Arab-Israeli leaders say international community must act in order to stop controversial construction near al-Aqsa Mosque; ‘Israel has no political, legal right to take any action in occupied east Jerusalem,’ they say. Meanwhile, 15 Arab youngsters detained in capital after hurling stones
Sharon Roffe-Ofir
The Higher Arab Monitoring Committee called on Saturday for the international community’s immediate intervention in Israel’s construction works at the Mugrabi Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City, near the al-Aqsa Mosque.
Islamic Movement  
Sheikh Salah calls to renew riots Saturday / Sharon Roffe-Ophir  
Islamic Movement leader summons Muslims to Jerusalem to continue protesting construction near Temple Mount; thousands of demonstrators in Nazareth wave signs declaring ‘Israel has started world war’     
“We do not accept the Israeli government’s excuses on what is taking place. Israel has no political or legal right to take any action in occupied east Jerusalem,” committee members said in a statement following an emergency meeting in Nazareth attended by all Arab Knesset members and other community leaders.  
The committee called on the United Nations, European Union and other countries and organizations to act in a bid to end the controversial dig.  
It was decided that the Arab MKs will ...   more »

Yesterday Russian President Vladimir Putin met in the Kremlin with Ali Akbar Velayati, the personal envoy of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Tehran is making a concerted effort to convince Moscow to lend its support in Iran's standoff with Washington. To show the seriousness of its intentions, Iran yesterday carried out a test of a Russian anti-aircraft Top-M1 missile system, and the country's top spiritual leader threatened to strike "at American interests around the world." Tehran is making its bid for the goodwill of the Russian president on the eve of an international security summit in Munich, at which President Putin is scheduled to give the keynote address.
Yesterday in Moscow Ali Akbar Velayati, a former foreign affairs minister who is one of Iran's most experienced diplomats, met with a number of top Russian foreign policy officials, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and National Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov, before meeting in the evening with President Vladimir Putin. And while the official line from the Russian negotiators was neutral and cautious, Mr. Velayati was effusive in his compliments: "The steps that Russia is taking have the unconditional support of Iran," declared the Iranian leader's official envoy. "Russia, as an ...   more »

LONDON, February 10 (IranMania) - Iran will seek to show a nation united behind its nuclear program on Sunday but pressure from the West and voices counselling caution at home have dampened prospects for a grand announcement about atomic progress, Reuters reported.
Iran marks the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's promise to celebrate the "establishing of Iran's nuclear program" had prompted talk of a major announcement.
Some analysts expected Tehran to announce it had begun installing 3,000 centrifuges, which can make fuel for power stations or material for nuclear warheads, in defiance of Western demands to halt a program it fears is a front for bomb-making.
But one senior official said Tehran had no intention of announcing such a provocative step because it could block a political solution and hasten more penalties in the nuclear standoff with the West.
Ahmadinejad, who is not the most powerful figure in Iran despite his headline-grabbing speeches against the West and Israel, has faced mounting public criticism in Iran since December when a UN sanctions resolution was passed and when his supporters were trounced in local council polls.
Critics say his rhetoric has helped push Iran toward international isolation, ...   more »

By DAVID RISING
Russian President Vladimir Putin blasted the United States Saturday for the "almost uncontained" use of force in the world, and for encouraging other countries to acquire nuclear weapons.
In what his spokesman acknowledged were his harshest attacks on the U.S. since taking office in 2000, Putin also criticized U.S. plans for missile defense systems and NATO's expansion.
Putin told a security forum attracting top officials that "we are witnessing an almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations" and that "one state, the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way.
"This is very dangerous, nobody feels secure anymore because nobody can hide behind international law," Putin told the gathering.
Putin did not elaborate on specifics and did not mention the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.
But he voiced concern about U.S. plans to build a missile defense system in eastern Europe — likely in Poland and the Czech Republic — and the expansion of NATO as possible challenges to Russia.
On the missile defense system, Putin said: "I don't want to accuse anyone of being aggressive" but suggested it would seriously change the balance of power and could provoke an unspecified response.
"That ...   more »

Despite repeated denials by the US administration, preparations for a military strike against Iranian nuclear sites are in "advanced" stages, according to informed sources in Washington quoted by The Guardian on Saturday.
According to the London-based Guardian report, the deployment of forces to the Persian Gulf would allow the opening of an Iranian front by the spring, however the sources said an attack would most likely only come next year before US President George W. Bush finishes his term in office.
Putin slams US foreign policy
The sources said Bush had yet to make a final decision on the matter, but Vice-President Dick Cheney and Neo-conservatives, particularly at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, were reportedly pushing the need for action against Teheran for continuing to develop their nuclear capabilities.
Iran insists its ambitions to enrich uranium were strictly for peaceful ends. However, Israel remains convinced Iran's belligerent leader President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is seeking a nuclear device to make good on in his vision of the Jewish nation "wiped off the face of the map."
The Bush administration has said the build-up of forces in the gulf were aimed at containing Iran and to force it to agree to diplomatic concessions ...   more »

By KOZO MIZOGUCHI
Associated Press Writer
 
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TOKYO (AP) -- Japan launched a satellite-based alert system Friday that will instantly send warnings of tsunamis and updates on volcanic activity to help speed evacuations, an emergency official said.
Japan consistently experiences about 10 percent of the world's magnitude 6 or greater earthquakes, which if underwater can trigger tsunamis, according to Meteorological Agency data. The country also has 108 active volcanoes - about 10 percent of the world's total.
Under the system, called "J-ALERT," the nation's Fire and Disaster Management Agency will immediately transmit warnings on tsunamis if an earthquake occurs. It will also issue alerts following signs of volcanic activity based on information from the Meteorological Agency to local authorities, said Fire and Disaster Management agency spokesman Takeshi Itoh. Information on strong earthquakes after they occur will also be sent, Itoh said.
The warnings will activate ...   more »

NEW YORK (AP) — As the popularity of stomach surgery has skyrocketed among obese adults, a growing number of doctors are asking, "Why not children, too?"
For decades, the number of kids trying weight-loss surgery has been tiny. The operations themselves were risky, with a death rate of about 1 in 50. Children rarely got that fat, and when they did, pediatricians hesitated to put the developing bodies under the knife. Only 350 U.S. kids had such an operation in 2004, according to federal statistics.
But improvements in surgical technique and huge increases in the number of dangerously obese children have begun fueling a change of heart.
A group of four hospitals, led by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, are starting a large-scale study this spring examining how children respond to various types of weight-loss surgery, including the gastric bypass, in which a pouch is stapled off from the rest of the stomach and connected to the small intestine.
Three more hospitals have approval from the Food and Drug Administration to test how teens fare with a procedure called laparoscopic gastric banding, where an elastic collar installed around the stomach limits how much someone can eat.
The FDA has hesitated ...   more »

By Gordon Thomas
LONDON - Britain's internal security service, MI5, has issued a "red alert" to all British and U.S. military commanders of armed forces in the United Kingdom and Europe that their Muslim servicemen are now "prime targets for Islamic terror cells."
The attacks are designed to force Muslims not to serve their country.
MI5, in its warning, says: "The very real possibility of an attack on off-duty soldiers in London has substantially increased."
Off-duty soldiers, including U.S. Marines guarding the U.S. embassy in Grosvenor Square, have been told to wear only "civies" when outside the embassy.
The warning follows the arrest of nine Islamic terror suspects in Birmingham who are accused of being part of a plot to kidnap and behead Muslim soldiers serving in the British army. The murder would then be shown on Islamic websites. MI5 estimates there are now more than 400 such radical sites.
Original Source

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Canada's ideological left, confident of its control of academe, the Supreme Court and the federal Liberal Party, appeared this month ready to declare war on its most formidable enemy of all, namely conservative Christian churches that refuse to make their teachings conform to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as defined by the Supreme Court.
Janice Gross Stein, Belzberg professor of conflict management and director of the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto, a luminary and advanced thinker in the feminist and human rights movement, effectually disclosed the new campaign in an article published in the Literary Review of Canada, entitled "Living Better Multiculturally: Whose Values Should Prevail?"
Her answer was clear: The Supreme Court's values should prevail. Then she played her trump card. Churches whose teachings fail to conform to the Charter should be denied charitable status in Canadian tax law and exemption from property taxes. To my knowledge it was the first time the tax threat was seriously levied. It will seek to force the churches to accept gay rights, abortion and (in the case of the Catholic and Orthodox churches) female priests.  
The Stein article appeared in the fall edition of the ...   more »