The World Council of Churches gathered in Jordan on Monday to demand an end to Israel's “occupation” of its biblical heartland, while conspicuously forgetting to make any mention of their besieged Christian brothers and sisters who are now living under strict Islamic rule in Gaza.
Following the gathering, the Geneva-based church body that claims to represent some 560 million Christians worldwide announced the launch a global campaign to put as much pressure as possible on Israel to surrender Judea and Samaria to the Palestinian Arabs.
“The initiative aims at calling on all churches to work seriously for putting an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Arab lands [sic],” read a statement released by the council.
The conference took place just days after Hamas completed its military conquest of the Gaza Strip and affiliated terror groups warned local Christians to come in line with strict Islamic religious law.
And to make sure Gaza's Christians got the point, Hamas-aligned militants sacked and burned a Catholic church and adjacent convent in Gaza City.
The World Council of Churches was completely mum on the treatment of fellow Christians by their new Hamas overlords.
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Behind the crocodile tears Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas shed after Hamas militants sacked a Catholic compound in Gaza City lies the fact that his own men similarly abused and endangered local Christians at the height of last week's civil war.
As Hamas forces advanced through Gaza City, members of the Palestinian Authority security forces loyal to Abbas demanded entrance to the Gaza Baptist Church, the only Evangelical church in the coastal strip, in order to use the place of worship as a lookout post.
Pastor Hanna Massad told the Associated Baptist Press that when he refused to open the gates, the officers forced their way in and seized control of the church. He later found that Abbas' men had stolen about $4,000 worth of computers and other electronic equipment.
International law enshrined in the Geneva Conventions forbids the use of religious sites and places of worship as military positions during an armed conflict, a stipulation that is regularly ignored in the Muslim Middle East.
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 distressing and worrying development is unfolding in our Negev, far from the State's decision-making centers. Every night some 40 to 50 African refugees cross the Israeli-Egyptian border; they raise their hands and turn themselves in to the Israeli forces. According to IDF data, from the beginning of the year up until last week some 12,000 refugees and labor seekers from various African countries came through the Egyptian border and the quota is growing daily.  
Israeli troops, generally sensitive reserve soldiers, check the refugees to ascertain they are not terrorists and then they take their "guests" into the military base. They provide them with showers, food and water, diapers, baby formula, and basic medicine for those in need. After a few hours the refugees are loaded onto trucks and transported to the Emek Sara industrial zone on the outskirts of Beer Sheba where they are left to their fate.  
Seeking help  
From Darfur to Eilat: Refugees' new life / Tamar Dressler  
About 400 Sudanese refugees who crossed border into Israel from Egypt are working in Dead Sea and Eilat hotels, while 170 of them, including 40 toddlers, live in southern Kibbutz Eilot. Due to lack of official ...   more »

Some 400 Tel Aviv policemen train Wednesday for Thursday's pride parade in Jerusalem, prepare for violence by protestors. Meanwhile, haredim continue to demonstrate against parade across country
Some 400 policemen of the Tel Aviv District police held drills Wednesday ahead of the gay pride parade, scheduled to take place in Jerusalem Thursday. The officers will join the Jerusalem police in securing the parade.  
The police are taking very seriously the possibility that disturbances at the event will result in violence, and officers practiced the
use of clubs and shields in case this happens.  
Meanwhile, despite an official notice published by the rabbis of the United Torah Judaism Tuesday calling on haredim not to demonstrate against the parade, violent protests ensued across Israel. Police arrested 12 haredim in Bnei Brak, including eight teens, for hurling stones at cars during the night. Two of them were later released.  
Disturbances also took place at strictly-Orthodox neighborhoods in the capital, including Givat Shaul, Meah Shearim, Beit Yisrael and Bait Vagan. The Jerusalem police arrested seven people on suspicion of throwing stones and clashing with officers. Four policemen were injured in the incidents; three of them were evacuated to the hospital.
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IsraelNN.com) The Council of Rabbis for Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) has appealed to the public to join a protest scheduled for 5 p.m. (10 a.m. EDT) Thursday on Agron Street near King David Street. "We will bodily block the shameful parade" of homosexuals and lesbians," said the rabbis.
They quoted a Biblical passage that the Land of Israel will throw out its inhabitants when they do not keep Torah commandments and instead live in abomination. "The idea of renewing the parade of abomination is a threat to the People of Israel," they added. "It is unbelievable how government officials strengthen the hand of those whose sins threaten to end the community of Israel."
The rabbis emphasized to protest in a legal and acceptable way.
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By Rob Taylor
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Human therapeutic cloning has moved a step closer after U.S. researchers said they had successfully created embyonic stem cells from monkey embryos.
In what would be a world-first breakthrough, scientists told a stem cell research conference in the Australian city of Cairns this week that they had successfully created two batches of embryonic stem cells from cloned rhesus monkey embryos.
"We've been looking for this evidence for a long time," Australian stem cell pioneer Alan Trounson from the Melbourne-based Monash University Stem Cell Centre told Reuters.
"It's very important to have this, to know that we can do this, because it may result in a lot of new cell lines than can help us understand some complex diseases."
Previous efforts to obtain embryonic stem cells from cloned primate embryos have failed. Korean cloning scientist Woo Sook Hwang lost his job over fabricated successes using human eggs.
But Shoukhrat Mitalipov of the Oregon National Primate Research Centre in the United States said he had succeeded using modified Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer, or SCNT, in which an egg cell nucleus is removed and replaced with a donor nucleus.
The cell eventually forms an early embryo, or ...   more »

By CNN's Senior International Correspondent Matthew Chance
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MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russia has staged a remarkable comeback in recent years. Gone are the days, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the Kremlin depended on Western handouts to keep its fragile economy afloat. (Special Report: Eye on Russia)
The country has emerged as the world's biggest energy producer. It supplies Western Europe with more than a third of its natural gas, and pumps more oil than Saudi Arabia. It truly is an energy superpower.
High commodity prices have swelled the Kremlin's coffers. Russia now has the third largest reserve of foreign currency in the world -- by far the biggest in Europe. It's established a stabilization fund, now worth more than 116 billion dollars. It is paying off its foreign debts, ahead of schedule.
There is a growing middle class, as wealth once held only by a few oligarchs begins to trickle down to ordinary Russians. Within a few decades, at current rates of growth, Russia could emerge as a powerful economy, with Europe's biggest market.
But this remains a nation fraught with problems and uncertainty. The fast pace of economic growth has left a dangerously ...   more »

By Lou Dobbs
CNN
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NEW YORK (CNN) -- America's once-proud public school system -- the great equalizer of our democratic society -- is failing an entire generation of students. Millions of high-school students are donning their caps and gowns this month, but a new Education Week report reveals that more than 1.2 million students will fail to graduate high school this year. Half of our black and Hispanic male students are dropping out of public high schools.
Nowhere is the news for our young people worse than in Detroit, Michigan. Detroit's economy has been devastated by so-called free trade policies and awful management decisions. Tens of thousands of jobs are disappearing, and too many mothers and fathers have never attended a parent-teacher conference. Detroit's community is in pain, and the city's future is uncertain. And despite the best efforts of local and state leaders, hope is in short supply.
The Education Week report shows Detroit's public high schools will graduate only 25 percent of their students. Cleveland, Ohio, and Baltimore, Maryland, will graduate less than 35 percent; Dallas, Texas, New York and Los Angeles, California, about 45 percent. In fact, 10 of our nation's biggest cities will ...   more »