Traditional values challenged in unusual alliance to combat disease
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the third of a three-part series based on an interview with Rick Warren at his Saddleback Church in Southern California, which he and his wife of 30 years, Kay, founded in 1980 with one family. In part one, Warren responded to critics among his fellows evangelical travelers. In part two the senior pastor – called by Newsweek one of "15 People Who Make America Great" – discussed his fame, his unconventional approach to ministry and his visit last year with Syrian leader Bashar Assad. In part three today, he responds to concerns about the pitfalls of partnering with government and his massive AIDS initiative.
By Art Moore
Kay Warren embraces HIV patient at conclusion of Saddleback Church's 'Global Summit on AIDS and the Church' (WND photo)
LAKE FOREST, Calif. – When Rick Warren takes on a problem, the scale often seems limited only by the size of the planet. Five years ago, his wife, Kay, responded to a sobering magazine article about the plight of 12 million AIDS orphans in Africa, and now their 22,000-strong Saddleback Church in upscale Orange County, California, has completed its third annual ...   more »

Budget amendment 'threatens' border security plan
By Jerome R. Corsi
Steve Elliott, the president of Grassfire, says he still wants to know, "Where's the fence?"
Elliott, in a telephone interview, told WND an amendment submitted by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, for the Department of Homeland Security 2008 budget would gut the already-approved Secure Fence Act, which was adopted with the promise hundreds of miles of physical fencing would help secure the U.S. border with Mexico.
But the budget bill now in a conference committee contains the Hutchinson amendment, and Elliott says it simply would drop the requirement for the security project.
"After the Secure Fence Act of 2006 was signed into law by President Bush in October 2006, millions of Americans had a right to expect a double-layer fence would be built along our border with Mexico," Elliott said.
"Now, if the Hutchison amendment gets signed into law that fence is never going to be built," he said.
Elliott said the language of the amendment from Hutchison (S. Amdt. 2466) specifically would exempt the Department of Homeland Security from having to build any fence at all.
The Hutchison amendment reads, in part, " … nothing in this paragraph shall ...   more »

By Michael Howe
The Bush administration continues to push forward with its controversial project allowing Mexican trucks to move freely on U.S. roads despite strong protests from both chambers of Congress, where legislation is pending.
"Congress has stated clearly that it believes going forward with such a program, without the information needed to assure safety on American roads, is not safe," said Barry Piatt, spokesman for Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.
Dorgan successfully amended the Senate Transportation Appropriations Bill to include language to stop the Mexican Truck Demonstration Program, hoping the Bush administration would respond.
However, even though the House and Senate agreed to retain the language, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, or FMCSA, is continuing with the program.
According to the conference report on the House bill, HR 3074, issued Nov. 13, "None of the funds made available under this Act may be used to establish a cross-border motor carrier demonstration program to allow Mexico-domiciled motor carriers to operate beyond the commercial zones along the international border between the United States and Mexico."
The bill, however, awaits approval by both the full House and the full Senate.
Jenny Tallheimer, spokeswoman for the Senate Appropriations Committee, told WND, "At this ...   more »

Muslim hero breaks up train beating
BY MELISSA GRACE 
Maria Parsheva and boyfriend Walter Adler were assaulted on Q train after they wished their attackers Happy Chanukah. 
Hassan Askari (r.) came to their rescue. He got black eye for his troubles.
The Good Samaritan who tried to stop the Christmas-versus-Chanukah subway beating has two black eyes and a sore nose - but no regrets.
"I did what I thought was right," said Hassan Askari, 20. "I did the best that I could to help."
Askari, a Bangladeshi Muslim studying at Berkeley College in Manhattan, was on a Q train headed to Brooklyn late Friday when he came to the aid of young women confronted by a group of 10 thugs.
Fearful for the women's safety, he pushed one of the men away - and was then pounced on by the group, he said.
"They grabbed me and punched and beat me up," Askari said.
"They punched me first. I didn't get a chance to punch him back."
Askari, all of 5-feet-7 and 140 pounds, said he was left with a swollen face.
He said he didn't go to the doctor because he's too busy working two waiter jobs and doesn't ...   more »

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) -- The Green Bay City Council president paid for a nativity scene to be put up at City Hall after learning of an anti-religion group's protest of one in Peshtigo.
Council president Chad Fradette told a city committee he elieved the U.S. Constitution upholds citizens' right to display symbols of their religious beliefs on publicly owned property as long as they are not paid for with tax money and other faiths aren't excluded.
The committee approved the nativity scene 4-1 Tuesday night.
"So now the Freedom From Religion Foundation can pick on somebody a little larger than Peshtigo," Fradette told the committee.
The foundation, the nation's largest group of atheists and agnostics, objected lst week to a nativity display in a Peshtigo city park, saying it was illegal to erect it on public property and use tax money to light it. Peshtigo is about 40 miles northeast of Green Bay.
On Wednesday, the group sent a letter to Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt objecting to the display as "inherently religious" and a violation of the separation of church and state.
"Displaying a creche on the city hall building conveys the message that the City Council endorses ...   more »

David Bogner
OK, truth be told, I didn't actually take a taxi to the capital of Hezbollah-land. But judging by the number of cabs who flatly refused to take me from Beer Sheva to my home in Efrat the other night, you would have thought that Lebanon was indeed my destination.
It was about 10:00PM and I had long since missed my regular carpool home. Under normal circumstances I would have either stayed over in a Beer Sheva hotel or tried to hitchhike home. But seeing as it was very late and I needed to be in Jerusalem first thing in the morning, I decided to treat myself to a rare taxi ride home.
That’s when the fun began.
Each call to the taxi dispatcher went something like this:
Dispatcher: Hallow!
Me: Hi, I need a taxi to come to [name of my company].
Dispatcher: No problem, where are you going?
Me: Efrat... In Gush Etzion.
Dispatcher: No problem... someone will be right there
Within a few minutes a taxi would pull up and the driver would ask "Where did you say you needed to go?" I would tell him, which resulted in him saying he had to check with ...   more »

by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) Haifa's long-time Chief Rabbi She'ar-Yashuv Cohen, who has taken part in many interfaith conferences and gatherings with Moslem religious leaders, says he's trying to gather support for a synagogue on the Temple Mount.
Rabbi Cohen, son of the late renowned Torah scholar known as the Nazir, Rabbi David Cohen, chairs the Chief Rabbinate Council for the Establishment of a Synagogue on the Temple Mount.  Speaking on a special Temple Mount radio program on Voice of Israel's Moreshet (Tradition)-channel this week, he said he is working in the United States to amass support for the project. 
Other rabbis have also called for the construction of a Jewish prayer site on the Temple Mount.  Former Chief Sephardic Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu is among them, though he has not campaigned for this cause.  Other members on the Chief Rabbinate committee are Be'er Sheva's Chief Rabbi Yehuda Deri and Tzfat's Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu.
Jewish Temple Mount supporters greeted Rabbi Cohen's announcement with enthusiasm.  The Movement for the Establishment of the Temple declared, "The holiday of Chanukah, commemorating the liberation and purification of the Mount and the Temple, is the perfect time for the establishment of a prayer site for the ...   more »

Nicolas Sarkozy
French President Nicolas Sarkozy claims there will be a risk of war with Iran if Israel believes Tehran 'is threatening its security'.
In an interview with Le Nouvel Observateur, Sarkozy said France was more worried about tensions between Iran and Israel than between Iran and the United States.
Sarkozy said he was never in favor of war, adding that 'the problem for us is not so much the risk that the Americans could launch a military attack' but that the Israelis consider their security threatened.
Despite a recent report by the US intelligence community reaffirming that Iran was not pursuing a military nuclear program, Sarkozy claimed that the general belief was that the country's nuclear activities had no civilian explanation.
"The only debate is whether they will have military capability in one year or in five years," Sarkozy concluded.
Although the US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) confirmed the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear activities, hawkish US politicians continue to threaten Tehran with a new round of sanctions and military attacks.
Original Source
 

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Hamas Television program seeks liberation of Al-Aqsa Mosque
Two children have made an appearance on Hamas Television's children's show called "Liberate" to exhort a liberation of the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and to promise to "wipe out" Zionists.
The new video captured from Hamas Television is being made available by the Middle East Media Research Institute, which monitors and publicizes media reports throughout the Middle East.
MEMRI also has a web page that is devoted to Al-Aqsa television clips.
Young boy on Hamas television tells audience how to "rescue" the Al-Aqsa Mosque "from the shackles of the Zionist entity."
The boy, in the Dec. 3, 2007, appearance, launches the message:
"My beloved brothers, as you know, today the Al-Aqsa Mosque is crying out: 'Where are the people of the frontline, the Palestinian people?' Yes, my dear brothers, that is the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The subject of our lesson today is Jerusalem, to where your Prophet made his nocturnal journey - the Al-Aqsa Mosque," he says.
"Yes, my beloved brothers, as you know today, and as you knew yesterday and the day before, the Al-Aqsa Mosque has fallen into oppressing and malicious hands, the hands of those who ...   more »

Documents detail ex-Israeli leader's deal handing Judaism's holiest site to Yasser Arafat
By Aaron Klein
Temple Mount
JERUSALEM – In spite of longstanding denials by top officials here, the Israeli government in 2000 agreed to relinquish the Temple Mount – Judaism's holiest site – to the Palestinians during U.S.-backed negotiations, according to declassified documents made public today.
The information comes as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert earlier this month denied talks started at November's Annapolis summit would lead to Israel giving up its sovereignty over the Temple Mount, while chief Palestinian negotiators tell WND the Jewish state already agreed to forfeit Judaism's holiest site to a coalition of Arab countries.
According to declassified Israeli government documents published today by Israel's Haaretz newspaper, during U.S.-led negotiations in 2000 at Camp David, Ehud Barak, then prime minister, agreed sovereignty over the Temple Mount would be either "ambiguous" or control would be determined based on the bond of each party to the site. The Palestinians would therefore control the upper sections of the Mount, which houses the Al Aqsa Mosque and also is the site of the First and Second Jewish Temples.
The 2000 negotiations fell through after Palestinian President Yasser Arafat rejected an ...   more »

Country's former president tells WND he sees growing trend of persecution
By Aaron Klein
Former Lebanon President Amin Gemayel
Today's deadly bombing targeting a top Lebanese army general was a bid by anti-government elements to destabilize the country and delay presidential elections and may be part of a general campaign to intimidate Lebanon's Christian population, former Lebanese president Amin Gemayel told WND during an exclusive interview today.
"While we don't know who specifically carried out the bombing, it was for sure connected to delaying parliament electing a new president, prolonging the political vacuum and creating constitutional and security chaos in the country," said Gemayel, speaking from his home in Lebanon.
Today's blast, the latest in a string of political assassinations to rock Lebanon, killed top Lebanese Army Gen. François al-Hajj and his body guard and wounded at least eight others. According to reports, a 77-pound bomb in a parked BMW sedan exploded as al-Hajj drove past on his way to work at the defense ministry in an eastern Beirut neighborhood.
Hajj was seen as a leading contender to take over as army chief from Gen. Michel Suleiman should parliament elect Suleiman as president in a much-delayed vote now slated for ...   more »

Terror leader boasts as city official steps down in wake of massive rocket attack
By Aaron Klein
JERUSALEM – The resignation today of a battered Israeli city's mayor in the wake of a massive salvo of Palestinian rocket fire is a "huge victory for the Palestinian resistance" and "proof our attacks pay off," a top terror leader told WND in an interview.
Muhammad Abdel-Al, spokesman and a senior leader of the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees, warned if Israel pressed ahead with a threatened large-scale, anti-rocket operation in the Gaza Strip his terror group will "fire rockets until all the Zionists in Sderot run away thousands of yards from their homes."
Palestinians in Gaza today fired at least 18 rockets into Sderot, a town of nearly 23,000 residents located about three miles from the Gaza Strip. Five people were lightly injured by the attack, including one girl, who was hit by shrapnel.
Abdel-Al's Committees took responsibility for the rocket salvo along with the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad terror group.
After the first eight rockets struck his town, Sderot's mayor Eli Moyal announced his resignation in protest of what he said was the Israeli government's "failure" to protect the city.
"I cannot take ...   more »

"Israel has the best pilots and best air force in the world. The world's nations know about the air force and its operational abilities much more than Israel's residents - and this is how it should be," President Shimon Peres said during a visit in the air force base in Hazerim, Wednesday.
The president was given an outline of the force from IAF commander in chief Major General Eliezer Shkedi, sat in a warplane's cockpit and was given an explanation of its capabilities.
Original Source
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Syrian President Bashar Assad rejected claims that Syria's alliance with Iran had been weakened by Damascus' participation in last month's US-sponsored Mideast peace conference, saying Thursday that the two countries' ties will never be shaken.
Assad made the comments as he inaugurated two joint Syrian-Iranian industrial projects - factories for cars and cement. He was joined at the ceremonies by the Iranian industry and housing ministers.
The November conference in Annapolis, Maryland, which relaunched Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, was widely seen as also aimed at isolating Iran by bringing together Arab nations. US officials have expressed hopes that Syria's attendance would mark a start to easing it out of its alliance with Teheran.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other top officials denounced the conference, and some officials expressed surprise over Syria's participation - though none directly criticized it.
Speaking at the auto factory, Assad said, "inaugurating this plant in partnership with our Iranian brothers and officials is a response to those who tried to circulate (reports) ... that relations between the two countries have been shaken."
"I confirm, on this occasion, that relations will not be shaken for any reason or under any circumstance," Assad said at the factory in Hasya, ...   more »

Russia and Iran reached an agreement Thursday on a schedule for finishing construction of the Bushehr nuclear plant, which plays a central role in the international tensions over Iran's nuclear program, Russian news agencies reported.
The United States and other critics have long protested construction of the US$1 billion (€680,000) plant, saying it would give Iran cover for developing a nuclear weapons program.
Construction at the plant has been sporadically delayed amid disputes between Iran and Russia over payment, fuel delivery and other issues. But Russia has remained opposed to a US-led push for international sanctions against Iran for allegedly seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
Original Source

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WASHINGTON, December 12, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) -  Yesterday, the U.S. House passed a resolution recognizing the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith by a vote of 372 to 9. Nine members voted against the resolution, ten refused to support it by voting "present," and 40 others members did not vote.
All but two of the representatives voting "present" or against the Christmas Resolution voted in favor of a resolution recognizing Ramadan, which passed by a 376-0 vote in October. The Ramadan Resolution stated that the House "recognizes the Islamic faith as one of the great religions of the world...expresses friendship and support for Muslims...acknowledges the onset of Ramadan...and conveys its respect to Muslims...rejects hatred, bigotry, and violence directed against Muslims...commends Muslims... who have privately and publicly rejected interpretations and movements of Islam that justify and encourage hatred, violence, and terror".
The Christmas Resolution uses similar language, stating that the House recognizes "the Christian faith as one of the great religions of the world...expresses continued support for Christians...acknowledges the international religious and historical importance of Christmas and the Christian faith...acknowledges and supports the role played by Christians and Christianity in the founding of the United States and in the formation of ...   more »

Tuesday, December 11
 We all know the Nintendo Wii is one of the hot, hard-to-find holiday toys this year, but another must-have toy may surprise you -- a talking Jesus doll.
The doll is flying off  toy store shelves. Most Wal-Marts are totally sold out and Target says they only have a very limited supply left.
One2Believe manufactures faith-based action figures and they said there won't be any more Jesus doll deliveries before the end of the year.
Original Source

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CECIL B. DEMILLE should be proud. A satellite image of the parting of the Red Sea has confirmed that the boiling wall of water he depicted in the 1956 film The Ten Commandments was right on the mark.
Look at the satellite picture and you can see Moses and the Israelites scurrying into the corridor formed by the sea's bisected waters. The Egyptian army, minutes from obliteration, is just out of shot.
The picture appears to have been plucked directly from Google Earth. It's a fake, of course, part of a project called God's Eye View created by the Glue Society, the Sydney art and design collective whose melted ice-cream van won the People's Choice Award at last year's Sculpture By The Sea. The other pictures in the set show the crucifixion, Noah's Ark and the Garden of Eden.
The images caused a sensation when they went on display at an art fair in Miami recently. Each set costs $US36,000, and two have been sold to collectors from London and New York.
The Glue Society's co-founder, Jonathan Kneebone, said God's Eye View was not intended to be a theological statement. "Art has always depicted religious events and this is simply ...   more »

    A staff member from a high-tech company in Yancheng, eastern China's Jiangsu province, displays a gene ID card that the company has made for a young customer, on Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2007. (
    BEIJING, Dec. 13 -- A two-year-old girl in Yancheng, eastern China's Jiangsu province, on Wednesday became one of a few Chinese people to possess a gene identity card.
    The Yangtse Evening News reported that the girl was brought by her parents to a local high-tech company, where a card carrying the girl's gene information was presented to the family.
    The card, about 8 by 5 centimeters big, looks like an ordinary ID card printed with the young girl's photo, name and birth date. Besides that, it has an extra series number which the company claims to have         produced based upon the recipient's 16 genetic loci.
    The company says unlike voice or fingerprint tags, such gene codes are unique and are able to identify the holder, unless he or she has an identical twin, from the world's other six billion residents.
    It comes in handy for parents to identify their child in case they are separated for a long time, ...   more »