Air Force says government won't renege on deal with Lockheed Martin despite discovery of carcinogenic substance in fighter jet of same make last week
Hanan Greenberg
Four new F-16I (Storm) fighter jets arrived in Israel Thursday evening as part of a deal signed in 2000 with Lockheed Martin Corp to purchase 102 planes of the same model.
No Signs of Illness   
IAF chief to consult experts on carcinogenic substance found in F-16l / Hanan Greenberg  
Following discovery of carcinogenic substance on Storm jets, IAF commander seeks international medical opinions, promises to explore issue until resolved. Exposed pilots show no signs of illness thus far     
The two-seater F-16I, known in Israel as the "Storm", was designed specifically for the Israeli air force. The new jets will be equipped with Israeli-made systems.  
The US defense contractor began delivering the planes in 2004, and Israel Air Force officials said Israel would not renege on the deal despite the discovery of a cancer-causing substance in one of previously delivered jets.
IAF officials estimated that the majority of fighter pilots who have flown in F-16I's have been exposed to the carcinogenic substance which was discovered, but stressed however that those exposed ...   more »

Michal Lando,As Israel nears its 60th anniversary, the partnership between the Jewish state and America remains a "fundamental conviction" of the American public, according to former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger.
"The partnership is changing because the conditions are changing," Kissinger told The Jerusalem Post over the weekend. "In the early years it was a question of states interacting with each other, and now it is part of a whole global situation."
But these changes, Kissinger said, had not weakened America's conviction that support for Israel is in the American national interest.
"I think the relationship remains essential," said Kissinger. "I think there is a fundamental conviction that the security of Israel is in the American national interest. That has not changed."
Kissinger, along with every other living former secretary of state, has signed on as a vice-chair of the National Committee for Israel 60, which will coordinate events to celebrate Israel's anniversary.
Co-chairing the national commemoration are former American presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
The involvement of the former presidents and secretaries of state sent a strong and reassuring message of the continued stability and growing strength of the bonds between the two countries, said Malcolm ...   more »

By Anshel Pfeffer,
In the near future, provided Dan Rolls realizes his vision, any Jew in the world could easily visit a Web site where he would be able trace back his genealogical trecoe in a way that would show him his or her family connections with thousands of relatives he had never known about across the globe.
Rolls and his partners at Famillion believe that they need 300,000 Jews - figure that constitutes 2 percent of the Jewish people - to upload their genealogical tree. So far, Famillion's servers have received the genealogical tree of 70,000.
The idea came to him eight years ago when he went with his wife for genetic testing. "We needed to each write down our genealogical tree and list various pathological disorders among our parents and relatives," he recalls.  
"The geneticist who treated us put the pages we had filled out in a drawer. I had this vision of all the pages flying out of the drawer and connecting to each other until they formed a whole planet."
Rolls began implementing this vision five years later, when he teamed up with Yiftah and Ilan Cohen to form Famillion, a startup that uses bio-informative ...   more »

matthew wagner
Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger welcomed on Tuesday an initiative from Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah for dialogue among monotheistic religions, including Judaism.
"I give my blessing to every initiative that can prevent bloodshed and terror, especially in our area of the world," Metzger said, in a telephone interview with The Jerusalem Post.
He added that militarism and terror in the 21st century were primarily religiously motivated. Therefore, interfaith dialogue was the best antidote, he said.
"When Osama bin Laden talks of punishing Europe or Israel, he speaks in the name of religion. That's why it is so important to hear moderate elements of Islam voice their opinions. Hopefully, they will have a positive influence on the Muslim masses.
"If an imam in Saudi Arabia sends out a message of restraint and peace, that could save the life of a Jew in Paris," Metzger said.
Interfaith dialogue was also a way of uprooting stigmas and stereotypes, he said.
In a speech late on Monday, Abdullah said Saudi Arabia's top clerics had given him the green light to pursue interfaith dialogue with Christians and Jews.
"The idea is to ask representatives of all monotheistic religions to sit together with their ...   more »

Conspiracy theorists are going to have a field day with this story. In fairness, so will just about everybody else. We hope.
Comcast is experimenting with camera technology. More specifically, it trying out technology that turns cable boxes into camera-equipped devices that would utilize body-form-recognition as a means to provide custom-tailored service, and, of course, custom tailored advertising. The boxes would be able to tell who is in the room based on the shape of their body, thus tailoring programming to fit their specific desires and security settings (when children are involved). Facial recognition is not in the works as of yet.
We should be clear: This is all in the experimental phase. There has been no consumer testing and Gerard Kunkel, Comcast's senior VP of user experience, stresses that any final decision is predicated on the boxes providing more to the viewer than just precision advertising.
Custom Tailored. Security. Efficient. Your New Best Friend. Now You Can Leave the Kids At Home With Super Cable Nanny! Those are hypothetical buzz-words and -phrases Comcast will most likely lay on in hearty layers if and when it begins to roll out this new technology.
Honestly, what is your immediate gut reaction ...   more »

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 »