By Avi Issacharoff, 
Tags: Police, PA, Israel, West Bank 
Israel told the Palestinian Authority on Friday that it agrees to the reopening of 20 police stations under Palestinian control across the West Bank, as part of a security drive aimed at bolstering peace negotiations, officials said.
This is the first time Israel has approved such a measure since 2001.
According to Hussein al-Sheikh, head of the PA's Civil Affairs Ministry, the police stations were abandoned after clashes erupted in September 2000.
The stations are located in the West Bank's Area B, where under 1993 interim peace accords, Israel retains the right to deploy troops against suspected militants.
The Palestinian police will be authorized to engage in law enforcement activities, chiefly in Palestinian villages such as Tufah, which is near Nablus, Sarir, which is near Hebron, and Tekoa, which is near Bethlehem.
The agreement was reached at the end of a meeting between Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai, the head of the Civil Administration, and al-Sheikh.
"This move aims to enhance security and impose law and order under the Abbas security plan," al-Sheikh told Reuters.
Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry's civil affairs wing, said officials from both sides would ...   more »

by Maayana Miskin(IsraelNN.com) Dozens of young men and women hiked through Samaria recently, walking in areas that Jews usually avoid.  One group walked through the hostile Arab village of Huwarra on its way to Tapuach Junction.  Soldiers arrested 30 of the hikers.
Land of Israel activist Meir Bertler explained that the hike was meant to restore a Jewish presence in areas where Jews had not set foot for decades.  Walking freely in the area is the first step towards establishing new Jewish communities, he said.
In the above video, dozens of young hikers take to the hills and valleys of Samaria, confronting Arabs and soldiers along the way.
Original Source
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By Shmuel Rosner and Yoav Stern, 
Tags: nuclear, Condoleezza Rice  
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters on Thursday that "Syria is most certainly an issue in proliferation."
Responding to reporters' questions, Rice spoke at length about the talks between the U.S. and North Korea, which also addressed the issue of North Korea's relations with Syria. The U.S. is demanding that North Korea reveal all past activity relating to nuclear proliferation, including its ties to Syria. These came to light following September's airstrike in Syria, which foreign reports have attributed to Israel.
Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Watan reported on Thursday that Syrian technical teams are in Russia to take delivery of an advanced antiaircraft missile system, the Pantsyr-S1. This is part of a large Syrian-Russian deal, paid for by Iran, to supply new missile defense systems to the Syrian army.  
As part of the conclusions the Syrian army drew from the Second Lebanon War, Damascus decided to procure cutting-edge surface-to-surface missiles and antiaircraft missiles. To that end, major deals were signed with Russia, some of which are being funded by Iran.
Some of the Persian Gulf states also requested similar systems. Russia failed to meet delivery schedules, but ...   more »

By ETHAN BRONNER
JERUSALEM — Israel’s public debate shifted this week from Hamas to hametz. But it remained no less heated.
Hametz is bread and other leavened products that many Jews do not eat for the eight days of Passover, which starts Saturday night. The Bible says that when God freed the Jews from enslavement in Egypt, they left in such a hurry that there was no time for their bread to rise, and to mark that circumstance, consuming leavened bread during the holiday is forbidden.
The focus of the debate here is a ruling by a Jerusalem municipal judge overturning the convictions of four shops and restaurants for having sold pizzas and rolls during the holiday last year despite a law that many thought prohibited businesses from doing so. The judge said the law barred only the public display of hametz, not its sale inside shops.
While most debates about the painstakingly negotiated public role of religion in Israel line up along predictable lines of observant versus secular, this discussion has been different. And it speaks to a palpable anxiety over the need to define and defend the Jewish nature of the state, even as Israel’s 60th anniversary approaches ...   more »

Act - Bill Wilson
By Bill Wilson, KIN Senior Analyst
Former President Jimmy Carter should be prosecuted under the Logan Act for attempting to negotiate with a terrorist entity against the wishes of the Federal government. Carter has stated his plans to meet with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, who hasn't had any official contact with an American in two years. Hamas, under Mashaal's leadership has been responsible for war against Israel and the training of terrorists to fight and kill American soldiers in Iraq. That the former President Carter would even consider meeting with such an enemy against the express objections of the U.S. State Department is a crime against every American citizen.
The Logan Act was passed in 1799 and makes it a felony for any United States citizen "wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United ...   more »

by Hilmar von Campe
The senior pastor at the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. stated that his theology “is based upon the systemized liberation theology that started 1969 with the publication of Dr. James Cone’s book, ‘Black Power and Black Theology’”. He explains on his website that he has a church the theological perspective of which starts from the vantage point of black liberation theology. With ‘systemized” he means that his theology integrates centuries of similar theological movements.
Black theology, however, is not the beginning of modern liberation theology. It is a local version of the Latin American original which is aimed at Catholics. Black theology is aimed at Africans, for instance in South Africa, and African-Americans. There are other versions for American Natives, Asians and Women. The liberation they are talking about is not the teaching of liberation from selfishness and sin through Jesus Christ but of economic exploitation by capitalists, whites or males respectively. The message is divisive and subversive. “We are agents of change for God,” says the mission statement of Obama’s church, “who is not pleased with America’s economic mal-distribution.” Maybe they listen to Satan and not ...   more »

By Martin Sixsmith 
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams famously said about the IRA that "they never went away, you know", and researching the current BBC World Service series, After the KGB, left me with a very similar impression.
As the BBC's Moscow correspondent in the late 1980s and early to mid-90s, I witnessed the collapse of the Soviet Union and the outpouring of popular hatred for the regime's notorious secret police.
I was in Lubyanka Square in front of the KGB's headquarters on 22 August 1991, as demonstrators toppled the statue of Feliks Dzerzhinsky, the organisation's founder. When a hawser was tied round Dzerzhinsky's neck and the 14-tonne colossus came crashing to the ground, it seemed the KGB's days were numbered.
The new President, Boris Yeltsin, moved to neutralise the secret policemen by cutting their budget, slashing their numbers and hiving off their functions to rival agencies. He renamed the organisation the FSB - Federal Security Service - but somehow the spirit of the KGB lived on.
In the political and economic chaos of the Yeltsin era, thousands of disillusioned agents went into the private security business.
Dima Fonariev, a KGB bodyguard for Mikhail Gorbachev who set up his own ...   more »

Court ruling goes against coach who 'respected' student prayers
A federal appeals court ruled a New Jersey high school football coach who bowed his head while students on his team led prayer broke the law.
The decision against coach Marcus Borden of East Brunswick High School, however, will be appealed, said John Whitehead, president of the Virginia-based civil-liberties group the Rutherford Institute.
"If this ruling is allowed to stand, it will mean that high school teachers across the United States will have no free speech or academic freedom rights at all," he said. "This undermines a time-honored tradition that has less to do with religion that it does athletic tradition. It's a sad statement on our rights as Americans that schools are no longer bastions of freedom."
(Story continues below)
Borden's practice was to bow his head silently or "take a knee" while students on his football team led prayer prior to games.
But in 2005, officials at East Brunswick High School adopted a policy prohibiting representatives of the school district from participating in student-initiated prayer, even though it had been a regular part of the team's pre-game activities for 25 years.
The school concluded while it could not infringe ...   more »

Court filing seeks elimination of penalties for Christian art
By Bob Unruh
A court in Wisconsin has been asked to suspend immediately a policy in the Tomah Area School District that bans Christian symbols in students' artwork, but allows Hindu, Buddhist and satanic representations.
The motion was filed yesterday by the Alliance Defense Fund, which has taken on the case of a student identified by the initials A.P.
The ADF launched a lawsuit on the student's behalf after a teacher refused to give him a grade on a project because his work included "John 3:16" as well as "As sign of love."
Artwork banned because of the inclusion of a biblical reference and the message: "A sign of love"
The school district, however, openly acknowledged and publicized various pieces of art representing Buddhism, and Hinduism as well as several demon faces that appeared satanic.
The school defended its actions:
"Respect for the beliefs of a diverse student population … requires that the district treat all students equitable and fairly regardless of their faith," it said in a website statement. 
"To meet our responsibilities, students are required to follow the rules of conduct for their classrooms and the instructions that their ...   more »

Tim King Salem-News.com
Will the 'Amero' Replace the U.S. Dollar?
While nothing is apparently written in stone, it appears secret negotiations are underway that could lead to the implementation of new currency and coins for the American Continents. This is an image of the Union of North America (UNA) Amero Pattern Coins that is not at this point, recognized or authorized by the federal government.
Courtesy: designscomputed.com
(SALEM, Ore.) - Ignorance is a silent killer, and it appears that the U.S. government along with Mexico and Canada, may be as stealthy as Jack the Ripper when it comes to the proposed North American Union Free Trade Agreement. That may be a severe assessment, but when it comes to the end of the American dream, people get a little punchy.
Lou Dobbs of CNN calls it, "A proposal for an expanded so-called free trade zone from Alaska to the tip of South America." He says it is not a government program, instead it is formed by international corporations who according to some sources, have seen a 45% increase in profits overall in the last five years, while the American workforce has seen a 3% increase overall.
"Its a plan from the ...   more »

Earth gives off a relentless hum of countless notes completely imperceptible to the human ear, like a giant, exceptionally quiet symphony, but the origin of this sound remains a mystery.
Now unexpected powerful tunes have been discovered in this hum. These new findings could shed light on the source of this enigma.
The planet emanates a constant rumble far below the limits of human hearing, even when the ground isn't shaking from an earthquake. (It does not cause the ringing in the ear linked with tinnitus.) This sound, first discovered a decade ago, is one that only scientific instruments — seismometers — can detect. Researchers call it Earth's hum.
Investigators suspect this murmur could originate from the churning ocean, or perhaps the roiling atmosphere. To find out more, scientists analyzed readings from an exceptionally quiet Earth-listening research station at the Black Forest Observatory in Germany, with supporting data from Japan and China.
Different types
In the past, the oscillations that researchers found made up this hum were "spheroidal" — they basically involved patches of rock moving up and down, albeit near undetectably.
Now oscillations have been discovered making up the hum that, oddly, are shaped roughly like rings. Imagine, if ...   more »

Allie Martin
Tim Brooker, one of the professors at the center of a lawsuit involving Oral Roberts University, says it's no coincidence that many high-profile televangelists are facing investigations over possible financial irregularities.  
In a lawsuit filed last year, Dr. Brooker claims he was fired from Oral Roberts University (ORU) after raising concerns about the opulent lifestyles of then-university president Richard Roberts and his family. Brooker also claims he informed supervisors that a directive from Roberts -- which put students in ORU's government classes to work on a Tulsa mayoral campaign -- could jeopardize the school's accreditation. 
Since the lawsuit has been filed, Richard Roberts resigned as ORU president, and in an unrelated move, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) began an investigation into the financial practices of six high-profile televangelists. 
However, Dr. Brooker is under the impression that the timing is not coincidental. "I think God is doing a corrective work in the [body of Christ], and I think that many of the abuses and distortions of doctrine that have been allowed to take root and grow are .. .being corrected," he believes. 
Brooker further states that he believes God is doing a new work in the "body" by ...   more »

By EILEEN SULLIVAN,
The government plans to begin collecting DNA samples from anyone arrested by a federal law enforcement agency — a move intended to prevent violent crime but which also is raising concerns about the privacy of innocent people.
Using authority granted by Congress, the government also plans to collect DNA samples from foreigners who are detained, whether they have been charged or not. The DNA would be collected through a cheek swab, Justice Department spokesman Erik Ablin said Wednesday. That would be a departure from current practice, which limits DNA collection to convicted felons.
Expanding the DNA database, known as CODIS, raises civil liberties questions about the potential for misuse of such personal information, such as family ties and genetic conditions.
Ablin said the DNA collection would be subject to the same privacy laws applied to current DNA sampling. That means none of it would be used for identifying genetic traits, diseases or disorders.
Congress gave the Justice Department the authority to expand DNA collection in two different laws passed in 2005 and 2006.
There are dozens of federal law enforcement agencies, ranging from the FBI to the Library of Congress Police. The federal government estimates it makes ...   more »

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) -- Massive avalanches destroyed transmission lines and support towers to a dam that supplies 85 percent of the electricity for Alaska's capital, and utility rates could quintuple for months until repairs are made, officials said.
Tim McLeod, president and general manager of Alaska Electric Light & Power, said repairs could cost $10 million.
 The series of avalanches hit at 4 a.m. Wednesday, taking out 1.5 miles of power transmission line and destroying or severely damaging five support towers along a steep mountainside outside the Snettisham Hydroelectric Facility, about 40 miles from downtown Juneau.
Diesel generators were running Wednesday morning and are expected to continue to supply most of Juneau's power needs for the next three months, albeit at a much higher cost than the 11 cents per kilowatt hour paid for hydropower-generated electricity.
"We've always known that the Snettisham line was vulnerable because of the location of those hydro projects and that long transmission line, so we've always had a contingency plan," said Alaska Electric Light and Power president and general manager Tim McLeod.
One in five households in Juneau are heated with electricity, according to the city.
"We are very mindful of the fact that this ...   more »

Rally in support of teacher ordered to hide Good Book 
Students at the Mount Vernon, Ohio, school district have called a 'take-your-Bible-to-school day" tomorrow in support of a popular teacher who has been ordered to keep his Bible hidden while students are in his classroom.
Coach Dave Daubenmire of Pass The Salt Ministries and Minutemen United, who is acting as a spokesman for teacher John Freshwater, told WND the campaign has been organized by students using cell phones, text messaging and e-mails.
"It's for both middle school and high school," Daubenmire told WND, with plans for students to not only carry their Bibles, but to wear Christian-themed T-shirts.
WND reported just one day earlier when the dispute arose, with orders from school officials for Freshwater to hide his Bible from students and Freshwater's decision to not comply.
School Board president Ian Watson told WND the Bible was just part of a "tapestry" of issues the district was dealing with, but he said he could not provide details on other factors. He did admit that the order for Freshwater to remove the Bible from his desk, where he's kept it for more than two decades while teaching in the district, was ...   more »

Chuck Baldwin
On February 28, 1993, agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF, now known as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives or BATFE) began their assault on the home of the Branch Davidians outside Waco, Texas. An unarmed David Koresh was shot by the agents as he stepped onto his front porch. A shootout resulted with several deaths on both sides.
Shortly afterward, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) took charge of the situation, and on April 19, 1993 agents from both departments (utilizing military hardware and both U.S. and foreign military advisers) assaulted the dwellings, which resulted in the deaths of 80 American citizens. Most of the victims were old men, women, and small children.
The events at Waco have contributed to the disdain of federal abuse of power like nothing since the Boston Massacre back in 1770. (By comparison, the British killed 5 Americans in that assault.) Moved by grassroots pressure, the Congress of the United States convened special hearings into the conduct of those federal agencies responsible for the Waco debacle. The result was less than satisfactory to many Americans.
The congressional hearings, along with eyewitness testimony and subsequent infrared video ...   more »