100 LAWMAKER REJECT DICTATORSHIP HEALTHCARE BILL

OBAMA TO RULE DICTATORSHIP STYLE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot7cenGWTsg&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBj7wj0Lx7c&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2TEhMyRmZg&feature=player_embedded

Obama Declares He Will Rule by Authoritarian Decree
Kurt Nimmo Infowars.com February 13, 2010

The Obama administration has announced it will now rule by fascist decree and ignore Congress and the American people.With much of his legislative agenda stalled in Congress, President Obama and his team are preparing an array of actions using his executive power to advance energy, environmental, fiscal and other domestic policy priorities,reports The New York Times.We are reviewing a list of presidential executive orders and directives to get the job done across a front of issues,said Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff who is fond of cracking his knuckles in Obama’s face.Radio talk show host Michael Savage comments on Obama’s plan to rule by executive order.According to The New York Times, ruling in authoritarian fashion is normal and acceptable. Any president has vast authority to influence policy even without legislation, through executive orders, agency rule-making and administrative fiat.In fact, Obama’s plan to rule by authoritarian decree is unconstitutional. Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution states: All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. Article II, Section 3 states that the president may call Congress into emergency session during a national crisis.In other words, rule buy fiat is treason. Another section of the Constitution covers treason. Article II, Section. 4 states: The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Rahm Emanuel should be arrested and prosecuted for treason under federal statute, specifically Title 18 U.S.C. § 2. It states: Whoever commits an offense against the United States or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission, is punishable as a principal.Treason is spelled out in Article III, Section 3 of the Constitution. The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, it states.White House officials said the increased focus on executive authority reflected a natural evolution from the first year to the second year of any presidency, The New York Times continues.Hitler exploited this natural evolution to turn Germany into a fascist dictatorship through executive orders. In fact, Reagan, Clinton and Bush the Lesser issued a flurry of executive orders that surpassed anything Hitler or Stalin issued.Executive orders have been around since the beginning of the republic. George Washington issued a number of proclamations, dispositions and recommendations. For instance, a suggestion that a day of Thanksgiving take place on Thursday, November26, 1789. He was severely criticized for issuing a proclamation suggesting U.S. citizens joining or aiding the war between Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, Britain and the Netherlands be prosecuted. George Washington’s proclamations, however, did not over rule legislation passed by Congress.Executive orders: Surpassing Hitler and Stalin.

Executive orders did not really pick up steam until the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. During the invasion of the South for opposing the federal government, Lincoln issued a large number of executive orders allowing the federal military to steal land and turn prisoners of war into forced labor slaves.The grand daddy of executive orders was Franklin Roosevelt. He issued 3,723 of them. Here is a sample. Roosevelt’s most notorious executive order was 6102. It permitted the federal government to steal all privately held gold in the United States.Ronald Reagan — sold to the people as a conservative — issued 381 executive orders, more than George W. Bush. Clinton came close to Reagan. He issued 364. Reagan violated the Constitution directly when he issued Executive Order 12611 ordering Assistance for Central American Democracies and the Nicaraguan Democratic Resistance, in other words providing assistance to the Contras, a violation of the Boland Amendment.

Clinton used executive orders to defy Congress and conduct a murder campaign against the people of Yugoslavia. Clinton also violated Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution when he bombed the European country. Article 1, Section 8 states that Congress shall have power to… declare War, not the president.During the election, Obama not only said he would not issue executive orders but he would reverse those issued during the Bush era. On his very first day in office, Obama broke this pledge and implemented and signed into law Executive Order 13489 barring the release of presidential records (presumably including his birth certificate).Obama also signed executive orders allowing Interpol to operate beyond the law in the United States and establishing the Council of Governors.Obama will continue the process of rule by decree established by his predecessors. He will rule in the tradition of the Roman Second Triumvirate and the Lex Titia decree under Gaius Octavian, general Mark Antony and pontifex maximus Aemilius Lepidus.It should be noted that the resolution paved the way for the Final War of the Roman Republic and the total collapse of republican government.

DOCTOR'S ORDERS

100 lawmakers reject Big Brother health-care takeover-American people repudiated what Obama, Democrats have put forward February 14, 2010 8:20 pm Eastern
By Chelsea Schilling 2010 WorldNetDaily

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.

Nearly 100 lawmakers have signed a formal Declaration of Health Care Independence to reject an unconstitutional Washington takeover of American health care – and now one representative is challenging Americans to deliver it to Congress and the White House to hold them accountable to the people. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., drafted and formally unveiled the Declaration of Health Care Independence Jan. 27. The declaration is a commitment to protect the rights of the American people to make their own health decisions, reduce bureaucratic red-tape, decrease intergenerational debt and implement 10 common-sense principles for future health-care reform. We've come to somewhat of an impasse, Bachmann told WND.Now with Sen. Scott Brown's election, that seems to have been able to stop the ball from rolling in the Senate. But we know the president still plans to base his plans on the health-care bill.She noted President Obama has extended an invitation to Republicans to join Democrats for a live, televised meeting on health-care reform on Feb. 25. Now you, too, can sign on to the Declaration of Health Care Independence – just as 100 members of Congress have done. For us to go forward, it's important for those of us who are constitutional conservatives that we lay out what our vision is – our roadmap, so to speak, for any future health-care discussion,Bachmann explained.The people have thoroughly rejected what the Democrats came up with in the Senate and the House.

Bachmann presents the following 10 points of agreement in her declaration: We, therefore, the People and Representatives of the United States of America, do solemnly Publish and Declare that health care reform, as a matter of principle, must: Protect as inviolate the vital doctor-patient relationship;Reject any addition to the crushing national debt heaped upon all Americans;Improve, rather than diminish, the quality of care that Americans enjoy;Be negotiated publicly, transparently, with genuine accountability and oversight;Treat private citizens at least as well as political officials;Protect taxpayers from funding of abortion and abortion coverage;Reject all new mandates on patients, employers, individuals or states;Prohibit expansion of taxpayer-funded health care to those unlawfully present in the United States;Guarantee Equal Protection under the law and the Constitution;

Empower, rather than limit, an open and accessible marketplace of health care choice and opportunity. Bachmann said the Obama administration is conducting backroom deals on bills and refusing to broadcast negotiations on CSPAN as pledged. She said health-care legislation must not force Americans to violate their conscience by having to pay for abortion coverage for other Americans.She added that U.S. citizens must not be obligated to pay for health insurance for illegal aliens. Bachmann also warned that any health-care plan should not add to federal or state deficits. She shared the following charts printed in the Feb. 2 issue of Congressional Quarterly Today revealing that the federal deficit under the Obama administration is expected to widen to a record $1.6 trillion in fiscal year 2010 – exceeding 10 percent of the total output of the economy for the first time since World War II: Source: Office of Management and Budget

This nonpartisan graph shows what America's future will be if we continue down the road on runaway spending under President Obama,Bachmann said. She said it represents a future with a declining standard of living so severe it will be unlike anything the nation has ever known. Bachmann challenged Americans to take a close look at the projected debt levels America will be embracing. If people see this graph, they will know from there what to do, very clearly, this November,she said.They need to turn out of office people who agree with President Obama's economic policies, and they need to replace them with people who agree with our founders and our Declaration of Independence and Constitution that we are a constitutional republic. We cannot drown our nation and our people in debt, and we can't force upon them tax increases so egregious that we will never again know true prosperity.As for the Declaration of Health Care Independence, she is asking the American public to put pressure on President Obama and the Democrats in Congress to sign the document as well. We're encouraging them to sign, Bachmann said.We're asking people to sign this and forward it to their member of Congress. Then, if there's a town-hall meeting, or if they are somewhere where their senator or congressman is, print out a copy of this declaration, wave it in the air at your member of Congress and say,Look! At least 95 members of Congress have already signed this. Why haven't you signed? She said American's should hold their lawmakers' feet to the fire – in public if possible – and ask them whether they agree with the 10 constitutional conservative principles.

Go on the offense. That's what we're trying to do,Bachmann challenged Americans.We believe that members of the House and Senate need to answer to their constituents, whether they agree or disagree with this as a beginning platform going forward with health care. The American people have clearly repudiated what President Obama and the Democrats have put forward thus far.What should citizens do if their lawmakers shut them out? This is my challenge: Right now, I challenge every reader at WorldNetDaily to print the declaration out, contact their member of Congress and report back on the WorldNetDaily website what they heard from their member of Congress, Bachmann said. People can come back to WorldNetDaily. They can memorialize their experiences, and then we would know where these members of Congress truly stand.Do they agree with the people, or are they going to pursue a radical agenda that the American people have thoroughly repudiated?

Obama Signs Law Raising Public Debt Limit from $12.4 Trillion to $14.3 Trillion Jack Tapper ABC News February 13, 2010

Behind closed doors and with no cameras present, President Obama signed into law Friday afternoon the bill raising the public debt limit from $12.394 trillion to $14.294 trillion.The current national debt is $12.3 trillion. Check out the National Debt Clock, which tells you your share of that — roughly $40,000 per citizen, $113,000 per taxpayer.The bill also establishes a statutory Pay-As-You-Go procedure requiring that new non-emergency legislation affecting tax revenue or mandatory spending not increase the Federal deficit – in other words, that any new spending or tax cuts be paid for with new taxes or spending cuts.

Russian Baltic Sea pipeline gets final approval-The underwater pipeline will bring Siberian gas directly to Germany (Photo: Nord Stream AG)VALENTINA POP 12.02.2010 @ 17:47 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – A Gazprom-led European company has received the last environmental permit it needed to construct a gas pipeline through the Baltic Sea, linking Russian gas fields directly to Germany.Finnish authorities on Friday (12 February) gave the Switzerland-based Nord Stream consortium the last environmental permit it needed in order to start building a 1,223 kilometre-long pipeline through the Baltic Sea. Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Russia last year also gave the Gazprom-led joint venture similar permits to cross their territorial waters, after agreeing to the environmental planning done by company, which also includes removing some of the Second World War mines still to be found on the seabed.Construction is scheduled to start in April this year and wrap up mid-2011, with the first gas expected to flow by the end of next year. A second pipeline will be attached in 2012, doubling the capacity to 55 billion cubic metres of gas a year. Apart from Germany, the main customer, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, France and the UK have also signed up to buy gas via this route.Our project has been made possible by extensive co-operation between many European countries and it will make an important contribution to European energy security, Nord Stream managing director Matthias Warnig said in a statement.

But other countries in the region are less happy with the project. The Baltic states and Poland have been fiercely opposing the construction of the pipeline, claiming that it could undermine their security of supply. Some 80 percent of Europe's gas imports from Russia currently come through Soviet-era pipelines via Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.If the alternative route via the Baltic Sea is opened directly to wealthier western European states, Russia's incentives to refrain from gas politics with eastern European countries will be diminished, argue the new member states.Poland certainly does not understand the Nord Stream project. What is the economic rationale for a decision whose outcome is a much more expensive transit of gas than by the traditional land route? For me, Nord Stream is an example of a lack of energy solidarity, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said last month in an interview with Financial Times.The pipeline is backed by the European Commission as a "priority" project aimed at diversifying not only sources of energy but also routes. This alludes to what several Nord Stream supporters claim – that by avoiding Ukraine, EU-Russian relations will run smoothly and gas disruptions like the ones in 2006 and 2009 will no longer happen.Eastern Europeans, however, say that increasing gas dependence on Russia will hardly spur Moscow to stop playing pipeline politics.
The history of the project also stirred up Cold War sensibilities in the former eastern bloc, as the manner in which the deal was sealed reminded Polish officials of the Nazi-Soviet pact which carved up their country on the eve of the Second World War. The initial agreement for the pipeline was sealed between the then German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin, just a few weeks before Mr Schroeder left office. Mr Schroeder was then recruited by Gazprom to the managing board of the Nord Stream company. Appointing Mr Warnig, a former agent of Stasi, the secret police in Communist East Germany, did not come across well either.

South Stream makes progress too

Mr Putin, meanwhile the Prime Minister of Russia, is still actively involved in pipeline diplomacy. Apart from Nord Stream, which is now well under way, the former KGB officer is also pushing for another pipeline, dubbed South Stream, through the Black Sea. This is seen as a rival to Europe's own project aimed at lowering dependence on Russian gas via a direct route from the Caspian region through Turkey and south-eastern Europe.End of January, Gazprom and a state-owned Hungarian bank sealed a deal in setting up a company to develop Hungary's part of the project. Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Slovenia have also signed up for South Stream, while press reports in Russia suggest Austria is expected to enter the deal soon.

Collapse of the euro is inevitable: Bailing out the Greek economy futile, says FRENCH banking chief By Sam Fleming and Tim Shipman 13th February 2010

The European single currency is facing an inevitable break-up a leading French bank claimed yesterday. Strategists at Paris-based Société Générale said that any bailout of the stricken Greek economy would only provide sticking plasters to cover the deep-seated flaws in the eurozone bloc. The stark warning came as the euro slipped further on the currency markets and dire growth figures raised the prospect of a double-dip recession in the embattled zone.The bailout of Greece will only act as a sticking plaster for the Euro crisis, the bank warned yesterday Claims that the euro could be headed for total collapse are particularly striking when they come from one of the oldest and largest banks in France - a core founder-member.

The euro? It's a great success, says Mandy as Greece turmoil sends single currency into worst ever crisis In a note to investors, SocGen strategist Albert Edwards said: My own view is that there is little help that can be offered by the other eurozone nations other than temporary, confidence-giving sticking plasters before the ultimate denouement: the break-up of the eurozone.The euro's a success: Peter Mandelson at Downing Street on Thursday He added: Any help given to Greece merely delays the inevitable break-up of the eurozone.The alarming claim came a day after European Union leaders promised determined and co-ordinated action to shore up Greece's tattered public finances, but disappointed traders by failing to provide specifics. Further details are expected early next week, but markets were in high anxiety yesterday amid fears political divisions among rich eurozone members could derail any rescue. The euro slid almost 1 per cent to $1.357 yesterday, meaning it has lost 10 per cent of its value since November. The pound rose to 1.14 euros.
Earlier this week Business Secretary Lord Mandelson's claimed that the single currency had been a 'remarkable success' and that it remained in Britain's interests to join.David Cameron ridiculed that claim yesterday.

He told the Tories' Scottish conference: Are this Government the only people in the country who still think that would be a good idea? Our deficit and debt are bad enough without the straightjacket of the euro. If I am elected for as long as I am prime minister the United Kingdom will never join the euro.The French bank's warning was echoed by Mats Persson, Director of the Open Europe think-tank, which campaigns for reforms in Brussels. He said: The eurozone is facing a fully-fledged crisis. The Greece episode has made it painfully clear how flawed the euro project was from the very beginning. Even if Greece receives a one-off bailout it would not solve the real problem, which is the huge differences in competitiveness between the eurozone's richest and poorest members.Tory leader David Cameron said if he is elected, the UK will not adopt the euro

If these differences are to be evened out, the EU would need a single budget and common taxes so it can redistribute resources. One thing is clear, Britain made the right choice in staying out.Mr Edwards argued that Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain are too economically weak to withstand the rigours of eurozone membership.
Countries that are highly uncompetitive are normally able to slash interest rates and devalue their currencies to prop up their economies. But this is not possible within the euro, given its one-size-fits-all economic governance.The implication is that weak, peripheral eurozone members will have to suffer years of painful deflation and tumbling living standards, as well as draconian budget cuts, in order to adjust. Harvard University Professor Martin Feldstein, a long-standing sceptic on the euro, yesterday said the single currency isn't working because member governments have no incentive to keep their public debts under control. There's too much incentive for countries to run up big deficits as there's no feedback until a crisis,he said.

Germany drags EU back towards recession
Axel Weber, President of Germany's Bundesbank, warned the German economy will contract this year The eurozone faces the danger of a doubledip recession after Germany's economy retreated into stagnation. Figures published yesterday revealed that the countries who have joined the euro collectively grew a mere 0.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year - equal to Britain's own faltering performance.
Germany was the biggest drag, recording zero growth in the final three months of 2009after emerging from recession earlier in the year. Axel Weber, President of Germany's Bundesbank, warned this week there is a chance his nation's economy will contract in the first quarter of 2010, in part because of the severe winter, in a major blow to recovery hopes. The figures from the European Commission are a blow to Britain's embattled manufacturers, which count the eurozone as their biggest export market. France provided a bright spot in the report, expanding by 0.6 per cent in the fourth quarter-But Italy, Spain and Greece all registered contractions in their gross domestic product. Economist Martin van Vliet of ING Bank said: 'The paltry pace of fourth quarter growth makes crystal clear that the eurozone economy cannot yet stand on its own feet.The disappointing eurozone growth data are a sobering reminder that recovery from financial crisis led recessions tends to be slow and protracted, and might not prove very supportive in calming markets' fears about the region.Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1250433/Greece-debt-bailout-EU-leaders-split-euro-crisis.html#ixzz0fZi5tJVC

Gerald Warner is an author, broadcaster, columnist and polemical commentator who writes about politics, religion, history, culture and society in general. Control freaks want web licences to end bloggers' anonymity – be very afraid By Gerald Warner Politics Last updated: February 12th, 2010

The American blogosphere is going increasingly viral about a proposal advanced at the recent meeting of the Davos Economic Forum by Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer for Microsoft, that an equivalent of a driver’s licence should be introduced for access to the web. This totalitarian call has been backed by articles and blogs in Time magazine and the New York Times.As bloggers have not been slow to point out, the system being proposed is very similar to one that the government of Red China reluctantly abandoned as too repressive. It was inevitable that, sooner or later, the usual unholy alliance of government totalitarians and big business would attempt to end the democratic free-for-all that is the blogosphere. The United Nations is showing similar interest in moving to eliminate free speech.The recent uprising in the blogosphere that resulted in the overturning of the Global Warming consensus can only have focused our rulers’ attention more acutely on this infuriating challenge to their totalitarian control. What will go next? they must be asking themselves. Unrestricted immigration? Punitive taxation? Even the European Union? With the helots exploiting a loophole in the PC Curtain that has otherwise been so remorselessly drawn down over freedom of expression, the internet represents a dangerously subversive force, fulfilling the role in the West that was formerly performed by samizdat publications inside the Soviet Union.

American protesters are most vociferous in defence of their rights because that is their culture. Some of them claim that British people are being dangerously indifferent to the long-term potential for censorship of the so-called Digital Economy Bill being slithered through Parliament by Lord Mandelson. The inference they draw is that, just as Britons supinely submitted to firearms legislation that has led to a situation where only the bad guys have guns, we may be sleepwalking into internet slavery.The technique is familiar. The powers-that-be allow a scandalous situation to develop whereby no serious attempt is made to police paedophile, pornographic and criminal activity on the web. Then the authorities use the excuse of public concern to overreact and impose Draconian controls that police ordinary citizens but are usually circumvented by criminals. It is a familiar scenario, offline as well as in cyberspace.A driver’s licence for the web would be Christmas every day of the year for the control freaks. One can all too easily imagine the criteria applied to licence applications. (Name? Delingpole…? You wot! Ere, I’ve got your number, mate – you’re that bloke wot feeds polar-bear steaks to kids innit. Internet licence? I should coco! On yer bike, mate, it’s more than my job’s worth to be seen talking to you…)Without the internet, the completely fictitious global warming consensus would still be unchallenged, state power massively enlarged, $54 trillion of Western taxpayers’ money flooding into the coffers of carbon companies and people’s lives made miserable by totalitarian restrictions imposed to counter a non-existent threat. I forecast that the right to anonymity on the internet will become one of the most fiercely contested issues over the coming decade. Be very afraid.

Mullen: No Nukes for Iran but No Attack
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu FEB 14,10

(IsraelNN.com) Visiting U.S. Chief of Staff Mike Mullen said in Tel Aviv on Sunday that attacking Iran would have unintended consequences and maintained that Tehran is up to three years away from nuclear capability. I worry a great deal about the unintended consequences of a strike, he told reporters.I think the Iranians are very difficult to predict.Mullen's visit to Israel on Sunday is the second in the past year as the United States continues to insist that diplomatic sanctions can stop Iran from producing a nuclear warhead aimed at annihilating Israel. The Obama administration is hoping that China will fall into line and join U.N. Security Council nations to back stiffer sanctions against Iran.Of course, there are limits and this [military] option is on the table, but we are not there yet, Mullen said, explaining that Iran is one to three years away from being able to deliver a nuclear weapon. Last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed that Iran has produced its first batch of enriched uranium, a key element for a nuclear weapon.

Mullen is scheduled to meet on Monday with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and senior IDF officials while U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is visiting Saudi Arabia and Doha, where she said on Sunday what Israel has been warning for years, namely that evidence is accumulating that Iran is aiming to build a nuclear weapon.The United States has said it is depending on the Persian Gulf States to use their influence to pressure Iran to halt its unsupervised nuclear program.

JOSEPHS TOMB VIST
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135994

Lebanon Fires on Israeli Surveillance Planes
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu FEB 14,10

(IsraelNN.com) Lebanon, which has openly embraced Hizbullah both politically and militarily, fired on four Israeli surveillance planes Sunday, its military stated. No direct hits were reported. The Lebanese army rarely fires on Israel unless the planes come within range of their artillery guns. Israel has continued flights over southern Lebanon in order to monitor Hizbullah terrorist operations in the area where the United Nations forces were mandated to disarm the terrorist organization after the Second Lebanon War in 2006. At the outset of the ceasefire agreement, U.N. commanders said they could not implement the agreement, and Israel has tried to fill the breach in security although the flights technically are violations of the ceasefire.Sunday's anti-aircraft firing came amidst an escalation in rhetoric by Israel and the Syrian-Hizbullah-Lebanese axis as well as increased weapons smuggling into Lebanon. War in Lebanon is discussed everyday on almost every street corner, CNN reported Sunday.Prime Minister Saad Hariri told the BBC last week that Israeli military activity is really dangerous, noting that surveillance planes have entered Lebanese airspace every day during the past two months. Israel has repeatedly accused Lebanon of a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement by allowing Hizbullah to smuggle more missiles into southern as well as northern Lebanon.

Sunday marked the fifth year since former anti-Syrian leader and prime minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated, and Syria has widely been held responsible for the murder. His son Saad Hariri now is at the helm of the Lebanese government but unlike his father, he has established friendly relations with Damascus. He also incorporated Hizbullah into a part of his government and military planning.In addition to friendly meetings between Hariri and Syrian President Bashar Assad, Khaled Mashaal, Damascus-based commander of Hamas, recently met with Hizbullah's number one leader, Hassan Nasrallah, placing two of the world's top terrorists in the same room. Hariri has described Hizbullah as the resistance.

LISTEN TO AUDIO
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=125093

FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU

Ex-Mossad chief: Israel doesn't need U.S. nod to strike Iran-A nuclear Tehran with the present regime is a threat of survival scale February 14, 2010 7:31 pm Eastern 2010 WorldNetDaily

Shabtai Shavit

JERUSALEM – Israel does not need American permission to strike Iran, said Shabtai Shavit, former chief of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, in an exclusive interview with Aaron Klein, WND's Jerusalem bureau chief. Asked whether Israel must coordinate with the U.S. on any future military actions against Iran's nuclear facilities, Shavit replied, I don't think that Israel needs American permission when it comes to the survival of Israel.But I would expect Israel to try to coordinate such a move if push comes to shove, Shavit said. Shavit, who traditionally shies away from news media interviews, was speaking during an interview on New York's WABC Radio with Klein, who hosts a weekend show on station. Listen to the full audio of Klein's interview with Shavit below: Shavit posited that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's declaration last week that his country is a nuclear state proves that the international strategy addressing the nuclear threat until today was completely wrong.Shavit said he doesn't see a consensus materializing to push through the crippling sanctions that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been lobbying for.

Shavit did suggest, however, strong sanctions may still work to dissuade Iran from forging ahead with its nuclear ambitions. If there is a consensus among the U.S., Europe, Russia and China, I believe it is still possible to convince the Iranians that for them the price that they will have to pay for achieving the nuclear ways is prohibitive for them, he said. Asked by Klein whether Israel should strike Iran if sanctions failed and Tehran pressed ahead with its uranium enrichment program, Shavit replied, I wouldn't like to elaborate too much about this section, but I will only say that a nuclear Iran with the present regime of the extremists' fanaticism – this is a threat of a survival scale.

Retired admiral-senator sees death of U.S.Author Jeremiah Denton speaks at Marine Corps Museum February 14, 2010 10:12 pm Eastern By Alyssa Farah 2010 WorldNetDaily

QUANTICO, Va. – Retired Admiral and former U.S. Sen. Jeremiah Denton had some tough words in the mess hall of the National Museum of the Marine Corps, packed with fellow servicemen, including some who spent time with him as a prisoner of war in the Hanoi Hilton. In an emotional speech last night about his newly updated classic work, When Hell Was in Session, Denton said he feared the imminent death of the United States of America due to immorality, lack of patriotism and lack of appreciation for the unique form of government bestowed by the country's founders.

When Hell Was in Session was first released in 1976 after Denton's return from Vietnam where he was held as a prisoner of war for seven years and seven months – much of that time in solitary confinement and enduring torture. The book was re-released in 2009 – updated with Denton's recollections of what happened upon his return to America, his election to the U.S. Senate and the role he played with Ronald Reagan in ending the Cold War. Denton, a devout Christian, used his time to exhort his fellow servicemen to rally behind moral issues including bringing abortion to an end and fighting against homosexual marriage. He also criticized the current administration and what he sees as a lack of patriotism on the president's part. At the end of his speech, he exclaimed, Semper Fi! the motto of the United States Marine Corps, which means always faithful, to tell the men in the room to continue to be active in faithful to fight for the future of this country. During the Vietnam War, Denton served as commanding officer to Attack Squadron 75 aboard the USS Independence. He was shot down on July 18, 1965, while leading an air strike against North Vietnamese stronghold, Thanh Hoa. During his years in the POW camp, Denton refused to betray his country, at his own expense. He famously blinked Morse code the word torture to confirm the atrocious acts that were being committed on imprisoned soldiers during an interview with a foreign journalist. The event was sponsored by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation which regularly sponsors speeches by former servicemen at the museum.

Heavy rainfalls hit Mecca amid holiday
Sat Feb 13, 4:49 pm ET

RIYADH (Reuters) – Heavy rainfalls over Mecca on Saturday submerged some districts and streets in Islam's holiest city, Saudi media reported, raising fears of a repeat of deadly floods in a neighboring city in November.State-owned Al-Ekhbariya television channel showed a few pilgrims praying on wet white-marbled floors of the Grand Mosque while others walked around the cubic-shaped Kaaba dome at its center.

Mecca's location at the heart of a mountainous desert valley makes it vulnerable to flash floods that can be caused by unusually strong rainfalls. The Kaaba had to be repaired several times in the past after being damaged by floods.The rainfalls coincide with the spring school break which started Thursday and usually attracts thousands of visitors especially from Saudi Arabia.While rains are rare in the desert kingdom, about 130 people were killed in November at the height of the haj season after heavy rainfalls over the city of Jeddah, about 50 miles west of Mecca, caused floods that also damaged hundreds of properties due to the city's poor sewage system.Abdallah al-Jeddawi, from the Saudi civil defense, told al-Ekhbariya that no floods had been reported in Mecca.Conditions remain reassuring. Some streets and districts (in Mecca) did get submerged with water, he said without giving more details.Saudi Al-Hayat newspaper's online news service said civil defense was working to rescue 30 people who were stranded in their cars in Mecca.(Reporting by Souhail Karam)

Cyclone misses American Samoa, turns toward Tonga By FILI SAGAPOLUTELE, Associated Press Writer – Sat Feb 13, 4:35 pm ET

PAGO PAGO, American Samoa – A powerful tropical storm missed American Samoa early Saturday morning, causing heavy rains and high winds but sparing more devastation to the U.S. territory battered by a deadly autumn tsunami.Tropical Cyclone Rene was about 110 miles south of Pago Pago and moving southwest on a track that will take it into central and southern Tonga, said cyclone forecaster Alipate Waqaicelua of the Nadi Tropical Cyclone Center in Fiji. The storm center was about 485 miles northeast of the island chain.Strong winds from the storm were still expected to batter American Samoa, which prompted forecasters to replace the hurricane warning with a gale warning that predicted winds of 30 to 45 mph, said meteorologist Mase Akapo Jr. with the National Weather Service in Pago Pago.The public still needs to continue to take precautionary measures due to the strong winds, Akapo said, adding that the high surf will continue, with waves of 15 to 18 feet expected through Saturday evening.

We are still faced with high waves, he said.Heavy rain fell on parts of Tutuila, the territory's most populous island, early Saturday morning, and some low-lying areas were flooded.Rene never made landfall on either Tutuila or the Manu'a island group, but the government planned to conduct an assessment on Saturday to find out if any damage was cause by the storm.If the cyclone stays on its current track, it could bring heavy rain and thunderstorms, powerful sea surges, pounding waves and widespread coastal flooding to Tonga within 24 to 36 hours, Waqaicelua said.The storm was expected to strengthen in the next 12 to 24 hours, he said, with possible winds gusts of up to 175 mph.In American Samoa, several Manu'a residents reached earlier by phone by The Associated Press said the winds had been extremely strong but they have not heard of any reports of injuries or major damage.Emergency officials in the capital of Pago Pago said there were reports that high winds had downed some trees and electrical lines. The officials also said there was one death indirectly caused by Rene — a 50-year-old man died Friday morning after falling from a two-story building while boarding it up to protect it from the storm.Territorial Gov. Togiola Tulafono called for calm, urging residents to be aware and be safe.

Referring to the tsunami that killed more than 200 people in the Samoan islands and Tonga in September, Tulafono said as we recover from the events of last September 29th, it is a good feeling that we have placed high priority to help ourselves by preparing and spreading the emergency awareness message.Associated Press Writers Ray Lilley in Wellington, New Zealand, and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed to this report.

String of snow days deprives many students of food By SARAH KARUSH, Associated Press Writer – Sat Feb 13, 3:32 pm ET

TAKOMA PARK, Md. – As back-to-back snowstorms shuttered schools for the week across the mid-Atlantic states, parents fretted about lost learning time, administrators scheduled makeup days and teachers posted assignments online. But Marla Caplon worried about a more fundamental problem: How would students eat? The two snowstorms that pummeled the region, leaving more than 3 feet of snow in some areas, deprived tens of thousands of children from Virginia to Pennsylvania of the free or reduced-price school lunch that may be their only nutritious meal of the day. The nonprofits that try to meet the need when school is not in session also closed their doors for much of the week, leaving many families looking at bare cupboards. And many parents working hourly jobs were unable to earn any money during the week, as the snow forced businesses to close.Caplon is a food services supervisor for Montgomery County Public Schools, where about 43,000 children are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. Some also get breakfast, dinner and bags of staple foods to take home for the weekend. The snow days meant children would get none of that until Tuesday, because schools are closed Monday for Presidents Day.We've been bothered by this all week, Caplon said.So Caplon arranged for Manna Food Center, a local food bank whose board she chairs, to bring boxes of food Friday to two still-closed elementary schools. Officials used the school district's automated phone system to notify parents of the distribution.

At Rolling Terrace Elementary School, a stream of people walked up to a Manna truck in the school's bus bay Friday. They filled plastic shopping bags with cans of soup, vegetables and beans, ground beef and Rice Krispy Treats.Everybody's at home, and everybody's eating, said Jacquelyn Garcia, 39, who came to pick up food for her family of five. I have nothing left in my house.Manna's effort brought out smiles and expressions of gratitude. But the approximately 200 families who came to pick up provisions represent just a fraction of the need in Montgomery County, let alone the entire snow-battered region.In Philadelphia, where public schools opened only one day this week, nearly 86,000 free lunches are served every day. In Baltimore, where schools were closed all week, a district spokeswoman estimated about 50,000 students take advantage of free and reduced-priced meals. The District of Columbia, which has had no school the entire week, has 32,000 public school students eligible for the program. Schools in Fairfax County, Va., which have about the same number of eligible students, have been closed since Feb. 5, when the first of the two storms rolled in.Otto Tambito, a Fairfax County father of two, said his family burned through much of its savings during the week off from school and work. Tambito works as a window cleaner and an electrician, but was unable to travel to jobs. His wife, who cleans houses for a living, was in the same boat.We hope that thing melts down and we start again, he said.Maritza Hernandez, a 32-year-old mother who came to pick up food Friday, said her usual baby-sitting income dried up during the snow days, and her husband had no work either. The couple and their 5-year-old son survived all week on beans, tortillas and the occasional egg, she said.

We were sad that we didn't have enough to go shopping, she said.Nationwide, about 19.4 million students received free or reduced-price lunches on a typical school day last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.Student hunger during breaks in the school year is not a new a concern. The Agriculture Department runs a summer food program to help fill the gap, though it doesn't reach everybody.The demand for emergency food for families with children in the summertime goes up, said Crystal FitzSimons, director of school programs at the Washington-based Food Research and Action Center, a nonprofit that fights hunger in the U.S. Parents are more likely to skip meals, so their kids can eat.The storm-related school closures were arguably more problematic because the emergency assistance typically provided by food pantries was also unavailable.In Baltimore, the Bea Gaddy Family Centers opened Monday, but had to close Tuesday ahead of the second storm. The organization provides food, shelter and clothing to those in need. We tried to give out what we had to hold people over, said executive director Cynthia Brooks. A lot of the people couldn't get up to the pantry because of the snow from the last storm.Associated Press writers Kathy Matheson in Philadelphia and Alex Dominguez in Baltimore contributed to this report.

A rate hike for the few — until it's you By Adam Geller, Ap National Writer – FEB 15,10

To critics, a 39 percent hike in health insurance for some Californians foretells skyrocketing rates for the rest of us. Not so, says the company, arguing the increase only hits a relatively small number of people and the economy is to blame.
But the rhetoric from both sides distorts the reality.It's true that hikes like the one by WellPoint Inc. apply only to people who buy individual insurance and are unlikely to spread to the majority of Americans covered through their employers. But such hikes also hit a huge number of Americans who mostly went unmentioned in the furor — the 46 million with no insurance at all.That's because for most people who don't get insurance through their jobs and do not qualify for government assistance, the only option is buying individual policies like the ones in WellPoint's Anthem Blue Cross plan, often with high deductibles.Raise prices, and people without insurance are even less likely to buy it — healthy people especially. Meanwhile, older and sicker customers pay more and more, running up high health bills in a shrinking pool.That conundrum is at the heart of a disagreement that has frozen Democratic health reform efforts in Congress. Reform bills would require most of the uninsured to buy coverage, an idea many Americans detest as heavy-handed government.

But without sharing costs across the broadest cross-section of consumers and prohibiting insurers from charging people different premiums depending on their health status, the result is a scenario very much like Anthem's.I know the American people get frustrated in debating something like health care because you get a whole bunch of different claims being made by different groups and different interests, President Barack Obama said earlier this week in addressing the Anthem hike.But what is also true is that without some action on the part of Congress, it is very unlikely that we see any improvement in the current trajectory ... The current trajectory is more and more people are losing health care.Only about 5 percent of non-elderly Americans have individual insurance, compared with 60 percent who are covered by their employers. The remainder is almost evenly divided between those whose care is shouldered by government and those without any insurance at all.The cost of employer-sponsored health insurance at big companies rose 7 to 10 percent this year, said Tom Billet of Towers Watson, a benefits consulting firm. Preliminary estimates for next year call for roughly the same increase — much lower than the ones set out by Anthem and other individual insurers.The individual market is sort of its own animal, so to speak, he said.At first glance, WellPoint's rate hike affects only a small group — some of the 800,000 people in California who buy its individual coverage. But it's also about many more, since just about any American is — or, given the uncertainties of the economy, can be — a candidate for individual coverage at any time.

Millions in group plans have lost jobs and the insurance they count on as a benefit. People in individual plans are trying to keep up with escalating premiums. Some without insurance do so to save money, but as they get older may decide it's not worth the risk.WellPoint defended the hike as a response to the economy. More consumers are tight on money and, as a result, those who are younger and healthier are dropping out or taking on pass on individual insurance, leaving a pool of less healthy people requiring more costly care. Without younger, healthier consumers, Anthem said, the remaining customers had to shoulder the costs of their own care.The result is an insured pool that utilizes significantly more services per individual than under better economic times, the company wrote in a letter sent to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, defending the hike.The economic thing makes some sense, no doubt about it, said Gary Claxton, an expert on the private insurance market at the Kaiser Family Foundation.If people don't have as much money they're not going to be as many people who can afford to buy insurance ... and the ones who are more likely to do that will always be the healthier ones.But Will Dow, a professor of health economics at the University of California, says the rate hike reflects an individual insurance market that is fundamentally broken. Anthem has a reputation for cherry-picking healthier consumers and trying to shake sicker ones, he said.Individuals who are in ill health and don't have access to an employer-provided health insurance policy are subject to the mercies of this market, which does not work well for sick people, Dow said. That problem is not limited to California or the economic environment of 2010. In Oregon, multiple insurers have convinced state health officials that rising costs justified big jumps in rates the last few years. In Maine, Anthem's request to raise rates for some people by up to 38percent last year and 24 percent this year have angered some politicians and consumers. Lou Herchenroeder, a pastor in Westfield, Ind., who learned in December that the premium on his Anthem policy would jump 31 percent, is frustrated. He said he's seen increases like this a few times over the past six years. In fact, he got into the high-deductible plan two years ago because premiums in his other plan rose too much.

But the cumulative increases are taking their toll. Herchenroeder said his family is healthy, with no chronic conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure, although he just had his gall bladder removed. But at 53, he yearns for the days when insurance was a choice he could afford. If I was in my 20s, I wouldn't have a plan like this,he said.I'd take my chances.But the sick don't really have the option of dropping coverage. Pre-existing conditions allow other insurers, who otherwise would provide competition, to decline to cover these individuals. Jeanne Morales of Encino, Calif., was outraged when United HealthCare Inc. jacked up the premium of the PacifiCare individual plan covering her and her husband. Back-to-back hikes in October and November raised the couple's monthly premium from about $1,450 month to $2,432, a combined increase of 68 percent. Morales wants to drop the policy, but says there's no where else to go. She had a partial hysterectomy to remove a non-cancerous ovarian cyst a month ago. She said her insurance broker told her she has to wait at least a year to be symptom free before she can even think about finding another individual insurance product. That's all there is to do. There's just not any choices,she said.We have thought about just not carrying insurance at all, but it's scary for us.AP Business Writers Tom Murphy in Indianapolis and Linda A. Johnson in Trenton, N.J. contributed to this story.

U.S. Treasury: economy to keep growing in 2010
Sun Feb 14, 3:28 am ET

JEDDAH (Reuters) – The United States economy is expected to continue growing this year, although global recovery remains fragile, Deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin said on Sunday.Growth of the world's biggest economy is expected to cool this year after a burst of activity late last year as challenges remain in bank lending and policy-making.We expect to see continued growth in 2010, Wolin told an economic forum in Saudi Arabia.To be sure, we still face considerable challenges. The market turbulence in recent weeks is a reminder that the recovery remains fragile.The U.S. economy is expected to grow by 2.9 percent this year after an estimated contraction of 2.4 percent in 2009, a Reuters poll showed this month.Wolin said the U.S. administration was working closely with Congress to enact regulatory reforms and he hoped it would secure passage this year. He also said the government was committed to put public finances on a sustainable track in the years ahead.Legislation has passed the House of Representatives. And in the next few weeks we anticipate that our Senate Banking Committee will produce draft legislation of its own, he said.I am hopeful that we will pass financial reform this year.(Reporting by Asma al-Sharif and Martin Dokoupil; editing by Thomas Atkins and Ron Popeski)

Muslim firebrands challenge Hamas rule in Gaza By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer – FEB 15,10

RAFAH, Gaza Strip – They preach global jihad, or holy war, adhere to an ultraconservative form of Islam and are becoming a headache even for Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza.Jihadi Salafis, as they are known, have organized into small, shadowy armed groups that have clashed with Hamas forces and fired rockets at Israel in defiance of Hamas' informal truce.Perhaps even more worrisome for Hamas, they claim a growing appeal among Gazans in the territory's pressure cooker of isolation and poverty, raising fears they could serve as a bridgehead for their ideological twin, al-Qaida, from which they take their call for global holy war.Hamas insists it dismantled the groups after a mosque shootout last summer that left 26 dead.But after months of lying low, Jihadi Salafis become active again. Besides resuming rocket fire on Israel in recent weeks, they blew up the car of a Hamas chief outside his southern Gaza home. The chief, who was not in the car, was unhurt, and the group that claimed responsibility said the blast was a warning.

We will not stop targeting the figures of this perverted, crooked government (Hamas), breaking their bones and cleansing the pure land of the Gaza Strip of these abominations,said the group, the Soldiers of the Monotheism Brigades. What will come next will be harder and more horrible.Going by names like Rolling Thunder and Army of God, they oppose Hamas for refraining from imposing Islamic law since seizing power in Gaza in 2007 and largely sticking to a tactical truce with Israel since the latter's devastating offensive last year.Expert opinion holds that al-Qaida has shown little interest in inviting the Gaza groups it inspired into the fold. But even an al-Qaida foothold in Gaza could pose a significant challenge to Hamas' control as well as its attempts to get off Western governments' terrorist list and lift the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza.Hamas own rapid rise to power is a reminder of the appeal of militant ideas in the absence of a peace process.Gaza's Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, acknowledges that some in Gaza have been swept up by the ideas of the Jihadi Salafi groups.If this is a phenomenon among some young men in Gaza, they will be treated with discussions and meetings, said Haniyeh in a sermon to mosque worshippers. However, he rejected any suggestion of an al-Qaida presence in Gaza and repudiated the call to global jihad.

Still, Hamas may inadvertently have helped create a climate for Salafi growth with its own gradual push to make Gaza more Islamic, including a virtue campaign that urges women to cover up. But Hamas has stopped short of a direct Taliban-style assault on secularism.It is more difficult for Hamas to deal with these people because they are selling the same goods: religion, said Mahmoud Abu Rahmeh, a Gaza human rights researcher.The Salafi movement has grown across the Middle East, preaching an ultraconservative Islam similar to Saudi Arabia's, strictly segregating the sexes and interpreting religious texts literally.Salafis tend to be nonpolitical, but a minority jihadist stream embraces the al-Qaida call for holy war against the West and the moderate Arab leaders in its camp.Hamas, on the other hand, confines itself to pushing for a Palestinian state, says the sole target of its suicide bombings and missile attacks is Israel, and makes compromises with other movements, even participating in Palestinian elections in 2006.Those stances are reviled as un-Islamic by the Salafi purists.Their groups began to emerge in Gaza after Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. A study co-authored by a former deputy chief of Israel's Shin Bet security service estimates their membership in the low hundreds, including disgruntled followers of established Palestinian militant groups. The Jihadi Salafis are suspected in a series of bombings of Internet cafes and music stores in Gaza, seen as purveyors of vice.

In June, a group called Jund Ansar Allah (Soldiers of the Supporters of God) sent explosives-laden horses toward an Israeli border post, but the attack was foiled and four fighters were killed in a battle with the Israelis. Hamas praised the four dead as martyrs, but then faced its most brazen challenge when Jund Ansar Allah's leader, Abdel Latif Moussa, flanked by masked gunmen, took to the pulpit of a mosque in August to proclaim Gaza an Islamic emirate. Hamas raided the mosque and 16 Salafis, including their leader, died in a gun battle, along with five Hamas men and five civilians. Hamas arrested about 150 Salafis across Gaza, including former Hamas members. Twenty-five remain in prison, said Interior Ministry spokesman Ehab Ghussein. One of those released spoke to The Associated Press in his family home in the southern town of Rafah. The 21-year-old college student insisted on anonymity, saying he feared Hamas retaliation. He said he was in the mosque during the shootout, though unarmed. During nearly two months in a Hamas prison, he said, he was beaten and Hamas men cut off his long hair. He said he had joined Hamas as a teen, but left when the movement participated in Palestinian elections in 2006. Democracy is wrong, the young man explained, since rule should only be by Islamic law. I felt Hamas was making too many compromises, he said. The student wore a white prayer cap and shin-length robe, a style Salafis believe emulates the dress worn at the time of Prophet Muhammad. The violent Salafi groups are inspired by al-Qaida but are not formally affiliated with it, according to a January study by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a U.S. think tank, co-authored by Yoram Cohen, the former Shin Bet official. It said Al-Qaida has not established an affiliate in the region nor accepted any of its locally radicalized, globally inclined jihadists.

The U.S. think tank, citing Israeli officials, estimated that 30 to 50 fighters from Yemen, Egypt, France and elsewhere have slipped into Gaza, either to train Salafi fighters or to wage holy war. But the authors said none are believed to be al-Qaida operatives. The group called Rolling Thunder, which pledged allegiance to bin Laden in a July statement, claimed that some of its fighters went abroad for training.
Hamas denies any foreign fighters are in Gaza. However, in an apparent sign of concern, its radio is broadcasting warnings to owners of Gaza's blockade-dodging tunnels not to let foreigners through. The Shin Bet and Israel's military intelligence did not respond to requests for comment. Beyond the armed groups, the nonviolent Salafi movement is taking root in Gaza. Its adherents also believe that jihad is a religious duty, but put more emphasis on returning to what they consider the real Islam in their daily lives. Salafis run charities that include Quran lessons and feeding the poor. On a recent day, a dozen women, more heavily robed and veiled than most Gaza women, studied Quran in the Rafah office of the Ibn Baz charity. The message is strictly religious, said Sheikh Hussam al-Gazar, the charity's deputy director. People are returning to the real Islam, after seeing that they get no benefit from political parties, he said. Additional reporting by Rizek Abdel Jawad in Gaza City. On the Web: http://www.washingtoninstitute.org

US seeks to shore up support for tough Iran stance By ROBERT BURNS, AP National Security Writer - FEB 15,10

DOHA, Qatar – U.S. officials sought to shore up support Sunday for a tougher stand against Iran's nuclear program by saying Tehran had left the world little choice and expressing renewed confidence that holdout China would come around to harsher U.N. penalties.Even as the Obama administration intensifies its diplomacy, Iran is showing little sign of bending to the will of its critics. Past U.N. sanctions have had little effect. Some outside experts have detected what they believe are new slowdowns in Iran's nuclear advances, but the Islamic republic is believed headed toward having nuclear weapons capability in perhaps a few years — estimates vary as to when.President Barack Obama's senior military adviser called for more time for diplomatic pressure to work and said from Israel, which has hinted that it might attack if negotiations to contain Iran's nuclear ambitions failed, that such action could have unintended consequences throughout the Middle East. Israel views Iran's nuclear program as a threat to its very existence.While diplomatic patience has its limits, we're not there yet, U.S. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Tel Aviv.U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on a quick visit to Persian Gulf allies Qatar and Saudi Arabia, told a forum on U.S.-Muslim relations that Iran has not lived up to its nuclear obligations and has rebuffed U.S. and international efforts to engage in serious talks. She said Iran has a right to nuclear power, but only if shown unequivocally it is to be used just for peaceful purposes.

While Iran insists it has no desire to get the bomb, Clinton said it appears otherwise.The evidence is accumulating that that is exactly what they are trying to do,she said during a question-and-answer session with her audience at the U.S.-Islamic World Forum, attended by officials and scholars from around the world. She also used pointed language in stressing that after months of failed efforts aimed at direct talks with Iran, tougher action is now required.It's time for Iran to be held to account for its activities, she said, alluding to penalties designed to squeeze Iran's economy.In her speech, Clinton said the U.S. and others were working on new measures to try to persuade Iran to change its course.She added: I would like to figure out a way to handle it in as peaceful an approach as possible, and I certainly welcome any meaningful engagement, but we don't want to be engaging while they are building their bomb.Obama has said that work to broaden economic sanctions in the U.N. Security Council is moving along quickly, but he hasn't given a specific timeline. China, one of five permanent members of the Security Council, has close economic ties to Iran and can block a resolution by itself.We have the support of everyone from Russia to Europe. And I believe we'll get the support of China to continue to impose sanctions on Iran to isolate them, to make it clear that in fact they cannot move forward, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told NBC's Meet the Press from Canada, where he was attending the Olympics.

We need to work on China a little bit more,added Obama's national security adviser, James Jones.But China wants to be seen as a responsible global influence in this. On this issue, they can't, they cannot be nonsupportive,he told Fox News Sunday.Clinton struck a similar tone, saying in Doha that the weight is maybe beginning to move toward China supporting sanctions.Clinton's stops in Qatar and in Saudi Arabia coincided with a string of diplomatic and military contacts in the Middle East, including Mullen's visits to both Egypt and Israel.Her top three deputies — James Steinberg, Jacob Lew and William Burns — were expected in the region in coming days. So was Gen. David Petraeus, chief of U.S. Central Command with responsibility for U.S. military operations across the Middle East.Their agenda is not focused exclusively on Iran. There also is an American push for closer cooperation in Yemen against al-Qaida, a move toward bolstering diplomatic relations with Syria and efforts to get Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations back on track.Clinton's trip follows closely on the Iranian president's claim that his country had produced its first batch of uranium enriched to a higher level. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also insisted on Thursday that Iran had no intention of building nuclear weapons, yet would not be bullied by the West into curtailing its nuclear program — a reference to new U.S. financial penalties imposed a day earlier.

Earlier Sunday, in Cairo, Mullen said after meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that Iran was a key challenge to the security of the Middle East. He accused Tehran of spreading its radical influence in Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen and Iraq. Saudi Arabia and Qatar, both situated across the Persian Gulf from Iran, are concerned about Iran's nuclear ambitions. They are seen by the Obama administration as an important part of a regional effort to persuade the Iranians that it is in their economic interest to give up their uranium enrichment program as called for in a series of U.N. resolutions that Iran has ignored. Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report. On the Net: U.S.-Islamic World Forum: http://tinyurl.com/yld8afy

Israelis warned to beware of Hezbollah attacks
Sun Feb 14, 10:58 am ET

JERUSALEM – Israel's government is warning its citizens to beware of possible attacks when they travel abroad, singling out threats by the Lebanese group Hezbollah.Two years ago, a prominent Hezbollah commander, Imad Mughniyeh, was killed in an explosion in Syria. Hezbollah blamed Israel and pledged revenge.Israel and Hezbollah fought a fierce monthlong war in 2006.In the advisory issued Sunday, the government tells Israelis to take precautions when they are abroad. These include avoiding most Islamic countries, rejecting tempting offers and unexpected gifts, turning down invitations to unexpected meetings and avoiding routines.The government issued the advisory with the approach of the Passover holiday, a heavy travel period.
(This version CORRECTS that Mughniyeh's assassination was two years ago).)

Israeli harem leader charged with rape, incest By IAN DEITCH, Associated Press Writer – Sun Feb 14, 12:20 pm ET

JERUSALEM – An Israeli man who kept a cult-like harem of women and fathered dozens of children with them was charged in a Tel Aviv court Sunday with enslavement, rape, incest and other sexual offenses.The 25-page indictment accused 60-year-old Goel Ratzon of setting himself up as a godlike figure who preyed on troubled women while treating them like chattel.The case has captivated the Israeli public since Ratzon's arrest last month. Several of the women have come forward with details of their unconventional lives, describing their attraction to the man with flowing, long white hair.Ratzon, who remains behind bars, has denied any wrongdoing and said the women joined him voluntarily.According to the indictment, Ratzon kept at least 21 women who bore him a total of 49 children. It said he kept the women in a state of near-total obedience in crowded apartments in the Tel Aviv area, taking their welfare checks and making them take bank loans which he then confiscated.Ratzon created an image of an omnipotent one who was blessed with supernatural powers and the ability to heal, destroy and cast curses, the indictment said.Some of the women have said they found him irresistible, and said in recent interviews that he connected with them spiritually.

Many of the women tattooed images of the chubby, bespectacled, Ratzon with his flowing white hair on their bodies. Others tattooed his name on their neck and arms. They gave the children they bore with Ratzon variations of his first name Goel, which means savior in Hebrew.Police were aware of Ratzon for years, but say they couldn't make any allegations stick until three of the women brought complaints to welfare authorities. Ratzon was not legally married to the women.Ratzon was arrested last month but wasn't formally charged until Sunday.

Homeless Haitians line up before dawn for tarps
Sun Feb 14, 6:49 pm ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) – Desperate Haitians began lining up well before dawn on Sunday for tarpaulins distributed to those left homeless by last month's earthquake, although many said they needed tents instead.With the coming rainy season threatening to worsen already squalid conditions in makeshift camps across the capital, aid organizations have been seeking to distribute tarps for up to 1,500 families per day.More than a million Haitians are homeless, but a month after the massive quake, UN officials said only about 50,000 families, or an estimated 272,000 people, have received emergency materials to build their own shelters.It's not enough, Germain Jeanscott, a 34-year-old father of two, said of the tarps. Most families are in difficult situations.Jeanscott was among the first in line to receive a tarp at a high school near the city center on Sunday, saying he arrived at 3:00 am. The distribution started at around 10:30 am.Many homeless Haitians have asked for tents, but aid officials have decided to hand out the large water-resistant sheets instead, because they are more flexible and can be distributed more quickly.In Haiti rubble, sellers find valuable rebuilding materials

Aid groups are trying to quickly shelter as many people as possible in the wake of the January 12 quake that killed more than 200,000 people.The UN's International Organization for Migration set up two sites in Port-au-Prince on Sunday to hand out materials to 1,200 families.They included the distribution point near the city center and another in the Canape Vert neighborhood, both especially hard hit in the quake, with crumbled buildings, rubble covering the streets and families camped out all around.To better organize the distributions, aid groups are now handing out coupons entitling families to receive the materials, which are guarded by UN troops.
Families are selected through neighborhood organizations and the Port-au-Prince mayor's office, while the items handed out include the tarpaulins, a bucket, kitchen materials and 12 liters of water.At the city center site, long lines stretched on either side of the school's gate, with a number of people without coupons showing up anyway.Before the distribution began, there was shouting and pushing at the front of the line, but no serious incidents. The women in line cheered when they were told they would go first.At Canape Vert, Brice Kesnel, 42, waited in line patiently under the baking sun and explained how he escaped as his house collapsed. He was walking with his three-year-old boy when the quake hit.When I went into my bedroom, the earthquake started, he said.

He was able to run out, but rubble struck him on his arm, back and head. His three-year-old was not hurt. Kesnel now sleeps on the ground, as does his family, which also includes two other children aged 10 and 12, he said.In front a heap of concrete that was once his house, Calixte Wilson, 59, has made a small shelter from a blue tarp and a mattress that sits atop concrete blocks. In a slightly larger space belonging to a friend, he sat, with the arm he broke during the earthquake bandaged and in a sling. I lost four people from my family,he said.

China arranging foreign investment deal for N.Korea: report
FEB 15,10

SEOUL (AFP) – China is arranging a huge foreign investment deal to revive North Korea's faltering economy amid an international drive to coax Pyongyang back to nuclear disarmament talks, a report said Monday.Beijing is helping the communist state obtain more than 10 billion dollars in investment from Chinese banks and multinational firms, the South's Yonhap news agency said.The deal was discussed a week ago when North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il met China's senior communist party official Wang Jiarui, it said.A North Korean body known as the Korea Taepung International Investment Group plans to conclude the deal in March, Yonhap said, adding that Chinese capital would account for 60 percent of total investments.

Yonhap did not give any further details on what the investment plan would involve.It said China was brokering the deal because North Korea is demanding economic aid from Beijing along with other incentives before returning to the six-party nuclear forum which the North quit last April.South Korean officials were not available for comment.Chinese and North Korean nuclear negotiators held several days of talks in Beijing last week aimed at restarting the forum chaired by China since 2003.Media reports said Pyongyang was sticking to its two conditions for coming back: a lifting of sanctions and a US commitment to discuss a formal peace treaty.Washington, Seoul and Tokyo say the North must return unconditionally and show commitment to scrapping its nuclear programme before other issues are dealt with.Tough United Nations sanctions brought by the North's pursuit of ballistic missiles and atomic weapons have hurt its economy, restricting the communist state's access to international credit.The nation has relied on foreign aid to feed its people since it suffered a devastating famine in the 1990s.In recent years the regime has tried to reassert state control over the economy by restricting private markets, which sprang up after the state food distribution system collapsed in the famine years.Last November it decreed a currency revaluation to flush out private wealth but analysts said the move backfired disastrously, intensifying food shortages and fuelling inflation.The North is relaxing some curbs on the markets because of mounting public anger, South Korea's spy agency has said.

28 whales euthanized after New Zealand stranding
FEB 15,10

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Twenty-eight pilot whales died or were euthanized by conservation workers after a mass stranding on a remote New Zealand beach, an official said Monday.Department of Conservation workers found nine whales dead on Stewart Island's West Ruggedy Beach on Sunday after they were alerted by a passer-by, biodiversity manager Brent Bevan said.Wild seas and strong winds made it impossible to mount a rescue for the 19 survivors, he said. Conservation officials were forced to euthanize the animals, otherwise they would have suffered greatly, he said.There was no way we could attempt a rescue in those sea conditions, Bevan told The Associated Press. We could either euthanize the whales, or leave them to suffer on the beach for two days. We didn't have any options.It was the fourth mass stranding on the New Zealand coast in recent months. Some 140 pilot whales died in the three other beachings, while 76 were refloated by rescuers.Whale strandings are not uncommon on Stewart Island, the third largest of New Zealand's islands. In 2003 about 160 whales stranded and died there.Large numbers of whales become beached each summer in New Zealand as they pass through Antarctic waters on their way to South Pacific breeding grounds. Scientists have been unable to explain why it occurs.

Shaw to buy control of Canwest TV operations By Susan Taylor – Fri Feb 12, 6:03 pm ET

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Cable operator Shaw Communications Inc has agreed to buy a controlling stake in the television business of debt-swamped Canwest Global Communications Corp, Canada's biggest media company, the two firms said on Friday.
Shaw, which owns cable and telecom services in Western Canada, said it will buy a minimum 20 percent equity stake and 80 percent voting interest in Canwest Global, which has been struggling under a debt load of about C$4 billion ($3.8 billion).No terms were disclosed for the acquisition, which will give Shaw control of Canwest's national television network and specialty TV channels.Canwest's print assets, including Canada's biggest chain of daily newspapers, are not included in the deal.

Shaw is one of Canada's three big cable-TV companies, competing against Toronto-based Rogers Communications and Montreal-based Quebecor.They're basically trying to buy content for their cable business, said Desjardins Securities analyst Maher Yaghi in an interview. Rogers and Quebecor have media divisions; Shaw is not particularly strong in that business.Canwest's specialty channels, including HGTV, Showcase and Fox Sports World, are prime content for cable.Canwest filed for creditor protection in October 2009 for its television operations, including its Global TV network and specialty channels.Financial terms of the deal with Shaw are sealed pending a court hearing likely held February 17, a Canwest spokesman said.BMO Capital Markets analyst Tim Casey, who estimated the investment at about C$100 million, said the surprising development has potential to be a good long-term deal for Shaw. This is positioned as a strategic transaction. Convergence is back,he said in a note.

Canwest shares more than doubled to 13 Canadian cents from 6 Canadian cents on the TSX Venture Exchange. Shaw shares fell 2.5 percent, however, as some investors worried that Shaw is taking on too much risk.It's not completely unexpected, the content is required, it's just we see more risk in it than benefit, Yaghi said.I think a lot of people were hoping for Shaw to make a move on the wireless business.

Shaw spent C$189.5 million in a government auction of wireless spectrum in 2008, but has made only vague statements about its plans.Quebecor, through its Videotron unit, also plans to launch wireless service this summer, and Rogers is already Canada's biggest wireless operator. Rogers' wireless competitors are BCE Inc and Telus Corp.
Shaw's investment in Canwest Media does not affect Canwest's newspaper division and the auction now under way for its newspaper assets. The publishing business, with the exception of the National Post newspaper, was put into creditor protection on January 8.Canwest financial advisor RBC Capital Markets selected Shaw as the preferred equity investor after a solicitation process that stretched over several months.

CONTENT AT REASONABLE PRICE

We are excited about the investment and gaining effective control of one of the premier broadcasters and owners of content in the Canadian broadcasting industry at a reasonable valuation,said Shaw Chief Executive Jim Shaw. The arrangement with Shaw fulfills a requirement in Canwest's support agreement with debtholders for new equity investment. The transaction, which requires creditor, court and regulatory approval, will take place after Canwest has restructured and emerged from creditor protection. Canwest said that Shaw is prepared to fund cash payments to affected creditors, Canwest Media and other Canwest subsidiaries involved in the bankruptcy proceeding. It is also prepared to fund cash payments to existing shareholders in exchange for additional equity in the restructured company, Canwest said. Shaw said its initial equity interest will exceed 20 percent depending on the number of Canwest creditors that elect cash, rather than shares, in the restructured Canwest.

The industry's investments in media assets have historically not generated stellar returns,UBS analyst Phillip Huang said in a note on Shaw's move. We believe the investment in media assets, the inherent uncertainties related to the impact of launching a wireless business, and intensifying competition with Telus will increase Shaw's risk profile in 2010.Some of Canwest's debt is tied to a 2007 television expansion deal with an affiliate of U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs to buy specialty-TV group Alliance Atlantis Communications for C$2.3 billion. Goldman, which holds 65 percent of those assets, will need to agree to any restructuring plan for Canwest to emerge from creditor protection. In 2000, Canwest acquired newspapers from former press baron Conrad Black's Hollinger International in a deal worth C$3.2 billion. Shares of Shaw fell 2.5 percent, losing 50 Canadian cents to end at C$19.30 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday and down 48 cents to close at $18.34 in New York.(Reporting by Susan Taylor, with additional reporting by Ashutosh Joshi in Bangalore; editing by Peter Galloway)