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50,000 participate in rare prayer ritual for sun at Western WallMore than 50,000 Jews flocked to the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City before dawn Wednesday to recite a prayer said once every 28 years to bless the sun, Army Radio reported. For many of the participants, it was their first time reciting the "Birkat Hachama" prayer, which according to Jewish tradition, marks the sun's return to its starting point at the moment the universe was created, after completing a 28-year cycle known as the "machzor gadol," or "large cycle."Jews celebrate 'dawn of creation'
A fragment of a limestone plaque bearing several letters of ancient Hebrew script from the period of the Kings of Judah nearly 3,000 years ago has been uncovered in an archeological excavation just outside the Old City of Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Monday.
The white stone fragment, which dates to the 8th Century BCE, was found two months ago in an ongoing dig in the ancient City of David south of the Old City walls near the Gihon Spring.
EXCAVATIONS IN JERUSALEM REVEAL 1800-YEAR-OLD MARBLE STATUEThe statue is believed to be from the Greek Empire around the time of the Emperor Hadrian between the 2nd and 3rd centuries.OIC Secretary General condemns Israel's ripping off Al Aqsa Mosque stones
THE DURBIN DELAYThe Durban II U.N. “anti-racism” conference is set to begin April 20 — the anniversary of Hitler's birth — and the committee responsible for drafting the conference’s final declaration met today in Geneva. As the dialogue for and against expressing regret for the Holocaust continued, President Obama hasn’t decided whether the U.S. will attend the conference, apparently quivering at the prospect of “non-engagement.”Hamas calls on PA to cut security ties with Israel
US-Israel confrontation looms over Mideast peace‘Correct' thinking influences corrective behavior and, in tandem, the culture.Susan Rice: Fighting against ‘the anti-Israel crap’
And now it is time for Newsweek and the Knowledge Elites to make the next cultural realignment official: "We are all anti-Semites now."
Sure you are!Tonight We're Gonna Party Like It's 1939
So while Obama talks of a future without nuclear weapons, the trajectory we are on today is toward a nuclear- and missile-capable North Korea and Iran -- and a far more dangerous world.
Biden put in charge of nuclear non-proliferationThe six powers co-ordinating policy with Iran over its nuclear ambitions have moved to invite the Iranians for fresh talks on a diplomatic solution. The US, Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain announced they would ask EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana to approach Iran with the offer.Obama to Visit Jerusalem in June
Iran reform candidate Mousavi says open to US negotiations
Reformist Mousavi calls for detente
Iranian Presidential Candidate Mousavi Calls Ahmadinejad an Extremist
Ahmadinejad rips capitalismIranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lashed out on Monday at capitalism as a "failed" economic system and called for the creation of a new global financial order.KAZAKHSTAN: AHMADINEJAD ARRIVES IN ASTANA
Ahmadinejad and Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev "will hold negotiations to deal with adverse aftermaths of the economic recession in the world," the report said.Kazakhstan offers to host nuclear fuel bank
Kazakhstan offered Monday to host an international nuclear fuel bank, and Iran's leader said he supported the idea.Chinese Firm Indicted for Misusing Banks, Aiding IranThe United States initiated the project and allocated $50 million toward it in 2007.
Biden urges China, Russia slap down NKoreaBeijing Opposes Action on Korean MissileTurkmenia-China pipeline to be complete by late 2009
UN Divided Over North Korea Rocket Launch
China & Russia block UN Security Council sanctions on NK
MOLDOVA IN CHAOS:Protesters began assembling in the main square of Chisinau, the Moldovan capital, on Wednesday following violent protests on Tuesday in which more than 10,000 anti-Communist young people clashed with the police and ransacked government buildings.Romania blamed over Moldova riots
Moldova's president has accused neighbouring Romania of stoking the protests that erupted into violence in the capital Chisinau on Tuesday. Romania has rejected the accusation as a "provocation".
Opposition Activist Beaten In Georgia Khozelishvili is an active member of the Democratic Movement-United Georgia party led by the former parliament speaker Nino Burjanadze.Killings of Chechen Leader’s Foes May Test Kremlin’s Will or Power
The enemies of the Chechen president, Ramzan A. Kadyrov, keep turning up dead.In September, it was Ruslan B. Yamadayev, shot while his car was stuck in Moscow traffic. In January, a former Kadyrov bodyguard named Umar S. Israilov was shot in Vienna when he stepped out to buy yogurt. Then, last week, Sulim B. Yamadayev — a brother of Ruslan’s — was shot in the parking garage of his apartment complex in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
This time, though, something unusual happened: Dubai’s police chief called a news conference and publicly excoriated Russian authorities for allowing the violence to continue.
Kazakh Envoy To Tajikistan Reported In Car Accident The slogan "Putler Kaput!" -- a play on words combining Putin and Hitler -- was found by the prosecutor's office to be offensive to Putin and has been banned from use at public gatherings and meetings.Russia’s Siberian Services Defaults on $100 Million of Bonds
Five central banks in Europe, Japan and the United States announced on Monday a way to provide foreign currency to U.S. financial institutions if needed, and they pledged to continue working together to foster financial stability.Full Text Goldman Sachs CEO's Speech to the Council of Institutional Investors' spring meeting in DCUnder the agreement, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank of Japan would offer their domestic currencies to the U.S. Federal Reserve for lending to U.S. firms, should the need arise. The swap lines established total up to $295 billion.
Certainly, what started in a localized part of the U.S. mortgage market spread to virtually every corner of the global financial markets. But the genesis of the problem wasn't in sub-prime. Instead, the roots of the damage to our financial system are broad and deep. They coalesced over many years to create a sustained period of cheap credit and excess liquidity. The resulting underpricing of risk led to massive leverage across wide swaths of the economy -- from households to the corporate sector to the public sector.I see at least three broad underlying factors:
AIG’s Bank Payments Probed By TARP Inspector GeneralThe U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission told a federal judge that Bernard Madoff need not be forced into personal bankruptcy to ensure that all his assets are used to pay those he stole from.Congressional Panel Suggests Firing Managers, Liquidating Banks
A congressional panel overseeing the U.S. financial rescue suggested that getting rid of top executives and liquidating problem banks may be a better way to solve the economic crisis.You call that a rescue? Fucking goniffs.
German President Horst Koehler Tuesday signed a bill that seeks to allow the forced nationalization of banks as a last resort
Secretive U.N. board awards lucrative credits with few rules An insider's account of the closed-door workings of the heavily regulated system of the United Nations' greenhouse gas offset trading program suggests that its secrecy could be covering serious abuses by board members whose task is providing lucrative carbon credits to private developers.Commentary: Globalization globaloney
Globalization has turned out to be mostly globaloney. What began as criminal predatory mortgage lending in the United States tipped the world into the first global recession since World War II. The global economy, says the World Bank, will shrink this year for the first time since the 1940s, dragged down by falling demand in the West. Trade is forecast to drop to its lowest point in 80 years. Poor countries are hardest hit; 129 countries face a 2009 shortfall of at least $270 billion, possibly as high as $700 billion.
This week's The Economist, the prestigious weekly of the global elites, ran a cover showing the storming of the Bastille in Paris in 1789, with the bare-breasted Marianne leading the charge, bayoneted rifle in one hand and "GET THE RICH" placard held high in the other. Inside was a 14-page special report on "the rise and fall of the wealthy."
Castro holds talks with US politiciansFormer Cuban president asks Congress members what he can do to help Barack Obama improve relations between Cuba and WashingtonRaytheon receives $163.5 million Army contractRepresentative Barbara Lee, a California Democrat, said Castro talked with her and two other members of the congressional black caucus for nearly two hours yesterday.
The meeting has been seen as a sign that Cuba is willing to discuss better relations between it and the US.
"We believe it is time to open dialogue and discussion with Cuba," Lee told a news conference in Washington. "Cubans do want dialogue. They do want talks. They do want normal relations."
Lee said the group would present its findings to the Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, as well as White House and state department officials.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who visited Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Prague headquarters on April 5, sat down for an exclusive interview with Radio Free Afghanistan's Director Akbar Ayazi, during which she answered listeners' pre-recorded questions. Clinton argued for the rights of Afghan women, expressed her optimism for the future of the country, and stressed the administration's "enduring commitment to Afghanistan."Grassley Probes Financing of Advocacy Group for Mental Health
The group identifies itself as the largest grassroots organization in the U.S. for people with mental illness and their families. The group came under scrutiny in 1999, when the magazine Mother Jones reported that 18 drug companies gave the group $11.7 million from 1996 to mid-1999. The article reported that at one point an executive of Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly & Co. worked out of the nonprofit group’s headquarters.
A 2007 annual report showed that the group’s corporate partners at that time included Madison, New Jersey-based Wyeth; London-based GlaxoSmithKline Plc; Eli Lilly, which makes Prozac; and the Washington-based trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
Senators Fault Govt. Science Agency Over Handling of Porn CasesThe Washoe County School District has agreed to pay $400,000 to settle civil rights lawsuits involving a Muslim girl who dropped out of school after being bullied for wearing a head scarf and her religion.They beat the shit out of me and called me every vulgar variation on Jew every day for almost 6 years at a Catholic elementary school. That's gotta be wortha couple few mazillion, nu?
AMERICAN TERRORISTSISLAMIC MILITANTS HAVE TAKEN 20 BOYS FROM MINNESOTA TO FIGHT IN SOMALIA. WHAT HAPPENS IF THEY COME BACK?Ain't a matter of IF. It's a matter of WHEN.
Global Islamist terrorism that dare not speak its nameThere are over 100 definitions for the word 'Terrorism'. The multiplicity of the definitions indicates there is a problem with properly defining what terrorism actually is; thus to have a war on it is problematic, notes Yvonne R. Davis.King of Morocco: Israeli practices in Jerusalem are illegal
The Jerusalem Committee was established by the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
The Moroccan Foreign Ministry released a statement saying that the 20th session of the Jerusalem Committee will discuss the necessary steps to be taken at the international level to stop "Israeli policies in Jerusalem." These policies have negative repercussions on the situation in the Palestinian territories and on the peace process, the statement said.
CAIRO: An Egyptian Islamist has threatened to go to court to block a plan to produce a TV series on Muslim BrotherhoodCairo, Egypt – Egypt’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood reported on Saturday that Khaled Hamza, its English language editor of their Web site, was not allowed to travel to London for medical assistance.
One of the group’s younger bloggers, who often helps with the Web site, told PANA here that Hamza had been going to England to seek medical aid for health reasons, but was turned away at the airport.
Hamas denies reports that Abbas to head Palestinian unity gov'tThis is a translation of an excerpt of Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah's recent speech from Qifa Nabki's blog:
Today, and tomorrow, and after one year, and one hundred years, and one thousand years, until the Hour of Judgment, we and our children and our grandchildren and our people... as long as we are Hizbullah, we will not recognize Israel.
What is Israel? Israel is a plundering entity, an illegal and illegitimate state, a racist, belligerent, terrorist state. By what standard can a human being, Muslim or Arab, recognize an entity of this kind, and come and say, simply: "Yes, this is Israel," while three quarters of it or more has been given to foreigners brought from all corners of the world, and while the people who are in the right, who are the legitimate ones, the people of the land and the holy places, the Palestinians - Muslims and Christians - have to let go, and leave, and surrender, and submit! Show me that standard! What is the religious standard? What is the moral standard? What is the humanitarian standard? What is the nationalist standard? What standard is it?!
EGYPT'S MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AND IRAN There is no real difference between incumbent US President Barack Obama and his predecessor George W. Bush, a senior Iranian cleric says.Actually, that part is true.
"In practice we witness no change in [the policies] of Obama and those of Bush, the only difference is that Bush used to speak harshly while Obama does so less than Bush," Seyyed Ahamd Khatami, a member of Iran's Assembly of Experts, said on Friday.
Khamenei hails Venezuela's 'courageous' cut in Israel tiesLet me be clear: the United States strongly supports the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security," Obama said in a speech to the Turkish parliament.In Turkey, Obama Says US ‘Never’ at War With Islam
ANKARA, Turkey —President Obama, directly addressing a majority Muslim country for the first time in his presidency, said Monday that the United States “would never be at war with Islam.”
Obama's Rabbi Rabbi Capers FunnyeYes that's his name. The ghost of Dickens on acid is writing this all, I'm TELLIN' YA!
Obama: Russia has 'legit' Euro interests
Washington is poised to swallow the lethal pill of global socialism
Saving the economy or setting up a socialist dictatorship?Leveraged finance is funding a company or business unit with more debt than would be considered normal for that company or industry. More-than-normal debt implies that the funding is riskier, and therefore more costly, than normal borrowing. As a result, levered finance is commonly employed to achieve a specific, often temporary, objective: to make an acquisition, to effect a buy-out, to repurchase shares or fund a one-time dividend, or to invest in a self-sustaining cash-generating asset.Ohhh Kay I get it. But you do the math. I'm no good at math.
Is the US Financial System One Big Ponzi Scheme?
Chia Obama Heads Pulled From Stores
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