Film on Billy Graham’s life in production
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/film.on.billy.grahams.life.in.production/18708.htm
A film on one of the world’s favourite evangelists, Billy Graham, is being produced in Nashville, Tenn., USA, where one of the featured cast members is Graham’s first cousin.
The biopic, Billy: The Early Years, focuses on Graham’s life, starting with his teenage years in Charlotte, N.C. Besides Nashville, the film was also shot in Watertown, Tenn.
Graham in his older years will be played by his first cousin, Bill Graham, who is also a preacher, according to The Tennessean.
But for most of the movie, Armie Hammer, who is said to have a strong resemblance to the renowned evangelist, will play young Graham.
"They've never made a movie about this guy, and beyond any sort of spiritual reasons or anything like that, he is really an iconic figure of the 20th century," said Hammer to The Tennessean.
"He's gone places and done things that no one else has been able to do, and he can do it all with such grace,” reflected Hammer, who is the great-grandson of industrialist/philanthropist Armand Hammer. “From an acting standpoint, that is such a difficult role to try to emulate.”
Hammer expressed his commitment to capturing the character of Graham – from his accent and movements to even his motivation. He said he spent hours studying videos of Graham’s sermons.
"I've been going to church and reading my Bible and doing a lot of other spiritual work to get in that right headspace to even start to play someone like Billy Graham," Hammer revealed.
In addition to Hammer’s efforts, the hair stylist reportedly spends about two hours shaping Hammer’s hair to resemble Graham’s wavy locks.
Co-producer Bill McKay, who has already done two documentaries on Graham, said the preacher was concerned that “the images that we might paint of Billy Graham…could eclipse the face of Jesus.”
"Most of the evangelists I've met, I wouldn't give you two nickels for. But when I sat down with Billy Graham, it was an entirely different experience," McKay said on Nashville TV station WKRN.
The movie also features Oscar nominee Hal Holbrook in the role of Graham’s friend and mentor Charles Templeton, according to Christianity Today.
"It's like this is a message that he continued to get out his entire life," Hammer said, referring to the movie’s focus on Graham’s proclamation of salvation through Jesus Christ. "Now that he is getting older and he can't get the message out, we're doing it for him.
"We're taking his story and his message and staying very true to that and getting it out."
Filming for Billy: The Early Years began March 26.
Portugal ratifies EU treaty on Europe day
http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1210354322.15
Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva officially ratified the EU's reforming Lisbon treaty on Friday, symbolically choosing 'Europe Day' to do so.
The treaty, signed by European leaders in the Portuguese capital last December, was formally promulgated at a solemn ceremony following its approval by the national parliament last month.
The treaty constitutes "a step forward towards the construction of a more unified Europe, one more in solidarity," said Cavaco Silva.
Its success "shows the political determination and the convergence of the efforts of the leaders of the member states and the European institutions," he added.
Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia have now ratified the treaty, according to the EU's executive body, the European Commission.
All 27 EU member states must do so before it can come into effect, as planned, next year.
Only Ireland is constitutionally bound to put the treaty to a national referendum which it will do next month.
The treaty is deemed essential to streamline the workings of the European bloc, which has boosted its ranks from 15 to 27 member states since 2004.
It also introduces the post of an EU president, one of the factors which eurosceptics point to as an indication of the movement towards a federal Europe.
Numerous celebrations were scheduled for late Friday throughout Portugal to mark Europe Day, which commemorates the May 9, 1950 declaration by then French foreign minister Robert Schuman which is considered the founding proposal for the European Union.
In Lisbon itself European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, who is Portuguese, was handed the keys of the capital.
Barroso's work at the head of the EU's executive arm "constitutes an honour for Portugal and for the city of Lisbon," said Mayor Antonio Costa.
Europe Day was also marked elsewhere, with a 12-metre high model of a European Ariane 5 rocket set up next to stands of regional European products at the Hotel de Ville, town hall, in Paris. A cinema chain in the French capital showed 27 films in their original languages, one from each EU member state.
In Marseille, southern France, a "European village" was set up for a grand picnic with the European anthem, Beethoven's Ode to Joy, ringing out from a local theatre.
In The Hague a "Europe Night" was planned for the youth market, while in Brussels, the seat of the European Union, the day was marked by a holiday for all the EU institutions.
In the landmark 1950 address, Schuman called on France, Germany and other European nations to work towards what became the European Coal and Steel Community, the start of the European project following the devastation of World War II.
A European summit in 1985 decided to commemorate this event each year as Europe Day.
Lost Diary Tells of Teenage Holocaust Victim
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/369602.aspx
CBNNews.com - Many people worldwide know the story of Anne Frank -- and now the discovery of a long lost diary is causing a sensation about another teenage Holocaust victim.
Her story has been waiting to be told for more than 60 years.
Rutka's Story
Beautiful 14-year-old Rutka Laskier was forced to live with her family in the Jewish ghetto during the Nazi occupation of Poland.
For four months in 1943, she recorded her life - memories of typical teen-age life mixed with the unbelievable horrors of the Holocaust.
Her story survived thanks to a non-Jewish friend, entrusted with the diary months before Rutka, her baby brother and mother perished in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.
After 60 years, that friend - now in her 80s - revealed her secret: she had kept Rutka's diary. The news was life-changing for Rutka's half-sister Dr. Zahava Scherz.
"I simply fell in love with her and also full of sorrow that I couldn't meet her," Zahava said.
Scherz was born after WWII to Rutka's father who narrowly survived the Holocaust and remarried. After learning of her half-sister's diary, she believed the world needed to know the story and helped publish - "Rutka's Notebook" - a voice from the Holocaust.
"She was an extraordinary girl. As you can see from the picture, she was beautiful. She knows that the Nazis are determined to kill the Jews and they are throwing them to gas chambers. She writes specifically that I would like to live but I don't think we Jews are going to make it," Scherz said.
In one of her entries -- Rutka writes about witnessing a horrible act committed by a German soldier.
"I am writing this as if nothing has happened. As if I were in an army, experienced in cruelty. But I'm young, I'm 14, and I haven't seen much in my life. Now I am terrified when I see 'uniforms.' I'm turning into an animal; waiting to die. One can lose one's mind thinking about this," Rutka's 1943 entry read.
While Rutka seems to know and even writes that she will probably not survive the war -- she still finds time to document the daily dramas of a young teen-age girl.
"I'm persuading myself that I'm not in love with Janek, but in the meantime I miss him, and sometimes I suffer because I don't see him and hear his voice," she wrote.
"She was starting to discover herself as a growing woman - being attractive - and being attractive to young men - and so in this sense, you feel that it's a modern girl - a regular story," Scherz said.
But her story was anything but regular. Rutka's attempts to enjoy life's simplest pleasures were overshadowed by reports that Jews were being sent to death camps. She feared this was her fate as well.
"The rope around us is getting tighter and tighter," she wrote. "Despite all these atrocities, I want to live, and wait for the following day."
"This is also something that is emotionally very hard, a young girl, 14 years old, so cheerful and so much aware of what's going on. This was also a surprise for me, because we didn't think that the Jewish people in Poland knew exactly what was going to happen to them," Scherz said.
Scherz says her hope is that Rutka's story will become part of the curriculum in schools around the world - such as Poland where non-Jewish students are already reading the story.
"And they love Rutka, they love the story, and they feel very close to her. And I ask them, could you be a friend of Rutka? And they say yes, because she's so much like us," Scherz said.
As Israel celebrates its 60th anniversary this month, Scherz says Rutka's story is a good reminder of how important the state of Israel is for the Jewish people.
"This story reminds the world and reminds us that we should keep the country, we should be an example for the world -- and we should educate our nation that this kind , like the Holocaust would never happen again."
Thousands Gather in Jerusalem to Pray
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/372015.aspx
CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - It's the biggest prayer gathering in history and it's happening this week.
On May 11, Christians in more than 200 countries will ask God to bless their nations and the world.
The Global Day of Prayer brings millions of believers together in unity of purpose. This year, thousands are in birthplace of Christianity.
Jerusalem will be home to an unprecedented prayer event this weekend. This Sunday, the Call is teaming up with the Global Day of Prayer. Their mission is to pray for spiritual breakthrough, not only in the Holy Land, but throughout the world.
There's so much excitement in the air here in Jerusalem, as Israelis celebrate 60 years as a nation. But among believers here, there's also growing excitement surrounding this weekend's call to prayer!
Thousands of Jewish believers in Jesus, along with Christians from around the world, will gather for a prayer event that many believe will lead to a world-wide revival rooted in Jerusalem.
They"re blowing the shofar in Zion and calling believers to pray for an Acts 2 type of revival.
"When it happened the first time, it was just Jerusalem - that was for His first coming - but for His second coming - it has to be revival all over the world," said Asher Intrater, director of Revive Israel Ministries.
Asher is a Messianic Jew and is helping bring the call and the Global Day of Prayer to Jerusalem.
He says united international prayer based in the Holy City will help usher in this end times revival that will pave the way for Christ's return.
"Well, if He was coming back to Beijing, we'd have to have some kind of focus in Bejing," Asher said. "If He was coming back to New York, it would be there, but because we understand He's coming back to Jerusalem there has to be a certain focus on this prayer."
Asher says believers will not only pray for the nations, but also for the growing body of Messianic believers in Israel, now believed to be as many as 15,000 out of 7 million Israelis.
"The Messianic Jewish movement has grown, not only worldwide, but it's also taken a foothold here in Israel," he said. "So, there are maybe 100 local congregations of Messianic Jews in Israel."
"For me, it makes sense but for a lot of people here in Israel, it doesn't make sense that you can be Jewish, remain Jewish and celebrate the Jewish feasts and yet believe in Yeshua [Jesus] the Messiah," Liat Eshel, a Jewish believer, said.
Asher says Jews coming to Jesus is a sure sign that we're in the end times.
"One of our banner statements is from Romans 11. 'All Israel will be saved …and we will pray the prayer together, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord'," he said. "So we are focused, not just on growth in the body here and revival, but ultimately - bringing Yeshua back and making His Kingdom established on the earth."
This is a pretty exciting time to be in Israel, to pray not only for the peace of Jerusalem, but for this mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Israel Will Not Tolerate Nuclear Iran: Olmert
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/Israel_nukes_iran_/2008/05/10/94961.html
WASHINGTON — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reiterated his warning that the Jewish state will not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran, but expressed hope the international community would be successful in checking Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
"Yes, Israel will not tolerate a nuclear weapon in the hands of people who say openly, explicitly and publicly that they want to wipe Israel off the map. Why should we?" Olmert asked in an interview with The Washington Post.
The newspaper plans to publish the interview in its Sunday issue, but it posted the text on its website late Friday.
At the same time, the prime minister held out hope that diplomatic efforts by the United States, the European Union and Russia aimed at ensuring the peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program would bear fruit.
"I hope they will be successful," Olmert said.
However, he sharply disagreed with findings contained in last year's US National Intelligence Estimate, which argued that Iran's military nuclear program had been halted in 2003.
"Based on the information we have, the military program continues and has never been stopped," Olmert insisted.
"If this program continues, at some point they will be in possession of a nuclear weapon," he warned.
Israel at 60, Liberated Jerusalem at 40
http://www.fulfilledprophecy.com/commentary/what-holly-thinks-israel-at-60-liberated-jerusal/
Israel launched a celebration of its 60th Independence Day, Wednesday night, with fireworks, entertainment and the singing of the national anthem. Israel’s re-emergence as a nation in 1948 — after nearly 2,000 years of non-existence — was widely seen by Jews and Christians as the fulfillment of ancient Bible prophecies (see, for example, Amos 9:14-15).
Interestingly, this celebration marks not only 60 years as a nation for Israel, but also 40 years since Israel recaptured East Jerusalem — the site of the Temple Mount. Many Christians believe Jesus taught that the generation that is alive when Israel is restored as a nation will be the same generation to see Christ’s return (Matthew 24:32-34). Some also point to a popular belief that a biblical generation is 40 years.
I don’t think Jesus’ words referred to an exact 40-year time span. I tend to see them as a more general prophecy that most of those people alive when the end-times signs start to occur will still be alive at His return. After all, the length of generations varied in the Bible, and the average life span today is much more than 40 years.
But it’s still an interesting thought — to start counting from 1967, not 1948, when Israel recaptured its holiest site. With the news coming out of Europe and the Middle East, perhaps Christ’s return could be close to a 40-year generation after all. For example, see this article in the European Jewish Press, Wednesday, which states that EU-Israel relations have never been warmer, thanks in large part to Israel’s participation in the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP).
Those who are interested can see the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel at http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace+Process/Guide+to+the+Peace+Process/Declaration+of+Establishment+of+State+of+Israel.htm
Exclusive: Iran-backed Hizballah offensive closes in on Israeli border
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5256
DEBKAfile’s military sources report: Hizballah’s advance on two key Lebanese locations Saturday, May 10 had immediate effect on the strategic balance between the Iran-backed Shiite group and Israel. Sidon in the south, Lebanon’s second largest city, which provides Hizballah with control of a continuous coastal strip from its southern Beirut district all the way to Tyre.
The second point is on the northern slopes of the Hermon range. After Hizballah seizes control of this enclave and the Syrian 10th and 14th armored divisions step over the border into Lebanon, the two forces can join to form a strong military line opposite Israel near the Litani River.
Our military sources report that the vanguard of the 10th Division has already moved across to the Lebanese side of the border.
Hizballah’s victory in taking over western and central Beirut therefore has had the effect of adding another link to the pro-Iranian chain encircling Israel. In many ways it is a more damaging setback for Israel’s national security than the Palestinian Hamas' seizure of the Gaza Strip
Yet Israel’s prime minister, defense minister and foreign minister are all too busy with the political fallout of the bribery case against Ehud Olmert to lift a finger to arrest Lebanon’s decline to a Tehran satellite before it is too late - any more than Hamas was stopped from developing into a major military menace.
Equally inert are the two presidents who are pledged to support the Siniora regime, George W. Bush and Nicolas Sarkozy. The United Nations, which maintains 15,000 armed peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, backed by marine forces off the shores of Beirut, has no thought of stopping the Iranian-Syrian-backed terrorist militia from capturing the country.
Exclusive: Hizballah received 35 new Iranian speedboats shortly before current crisis
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5258
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that three weeks before Hizballah seized western Beirut, the Shiite terrorist group took delivery of 35 fast speedboats for use with explosives from Iran. The craft can threaten US Sixth Fleet and Israel Navy shipping close to Lebanese shores, reach Israel’s Haifa and Ashdod Mediterranean ports and raid its coastal oil installations.
The speedboats were tailor-made for Hizballah by Iranian Revolutionary Guards shipyards at Bandar Abbas as the only marine terror fleet operating in Mediterranean waters. Our military sources report the boats are capable of carrying chemical, biological and radiological weapons systems.
They were delivered in mid-April by an Iranian freighter at the Syrian port of Latakia and trucked to Naimah port south of Beirut. There they were hidden in the subterranean hangars belonging to Ahmed Jibril, head of the Palestinian Liberation Front-General Command. Today, the PLF-GC is financed and directed by the Revolutionary Guards. The hangars were constructed in the seventies by East Germany engineers with a protected Mediterranean anchorage and made virtually impenetrable by sea or air.
Exclusive: Lebanese PM opens door to surrender. Army grants two key Hizballah demands
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5257
After four days of fierce fighting in which at least 37 people died, the Lebanese army revoked two government measures in obedience to Hizballah demands: the Shiite group’s independent telecommunication network will not be shut down and the pro-Hizballah Brig. Gen Wafiq Shqeir would keep his job as Beirut international airport head of security.
In a broadcast speech, Saturday, May 10, the pro-Western prime minister Fouad Siniora asked the army to defuse the crisis after Hizballah seized control of western Beirut, besieged the government center and attacked pro-government Sunni centers across Lebanon. Government loyalists found no support from Sinora’s powerful backers, the United States, France or even Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The pro-Western government was therefore forced to back down.
This means its acceptance of Hizballah’s communication system in central, southern and eastern Lebanon and its direct link to Syrian and Iranian command centers in Damascus; and the Shiite group’s Beirut headquarters online communications link to its Revolutionary Guards bosses in Tehran.
DEBKAfile's military sources report: Triumphant, the Hizballah chief Hassan Hasrallah will be a more dangerous enemy than ever. The army rather than the government laid down the condition that Hizballah withdraw from the Sunni districts of Beirut and the rest of the country and remove its armed men from the streets.
Even so, a government minister remarked that the deal awaits approval by Hizballah leaders and the Iranian ambassador in Beirut. It is far from certain that the Shiite terrorists will give up the territory they gained in the last four days.
Also in question are the roadblocks on highways and the shutdown of Beirut air and sea ports.
Lebanon PM vows to defy Hezbollah 'coup'
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/lebanon.pm.vows.to.defy.hezbollah.coup/18702.htm
Lebanon's U.S.-backed Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said on Saturday the state would not fall into the hands of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah which he accused of launching a coup by taking control of Beirut.
"Your state will not fall under the control of the putschists," Siniora said in a televised address to the Lebanese. It was his first response since Hezbollah and allied fighters routed pro-government gunmen in west Beirut on Friday.
Hezbollah's takeover, a blow to U.S. policy, left Siniora's government reeling and strengthened Hezbollah's position as the most powerful group in Lebanon after a 17-month power struggle with the governing coalition.
He reiterated a proposal already rejected by Hezbollah for resolving the crisis, which erupted this week into the worst internal strife since the 1975-90 civil war. At least 25 people have been killed and 60 wounded.
Siniora said Beirut was "besieged" and "occupied". "What is Hezbollah doing in the alleyways of Beirut?" he said.
Five gunmen died in clashes on Saturday east of Beirut and in north Lebanon, while two people were killed in the capital when shots were fired at the funeral of a government supporter.
The United States, which considers Hezbollah a terrorist group, a threat to Israel, and a weapon in the hands of Iran, said it was talking with other powers about taking measures against "those responsible for the violence".
On the streets of Beirut, fighters from the Iranian- and Syrian-backed group continued to man checkpoints on main thoroughfares, although in smaller numbers than a day earlier.
Traffic was thin as many residents stayed at home. Beirut's international airport remained closed.
A few shops reopened after the army deployed in several areas but did not interfere with Hezbollah guerrillas, who in turn stayed away from main government installations in Beirut.
SYRIA, IRAN LINKS
Hezbollah took control of Muslim west Beirut on Friday in what the government and its allies described as "an armed and bloody coup".
The United States said it was "very troubled" by Hezbollah's actions in Beirut and criticised the group's links to Damascus and Tehran.
Christian districts in east Beirut have been spared the fighting after Hezbollah defeated forces loyal to parliamentary majority leader Saad al-Hariri. Hariri's supporters still controlled areas in the north of the country and kept a key crossing point with Syria in the Bekaa Valley shut.
Hariri is a son of the late Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, whose assassination three years ago began the worst turmoil since the 1975-1990 civil war, which split Beirut into eastern Christian and western Muslim sections.
Hezbollah's show of military might is alarming the West and its Sunni Arab allies who fear Iran's growing influence in the region.
Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which back Lebanon's government, called for an Arab foreign ministers meeting on Sunday. "There are regional repercussions at stake and the situation must be saved," Arab League chief Amr Moussa told al-Jazeera television.
The fighting erupted after the government said it was taking legal action against Hezbollah's military communications network on grounds it was illegal.
Hezbollah, its prestige enhanced in the region after it stood its ground in a war with Israel in 2006, said the government had declared war.
The anti-Syria ruling coalition said the "armed and bloody coup" was aimed at increasing Iran's influence and restoring that of Syria, forced to withdraw troops from Lebanon in 2005 following Hariri's assassination.
Syria said the issue was an internal Lebanese affair while Iran blamed "the adventurist interferences" of the United States and Israel for the violence.
The crisis has paralysed political decisions, left Lebanon without a president and heightened sectarian tensions.
Hezbollah Fighters Leave Beirut
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/372922.aspx
CBNNews.com - BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Hezbollah gunmen melted off the streets of Beirut Saturday, heeding an army call to pull the fighters out after the Shiite militants demonstrated their military might in a power struggle with the U.S.-backed government.
Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, in his first public statement since sectarian clashes erupted on Wednesday, said Lebanon can no longer tolerate Hezbollah having weapons. He called on the army to restore law and order and remove gunmen from the streets.
Despite his tough talk, Saniora made a key concession to the Hezbollah-led opposition that would effectively shelve the two government decisions that sparked the fighting.
Muslim West Beirut was mostly calm a day after Hezbollah and its allies seized control of neighborhoods from Sunnis loyal to the government. Most Hezbollah gunmen had pulled out, leaving small bands of their Shiite Amal allies to patrol the streets.
While tensions in the capital appeared to be defusing, violence spread and intensified in other parts of the country.
At least 12 people were killed and 20 wounded when pro- and anti-government groups fought in a remote region of northern Lebanon, Lebanese security and hospital officials said. It was the heaviest toll for a single clash since fighting began.
At least 37 people have been killed in four days of clashes - the worst sectarian violence since Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.
The violence grew out of a political standoff between the opposition, which pulled out of the Cabinet 17 months ago demanding veto power over government decisions. The deadlock has prevented parliament from electing a president, leaving the country without a head of state since November.
The political standoff turned into clashes after the government confronted Hezbollah earlier this week. It said it would sack the chief of airport security for alleged ties to Hezbollah and declared the group's private telephone network illegal and a threat to state security.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday the decisions amounted to a declaration of war and he demanded they be revoked. His Shiite forces then overran large swaths of West Beirut.
The rout was a blow for Washington, which has long considered Hezbollah a terrorist group and condemns its ties to Syria and Iran. The Bush administration has been a strong supporter of Saniora's government and its army for the last three years.
The show of force added to jitters in the Middle East and the West over Iran's growing influence and its intentions in the region.
The Bush administration said Saturday that it was pleased to see Lebanese armed forces under the authority of Saniora working to restore order on the streets.
"Our concerns regarding Hezbollah are unchanged," said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council. "We are seeing some lessening of violence in the streets."
Saniora accused Hezbollah of staging a coup, besieging the capital and "poisoning" the dream of democracy in Lebanon.
"The government did not declare war against Hezbollah. Hezbollah declared the war and is waging it with the aim of changing the local, regional and international balance of powers," he said.
After Saniora's speech, the army called for gunmen to withdraw from the streets of Beirut and reopen blocked roads.
Seeking to stop the country's slide toward all-out chaos and sectarian strife, the military ordered army units "to continue to take measures on the ground to establish security and spread state authority and arrest the violators."
Saniora said he would leave it up to the army to resolve the confrontation that sparked the clashes over the airport security chief and the Hezbollah telephone network.
The army offered Hezbollah a compromise. It said the airport security chief would not be sacked and recommended to the government that it reverse the decision on the phone network.
But the compromise did not fully satisfy the opposition's demands that the government officially revoke the two decisions.
The army has largely stayed out of the fighting, fearing its forces could break apart on sectarian lines as they did during the civil war. But in the past 24 hours they deployed heavily in neighborhoods of West Beirut seized earlier by the Shiites, stationing armored personnel carriers and jeeps on street corners and putting up more checkpoints.
In some areas they protected besieged leaders of the pro-government factions, Sunni parliament majority leader Saad Hariri and his ally, Druse leader Walid Jumblatt.
The army command is respected by Hezbollah and an opposition statement said its forces will withdraw all their gunmen from Beirut in compliance with the army request.
The opposition said a "civil disobedience" campaign will continue until its demands are met.
Within minutes of announcing that Hezbollah fighters would withdraw from Beirut, opposition activists set tires ablaze in a downtown overpass and clashes were reported in the northern city of Tripoli.
The opposition statement did not say whether Hezbollah forces would remove roadblocks around Beirut including one cutting off access to the airport and shutting it down since Wednesday.
Government-allied Druse leader Jumblatt told reporters at a news conference he hoped the crisis was now over.
Jumblatt helped spark the tensions when he alleged Hezbollah had set up cameras near the airport - which is located in the Hezbollah stronghold of south Beirut - to monitor the movement of anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians and foreign dignitaries. He suggested Hezbollah was planning to bomb aircraft to assassinate such figures.
Asked if the government compromise on its decision to confront Hezbollah was a humiliating defeat, he replied: "It is not humiliating. ... If it is a question of preserving the peace, preventing civil strife, sectarian strife, it's not humiliating."
Fighters loyal to Hariri and the government battled the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, a secular pro-Syrian group allied with Hezbollah in the town of Halba in a remote Sunni region of northernmost Lebanon.
At least 12 gunmen were killed and 20 wounded, Lebanese security and hospital officials said.
The pro-government fighters stormed the office of the SSNP and set it ablaze after the gunbattle. Nine of the dead were SSNP and three were government loyalists, the security officials said.
The officials all spoke on customary condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
In a mountain town east of Beirut, Hezbollah accused a pro-government Druse group of kidnapping three of its members and shooting and stabbing two of them to death. Hezbollah said it held Jumblatt personally responsible for the safety of the third man.
Eight people were killed near the town of Aley late Friday in clashes between government supporters and opponents. Another civilian died in the clashes in the southern city of Sidon.
Earlier Saturday in Tarik Jadideh, a Sunni Muslim neighborhood of Beirut, a Shiite shop owner opened fire on Sunnis in a funeral procession as they passed his store chanting insults at Shiite Hezbollah leaders. He killed two and injured six, police and witnesses said.
An AP photographer who was covering the funeral said the attack came as the procession headed toward a nearby cemetery to bury a 24-year-old killed in this week's fighting.
After the attack, angry people stormed the alleged gunman's shop and set it ablaze. Troops captured the gunman.
Military Leaders Shift from Rumsfeld Strategy
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/372879.aspx
CBNNews.com - WASHINGTON -- The military command overseeing the nation's most elite forces has moved away from a contentious plan that gave it broad control over anti-terrorism operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and other hot spots around the globe.
The expanded authority for U.S. Special Operations Command in Tampa, Fla., was hammered through by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld well before he resigned in November 2006. The shift caused friction among leaders at other warfighting organizations who saw it an intrusion into their geographic domains.
Navy Adm. Eric Olson, the command's senior officer since July 2007, has steered clear of micromanaging specific missions against al-Qaida or other terrorist groups. The command's primary focus is to ensure these plans are fused into a broader strategy for defeating extremist ideologies. That reflects Olson's position that the troops closest to the action know best how to handle it.
"It's a much different place," Army Lt. Gen. David Fridovich, a Green Beret who runs the command's Center for Special Operations, said in an Associated Press interview.
The command, which has an annual budget of more than $7 billion and nearly 50,000 military and civilian personnel, is also responsible for training and equipping the Army Special Forces, Navy SEALs, and Air Force combat controllers.
Fridovich, who has extensive experience in the Pacific region, arrived in Tampa last year just as Olson was taking over. For the previous six years Fridovich had been a key player in what the Defense Department considers a successful effort against Abu Sayyaf, an al-Qaida outgrowth in the Philippines.
Along with Olson, Fridovich is a proponent of indirect warfare, a slow and disciplined process that involves training foreign militaries and providing humanitarian, financial and civic backing to areas viewed as possible terrorist breeding grounds.
Before filling his new post, Fridovich was in charge of special operations at U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii. He didn't like being controlled from afar.
"I didn't awfully care too much for people from somewhere else to come in and tell me what they were going to do," Fridovich said.
As head of the Center for Special Operations, Fridovich's job is akin to that of a chief operating officer. Instead of running a business, he's ensuring anti-terror plans are properly coordinated across military channels. That means tracking more than 200 countries that are havens for terrorists, potential U.S. partners, or both.
"We bring together people with a common interest," Fridovich said. "That is vastly different than us coming into a theater and saying, 'Here's what you're going to do.'"
In March 2005, after months of heated debate inside the Pentagon, Special Operations Command was assigned the lead role in planning, coordinating and conducting the military's anti-terror activities around the world.
Olson, a Navy SEAL, was deputy commander of special operations when he was named to the top job after Army Gen. Bryan Brown retired. Pointing to how difficult it was to meet the new charter, Olson told members of Congress prior to his confirmation hearing last year that the "command's ability to drive behavior within DOD is limited due to unclear definition of authorities."
During an early March appearance at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think tank, Olson was more specific when discussing the expanded authority.
"It's too much for us to do that and it's not right for us to do that," Olson said in remarks delivered on the condition there be no attribution. A transcript of the session was later posted on the group's web site.
Evangelist hopes to do more for China
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/6408145.html
Evangelist Franklin Graham said in Beijing on Friday that he wants his organizations to become more involved in China.
The CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, established by and named after his father, and the international Christian relief organization Samaritan's Purse, said he wanted to see the groups working not only on humanitarian projects in remote areas, but also alongside churches in China.
Franklin, whose mother was born in China and whose grandparents worked as medics in the country for 25 years, was speaking at a press briefing in the capital.
He is on his first visit to China as head of the organizations and over the past two days has met with church leaders and officials.
In January, representatives of Samaritan's Purse helped with relief efforts in South China following the most severe snowstorms in a decade.
Over the past 20 years, China's economic landscape and its religious policy have changed considerably, Graham said.
He first visited the country with his parents in 1988.
"The government of China is recognizing more and more that religious freedom is important, and is seeing the value of personal faith," he said.
Graham will visit Hangzhou, Nanjing and Shanghai.
U.S. says North Korea documents date back to 1986
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/us.says.north.korea.documents.date.back.to.1986/18700.htm
The United States said on Saturday documents handed over by North Korea detailed its weapons-grade plutonium programme as far back as 1986 and were an "important first step" in getting a full declaration of the North's nuclear activities.
In a "fact sheet" providing limited details of the documents, the State Department said the 18,000 pages covered three major periods when plutonium was produced by North Korea for nuclear weapons.
"The United States and the other parties continue to press the DPRK to fulfil its declaration commitment," said the statement, referring to Pyongyang's failure to produce a full declaration of its nuclear activities by the end of last year.
The documents were given by Pyongyang to the State Department's Korea expert, Sung Kim, on Thursday who then hand-carried them over the heavily fortified demilitarised zone into South Korea on Saturday.
Kim spoke briefly and said officials now needed to investigate the contents of the documents. The State Department said seven large boxes were carried across the border.
He will return to Washington on Monday where the State Department said the documents would be "examined thoroughly" by a U.S. nuclear verification team and other experts.
Under a six-country deal, North Korea was required to provide a full accounting of its fissile material and nuclear weaponry as well as answer U.S. suspicions that it enriched uranium for weapons and proliferated technology to Syria.
North Korea is expected to submit a 40 to 50-page report on its nuclear activities in the next few weeks to China, the host of the six-way nuclear disarmament talks, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Saturday, citing diplomatic sources.
If North Korea makes the declaration, the United States has promised to take it off its terrorism blacklist and remove sanctions that restrict Pyongyang from tapping into international finance.
NUCLEAR RECORDS
"These operating records date back to 1986 and are expected to cover reactor operations and all three reprocessing campaigns undertaken by North Korea," the State Department said of the plutonium logs.
"Review of the operating records provided on May 8 will be an important first step in the process of verifying that North Korea's declaration is complete and correct," it added.
North Korea, which tested a nuclear device in October 2006, is thought by Washington to have produced about 110 lbs (50 kg) of plutonium, which proliferation experts said is enough for about eight nuclear bombs.
The documents consist of the operating records of the Yongbyon nuclear complex where North Korea has produced its stock of weapons-grade plutonium until it was shut down in July last year under a deal with the United States, Japan, the two Koreas, China and Russia.
Since November, U.S. experts have been on the ground at Yongbyon overseeing disablement of the Soviet-era reactor and the State Department said eight out of 11 agreed disablement activities at three core facilities on the complex had been completed.
As of mid-May, more than one-third of spent fuel rods had been discharged, the State Department added.
The main sticking point in the declaration has been Pyongyang's reluctance to discuss any transfer of nuclear technology to other countries, notably Syria, as well as its suspected pursuit of uranium enrichment.
U.S. President George W. Bush said in late April he released intelligence about the suspected North Korea-Syria nuclear collusion to put pressure on Pyongyang to come clean on all its nuclear activities.
Pyongyang has yet to respond to White House charges that North Korea was helping Syria build the reactor that could produce arms-grade plutonium.
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