By David E. Sanger
WASHINGTON: American and international investigators say that they have found the electronic blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon on computers that belonged to the nuclear smuggling network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the rogue Pakistani nuclear scientist, but that they have not been able to determine whether they were sold to Iran or the smuggling ring's other customers.
The plans appear to closely resemble a nuclear weapon that was built by Pakistan and first tested exactly a decade ago. But when confronted with the design by officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency last year, Pakistani officials insisted that Khan, who has been lobbying in recent months to be released from the loose house arrest that he has been under since 2004, did not have access to Pakistan's weapons designs.
In interviews in Vienna, Islamabad and Washington over the past year, officials have said that the weapons design was far more sophisticated than the blueprints discovered in Libya in 2003, when Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi gave up his country's nuclear weapons program. Those blueprints were for a Chinese nuclear weapon that dated to the mid-1960s, and investigators found that Libya had obtained them from the Khan network....   more »

By Joby Warrick
An international smuggling ring that sold bomb-related parts to Libya, Iran and North Korea also managed to acquire blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon, according to a draft report by a former top U.N. arms inspector that suggests the plans could have been shared secretly with any number of countries or rogue groups.
The drawings, discovered in 2006 on computers owned by Swiss businessmen, included essential details for building a compact nuclear device that could be fitted on a type of ballistic missile used by Iran and more than a dozen developing countries, the report states.
The computer contents -- among more than 1,000 gigabytes of data seized -- were recently destroyed by Swiss authorities under the supervision of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, which is investigating the now-defunct smuggling ring previously led by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
But U.N. officials cannot rule out the possibility that the blueprints were shared with others before their discovery, said the report's author, David Albright, a prominent nuclear weapons expert who spent four years researching the smuggling network.
"These advanced nuclear weapons designs may have long ago been sold off to some of the most treacherous regimes in the ...   more »

Judge finds street evangelist guilty of 'interfering'
A man arrested for preaching on a public sidewalk too close to the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia has been declared guilty of violating federal law. He was fined over $400 and put on probation, told not to go in Independence National Historical Park – or on its surrounding sidewalks – for a year.On October 7, 2007, Michael A. Marcavage, director of the evangelistic organization Repent America, stood on the sidewalk outside the Liberty Bell Center, on the western edge of Independence Historical Park, preaching a message against abortion and declaring that "we need to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ" to a crowd waiting to enter the park.
"This is where we have been on a number of other occasions," Marcavage told WND. "This time we were ministering to people waiting in line to see the Liberty Bell, speaking on the message written on the Bell, which reads, 'Proclaim liberty throughout all the land.'"
Marcavage was then confronted by a National Park Service ranger, who demanded he move to a "free speech zone," some distance from the entrance, where he could continue preaching under the permission of a "verbal permit."
Marcavage ...   more »

Rabbi Asher Brander
What do Cal Ripken Jr. and Aharon Hakohein (the High Priest) have in common?
Probably nothing - except in the mind of American Jews who have a penchant of connecting the sublime to the ridiculous.
Aharon receives the mitzvah to light the Menorah everyday. In its summary statement, the Torah states (Numbers, 8:3) "Aharon did so; he lit the lamps, just as God commanded." Since the working assumption is that Aharon, the model spiritual persona, follows (God's) orders, why is this necessary? Rashi further confounds by stating this verse indicates Aharon's virtue -- that he did not change. It would seem counterintuitive to praise Aharon for not altering a basic ritual.
If the Torah wants to praise Aharon, is it short of material? After all, is this not the same Aharon who reveled in his younger brother's ascendancy; the great pursuer of peace beloved by all of the Jewish people; the man willing to sacrifice his spiritual destiny for klal yisrael. For all of Aharon's extraordinary accomplishments, the Torah seems to elevate the fairly ordinary.
Unless of course, that is the point.
A famous midrash(1) poses a fascinating, almost childlike question. What is the most significant verse ...   more »

Israel's construction in eastern Jerusalem could imperil peace efforts with the Palestinians, Condoleezza Rice said.
The U.S. secretary of state, who on Saturday began her sixth trouble-shooting visit to Jerusalem and Ramallah this year, signaled that the Bush administration is monitoring Israeli housing projects on land where Palestinians want to build a state.
"I am very concerned that at a time when we need to build confidence between the parties, the continued building and the settlement activity has the potential to harm the negotiations going forward," Rice told reporters before meeting her Israeli counterpart, Tzipi Livni, on Sunday.
Israel has made clear that it reserves the right to build in eastern Jerusalem and West Bank settlement blocs, areas it plans to keep under any future peace deal with the Palestinians.
Rice also had strong words about Israel's circumspection in scaling back security measures in West Bank areas where the Palestinian Authority is trying to impose law and order.
"I understand the security considerations as well as anybody, but the obligation was undertaken to improve the lives of Palestinians and we are going to have to work very hard if we are going to make that true in a broader sense," ...   more »

By Stan Goodenough
The terrorist-supporting Damascus regime of Bashar el-Assad Saturday clarified its priorities for being willing to sit down and talk - albeit indirectly - with Israel.
It's not a state of peace and normalization Syria wants, said Syrian Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Faisal al-Mikdad. It's the Israeli Golan Heights.
And the Syrians are willing to go to war to grab them.
"[W]e will defend our [sic] land at any time."
In fact, the Golan Heights were part of the Ottoman province of Palestine that was originally set aside for the creation of a Jewish homeland.
Great Britain gave the plateau to the French Mandate of Syria and it was controlled by an independent Syria for just 20 years before the IDF took control of the land in 1967 – in response to Syrian aggression and terrorism.
Despite the fact that Israel has held the heights for more than twice as long as Syria, Damascus insists it is the rightful owner.
The Israelis "should know that the Golan Heights belong to us and that they should not be raising their children in the Golan, since this is not their place. They will not enjoy their lives there," al-Mikdad warned....   more »

The Bible – Hebrew Scriptures (“Old” Testament) and the New Testament – is the most widely-read, most published, most venerated book of all time.
With translations of the complete Bible in nearly 440 languages, one of the two testaments translated into 1,168 additional languages, and portions of the text in 848 additional languages, we can say that today partial or full translations of the Bible exist in a total of 2,454 languages.
Certainly in the so-called Western world, Bibles are readily available and most professing English-language Christian homes boast a number of copies of up to 50 modern English versions. We have Bibles in our bookshelves, beside our beds, on the coffee table, in some cases even in our kitchens and bathrooms.
Odd then, that with so many Bibles around, great masses of Christians appear oblivious to the central place that the Land of Israel and the People of Israel hold in Scripture.
In 1993, not long after I came to live in Jerusalem, I bought myself a New King James Version, unmarked, smelling of ink, its gilded page-edges stuck together.
My intention was to read it through from cover to cover with one simple (as it were) question in ...   more »