Students required to attend CAIR indoctrination event
By Bob Unruh
A public school principal in Texas who arranged for an Islamic instruction presentation for students by an organization whose leaders have been linked to terror groups apparently arranged for that indoctrination after being told not to by her district's superintendent, parents have told WND.
Friendswood Junior High
The issue developed this week when public school students at Friendswood Junior High in the Houston area were herded into an assembly scheduled by Principal Robin Lowe that suddenly replaced a scheduled physical education class, according to reports.
There, two women from the Houston division of the Council on American-Islamic Relations instructed students that Adam, Noah and Jesus are prophets, announced "there is one god, his name is Allah," taught the five pillars of Islam, told students how to pray five times a day, and instructed what Islamic religious rules require for dress.
Pastor Dave Welch, spokesman for the Houston Area Pastor Council, confirmed the indoctrination had taken place and called it "unacceptable."
"The failure of the principal of Friendswood Junior High to respect simple procedures requiring parental notification for such a potentially controversial subject, to not only approve but participate personally in ...   more »

Imams and other adults who are granted access to school pupils will be vetted for radical Islamist views under new Government guidelines.
A package of measures, due to be published next week, will set out controversial moves to invite imams into the classroom to speak against violent extremism.
British-born Islamic scholars will teach citizenship in an effort to undermine any dangerous influences being exerted on youngsters elsewhere.
In an effort to allay fears that imams taking part in the scheme could themselves be spreading extremist doctrine, education chiefs will be required to look into the political background of individuals and any organisations invited through the school gates.
The measures will go significantly further than current vetting checks, which are limited to criminal convictions.
The requirements will even apply to parents who play a role in the daily life of the school, for example in a pastoral role.
A Whitehall source said: "There will be engagement criteria set down in the document that will help schools make sure they only work with those groups which uphold our shared values of tolerance, respect and equality and who reject and condemn violent extremism.
"There will be no question of people with the wrong ...   more »

By Kirk Shinkle
Economic punditry tends to fall broadly into glass-half-full or half-empty categories. Then there are those who see a cracked glass, teetering on the edge of a table just moments from a shattering fall. Enter Peter Schiff, the permabear president of brokerage Euro Pacific Capital and coauthor of last year's Crash Proof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse. Schiff spent the past decade urging brokerage clients to jump ship from the American economy ahead of what he views as inevitable pain caused by a toxic cocktail of lax monetary policy, wayward spending, and tougher competition from all corners of the globe.
Even with some pain already felt as America's economy stumbles, Schiff saw nothing but downside in a recent chat with U.S. News. You'll want to buckle up for some characteristically apocalyptic talk from one of the gloomiest market watchers around. Excerpts:
Say something positive about the U.S. economy.
There's nothing good to say about our situation. The policies both the Fed and government are pursuing are making the situation worse. We've been getting a free ride on the global gravy train. Other countries are starting to reclaim their resources and goods, so as Americans are ...   more »

By STEPHEN FARRELL
BAGHDAD — “I have no future here to stay.”
Written in broken English but with perfect clarity, the message is a stark and plaintive assessment from one of the last Jews of Babylon.
The community of Jews in Baghdad is now all but vanished in a land where their heritage recedes back to Abraham of Ur, to Jonah’s prophesying to Nineveh, and to Nebuchadnezzar’s sending Jews into exile here more than 2,500 years ago.
Just over half a century ago, Iraq’s Jews numbered more than 130,000. But now, in the city that was once the community’s heart, they cannot muster even a minyan, the 10 Jewish men required to perform some of the most important rituals of their faith. They are scared even to publicize their exact number, which was recently estimated at seven by the Jewish Agency for Israel, and at eight by one Christian cleric. That is not enough to read the Torah in public, if there were anywhere in public they would dare to read it, and too few to recite a proper Kaddish for the dead.
Among those who remain is a former car salesman who describes himself as the “rabbi, slaughterer and ...   more »

 By Honor Mahony
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Plans are being developed to launch a social networking site for MEPs and MPs to boost contacts between politicians across Europe and promote a trans-European democracy.
Myparl.eu - officially to be launched in October - is a website currently under construction that aims to work along the same lines as the popular MySpace or Facebook social networking services, but in addition to linking social contacts is supposed to foster debate about legislative proposals coming both out of Brussels and from national parliaments.
The first official talks on the project, which is sponsored by the European Commission and will receive EU funds, took place in Brussels on Thursday (28 May) involving MEPs and the 27 national co-ordinators for each member state.
Daniela Vincenti Mitchener, editor of the site, told EUobserver the project is about "creating a transnational community of ideas" and that it will alert MPs to MPs in other countries "who are thinking alike.
The project could potentially involve up to 20,000 people, including politicians from regional governments and parliaments.
It is planned that the site will be managed in the three main working languages of the EU - French, German and English ...   more »

Traders say that even though you're already paying for the hurricane season, the price could spike to $6 a gallon if catastrophe strikes.
By David Goldman
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Batten down the hatches: hurricane season starts on June 1. It's expected to be a rough one, threatening to upend refineries and disrupt pipelines in the southern United States.
And that could send gas prices, already nearly 20% above what they were last year, soaring even higher.
That's what happened three years ago when the Gulf Coast was battered by two hurricanes - Katrina and Rita - in the span of a few weeks.
"With the market the way it is now, a move in crude because of a hurricane could really be exacerbated," said MF Global energy analyst Don Luke.
Peter Beutel, oil analyst at Cameron Hanover Beutel, said if a Katrina-like hurricane were to hit in July, gas prices could go as high as $5 or even $6.
"The last thing this market needs at this time is a hurricane, because we can't afford to lose any of our refining capacity at this point," said Beutel. "If anything bullish happens with the market in this state, it would ...   more »

By DPA   
Jordan and France on Friday signed two agreements for cooperation in the peaceful development of nuclear technology and political coordination on regional and international issues, according to an official statement.
The accords were signed by Jordanian Foreign Minister Salah Bashir and his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner, who also held talks on latest developments in the Middle East.
The nuclear cooperation agreement provides for using nuclear reactors for generation of electricity, the extraction of uranium from phosphate mines in Jordan, the training of Jordanian manpower and arrangements for nuclear safety, Chairman of the Jordanian Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) Khalid Touqan said.  
Under the second agreement, Jordan and France set up "a political group that seeks to boost coordination on regional and international issues and forge a long term strategic relationship between the two countries," the statement said.
Bashir expressed his country's support for French President Nicolas Sarkozy's Med Union scheme and said Jordan "looked forward to the Paris summit in July when the plan will be officially launched".
Bashir and Kouchner stressed the need for extending support to the Israelis and Palestinians in their ongoing negotiations with a view to achieving "tangible progress before the end of ...   more »