BUT CRITICS SAY THEY ARE CONTRIBUTING TO THE VERY PROBLEM THEY AIM TO SOLVE. "Nobody denies this is an important event, but huge numbers of people are going, and their emissions are probably going to be greater than a small African country," said Chris Goodall, author of the book "How to Live a Low-Carbon Life."

Interest in climate change is at an all-time high after former Vice President Al Gore and a team of U.N. scientists won the Nobel Peace Prize for highlighting the dangers of rising temperatures, melting polar ice, worsening droughts and floods, and lengthening heat waves.

Two big climate conferences have been held in less than a month, both in idyllic, far-flung holiday destinations -- first Valencia, Spain, and now Bali. They were preceded by dozens of smaller gatherings. In Bangkok, Paris, Vienna, Washington, New York and Sydney, in Rio de Janeiro, Anchorage, Helsinki and the Indian Ocean island of Kurumba.

THE U.N. ESTIMATES 47,000 TONS OF CARBON DIOXIDE AND OTHER POLLUTANTS WILL BE PUMPED INTO THE ATMOSPHERE DURING THE 12-DAY CONFERENCE IN BALI, MOSTLY FROM PLANE FLIGHTS BUT ALSO FROM WASTE AND ELECTRICITY USED BY HOTEL AIR CONDITIONERS.

"If correct," Goodall said, "that is equivalent to what a Western city of 1.5 million people, such as Marseilles, France, would emit in a day." But he believes the real figure will be twice that, more like 100,000 tons, close to what the African country of Chad churns out in a year.

The United States is sending more than 100 delegates, and all 27 countries of the European Union are flying in national teams. Non-governmental organizations also are attending, from groups advocating the rights of indigenous people to those seeking to protect rapidly dwindling forests - AND THERE ARE THOSE WITH SOMETHING TO SELL, including technology to produce drinking water and businesses ready to capitalize on future carbon trading markets.

Why did the mapmaker name the territory America and then change his mind later? How was he able to draw South America so accurately? Why did he put a huge ocean west of America years before European explorers discovered the Pacific? "That's the kind of conundrum, the question, that is still out there," said John Hebert, chief of the geography and map division of the Library of Congress.

The 12 sheets that make up the map, purchased from German Prince Johannes Waldburg-Wolfegg for $10 million in 2003, were mounted on Monday in a huge 6-foot by 9.5-foot (1.85 meter by 2.95 meter) display case machined from a single block of aluminum. The case will be flooded with inert argon gas to prevent deterioration when it goes on public display December 13.

The map was created by the German monk Martin Waldseemuller. Thirteen years after Christopher Columbus first landed in the Western Hemisphere, the Duke of Lorraine brought Waldseemuller and a group of scholars together at a monastery in Saint-Die in France to create a new map of the world. "The actual shape of South America is correct," said Hebert. "The width of South America at certain key points is correct within 70 miles of accuracy. Given what Europeans are believed to have known about the world at the time, it should not have been possible for the mapmakers to produce it," he said.

The map gives a reasonably correct depiction of the west coast of South America. But according to history, Vasco Nunez de Balboa did not reach the Pacific by land until 1513, and Ferdinand Magellan did not round the southern tip of the continent until 1520. "So this is a rather compelling map to say, 'How did they come to that conclusion,'" Hebert said.

The mapmakers say they based it on the 1,300-year-old works of the Egyptian geographer Ptolemy as well as letters Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci wrote describing his voyages to the new world. But Hebert said there must have been something more. "From the writings of Vespucci you couldn't have prepared the map," Hebert said. "There had to be something cartographic with it." Although the map conceals many mysteries, one thing is clear: it represents a revolutionary shift in the way Europe viewed the world.

The U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) took U.S. friends and foes by surprise after years of strident rhetoric from Washington accusing the OPEC member of pursuing a covert nuclear weapons program.

President George W. Bush said Iran remains a global danger, and that "all options" are on the table for dealing with Iran. U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman dismissed the chance of the report affecting oil markets.

Still, U.S. crude oil prices fell nearly $2 to below $88 a barrel on Tuesday after the report was released, as traders saw a slimmer chance of a disruption from the world's No. 4 oil exporter. Tensions between Tehran and Washington helped fuel the record rally that sent prices up 40 percent to just shy of $100 a barrel from August to late November amid concerns of a supply shortfall ahead of the Northern Hemisphere winter.

The Department of Health (DoH) said the trials at two undisclosed locations were evaluating the "safety and effectiveness" of such services. The pilot is for drug-induced abortions up to the ninth week of pregnancy. Currently, abortions can be carried out only at NHS hospitals or certain clinics with two doctors' approval. The results of the trials - reported in Pulse magazine - are expected next year, but the DoH said it had not yet taken a decision on whether to allow abortions in GP surgeries.

In October, the Commons Science and Technology Committee called for a relaxation of rules surrounding terminating pregnancies. The group of MPs said there was no reason why women seeking an abortion needed the approval of two doctors. They wanted to see more involvement by nurses in carrying out all stages of early medical abortions. The committee also recommended that just one doctor sign the required consent form, rather than the two currently required by the Abortion Act.

In 2006 there were almost 200,000 abortions in England and Wales with a further 13,000 in Scotland. The vast majority were early abortions - 89% were carried out before 13 weeks and just 2% after 20 weeks.

The announcement comes a week after Mr Bush hosted talks at which Israeli and Palestinian leaders pledged to seek a peace deal before the end of 2008. Iran will also be a key issue, after US intelligence said on Monday that the country is not actively developing nuclear weapons. Mr Bush said Iran remained dangerous and could restart a bomb programme.

The White House did not confirm Israeli reports that the president would visit Israel during his Middle East tour. But the BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says such a visit is highly likely. It would be Mr Bush's first to Israel as US president.

And, our correspondent adds, any visit there would take on a particular significance in the wake of the US intelligence community's change of heart on Iran. The National Intelligence Estimate said with "high confidence" that it believed Iran had halted its nuclear weapons programme in 2003, but that it was continuing to enrich uranium. Responding to the new assessment, the Israeli Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, said he believed Iran posed a threat to the entire world, which must be prepared to deal with this threat and foil it.

He said in a televised speech that Iran would not retreat from its path towards a peaceful atomic programme. The US intelligence report released on Monday said that Iran had halted a nuclear weapons programme in 2003. The US and its European allies are still pushing for sanctions but China has said the report raises questions about the need for new measures.

The US National Intelligence Estimate report had said with "high confidence" that it believed Iran had halted its nuclear weapons programme in 2003, but that it was continuing to enrich uranium. US President George W Bush said on Tuesday that Iran remained a threat and his view that a nuclear Iran would be a danger "hasn't changed".

However, China's ambassador to the UN, Wang Guangya, said "things have changed" and the push for new sanctions would need to be questioned.

On the first night of Chanuka 5768, (December 4), the menora, with the aid of a robotic crane capable of climbing stairs, will be moved in the direction of the Temple Mount, home of the once and future Holy Temple. The new temporary home of the menora will be in the open plaza next to the Rabbi Yehuda Halevy stairs, which lead from the Jewish Quarter to the Western Wall plaza and the Temple Mount.

There it will be once again on display for the millions of pilgrims and tourists and passers-by each year as they head to and from the Western Wall and Temple Mount. Chanukat HaMenora, a rededication ceremony will take place on Rosh Chodesh Tevet, (the new month of Tevet), the seventh day of Chanuka, (December 12). Rabbis and dignitaries will be in attendance.

From its new location the menora will be overlooking its ultimate destination - the location of the Sanctuary of the Holy Temple on the Temple Mount.

The menora was painstakenly crafted only after years of extensive research by the Temple Institute's full time staff of researchers. The conclusions upon which the constuction of the menora was based took into account archeological evidence and, of course, the halachic (Jewish law) requirements of materials, dimensions, ornamental affects and manner of manufacture as first delineated in the Book of Exodus, and further explicated by Jewish sages throughout the millennia. The menora weighs one-half ton. It contains forty five kilograms of twenty four karat gold. Its estimated value is approximately three million dollars. The construction of the menora was made possible through the genorosity of Vadim Rabinovitch, a leader of the Jewish community of Ukraine.

The tzitz is made of pure gold, was fashioned over the course of a more than a year by the craftsmen of the Temple Institute, and is ready to be worn by the High Priest in the rebuilt Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

The words "Holy for G-d" are engraved on the headplate, in accordance with Exodus 28:36. Rabbi Chaim Richman, International Director of the Temple Institute, explained to Arutz-7 that until it can actually be used, the tzitz will be on view in the Institute's permanent exhibition display, together with other vessels and priestly garments fashioned for use in the Holy Temple by the Institute.

Asked what project they're working on at present, Rabbi Richman said, "We have begun work on 120 sets of garments for 'regular' priests, not the High Priest. This involves special thread from India, etc. In addition, we have begun work on architectural blueprints for the Third Temple, including cost projection, modern supplies, electricity, plumbing, computers, etc."

"At present," Rabbi Richman explained, "people are in despair, and wonder if we're not dreaming futilely while around us our leaders are planning to give the country away. We say to them: It appears that those who went to Annapolis are the dreamers, thinking that their efforts to make peace will succeed, or that the public is with them in their efforts to give away our Jerusalem, our Temple Mount, and other national historic assets."

"We are now approaching the holiday of Chanukah," Rabbi Richman continued, "which is the holiday that commemorates the re-dedication of the Holy Temple. We're not just building beautiful vessels; we're interested in granting G-d the dwelling place that He wants in this world; the Temple is not merely a building, but a way of bringing G-d into our lives in a very real way. And that is what we aim to do. This tzitz is G-d's Chanukah present to us, and our Chanukah gift to the Jewish People."

Lord Goldsmith, the former attorney general, said there was "some problem" with God Save the Queen. It is one of a series of radical suggestions mooted by Lord Goldsmith, who was appointed by Gordon Brown to head a "citizenship review".

God Save The King/Queen became the world's first national anthem. The origins of both words and tune are unknown. But by the start of the 19th century composer Thomas Arne's arrangement had become acknowledged as the national patriotic song and the idea of having one was being copied across Europe.

Julie Kirkbride, a former Tory culture spokesman, said: "The point about a national anthem is that it should be patriotic and traditional. We should not be rewriting them to conform to the political correctness of any particular time." Downing Street moved to distance Scot Gordon Brown from the Goldsmith initiative. A spokesman said: "This does not reflect the Government's views. We are proud of our national anthem and the traditions it represents."

Islam is a double-edged sword in Sudan. In many instances, the regime harnesses it to advance its own power - witness the decades-long war successive Arab regimes in Khartoum waged against non-Muslim Africans in the south. Then, too, there are the regime's frequent charges of anti-Islamic bigotry against the West for its diplomatic pressures on Khartoum.

But just as often, as the controversy surrounding Gibbons illustrates, it is Islam that harnesses the Sudanese regime. Far from being a radical Islamic autocracy, the Khartoum government is a tenuous regime riven with factions and dissent.

In the end, however, as British foreign minister David Miliband said, "common sense" prevailed. Gibbons was freed and Khartoum remained calm. But rather than view the Gibbons case as yet another example of a radical regime's autocratic abuse, the West would do well to realize that the events in Khartoum expose the government's weakness, and not its strength.

"Their offices have been a turnstile for terrorists and their supporters," said one FBI veteran familiar with recent and ongoing cases involving CAIR officials. As previously reported, three CAIR officials have been linked to terrorism. But WND has learned that at least 11 other CAIR officials have been caught up in terror investigations, bringing the total to 14. Congressional leaders say they are warning lawmakers and other Washington officials to disassociate from the group due to its growing terror ties.

CAIR, WHICH RECEIVES FINANCIAL BACKING FROM SAUDI AND EMIRATI ROYALTY, denies charges that it has a secret agenda to Islamize America. But a Muslim Brotherhood document declassified in the Holy Land case reveals that CAIR's parent was among Muslim organizations enlisted in a secret plot to destroy the American system from within and eventually take over the country.

Written early last decade in Arabic, the manifesto lays bare the subversive role of CAIR's forerunner, the Islamic Association for Palestine, and other Muslim groups in America to carry out a "GRAND JIHAD IN ELIMINATING AND DESTROYING THE WESTERN CIVILIZATION FROM WITHIN AND SABOTAGING ITS MISERABLE HOUSE BY THE HANDS OF THE BELIEVERS, SO THAT IT IS ELIMINATED AND ALLAH'S RELIGION IS MADE VICTORIOUS OVER ALL OTHER RELIGIONS."

CAIR's founder Ahmad, while claiming to be a moderate and patriotic American, last decade told a group of Muslims in Northern California that they are in America to help assert Islam's rule over the country. "ISLAM ISN'T IN AMERICA TO BE EQUAL TO ANY OTHER FAITH, BUT TO BECOME DOMINANT," a local reporter quoted him as saying, adding, "The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth." Ahmad insists he was misquoted.

However, an FBI wiretap transcript quotes Ahmad agreeing with terrorist suspects gathered last decade at the secret Philly meeting to "camouflage" their true intentions. What's more, Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR's communications director, also has expressed his wish to overturn the U.S. system of government in favor of an "Islamic" state. "I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future," Hooper said in a 1993 interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "But I'm not going to do anything violent to promote that. I'm going to do it through education."

It comes after a major new intelligence assessment suggested the government in Tehran is not trying to develop nuclear weapons at present. The latest National Intelligence Estimate says it is now believed Iran stopped its weapons programme in 2003. The Democrat leader of the US Senate, Harry Reid, said he hoped the White House would undertake "a diplomatic surge" to engage with Iran.

But, our correspondent adds, Washington's Iran hawks are horrified. In particular they are concerned that news of that key assessment will drown out other findings in the document - for instance, that Tehran is keeping open its option to develop a nuclear weapon and would have all the capacity to do so in the future if its leaders decided to go ahead.

A senior advisor to President Bush said the report was "positive" but the risk of a nuclear Iran remained "serious". Iran is currently under sanctions from both the UN Security Council, which is demanding the end of uranium enrichment, and unilateral US sanctions.

Talks will centre on whether a further set of binding targets is needed. It is the first such meeting since the INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE (IPCC) warned that evidence for global warming was "UNEQUIVOCAL". The two-week gathering in Bali, Indonesia, will also debate how to help poor nations cope in a warming world.

Earlier this year, the IPCC published its Fourth Assessment Report (A4R), in which it projected that the world would warm by 1.8-4.0C (3.2-7.2F) over the next century. Mr de Boer added that the IPCC'S CONCLUSION THAT CLIMATE CHANGE WAS "VERY LIKELY" THE RESULT OF HUMAN ACTIVITY ENDED ANY DOUBT OVER THE NEED TO ACT.

Accused of sponsoring the killing and rape of hundreds of thousands of its own people in Darfur and then of blocking the peacekeepers who might protect them - barely a week passed without a threat of sanctions or a new UN resolution.

But thanks to the Gillian Gibbons saga, Sudan has managed to transform its public image from pariah state to something approaching a laughing stock. If Khartoum was hoping to turn the teddy bear into a rallying point for Muslims across the Middle East it was quickly disappointed. Condemnation of the British teacher's detention came in from around the world and from all religions - leaving the government looking for an escape strategy.

The carefully stage-managed pardoning of Mrs Gibbons by Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir will have satisfied few within his divided government. Moderates who want better relations with the West will want to know why Sudan's president did not intervene sooner. Sudan's foreign ministry has been shown to be an open but ultimately powerless limb of the administration. Sudanese officials reassured British diplomats that the case would be dismissed right up to the moment that Mrs Gibbons was sentenced to 15 days in detention.

That disconnect is an experience shared by UN officials who spent months negotiating with Sudanese diplomats the arrival of a new peacekeeping force for Darfur. Those talks have since been shown to count for little. Security agencies have impounded equipment, denied permission for night flights and refused to grant land for military bases.

PRESIDENT AL-BASHIR IS A MILITARY MAN, AND MRS GIBBONS'S DETENTION HAS SHOWN CLEARLY ONCE AGAIN THAT POWER RESTS FIRMLY WITH SECURITY FORCES AND THE INTERIOR AND DEFENCE MINISTRIES. The men who lead these organs will not have minded the outcry in Britain. For them the key international relationship is not with the West but the Far East and China. Despite 10 years of sanctions and an ongoing war in Darfur, Sudan's oil-fuelled economy is currently growing at one of the fastest rates in Africa.

The Judge asked DB to show documents proving legal title to the 14 homes. DB could not. All DB attorneys could show was a document showing only an "intent to convey the rights in the mortgages." They could not produce the actual mortgage, the heart of Western property rights since the Magna Carta if not longer.

Again why could Deutsche Bank not show the 14 mortgages on the 14 homes? Because they live in the exotic new world of "global securitization", where banks like DB or Citigroup buy tens of thousands of mortgages from small local lending banks, "bundle" them into Jumbo new securities which then are rated by Moody's or Standard & Poors or Fitch, and sell them as bonds to pension funds or other banks or private investors who naively believed they were buying bonds rated AAA, the highest, and never realized that their "bundle" of say 1,000 different home mortgages, CONTAINED MAYBE 20% OR 200 MORTGAGES RATED "SUB-PRIME," I.E. OF DUBIOUS CREDIT QUALITY.

Indeed the PROFITS being earned in the past seven years by the world's largest financial players from Goldman Sachs to Morgan Stanley to HSBC, Chase, and yes, Deutsche Bank, WERE SO STAGGERING, FEW BOTHERED TO OPEN THE RISK MODELS USED BY THE PROFESSIONALS WHO BUNDLED THE MORTGAGES. The Ohio ruling that dismissed DB's claim to foreclose and take back the 14 homes for non-payment, IS AN EARTH-SHAKING PRECEDENT FOR ALL BANKS HOLDING WHAT THEY HAD THOUGHT WERE COLLATERAL IN FORM OF REAL ESTATE PROPERTY.

How this? Because of the complex structure of asset-backed securities and the widely dispersed ownership of mortgage securities (not actual mortgages but the securities based on same) NO ONE IS YET ABLE TO IDENTIFY WHO PRECISELY HOLDS THE PHYSICAL MORTGAGE DOCUMENT. The Judge then declared that the banks "seem to adopt the attitude that since they have been doing this for so long, unchallenged, this practice equates with legal compliance. Finally put to the test," the Judge concluded, "their weak legal arguments compel the court to stop them at the gate."

Deutsche Bank has refused comment.

In the last two years of the boom in selling real estate loans, banks were convinced they could resell the mortgage loans to a Wall Street financial house who would bundle it with thousands of good better and worse quality mortgage loans and resell them as Collateralized Mortgage Obligation bonds. IN THE FLUSH OF GREED, BANKS BECAME INCREASINGLY RECKLESS of the credit worthiness of the prospective home owners. In many cases they did not even bother to check if the person was employed. Who cares? It will be resold and securitized and the risk of mortgage default was historically low.

Here is where the Ohio court decision guarantees that the next phase of the US mortgage crisis will assume Tsunami dimension. IF THE OHIO DEUTSCHE BANK PRECEDENT HOLDS IN THE APPEAL TO THE SUPREME COURT, MILLIONS OF HOMES WILL BE IN DEFAULT BUT THE BANKS PREVENTED FROM SEIZING THEM AS COLLATERAL ASSETS TO RESELL.

But if banks are unable to reclaim the homes as assets to offset the non-performing mortgages, THE US BANKING SYSTEM AND A CHUNK OF THE GLOBAL BANKING SYSTEM FACES A FINANCIAL GRIDLOCK THAT WILL MAKE EVENTS TO DATE TRULY "PEANUTS" BY COMPARISON.