Temple Institute group makes practical preparation for third temple by recreating, displaying priestly garments in its Jewish Quarter museum, posing threat to Islamic holy sites despite their proclaimed educational purpose
Associated Press
In a stuffy basement off an Old City alleyway in Jerusalem, tailors using ancient texts as a blueprint have begun making a curious line of clothing that they hope will be worn by priests in a reconstructed Jewish Temple - the spiritual center of Judaism destroyed by Roman legions two millennia ago.
New museum with Temple replica to be erected opposite Western Wall. Project’s sponsors include actors Kirk, Michael Douglas  
The project, run by a Jerusalem group called the Temple Institute, is part of an ideology that advocates making practical preparations for the rebuilding of the ancient Temple on a disputed rectangle in Jerusalem sacred to both Jews and Muslims.
Jews call the site the Temple Mount and venerate it as their holiest place. The Temple itself was destroyed by Roman legions two millennia ago. For the past 1,300 years, the site has been home to Islam's third-holiest shrine, the Noble Sanctuary, including the golden Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
These conflicting claims lie at ...   more »

by Ze'ev Ben-Yechiel
(IsraelNN.com) As the Jewish People continue their national return to their ancestral homeland, tailors at the Temple Institute in Jerusalem’s Old City began taking measurements of Kohanim (the priestly tribe designated to run the Temple services) earlier this month in anticipation of an even bigger event -- the dedication of the Third Temple.
Preparing Garments for Kohanim
Yehuda Glick, director of the Temple Institute, presided over the first-ever fitting of Kohanim for their priestly garments. “Today, in this room, Kohanim are being measured for the first time in 2,000 years for the type of garments they will be wearing in the rebuilt Temple," announced Glick to an audience of rabbis, reporters and cameramen on hand to witness the historic event. 
Yehuda Glick, head of Temple Institute, explains registration process to Kohanim (the Jewish priestly tribe)
Kohanim are required by the Torah to wear a special set of garments while on duty in the Temple, and their priestly attire, known as Bigdei Kehunah, is to be worn only during their Temple service.
The ceremony, inaugurating the Institute’s new “Bureau of Outfitting” on Ma’amadot Israel Street in the Old City, attracted several well-known rabbis who are also Kohanim.
Rabbi ...   more »

Ehud Zion Waldoks , THE JERUSALEM POST
Hours after the Water Authority unveiled an emergency plan on Tuesday to combat the "worst water crisis in the nation's history," top experts accused the government of resorting to short-term measures rather than adopting a long-term strategy.
In interviews with The Jerusalem Post, they blamed governments over many years for "systematic mismanagement" of the country's water resources.
At a press conference in Tel Aviv, Water Authority head Uri Shani outlined an unprecedentedly dire situation.
"This is the worst crisis since records started being kept 80 years ago," Shani declared. "Like most countries, Israel is dependent on rainfall, and the amount of rainfall is decreasing. There is a drop of 100 million cubic meters per year."
Shani described increasing damage to Israel's main natural water sources. He predicted that Lake Kinneret would reach its black line by December. The Kinneret dropped below its bottom red line on Monday, 213 meters below sea level. The lake's black line is 214.87 meters below sea level.
The Coastal Aquifer has already "dropped below its black line," which means it has most likely already suffered damage, possibly irreversible damage, Shani said.
The water level in the Mountain Aquifer ...   more »

Citizens residing in north, central Israel report seeing object travel from east to west at great speed; some say it made shrieking sound 'like a missile'
A meteor was seen passing over Israel Tuesday night in many parts of the country. Ynet was flooded with calls from citizens residing in central Israel, the Sharon region, Jerusalem and the Krayot cities who reported seeing the object crossing the sky at approximately 8:15 pm. Some witnesses said they heard a shrieking sound.
Eyewitness Ranik Kortzman said, "I was in my balcony when I suddenly saw an object with two trails passing over Kfar Saba from east to 
west. It was travelling at great velocity and made a shrieking sound – like a missile."
Ram Raphaeli of Kfar Yedidya in the Sharon told Ynet "we were on the roof when my son turned my attention to a tiny object that was passing above us. It appeared to be a meteor with a trail. It was traveling horizontally at a relatively low altitude. We didn't hear any noise, but it flew by at great speed."
Yigal Pat-El, chairman of the Israeli Astronomical Association and the director of the observatory in Giv'atayim told Ynet that ...   more »

By Yossi Melman
Former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who was released after six years in captivity on Wednesday, compared her "impeccable" rescue operation to Israeli commando operations.
Perhaps she did not know it, but Israel indeed contributed to the elaborately-planned, daring rescue mission.
Betancourt, who was kidnapped in 2002 by Marxist rebels in Colombia (FARC), was rescued without a shot being fired. Colombian military agents, who had penetrated FARC's leadership, instructed her guards to transfer her to another rebel group. 
Her captors put her on a helicopter that arrived as scheduled, little knowing that their comrades-in-arms were undercover Colombian soldiers. Betancourt and 14 other hostages who had been held in the jungle, including three Americans, were freed.
Since word of the dramatic rescue spread, speculation in the world media has attributed the success to people trained by Israeli intelligence. But an Israeli figure familiar with the military aid to Colombia said there was "no need to exaggerate" Israel's involvement in the operation.
The Israelis involved in the operation feel it is important to accord the credit to Colombia. The Israeli activity, involving dozens of Israeli security experts, was coordinated by Global CST, owned by former General Staff operations chief, ...   more »

Iran believed to test missiles for attack on U.S.
WASHINGTON – More than four years after a stunning report about America's vulnerability to a nuclear electromagnetic pulse attack was released to Congress, the House Armed Services Committee will hear testimony from the scientist who issued the warning and who believes Iran is pursuing such an option.
William R. Graham, President Reagan's top science adviser and the chairman of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, will update the committee Thursday morning.
Graham warned in 2005 that Iran was not only covertly developing nuclear weapons, but was already testing ballistic missiles specifically designed to destroy America's technical infrastructure with the aim of neutralizing the world's lone superpower.
The radical Shiite regime has conducted successful tests to determine if its Shahab-3 ballistic missiles, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, can be detonated by a remote-control device while still in high-altitude flight, Graham said in his report.
Graham said then there was no other plausible explanation for such tests than preparation for the deployment of electromagnetic pulse weapons – even one of which could knock out America's critical electrical and technological infrastructure, effectively sending the ...   more »

By Reuters   
Tags: biofuels, Muslim nations, D8  
Warning that escalating food and fuel prices could lead to disaster, a group of developing Muslim nations called on Tuesday for urgent measures
to lift food and oil output and a rethink on bio-fuels.  
Malaysia and Indonesia, the world's largest producers of palm oil, told the summit of eight developing Muslim-majority countries (D8), that they wanted to see an end to the conversion of arable land for bio-fuel production.
Palm oil is used as a feedstock to produce biofuel and also widely consumed in the region as cooking oil.
Leaders of the eight nations comprising nearly one billion people said at the summit in Kuala Lumpur that the twinproblems of food and energy security were putting a severe strain on their countries, especially on the poor.
The group of Developing Eight (D-8) countries - Iran, Indonesia, Egypt, Malaysia, Turkey, Pakistan, Nigeria and Bangladesh - represent about one billion people, or 14 percent of the world's population.
"We must act on it once and in concert. To delay action on this great challenge of our time is to court disaster," Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told the meeting. Yudhoyono's popularity in his ...   more »

Posted by Martin LaMonica 14 commentsDemand for biofuels in Europe and the United States has forced up food prices 75 percent around the world, according to a World Bank report that was leaked and published in The Guardian newspaper on Friday.
The number stands in sharp contrast to the 3 percent contribution to higher food pricing estimated by the United States Department of Agriculture.  
Meanwhile, a study commissioned by food manufacturers pegs the contribution of biofuels on food prices at between 25 percent and 35 percent. (Click here for PDF).
The reports will surely heat up the debate on biofuels policy one week before the scheduled G8 meeting in Japan. Both the U.S. and Europe have biofuels mandates to lessen dependence on imported fossil fuels.
The World Bank argues that these policies have distorted the market for grains in three ways, according to The Guardian. First, crops that would have been sold for food have been diverted for biofuels production. Second, land is now being used for fuels rather than food. And third, the mandates have set off speculation in financial markets
"Without the increase in biofuels, global wheat and maize stocks would not have declined appreciably and price ...   more »

Kimberly Johnson
Rapid changes in the churning movement of Earth's liquid outer core are weakening the magnetic field in some regions of the planet's surface, a new study says.
"What is so surprising is that rapid, almost sudden, changes take place in the Earth's magnetic field," said study co-author Nils Olsen, a geophysicist at the Danish National Space Center in Copenhagen.
The findings suggest similarly quick changes are simultaneously occurring in the liquid metal, 1,900 miles (3,000 kilometers) below the surface, he said.
The swirling flow of molten iron and nickel around Earth's solid center triggers an electrical current, which generates the planet's magnetic field.
The study, published recently in Nature Geoscience, modeled Earth's magnetic field using nine years of highly accurate satellite data.
Flip-Flop
Fluctuations in the magnetic field have occurred in several far-flung regions of Earth, the researchers found.
In 2003 scientists found pronounced changes in the magnetic field in the Australasian region. In 2004, however, the changes were focused on Southern Africa.
The changes "may suggest the possibility of an upcoming reversal of the geomagnetic field," said study co-author Mioara Mandea, a scientist at the German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam.
Earth's magnetic field has reversed ...   more »

PUPILS are being fingerprinted for food at a Huddersfield school.
All Saints Catholic College at Bradley Bar has followed other Kirklees schools in introducing a biometric payment system to replace cash for school dinners.
Students have had their fingers scanned to set up accounts like bank accounts.
They contain information about cash balances and what they have bought and when.
Instead of handing over cash at the till the pupils press their finger against a machine which recognises the print and relays the information.
A spokeswoman for the school said: “Each individual’s finger and thumb prints are unique.
“The biometric cashless system will store only a section of the print as a unique number and not as an image
“Each student will have that unique number stored on a central server.
“This is done by scanning the finger or thumb with a non-evasive electronic scanner, which passes light over the finger or thumb.”
The system is designed to make serving quicker and more efficient.
Information on the purpose for which fingerprints are gathered and who will use the data is provided to students to comply with the Data Protection Act. The college says it will “only be used by parties ...   more »

'This will be as inspirational
as Alamo, without the guns'
By Bob Unruh
At least two counties in California have begun reviewing a plan to uphold the state's laws regarding marriage as being between one man and one woman and disregard a state Supreme Court opinion that has yet to be implemented by the Legislature.
In the next step in the state's war over marriage – defined by voters as involving only one man and one woman and by the Supreme Court as two people of either gender – traditional marriage supporters will be attending the Kern County board of supervisors meeting tomorrow when the issue will be discussed.
In an alert from the Bakersfield Republican Assembly, officials suggested people "respectfully call the county supervisors and remind them that 80 percent of the voters in Kern County voted for Prop. 22 that defined marriage as between a man and a woman."
On the agenda at the meeting will be a proposed ordinance and exhaustive legal brief in its support that would have the county continue to uphold California laws and regulations – which have not been changed – providing for marriage only between one man and one woman.
That's despite ...   more »

Former Clinton OB-GYN makes admission in e-mail
By Bob Unruh
An abortionist who claims to have destroyed more than 20,000 unborn children and who once was Hillary Clinton's OB-GYN says he is doing "God's work" when he terminates a pregnancy.
"Embryos and fetuses spontaneously aborted – most, but not all of those 'canceled' by 'God' – are ... luckless human souls," wrote William Harrison, referring to an ancient poem describing the plight of mankind. "But a few spontaneous abortions occur in desired pregnancies with no discernable abnormalities. For those girls and women and their families whose circumstances would make their babies 'luckless human souls,' I 'cancel' them before they become babies."
Harrison's comments came in an e-mail to Warren Throckmorton, whose work has been published by journals of the American Psychological Association, the American Mental Health Counseling Association and the Christian Association for Psychological Studies. He documented his exchange with Harrison on his blog.
"In this e-mail exchange, Hillary Clinton's former OB-GYN and abortionist William Harrison admits that abortion kills a human soul. He euphemizes the language a bit but the effect is chilling by saying he is doing 'God's work,'" Throckmorton told WND. "I was surprised he would admit ...   more »