An arch-conservative cardinal chosen by the Pope to deliver this year's Lenten meditations to the Vatican hierarchy has caused consternation by giving warning of an Antichrist who is a pacifist, ecologist and ecumenist. Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, 78, who retired as Archbishop of Bologna three years ago, quoted Vladimir Solovyov (1853-1900), the Russian philosopher and mystic, as predicting that the Antichrist will convoke an ecumenical council and seek the consensus of all the Christian confessions. The masses would follow the Antichrist, with the exception of small groups of Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants who would fight to prevent the watering down and ultimate destruction of the faith, he said.
A Member of Sanhedrin says sacrifices 'were not possible when the people of Israel were in the Diaspora, but now they are. Jerusalem Temple should be rebuilt, Israeli government standing in our way'
Animal sacrifices should be renewed on the Temple Mount, a member of the radical Sanhedrin organization said. In ancient Israel and Judea, the Sanhedrin served as the highest court in the land, and was made up of 71 top judges. Now, a group of fringe rabbis say they have reformed the group, although the organization has received no recognition from Israel's official religious authorities.
The Bush administration will be taking a massive gamble if it presses ahead with plans to attend a regional conference on the future of Iraq later this month. There have been repeated calls most recently by former US secretary of state James Baker's Iraq Study Group last December for Washington to have a constructive dialogue with the despotic regimes that currently hold sway over Iran and Syria. But President George W Bush has steadfastly refused to deal with either country on the grounds that they continue to support international terrorism and have contributed significantly to creating the chaotic security situation that currently prevails in Iraq.
The Syrians have done next to nothing to prevent thousands of would-be suicide bombers and Sunni sympathisers from crossing into Iraq while the evidence of Iranian complicity in Shia Muslim terrorist activity in southern Iraq grows stronger by the day. No one at the White House suffers any illusions that Syria and Iran, stalwart allies in sabotaging American interests in the Middle East, have anything but contempt for the US-led coalition's attempts to transform Iraq from its former failed state status into a functioning democracy.
Just six weeks before last Saturday's terrorist atrocity in Bali, in a jail cell in Jakarta, I interviewed Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), al-Qa'eda's main ally in the region, and the group on which western attention is focused in the hunt for culprits.
Bashir was celebrating the news that an Indonesian court had agreed to reduce his 30-month sentence for conspiracy in the 2002 Bali bombings by more than four months, meaning that he will soon walk free.
Ever since the first bombings, in which 202 people died, Indonesian authorities have been woolly in their response to terrorism for fear of alienating a largely anti-American population. Nothing illustrates this better than the appeal court's judgment on Bashir's early release - they took the decision even though he was implicated in a JI plot to overthrow Indonesia's previous government, and despite independent testimony from senior JI operatives in custody that he had approved the 2002 bombings.
At 66, Bashir is a lanky, bespectacled Hadrami, who, like Osama Bin Laden, traces his family back to the Hadramawt region of Yemen. Surrounded by acolytes - including known JI bombers - serving him dates, he answered questions with a strong voice and easy laugh. As Bali recovers, SCOTT ATRAN gets a lesson in global relations from a jailed Muslim leader.
An elite team of officers advising the US commander, General David Petraeus, in Baghdad has concluded that they have six months to win the war in Iraq - or face a Vietnam-style collapse in political and public support that could force the military into a hasty retreat. The officers - combat veterans who are experts in counter-insurgency - are charged with implementing the "new way forward" strategy announced by George Bush on January 10. The plan includes a controversial "surge" of 21,500 additional American troops to establish security in the Iraqi capital and Anbar province.
QUETTA, Pakistan, Feb 28: Lawyers and journalists on Wednesday held the government responsible for growing lawlessness in the province owing to which precious lives were lost in suicide attacks and bomb blasts. Speaking at a condolence reference held at the press club for victims of the February 17 tragic incident, the speakers said the terrorists could be defeated through national unity. They condemned the suicide attack in a courtroom in which 17 people, including a senior judge, had been killed and many others suffered injuries.
Honeybees are vanishing at an alarming rate from 24 US states, threatening the production of numerous crops. The cause of the losses, which range from 30% to more than 70%, are a mystery, but experts are investigating several theories. American bee colonies have been hit by regional crises before, but keepers say this is the first national crisis. Bees pollinate more than $14bn (£7bn) worth of US seeds and crops each year, mostly fruits, vegetables and nuts.
Severe water shortages are likely to constrain future expansion of population, agriculture and industry in the south-western US, the fastest growing part of the country, according to a report by the National Academy of Sciences. The study focused on the Colorado River, which supplies water to about 25m people and millions of acres of farmland in seven states. It concluded that droughts would be longer and more serious than had been previously assumed.
Current Colorado water use policies ? and the way water is allocated between competing users in the seven states ? are based on measurements of river flow during the early 20th century. However, conditions then, which were thought until recently to be "normal", were in fact unusually wet when seen from a long-term historical perspective.
Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned Monday that the American economy might slip into recession by year's end. He said the U.S. economy has been expanding since 2001 and that there are signs the current economic cycle is coming to an end."When you get this far away from a recession invariably forces build up for the next recession, and indeed we are beginning to see that sign," Greenspan said via satellite link to a business conference in Hong Kong. "For example in the U.S., profit margins ... have begun to stabilize, which is an early sign we are in the later stages of a cycle."
Iran is anticipating a U.S. or Israeli military strike on its nuclear facilities and has been providing Palestinian terrorists and other regional allies with contingency plans for attacks against the Jewish state and American regional interests in the event of war, according to Palestinian terrorist leaders. A senior leader of the Islamic Jihad terror group, which Israel says is backed by Iran, told WND Tehran is expecting to be attacked, but he didn't provide a time frame in which Iran anticipates a strike. He claimed during any attack his organization has been directed by Iran to "wreak havoc" on Israel with suicide bombings, rocket attacks and "special surprises." He said rocket attacks would be launched from both the Gaza Strip and from the West Bank, which borders Jerusalem.
SOME of America's most senior military commanders are prepared to resign if the White House orders a military strike against Iran, according to highly placed defence and intelligence sources. Tension in the Gulf region has raised fears that an attack on Iran is becoming increasingly likely before President George Bush leaves office. The Sunday Times has learnt that up to five generals and admirals are willing to resign rather than approve what they consider would be a reckless attack.
German authorities who sent 15 uniformed police officers to take custody of a 15-year-old girl who committed the crime of being homeschooled now have suggested a solution that, in their minds, would "resolve" the situation: the parents should give up custody of their other five children. The situation involving Melissa Busekros has been in the headlines ever since the beginning of this month, when the officers arrived at her parents' home with a court order allowing them to take her into custody, "if necessary by force."
Panic has begun to sweep the sub-prime mortgage sector in the United States after the bankruptcy of 22 lenders over the past two months, setting off mass liquidation of housing loans packaged as securities.
The rapid deterioration could not come at a worse time for British bank HSBC, which has set aside $10.5bn (£5.4bn) to cover bad loans in the US. The cost of insuring against default on these loans has rocketed in recent weeks, from 50 basis points over Libor to 1,200, raising fears that a credit crunch could spread to the rest of the property market. Peter Schiff, head of Euro Pacific Capital, said the sector was in an unstoppable meltdown. "It's a self-perpetuating spiral: as sub-prime companies tighten lending they create even more defaults," he said.
A federal judge in Massachusetts has ordered the "gay" agenda taught to Christians who attend a public school in Massachusetts, finding that they need the teachings to be "engaged and productive citizens."
U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf yesterday dismissed a civil rights lawsuit brought by David Parker, ordering that it is reasonable, indeed there is an obligation, for public schools to teach young children to accept and endorse homosexuality. Wolf essentially adopted the reasoning in a brief submitted by a number of homosexual-advocacy groups, who said "the rights of religious freedom and parental control over the upbringing of children would undermine teaching and learning"
Illegal aliens are killing more Americans than the Iraq war, says a new report from Family Security Matters that estimates some 2,158 murders are committed every year by illegal aliens in the U.S. The group says that number is more than 15 percent of all the murders reported by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the U.S. and about three times the representation of illegal aliens in the general population.
Mike Cutler, a former senior special agent with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service says the high number of Americans being killed by illegal aliens is just part of the collateral damage that comes with tolerating illegal immigration.