Sheik Ahmad Bahr, acting Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, declared during a Friday sermon at a Sudan mosque that America and Israel will be annihilated and called upon Allah to kill Jews and Americans "to the very Last One". Following are excerpts from the sermon that took place last month, courtesy of MEMRI.
Ahmad Bahr began: "You will be victorious" on the face of this planet. You are the masters of the world on the face of this planet. Yes, [the Koran says that] "you will be victorious," but only "if you are believers." Allah willing, "you will be victorious," while America and Israel will be annihilated. I guarantee you that the power of belief and faith is greater than the power of America and Israel. They are cowards, who are eager for life, while we are eager for death for the sake of Allah. That is why America's nose was rubbed in the mud in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Somalia, and everywhere.
Bahr continued and said that America will be annihilated, while Islam will remain. The Muslims "will be victorious, if you are believers." Oh Muslims, I guarantee you that the power of Allah is greater than America, ...   more »

Beirut & Damascus - Syria has built a fortified complex buried deep underground and cloaked in secrecy to manufacture and store ballistic missiles capable of striking Israel, an Israeli newspaper said on Monday.
The complex includes 30 reinforced concrete bunkers, production facilities, development laboratories and command posts, the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot quoted "foreign experts" as saying, without specifying its location.
The "missile city" houses mainly Scud missiles capable of reaching anywhere in Israel. Given its weak air power, Damascus is boosting its arsenal of surface-to-surface missiles and protecting them in the complex, Yediot said.
According to the paper, Syria has 200 Scud-B missiles, 60 Scud-C and a certain number of North Korean Scud-D missiles with a range of 700 kilometres (434 miles), and has developed chemical warheads for all its Scuds.
The chemical warfare agents are stored in a separate facility, Yediot quoted the foreign experts as saying.
It also said that Iran recently supplied Syria with around 100 Chinese shore-to-sea C-802 missiles -- the same missile that Hezbollah used to hit an Israeli warship during last year's Lebanon war.
In March, military and government sources told AFP that Syria had positioned thousands of rockets on its border with Israel, ...   more »

By Aaron Klein
Shimon Peres
JERUSALEM – Members of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima party held a confidential meeting today discussing whether they will ask Olmert to resign, with some urging the Israeli leader be immediately replaced with either Former Prime Minister Shimon Peres or Foreign Minister Tzippy Livni.
The meeting follows the release of an interim report yesterday slamming Olmert's handling of last summer's war in Lebanon against the Hezbollah militia. The report has prompted a flurry of demands from around the country for Olmert to resign. A rally planned for Thursday, some are calling historic, is expected to draw hundreds of thousands calling for Olmert to step down.
Avigdor Yitzhaki, a member of the opposition Labor party and chairman of Olmert's government coalition, today held a meeting with top Kadima lawmakers in which the replacement of Olmert was discussed. Olmert's Kadima party last year forged a unity government with Labor.
According to sources familiar with the contents of the meeting, Kadima ministers in attendance were in agreement Olmert must immediately resign. The lawmakers discussed the formation of a group of Kadima ministers who would approach Olmert together and ask him to resign.
(Story continues below)
Most Kadima officials ...   more »

Israeli citizens from all over country to rally in Tel Aviv against prime minister, defense minister in light of Winograd Commission’s ‘severe’ conclusions
A mass rally calling for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s resignation is scheduled to be held on Thursday evening at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv.  
Protestors are expected to arrive from Jerusalem, Beer Sheva, Haifa, Sderot, and the North; some citizens have already begun making their way towards Tel Aviv.  
"The Public Coalition" press conference at Rabin Square  
“The Winograd Commission has spoken – you’ve failed, and you can’t fix anything anymore,” said Tafnit Chairman Uzi Dayan during a press conference held by “The Public Coalition” on Tuesday. 
“Before even hearing the conclusions, the prime minister and the defense minister announced that they wouldn’t take personal responsibility and quit. Therefore, the ball is now in the Israeli public’s court to speak out,” he said.  
University students also took part in the press conference. “The Winograd report is the most important thing ever written on the government’s conduct. The leadership has hit rock bottom, so the rally on Thursday is extremely important,” said Yakir Segev, chairman of the Hebrew University Student Union.  
“Democracy is ...   more »

WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Adminstration said Tuesday that as many as 3 million chickens that may have been given contaminated feed containing melamine have already been eaten by consumers, according to NBC News.
Although the chickens, which came from 38 poultry farms in Indiana, have already made their way into the food supply, there appears to be minimal or no health risk to humans, the government said.
The Agriculture Department and the FDA said in a joint statement Monday that officials learned of the link between the chicken feed and tainted pet food as part of the investigation into imported rice protein concentrate and wheat gluten that have been found to contain the industrial chemical melamine and related compounds.
The affected poultry farms and breeder poultry farms fed the contaminated feed to poultry within days of receiving it, the agencies said. Other farms will probably be identified as having received tainted feed, they added.
All the broilers believed to have been fed contaminated products have been processed, while the breeders are under voluntary hold by flock owners, the agencies said. The farms were given the contaminated feed in early February.
Birds that were given the contaminated feed will ...   more »

By ELWOOD MCQUAIDThe headline read, "New Jersey School Stages Practice Hostage Drill - Portrays Killers as Fundamentalist Christians." This was not something out of a Michael Moore movie. It was, according to news reports, a real-time drill staged to prepare local agencies to handle another Columbine. That, you will remember, is when two students shot up their local high school outside Denver, Colorado, in 1999, killing 13 people and wounding 24 others.
Burlington School Superintendent Chris Manno praised the New Jersey drill, saying, "You perform as you practice. We need to practice under conditions as real as possible in order to evaluate our procedures and plans so that they're as effective as possible."
However, this drill should have sent a chilling message to conservative Christians because the hostage-taking attackers were depicted as "members of a right-wing fundamentalist group called the 'New Crusaders.'" According to an article by David Levinsky in the March 23 Burlington (NJ) County Times, the "Christian gunmen" were "seeking justice because the daughter of one had been expelled for praying before class."
In response to the "disaster," faculty, local emergency personnel, and county officers were dispatched to rescue the "hostages" and evacuate the building.
While county officials ...   more »