CNN playing Word Omission Games in Honor Killing case
CNN is apparently willing to include the words “honor killing” and “conservative Afghan” in its news reports but is unwilling to say that the honor killing was mandated by Islamic teachings or even mention that the murderers were Muslims. Instead, the word “conservative” has the effect of comparing such nasty people with the Christian right in America.
The most tragically ironic aspect of this story is that the man who murdered his daughters and tried to cover it up, said that he killed them because they “betrayed kindness.”
This CNN news report is a must-see for the network’s bias. It fits right in line with the network’s history of running interference for Islamists.
2011 Strategic Perspectives
VI Conference Coeur d' Alene
Idaho
Description
5 DVD Set
Run Time 9.5 Hours
•John Loeffler -
Critical Thinking in
a World of Deceit.
•James Puplava - The
Impending Financial
Implosion
•Steve Elwart -
Behind the Curtain:
Geopolitics at the
End Times.
•Willian Welty -
When Life
Isn't
Linear.
•Chuck Missler -
America's Challenge.
•Tom Horn -
Pandemonium's
Engine.
•Jerome Corsi -
Obama and the
Deception.
•Joseph Farah - The
Age of Lawlessness.
•Walid Shoebat -
Turkey and the Arab
Spring.
(MYFOXTWINCITIES) — NEW ULM, Minn. – A few weeks ago, rape tag was a game no school official or parent in New Ulm, Minn. had ever heard of. After some swift action, it’s game they don’t expect to see elementary school students playing again.
Last month, a parent alerted Washington Elementary principal Bill Sprung to the game being played by a handful of fifth grade students. Sprung told KEYC-TV in Mankato he took swift action to put an end to the game, alerting recess supervisors and having teachers speak to their students.
The school said rape tag is game similar to freeze tag, but players use a hip thrust to unfreeze a tagged player.
(USNEWS.MSNBC.MSN) — Adam Bevelacqua graduated from Brooklyn Law School last year with $100,000 in debt but high hopes for his future.
He passed the bar on his first try in New York and had internships to highlight on his resume. And, according to his research, the school’s job placement rate for new graduates was between 90 to 95 percent.
But Bevelacqua, 29, is no longer as optimistic.
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“I’ve been looking for work ever since,” Bevelacqua told msnbc.com. “The jobs aren’t really there.”
On Wednesday, Bevelacqua joined 50 other law school graduates from across the country who sued their alma maters, alleging they were misled about job prospects and burdened with huge amounts of student debt.
(Winston-Salem Journal) — Prayer is coming back to meetings of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, although there will be no mention of Jesus.
At the same time, the American Civil Liberties Union is trying to stop prayers before sessions of the North Carolina General Assembly that are “explicitly sectarian and favor only one religion, Christianity,” according to a letter sent from ACLU attorney Katherine Parker to N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper on Thursday.
Forsyth County commissioners decided on Thursday that they will personally lead non-sectarian prayers at the start of future meetings, although board members will have the choice of offering a moment of silence or not praying at all.
(BAPTISTSTANDARD) — Western Christians often think in terms of West-to-East movement when missionaries go to other countries. But more and more frequently, evangelicals arrive from the East to evangelize the West.
According to Dale Irvin of New York Theological Seminary and Scott Temple of the Assemblies of God, evangelicals make up the majority of those missionaries, although some come from among Roman Catholics and mainline Protestant denominations.
Missionaries tend to come from the Global South, particularly from Africa, Asia and Latin America. Some also are branching out from Eastern Europe.
WASHINGTON – He would be 101 years old tomorrow – if only he were still with us.
He may be gone, but he’s hardly forgotten.
In fact, you will hear his name mentioned frequently in the Republican presidential debates. There’s one thing all the candidates agree on – they all want to portray themselves as Ronald Reagan.
Mitt Romney won the Nevada caucuses on Saturday, capping a pivotal week that saw him regain his front-runner status on the strength of a hard-fought win in Florida.
The Associated Press called the race for Mr. Romney. Second place remained too close to call, with Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul in contention.
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
Editor’s note:Do you need something to smile about? Every day, WND selects the best joke offered up by readers and contributors to its Laughlines forum and brings it to you as the WND Joke of the Day. Here is today’s offering:
Two daughers were discussing the attributes they inherited from their father.
The older one: I hate my freckles from Dad.
Her sister: At least you got his freckles, I got his eyebrow.
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., says he’s “disappointed” that though he was very willing to engage in a nationally televised debate on global warming, the man who challenged him to the debate has now backed out.
Late last year, political activist and former Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader challenged Inhofe, the ranking Republican of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and a leading skeptic of allegedly man-made global warming, to debate the topic with climate-change champion Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass.
“For the past decade, I have been reading about your description of the global warming assertions by scientists as ‘one of the greatest hoaxes’ ever perpetrated,” Nader wrote in a Dec. 12 letter to Inhofe. “Clearly you are a man of your convictions on this subject. Just as clearly, Rep. Ed Markey is a man of his convictions on this topic.
“So, what about your first real public debate with a fellow member of Congress on this topic?” Nader suggested. “People I know in Oklahoma say that you do not run away from challenges and challengers to your beliefs.”
Indeed, Inhofe did not run away from the debate challenge, but accepted it almost immediately, offering dates that might fit into his schedule.
But earlier this week, Nader sent Inhofe a letter backing out of any involvement in the debate itself.
“The rest is up to you, Representative Markey, and your respective staffs to work out the details,” Nader wrote.
Katherine Raymond, an assistant to the veteran activist, told Oklahoma’s Tulsa World, “Ralph won’t be doing anything further on this, it appears.”
In his original acceptance letter, Inhofe reiterated his criticism of the science and politics behind the international global warming scare.
“You were right to say in your letter that just as I remain committed to fighting against ‘the greatest hoax,’ Representative Markey is ‘a man of his convictions,’” Inhofe wrote to Nader. “This debate is most welcome.”
He continued, “We need to be talking about global warming because President Obama is moving full speed ahead to implement the largest tax increase in American history through global warming regulations by the Environmental Protection Agency. This is despite the fact that these regulations are based on the now thoroughly discredited science of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and both the president and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson have warned that EPA regulations would be even worse economically than cap-and-trade legislation.”
Inhofe concluded, “We handily won the debate on cap-and-trade legislation, so now our fight is to stop President Obama from achieving through regulations what he could not achieve through legislation. This debate will be a great opportunity to shine the light on the president’s job-killing global warming agenda.”
Rep. Markey spokesperson Eben Burnham-Snyder also offered a preview to the debate by telling Politico, “Congressman Markey would gladly discuss with Sen. Inhofe the over 100 years of science that proves carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants are raising the temperature of the earth and changing the chemistry of the oceans.”
And even though Nader has stepped out of involvement, Inhofe is still working to schedule the debate, with or without Nader’s help, though the activist is still welcome to attend.
“I really appreciate your suggestion that Representative Markey and I debate,” Inhofe wrote to Nader. “Under the radar, [President Obama's] global warming agenda is alive and well – he is working aggressively to destroy oil, gas and coal as his administration goes full speed ahead enacting the most extreme, job-killing regulatory agenda in American history. Anyone who takes him at his word that he wants an ‘all-of-the-above’ approach to energy development need look no farther than his Keystone pipeline decision, in which he sided with his radical environmental friends instead of the majority of the American people who want the tens of thousands of jobs and the energy security that the pipeline would bring. One of the global warming movement’s main leaders said that the president’s Keystone decision was the biggest climate ‘victory’ in years.
“This debate will be an excellent opportunity to sound the alarm about President Obama’s destructive global warming agenda,” Inhofe concluded.
Patti Garibay, executive director of American Heritage Girls
Campfire stories, square knots and merit badges have been a part of Patti Garibay’s life since she can remember. She donned her first uniform as a Brownie in a troop led by her mother, and her school years revolved around the Girl Scouts of the USA.
Garibay, executive director of American Heritage Girls and co-founder of the organization, told WND, “I loved it. I worked hard to earn my badges, and I especially enjoyed the outdoor camping activities.”
She spent nearly two decades in Girl Scouts – six years as a girl member and 13 years as a troop leader in Cincinnati, Ohio. Garibay was also a recruiter, camp coordinator and area delegate, winning awards for outstanding leader and volunteer in both councils in which she served.
In Garibay’s words, she “bled green.”
“I had three daughters, so I was very involved,” she said.
In 1993, Garibay learned of the organization’s plans to revise the Girl Scout Promise as part of efforts to recruit members who did not embrace a Judeo-Christian concept of God. Under the new policy, the word “God” was no longer mandatory.
While the Girl Scouts retained the official wording, the pledge would allow “spiritual flexibility,” or simply the promise to serve. Garibay, a Christian, challenged the new policy. She expressed her concerns through the chain of command, but said her pleas went unheeded, despite her status within the organization.
“Where is God in all this?” Garibay wondered. In her heart, she knew biblical values were integral to any group that emphasized character development.
That year, delegates to the national convention voted 1,560 to 375 to revise the pledge, which reads: “On my honor, I will try to serve God and my country, to help people at all times, and to live by the Girl Scout Law.”
Girl Scouts of the USA makes no attempt to define or interpret the word “God” in the Girl Scout Promise. It looks to individual members to establish for themselves the nature of their spiritual beliefs. When making the Girl Scout Promise, individuals may substitute wording appropriate to their own spiritual beliefs for the word “God.”
More policy changes to promote “diversity” followed revisions to the pledge. When mandatory training for scout leaders promoted the acceptance of homosexuality as normal, Garibay found herself faced with a dilemma of “biblical” proportions.
“It was like a Pandora’s Box being opened,” she said.
After much soul-searching, she quit the Girl Scouts, even though it was part of her personal ministry. She called a meeting with other parents, who recognized the need for a Christ-centered alternative for their daughters. They began searching for an acceptable surrogate to organizations they viewed as increasingly secular. Their search came up empty.
“Rather than curse the darkness, I was encouraged to light a candle and start something new,” Garibay explained.
“We started a little club to honor God,” Garibay said. “Before we knew it, people from California were calling us.”
What makes American Heritage Girls different?
“Faith, service, fun,” Garibay said. “Faith is our first name.”
AHG embraces faith as the cornerstone of a young woman’s life and scouts are encouraged to find their empowerment through Christ.
Miki, an AHG troop leader in Kentucky, said, “In a world where values, morals and character seem to defy Him more and more, AHG is an affordable program that will impact girls’ hearts and lives forever. If only we had this program, consider how our lives would and could have been different!”
AHG’s mission is to enrich the lives of girls through dedication to service, spiritual growth, servant leadership, goal setting, teamwork and purity. American Heritage Girls are encouraged to maintain their purity in thought, word and dress.
Ann, a former AHG scout who is serving in the U.S. Army, said, “Service is perhaps one of the most significant things I learned in AHG.
“My troop participated in many, many service projects. I really enjoyed serving others, which grew into my decision to serve the country. Christ also calls us to be servants.”
AHG troops can be chartered by a variety of organizations, churches, schools or nonprofits. The girls meet for fun, service projects and leadership-building activities. They can pursue more than 240 age-appropriate badges and outdoor activities. Individual troops conduct fundraising through Christ-centered vendors.
“Girls of all ages can be in one troop,” Garibay explained. “Older girls can teach the younger girls and it also teaches leadership and mentoring skills.”
“I recommend American Heritage Girls enthusiastically to parents who want their daughters involved in a traditional Christian-based program that will reinforce what they are trying to teach at home,” he wrote in his book, “Bringing Up Girls.”
In 2009, AHG scored a coup when it became the only all-girls organization to partner with the Boys Scouts of America. Affiliated programs for both boys and girls offer an appealing combination for families. On Feb. 5, AHG will join the Boy Scouts to celebrate Scout Sunday in churches across the nation. In August, the group will spend a week networking at Philmont Scout Ranch, the BSA’s national high-adventure base in New Mexico. AHG has also entered into other valuable partnerships with Veggie Tales, Secret Keeper Girls, iShine, Compassion International, Operation Christmas Child and Joni and Friends.
Faith, a 12-year-old AHG scout, said, “My brother is in Boy Scouts, soccer and karate. I felt left out – but now I have friends in AHG. Friends that love God and understand what is important to me.”
As Girl Scouts becomes more secularized, American Heritage Girls is growing.
“Over 90 percent of the people who come to us have left the Girl Scouts,” Garibay noted. “We’re like the best kept secret.”
In the 16 short years since its inception, AHG boasts 18,000 members and has expanded to 45 states and four countries. It has become the fastest-growing all-girl scouting organization. According to the group, membership spiked by 50 percent last year. While AHG is a Christian group, it includes girls from all faiths.
Courtesy: Cincinnati Business Journal
Today, it is considered the premier faith-based national character development and leadership group for young women.
“Not only was this the answer to my prayer for guidance to develop my daughter into a woman of integrity but also a call for me to become more personal with my walk with the Lord,” said Stephanie, a troop leader in Virginia. “Even though we attend church and Sunday school weekly, there was still a need to be more purposeful in our weekday life. My walk with God has been much closer these past two years then it has been my entire Christian life. I am a witness that God has mightily blessed the founders’ efforts and continues to call His children of all ages closer to His heart.”
Garibay delights in the many blessings bestowed upon the girl members and the many “kitchen table parents” who “start a legacy in their communities by leading an AHG troop.”
She said the impact on the adult leaders is powerful and sums it up this way:
“To see the fruits of this labor has been a real blessing. This has almost become a ladies ministry – another fruit we didn’t anticipate. But when God’s in it, you never know!”
The American Heritage Girl Oath: “I promise to love God, cherish my family, honor my country, and serve in my community.”
Creed: “As an American Heritage Girl, I will be: Compassionate, Helpful, Honest, Loyal, Persevering, Pure, Resourceful, Respectful, Responsible, Reverent.”
For more information about AHG or to learn how to start a troop in your area:
American Heritage Girls
Box 242, West Chester, OH 45071
Email: ahg@americanheritagegirls.org AHGonline.org
BOSTON – Saudi Arabian authorities are adding sexual assault to their routine for processing prisoners when they are Christian women, according to a new report that is imploring the international community to pressure the restrictive Islamic nation on basic human rights.
International Christian Concern’s Jonathan Racho says the 35 women prisoners were arrested for meeting for a prayer time, and they are reporting that they were molested.
“The female prisoners have told us about how they were sexually harassed. When the Saudis arrested them, they knew the Ethiopians were Christians,” Racho said.
“They took off the women’s clothes and touched them. When the strip searching was going on, the officers were touching the women,” Racho said.
Racho adds that some of the details are graphic.
“They were using gloves to strip search and they were putting their fingers into their genitals,” Racho said.
“This is a very, very serious accusation of harassment and we want the international community to look into this,” Racho said. “The Saudis have to stop harassing these Christians.”
Racho adds that the treatment of the Christians is the opposite of Saudi public statements.
“The Saudis in the past have publicly said that they want religious tolerance and dialogue between the people of faith,” Racho said. “The Saudi king and the Saudi government have been very active in promoting peaceful existence and religious freedom.”
WND reported in December that Saudi authorities raided the mostly Ethiopian prayer meeting in Jeddah and charged all 35 with “Illicit Mingling.”
Members of the group were taken into custody and moved to an undisclosed location.
Racho says the Christians have been behind bars for over a month, but ICC is not content to let the incarceration continue.
“ICC has been working hard to highlight the plight of the Christian prisoners. We’ve been issuing press releases and asking our supporters to call the Saudi Embassy,” Racho said.
“We’ve been gathering petitions to ask the Saudi Arabian government to release the prisoners,” Racho said.
He also says his organization has spoken with members of Congress and to the State Department.
State Department spokeswomen Molly Lynn Westrate says the department has been pressuring the Saudi regime.
“Absolutely we have. We call on the Saudi government to recognize religious freedom and to permit private worship in individual’s homes,” Westrate said.
The Saudi government has not responded to WND’s request for an interview.
WND reported in January that Open Doors’ America’s “World Watch” puts Saudi Arabia as the third worst country for religious persecution. Muslim nations lead the pack.
Nine of the 10 worst nations for persecution of Christians are run essentially under Islamic law, and the “Arab Spring” across parts of northern African has led to a surge of repression, according to the global assessment.
“The top 10 in this year’s report are in order, North Korea, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Iran, the Maldives, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Iraq and Pakistan,” the story said.
Attorneys representing Arizona parents who “voluntarily” allowed their home to be searched by authorities after social workers used an anonymous tip to threaten to handcuff them and seize their five children, and then summoned deputies to do that, have asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on the controversy.
The couple sued after the confrontation at their Maricopa County home in 2005, and a district court judge ruled a reasonable person would believe their decision to allow social workers to search their home was coerced.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the most reversed court in the U.S., later said the search was proper.
“For 40 terrifying minutes, this homeschooling couple had asserted their Fourth Amendment right to be free from an unreasonable search of their home. The two investigative social workers were eventually joined by six uniformed sheriff’s deputies who were called because the social workers considered the Loudermilks to be ‘uncooperative,’” the HSLDA said in its description of the case.
But when the social workers “played their ace-in-the-hole,” warning, “If you don’t let us in immediately, we will take your children into state custody,” the HSLDA said, the Loudermilks were forced to allow the search.
The court filing explains that the still-anonymous tipster told authorities that there was a danger to the children in the new home, but social services took some two months to respond.
When social services responded, it essentially explained that it was an emergency because they decided it was an emergency.
“In the two months between receiving the anonymous report and arriving unannounced on the Loudermilks’ front porch, social services clearly never believed that the situation needed emergency intervention,” HSLDA asserted. “No one ever asked a judge for a court order. But when it came time for the social workers to complete their investigation, the family’s Fourth Amendment rights just got in the way.”
HSLDA pointed out that in 2010, state investigations intruded into the private lives of more than 3 million children across the U.S. But the organization contended that the incursions were unnecessary three out of four times.
“The Supreme Court of the United States has never taken a case involving the Fourth Amendment rights of families who are in the middle of a social services investigation at their home,” said Michael Farris, lead counsel in the case. “We think it is high time it does.”
According to the petition, the Loudermilks had been building their dream home in Arizona. They eventually obtained permission from the county to move in, even though there were minor projects to be finished.
One social worker in 2005 left a business card and later explained when the parents contact the office that there was an anonymous tip. A visit was scheduled for the social worker to investigate what allegedly was a “danger” to the children two months later.
However, the family consulted a lawyer who warned the county that the proper permission had been given – by the county – for the family to move in.
When social workers Rhonda Cash and Jenna Cramer appeared at the home unannounced some weeks later, they threatened to take the family’s five children.
“She (Cash) appeared to believe that her simple inability to determine the children’s living conditions was sufficient grounds for her to remove the children from their parents,” the petition explains. That’s even though the social workers were allowed to talk to the children to see that they were fine.
Nevertheless, the threats from Cash continued.
“Faced with unrelenting ultimatum that the officers would physically remove the children from the home unless they were admitted, together with a significant show of force, John felt that he had no option besides allowing the search of his home. He believed that he would be arrested and the children removed if he continued to refuse… Tiffany believed her children would be immediately removed from the home if she did not allow the social workers and officers to search her home.”
The ultimate search took only minutes and uncovered no issues, showing that the “tip” was wrong.
The HSLDA said other courts have required evidence of harm or a threat, or evidence that the children are at risk, in order to make such demands.
“In this case, the lead law enforcement officer concluded that there was no basis for suggesting that exigent circumstances existed which would support a warrantless entry,” the brief explains.
The result, the organization said, is that in the 9th Circuit now, “social workers can enter any family home whenever there is an anonymous tip containing a remote suggestion of a threat to a child’s safety.”
However, the judge said that under federal law, an anonymous tip “without more, does not constitute probable cause.”
Named as defendants are Deputies Joshua Ray, Joseph Sousa, Richard Gagnon and Michael Danner, social workers Rhonda Cash and Jenna Cramer, and Assistant Attorney General Julie Rhodes.
If Democrats have their way, California will join a growing number of states and municipalities who are curbing their cooperation with the Secure Communities program under the nation’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The new legislation to be offered this spring by Democratic State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano will follow in the footsteps of Cook County in Illinois, the state of New York, Santa Clara County, and San Francisco County. In each case, local governments passed legislation curbing their participation with Secure Communities.
The result is that illegal immigrants who are detained for minor infractions are not held in custody even if the federal government asks.
For 18 years, the Rev. William Rowe has done a little improvising while celebrating Mass on Sunday mornings at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Mount Carmel, Ill.
Now those deviations have led to his resignation in an incident that may be tied to global changes to the Catholic liturgy.
Last Sunday, instead of saying “Lord our God that we may honor you with all our mind and love everyone in truth of heart,” during the opening prayer, he altered the phrasing to better reflect the day’s Gospel message, in which Jesus heals a man with a troubled spirit.
“We thank you, God, for giving us Jesus who helped us to be healed in mind and heart and proclaim his love to others,” the 72-year-old priest prayed instead.
Three days later, Rowe received a letter from Bishop Edward Braxton accepting his resignation.
A deal was struck on Wednesday to save what could prove to be one of the richest treasure wrecks of all time.
Four years ago, in the depths of the English Channel, explorers found the remains of a legendary British warship that sank in 1744 and lost more than 1,000 men. But intruders disturbed the site, dragging and damaging some of the 44 bronze cannons visible on the sandy bottom and hauling one of them away.
The “supergiant amphipod”, which resembles a monster prawn, measures 10 times the normal size of related species.
It was found during an expedition to the Kermadec Trench north of New Zealand by scientists from the University of Aberdeen and Wellington’s NIWA marine research institute.
Good news: A team of scientists has discovered that we can predict super volcano eruptions “decades in advance.” Bad news: Another team of scientists has discovered that a volcano in Death Valley, California, “may explode at any time.”
The volcano is the Ubehebe, a large volcanic crater to the north of Death Valley. The team, led by Peri Sasnett of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University, have published a paper in Geophysicial Research Letters that shows that it may have been formed much earlier than previously thought. Using the same method used to date Moon rocks, Sasnett and his team have discovered that the last explosion occurred only 800 years ago, instead of the previous 10,000 year estimate.
Minnesota’s state health department has this week begun to destroy blood samples that are routinely collected to diagnose serious inherited and congenital diseases in newborn babies. It was compelled to do so by a state Supreme Court decision that such samples cannot not be stored or used for anything except diagnosis without the informed consent of the parents.
“We’re going to begin destroying a valuable public health resource, the residual blood spots from about 200 babies born in Minnesota each day,” said Edward Ehlinger, Minnesota’s health commissioner, in a press release on 31 January. He warned that the new policy “will compromise our ability to assure the quality and accuracy of the newborn screening program”. The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) will now actively ask parents for consent to store blood spots collected from infants who have been diagnosed with one of the 53 diseases tested for, and automatically destroy samples from children who have been given the all-clear.
There are 3,500 women in Iran officially registered as training to become ninjas, according to state-run Press TV. The network produced an exceptionally campy video report on the new trend — yes, that’s Michael Bay-style choral music you hear over the slow-motion action scenes — and some experts dispute whether ninjutsu is even a real martial art. The modern schools of Japan’s ancient ninjas didn’t emerge until the 1970s, and their classes look a lot like jujutsu plus acrobatics plus throwing stars. But the women in the video appear to take it quite seriously, and that’s the point.
BEIJING – There may be as many as 16 million women on the Chinese mainland who are married to homosexual men, a leading expert has estimated.
Professor Zhang Bei-chuan at Qingdao University, an authority on AIDS and HIV, says that due to traditional family values in China, about 90 percent of homosexual men get married because of pressure to conform.
“But their wives are struggling to cope and their plight should be recognized,” he said on Thursday.
The beeping of the mobile phone awoke Prof. Hod Lipson in the middle of the night. “We found the equation!” his research student, Michael Schmidt, announced. The equation Schmidt was referring to has been known to every physicist since the 19th century. It describes the Law of Conservation of Energy – not exactly an earthshaking discovery. Nevertheless, as Prof. Lipson laid his head of disheveled hair back on the pillow, he did so with a smile.
MOSCOW — Anti-government protesters managed to gather a third huge crowd in the center of Moscow on Saturday, undeterred by arctic, bitter cold or by the near certainty that Vladimir V. Putin will win a six-year presidential term next month.
This time, Russian authorities were prepared, organizing a simultaneous, and also huge, rally in defense of Mr. Putin. Speakers there issued dire warnings of the possible consequences of continued protest: revolution and the breakup of the country.
A 10-year-old Missouri girl may be the youngest in history to discover a new molecule after a brief introduction on molecular formation by her middle school science teacher.
Clara Lazen of Kansas City was piecing together over-sized atoms from an educational model in her Border Star Montessori School classroom when she composed something her teacher had never seen before.
‘I just saw that these go together more,’ Clara told Fox4 while holding up her molecule’s model. ‘Like, they fit more together and they look better. And all the holes have to be filled in for it to be stable.’
When Dorothy Twinney first saw a Race for the Cure walk for breast cancer — “a sea of pink” traveling through her hometown of Plymouth, Mich. — she was so moved she sat in her car and wept.
This week, after watching The Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer charity announce plans to cut funding to Planned Parenthood, then abandon those plans amid a public furor, Twinney decided she was done with the organization for which she raised thousands of dollars on three-day, 60-mile walks that left her feet bloodied and blistered, but her spirits high.
Sales of game foods such as venison, pheasant and partridge have soared with supermarkets, televisions chefs and top Scottish restaurants placing them at the top of their menus.
Marks & Spencer said its venison sales for the game season – which started on “the Glorious 12th” last August and ends this week – were up 340 ?per cent, while Tesco’s game sales have risen by 10 per cent. Waitrose said it has seen a 38 per cent rise in sales of woodpigeon this season.
Google started off the new year by announcing that they will be changing their privacy policies so that they can create more detailed profiles of their users. Starting March 1st, 2012, Google will combine information from user’s Gmail, Google Search history, YouTube, and other services. Prior to this change, Google profiled their users, but restricted the profile data use to the service from which the data was collected.
Because we have come to rely on web services so much in our day-to-day activities, it simply isn’t an option to stop using search, webmail, and social networking. But there are ways for heavy users to keep a low profile so that, should Google turn decidedly evil, you won’t be completely at their mercy. If you are concerned about the amount of information that Google knows about you for whatever reason, here are some techniques you can use to guard your privacy online.
NEW YORK — Outside the United Nations headquarters, hundreds of people were shouting and waving banners Tuesday that read “China and Russia – No Veto.” These people wanted support from the Security Council of the U.N. to oust the President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad.
Inside the U.N., another group of civil society leaders demanded a basic level of social security as they promoted a “social protection floor” at a preparatory forum for the Commission on Social Development, which began Feb. 1.
The focus of the forum was “universal access to basic social protection and social services.”
A rare mantle of snow blanketed the historic center of Rome Friday, forcing the closure of schools and tourist sites such as the Colosseum, as temperatures plunged to new lows in Europe where a week-long cold snap has now claimed more than 220 lives and forecasters warned that the big freeze would tighten its grip at the weekend.
The snow covered palm trees, ancient Roman ruins and Baroque churches across the normally mild-weather Italian capital which has only seen one snowfall in the past 15 years in which the snow stayed on the ground for a whole day.
As the only girl in her noisy classroom of 22 boys, Padma Kanwar Bhatti is one defiant symbol of the toll exacted by India’s deadly preference for male children.
Padma, 15, lives with her parents and two elder brothers in Devda, a village of 2,500 residents in the Rajasthan state district of Jaisalmer, which has one of the worst female sex ratios in the country.
“There is no other girl in my class and there are very few girls in our village,” she says hesitantly.
China’s Premier Wen Jiabao said Friday the Asian giant had neither the ability nor the intention to “buy Europe”, amid concerns over growing Chinese investment in debt-stricken Eurozone economies.
China is “willing to cooperate with Europe to fight the current crisis. Some people say this means China wants to buy Europe”, Wen told a German-China business forum in the southern city of Guangzhou.
“This a concern and doesn’t fit reality. China doesn’t have this intention and doesn’t have this ability.”
WASHINGTON — On a trip to Ireland in 1998, Speaker Newt Gingrich researched his Irish roots, discussed the prospects for peace in Northern Ireland and entertained speculation about his presidential ambitions. He even donned work gloves and blue jeans to help build a home in Belfast for a good-will project.
Two of the sponsors for part of the Ireland trip were frequent partners of Mr. Gingrich: Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae — the government-backed housing industry giants that Mr. Gingrich has denounced as he fights to stay in contention against Mitt Romney in the Republican primaries.
Ben Gazzara, an intense actor whose long career included playing Brick in the original “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” on Broadway, roles in influential films by John Cassavetes and work with several generations of top Hollywood directors, died on Friday in Manhattan. He was 81.
The cause was pancreatic cancer, his lawyer, Jay Julien, said. Mr. Gazzara lived in Manhattan.
JERUSALEM – According to a senior Egyptian security official speaking to WND, Iran offered China a deal to purchase oil at a cheaper price in exchange for vetoing a U.N. resolution today that called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to resign.
Assad’s regime has been facing a violent insurgency. The Syrian president’s security forces were accused of a massacre today shelling the insurgent stronghold of Homs, reportedly the bloodiest single day in the 11-month uprising.
Syrian officials, however, say well-armed Islamic extremists have been shooting at their forces and deliberately drawing retaliatory fire into civilian populations.
Russia and China torpedoed today’s resolution at the U.N. Security Council that endorsed an Arab League plan for Assad to hand power to a deputy to make way for a transition towards democracy.
Reuters reported that Russia complained the draft resolution was an improper and biased attempt at “regime change” in Syria, which is Moscow’s sole major Middle East ally, an important buyer of Russian arms exports and host to a Russian naval base.
Indeed, last month WND reported Russian military experts were inside Syria helping Assad’s regime face down the protests, including advising Syrian forces on how to quell rioting in Damascus and around the presidential compound.
WND also reported in December that Russian military technicians were in Syria to inspect the country’s missile and army installations amid Syrian fears a Turkish-backed NATO military campaign may try to target the Assad regime.
Meanwhile, President Obama today decried the “relentless brutality” of Assad’s regime, calling the reported killing of 200 people in Homs by government shelling an “unspeakable assault,” while urging Assad to step down.
Lost in much of the media reporting on events in Homs is Syria’s claim that eight of its security forces were killed as well as many so-called terrorists, who Syria says provoked the attack.
Syria further disputes the claim that over 200 civilians were killed.
A Syrian official told WND an “armed terrorist group” first attacked a security post in Palmyra, in the Homs countryside. The Syrian official also accused the purported terrorist group of targeting civilians, saying Syrian forces found and dismantled several explosive devices placed in civilian locations in and near Homs.
This tactic was actually confirmed by a leaked Arab League report, posted by the Anonymous group, which says Arab League monitors several times witnessed an “armed entity” provoking Syrian forces and placing civilian lives in danger.
The classified report states: “The Mission determined that there is an armed entity that is not mentioned in the protocol. … In some zones, this armed entity reacted by attacking Syrian security forces and citizens, causing the Government to respond with further violence. In the end, innocent citizens pay the price for those actions with life and limb.”
Las Vegas — Today’s Republican caucuses in Nevada differ from primary elections by requiring voters to devote a block of time to make their preferences known in a process that takes more time than just filling out a ballot.
There are also some unusual rules set this year by the GOP officials in the state, including:
HENDERSON, Nev. — Just before Mitt Romney took the stage in a shopping center parking lot here Friday evening amid palm trees and grocery carts, former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt rallied the crowd.
Describing how Romney turned around the scandal scarred 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Leavitt urged voters to support him in Saturday’s GOP caucus vote.
“Tomorrow we caucus and we send the message that we need Mitt Romney,” Leavitt said. “Nevada will send him on his way.”
Republican presidential front runner Mitt Romney reached for his second straight victory Saturday in quiet Nevada caucuses, a contest that Newt Gingrich and the rest of his rivals conceded in advance.
Unlike contentious earlier events from Iowa to Florida, this one featured little television advertising, no debates and a small investment of time by Romney, Gingrich, former Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul.
The majority of the Republican candidates are focused on the Nevada Republican caucuses Saturday, but Texas congressman Ron Paul’s campaign is also looking for a win in the Maine Republican caucuses.
The Maine Republican caucuses start Saturday February 4th, and last until February 11th. It is one of the only states where voting will occur over a seven day time period, and Mr. Paul is the only candidate to have conducted recent on the ground campaigning in Maine.
North Korea may have conducted two covert nuclear weapons tests in 2010, according to a fresh analysis of radioisotope data.
The claim has drawn skepticism from some nuclear-weapons experts. But if confirmed, the analysis would double the number of tests the country is known to have conducted and suggest that North Korea is trying to develop powerful warheads for its fledgling nuclear arsenal.
Reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar wrote to President Barack Obama last year indicating an interest in talks key to ending the war in Afghanistan, current and former US officials told The Associated Press.
The letter purportedly from Omar was unsigned.
It was passed through a Taliban intermediary in July and was intended for the White House.
As the rampant speculations that Israel will soon launch a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities continue, a report on NBC on Friday revealed what such an attack may look like.
The report, the main points of which were presented by Israel’s Channel 10 News, is based on conversations the American network held with current and former officials in Israel and the United States. The report suggests that an attack on Iran will combine air and ground faces but will not include naval forces.
Yesterday, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pledged to support any group that confronts the “cancer” Israel, in an address broadcast on state TV. “From now on, in any place, if any nation or any group confronts the Zionist regime, we will endorse and we will help,” he said. “We have no fear expressing this.” The speech comes following news that Defense Secretary Leon Pannetta believes Israel could strike Iran in the next few months. So what sort of groups might be on Ali Khamenei’s rolodex to “confront” Israel? To get a sense, we pinged a handful of foreign policy think-tanks here in Washington. Here’s what they said:
Iran has begun mass production of an anti-ship cruise missile, state television’s website said on Saturday.
The Zafar missile, as it is dubbed in the report, “is a short-range, anti-ship cruise missile capable of destroying small- and medium-sized targets with high precision.”
(NEW YORK) – The civil war in Syria has highlighted serious pitfalls for the Obama administration, especially at the United Nations in New York.
In a rare Saturday meeting, the Obama White House received a double blow as both Moscow and Peking vetoed a U.S., U.K. and French resolution aimed at pressuring Syrian President Bashar al-Assasd to step down.
The Russian-Chinese action came only hours after reported news that the Syrian government had killed hundreds in an attack on the city of Homs and that President Barack Obama issued a statement insisting Assad relinquish power.
Said Obama: “The Council now has an opportunity to stand against the Assad regime’s relentless brutality and to demonstrate that it is a credible advocate for the universal rights that are written into the U.N. Charter.”
The president insisted that “the Assad regime must come to an end.”
The diplomatic imbroglio was embarrassingly illustrated just a few hours later when U.S./U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice pleaded in full view of TV cameras with her Russian and Chinese counterparts not to veto the proposed resolution.
While Rice lobbied in New York, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held a conference call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who was visiting Germany.
It was the second call Clinton paid to Lavrov since the Council met in a special meeting on Syria earlier in the week.
The strain between the two foreign policy officials became evident as the week progressed.
In the end, all the U.S. efforts fell flat.
Former U.S./U.N. Ambassador John Bolton told WND he was not surprised by the Russians and Chinese: “The vetoes were entirely predictable and show why the Obama administration’s Syrian policy has repeatedly failed.”
After the Russian and Chinese vetoes, a visibly perturbed Rice told the Council members that she “was disgusted with the Russians and Chinese.”
“For months this Council has been held hostage by a couple of members,” Rice said. “These members stand behind empty arguments while delaying and seeking to strip bare efforts that would force Assad to abandon his actions.”
Rice added: “This intransigence is even more shameful when one continues to send weapons to Assad.”
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, who opted not to attend the Council meeting, did weigh in shortly thereafter, saying he was “disappointed” with the vetoes.
Then the U.N. chief uncharacteristically blasted the Russians and Chinese action: “It undermines the role of the United Nations and the international community in this period when the Syrian authorities must hear a unified voice calling for an immediate end to its violence against the Syrian people.”
Israel’s U.N. delegation declined any comment on the Security Council developments.
In a barrage of mortar shells, Syrian forces killed 200 people and wounded hundreds in Homs in an offensive that appears to be the bloodiest episode in the nearly 11-month-old uprising, activists said Saturday.
The assault in Homs, which has been one of the main flashpoints of opposition during the uprising, comes as the UN Security Council prepares to vote on a draft resolution backing an Arab call for President Bashar Assad to give up power.
Israeli facilities in North America — and around the world — are on high alert, according to an internal security document obtained by ABC News that predicted the threat from Iran against Jewish targets will increase.
“We predict that the threat on our sites around the world will increase … on both our guarded sites and ‘soft’ sites,” stated a letter circulated by the head of security for the Consul General for the Mid-Atlantic States. Guarded sites refers to government facilities like embassies and consulates, while ‘soft sites’ means Jewish synagogues, and schools, as well as community centers like the one hit by a terrorist bombing in Buenos Aires in 1994 that killed 85 people.
The U.S. and Israel are publicly disagreeing over timing for a potential attack on Iran’s disputed nuclear facilities, as that nation’s leader said it won’t back down.
The U.S. and Israel have a “significant analytic difference” over estimates of how close Iran is to shielding its nuclear program from attack, Aaron David Miller, a former Mideast peace negotiator in the Clinton administration, said today.
“There’s a growing concern — more than a concern — that the Israelis, in order to protect themselves, might launch a strike without approval, warning or even foreknowledge,” he said in an interview.
Mushroom pickers OK after 6 days lost in OR forest Albany Times Union
NIGEL DUARA, AP This undated photo provided by Karanda Williams shows Daniel and Belinda Conne. The couple and their adult son were found injured but alive Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012 after they got lost while picking mushrooms and survived six days deep in ...
AP - Authorities say 11 people have been arrested in Washington's McPherson Square since Park Police began clearing away tents from one of the nation's last remaining Occupy sites.
AP - Three mushroom pickers took refuge in a hollowed out tree after getting lost in an Oregon forest, fighting wintry chills for six days and drinking water from streams until a helicopter pilot spotted them.
AP - A second term for President Barack Obama would allow him to expand his replacement of Republican-appointed majorities with Democratic ones on the nation's appeals courts, the final stop for almost all challenged federal court rulings.
AP - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Sunday for "friends of democratic Syria" to unite and rally against President Bashar Assad's regime, previewing the possible formation of a formal group of likeminded nations to coordinate assistance to the Syrian opposition.
AP - Eight sailors have been discharged from the Navy after a hazing incident aboard a San Diego-based amphibious assault ship that was captured on video and included the choking of a fellow sailor, a Navy spokesman said Saturday.
AP - North Carolina authorities say they used a stun gun on a woman motorist who blocked a McDonald's drive-thru for 20 minutes after employees refused to serve her because she cut in line.
AP - Wet weather will ease Sunday across the Midwest as a winter storm treks eastward. The system will also advance southeastward from the mid-Mississippi River Valley, moving over the Tennessee Valley and into the Appalachians.
AP - Overwhelming "human gridlock" in Indianapolis' Super Bowl Village was causing police to rethink crowd control Saturday on the eve of the big game.
AP - A woman killed in a propane gas explosion outside a remote Northern California training base was the 31-year-old wife of a U.S. Marine, and a mother of two from Hudson, Iowa, military officials said late Saturday.
AP - A southeastern Indiana woman has been charged after prosecutors say she left her morbidly obese sister alive and decomposing in a chair for three weeks.
AP - When Dorothy Twinney first saw a Race for the Cure walk for breast cancer — "a sea of pink" traveling through her hometown of Plymouth, Mich. — she was so moved she sat in her car and wept.
AP - A powerful winter storm that covered parts of Colorado with up to 6 feet of snow crept east across the Plains Saturday, knocking out electricity to thousands in Nebraska as the blanket of heavy, wet precipitation downed power lines and made travel treacherous.
Reuters - Indianapolis authorities called on Super Bowl celebrants to play it safe on Saturday night at festivities near the city's football stadium, after at least 10 people were injured the previous evening.
AP - Dozens of U.S. Park Police officers in riot gear and on horseback converged before dawn Saturday on one of the nation's last remaining Occupy sites, with police clearing away tents they said were banned under park rules.
AP - The person killed in a propane gas explosion outside a remote Northern California training base was the wife of a U.S. Marine, and the two people seriously injured were a Navy corpsman and his wife, military officials said on Saturday.
Reuters - State health officials have added three more names to a growing list of students in this working-class town who are experiencing mysterious tics and twitching, while authorities on Saturday sought to assure parents the community's high school is safe.
Reuters - An Indiana jury convicted embattled Republican Secretary of State Charlie White in the early hours of Saturday on six out of seven felony charges including perjury, theft and voter fraud.
AP - A powerful winter storm that covered parts of Colorado with up to 6 feet of snow crept east across the Plains Saturday, knocking out electricity to thousands in Nebraska as the blanket of heavy, wet precipitation downed power lines and made travel treacherous.
AP - A 24-year-old man previously accused of murdering his mother and brother in Southern California has been released after a brief stay in the custody of federal immigration officials.
AP - A couple and their adult son were found injured but alive Saturday in Southern Oregon, six days after they disappeared from their campsite to go mushroom picking.
AP - While Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels held off Saturday on appointing a permanent replacement for the state elections chief convicted early that morning of voter fraud, Democrats said they planned to move quickly to wrest control of the politically powerful office from the GOP.
AP - There was a single mom who loved to dance, in the car with a boyfriend who had moved from Virginia to be with her. A pastor and members of his family, originally from Brazil, returning home to Georgia from an Orlando church retreat. A father, his wife and his daughter headed south from the Panhandle for a family funeral. A young man coming home from bowling.
Reuters - An Arizona city council candidate struck from the ballot over her limited English skills concedes she isn't fluent in the language but called the legal challenge an abuse of power that could keep her from serving a poor border community where most residents speak only Spanish.
Reuters - Police removed bedding and most tents on Saturday at an "Occupy" protest site just blocks from the White House, enforcing a no-camping rule at a public square that has housed protesters for months.
AP - Nevine Aly Elshiekh is a dog lover who teaches children with developmental disabilities. She is college-educated, well-respected by her neighbors and has no criminal record, not even a speeding ticket.
AP - When Dorothy Twinney first saw a Race for the Cure walk for breast cancer — "a sea of pink" traveling through her hometown of Plymouth, Mich. — she was so moved she sat in her car and wept.
AP - A 49-year-old brigadier general who died Friday in Afghanistan of apparent natural causes is likely the highest-ranking military officer to die in that conflict, according to military records.
Reuters - A major winter storm that dumped two feet of snow on the Denver area marched eastward on Saturday, buffeting the Central Plains with heavy snowfall and wind gusts of 25 miles per hour.
AP - Overwhelming crowds and reports of injuries and arrests in Indianapolis' Super Bowl Village are causing police to rethink crowd control before the game.
AP - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday issued a new warning to Egypt that the failure to resolve a bitter dispute over the status of non-governmental pro-democracy groups may lead to the loss of American aid to the country.
Reuters - Among the slick, million-dollar ads for the likes of Pepsi and Honda during the Super Bowl this Sunday, viewers in Washington will see a far more modest spot. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino will be sitting on a couch touting an issue most politicians avoid like the plague: gun control.
AP - The labels used to describe Americans of African descent mark the movement of a people from the slave house to the White House. Today, many are resisting this progression by holding on to a name from the past: "black."
AP - President Barack Obama's call on Saturday for the U.N. Security Council to stand up against the Syrian regime's "relentless brutality" was rebuffed by Russia and China when both vetoed a resolution calling for President Bashar Assad to leave power.
AP - Border Patrol agents have racked up daily overtime at a cost of about $1.4 billion in the past six years while the number of arrests of illegal border crossers has fallen to the lowest level in nearly 40 years, an Associated Press analysis of agency records finds.
Reuters - The U.S. Army has dismissed all charges against the last of five soldiers to face a court-martial in the slaying of unarmed Afghan civilians, officials from their home base near Tacoma, Washington, said on Friday.
AP - Mr. Berndt's third-grade classroom was up on the second floor, tucked away at the rear of Miramonte Elementary School, its windows looking out onto a playground.
AP - The Obama administration on Saturday called for stepped up U.S.-European cooperation to isolate tyrannies like the Assad regime in Syria, promote democracy in the Arab World and beyond and repair damage from the global financial crisis.
AP - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is pressing Ukrainian authorities to quickly resolve the criminal case brought against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (YOOL'-yah tee-moh-SHEN'-koh).
AP - President Barack Obama is rallying support for his plan to expand government assistance to homeowners, pressuring Congress to help lower lending rates for millions of strapped homeowners.
AP - A bizarre case at an inner-city elementary school where a teacher was charged with taking bondage-style photographs of children has expanded with the arrest of a second teacher suspected of fondling two girls in his classroom.
AP - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is calling on Europe and the United States to do more together to defeat tyrannies, promote democracy and repair the damage from the global financial crisis.
AP - Rhodes Trust officials suggest a Yale University quarterback would have known that his candidacy for the prestigious scholarship was in jeopardy because of a sexual misconduct allegation, contrary to what he has said, a newspaper reports.
AP - U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is reassuring Europe that it remains central to U.S. defense interests, even as the Obama administration is withdrawing two of the four Army brigades stationed on the continent.
