The Arctic Sea Hijack… more than meets the eye

Eight alleged hijackers of the Russian ship the Arctic Sea were in fact welcomed on board after being rescued in the Baltic Sea, a lawyer claims.

Konstantin Baranovsky, who represents one of the eight men, said the alleged pirates were testing a navigation system on a small boat.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8271954.stm

IAEA: Syria site hit by Israel resembled atom plant

 

 

“Confidential UN watchdog report says ’significant’ amounts of uranium particles found by inspectors at Syrian complex bombed by Israel in September 2007, adding further investigation needed to prove reactor allegations “

A Syrian complex bombed by Israel bore features resembling those of an undeclared nuclear reactor and UN inspectors found "significant" traces of uranium at the site, a watchdog report said on Wednesday. But the International Atomic Energy Agency report said the findings gleaned from inspectors’ visit to the site in June were not enough to conclude a reactor was once there. It said further investigation and greater Syrian transparency were needed. The confidential nuclear safeguards report said Syria would be asked to show to inspectors debris and equipment whisked away from the site after the September 2007 Israeli air raid. The United States gave intelligence to the IAEA last April that Washington said indicated the site was a reactor that was close to being built with North Korean assistance and designed to produce plutonium for atomic bombs.

Syria, an ally of Iran whose disputed uranium enrichment program has been under IAEA investigation for years, says the site destroyed was a disused military building and the uranium traces almost certainly came with the munitions used to bomb it. Damascus has dismissed as fabricated the satellite imagery and other intelligence underpinning the investigation. "While it cannot be excluded that the building in question was intended for non-nuclear use, the features of the building, along with the connectivity of the site to adequate pumping capacity of cooling water, are similar to what may be found in connection with a reactor site," said the IAEA report, sent to its 35-nation board of governors ahead of a November 27-28 meeting. “

click for article – http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3625629,00.html

“Veterans Helped by Healing Paws”

 

As an enthusiastic Dog owner and also someone who has the greatest respect for the people of the Armed Services, I found the following article very informative and moving..

Some who have suffered traumatic injuries gain a sense of independence with service dogs, who help provide a bridge back to society.

click for article   Veterans Helped by Healing Paws
By KAREN JONES
Tue, 11 Nov 2008 06:15:28 GMT

Pilot who went blind at 15,000ft lands safely thanks to the RAF

 

A pilot who suddenly went blind at 15,000ft is guided in to land by RAF crews from Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire.

Pilot who went blind at 15,000ft lands safely thanks to the RAF
Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:14:25 GMT

The creep of authoritarianism in Russia – The Guardian

 

“President Dmitry Medvedev moved yesterday to entrench the current Russian leadership’s grip on power by proposing a presidential term that would extend the stint in office from four to six years. Medvedev said the extension was necessary to guarantee stability and help Russia deal with huge global challenges. But critics said the proposal was further evidence of Russia’s alarming and rapid drift towards authoritarianism. This morning’s Vedomosti newspaper, citing Kremlin sources, said that Medvedev could resign from his post as early as 2009 – paving the way for Vladimir Putin, currently the prime minister, to come back to the Kremlin. Putin stepped down as president in May, when he handed over to Medvedev, his handpicked successor. Under this scenario Putin could get his presidential job back next year and then serve two six-year terms, Vedomosti suggested. In his first state of the nation address yesterday, Medvedev also said he was deploying nuclear missiles in western Russia to "neutralise" the Pentagon’s missile defence system – and lambasted the US for its "arrogant course" and "unilateralism". Speaking hours after Barack Obama was voted in as the next American president, Medvedev said Russia would site short-range Iskander nuclear-capable missiles next door to Poland, in Russia’s Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad.

The Iskander missiles would be targeted at the US’s missile defence and radar bases in Poland and the Czech Republic, Medvedev said. Russia would also install radio-jamming equipment to sabotage the US weapons, he added. The US insists its system is aimed not at Russia but at Iran. Medvedev’s threat – with its echoes of cold war-style confrontation along the frontiers of eastern Europe – is likely to be an early foreign policy headache for Obama, as his fledgling administration seeks to improve ties with the EU. The Democrats are ambivalent about the Bush administration’s expensive defence plans in Europe. But if Obama dumps the project he risks accusations of weakness and caving in to Russian bullying. “

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/06/putin-kremlin-russia

“The rival to the Bible” – BBC

“What is probably the oldest known bible is being digitised, reuniting its scattered parts for the first time since its discovery 160 years ago. It is markedly different from its modern equivalent. What’s left out? The world’s oldest surviving Bible is in bits. For 1,500 years, the Codex Sinaiticus lay undisturbed in a Sinai monastery, until it was found – or stolen, as the monks say – in 1844 and split between Egypt, Russia, Germany and Britain. Now these different parts are to be united online and, from next July, anyone, anywhere in the world with internet access will be able to view the complete text and read a translation. Roger Bolton presents the Oldest Bible is on Radio 4 on Monday, 6 October, at 1100 BST.

For those who believe the Bible is the inerrant, unaltered word of God, there will be some very uncomfortable questions to answer. It shows there have been thousands of alterations to today’s bible. The Codex, probably the oldest Bible we have, also has books which are missing from the Authorised Version that most Christians are familiar with today – and it does not have crucial verses relating to the Resurrection.

The fact this book has survived at all is a miracle. Before its discovery in the early 19th Century by the Indiana Jones of his day, it remained hidden in St Catherine’s Monastery since at least the 4th Century.

It survived because the desert air is ideal for preservation and because the monastery, on a Christian island in a Muslim sea, remained untouched, its walls unconquered. Today, 30 mainly Greek Orthodox monks, dedicated to prayer, worship there, helped as in ages past by the Muslim Bedouin. For this place is holy to three great religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam; a land where you can still see the Burning Bush where God spoke to Moses. The monastery itself has the greatest library of early manuscripts outside the Vatican – some 33,000, and a collection of icons second to none. Not surprisingly, it is now a World Heritage Site and has been called a veritable Ark, bringing spiritual treasures safely through the turbulent centuries. In many peoples’ eyes the greatest treasure is the Codex, written in the time of the first Christian Emperor Constantine. When the different parts are digitally united next year in a £1m project, anyone will be able to compare and contrast the Codex and the modern Bible. Firstly, the Codex contains two extra books in the New Testament.  One is the little-known Shepherd of Hermas, written in Rome in the 2nd Century – the other, the Epistle of Barnabas. This goes out of its way to claim that it was the Jews, not the Romans, who killed Jesus, and is full of anti-Semitic kindling ready to be lit. "His blood be upon us," Barnabas has the Jews cry.

Discrepancies

Had this remained in subsequent versions, "the suffering of Jews in the subsequent centuries would, if possible, have been even worse", says the distinguished New Testament scholar Professor Bart Ehrman.  And although many of the other alterations and differences are minor, these may take some explaining for those who believe every word comes from God.

Faced with differing texts, which is the truly authentic one?

Mr Ehrman was a born again Bible-believing Evangelical until he read the original Greek texts and noticed some discrepancies. The Bible we now use can’t be the inerrant word of God, he says, since what we have are the sometimes mistaken words copied by fallible scribes.

"When people ask me if the Bible is the word of God I answer ‘which Bible?’"

The Codex – and other early manuscripts – do not mention the ascension of Jesus into heaven, and omit key references to the Resurrection, which the Archbishop of Canterbury has said is essential for Christian belief. Other differences concern how Jesus behaved. In one passage of the Codex, Jesus is said to be "angry" as he healed a leper, whereas the modern text records him as healing with "compassion". Also missing is the story of the woman taken in adultery and about to be stoned – until Jesus rebuked the Pharisees (a Jewish sect), inviting anyone without sin to cast the first stone. Nor are there words of forgiveness from the cross. Jesus does not say "Father forgive them for they know not what they do". Fundamentalists, who believe every word in the Bible is true may find these differences unsettling. But the picture is complicated. Some argue that another early Bible, the Codex Vaticanus, is in fact older. And there are other earlier texts of almost all the books in the bible, though none pulled together into a single volume.

Many Christians have long accepted that, while the Bible is the authoritative word of God, it is not inerrant. Human hands always make mistakes. "It should be regarded as a living text, something constantly changing as generation and generation tries to understand the mind of God," says David Parker, a Christian working on digitising the Codex. Others may take it as more evidence that the Bible is the word of man, not God”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7651105.stm

"Russia targets Halloween, Valentine’s Day"

 

Sept. 18, 2008 04:36 PM
USA Today

MOSCOW – Russia is opening a new front in its battle with the West over last month’s fighting in neighboring Georgia: a move to ban the Western holidays of Halloween and Valentine’s Day as bad influences on the nation’s youth. The State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, will consider a measure this month to guard students from what the government considers destructive Western influences, such as the two festive celebrations that are growing more popular in Russia. Maxim Mishchenko, a Duma member, says he is pushing the bill to guard the “moral and spiritual upbringing” of the nation’s youth and to promote traditional Russian culture and values rather than those imported from the West.

The proposed legislation reflects the rising nationalism here and a sense that Russia is threatened by U.S. and European culture and military powers, analysts and lawmakers say. “All this is part of the mind-set of we need to protect ourselves – and protect ourselves in a conservative way,” says Maria Lipman of the Carnegie Moscow Center, a think tank.

The recent conflict with Georgia, in which Russian troops moved deep into the former Soviet republic, helps push the proposal, says Alexandra Ochirova, social issues commission chairwoman of the Public Chamber, a Kremlin-picked advisory group of prominent citizens. “The events in the Caucasus have direct connections with the policy of our state, because for the first time citizens have witnessed that the state is able to protect every concrete Russian citizen,” she says. The proposal dovetails with a new Russian version of Valentine’s, called the Day of Family, Love and Fidelity. The holiday, held in June, was backed by first lady Svetlana Medvedev and the Russian Orthodox Church. Among its goals: stimulate a sense of family life and to stem Russia’s declining birth rate. Mishchenko says students should celebrate Russian holidays, not those heralded in the United States and Europe. “Why necessarily celebrate St. Valentine’s Day?” he says. “Let them celebrate Russian ones.” “If the state won’t interfere, they (Russia’s youth) will behave like little monkeys, copying what doesn’t fit with the soul of our culture,” Mishchenko says.

Yevgeny Yuryev, another Duma member who is helping write the new policy, admits any outright ban could be counterproductive.

Instead, the Duma could declare that only traditional Russian holidays can be observed in schools, or require students to wear uniforms.

That would have the same result: no spooky costumes and no flowery cards.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/09/18/20080918russia-holidays0918-ON.html

"North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has been dead for years and replaced by a number of look-alikes, a Japanese academic claims"

“North Korea expert Professor Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor of international relations, says Kim died of diabetes in 2003 and has been substituted by up to four body doubles ever since.
Driven by a fear of assassination, Kim allegedly trained his doppelgangers — one of whom underwent plastic surgery — to attend public appearances.
“Scholars don’t trust my reasoning but intelligence people see the possibility that it will turn out to be accurate,” Fox News reported Professor Shigemura as saying.
“I have identified and pinned down every source.”
Kim, 66, has not appeared in public for three weeks amid rumours he is seriously unwell.
While Seoul intelligence officials have said they believe he has diabetes and heart problems, they do not think he is near death.
But Professor Shigemura, from Tokyo’s respected Waseda University, believes that Kim actually died sometime during a 42-day absence from public in September 2003.
He claims that whenever anyone is granted a face-to-face meeting with today’s Kim, a senior official is always by his side “like a puppet master”.
Professor Shigemura’s claims, outlined in his book The True Character of Kim Jong-il, have been disputed by North Korean officials.”

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.a…627370&rss=yes

Putin blames US for Georgia role

 

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accuses the United States of provoking the conflict in Georgia.

Putin blames US for Georgia role
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:20:53 GMT

A reminder from history to the great Russian people that not all Russian help is welcomed.

A reminder from history to the great Russian people that not all Russian help is welcomed.

Czechoslovakia 1968.

http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.ExhibitionDetail_VPage&pid=2K7O3RHXD417

del.icio.us Tags: ossetia,abkhazia,russia,crisis,georgia