McCain Also an 'Anti-Bush'
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/McCain_Also_an_Anti_Bush/2008/03/29/84009.html
The likely Republican nominee launched his first television ad of the general election campaign Friday, casting himself as a ready-to-lead wartime president in advance of a biographical tour to pivotal places in his life. Son of a military man, midshipman, Navy pilot, Vietnam POW, member of Congress for nearly three decades — this is the resume of the 71-year-old McCain.
"In some ways, I'm well-known to the American people. In other ways, I'm not well-known," McCain told The Associated Press on Friday.
The Democratic Party — still lacking a nominee — and its supporters offer a starkly different portrait. In their view, McCain is a Washington insider, backer of an unpopular war in Iraq, hair-trigger quick on Iran and indifferent on the economic woes of average Americans. They cast McCain as four more years of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
"All he wants to do is continue on the George Bush failed policies of the past," says Democratic Sen. Barack Obama. His rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, talks about "a Bush/McCain Iraq policy" and argues that "we've had enough of a president who didn't know enough about economics."
Seven months before Election Day, the two parties are furiously trying to establish a lasting image of McCain for voters. Perceptions can take hold, whether it's the one the Bush campaign crafted in 2004 of a strong, steady leader or the one critics tagged to Democratic nominee John Kerry — flip-flopper.
Aside from what the Democratic Party does to challenge McCain, a loose coalition of liberal and labor organizations expects to spend about $150 million this fall to push its causes and help Democrats win the White House and strengthen their grip on Congress.
"You can't discount some of the effects" of these efforts, McCain said.
Recent polls show McCain has work to do to boost voters' positive impressions of him but also indicate that his identity isn't universally tied to Bush among pivotal independents.
A Pew Research Center survey released Thursday found that 45 percent of people viewed McCain favorably, a slightly smaller slice than Obama and Clinton. Still, just over half of independents says McCain would take the country in a different direction than Bush — important given that two-thirds of independents disapprove of the president's job performance.
While McCain is familiar to GOP faithful, a recent AP-Yahoo News poll found that he was less known than Obama and Clinton. When asked to describe McCain, most mentioned his senior citizen status and his military service. He also was widely seen as experienced, strong, honest and decisive.
Broadly, McCain argues he's someone who will keep the country safe and prosperous by using his knowledge and judgment — culled from his lifetime of service in the Navy and the Senate. The four-term senator argues that he will challenge the Washington status quo, deal with climate change and tell it straight.
His effort to start that story line began Friday, with the initial, albeit limited, ad campaign that calls him "the American president Americans have been waiting for." It coincides with a "Service to America" tour next week in which McCain will give a series of speeches in towns that shaped his life.
"What McCain has to do — and what he's got time to do now — is de-link himself from the president and define himself as a different Republican who can appeal to independents and swing voters," said Steven Lombardo, a GOP pollster in Washington.
Some say that won't be difficult.
"John McCain has an image of being anti-Bush from the 2000 election. He's not George Bush," and Democrats won't succeed in painting him as a clone, said Greg Strimple, a Republican strategist in New York.
Earlier this week, McCain embraced a more collaborative foreign policy approach with democratic allies, drawing a contrast with Bush's go-it-alone style of the last eight years. Upcoming is a speech on combating climate change; McCain breaks from Bush on the issue that attracts voters from across the political spectrum.
Democrats acknowledge that McCain, who is struggling to raise money, has a significant opportunity to craft his own image while better-funded Democrats are preoccupied with the protracted Obama-Clinton fight.
Several Democrats recalled the 1996 presidential race when President Clinton used his re-election money to paint Republican Bob Dole as a past-era conservative outside of the mainstream.
"Democrats had a chance with their superior financial advantage to have overwhelmed McCain — especially in the key states — in the period between the spring and conventions as they did with Dole in '96. But that is likely not to be the case now," said Chris Lehane, a political consultant in California and former aide to President Clinton.
Others argue there's plenty of time.
Democrats at all levels — from the party to labor to Clinton and Obama — are girding for this character-creating fight. Democrats have argued McCain flip-flopped on Bush's tax cuts, first opposing them, then embracing them. They repeatedly seize on McCain's remarks that some level of the U.S. military presence in Iraq could last 100 years and economics is not his strongest suit.
Said Steve McMahon, a Democratic strategist: "Democrats have to basically say the John McCain you thought you knew isn't the John McCain that's running for president this year."
The Audacity of Barack Obama: The National Black Pro-Life Union Comments on Barack Obama's Perfect Union Speech, March 18, 2008
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07012.shtml
WASHINGTON -- Day Gardner, President of the National Black Pro-Life Union, submits the following comments:
I am a black woman and like Mr. Obama and most other Americans, I am a product of generations of racial and cultural mixes and backgrounds. My ancestors also arrived here on slave ships--as did the ancestors of most African Americans.
Barack Obama's heritage is no more "rich" than any of ours. The United States of America is overflowing with stories of struggles, hardships, wealth, triumphs, and poverty. We all have had ancestors that arrived here on slave ships or through Ellis Island. That's who we are--we're Americans and we all have a story to tell. Mr. Obama's heritage is not unique.
Most Americans are also equally proud of fathers and grandfathers who served in the military in World Wars I and II, Korea and Vietnam. And whether you are in support of the war in Iraq or against it, we must continue to support the men and women who are willing to serve their country "our country" while putting their lives on the line. They are heroes in every sense of the word.
Mr. Obama said that he loves this country, yet my mind is still plagued by the image of a man standing on a stage with other presidential hopefuls failing to salute the American flag--a banner that unites us all.
I thought it rather amusing that Mr. Obama spoke at great length about racial discrimination, the lack of economic opportunity, poverty, segregated schools and the erosion of the black family along with just about every other way in which African American people have been wronged--I think he even threw in the kitchen sink. Yet, he failed to mention the racism of the abortion industry.
The man who wants to be President never mentioned the racism of an organization that purposefully plants abortion facilities firmly in black and minority neighborhoods and urban communities. We have lost more than 15 million black children since 1973-- targeted and slaughtered by abortion and Obama doesn't utter a word or bat an eye.
With all the attention drawn to the recent You Tube video, Barack Obama never mentioned the blatant racism of the organization that was "excited" to take money specifically earmarked to kill black babies via abortion. Are you asking yourself -why? The answer is money.
Last year Planned Parenthood, the organization in question and the nation's largest abortion provider received more than 300 million of our tax dollars in federal funding. They also receive millions in public donations--not to mention the millions in blood money from dismembering the bodies of innocent black children and other children by abortion. Much of that blood money goes into financing political campaigns-- get the picture?
Black children, White children, Hispanic, Native American and Asian children--5,000 of our smallest Americans are ruthlessly slaughtered by abortion every single day and Mr. Obama couldn't care less-- after all, they can't vote.
Mr. Obama, these children have an American story, too; a story just as vibrant and colorful--just as rich as yours--maybe even more so...but their stories will never be told--you promised to see to that personally, didn't you?
Rev. Wright is Wrong - Conservative Media are Wimps
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07016.shtml
Barack Obama has pulled the race card (which effectively brings to an end all meaningful conversation) while FOX News and conservative talk radio have proved once again that "conservatism" is pretend salt. Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, et. al., cannot see, nor do they dare to portray, the cataclysmic "change" that Barack Obama is espousing. It is a shift from one God and standard of Law to another. It is a shift from the God of the Bible and our Founding Fathers to the false god of Rev. Wright. Rev. Wright serves the god of his own hate-filled, bigoted imagination and calls it "Jesus." Yet our conservative friends dare not call this blasphemy treason. They have yet to call Wright for the apostate he is.
Wright is preaching "a different gospel" (2 Corinthians 11: 3-4). The Apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 1:6- 7, "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to 'a different gospel' which is really no gospel at all..." Rev. Wright is wrong about the Jesus of the Bible!
Pastor Jeremiah Wright's church is apostate as are all the United Churches of Christ (UCC) in America. Long ago this institution abandoned its rich Christian heritage and responsibility to stand upon the Word of God. It now follows the god of, "...everyone does that which is right in his own eyes." Abortion, Homosexuality, Islam, and every false religion are welcome in Trinity United Church of Christ. It's one Commandment is, "Don't judge me!" Biblical Christianity is, however, not allowed.
We should not therefore be surprised that Barak Obama will defend his pastor when he (his pastor) is exposed to the light of the true Gospel of Christ. We should furthermore not be surprised when FOX News can't seem to get it right about Rev Wright. Rev. Wright is no more a Christian than he is a poached egg.
We are indeed heading for change with Barak Obama. Oprah is helping us to get there. For the first time in its history, the United States of America may elect a President who does not acknowledge the Jesus of Scripture as the Savior of the world. Barak Obama and black liberation theology (a mixture of Islam, false Christianity, and any other religion that opposes true biblical Christianity) is not Christianity, and those of us who know better (real salt) need to say so.
We could not give our Lord Jesus a better gift on this Good Friday than to just say so!
Rev. Flip Benham, Director, Operation Save America/Operation Rescue
'Gay' Activist Would Risk Lives to Push Political Agenda
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07013.shtml
WASHINGTON -- Current U.S. health regulations prohibit men who have sex with men (MSM) from donating blood. Studies conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) categorically confirm that if MSM were permitted to give blood the general population would be placed at risk.
According to the FDA, MSM, "have an HIV prevalence 60 times higher than the general population, 800 times higher than first time blood donors and 8,000 times higher than repeat blood donors (American Red Cross).
"[MSM] also have an increased risk of having other infections that can be transmitted to others by blood transfusion. For example, infection with the Hepatitis B virus is about 5-6 times more common, and Hepatitis C virus infections are about 2 times more common in [MSM] than in the general population," according to the FDA.
A recent CDC study rocked the homosexual community in finding that although MSM comprise only 1-2 percent of the population, they account for an epidemic 64 percent of all syphilis cases.
Although the risks extend far beyond potential HIV infection, the FDA notes, "All donated blood is tested for HIV, but the virus can go undetected until the immune system has produced a testable amount of antibodies." This would pose a "small but definite increased risk to people who receive blood transfusions if the policy were changed."
But risking lives is apparently of little consequence to Joe Solomonese, president of the "Human Rights Campaign" (HRC), the nation's largest homosexual pressure group. Solomonese recently placed politics over science, falsely declaring this commonsense public health precaution to be "discriminatory." He has called for the ban to be lifted with the wildly irresponsible claim that, "[T]here is no medical or scientific rationale for this discriminatory policy."
"Joe Solomonese's demand is incredibly reckless and selfish," said Matt Barber, Policy Director for Cultural Issues with Concerned Women for America (CWA). "Unfortunately, it's a common demand among his fellow extremists.
"In South Africa, militant homosexual activists have been deliberately and surreptitiously violating that nation's blood ban, planning to flood blood services with 70,000 units. Who knows how much blood has been contaminated or how many innocent people have been infected," said Barber, "This isn't a protest; it's an act of violence.
"In recent days, Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern has been viciously attacked and maligned, even receiving death threats, for saying that homosexual activism poses a grave threat. This represents but one example of many which illustrate her point. She can rest her case.
"Joe Solomonese has severely damaged his credibility here, and he should immediately withdraw his demand. It's unconscionable that he would place a deceptive and dangerous political agenda above the health and well-being of American men, women and children.
"Intravenous drug users are also prohibited from giving blood. No one in his right mind would demand that addicts be permitted to donate. It's not because of who they are, it's because of what they do. Studies prove that, like intravenous drug use, male-male anal sodomy is extremely high-risk behavior. Unnatural behaviors beget natural consequences," said Barber. "Regrettably, infectious disease can be just one of them."
Concerned Women for America is the nation's largest public policy women's organization.
Thomas More Law Center Announces Representation of Oklahoma Legislator Targeted by Radical Homosexuals
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07011.shtml
ANN ARBOR, MI - Representative Sally Kern has received over 27,000 vulgar, hate filled e-mails, her life has been threatened, her son falsely accused of being a homosexual, her financial supporters contacted and asked to no longer support her, and a leading homosexual activist entered her husband's church last Sunday and took notes on her husband's sermon. At times, as a precaution, a state trooper walks by her side when she enters the State Capitol.
The reason - Representative Kern, an Oklahoma legislator, married to a local Baptist minister, spoke at a public Republican club meeting in which she gave information about the political strategies of activist homosexuals to defeat conservative candidates. Her comments were secretly taped, and appeared as a "You Tube" audio clip.
Representative Kern expressed her concern that the homosexual agenda was destroying our nation, and that young school children were being indoctrinated into believing that the homosexual "life style" is normal. Her comments caused some of the nation's largest homosexual groups to target her for political annihilation.
Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, a national Christian public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, called Representative Kern "a courageous Christian woman," and announced today that the Law Center has agreed to represent her in any misguided legal action arising out this controversy. The Law Center will be assisted by its local affiliated attorney, Bill Kumpe.
Said Thompson, "Representative Kern will not back down, regardless of the attempted hate-mongering intimidation by these national homosexual advocacy groups. Their actions are right out of a play-book developed by radical homosexual activists in the 1980s to manipulate and intimidate the majority of Americans into accepting the normalcy of the homosexual life style. "
Continued Thompson, "Radical homosexual groups are attempting to curtail Representative Kern's constitutional rights to free speech, and use that speech as a platform to push for anti-Christian "hate crime" laws. In effect, their goal is to criminalize Christians and Christian beliefs. "'??
Thompson observed, "Her comments represent the view of a majority of Americans. All you need to do is look at all of the states that have overwhelmingly adopted constitutional amendments or statutes defending traditional marriages from the homosexual agenda. Christians believe that homosexual acts are acts of grave depravity, contrary to the natural law and under no circumstances can they be approved. However, Christians also believe one must love the sinner, but hate the sin. "
It is a fact that the radical homosexual groups reach into our schools indoctrinating our children.
In one Massachusetts school district, without informing parents, kindergarten and first grade students were read the story King and King -- about 2 princes who fall in love and marry. The last page of the book - undoubtedly shown to the children - ends with a picture of the 2 kings kissing.
When outraged parents found out, they sued the school district. Incredibly Ñü but not surprisingly Ñü the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the teacher's right to read the book saying, "Public schools are not obliged to shield students from ideas which potentially are religiously offensive. "
A 24-page pro-homosexual booklet is set to be distributed to all 16,000 school districts in the nation. The booklet produced by the National Education Association and the American Psychological Association falsely tells students that homosexuality is a "normal expression of human sexuality. "
Every year, homosexual rights groups, with the blessing of school officials, sponsor a "Day of Silence" when students and some teachers in schools across the nation remain silent Ñü with tape across their mouths Ñü throughout the school day. This year it's on April 25. The stated purpose is to make others aware of discrimination against homosexuals. In reality, it is a means of propagandizing and pressuring students to regard homosexual, bisexual and transgender behavior as normal.
In the Montgomery County, Maryland School district, eighth and tenth graders are taught that homosexuality is innateÑü they're born that way. As if to underscore the point, students are shown a film instructing them on how to use condoms in anal and oral sex.'??
In 2004, Oklahoma voters passed a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as consisting only of the union of one man and one woman by 76%.
The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life through education, litigation, and related activities. It does not charge for its services. The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization. You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at (734) 827-2001 or visit our website at www.thomasmore.org.
Ban on Homeschooling Put on Hold
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/347448.aspx
A California state court will reconsider its ruling that could outlaw homeschooling -- raising hopes in the homeschooling community that the justices will reverse their action.
Last month the court ruled that parents who educate their children at home could be criminally liable under California law. The justices ruled that parents "do not have a constitutional right to home school their children."
The court argued that only credentialed teachers could educate children. The family at the center of the case home schooled their eight children, but did not hold a teaching certifcation.
Many pro-family groups viewed the ruling as troublesome because California's public schools have some of the more liberal laws in the nation regarding teaching about sexuality and homosexuality.
They feared the court's published opinion would force thousands of families to stop homeschooling.
Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund were among those who asked the court to reconsider the ruling.
"Another look at this case will help ensure that the fundamental rights of parents are fully protected," they argued.
Michael Farris of The Homeschool Legal Defense Fund Association also called the court's decision to rehear the case a "great first step."
"We are very glad that this case will be reheard and that this opinion has been vacated, but there is no guarantee as to what the ultimate outcome will be," he said.
He added that this case remains the association's top priority. The court will hear the case in June.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneggar said he will intervene if the ruling is not overturned.
Tulsa Conference to Highlight Changing World, Bible Predictions
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07018.shtml
TULSA, Oklahoma -- Terry James, author of 18 books and frequently interviewed speaker on Bible prophecy, will serve as one of two moderators for the Question and Answer sessions during the 14th annual Tulsa International Prophecy Conference, April 2 - 4.
This year's event, held at Radisson Tulsa Hotel (918- 627-5000) will feature well known speakers offering presentations and insights on contemporary world conditions in light of Bible prophecy. The conference is sponsored by Thy Kingdom Come Ministries, headed by Phillip Goodman, who hosts the mid- America conference each year.
The world's leading prophecy speakers have been featured at what is known as Mid-America's largest and longest running conference on Bible Prophecy. Speakers this year include David Reagan, Walid Shoebat, Mike Gendron, Ergun Caner, Gary Fisher, Phillip Goodman, Jeremy Hall, Joe Lowendowski and Q&A moderators Terry James and Mike Hile. For a complete list of sessions and speakers visit: www.prophecywatch.com/Confer07.htm
The Q&A sessions are held each evening at 6:15 and are a dynamic part of the conference. Those in attendance ask questions and interact with speakers to gather the clearest perspective on events taking shape in America, the regions surrounding the nation of Israel, and the increasingly troubled geopolitical and socioeconomic world scene.
In the last year, Terry James, also considered a leading prophecy expert, has experienced a dramatic increase in invitations for interviews by media who are curious about the possibility of unfolding prophecy. He and his internet partner Todd Strandberg host the largest Bible Prophecy website on the web. Each month raptureready.com receives in excess of 10 million hits, with visitors researching through more than 16 thousand in-depth articles on topics revolving around prophecy and Biblical studies. The website has been featured on NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, the New York Times, L.A. times, Chicago Tribune, Time Magazine, and other media venues.
James' latest book The Nephilim Imperatives, released January of this year, has been called "a well- researched, intensely intriguing novel on the subject of UFOs and how they fit within Bible prophecy." Most who study the UFO phenomenon agree that we are in the midst of what could be the largest UFO flap in history. Many will find The Nephilim Imperatives to be a handy tool for understanding this strange phenomenon within the Biblical context.
James's next book is a non-fiction take on the subject of America in prophecy. It is scheduled for release by Harvest House Publishers in December, 2008.
Anti-persecution groups call for worldwide prayer, religious freedom for China
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/antipersecution.groups.call.for.worldwide.prayer.religious.freedom.for.china/17586.htm
International organisations engaged with the persecuted church in China have pulled together in a historic statement calling on the world to pray for religious freedom in China.
"The Zurich Statement" was issued this week by the Religious Liberty Partnership (RLP), whose member organisations include China Aid Association (CAA), Open Doors International, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, the Voice of the Martyrs (Canada), and the Religious Liberty Commission of World Evangelical Alliance.
In the statement, the organisations acknowledge that the Chinese Government has made some progress in the area of religious freedom and put their hope in the Chinese Government to remove remaining obstacles to the full expression of faith.
"This historic statement reaffirms the solidarity of the international Christian community with the Chinese faithful especially the persecuted House Church," said Mr Fu who represented China Aid at the Zurich meeting. "We pray the true religious freedom in China will finally be realised soon."
They also call for an end to serious violations of religious freedom called the worldwide Christian community to pray for China during the Summer Olympics year.
Earlier in March, CAA published an open letter calling on the international community to help China improve what it called the “worsening” human rights situation ahead of the Games. In the letter, CAA President Bob Fu highlighted the kidnapping of a distinguished Chinese human rights lawyer Teng Biao in front of his apartment on March 6. He was released two days later after being interrogated for 41 hours with a bag over his head.
The Zurich Statement went on to recognise the key role that China had to play in regional and global peace.
"The call for prayer is rooted in the fact that the RLP felt it was time to acknowledge some progress in China's attitude toward religious liberty and also the part Christians play at all levels of Chinese society," stated Mervyn Thomas, CEO of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, and Chairman of the RLP leadership team.
"There is still a very long way to go and religious freedom is something very alien to many Christians in China.
“However, Christians all over the world have been praying for their Chinese family for many years and I believe we are beginning to see the impact of those prayers today."
Johan Compajen, of Open Doors International in Holland and a member of the RLP leadership team, also testified to the progress that China has made in establishing full religious freedom.
"What a change we have seen in the nearly 30 years since my first visit to China," he said. "In spite of many obstacles, the church in China has multiplied.
“What seemed impossible in the past has happened because around the world we joined the Chinese Christians in prayer and our Chinese brothers and sisters have been willing to pay the price for following Jesus.
“If we continue to pray, we may be surprised by what God will do in the coming 30 years."
The Religious Liberty Partnership is a collaborative effort of Christian organisations focused on religious liberty. The RLP seeks to more intentionally work together in addressing advocacy and in raising the awareness of religious persecution globally.
Vietnam war rumbles on, Christians branded 'the enemy'
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/vietnam.war.rumbles.on.christians.branded.the.enemy/17594.htm
Release International has completed a fact-finding visit and finds the Vietnam War is still rumbling on – with Christians now regarded as the enemy.
Christians in Vietnam are being targeted as ‘agents of America’. They describe torture and near starvation as the authorities threaten to kill them slowly.
Prisoners’ wives and a former prisoner have been describing the way Christians from Vietnam’s tribal highlands are routinely beaten, tortured and starved behind bars – in a land which supposedly guarantees freedom of religion.
‘Esther’ and ‘Deborah’ and former prisoner ‘Silas’ have been telling Release International about the ordeal suffered in jail by Christians calling for true freedom of worship and the return of land seized by the authorities. They tell their story in the latest edition of the webcast World Update on the Persecuted Church, available on www.releaseinternational.org
They travelled hundreds of miles and have taken a great risk to explode the myth of freedom of religion in Vietnam and to call for prayer and support for Christian prisoners.
Esther described how they set about ‘Abraham’, her husband, with a wooden club spiked with two long nails. Then they turned a snarling Alsatian on him, before lashing his unconscious body to their Jeep and dragging it along the road.
When they finally permitted Esther to see her husband she says: "He could not recognise me. He was like a dumb man. They had beaten him in the face and broken his jaw. He could not talk."
Esther and Abraham are Christians, from one of the mountain tribes of Vietnam.
"My husband requested freedom for the tribal people, and freedom to worship God." Esther explains. "And he asked for this publicly."
'Job’, another Christian prisoner, also called for freedom of worship – a freedom guaranteed under Vietnamese law.
Despite those legal guarantees, the authorities closed Job’s village church and confiscated their land – measures commonplace in the tribal highlands of Vietnam, where unregistered Christians are regarded with suspicion as enemy agents working to undermine communism.
They accused Job of being involved with separatists, tortured him to extract a confession and threw him behind bars.
Now Job and those imprisoned with him are barely kept alive. To ease their constant hunger they eat leaves and the bark of trees. Their only vegetables have been grown in human dung.
Church worker Silas was arrested after a peaceful protest over the seizure of land used to grow cashew nuts. Silas insisted he had not even attended the demonstration, but they beat him and tortured him for three months to try to extract a confession.
"They beat me at all my pressure points over my whole body to make me weak,’ says Silas. ‘They told me: “You will die slowly”."
Deborah’s husband Job suffered the same. "Over four months they beat up his whole body, hitting him in all the organs, beating him in so many ways that my husband dared not tell me everything."
Silas continues: "Every week they beat me twice, some weeks they beat me six times. One day they used a metal instrument to twist my fingers. It hurt so much I cried out."
But the worst torture was when they set fire to his beard while his hands were manacled behind him. All he could do was try to blow out the flames.
Eventually, when his body could stand no more, he passed out. "Then when I was unconscious, they took my hand and signed my name on a confession."
Silas says if it hadn't been for his faith in Jesus, he would have committed suicide. "I praise the Lord that he has never forsaken us."
Deborah and Esther are grateful their husbands are still alive. "It is because of God’s mercy, his love and his grace that my husband, who is supposed to be dead already, is still alive today," says Esther.
Adds Deborah: "I thank God because he's always been with me, that I can walk in love, his strength and in his protection. The Lord is taking care. He knows, and is sending many brothers and sisters to help in all this time of need."
Release International and its partners are supporting families of prisoners of faith in Vietnam. Release is providing food, pastoral and medical aid, and supporting prisoners when they come out of jail.
A video report on Esther, Silas and Deborah, is available on the Release International website, and their story is told in the next edition of Witness magazine, also available from the website www.releaseinternational.org
Through its international network of missions Release International works to support persecuted Christians in some 30 nations. Release is supporting Christians imprisoned for their faith and their families. It supports church workers, pastors and their families, and provides training, Bibles, Christian literature and broadcasts.
NKorea Threatens South With Destruction
http://www.newsmax.com/international/koreas/2008/03/30/84130.html
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea threatened South Korea with destruction Sunday after Seoul's top military officer said he would consider attacking the communist nation if it tried to carry out a nuclear attack.
The statement from North Korea's official news agency marked the third straight day of bellicose rhetoric from the North, which is angry over the harsher line the South's new president has taken against the country since assuming office last month.
"Our military will not sit idle until warmongers launch a pre-emptive strike," said an unidentified KCNA military commentator. "Everything will be in ashes, not just a sea of fire, if our advanced pre-emptive strike once begins."
On Friday, North Korea test-fired a barrage of missiles into the sea and warned it would "mercilessly wipe out" any South Korean warships that violate its waters near their disputed sea border.
Such rhetoric by North Korea at times of increased tensions is not rare, and it comes just two days before a scheduled visit to South Korea by the chief U.S. negotiator in North Korean nuclear disarmament talks.
Sunday's statement also warned that the North would suspend all scheduled inter-Korean dialogue unless Seoul retracts and apologizes for the remark by its new top military leader.
Kim Tae-young, chairman of the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a parliamentary hearing Wednesday that the military would strike a suspected North Korean nuclear weapons site if Pyongyang attempts to attack the South with atomic bombs.
His office later said he was talking about a general military principle dealing with outside threats, not about launching an unprovoked pre-emptive attack on the North.
South Korea's Defense Ministry said Sunday that it would decide whether to send a response to the North over its demand for a retraction in a few days.
The North Korean military commentator reaffirmed that Pyongyang would ban South Korean officials, including military officers, from crossing the border.
The statement did not say when the ban would take effect or how long it would last.
South Korean officials have occasionally traveled across the two countries' heavily fortified border for talks.
Rice Wins Concessions from Israel
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/348112.aspx
JERUSALEM, Israel - Israel agreed to a series of "concrete steps" to help the Palestinian Authority (PA), which include removing some 50 roadblocks in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank).
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who arrived in the region Saturday for her second visit this month, announced the measures at a joint press conference, flanked by PA Prime Minister Fayyad Salam and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
Under the plan, Israel will remove about 50 roadblocks, upgrade checkpoints to speed up the movement of Palestinians from PA-controlled areas and give Palestinians more security responsibility in the town of Jenin.
In addition to facilitating movement through the checkpoints, which Barak announced last week, Israel will also boost the number of travel and work permits to Palestinians and support economic projects in Palestinian towns.
In return, the Palestinians vowed to improve policing of Jenin "to provide law and order and work to prevent terror," according to a State Department statement released shortly before the press conference.
Barak and Fayyad, who signed off on the package earlier Sunday, agreed to pursue the measures with "special, immediate emphasis and work," the statement read.
"We've been told that this is going to start and, hopefully even be completed in a relatively short period of time," Rice told the press.
Immediately after the announcement, Barak's office issued a statement that said the Defense Ministry had approved the Israeli part of the package last week.
Neither Barak nor Fayyad, who both appeared at a brief photo opportunity with Rice after the meeting, made any statements to the press.
Rice said she was looking for "meaningful" steps from both sides to implement the long-stalled roadmap, the U.S.-backed peace plan.
Among the other measures in the package announced Sunday are plans to build new housing for Palestinians in 25 villages, connect Palestinian villages to the Israeli power grid and Israeli support for large-scale economic development programs and encouragement of foreign investment.
Meanwhile, at the 20th Arab summit in Damascus Saturday, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said he's ready to unconditionally and immediately implement Yemen's initiative to reconcile with Hamas.
Abbas called on Hamas to end its coup in the Gaza Strip and support early legislative and presidential elections. He also condemned Israel for sabotaging the peace process.
Dutch MP unmasks Islam for all (who want to) to see
http://www.stangoodenough.com/?p=121
A Dutch parliamentarian who believes Islam’s massive global growth is feeding on the worldwide fear of denouncing the violence-based religion, this week did what few men have had the courage to do, and confronted it.
After Holland’s national television stations refused to air his film, “Fitna” (Arabic for “strife” or “ordeal”) out of fear of a Muslim backlash, Geert Wilders posted it on the Internet on March 27, and within hours millions had flooded in to view it.
Within 24 hours, however, that site, LiveLeak, had dropped the film, saying it had been left with “no choice” after members of the website staff were threatened.
Israel’s Arutz 7 website dismissed the threats and screened the film.
We tried to embed the video here without success. Follow this link to the A7 page.
The film shows images from just of the countless acts of Muslim-perpetrated terrorism that have been inflicted against enemies of Islam in recent years.
Included are scenes from the 9-11 attacks, the bombing of trains and buses in London and Madrid
Wilders (45), who founded and leads the right wing Freedom Party, had to fight to find an Internet outlet for the film, but finally secured a spot on the British video-sharing site LiveLeak.
The film has also been mirrored on a number of other sites, with bloggers and other supporters vowing to keep duplicating it in cyberspace to ensure that it is never taken down.
Wilders who describes his production as respectable, says he intends to go on the road in Holland to promote its circulation and debate its critics.
This could be very risky.
At least two Dutchmen who have publicly identified Islam as a threat to their country and to Judeo-Christian civilization have been murdered in this decade:
Pim Fortuyn, who announced his wish to see an end to Muslim immigration to Holland, was murdered on May 6, 2002 while running for election to the lower house of parliament.
In November 2004 Theo van Gogh, controversial author and columnist who was a well known critic of Islam, was shot to death, stabbed and virtually decapitated by a Muslim, who stuck a note in his corpse threatening to kill Jews and other anti-Islamic individuals.
Controversial Anti-Muslim Film Sparks Worldwide Condemnation
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,343351,00.html
Nations around the world are protesting the release of a Dutch lawmaker's anti-Islamic film.
Australia condemned Geert Wilders' 15-minute film, titled "Fitna," or "Ordeal" in Arabic, Sunday with the foreign minister calling it "highly offensive."
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith rejected the film's premise of equating Islam with acts of terror and violence.
"It is an obvious attempt to generate discord between faith communities," Smith said. "I strongly reject the ideas contained in the film and deplore its release."
"Fitna" was posted online Thursday but removed from the site, LiveLeak.com, a day later. It has since been widely dispersed on other file-sharing sites.
The European Union issued a statement Saturday saying the film --that portrays Islam as a ticking time bomb aimed at the West -- serves no other purpose than to inflame hatred. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also has condemned the film, saying there is no justification for hate speech or the incitement of violence.
Despite their condemnation, the European leaders defended the right to freedom of speech and called on Muslims to react peacefully.
In the Middle East, Iran has summoned the Dutch ambassador to Tehran to discuss the film, Reuters reported. A senior diplomat from Slovenia, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, was also called to the ministry in Tehran over Wilder's film.
Jordanian lawmakers are taking more severe diplomatic measures and demanded their government cuts ties with the Netherlands. Forty-eight lawmakers in the 110-seat parliament have also called for the government to dismiss the Dutch envoy.
Pakistan's foreign ministry on Friday summoned the ambassador of the Netherlands in Islamabad and lodged a "strong protest", according to AFP. It has stepped up the security of the Dutch consulate and businesses in Karachi fearing protests over the Internet release of an anti-Islam film by the far-right Dutch MP.
And in Asia, hundreds of Indonesian students took to the streets Sunday in protest, according to AFP, after a minister called for protests. The students carried posters demanding that authorities shut down websites carrying Geert Wilders' film.
Jordan Threatens to Cut Ties With Netherlands in Wake of Anti-Islam Film
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,343312,00.html
AMMAN, Jordan — Jordanian lawmakers are demanding their government cuts ties with the Netherlands in protest of a Dutch film that portrays Islam as a ticking time bomb aimed at the West.
Forty-eight lawmakers in the 110-seat parliament say the film entitled "Fitna," or "ordeal" in Arabic, insults Islam's Prophet Muhammad and hurts Muslim feelings. The film was made by Dutch anti-immigrant politician Geert Wilders.
The deputies outlined their views in a letter delivered to their government during a meeting Sunday. It called for the government to cut diplomatic relations with the Netherlands and dismiss the Dutch envoy.
There was no immediate response from the Jordanian government.
Muslims More Numerous Than Catholics
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/348197.aspx
VATICAN CITY - Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the world's largest religion, the Vatican newspaper said Sunday.
"For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us," Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. Formenti compiles the Vatican's yearbook.
He said that Catholics accounted for 17.4 percent of the world population - a stable percentage - while Muslims were at 19.2 percent.
"It is true that while Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer," the monsignor said.
Formenti said that the data refer to 2006. The figures on Muslims were put together by Muslim countries and then provided to the United Nations, he said, adding that the Vatican could only vouch for its own data.
When considering all Christians and not just Catholics, Christians make up 33 percent of the world population, Formenti said.
Spokesmen for the Vatican and the United Nations did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment Sunday.
Update on Imprisoned Azeri Pastor; Update on Muslim Attacks on Christians in Ethiopia; Update on the Widow of Murdered Sri Lankan Pastor
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07014.shtml
Update on Imprisoned Azeri Pastor
The Voice of the Martyrs has learned of the release today of Azeri pastor Zaur Balaev. Arrested on May 20, 2007 during a house church raid in Aliabad, Pastor Zaur was accused of holding "illegal meetings under the guise of religious activities" but sentenced to two years in prison on fabricated charges of resisting arrest. According to VOMC sources, upon his release Zaur insisted on giving Jesus the credit for setting him free.
For more details on Pastor Zaur and other persecution in Azerbaijan, go to www.persecution.net/country/azerbaijan.htm.
Update on Muslim Attacks on Christians in Ethiopia
VOMC has learned that only one Christian (and not two, as previously reported) was killed by Muslim militants on March 3, 2008, in the town of Nensabo located 325 km southeast of the capital Addis Ababa. His name was Tulu Mosisa. Dozens more were also wounded in the attack on Christians attending a worship service. For more details on the attack, go to www.persecution.net/news/ethiopia38.html.
Update on the Widow of Murdered Sri Lankan Pastor
Mrs. Shiromi Edirisinghe, widow of the late Pastor Neil Edirisinghe, who sustained gunshot injuries in the attack that killed her husband on the February 17 (see www.persec ution.net/news/srilanka83.html) still remains in critical condition, according to a March 14 update from the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka. She has regained consciousness but is still unable to breathe on her own. Pray for the continued recovery of Shiromi and her son.
Please go to www.persecution.net/country/srilanka.htm for more information on the persecution of Christians in Sri Lanka.
Muslim defends high-profile baptism by Pope
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/muslim.defends.highprofile.baptism.by.pope/17593.htm
A Muslim whose baptism by Pope Benedict over Easter sparked criticism from Muslim scholars has defended his conversion and accused critics of trying to manipulate the event to attack the pontiff.
The baptism of Magdi Allam, an outspoken journalist known in Italy for his stinging attacks on Islam, has put a spotlight on the pope's often tense relationship with Muslims and upset proponents of Christian-Muslim dialogue.
Allam, who has said Islam is "physiologically violent", rejected as "groundless and malicious" criticism of his Roman Catholic baptism at an Easter eve service in St Peter's Basilica.
"My conversion (...) has been manipulated by many sides to discredit me and accuse the Holy Father," Allam said in a letter published on Saturday in the Corriere della Sera daily, where he is deputy editor.
The Egyptian-born Allam rejected suggestions that a lower-key, private conversion would have been more appropriate.
"I am dismayed and saddened when even some members of the Catholic clergy say that it would have been preferable if my baptism had taken place in a local parish, in a remote town," he said. "As if my baptism was something shameful to hide as much as possible."
"Well, I am proud of my conversion to Catholicism, I am proud that it took place in a public form and that it was publicised," said Allam, signing his letter with the middle name he took for the baptism, "Christian".
Some Muslim leaders have questioned why the Vatican chose to highlight Allam's conversion, two days after al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden accused the Pope of being part of a "new crusade" against Islam.
The Vatican sought on Thursday to put distance between the pontiff and Allam's political views. It said the journalist's opinions did not reflect Church policy.
In his letter, Allam took issue with what he branded "so-called moderate" Muslims who criticised his conversion, including a group of more than 200 Muslim scholars who have launched discussion forums with Christian groups.
A key figure in that group, Aref Ali Nayed, said Allam's baptism was a provocative act that raised questions about the Vatican's approach to Islam. The Vatican said it held Nayed in the highest respect and that dialogue should continue.
Catholic-Muslim relations nosedived in 2006 after Pope Benedict delivered a lecture in Regensburg, Germany, that Muslims said implied Islam was violent and irrational.
Muslims around the world protested and the Pope sought to make amends by visiting the famous Blue Mosque in Istanbul and praying towards Mecca with its imam.
Earlier in March, the Vatican agreed with Muslim leaders to establish a permanent, official dialogue to improve relations.
Vatican distances Pope from views of baptised Muslim
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/vatican.distances.pope.from.views.of.baptised.muslim/17576.htm
The Vatican sought on Thursday to put distance between Pope Benedict and the political views of a Muslim whom he baptised over Easter weekend, known in Italy for his stinging attacks on Islam.
It also tried to quell Muslim fears about proselytism at Christian schools in Muslim nations, like the one the Egyptian-born convert once attended.
The high-profile baptism of journalist Magdi Allam during an Easter Vigil service on Saturday has thrown a spotlight on the pontiff's often tense relationship with Islam, and upset key proponents of Christian-Muslim dialogue.
The Vatican said it wanted dialogue to continue and stressed that Allam's opinions did not reflect Church policy.
"(Allam) has the right to express his own ideas," chief Vatican spokesman Rev Federico Lombardi said in a statement.
"They remain his personal opinions without in any way becoming the official expression of the positions of the Pope or the Holy See."
Explaining his decision to become a Christian, Allam wrote in Sunday's edition of daily Corriere della Sera, where he is deputy editor: "The root of evil is innate in an Islam that is physiologically violent and historically conflictual."
Catholic-Muslim relations nosedived in 2006 after Pope Benedict delivered a lecture in Regensburg, Germany, that Muslims said implied Islam was violent and irrational.
Muslims around the world protested and the Pope, who said he did not agree with the Byzantine emperor he had quoted, sought to make amends by visiting the famous Blue Mosque in Istanbul and praying towards Mecca with its imam.
Earlier in March, the Vatican agreed with Muslim leaders to establish a permanent, official dialogue to improve relations.
PROSELYTISING IN SCHOOLS?
Allam's baptism sparked criticism from a leading participant in Christian-Muslim dialogue, Aref Ali Nayed, director of the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in Amman, who said it raised questions about the Vatican's approach to Islam.
Lombardi said the Vatican held Nayed in the highest respect and that dialogue "must not be interrupted, and has priority over episodes that may be the subject of misunderstandings".
But the Vatican expressed "displeasure" at suggestions by Nayed that Allam was an example of the risks involved with placing Muslims in Christian schools.
Lombardi said the majority of non-Christian students at Christian schools "have happily remained so ... while showing appreciation for the education they have received".
"We do not think the Church today merits the accusation of lack of respect for the dignity and freedom of the human person," Lombardi said.
CIA Director: Pakistan Border Poses Danger
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/348170.aspx
WASHINGTON -- The situation in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan where al-Qaeda has established a safe haven presents a "clear and present danger" to the West, the CIA director said Sunday.
Michael Hayden cited the belief by intelligence agencies that Osama bin Laden is hiding there in arguing that the U.S. has an interest in targeting the border region. If there were another terrorist attack against Americans, Hayden said, it would most certainly originate from that region.
"It's very clear to us that al-Qaeda has been able for the past 18 months or so to establish a safe haven along the Afghan-Pakistan border area that they have not enjoyed before, and that they're bringing in operatives into the region for training," he said.
Hayden added that that those operatives "wouldn't attract your attention if they were going through the customs line at Dulles (airport, outside Washington) with you when you're coming back from overseas - who look Western."
Washington has sought reassurance that Pakistan's new coalition government will keep the pressure on extremist groups using the country's lawless northwest frontier as a springboard for attacks in Afghanistan and beyond.
Over the weekend, Pakistan's new prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, pledged to make the fight against terrorism his top priority. But he said peace talks and aid programs could be more effective than weapons in fighting militancy in tribal areas along the Afghan border. It was the new government's latest rebuke of President Pervez Musharraf's military tactics, which many Pakistanis believe have led to a spike in domestic attacks.
On Sunday, Hayden declined to comment on reports that the U.S. might be escalating unilateral strikes against al-Qaeda members and fighters operating in Pakistan's tribal areas out of concern that the pro-Western Musharraf's influence might be waning. Hayden only would say that Pakistan's cooperation in the past has been crucial to U.S. efforts to stem terrorism there.
"The situation on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border presents clear and present danger to Afghanistan, Pakistan, the West in general and United States in particular," he said. "Operationally, we are turning every effort to capture or kill that leadership from the top to the bottom."
On Iraq, Hayden said it could be "years" before the central government might be able to function on its own without the aid of U.S. combat forces. Hayden said he would defer to the specific assessments of Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, top U.S. diplomat in Baghdad, who return to Washington next month to report to Congress.
Hayden spoke on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Miley Cyrus thanks Jesus for Kids Choice win
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/miley.cyrus.thanks.jesus.for.kids.choice.win/17591.htm
Many stars vied for honours at the Kids Choice Awards on Saturday, but only two mattered to the thousands of screaming children on hand.
Miley Cyrus, the 15-year-old heroine of the Disney Channel series "Hannah Montana", and the Jonas Brothers, a pop band comprised of three fresh-faced siblings, were the top draws at the Oscars for the pint-sized set. A-listers like Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz could only look on in bemusement.
Cyrus performed at the 90-minute ceremony, and picked up a pair of orange blimp statuettes for favourite female singer and television actress.
Her "Hannah Montana" concert tour was the hottest ticket in the land last year, with anxious parents paying thousands of dollars for scalped tickets. The scarcity of tickets prompted political probes and even a Federal Reserve economics primer on the basics of supply and demand. A concert film recently topped the North American box office.
Arriving at the Pauley Pavilion with three bodyguards in tow, Cyrus elicited ear-splitting shrieks from the excitable fans. When she took to the stage to accept her awards, she thanked "my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" and her coterie of managers and agents.
The Jonas Brothers - Joe, 18, Kevin, 20, and Nick, 15 - were named favourite music group.
The ceremony, now in its 21st year, is organised by Viacom Inc-owned kids cable channel Nickelodeon. Host Jack Black said more than 88 million votes were cast online. Last year's telecast drew a record 6.1 million viewers across the United States. The show is also broadcast internationally.
The decidedly goofy event gives serious Hollywood celebrities an excuse to degrade themselves for children's amusement. Harrison Ford and Orlando Bloom were drenched in green slime, the network's traditional badge of honour. Diaz, winner of the Wannabe Award for best role model, took time out in a special booth to display her belching skills.
Perhaps most bizarrely, German supermodel Heidi Klum was hoisted through the air on a cable, and had to pop balloons with spikes attached to the derriere of her jumpsuit. That's quite a leap from the catwalks of Milan and New York.
Other winners - not that anyone really remembered five minutes afterwards - included "Shrek" co-star Murphy for favorite voice from an animated movie, "Alvin and the Chipmunks" for favourite movie, and Jessica Alba and Johnny Depp for favorite movie stars.
Comic strip heroes take on al Qaeda
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/comic.strip.heroes.take.on.al.qaeda/17533.htm
As European authorities grope for ways of combating the appeal of militant Islamism, one German security agency has hit on a novel idea: cartoon comics.
Officials in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) had run a well received comic strip campaign against right-wing extremism in 2004 starring Andi, a schoolboy hero who stands up against xenophobia and racism.
Drawing on that experience, they launched Andi last October into a second adventure featuring his Muslim girlfriend Ayshe and her brother Murat, who comes under the influence of a radical friend and an Islamist "hate preacher".
The comic - printed in 100,000 copies and distributed to every secondary school in Germany's most populous state - aims to show young people the difference between peaceful mainstream Islam and the violent, intolerant version peddled by militants.
"We were always careful not to hurt feelings and anger people by painting a caricature of Islam," said Hartwig Moeller, head of the NRW interior ministry's department for protection of the constitution, responsible for intelligence gathering.
"We had to make clear we weren't aiming against Muslims, but only those people who want to misuse Islam for political aims," added Moeller, who despite his intelligence role says 50 to 60 percent of his work is educating the public about threats.
The cartoon, featuring boldly drawn Manga-style figures, is designed to be used in citizenship and religion lessons for schoolchildren aged 12 to 16.
"We have learned from our opponents. This is exactly the age at which the Islamists are trying, through Koranic schools and other means, to fill young people with other values," Moeller told Reuters.
"AL QAEDA NARRATIVE"
The unusual initiative is one example of how countries around the world are searching for new ways to prevent young people being drawn into Islamist violence.
Many security analysts speak of the need to counter the "narrative" of al Qaeda - the message that the West is waging war on Islam in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, and that young Muslims must fight back, including if necessary by sacrificing themselves as 'martyrs'.
To some youngsters, experts say, al Qaeda offers a sense of identity, belonging and justice - not to mention adventure and an aura of 'coolness'. The question is how to compete with that allure.
Police and governments in most West European countries have developed outreach programmes to build dialogue with Muslim communities, but some believe a bolder approach is called for.
At a conference this month in Stockholm, Swedish terrorism expert Magnus Ranstorp cited the example of Ahmad Dhani, an Indonesian rock star who challenged militant ideology in a massively popular album called "Warriors of Love".
"I'm not suggesting that we need a musical jihad against extremism in Europe, or that we employ MTV in our efforts," Ranstorp said. But he raised the question: "How do we harness humour, soap opera and our tremendous public relations industries in these efforts to disarm the extremists' messages and influence over young people?"
"BEING COOL"
Richard Barrett, a United Nations official who heads a task force studying counter-radicalisation and rehabilitation initiatives around the world, said role models such as singers, actors or sport stars could play an important part.
"I think that is something we should be looking at - trying to identify these alternative influences and have them speak out against terrorism ... Being cool is a very important part of it all," he said.
That is also the approach of the German cartoon strip - by using a medium that grabs children's imagination, it seeks to get its message across more effectively.
"If you're serious about getting through to young people, you have to choose a style that they'll take in their hands and accept, that's how the comic came about," said Thomas Grumke, the NRW official who thought up the original Andi idea.
"A comic can go much further than a normal text. There's a great deal more room to play with, more room for interpretation."
Muslim reaction to Andi has been mostly positive, albeit with some reservations.
"We found the basic approach was right and good, we only regretted (the authorities) didn't tell us about this initiative in advance, then it could have been made much better," said Aiman Mazyek, general secretary of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany.
He said the portrayal of the Islamist hate preacher was "a bit overdone", but added: "There are people like that, I can't say there aren't." He said copies of the comic have been distributed in mosques.
Another regional government, Hamburg, is also using the Andi story, and there has been interest from Austria, Denmark, Japan and the United States.
Moeller said he believed the comic - which cost just 30,000 euros ($47,440) for the artist and the print run - could help some Muslim youngsters to recognise and resist Islamist recruitment attempts.
"If I get through to someone this way, and it makes him more critical of people who want to make him a jihadist, then I've stopped him at some point committing terrorist attacks or going to a terrorist camp in Afghanistan or Pakistan," he said. "Maybe he won't slide off into this milieu - that's the idea."
Planned Parenthood Woes Continue as National Office Closes South Florida Mills
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07019.shtml
BOCA RATON, Fla. -- Planned Parenthood's woes continued as it was revealed last week that a financial scandal and "deficiencies" prompted the Planned Parenthood of South Palm Beach and Broward Counties affiliate to suspend services and correct problems at the demand of the national parent organization. The clinics remain closed to new patients.
Problems with the South Florida affiliate came to light after four board members resigned in protest of improper accounting of funds. The abortion clinic claimed to be financially strapped yet reported an annual budget is $3.9 million, with $441,000 of that coming from state tax dollars. Amid the scandal, the Chief Executive Officer Mary Capobianco tendered her resignation. Several employees have been laid off.
"It has to be pretty bad when the national organization demands that an affiliate suspend operations," said Operation rescue President Troy Newman. "With that kind of budget, there is no reason for dangerous conditions to exist - unless of course, someone is absconding with the money."
"Given the track record of the abortion cartel, it was likely the misuse of money that brought the national organization down on the Florida group, rather than the shoddy clinic conditions," said Newman. "They have repeatedly demonstrated that they care more about money than they do about women."
Other Planned Parenthood affiliates have recently been accused of additional improprieties.
The San Diego and Riverside Counties and the Los Angeles Planned Parenthood organizations have been accused in a civil case of bilking taxpayers out of over $180 million in a financial fraud scandal.
Planned Parenthood of Idaho was forced to apologize after it offered to accept a racially motivated donation that the donor wanted earmarked for abortions on black women.
Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri faces 107 criminal charges, including 23 felonies, related to unlawful late-term abortions.
An affiliate in Aurora, Illinois, lied on city permit documents in order to build a mega- abortion center in that town.
"Planned Parenthood has been revealed to be a money grubbing group that has little consideration for the law that must be fully investigated," said Newman. "It is unconscionable that our tax dollars continue to prop them up. We applaud recent efforts by Congressman Mike Pence and others to halt Federal funding of Planned Parenthood. We call on each state to do the same."
Operation Rescue is one of the leading pro-life Christian activist organizations in the nation. Operation Rescue recently made headlines when it bought and closed an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas and has become the voice of the pro-life activist movement in America. Its activities are on the cutting edge of the abortion issue, taking direct action to restore legal personhood to the pre-born and stop abortion in obedience to biblical mandates.
Abortionist Tiller Skates in Hit and Run Case
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07015.shtml
WICHITA, Kansas -- Late-term abortionist George R. Tiller finally appeared in court this morning for a small claims case that he had failed to appear for on two previous occasions. The suit was filed by Mark Gietzen, director of the Kansas Coalition for Life, after Tiller rammed him with his jeep, causing injury to Gietzen's arm and leg, a fact that was undisputed in court.
A criminal complaint had been made at the time of the incident, but the case ended up in small claims court after the District Attorney failed to file charges even though photographic evidence and an eye-witness existed.
Tiller appeared with three attorneys and a personal bodyguard. Two Sheriffs Deputies and at least two bailiffs were in the courtroom at all times. After a hearing that lasted nearly an hour and a half, the case was dismissed when Judge Steven Woodring ruled that the suit had been filed after one-year the statute of limitations had run out.
For "security reasons" the trial was moved from its usual location to the Sedgwick County Courthouse. As Tiller was clearing security, Cheryl Sullenger of Operation Rescue attempted to take photographs of him. Tiller's attorneys Lee Thompson and Laura Shanneyfelt, attempted to physically block Sullenger from photographing him. At one point Thompson stepped within inches of Sullenger and stuck his briefcase in front of her camera. His aggressive actions caused a scene and drew the attention of courthouse security.
"This case should have been tried as a criminal aggravated assault case, and if anyone other than Tiller had been involved, it would have," said Sullenger.
"After watching Tiller interact in court this morning, I have to question his competency to continue the practice of medicine, if what he does can be called that. He seemed unsteady at times, and took an uncomfortable amount of time to process questions. His speech was mumbled, slow, and slurred," said Sullenger. "Here is someone who specializes in highly risky late-term abortions, who has obviously slow physical reactions and mental processes. He really should be evaluated for competency before he touches another abortion patient. I genuinely fear for the safety women who enter his abortion clinic."
About Operation Rescue
Operation Rescue is one of the leading pro-life Christian activist organizations in the nation. Operation Rescue recently made headlines when it bought and closed an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas and has become the voice of the pro-life activist movement in America. Its activities are on the cutting edge of the abortion issue, taking direct action to restore legal personhood to the pre-born and stop abortion in obedience to biblical mandates.
Faith-Based and Community-Based Efforts Provides the Keys to Eradicate Poverty, Disease, and Other Social Ills in the Third World and Beyond
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07017.shtml
WASHINGTON -- A thought-provoking, groundbreaking new book, The Rise of Civil Global Society: Building Nations from the Ground Up (Encounter Books, 2008) by Don Eberly examines innovative ways in which formerly Third World nations and communities around the globe have gradually paved the way to success, providing successful examples to lift themselves out of poverty, and becoming fast-growing powerhouses of both technology, new jobs and opportunities.
In The Rise of Civil Global Society: Building Nations from the Ground Up, Eberly emphasizes the extraordinary contributions that American citizens, via businesses, civic organizations, religious congregations, and NGOs are making to help uplift communities across the globe, in the face of the US government's numerous failed approaches despite their sizeable international fiscal contributions.
Don Eberly, who guided the creation of the President's Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives before going on to serve in a number of senior international policy positions, places an emphasis results-based compassion to help rebuild nations. "Religious congregations are the principal antibodies in America's poorest communities", write Eberly. "While they do not have the capacity to rescue all or most of the poor, urban congregations are the most powerful islands of civic health and hope, providing the poor with role models and exposure to the social norms that generate self-sufficiency."
The Rise of Civil Global Society promotes civil society as a good, effective means of helping to cure various social ills, as volunteerism and charitable service brings more Americans together of different religious, political, and cultural beliefs and stripes.
Eberly, a former White House advisor with over 25 years combined experience in the public policy and government, was the leading designer of Bush's faith- based initiatives. Eberly believes in looking beyond the typical Washington response to difficult global issues to issue seemingly unlimited financial assistance and instead focusing on both community- based partnerships to encourage lifting themselves out of poverty via entrepreneurial means. The Rise of Civil Global Society: Building Nations from the Ground Up offers an inspirational outlook of hope in the face of a pessimistic international media in the spirit of humankind.
Food Prices Scary? You're Not Alone
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/344934.aspx
Grocery bills not only across America, but around the world are going up. Consumers worldwide are facing rising food prices.
It's called a perfect storm of conditions -- freak weather, changes in the global economy, including higher oil prices, lower food reserves and a growing consumer demand in China and India.
The poorest nations of the world run the greatest risk of hunger. Bread fights in Egypt resulted in the deaths of at least two people last week. Other clashes over food broke out in Burkina Faso and Cameroon this month.
Food Protests
But now food protests even break out in Italy.
"It's not likely that prices will go back to as low as we're used to," said Abdolreza Abbassian, economist and secretary of the Intergovernmental Group for Grains for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. "Currently if you're in Haiti, unless the government is subsidizing consumers, consumers have no choice but to cut consumption. It's a very brutal scenario, but that's what it is."
Prices are expected to stabilize, according to long term outlooks. Farmers are growing more grain for both fuel and food. This will bring prices down. This is already occurring with wheat as more crops are to be planted in the U.S., Canada, and Europe in the coming year.
Consumers, however, can expect at least ten years of more expensive food, according to preliminary FAO projections.
Supply and Demand
One of the driving forces behind the climbing food prices is petroleum. This one factor increases the cost of everything from fertilizers to transport to food processing.
The price of grain is going up too. Used to feed cattle, it is now in demand as a raw material to make biofuels. This in turn is causing a rising demand for meat and dairy products in China and India.
What analysts say is rare is the spikes are hitting all major foods in most countries at once. Food prices rose four percent in the U.S. last year, the highest rise since 1990, and are expected to climb as much again this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
As recently as last December, 37 countries faced food crises. Twenty more had imposed some sort of food-price controls.
The U.N.'s World Food Program says it's facing a $500 million shortfall in funding this year to feed 89 million needy people.
In decades past, farm subsidies and support programs allowed major grain exporting countries to hold large surpluses, which could be tapped during food shortages to keep prices down. But new trade policies have made agricultural production much more responsive to market demands - putting global food reserves at their lowest in a quarter century.
Price Factors
Without reserves, bad weather and poor harvests have a bigger impact on prices.
"The market is extremely nervous. With the slightest news about bad weather, the market reacts," said economist Abbassian.
Economists say that for the short term, government bailouts will have to be part of the answer to keep unrest at a minimum.
"We need a response on a large scale, either the regional or international level," said Brian Halweil of the environmental research organization Worldwatch Institute. "All countries are tied enough to the world food markets that this is a global crisis."
Derivative Dangers Threaten Global Markets
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/344995.aspx
Add up the gross domestic product for all the world and it comes to about $50 trillion.
But now there's a wild trade going on between investors in something called "derivatives" that adds up to more than $700 trillion.
Derivatives So Large, It Threatens Markets
Some people are worried this massive trade in derivatives is so big, so widespread, and in some cases, possibly so dangerous, it could seriously threaten the world's markets. And your pocketbook.
Phil Kerpen, a policy analyst at Americans for Prosperity, a group promoting free markets, said that if you go back a few centuries, you'll find the origin of derivatives was innocent enough: farmers wanting to protect the price for their crops.
"A farmer in the field didn't want to risk it that when his crop came in, he wouldn't be able to get the price that he wants. He might go to a grocer and say 'let's agree that on this future date I'll sell to you for this price.' And that's what's called a forward contract," Kerpen said.
And the grocer would agree because he knew he would get as many crops as he needed that year at a guaranteed price.
So both the farmer and the grocer came out ahead: they already agreed on a certain price for a given amount of grain. So both were protected financially, even in case of a bad year for crops. Thanks to the contract, the grocer had his crops, and the farmer had his money.
The contract itself was the "derivative" because it was derived from something else: the crops and the agreed-upon price for them.
Not Assets, But Deals Made about Assets
So derivatives aren't actually assets, but deals made about assets.
And in many cases, they're just bets.
"Let's say you're in the oil business and you're going to sell a lot more heating oil if it's a cold winter," Kerpen explalined. "You might want to bet against a cold winter so that if there isn't one, you'll make more money that way and it'll smooth out your risk."
This hedging of risk is an insurance policy for both sides.
"Maybe you wouldn't go into a business if you had to assume all the risk," Kerpen said. "But if you can spread it through some of these hedging mechanisms, suddenly some economic activities that wouldn't happen do happen. So there's a gain to the overall economy."
Over time, the derivatives market exploded, from simple futures contracts for farmers to -- well, almost anything.
From Farms to Stocks, Bonds, Commodities
There are all kinds of financial assets in the world - including stocks, bonds, or commodities like gold, oil, grains and so on. Today you can bet on all sorts of derivatives for almost any of them: whether their value will go up or down, how the weather might affect them, and so on.
And now -- with basically every financial firm, as well as regular businesses -- involved in all sorts of derivatives on a daily basis -- they number hundreds of billions of dollars.
Michael Mackenzie of the Financial Times points out there are frightening aspects to all this.
"The derivative market: it does scare people because people say, 'okay, these are huge amounts,'" Mackenzie said.
Some of the biggest derivatives traders are not nearly as regulated as ordinary banks and brokerages. And they make much riskier bets.
Mackenzie pointed out, "A hedge fund has much, much greater credit risk if you're trading with them."
They also borrow unbelievably large amounts of money in the hopes of making more and more profits using high leverage.
Derivatives More Complicated, More Lethal
And over the decades, derivatives have grown more and more complicated.
Some of the deals are now so complex, firms must hire NASA physicists or top-flight economists just to manage them, or to figure out new derivatives.
But the trade has grown so big and is carrying so much risky debt, that one of the world's savviest investors of all -- Warren Buffett -- labeled derivatives "financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that... are potentially lethal."
One of the biggest dangers is tied up in what's called counter-party risk, where several firms may be involved in one derivatives deal.
And that leads to a serious risk because, as Mackenzie explained, "if they fail, it's like a chain of dominoes. Once one person stops paying, then all these other trades that have built off that first trade are also under threat."
"A lot of these entities are going to go out of business," economic analyst Kerpen warned. "And their losses are so big, so they won't be able to pay the winners. The people who wrote these bets on the other side won't get paid. So there could be a major loss economy-wide if a lot of these entities start to fail."
Derivative Disasters in the Headlines
Beleaguered Bear Stearns was deep into derivatives. The Federal Reserve jumped in to prop it up and arrange its quick sale because so many other entities could have been seriously hurt financially if Bear went out of business and couldn't pay its debts. That could have started a chain reaction across the trading world, bringing down other firms as well.
And other disasters with derivatives have made headlines.
You may remember the story last year of a trader who cost his French bank more than $7 billion. It sent shockwaves worldwide.
"Societe Generale in France, which had a huge loss, that was related to derivatives trading," Kerpen said.
In 1998, Long-Term Capital Management -- a popular hedge fund -- had so many fingers in so many trades and was so over-extended, that when it blew, officials and businessmen worried it could bring down possibly the whole financial system.
"Long-Term Capital Management had to be bailed out by a consortium of Wall Street banks," Mackenzie said. "The New York Federal Reserve had to get all the banks in a room and said, 'okay you have to do something because this is a big, big problem.'"
Mackenzie struck an ominous tone.
"This time around you could almost argue it's scarier," he said. "Because you now have a lot of hedge funds, you now have a lot of banks who all have problems, who've all taken on excessive risk and are now in the process of having to unwind that risk."
Global Financial System Interconnected
Today's global financial system is interconnected as never before. That's where derivatives could pose a threat to average investors who don't even know what they are.
If one or two big financial firms go under because of bad derivatives investments, that could mean other firms will find themselves with serious losses.
That in turn could damage the overall financial system. That damage could spread to all kinds of businesses, hurting their earnings and sending stock prices down. Maybe even your stocks.
Kerpen said if you're still far from retirement, don't panic and bail out of your investing.
But he warned if all this bad economic news keeps hitting the market, "I think that the ordinary investor will see their balances going down for the rest of this year most likely."
Not everyone agrees. Many analysts expect a market recovery later this year.
But for now, the Federal Reserve and other officials are focused on keeping the derivatives problem from helping to create an economic crisis.
The Good Book Goes Digital on Sony's Reader Digital Book
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07010.shtml
NEW YORK -- The most widely distributed book in the world just found a new outlet. Now, users of the Reader Digital Book by Sony can make the Bible a part of their portable library.
The American Bible Society's Contemporary English Version will be available on Sony's eBook Store for $14.99. Those interested in certain books and biblical passages can download portions of the Bible such as Proverbs and Psalms, the Gospels or the Pentateuch for just $1.99 each.
The CEV Bible was first published by the American Bible Society in 1995 and is marked by its uncompromising simplicity. Not a paraphrase, the CEV Bible is an accurate and faithful translation of the original manuscripts in language that is contemporary and easily read by readers of all levels.
Dr. Paul Irwin, president and CEO of the American Bible Society, is enthusiastic about this new venture, saying, "The American Bible Society has been on the forefront of using every means to reach people with God's Word since our founding in 1816. This is but another example of how we can share Scripture with the entire world."
The Reader's high-resolution, high contrast electronic paper display technology provides a reading experience very much akin to ink-on-paper, which many may find superior to reading on displays typical of computers and personal digital assistants. The result is crisp text and graphics that are highly readable, even in bright sunlight.
Roughly the size of a paperback novel, but thinner than most (about .5 inches thin), the device can store hundreds of books and other documents internally and thousands more using optional Memory Stick® or Secure Digital (SD) flash memory cards. In addition to electronic books the Reader can also store and display personal documents in Adobe PDF format, RTF, text and JPEG photos. From the eBook store from Sony, readers choose from more than 30,000 electronic book titles.
Founded in 1816 and headquartered in New York City, the mission of the American Bible Society is to make the Bible available to every person in a language and format each can understand and afford, so that all people may experience its life-changing message. The American Bible Society Web site is www.bibles.com
Junk Science: Global Smearing
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,342276,00.html
By any standard, atmospheric physicist Dr. S. Fred Singer is a remarkably accomplished scientist. But his outspoken questioning of global warming alarmism has just earned him one of the most outrageous mainstream media smear pieces I’ve ever seen.
ABC News reporter Dan Harris interviewed Singer for more than an hour at the recent International Climate Conference. From that interview, Harris produced a three-minute TV broadcast and Web site article that was about as fair and objective toward Singer as I might expect Greenpeace to be.
In fact, considering the activist group’s dominant role in Harris’ "report," it seems that ABC News was merely the production company for a Greenpeace propaganda hit.
Harris’ piece starts out, "His fellow scientists call him a fraud, a charlatan and a showman, but Fred Singer calls himself ‘a realist.’" And just who are these "fellow scientists"? Harris didn’t identify them.
But I doubt anyone who knows anything about Singer could slander him like that in good conscience. Armed with a doctorate from Princeton University, Singer played a key role in the U.S. Navy’s development of countermeasures for mine warfare during World War II.
From there, Singer achieved fame in space science. Some of his major accomplishments include using rockets to make the first measurements of cosmic radiation in space along with James A. Van Allen (1947-50); designing the first instrument for measuring stratospheric ozone (1956); developing the capture theory for the origin of the Moon and Martian satellites (1966); calculating the increase in methane emissions due to population growth that is not key to global warming and ozone depletion theories (1971); and discovering orbital debris clouds with satellite instruments (1990).
Singer is exceedingly modest about his career. Although I have known him for more than a decade, I only inadvertently learned of his earlier achievements last year while reading "Sputnik: The Shock of the Century" (Walker & Company, 2007), which chronicles the development of the U.S. Space Program.
The book described Singer, along with Van Allen, as a "pioneer of space science." The author also wrote, "America’s journey into space can arguably be traced to a gathering at James Van Allen’s house in Silver Spring, Maryland on April 5, 1950. The guest of honor was the eminent British geophysicist Sydney Chapman… The other guests were S. Fred Singer…"
Among his many prominent positions, Singer was the first director of the National Weather Satellite Center and the first dean of the University of Miami’s School of Environmental and Planetary Sciences. He’s also held many senior administrative positions at federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Transportation and Department of Interior.
Despite this illustrious bio, ABC News’ Harris apparently was too busy swallowing the Greenpeace caricature of Singer to do any research on the actual man.
In a letter to ABC News, Singer complained that "Dan Harris also referred to unnamed scientists from NASA, Princeton and Stanford, who pronounced what I do as ‘fraudulent nonsense’… They are easily identified as the well-known global warming zealots Jim Hansen, Michael Oppenheimer and Steve Schneider. They should be asked by ABC to put their money where their mouth is and have a scientific debate with me. I suspect they’ll chicken out. They surely know that the facts support my position — so they resort to anonymous slurs."
Perhaps the most comical part of Harris’ hit piece is the Greenpeace contribution. In the eco-activist tradition of willful ignorance and ad hominem attack, Greenpeace’s Kert Davies said of Singer, "He’s kind of a career skeptic. He believes that environmental problems are all overblown and he’s made a career on being that voice."
Right, Kert. Singer is just now making his career. And just who is Kert Davies, described by Harris as a "global warming specialist," and what exactly qualifies him to pass any sort of judgment on Singer? I e-mailed Kert a request for his resume in order to learn precisely what a "global warming specialist" is. I received no response as of the writing of this column.
Singer’s eminent qualifications and lifetime of accomplishment are readily available on the Internet for all to see. What about Davies’ qualifications and accomplishments? I couldn’t find them on the Greenpeace Web site; I couldn’t find them through a Nexis search.
Is it possible that their Internet absence is indicative of their general nature? All that I could find out about Davies is that the media often has used quotes from him in the role of a spokesman for various eco-activist groups since the mid-1990s.
Worse than Davies is ABC News’ Harris. Although he didn’t need any particular qualifications or expertise to fairly report the interview with Singer other than perhaps some basic journalistic objectivity, he couldn’t even manage that as he allowed the distinguished Singer to be smeared by a rather undistinguished blowhard.
This column recently reported on another recent mainstream media effort to marginalize those who question global warming alarmism. It’s a fascinating phenomenon given that available scientific evidence on the all-important relationship between atmospheric carbon dioxide and global climate indisputably supports Singer’s point of view rather than the alarmists.
Apparently the activists have decided that since they can’t destroy the facts, they’ll instead try to destroy anyone who dares mention them.
Gene Sweeps Yield Discoveries
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/348169.aspx
NEW YORK -- Scientists are scanning human DNA with a precision and scope once unthinkable and rapidly finding genes linked to cancer, arthritis, diabetes and other diseases.
It's a payoff from a landmark achievement completed five years ago - the identification of all the building blocks in the human DNA. Follow-up research and leaps in DNA-scanning technology have opened the door to a flood of new reports about genetic links to disease.
On a single day in February, for example, three separate research groups reported finding several genetic variants tied to the risk of getting prostate cancer.
And over the past year or so, scientists have reported similar results for conditions ranging from heart attack to multiple sclerosis to gallstones. The list even includes restless legs syndrome, a twitching condition best known as "jimmy legs" in an episode of "Seinfeld."
Interviews with scientists at the center of this revolution and a review of published studies over the past six months by The Associated Press make clear the rapid adoption of the new technology and the high expectations for it.
Since 2005, studies with the gene-scanning technique have linked nearly 100 DNA variants to as many as 40 common diseases and traits, scientists noted this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"There have been few, if any, similar bursts of discovery in the history of medical research," two Harvard researchers declared last summer in the New England Journal of Medicine.
What does all this excitement mean for ordinary people? Not so much just yet. Simply finding the genes that can raise the risk of an illness doesn't mean you can prevent the disease. And developing a treatment for it can take years.
But there have been some payoffs already.
One involves a leading cause of blindness in older people, age-related macular degeneration. A series of genome-wide scans, the most recent in 2005, "led to huge breakthroughs in understanding" that disease, said Stephen Daiger, a Houston scientist.
When scientists implicated a particular gene that's involved in a system of disease-fighting proteins in the blood, it gave scientists a "slap-on-the-forehead kind of insight. into the biology of what's going on," said Daiger, a vision genetics expert at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center.
That galvanized research into the disease. And at least one new drug is being tested in patients now.
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What's made this and other hopeful findings possible is the "genome-wide association study," which lets scientists scan the entire complement of DNA from thousands of people in unprecedented detail. While the basic technique is not new, its popularity has exploded recently because of cost-cutting advances in technology and discoveries about the genome.
"It lets you go searching for that needle in the haystack," says Michael Watson, executive director of the American College of Medical Genetics.
It's a big haystack. DNA is made up of long sequences of building blocks, sort of like sentences composed from a four-letter alphabet: A, C, G and T. The human genome contains about 3 billion letters, about as many as the total number of letters and digits in more than 100 Manhattan phone books.
Scientists have identified the order of the letters in the human genome, a feat the government declared accomplished in 2003. But of course, different people have slightly different DNA sequences. People commonly differ in what letter they have at about 10 million positions along the full genome. Some folks may have a T where most people have a C, for example.
And those single-letter variations are key to the genome-wide scans. Basically, scientists compare DNA from a large number of people, some sick with a particular disease, and others healthy. They can look at a half-million or more positions to see what letter appears. If sick people tend to show a different result than healthy ones - say, if they tend to have a T in some spot more often than healthy people do - it's a red flag.
It suggests that some genetic influence on the risk of that disease comes from that spot or nearby. So it gives scientists a specific place to look more closely for a disease-promoting gene.
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In practice, genome scans can be big undertakings.
Scientists in Iowa and Denmark are searching blood samples from 7,000 babies and new mothers in the United States and Denmark for genetic variations that raise the risk for premature birth.
DNA will be extracted, and early this summer, more than half a million spots on the microscopic strands from each mother and baby will be assessed for clues to where the genetic variations may lie.
The DNA will be analyzed at the Center for Inherited Disease Research at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Robots will put a tiny drop of DNA-bearing solution from each person onto a clear glass slide roughly the size of a business card, with four drops per slide.
The lab's DNA scanners, blue boxes each about twice as big as a desktop printer, will reveal what DNA "letter" appears in more than 580,000 spots in the genetic material, said lab director Kimberly Doheny.
This scan takes about half an hour per sample. Once the results are available, the scientists will use statistical tests to find the telltale signs of a possible gene affecting risk of premature birth. They'll double-check to make sure any such signal shows up in more than one population.
Even five years ago, such a detailed examination of DNA from so many people would have been inconceivable.
Genome scans offer some major advantages over previous gene-hunting techniques. Scientists don't have to start by guessing what genes might be involved in a disease, or confine themselves to families where a tendency to an illness is inherited.
And the genome-scan approach reveals genes with only subtle influence on the risk of getting sick, too slight to be found by earlier methods. That's just the kind of gene that plays a role in common illnesses like heart disease.
Even if its impact on risk is small, a newly found gene can be a bonanza to scientists if it reveals something new about the biology of a disease. That in turn can give hints for finding new treatments.
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For non-scientists, the most direct payoff of finding new disease genes may be in devising tests to identify people at elevated risk for a particular disorder.
Most genetic variants found in the genome scans boost a person's risk by around 50 percent. If the disease risk is fairly low, that's "not something you'd lose much sleep over," Watson said.
More useful, he said, is the notion of finding variants in maybe a half-dozen genes that affect the risk for a disease, then testing a person for all of them at once to come up with a more powerful indicator.
Earlier this year, for example, Swedish researchers reported preliminary evidence that men with four or five particular gene variants ran more than four times the risk of getting prostate cancer than men with none of them. When family history was factored in, such a combined test could identify men who ran a nine-fold higher risk.
An Iceland-based company, deCode Genetics, announced in February that it is offering a test for eight genetic variants related to prostate cancer. Altogether, the variants make 10 percent of men run twice the normal risk of prostate cancer, and 1 percent run three times the normal risk, the company said.
Dr. Teri Manolio of the National Human Genome Research Institute said it'll take more work to figure out the value of genetic testing for prostate cancer. There is no proven treatment to prevent it; the only advice to a man at higher risk would probably be for more aggressive screening for the disease.
Then there's the question about what people will do with gene test results. What if you already know that everybody should watch their weight, for example, and then a DNA test shows a heightened risk for diabetes and your doctor tells you to. watch your weight?
Maybe people would pay more attention to health advice if they knew they were genetically vulnerable to getting sick otherwise. But maybe not. It's an open question, Manolio said.
"I think some people will," Watson said. "I think some people just won't, because they're the kind of people who aren't influenced by those sorts of things. I'm not pessimistic or optimistic, but I'm sure not everybody does the right thing."
Tiny Robots May Soon Perform Colonoscopies
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,343011,00.html
As if the idea of colonoscopies didn't sound uncomfortable enough, now researchers are developing self-propelling probes that crawl inside the colon and grip its sides with the aid of sticky films.
Still, these slithery devices could lead to better, safer, more comfortable colonoscopies to help uncover cancerous polyps.
Cancer of the colon and rectum is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in the United States and the nation's second most common cause of cancer death.
The chances of beating or avoiding this cancer greatly increase with early detection.
Colonoscopies see inside the colon by pushing an endoscope through it — a long tube equipped with lenses and light. The hope is to detect cancerous polyps early.
Although colonoscopies are considered relatively safe, there is a 1-in-500 risk the procedure could damage the colon.
Also, the discomfort often linked with pushing the device through the colon can lead to patients calling off colonoscopies before they are complete.
Instead of pushing an endoscope through the colon, researchers now are developing endoscopes that can pull themselves.
"By pulling themselves instead of being pushed from behind, there is no risk for stretching the colonic wall outward and causing painful cramps," explained researcher Dimitra Dodou, a chemical engineer at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.
The main challenge to building such devices involves clutching onto the slippery walls of the colon in a way that does not damage them.
Dodou and her colleagues have found sticky films called mucoadhesives that could help such devices find the traction they need by sticking onto the mucus lining colon walls.
These adhesives already find use in techniques for delivering medicines into the body.
"Mucoadhesives are non-toxic," Dodou said. "Moreover, considering that the turnover time of intestinal mucus is estimated in the order of a few hours, eventual leftovers of mucoadhesive will be quickly washed away."
In experiments with snippets of pig colon, the researchers found tubes covered with mucoadhesives could stick well. They also found that different patterns clung better than others.
In principle, a device that could pull in or push out segments of itself — thus controlling how much of its adhesive surface it exposed — could grip or let go of the colon whenever appropriate. The device could then wriggle or climb up the colon.
Testing such mucoadhesives in live animals will be the ultimate test, Dodou said.
Living colons typically possess more mucous, although the laxatives given before colonoscopies reduce mucus levels, she explained.
Various groups have worked on self-propelled devices for quite some years now, "but none of them uses mucoadhesive," Dodou explained.
She and her colleagues suggest new design concepts for devices incorporating mucoadhesives online March 27 in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
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