The Golan Heights is strategic mountainous territory looking down on Israeli and Syrian population centers twice used by Damascus to launch ground invasions into the Jewish state. According to Israel's Haaretz daily, Olmert tapped third parties to approach Syria to feel out whether Damascus is seriously interested in negotiations.

Syria, which signed a military alliance with Iran, openly hosts Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders. The U.S. accuses Syria of fueling and aiding the insurgency in Iraq. Israel says Syria has been allowing large quantities of weapons to be transported from its borders to the Lebanese-based Hezbollah militia, which last summer engaged in a war with the Jewish state. Syria has been widely blamed for the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters Tuesday the U.S. has given the green light for Israel negotiate with Syria, but she stipulated the prime minister must not agree to any negotiations, even indirectly, regarding a change in the U.S. position toward Syria. The U.S. largely has attempted to isolate Damascus.

The reports of possible talks with Syria come after a government-appointed committee earlier this month released a report slamming Olmert's decision-making process during last summer's war against the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. The report prompted mass demonstrations and widespread calls for Olmert to step down, including from the prime minister's own deputy, Livni.

WND reported in the weeks prior to the report's release Olmert, anticipating a major backlash, held MEETINGS WITH LEADING LEFTIST FIGURES HERE PLEDGING TO CARRY OUT ISRAELI WITHDRAWALS IN EXCHANGE FOR THEIR CONTINUED SUPPORT. The sources said Olmert told the leftist leaders he is willing to negotiate with Syria and reach a final status agreement with the Palestinians, INCLUDING AN ISRAELI WITHDRAWAL FROM THE WEST BANK, WHICH BORDERS JERUSALEM AND IS WITHIN ROCKET RANGE OF TEL AVIV.

In a briefing with reporters earlier today, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno said U.S. commanders at all levels are being empowered to reach out for talks with militants, tribes, religious leaders and others, including insurgents and sectarian rivals. "We are talking about cease-fires, and maybe signing some things that say they won't conduct operations against the government of Iraq or against coalition forces," Odierno told reporters in a video conference from Baghdad.

Reacting to Odierno's announcement, Muhammad Abdel-El, spokesman and a leader of the Popular Resistance Committees terror group, called TRUCE TALKS WITH INSURGENTS "A BIG VICTORY FOR THE RESISTANCE." "Americans are recognizing the resistance, the same resistance that they before called terrorism; now they are dealing with them, AND THIS IS THE RECOGNITION OF IRAQI RESISTANCE AND RECOGNITION BY THE AMERICANS OF THEIR OWN LOSS IN IRAQ," said Abdel-El.

Abu Abdullah, a leader of Hamas' so-called military wing in the Gaza Strip, said the negotiation of a cease-fire in Iraq "is PROOF THAT IRAQ WILL BE THE END OF AMERICA." "THE AMERICANS DIDN'T ACHIEVE ANYTHING WITH THIS INVASION BUT TO BRING ABOUT THEIR DOWNFALL." Abu Abdullah said he suspects violence in Iraq will continue regardless of a cease-fire.
"OF COURSE THE RESISTANCE WILL CONTINUE," HE SAID.

Earlier today, Odierno said he believed an agreement could be reached with Iraqi elements, including insurgents. "I believe there are elements that are irreconcilable, but I believe the large majority are," Odierno said. "I believe about 80 percent are reconcilable, both Jaish al-Mahdi as well as Sunni insurgents.
"Prime Minister Maliki and the government of Iraq have to continue to reach out to all these groups ... bringing these groups into the political process so we can deal with their differences in a peaceful way instead of in violent ways," Odierno said.

For the first time, it will be up to industry, rather than the regulatory authorities, to prove that chemicals are safe.
But environmental and consumer groups say the new rules do not go far enough. About 30,000 chemicals are covered by the new rules - from paints to flame retardants to fragrances in shampoos. Safety data will be required for all of them.

The most hazardous - chemicals which can cause cancer or changes in genetic material - will have to undergo further testing. If there is a safer alternative, producers will have to substitute it, unless there is a strong case for continuing to use the existing chemical. But environmental campaigners say the new rules, known as REACH, leave too many loopholes.

The new requirements will be phased in between now and 2018. The most hazardous chemicals will have to be registered first, along with those used in the largest quantities. Producers are already working together to share the cost of testing, which the European Commission reckons at up to 10bn euros (£7bn) spread over 11 years. But it says that is offset by the benefits to health and the environment: 97bn euros (£66bn) saved in health costs over the next three decades.

But believe it or not, that's an improvement over the situation just a decade ago, when climate scientists debated fiercely over whether current trends toward warmer temperatures were human-driven or just natural fluctuations in global climate. There is little debate on that subject now. Few scientists today doubt that global climate change is at least partly anthropogenic, meaning we did it.

But uncertainty reigns supreme on even some of the most fundamental questions. Richard Houghton, deputy director and senior scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center, is an expert on Earth's carbon cycle, the process by which the planet and its atmosphere absorb and release carbon in various forms. That includes carbon dioxide, the primary cause of the greenhouse effect.

Houghton is the author of a comprehensive report detailing the uncertainties over what humans have already done to the planet and what the future holds. The report, published in the Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Science, surveys scores of major studies and is laced with expressions like "agreement is poor" and "the results are mixed."

That's of great concern to him, as well as to many others, because if we don't really understand exactly what is happening, and what to expect in the future, we're not likely to succeed in mitigating the impact and managing such critical elements as the carbon cycle.

In an interview broadcast this morning on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" program, Griffin was asked by NPR's Steve Inskeep whether he is concerned about global warming.
"I have no doubt that a trend of global warming exists," Griffin told Inskeep. "I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with."

"To assume that it is a problem is to assume that the state of Earth's climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn't change," Griffin said. "I guess I would ask which human beings - where and when - are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we have right here today, right now is the best climate for all other human beings. I think that's a rather arrogant position for people to take."

News media inquiries to NASA headquarters about Griffin's comments prompted the space agency to make the unusual move of issuing a news release late Wednesday night.

"NASA is the world's preeminent organization in the study of Earth and the conditions that contribute to climate change and global warming," Griffin said in a statement. "The agency is responsible for collecting data that is used by the science community and policy makers as part of an ongoing discussion regarding our planet's evolving systems. It is NASA's responsibility to collect, analyze and release information. It is not NASA's mission to make policy regarding possible climate change mitigation strategies. As I stated in the NPR interview, we are proud of our role and I believe we do it well."

"The message was clear to me," said a retired civil servant, whose 13-year-old son, a student at the Yesilkoy Ibrahim Cengiz school, received the book. "This is not something that should be distributed in schools." This leafy, liberal city would seem like one of the least likely places to allow Islam to permeate public life. But for some residents, the book is part of a subtle shift toward increasingly public religiosity that has gone hand-in-hand with the ascent of the party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The phenomenon is complex: The party has not ordered changes, but sets examples through a growing network of observant teachers and public servants who have been hired since it came to power in 2002. The mayor, Nihat Zeybekci, a charismatic businessman and a member of Erdogan's party, strongly disputes claims that the party has limited freedoms. Alcohol is still sold near mosques. His party has women in local government. The opposition parties do not.

"I get offended when a lady says to me, 'When you have absolute control, will I still be able to swim at the beach?' " he said. "It's like asking if I'm a thief." But secular residents say that they see changes, and that they are the inevitable outcome of several decades of economic transformation. "In a very quiet, deep way, you can sense an Islamization," said Bedrettin Usanmaz, a jewelry shop owner in Denizli. "They're not after rapid change. They're investing for 50 years ahead."

But secular Turks argue that Islam will always seek more space in people's lives, and therefore should be reined in. They look to the military as secularism's final defender. "Islam is not like other religions," said Kadim Yildirim, a history teacher in Denizli from an opposition labor union. "It influences every part of your life, even your bedroom."

"Education is where the religious communities concentrate their efforts," said Gulay Keysan, a 31-year-old English teacher in Denizli. In a school in the city's Karaman district, where she taught several years ago, a quarter of her students lived in hostels.

Perhaps the most sensitive point for teachers like Yildirim are the changes they say are occurring in textbooks. Changes were already under way, part of an upgrade needed to join the European Union, but some officials say that as the nationalism is taken out, a new conservatism is being put in.

Seasoned investigative reporter and former FBI consultant Paul Williams reveals the alarming potential for nuclear terrorism on U.S. soil and the sinister connections among organized crime, illegal immigrants, and al-Qaida.

Recently, FBI Director Robert Mueller, in an interview with NewsMax, confirmed Williams' main claim. Mueller said al-Qaida's paramount goal is clear: to detonate a nuclear device that would kill hundreds of thousands of Americans. Mueller told NewsMax that at times, the threat feels so real he lies awake at night thinking about the prospect.

Williams maintains that al-Qaida is not content on blowing up one nuclear device or even simply a "dirty" nuke, but wants to explode real nuclear devices in seven U.S. cities simultaneously. WILLIAMS SAYS THESE CITIES ARE NEW YORK, WASHINGTON, D.C., LAS VEGAS, MIAMI, BOSTON, HOUSTON, AND LOS ANGELES.

Mueller seems to confirm this claim of multiple attacks, saying both New York and Washington would be likely targets. Already Williams says the U.S. government has Washington webbed by "choke" points to detect nuclear material. Bin Laden and his adherents believe this nuclear cataclysm will usher in "The Day of Islam," the dream of radical Muslims to see all of humankind fall in submission before the throne of Allah as the "Great Satan," America, is brought to her knees.

Williams is not surprised at all that bin Laden has planned to launch such nuclear attacks, suggesting his delay is consistent with his past pattern of activities. For sure, it is a plan that has been long in its hatching.

Although both countries deny they are engaged in a 21st century re-run of the 1960s race to the moon between the cold war superpowers, their haste to launch suggests more than casual interest in the other's progress.

China said this month that it expected to launch its first unmanned lunar orbiter, the Chang'e-1 (named after China's mythological (lady in the moon) before the end of this year, while India this week announced that it could send up a similar space probe as early as April 2008.

The two lunar programmes should be scientifically complementary, with Chinese scientists stressing Chang'e's goal of improving understanding of the geochemistry of the moon's surface and India focusing on three-dimensional mapping.

Under Beijing's three-stage plan, the Chang'e orbiter will be followed by a lunar landing and then by a mission to bring back rock and soil samples. India is building a two-legged robot for a possible follow-up mission to the moon's surface in 2011.However, the Chang'e programme will have to compete for resources with the high-profile manned space programme and Beijing's push to develop its military space assets.

They say homosexuality must be given equal status to stop the spread of "bigoted" attitudes in schools and university campuses. Current Government guidance on sex education says children must be taught "the importance of marriage for family life". Teachers are also permitted to voice their opposition to homosexuality if it stems from personal or religious conviction.

This allows faith schools to teach that same- sex relationships are at odds with their religion. But members of the University and College Union - representing 120,000 lecturers - are calling for a change in the law to stop teachers telling children that marriage is superior to gay partnerships. This would apply to all teachers, including staff in faith schools.

Delegates at the union's annual congress in Bournemouth were critical of recently-passed gay rights laws which failed to ban teachers from expressing personal views on homosexuality. They said the legislation, which is aimed at banning discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, did not go far enough. Delegates unanimously backed a motion demanding an end to "negative characterisations" of gay lifestyles.

The call is certain to infuriate religious groups. The Church of England is among faiths which lobbied the Government for gay rights laws to continue to allow Anglican schools to teach that the Bible forbids homosexuality. But Stephen Desmond, from Thames Valley University, told delegates: "WE MUST NEVER ALLOW FREEDOM OF RELIGION TO BE HIJACKED AND USED AS A PRETEXT TO DISCRIMINATE AGAINST GAY AND LESBIAN TEENAGERS IN SCHOOLS."

Across the U.S., schoolchildren are being urged to replace incandescent light bulbs in their homes. Businesses like Wal-Mart are also pushing CFLs hard, as are environmental groups. BUT SAFE DISPOSAL PLANS AND RECYCLING CENTERS FOR THE MERCURY-LADEN COMPACT FLUORESCENT LAMPS, SEEN AS THE FUTURE, LAG BEHIND THE HYPE.

While CFLs arguably use less energy and last longer than incandescents, there is one serious environmental drawback - the presence of small amounts of HIGHLY TOXIC MERCURY in each and every bulb. This poses problems for consumers when breakage occurs and for disposal when bulbs eventually do burn out.

Mercury is probably best-known for its effects on the nervous system. It can also damage the kidneys and liver, and in sufficient quantities can cause death. With an estimated 150 million CFLs sold in the United States in 2006 and with Wal-Mart alone projecting sales of 100 million this year, some scientists and environmentalists are worried far too many will wind up in garbage dumps. When sufficient mercury accumulates in a landfill, it can be emitted into the air and water in the form of vaporous methyl-mercury. From there, it can easily get into the food chain.

Consumers are discovering other downsides of CFLs besides convenience and safety issues:
-Most do not work with dimmer switches
-They are available in only a few sizes
-Some emit a bluish light
-Some people say they get headaches while working or reading under them
-They cannot be used in recessed lighting enclosures or enclosed globes
-Because they run hotter, fires are a possibility

When CFLs do burn out, they often create some smoke, which consumers have found alarming. This is a result of the plastic on the bulb's ballast melting and turning black. CFL manufacturers dismiss safety concerns.
Governments may indeed be promoting a kind of lighting that is itself nearly obsolete.

Fluorescent lights are nothing new. They've been around for a long time. And while they may save money, some say the public hasn't chosen them for good reasons - including, but not limited to, the mercury issue.
Some experts predict the next generation of lighting, though, is LED lights. They are made from semiconductor materials that emit light when an electrical current flows through them. When this form of light takes over, all bulbs will be obsolete. Your wall tiles can light up. Curtains and drapes can light up. Even your dining room table could be made to light up at exactly the level you want. And the best news is - no toxic waste.

That's what is ahead in the next decade, according to some in the industry.

In a sermon marking 40 YEARS SINCE THE ABORTION ACT, Cardinal Keith Patrick O'Brien will threaten to bar pro-choice politicians from taking Communion. He will urge voters at Edinburgh's St Mary's Cathedral to reject candidates who defend what he calls a social evil. The cardinal's opponents accuse him of using extreme, inflammatory language.They say it is up to elected officials to decide such ethical issues without facing threats from Church leaders.

The BBC's Robert Pigott says CARDINAL O'BRIEN IS FRUSTRATED BY WHAT HE SEES AS THE MARGINALISATION OF CHRISTIAN VALUES IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS. It is his boldest intervention yet in political life, our correspondent says.

HIS SERMON ATTACKS THE 1967 ACT, DESCRIBING THE ROUGHLY SEVEN MILLION ABORTIONS IN BRITAIN SINCE THEN AS AN "UNSPEAKABLE CRIME" AND THE "WANTON KILLING OF INNOCENTS".
The cardinal told the BBC: "We're told by statisticians that THE EQUIVALENT OF A CLASSROOM OF CHILDREN EVERY DAY ARE BEING ABORTED in their mothers' womb - basically murdered in their mothers' womb."

But his intervention has angered some politicians. Jeremy Purvis, a Liberal Democrat member of the Scottish Parliament, said the cardinal was using "inflammatory" language. HE SAID: "IT IS NOT RIGHT THAT WE WOULD BE SEEN TO BE PUT UNDER PRESSURE, OR INDEED SOME MEMBERS THREATENED, BY A RELIGIOUS LEADER ON WHAT IS A VERY SENSITIVE ISSUE."

John Kanzius, 63, is a broadcast engineer who formerly owned several TV and radio stations, before retiring in Sanibel Island, Fla.

Five years ago, he was diagnosed with a severe form of leukemia, and began a quest to find a kinder, gentler way to treat the disease compared to harsh chemotherapy.

In October 2003, he had an epiphany: kill cancer with radio waves. He then devised a machine that emits radio waves in an attempt to slay cancerous cells, while leaving healthy cells unharmed. His experiments in fighting cancer have become so successful, one physician was quoted as saying, "We could be getting close to grabbing the Holy Grail."

But in the midst of his experiments as he was trying to take salt out of water, Kanzius discovered his machine could do what some may have thought was impossible: making water burn. The possible ramifications of the discovery are almost mind-boggling, as cars could be fueled by salt water instead of gasoline, hydroelectric plants could be built along the shore, and homes could be heated without worrying about supplies of oil.
Kanzius has partnered with Charles Rutkowski, general manager of Industrial Sales and Manufacturing, a Millcreek, Pa., company that builds the radio-wave generators.

"I've done this [burning experiment] countless times and it still amazes me," Rutkowski told the Erie Times-News. "Here we are paying $3 a gallon for gas, and this is a device that seems to turn salt water into an alternative fuel."

Kanzius has been told it's actually hydrogen that's burning, as his machine generates enough heat to break down the chemical bond between hydrogen and oxygen that makes up water. "I have never heard of such a thing," Alice Deckert, Ph.D., chairwoman of Allegheny College's chemistry department, told the Times-News. "There doesn't seem to be enough energy in radio waves to break the chemical bonds and cause that kind of reaction."

Kanzius said he hasn't decided whether to share his fuel discovery with government or private business, though he'd prefer a federal grant to develop it. "I'm afraid that if I join up with some big energy company, they will say it doesn't work and shelve it, even if it does work," Kanzius told the paper.

It was the same story in towns close to the Alps in Austria, Switzerland and even northern Italy where temperatures in May routinely climb into the 80s. In one Swiss valley, 3,000 were trapped in hotels and guest houses because trains could not reach them in the snow. Ironically, the weather follows one of the worst winters ever for snow at Alpine ski resorts.

On the Mediterranean island of Corsica, two hikers died in freezing fog and on its beaches a 19-year-old man was killed by a wave. Further north in cities like Berlin, tropical storms have brought four days of chaos, dumping hailstones as big as golf balls, uprooting trees and causing widespread flooding. There have been many fatalities across Germany from the weather, the most poignant being three workmen who sheltered beneath their bulldozer during a rainstorm only to die altogether from a single lightning strike.

Britain was drenched over the weekend in some of the worst rain of the year. The AA said thousands had to cut their long weekends short, to battle appalling conditions on motorways. Arctic winds hit the country on Monday at speeds of up to 50mph in what was described as one of the coldest Whitsun Bank Holidays.

First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Russia tested an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple independent warheads, and it also successfully conducted a "preliminary" test of a tactical cruise missile that he said could fly farther than existing, similar weapons.

"As of today, Russia has new tactical and strategic complexes that are capable of overcoming any existing or future missile defense systems," Ivanov said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. "So in terms of defense and security, Russians can look calmly to the country's future."

Ivanov is a former defense minister seen as a potential Kremlin favorite to succeed Putin next year. Both he and Putin have said repeatedly that Russia would continue to improve its nuclear arsenals and respond to U.S. plans to deploy a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic - NATO nations that were in Moscow's front yard during the Cold War as Warsaw Pact members.