-animal hybrid embryos and genetic engineering after pressure from church leaders.
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The legislation could lead to successful treatments for degenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, cancer and heart disease.
Jewish MPs said their decision will be based on the outcome of the debate. Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside Louise Ellman told the Jewish News: “My main concern is to alleviate human suffering and I am considering all the points that have been put to me.”
Conservative MP for Ilford North Lee Scott said: “I will be listening to the debate very carefully. We are being given a free vote and I will vote according to my conscience. On the part about cloning human and animal embryos I have problems, but there are other parts which I will listen to and then decide.”

Brown allowed a free vote after Cardinal Keith O'Brien, leader of the Catholic ...   more »

Dutch MP's 17-minute documentary debuts to attacks
Statement from LiveLeak.com regarding threats made to staff members
A 17-minute documentary on the Quran, juxtaposing images of Islam's holy book with terror attacks and bombings by Muslim extremists, was taken down from a British video-sharing website, LiveLeak,com, after the organization reported "serious" threats to its staff members.
The documentary had been posted against the wishes of the government of the Netherlands by Geert Wilders, a Dutch MP and leader of the Freedom Party. His video is called "Fitna," an Arabic word meaning strife.
It appeared on the political party's website first, but soon disappeared because of "technical difficulties," reported the London Times. Then it appeared on LiveLeak.com, only to be replaced with an advisory.
"Following threats to our staff of a very serious nature, and some ill informed reports from certain corners of the British media that could directly affect the safety of some staff members, LiveLeak has been left with no other choice but to remove Fitna from our servers," the organization said.
"This is a sad day for freedom of speech on the net but we have to place the safety and well being of our staff above all else. ...   more »

FAITH UNDER FIRE
Students jailed for reading Bible
'If I am caught, I will be sent to a prison camp for political criminals'
A Christian ministry working with persecuted members of the church worldwide is launching a campaign seeking to have North Korean students who were caught reading the Bible freed from jail.
Officials with the Voice of the Martyrs said the North Korean government should release immediately the 10 college students in Ham Kyung Book Do Chung.
They were investigated and arrested, either for reading a Bible or watching a DVD about the Bible, the ministry said today.
According to Free North Korea Broadcasting, Mr. Jung, a former vice-president of GumRung Co. of the Rodong Dang Labor Organization Department, reported the situation.
He escaped to the relative freedom of China to avoid arrest by the National Security Agency of North Korea, and carried information about the situation with him. 
"In March 2006, 200 Life Bibles and several hundred CDs were purchased in China and secretly placed in flour bags before being smuggled into North Korea," he reported. "This huge Bible smuggling case was headed by GumRung Co. employees who were influenced by Christianity in China and underground Christians in ...   more »

Under siege in Baghdad's Mahdi army stronghold The violence that began in Basra and spread to the capital continues as fears of a new civil war grow
Sudarsan Raghavan
The Observer, Sunday March 30 2008 Article historyAbout this articleClose This article appeared in the Observer on Sunday March 30 2008 on p40 of the World news section. It was last updated at 00:00 on March 30 2008.  
A Shia gunman in Basra. Photograph: Esssam Al-Sudani/AFP/Getty images
The gunfire built to a steady rhythm. American soldiers in a Stryker armoured vehicle fired from one end of the block. At the other end, two groups of Shia militiamen pounded back with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. US helicopters circled above in the blue afternoon sky.
As a barrage erupted outside his parents' house, Abu Mustafa al-Thahabi, adviser to the Mahdi army of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, rushed through the gate to take shelter. He had just spoken with a fighter by mobile phone. 'I told him not to use that weapon. It's not effective,' he said, talking of the rocket-propelled grenade. 'I told him to use the IED, the Iranian one,' he added, referring to an improvised explosive device. 'This is ...   more »