Opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu was reelected Likud chairman in Tuesday's party primary, defeating the two Likud activists who challenged him - Moshe Feiglin and Danny Danon - by a hefty margin. As polls were closing, Netanyahu won 73 percent of the votes, while Feiglin had 23% and Danon 4%. The numbers were based on a count of 80% of the votes. A last minute drama ensued when Netanyahu decided to hold his victory speech in a room adjacent to the one agreed upon, a decision that prompted media and reporters to refrain from covering the speech. Reporters said they agreed to boycott the speech to protest Netanyahu's decision, which, they said, was in contradiction with their understanding with him from earlier the same evening. Concurrently, a radio journalist who wished to speak to Feiglin outside the Tel Aviv premises was informed by a Likud security guard that he would be allowed out the building, but not back in. The reporter said on air that he could see Feiglin outside, and that security guards were withholding Feiglin from entering the building. Netanyahu later told an Israel Radio reporter that he did not give any instructions to bar Feiglin from entering the ...   more »

Russian Navy to operate from Syria
For first time since fall of Iron Curtain, Russia plans to build permanent bases on Syrian soil as part of large arms deal between two countries. Defense establishment officials fear Russian ships may try to spy on Israel's weapon systems
For the first time since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Russia plans to re-operate the Tartus and Latakia ports in Syria as permanent bases for the Russian Navy in the Mediterranean basin, according to recent western media reports. Rumors on the growing Russian activity in the Mediterranean began spreading following a statement by Russian Navy commander, Admiral Vladimir Masorin, as he visited the Russian Navy base in the Sebastopol port in Ukraine. Regional Ties  
Report: Russia delays Iran nuclear plant to 2008 / Reuters  
Nuclear subcontractor said Tehran's first atomic power plant in Bushehr will not be finished before autumn 2008, a delay of more than year to earlier plans  
"Being present in the Mediterranean is very important for our Navy in the Black Sea," the admiral said. The Qatar-based television network al-Jazeera quoted a senior Russian Defense Ministry official over the weekend, who declared that Russia must be permanently present in the Mediterranean again. According to ...   more »

By Aaron Klein
JERUSALEM – Newly installed Israeli President Shimon Peres has quietly drafted a plan for the Jewish state to evacuate and transfer to the Palestinians nearly the entire West Bank and several Arab Israeli cities located within territory that is undisputedly Israel's according to the international community, WND has learned. The West Bank is strategic territory that runs alongside Jerusalem and is within rocket range of Tel Aviv and Israel's international airport. It is home to many biblical Jewish communities and some of Judaism's holiest sites. Peres has presented his initiative to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and to top aides for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas the past few weeks, after he took office as Israeli president last month, diplomatic sources in Jerusalem told WND. The official role of president here is limited largely to ceremonial matters; the president does not create foreign policy. Olmert is mulling over the plan and agrees with much of its contents, the diplomatic sources said.
Peres' plan calls for Israel to hand 97-percent of the West Bank over to Abbas, with Israel retaining a small number of the territory's Jewish communities. In exchange for Israel keeping some land, the Jewish state will ...   more »

The British government has blocked almost one third of British military exports to Israel this year, citing possible threats to regional stability and fears the equipment might facilitate human rights violations.
According to official figures, the value of UK military sales arms to Israel declined by one third last year, and has fallen by a drastic 75 percent since 2005.
"There is evidence that the British government's export control policy to Israel may have been tightened up," said Parliament's new 2007 Strategic Export Controls report, issued by the Quadrapartite Commission, which comprises representatives from four ministries.
The change in policy, said the report, reflects a convergence of government attitudes with its own official guidelines.
The report comes amid a period of uncertainty in Anglo-Israeli relations.
While the new prime minister, Gordon Brown, has voiced public support for Israel and has appointed several pro-Israel MPs to cabinet positions, he has also promoted a leading critic of US and Israeli policy, former UN deputy secretary-general Mark Malloch Brown, to a key Foreign Office post.
Outside of government, the opposition Liberal Democrat party has called for a rethinking of arms sales to Israel, while in May the UK's Legal Services Commission, the state ...   more »

Explains he'd had too much to drink to recall purchasesU.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham
The senior federal judge in Colorado has admitted in court documents connected to his divorce that he spent more than $3,000 at a strip club and used his government computer to access an online service his former wife describes as a "porn site."
According to reports at KUSA-TV in Denver, the revelations about Judge Edward Nottingham, who recently presided at the insider trading trial of former Qwest chief Joe Nacchio, came through court testimony and documents in his recent divorce case in Eagle County.
The television station also reported the FBI has questioned the judge's former wife about the use of his courthouse computer. The judge responded with a prepared statement that the issues are personal and nothing would be accomplished by making them public.  
The television station's investigative team reported Nottingham, the chief federal judge in Colorado, said during his divorce proceeding he was too drunk to remember how he spent more than $3,000 at a strip club in Denver over two consecutive days.
His now-former wife, Marcia Jaeger, discovered the expenditures through credit card charges from the club, the Diamond Cabaret, and the station ...   more »

By Nancy Levant -August 14, 2007 -- RaidersNewsNetwork.com -- Let us start with the premise the title offers. Let us assume that our Constitution and three branches of government, our state constitutions and governors, our schools and universities, our health care systems, taxation systems, all regional and appointed governing bodies, commissions, and councils; our churches and synagogues, our military, land and watershed systems, and all forms of licensure and credentialing, including travel, are under the governing auspices of internationally emerging laws. Then let us try to figure out what is not under global dictatorship specifically here in the United States. We still have our 2nd Amendment intact, though it has been degraded decade by decade, and the United Nations is in the planning stages of disarming the “international community.” By “international community,” let us assume that means the international rabble. I’m pretty sure the elite will still have their armed body-guarding details and that the “international” peacekeeping forces will remain technologically armed to the teeth and into outer space. Let us also assume that non-lethal weapons technologies will also remain highly funded and manufactured. Let us therefore assume that total disarmament of other than elites and militaries remains a global ...   more »

"When I was lying in my bed that night, I couldn’t sleep because my voice in my head kept echoing through my mind telling me to kill them."
You're reading the words of 12-year-old Christopher Pittman, struggling to explain why he murdered his grandparents, who had provided the only love and stability in his turbulent life. He was angry with his grandfather, who had disciplined him earlier that day for hurting another student during a fight on the school bus. So later that night, he shot both of his grandparents in the head with a .410 shotgun as they slept and then burned down their South Carolina home, where he had lived with them.
"I got up, got the gun, and I went upstairs and I pulled the trigger," he recalled. "Through the whole thing, it was like watching your favorite TV show. You know what is going to happen, but you can’t do anything to stop it."
His lawyers would later argue the boy had been a victim of "involuntary intoxication," since Pittman's doctors had him taking the antidepressants Paxil and Zoloft just prior to the murders.
Paxil's known "adverse drug reactions" – according to the drug's 2001 FDA-approved ...   more »

Israeli military source says that after studying IAF's performance during Second Lebanon War, Damacus has purchased most advanced ground-to-air missiles from Russia. IDF fears Assad's arms race may be sign of possible conflict with Israel
Alex Fishman
Syria possesses the most crowded antiaircraft system in the world following its continued purchase of Russian weapon systems, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday, quoting a senior Israeli military source.  
According to one estimate, the Syrians hold more than 200 antiaircraft batteries of different types.      
In a bid to respond to the Israel Air Force's supremacy, Damascus has been exerting great efforts in the past few years to improve its ability in terms of ground-to-ground and ground-to-air missiles.  
According to the military source, as part of these efforts the Syrians have purchased the most advanced ground-to-air missiles from the Russians, considered the cutting edge in aircraft interception technology.  
Some of these missiles were snatched from the production lines even before being introduced into Russian operation service.  
Damascus' race to purchase antiaircraft weapons is one of the prominent characteristics in the Syrians' preparations for a possible conflict with Israel.  
According to the military source, Syria studied the IAF's performance during ...   more »

Diplomats say head of Syrian military intelligence has convinced Assad that only war will bring Israel to negotiation table
Smadar Peri
In Damascus, it is forbidden to photograph him and diffuse pictures that can identify him. He has tight security around him at all times and avoids attending public events. General Asef Shawkat, the head of Syrian military intelligence, has good reasons to be in hiding.
"If military confrontations break out between Syria and Israel, that would be the fulfillment of the general's plan," a Lebanese official told Yedioth Ahronoth.   
Syrian rockets aimed at Tel Aviv / Ron Ben Yishai  
Long-range rockets already in place on Golan; is Syria preparing for war?    
Having opened the doors of the Syrian Army to Iranian experts, now he is seeking to relocate hundreds of young Syrians eligible for army service to the Golan Heights.  
"In any case," he recently told President Bashar Assad, "there is no chance of a political channel to return the Golan Heights."
That was Shawkat's pretext to sideline the old guard within the ruling Baath Party, most of whom are well-versed in peace negotiations with Israel.  
Former foreign minister and Vice President Farouk al-Shara ...   more »

By Kristin Roberts
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. (Reuters) - Russian bombers are flying more missions than normal near U.S. territory, including Alaska, demonstrating their long-range strike capability, U.S. and Canadian officials said on Monday.
Russian aircraft carrying cruise missiles ran an aviation exercise near Alaska two weeks ago, according to Canadian Col. Andre Dupuis, an officer at the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), a U.S.-Canadian operation responsible for protecting both countries' airspace.
"They didn't do it to practice alone. They're making a point, doing it outside of their normal training cycle," he told Reuters. "They maintain capability."
Russian bombers were also tracked last week flying a course toward Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific.
Some analysts and defense officials say the flights likely reflect Moscow's desire to display its military muscle to remind Washington of Russia's capabilities and express dismay over U.S. plans to build a missile shield in Eastern Europe.
One defense official called the Russian flights "a little bit of chest pounding, trying to let people know Russia's back in the game."
"Over the last probably three months or so the Russians have been flying their bomber force maybe a little bit more than we've ...   more »

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. - The story of the public school in Brooklyn that is poised to become a taxpayer-underwritten, Islamist recruitment and indoctrination center took a dramatic turn last week. The principal-designate of the so-called Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA), Dhabah "Debbie" Almontaser, was forced to resign after she defended a T-shirt emblazoned with the words "Intifada NYC" — making clear her radical ideology and proclivity for dissembling.
The question is no longer whether Ms. Almontaser was, as her critics in a group of parents, teachers and concerned citizens called the Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition have insisted, determined to use the KGIA to advance her theo-political agenda. Her claim that "intifada" actually meant nothing more than a "shaking off" and that its use in connection with New York City was unobjectionable was so preposterous — not to say alarming — that her supporters, notably Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Public Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, found it impossible to ignore the outcry.
Even before Ms. Almontaser was obliged to resign, however, she ran into problems with respect to another part of her agenda: Last week, the city's Department of Education felt constrained to reject her effort to make the school's ...   more »

Chuck Baldwin
Christians throughout church history have debated the nuances of Eschatology. These debates will doubtless last until Jesus Himself decides to end them. Until then, the theological battles extolling or condemning premillennialism or postmillennialism, pre-tribulation Rapture or post-tribulation Rapture, etc., will continue. To be sure, this column is not an attempt to resolve or even argue these interpretations of Scripture. Let every man be persuaded in his own heart. Personally, I don't think it's worth arguing about.
Whether a Christian is premillennial or postmillennial, whether he or she believes in the pre-tribulation Rapture or not is immaterial to our responsibilities. We Christians have a duty to be the "salt" and "light" of society until Jesus returns — whenever that is. And, frankly, the time of His return is His business, not ours. If we would concentrate on those matters that truly belong to us, we would be much more effective. Arguing and battling between Christians over the nuances of Eschatology only serves to advance the cause of the Enemy. It is counterproductive and fruitless to anything worthwhile.
That being said, a brief reference to the belief that a literal antichrist is yet to come is in order. Accepting this ...   more »

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By Jeremy Grant in Washington
The US government is on a "burning platform" of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon, the country's top government inspector has warned.
David Walker, comptroller general of the US, issued the unusually downbeat assessment of his country's future in a report that lays out what he called "chilling long-term simulations".
These include "dramatic" tax rises, slashed government services and the large-scale dumping by foreign governments of holdings of US debt.
Drawing parallels with the end of the Roman empire, Mr Walker warned there were "striking similarities" between America's current situation and the factors that brought down Rome, including "declining moral values and political civility at home, an over-confident and over-extended military in foreign lands and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government".
"Sound familiar?" Mr Walker said. "In my view, it's time to learn from history and take steps to ensure the American Republic is the first to stand the test of time."
Mr Walker's views carry weight because he is a non-partisan figure in charge of the Government Accountability Office, often described as the investigative arm ...   more »

HILO, Hawaii (AP) -- An earthquake on Monday jolted the Big Island of Hawaii, which is already under a hurricane watch and a tropical storm warning. 
A video from the International Space Station shows Hurricane Flossie swirling in the Pacific Ocean.
 1 of 3  The magnitude 5.3 temblor struck at 7:38 p.m. local time, about 25 miles south of Hilo, according to a preliminary report from the U.S. Geological Survey.
There were no reports of injuries, structural damage or a tsunami, though the quake caused a small landslide, according to Tom Brown, a spokesman for Hawaii County Civil Defense.
Earlier Monday, the weather service placed the Big Island under a hurricane watch and a tropical storm warning, as Hurricane Flossie approached. A flash flood watch was also issued for the island through Wednesday.
The Big Island is largely rural, with about 150,000 people, and most live in the west or northeast, not the southern portion expected to be hit hardest by the hurricane. Other islands are expected to get less of the storm's wind and rain.  Watch nervous Hawaii residents empty store shelves »
Public schools were closed and Hawaiians were warned to have plenty of food and water on ...   more »