An international excavation team of archeologists led by Dr. Steven Collins, an expert on Biblical archeology from US Trinity Southwestern University, have claimed finding new evidence proving that the Biblical sites of Sodom and Gomorrah - two cities cited in Bible as "destroyed by God for their sins"- were located in Jordan's Tall al-Hammam in north of the Dead Sea, rather than attributed location in the south of the Dead Sea.
One of the archeologists in the excavation team said, "One of the interesting things about Tall al-Hammam is what we called a MB gap, that is the period of time between the Middle Bronze Age and Iron Age, because in normal locations like this, you have occupations one right on top of the other, but here, something very unique, something very significant took place in the Middle Bronze Age.
The city was destroyed by an event that was so dramatic that it scared everybody away for seven hundred years. Here, in this square, there's the perfect example. You have Iron Age foundations that are built right into a Middle Bronze Age rampart."
Many people located Sodom and Gomorrah towards the south of the Dead Sea but the reason that ...   more »

Posters reading 'in this house lives an MK who is trying to outlaw citizens' right to march in Jerusalem,' hung on MKs Gabbay, Zeev's homes. Zeev: Gays a plague that could destroy Israel
Aviram Zino
Members of Hadash party's "Red-Pink Patrol" hung placards overnight Tuesday on the homes of Knesset members Eli Gabbay (National Union-NR) and Nissim Zeev (Shas) in protest of a proposal banning gay pride parades in Jerusalem.
"In this house lives an MK who is trying to outlaw the citizens' right to march and protest on the streets of Jerusalem," one of the posters read. "This anti-democratic bill is targeting not only the homosexual, lesbian, transgender and bisexual communities, but also human and civil rights in general.  
The proposed amendment to Basic Law: Jerusalem, would enable the Jerusalem Municipal Council to ban gay parades and rallies for considerations of disturbance to public order, offending the public's sensitivities or for religious considerations.  
Yaniv Rosner, a member of Hadash's "Red-Pink Forum," said MKs Gabbay and Zeev "are attempting to create a situation whereby an entire community is denied its right to protest in Jerusalem.  
"There is no precedent to such legislation," he said, "this is way ...   more »

(IsraelNN.com) Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said Monday that the PA would not establish a state without Jerusalem as a capital city.  Abbas has demanded that Israel give the PA all areas of Jerusalem that fell under Jordanian control between 1948 and 1967, including the Old City and the Temple Mount.
Abbas made his statements during a meeting of approximately 400 Arab leaders in the Mukata compound in Ramallah.  The leaders met “to promote the Arab nature of Jerusalem and to fight Israeli plotting.”
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday that discussions over the status of Jerusalem would take place after negotiations on other “core issues,” such as the borders of a PA state.  Shas party leaders say they will leave the coalition when Israel and the PA begin negotiating over Jerusalem.
Original Source

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Russia's military chief of staff said Saturday that Moscow could use nuclear weapons in preventive strikes in case of a major threat, the latest aggressive remarks from increasingly assertive Russian authorities.
"We have no plans to attack anyone, but we consider it necessary for all our partners in the world community to clearly understand ... that to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia and its allies, military forces will be used, including preventively, including with the use of nuclear weapons," Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky said.
The comments from the hawkish Baluyevsky did not appear to mark a policy shift for Russia, whose leaders have stressed the need to maintain a powerful nuclear deterrent and reserved the right to carry out preventive strikes.
Moscow-based military analyst Alexander Golts said that when Russia broke with Soviet-era policy in 2000 and declared it could use nuclear weapons first against an aggressor, it reflected the decline of Russia's conventional forces in the decade following the 1991 Soviet collapse breakup.
"Baluyevsky's statement means that, as before, we cannot count on our conventional forces to counter aggression," Golts told Ekho Moskvy radio. "It means that as before, the main factor in containing aggression against Russia ...   more »

THE ARISE AND DEMISE OF ROME II
Tribute or Testament or Torment?
Sue Bradley,
Once again, and interestingly enough, pop authors engage the Hollywood establishment to produce fantasy and reality products for just about conceivable appetite on planet earth with just enough seed to provoke moderately activity and experimentation.
No audience, young or old, is spared overt subliminally induced trespasses, and the “We’ve come a long way, Baby” liberation. As the audience aged, the entertainment sector followed, delivering seemingly innocuous themes for the romantics and increasingly bizarre sci-fi tech drama for the “little boys” who now, are all grown up, still love their toys of power and prowess - but - from the comfort of a theater or vinyl recliner.
Designed as a tribute or testament to the American Culture, there is a recurrent trend toward Lovecraft mysticism and Alistar Crowley’s magik which is mingling with real life.
Mention these synchronicities to the general public and you‘ll most likely find yourself on the receiving end of a tin beanie, but a discussion with even casual followers of new age materials will likely draw far more engaging and competent conversation. Does this incongruity not trouble anyone?
Enter the good shepherds of ...   more »

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki says Jewish state's ballistic missile capability won't help it in confrontations with Islamic republic; meanwhile, Iranian-Egyptian rapprochement in the works
Dudi Cohen
"Israel is too weak to confront Iran. The leaders of this illegitimate fake regime know well would happen in the region in response to an attack (against us)," Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Monday in response to a successful Israeli ballistic missile test.
In a press conference in Tehran, Mottaki said that "If Israel's nuclear missile warheads could have helped, she would have won the (Second) Lebanon War."  
Nuclear Threat  
Iran receives last nuclear fuel shipment  
Five-ton consignment of enriched uranium arrives at light-water Bushehr nuclear power plant from Russia, in key step toward launch of reactor's operations expected later this year     
According to the minister, "The interior structure of the Zionist regime has been affected by the repercussions of its humiliating defeat in the Lebanon confrontation – not with a classic army, but rather with a popular resistance."In response to the possibility that the UN Security Council will impose additional sanctions on Iran following the country' refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment program, Mattaki said: "Despite the ...   more »

By Patrick Winn    
In a hypothetical future scenario, the U.S. and China are poised to clash — likely over Taiwan.
The democratic Republic of China, commonly called Taiwan — which America backs and the communist People’s Republic of China considers part of its territory — frequently irritates Chinese leaders with calls for greater independence from the mainland. But while the American military mulls its options, Chinese missiles hit runways, fuel lines, barracks and supply depots at U.S. Air Force bases in Japan and South Korea. Long-range warheads destroy American satellites, crippling Air Force surveillance and communication networks. A nuclear fireball erupts high above the Pacific Ocean, ionizing the atmosphere and scrambling radars and radio feeds.
This is China’s anti-U.S. sucker punch strategy.
It’s designed to strike America’s military suddenly, stunning and stalling the Air Force more than any other service. In a script written by Chinese military officers and defense analysts, a bruised U.S. military, beholden to a sheepish American public, puts up a small fight before slinking off to avoid full-on war.
This strategic outlook isn’t hidden in secret Chinese documents. It’s printed in China’s military journals and textbooks. And for much of last year, Mandarin literates ...   more »

Watchdog: 'We want to expose and stop the manipulation'
By Jerome R. Corsi 
U.S. central banks may have less than half the gold they claim to possess in their vaults, charges a watchdog group in an ad scheduled for publication in the Wall Street Journal this week.
As WND reported, the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee, or GATA, claims the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury are surreptitiously manipulating the country's gold reserves by participating in undisclosed leases, according to an advance copy WND obtained of the ad running in Thursday's edition of the Journal.
GATA believes much of the borrowed gold out on lease will never be returned to the central banks.
"With the demand for gold so strong worldwide, it has become impossible to return much of the leased gold without driving the price to the moon," said GATA's chairman, William J. Murphy III.
"Most observers calculate central bank reserves are supposed to have about 30,000 tons of gold worldwide in their vaults, but we believe the amount of gold actually there may be more like 15,000 tons," Murphy said. "The rest of the gold is gone."
The U.S. Treasury denies the claim, insisting the stock is accounted for ...   more »

Susan Jones
 The Wisconsin State Assembly, controlled by Republicans, has passed a bill requiring hospitals, regardless of religious affiliation, to provide emergency contraception to rape victims who want it.
The vote was 61-35, with 16 Republicans joining Democrats to pass the bill. One Democrat voted against it.
The bill now returns to the Democratic-controlled state Senate, where it is expected to pass easily. Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat, is expected to sign it into law.
"It's a sad day for Wisconsin," said Peggy Hamill, state director of Pro-Life Wisconsin. "The state Assembly has shamefully ignored the fate of embryonic children by forcing Wisconsin hospitals to dispense a known abortion-causing drug to vulnerable women. In so doing, they have trampled upon the conscience rights of hospitals and hospital workers in blatant disregard of our federal and state constitutions which guarantee freedom of religious expression and liberty of conscience."
Pro-Life Wisconsin called it an added insult that the bill passed the day after the 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin supported the bill, saying, "Victims of rape and incest deserve immediate access to safe, effective methods of pregnancy prevention."
The group ...   more »

The process developed by Somark involves a geometric array of micro-needles and an ink capsule, which is used to 'tattoo' an animal. The ink can be detected from 4 feet away.
By K.C. Jones
A startup company developing chipless RFID ink has tested its product on cattle and laboratory rats.
Somark Innovations announced this week that it successfully tested biocompatible RFID ink, which can be read through animal hairs. The passive RFID technology could be used to identify and track cows to reduce financial losses from Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (mad cow disease) scares. Somark, which formed in 2005, is located at the Center for Emerging Technologies in St. Louis. The company is raising Series A equity financing and plans to license the technology to secondary markets, which could include laboratory animals, dogs, cats, prime cuts of meat, and military personnel.
Chief scientist Ramos Mays said the tests provide a true proof-of-principle and mitigate most of the technological risks in terms of the product's performance. "This proves the ability to create a synthetic biometric or fake fingerprint with biocompatible, chipless RFID ink and read it through hair," he said.
Co-founder Mark Pydynowski said during an interview Wednesday that the ink doesn't ...   more »

By: Erin Ballou, 
The Iowa Legislature started just over a week ago and some people were upset before the first issue was every addressed.
When the session began, a Muslim Imam began the prayer in the Iowa Legislature. This is where the controversy begins.
The prayer asked of "Victory over those who disbelieve," and "Protection from the great Satan" among other things.
Pastor Steve Smith of the Evangelical Free Church in Albert City is among those concerned about the Muslim prayer. Rev. Smith admits that he doesn't know about all the levels of Muslim but knows that the Jihadists believe those in the U.S. are the great Satan.
Rev. Smith also wants to point out the mention of "victory over those who disbelieve." He feels "this is a request in the Iowa Legislature for God to grant the Muslims victory over every non-muslim. Not a request for salvation." Smith takes it as a gesture not of prayer but more as a political statement, especially with the wars that have been going on in the Middle East.
"I'm not concerned about a Muslim Imam opening the Legislature in prayer but it concerns me with the statements that were made. He interpreted ...   more »

By Lucille Talusan
Indonesia's tropical paradise, Bali, is recovering from the stigma brought on by the 2002 and 2005 terrorist bombings.
Over the past year, the number of tourists visiting the region has nearly tripled.
But it's not just the sandy beaches attracting tourists. A unique village called Blimbing Sari is drawing visitors.
Instead of painting blood on their doors as in the Passover in the Old Testament days, to signify their Christian faith, all 250 homes in the Blimbing Sari village in Bali have a balinese cross hanging on their doors.
The villagers there boast that the area has been 100% Christian since 1939, when their persecuted ancestors were given the land as a safe haven by the Dutch government.
"The idea was by taking all of these people, there would be no more Christian movement in the villages," explained Rev. Ketut Suyaga Ayub, head pastor of the Protestant Christian Church in Bali. "But the Christians who came here-- there were 39 families in the beginning-- they found themselves in a new exodus to the new promised land."
Villagers are taught the value of hard work and rest. Every family gets two hectares of land from the government where ...   more »