Perhaps the greatest legacy of the 20th century has been the war on motherhood and biblical patriarchy. FEMINISTS, MARXISTS, AND LIBERAL THEOLOGIANS HAVE MADE IT THEIR AIM TO TARGET THE INSTITUTION OF THE FAMILY AND DIVEST IT FROM ITS BIBLICAL STRUCTURE AND PRIORITIES. The results are androgyny, A RADICAL DECLINE IN BIRTHRATE, ABORTION, FATHERLESS FAMILIES, AND SOCIAL CONFUSION. By leaving the home, the experience and reality of childhood, family life and femininity were fundamentally redefined, and the results have been so bad that if this one trend is not reversed, our grandchildren may live in a world where both the true culture of Christian family life and the historic definition of marriage are the stuff of fairy tales.

Less than one hundred years ago, the architects of THE ATHEISTIC COMMUNIST SOVIET STATE ANTICIPATED THE DEATH OF THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY. They explained the need for destroying the Christian family with its emphasis on motherhood, and replacing it with a vision for a "new family." In his 1920 International Working Women's Day Speech, Lenin emphasized: "The chief thing is to get women to take part in socially productive labour, to liberate them from 'domestic slavery,' to free them from their stupefying [idiotic] and humiliating subjugation to the eternal drudgery of the kitchen and the nursery. This struggle will be a long one, and it demands a radical reconstruction, both of social technique and of morale. BUT IT WILL END IN THE COMPLETE TRIUMPH OF COMMUNISM."

To defeat motherhood the enemies of the biblical family MUST SEAR THE CONSCIENCE OF AN ENTIRE GENERATION OF WOMEN. This is done through the doctrines of SOCIAL EMANCIPATION FROM THE HOME, SEXUAL LIBERATION, BIRTH CONTROL, AND ABORTION - all four of which cause a woman to war against her created nature. Instead of being the blessed guardian of domesticity for society, she is taught that CONTENTMENT CAN ONLY BE FOUND BY ACTING, DRESSING, AND COMPETING WITH MEN. Instead of being an object of respect, protection, and virtue, she sells herself cheaply, thus devaluing her womanhood. Instead of glorying in a fruitful womb she cuts off the very seed of life. SOMETIMES SHE EVEN KILLS THE LIFE.

To defeat motherhood, the enemies of the biblical family must do more than make it a social inconvenience, they must teach women to despise themselves by viewing their own wombs as the enemy of self-fulfillment. But even this is not enough. YEARS OF PLAYING THE PART OF A MAN HARDENS A WOMAN. It trains women to find identity in the corporation, not the home. It teaches them to be uncomfortable around children and large families - the mere presence of which is a reminder of the antithesis between God's design for womankind and the norms of post-Christian societies.

BUT WOMEN ARE NOT THE ONLY ONES WITH SEARED CONSCIENCES. MEN HAVE THEM TOO. Consider that fifty years ago a man would have winced to think of female soldiers heading into combat. TODAY'S MAN HAS A SEARED CONSCIENCE. He no longer thinks of himself as a protector of motherhood, and a defender of womankind. HE HAS LOST HIS MANHOOD. This is why the attack on motherhood has produced a nation of eunuchs - socially and spiritually impotent MEN WHO HAVE LITTLE CAPACITY TO LEAD.

Delays in delivering relief to the victims, the inaccessibility of the stricken areas and the poor state of Burma's infrastructure and health systems mean that number is sure to rise. With as many as 1 million people still at risk, IT IS CONCEIVABLE THAT THE DEATH TOLL WILL, WITHIN DAYS, APPROACH THAT OF THE ENTIRE NUMBER OF CIVILIANS KILLED IN THE GENOCIDE IN DARFUR.

SO WHAT IS THE WORLD DOING ABOUT IT? NOT MUCH. The military regime that runs Burma initially signaled it would accept outside relief, but has imposed so many conditions on those who would actually deliver it that barely a trickle has made it through. Aid workers have been held at airports. U.N. food shipments have been seized. U.S. naval ships packed with food and medicine idle in the Gulf of Thailand, waiting for an all-clear that may never come.

Burma's rulers have relented slightly, agreeing Friday to let in supplies and perhaps even some foreign relief workers. The government says it will allow a US C-130 transport plane to land inside Burma Monday. But it's hard to imagine a regime this insular and paranoid accepting robust aid from the U.S. military, let alone agreeing to the presence of U.S. Marines on Burmese soil - as Thailand and Indonesia did after the tsunami. The trouble is that the Burmese haven't shown the ability or willingness to deploy the kind of assets needed to deal with a calamity of this scale - and the longer Burma resists offers of help, the more likely it is that the disaster will devolve beyond anyone's control.

"We're in 2008, not 1908," says Jan Egeland, the former U.N. emergency relief coordinator. "A lot is at stake here. If we let them get away with murder we may set a very dangerous precedent." THAT'S WHY IT'S TIME TO CONSIDER A MORE SERIOUS OPTION: INVADING BURMA. Some observers, including former USAID director Andrew Natsios, have called on the U.S. to unilaterally begin air drops to the Burmese people regardless of what the junta says.

Calls for his resignation came from left, right and center although all acknowledged that by vowing, as he did Thursday night, to resign if charged, Olmert had won himself time. The investigation will probably take another month or two. "The public doesn't have too much more patience," Colette Avital, a member of Parliament from the Labor Party, a partner in the governing coalition with Olmert's Kadima party, asserted in a typical comment. "He is simply discredited. It may take some more weeks or even months, but he won't be able to go on."

But this inquiry is widely viewed as the most serious, involving allegations that hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes were passed to him by a New York businessman, Morris Talansky, over the course of a decade. Olmert said that they were legal campaign contributions and that his name would be cleared.

Numerous analysts argued that Israel's intense security challenges could not effectively be met by a leader benefiting from such low public confidence. Peace negotiations with the Palestinians, a process that President George W. Bush is hoping to bolster by coming here next week, and moves toward Syria require hard decisions, especially in the wake of the violent Hezbollah takeover of parts of Beirut on Friday.

Now a window has been opened on faith and religion in a country where six decades of Communist philosophy and rule might seem to have pushed those subjects into obscurity. In a recent report the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has analyzed available surveys, some a few years old, and concluded that 31 PERCENT OF THE CHINESE POPULATION CONSIDERS RELIGION TO BE VERY OR SOMEWHAT IMPORTANT IN THEIR LIVES, with only 11 percent rating it as meaningless. Even the exact STARTING TIME OF THE SUMMER OLYMPICS IS ROOTED IN CONFUCIANISM and Chinese folk religions, the report adds, where the numeral 8 is revered for its luck and power. The games will start on the 8th day of the 8th month of '08 at precisely 8 minutes and 8 seconds past 8 o'clock.

This does not mean that religious affiliation is high in China. Only one in five adults has an active connection, the report says, with one of the country's five major religions - Buddhism (by far the largest single group), Protestantism, Catholicism, Islam and Taoism. That compares to 8 in every 10 adults in the United States who claim a religious affiliation. But a recent report from East China Normal University in Shanghai appearing in state-approved media said that about 300 million Chinese over 16 - slightly less than a third of the population in that age group - are religious, perhaps indicating the government has given recognition to the depth of religious sentiment.

The question is whether China's modernization brought about by its economic engine will bring religion into society in a bigger way. The report notes that Hu Jintao, general secretary of the country's Communist Party, earlier this year told the Chinese Politburo the leadership should try to "CLOSELY UNITE RELIGIOUS FIGURES AND BELIEVERS to build an all-around prosperous society while quickening the pace toward the modernization of socialism."

Swedish new site Europaportalen has an interview with EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel ahead of the Commission's "health check" of the Common Agricultural Policy, which will be published on 20 May. ON THE QUESTION OF THE SURGE IN FOOD PRICES, SHE SAYS, "ISN'T THAT GREAT! Do you know what, prices have fallen for 20 years straight. In Denmark, the average family spends 10% of their income on food - they spend more money on their kitchens. So yes, I'm really happy that prices are going up."

She also "completely discards" the notion that biofuels are behind the global surge in food prices. "THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR IS THE CLIMATE", SHE SAYS, ADDING THAT FARMERS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES MAY IN FACT BENEFIT FROM HIGHER PRICES.

It notes: "It is common to hear that A NO VOTE IN A SMALL COUNTRY CANNOT BE PERMITTED TO INTERFERE WITH THE SMOOTH RUNNING OF THE EU", but that, "It would be absurd to punish Ireland for voting No. The Irish government is the only one in the EU to have called a referendum on Lisbon. IF THEY WERE HONEST, THE 26 OTHERS WOULD ADMIT THAT THEY WOULD STRUGGLE TO SECURE A YES VOTE, TOO", noting that THE LISBON TREATY IS MERELY A REPACKAGED VERSION OF THE CONSTITUTION SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED TO AVOID REFERENDUMS.

It concludes: "The pro-Lisbon camp faces a dilemma. Hinting that voters will suffer if they reject Lisbon is an obvious way to boost turnout - and a high turnout is key to securing a Yes. But it is hardly a positive argument. True friends do not become pariahs just because they disagree with you. IF NOBODY CAN FIND MORE CONVINCING ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR OF THE LISBON TREATY, THE EU AS A WHOLE MAY YET FIND ITSELF WHISTLING IN THE DARK."

A U.N. official said MYANMAR'S JUNTA HAS CONFISCATED ALL THE FOOD AND EQUIPMENT that the World Food Program had flown into the country for cyclone victims. WFP spokesman Paul Risley said Friday that the WFP "has no choice" but to suspend further aid shipments until the matter is resolved. Risley said all "the food aid and equipment that we managed to get in has been confiscated." The shipment included 38 tons of high-energy biscuits.

Risley said it is not clear why the material was seized. It was also not clear if the shipment seized was the one that was flown in Thursday or another one. Earlier Friday, the U.N. blasted Myanmar's military government, saying ITS REFUSAL TO LET IN FOREIGN AID WORKERS TO HELP VICTIMS OF A DEVASTATING CYCLONE WAS "UNPRECEDENTED" IN THE HISTORY OF HUMANITARIAN WORK.

While the junta dithered and appeared overwhelmed by Saturday's disaster - the worst in the country's records - MORE THAN 1 MILLION HOMELESS PEOPLE WAITED FOR FOOD, SHELTER AND MEDICINE, many crammed in Buddhist monasteries or just camped in the open.

Ban says it will "STUDY THE ROOT CAUSES OF THE CRISIS," AND PROPOSE SOLUTIONS FOR "COORDINATED GLOBAL ACTION" at a summit of world leaders in June. Ban might want to consider CONVINCING THE OIL-RICH NATIONS OF THE MIDDLE EAST TO PROVIDE MORE THAN THE NEAR-INVISIBLE AMOUNT OF MONEY THEY CURRENTLY GIVE to the World Food Program (WFP), the U.N.'s food-giving arm, which is charged with alleviating the food crisis.

WFP internal documents show that the major oil producing nations of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) GIVES ALMOST NOTHING TO THE FOOD ORGANIZATION, even as skyrocketing oil prices and swollen oil revenues contribute to the very crisis that the U.N. claims could soon add 100 million more people to the world's starving masses.

THE OVERWHELMING BULK OF THE BURDEN IN FEEDING THE WORLD'S STARVING POOR REMAINS WITH THE UNITED STATES AND A SMALL GROUP OF OTHER PREDOMINATELY WESTERN NATIONS, a situation that the WFP has done little so far to change, even as it has asked for another $775 million in donations to ease the crisis. Saudi Arabia, with oil revenues last year of $164 billion, does not even appear on the website donor list for 2008.

It is reported that Peter Struck, the SPD parliamentary group leader and a former Defence Minister, proposed that the common European army should consist of a "combined military", and called for an EU air transport command, a "real" ministerial defence council and the creation of an EU military academy.

The article quotes Hennign Riecke, Head of the European Foreign and Security Policy at the German Council on Foreign Relations, saying that the move towards a combined military SHOULD BE LABELLED AS A PROCESS OF SLOW MILITARY INTEGRATION, with new institutions created that lead to an organic growth toward a common army, IN ORDER TO AVOID RESISTANCE IN SOME MEMBER STATES.

The article also notes that "The EU reform treaty appears to be heading in this direction when it specifies that member states will cooperate to 'take concrete measures to enhance the availability, interoperability, flexibility and deployability of their forces.'"

The Russian leadership has decided to revive the Communist-era custom of featuring military hardware in the annual Victory Day parade. New President Dmitry Medvedev said the army and navy were getting stronger.
Observers say the point of the parade was to demonstrate that Russia is a serious military force. THE KREMLIN INSISTS THE EVENT, WHICH MARKS THE DEFEAT OF NAZI GERMANY IN 1945, IS NOT MEANT TO THREATEN ANYONE.

Marching bands and 8,000 troops goose-stepped across Red Square, and heavy weapons such as Topol-M ballistic missiles and T-90 tanks were on display. The cobbles of Red Square had been reinforced, in advance of the parade, to cope with the tanks and other heavy weaponry.

But analysts say that despite these signs of military might, there is evidence of the Russian army and navy suffering from lack of money, a shortage of training, and low morale. The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Moscow says conscripts in the army can be subjected to shocking brutality. Last year 450 conscripts died from beatings or suicide.

The foreign ministry said Burma was happy to accept aid, but insisted it would control the distribution itself. The statement follows pressure from the United Nations to speed up the issuing of visas to foreign relief experts. The World Food Programme's Paul Risley said the delays were "unprecedented in modern humanitarian relief efforts".

Dozens of aid experts are reported to be waiting for visas in neighbouring Thailand. The UN says that up to 1.5 million people may have been affected by Cyclone Nargis, which devastated the Irrawaddy Delta region on Saturday. Burmese state media say 22,980 people were killed, but there are fears the figure could rise to 100,000.

Hundreds of thousands of people have no food, water or shelter. International aid agencies on the ground say they have reached only 10% of those that need help. In a statement, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the junta to prioritise the aid effort over tomorrow's nationwide referendum on a widely-criticised new constitution. It would be "prudent to focus instead on mobilising all available resources and capacity for the emergency response efforts", he said.

Vikram Pandit, the chief executive, will face investors to announce his turnaround plan for the bank, and is expected to reaffirm his pledge to cut annual expenses at Citigroup by about 20 per cent. Although Citigroup, the largest US bank, has already announced plans to boost its position by offloading assets, SOME ANALYSTS SEE THE SCALE OF THIS POTENTIAL SALE AS CONCERNING.

Jim Huguet, the co-chief executive at the fund manager Great Companies LLC, told Reuters: "THE ONLY REASON YOU'D SELL OFF THAT MANY ASSETS IS YOU HAVE A LOT MORE LOSSES COMING THAN YOU ORIGINALLY THOUGHT."

Citigroup was one of the worst-hit casualties of the credit crunch. Last month it announced a $5.11 billion loss for the first quarter, and its sub-prime related losses and writedowns stand at more than $45 billion. Mr Pandit's predecessor, Charles Prince, was forced to resign in November as the scale of the bank's exposure to the crunch became clear.

The airline has instead switched to a fish pie or chicken dish option for the so-called "cattle class" passengers. BA's second-biggest long-haul market is to India, where the majority Hindu population do not eat beef because of their beliefs. Yet Hindus are tolerant of the beliefs of others and do not expect everyone to stop eating a food because they do not eat it.

In the past three months world beef prices have risen from about £2,500 a tonne to more than £4,000 a tonne, largely because of the weakening dollar and rising feed costs. BA also said that cost is not a reason for the decision to stop serving beef

A proposal drafted by the Ministry of Agriculture would make SUPPORTING OFFSHORE LAND ACQUISITION BY DOMESTIC AGRICULTURAL COMPANIES A CENTRAL GOVERNMENT POLICY. Beijing already has similar policies to boost offshore investment by state-owned banks, manufacturers and oil companies, but offshore agricultural investment has so far been limited to a few small projects.

If approved, the plan could face intense opposition abroad given surging global food prices and deforestation fears. However an official close to the deliberations said it was likely to be adopted. "There should be no problem for this policy to be approved. THE PROBLEM MIGHT COME FROM FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS WHO ARE UNWILLING TO GIVE UP LARGE AREAS OF LAND," the official said.

The move comes as oil-rich but food-poor countries in the Middle East and north Africa explore similar options. Libya is talking with Ukraine about growing wheat in the former Soviet republic, while Saudi Arabia has said it would invest in agricultural and livestock projects abroad to ensure food security and control commodity prices. China is losing its ability to be self-sufficient in food as its rising wealth triggers a shift away from diet staples such as rice towards meat, which requires large amounts of imported feed. CHINA HAS ABOUT 40 PER CENT OF THE WORLD'S FARMERS BUT JUST 9 PER CENT OF THE WORLD'S ARABLE LAND.

China alarmed the world in January 2007 by using a missile to shoot down one of its own disused satellites, demonstrating its burgeoning prowess in space and military hardware. Pacifist Japan's space scientists complain that separation of space development from the military under a policy maintained since 1969 is one reason why its own technological progress has been slower.

Unlike China, Japan has never attempted a manned space flight. Tokyo's spy satellites, launched to keep an eye on neighboring North Korea and controlled by a government department, provide far poorer resolution than other governments' military satellites. The new law would allow Japan's military to launch its own surveillance satellites and an early-warning satellite as part of the missile defense system it is building in cooperation with its top ally the United States, the Asahi newspaper said on Friday.