Known depictions of the Menorah from Second Temple times include the famous relief of Titus's Arch in Rome, which shows Roman soldiers taking it away after destroying the Temple, and depictions on contemporary coins as well as graffiti etched into stone in Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter. However, the new find is said to be the first which includes a relief etched by an artist contemporary with the Temple.

The synagogue has been dated to the years 50 BCE – 100 CE. The rectangular stone bearing the Menorah relief stands inside its central chamber. The chamber is about 120 square meters in size and stone benches line its sides. The decorated stone depicts amphorae (earthenware vessels) on both sides of the Menorah and bears additional decorative motifs on its four sides and its top.

According to Gorni (leader of the dig), the find is "unique and exciting. This is the first time that a Menorah decoration is discovered from the days in which the Temple still stood," she said. "It is the first Menorah that is discovered in a Jewish context, which is dated to Second Temple times – the early Roman period."

Here, on a sleepy stretch of shoreline at the far end of Asia, is surely THE BIGGEST AND MOST SECRETIVE GATHERING OF SHIPS IN MARITIME HISTORY. Their numbers are equivalent to the entire British and American navies combined; their tonnage is far greater. Container ships, bulk carriers, oil tankers - all should be steaming fully laden between China, Britain, Europe and the US, stocking camera shops, PC Worlds and Argos depots ahead of the retail pandemonium of 2009. But their water has been stolen.

They are a powerful and tangible representation of the hurricanes that have been wrought by the global economic crisis; an iron curtain drawn along the coastline of the southern edge of Malaysia's rural Johor state, 50 miles east of Singapore harbour. It is so far off the beaten track that nobody ever really comes close, which is why these ships are here. The world's ship owners and GOVERNMENT ECONOMISTS WOULD PREFER YOU NOT TO SEE THIS SYMBOL OF THE DEPTHS OF THE PLAGUE STILL CRIPPLING THE WORLD'S ECONOMIES.

The knock-on effect of so many ships sitting idle rather than moving consumer goods between Asia and Europe could become apparent in Britain in the months ahead. 'We will find out at Christmas whether there are enough PlayStations in the shops or not. There will certainly be fewer goods coming in to Britain during the run-up to Christmas.'

It's the New York 2009 feeling: A MIXTURE OF DOUBT, WORRY, AND FEAR. Fear that it won't be worth all the investment, the effort, the constant battles. Fear of drugs in schools, of playgrounds becoming crime scenes again, of broken windows, of decline. Fear of a future that feels like the past. Why is this? Because since September 2008 New York has been the epicenter of the global financial crisis. This is where it all began, and this is where the effects were first seen. And felt.

The potholes are getting bigger. And could it be there are more rats since the collapse of Lehman Brothers? Garbage sacks pile up because restaurants and hotels have to pay for them to be taken away, but would rather save their money. Homeless people wander the streets, apartments remain empty, landlords offer discounts - unthinkable circumstances just a short time ago, at least here in Manhattan and over in Brooklyn.

It's a chain reaction. Wall Street was the city's engine, and since 1990 New York has been a monothematic metropolis. If a bankrupt Lehman Brothers puts 25,000 people out of work, it robs the city of millions in taxes, revenues that are desperately needed for education, the police force and road repairs. Children are taken out of private schools, cleaners and gardeners are let go. This affects the real estate market and all consumer activity, and taxis drive around empty save for the driver, desperately hunting for the few tourists who still have money to spend. And then AIG and Merrill Lynch cut thousands more jobs.

So could New York's current woes beset Berlin and the rest of the world tomorrow? As so often, New York could become a standard, a model, only this time of fear; a new weltschmerz in the true sense of the word?

NB: 'weltschmerz' is German for 'world-weariness: sadness on thinking about the evils of the world'

"THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS WILL CONTINUE, even if Germany and France had some good figures in the second quarter," Strauss-Kahn was quoted as saying in an advance copy of an article to be published in Der Spiegel on Sunday. Strauss-Kahn said he wanted to see more action from nations to curb bankers' pay and tighten capital requirements in the banking sector.

"It is right to say that not enough has happened. I hope the Group of 20 meeting in Pittsburgh will bring new momentum," he said. Leaders of the G20 meet later this month to try to agree on measures to help stop a repeat of the financial crisis. Strauss-Kahn said the lesson of the financial crisis was that the market economy needed rules to function.

"WITHOUT NEW RULES, THERE WILL BE A RETURN TO THE OLD BEHAVIOR," he said. Governments needed to develop 'exit strategies' from the stimulus packages introduced to boost economies, said Strauss-Kahn, adding, however, that IT WAS DANGEROUS TO THINK THE CRISIS WAS ALREADY OVER.

The firings came less than 24 hours after another pair of ACORN officials from the group's Baltimore office were canned for instructing the "pimp" and "prostitute" how to falsify tax forms and seek illegal benefits for 13 "very young" girls from El Salvador that pair said they wanted to import to work as child prostitutes.

Both of the encounters were videotaped on a hidden camera wielded by 25-year-old independent filmmaker James O'Keefe, posing as the pimp — tapes that have ignited calls for investigations of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The United States Census Director has sent a letter to the National Headquarters of ACORN NOTIFYING THE GROUP THAT IT WILL NO LONGER HELP WORK ON THE 2010 CENSUS.

The group's leaders said Friday they were "appalled and angry" at what their staffers had done, but insisted the videos were part of a political "smear" campaign and not representative of the institution as a whole. "Taxpayers should be outraged that their money has gone to an organization that, in addition to facing charges of voter fraud and tax violations, is willing to facilitate prostitution," said Representative Steve King, Republican for Iowa. "AS THIS VIDEO CONFIRMS, ACORN CONTINUES TO OPERATE AS A CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE."

The first videotape, made in the Baltimore offices of ACORN, was made public Thursday on the political blog BigGovernment.com. That night, after portions of the video were aired throughout the day on FOX News, the group fired the two women who assisted O'Keefe and Giles in Baltimore.

The decision is intended to bolster the ailing US tire industry, in which more than 5,000 jobs have been lost over the past five years as the volume of Chinese tires in the market has tripled. It comes at a sensitive time, however. Leaders from the world's largest economies are preparing to gather in Pittsburgh in less than two weeks to discuss more cooperation amid tensions over trade. The tire tariff will amount to 35 percent the first year, 30 percent the second and 25 percent the third.

Although a federal trade panel had recommended higher levies - of 55, 45 and 35 percent, respectively - the decision is considered a victory for the United Steelworkers union, which filed the trade complaint. "The president sent the message that we expect others to live by the rules, just as we do," Leo W Gerard, president of the union, said Friday night. China decried a US decision to impose added duty on Chinese-made tires, saying the move sent A DANGEROUS PROTECTIONIST SIGNAL before a G20 summit and could stoke reactions impeding global recovery.

But the White House played down the dispute, saying it was simply "enforcing the rules of the road" and did not expect the matter to escalate into a trade war. "We're simply enforcing those rules and we expect the Chinese to understand those rules," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters on Saturday.

The crowd - loud, animated and sprawling - gathered at the West Front of the Capitol after a march along Pennsylvania Avenue NW from Freedom Plaza. Invocations of God and former President Ronald Reagan by an array of speakers drew loud cheers that echoed across the Mall. On a windy, overcast afternoon, hundreds of yellow "Don't Tread on Me" flags flapped in the breeze.

"Hell hath no fury like a taxpayer ignored," declared Andrew Moylan, head of government affairs for the National Taxpayers Union, urging protesters to call their representatives. The demonstrators roared their approval. "We own the dome!" they chanted, pointing at the Capitol. The demonstrators are part of A LOOSE-KNIT MOVEMENT THAT IS GALVANIZING ANTI-OBAMA SENTIMENT ACROSS THE COUNTRY, stoking a populist dimension to the Republican Party, which has struggled to find its voice since the 2008 elections.

With Democrats in control of Congress, battling the President legislatively has been difficult. But after a spring of anti-tax rallies and summer health-care protests proved to be effective, a growing number of GOP leaders are dropping their wariness and seeing the political possibilities of latching onto this freewheeling coalition. OTHERS ARE CAUTIOUS ABOUT EMBRACING VIEWS THAT CAN BE SEEN AS EXTREMIST. The protests in recent months come as Obama is trying to regain control of the health-care debate and bolster public confidence in his leadership.

There can be few sights sadder than a seaside restaurant that has been abandoned by the sea. The restaurant was sited so that guests could drop off the terrace straight into the sea. You do not really swim in the Dead Sea, you bounce about, and it is easy to imagine flopping into the salty waters after a hearty lunch. EXCEPT THAT THE SEA HAS NOW GONE, you can see it glittering in the sunshine JUST LESS THAN A MILE AWAY. Where the sound of lapping water once mixed with chinking glasses and the clatter of plates, there is now just desert dust.

It is a blasted landscape, dun-coloured, with scarcely a hint of green, and the unforgiving heat drills into you. The Bible records it as a place of God's anger, the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah are said to lie beneath the Dead Sea's surface. And yet this place, the lowest on the planet at more than 420m (1378 ft) below sea level has also offered shelter for seekers after God. The ascetic communities that gave us the Dead Sea Scrolls flourished here. The Sea has, from a time beyond the memory even of the Bible, been fed by that most famous and hallowed of waterways, the River Jordan. And therein lies the problem.

Time was when the Jordan hurled one billion cubic metres of water a year into the sea. The figure now is 10% of that. Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians - everyone wants a bit of Jordan water - and by the time the river reaches its end, there is almost none left. At its mouth, two strides with rolled up trousers can take you from Israel across the river border into Jordan.

In a time when Americans are engaged in fierce debate over the federal government's role in their healthcare, MANY CITIZENS ARE LESS INCLINED THAN EVER TO ACCEPT THE WARNINGS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH and Human Services or the recommendations of its Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says Sandra Quinn, a University of Pittsburgh public health professor who has just completed a national survey of attitudes about the flu vaccine.

Vaccine refusers have long decried vaccine mandates and campaigns as an unwarranted intrusion of parents' and local school boards' rights. And against the backdrop of charges that a "public healthcare option" would hijack patients' choices, such complaints have taken on new resonance for some.

And for a new generation of vaccine skeptics, there are new objects of distrust. For some, it flows from A SUSPICION OF THE MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS THAT DEVELOP AND MANUFACTURE VACCINES. For others, it comes from a belief that MEDIA OUTLETS HAVE HYPED THE PANDEMIC FLU STORY TO SECURE THE ATTENTION OF READERS AND THE REVENUE OF ADVERTISERS. And many simply doubt the competency and independence of government agencies, which they believe are too inept, overwhelmed OR CO-OPTED BY CORPORATE INTERESTS to secure the safety of the nation's drugs and food supply.

Adding to the wariness toward the forthcoming H1N1 vaccine is the fact that the formulations used on patients in the United States might require the use of adjuvants - SPECIAL AGENTS ADDED TO A VACCINE MIX THAT REV UP THE IMMUNE SYSTEM AND FOSTER A STRONGER IMMUNE RESPONSE. If clinical trials underway now find that subjects' immune responses to vaccines in development are weaker than had been hoped, US officials are expected to debate whether to approve their addition to H1N1 vaccine formulations.

But reading and hearing the audacious, shocking statements of the man who was recently elected our president – a young black man living the impossible dream of millions of young Americans, past and present, black and white – I want to ask him, "JUST WHAT COUNTRY DO YOU THINK YOU'RE PRESIDENT OF?"

You surely can't be referring to the United States of America, can you? America is emphatically a Christian nation, and has been from its inception! SEVENTY PERCENT OF HER CITIZENS IDENTIFY THEMSELVES AS CHRISTIAN. The Declaration of Independence and our Constitution were framed, written and ratified by Christians. It's because this was, and is, A NATION BUILT ON AND GUIDED BY JUDEO-CHRISTIAN BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES that you, sir, have had the inestimable privilege of being elected her president.

Or, wait a minute... were your ideas about America's Christianity formed during the 20 years you were a member of the TRINITY UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST UNDER YOUR PASTOR, JEREMIAH WRIGHT? Is that where you got the idea that "America is no longer a Christian nation"? Is this where you, even as you came to call yourself a Christian, formed the belief that "America has been arrogant"? Even if that's the understandable explanation of your damning of your country and accusing the whole nation of "not always living up to her ideals," how did you come up with the ridiculous, alarming notion that we might be "considered a Muslim nation"?

IT SEEMS INCREASINGLY AND PAINFULLY OBVIOUS THAT YOU ARE MORE INFLUENCED BY YOUR UPBRINGING AND QUESTIONABLE EDUCATION THAN MOST SUSPECTED. If you consider yourself the president of a people who are "no longer Christian," who have "failed to live up to our ideals," who "have been arrogant," and might even be "considered Muslim" – you are president of a country most Americans don't recognize.

COULD IT BE YOU ARE A PRESIDENT WITHOUT A COUNTRY?

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The Bible warns us in Revelation that a pale horse, straddled by a rider called Death will decimate one fourth of the Earth's population through hunger. And so, HR 2749 comes riding a pale horse. BusinessWeek addressed the increased powers proposed for the FDA noting: "the FDA will have authority under the legislation to inspect the business records of food producers at any time, free of the current limitation that requires a reasonable belief that adulterated food is being sold." For all those who believe government is always looking out for our best interests, REMEMBER THAT OUR FOUNDERS ESTABLISHED THE 4TH AMENDMENT FOR JUST SUCH "FISHING EXPEDITIONS" BY NOSY GOVERNMENT AGENTS.

Using recent food recalls of peanuts, spinach and beef as evidence of the need for more stringent controls over the food supply, the legislation would require that food producers would have to comply with a time consuming record keeping scheme, and adds a new tax to all "facilities" which produce food, which could be anyplace where food is grown or prepared. In addition, food in "holding facilities" would be under the control of the FDA.

Not unlike a tyrannical regime, Big Brother wants to keep tabs on all things edible. In this case, IT'S BEING DONE UNDER THE GUISE OF KEEPING OUR FOOD SUPPLY SAFE. IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT OUR SAFETY, AFTER ALL.

HR 2749 would drive small, independent farmers out of business and hand BIG AGRIBUSINESS CARTE BLANCHE TO PUSH ON US WHATEVER GENETICALLY MODIFIED FRANKENFOODS THEY CHOOSE. HR 2749 would function as the backdoor assault on small, organic, family farming which will sound the death knell for our most basic freedom - the freedom to grow, sell and eat what we choose.

While other visitors are merely checked for weapons, religious Jews must show their identity cards, have the number entered into the police computer for tracking, and are not permitted to walk around the Mount without a police and Waqf escort. In addition, they are often not allowed to enter the site at all until other religious Jews who arrived earlier complete their visit.

Based on affidavits attesting to the above by various rabbis and other religious visitors, THE JUDGES RULED THAT THE DISCRIMINATION MUST STOP. All evidence of discrimination must be shown to the authorities, and if the practice continues, the court will once again address the issue. Glick's counsel, Attorney Aviad Visouly, said, "This is the best Temple Mount ruling that has ever been handed down by the Supreme Court. FOR THE FIRST TIME, THE COURT HAS GIVEN PRACTICAL MEANING TO JEWISH CIVIL RIGHTS ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT."

Visouly said the ruling certainly stems from the ongoing increase of Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site in the world. In the past year, police statistics show that 7,000 religious Jews visited, up 30% from the year before.

The Third Jihad was released earlier this year by The Clarion Fund, the producers of another documentary film, Obsession. However, explains Alex Traiman of Clarion, "Obsession – which was viewed by over 30 million Americans – deals with the threat of Islamic terrorism, while the current film focuses more on the multifaceted strategy of non-violent, cultural jihad by which the radical Islamists actively seek to undermine and take over the American way of life."

The 70-minute film is narrated by a devout Muslim American, Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, and opens with the following statement: "This is not a film about Islam. IT IS ABOUT THE THREAT OF RADICAL ISLAM. Only a small percentage of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims are radical. This film is about them."

He singled out protests being organised by the ENGLISH DEFENCE LEAGUE, some of which have turned violent over recent months. Hundreds of supporters are expected to gather in Trafalgar Square later today. Yesterday protesters from the Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE) group were involved in a demonstration outside a mosque in Harrow, north east London, to mark the anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Ten people were arrested.

'I think that the English Defence League and other organisations are not actually large numbers of people,' Mr Denham told the Guardian. They clearly, though, have among them people who know what exactly they're doing. If you look at the types of demonstrations they've organised... it looks pretty clear that it's a tactic designed to provoke and to get a response and hopefully create violence.'

Mr Denham pointed to historical 'parallels' with the so-called 'Battle of Cable Street' in October 1936, when Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, attempted to lead supporters through a Jewish area of the East End of London, leading to violent clashes. The demonstration follows a riot in Birmingham last weekend which descended into violence.

The disclosure comes in a commentary piece today in WND by Joel Richardson, best-selling author of "The Islamic Antichrist," which shows the similarities between this Muslim figure and the Bible's descriptions of the Beast of Revelation. Richardson points out the US movie production company Cineast has "WELCOMED THE PROPOSAL," according to a close friend of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The purpose of the documentary will be "TO PREPARE FOR THE APPEARANCE OF IMAM MAHDI AS THE SAVIOR OF HUMANITY," said an article in the Tehran Times. Richardson's book is turning the prophecy world upside down.

Richardson, a student of Islam and the Middle East, says that after decades of reading popular prophecy books and even best-selling fiction like the "Left Behind" series, millions of evangelical Christians around the world are expecting the Antichrist to emerge from a revived Roman Empire, which many have assumed is associated with the Roman Catholic Church and the European Union. Not so, argues Richardson. His book makes the case that the biblical Antichrist is one and the same as the Quran's Muslim Mahdi.

Many evangelical Christians believe the Bible predicts a charismatic ruler, the Antichrist, will arise in the last days, before the return of Jesus. The Quran also predicts that a man, called the Mahdi, will rise up to lead the nations, pledging to usher in an era of peace. RICHARDSON MAKES THE CASE THESE TWO MEN ARE, IN FACT, ONE AND THE SAME.