Palin Talks Faith, Campaign with CBN News
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/467636.aspx
CBNNews.com - Since her nomination, Sarah Palin has possibly been the most talked about Vice Presidential candidate in history.
The Alaska Governor has faced intense media scrutiny and in an exclusive interview, she tells CBN News that her faith in God has been mocked during this Presidential campaign.
With two weeks before Election Day, Palin spoke with CBN News about campaign strategy, the media attention and her prayer life.
Attacker in Chief
Sarah Palin plugs away in her current role as "attacker in chief" for the McCain campaign. Despite that strategy, the McCain-Palin team trails in the polls and now face news like republican hero Colin Powell endorsing Obama and the senator raising a record $150 million last month.
Palin tells me there's still hope.
"When they see numbers that show us a bit down in the polls, for John McCain and for me it's invigorating," she said. "It's inspiring. It makes us work even harder."
Palin has been working hard to expose Obama's ties and relationship with Bill Ayers, a former domestic terrorist. Palin has been criticized for her approach.
"Are you okay with the "pal around with terrorist line?" Or you want to reign that back a little?" asked CBN's David Brody.
Palin responded "No I would say it again, I would say it again because again it, it, according to the information that we have, the association that he's had with Bill Ayers wasn't just one or two time sitting on a board together."
Palin's comments have led some supporters to supposedly yell out threatening comments against Obama.
"If I ever were to hear that standing up there at the podium with the mic, I would call 'em out on that," Palin said. "And I would tell these people, no, that's unacceptable, let's rise above that please. We haven't heard that."
Her Faith Walk
What she has heard plenty of are the attacks against her -- especially her Christian faith.
"Faith and God in general has been mocked through this campaign, and that breaks my heart."
Newspaper editorials have taken shots at her Pentecostal upbringing. The liberal blogosphere has chimed in and yes, Saturday Night Live has taken their shots too.
"People would misconstrue and spin anything that has to do with my faith or anybody else's and turn it into something to be mocked. That's very sad," she said. "I don't think that there's anything that I can do about it, so you know, I won't… whine or complain about it, but nobody is going to convince me that my foundation of faith is not good for me and for my family no matter the mocking, no matter what anybody says about it."
Palin dedicated herself to the Lord as a middle-schooler complete with an Alaska lake baptism. It's an event she calls 'significant" because she realized there was something bigger than her out there.
"As you're raised up out of the water it's like 'hey world, this is my confession of faith that I'm going to try to lead and live my life according to my belief that God as my Creator has good plans for all of us, and we are to seek those plans and seek the destiny that he has for all of us,"' Palin said.
Economy, Abortion, Gay Marriage
In the McCain campaign 'destiny' has made Palin the central outreach to Christian conservatives. While the economy gets top billing in this election cycle, Palin has gone after Obama on social issues, like abortion. Palin believes voters need to take a hard look.
"His abortion stance is so extreme. It's so, so far left that it's way out of the mainstream," she said. "I think he's in some sense succeeded in trying to package up and pretty-up some of his policies to make them look mainstream even on abortion."
The Obama campaign makes clear his desire to reduce the number of abortions in this country. On traditional marriage, Palin made clear her desire for a federal marriage amendment.
"I have voted along with the vast majority of Alaskans who had the opportunity to vote to amend our Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman," she said "I wish on a federal level that that's where we would go because I don't support gay marriage."
It's that type of talk that excites social conservatives and brings out signs like, "I love Sarah," "In God we Trust", "Sarah, the New face of Feminism" and yes, in a nod to her Alaska roots, even the "I Love Mooseburgers". While Palin's rallies are filled with energy and thousands of people, it's the quiet times, times for reflection and prayer that mean a great deal.
"I pray of course for about my family that my kids will not be adversely affected by some of the political shots of course that, that we've been taking the last couple of months. I pray for my son's safety over in Iraq fighting for us in a striker brigade in the US Army and for all of our troops," she said.
"It will take God's hand of protection to be continually over our land and His wisdom, His grace, His favor I pray for that for our country."
Richard Viguerie: Obama's 'Spread the Wealth' Blunder Reveals His Real Goal for America - Socialism
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07710.shtml
MANASSAS, Virginia, (christiansunite.com) -- Barack Obama's recent blunder- his admission that his policy is to "spread the wealth" of people like plumbers - "encapsulates everything Senator Obama believes about economics," Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, said.
"On taxes, on spending, on regulation, on redistribution of wealth, the Obama economic policy can be summed up in two words: Marxism / Socialism.
"Usually, a 'gaffe' is when a politician reveals what he really thinks. This 'gaffe' reveals that Barack Obama's agenda is to re-make America along the lines of socialist countries in Europe, most of which are headed toward collapse. No one is safe, not even people who work hard every day and just want a piece of the American dream. The Senator's attitude is 'Let them eat cake.'"
During an Obama campaign stop in Ohio, a plumber told the Senator: "Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it? ... I've worked hard. I'm a plumber. I work 10-12 hours a day and I'm buying this company and I'm going to continue working that way. I'm getting taxed more and more while fulfilling the American dream."
Obama told the plumber that the higher taxes he would pay would be good for society. "... My attitude is that if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's gonna be good for everybody. ... I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."
Said Viguerie: "Let me point out that the Senator made his comments to a plumber who works 10 to 12 hours a day. Barack Obama has a Marxist / Socialist idea of who the undeserving rich are."
Palin Makes Stop Near Joe the Plumber
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/469372.aspx
CBNNews.com - Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin made a campaign stop near Joe the Plumber's northwest Ohio home on Wednesday. Palin was in town for a rally at the University of Findlay.
Palin told a cheering crowd that she and her running mate Republican presidential candidate John McCain want to cut taxes and let people decide what they want to do with their money.
She also has a new pet name for Democrat Barack Obama. She called him "Barack - the wealth spreader."
Palin repeated her view that Obama's recent comment to the Holland, Ohio plumber sounded like socialism to her.
Obama was answering questions on his tax plan when he told the plumber named Joe Wurzelbachcer, " I think when you spread the wealth acround, it's good for everybody."
Palin went on to ask the audience if there were any Joe Plumbers in the house. When she drew loud cheers, she said "It doesn't sound like you're supporting Barack the wealth spreader."
GOP's Standing Invitation
Campaign officials say Wurzelbacher has a standing invitation to join the GOP campaigners.
The McCain campaign began mentioning the plumber after he met Obama earlier this month and said the Democrat's tax proposal could keep him from buying the two-man plumbing company where he works. The media picked up on Wurzelbacher and have made him a household name less than 13 days before the election.
Obama's tax proposal calls for tax increases for the five percent of taxpayers who earn more than $250,000 a year. The Illinois senator explained he would use that revenue to provide tax cuts for those who make less.
Wurzelbacher himself undercut the Republican message about him when he revealed he makes far less than $250,000 a year.
"Wurzelbacher said Sunday on "Fox and Friends." "You know, I've never even come close to that, nor will I. I mean, I'd have to work, I don't know, 10 years to get that kind of money, maybe more."
McCain used Joe in the presidential debate on Oct. 15 and he and Palin have made the plumber a regular part of their stump speeches.
Palin said Wurzelbacher's story has hit a chord with voters. She said they've met with workers from all walks of life on the campaign trail, including Tito the Builder in Virginia and Ed the Dairyman in New Mexico.
"It took a regular guy to get Obama to finally tell the truth about his tax plan," Palin said.
A Suffolk University presidential poll released Monday found that while most Ohio voters know all about Wurzelbacher, he isn't affecting how many will vote. The plumber's story will make six percent more likely to vote for McCain and four percent more for Obama, the poll revealed.
Obama: Most Secretive Democratic Presidential Candidate Ever
http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/obama_secrecy/2008/10/22/143157.html
Sen. Barack Obama's campaign says his campaign will bring a new level of honesty and transparency to the White House. Obama proudly touts that he and Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla, passed a law requiring more transparency via a public database of all federal spending.
But when it comes to offering the public documents about his own public and private activities, Obama's record for openness gets an "F" grade.
During the heated Democratic primary, Obama complained of the Bush White House being "one of the most secretive administrations in our history" and chided Sen. Hillary Clinton for not releasing her White House schedules.
Ironically, Obama, just days away from possibly being elected president, continues to stonewall a growing chorus of information requests for documents about his legislative, personal health, education, financing, and background -- leaving many voters to cast ballots based on incomplete information.
And serious questions about his past continue to swirl as Election Day looms, fueled in part by his own campaign's refusal to make relevant documents available.
And the press, usually banging at the door for candidates to make "full disclosure" is strangely quiet about Obama's stonewalling.
A Newsmax survey of key Obama aspects of Obama's public and private life continued to be shielded from the public.
Among the examples:
* Obama has released just one brief document detailing his personal health. McCain, on the other hands, released what he said was his complete medical file totaling more than 1500 pages. After criticism on the matter, last week the Obama campaign also released some routine lab-test results and electrocardiograms for Obama. All test results appeared normal, but many details about his health remain a mystery.
* Obama has refused to offer his official papers as a state legislator in Illinois, and has been unable to produce correspondence, such as letters from lobbyists and other correspondence from his days in the Illinois state senate. There are also no appointment calendars available of his official activities. "It could have been thrown out," Obama said while on the campaign trail during the Democratic primary. "I haven't been in the state Senate now for quite some time."
* Obama has not released his client list as an attorney or his billing records. Obama has maintained that he only performed a few hours of legal work for a nonprofit organization with ties to Tony Rezko, the Chicago businessman convicted of fraud in June. But he has not released billing records that would prove this assertion.
* Obama won't release his college records from Occidental College where he studied for two years before transferring to Columbia.
* Obama's campaign refuses to give Columbia University, where he earned an undergraduate degree in political science, permission to release his transcripts. Such transcripts would list the courses Obama took, and his grades. President George W. Bush, and presidential contenders Al Gore and John Kerry, all released their college transcripts. (McCain has refused to release his Naval Academy transcript.)
* Obama's college dissertation has simply disappeared from Columbia Universities archives. In July, in response to a flurry of requests to review Obama's senior thesis at the Ivy League school, reportedly titled "Soviet Nuclear Disarmament," Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt told NBC News "We do not have a copy of the course paper you requested and neither does Columbia University."
* The senator has not agreed to the release of his application to the Illinois state bar, which would clear up intermittent allegations that his application to the bar may have been inaccurate.
* Jim Geraghty of the National Review has written extensively about Obama's unwillingness to release records related to clients he represented while he was an attorney with the Chicago law firm of Davis, Miner, Barnhill, and Gallard. Obama was required to list his clients during his years in the Illinois senate. "Obama listed every client of the firm," Geraghty reported, making it impossible to discern which clients he represented.
* Obama has never released records from his time at Harvard Law School.
* Obama also has not disclosed the names of small donors giving $200 or less to his campaign. An exception to the finance-reporting laws exempts the campaign from reporting those who donate less than $200, but that law never envisioned the more than $300 million that has been raised by Obama in small amounts. The Republican National Committee has released its small donors, as well as McCain's, on a public database.
On several occasions, the Obama campaign has offered to provide additional information to reporters if they have specific questions or issues. And in some cases, it has done so.
When Internet rumors began to fly that perhaps Obama was born outside the United States, for example, the campaign released images of a birth certificate that verified his birthplace as Honolulu, Hawaii. When that led to suggestions the birth certificate had been altered, the campaign again responded, allowing reporters to examine the actual birth certificate, complete with raised seal. (In late July, according to FactCheck.org, a researcher uncovered an announcement of Obama's birth in the August 13, 1961 edition of the Honolulu Advertiser).
Such instances of cooperation pale, however, compared to the many unanswered questions surrounding Obama, such as the financing of his education, and requests for the complete release of all donors to his campaign.
Of course, candidates are often reticent to disclose any information that opposition researchers could use against them.
But Politico.com notes that the Obama's failure to share documents is "part of his campaign's broader pattern of rarely volunteering information or documents about the candidate, even when relatively innocuous."
The hue and cry from the media for disclosure usually forces candidates to release sought after documents. But the press has largely acquiesced to Obama's stonewalling.
Pro-life Catholic Bishop Confirms that a Catholic Cannot Vote for Obama in Good Conscience
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07718.shtml
ARLINGTON, Va., (christiansunite.com) -- The "Open Letter", by Randall Terry, has been sent by certified mail to all U.S. Bishops. (See complete Open Letter at www.humbleplea.com.)
Following is the complete response from Bishop Gracida concerning the Open Letter and Faithful Catholic Citizenship. Faithful Catholic Citizenship proves - using the words of John Paul II - that a Catholic cannot in good conscience vote for Back Obama.
"Dear Randall,
I have visited the humbleplea.com website and have read the Open Letter [to the U.S. Bishops] and brochure 'Faithful Catholic Citizenship.'
You have done an excellent job of presenting the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church and applying it to the candidacy of Barack Hussein Obama.
I encourage you to disseminate the two documents as widely as possible. More and more bishops are speaking up in the way you desire.
I hope and pray that their numbers will increase before November 4.
Blessings!
Rene Henry Gracida
Bishop Emeritus of Corpus Christi"
An Open Letter to American Bishops regarding 'Catholic moral teaching' and the 2008 election and Faithful Catholic Citizenship can be read online at www.humbleplea.com.
"We are begging U.S. Catholic Bishops to correct the error put forth by Catholic Attorney Doug Kmiec (and others) that says:
It is time to set the record straight that it violates no aspect of Catholic teaching for a Catholic Voter to endorse, support, or vote for Barack Obama... (Doug Kmiec, Catholic Attorney and Author, Can a Catholic Support Him?; pg 36.)
...U.S. Catholic bishops have confirmed that it is the intent of the voter, and not the candidate's support for abortion, that determines the candidate's acceptability for the Catholic vote. (Pg. 82, Doug Kmiec, Can a Catholic Support Him? )
"This assertion by Doug Kmiec is false. We pray other bishops will correct the error being taught in their name. We are urging the faithful to read the letter themselves, then call their bishop to urge them to publicly correct the erroneous teaching being put out in their names.
"We also encourage Catholics and Evangelicals to download and distribute this material at their neighborhood churches." -- Randall Terry, Founder, Operation Rescue
Iranian parliament speaker votes for Barack Obama
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5670
During a visit to Bahrain, Iran's parliament speaker Ali Larijani said Wednesday, Oct. 22, that Tehran would prefer Democratic senator Barack Obama in the White House next year. He also ruled out any US attack on his country. "We lean more in favor of Obama," he said at a news conference in Manama, "because he is more flexible and rational, even through we know American policy will not change that much."
He added: "The risk was low before, but now I am 100 percent certain that the United States will not unleash a war against Iran. The economic crisis has cost America 1,400 billion dollars and Washington is working to resolve its internal problems and not a war," in the view of the Iranian parliament speaker.
NYU poll: US Jews favor Obama 2:1
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017577374&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
American Jews favor Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama by a ratio of two-to-one, according to survey results being released Monday by researchers at New York University.
The data, taken from a nationwide poll conducted in early September, indicates that Jews as a group are 30 percent more likely than other white, non-Hispanic voters to support Obama.
Surprisingly, the poll found that gap widened to nearly 40% among Jews who rank Israel "very high" as a factor in their choice of candidate, indicating that Israel is a key issue for Jews across the political spectrum.
"Jews always look at candidates in their own camp as more sympathetic to their positions as Jews, so liberal Jews will tend to feel Obama is more pro-Israel than conservative Jews do," lead researcher Steven Cohen, a professor of Jewish social policy at Hebrew Union College, told The Jerusalem Post.
"In fact, liberal Jews have an argument about why McCain is bad for Israel, just as conservative Jews have an argument for why Obama is bad for Israel," he said. "There's a tendency toward cognitive consistency."
Nonetheless, support for McCain tracked support for Israel, with 58% of Jews who said Israel was very important favoring McCain.
Orthodox Jews - a category that encompasses Modern Orthodox and haredi respondents, Cohen said - were the likeliest to support McCain, with 73% indicating support for the Republican over just 27% for Obama.
Support for McCain was highest - 90% - among Orthodox Jews who said they socialized exclusively with other Jews, while only 60% of Orthodox respondents who said they had non-Jewish friends planned to vote for McCain.
Cohen said that while New York Senator Hillary Clinton might have had an easier time attracting Jewish voters than Obama has had, he did not believe large numbers of Jewish Democratic voters would change parties in November.
"I'm willing to speculate that Obama had a bit of a tougher time than Hillary - she's from New York, where most Jewish voters are, and she's familiar," Cohen said. "But if you look at the organized Jewish community, for years already you see that hardline pro-Israel Jews were arguing the Republicans were a better choice."
Yet even Jews who categorized themselves as conservative Republicans were far likelier to support Obama, with 7% indicating they planned to vote for the Democrat over just 1% of non-Jewish conservative white voters.
The difference was almost nil at the other end of the spectrum, where 97% of Jews who said they were liberal Democrats planned to vote for Obama, slightly more than the 96% of non-Jewish liberal Democrats.
Mark Mellman, a Democratic strategist, said Obama's recent surge in national polls and in states like Florida negated the possible electoral impact of a rightward swing among Jewish voters at the margin.
"The question in 2008 is, are we talking about 66% Jewish support for Obama or 75%? That's the range of difference," Mellman said. "In some years that could make the difference between winning and losing, but this year it's not likely to because so many other people are voting for Obama."
At the time of the survey, slightly more than half of all Jewish voters - 51% - favored Obama, while just 25% favored McCain and 24% were still undecided.
That translates into 67% for Obama versus 33% for McCain among those who had already made their choice - though Cohen estimated support for the Democrat among Jews at 75% today, based on his lead in more recent polls.
National polls released Sunday by Gallup and Reuters/C-Span/Zogby indicated a three-point lead for Obama, while an expanded Gallup poll of likely voters showed Obama as much as seven points ahead.
The survey, conducted by the Berman Jewish Policy Archive at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, was conducted by Synovate, which contacted more than 1,500 Jewish respondents in September.
Another Synovate poll conducted on behalf of the American Jewish Committee in September indicated that 57% of Jews intended to support Obama, with 30% for McCain and just 13% undecided.
$5 Million of Consequences & Common Sense Thinking -- Will It Win the Election?
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07708.shtml
MEDIA ADVISORY, (christiansunite.com) -- Yesterday, Let Freedom Ring kicked off its $5 million dollar, three-part radio and television spot campaign making it the largest single ad campaign among outside advocacy groups in this year's presidential election cycle. Let Freedom Ring is also the organization that was responsible for the "Both Ways Barack" ad campaign and the first political ad ever to run on MTV reaching out to the 18- 34 age group and first-time voters.
Let Freedom Ring and its president, Colin Hanna, are working hard to deliver messages that cut through the rhetoric that seems characteristic of most election ad campaigns.
The first campaign is "Common Sense Thinking." The two spots are "Common Sense Thinking on Energy" and "Common Sense Thinking on Union Elections." The former promotes the aggressive development of domestic energy resources. The latter spot focuses on the indefensible and undemocratic proposal to replace secret ballots in union elections with "Card Check." It will run in the four battleground states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia and Colorado. The one week budget is for the week of October 13 and is $1 million.
The second campaign is "Consequences." It focuses attention on the often overlooked consequences of a leftist takeover of our government which could actually occur if the Democrats win the White House, expand their majorities in the House and Senate, perhaps even achieving a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, which could then be followed by the appointment of left-leaning Justices to the Supreme Court.
Many Americans are attracted by the soft sweet sounds of hope, change and post-partisanship. But stop to consider the full consequences of supporting that siren song - massively higher taxes, an enormous increase in restrictive regulations, a diminished military, and, most alarmingly, the appearance of weakness to our enemies - enemies who consider weakness to be provocative. "Consequences" will begin the week of October 20 and this television spot buy will be approximately $1.5 million.
The third campaign is "Never Find Out." It presents a fresh, new look unlike anything else in the realm of issue advocacy or political advertising. Its budget is $2.5 million, and it will include national cable and broadcast network advertising in addition to spot campaigns in key states.
Many of the spots may be viewed at www.YouTube.com/letfreedomringusa
Obama and 3-Year-Old Curtis Cooper
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07714.shtml
OPINION, (christiansunite.com) -- Curtis Cooper was an adorable 3-year-old toddler who loved to ride his tricycle. But Curtis had the misfortune to live in Chicago's criminally neglected Cabrini Green housing complex. This hellhole of safety violations was "managed" by Obama's longtime crony, Cullen J. Davis. And so poor Curtis Cooper was crushed to death when an iron gate fell on top of him on June 28, 2008.
Obama is up to his neck in the sewer of Chicago's public housing scandals, along with his mentor, convicted felon Tony Rezko, Allison Davis (Cullen's father), who's Obama's former law firm boss, and Valerie Jarrett, Obama's senior advisor. The Boston Globe reported that, as state senator, Obama directed millions of dollars of public funds to these cronies for them to improve public housing. Instead, they pocketed the money, kicked some back to Obama's campaign, and ignored the public housing in their care, sometimes to the point of outright abandonment.
The system worked beautifully for Obama, whose campaign coffers overflowed, and for his cronies who grew rich at the public trough. But for the poor African-Americans in these projects, who shivered without heat in the winter and endured collapsing roofs and sewage in their kitchen sinks, the system stank. And for the parents of 3-year-old Curtis Cooper, it brought the ultimate tragedy, leaving them only a lifetime of grief and a lawsuit to pursue justice in their son's name.
House GOP Leader Wants Acorn Funds Cut
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/469544.aspx
CBNNews.com - WASHINGTON - House Republican leader John Boehner on Wednesday urged President Bush to block all federal funds to a grass-roots community group that has been accused of voter registration fraud.
"It is evident that ACORN is incapable of using federal funds in a manner that is consistent with the law," Boehner, R-Ohio, wrote Bush, saying that funds should be blocked until all federal investigations into the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now are completed.
ACORN, a group that has led liberal causes since it was formed in 1970, this year hired more than 13,000 part-time workers to sign up voters in minority and poor neighborhoods in 21 states. Some of the 1.3 million registration cards submitted to local election officials, using the names of cartoon characters or pro football players, were obviously phony, spurring GOP charges of widespread misconduct.
ACORN has said it was its own quality-control workers who first noticed problem registration cards, flagged them and submitted them to local election officials in every state that is now investigating them.
To commit fraud, a person would have to show up on Election Day with identification bearing the fake name.
Local law enforcement agencies in about a dozen states are investigating fake registrations submitted by ACORN workers and the FBI is reviewing those cases.
Boehner said his office had determined that ACORN had received more than $31 million in direct federal funding since 1998. He said the group had likely received far more indirectly through federal block grants to states and localities. "Immediate action is necessary to ensure that no additional tax dollars are directed to ACORN while it is under investigation," he wrote Bush.
Boehner said he and other Republicans were also asking the Justice Department to investigate ACORN's connections to the home mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying ACORN "appears to have played a key role in the irresponsible schemes that led to the current financial meltdown."
Republican presidential candidate John McCain has asked if ACORN, which he accused of perpetuating voter registration fraud, was "destroying the fabric of democracy." ACORN and other advocacy groups have suggested that Republicans are exaggerating the issue to keep the underprivileged, who tend to vote Democratic, from casting ballots.
Pharmacy Caters to Pro-Life Customers
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/468381.aspx
CBNNews.com - The Roman Catholic Church has given its blessing to one of the few pro-life drug stores in the country. So much so that the patron saint of pharmacists is on display at the pharmacy, which is located in a Chantilly, Virginia shopping center.
The new Divine Mercy Care Pharmacy refuses to sell any type of birth control or contraceptives, cigarettes or pornographic magazines. However, booklets on family planning are available.
The pharmacy is part of a Catholic non-profit that also operates a pro-life ob-gyn practice near Fairfax.
"Birth control is not health care," said Robert Laird, the DMC's executive director. "We are catering to a special niche of people who like the pro-life message in their business."
The pharmacy is located within a few miles of four large Catholic parishes with the number of Catholics estimated to be near 50,000.
"In the pharmacy business," Mr. Laird said, "you don't normally go more than two miles from your drugstore, but people are going to be coming from miles to come here."
Catholic teachings forbid the use of any kind of artificial birth control. All of the pharmacy's board members are of the Catholic faith.
National Debate
But should pro-life drug stores like the DMC Pharmacy be required to fill contraceptive prescriptions? That's the debate over the rights of pharmacists against a marketplace seeking birth control products.
Virginia does not have any laws requiring pharmacies to sell contraceptives. However, nine other states, including Massachusetts, California, New Jersey, Illinois and Washington, have passed legislation that requires pharmacists to fill prescriptions or direct customers elsewhere.
Karen Brauer, head of Pharmacists for Life International, said "thousands" of pharmacies nationwide do not stock the morning-after pill because it can be an abortifacient. The organization's Web site lists six pharmacies that sell no artificial contraception of any sort.
"The birth-control pill has gained a social importance above a lot of other drugs that are more important to save lives," she said. "There is a bunch of drugs that women need that pharmacists don't carry. This is the only drug pharmacists are forced to order in. Other than antidotes, pharmacies are not required to stock anything."
NARAL Pro-Choice America's Virginia chapter has posted a statement on its Web site saying, "Birth control is basic health care for women" and has called for a boycott of the DMC store. "A pharmacy that doesn't respect your choices doesn't deserve your business," the statement on its Website read.
Dr. John T. Bruchalski, is the president and chairman of the board of DMC.
"It won't be just a Catholic pharmacy," he said. "It's trying to build a culture of life. We want to let the market decide if we are worthy of support and trust and not anyone's social agenda. I believe there are a significant number of people who have tolerated this slowly encroaching culture of brokenness," Dr. Bruchalski continued. "When given an option, they will actually choose something other."
Plague emerges in Grand Canyon, kills biologist
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-10-21-plague-grand-canyon_N.htm
One day last October, Eric York lugged the carcass of an adult mountain lion from his truck and laid it carefully on a tarp on the floor of his garage.
The female mountain lion had a bloody nose, but her hide bore no other signs of trauma. York, a biologist at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, found the big cat lying motionless near the canyon's South Rim. He was determined to learn why she died.
Because the park lacks a forensics lab, he did the postmortem in his garage, in a village of about 2,000 park employees.
Epidemic experts can only speculate about what happened next. When York cut into the lion, he must have released a cloud of bacteria and breathed in. On Nov. 2, York was found dead, a 21st-century victim of plague, the disease that in the Middle Ages turned Europe into a vast mortuary. He was 37.
The case mirrors events that have promoted a global surge in epidemics, among them influenza, HIV, West Nile virus and SARS. A study released this year in the journal Nature reported that about 60% of epidemics begin when a microbe makes the leap from an animal into a human.
"What will be the next emerging disease? The one we least expect," says David Morens of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Word of York's death flew among those who worked at the famed natural attraction, which draws 5 million visitors a year. For public health experts, it provoked concerns that plague might make a comeback. Experts from the National Park Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Arizona Department of Health converged on the park.
Fortunately, their investigation found only 49 people who had come in contact with York. All were treated with antibiotics. None became ill, says David Wong, a National Park Service epidemiologist.
"We identified his contacts even before the autopsy results were in," Wong says. "Within minutes, we were calling folks to tell them to come in. We opened the clinic on a Sunday."
The investigators who combed occupied areas of the park also were relieved to find no evidence of the rodent die-offs that prompt plague-infected fleas to leap to people and feast on them instead of the animals, Wong says. Massive flea migrations, prompted by widespread rodent deaths, caused Black Death in Europe during the Middle Ages.
Both York and the mountain lion had pneumonic plague, a lung infection that spreads through a cough or a sneeze.
"Pneumonic plague is a highly fatal disease," Wong says. "The death rate can be as high as 50% even with treatment."
Concerned about big cats
York was widely known for trapping and collaring big cats to study their movements and protect them from encroaching humans, says Charles Higgens, director of public health for the National Park Service.
York's friends say he could make a mountain lion trap with toothpicks, says Launie York, the biologist's mother. She says her son loved the woods around the family farm and was forever storing specimens in the family freezer.
"We had a saying here: 'If it's in a black plastic bag, don't open it. It isn't dinner,' " she says.
Before his fatal encounter with the mountain lion, York got to know the big cat well. During his two years at the park, York tracked, trapped and collared her. When she gave birth to three kittens, he ear-tagged them so that he could identify them when they were old enough for their own telemetry collars.
Then, on Oct. 25, the lion's collar sent out a mortality signal, indicating that she hadn't moved in 24 hours. When York located her carcass, her kittens were nowhere to be found. His notes suggest that he believed she may have been killed in a fight with a male, because of blood pooled around her nose. But York wasn't satisfied with guesswork, so he decided to do an autopsy at his home.
Ambushed by germs
Although plague is endemic west of the Mississippi — brought here in the 1800s by flea-infested rats on ships ferrying Chinese railroad workers to the USA — York had little reason to suspect it. Mountain lions usually stalk bigger game than rodents. But this lion had kittens that had to learn to hunt.
When York became ill, he visited the park's clinic, Wong says. On Oct. 30, clinic staff diagnosed a flu-like illness and sent him home. It was there, three days later, that a roommate found him lying motionless on the couch.
Wong says York's toughness and self-sufficiency may have cost him his life. "He was a tough guy. He gutted out more than you or I or almost anyone else would."
He says the case has prompted the National Park Service to begin working with colleagues at the CDC and at state and local health departments to identify diseases within the park system that might pose a risk to the 276 million people who visit every year, as well as the many people who might be exposed once park visitors return home.
Which Secular Superstition do you Believe?
http://www.dcexaminer.com/opinion/columns/guestcolumnists/Which_Secular_Superstitiion_do_you_Believe.html
Natural selection builds child brains with a tendency to believe whatever their parents and tribal elders tell them. Such trusting obedience is valuable for survival…On this model we should expect…that superstitions and other non-factual beliefs will locally evolve—change over generations…. –Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
Not long ago at a local pub, an acquaintance interrupted a conversation in progress to announce, "I know the truth about Christianity. I read The Da Vinci Code." Now, it was not really the assertion itself that made my jaw drop as much as the confidence with which it was proffered.
Perhaps Richard Dawkins is right that superstition is in such bountiful supply that it demands explanation in terms of our dispositions. But, we may ask, who is more likely to believe wild-eyed superstitions these days, the religious or irreligious?
New social science is shedding light on this question, and the results may surprise you.
Just last week Rodney Stark, a respected scholar at Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion, released a study entitled "What Americans Really Believe." Stark and fellow researchers commissioned The Gallup Organization to poll Americans on questions of religious import.
Many of the fascinating findings of this year's Baylor Religion Survey, which asks much deeper questions than typical religious surveys, center on atheists and the irreligious. For instance, despite making their authors rich, the neo-atheist books of the past few years seem to have produced few American converts: Atheism is holding steady at around four percent of the population. Even more intriguing, the majority of Europeans are not atheists.
Gallup asked questions regarding belief in things like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, Atlantis, haunted houses, and astrology. Baylor's researchers aggregated these figures, producing an index of paranormal belief.
As Mollie Ziegler Hemingway reported in The Wall Street Journal, "While 31% of people who never worship expressed strong belief in these things, only 8% of people who attend a house of worship more than once a week did."
"Even among Christians, there were disparities. While 36% of those belonging to the United Church of Christ, Sen. Barack Obama's former denomination, expressed strong beliefs in the paranormal, only 14% of those belonging to the Assemblies of God, Sarah Palin's former denomination, did.
"In fact, the more traditional and evangelical the respondent, the less likely he was to believe in, for instance, the possibility of communicating with people who are dead."
Ignoring available data such as these, prominent atheists continue to claim that religion breeds gullibility and superstition while letting go of God hastens enlightenment.
For example, Nobel laureate in Physics Steven Weinberg, writing recently in the The New York Review of Books, argues for what he sees as major tensions between science and religion, especially traditional theistic belief.
"The first source of tension," he writes, arises from the fact that religion originally gained much of its strength from the observation of mysterious phenomena—thunder, earthquakes, disease—that seemed to require the intervention of some divine being.
"There was a nymph in every brook, and a dryad in every tree. But as time passed more and more of these mysteries have been explained in purely natural ways. Explaining this or that about the natural world does not of course rule out religious belief.
"But if people believe in God because no other explanation seems possible for a whole host of mysteries, and then over the years these mysteries were one by one resolved naturalistically, then a certain weakening of belief can be expected."
Despite the scientific erudition of Weinberg and similar prophets of scientific materialism, myths like this continue to persist. And it is the persistence of this mythology which leads our secular elites to see discord between the scientific and religious outlooks.
Even many non-religious historians of science now understand that, far from perpetuating old superstitions, the Judeo-Christian tradition constituted a radical break with pagan thought. It posited a single rational mind behind the universe rather than myriad irrational spirits in the universe.
This Gestalt shift was crucial in the rise of modern science. It is no accident that experimental science arose in the West where the idea of the intelligibility of nature took root, for it made sense to seek orderly laws of nature if there exists a rational lawgiver of the universe.
While the findings of the Baylor study appear counterintuitive, perhaps they shouldn't. Once we lose "faith" in the rational intelligibility of the universe, what is left to dissuade us from the latest findings of UFO-logy?
The existential question facing science today is whether it can survive an intellectual milieu dominated by the materialist superstition.
Cuba Seeks to End U.S. Trade Embargo
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,443562,00.html
WASHINGTON — Looking ahead to a new American administration, Cuba's top diplomat in Washington opened a campaign Wednesday to generate world pressure to kill a half-century old U.S. trade embargo that he likened to genocide.
"It's equivalent to genocide; its intention is strangulation," Jorge Bolanos said in an Associated Press interview a week before Cuba plans to ask the U.N. General Assembly to condemn the U.S. boycott of his country.
Bolanos steered clear of presidential politics, but he said Cuba was ready for talks with the United States "if the U.S. considers Cuba an equal partner in negotiations."
Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has said he would be willing to meet with Cuban leader Raul Castro without preconditions and would ease restrictions on family-related travel and on money Cuban-Americans want to send to their families in Cuba.
Republican nominee John McCain, meanwhile, has called the offer to meet "the wrong signal," but also has said he favors easing restrictions on Cuba once the United States is "confident that the transition to a free and open democracy is being made."
The United States has no diplomatic relations with Cuba and lists the country as a state sponsor of terror. The trade embargo, imposed in 1962, has been tightened during President Bush's two terms.
"The last eight years have seen the most ruthless and inhumane application of the blockade," Bolanos said.
It "typifies the act of genocide" and from the start was designed to undermine the Cuban revolution of 1959 led by Fidel Castro, the diplomat said. Forced to retire because of intestinal illnesses, Fidel yielded control of the government to his brother, Raul.
"He is better and better every day," Bolanos said. "He is writing." But Bolanos said he did not know if Fidel Castro, now 82, would be able to participate in the half-century anniversary celebration of the revolution in Santiago at the end of the year.
Bolanos, who heads Cuba's "interest section" in Washington out of the embassy of Switzerland, said he had "no doubt the blockade is going to disappear" at some point.
Next Wednesday, the U.N. General Assembly will consider a resolution calling on the United States to end the trade embargo. Every year for the past 17 years, the Assembly has approved Cuba's resolution, but the United States has not yielded.
"It is the most isolated issue at the U.N.," Bolanos said, and the U.N. has "a psychological and moral effect."
The diplomat, a former ambassador to Mexico, Brazil and Britain, predicted the embargo, in time, will "disappear."
Representing a government the United States shuns, Bolanos said he is limited in his travels to the Washington area and is permitted among government offices only to visit the State Department, where he said he has had occasional meetings.
However, he said, the diplomatic community has treated him as "an ambassador in full capacity."
Again and again, in a 50-minute interview conducted mostly in English, Bolanos returned to the U.S. embargo and its impact.
He said a few sick Cuban children have been unable to receive proper medical treatment because the United States would not approve the export of catheters. Some material for the blind also is under boycott, and Cuba was unable to purchase washing machines from Mexico because they had parts manufactured in the United States, he said.
"Eleven million Cubans live under the blockade's effects," he said. "Each day, each of them, child, woman, man, elder of whatever social position or religion, suffers without distinction, the perverse effects of the blockade."
The cost to Cuba has risen to $93 billion, but the blockade has failed to undermine the Cuban government "because of the irrevocable will of the Cuban nation to defend its legitimate right to self-determination," the ambassador said.
US, Russian military chiefs hold unannounced fence-mending talks
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5662
The top-secret meeting, aimed at putting US-Russian bilateral relations back on their pre-Georgian crisis track, was arranged in top secrecy and took place in neutral Helsinki Tuesday, Oct. 21. US sources said the meeting was requested by Moscow.
While US officials expected the Russian side to raise the issues of Georgia and the anti-missile interceptors the US is deploying in Poland and the Czech Republic, DEBKAfile's sources anticipated the American side broaching the subject of stepped up Russian nuclear assistance to Iran, especially its commitment to finish the Bushehr reactor by the end of the year, and refusal to go along with sanctions.
Also at issue are Moscow's massive arms deals with Iran and Syria and the new naval bases the Russians are building at Syrian ports.
It was the first time US Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff met Gen. Nikolai Makarov since the latter was appointed chief of the Russian General Staff this summer.
Mullen arrived in the Finnish capital from talks in Belgrade on increased Serbian military cooperation with the United States.
Russia Proposes Setting Up Council of Religions As UN Consultative Body - Lavrov
http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews+articleid_2718124.html
ASTANA. Oct 17 (Interfax) - Russia has come up with an initiative to establish a council of religions as a consultative body under UN auspices that will provide support for the Alliance of Civilizations international project, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told an international conference of foreign ministers from several countries in Astana on Friday.
"It is important that politicians and diplomats should contribute to the creation of a favorable environment for the further development of inter-confessional dialogue, which helps find areas of common interest, especially in issues related to the settlement of conflicts that have a religious component," Lavrov said during the "One Common World: Progress Through Diversity conference."
"Russia welcomes all early developments that have taken place in this area," he said.
"In our opinion, the creation of a consultative council of religions as part of the UN's general efforts aimed at supporting the Alliance of Civilizations will be timely," the foreign minister said.
"This idea is sometimes treated with suspicion. But this approach is wrong. It is not intended to replace mechanisms functioning in the inter-civilization field. It does not infringe on anyone's prerogatives, and it is not aimed at creating a dominating position in inter-religious dialogue for anybody," he said.
"We hope that this objective coincidence of common interests will make it possible to form a permanent platform for religious figures' dialogue," Lavrov said.
The Russian foreign minister said he is convinced that the main result of the conference in Astana will be steps to maintain the determination to improve tolerance in international affairs and to respect each other's culture and religion.
Atheists Plan Anti-God Ad Campaign on Buses
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,443705,00.html
LONDON — London buses have God on their side — but not for long, if atheists have their way.
The sides of some of London's red buses will soon carry ads asserting there is "probably no God," as nonbelievers fight what they say is the preferential treatment given to religion in British society.
Organizers of a campaign to raise funds for the ads said Wednesday they received more than $113,000 in donations, almost seven times their target, in the hours since they launched the project on a charity Web site. Supporters include Oxford University biologist Richard Dawkins, who donated $9,000.
The money will be used to place posters on 30 buses carrying the slogan "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." The plan was to run the ads for four weeks starting in January, but so much money has been raised that the project may be expanded.
"A lot of people say trying to organize atheists is like herding cats. The last couple of days shows that is not true," said comedy writer Ariane Sherine, who started the campaign.
While most London buses carry posters for shops or Hollywood movies, Christian churches and Muslim groups have bought bus-side ad space in the past.
Sherine came up with the idea after seeing a series of Christian posters on London buses. She said she visited the Web site promoted on one ad and found it told nonbelievers they would spend eternity in torment in hell.
"I thought it would be a really positive thing to counter that by putting forward a much happier and more upbeat advert, saying 'Don't worry, you're not going to hell,'" said Sherine, 28. "Atheists believe this is the only life we have, and we should enjoy it."
The British Humanist Association, which is administering the fundraising drive, said it had been so successful the campaign might spread to other cities including Manchester and Edinburgh.
Most Britons identify themselves as Christians, but few attend church regularly, and public figures rarely talk about their beliefs. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair was rare among politicians in speaking openly about his Christian faith.
Dawkins, author of the best-selling atheist manifesto "The God Delusion," said that religion nonetheless held a privileged position in society.
"Religious organizations have an automatic tax-free charitable status," he said. "Bishops sit in the House of Lords automatically. Religious leaders get preferential treatment on all sorts of commissions.
"This campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think — and thinking is anathema to religion."
Dawkins said that as an atheist he "wasn't wild" about the ad's assertion that there was "probably" no God.
Sherine said the word was included to ensure the posters didn't breach transit advertising regulations, which stipulate ads should not offend religious people.
Few believers appeared offended by the campaign, although most doubted it would work.
"I think people will ask themselves, 'On what basis can they make that statement?" said Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain. "So it will get people thinking, so in that sense it can only be good."
Ad agency CBS Outdoor, which manages advertising on many London buses, said it had approved the atheist campaign.
Sales and marketing director Tim Bleakley said "our decision to take an ad that promotes God, or one that promotes no God, is based on commercial terms, as long as the advertising copy itself does not breach U.K. advertising standards."
The Rev. Jenny Ellis, spirituality and discipleship officer for the Methodist Church, welcomed the ads.
"This campaign will be a good thing if it gets people to engage with the deepest questions of life," she said.
The religious think tank Theos said it had donated $82 to the campaign, on the grounds that the ads were so bad they would probably attract people to religion.
"It tells people to 'stop worrying,' which is hardly going to be a great comfort for those who are concerned about losing jobs or homes in the recession," said Theos director Paul Woolley.
"Stunts like this demonstrate how militant atheists are often great adverts for Christianity."
ROME 4-6 November 2008 Catholic and Muslim scholars initiate formal talks
http://www.newsahead.com/preview/2008/11/04/rome-4-6-november-2008-catholic-muslim-scholars-open-talks/index.php
In the first forum of its kind, 24 Catholic and Muslim scholars will meet in November to talk about the theological and spiritual foundations of Catholicism and Islam and human dignity and mutual respect. The first Catholic-Muslim Forum concludes with an audience with Pope Benedict XVI.
A joint statement released by the Vatican and the Academic Trust in Britain in March said the theme will be, "Love of God, Love of Neighbor."
According to Catholic World News (CWN), Vatican officials and representatives of the Common Word Initiative set plans for the inaugural Forum after informal talks in Rome on Mar 4 and 5. CWN says the Initiative originated with an appeal from 138 Islamic leaders for deeper dialog with Christians, and that there are now more than 200 Islamic leaders – many living in Western countries – who have endorsed it.
First Mosque in East Berlin Opens
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/467696.aspx
CBNNews.com - The first mosque in East Berlin, Germany is now open. Besides Muslim worshippers, protestors have also appeared behind police barricades three blocks away to show their distain for the Khadija Mosque.
The white two-story mosque boasts a 42-foot silver dome in the Pankaw District.
"This one is special," said Fazlur Rehman Anwar, a member of the Ahmadiyya community in Hamburg, who was in Berlin for the opening. "It is in the capital. It is the first one in East Germany."
Ahmadis follow the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad, but also consider their community's founder - Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, born in Qadian, India in 1835 - to be the messiah and a "humble servant of Islam" who sought to reform Islamic practice.
But the construction of the building has been quite controversial. Dozens of protests have occurred since plans for the mosque were announced last year. The protestors include local residents and members of the country's National Democratic Party.
The protest group, "We Are Pankow," says it is opposed to the Ahmadis' strict division between men and women, who are veiled and not permitted to participate in coed sports, and a lack of religious freedom in Muslim countries.
"I don't find it very good, because we are not allowed to build churches in Turkey," said Gudrun Brese, a retiree
who lives near the mosque. "I have a problem with that."
The mayor of the district says the mosque represents a sign of progress. He hopes this will help integrate the city's 200,000 Muslims living in the area.
"I find that an open mosque is much better in view of immigration over that which we often see - a mosque that is in the
back courtyard of a converted warehouse," Ehrhart Koerting told the Berliner Morgenpost daily.
West Berlin already has 70 mosques and there are plans to build more.
Is American Economic Crisis Ushering in a One-world Order
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07716.shtml
OPINION, October 17 (christiansunite.com) -- The following commentary is submitted by Reverend Bill Keller, Founder of Liveprayer.com:
Grab your history books, and dust off your bible. If you've been following the economic crisis Americans are currently wallowing in, you'll likely remember from history class that this has all happened before. You may even recall the solution Germany embraced for its economic disaster: Adolf Hitler.
The famous orator, politician, soldier, and artist, Winston Churchill said those who "fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it." Well, here we are folks, apparently doomed to make the same mistakes that countries such as Great Britain and Japan have made before. Sadly, the nation's recent blundering has perfectly positioned the United States to embrace the coming of a global ruler, a.k.a: the anti- Christ... Satan, all dressed up in the garb of anti- capitalism.
In the past year, the Dow Jones has seen a forty percent decline, resulting in an $8 trillion dollar loss. The current economic meltdown is affecting the lives of tens of millions of Americans. I contend that God is using the economy to judge this nation for its sins...and now America is being insidiously led down the path to a twisted version of Socialism peppered with Communism, one that few Americans can even fathom.
On May 2, 2008, I told the 2.4 million daily devotional subscribers to my website, www.liveprayer.com, that God would use the economy as a form of judgment on the nation for its sins. And God did just that (video ref: www.youtube.com/watch? v=tc71qfmRv9I).
The Book of Revelation speaks of how during the last days we'll experience a one-world government, a one-world economic system, ushering in the rule and the reign for a short period of time the anti-Christ. If there's one lesson we've learned throughout the economic chaos of the last few weeks, it is how incredibly connected, how intertwined the economies of the world are.
What has happened in Europe and Asia, and now the United States, has been a quick fix to save economies in crisis. In the United States, with hundreds of billions of government dollars going to bail out huge corporations, our government has basically taken over the banking system, nationalizing the banks so to speak. This is pure Socialism carried out under the pretense that once things get better, the banks will pay the governments back and the governments will dissociate themselves.
But the banks aren't going to be in a position to pay off these loans any time soon, so governments are going to be pretty much controlling the banking system. The longer they do, the harder it will be to get them out. The government is also getting heavily involved in the real estate market, which is exactly how governmental dictatorships work, they run everything. You either work for them, or you're nothing...disposable.
We're aligning ourselves economically with other governments around the world; and we've already got the United Nations, NATO, and other alliances...the next step is to collaborate politically with foreign governments.
No matter how badly we may wish it, there are no man-made solutions to the economic problem because, at its core, the crisis is really a spiritual issue. Sadly, people don't understand that the only answer is to turn back to God and Biblical truths.
Founded on the word of God by people who believed in God, the Bible, and Jesus Christ, the United States,°© just 232 years old °© has become a totally humanistic, secular society that rejects God, the Bible, and Christ, and lives in total rebellion to God and his word. Today we legally slaughter over four thousand innocent babies each day, we have made a mockery of God's holy institution of marriage, we worship every idol and false god man has ever created, and we live in total rebellion to God and his truth.
Many will dismiss the notion of God's judgment as the foolish talk of yet another religious kook, however, the Bible does say in 2 Corinthians 2:14, "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
The fact is, all of humankind's wisdom has been unable to resolve this economic crisis because the answer isn't a natural one...it is a spiritual one. Unless this nation gets on its face before God, asks his forgiveness, and turns from its sins, I'm afraid that the United States has only just begun to experience what it will be like to live in a new world order, embracing a global ruler who will surely usher in the end of days.
Wake-up America and repent...the barbarian of evil is knocking at our door.
Bush backs EU plan on global financial reform
http://euobserver.com/19/26959
US President George W. Bush has backed the European idea of a series of global talks on reform of the world's financial system, with the first summit set to be held shortly after the US presidential elections in November.
The outgoing American leader agreed there needs to be further co-ordinated effort to tackle the "challenges facing the global economy" after a three-hour meeting at Camp David on Saturday (18 October) with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country currently chairs the 27-strong EU, and with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
The three politicians said they would approach other world powers - both from the richest nations and the newly emerging economies such as China and India - and try to reach "agreement on principles of reform needed to avoid a repetition and assure global prosperity in the future."
Later summits will be "designed to implement agreement on specific steps to be taken to meet those principles," the trio said in a joint statement.
The top-level talks are due to tackle controversial elements of the current financial order which are seen by some as having contributed or failed to prevent the credit crunch, which originated in the US and spread across the globe.
At the EU level, several such issues have been highlighted as the possible targets of stricter regulation - rating agencies, tax havens, hedge funds, executive pay but also the very role of key global institutions, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
"We believe in the capacity and the ability of the American people to come up with the answers the world is waiting for, is expecting. Because this sort of capitalism is a betrayal of the capitalism we believe in," Mr Sarkozy said, newswires report.
"The meeting should be held rapidly, perhaps before the end of November. Since the crisis started in New York, maybe we can find the solution in New York," he added.
However, US president Bush stressed that "as we make the regulatory and institutional changes necessary to avoid a repeat of this crisis, it is essential that we preserve the foundations of democratic capitalism - the commitment to free markets, free enterprise and free trade."
"We must resist the dangerous temptation of economic isolationism and continue the policies of open markets that have lifted standards of living and held millions of people escape poverty around the world."
More European banks in the red
Meanwhile, Dutch ING and French Caisse d'Epargne have joined the list of banks affected by the financial crisis.
The Dutch government agreed on Sunday (19 October) to pump €10 billion into financial group ING, with the bank's management agreeing to scrap executive bonuses and its year-end dividend to shareholders.
The move followed a round of tense negotiations over the weekend sparked by recent share falls by over a 25 percent of value, Reuters reported.
The financial injection by the Dutch government is part of €20 billion package the Hague had put aside for possible bank bail-outs, in a move agreed in principle by all other European member states last week in a bid to prevent a bankruptcy of any financial situation essential for a country's whole economy.
In Germany, Bavaria's public sector bank BayernLB will be the first to use the German government's €500 billion rescue package. The bank's supervisory board is due to meet on Tuesday (21 October) to discuss the package, Bavarian state Finance Minister Erwin Huber said in an interview for Bild newspaper.
In France, the chairman of Groupe Caisse d'Epargne and two other top managers resigned on Sunday, following a €600 million trading scandal where a small team of traders had placed illicit bets on stock markets.
The French government reacted by suggesting a special audit of all banks in the country.
Sarkozy in fresh call for eurozone 'government'
http://euobserver.com/9/26971
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - French president Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday (21 October) renewed calls he made last week for the creation of an "economic government" for countries using the euro, in order to react better to crisis situations such as the current global financial turmoil.
"It is not possible for the euro zone to continue without a clearly identified economic government. We cannot go on like this," Mr Sarkozy, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, told MEPs gathered for a plenary session in Strasbourg.
"It is a funny idea to think that we can have the same bank [ECB], the same currency, the same market and that speaking of a [common] economic policy is not good. Honestly, it is a curious idea," he said.
The French president explained that the "government" in question should gather regularly at the level of heads of state and of government.
He did not specify how often the meetings would take place, but stressed that "we will not be able to go on for eight more years without gathering the eurogroup at the level of heads of state and of government. I think it is not reasonable."
The first such meeting took place some two weeks ago in Paris as an ad hoc response to the financial crisis.
European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso meanwhile told journalists after the parliamentary debate that he was in favour of "strengthening all mechanisms of coordination of the economic policies of EU states."
"At the same time, one must not create the illusion - which in my opinion would be very dangerous - that this would mean giving instructions to the European Central Bank, putting into question its independence," he said.
Mr Sarkozy also proposed a meeting of EU leaders to take place in order to prepare for a series of international summits to be held before the end of the year on the financial crisis, aiming to put in place a global financial overhaul.
"I will have the opportunity to propose to my fellow heads of states and government a meeting to prepare for these summits," he told MEPs.
Protecting EU manufacturers
The French president also renewed his calls for more aid to be granted to European industries, in particular to car manufacturers.
"Can we leave the European car industry in a situation of grave distortion of competition with our American competitors," said the president of France - a country where the car industry is strongly developed and which recently announced a plan to spend €400 million over the next four years to support the development of more eco-friendly vehicles.
"We should be able to manufacture ships, cars, aeroplanes in Europe because Europe needs a strong industry and on that policy the presidency will stand up and fight," he added.
The EU president-in-office did not stop there, proposing that European governments set up so-called sovereign wealth funds to buy stakes in EU companies to keep them safe from takeovers by foreign ones.
"Stock markets are at historic lows. I do not want European citizens to wake up a few months from now and discover that European companies belong to non-European capital which has bought at the lowest point of the stock exchange," Mr Sarkozy told MEPs.
"I would ask that all of us consider how interesting it would be to set up sovereign funds in each of our countries - and maybe these national sovereign funds could now and again coordinate to give an industrial response to the crisis," he added.
Mr Sarkozy - a typical socialist?
The French president's comments prompted the leader of the European socialists, German MEP Martin Schulz, to make fun of him for his interventionist ideas.
Mr Sarkozy "is talking like a good old-fashioned European socialist," said Mr Schulz, while adding that Mr Barroso, who several times backed the EU president-in-office, was also behaving "like a true left-winger."
Both the commission president and the French leader belong to the centre-right EPP-ED party.
Despite his support for most of Mr Sarkozy's ideas, Mr Barroso called for caution against protectionist tendencies in the EU in the wake of the financial crisis.
"The European Commission is in principle in favour of all measures of support to industry, economy, employment, growth - if these measures are not discriminatory, if they do not put into question the EU's internal market," he said.
"One thing must be clear. There is no national road out of this crisis. Our economies are too intertwined - we will swim or sink together. We must not give in to siren calls for protection. We must not turn our backs on globalisation or put our single market at risk," he told EU parliamentarians.
Coordinated European action needed to tackle financial crisis says the European Parliament
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/004-40027-294-10-43-901-20081020IPR40025-20-10-2008-2008-true/default_en.htm
MEPs say the EU needs a coordinated response on a range of fronts in order to tackle the financial crisis and limit its impact on economic growth, jobs and small businesses. In a resolution on last week's EU summit, they also call for measures to improve financial supervision and look at issues from climate change to the Caucasus. The resolution was adopted with 499 votes in favour, 130 against and 67 abstentions.
Parliament stresses the importance of a coordinated macroeconomic response to resuscitate global growth, without undermining the principles of the stability and growth pact. MEPs also want to see coordinated action to restore confidence in the financial markets.
Financial market crisis and the real economy
The crisis, says the resolution, has implications beyond financial markets: for business viability, jobs, personal finance and SMEs. Parliament stresses the paramount importance of ongoing access to credit for citizens and SMEs and of investments in EU infrastructure to avoid a dramatic downturn in growth and employment.
It therefore supports measure to return liquidity to the markets, and the rapid reaction of the Commission in applying state aid rules on measures taken to rescue financial institutions. When public money is spent in this way, say MEPs, it must be accompanied by public oversight, improvements in governance, limitations on remuneration, strong accountability to public authorities and investment strategies for the real economy.
MEPs welcome the setting up by the Commission of a high-level group to consider the future supervisory architecture for EU financial services, but they criticise the lack of Parliamentary involvement in the Commission's "financial crisis cell".
Better supervisory structure for the future
Looking beyond the immediate crisis, MEPs reiterate their calls on the Commission to propose measures to strengthen the EU regulatory and supervisory framework and EU-level crisis management, including on banks, credit rating agencies, securitisation, hedge funds, leverage, transparency, winding-up rules, clearing for over-the-counter markets and crisis prevention.
The Lamfalussy process should be strengthened, including colleges of supervisors for cross-border institutions and a clearer role and legal status for the Level 3 committees (which bring together all the Member States' banking, securities and insurance supervisors). Parliament also wants to see proposals drawn up for effective cross-border crisis management.
Lisbon, climate change, energy, Caucasus conflicts
The resolution also considers other issues arising from the European Council meeting last week. Among other points:
Parliament reiterates its respect for the result of the Irish referendum on the Lisbon treaty, and for the results of other countries' ratification procedures, and hopes a solution can be found which is acceptable to all before the European elections in June 2009;
MEPs say the financial crisis should not call into question the EU's post-2012 climate targets, though measures taken to meet them should be evaluated with competitiveness in mind;
Parliament calls for Commission and Council to pursue the establishment of a common European external policy on energy, and for a stronger political commitment to a low carbon economy;
MEPs stress that there cannot be a military solution to the conflicts in the Caucasus, condemn all those who resorted to force to change the situation in the Georgian breakaway territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and recall Russia's "disproportionate military action." They call on Russia to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia.
MEPs debate EU response to world crises with French president Sarkozy
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
At a debate with MEPs on the EU summit of 15-16 October, EU President-in-Office Sarkozy said the Russo-Georgian war and the financial crisis had strengthened the case for a united European response to major world problems. He rejected any idea that the EU should backtrack on its climate change commitments because of the crisis. While the main EP political groups broadly supported him, some felt the roots of the financial crisis went back a long way and queried the role of unbridled free markets.
Introducing the debate, the President of Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, said that in the recent crises, Europe under the leadership of President Sarkozy had shown its ability to take coordinated, collective action. Without such action - and without the existence of the euro - "we would have been in a disastrous situation".
Georgia
The first subject considered by President Sarkozy, speaking on behalf of the European Council, was the Russo-Georgian war. While regarding the Russian reaction as "disproportionate", he also stressed it was a "reaction" to a previous "inappropriate" action. He then described the peace-making efforts carried out by himself on behalf of the EU. The Americans had thought "dialogue with the Russians is pointless" but in his view this was folly, since "Europe does not want another Cold War". He emphasised "it is Europe that has brought about peace", adding "it is a long time since Europe has played this sort of role in this kind of conflict".
World financial crisis: how to prevent a recurrence
Turning next to the world financial situation, Mr Sarkozy said "what was a serious crisis became a systemic crisis" with the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Moreover, the solutions now being found - in which Europe had taken the lead - simply amounted to "crisis management".
A key point was "how can we prevent a recurrence?". He had proposed to the UN General Assembly the creation of a "new global financial system" or "new Bretton Woods". The aim must be to "overhaul capitalism", not "by questioning the idea of a market economy" but observing certain principles: no bank working with state money must work with tax havens, all financial institutions must be subject to financial regulation, traders' bonus structures must not push them to take undue risks and the monetary system must be rethought. The USA and the EU had proposed a series of "summits on global governance", starting in November, involving first the G8 and then adding the G5, at which, he stressed, "Europe must speak with one voice".
Elsewhere in his speech, Mr Sarkozy returned to the financial crisis, saying it was undoubtedly now leading to an economic crisis and this too would require a "united European response". Among ideas he floated were measures to ensure that "European companies are not bought up by non-European capital while their stock exchange values are low" and the creation of sovereign wealth funds by each EU country. At a later point in the debate he pointed the finger at hedge funds and questioned the competence and independence of ratings agencies, pointing out that the latter were mainly US-based and perhaps Europe needed its own ratings agencies.
He also believed that "the eurozone cannot continue without clear economic governance". The European Central Bank must be independent but must be able to hold discussions with "an economic government" at head of state/government level.
No backsliding on energy/climate change
Mr Sarkozy's next topic was the future of the EU's energy and climate package. He rejected any idea "that the world should do less to combat climate change because of the financial crisis", saying "Europe must set an example" to the world. He recognised the difficulty some European countries were facing, especially those that are 95% dependent on coal, but some flexible solution must be found. Referring to the 20/20/20 targets, he described "respect for the climate change objectives" and "respect for the timetable" as essential.
Turning to the EU Immigration Pact, the French president said this was "a great example of European democracy" as, despite initial differences, the EU had agreed on a joint policy.
Lisbon Treaty
Lastly, the president argued that the recent crises with Georgia and the financial markets showed that "it would be a major mistake not to proceed with institutional reform" since Europe often needs "a powerful, rapid and united response", something which was difficult, for example, with the EU's six-month rotating presidency. The French presidency was thus looking to a roadmap to find a solution by December to the question of Irish ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. Concluding, he said "the world needs a Europe that speaks with a strong voice" and expressed appreciation to the EP for its "solidarity" in helping to create this sense of unity.
Commission President Barroso
President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso said Mr Sarkozy's handling of the crisis had shown him as "dynamic as only he can be" and welcomed the fact that Europe was now working hand in hand with the US. He said "the EU should mould a global response with it values and interests".
He outlined a number of practical steps. He said the Commission would be looking at executive pay and derivatives. The feasibility of pan-Europe financial regulation would also be under review. He also signalled his forthcoming visit to China for talks saying: "The goal should be to devise a system of global financial governance adapted to the challenges of the 21st century – in terms of efficiency, transparency and representation."
Turning to the so called "real economy" he said that Europe faced a "serious economic slowdown" with jobs, incomes and order books affected. He went on to say: "There is no national road out of this crisis...we will swim or sink together. We must not give in to siren calls for protection. We must not turn our backs on globalisation or put our single market at risk."
He said that "European citizens need support - especially the vulnerable". To deal with the slowdown he called for "smart support" that would hit two targets at once. For example: "Helping the construction industry...but doing this by promoting an energy-efficient housing stock....Helping key industries like cars...but preparing them for tomorrow's markets of clean cars."
He told MEPs that there is "no national route out of this crisis" and that in Europe "we swim or sink together". He said that: "Europe shows its true colours in a crisis - in Georgia we stopped a war whilst with the financial crisis we are dealing with it."
He went on to say that: "There is no magic bullet to turn around the EU economy. What we have to do is take every option, explore every potential way in which EU policy can help Member States to seize every opportunity to put Europe on the road to growth. That is our task in the coming weeks. And it is a task I want to tackle together with the European Parliament." He finished by saying that it was: "The kind of occasion where the crisis calls into question old certainties and minds are more open to change."
Later, speaking after the main group speakers Mr Barroso said that analysis compiled by the Commission showed the crisis was triggered "by sectors that were not regulated in US". On climate change he said that with the financial crisis it would be "dramatically bad" if the EU backtracked on the 20/20/20 emission formula agreed last. He said that "the world - not just Europeans, are looking to us".
Political group speakers
For the EPP-ED group, Joseph DAUL (FR) believed that Europe working together had twice over the summer helped show the way through major crises: Georgia and the financial markets. President Sarkozy had worked tirelessly and shown the value of the EU Presidency and the role for Europe on the world stage.
Parliament had already done key work on the financial situation with recommendations on regulation and surveillance, reform and an end to golden parachutes. He said "It is in economic crises that we develop rules for the future. Free markets have to be accompanied by rules and regulations If they existed previously they were not properly applied"
Mr Daul did not want to see the efforts of the little people in Europe wiped out. SMEs need support and we need to guarantee the social market and solidarity. He asked for all to ratify the Lisbon Treaty as soon as possible so that Europe could run more smoothly. He concluded that ahead we face many major issues together: climate, energy, defence. For the sake of future generations he stressed that we need to work on the basis of a Social Market economy model to solve them.
For the Socialist group, Martin SCHULZ (DE) was impressed by the recent resolute action of both President Sarkozy and Barroso. However, he felt we need to make full use of the current crisis to make sure we never again suffer such a disaster in the financial markets which has triggered a disaster in the real economy. We need new rules by the end of the year for banks, private equity.
Mr Schulz noted that in this debate Messrs Sarkozy, Daul, Barroso all spoke the language of true European Social Democracy." I am glad you have finally arrived, however late" he said. Mr Schulz was concerned about the situation of the ordinary citizen, the taxpayer, the small business in this crisis. We need to boost purchasing power to revive the Single Market and we need to cover the risks for the ordinary citizen not just the big fish.
He was delighted everyone was now singing from the same hymn sheet of social democracy but warned this was the time also to remember the long-term issue of climate change which would remain after the credit crunch had subsided. We should all be working towards sustainability. Finally, in this crisis he emphasised that we must not forget rights and keep the question of fundamental values on the agenda.
Thank you for these warm and encouraging words about working hand in hand", said Graham Watson (UK), for the ALDE group, "but why do the Council conclusions refer only to the Commission and the Council? Why, for example, under climate change, is there no reference to the Parliament?" "You will need the EP", he predicted, pointing to some Member States' behind-the-scenes attempts to "unpick" agreements on CO2 emission targets for new cars (2012) and emission sharing (2013).
"Since the Berlin wall fell, 50 million people have been lifted out of poverty, but today we are seeing what happens when markets lack transparency", said Mr Watson, welcoming the fact that co-ordinated measures had alleviated the immediate pressures. He stressed that the EU must play a leading role in applying such remedies internationally - working with the US if possible, and without it if necessary.
Mr Watson nonetheless regretted that the summit had failed to produce plans for an effective supervisory regime, such as a European financial services authority. "Supervision is still the missing piece of the jigsaw", he said. Finally, Mr Watson acknowledged that Mr Sarkozy's role as a "man of action" in managing the crises underlined the EU's need for a permanent President.
"Energy and willpower are required in politics, and are good for Europe", agreed Daniel Cohn-Bendit (Greens/EFA, DE), for his group. He stressed that all the crises - financial, environmental and hunger worldwide - are interdependent, and must be tackled together.
"These crises did not start in July or August, but years ago", he said in a reference to Mr Sarkozy's speech. "It was calls for unbridled growth and the rejection of financial market regulation a year ago that led us into these crises", he said, urging Europe's leaders to be "more self-critical". What Europe needs is a "social and environmental market", which entails "rethinking the way we manufacture, and the way we live".
"The German car industry already has money in tax havens, and does not need more", said Mr Cohn-Bendit, in a reference to car industry "climate change waivers" (which, he said, had been backed by both right and left wingers). He urged Mr Sarkozy to press for tax havens to be obliged to declare the country of origin of these funds. Finally, subjecting climate change proposals to unanimity in the Council "will put you at the mercy of countries that are backsliders" in December, he warned Mr Sarkozy.
For the UEN group, Cristiana MUSCARDINI (IT) said she agreed 100% with the statements and proposals made by French President Nicholas Sarkozy and thanked the Council for the immigration pact and the asylum pact, "common sectors which are important to us all". However, she called on certain "Commissioners, including competition Commissioners "to do the right thing". The statement on heating oil has not reassured the markets. "We need more on financial derivatives, which have laid low some European States.
Mrs Muscardini said a united, if not equal, Europe, would help to pinpoint strategies to solve the crisis, which she called "systemic" and "in order to combat a systemic crisis we need a new system". She called on Nicholas Sarkozy to recast global capitalism and maybe even go further to make sure that "market freedom is not untrammelled liberalism". She added that the European Central Bank "could have done more" to help banks that have and are "failing".
Francis WURTZ (FR), on behalf of the GUE/NGL group, warned that the "worst is still to come" of this "multidimensional crisis of such scale and seriousness". The dimensions may be "unfathomable", but the crisis still needs to be debated. The "shock" of this crisis is being felt everywhere and "we have a drop in public expenditure and plans for privatising public services are ahead," he said.
Mr Wurtz continued "We need to be held accountable to our citizens", adding that this cannot be avoided, by introducing regulation or "doing away with golden handshakes". He pointed to the fact that 2% of monetary transactions were for services and production, while the remaining 98% went on finance. "We must attack the roots of this evil" and we need a "new Bretton Woods".
According to Nigel FARAGE (UK) of the Independence and Democracy group, when President Sarkozy went to Georgia he was "not acting for the EU" as "there had been no meeting". "You did it as the President of France". As regards the financial crisis, "I'm glad the Irish and the Greeks did their own thing", he said, before adding "I haven't heard anyone say that this crisis is a failure of regulation. We haven't had a lack of regulation, we have a blizzard of regulation and this has not protected a single investor. We need to rethink what we have been doing. We need to act in our national interest. The Swiss can and they have the adaptability, to weather the financial crisis better than EU states"
The speaker from the non-aligned MEPs, Bruno GOLLNISCH (FR), said "We are looking at part of things here but we are quiet on the causes. No one saw this coming …. apart from a few economists and Jean Marie Le Pen's voice crying in the wilderness." In his view, "We need unfettered freeing up and decoupling of the financial side of things and the real economy, which is now declining." Turning to foreign affairs, he said "You don't see that Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence paved the way to South Ossetia." His final comment was "You have to have a radical break with the global system and the movement of goods has to be rethought."
British and Irish speakers
Linda McAVAN (PES, UK) said it was not time to abandon climate change ambitions, adding that the socialists want "a credible agreement that balances environment, jobs and competitiveness" by Christmas and in time for international talks. "Let's have the political courage," she said.
Avril DOYLE (EPP-ED, IE) said that Europe's leaders had "committed themselves to reducing greenhouse gases by 20%". Now, in order to secure an agreement at Copenhagen "we will have to make a clear and unambiguous statement", she added. "There should be no delay and we cannot pay the higher price in the future" or, as President Sarkozy said, we will miss our date with history.
Giles CHICHESTER (EPP-ED, UK) told the House "It would not be far fetched to liken the crisis to a hurricane. Once the wind abates there is an illusion of calm but the devastation takes years to clear up." He continued "Tackling change is a long-term matter and there is no silver bullet". Moreover, "Over-regulation could precipitate something much worse, a re-run of the 1930's slump". "Let us not kill off the goose that lays the golden egg", he concluded.
John BOWIS (EPP-ED, UK) agreed with President Sarkozy that the climate change package "is so important that we cannot simply lose it under the pretext of a financial crisis". However, he went on "we will need reassurances for the countries which have real problems, as Poland does with coal" and "we must also be very clear that our support for biofuels in transport is dependent on the development of fuels from sustainable sources".
Kosovo: UN seeks solution for EU mission deployment
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Politics/?id=3.0.2611721201
New York/Pristina, 21 Oct. (AKI) - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon is searching for an acceptable solution for the deployment of the European Union mission in Kosovo.
Pristina daily Zeri said on Tuesday that Ban has written to EU chief for security and foreign policy, Javier Solana, stating that for the EU mission or EULEX to be deployed, it should adopt a neutral status in regard to Kosovo's independence.
The EU has decided to deploy its mission in Kosovo to replace the current UN administration or UNMIK without the approval of the UN Security Council, a move opposed by Serbia.
Serbian president Boris Tadic said an EU mission would be acceptable if it took a neutral stand in regard to Kosovo and refrained from implementing the so-called independence plan forged by Finnish diplomat Martti Ahtisaari.
Serbia's opposition leaders have accused Tadic of betraying the policy of stiff resistance to Kosovo's independence approved by the Parliament and that he was seeking an exit strategy for the recognition of Kosovo.
Tadic's pro-European government's main goal is to join the EU, but diplomats in Brussels have hinted it would be impossible without accepting EULEX and ultimately the recognition of Kosovo.
"EULEX can be deployed in Kosovo only if it retains neutrality towards Kosovo's independence," Ban said in a letter to Solana as quoted by Zeri.
Serbia's ally Russia has blocked Kosovo's independence drive in the Security Council and is backing Belgrade in opposing EULEX deployment.
Serbian analysts said Ban's proposal would give Tadic an "alibi" to accept EULEX and unblock the country's drive towards the EU.
Solana in Damascus satisfied with Syria-Israel talks
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1438555.php/Solana_in_Damascus_satisfied_with_Syria-Israel_talks__Roundup__
Damascus - European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana arrived in Syria late Wednesday, where he was received by the Syrian assistant foreign minister at Damascus airport.
Upon arrival, Solana said that his visit to Syria is a follow up to what has been achieved in the Syrian-European relations. He also expressed his satisfaction with the indirect negotiations between Syria and Israel.
During the visit, Solana will hold talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Vice President Farouq al-Shara'a and Foreign Minister Waleed al-Muallem. Solana is expected to meet Assad on Thursday.
The talks will tackle the latest developments in the region, the frozen Syrian-European partnership agreement, and the indirect Israeli-Syrian peace talks, which have been brokered by Turkey.
EU-Syrian relations were frozen after the assassination of Lebanese premier Rafik al-Hariri in 2005 despite Syrian denials of any involvement.
Relations were revived after the Lebanese political factions reached a consensus to solve their internal differences and after the establishment of diplomatic relations between Syria and Lebanon last week.
'We have a long-standing position that aims at reaching a comprehensive peace process in the region, the Europeans would like to have vital role in this process,' said Solana, whose last visit to Damascus was in March 2007.
Solana's five-day tour started on Sunday in the United Arab Emirates, where he met UAE President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan. The EU chief also visited Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Solana had met with Muallem on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York about a month ago.
Damascus calls for a more engaged EU political role in the Mideast
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/238065,damascus-calls-for-a-more-engaged-eu-political-role-in.html
Damascus - Damascus has called on Europe to be more politically engaged in the Middle East and to play a role that is parallel or complementary to the US role. "The Europeans are able to play a more effective role in the Middle East and to make their political weight equal to their economic one," the official Syrian mouthpiece, Tishrin newspaper, wrote in its editorial on Wednesday.
The newspaper added that the absence of the European political role from the Middle East is not in the interest of both the Arabs and the Europeans.
The newspaper also wrote that there were positive signs that Europe was trying to develop its role in the Middle East.
And while underlining that it was not a substitute to the US role, Tishrin wrote that "the European vision to the issues of the Middle East is more realistic."
The call comes as European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana was expected in Syria Wednesday as part of a Middle East tour that also took him to the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Solana is expected to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday.
Tishrin also wrote that Solana's visit would be followed by other ones from senior European officials.
EU-Syrian relations were frozen after the assassination of Lebanese premier Rafik al-Hariri in 2005 despite Syrian denials of any involvement.
Relations were revived after the Lebanese political powers reached a consensus to solve their internal differences and after the establishment of diplomatic relations between Syria and Lebanon last week.
Tzipi Livni loses momentum for forming a government
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5666
Foreign minister Tzipi Livni is running out of time for forming a viable coalition government. Ehud Olmert will therefore deliver the opening speech of the Knesset winter session next Tuesday as caretaker prime minister followed by opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu, Likud.
After failing to pull together a majority line-up in 28 days of hard bargaining, the Kadima leader has two weeks ending on Nov. 3 to finish the task, although when first entrusted with the task she pledged she would go for a new election if she failed to pull it off in the first ten days.
So far, only Labor has initialed a deal, but its leader, defense minister Ehud Barak, has said it is not final. Labor and other potential partners, the ultra-religious Shas and Pensioners, are holding out for substantial extra allocations for large families, senior citizens and healthcare, before signing on. Finance minister Ronnie Bar-On, Livni's mainstay in their Kadima party, is standing firm against reopening the budget which the Knesset must endorse by year's end.
On the horns of this dilemma, Livni must also juggle the budding opposition in her own party to a minority government, which is all she may be able to scrape together in the time left her. The dissident movement is spearheaded by transport minister Shaul Mofaz, the candidate she defeated for the Kadima party leadership. He is conducting an independent line of negotiations with possible coalition partners.
The foreign minister's failure would leave two options: The president may entrust the task of forming a government to another lawmaker with credible support, or an early election may be called, to take place most probably in the first quarter or 2009.
The Olmert government would remain in place as caretaker until a new government is formed.
J'lem Mayoral Candidate: 'We'll Build'
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/468984.aspx
CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - Jerusalem mayoral candidate Nir Barkat said if elected, the city would build a new Jewish neighborhood on state-owned lands adjacent to French Hill, to be called Sha'ar Hamizrach.
"A new Jewish neighborhood will be established that will provide a solution to the housing needs of students and the city's younger generation," Barkat said during a tour of the area Monday with David Be'eri, head of the Elad Organization, which helped initiate the City of David archaeological digs, and Arieh King, manager of Israel Lands Fund.
"This is an important statement by a leading contender for Jerusalem's mayoralty," said King said, who believes the proposed neighborhood could easily support some 2,000 housing units.
Barkat, King and Be'eri met with Jewish residents of Hashalom neighborhood and with Arab residents of Shuafat, who talked about the need to improve the area's infrastructure and asked to be more involved in municipal planning.
Barkat said he would not only work to improve area's roads, sewage and sanitation facilities, but would welcome more Arab representation in the municipality's work.
Hamas-Fatah tensions rising
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3608996,00.html
The nearing end of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' tenure has the defense establishment on edge, as it has formed a joined team with the Shin Bet and the Foreign Ministry to prepare for January 9 – Abbas' last day as Palestinian Authority president.
The main concern is intelligence indicating that Hamas' military wing may begin targeting senior Fatah and Palestinian security officials via abductions and assassination attempts.
The general consensus within the Israeli defense establishment is that if the Palestinian Authority and Hamas fail to reach an understanding about postponing the presidential elections – thus extending Abbas' tenure – Hamas may try to inflame the area by targeting PA officials.
Fatah members are said to be extremely vigilant already, following the Palestinian security forces' intense activity against Hamas infrastructure in the West Bank.
Hamas is said to be concerned about a joint PA-Israel operation, which resulted in the shutting down of over 100 Hamas-affiliated institutions, which funnel money to the organizations.
Palestinian Authority security forces have also been able to uncover two underground Hamas warehouses and explosives labs, as well as nab 50 of the group's militants and shut down a Hamas training facility, arresting 10 terrorists in the process.
But the PA is not targeting Hamas alone: Palestinian security forces have been cracking down on all West Bank militant groups, and their efforts have resulted in arresting Fatah military operatives in Jenin and Nablus and arresting a female suicide bomber, who was supposed to target the Hawara checkpoint.
Analysis: Turkish-Arab ties steered into new phase
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-10/12/content_10181015.htm
ISTANBUL, Turkey, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- The inaugural meeting of foreign ministers between Arab nations and Turkey convened in the largest Turkish city of Istanbul on Saturday, marking the launch of the Turkish-Arab Cooperation Forum.
The establishment of such a new cooperation mechanism between Turkey and Arab countries ushered in a new era of constructive bilateral ties, politicians and analysts said.
"NEW ERA"
A joint statement issued after the meeting said the participants believed establishment of the forum "will further expand and deepen the relations in all fields between Turkey and the Arab countries by providing an institutional framework to promote cooperation and comprehensive consultations in all fields of mutual trust."
Mohamed Ahmed Hassan Ahmed, Charge d'Affaires of the Sudanese embassy in Turkey, told Xinhua that he believed the meeting signals a "new era" of relations between Arab countries and Turkey, noting that the establishment of such a cooperation mechanism will be "fruitful."
As a pivotal regional power, Turkey's active participation in the Middle East peace process, especially in mediating indirect talks between Syria and Israel, would help solve these chronic issues, he said.
Asked about reasons driving Ankara to reach out to the Arab world, Ahmed said after the cold war, Turkey, faced by globalization, inevitably wants to boost its political and economic clout in the Middle East.
"Turkey really wants a good and big relationship with Arab countries," he said.
Turkish-Arab relations started to improve in the 1980s. Over the past few years, Ankara has taken significant steps to develop and diversify its relations, on both bilateral and multilateral basis, with the Arab world. The Turkish Foreign Ministry has established consultation mechanism with a number of Arab countries.
INTERDEPENDENCY
Addressing the inaugural meeting, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said that Turkey and Arab states are confronted with similar threats and problems, while they share the same goals and benefit from common opportunities.
"Our countries should cooperate with each other in order to cope with these problems and they (we) should search for solutions together," he said.
In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Arab League (AL) Secretary General Amr Moussa said that the Turks are also affected by the Middle East conflicts, which lead to Ankara's active involvement in helping solve the long-standing Arab-Israeli confrontation.
The Arabs need an "overall relationship" with Turkey, and vice versa, said Moussa on the sidelines of the Turkish-Arab meeting.
The Arab world needs Turkey's cooperation in solving the Arab-Israeli conflicts, the situation in Iraq and Somalia, he said, expecting Turkey's constructive role in these issues.
Unlike its NATO ally the United States, Turkey is now enjoying good relations with all the major players in the region, said Alon Ben-Meir, an analyst on the Middle East affairs.
To achieve this, it has improved relations with Iran, mended a conflict over water with Syria, refrained from being dragged into the war in Iraq, dramatically expanded trade and military cooperation with Israel, and has become directly involved in Palestinian economic development, according to Ben-Meir.
Ziyad Koprulu, a Qatari political expert on the Middle East, said shortly before the opening of Saturday's meeting that Turkey serves as a bridge between Arab and European nations.
The Arabs expect Turkey's EU membership so that the relationship with it would facilitate their communication and cooperation with the 27-member European bloc, said Koprulu.
Report: Iranian Officials Recommend Preemptive Strike Against Israel
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,443141,00.html
Top officials in Iran are proposing a preemptive strike against Israel to avoid an assault on its nuclear reactors, Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported Wednesday.
Senior Tehran official Dr. Seyed G. Safavi said at a recent briefing in London that the proposal followed threats by Israeli authorities, but a possible preemptive strike against Israel has not yet been incorporated into Iranian policy.
Israeli Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz said in June that Israel would be forced to strike Iran's nuclear reactor if Tehran continues to pursue its controversial uranium enrichment program, Haaretz reported.
Safavi told the paper that Tehran recently drafted a new policy for responding to an Israeli or American attack on its nuke facilities. While the country previously called for attacks against Israel and American interests in the Middle East and beyond, the new policy is to target Israel alone.
In addition, Safavi said that Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards would respond to a U.S. attack on Iranian soil by attacking Israel, which they believe would be a part of any American military action.
The U.N. Security Council passed a dual-track resolution last month in a slow-moving pressure campaign to persuade Iran to give up objectionable parts of its nuclear program. It calls for offering Iran incentives to stop enriching uranium but imposing sanctions if Tehran refuses, which it has thus far done, The Associated Press reported.
US intelligence: Iran will be able to build first nuclear bomb by February 2009
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5660
US intelligence's amended estimate, that Iran will be ready to build its first bomb just one month after the next US president is sworn in, is disclosed by DEBKAfile's Washington sources as having been relayed as a guideline to the Middle East teams of both presidential candidates, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama.
The information prompted the assertion by Democratic vice presidential nominee Joseph Biden in Seattle Sunday, Oct. 19: "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy."
McCain retorted Tuesday, Oct. 21: "America does not need a president that needs to be tested. I've been tested. I was aboard the Enterprise off the coast of Cuba. I've been there.")
DEBKAfile's military sources cite the new US timeline: By late January, 2009, Iran will have accumulated enough low-grade enriched uranium (up to 5%) for its "break-out" to weapons grade (90%) material within a short time. For this, the Iranians have achieved the necessary technology. In February, they can move on to start building their first nuclear bomb.
US intelligence believes Tehran has the personnel, plans and diagrams for a bomb and has been running experiments to this end for the past two years. The UN International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna last week asked Tehran to clarify recent complex experiments they conducted in detonating nuclear materials for a weapon, but received no answer.
The same US evaluation adds that the Iranian leadership is holding off its go-ahead to start building the bomb until the last minute so as to ward off international pressure to stop at the red line.
This development together with the galloping global economic crisis will force the incoming US president to go straight into decision-making without pause on Day One in the Oval Office. He will have to determine which urgent measures can serve best for keeping a nuclear bomb out of the Islamic republic's hands - diplomatic or military – and how to proceed if those measures fail.
His knowledge of the challenge colored Sen. Biden's additional words in Seattle: "Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."
Israel's political and military leaders also face a tough dilemma that can no longer be put off of whether to strike Iran's nuclear installations militarily in the next three months between US presidencies before the last window closes, or take a chance on coordination with the next president.
Waiting for the "international community" to do the job of stopping Iran, as urged by governments headed by Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert - and strongly advocated Tzipi Livni, foreign minister and would-be prime minister - has been a washout. Iran stands defiantly on the threshold of a nuclear weapon.
Hanged for being a Christian in Iran
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/3179465/Hanged-for-being-a-Christian-in-Iran.html
A month ago, the Iranian parliament voted in favour of a draft bill, entitled "Islamic Penal Code", which would codify the death penalty for any male Iranian who leaves his Islamic faith. Women would get life imprisonment. The majority in favour of the new law was overwhelming: 196 votes for, with just seven against.
Imposing the death penalty for changing religion blatantly violates one of the most fundamental of all human rights. The right to freedom of religion is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and in the European Convention of Human Rights. It is even enshrined as Article 23 of Iran's own constitution, which states that no one may be molested simply for his beliefs.
And yet few politicians or clerics in Iran see any contradiction between a law mandating the death penalty for changing religion and Iran's constitution. There has been no public protest in Iran against it.
David Miliband, Britain's Foreign Secretary, stands out as one of the few politicians from any Western country who has put on record his opposition to making apostasy a crime punishable by death. The protest from the EU has been distinctly muted; meanwhile, Germany, Iran's largest foreign trading partner, has just increased its business deals with Iran by more than half. Characteristically, the United Nations has said nothing.
It is a sign of how little interest there is in Iran's intention to launch a campaign of religious persecution that its parliamentary vote has still not been reported in the mainstream media.
For one woman living in London, however, the Iranian parliamentary vote cannot be brushed aside. Rashin Soodmand is a 29-year-old Iranian Christian. Her father, Hossein Soodmand, was the last man to be executed in Iran for apostasy, the "crime" of abandoning one's religion. He had converted from Islam to Christianity in 1960, when he was 13 years old. Thirty years later, he was hanged by the Iranian authorities for that decision.
Today, Rashin's brother, Ramtin, is also held in a prison cell in Mashad, Iran's holiest city. He was arrested on August 21. He has not been charged but he is a Christian. And Rashin fears that, just as her father was the last man to be executed for apostasy in Iran, her brother may become one of the first to be killed under Iran's new law.
Not surprisingly, Rashin is desperately worried. "I am terribly anxious about him," she explains. "Even though my brother is not an apostate, because he has never been a Muslim – my father raised us all as Christians – I don't think he is safe. They assume that if you are Iranian, you must be Muslim."
Her brother's situation has ominous echoes of her father's fate. Rashin was 14 when her father was arrested. "He was held in prison for one month," she remembers. "Then the religious police released him without explanation and without apology. We were overjoyed. We thought his ordeal was over."
But six months later, the police came back and took her father away again. This time, they offered him a choice: he could denounce his Christian faith, and the church in which he was a pastor – or he would be killed. "Of course, my father refused to give up his faith," Rashid recalls proudly. "He could not renounce his God. His belief in Christ was his life – it was his deepest conviction." So two weeks later, Hossein Soodmand was taken by guards to the prison gallows and hanged.
Life for Rashin, her siblings and her mother became extremely difficult. Some Muslims are extremely hostile to people of any other religion, never mind to those who they consider apostates: Ayatollah Khomeini declared that "non-Muslims are impure", insisting that for Muslims to wash the clothes of non-Muslims, or to eat food with non-Muslims, or even to use utensils touched by non-Muslims, would spoil their purity.
The family was supported with financial and other help from a Christian church based in Iran. That support became even more critical as Rashin's mother began to lose her sight. Rashin herself was eventually able to leave Iran. She now lives in London, married to a fellow Christian from Iran who successfully applied for asylum in Germany.
It took years for Rashin to understand how her father could have been legally executed simply for becoming a Christian. In 1990, there was no parliamentary law mandating the death for apostates. What, then, was the legal basis for Hossein Soodmand's execution?
"After the revolution of 1979, Iran's rulers wanted to turn Iran into an Islamic state, and to abolish the secular laws of the Shah," explains Alexa Papadouris of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a human rights organisation that specialises in freedom of religion. "So the clerics instituted a mandate for judges presiding over criminal cases: if the existing penal code did not include legislation on whether a certain kind of behaviour is an offence, then the judges should refer to traditional Islamic jurisprudence." In other words: sharia law.
"That automatically created problems" says Mr Papadouris, "because Islamic jurisprudence is not codified law: it is a series of formulations developed across generations by scholars and clerics. Depending on the Islamic school or historical era, these formulations can differ and even contradict each other."
On one subject, however, sharia law is unequivocal: men who change their religion from Islam must be punished with death. So when the judge heard the case of Rashid's father, he could refer to sharia and reach a straightforward decision: the death penalty. There was no procedure for appeal.
Nevertheless, in the 18 years since Hossein Soodmand's execution, there have been no judicially sanctioned killings of apostates in Iran, although there have been many reports of disappearances and even murders. "As the number of converts from Islam grows," notes Ms Papadouris, "apostasy has again become a serious concern for the Iranian government." In addition to 10,000 Christian converts living in Iran, there are several hundred thousand Baha'is who are deemed apostates.
There is another factor: President Ahmadinejad. "The President didn't initiate the law mandating the death penalty for apostates," says Papadouris, "but he has been lobbying for it. It is an effective form of playing populist politics. The Iranian economy is doing very badly, and the country is in a mess: Ahmadinejad may be calculating that he can gain support, and deflect attention from Iran's problems, by persecuting apostates."
The new law is not yet in force in Iran: it requires another vote in parliament, and then the signature of the Ayatollah. But that could happen within a matter of weeks. "Or," says Papadouris, "it could conceivably be allowed to drop, were there a powerful enough international outcry".
Time may be running out for Rashin's brother. She believes that the new law will be applied in an arbitrary fashion, with individuals selected for death being chosen to frighten others into submission. That is why she fears for her brother. "We just don't know what will happen to him. We only know that if they want to kill him, they will."
Christian charged with anti-government propaganda in Iran
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07717.shtml
(christiansunite.com) - An Iranian Christian, Ramtin Soodmand, was recently charged with promoting anti-government propaganda. Ramtin, who was arrested on August 21, was permitted short phone calls to his wife throughout September, but has recently been placed in solitary confinement.
The charge against Ramtin has sparked concern that he may be tried under a draft law currently under review by the Council of Guardians that proposes a mandatory death penalty for apostasy (www.persecution.net/ir-2008-09-17.htm). Ramtin's father, Pastor Hussein Soodmand, was the last man in Iran to be executed for apostasy in 1990.
Pray for the Soodmand family as another of their loved ones faces trial and hardship for Christ's sake. Pray that Ramtin will be released and the charges against him dropped.
Learn more about the persecution of Iran's Christians by visiting www.persecution.net/iran.htm.
Dissecting Iran: What the People Want
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/466363.aspx
CBNNews.com - TEHRAN, Iran - Americans aren't the only ones experiencing difficult economic times.
Half a world away the people of Iran suffer from double digit unemployment and inflation rates.
They also live under a repressive regime bent on the pursuit of nuclear weapons.
CBN News recently visited Iran and found the people friendly, but concerned about their future.
Not Entirely What it Seems
Iran. From the outside this cornerstone of President Bush's axis of evil the nation does seem evil - and bent on developing nuclear weapons, destroying Israel, American culture and the West.
But those who visit the country experience something completely different: friendly and hospitable people - a people who love and admire America and western culture.
In the 17th century people would come to Imam Square in the city of Isfahan, Iran to watch polo matches.
Later it was transformed into a center of commerce. And it's commerce and the economy that's on the minds of most people here today.
Iranians have suffered with an inflation rate of more than 24 percent.
Within the past year, the government says unemployment stands at about 11 percent, but many economists believe it's really 16 percent or higher.
The unemployment rate among young people, those between the ages of 15 and 24, is slightly above 25 percent.
Despite the nation's great oil wealth, many Iranians are financially strapped. Some young adults told CBN News that even though they've earned college degrees, they can't find jobs in their area of specialty.
They've been forced to take manual labor jobs that pay only $150-$200 per month. Low pay and financial pressures have caused many young men to delay marriage and starting families.
Longing for a Better Life
Most want to see a better standard of living inside Iran.
Uri Lurbani was Israeli ambassador to Iran prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
"They want a good life, they want an open society and they hate being told what to do," Lurbani said.
One group of women longingly gazed upon beautiful evening gowns on display in a store window. A passerby told CBN the women would be arrested if they were seen wearing one of these dresses in public.
And two young girls were careful to tuck their hair under their head scarves. Often women and girls are reprimanded and even slapped by plain clothes police for exposing their hair while out in public. Anything deemed anti-government or against the Islamic Revolution would lead to arrested.
These are just a few examples of the way the government has imposed its oppressive ideology on the people.
A Strange Paradox
Although they would not speak on camera for fear of government retribution CBN News found many people opposed to the regime. Many want better relations with America and the West.
Yet if America or Israel bombed Iran's nuclear facilities their anti-government sentiments may likely change.
"I believe the Iranian people are very proud people, they will rally around any kind of regime if they are being attacked," Lubrani said.
So if an attack would possibly lead them to support the same regime many currently despise, then what is the solution to help the Iranian people change their government?
Lubrani says tougher economic sanctions should be imposed against the regime and the people should be told that the time is right for them to take action.
Lubrani explained, "Under the surface in Iran as it is today, you've got people who are quite prepared to take the lead but they have to know that they are going to be supported. Even amongst the mullahs because not all the mullahs are happy with the kind of ideology which is being sold by Ahmadinejad."
Running Out of Time
The people of Georgia discovered America was not prepared to take military action to defend them against the Russians.
So just how far is the United States willing to go against Iran? And are the Iranian people ready to take matters into their own hands?
Israel Knesset member Yuval Steinitz suggests time may be running out.
"This clash of civilizations between fundamentalist Islam and the West will gain nuclear dimension," Steinitz explained. "And if the Iranians get nuclear, it's going to be much worse. Not just for the future of Israel in the Middle East, but for the future of the entire world."
"And it's up to the United States of America - the only true leader of the western free world - to lead in this case as well to resolve it," he said.
Russia, Iran and Qatar Discuss Forming Gas Cartel
http://www.newsmax.com/international/ml_gas_cartel/2008/10/21/142700.html
TEHRAN, Iran -- Russia, Iran and Qatar made the first serious moves Tuesday toward forming an OPEC-style cartel on natural gas, raising concerns that Moscow could boost its influence over energy markets spanning from Europe to South Asia.
Such an alliance would have little direct impact on the United States, which imports virtually no natural gas from Russia or the other nations.
But Washington and Western allies worry that closer strategic ties between Russia and Iran could hinder efforts to isolate Tehran over its nuclear ambitions. In addition, the United States opposes a proposed Iranian gas pipeline to Pakistan and India, key allies.
In Europe _ which counts on Russia for nearly half of its natural gas imports _ any cartel controlled by Moscow poses a threat to supply and pricing.
Russia, which most recently came into confrontation with the West over its five-day war with Georgia in August, has been accused of using its hold on energy supplies to bully its neighbors, particularly Ukraine.
Moscow cut natural gas exports to the former Soviet republic over a price dispute during the dead of winter in 2006 _ a cutoff that caused disruptions to European nations further down the pipeline.
The 27-nation European Union expressed strong opposition to any natural gas cartel Tuesday, with an EU spokesman, Ferran Tarradellas Espuny, saying: "The European Commission feels that energy supplies have to be sold in a free market."
Together Russia, Qatar and Iran account for nearly a third of world natural gas exports _ the vast majority supplied by Russia _ according to U.S. government statistics. The three hold some 60 percent of world gas reserves, according to Russia's state-controlled energy company Gazprom.
The United States _ the world's largest consumer of oil and gas _ produces most of its natural gas needs at home, importing only from Canada and Mexico.
Russia is also a major oil producer, though not an OPEC member. For its part, Iran, in its standoff with world powers over its nuclear program, has threatened to choke off oil shipments through the Persian Gulf if it is attacked.
A gas cartel could extend both countries' reach in energy and politics, particularly if oil prices bounce back to the highs seen earlier this year, prompting renewed interest in cleaner-burning natural gas and other alternative fuels.
Tuesday's gathering in Tehran appeared to be the most significant step toward the formation of such a group since Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, first raised the idea in January 2007.
"Big decisions were made," said Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari. His Qatari counterpart, Abdulla Bin Hamad al-Attiya, said at least two more meetings were needed to finalize an accord, according to the Iranian Oil Ministry's Web site. No timeframe was given.
Calling the grouping the "big gas troika," the chief executive of Russia's state-controlled energy company Gazprom, Alexei Miller, said it would meet three or four times a year.
"We are consolidating the largest gas reserves in the world, the general strategic interests and _ what is very important _ the high potential for cooperation on three-party projects," Miller said.
Already, Russia has built Iran's first nuclear reactor, which Iranian officials say could begin operating later this year. The West fears Iran's nuclear program could lead to development of atomic weapons; Iran insists it is only for peaceful energy production.
Experts say a natural gas cartel would not have the same influence on prices as OPEC has on oil since natural gas is not subject to the same severe fluctuations.
"There's always some worry when these guys get together that they'll try to replicate OPEC, but they know that's not doable," said Robert Ebel, senior adviser to the Energy and National Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "They can try to get more control over gas, but it's not OPEC."
That's because gas, unlike oil, is traded on much longer-term contracts, of as much as 25 years.
"Gas is a regional commodity and oil is an international commodity," Ebel said. "If you want to buy a tanker of crude, you can buy one at today's prices. When you want to build a natural gas pipeline, you have to have two things: enough gas to justify building a pipeline that will operate for 25 years, and ... customers that will agree to buy that gas at a range of prices for 25 years."
Still, a natural gas cartel could wield some influence on world prices, particularly in Europe and Asia, said James Cordier, president of Tampa, Fla.-based trading firms Liberty Trading Group and OptionSellers.com.
"To try to maneuver the supply ... makes perfect sense," he said. "Just because it doesn't have the clout of oil, it's still in their best interest to deliver natural gas where it needs to go and manage supply in order to help manage the price."
Liquefied natural gas _ a rapidly growing segment of the market _ could be traded as a commodity similar to oil at some point in the future, and the move by Russia, Iran and Qatar appears to anticipate that, said Konstantin Batunin, an analyst with Moscow's Alfa Bank.
Gazprom, the Russian state energy company, is looking to make the U.S. one of its prime markets for liquefied natural gas, and sent senior executives to Alaska last week to discuss energy projects.
U.S. Warns Iraq to Accept Security Deal
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,443541,00.html
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration on Wednesday warned of "real consequences" for Iraq if it rejects a newly negotiated security pact.
Without a deal, the United States could be forced to end its military operations.
The White House said Iraqi security forces are incapable of keeping the peace without U.S. troops, raising the specter of reversals in recent security and political gains if the proposed security deal is not approved by the time the current legal basis for U.S. military operations expires Dec. 31.
"There will be no legal basis for us to continue operating there without that," White House press secretary Dana Perino said. "And the Iraqis know that. And so, we're confident that they'll be able to recognize this. And if they don't, there will be real consequences, if Americans aren't able to operate there."
At the Pentagon, press secretary Geoff Morrell said the U.S. fallback position is to extend the U.N. Security Council mandate authorizing U.S.-led coalition operations in Iraq, but he emphasized that the Bush administration's preference is to complete a bilateral U.S.-Iraqi agreement.
"Our focus is entirely on trying to get this deal done," Morrell said.
Morrell said Gates has not had direct contacts with Iraqi officials since Baghdad announced earlier this week that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki determined that unspecified changes to the draft accord are required. The spokesman said it was not clear what changes the Iraqis are demanding.
At the State Department, spokesman Robert Wood said time is running short.
"As others have said, the door is closing," Wood told reporters. "It's time for the Iraqis to step up to the plate and take a decision." Wood insisted that the administration had yet to hear anything official from the Iraqi government on its position or its suggestions for possible amendments.
The U.S. has 155,000 troops in Iraq. In addition to conducting combat operations against a weakened insurgency and hunting down Al Qaeda fighters, the U.S. military is training Iraqi security forces, assisting in the resettlement of displaced persons, coordinating efforts to restore and improve basic services like water and sewage, and providing personal security for senior Iraqi government officials.
Iraqi government on Wednesday decried what it called the "not welcomed" statements from Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who cautioned the Iraqis of unwelcome consequences in the event that the security pact is not signed by the end of the year.
Mullen, who was traveling in Europe, told reporters on Tuesday that time was running out for the Iraqis to sign the deal and that he was concerned the Iraqis may not fully appreciate the seriousness of the situation.
"These statements are not welcomed in Iraq," Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement. "All Iraqis realize the volume of their responsibilities and they appreciate the importance of signing the pact or not in the way they deem it proper."
Al-Dabbagh added: "A compulsory method must not be imposed on their choice and it is improper to address Iraqis in such manner."
Morrell said the Iraqis should not take Mullen's comments as an attempt to force anything on them.
"That couldn't be further from the truth," Morrell said. "We are not trying to pressure the Iraqis or force the Iraqis into signing anything they don't wish to sign."
In subsequent remarks Wednesday, Mullen said he believes the Iraqis are not ready to provide their own defense, according to a Pentagon account of comments to reporters traveling with him.
Mullen also made clear in those remarks that if there is no U.S.-Iraqi deal and the U.N. mandate runs out on Dec. 31 without being extended by the Security Council, then all U.S. military operations would have to cease. Mullen and other senior U.S. military officials have said repeatedly that the security situation in Iraq is too fragile to justify a full U.S. withdrawal anytime soon.
The proposed security pact calls for all U.S. combat forces to be removed from Iraqi cities by June 2009 and for all forces to leave the country by the end of 2011, unless both sides agree to an extension.
In a satellite video-teleconference from Baghdad, an Army commander told reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday that his understanding is that by June 2009 U.S. troops would not be based inside cities but would be allowed to operate as trainers and advisers attached to Iraqi military units.
"We will have embedded teams," Col. William Hickman, commander of the 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, said. "And those teams will remain with Iraqi army and the Iraqi police in execution of our mission. So that is how we're seeing our situation here — to continue to focus on the training of the Iraqi security forces so that they are prepared as we go into spring and summer of next year."
Gates warns Baghdad of "dramatic consequences" for pact failure
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5665
The US defense secretary Robert Gates responded angrily to Iraq's unanimous vote Saturday, Oct. 21 to demand amendments in the draft status-of-forces agreement providing for US troops to stay in Iraq until 2011. There will be "pretty dramatic" consequences," Gates said unless Iraqi politicians get behind the agreement.
He said US officials were greatly reluctant to negotiate changes in the text which allows US troops to operate in Iraq after Dec. 31, when the UN mandate runs out.
"What we have here is a final draft," he said.
The agreement calls for U.S. forces to withdraw from Iraqi cities by next June 30 and from the entire country by the end of 2011, while allowing those timelines to be extended by mutual consent.
It gives the U.S. legal jurisdiction over American troops and civilian government personnel accused of crimes while on-base or on-duty. Iraqi authorities would have jurisdiction over U.S. personnel accused of serious crimes while off-base or off-duty.
Christian killed, hundreds forced to flee in Mosul, Iraq
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07712.shtml
(christiansunite.com) - A Christian music store owner, Farques Batool, was killed and his nephew injured when gunmen stormed into his store in the city of Mosul on the evening of October 11 and opened fire. The murder was the latest in a series of recent deadly attacks on Christians in the city.
Batool had reportedly refused to join other Christians who were fleeing the city under threat of violence from Islamist militants because he needed to care for his wife, daughter and mother, as well as the family of his dead brother. His family has since fled Mosul in fear for their lives, leaving his wounded nephew in the hospital.
Over the past week, approximately 325 Christian families have fled Mosul. Armed Muslims entered local churches and homes and told believers that they would be killed if they did not vacate the city. Several Christians have sought refuge in relatives' homes, churches and monasteries in the six Christian villages that make up Telkep County and in the predominantly Christian county of Mahmoudiya.
Pray that the Batool family will find strength and comfort in the refuge God provides (Psalm 127). Pray that the faithfulness of Iraqi Christians will be a light that draws others to Christ.
For more information on the difficulties facing Iraq's Christian community, go to www.persecution.net/iraq.htm. A video about the current situation in Mosul can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-EfOOwrMMw.
Iraqi Groups Show Support for Christians
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/468430.aspx
Iraqi Kurds staged a show of support for Christians in the city of Kirkuk on Sunday. The protest took place near the oldest church in the province.
One of the signs at the demonstration read, "Stop the genocide against Christians."
The protestors want Iraq's government to help thousands of Christians who have fled from the northern city of Mosul. They believe the government should pay compensation to victims and to aid them in returning.
However, attacks on Christians continue.
Officials believe nearly 10,000 Christians have been forced to flee Mosul.
Chaldeans in U.S. to Help
Chaldeans in Detroit have mounted an effort to help Christians in Iraq. Located in Iraq, Chaldea was one of the earliest Christian communities in the world.
"How can all of these families be forced to leave and no one does anything?" said Bishop Ibrahim N. Ibrahim of the Chaldean Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle, a jurisdiction of the Chaldean Catholic Church, based in Southfield, Michigan. "It really is an organized crime against humanity."
Chaldeans, who live in Metro Detroit are organizing to mount relief efforts. The Motor City has the largest numbers of Chaldeans as residents than anywhere else outside of Iraq.
"We are talking about the survival of Christianity in Iraq, the original Christian community in the world," said Dave Nona, a member of the board of the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce and the Chaldean Assyrian Council of America.
"The persecution in Baghdad started three or four years ago, with the bombing of a church, the kidnapping and killing of priests; ransoms were paid -- lots of ransoms," Nona said. "Within the past year or so, when al-Qaeda was driven out of Anbar Province, a lot of them moved to the north, to Mosul, and a lot of these elements and a contingent of fundamentalist Sunni elements in Mosul started this latest round of persecutions."
"There is fear and panic because this has become like the genocide of Christians in that area," said Joseph Kassab, executive director of the Chaldean Federation of America.
"We need global leaders and communities throughout the world to step up and act to save a people from extinction, there."
Shi'a Muslims Also Supporting Christians
Shi'a Muslims is one group in Iraq that is trying to supporting Christians. The Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani has called for their protection and participation in the government. Muqtada al-Sadr has vowed to use his displaced Mahdi Army as "human shields to protect our Christian brothers and sisters."
Many Chaldeans who live in the Detroit area say a Chaldean homeland is the only answer. It is a place Christians could live in peace. The homeland would be called the Nineveh Plain Administrative Unit.
Recently, one international lawyer from Sterling Heights, Michigan called home with news about including Christian minorities in such a homeland. Nikmat Hakeem, who is Chaldean, said the Kurdish constitutional committee had just recommended including the Christian minorities in its proposed autonomous region.
"This is a big thing," an excited Hakeem relayed through an interpreter. "The Kurds have gotten behind it and included it in their proposed constitution, and they have a large number of people in the central government. To get such a plan, down the road, the central government would have to approve."
NATO general warns Afghan war effort is wavering
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5659
US Army General John Craddock, supreme allied commander in Europe, warned that NATO's operations in Afghanistan are affected by a shortfall of troops and more than 70 caveats on soldiers' deployment. In a speech in London, Monday, Oct. 20, Craddock said: "The conflict in Afghanistan cannot be won by military means alone." Good governance, reconstruction and development are essential. For now, NATO members are "wavering" in their political commitment to defeat the Taliban, he said.
DEBKAfile adds: This confirms former statements by British and French commanders that the 8-year Afghan war is unwinnable under present circumstances and Taliban is gaining ground all the time. More and more tribal leaders in the Kabul region are bidding for Taliban protection for lack of government funding, stability and law and order - even against marauding robbers.
Monday, two German soldiers and five Afghan children were killed in a suicide attack in northern Kunduz province. In Kabul, two men on a motorbike shot Gayle Williams, a British-South African national working with the disabled for a Christian organization SERVE Afghanistan. The organization rejected the Taliban claim that she had been preaching.
Around the capital, 60km to the west, NATO troops were dropped by helicopter on Wardak, killing at least 20 insurgents. Wardak is one of the newly captured insurgent bases in territory surrounding Kabul. In the south, the Helmand governor reported 34 Taliban fighters killed in the ongoing offensive to defend the provincial capital Lashkar Gah from repeated Taliban battering.
Taliban Kills Christian Aid Worker in Kabul
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/467414.aspx
KABUL, Afghanistan - Taliban gunmen killed a Christian aid worker in Kabul as she was walking to work on Monday, and the militant group said it targeted the woman because she was spreading her religion.
The dual South African-British national, who worked with handicapped Afghans, was shot to death by gunmen who drove by on a motorbike in western Kabul, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary.
The Taliban claimed responsibility.
Killed for Her Christianity
"This woman came to Afghanistan to teach Christianity to the people of Afghanistan," militant spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press. "Our (leaders) issued a decree to kill this woman. This morning our people killed her in Kabul."
The aid group SERVE - Serving Emergency Relief and Vocational Enterprises - identified the woman as 34-year-old Gayle Williams. A spokeswoman for the group in Kabul denied that its workers were proselytizing, which is prohibited by law in Afghanistan.
"It's not the case that they preach, not at all," said the spokeswoman, Rina Vamberende.
In a statement on its Web site, SERVE described Williams as "a person who always loved the Afghans and was dedicated to serving those who are disabled."
Group Working with Afghan Refugees
The group describes itself as a Christian charity registered in Britain. The Web site says it has been working with Afghan refugees since 1980 in Pakistan.
"SERVE Afghanistan's purpose is to express God's love and bring hope by serving the people of Afghanistan, especially the needy, as we seek to address personal, social and environmental needs," the site says.
Last year a group of 23 South Korean aid workers from a church group were taken hostage in southern Afghanistan. Two were killed and the rest were released.
In 2001, eight international aid workers, including two Americans, were imprisoned and charged with preaching Christianity. The eight were freed by Afghan mujahedeen fighters attacking the Taliban after the U.S.-led invasion.
Insecurity in Kabul
Monday's attack adds to a growing sense of insecurity in Kabul. The capital city is now blanketed with police checkpoints. Embassies, military bases and the U.N. are erecting cement barriers to guard against suicide bombings.
Kidnappings targeting wealthy Afghans have long been a problem in Kabul, but attacks against Westerners in the city and surrounding provinces have also increased recently. In mid-August, Taliban militants killed three women working for the U.S. aid group International Rescue Committee while they were driving in Logar, one province south of Kabul.
To the west of Kabul, assault helicopters dropped NATO troops into Jalrez district in Wardak province on Thursday, sparking a two-day battle involving airstrikes, the military alliance said in a statement Monday.
More than 20 militants were killed.
Wardak province, just 40 miles west of Kabul, has become an insurgent stronghold.
Militants have expanded their traditional bases in the country's south and east - along the border with Pakistan - and have gained territory in the provinces surrounding Kabul, a worrying development for Afghan and NATO troops.
Those advances are part of the reason that top U.S. military officials have warned that the international mission to defeat the Taliban is in peril, and why NATO generals have called for a sharp increase in the number of troops here.
Some 65,000 international troops now operate in Afghanistan, including about 32,000 Americans.
In northern Afghanistan, a suicide bomber killed two German soldiers and five children in Kunduz province, said Mohammad Omar, the provincial governor. NATO confirmed that some of its soldiers were killed and wounded in the attack.
Omar said the soldiers were patrolling on foot when the bomber riding a bicycle hit them. Northern Afghanistan has been spared much of the violence afflicting Afghanistan's eastern and southern provinces.
In the south, an operation Sunday evening by international and Afghan forces killed 34 Taliban fighters south of the Helmand provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, said Daud Ahmadi, the governor's spokesman.
Ahmadi says the authorities recovered a number of weapons, ammunition, motorbikes and other vehicles used by the Taliban. Two policemen were wounded.
Last week Taliban fighters launched several barrages of rocket and mortar fire into Lashkar Gah.
In Faryab province, militants killed five policemen, including a district police chief on Monday, said deputy governor Abdul Satar.
Pakistan asks for emergency IMF funds to stave off bankruptcy
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5667
Hit by the global financial crisis, Pakistan is the second country after Iceland to ask the International Monetary Fund for help against its looming balance of payments crisis. With a population of 170 million, Pakistan is also the biggest nation and the first Muslim country to turn to the IMF, troubled equally by near bankruptcy and an encroaching al Qaeda-backed Taliban insurgency.
The IMF directors in Washington are expected to approve a $4-5 bn a first aid rescue package against outflow of cash as investors clean out their accounts in Pakistani banks. The level of cash reserves barely covers one month's imports, inflation hovers at a 30-year high and the value of the rupee is in freefall, making food and other staples unaffordable. The new president Ali Asif Zardari is trying to raise at least $10 bn from western bankers to stave off bankruptcy within weeks from a group called Friends of Pakistan.
The Pakistani army is engaged in ferocious battles to contain the thrust from al Qaeda and Taliban from the northern and western provinces bordering on Afghanistan to the country's heartland. They are threatening not only to destabilize the regime but also its nuclear arsenal. Pakistan has 60-80 nuclear warheads. Bankruptcy would make it impossible for the Pakistani army to sustain its counter-insurgency and counter-terror operations. Economic deprivation would cut deep into public support for these operations.
DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources report that Pakistan's woes are such that the United States, itself beset by economic troubles, is up against the need to provide instant succor for this vast Muslim nation at the forefront of the war on terror, a need as critical as the rescuing an American bank.
India counts down to first lunar mission
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081020120358.huw2dw9g&show_article=1
India began the countdown Monday to the launch of its first unmanned mission to the moon that will mark a giant catch-up step with Japan and China in the fast-developing Asian space race.
The lunar-orbiting spacecraft, Chandrayaan-1, is scheduled to blast off aboard an Indian-built rocket at 6:20 am (0050 GMT) on Wednesday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on India's southeastern coast.
"Everything is going perfectly as planned," the centre's associate director M.Y.S. Prasad told AFP from Sriharikota, 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Chennai, after the official countdown began in the early hours of Monday.
The launch is a major step for India as it seeks to keep pace with regional space competitors Japan and China. Last month, China became only the third country in the world to independently carry out a space walk.
All three countries have eyes on a share of the commercial satellite launch business and also see their space programmes as an important symbol of international stature and economic development.
The Chandrayaan-1 is being sent on a two-year, 80-million-dollar mission to provide an in-depth map of the mineral, chemical and topographical characteristics of the moon's surface.
India first staked its claim to a share of the commercial launch market by sending an Italian satellite into orbit in April last year. In January, it launched an Israeli spy satellite despite Iranian protests.
India's first successful launch of a domestic satellite by a home-built rocket came in 1980, when it was less preoccupied with reaping commercial benefits and more with harnessing space technology to boost deficient communications and broadcasting facilities.
G.K. Menon, former head of the Indian Space Research Organisation, said the Chandrayaan-1 mission reflected the "remarkable success" of India's domestic programme.
"After this, the next step will be sending a manned mission to the moon for which trials have already begun," Menon said.
India still has a long way to go to catch up with China which, together with the United States, Russia and the European Space Agency, is already well-established in the commercial launch sector.
Chinese officials have spoken of a manned mission to the moon in the future, after following the United States and the former Soviet Union last month by carrying out a space walk, although a more immediate goal is the establishment of an orbiting space lab.
Beijing's long-term ambition is to develop a fully-fledged space station by 2020 to rival the International Space Station, a joint project involving the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada and a clutch of European countries.
Japan has also been boosting its space programme and has set a goal of sending an astronaut to the moon by 2020.
Japan's first lunar probe, Kaguya, was successfully launched in September last year, releasing two mini-satellites which will be used to study the gravity fields of the moon among other projects.
As well as the commercial ramifications, the development of a space race in Asia has security implications, with the potential for developing military applications such as intelligence gathering and space-based weapons.
Earlier this year, Japan scrapped a decades-old ban on the military use of space, hoping to remove any legal obstacles to building more advanced spy satellites.
India started its space programme in 1963, developing its own satellites and launch vehicles to reduce dependence on overseas agencies.
Chandrayaan-1, with a launch weight of about 1.3 tonnes, is shaped like a cuboid or rectangular prism and carries 11 payloads -- five from India and others from abroad.
The rocket, India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, has so far launched 29 satellites.
Christians beaten and arrested in India
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07722.shtml
(christiansunite.com) - Christians who were gathered for a three-day prayer meeting in Dumarbhavna village, Surguja district, Chhattisgarh state were viciously beaten on October 3, according to an October 13 report from Compass Direct.
Around midnight, a mob of Hindu militants entered the house where the meeting was being held and attacked the sleeping Christians. Three believers -- Muneshwar Ekka, Beik, and Ravi Devangan -- were forced into vehicles belonging to the militants and brought to a secluded place where they were further beaten. Muneshwar Ekka and Beik were then told to beat Ravi Devangan or face their own death. In fear for their lives, they beat Devangan until he was unconscious.
When local Christians reported the beating to the police the next day, they were assured that if they did not file a complaint against the militants, no complaints would be filed against the three Christians. However, the police later registered a "forcible conversion" case against the men. Another Christian, Fakir Chand Toppo, was falsely accused of the same charge. If found guilty, they could be fined or imprisoned for up to a year. At last report, the four were detained in a local jail.
Pray for these men as they await a sentence. Pray that those who falsely accuse Christians of forcible conversion will understand that the Good News is a free gift, not coercion, and respond in faith to Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9).
To learn more about the struggles of Christians in India, please visit www.persecution.net/india.htm.
More Christians killed in anti-Christian violence Orissa, India
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07707.shtml
(christiansunite.com) - At least three more Christians have been killed over in the widespread violence that began seven weeks ago in Orissa state's Kandhamal district.
On October 1, an elderly Christian, Lalji Nayak, died from axe wounds he received when a mob of Hindu militants attacked the village of Hrudangia the previous day. His wife, also attacked with an axe, was seriously injured in the head and his brother has been hospitalized with multiple gunshot wounds.
On October 2, two men were dragged out of their home in Sindhipankha village, shot and then dismembered. The assailants also massacred cattle belonging to village Christians and burned Christian-owned houses. Approximately 400 homes have been set on fire by militants in in Kandhamal and Boudh district over the past week.
Pray that those who mourn will find peace in the fact that those who have suffered with Christ will be glorified with Him (Romans 8:15-17). Pray for healing for those injured. Pray that Christians in India will continue to live as cross-bearing disciples and remain steadfast in faith at all cost.
To find out more about the plight of Christians in India, visit www.persecution.net/india.htm.
GOD TV Debuts in China
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07721.shtml
MEDIA ADVISORY, (christiansunite.com) -- For the past four years, global Christian broadcaster, GOD TV, has been steadily making inroads into the Far East with daily broadcasts in Hong Kong. But now, in an unprecedented development, millions in Greater China can access the inspirational programming of GOD TV, 24-hours-a- day.
This development follows the launch of GOD TV's dedicated Greater China service on 16 October 2008, which is broadcast directly from Jerusalem via two new satellites, providing the entire Far East region with Christian programming that is catered specifically to Chinese viewers. The new satellites are Agila 2 - among the most popular in the region, providing direct-to-home (DTH) access to millions of viewers - and the IS-4 satellite which spans throughout most of the Far East. The utilization of these two satellites yields a powerful combination, reaching Mainland China, Vietnam, Korea, the Philippines and Japan.
"In 2004, we became the first English language Christian broadcaster in Hong Kong with a sizeable Chinese viewership, but we have always wanted to bring so much more to this region," said GOD TV founder and Chief Executive, Rory Alec. "Now, God has opened up Greater China to us by providing a literally unprecedented opening, which we believe is going to be one of the most significant outreaches in our history."
"For years we've waited and prayed for an opportunity to reach the Greater China Christian community, and now the dream God seeded in our hearts is becoming a reality," said GOD TV co-founder and Director of Television, Wendy Alec. "This gateway to millions of new viewers in a region that has been closed to broadcasting the Gospel for generations, will now receive quality Christian programming."
GOD TV's Greater China launch was marked by a special live broadcast from GOD TV's studios in Washington, DC on October 16th where the GOD TV founders shared their network's far-reaching vision for China. Rory and Wendy prayed a prayer of blessing over all new viewers.
The new Greater China feed includes GOD TV's full line-up of international programming, with some programs in Mandarin, including popular Bible-teacher, Joyce Meyer and the Alpha Course's Nicky Gumble. Also included in this month's schedule are two high-profile Christian events in Hong KongÄ- 'onething' from the International House of Prayer, and Christ for all Nation's Hong Kong Conference with global evangelist, Reinhard Bonnke.
Already, new Chinese viewers are contacting GOD TV's regional office in Hong Kong with enthusiasm. One Chinese student named Yue Yanyun said: "I watched GOD TV today and it's really amazing!" Another new viewer from the south of China expressed her appreciation: "I am 23-years-old and I am very happy to have GOD TV, which I believe will help me face my problems and become more positive about life."
For further information about GOD TV, visit www.god.tv.
Church destroyed by Islamists in southern Somalia
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07706.shtml
(christiansunite.com) - On September 30, Muslim militants demolished a Catholic church in Kismayo, a town in southern Somalia that has been in the control of a militant Islamic organization affiliated with Al-Qaeda since August.
The militants have vowed to launch similar attacks on all other local non-Muslim places of worship. They plan to replace the destroyed church with a mosque. Islamists have reportedly imposed Sharia law in another southern town, Celwaq, elevating concern for Christians in the region.
Pray that the believers in Somalia will be steadfast in their service for the Lord. Pray that they will rejoice in the opportunity to grow in Christlikeness through their tribulations (James 1:2-4).
For more information about the trials facing Christians in Somalia, go to www.persecution.net/somalia.htm.
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