McCain Says U.S. Succeeding in Iraq
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/03/24/mccain-says-us-succeeding-in-iraq/
CHULA VISTA, California –Fresh off his eighth Iraq visit, Sen. John McCain declared that “we are succeeding” and said he would not change course.
To underscore his view of the stakes in Iraq, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee twice referenced a recent audio tape from Usama bin Laden in which the Al Qaeda leader urged followers to join the Al Qaeda fight in Iraq and called the country “the greatest opportunity and the biggest task.”
“For the first time, I have seen Usama bin Laden and General (David) Petraeus in agreement, and, that is, a central battleground in the battle against Al Qaeda is in Iraq today. And that’s what bin Laden was saying and that’s what General Petraeus is saying and that’s what I’m saying, my friends,” McCain said. Petraeus is the top U.S. commander in Iraq.
“And my Democrat opponents who want to pull out of Iraq refuse to understand what’s being said and what’s happening — and that is the central battleground is Iraq in this struggle against radical Islamic extremism,” he added.
McCain also said Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton were naive and “dead wrong” to want to withdraw troops.
“We’re succeeding. I don’t care what anybody says. I’ve seen the facts on the ground,” the Arizona senator insisted a day after a roadside bomb in Baghdad killed four U.S. soldiers and rockets pounded the U.S.-protected Green Zone there, and a wave of attacks left at least 61 Iraqis dead nationwide.
The events transpired as bin Laden called on the people of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to “help in support of their mujahedeen brothers in Iraq, which is the greatest opportunity and the biggest task.”
Despite all that, McCain told reporters: “I don’t think I would change the strategy now unless General Petraeus recommended it. I think he’s trusted by the American people, the president and by me. And General Petraeus again showed me facts on the ground where the surge is succeeding.”
Democrats took issue with his remarks and cast his candidacy as a repeat of President George W. Bush’s tenure.
“As Americans mark another somber milestone in the war in Iraq, John McCain continues his pattern of parroting the Bush administration’s misleading rhetoric on the war,” Democratic Party spokeswoman Karen Finney said in a statement.
In the midst of a western fundraising swing after a week abroad, including visits to Iraq, the Middle East and Europe, the Arizona senator did not mention the grim casualty milestone or last week’s fifth anniversary of the conflict as he spoke to veterans and others at a stuffy Veterans of Foreign Wars building during a town-hall style campaign event outside of San Diego.
“I’ve commented on hundreds of occasions of the sacrifice the great and brave young Americans have made in Iraq and elsewhere in the world in the struggle against radical Islamic extremism,” McCain told reporters afterward. He said a bracelet he always wears with the name of Matthew Stanley, who was killed in Iraq, is a symbol not just of his sacrifice but also of Stanley’s 4,000 fallen comrades.
“My thoughts and my prayers go out to those families every day,” McCain added.
Also left unsaid during the event was the fact that 2007 was the war’s deadliest year with 901 American troop deaths. That was when Bush took McCain’s advice and sent thousands more U.S. troops to Iraq to quell violence in Baghdad. McCain long had called for such a strategy shift, and he effectively linked his presidential candidacy to the war last year even as public support for it plummeted.
“I’m not painting to you the most rosy scenario but I am telling you, compared to a year ago, before we started this surge, and with this great general, one of the great generals in American history, General David Petraeus, that we are succeeding in Iraq,” McCain told his audience.
Asked later if he was offering the war-weary public any different path forward in Iraq than Bush, McCain reached back to the past.
“I’m offering them the record of having objected strenuously to a failed strategy for nearly four years. That I argued against and fought against and said that the secretary of defense of my own party, and my own president, I had no confidence in. That’s how far I went in advocating the new strategy that is succeeding,” McCain told reporters.
Unconvinced by Obama’s Wright Speech
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/obama_wright/2008/03/24/82658.html
Barack Obama’s speech last week addressing his 20-year relationship with his radical pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, was very well done, yet unconvincing.
Obama sought to explain that relationship and why he could not end this close association, despite the minister's hate-filled rhetoric. He said, “There will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Rev. Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church?”
Yes, those are the questions that people are asking.
Many of Rev. Wright’s incendiary statements are on videos sold by his church. Minister Louis Farrakhan, a friend of Rev. Wright with whom he traveled to visit Muammar Qadaffi in Libya, also makes his sermons and those of others associated with the Nation of Islam available for sale. Their attacks on the U.S. and Israel often coincide with those of Rev. Wright.
Rev. Wright’s sermons charge that the U.S. government gives African-Americans drugs, created AIDS, and is deliberately infecting blacks with that disease. His sermons claim that the U.S. unjustifiably nuclear bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II, and that 9/11 and the deaths of 3,000 Americans were caused by U.S. foreign policy.
He alleges Israeli state terrorism against the Palestinians; calling Israel a “dirty word” and “racist country.” He blames Israel for 9/11 and supports the divestment campaign against it, denouncing “Zionism.” His venomous thoughts are summed up in his most discussed sermon in which he says the U.S. government “wants us to sing God Bless America. No, no, not God Bless America. God damn America. God damn America for killing innocent people.”
Sen. Obama in his speech acknowledged that the rantings of his minister are “inexcusable,” but stated, “I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother — a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.”
Before we discuss his grandmother, let’s examine the impact of Rev. Wright’s statements on the senator’s two daughters. Nothing says it better than a song from the musical “South Pacific,” to wit, “You have to be taught to hate and fear…You’ve got to be carefully taught.” Few dispute that Rev. Wright’s sermons are filled with hate. Why didn’t Obama stand up in the church and denounce his hateful statements or, at the very least, argue privately with his minister? It was horrifying to see on a video now viewed across America the congregation rise from the pews to applaud their minister’s rants.
Now to Obama’s grandmother. There was a time spanning the 70’s to the mid-90s when many blacks and whites in large American cities expressed the same feelings on street crime held by Obama’s grandmother. Indeed, the Rev. Jesse Jackson made similar comments in 1993 at a meeting of his organization, Operation Push, devoted to street crime. According to a Nov. 29, 1993, article in the Chicago Sun Times, he said, “’We must face the No. 1 critical issue of our day. It is youth crime in general and black-on-black crime in particular.’ Then Jackson told the audience, ‘There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery. Then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved . . . After all we have been through,’ he said. ‘Just to think we can’t walk down our own streets, how humiliating.’”
Isn’t that exactly what Obama’s grandmother was referring to? To equate her fears, similar to Jesse Jackson’s, with Wright’s anti-American, anti-white, anti-Jew, and anti-Israel rantings is despicable coming from a grandson. In today’s vernacular, he threw her under the wheels of the bus to keep his presidential campaign rolling. For shame.
What is it that I and others expected Obama to do? A great leader with conscience and courage would have stood up and faced down anyone who engages in such conduct. I expect a president of the United States to have the strength of character to denounce and disown enemies of America — foreign and domestic — and yes, even his friends and confidants when they get seriously out of line.
What if a minister in a church attended primarily by white congregants or a rabbi in a synagogue attended primarily by Jews made comparable statements that were hostile to African-Americans? I have no doubt that the congregants would have immediately stood up and openly denounced the offending cleric.
Others would have criticized that cleric in private. Some would surely have ended their relationships with their congregation. Obama didn’t do any of these things. His recent condemnations of Wright’s hate-filled speech are, in my opinion, a case of too little, too late.
It is also disturbing to me that Obama’s wife, Michelle, during a speech in Wisconsin last month, said, “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m really proud of my country, because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.”
Strange. This is a woman who has had a good life, with opportunities few whites or blacks have been given. When she entered Princeton and Harvard and later became a partner in a prestigious law firm, didn’t she feel proud to be an American?
When she and the senator bought their new home, was there no feeling of accomplishment and pride in being a U.S. citizen? When her husband was elected to the state legislature and subsequently to the United States Senate, didn’t she feel proud of her country?
Obama was asked if he thought his speech changed any minds. He replied he didn’t think so, and certainly not of those who weren’t already for him. A more important question is, whether his 20-year relationship with Wright has done lasting damage to his candidacy.
We will soon know.
Group: Martin Luther King Was a Republican
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Martin_Luther_King_GOP/2008/03/24/82667.html
The National Black Republican Association is promoting its nationwide educational campaign by erecting a billboard announcing “Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican.”
The billboard stands in Orangeburg, S.C., near an Interstate 26 exit that has a daily traffic count of 60,000 vehicles.
“The billboard is located at a busy intersection … and it is attracting a lot of attention,” said NBRA Chairman Frances Rice in a statement. “We welcome the opportunity to explain why Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican.
“Of interest is the fact that Orangeburg is the hometown of black Democrat Jim Clyburn who is the majority whip for the U.S. House of Representatives. We hope he appreciates our informing his black constituents about their civil rights history.”
The NBRA states on its Web site: “It should come as no surprise that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican. In that era, almost all black Americans were Republicans. Why? From its founding in 1854 as the anti-slavery party until today, the Republican Party has championed freedom and civil rights for blacks.
“And as one pundit so succinctly stated, the Democrat Party is as it always has been, the party of the four S's: Slavery, Secession, Segregation and now Socialism.”
Kevorkian Kicks Off Congressional Run
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/kevorkian_congress/2008/03/24/82583.html
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. -- Assisted-suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian says he is running for Congress.
The 79-year-old Kevorkian has told reporters in Southfield, Mich., that he is running in the November election as an independent for a congressional seat representing Detroit's suburbs.
He faces incumbent Republican Rep. Joe Knollenberg.
Kevorkian claims to have helped at least 130 people die from 1990 until 1998. He was convicted of second-degree murder in one case and spent just over eight years in prison.
Kevorkian has promised not to help in any other assisted suicides.
Malaysian Christians Face Threats, Worries
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/344277.aspx
KUALA LUMPUR- Malaysia bills itself as a moderate Islamic country, but today powerful forces are trying to turn it into a fundamentalist Islamic state.
This has Malaysian Christians worried about the future of religious freedom.
"They forced me to renounce Christ but I said no way!" said Daniel, a Christian convert.
Daniel is a young Malaysian who has lived a secret and sometimes dangerous life.
"I've been threatened with death so many times by radical Muslims, but by the grace of God I'm still alive," he explained.
Daniel converted from Islam to Christianity in 1998.
"Under the Islamic laws of my country, the authorities can arrest me for my conversion," he said.
Malaysians attempting to leave Islam has become one of the most controversial issues in this country.
The debate erupted last year when Malaysia's highest court rejected a Muslim convert's battle to be legally recognized as a Christian.
Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, a well-known human rights lawyer and a Muslim, presented a brief in support of Ms Lina Joy's conversion case.
"It crystallized a legal basis to implement the kind of measures that we say are undermining the entire societal framework of this country," he said. "Lina Joy was a bad decision, a very, very bad decision."
A decision that forced Lina Joy to flee the country. Meanwhile, Sarwar's support for Joy made him a wanted man. Posters carrying his picture circulated calling for his death. He's been branded an Islamic traitor because he believes that Malaysians should be free to choose their religion.
"The freedom is to profess and once one professes, and this is even in the Koran, it is for that person and God after that."
Malay-Muslims make up 60 percent of the population. The rest are mostly Christians, Hindus and Buddhists.
Wong Kim Kong is the head of the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship.
"The extreme fundamentalists tend to believe that the laws of Malaysia must be Sharia compliant," he said.
Kong says there's been a subtle and gradual encroachment by extreme fundamentalists in the affairs and rights of Christians.
A case in point: The Malaysian government recently announced that certain Arabic words such as "Allah" cannot be used by non-Muslims. They argue that "Allah" - which means God in the Malay language - refers to the Muslim God and can only be used by Muslims.
"The Islamic authorities failed to recognize that the word "Allah" predates Islam. This word existed way before the Islamic religion came into existence," Kong said.
At the center of this controversy is The Herald, a Christian newspaper, that's been warned repeatedly that its permit may be revoked if it refuses to drop the use of "Allah" in its Malay-language section.
The Herald has filed a lawsuit against the government on grounds that the ban is unconstitutional and against freedom of religion.
Meanwhile, violations against the Christian community continue. Officers of the Malay Internal Security's religious department raided several Christian bookstores recently and seized children's books, claiming that they violated Islamic Sharia law and aroused Muslim sensitivities.
Ioannis Gatsiounis is a freelance journalist based in Malaysia.
"One of the things we hear quite a bit of in Malaysia is the need to protect Muslim sensitivities. I don't think that bodes well for tolerance. Tolerance is not about protecting sensitivities but about getting people used to accepting other people as they are."
In the last year several indigenous churches have also been destroyed by the Islamic police.
These episodes leave many worried about the future of religious freedom here and uncomfortable with the rise of a new and radical form of Islam that threatens to undermine Malaysia's image as a moderate and progressive nation.
"We want people around the world to pray for us," Daniel said. "We want people to speak out on our behalf so that we can have the freedom to practice our faith."
Chinese-Born Engineer Convicted of Conspiracy Gets 24 1/2 Years in Prison
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,341029,00.html
SANTA ANA, Calif. — A Chinese-born engineer convicted of conspiracy to export U.S. defense technology to China was sentenced Monday to 24 1/2 years in federal prison by a judge who said the defendant betrayed his adopted country.
Chi Mak, 67, a naturalized U.S. citizen who worked on naval propulsion systems, was also convicted of acting as an unregistered foreign agent, attempting to violate export control laws and making false statements to the FBI.
Federal prosecutors asked for 30 years, while Mak's defense team proposed 10 years.
Mak asked U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney for leniency before sentencing. Four of Mak's relatives, including his wife, pleaded guilty last year to related offenses in exchange for leniency.
"I don't know so much about the law, but I feel I never intend to violate any law at all. I never intend to hurt my country. I love this country. I don't believe I hurt this country," Mak told the judge. "The truth is not like the one the prosecutor says. I still hope for justice."
The judge said Mak lied on immigration and government security clearance forms and perjured himself on the witness stand.
"I do believe a high-end sentence is appropriate here. Mr. Mak sadly, I believe, betrayed the United States. ... I really don't know how much damage he's done to us," Carney said.
"He's a very humble man, a very warm man and he wants to be helpful," the judge said, referencing letters of support from Mak's friends and former colleagues and friends. "But it's those traits and that persona that allowed him to pass information to the People's Republic of China."
Mak, who worked for Anaheim-based naval defense contractor Power Paragon, was arrested in late 2005 after FBI agents stopped his brother and sister-in-law as they boarded a flight to Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China.
Investigators said they found three encrypted CDs in the couple's luggage that contained documents on a submarine propulsion system, a solid-state power switch for ships and a PowerPoint presentation on the future of power electronics.
During a monthlong trial last year, Mak's attorneys argued that the information he gathered was not classified and was often made public at industry conferences that were attended by engineers from all over the world, including China. They also argued that the information that Mak was accused of trying to pass to China was outdated and so far from being a functional technology that China could have done little with it.
Mak's attorney, Ronald Kaye, said he would file an appeal within 10 days. He accused prosecutors of being overly harsh with his client to make a point to the international espionage community and to China.
"We believe that history will prove the facts of this case differently," Kaye said outside court. "They essentially have sentenced him as if he's a trophy rather than a human being."
Mak, who has been in custody since his arrest, was allowed to hug his attorneys before being returned to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles. Kaye asked that he be placed in a minimum security prison in Lompoc, Calif., and the court agreed to recommend that to federal prison officials.
Mak's wife, Rebecca Laiwah Chiu, pleaded guilty last year on the eve of her trial to one count of acting as a foreign agent without registering with the U.S. government. She is serving three years in federal prison and will be deported upon release.
His brother, Tai Mak, pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to violate export control laws in exchange for a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Tai Mak's wife, Fuk Li, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the violation of export control laws and received three years of probation.
Yui "Billy" Mak, the son of Tai Mak and Fuk Li, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the violation of export control laws and was sentenced to time already served. The three will also be deported.
Putin: Russia Wants More Work in Iraq
http://www.newsmax.com/international/russia_iraq/2008/03/24/82701.html
MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin lobbied Iraq's prime minister Monday on behalf of Russian companies trying to get a cut of contracts for rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure, particularly its crucial oil and gas sector.
In a message sent to Nouri al-Maliki, Putin said the huge West Qurna oil field was of particular interest, and he noted Russia was expanding its diplomatic presence in Iraq.
The message came two days after Iraq's Oil Ministry invited local and international oil companies to bid for contracts providing technical support for two major oil fields in the southern and northern regions.
"Our companies are ready to increase their contribution to the restoration and modernization of the economic infrastructure of Iraq, primarily in the energy, oil and gas sectors where we have accumulated rich experience and made good arrangements," Putin said, according to a Kremlin statement.
Iraq sits on the world's third-largest oil reserves, totaling more than 115 billion barrels. But the industry is plagued by lack of modern equipment and training after decades of U.N. sanctions, war and Saddam Hussein's ruinous rule.
Putin singled out the development of West Qurna's second stage and the upgrade to the Kirkuk-Banias oil pipeline.
"I hope that the positive approach of Russian business to the development of cooperation will receive proper support from the Iraqi leadership," Putin said.
Russia had strong ties with Saddam's regime dating back to the Soviet Union, but relations withered after the dictator's 2003 ouster by U.S.-led coalition forces _ an invasion Moscow vociferously opposed.
Afterward, Russia saw hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts in the oil, gas and power station building sectors frozen. The future of those deals has hinged on approval from Iraq's new leaders _ passage of a new oil law, in particular _ as well as security concerns that followed the abduction and killing of several Russian contractors in Iraq in 2004.
OAO Lukoil, one of Russia's largest private oil companies, had a prewar deal to develop West Qurna, but Iraq was under U.N. sanctions at the time. The contract has been held up since the invasion despite persistent efforts by Moscow to restore Russian operations there.
Lukoil President Vagit Alekperov has traveled to Iraq on a working visit, the Interfax news agency reported Monday. Lukoil officials could not be reached late Monday to confirm the report.
Russia agreed in February to write off $12 billion _ or 93 percent _ of Iraq's $12.9 billion debt to Moscow, a gesture aimed at helping Russian companies win contracts in Iraq.
But Iraq has done little publicly to return the gesture.
A day after Russia's debt announcement, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said during a trip to Moscow that Russian companies would not get any special advantage over companies from other countries.
In the Kremlin statement released Monday, Putin also noted Russia had expanded its diplomatic missions in Iraq.
"The Russian consulate established in Erbil in November 2007, we hope, will become an important channel for facilitating cooperation with Iraqi Kurdistan," he said. "We plan to restore our consular mission in the south of the country _ in Basra _ in the foreseeable future."
Russian companies are believed to be angling for involvement in the contracts to provide technical support for the Kirkuk field in the north and the Rumaila oil field.
In its announcement for bids Saturday, the Oil Ministry said companies interested in providing three-dimensional seismic surveys for the fields had to meet an April 30 deadline.
Et tu, Cheney?
http://www.stangoodenough.com/?p=119
United States Vice President Richard Cheney was supposed to be a neo-con, cut from the same right-thinking and anything-but-politically-correct cloth as former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and former US Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton.
As such there was optimism expressed in certain circles that the second-in-command to George W. Bush would bring some clarity and common sense to the land-for-peace debate when he arrived on a visit to Israel at the weekend.
Certainly Cheney was aware of the grave, no-less-than-existential, danger posed to Israel by the perpetually-pushed yet morally and strategically-bankrupt “peace” process.
While protocol would keep him from gainsaying his boss, there was surely some roundabout way in which he could air his doubts about the feasibility of the “two-state solution” or Roadmap, and thereby buttress those Israelis who fear it will spell the end of their reborn national home?
Those who held to these hopes were destined for disappointment:
The creation of a Palestinian state on historically Jewish lands is “long overdue,” Cheney said, according to the Washington Post.
To achieve that goal, he added, Israel would have to make painful concessions to the Palestinians.
To be sure he “balanced” this by saying that the Arab side would have to make painful concessions too.
The historic and present-day reality, however, is that the only “painful” compromises the “Palestinians” would have to agree to would be imaginary ones; contrived concessions.
For while the Jews are expected to surrender title and claim to the cradle of their nationhood as well as the strategic high-ground, agreeing to limit their territory to an indefensible strip of land just 13 kilometers wide at its waist, the Arab side is being asked to relinquish claims to land it has never had; to rights it has never been entitled to.
Cheney should know better. In fact, I believe he does know better. He knows what’s just and what is right.
But like Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy, Tony Blair, George Bush, John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton - the American VP has now shown that he is prepared to treat Israel as England and France treated Czechoslovakia in 1938.
The Arabs massively outnumber the Jews; they control the oil; they are the aggressors out of whose midst come the jihadists that threaten the security of western nations. The Arabs must be accommodated, pacified, given what they want.
Israel must pay the bill.
For shame, Mr. Vice President. For some reason I believed you more upright than the rest.
More Tension, Talk of Dividing Jerusalem
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/344231.aspx
While some parts of Israel are under the constant threat of attack, Jerusalem has enjoyed relative quiet in recent years. But that may be changing, as residents try to deal with renewed violence and talk of re-dividing the city.
Many are still reeling from the recent murder of eight students in a Jerusalem seminary. The killer, an Arab resident of east Jerusalem, has become an honored martyr in the Muslim world.
A poll taken last week shows 84 percent of Palestinians support the killings.
Days before that incident, two city inspectors -- both Jewish -- barely escaped an east Jerusalem lynch mob that pelted their car with stones.
And last week, a rabbi was stabbed outside another Jewish school in the Old City.
In the midst of this growing violence, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert still hopes to reach a peace agreement with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Olmert's opponents claim he's been holding secret talks to divide Jerusalem with the Palestinians.
The prime minister knows the issue could cause his government to fall.
So against U.S. wishes, he has allowed construction in some Jewish parts of east Jerusalem to delay the uproar over dividing the city.
No matter what events shape the next few months, Jerusalem is likely to be the most contentious issue on anyone's Middle East road map.
Jew or Arab - Who targeted Messianic boy?
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2392
Israeli police are still trying to determine the origin of a barbarous attack on 15-year-old Ami Ortiz, the son of an Ariel-based pastor who was wounded last Thursday when a pipe bomb disguised as a Purim candy package blew up in his face.
The boy, who opened the brightly-labeled parcel in his family living room moments after it had been found on the doorstep, has been undergoing almost around-the-clock surgery as doctors fought first to save his life and then to save his lacerated limbs and punctured eyes.
According to friends of the Ortiz family, Ami has lost one limb and the sight in one eye, possibly in both. Shrapnel punctured both his lungs and tore through his neck, and the explosion itself inflicted third-degree burns on various parts of his body.
He is expected to live, but faces a long and, initially at least, agonizing road to recovery, doctors say.
Media reports say police are investigating two possible sources for the bomb: Muslim Palestinian Arabs infuriated by the successful efforts of David Ortiz - the pastor - to bring Muslims to Christ, and anti-missionary Jews who hate those of their race who accept Jesus as Messiah.
While many of Israel's 35,000 or so Messianic Jews have experienced harassment and prejudice at the hands of orthodox Jewish individuals and organizations, persecution has not hit anywhere close to this kind of violent level before.
Some commentators believe it highly unlikely that a Jew was responsible for the bombing.
One of the victim's brothers, however, is not so sure.
The unnamed sibling told Ynetnews he believed the act was perpetrated by Jews opposed to their faith in Christ.
"This is someone who has harmed us not because we are different but only because they have a problem with our existence here in the land of Israel," he said, according to the news site. "This is a terror attack."
Meanwhile, individuals close to the Ortiz family, while expressing their shock and distress at what happened to Ami, have also given thanks for the miracle that kept the boy from being killed, something the blast - as evidenced by the destruction wrought to the home - ought to have done.
Netanyahu witch hunt underway
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2393
Likud Party leader, former Prime Minister and top candidate for future Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is once again the target of a witch hunt aimed at sabotaging his chances of being elected to the premiership in the future.
So say associates of the man popularly (and unpopularly) known as "Bibi" in a report carried in The Jerusalem Post Monday.
The primary thrust of the article, written by a reporter who is himself habitually critical of Netanyahu, is that voices in the Likud are expressing "concerns" over how a series of alleged scandals involving Netanyahu could damage the party.
"Bibi is becoming a real problem," a Knesset member who remained unnamed, but whom the reporter described as considering himself "a Netanyahu ally," is quoted as saying.
"It is becoming unbearable. I like Bibi very much, but he keeps on bringing trouble on his head and ours."
"Another [anonymous-Ed] Likud MK predicted in private conversations that the party would see the consequences of the scandals in falling poll numbers," said the Post.
This kind of "reporting" has been used successfully in the past to add layers to an ongoing smear campaign against Netanyahu.
A couple such "scandals" have been media-generated and hyped in recent days, bringing back memories of the almost incessant efforts to taint Netanyahu during his 1996 to 1999 tenure in the Prime Minister's Office.
Like US President George W. Bush, Netanyahu has been the target of unrestrained animosity by Israelis who oppose his policies.
So intense has the animus been at times that it has led to speculation about dirty tricks are being played to ensure Netanyahu cannot attain to the premiership again.
Some observers have noted dryly that "God must love Bibi a great deal if the devil hates him so much."
Al-Qaida No. 2 Urges Attacks on Israel, U.S.
http://www.newsmax.com/international/al_qaida_al_zawahri/2008/03/24/82507.html
CAIRO, Egypt -- Al-Qaida deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri called on Muslims in a new audiotape released Monday to strike Jewish and American targets in revenge for Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip earlier this month.
The al-Zawahri tape came on the heels of a message from Osama bin Laden, who called for a holy war to liberate the Palestinian territories _ a new push by the terror network's leadership to use widespread anger over the Gaza violence to whip up support.
The authenticity of the 4 minute, 44-second audiotape could not be independently confirmed. But the voice on it resembled that of al-Zawahri on previous audio and videotapes confirmed to be his. It was posted on an Islamic militant Web site where al-Qaida usually releases its statements, and a banner advertising the tape had the logo of al-Qaida's media arm, Al-Sahab.
"Muslims, today is your day. Strike the interests of the Jews, the Americans, and all those who participated in the attack on Muslims," al-Zawahri said. "Monitor the targets, collect money, prepare the equipment, plan with precision, and then _ while relying on God _ assault, seeking martyrdom and paradise."
Israel launched a weeklong offensive in Gaza that ended in early March, seeking to put down Palestinian militants firing rockets against nearby Israeli towns. The Israeli assault killed more than 120 people, including many civilians.
Al-Zawahri said attacks should not be limited to places in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
"Today there is no room for he who says that we should only fight the Jews in Palestine," he said. "Let us strike their interests everywhere, just like they gathered against us from everywhere."
"Let them know that they will get blood for every dollar they spend in the killing of the Muslims, and for every bullet they fire at us, a volcano will turn back on them," he said, referring to American military aid and other ties to Israel. "They cannot expect to support Israel, then live in peace while the Jews are killing our fugitive and besieged people."
AL-Zawahri referred to the publishing of a cartoon seen as insulting Islam's Prophet Muhammad in Danish papers. The cartoons, which were first printed in 2006 and reprinted last month, angered many Muslims.
"They will never be able to insult and make a mockery out of our Prophet, peace and prayers of Allah upon him," al-Zawahri said.
Al-Zawahri accused Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak of colluding with Israel in the siege of Gaza. Egypt has sealed its border with the Gaza Strip since the Palestinian militant group Hamas took over the territory last year.
He said Mubarak "repeats the same dirty role" as the Lebanese Phalangists _ a Christian militia that was allied with Israel in Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war and was blamed in the massacre of Palestinian refugees in the Beirut camps of Sabra and Shatila. "The roles are the same, even if the faces change _ the same betrayal even if the names have changed," said al-Zawahri.
U.S. Ship Fires on Motorboat in Gulf of Suez; 1 Dead
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,341211,00.html
CAIRO, Egypt — An Egyptian man was shot dead and two others wounded in an incident involving a U.S.-flagged cargo ship transversing the Suez Canal in the direction of the Mediterannean Sea, reported security officials late Monday.
After sunset, a motor boat carrying three Egyptians approached the "Global Patriot" with the intent of selling products when the ship opened fire on it with tracer bullets killing Mohammed Fouad and wounding the other two occupants, said an Egyptian navy official on customary condition of anonymity.
A police official in Cairo, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the incident, adding that some hundred other boat vendors had since gathered near the cargo ship and were demanding an investigation into the shooting.
There is a "Global Patriot" registered to the New York-based Global Container Lines and, according to the company Web site, the vessel trades between the United States, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and the East Africa.
Company representative Homruz Shayegan told The Associated Press by telephone from New York that he had no information on the incident.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain also had not heard about the event.
According to the Egyptian naval official, the ship had sailed from Dubai and was transporting used military equipment. It had completed crossing canal and was in a waiting area, known as the Zenobia Lighthouse, in preparation to enter the Mediterranean when the incident took place.
Fisherman and small motor boats constantly ply the waters of the canal looking to sell cigarettes and other local products to passing ships.
Money to Terrorists Still Flowing
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/Terrorist_Funding_comras/2008/03/24/82604.html
The U.S.-led effort to stem the flow of money to al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations is foundering — due in large part to a lack of cooperation from other countries.
“Al-Qaida, the Taliban and other terrorist groups continue to have access to the funds they need for active and expanded indoctrination, recruitment, maintenance, armament and operations,” Victor Comras, a former United Nations terrorism finance official told the Los Angeles Times.
In the Middle East and elsewhere, nations have resisted American pressure to identify sources of terrorist financing, according to the Times.
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and other countries have not taken steps to stem the flow of funds to terrorists. Saudi Arabia has yet to implement many of the financial reforms to detect suspicious financial transactions that it promised to enact in 2003.
Other countries, including Afghanistan and several African nations, lack the financial resources to effectively investigate and identify terrorist funding.
Immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Treasury Department began freezing the assets of individuals and organizations with suspected ties to al-Qaida, the Taliban and other groups.
But more recently American and even United Nations designations of terrorist funding sources have slowed to a trickle, the Times reports.
To bolster anti-terrorist funding efforts, a Defense Department report issued in June recommended the establishment of a single agency that would coordinate all U.S. agencies dealing with the problem and report directly to the White House.
The report stated: “To be successful, the U.S. must address the problem … under the guidance and leadership of one overarching organization.”
Syria Hosting Deeply Divided Arab Summit
http://www.newsmax.com/international/syria_arab_summit/2008/03/24/82689.html
DAMASCUS, Syria -- Syria is putting on a gracious face as host of its first Arab summit, but strained relations with Saudi Arabia and Egypt and a political standoff with the U.S. and Lebanon threaten to undermine this weekend's meeting.
Regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia is sending only its Arab League ambassador, an unusually low-level official for a gathering of heads of state. Few expected an appearance by King Abdullah, who is particularly embittered with Syrian President Bashar Assad, but foreign ministers usually fill in for missing heads of state.
Saudi Arabia and Egypt, both close allies of Washington, have seen relations with Damascus deteriorate over the past three years. Along with the U.S., they disagree with Syria on nearly every top issue in the region.
In Lebanon, Washington and its Arab allies back the government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and accuse Syria, through its Hezbollah ally, of blocking election of a new president. Syria, which ended a three-decade military occupation of Lebanon under international pressure in 2005, denies that.
Damascus supports the Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have been in stepped-up clashes with Israel recently. The pro-U.S. Arab states try to isolate the militants and call for a peace settlement.
Washington and its Arab allies are also worried by Syria's close alliance with Iran, which they fear is increasing its influence in the region.
The disagreements led to speculation that the U.S. allies would boycott the summit, but it appears all will participate _ although it isn't clear at what level. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah II have not announced whether they will attend.
The Syrian government newspaper Tishrin said Monday that the summit would be primarily directed "against the stands and policies" of the United States in the region, mainly in Iraq and the Palestinian territories _ a stance likely to further alienate Washington's Arab allies.
The U.S. has stepped up pressure on Syria. It imposed economic sanctions on several Syrians, including an Assad cousin, for allegedly working to undermine the governments of Iraq and Lebanon. Last month, three Navy warships sailed to the eastern Mediterranean in a show of strength and support for U.S. allies in the region.
Lebanon has not decided whether to take part in the summit, and some anti-Syria politicians backing Saniora's government have called for a boycott. Lebanon has been without a president since pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud's term ended in November. The pro-Syrian opposition has repeatedly boycotted parliament sessions meant to elect a successor.
"I'm afraid that the Lebanese issue will reflect negatively on this summit," Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told Egyptian television Sunday.
Why Did the Pope Baptize a Muslim?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,341008,00.html
Just three days after Usama bin Laden issued a warning to his followers that “the Pope of the Vatican” is playing a “large and lengthy role” in a “new Crusade” against Islam, on Saturday night Pope Benedict XVI surprised the world by baptizing into the Christian faith the most prominent Muslim journalist in Italy.
The service in St. Peter’s Basilica was televised internationally.
The new Christian convert is Magdi Allam, an Egyptian-born deputy editor of Italy’s flagship newspaper, the Corriere della Sera. Mr. Allam is well known for having infuriated fellow Muslims for his criticism of Palestinian suicide bombers and for his support for Israel’s sovereignty. In 2003, the Italian government was forced to provide Mr. Allam with a personal security detail after he received death threats on account of his controversial writings.
Today there are heightened security concerns for both the Pope and Magdi Allam.
And the world media has begun to scrutinize — as it should — the Pope’s motives for highlighting an event that unquestionably would make news and ruffle feathers. Was this a provocative, backhanded slap to Muslims? After all, the baptism could have been performed privately in Mr. Allam’s home town of Viterbo, or it could have been administered by someone else besides the Pope. At the very least, it could have taken place in the Pope’s private chapel, away from television cameras.
But it wasn’t. It was done in the most public of venues and by the very man who bin Laden labeled the leader of “a new Crusade against Islam.”
Why?
Some keen Vatican watchers, whose judgment I respect, have said the whole shebang was a tragic public relations gaffe, a sign of ivory tower naiveté of gross proportion. I don’t buy that analysis. Time will tell whether the Pope’s decision was a prudent one, but I am certain it was a conscientious one. After the violent reaction to his infamous Regensburg address, and having just been threatened by the world’s most wanted terrorist, the Pope didn’t go on international television and baptize a public and controversial Muslim journalist by accident.
Let’s speculate for a moment what the Pope’s rationale may have been. We will look briefly at:
1) Mr. Allam’s conversion story and the Pope’s involvement in it
2) The official Vatican response to the controversy
3) The context of this pope’s previous approach to religious fundamentalism.
Today, Mr. Allam published a lengthy account of his conversion process. The Zenit News Agency has made available an English translation of the entire article. Here are a few excerpts of particular importance, in Mr. Allam’s own words:
“But undoubtedly the most extraordinary and important encounter in my decision to convert was that with Pope Benedict XVI, whom I, as a Muslim, admired and defended for his mastery in setting down the indissoluble link between faith and reason as a basis for authentic religion and human civilization…”
“You asked me whether I fear for my life, in the awareness that conversion to Christianity will certainly procure for me yet another and much more grave death sentence for apostasy. You are perfectly right. I know what I am headed for but I face my destiny with my head held high, standing upright and with the interior solidity of one who has the certainty of his faith. And I will be more so after the courageous and historical gesture of the Pope, who, as soon as he knew of my desire, immediately agreed to personally impart the Christian sacraments of initiation to me. His Holiness has sent an explicit and revolutionary message to a Church that until now has been too prudent in the conversion of Muslims.”
Yesterday, the Pope’s spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi, responded to journalists’ questions by saying that anyone who chooses to become a Catholic of his or her own free will has the right to receive the sacrament. He added that the Pope administers baptism "without making any distinction between people, that is, considering all equally important before the love of God and welcoming all in the community of the Church."
This may sound like diplomatic jargon of little importance, but the statement points to a lifetime of study by Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope. In this light, Benedict’s agreement to baptize Mr. Allam is not a triumphal sign of dominance of one religion over another. It is a public statement that nobody, not even he, the Pope, has the right to refuse someone’s sincere desire for religious conversion. He is saying “freedom of conscience” is not the private property of Christians or of the West, but rather a universal truth from which no race, religion, or group is exempt. He is saying the search for truth, and the freedom to change one’s mind and religion, is a right that flows from human nature.
Pope Benedict knows the proclamation of this principle is a two-way street. As he has explained on many occasions, rights are “reciprocal” and he is ready and willing to defend Muslim leaders’ right to invite Christians into their fold, as long as this is done without external coercion of any kind.
Time will tell whether Pope Benedict was prudent in participating in such a public way in Mr. Allam’s petition for Christian baptism. But having watched with great surprise the success this Pope has had in bringing together moderate Muslims in a coalition of conscience against fundamentalism, even with all of his straight talk, it would seem prudent of us to withhold judgment for the time being.
We are seeing a story unfold. Pope Benedict’s relentless criticism of religiously motivated violence, his constant reminder to Muslim countries of their obligation to defend “reciprocal rights” (giving Christians in the Middle East the same rights Western countries give to Muslim immigrants), and now his public and visual lesson about “freedom of conscience” are challenging religious and political leaders to drown out the shrill voices of extremists with the melodious sounds of an orchestra where faith and reason compliment each other.
The parallel story is that of a slightly shy and quirky German academic who has the courage of a giant. Benedict the brave. Like him or not, he is speaking softly in a language we can all understand, and in a way that demands a response.
Will the response be rational? That is a question for others to answer.
God bless, Father Jonathan
Plans for anti-terror unit found in garbage
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080320/od_nm/garbage_dc;_ylt=Aq_PDrrx5_0RQ0PcnmV0tKDtiBIF
Canada will probe how blueprints for the new headquarters of an elite military counter-terrorism unit ended up in a pile of garbage, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said Thursday.
The Canadian Joint Incident Response Unit, housed inside an armed forces base in Trenton, Ontario, is designed to cope with the aftermath of an attack using weapons of mass destruction.
The 26 blueprints were contained in one of seven defense ministry files that a passer-by found on top of garbage bags on an Ottawa street. The other six files are still missing.
"We take this very seriously. So I want to hear first exactly what went on," Day told reporters, saying he had ordered his officials to examine the incident.
The plans -- which the passer-by handed to the Ottawa Citizen newspaper -- contain detailed drawings of the building's floor plan, electrical grid and the storage bay for robots designed to detect chemical and biological agents.
Scottish Catholic attacks 'monstrous' embryo research
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/scottish.catholic.attacks.monstrous.embryo.research/17475.htm
Research using hybrid human-animal embryos for experiments is "monstrous" and should be banned, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland said on Friday.
Cardinal Keith O'Brien said a proposed new law - the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill - should outlaw the practice.
The House of Lords rejected attempts earlier this year to include a ban on hybrid research in the draft legislation.
"This Bill represents a monstrous attack on human rights, human dignity and human life," O'Brien will say in his Easter Sunday sermon, according to extracts published in Friday's Daily Record newspaper. "In some other European countries, one could be jailed for doing what we intend to make legal."
In an interview with BBC radio on Friday, he added: "This is Frankenstein science and it must be stopped."
Scientists said the cardinal did not understand the issue properly and accused him of "scaremongering".
Supporters of hybrid research say it will give scientists the large number of embryos they need to make stem cells to help find cures for a range of diseases.
Researchers create inter-species hybrids by injecting human DNA into a hollowed-out animal egg cell. The resulting embryo is 99.9 percent human and 0.1 percent animal.
Britain is one of the leading states for stem cell research, attracting scientists from around the world with a permissive environment that allows embryo studies within strict guidelines.
Scientists in China, the United States and Canada have carried out similar work, the same technique used to create Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned mammal.
Dr Stephen Minger, director of the Stem Cell Biology Laboratory, King's College London, said the cardinal "didn't understand the basic facts".
"The church should carefully review the science they are commenting on, and ensure that their official comments are accurate, before seriously misinforming their congregations," he said in a statement.
Dr Lyle Armstrong, of the Institute of Human Genetics at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, northeast England, said: "The aim of our experiments is to discover ways to make stem cells for anyone that will be invaluable in treating human diseases, not to give birth to some abnormal chimaera."
The BBC reported on Friday that at least one member of the cabinet may resign over the proposed law. It did not name the politician.
A spokeswoman at the prime minister's office said there would be no response to the cardinal or the BBC report.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which regulates the research, gave permission to two groups of UK-based scientists to use hybrids in January.
The draft law is making its way through parliament and is due to return to the House of Commons in the coming weeks.
Court Rules on Inmates Wanting Abortions
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/344624.aspx
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court turned down an appeal Monday from a county sheriff who objects to transporting jail inmates for elective abortions.
An Arizona sheriff wanted the justices to allow him to enforce a jail policy that bars transporting inmates for abortions without a court order.
Arizona courts said the policy violated the inmates' constitutional rights. A federal appeals court in Missouri recently issued a similar ruling in a case there.
The justices did not comment on their decision to leave the Arizona ruling in place.
The Arizona Court of Appeals called the Maricopa County policy an "exaggerated response" to the requirements of running a jail. It noted that the state and Pima County voluntarily transport inmates for abortion services.
The American Civil Liberties Union had sued to challenge Sheriff Joe Arpaio's policy on behalf of an unidentified woman who discovered she was pregnant shortly before being taken into custody after being sentenced. She sought an abortion but sheriff's officials refused to transport her until she obtained a court order.
State law prohibits spending public money for an abortion unless needed to save a woman's life. The appeals court said no county spending for the actual abortion was at issue in the case.
The county routinely and safely transports many inmates to and from a variety of locations for medical services and other purposes, the court said. Arpaio gave no indication that transporting women for abortions posed security problems, the court said.
The case is Arpaio v. Doe, 07-839.
Faith schools under fire from teachers
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/faith.schools.under.fire.from.teachers/17491.htm
The National Union of Teachers (NUT) is to debate a motion calling for faith schools to be abolished on the basis that they undermine community relations.
A motion to be debated at the NUT’s annual conference in Manchester says that faith groups should not be allowed to play a role in running state-funded schools.
Rather the motion proposes that faith schools be assimilated within a secular education system so that pupils have the chance to meet children from “a variety of backgrounds and faiths” in school, reports Press Association.
Proposals should be drawn up by the NUT’s executive outlining the “integration” of all faith schools, "together with any other religiously controlled or sponsored state schools, into a publicly funded, secular system", the motion reads.
Schools Secretary Ed Balls included faith schools in the “significant minority” of schools failing to implement fully the Government’s admissions code.
In a meeting of the Commons children’s, schools and families committee earlier this month, church leaders denied that faith schools were biased in their selection of children to exclude those from low income families.
Food Prices Soaring Worldwide
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/fighting_for_food/2008/03/24/82635.html
MEXICO CITY -- If you're seeing your grocery bill go up, you're not alone.
From subsistence farmers eating rice in Ecuador to gourmets feasting on escargot in France, consumers worldwide face rising food prices in what analysts call a perfect storm of conditions. Freak weather is a factor. But so are dramatic changes in the global economy, including higher oil prices, lower food reserves and growing consumer demand in China and India.
The world's poorest nations still harbor the greatest hunger risk. Clashes over bread in Egypt killed at least two people last week, and similar food riots broke out in Burkina Faso and Cameroon this month.
But food protests now crop up even in Italy. And while the price of spaghetti has doubled in Haiti, the cost of miso is packing a hit in Japan.
"It's not likely that prices will go back to as low as we're used to," said Abdolreza Abbassian, economist and secretary of the Intergovernmental Group for Grains for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. "Currently if you're in Haiti, unless the government is subsidizing consumers, consumers have no choice but to cut consumption. It's a very brutal scenario, but that's what it is."
No one knows that better than Eugene Thermilon, 30, a Haitian day laborer who can no longer afford pasta to feed his wife and four children since the price nearly doubled to $0.57 a bag. Their only meal on a recent day was two cans of corn grits.
"Their stomachs were not even full," Thermilon said, walking toward his pink concrete house on the precipice of a garbage-filled ravine. By noon the next day, he still had nothing to feed them for dinner.
Their hunger has had a ripple effect. Haitian food vendor Fabiola Duran Estime, 31, has lost so many customers like Thermilon that she had to pull her daughter, Fyva, out of kindergarten because she can't afford the $20 monthly tuition.
Fyva was just beginning to read.
In the long term, prices are expected to stabilize. Farmers will grow more grain for both fuel and food and eventually bring prices down. Already this is happening with wheat, with more crops to be planted in the U.S., Canada and Europe in the coming year.
However, consumers still face at least 10 years of more expensive food, according to preliminary FAO projections.
Among the driving forces are petroleum prices, which increase the cost of everything from fertilizers to transport to food processing. Rising demand for meat and dairy in rapidly developing countries such as China and India is sending up the cost of grain, used for cattle feed, as is the demand for raw materials to make biofuels.
What's rare is that the spikes are hitting all major foods in most countries at once. Food prices rose 4 percent in the U.S. last year, the highest rise since 1990, and are expected to climb as much again this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
As of December, 37 countries faced food crises, and 20 had imposed some sort of food-price controls.
For many, it's a disaster. The U.N.'s World Food Program says it's facing a $500 million shortfall in funding this year to feed 89 million needy people. On Monday, it appealed to donor countries to step up contributions, saying its efforts otherwise have to be scaled back.
In Egypt, where bread is up 35 percent and cooking oil 26 percent, the government recently proposed ending food subsidies and replacing them with cash payouts to the needy. But the plan was put on hold after it sparked public uproar.
"A revolution of the hungry is in the offing," said Mohammed el-Askalani of Citizens Against the High Cost of Living, a protest group established to lobby against ending the subsidies.
In China, the price hikes are both a burden and a boon.
Per capita meat consumption has increased 150 percent since 1980, so Zhou Jian decided six months ago to switch from selling auto parts to pork. The price of pork has jumped 58 percent in the past year, yet every morning housewives and domestics still crowd his Shanghai shop, and more customers order choice cuts.
The 26-year-old now earns $4,200 a month, two to three times what he made selling car parts. And it's not just pork. Beef is becoming a weekly indulgence.
"The Chinese middle class is starting to change the traditional thought process of beef as a luxury," said Kevin Timberlake, who manages the U.S.-based Western Cattle Company feedlot in China's Inner Mongolia.
At the same time, increased cost of food staples in China threatens to wreak havoc. Beijing has been selling grain from its reserves to hold down prices, said Jing Ulrich, chairwoman of China equities for JP Morgan.
"But this is not really solving the root cause of the problem," Ulrich said. "The cause of the problem is a supply-demand imbalance. Demand is very strong. Supply is constrained. It is as simple as that."
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao says fighting inflation from shortages of key foods is a top economic priority. Inflation reached 7.1 percent in January, the highest in 11 years, led by an 18.2 percent jump in food prices.
Meanwhile, record oil prices have boosted the cost of fertilizer and freight for bulk commodities _ up 80 percent in 2007 over 2006. The oil spike has also turned up the pressure for countries to switch to biofuels, which the FAO says will drive up the cost of corn, sugar and soybeans "for many more years to come."
In Japan, the ethanol boom is hitting the country in mayonnaise and miso, two important culinary ingredients, as biofuels production pushes up the price of cooking oil and soybeans.
A two-pound bottle of mayonnaise his risen about 10 percent in two months to as much as 330 yen (nearly $3), said Daishi Inoue, a cook at a Chinese restaurant.
"It's not hurting us much now," he said. "But if prices keep going up, we have no choice but to raise our prices."
Miso Bank, a restaurant in Tokyo's glitzy Ginza district, specializes in food cooked with miso, or soybean paste.
"We expect prices to go up in April all at once," said Miso Bank manager Koichi Oritani. "The hikes would affect our menu. So we plan to order miso in bulk and make changes to the menu."
Italians are feeling the pinch in pasta, with consumer groups staging a one-day strike in September against a food deeply intertwined with national identity. Italians eat an estimated 60 pounds of pasta per capita a year.
The protest was symbolic because Italians typically stock up on pasta, buying multiple packages at a time. But in the next two months pasta consumption dropped 5 percent, said farm lobbyist Rolando Manfredini.
"The situation has gotten even worse," he said.
In decades past, farm subsidies and support programs allowed major grain exporting countries to hold large surpluses, which could be tapped during food shortages to keep prices down. But new trade policies have made agricultural production much more responsive to market demands _ putting global food reserves at their lowest in a quarter century.
Without reserves, bad weather and poor harvests have a bigger impact on prices.
"The market is extremely nervous. With the slightest news about bad weather, the market reacts," said economist Abbassian.
That means that a drought in Australia and flooding in Argentina, two of the world's largest suppliers of industrial milk and butter, sent the price of butter in France soaring 37 percent from 2006 to 2007.
Forty percent of escargot, the snail dish, is butter.
"You can do the calculation yourself," said Romain Chapron, president of Croque Bourgogne, which supplies escargot. "It had a considerable effect. It forced people in our profession to tighten their belts to the maximum."
The same climate crises sparked a 21 percent rise in the cost of milk, which with butter makes another famous French food item _ the croissant. Panavi, a pastry and bread supplier, has raised retail prices of croissants and pain au chocolat by 6 to 15 percent.
Already, there's a lot of suspicion among consumers.
"They don't understand why prices have gone up like this," said Nicole Watelet, general secretary at the Federation of French Bakeries and Pastry Enterprises. "They think that someone is profiting from this. But it's not us. We're paying." Food costs worldwide spiked 23 percent from 2006 to 2007, according to the FAO. Grains went up 42 percent, oils 50 percent and dairy 80 percent.
Economists say that for the short term, government bailouts will have to be part of the answer to keep unrest at a minimum. In recent weeks, rising food prices sparked riots in the West African nations of Burkina Faso, where mobs torched buildings, and Cameroon, where at least four people died.
But attempts to control prices in one country often have dire effects elsewhere. China's restrictions on wheat flour exports resulted in a price spike in Indonesia this year, according to the FAO. Ukraine and Russia imposed export restrictions on wheat, causing tight supplies and higher prices for importing countries. Partly because of the cost of imported wheat, Peru's military has begun eating bread made from potato flour, a native crop.
"We need a response on a large scale, either the regional or international level," said Brian Halweil of the environmental research organization Worldwatch Institute. "All countries are tied enough to the world food markets that this is a global crisis."
Poorer countries can speed up the adjustment by investing in agriculture, experts say. If they do, farmers can turn high prices into an engine for growth.
But in countries like Burkina Faso, the crisis is immediate.
Days after the riots, Pascaline Ouedraogo wandered the market in the capital, Ouagadougou, looking to buy meat and vegetables. She said a good meal cost 1,000 francs (about $2.35) not long ago. Now she needs twice that.
"The more prices go up, the less there is to meet their needs," she said of her three children, all in secondary school. "You wonder if it's the government or the businesses that are behind the price hikes."
Irene Belem, a 25-year-old with twins, struggles to buy milk, which has gone up 57 percent in recent weeks.
"We knew we were poor before," she said, "but now it's worse than poverty."
Egyptians Wait in Lines for Bread
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/344473.aspx
Clashes have been breaking out among Egyptians waiting in long lines for subsidized bread.
The president has ordered the army to start baking more to contain a political crisis.
The turmoil in the world's most populous Arab country, a top U.S. ally, is a stark sign of how rising world food prices are roiling poorer countries.
Government bakeries sell subsidized versions of the flat, round bread that is a staple of people's diets.
Acute shortages of subsidized bread, which is sold at less than one U.S. cent a loaf, have caused hours-long lines and violence at some sites in poor neighborhoods in recent weeks.
Seven Have Died
At least seven people have died, according to police. Two were stabbed in fights between customers in line, and the rest died of exhaustion or other medical problems aggravated by waiting in the spring heat.
Independent and opposition parties have been sharply critical of President Hosni Mubarak's government, calling the long lines a sign that his government is failing.
Demand for the subsidized bread has grown steadily in recent months as rising commodity prices - especially for flour - have made unsubsidized bread less affordable.
More than 20 percent of Egypt's 76 million people live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank. Unsubsidized bread can sell for 10 to 12 times the subsidized price.
The supply of subsidized bread has been decreasing. Many people in Egypt believe subsidized bakeries sell some of their flour on the black market rather than make bread.
Army Opening Bakeries
In recent days, the army has opened 10 large bakeries in Cairo to produce cheap bread and has set up about 500 kiosks to sell bread to the public, said Minister of Social Solidarity Ali Meselhi.
Some fear the crisis could mirror riots in 1977 that killed at least 70 people after the government hiked the price of bread and other subsidized foods.
Egypt grows about half of the more than 14 million tons of wheat it consumes every year.
It has also long been one of the top importers of U.S. wheat, using about $54 million of some $2 billion a year in U.S. aid to buy it.
But its U.S. purchases have been falling as it searches for cheaper sellers on the world market, where prices have tripled in the last 10 months.
Rice heist sows panic among farmers
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080324/od_nm/rice_thieves_dc;_ylt=Ag_0SlSyvbpv7Eqk4dgoL10SH9EA
Thai rice farmers are guarding paddy fields and hurrying to bring in their crops after a granary theft last week fuelled rumors of bandits lured by surging rice prices, officials said on Monday.
Reports of widespread paddy theft, although unsubstantiated by police, spread quickly after the theft of 100 kg (220 lb) of premium quality fragrant rice from a farmer's granary in the province of Kalasin, 500 km (310 miles) northeast of Bangkok.
"Villagers have set up teams and are patrolling the community," Urit Poo-aob, a district chief in Kalasin, told Reuters by telephone.
The northeast is the key producing region for premium grade fragrant rice in Thailand, the world's biggest rice exporter.
Thai rice prices have been rising since late last year when India banned exports of non-basmati rice to ensure it had enough for its own people.
Vietnam, the number two rice exporter, halted exports during March and April in order to meet Filipino contracts.
As a result, the price of Thai premium fragrant price has soared 30 percent to nearly $900 a tonne.
Thai 100 percent B grade white rice has also risen 30 percent, to $600 a tonne, fuelling rumors of rice bandits swooping on unguarded paddy fields after midnight in search of an easy score.
Some farmers in the white rice growing province of Sing Buri have slept in their paddy fields after rumors spread of a 1,000 kg heist. However, police have received no formal complaint.
"There are many rumors, but no one has come forward to tell police that they were robbed," an Ang Thong police official, who declined to be named, told Reuters.
Nevertheless, the rumors have been strong enough to prompt many farmers to harvest their crops as quickly as possible.
"Most of the rice grown in Suphan Buri has already been harvested. It's around 10-20 days earlier than expected," said an agricultural official in the mostly white rice producing province 100 km north of Bangkok.
Thailand, the world's biggest rice exporter, is expected to produce around 6 million tonnes of paddy in its second smaller crop usually harvested in April.
Home Sales on the Rise
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/344617.aspx
Home sales are up, according to a new report.
After falling for sixth straight months, sales of existing homes rose 2.9 percent in February.
That's the biggest increase in a year. Analysts say falling prices are enticing buyers back into the market.
Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors, said that prices in some formerly hot markets in California and Florida were seeing significant price declines now as sellers try to attract buyers.
The median home price fell last month by the largest amount on record.
"We're not expecting a notable gain in existing-home sales until the second half of this year, but the (February) improvement is another sign that the market is stabilizing," Yun said.
The steep slump in housing has raised concerns about a possible recession. Democrats are pushing the Bush administration to do more to stem a tidal wave of mortgage foreclosures to keep more unsold homes from being dumped on an already glutted market.
Gas Prices to Fall?
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/344309.aspx
Gas prices rose seven-cents over the past two weeks.
The Lundberg Survey reports that the average price of gallon of regular gasoline now stands at $3.26
But gas prices may be near their peak for this year. Reuters reports the president of OPEC says oil prices will not be going any higher in 2008.
He predicts that oil will trade in a range between $80 and $110.
The price for one barrel dropped back to $100 after hitting $112 last Monday.
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