"Am I therefore become your enemy,because I TELL YOU THE TRUTH...?"
(Galatians 4:16)

GAY WATCH:New meaning for San Francisco gay pride parade

SAN FRANCISCO-Move over Dykes on Bikes.Here come the brides-and grooms.
Given San Francisco's sizable role in initiating the lawsuits that led California's highest court to strike down the state's bans on same-sex marriage, the city's 38th annual gay pride festival and parade is likely to draw huge crowds this weekend, tourism officials say."It's really going to be a Pride like none other," said Joe D'Alessandro, president of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau. "I have never seen so many rainbow flags in this city, along Market Street, on shops, on homes. It's really a situation where the people are celebrating and the city is in a very festive mood."With 259 marriage license appointments and 284 reservations for wedding ceremonies scheduled at the San Francisco county clerk's office, Friday was on pace to be the city's busiest day for weddings since gay marriage became legal earlier this month. There were 202 license appointments and 115 weddings performed on June 17, the first full day that gay and lesbian couples could get married in California.Although City Hall will be closed over the weekend, organizers of the weekend's official pride festivities are putting up a wedding pavilion across the street where couples can get information about tying the knot or celebrate newly sanctioned unions.Gay rights advocates also plan to use the occasion to build support for their campaign to defeat a ballot initiative that would overturn the state Supreme Court's decision by amending the California Constitution to again ban same-sex marriage.The theme for Sunday's pride parade—"United by Pride, Bound for Equality"—was selected before the state's high court handed down its ruling on May 15. The celebrity grand marshals are Latin American entertainer Charo, singer Cyndi Lauper and Stuart Milk, the nephew of the slain San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, who was one of the nation's first openly gay elected officials.The 2004 pride parade in San Francisco also had the air of a giant wedding reception. It was held four months after Mayor Gavin Newsom challenged the state's marriage laws by directing local government workers to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples, but two months before the Supreme Court nullified the more than 4,000 unions certified during the city's experiment.Tens of thousands from across the country typically flock to America's gay Mecca for the festival, a virtual holiday in San Francisco. The parade traditionally opens with a blocks-long contingent of "Dykes on Bikes"—lesbians dressed in leather driving loud motorcycles.While he said the parade will still celebrate "having a great time and living out loud," D'Alessandro expects the mood to be more traditional this year than in years past."It's not this subculture. It's mainstream," he said of the pro-marriage mood. "You can go to Macy's to pick out your china, you can go to Shreve's to pick out your rings, and you can go to the Four Seasons and pick out your reception room."
Gay pride events were also planned for New York, Chicago, Seattle, Houston, Honolulu and other cities.Overseas, extremists throwing rocks, bottles and gasoline bombs attacked the first ever gay pride parade in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia. Police in riot gear made about 60 arrests. No serious injuries were reported among the 150 or so marchers.About 500 people marching in a gay pride parade in Brno, the second-largest city in the Czech Republic, were attacked by a group that threw eggs and shouted abusive slogans, said leading gay activist Jiri Hromada.
Revelers in Portugal carried a giant rainbow flag through the capital of Lisbon, thousands marched in Mexico City, and half a million danced through the streets of Paris to a soundtrack of disco mixes, choral music and accordion tunes.In India, where homosexuality is illegal and taboo, gay activists were to hold demonstrations Sunday in the cities of New Delhi, Calcutta and Bangalore. About 3,000 gays marched through Jerusalem without incident on Thursday, protected by 2,000 police officers.The parades commemorate the Stonewall uprising of 1969, a series of fights between gays and police in New York widely considered the beginning of the gay rights movement. The parades began the next year in 1970.
On the Net:
http://www.sfpride.org/
As in the days of Noah....

Pakistani secure militant area in Khyber region

LANDIKOTAL,Pakistan-Pakistani security forces have secured an area in the Khyber region, where a key supply route passes into Afghanistan,a day after launching an offensive to push back militants threatening Peshawar.The offensive is the first major military action the new government has launched against militants since it took power after February elections, and comes after growing alarm about the consolidation and spread of militant influence in the northwest.A senior government official in the region told Reuters there had been no violence since Saturday night."The situation is under control. We have destroyed at least three militant hideouts and Frontier Corps soldiers are patrolling and controlling the area," said the official, who declined to be identified.The Khyber region is home to the Khyber Pass through which vital supplies for Western forces in Afghanistan pass. It had been virtually free of militant violence until this year but security has deteriorated in recent months as Islamist militants ganged up with the criminals.Major-General Alam Khattack said on Saturday his forces were focused on Bara town, about 15 km (10 miles) southwest of Peshawar. He said the offensive was expected to last four or five days but could be extended.A security official said one militant was killed on Saturday.Paramilitary troops fired mortar bombs at militants and later blew up several of their positions, including the house of militant commander, Mangal Bagh. Roads in and out of Bara have been closed and a curfew imposed.
To read more go to:
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Israel says to reopen Gaza border crossings

JERUSALEM-Israel will reopen its border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Sunday because there has been a halt to Palestinian cross-border attacks that had strained an Egyptian-brokered truce, officials said.Israeli military liaison official Peter Lerner said the Sufa and Karni commercial crossings, the Nahal Oz fuel transfer depot and the Erez border terminal for travellers would resume operations at 8 a.m. (1 a.m. EDT) with some restrictions.Israel closed the crossings on Wednesday after an Islamic Jihad rocket attack which the Palestinian militant group called revenge for the killing of one of its West Bank leaders.The truce, which came into effect on June 19, does not apply to the West Bank.
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL2951020920080629
As in the days of Noah....

Thousands Cheer as Pakistani Militants Decapitate, Shoot Afghans Accused of Spying for U.S.

ISLAMABAD,Pakistan-A gang of Pakistani militants executed two alleged U.S. spies in front of thousands of cheering supporters Friday as a top U.N. official expressed fears that Pakistani government peace deals with the gunmen were sparking a wave of human rights abuses.At least 5,000 people gathered by a stream in the Bajur region to watch the executions, which highlighted the power of local Taliban forces in the lawless tribal areas near the Afghan border.Masked militants pulled the two blindfolded Afghans from a car and forced them to kneel on the ground.Waliur Rehman, a local Taliban commander, told the crowd that the two men confessed to aiding in a suspected U.S. missile strike on a house in the border town of Damadola that killed 14 people last month. The men disclosed the names of others involved, and they would be killed as well, he said."Whoever, for the sake of money, for the sake of America, harms the interest of the Islamic world will meet the same fate," he said. Gunmen with daggers then pounced on one of the men-identified as Jan Wali, 36-decapitated him and waved his bloody head to the cheering crowd.The militants then argued over how to kill the other man because he may have been a teenager, before one lost patience and shot him with an assault rifle.The crowd erupted in cheers of "God is great!" and gunmen fired in the air in jubilation. The celebratory gunfire killed two bystanders and wounded six, local official Fazal Rabbi said.The recently elected Pakistani government has supported negotiations that would give local tribes and militants broad authority over some tribal areas. The U.S. says those deals will only give Taliban and Al Qaeda forces in the border region more freedom to attack Afghanistan.A deal has not yet been reached over Bajur, but the militants are clearly able to operate freely in the area.U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said Friday she was concerned that the peace deals undermined state authority and left residents vulnerable to a range of human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings."The government has the responsibility to ensure the protection of civilians," she told reporters in Islamabad.Minorities and women were particularly in danger, she said.Hours before Arbour spoke, suspected Taliban militants torched two girls schools in the Swat region, the latest in a string of attacks on the female education system in the area, police said.The attack on the schools cast doubt on efforts to shore up the collapsing peace deal in Swat. Local government officials said talks Thursday with representatives of a pro-Taliban cleric were a success, however both sides acknowledged serious disagreements remained.Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani met with Arbour earlier Friday to discuss the human rights situation in the country.A statement released by his office did not directly address her concerns about abuses in the tribal areas. However, he told her the U.S.-led war on terror had badly damaged Pakistan's economy and the country needed to take action, the statement said.The government was talking with "the moderate elements who have laid down arms" and would resort to military force if the agreements were violated, he told her according to the statement.He also assured Arbour he was committed to women's rights and to ensuring that girls have access to education, the statement said.Arbour also expressed concerns about the human rights violations in the government's counterterrorism operations, including the disappearances of hundreds of people.She also called on the ruling coalition to resolve its dispute over reinstating dozens of senior judges fired by President Pervez Musharraf last year, saying the crisis was paralyzing the government. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,372883,00.html
PS:These are SICK WORSE THAN ANIMALS CREATURES...Something is wrong when MUSLIMS gather to see 2 men slaughter and then cheer:"GOD IS GREAT"!!!!!WHAT KIND OF GOD IS THAT???????????WHO wants a RELIGION OF DEATH LIKE THAT??????????????
As in the days of Noah....

Extremism Spreading?:British boy Acussed of Senidng Beheading Videos to Classmates

MI5 warns of suicide bombers using ambulances

Terrorists linked to Al-Qaeda may be planning to buy former NHS ambulances and police cars to mount suicide bomb attacks in Britain, MI5 has warned.They may import a tactic already used in Iraq and Israel, according to a report by MI5’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre to chief constables.In a statement to The Sunday Times, the Association of Chief Police Officers also warned of the risk of such an attack.It said ministers must legislate to stop the sale of such vehicles.Its move has been backed by Lord Carlile of Berriew, the government’s terrorism watchdog.He said he feared terrorists could exploit a loophole which did not allow police sufficient powers to stop and search the drivers of suspicious vehicles.A Whitehall security official said that while there was evidence that Al-Qaeda had adopted the terrorist tactic in the Middle East, there was no specific intelligence of such a plot in Britain.Every year dozens of police cars, ambulances and fire engines are sold. Some are fully marked and can be bought for as little as £1,500.Counter-terrorism officials at the Home Office have now written to eBay, the internet auctioneer, asking it to stop selling emergency service vehicles, equipment and uniforms. However, eBay has said it will only self-regulate if a new law is passed.The MI5 report highlights recent attacks by Al-Qaeda in Iraq and Israel. It points to one in February in which a suicide bomber drove a stolen ambulance packed with explosives into an Iraqi police station.The bomber tried to break through a checkpoint but the vehicle exploded when police opened fire.The report says terrorists have been using ambulances to transport bombs in Israel since at least 2002. It cites a report by the Israeli Defence Forces that Palestinian terrorists have used ambulances to ferry recruits and equipment around the West Bank.Assistant chief constable Steve Watts of Hampshire police is chairing a national security committee which is drawing up plans to tackle the terrorist threat. He said: “What concerns me is the lack of legislation available for the police service to adequately address the threat of pseudo-emergency service vehicles used in such an environment.”Carlile said: “As independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, I take this issue very seriously. In my view, as a general rule, all emergency service vehicles should be clearly decommissioned so they cannot be used to imitate emergency services.”
By David Leppard
As in the days of Noah....

Israel has a year to stop Iran bomb, warns ex-spy

A former head of Mossad has warned that Israel has 12 months in which to destroy Iran's nuclear programme or risk coming under nuclear attack itself. He also hinted that Israel might have to act sooner if Barack Obama wins the US presidential election...
Shabtai Shavit, an influential adviser to the Israeli parliament's defence and foreign affairs committee, told The Sunday Telegraph that time was running out to prevent Iran's leaders getting the bomb.Mr Shavit, who retired from the Israeli intelligence agency in 1996, warned that he had no doubt Iran intended to use a nuclear weapon once it had the capability, and that Israel must conduct itself accordingly."The time that is left to be ready is getting shorter all the time," he said in an interview.Mr Shavit, 69, who was deputy director of Mossad when Israel bombed the Osirak nuclear facility in Iraq in 1981, added: "As an intelligence officer working with the worst-case scenario, I can tell you we should be prepared. We should do whatever necessary on the defensive side, on the offensive side, on the public opinion side for the West, in case sanctions don't work. What's left is a military action."The "worst-case scenario, he said, is that Iran may have a nuclear weapon within "somewhere around a year".As speculation grew that Israel was contemplating its own air strikes, Iran's military said it might hit the Jewish state with missiles and stop Gulf oil exports if it came under attack. Israel "is completely within the range of the Islamic republic's missiles," said Mohammed Ali Jafari, head of the feared Revolutionary Guard. "Our missile power and capability are such that the Zionist regime cannot confront it."More than 40 per cent of all globally traded oil passes through the 35-mile-wide Strait of Hormuz, putting tankers entering or leaving the Gulf at risk from Iranian mines, rockets and artillery, and Mr Jafari's comments were the clearest signal yet that Iran intends to use this leverage in the nuclear dispute.Despite offering incentives, the West has failed to persuade Iran to stop enriching uranium. Israeli officials believe the diplomatic process is useless and have been pressing President Bush to launch air strikes before he leaves office on January 20 next year.They apparently fear that the chances of winning American approval for an air attack will be drastically reduced if the Democratic nominee wins the election. Mr Obama advocates talks with the regime in Tehran rather than military action.That view was echoed by Mr Shavit, who said: "If [Republican candidate John] McCain gets elected, he could really easily make a decision to go for it. If it's Obama: no. My prediction is that he won't go for it, at least not in his first term in the White House."He warned that while it would be preferable to have American support and participation in a strike on Iran, Israel will not be afraid to go it alone."When it comes to decisions that have to do with our national security and our own survival, at best we may update the Americans that we are intending or planning or going to do something. It's not a precondition, [getting] an American agreement," he said.
By Carolynne Wheeler in Tel Aviv and Tim Shipman in Washington
As in the days of Noah...

ISLAMIC CRAZE WATCH:Tiny Voices Defy Child Marriage in Yemen

JIBLA,Yemen-One morning last month, Arwa Abdu Muhammad Ali walked out of her husband’s house here and ran to a local hospital, where she complained that he had been beating and sexually abusing her for eight months.That alone would be surprising in Yemen, a deeply conservative Arab society where family disputes tend to be solved privately. What made it even more unusual was that Arwa was 9 years old.Within days, Arwa-a tiny, delicate-featured girl-had become a celebrity in Yemen, where child marriage is common but has rarely been exposed in public. She was the second child bride to come forward in less than a month; in April, a 10-year-old named Nujood Ali had gone by herself to a courthouse to demand a divorce, generating a landmark legal case.Together, the two girls’ stories have helped spur a movement to put an end to child marriage, which is increasingly seen as a crucial part of the cycle of poverty in Yemen and other third world countries. Pulled out of school and forced to have children before their bodies are ready, many rural Yemeni women end up illiterate and with serious health problems. Their babies are often stunted, too.The average age of marriage in Yemen’s rural areas is 12 to 13, a recent study by Sana University researchers found. The country, at the southern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.“This is the first shout,” said Shada Nasser, a human rights lawyer who met Nujood, the 10-year-old, after she arrived at the courthouse to demand a divorce. Ms. Nasser decided instantly to take her case. “All other early marriage cases have been dealt with by tribal sheiks, and the girl never had any choice.”But despite a rising tide of outrage, the fight against the practice is not easy. Hard-line Islamic conservatives, whose influence has grown enormously in the past two decades, defend it, pointing to the Prophet Muhammad’s marriage to a 9-year-old. Child marriage is deeply rooted in local custom here, and even enshrined in an old tribal expression: “Give me a girl of 8, and I can give you a guarantee”for a good marriage. “Voices are rising in society against this phenomenon and its catastrophes,” said Shawki al-Qadhi, an imam and opposition member in Parliament who has tried unsuccessfully to muster support for a legal ban on child marriage in Yemen in the past. “But despite rejections of it by many people and some religious scholars, it continues.” The issue first arose because of Nujood, a bright-eyed girl barely four feet tall. Her ordeal began in February, when her father took her from Sana, the Yemeni capital, to his home village for the wedding. She was given almost no warning.“I was very frightened and worried,” Nujood recalled, speaking in a soft, childlike voice as she sat cross-legged on the floor in her family’s bare three-room ) The trouble started on the first night, when her 30-year-old husband, Faez Ali Thamer, took off her clothes as soon as the light was out. She ran crying from the room, but he caught her, brought her back and forced himself on her. Later, he beat her as well.((Now...isn't this CHILD RAPE...???What kind of laws--if any--muslims have in Yemen...???--UNBELIEVABLE))I hated life with him,” she said, staring at the ground in front of her. The wedding came so quickly that no one bothered to tell her how women become pregnant, or what a wife’s role is, she added.Her father, Ali Muhammad al-Ahdal, said he had agreed to the marriage because two of Nujood’s older sisters had been kidnapped and forcibly married, with one of them ending up in jail. Mr. Ahdal said he had feared the same thing would happen to Nujood, and early marriage had seemed a better alternative.A gaunt, broken-looking man, Mr. Ahdal once worked as a street sweeper. Now he and his family beg for a living. He has 16 children by two women.
To read more go to:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/world/middleeast/29marriage.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin
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Malaysian opposition leader accused of sodomy

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia-Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was accused Saturday of sodomy, police and politicians said, sparking speculation that he might be arrested on the same charge that led to his imprisonment a decade ago.
Anwar, who resurrected his political career after leading the opposition to spectacular gains in recent elections, denied the allegation, which he said was made in a police complaint filed by one of his male aides."The police report lodged against me earlier today is a complete fabrication," Anwar, 60, said in a written statement.He contended that the report was engineered by "interested parties" to prevent him from exposing the national police chief and the attorney general for their alleged role in having him accused of corruption and sodomy in 1998.Anwar, a former deputy prime minister, was ousted from government 10 years ago amid those accusations. He was convicted on both charges, but Malaysia's highest court overturned the sodomy conviction and freed him in 2004.
Anwar said in the statement that he "recently obtained" evidence implicating Inspector General of Police Musa Hassan and Attorney General Gani Patail of misconduct and fabricating evidence against him in 1998. He said he will release the evidence soon."I believe we are witnessing a repeat of the methods used against me in 1998 when false allegations were made under duress," Anwar said.The dramatic developments that began to unfold a little before midnight will have a severe impact on Malaysian politics, which have been thrown into turmoil since the March 8 elections in which the governing National Front coalition returned its worst-ever result.The Front lost its traditional two-thirds parliamentary majority, returning to power with only a simple majority, and ceded control of five of Malaysia's 13 states to Anwar's three-party opposition alliance.Anwar has since claimed that he has secured tacit agreements from at least 30 National Front lawmakers to defect to the opposition, enough to topple Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's administration.Anwar claimed that the sodomy report was aimed at stopping the resurgent opposition from gaining ground."This is clearly a desperate attempt by the ... regime to arrest the movement of the Malaysian people towards freedom, democracy and justice," he said.Kuala Lumpur's police chief for criminal investigations, Ku Chin Wah, said a man filed a police complaint late Saturday claiming that Anwar sodomized him."We are investigating the complaint," Ku said.Sodomy, even if consensual, is punishable by 20 years in prison in Muslim-majority Malaysia.Ku said police have no immediate plans to arrest Anwar, despite a cell phone text message sent by Anwar's People's Justice Party warning that he would be detained this weekend.Ku declined to identify the man who lodged the complaint, but the People's Justice Party identified him as Anwar's assistant, who started working for him in March.The party said it believed that the aide was coerced into making the accusation.The aide "is a victim," said Sivarasa Rasiah, a top party official.The aide was reported missing Saturday morning, and his whereabouts remain unknown, Sivarasa said.Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad fired Anwar from the Cabinet in 1998 amid accusations that he sodomized his family driver and abused his power to cover up the deed. Anwar insisted that he was victimized by a political conspiracy to prevent him from challenging Mahathir for power.Anwar did not personally run in the March elections because his corruption conviction barred him from holding political office for five years. The ban ended in April, and Anwar has since indicated that he wants to re-enter Parliament through a by-election, which would make him eligible to become prime minister.
As in the days of Noah....

Saudis pour billions into 'City of Knowledge' on holy site

Saudi Arabia is pouring billions of dollars into Medina, burial place of the Prophet Mohammed and the cradle of Islam, to turn the religion's second holiest site into a high-tech bastion.
The so-called Knowledge Economic City (KEC) is the fourth in a series of projects launched by the oil powerhouse in December 2005 aimed at attracting foreign investment and bolstering development.It is being promoted by the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) and financed by the private sector a few miles from the centre of Medina and the Mosque of the Prophet, a top pilgrimage destination.SAGIA governor Amr al-Dabbagh told AFP that the projects were inspired by some 3,000 "special economic zones" that exist around the world to promote investment."In our case we call them Economic Cities because they have more ingredients," he said."They are places where people can work, enjoy life and make money."KEC is the latest in a series of mammoth development schemes in the kingdom, where the first project known as King Abdullah Economic City is being built at Rabigh on the west coast.The KEC is being built around a special theme to promote knowledge and sciences with through education, health and information technology.The history of Medina was one of the reasons it was chosen to host the new city.Medina is a cradle of Muslim civilisation and the birthplace of Islam along with Mecca, the holiest city in Islam, which is also in the Hijaz in western Saudi Arabia."Medina was the springboard for Islamic civilisation," said Tahir Mohammed Bawazir, chairman of Knowledge Economic City Developers Company Ltd. "This is the place where it all started. So there is history."The Prophet Mohammed fled along with the first followers of Islam from Mecca to Medina-which means "city" in Arabic-in 622 AD to escape persecution. His tomb is in Medina.The KEC project's backers hope that Medina's rich past will attract Muslim scientists as well as companies wanting to do business with the Arab and Muslim world, bolstering development on all fronts."It's an attractive proposition for people to live here," said Bawazir.But there are also question marks over the real aim of these artificial cities emerging from the Saudi sands, and also over their long-term viability."They are into buildings. They are into real estate. Real estate is something they do well," one Asian professor teaching in a Saudi university said about the promoters of KEC and the other so-called "economic cities."For him KEC is just that, a real estate project rather than a bid to develop scientific knowledge or boost the economy."So they do it in different places under different names," he said on condition of anonymity.The construction drive coincides with an unprecedented economic boom generating colossal oil revenues for Saudi Arabia, the world's top crude exporter.Saudi Arabia earned 194 billion dollars in oil income in 2007 and it is estimated that combined revenues for 2008 and 2009 will amount to 700 billion dollars because of the skyrocketing cost of crude.But the head of the state-run SAGIA insisted that the projects "are all developed by the private sector.""Our role is to iron out any obstacles and ensure that the environment is pro-business," Dabbagh said. It is estimated that the KEC, expected to house 130,000 people, will cost eight billion dollars.
Dabbagh said that SAGIA is also conducting feasibility studies on two other projects "to see if they are commercially viable."By the year 2020 new cities that have mushroomed from the Saudi desert could be home to 4.8 million inhabitants and generate 1.2 million jobs.Employment is a high political and economic priority for the authorities of the kingdom in which half of the total population of around 23 million is under 18.Expatriates make up more than a quarter of Saudi Arabia's total population, according to official figures published in September 2004.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080629033401.6tmb6a9x&show_article=1&catnum=0
As in the days of Noah....

U.S. escalating covert operations against Iran - report

NEW YORK-U.S. congressional leaders agreed late last year to President George W. Bush's funding request for a major escalation of covert operations against Iran aimed at destabilizing its leadership, according to a report in The New Yorker magazine published online on Sunday.
The article by reporter Seymour Hersh, from the magazine's July 7 and 14 issue, centers around a highly classified Presidential Finding signed by Bush which by U.S. law must be made known to Democratic and Republican House and Senate leaders and ranking members of the intelligence committees."The Finding was focused on undermining Iran's nuclear ambitions and trying to undermine the government through regime change," the article cited a person familiar with its contents as saying, and involved "working with opposition groups and passing money."Hersh has written previously about possible administration plans to go to war to stop Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons, including an April 2006 article in the New Yorker that suggested regime change in Iran, whether by diplomatic or military means, was Bush's ultimate goal.Funding for the covert escalation, for which Bush requested up to $400 million, was approved by congressional leaders, according to the article, citing current and former military, intelligence and congressional sources.Clandestine operations against Iran are not new. U.S. Special Operations Forces have been conducting crossborder operations from southern Iraq since last year, the article said.These have included seizing members of Al Quds, the commando arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and taking them to Iraq for interrogation, and the pursuit of "high-value targets" in Bush's war on terrorism, who may be captured or killed, according to the article.But the scale and the scope of the operations in Iran, which include the Central Intelligence Agency, have now been significantly expanded, the article said, citing current and former officials.Many of these activities are not specified in the new finding, and some congressional leaders have had serious questions about their nature, it said.
To read more go to:
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Contrary to Fears, Scientists Say Atom-Smasher Will Not Spawn Earth-Swallowing Black Hole

MEYRIN, Switzerland-The most powerful atom-smasher ever built could make some bizarre discoveries, such as invisible matter or extra dimensions in space, after it is switched on in August.But some critics fear the Large Hadron Collider could exceed physicists' wildest conjectures: Will it spawn a black hole that could swallow Earth? Or spit out particles that could turn the planet into a hot dead clump?Ridiculous, say scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known by its French initials CERN-some of whom have been working for a generation on the $5.8 billion collider, or LHC.
"Obviously, the world will not end when the LHC switches on,"said project leader Lyn Evans.David Francis, a physicist on the collider's huge ATLAS particle detector, smiled when asked whether he worried about black holes and hypothetical killer particles known as strangelets."If I thought that this was going to happen, I would be well away from here," he said.The collider basically consists of a ring of supercooled magnets 17 miles in circumference attached to huge barrel-shaped detectors. The ring, which straddles the French and Swiss border, is buried 330 feet underground.The machine, which has been called the largest scientific experiment in history, isn't expected to begin test runs until August, and ramping up to full power could take months. But once it is working, it is expected to produce some startling findings.Scientists plan to hunt for signs of the invisible "dark matter" and "dark energy" that make up more than 96 percent of the universe, and hope to glimpse the elusive Higgs boson, a so-far undiscovered particle thought to give matter its mass.The collider could find evidence of extra dimensions, a boon for superstring theory, which holds that quarks, the particles that make up atoms, are infinitesimal vibrating strings.The theory could resolve many of physics' unanswered questions, but requires about 10 dimensions-far more than the three spatial dimensions our senses experience.The safety of the collider, which will generate energies seven times higher than its most powerful rival, at Fermilab near Chicago, has been debated for years. The physicist Martin Rees has estimated the chance of an accelerator producing a global catastrophe at one in 50 million-long odds, to be sure, but about the same as winning some lotteries.By contrast, a CERN team this month issued a report concluding that there is "no conceivable danger" of a cataclysmic event. The report essentially confirmed the findings of a 2003 CERN safety report, and a panel of five prominent scientists not affiliated with CERN, including one Nobel laureate, endorsed its conclusions.Critics of the LHC filed a lawsuit in a Hawaiian court in March seeking to block its startup, alleging that there was "a significant risk that ... operation of the Collider may have unintended consequences which could ultimately result in the destruction of our planet."One of the plaintiffs, Walter L. Wagner, a physicist and lawyer, said Wednesday CERN's safety report, released June 20, "has several major flaws," and his views on the risks of using the particle accelerator had not changed. On Tuesday, U.S. Justice Department lawyers representing the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation filed a motion to dismiss the case.The two agencies have contributed $531 million to building the collider, and the NSF has agreed to pay $87 million of its annual operating costs. Hundreds of American scientists will participate in the research.The lawyers called the plaintiffs' allegations "extraordinarily speculative," and said "there is no basis for any conceivable threat" from black holes or other objects the LHC might produce. A hearing on the motion is expected in late July or August.In rebutting doomsday scenarios, CERN scientists point out that cosmic rays have been bombarding the earth, and triggering collisions similar to those planned for the collider, since the solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago.And so far, Earth has survived."The LHC is only going to reproduce what nature does every second, what it has been doing for billions of years," said John Ellis, a British theoretical physicist at CERN.Critics like Wagner have said the collisions caused by accelerators could be more hazardous than those of cosmic rays.Both may produce micro black holes, subatomic versions of cosmic black holes-collapsed stars whose gravity fields are so powerful that they can suck in planets and other stars.But micro black holes produced by cosmic ray collisions would likely be traveling so fast they would pass harmlessly through the earth.Micro black holes produced by a collider, the skeptics theorize, would move more slowly and might be trapped inside the earth's gravitational field-and eventually threaten the planet.Ellis said doomsayers assume that the collider will create micro black holes in the first place, which he called unlikely. And even if they appeared, he said, they would instantly evaporate, as predicted by the British physicist Stephen Hawking.As for strangelets, CERN scientists point out that they have never been proven to exist. They said that even if these particles formed inside the Collider they would quickly break down.When the LHC is finally at full power, two beams of protons will race around the huge ring 11,000 times a second in opposite directions. They will travel in two tubes about the width of fire hoses, speeding through a vacuum that is colder and emptier than outer space.Their trajectory will be curved by supercooled magnets-to guide the beams around the rings and prevent the packets of protons from cutting through the surrounding magnets like a blowtorch.The paths of these beams will cross, and a few of the protons in them will collide, at a series of cylindrical detectors along the ring. The two largest detectors are essentially huge digital cameras, each weighing thousands of tons, capable of taking millions of snapshots a second.Each year the detectors will generate 15 petabytes of data, the equivalent of a stack of CDs 12 miles tall. The data will require a high speed global network of computers for analysis.Wagner and others filed a lawsuit to halt operation of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, or RHIC, at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York state in 1999. The courts dismissed the suit.The leafy campus of CERN, a short drive from the shores of Lake Geneva, hardly seems like ground zero for doomsday. And locals don't seem overly concerned. Thousands attended an open house here this spring."There is a huge army of scientists who know what they are talking about and are sleeping quite soundly as far as concerns the LHC," said project leader Evans.
As in the days of Noah....

Transsexual Israeli tops Lebanese song chart

While overtures recently made by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Shimon Peres toward the Lebanese government to enter into direct peace talks have fallen on deaf ears, that doesn't mean the Lebanese are tuning out everything israeli."Say No More," a pulsating trance music track by up-and-coming Israeli female singer Aderet and DJ Dvir Halevi, has been at the top of the playlist this month on the "Beirut Nights" Internet radio station devoted to dance music (www.beirutnights.com)."We found out they were playing my music by chance," the 32-year-old Aderet said on Wednesday. She grew up in a religious home in Jerusalem and launched her musical career after undergoing a sex change operation following her IDF service over 10 years ago."I put out a dance single last year - a cover of Alice DJ's 'Better Off Alone' - which was big in the clubs in Israel, and when our production team did a search on Google, we found the song on lots of playlists around Europe and on Beirut Nights."When Aderet sent the Web site an e-mail thanking them for playing the song, she received a response requesting more of her English songs. The singer, who has previously released two albums in Hebrew - 2001's Tenth Floor and 2005's Without the Evil Eye - is readying her first English-language album, Jewish Girl, for release later this year. A month ago, her management sent the album's first single, "Say No More," and a remix of the song by DJ Dvir Halevi to the Lebanese station."They added the remix to the playlist and a few days later, it was at the top of the most played list," said Aderet, who regularly performs at clubs, weddings and private functions in Israel and Europe.On the Web site's "Eurodance and Trance Songs" chat forum, the forum's administrator described the song as an "uplifting tune with super nice lyrics.""They know I'm an Israeli singer, and that it's an Israeli song," said Aderet. "It feels great, it's a big honor for me and makes me so happy that they let a 100 percent Israeli song to be played and to top their playlist without letting politics interfere."When contacted by The Jerusalem Post a representative of Beirut Nights named Sami responded in an e-mail that Israeli music was regularly featured on the station."We grew up in Beirut listening to Ofra Haza and Ishtar Alabina," Sami said. "We play Aderet, but also Dana International, Sarit Hadad, and DJs Yahel and Ofer Nissim. It's not a policy because there is no policy, it is just music. You shouldn't make a big deal about it, because it might hurt us since we are surrounded by fanatics who ultimately have no place in Lebanon."If you ask 70% of the Lebanese population, they would tell you that Iran is more of an enemy than Israel. If the government needs to implement laws, they should start with laws against terrorists like Hizbullah rather than implement old outdated rules," he said.While Beirut Nights is only an Internet radio station, Sami claimed it was the most widely listened to site among the Lebanese diaspora, while acknowledging that its reach within Lebanon itself was limited.Aderet is hopeful that the popularity of "Say No More" will snowball into something more significant, not just for her but for Israel."I hope that it will enable more Israeli musicians to break through there, and that maybe through music and the people who love club music, it could help start to bring peace between the Israeli and Lebanese people," she said.
By DAVID BRINN
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1214492517628&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
As in the days of Noah....

GAY AGENDA WATCH:About 60 arrested at Bulgaria's first gay parade

SOFIA-Bulgarian riot police detained about 60 far-right extremists on Saturday who threw a petrol bomb and tried to break up the country's first gay parade.Some 100 gay activists marched across the capital Sofia to protest against discrimination in this generally conservative nation that is often hostile to homosexuality-an attitude seen in many eastern European countries.One militant protester threw a petrol bomb near the marchers, while others hurled eggs and some carried clubs, police and a Reuters eyewitness said.About 60 people were arrested, police said. No one was hurt.Religious and far-right groups as well as some political parties in the Black Sea country of 7.6 million had wanted the parade banned.The head of the Christian Orthodox Church called the march "immoral and sinful" and the Muslim Chief Mufti said homosexuality was a disease.A far-right group has called for a "week of intolerance of gays" and together with other groups threatened violence. Even Socialist Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said he did not like "the manifestation and demonstration of such orientations.""I am shocked by this attitude," said Yasen, 32, who took part in the parade. "Everybody is free to make their choice and that should be respected in a European Union member country".

To read more go to:
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL2858989620080628
PS:SO according to this Yasen...homosexuality IS A CHOICE....ISN"T IT????
Ain't nothing like "GOD MADE ME THIS WAY"and "IT"S GOD"S FAULT...HE MADE ME DO IT"thing.....
As in the days of Noah.....

Iran Classroom Fun:No GAYS In Iran...Right...???

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=da8_1214589841

PS:Poor kid......

As in the days of Noah....

Iran will use oil as weapon if attacked

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8d3_1214660237

As in the days of Noah....

LAND FULL of VIOLENCE:Sri Lanka Fighting Kills 43

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka-Government troops captured a Tamil Tiger rebel-held village in war-ravaged northern Sri Lanka on Saturday while infantry clashes across the region killed 40 rebels and three soldiers, the military said.Fighting has escalated in the Indian Ocean island in recent months as government forces try to fulfill a pledge to crush the insurgents by the end of the year.In the latest fighting, army troops took control of Parappakadattan village in Mannar district on Saturday, said military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara.He said guerrillas had almost vacated the area when army troops advanced into the village, where rebels had maintained a training base and office complex.On Friday, troops captured Andankulam town in Mannar after a battle that killed 28 rebels and one soldier, the military said. On Thursday, troops seized a key supply base in Vavuniya district that had been used to replenish the Tamil Tigers' front-line troops, it said.Nanayakkara said the capture of those rebel-held areas was strategically important for government troops to gain control of the rebels' northern strongholds. Other battles Friday killed 12 rebels and one soldier in the Welioya region, while in the northern Jaffna peninsula, a soldier died in a roadside bomb blast blamed on the rebels, Nanayakkara said.The military says fighting over the past week has killed 220 rebels and 22 soldiers. Analysts accuse both sides of exaggerating their enemy's losses and underreporting their own casualties.
Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan was not immediately available for comment.It was not possible to independently verify the military's claims because journalists are banned from the northern jungles where much of the fighting takes place.The Tamil Tiger rebels have fought since 1983 to create an independent state for ethnic minority Tamils, who have been marginalized by successive governments controlled by ethnic Sinhalese. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
As in the days of Noah....

Iran tries man accused of spying for Israel: media

TEHRAN-An Iranian man was put on trial on Saturday in Tehran on charges of spying for Israel, media reported.Iran's state radio said the man was accused of acting against Iran's "security through engaging in espionage for the Zionist regime" and had been paid by Israel's intelligence service Mossad. It did not name the accused.An official in Israel's foreign ministry said Israel was not familiar with the case.ISNA news agency reported that spying tools alleged to have been given to the man by Mossad were displayed in court.Iran's state broadcaster's website said the young man was put on trial in Tehran's Revolutionary Court, which deals with cases involving national security issues. It did not say whether he denied the charge.Iran, which does not recognize Israel, has previously reported breaking up spy networks. It has accused the United States and "Zionists" of trying to destabilize the Islamic Republic.Iranian officials accuse Washington of backing a so-called "soft revolution" that involves using intellectuals and others in the country to try to undermine the ruling system.Radio, citing the judge, said the verdict would be announced in a week.
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSHOS83990820080628
As in the days of Noah...

Bomb hits Tripoli apartment block

Bomb kills man in north Lebanon city of Tripoli

TRIPOLI, Lebanon-A bomb killed a man and wounded 27 other people at an apartment block in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli on Saturday, medical and security sources said.
The blast at dawn caused heavy damage to the building in the Bab Tibbaneh area, close to the frontline of clashes on Sunday between Sunni supporters of the government and Alawite followers of the opposition. Nine people were killed in the fighting. Rescue workers picked through debris left by the blast and took the wounded to hospital. Residents carried belongings from their badly damaged homes. The dead man was named as Mohammad Aloush, a Sunni.Tripoli is dominated by Lebanon's anti-Syrian, Sunni-led majority coalition. The Alawites, whose faith is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, have close ties to Syria and the Lebanese opposition, which is led by the Shi'ite Hezbollah group.The Arab Democratic Party, an Alawite group, called on the security forces to bring the situation under control.In a phone call with Prime Minister-designate Fouad Siniora, Sheikh Malek al-Shaar, the Sunni mufti of Tripoli, called for more troops to secure the city, the National News Agency reported.A Qatari-mediated accord in May ended 18 months of political conflict between the governing coalition and the opposition.The standoff led to a violent showdown that threatened a new civil war. Since then there have been frequent minor security incidents.The deal which ended the political crisis included an agreement on a national unity government in which the opposition is guaranteed effective veto power. But wrangling over portfolios has held up the formation of the new cabinet.
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL2846308420080628
As in the days of Noah....

Dick Morris on Oil, Iran and the Liberal Media

Afghanistan's highway of death

Afghan, U.S. troops kill 32 Taliban in clashes

KABUL-Afghan and U.S.-led coalition troops killed 32 Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan, including some who dressed as women in an attempt to escape, the U.S. military said on Saturday.The Taliban opened fire with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades on a patrol of Afghan security forces and coalition troops in Uruzgan province on Thursday, the U.S. military said in a statement.The patrol returned fire then moved to higher ground and called in air strikes, killing three militants.Militants soon attacked the patrol again, the statement said, and 29 more insurgents were killed."During this engagement, insurgents attempted to disguise themselves in women's clothing in order to escape," it said.The number of NATO and coalition troops in Afghanistan has been increased and more Afghan soldiers and policemen are on duty, but there has been no let-up in the violence and the Taliban insurgency shows few if any signs of weakening.More than 6,000 people were killed in Afghanistan last year and there are signs that this year the toll could be higher, with neither side able to gain the upper hand.
As in the days of Noah....

Pakistani Army Shells Militants

PESHAWAR, Pakistan-With Islamic militants tightening their grip around Peshawar, kidnapping residents and threatening the city itself, the new coalition government of Pakistan delivered its first military response to the Islamists on Saturday.The action was limited, with security forces shelling territory outside Peshawar held by an extremist leader. Army forces were not used, and the intent apparently was merely to push the militants back from the city’s perimeter.But the shelling was the first time the new civilian government, which has been committed to negotiating peace accords with Pakistani Taliban and other Islamic militants, resorted to military action.In response, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, announced that he had suspended his participation in peace talks.The Pakistani channel Samma TV reported that Mr. Mehsud had threatened to take the fight against the government to the heart of Pakistan, the provinces of Sindh and Punjab, if military action continued.In Peshawar, senior military officials said that a regional security force had fired mortar shells against two bases of an Islamic militant known as Mangal Bagh, whose well-armed fighters have taken control over much of Khyber agency adjacent to the city...“The ultimate objective is to establish the writ of the government where it is challenged,” Mohammed Alam Khattak, inspector general of the Frontier Corps, said at a news conference here.General Khattak said the operation had been undertaken in response to “growing public demand” for a show of force against militants who have kidnapped city residents on an almost daily basis over the past several weeks and intimidated surrounding towns by shutting down the courts.The show of force on Saturday, which included a blockade around the area of Bara in Khyber agency where Mr. Mangal Bagh keeps most of his fighters, was limited to the Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force that is considered poorly equipped and generally demoralized.The Pakistani Army maintains a large presence in Peshawar at an old British fort that houses the 11th Corps, but for the moment the army was being held in reserve, a spokesman for the military, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, said.
The main goal of the operation, according to a senior military officer, was to destroy the bases of Mr. Mangal Bagh in Bara. General Khattak said he expected the operation to be limited and to be completed in five days.Residents in Sipah, where Mr. Mangal Bagh lives, and in Shalober, the site of one of his bases, said by telephone that his forces had left both places by Friday. Mr. Mangal Bagh returned to his house in Sipah late Friday night and then left at 4 a.m. Saturday, said Rauf Khan Afridi, a resident of the town who was reached by telephone.Mr. Afridi said that Mr. Mangal Bagh had returned to Bara on Saturday night and announced that he would convene a meeting of his leadership to discuss the situation.Visitors to Sipah on Friday said there were no armed men in their usual haunts in the marketplace or around the village, a sign that they were expecting the attack from government forces and had fled.The peace talks between the Pakistani government, which was formed after February elections, and Mr. Mehsud, the Taliban leader, have been criticized by the United States and NATO, on the ground that an accord would grant the Pakistani Taliban time to strengthen their ability to strike at coalition forces across the border in Afghanistan.The White House was monitoring the situation, but had scant comment. “Extremists pose a threat to Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States, and we will all continue to go after them when and where necessary” said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for President Bush’s National Security Council.One of the most important elements being negotiated by Pakistan’s new government is its call for an end to crossings by Mr. Mehsud’s forces into Afghanistan to fight NATO and American forces. That has not been finally agreed to.But many elements have already been put into effect. The army has pulled back from positions in Mr. Mehsud’s territory, and both sides have exchanged prisoners. It was not clear what impact Mr. Mehsud’s announcement that he was withdrawing from the talks might have.The forces of Mr. Mangal Bagh, which were the primary target of Saturday’s attack, are made up of several thousand fighters. Most of them are volunteers, but some have been conscripted.His group is called Lashkar-i-Islam, the Army of Islam, and has imposed strict moral codes through much of Khyber agency. It has conducted public executions of men labeled as criminals, and in one case a man and a woman were stoned to death after being accused of an illicit relationship.Mr. Mangal Bagh’s fighting force, built up over the last three years, has been reinforced by another militant leader, Hajji Namdar, who has a more potent force consisting of Uzbek and Arab fighters who specialize in attacking NATO soldiers in Afghanistan. Mr. Namdar’s fighters have been responsible for many of the attacks on NATO supplies that travel past Peshawar and through Khyber agency.The boldest strike by Mr. Mangal Bagh in Peshawar came last weekend, when his fighters abducted 16 Christians from a house in a middle-class neighborhood. They were released after extensive negotiations with the police.Some doubts were expressed on Saturday about the seriousness and intent of the attack by the Frontier Corps.A leader of the Awami National Party, Afrasiab Khattak, which now governs the North-West Frontier Province, of which Peshawar is the capital, has said he believed that Mr. Mangal Bagh and his men were a creation of Pakistan’s powerful Inter Services Intelligence agency.“In the past, these operations have been inconclusive,” Mr. Khattak said. “We will have to wait and see if this one is conclusive.”Despite the shelling, weekend activity in Peshawar appeared normal. In the upscale neighborhood of Hayatabad, which borders Khyber agency, people strolled in the streets, and an ice cream vendor cycled down a main boulevard selling his wares.
By JANE PERLEZ and PIR ZUBAIR SHAH
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/world/asia/29pstan.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin
As in the days of Noah....

Iran says Gulf oil route at risk if attacked

TEHRAN-The Revolutionary Guards said Iran would impose controls on shipping in the vital Gulf oil route if Iran was attacked and warned regional states of reprisals if they took part, a newspaper reported on Saturday.Fear of an escalation in the standoff between the West and Iran, the world's fourth largest oil producer, have been one factor propping up sky-high oil prices. Crude hit a record level on international markets near $143 a barrel on Friday.Speculation about a possible attack on Iran because of its disputed nuclear ambitions has risen since a report this month said Israel had practiced such a strike, prompting increasingly tough talk of retaliation, if pushed, from Tehran."Naturally every country under attack by an enemy uses all its capacity and opportunities to confront the enemy," Guards commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari told Jam-e Jam newspaper in some of the toughest language Iran has used so far.Analysts say Iran may not match the firepower of U.S. forces but could still cause havoc in the region using unconventional tactics, such as deploying small craft to attack ships, or using allies in the area to strike at U.S. or Israeli interests."Regarding the main route for exiting energy, Iran will definitely act to impose control on the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz," Jafari said of the Gulf waterway through which about two-fifths of all globally traded oil passes.Iranian officials have in the past sent mixed signals about whether Iran would use oil as a weapon. But such threats, when made, have sent jitters through the crude market for fear of disrupting supplies from big OPEC producers in the Gulf.The Islamic Republic insists its nuclear program is peaceful and aimed at generating electricity. But the West and Israel fear Iran is seeking to build atomic bombs. Israel is believed to be the only Middle East state with nuclear arms.Washington has said it wants diplomacy to end the nuclear row but has not ruled out military action should that fail.
'RIGHT TO RESPOND'
"If there is a confrontation between us and the enemy from outside the region, definitely the scope (of the confrontation) will reach the oil issue," Jafari said.The Revolutionary Guards are the ideologically driven wing of Iran's military with air, sea and land capabilities, and a separate command structure to regular units."After this action (of Iran imposing controls on the Gulf waterway), the oil price will rise very considerably and this is among the factors deterring the enemies," Jafari said.He said any military action might "be able to delay Iran's nuclear activities but this delay will certainly be very short".Jafari warned neighbors not to let their territory be used."If the attack takes place from the soil of another country...the country attacked has the right to respond to the enemy's military action from where the operation started,"he said. Kuwait, the launchpad for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and Iraq itself, where U.S. troops are now stationed, have both said they would not let their land be used for a strike on Iran. The U.S. military has bases in other Gulf states and Afghanistan.Jafari said U.S. forces were "more vulnerable than Israelis" because of their troops in the area. Iran's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has in the past said Iran would target U.S. interests if attacked.
"Iran can in different ways harm American interests even far away," the Guards commander said.Jafari suggested Iran's allies in the region, who include Lebanon's Shi'ite militia Hezbollah, could also retaliate. He referred to Iran's ties with those living in Lebanon's Shi'ite heartland of south Lebanon but did not refer to any group."Israelis know if they take military action against Iran...the abilities of the Islamic and Shi'ite world, especially in the region, will deliver fatal blows," Jafari said, adding that Israel was in range of Iranian missiles.He also hinted that Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that receives Iranian funding and which has sent suicide bombers into Israel, might act. But, again, he did not name the group.
As in the days of Noah....

BLASPHEMY WATCH:BLOODLINE...A Mystery With No Resolution

“The Da Vinci Code” brought to the masses the theory that there exists a lineage traceable to Jesus and Mary Magdalene. The sensationalistic documentary “Bloodline” further explores this supposition, one that is gospel to some and totally ludicrous to others.“The Da Vinci Code” brought to the masses the theory that there exists a lineage traceable to Jesus and Mary Magdalene. The sensationalistic documentary “Bloodline” further explores this supposition, one that is gospel to some and totally ludicrous to others.“I’m not an archaeologist or a historian,” the director Bruce Burgess humbly states. “I’m just a filmmaker who is fascinated by the huge implications of this story.”He also seems to be more than a little fascinated with himself.In addition to providing the narration, he appears on screen, often in close-up, while interviewing researchers, authors, academics and professed members of the secret society known as the Priory of Sion. He’s also front and center as he and a newfound partner, the British adventure-seeker Ben Hammott, follow a series of leads across France, uncovering fresh, possibly revelatory evidence, including the mummified remains of a woman-could it be Mary Magdalene?-and a buried chest containing ancient artifacts.The film, structured like a traditional mystery, is only moderately suspenseful, partly because there is of course no resolution. By the end Mr. Burgess may have bought his own evidence, but it won’t be as easy a sell to less credulous viewers....
BLOODLINE--TRAILER

http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/movies/09bloo.html?ref=movies
PS:Im listening to mr Burgess on the radio and I can't take it....They guy is SO CONFUSED and all the stuff he is saying about his"investigation" in France and etc,etc,Europe is nothing more than laughable...
Basically what the guy is saying is that Jesus didnt die on the cross,therefore didnt resurrected,therefore he is not the Son of God....ah....BTW...yes.he says that he married Mary Magdalene and yara,yara,yara....
So IF Jesus didnt die and resurrected--he is not the Son of God since ALL of us are descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene....therefore there is no need of repentance and salvation.....
A TOTAL BLASPHEMY....
This people is hell bound already and the sad part is that this second class documentary is going to fuel the thoughts of divinity or God inside all of us--therefore no need of salvation mantra,like you wouldnt believe....
A documentary for the confused and lost--definitely....
A warning for the born again believer of another blasphemous documentary out there....BLIND GUIDING THE BLIND....
As in the days of Noah...

PERSECUTION WATCH:Fine for preaching in public challenged

--Fine for preaching in public challenged:'If they shut down our ability to speak, they shut down the Gospel'
--'Religion in private' OK, declares ACLU: New limits on Christians leave family groups reeling
--Turkish Government Denies Water to Church in Ankara:Turkish officials continue harassing legal church in an attempt to force it to close...
To read more about these and more news on christian persecution worldwide,go to:
As in the days of Noah...

Is Obama devotee of monkey-god idol?

A group of Hindus in India have presented Sen. Barack Obama's campaign with a two-foot Hindu monkey-god idol after hearing the candidate carries a smaller version of the Lord Hanuman good-luck charm with him as he vies for the presidency.Earlier this week, according to reports in India, Obama representative Carolyn Sauvage-Mar accepted the gold-plated statue, promising to pass it on to the candidate after is it sanctified through ritual Hindu prayers."The idol is being presented to Obama as he is reported to be a Lord Hanuman devotee and carries with him a locket of the monkey god along with other good luck charms," reported the Times of India.An hour-long prayer meeting to sanctify the idol was conducted by Congress party leader Brijmohan Bhama and temple priests."Obama has deep faith in Lord Hanuman, and that is why we are presenting an idol of Hanuman to him," said Bhama.Accepting the souvenir, Sauvage-Mar, chairwoman of Democrats Abroad-India, said, "Obama has extended his thanks for the support."The idol will be kept at the temple for 11 days and then sent to the U.S. It will reach Obama by Aug. 24 – a day before the Democratic National Convention opens in Denver.The idea of sending an idol of Hanuman dawned on Bhama after friends in the U.S. mentioned a "prominent American politician who carried a miniature Hanuman idol in his pocket for luck.""After hearing that, I decided to gift Mr. Obama a larger, gold-plated version along with the wishes of thousands of his supporters in this country," Bhama told the Hindu newspaper.Along with the idol, a copy of "Hanuman Chalisa," a compilation of Hindu hymns, will be sent to Obama.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=68156
PS:So then could we conclude that OBAMA is a "smoking--pro-abortion--idol worshiper christian"....???????What a disgrace!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As in the days of Noah...

Fires burn in New Mexico:Gov.Declares State of EMergency

NWO WATCH:U.S., EU near deal on access to private data: report

NEW YORK-The United States and the European Union are near a deal on letting law enforcement and security agencies obtain private information like credit card transactions and travel histories about people on the other side of the Atlantic, The New York Times reported on Saturday.The newspaper, which obtained an internal report on the potential agreement, said it would amount to a diplomatic breakthrough for U.S. counterterrorism officials after a history of clashing with the EU over demands for personal data.It was unclear when the agreement could be completed, the Times said, citing officials, but the Bush administration wants to resolve the issues before leaving office in January and is hoping for an agreement that would not require congressional approval.Negotiators, meeting since February 2007, have mostly worked out draft language for 12 major issues at the heart of a "binding international agreement," according to the report. Among other things, the pact would make clear that European governments and companies could lawfully exchange personal information with the United States.A major unresolved issue is whether residents of EU countries would be able to sue the U.S. government over its handling of their personal data, the Times said. U.S. law does not allow foreigners to sue the U.S. government for damages in such instances, the Times said.The talks resulted from conflicts between the United States and Europe over information-sharing after the September 11 attacks. The Bush administration had demanded access to passenger data held by airlines flying out of Europe and by a consortium, known as Swift, which tracks global bank transfers. Several EU countries objected, citing privacy laws.U.S. and EU officials hope to avoid future confrontations "by finding common ground on privacy and by agreeing not to impose conflicting obligations on private companies," the Times quoted Stewart Baker, assistant secretary for policy at the Homeland Security Department, as saying."Globalization means that more and more companies are going to get caught between U.S. and European law," said Baker, who is involved in the talks.Some European officials expressed concern at the prospective agreement's ramifications.
To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah....

Texas high court rules exorcism protected by law

FORT WORTH, Texas-The Texas Supreme Court on Friday threw out a jury award over injuries a 17-year-old girl suffered in an exorcism conducted by members of her old church, ruling that the case unconstitutionally entangled the court in religious matters.In a 6-3 decision, the justices found that a lower court erred when it said the Pleasant Glade Assembly of God's First Amendment rights regarding freedom of religion did not prevent the church from being held liable for mental distress triggered by a "hyper-spiritualistic environment."Laura Schubert testified in 2002 that she was cut and bruised and later experienced hallucinations after the church members' actions in 1996, when she was 17. She also said the incident led her to mutilate herself and attempt suicide. She eventually sought psychiatric help.But the church's attorneys had told jurors that her psychological problems were caused by traumatic events she witnessed with her missionary parents in Africa. The church contended she "freaked out" about following her father's life as a missionary and was acting out to gain attention.The 2002 trial of the case never touched on the religious aspects, and a Tarrant County jury found the Colleyville church and its members liable for abusing and falsely imprisoning the girl. The jury awarded her $300,000, though the 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth later reduced the verdict.Justice David Medina wrote that finding the church liable "would have an unconstitutional 'chilling effect' by compelling the church to abandon core principles of its religious beliefs."But Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson, in a dissenting opinion, stated that the "sweeping immunity" is inconsistent with U.S. Supreme Court precedent and extends far beyond the Constitution's protections for religious conduct."The First Amendment guards religious liberty; it does not sanction intentional abuse in religion's name," Jefferson wrote.After the 2002 verdict, Pleasant Glade merged with another congregation in Colleyville, a Fort Worth suburb.A message left for the church's attorney Friday evening was not immediately returned, and calls to two numbers listed in Schubert's name went unanswered.

SIGN of the TIMES:Girl, 17, set to become Britain's youngest sex-change patient


For most mothers, their daughter's 16th birthday is marked by such traditions as a party, preparing for a school dance, or maybe even allowing them to go on holiday with their friends for the first time.For Elizabeth Thornton, however, the year brought with it a rather different set of demands.First, she was asked by her daughter Sarah to refer to her as 'Alex'.More recently, she found herself shopping not for a glamorous evening gown, but for a breast restrictor designed to flatten and hide her daughter's breasts.Today, instead of looking forward to moments like her youngest daughter's wedding and the birth of her first child, Elizabeth is contemplating a series of operations that Sarah is determined to put herself through, including a double mastectomy and a hysterectomy. Now aged 17, Sarah is believed to be the youngest person in the country awaiting a female-to-male sex change operation. She has been living as a teenage boy for the past year, and has now been given the go-ahead by her GP and her psychiatrist for the £106,000 procedure.Sarah hopes to have the surgery within the next 12 months. This, she says, is the only way she can hope to live the rest of her life with any degree of sanity or happiness.
Her decision has, however, been far from easy for her family. Sarah's elder sister, 21-year-old Vanessa, cannot accept what is happening, and both her parents are candid about their struggle to adapt to the reality that their little girl is desperate to become their son.'When, last November, Sarah told me that she wanted to have a sex change, I nearly choked on the cup of tea I was drinking,' says Elizabeth, 42, a PA who lives in Newcastle with her husband Vincent, an engineer, and their children. 'I honestly thought this was some sort of teenage fantasy, and neither my husband nor I took her seriously at all.'Then, two weeks later, the psychiatrist that Sarah has been seeing for some time, because she has been so depressed, phoned me on her behalf. 'She said that Sarah was distraught that my husband and I weren't listening to her, and that this was no joking matter. I can't even describe how I felt at that moment. I was devastated. Confused and terrified. 'I kept thinking what had I done wrong, and was this all my fault. I'd produced this child as a girl, and now she wanted to be a boy.'All I could think was if you're not happy, change your hair, change your dress sense or, at the most, consider cosmetic surgery. To change something as drastic as your sex - well, it was beyond what I or my husband could understand.'It just felt all wrong, and certainly not the sort of thing that I'd ever thought would happen to an ordinary family like ours.But at the same time, I couldn't imagine being in Sarah's position - of hating yourself every time you look in a mirror. As a mother, I wanted to protect and help my child, and I'd known for a long time that Sarah was desperately unhappy.
'Vincent and I had been struggling for years to understand what was at the root of Sarah's depression, but we had never considered she might actually feel that she was trapped in the wrong body.'She wasn't living her life; she merely existed. She didn't have a job and had very few friends. She was depressed and spent most of her day in bed. If the answer lay in supporting her as she changed sex, well that would be what I, as her mother, had to do.'Certainly, when Elizabeth first held her youngest daughter in her arms, this was not the future she had envisaged.'Vincent and I were overjoyed to have another little girl,' says Elizabeth. 'I remember looking at Sarah's tiny face and feeling full of the highest hopes for her.'It was such a magical moment, and all I wanted to do was protect her from the world and make sure she was happy.'
While a set of family photographs depict an ordinary looking little girl, with an angelic face and long, brown, flowing hair, Elizabeth noted from the outset that Sarah was a tomboy.'From a very young age, Sarah was a very different child to her elder sister,' says Elizabeth. 'She would much rather be outside playing with dinosaur toys or climbing trees than sharing Vanessa's dolls. If I put her in a dress, she used to pull it off and stamp on it.'I would have loved Sarah to wear nice dresses, as she was such a pretty child with lovely hair, but she refused point-blank.But in those days, I used to feel proud of the way she tumbled around, without a care in the world, and was just tomboyish.'But by the time she reached six, Elizabeth realised her daughter's desperation to be a boy set her apart from both her sister and the other girls at her school. She began to insist on being identified as a little boy, and asked her friends to call her 'Lee'.
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PS:this is beyond anything words can express....
As in the days of Noah....

HONOUR KILLING WATCH:Brother of girl killed in apparent hijab incident charged

MISSISSAUGA, Ont.-The brother of a Mississauga, Ont., teenager who was strangled to death in her home has been charged with first-degree murder.Aqsa Parvez was 16 when she was strangled to death in December 2007 during what friends said was a family dispute over her reluctance to wear a hijab.Her father, 57-year-old Muhammed Parvez, was charged with first-degree murder soon after his arrest that month.Her brother Waqas Parvez, 27, was charged with first-degree murder as well following his arrest on Thursday.Mr. Parvez had already been charged with obstruction of justice in connection with his sister's death.A Peel police spokeswoman says investigators think they have the two primary suspects but believe there may be others who witnessed or have knowledge of the crime.
PS:These are good news!!!!!!!BUT...when will this end??????
As in the days of Noah...

OBAMA WATCH:Tony Perkins Asks Barack Obama: When Does Life Begin?

In a speech this Father's Day at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago, Illinois, Senator Barack Obama remarked that "We need fathers to recognize that responsibility doesn't just end at conception."I applaud the Senator's observation that fatherhood bears great responsibility. However, Senator Obama's record in Congress shows that he has consistently voted to use taxpayer dollars to end life after conception.I-along with with my son Samuel-recorded a video response to this message in which I ask Senator Obama: if my responsibility as a father began at conception, isn't that when the lives of my children began....?

http://www.frcaction.org/

As in the days of Noah...

Obama's Catholic support squad

The elected officials heading up Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's National Catholic Advisory Council have gotten rave reviews from the National Abortion Rights Action League.The Wall Street Journal reports that of the 21 senators, congressmen, and governors listed on the Catholic council's National Leadership Committee, 17 have a 90-100 percent approval rating from the group that goes by the official name "NARAL Pro-Choice America." Senator Obama himself has a 100 percent approval rating. Susan Fani is a spokeswoman for the Catholic League, which has been calling for the dissolution of Obama's Catholic Advisory Council. "We're not surprised that he would choose these people to be on the council, but at the same time we think it's disingenuous to call it a Catholic Advisory Council when on the one non-negotiable issue they have the position that's completely contrary to Catholic Church teaching," Fani contends. She points to a recent study by Pew Research showing that abortion and same-sex "marriage" are high priority issues for religious conservatives who attend church regularly. "I think what Senator Obama and a lot of his supporters are trying to do is to equate these issues with Third World debt or the minimum wage," she suggests. "And in actuality, abortion is such a key issue that we don't think he'll be successful as this Pew study indicates – that people who truly have a heartfelt response to the abortion issue are not going to support Senator Obama in light of his 100 percent NARAL ratings," Fani points out. Fani argues that the members of Obama's Catholic Advisory Council with high ratings from NARAL should be excommunicated from the church or denied the sacraments. She also predicts that as more Catholics examine the senator's record of ardent support for abortion, they will realize he is not the centrist he is positioning himself to be.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Election2008/Default.aspx?id=152074
As in the days of Noah...