Rabbi Leiby Burnham
I had always considered sending my children to Duke University, but now I think I may just send them to the zoo instead. A study by Duke researchers indicates that the monkeys perform just as well as college students at mental addition. I guess I can open that jar we’ve been keeping in the cupboard for our children’s college money and use the funds to buy the amateur telescope I’ve always wanted instead. (P.S. Mars is now closer to earth that it will ever be again for dozens of years, so this is the time to check it out.)
Earlier studies have found that non-human primates can match numbers of objects, compare numbers, and choose the larger of two objects. One Japanese study even showed chimpanzees performing better than human adults at memory games. The Duke study took the next step.
"This is the first study that looked at whether or not they (primates) could make explicit decisions that were based on mathematical types of calculations," said Jessica Cantlon, a cognitive neuroscience researcher at Duke, whose work appeared in the Public Library of Science’s journal, PLoS Biology (http://www.plosbiology.org). "It shows when you take language away ...   more »

Reuters - Thursday, January 17 11:45 amMOSCOW (Reuters) - Israel said on Thursday that Russian deliveries of nuclear fuel to Iran might help Tehran develop nuclear weapons.
Russia last month delivered the first shipment of nuclear fuel to Iran's first nuclear power plant in Bushehr, a step which both Moscow and Washington said should convince Tehran to stop its own uranium enrichment programme.
But Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said during a visit to Russia that the fuel might help Iran develop its nuclear weapons programme.
"Now Russia has started delivering nuclear fuel to Bushehr, (Iran's) uranium enrichment may serve military goals," Russian news agencies quoted Livni as saying.
Israel, Washington's staunchest ally in Middle East, says Iran could have a nuclear bomb by 2010 and says an Iranian nuclear weapon would threaten the existence of the Jewish state.
Israel itself is widely believed to be the only Middle East country with a nuclear arsenal.
Iran has said it will not halt its efforts to enrich uranium -- fuel it says it needs for other power plants but which foreign powers fear could be used in a nuclear bomb.The United Nations Security Council has imposed two rounds of sanctions on ...   more »

Etgar Lefkovits
A stone seal bearing the name of one of the families who acted as servants in the First Temple and then returned to Jerusalem after being exiled to Babylonia has been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said Wednesday.
The 2,500-year-old black stone seal, which has the name "Temech" engraved on it, was found earlier this week amid stratified debris in the excavation under way just outside the Old City walls near the Dung Gate, said archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, who is leading the dig.
According to the Book of Nehemiah, the Temech family were servants of the First Temple and were sent into exile to Babylon following its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.
The family was among those who later returned to Jerusalem, the Bible recounts.
The seal, which was bought in Babylon and dates to 538-445 BCE, portrays a common and popular cultic scene, Mazar said.
The 2.1 x 1.8-cm. elliptical seal is engraved with two bearded priests standing on either side of an incense altar with their hands raised forward in a position of worship.
A crescent moon, the symbol of the chief Babylonian god ...   more »

By Jonathan Lis
at also said, "I thank God his fears did not come true in light of the discovery of the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth."
"As a boy, he wandered around the lion's den of occupied Poland," she also said. "The memory of those days never left him. It was one of the things that held him back as an archaeologist and that was also the reason for his great caution." 
Yosef Gat worked as an inspector for the Israel Antiquities Authority for 27 years. He uncovered some 400 sites in the Negev and many other sites in Jerusalem.
The cave was uncovered in 1980, but was not made public until the mid-1990s. Last year, the story became widely known with the release of the documentary film >"The Lost Tomb of Jesus"
The film presents a cave uncovered in 1980 during construction work on an apartment building in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Talpiot. The tomb contained 10 ossuaries. Hebrew letters were inscribed on some, including those Jacobovici says should be read: Yehuda bar Yehoshua, Matya, Yose, Maria, and Yeshua bar Yehosef. The bones of 35 individuals were also uncovered, interred over three to four generations.
"I fell ...   more »

Khaled Abu Toameh
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is considering resigning from his post if Israel continues its military operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a top PA official said Thursday.
The official said Abbas, in a series of phone conversations with Arab, American and EU leaders and government officials, strongly condemned Israel's attacks as a "severe blow" to the peace process.
"The president has said that he will resign if the military escalation and daily killings continue," the official said. "Israel's actions undermine the Palestinian Authority and drive more Palestinians into the open arms of Hamas and Islamic Jihad."
According to the official, Abbas was particularly enraged that Israel had stepped up its military operations shortly after US President George W. Bush's visit to the region.
"The military escalation is being seen as a direct result of Bush's visit to Ramallah," the official said. "This puts President Abbas in an uncomfortable position and makes him look as if he's part of the aggression."
Another PA official said Abbas was also considering disbanding the Palestinian negotiating team as a first step toward suspending peace talks with Israel.
Abbas's spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudaineh, accused Israel of seeking to sabotage ...   more »

Israel successfully test-fired a ballistic missile on Thursday, army radio said, two days after warning that all options were on the table to prevent archfoe Iran from obtaining atomic weapons.
"There was an important test, which was carried out successfully, of a ballistic missile," the radio said, without providing any further details.
The test was "part of a future multi-layered defence system designed to counter various aerial threats against the Jewish state," the YNet website said.
Israel has in recent years concentrated efforts on countering the threat of missile attacks from neighbouring Arab states and Iran, which has itself conducted several long-range missile tests.
Israel is currently thought to be developing the Jericho-3 ground-to-ground missile that can be equipped with a nuclear, chemical or biological warhead and could have a range of up to 4,500 kilometres (2,800 miles).
Widely considered to be the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear power with an estimated arsenal of 200 warheads, Israel accuses Iran of using its controversial nuclear programme as a cover for developing atomic weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
Thursday's test came two days after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned that all options were on the table to prevent Tehran from ...   more »

Accused of plotting against Jewish state prior to Israel's air raid of suspected site
By Aaron Klein
TEL AVIV – Israel arrested a suspected Syrian militant operating on Israeli soil accused of preparing attacks against the Jewish state, WND has learned.
The militant was arrested July 29, weeks before Israel's Sept. 6 air raid on a remote site in Syria that has been described by independent analysts and some U.S. politicians as a potential Syrian nuclear reactor.
Security officials would not say whether the arrest was tied to the air strike. According to security sources, his activities were known to Israeli intelligence agencies for at least one year prior to his arrest.
Sources indicated the arrest was ordered as part of a series of other steps taken to ensure against Syrian retaliation following the Israeli air raid.
Israel has acknowledged carrying out the September air raid after earlier denials but has given no details on the target, which some analysts have said was a nascent Syrian nuclear reactor constructed with the aid of North Korea.
Earlier this week, an independent monitoring group told the New York Times that Syria has commenced construction on a new building at the same site ...   more »

Originally charged 'racial profiling' in case of 2 students arrested in S.C.
By Chuck Hustmyre
Youssef Megahed and Ahmed Mohamed
TAMPA, Fla. – The Council on American-Islamic Relations has backed off on its defense of two Muslim college students caught driving near a sensitive U.S. Navy base with explosives and a how-to video on bomb making.
Last August, when police in South Carolina arrested University of South Florida students Ahmed Mohamed and Youssef Megahed for possession of four pipe bombs and a homemade video on how to make detonators for improvised explosive devices, CAIR sprang to the students' defense.
Now, the Washington, D.C.-based Muslim civil rights group is not so sure the boys are innocent.
Ahmed Bedier, executive director of CAIR's Tampa, Fla., office, told WND it's possible the two Egyptian engineering students were up to no good and they possibly were not just carrying fireworks to the beach, as they claimed.
"I've never said that these people were innocent, or that we were providing any kind of support for them," Bedier told WND. "If they did anything wrong they should be punished."
But when FBI agents searched Megahed's home in August, Bedier claimed the case was nothing more than ...   more »

What kids read, discipline they need, church attendance could be decided by state
The president of the world's premier homeschool advocacy organization is renewing a call for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to protect the rights of parents.
J. Michael Smith, in a commentary published in the Washington Times, warns that without such a plan, the state, not parents, could in the future decide what children read, who they associate with, what discipline is used or whether they attend church.
The danger he cites comes from the potential ratification by the United States of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
It was a subject that Michael Farris, cofounder of the HSLDA, addressed in a commentary published on WND more than a year ago.
Farris then noted the "need to explicitly define and protect parental rights in the text of the United States Constitution." He cited a Sept. 12, 2006, decision by the European Court of Human Rights that affirmed Germany's power to ban home education. He said:
While the decision noted that some nations in the European Union allow for homeschooling, and while Germany allows for private institutional education, the court made it clear that ...   more »

'Trial run' launched for law allowing coed locker rooms
By Bob Unruh
A "trial run" has been launched for a new law in a Maryland county that arguably would allow coed locker rooms in public accommodations, and women aren't pleased with the results.
It happened this week when a man, wearing a skirt and makeup, walked into a women's locker room at a health club.
"I could see his muscles, I could see his large hands. He was wearing a blue ruffled skirt that came down to above the knee," Mary Ann Andree told WJLA-Television after the incident at the Rio Sport and Health Club in Gaithersburg.
It was about 1 p.m., when Andree was drying her hair, that the man, who was identified by the health club only as a member, entered, an action that critics of the new county ordinance say would be legal when the law takes effect in February.
"I was very upset, I'm still upset," Andree told the station. "There's a lot he could've seen."
"It is becoming obvious that this bill will have very real and serious repercussions," said Michelle Turner, a spokeswoman for the local organization that has adopted the Not My Shower ...   more »

By LARA JAKES JORDAN
WASHINGTON (AP) - A former congressman and delegate to the United Nations was indicted Wednesday as part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 to an al-Qaida and Taliban supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan.
The former Republican congressman from Michigan, Mark Deli Siljander, was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice for allegedly lying about lobbying senators on behalf of an Islamic charity that authorities said was secretly sending funds to terrorists.
A 42-count indictment, unsealed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo., accuses the Islamic American Relief Agency of paying Siljander $50,000 for the lobbying—money that turned out to be stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Siljander, who served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, was appointed by President Reagan to serve as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations for one year in 1987.
He could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.
The charges are part of a long-running case against the charity, which was formerly based in Columbia, Mo., and was designated by the Treasury Department in 2004 as a suspected fundraiser for terrorists.
In the indictment, ...   more »

Chinese Navy Confronted USS Kitty Hawk
By: Newsmax Staff
A Chinese attack submarine and destroyer confronted the U.S. carrier Kitty Hawk and its battle group in the Taiwan Strait, sparking a tense 28-hour standoff that brought both sides to a battle-ready position.
The American ships were heading to Japan following China’s sudden cancellation of a scheduled Thanksgiving port call in Hong Kong when they encountered the Chinese vessels, according to the Navy Times, which cited a report in a Chinese-language newspaper in Taiwan.
The Times reported that the encounter caused the carrier group “to halt and ready for battle, as the Chinese vessels also stopped amid the 28-hour confrontation.”
The encounter ended without incident, however, and the U.S. ships continued on to Japan. The two Chinese vessels were also headed for a port call in Japan.
The Chinese destroyer, Shenzhen, is armed with anti-ship missiles, while the Song-class attack sub is equipped with anti-ship missiles and a variety of torpedoes.
Original Source   more »

On Jan. 11, President Bush ended his visit to Israel by visiting Yad Vashem, the country's monumental Holocaust memorial. "I wish as many people as possible would come to this place," Bush said. "It is a sobering reminder that evil exists and a call that when evil exists we must resist it."
That was the day after Bush called for "painful political concessions" from Israel with regard to the Palestinian Arabs, explaining, "There should be an end to the occupation that began in 1967. The agreement must establish a Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people."
Bush is no fool. He recognizes better than any president in recent memory that the Palestinian Arabs do not desire peace – that they are, in fact, the world's most ardent supporters of anti-Western terrorism. And Bush recognizes that the establishment of a fully operational terrorist state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza would have catastrophic consequences for both Israel and the United States.
So why did Bush abandon his principles and pressure Israel to appease its Islamist enemies? Because four days after Bush's Israel visit, he visited Saudi Arabia and asked OPEC nations ...   more »

Future costs of Medicare, Social Security threaten U.S. debt rating
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2008 WorldNetDaily.com
U.S. Treasuries should be downgraded to junk bond status, not given a "triple-A" government rating, economist John Williams says, supporting a warning issued by Moody's last week that the credit rating of the U.S. government may be plunging in the next decade.
The issue surfaced recently when Reuters published a Moody's warning that in the next 10 years, the credit rating of the United States is at risk of being dropped below triple-A.
"We decided to raise the flag," Tom Lemmon at Moody's told WND, "because the underlying credit rating of the U.S. government faces the risk of downgrading in the next 10 years if solutions are not found to our growing Medicare and Social Security unfunded obligations."
Williams, author of the Internet newsletter ShadowGovernmentStatistics.com, said the credit-rating problem is immediate, not long-term.
"The U.S. Treasury is currently issuing 10-year notes and 30-year bonds," Williams pointed out. "Yes, the U.S. government can always print money, but the question is whether the investors buying these Treasury securities will get paid off when they get their money back."  
Williams fears the U.S. is going ...   more »