BEIJING, Aug 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Changes in sexual habits, a burgeoning world population and intensive farming practices are reasons for an unprecedented number of emerging diseases, the World Health Organization said Thursday.
    The United Nations health agency said AIDS and 38 other new pathogens that were unknown a generation ago are afflicting mankind.
    Though advances in science could account for the discovery of existing pathogens that were previously unidentified, WHO epidemics expert Dr. Mike Ryan said changes in human behavior and practices have produced more new diseases.
    "We've seen a shift in trend that reflects a transition of human civilization," Ryan said. "The relationship to the animal kingdom, our travel, our social, sexual and other behaviors have changed the nature of our relationship with the microbial world and the result of that is the emergence of new pathogens and the spread of those pathogens around the world."
    He noted that in the late 19th century, scientists discovered a range of agents causing ancient scourges such as anthrax, staphylococcus, tuberculosis and tetanus.
    In the 1970s and '80s it wasn't pathogens experts were discovering but new syndromes: children getting sick with rashes and fever in the ...   more »

By Dale Hurd
CBNNews.com - Ever since 9/11, Americans have been bombarded with the message that Islam is a religion of peace.
The "Islam is Peace" campaign began in earnest the day after 9/11, when President Bush visited a mosque in Washington, D.C.
"The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam," President Bush said. "That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace."
Click play to hear Gordon Robertson and Robert Spencer speak about the apparent differences between Christianity and Islam.
The leading Muslim advocacy group, the Council of American Islamic Relations, or CAIR, has continued to spread the "Islam is peace" message through the media, even though CAIR is now an un-indicted co-conspirator in a terrorism case.
A CAIR commercial says "Islam is not about violence. It's about peace and justice."
Some have even suggested that Christianity is somehow as dangerous or more dangerous than radical Islam. Rosie O'Donnell said as much on the program The View last year.
Co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck said "…And if you take radical Islam and what's going on there…".
O'Donnell interrupted: "Just one second. Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America."
But is ...   more »

The head of the National Counterterrorism Center speaks out on Al Qaeda's plans, America’s readiness—and the nature of
By Mark Hosenball and Jeffrey Bartholet
Aug. 27, 2007 - Al Qaeda has an active plot to hit the West. The United States knows about it but doesn’t have enough tactical detail to issue a precise warning or raise the threat level, says Vice Admiral (ret.) John Scott Redd, who heads the government’s National Counterterrorism Center. In an interview at his headquarters near Washington, D.C., Redd told Newsweek’s Mark Hosenball and Jeffrey Bartholet that the country is better prepared than ever to counter such threats. But he also believes another successful terror attack on the U.S. homeland is inevitable. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: People in various agencies have said that since Tora Bora in 2001, they at no time have had even 50-percent confidence that they knew where Osama bin Laden was on any particular day, and therefore they have been unable to mount any operations to go get him. Is that wrong?
Redd: What I’ll tell you about bin Laden is if we knew where he was, he’d either be dead or captured. It’s that simple. [He’s] obviously a tough target. That whole ...   more »

In his first major foreign policy speech, French president says diplomatic push by world's powers to rein in Tehran's nuclear program is only alternative to 'Iranian bomb or bombing of Iran' French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday a diplomatic push by the world's powers to rein in Tehran's nuclear program was the only alternative to "an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran."  
In his first major foreign policy speech, Sarkozy emphasized his existing foreign policy priorities, such as opposing Turkish membership of the European Union and pushing for a new Mediterranean Union that he hopes will include Ankara. 
Guided bomb developed by specialists within Islamic Republic’s Defense Ministry and is now operational, IRNA news agency reports, adding it could be dropped from F-4 and F-5 jets    
He also presented some new ideas, such as possibly renewing high-level dialogue with Syria and expanding the Group of Eight industrialized nations to include the biggest developing states.
Sarkozy said a nuclear-armed Iran would be unacceptable and that major powers should continue their policy of incrementally increasing sanctions against Tehran while being open to talks if Iran suspended nuclear activities.
"This initiative is the only one that can enable us ...   more »

Ex-Treasury Secretary Summers warns of risks 'greater than any since aftermath of 9/11', reports Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Subprime crisis in full
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Prepare for the crunch   
Larry Summers: 'It would be far too premature to judge this crisis over' 
Former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers warned that the United States may be heading into recession as the biggest victim to date of the sub-prime mortgage debacle was humiliatingly sold for a token sum in Germany.
Traders are braced for another week of turmoil after the near breakdown of America's $2,200bn (£1,100bn) market for commercial paper.
"It would be far too premature to judge this crisis over," Mr Summers said. "I would say the risks of recession are now greater than they've been any time since the period in the aftermath of 9/11."
In Germany, it emerged that the state-bank SachsenLB may have accumulated $80bn of exposure to risky assets through a set of Irish funds kept off balance sheet.
advertisementThe regional government of Saxony agreed yesterday to sell the East German bank - the biggest victim so far of the worldwide credit rout - for a token €300m (£204m) to the Landesbank Baden-Württemberg in Stuttgart (LBBW), ending a three-week ...   more »

by Pnina Jacobs
God is always watching His children. Are you?
The news that a four-year-old girl was recently kidnapped from in front of her home in Boro Park, where she had been left alone to play, should serve as a warning to parents everywhere, but is it heeded in our own community? Does such an incident serve as a catalyst for more vigilant adult supervision? Would a parent reconsider leaving a young child to play alone in the yard or in the care of an older but still very young sibling?
The story of four-year-old Madeline McCann, kidnapped from her hotel room at a vacation resort while her parents dined at a restaurant, should also serve as a warning. But has it influenced parents to change their behavior? Would parents perhaps now think twice before leaving their children alone in a hotel room while going downstairs to enjoy a Friday-night meal on a Shabbaton? I know of people who would not think to leave their jewelry within sight of their newly hired cleaning lady, but would not think twice about leaving their child with that same cleaning lady.
In the highly publicized abduction and murder cases of seven-year-old Megan ...   more »