By Peggy Orenstein
The following is an excerpt from Waiting for Daisy
“I can't believe my luck! I really hope you’re Peggy Orenstein the author!”
That was the first line of an email I’d received five years earlier from a sixteen-year-old who identified herself only as “Fish.” Girls often wrote to me in those days after reading Schoolgirls, a book I’d written about young women and self-image issues. Usually, we traded a letter or two and that was it. But Fish kept writing and so I did, too. Eventually I learned her real name was Jess Catapano. She was the only child of an elementary school aide and a construction foreman in West Palm Beach, Florida, where she attended a specialized public arts high school. She dreamed of being a journalist some day, maybe focusing on women’s issues like I had.
At first, I only responded to Jess’ letters, but after awhile, especially if we had three or four exchanges a day, I lost track of who was propelling our correspondence forward. Jess was funny and talented: I enjoyed knowing what was going on inside of her head. More than that, our exchanges made me feel that I had a ...   more »

Shas Chairman Yishai says elections possible as early as this year, warns that party will not stay in government even one day should Jerusalem negotiations get underway
Neta Sela
Shas Chairman Eli Yishai said Thursday that general elections may be held as early as this year. Speaking at a convention in northern Israel, Yishai said: "I don't know how long this government will last. I estimate that soon we will have elections."
Yishai stressed that Shas' spiritual leaders ruled that the party will not stay in the government for even one day should negotiations with the Palestinians on the future of Jerusalem get underway. Yishai called on party representatives present at the convention to prepare for local authority elections in November, and said that the general elections may be held even before that.
In light of frozen construction activity in West Bank settlements and in Jerusalem neighborhoods such as Pisgat Ze'ev, Yishai recently turned to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and asked for clarifications on the matter.
Barak still undecided
On Monday, Shas faction members are expected to tour Jerusalem and signal to PM Olmert that they are serious about their declarations and objections in regards to the handing over of ...   more »

Hillel Fendel(IsraelNN.com) The police have received a criminal complaint against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for discussing the future of Jerusalem with a foreign entity - in violation of the Jerusalem Law. However, the police have not reported any progress on investigating the matter.
The complaint was originally filed a month ago by Jerusalem attorney Baruch Ben-Yosef, on behalf of the Victims of Arab Terror International organization, headed by Shifra Hoffman.  Copies were also sent to State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss, Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann, and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz.
However, on Monday of this week, Ben-Yosef sent a reminder to the police, asking why he had not heard from them regarding his complaint. 
"On Jan.6," Ben-Yosef wrote, "a complaint was submitted to your office [that of the Jerusalem District Police Commissioner - ed.] regarding intent to perpetrate a crime according to Basic Law: Jerusalem, in that the Prime Minister announced his government's willingness to negotiate with a foreign and hostile entity regarding the division of Jerusalem."
"Ever since the complaint was filed," Ben-Yosef wrote, "and despite the fact that the above negotiations have actually commenced, we have not heard of any progress in the investigation. I request to be advised as ...   more »

Former coalition chairman executes his threat to resign if prime minister fails to step down following Winograd Commission reports into failures of Second Lebanon War. 'Olmert is the worst prime minister in Israel's history,' he tells Yedioth Ahronoth
Amnon Meranda
Knesset Member Avigdor Itzchaky (Kadima) on Thursday submitted his letter of resignation to Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik.
"This was a hard decision to make, but I promised the public that if the prime minister didn't step down – I would; and I am a man of my word," said Itzchaky. 
A week ago, Itzchaky announced that he plans to resign following the final Winograd Commission report into the failures of the Second Lebanon War. Kadima's Shlomo Mula is expected to take his place as MK.
In an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth published Thursday, the resigning MK stated that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was unfit for and undeserving of his post. "Olmert is dangerous to Israel. He is the worst prime minister in the history of the State of Israel," he stated. 
Itzchaky is one of the founders of the Kadima movement and was considered a close associate of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. After forming the government following the March ...   more »

Elie Leshem
Unidentified Right-wing figures in the US and Israel are willing to pay big money to anyone who comes up with evidence against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that will be cause enough for him to step down as prime minister, Channel 2 revealed Thursday.
The report featured a recording of a conversation between an unnamed businessman and a private investigator hired to garner the information.
The investigator asked the businessman if he had information that could incriminate Olmert. "In the beginning you may be a bit put off, but think about it, you don't have to give me an answer now," the investigator told the businessman. "A number of senior personages on a global level are behind this initiative. The situation today is that Olmert is bad for the Jews. You know no less than me that he's very bad for the Jews.
And there is a group of people who have taken upon themselves [to oust him from power], very wealthy people - on a global level."
When the businessman asked who these people were, the investigator answered: "Good Jews, and I have been sent to take care of the matter and try to remove this person [Olmert] ...   more »

By ROBERT BAER
It's difficult to decide which will go over the edge first, Lebanon or Gaza. Maybe both at the same time, hand in hand, and - if you believe Israel - with a gentle shove from Iran.
Bets are on Gaza to explode first. Although Hamas claimed that Monday's suicide bomber in Dimona, the first in a year, came from the West Bank, the Israelis still are investigating whether he got into the country from Gaza via Egypt while the border fence at Rafah was breached. It's certainly possible. An estimated 750,000 Palestinians, half of Gaza's population, crossed into Egypt and back, primarily to shop for basic goods unavailable at home.
Israel also suspects that advanced long-range rockets, anti-tank rockets and anti-aircraft missiles were smuggled into Gaza during the breach. But more ominously, Israel claimed that, along with the weapons, Iranian-trained Hamas guerrillas came across at the same time - presumably to operate the new weapons. The Negev was hit by rockets on Tuesday, but they were an old model, Qassams.
At this point Israel has to be wondering if Hamas is planning a real war, something along the lines of the 34-day war in 2006 between Israel ...   more »

By Andrew Grice in Delhi
The Prime Minister is drawing up plans to expand the number of permanent members in a move that will provoke fears that the veto enjoyed by Britain could be diluted eventually. The United States, France, Russia and China also have a veto but the number of members could be doubled to include India, Germany, Japan, Brazil and one or two African nations.
Mr Brown has discussed a shake-up of a structure created in 1945 to reflect the world's new challenges and power bases during his four-day trip to China and India. Last night, British sources revealed "intense discussions" on UN reform were under way and Mr Brown raised it whenever he met another world leader.
The Prime Minister believes the UN is punching below its weight. In 2003, it failed to agree on a fresh resolution giving explicit approval for military action in Iraq. George Bush then acted unilaterally, winning the support of Tony Blair.
UN reform is highly sensitive and Britain will not yet publish formal proposals for fear of uniting opponents against them. Mr Brown is trying to build a consensus for change first.
His aides are adamant that the British veto will ...   more »

By Steve Schifferes
There is considerable unease about the pace of globalisation around the world, according to a new BBC global poll.
Half of all people polled across 34 countries say that the pace of globalisation is too fast, while 35% say globalisation is going too slowly.
But concern about globalisation is strongest among the world's richest countries, where it is closely correlated with a belief that the fruits of economic growth have been unfairly shared.
In many of the world's poorest countries, however, where large majorities say that the benefits and burdens of economic development have not been shared fairly, people are more likely to say that globalisation is proceeding too slowly.
 BOOM IN SHANGHAI
"People in some developing countries want to accelerate globalisation and appear to believe that this will help break down some of the inequities in their country," said Steven Kull of the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes, a co-sponsor of the poll.
Among the countries where this correlation is strongest are the Philippines, Indonesia, Brazil, Kenya and Mexico.
Overall, 64% of the global public believes that the economic benefits of growth have been shared unfairly, with majorities favouring this view in 27 ...   more »

Iran is testing an advanced centrifuge at its Natanz nuclear complex, diplomats said on Wednesday, a move that could lead to Tehran enriching uranium much faster and gaining ability to build atom bombs.
Tehran's quest to produce usable amounts of nuclear fuel has been hampered by its use so far of a 1970s vintage of centrifuge, the "P-1", prone to breakdown. A senior diplomat familiar with the International Atomic Energy Agency's file on Iran confirmed it recently began testing centrifuges based on a "P-2" design, used more recently in the West and able to enrich uranium 2-3 times as fast as the P-1
Original Source   more »

Russia's foreign minister labeled US plans to build a global missile defense shield an example of "imperial thinking," and suggested in comments published Thursday that Washington was using the system to try to encircle Russia.
Sergey Lavrov said in an interview published in leading Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza that elements of the missile defense system "exist or will be built in Alaska, California, northeast Asia."
"If we look at a map, it's clear that all of it is concentrating around our borders," he was quoted as saying. "Most likely in the near future we are going to hear about hundreds, and maybe even thousands, of interceptors in various regions of the planet, including Europe."
Washington wants to place 10 missile defense interceptors in Poland and a radar system in the neighboring Czech Republic as part of a global system that it says is necessary to protect against future attacks from Iran.
Original Source
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The Archbishop of Canterbury has called for the U.K. to adopt Sharia law for
Muslims.
Rowan Williams suggested today that it “seems unavoidable” that elements of
Islamic law be accepted into the British legal system.
The head of the Church of England believes that officially sanctioning Sharia
will improve community relations and aid integration. He conceded that his view
would be controversial but said similar concessions to other religions were
already allowed in the U.K.
“Nobody in their right mind would want to see in this country the kind of
inhumanity that has sometimes been associated with the practice of the law in
some Islamic states: the extreme punishments, the attitudes to women,” he told
the BBC World at One program.
“But there are ways of looking at marital disputes, for example, which provide 
an alternative to the divorce courts as we understand them.”
Williams pointed out that some Orthodox Jewish courts already operated in the
U.K., and that anti-abortion views of Catholics and other Christians were
“accommodated within the law.”
Sharia is a code of Islamic law implemented in Muslim countries across the world
including Libya and Sudan, but most modern Islamic nations operate a dual legal
system with ...   more »

In the latest example that the U.S. dollar just ain't what it used to be, some shops in New York City have begun accepting euros and other foreign currency as payment for merchandise.
"We had decided that money is money and we'll take it and just do the exchange whenever we can with our bank," Robert Chu, owner of East Village Wines, told Reuters television.
The increasingly weak U.S. dollar, once considered the king among currencies, has brought waves of European tourists to New York with money to burn and looking to take advantage of hugely favorable exchange rates.
"We didn't realize we would take so much in and there were that many people traveling or having euros to bring in. But some days, you'd be surprised at how many euros you get," Chu said."Now we have to get familiar with other currencies and the (British) pound and the Canadian dollars we take," he said.
While shops in many U.S. towns on the Canadian border have long accepted Canadian currency and some stores on the Texas-Mexico border take pesos, the acceptance of foreign money in Manhattan was unheard of until recently.
Not far from Chu's downtown wine emporium, Billy Leroy ...   more »

Contaminated gluten just latest in list of 'filthy' products from China
Just six months after an epidemic of pet illnesses and deaths across the United States was blamed on contaminated Chinese proteins in pet food, the federal government has announced indictments against three companies, including two from China.
Named in the indictments released by the U.S. attorney's office in Kansas City, Mo., were Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co., Suzhou Textiles, Silk, Light Industrial Products, Arts and Crafts I/E Co. and ChemNutra Inc. of Las Vegas, according to a report from the Associated Press.
The tainted pet food was blamed for the deaths of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of house pets last year and an inflation in the fear American consumers felt toward products from China amidst a long series of reports about contaminated products ranging from sardines to toothbrushes.
The companies were named in two separate but related indictments, the report said.
One alleged Xuzhou Anying Biologic, headquartered in China's Jiangsu Province, and Suzhou Textiles, of the city with the same name, introduced contaminated or adulterated food into interstate commerce as well as introducing "misbranded" food, for a total of 26 counts. 
The report said ChemNutra, owned by Chinese national ...   more »