OK, you've bought a house and moved into a new neighborhood. Actually, you used to live in this very area, but events caused you to move away, and now you're back. It's a nice, albeit modest, not fancy or highbrow neighborhood, and you're looking forward to really settling in and getting to know your neighbors.
But before you've even unpacked, you come to realize that your neighbors don't want you there. When they're unable to keep you from moving in, a violent zealot next door proclaims that he will never accept your presence, no matter what concessions you offer or what friendly overtures you make.
Across the street lives a real fanatic, known to make and throw bombs, who declares he hopes your entire extended family moves in – because that "will save us the trouble of going after them wherever they are worldwide."
Just up the block, a rich religious extremist has been buying weapons and providing them to your other neighbors, announcing that your home "must be wiped off the map"; and in his garage, he's believed to be assembling an ominous-looking weapon that he might use to blow your home to smithereens.
And of course, there's the ...   more »

By DPA 
A Turkish mission sent to Israel to inspect controversial work by Israeli archaeologists at the Mugrabi Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem will advise that all work should stop immediately and that Palestinians must be consulted before any further work goes ahead, according to a report published Friday in the English-language newspaper Today's Zaman.
"The archaeological excavation at the Mugrabi pathway, which involves various traces of the Umayyad, Ayyubid, Mameluke and Ottoman periods, must be discontinued immediately," Today's Zaman on Friday quoted from the as yet unreleased report
The Turkish mission visited the site in March to inspect work on an entrance to the mosque and excavations in the area. The archaeological work had led to protests across the Muslim world with protesters claiming that Israel was illegally interfering with one of the holiest sites in Islam.  
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered to send the mission to Jerusalem, an offer accepted by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who said at the time that Israel had nothing to hide.
Instead of reassuring suspicious Muslims the report is clearly critical of Israeli work on the site.
"The tunneling and excavation work and the large amount of soil ...   more »

The Turkish delegation that visited Jerusalem in March to inspect the excavations at the Mughrabi Gate near the Temple Mount has concluded that the work is destroying artifacts from different historic Islamic periods, and called on Israel to coordinate their activities with the Palestinians and the international community, the Turkish newspaper A-Zamaan reported on Saturday.
"The work being conducted by Israel does not abide by the appropriate [excavation standards], and the dig testifies to the fact that Israel is interested in destroying artifacts from the Islamic periods," the report quoted the envoy as saying.
"It is Israel's responsibility to cease their its immediate," the envoy concluded.
The report also criticized Israel for not having conducted dialogue with the Waqf department in Jerusalem in the past seven years.
The seven-person Turkish technical team conducted their inspections in March, one month after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested the idea to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during Olmert's visit to Ankara.
According to A-Zamaan, the delegation finished writing its report in July, but the Turkish government decided against publishing it out of concern it would harm Turkish-Israeli relations.
Original Source

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By Barak Ravid, Yoav Stern, and Mazal Mualem, Haaretz Correspondents and Haaretz Service   
tags: Condoleezza Rice, Labor  
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice won't return to the region before the Mideast peace conference at the end of the month in Annapolis, Maryland.
Rice visited Israel and the West Bank three times in the past two months to encourage peace talks ahead of the conference. White House Spokesman Sean McCormack said Rice will continue consulting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas over the phone. McCormack also confirmed U.S. President George W. Bush's attendance at the conference. Its exact date has not been officially announced.
Sources in Jerusalem said took Rice's decision as a good sign, suggesting she won't visit because talks are progressing and the sides don't need pressuring.
However, during a meeting at the ranch of Saudi King Abdullah, Abbas voiced his pessimism on the conference's chance for success and his dissatisfaction with Israel over unwillingness to achieve the minimum level of what is acceptable by Palestinians, said Jamal al-Shobaki, Palestinian ambassador to Riyadh, on Saturday.
The Saudi king, who has previously expressed skepticism over the conference, like many Arab leaders, echoed Abbas' concerns, ...   more »

In a letter to President Bush, Palestinian negotiator Erekat demands Israel fully meet its obligations under the Road Map peace plan regarding settlements; 'Enough games, we want to see an end to settlement expansion and natural growth,' he says
Reuters
The Palestinians have told the United States they will accept nothing less than a total freeze in Jewish settlement building ahead of a conference on statehood, a top Palestinian official said on Saturday.  
Western diplomats say Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is under Western and Arab pressure to go beyond the partial freeze he was expected to announce before the US-sponsored conference this month as a way to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.  
The diplomats say Olmert sought to exempt the occupied West Bank's major settlement blocs, which Israel intends to keep under any final peace deal. Washington was cool to that idea, an Israeli source said.  
Summit Gloom   
Palestinian envoy to Saudi Arabia says Abbas disappointed by Israel's lack of helpful overtures. Meanwhile in Israel hopes are still running high, government to authorize release of 500 Palestinian prisoners as goodwill gesture ahead of US-led conference 
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said he sent a letter to ...   more »

Herb Keinon ,
While no invitations have been set, a joint declaration has not yet been finalized and it is not clear which countries will in the end send representatives, the Prime Minister's Office is gearing up for the long-discussed meeting in Annapolis a week from Tuesday.
According to still very tentative plans, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will meet in Annapolis on the morning of November 27 with US President George W. Bush, followed by the "main event" in the afternoon during which the statement that Israel and the PA have been working on for months will be read.
Another event in Annapolis is planned the night before, with the participation of all the countries sending representatives to the gathering.
Senior government officials said Saturday night that negotiations themselves would not take place at Annapolis, but rather that the negotiating process would begin "immediately" afterward. No date or venue was given for these negotiations, although they are expected to be carried out by the same teams which have been negotiating the statement to be unveiled at Annapolis.
In the run-up to the meeting, and as a way of winning support for it among the ...   more »

Decision a result of Hadash and the Israeli Communist parties' demand that an official stance against the Israeli demand be taken before the Annapolis conference
Roee Nahmias
The Higher Arab Monitoring Committee unanimously decided Saturday to reject Israel's demand that the Palestinians recognize it as a "Jewish State" as a part of the peace negotiations. The Palestinians have also announced that they reject the Israeli demand.  
The decision was made at the Committee's meeting in Nazareth after Hadash and the Israeli Communist parties demanded that an official stance against the Israeli demand be taken prior to the upcoming Annapolis conference.   
An official letter on the matter is expected to be sent to the Israeli government, the Quartet, the Arab League and other relevant bodies.  
The demand was made due to fears that defining Israel as a "Jewish State" would bring about "a worsening in the condition of Arab-Israelis and will hinder the realization of the Palestinian refugees' Right of Return."  
Former Knesset Member Mohamed Naffa (Hadash) said: "We have no expectations of the Annapolis conference. Nothing good will come out of the White House. This is an important decision primarily for the Palestinian population inside Israel ...   more »

THIS IS A GLOBAL DISPLAY OF TERRORISM AND OTHER SUSPICIOUS EVENTS, including US Schools Incidents Map, Amber Alert, Illegal Alien Activity, Mosque Map. 
Clicking on the link will bring up an interactive world map depicting the following types of incidents globally: 
- Aviation
- Arson
- Biological
- Bomb
- Chemical incidents and attacks
- Dam
- Radiation
- Other suspicious activities
- Shipping, railways/train, bus, bridge/tunnel, shooting,  
  terrorist arrests. 
This website  is updated every few minutes: you can move the map around, zero in on any one area and actually up-load the current story. You can even see what is happening here in the U.S., sometimes right in your own state, or even your own city.
This is a great link to add to your tool bar for daily access.
Original Source
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A leaked email exchange between two of Prince Charles’s closest aides shows that they turned down an invitiation to the Prince to visit Israel because they thought such a visit would help Israel improve its image. 
Earlier this year, according to the Jewish Chronicle, the Israeli embassy invited Sir Michael Peat, Prince Charles’s Principal Private Secretary, and Clive Alderton, Deputy Private Secretary, to Israel for a four-day visit as guests of the Knesset. This was seen as a prelude to a possible official visit by the Prince, which would have been the first-ever state visit by a British royal to Israel. 
Peat initially expressed enthusiasm for the idea, replying in an email: “The invitation is hugely appreciated and Clive and I would love to come.” One month later, however, Alderton complained to Peat in an email of being “pursued” by the Israeli ambassador, and asked: “Safe to assume there is no chance of this visit ever actually happening?... Acceptance would make it hard to avoid the many ways in which Israel would want HRH [Prince Charles] to help burnish its international image," he wrote, "In which case, let’s agree a way to lower his [the Israeli Ambassador's] expectations."
Original Source...   more »

Moscow pushes ahead with plans to supply Tehran with uranium after release of IAEA report, Iran welcomes move, says Russian commitment to its nuclear program 'a matter of principle'
Russia on Friday gave the clearest indication yet that it was ready to send uranium to fuel Iran's first atomic power station, upping the stakes in a diplomatic crisis surrounding Tehran's nuclear program. 
Russia's state-run nuclear fuel producer said inspectors from the United Nations' nuclear watchdog would later this month start sealing nuclear fuel bound for the Bushehr plant, a major step to shipping the fuel to the Bushehr plant in Iran.  
In a report on Iran issued on Thursday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had "made arrangements to verify and seal the fresh fuel foreseen (for Bushehr) on Nov. 26, before shipment of the fuel from Russia to Iran".  
Russia has so far given no concrete date for when it will send the nuclear fuel to Bushehr, but says it would be sent six months before the plant's repeatedly delayed start-up.  
According to Russian forecasts, the reactor at the plant could be started up in 2008 and nuclear fuel would have to arrive at ...   more »

Relations between Israel and the Vatican "were better" before the two established full diplomatic ties in 1993, according to a senior Vatican diplomat and former top Holy See envoy to Jerusalem.
Israel has also failed to keep promises to ease travel restrictions on Catholic clerics and remove taxes on Church-owned property in the Holy Land, Monsignor Pietro Sambi said in an interview posted Friday on the Franciscan Order's terrasanta.net Web site.
"The Holy See decided to establish diplomatic relations (in 1993) with Israel as an act of faith, leaving to latter the serious promises to regulate concrete aspects of the life of the Catholic community and the Church in Israel," Sambi, the Papal Nuncio to the United States, said.  
"If I must be frank, the relations between the Catholic Church and the state of Israel were better when there were no diplomatic ties," he continued.
Among the issues hanging are the status of expropriated church property, services that Catholic groups perform for Israel's Jewish and Arab population, and tax exemptions for the Church.
The Vatican diplomat also cited a current sore point - the granting of permits for Arab Christian clergy traveling to and around the West Bank.
Israel ...   more »

After months of waffling, the United States Congress finally passed a military spending bill. It's been sent to the White House for the president's signature, but he's not likely to sign it. The bill provides $50 billion for four months' funding of the war, but only if President Bush begins immediately withdrawing troops from Iraq. It's similar to one the president vetoed earlier this year.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi told reporters that funding for the Iraq war was conditional to force the president to begin withdrawing U.S. troops. The speaker threatened that if the president vetoed the bill, she would not allow another war spending bill to go before Congress for the rest of the year.
Pelosi later told reporters, "It's a war without end. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. We must reverse it." It was the 58th bill this year sponsored by the Democrats that has been tied to an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
Once again, this proves that the liberals, most of whom are Democrats, don't comprehend that we are in a war – not of our choosing – against an enemy that is dedicated to our destruction. ...   more »

 New York
DELRAY BEACH, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--VeriChip Corporation ("VeriChip") (NASDAQ:CHIP - News), a provider of RFID systems for healthcare and patient-related needs, and Digital Angel Corporation ("Digital Angel") (AMEX:DOC - News), owner of Patent No. 7,125,382, announced today that they will host events for the medical and investment communities on December 4-5th in New York surrounding the development of an implantable bio-sensing RFID microchip to measure glucose levels in the human body. Scott R. Silverman, VeriChip’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, discusses plans for the Company to have a functioning prototype of the device within six months in an online interview conducted today at www.ceocast.com. In the interview, he is joined by Robert E. Carlson, Ph.D., President and Principal Investigator at RECEPTORS LLC, which is an expert in the field of proteomics and the development of artificial receptors, and is partnering with VeriChip and Digital Angel. RECEPTORS, which will participate in the New York events, will be responsible for demonstrating a self-contained glucose-sensing system in Phase I of the project. 
Checking blood glucose levels regularly is critical to properly managing diabetes. The conventional method - a finger prick - is invasive, painful and often inaccurate. The implantable bio-sensor chip would ...   more »

Venezuelan president tells OPEC summit in Riyadh, 'If the United States is crazy enough to attack Iran or commit aggression against Venezuela ... Oil would not be $100 but $200'
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday that oil prices could more than double to $200 per barrel if the United States attacked Iran over a standoff about Tehran's nuclear program.
"If the United States is crazy enough to attack Iran or commit aggression against Venezuela ... Oil would not be $100 but $200," Chavez told an OPEC summit in the Saudi capital Riyadh. His remarks were translated into Arabic.   
Chavez also said $100 per barrel was a "fair" price for oil.
Oil has lapped against the $100-mark this month, prompting consumer nations to call on the exporter group to help ease price pressure by providing the market with more crude.   
On Friday, Saudi Arabia objected to an attempt by Iran and Venezuela to highlight concern over the dollar's weakness in the summit communique and the group voted the proposal out.  
Venezuela is a price hawk and holds some of the largest reserves outside the Middle East and is the no. 4 US supplier.
Original Source
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Liberty Dollar founder says, 'I intend to win'
By Bob Unruh
The government's raid shutting down the Evansville, Ind., offices of Liberty Dollar was a declaration of war, company founder Bernard von NotHaus says. But the confiscation of its stockpiles of gold, silver and medallions also was just the "first battle of a long war that I intend to win!"
The company makes and distributes Liberty Dollar barter currency in various denominations and had announced that it had been closed down by a raid of FBI and U.S. Secret Service officers who confiscated gold, silver, platinum, medallions, documents, "everything but the desks and chairs."
"For approximately six hours they took all the gold, all the silver, all the platinum, and almost two tons of Ron Paul Dollars that were just delivered last Friday. They also took all the files and computers and froze our bank accounts," von NotHaus wrote in an urgent notification of the situation to supporters.
The Peace Dollar, by Liberty Dollar
Federal authorities in the U.S. attorney's office in North Carolina, to whom WND was referred when the FBI and Secret Service were questioned, continued to decline to release information about their case, although they admitted the ...   more »

Defense appropriations bill gives soldiers domestic responsibilities
By Jerome R. Corsi
New federal legislation shows the Bush administration has begun systematically putting in place authorization for the president to federalize the National Guard and use the U.S. military in domestic emergency situations.
A provision in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 (H.R. 1585) requires the secretary of defense to prepare and submit to Congress by March 1, 2008, and each subsequent March 1 a plan to coordinate the use of the National Guard and members of the Armed Forces on active duty when responding to natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters.
Section 1806 of H.R. 1585 requires the secretary of defense to prepare two versions of the plan, one using only members of the National Guard, and one using both members of the National Guard and members of the regular components of the armed services.
The section also requires the secretary of defense's plan to specify "Protocols for the Department of Defense, the National Guard Bureau, and the governors of the several states to carry out operations in coordination with each other and to ensure that governors and local communities are properly informed and ...   more »

A report by scientists Wednesday claiming that they have successfully cloned monkey embryos and extracted stem cells from them has religious bioethics groups concerned over impending human cloning.
A report by scientists Wednesday claiming that they have successfully cloned monkey embryos and extracted stem cells from them has religious bioethics groups concerned over impending human cloning.
Shoukhrat Mitalipov, who led a team of research scientists at Oregon Health and Science University in Beaverton, said they used skin cells from a 9-year-old adult male rhesus macaque monkey to create cloned embryos, and then extracted stem cells from the embryo clones.
Mice are the only other group of animals from which cloned embryonic stem cells have been created and now researchers are now saying the technique should work in humans.
“We hope the technology will be useful for other labs that are working on human eggs and human cells,” said Mitalipov in a New York Times report. “I am quite sure it will work in humans.”
The group’s research was published online Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature and will also be featured alongside a peer-review by an Australian team in the Nov. 22 hardcopy issue.
The report has prompted religious bioethics ...   more »

This Christmas season, whether a store greets you with “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas” makes all the difference where you should do your shopping, says a Christian legal group.
This Christmas season, whether a store greets you with “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas” makes all the difference where you should do your shopping, says a Christian legal group.
Liberty Counsel is urging Christians to fight back to save Christmas from being erased from the public sphere by shopping at stores that honor instead of disregard Christmas.
The Fla.-based legal group released the first draft of its “Naughty & Nice” checklist Monday to advise consumers on which businesses to support.
Businesses and retailers are placed on the “Nice” list if they recognize Christmas and on the “Naughty” list if they censor or exclude the Dec. 25 holiday.
“Every consumer should make a list and check it twice, stop patronizing retailers which are naughty and shop at those which are nice,” said Mathew D. Staver, the group’s founder and chairman.
“Retailers which seek to profit from Christmas while pretending it does not exist should realize they have offended the vast majority of Americans who enjoy Christmas,” added Staver.
Home Depot was among ...   more »