by Rabbi Irwin Katsof
God had some other plans for me that day besides watching TV and stuffing myself with popcorn.
I watch only one football game a year: the Super Bowl. Even though I rarely know who is playing, who the favorite is or much else about the game, I really do look forward to this once-a-year slice of Americana.
A few years ago, I found myself at my in-laws in Florida on Super Bowl Sunday. It was mid-winter vacation and my wife Judy and I were there with all the kids. For weeks leading up to the vacation, my father-in-law and I bantered on the phone about watching the big game together, and now the big day had arrived.
Though I am a total health-food nut and rarely eat junk food or drink liquor, that morning I went out and stocked up on potato chips, popcorn, pretzels and beer.
I hunkered down in the living room with my father-in-law and my sons, watching the pre-game shows, boning up on the pre-game stats, and getting an early start on the junk food. The phone rang and my mother-in-law answered from the kitchen. I could hear her muted voice, but ...   more »

Galilean tour operators invest USD 200,000 to promote tourism in area

Miri Haruti-Sover  02.04.07, 22:27 
Some160 enthusiastic members of the global tourism industry took over the Galilee's tourist attractions last week, in the framework of project "Go Galilee," aimed at exposing tour operators from across the world to Israel's beautiful north.  
Data showed that, on average, tourists spend less than one night in the Galilee region. Therefore, hotel operators and tour agents decided to invest in marketing the area in the world in a bid to bring more travelers to the north.  
Galilean tour operators invested some USD 200,000 in the project, and hope that when their guests return home, they will spread the word of how beautiful, and safe, the Galilee is.  
Marketing revolution 
Israel customarily appeals to high-class Jewish tourists that visit the country on holidays, particularly in five-star hotels in the Tel Aviv and coastal areas. Christian travelers, on the other hand, find the Galilee attractive due to its religious connotations. 
"Go Galilee" - Bringing the Galilee to the world
The marketing project, launched in 1990, addressed evangelistic audiences and tour operators. Results were visible on the ground as Galileans saw an increase in ...   more »

Syria-Meeting-Envoy
Syrian Foreign Minister Valid al-Mualem and Iranian Ambassador to Damascus Mohammad Hassan Akhtari conferred here Sunday on the latest regional developments.
At the meeting, the current crisis in Lebanon was also on the agenda.
Interference of foreign forces in Lebanon has ignited the unrest in the country and has disrupted the trend of solving discords between the Lebanese government and its opponents.
Head of Lebanon's National Liberal Party Michel Aoun termed Washington's policies in his country as a cause for concern, posing a question about whether the US is willing to turn Lebanon into another Iraq.
He accused the ambassadors of US and France in Lebanon of inciting the Lebanese government to disregard the calls of its opponents and encouraging it to take measures towards a coup.
"The US intends to cause tension among various Lebanese groups, rather than presenting a solution to the problems. This is similar to what is going on in Iraq," he added.
Although more than two months have passed since the extensive strike and protest of supporters of the government's opponents in Beirut, the Lebanese government and its supporting group, called `March 14', have not yet accepted the call of their adversaries.
The opponents ...   more »

By Warren King
Seattle Times medical reporter
Four men in King County have been diagnosed with a strain of HIV that is extremely hard to treat, and health officials are concerned it could spread further.
At least two types of HIV drugs don't work against the strain, and another type has limited effectiveness, officials from Public Health — Seattle & King County said Thursday.
"It's conceivable there can be more infections, and the gay community is at highest risk," said Dr. Bob Wood, the HIV/AIDS program director for Public Health.
All the men were diagnosed with the strain as soon as they tested positive for the virus — unlike other HIV patients who develop drug resistance over time, often from taking medications inconsistently, Wood said. But there is no evidence the strain is rapidly spreading.
The four known cases were found over the course of more than a year. These were the only such cases reported in the state.
Wood said all of the infected men are gay and have had multiple partners, most anonymous. They also used methamphetamine, which tends to increase sexual activity.
Public-health officials have found some of the patients' partners, and so far none has the ...   more »

HOLTON, England (Reuters) -- Britain scrambled to contain its first outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu in domestic poultry on Saturday after the virus was found at a farm run by Europe's biggest turkey producer.
Some 2,500 turkeys have died since Thursday at the Bernard Matthews farm near Lowestoft in eastern England. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said all 159,000 turkeys on the farm would be culled.
"We're in new territory," National Farmers' Union Poultry Board chairman Charles Bourns told Reuters. "We've every confidence in Defra but, until we know how this disease arrived, this is a very apprehensive time for all poultry farmers." (Watch how bird flu plays out at the grocery store )
The outbreak mirrored a similar case in which hundreds of turkeys died at a farm in eastern France almost a year ago.
That outbreak was contained and there followed a lull in cases of H5N1 in European poultry until last month, when it was found to have killed thousands of geese on a farm in Hungary.
The strain tends to be transmitted to poultry by infected migrating wildfowl.
It has killed at least 164 people worldwide ...   more »

 MOSCOW (MCT) — Imposing on schoolchildren the theory that humans descended from apes is unacceptable, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church said Monday.
      Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the church has campaigned for the right to teach the basics of the Orthodox faith in public schools as a challenge to Darwin's theory of evolution, which was official dogma in Soviet times.
      The issue has had particular resonance after schoolgirl Mariya Shraiber and her father filed a lawsuit demanding that Darwinism be stripped of its dominant position in the Russian school curriculum, calling its teaching to the exclusion of other theories a gross violation of the freedom of choice.
      "Teaching the biblical theory of the world's Creation will not harm students. If people choose to believe that they descended from apes, let them, but without imposing their opinions on others," Patriarch Alexy II told an educational conference in the Kremlin.

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Ahmadinejad: On February 11, Islamic Republic's nuclear rights 'will be established'
Yaakov Lappin Published:  02.04.07, 17:13 
"Giant achievements" by Iran will be unveiled by its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in the coming days, the Iranian Fars news agency reported on Saturday.
The Iranian news agency said an upcoming dramatic announcement on Iran's nuclear "rights" would be made on February 11. The report was accompanied by a series of announcements heralding alleged Iranian technological and medical breakthroughs, including an "AIDS cure." 
Ahmadinejad's "administration is going to publicize the country's remarkable progresses and achievements within the coming days," the Fars news agency said.  
"The Iranian president also reiterated that February 11 is the day when the Iranian nation's inalienable right to access and use nuclear technology will be established," the agency added.   
"The Iranian nation will celebrate stabilization and establishment of its nuclear rights during the Ten-Day Dawn, (sic)" Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying. The "ten-day dawn" in early February marks the date of the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979. 
"When a nation decides to stand on its own feet to climb up the peaks, God helps it and that nation will embrace victory," Ahmadinejad said. 
The Iranian government's boasts of ...   more »

While in India in 1979, I visited Sarnath, the place where, according to Buddhist tradition, the Buddha attained enlightenment. At the center of the site is a Buddhist stupa -- a large, solid, domed structure. The proper protocol upon visiting a Buddhist stupa, I had been told, is to make circuits around it. I joined perhaps a half dozen pilgrims who were walking around and around the stupa.
At one point I noticed an old Buddhist monk in saffron robes walking slowly, ever so slowly, ahead of me. I quickly overtook him. One circuit later, I was again behind him and about to pass when I suddenly realized my own absurdity. I said to myself: "Why are you walking so fast? You have nowhere to go! You're walking in a circle! So why are you rushing?"
I immediately slowed down to the monk's pace. Then something amazing began to happen. My mind slowed down, my mood relaxed, and I entered a meditative state.
THE PAUSE THAT PENETRATES
Slowing down is probably the single most efficacious way to improve your life. It's good for your coronary health, your blood pressure, your marriage, your relationship with your children and friends, and your ...   more »

By Associated Press  January 30, 2007 
At the height of the Second World War, Khaled Abdelwahhab hid a group of Jews on his farm in a small Tunisian town, saving them from the Nazi troops occupying the north African nation.
More than six decades later, Abdelwahhab has become the first Arab nominated for recognition as "Righteous Among the Nations" by Yad Vashem, Israel's official Holocaust memorial. The honor is bestowed on non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from Nazi persecution.
The nomination of Abdelwahhab, who died in 1997, has reopened a little-known chapter of the Holocaust, one that unfolded in the Arab countries of north Africa.
Abdelwahhab was nominated by Robert Satloff, director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a U.S. think tank.
Satloff said that after the Sept. 11 attacks, he moved to Morocco to research what happened in Arab lands during the Holocaust in hopes of countering Holocaust denial in the Arab world and tempering some of the sentiments he thought helped pave the way for the attacks.
"I asked, did any Arabs save Jews in the Holocaust?" Satloff said. "If they did, these are stories about which Arabs could be proud. It would ...   more »

By Shmuel Neumann   February 1, 2007
For thousands of years Jews have yearned for the actualization of ancient prophecies, the return and ingathering of the Jews to the Holy Land. Although the prophesies are pretty straightforward, we each have our private fantasies of what this will be like. Most Jews fantasize that it will be a utopia of like-minded individuals, Jews with similar socio-political, religious values. They dream of a safe haven where they can just be themselves cocooned in a nurturing Jewish social environment. But things don't always work out as expected. In fact, sometime when your dreams come true, it becomes a nightmare. It's the story of the genie: once it's out of the bottle fulfillling your wishes, you can't put it back.
The Israel of today is a far cry from that envisioned by those who created the Jewish state. Israel has become a fragmented society incessantly overreacting to petty differences. But the current schisms in Israeli society are mild compared to what portends to come.
When the prophets speak of the return of ALL the Jews to Israel, they mean just that -- All the Jews: Not your type of Jew, but All Jews. A Jew ...   more »

Peres dreams of presidency, but for the time being travels abroad constantly
It appears that all of the country's existential problems have been resolved, and the most important matter left for the Kadima government to address is the election of a new president, or more accurately, the election of Shimon Peres for president.
A special committee debated the issue for seven days and seven nights, and eventually made the foolish decision: The Knesset will not elect the president through a secret ballot, as is customary, but rather, the other way around – the government will work secretly in order to ensure the Knesset elects Peres openly.
This is how Peres is being fitted with the new emperor's clothes. A sold-out contest? What are you talking about? Electing a president is not the same as selling Bank Leumi. A dirty trick? God forbid. It's not the trick that's dirty, but rather, the presidential residence. If Peres enters it after Weizmann and Katsav, the smells that would emanate from it will be like the latest aftershave you can get at the duty-free store.  
Ok, so we're moving forward. But why not go straight? Why the hell does the Kadima government have ...   more »

Russia has flown a team of chemical experts to a Siberian region to find out why smelly, coloured snow has been falling over several towns.
Oily yellow and orange snowflakes fell over an area of more than 1,500sq km (570sq miles) in the Omsk region on Wednesday, Russian officials said.
Chemical tests were under way to determine the cause, they said.
Residents have been advised not to use the snow for household tasks or let animals graze on it.
"So far we cannot explain the snow, which is oily to the touch and has a pronounced rotten smell," said Omsk environmental prosecutor Anton German, quoted by the Russian news agency Itar-Tass on Thursday.
"We are waiting for the results of a thorough test on samples."
But Vladimir Gurzhey, an official with the civil defence ministry in Omsk, told the Russia TV channel that the snow had four times the normal levels of iron in it.
The TV also reported that coloured snow had fallen in the neighbouring regions of Tomsk and Tyumen.
Omsk, in western Siberia, is a centre of Russia's oil industry. About 27,000 people live in the areas affected by the snow, Russian officials said.
Original Source
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