Eighteen years after the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling on Muslims to kill him, A GOVERNMENT MINISTER IN PAKISTAN SAID YESTERDAY THAT RUSHDIE'S RECENT KNIGHTHOOD JUSTIFIED SUICIDE BOMBING.

The question of blasphemy in The Satanic Verses, Rushdie's 1988 tale of a prophet misled by the devil, remains a deeply sensitive issue in much of the Muslim world and the author's inclusion in the Queen's Birthday Honours last week has inflamed anti-British sentiment.

Gerald Butt, editor of the authoritative Middle East Economic Survey, told The Times: "It will be interpreted as an action calculated to goad Muslims at a time when the atmosphere is already very tense and Britain's standing in the region is very low because of its involvement in Iraq and its lack of action in tackling the Palestine issue."

The Organisation to Commemorate Martyrs of the Muslim World, a fringe hardline group, offered a reward of $150,000 (£75,000) to any successful assassin. Forouz Rajaefar, the group's secretary general, said: "The British and the supporters of the anti-Islam Salman Rushdie could rest assured that the writer's nightmare will not end until the moment of his death and we will bestow kisses on the hands of whomsoever is able to execute this apostate.

Ijaz-ul-Haq, the Religious Affairs Minister, told the assembly in Islamabad that the award of the knighthood excused suicide bombing. "If somebody has to attack by strapping bombs to his body to protect the honour of the Prophet then it is justified," he said.

On Valentine's Day in 1989 the spiritual figurehead of the Iranian revolution pronounced on Teheran radio that:
"The author of The Satanic Verses, which is against Islam, the Prophet, the Koran, and all those involved in its publication who were aware of its content, are sentenced to death."

In Britain, the subsequent hate campaign helped to politicise and radicalise a generation of young British Muslims. The taxpayer is believed to have spent more than £10 million protecting Rushdie.

"I expect our Christian neighbors to understand the new Hamas rule means real changes. They must be ready for Islamic rule if they want to live in peace in Gaza," said Sheik Abu Saqer, leader of Jihadia Salafiya, an Islamic outreach movement that recently announced the opening of a "military wing" to enforce Muslim law in Gaza.

"Jihadia Salafiya and other Islamic movements will ensure Christian schools and institutions show publicly what they are teaching to be sure they are not carrying out missionary activity. No more alcohol on the streets. All women, including non-Muslims, need to understand they must be covered at all times while in public," Abu Asqer told WND.

"Also the activities of Internet cafes, pool halls and bars must be stopped," he said. "If it goes on, we'll attack these things very harshly." A Hamas-run council in the West Bank came under international criticism last year when it barred an open-air music and dance festival, declaring it was against Islam.

In response to the uproar, Hamas chief in Gaza and former foreign minister Mahmoud al-Zahar told WND in a recent interview: "I hardly understand the point of view of the West concerning these issues. The West brought ALL THIS FREEDOM to its people but it is that freedom that HAS BROUGHT ABOUT THE DEATH OF MORALITY IN THE WEST. It's what led to phenomena like homosexuality, homelessness and AIDS."

"It is wrong to think that in our Islamic society there is a lack of rights for women. Women enjoy their rights. What we have, unlike the West, is that young women cannot be with men and have relations outside marriage. Sometimes with tens of men. This causes the destruction of the family institution and the fact that many kids come to the world without knowing who are their fathers or who are their mothers. This is not a modern and progressed society," al-Zahar explained.

The terror chieftain told WND the West can learn from his group's Islamic values. "Here I refer to what was said in the early '90s by BRITAIN'S PRINCE CHARLES at Oxford University. He spoke about Islam and its important role in morality and culture. HE SAID THE WEST MUST LEARN FROM ISLAM HOW TO BRING UP CHILDREN PROPERLY AND TO TEACH THEM THE RIGHT VALUES."

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice promised "full assistance" to the Palestinian Authority and emergency humanitarian aid to Gaza via the UN. The EU is assessing ways of resuming direct aid, while Israel said the new cabinet was a "genuine partner". Mr Abbas sacked the previous government after Hamas seized control of Gaza.

Speaking in Washington, Ms Rice congratulated Mr Abbas' choice as Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad. As a result of his appointment, she said, the US would resume diplomatic contacts with the Palestinians, suspended since Hamas came to power after winning elections in January 2006. She criticised Hamas, which she said had tried to impose an extremist agenda on the Palestinian people.

Earlier, in a 15-minute phone call with President George W Bush, Mr Abbas said the time was now right to push for new peace talks. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is to meet Mr Bush in Washington on Tuesday, said he considered the new Palestinian government a "genuine partner". And speaking at an EU meeting in Luxembourg, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni confirmed that up to $800m (£400m) of frozen tax revenues held by Israel would now be transferred to the Palestinian Authority.

Reserves in the Mahogany exploration well were far greater than the 250 million barrels than the firm had earlier forecast, it said.

"Based on evidence to date, ultimate reserves are likely to be materially in excess of previous estimates, with some high potential zones still to be drilled," said Tullow chief executive Aidan Heavey. He said it was one of the biggest oil discoveries in Africa in recent times, but warned it could be up to seven years before the oil started to flow.

Ghana's President John Kufuor told the BBC that the discovery would give a major boost to Ghana's economy.
"Oil is money, and we need money to do the schools, the roads, the hospitals. If you find oil, you manage it well, can you complain about that?

It began building a "Green Great Wall", a 700-km (435 mile) barrier of trees and enclosed grassland which will stretch across Inner Mongolia, Hebei and Shanxi provinces by 2010. Desertification is no longer just a problem for China and the thick yellow dust of the sand storms now reaches as far as South Korea, Japan and at times even the United States and Canada.

Fuquan is in Duolun county, some 350 km north of central Beijing and close to the site of 13th century Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan's summer place Xanadu. By 2000, overgrazing, deforestation, wind erosion and drought meant nearly 90 percent of Duolun county was affected by desertification.

Since then, 2.63 million trees have been planted, farmers have been forced to switch from wheat to grass production and all grazing has been banned in the worst affected areas. In other parts of his county, better soil conditions have enabled the planting of apricot trees, but it is mostly poplars that now populate an area with 385 mm of annual rainfall.

"The trees we have planted, poplars, can grow very well in these conditions," he said. "There has been no situation where trees have died in the drought. This is not like the Gobi desert where if there is no irrigation, the trees will die." Zhang said the battle was not won but THE FIRST GOAL OF STOPPING THE DESERT MOVING SOUTH HAD BEEN ACHIEVED.

"As far as I know, the encroaching situation has been curbed," he said. "Desertification has been going on since the 1970s. The project only began in 2000. It takes a long time to prevent and control the sand fully. We have a long way to go."

Archbishop Chrysostomos II of Cyprus promised the pope to sound out Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II about prospects for a groundbreaking meeting between the two.Chrysostomos told reporters that he would pursue his offer to help organize a possible meeting when he meets with Alexy, at the patriarch's invitation, on July 13 in Moscow.

Chrysostomos said Benedict's background as a theologian with a good grasp of Orthodox theology would help the process of reuniting the two churches, which split nearly 1,000 years ago. Despite "centuries-old divisions, diverging roads and despite the hard work of closing painful wounds, the Lord has never ceased to guide our steps on the path toward unity and reconciliation," Benedict said at a ceremony after the two men held private talks for more than 30 minutes.

Both men also had a two-hour lunch together. In a joint signed statement, they pledged to "intensify the search for full unity among all Christians." Benedict described the archbishop's visit as a "very useful initiative to make us progress toward the unity desired by Christ."

Scientists from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory have been monitoring the situation closely since the swarm of earthquakes began around 2:15 a.m. As of 4:30 a.m., nearby residents felt the rumble with 10 of the earthquakes reaching a magnitude greater than 3.

"We're on alert," said Mardie Lane, park ranger for Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. "This is definitely something new and intriguing. We're all just watching."The biggest earthquake was 4.0 - enough to shock nearby residents but not large enough to trigger a tsunami warning", said Barry Hirshon, geophysicist with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

The document is expected to be published within the next few weeks. Known as a motu proprio, signifying that it is the Pope's personal initiative, it reflects Benedict XVI's thinking on the subject since long before he was elected pontiff.

While, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he repeatedly expressed sympathy for those Catholics who felt nostalgia for the traditional Latin rite which dated back to the Middle Ages, although when it came to discipline he took stern action against the ultra-conservative Catholic splinter group led by the French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who rejected the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and for whom the use of the Latin Mass was a banner.

The question of whether to use a vernacular or Latin Mass has political implications for Catholics everywhere, and the text of the motu proprio has been the subject of intense discussions among Vatican officials for many months.

Papal power

- The Pope's support for the Latin Mass is only in a personal capacity. He is not speaking " ex cathedra," which means that what he says is infallible and that his followers are obliged to obey his words.

- Papal infallibility must meet strict conditions and is something that belongs to the pontiff alone.

- Even decisions that bear his signature are not infallible unless he issues them himself

Source: Catholic Encyclopaedia

But, from the security of her home, the 58-year-old former secondary school teacher has co-ordinated a relentless campaign to name and shame gay Roman Catholic priests.

Her newsletter , Catholic Truth, has so far confronted up to a dozen priests about their alleged homosexuality and has named at least four as being gay or allegedly associating with gay men.
But what Ms McKeever calls her "great work of charity" has not met with universal approval. The Archdiocese of Glasgow has labelled her group as "self-appointed heresy hunters" and accused her of harassment.

Worse, she recently had to call the police after receiving package after package of hard-core pornography.

Ms McKeever, who intends to expose all priests"unconscionably living a double life", told The Times in a telephone interview that she had been forced to take action because of an "unprecedented moral crisis" in the Catholic Church". She was not prepared to have her photograph taken. She said: "THE CHURCH HAS ALWAYS TAUGHT THAT HOMOSEXUALITY IS CONTRARY TO ITS TEACHINGS. HOMOSEXUAL PRIESTS DO NOT BELIEVE IN THE CATHOLIC FAITH ANY MORE SO THEY SHOULDN'T BE IN THE CHURCH".

"I would prefer the bishops to tackle this but, because they are not doing that, we feel it is our duty to let fellow Catholics know what is going on."

In his final appearance before the Commons liaison committee, Mr Blair said he wanted a deal to "amend" existing EU treaties. "If people want an agreement this week we have got to go back to a conventional amending treaty," he told MPs. And he set out the areas where he said he would not compromise at the summit, which will be his final major engagement before stepping down as prime minister.

"First, we will not accept a treaty that allows the charter of fundamental rights to change UK law in any way.

"Second, we will not agree to something that replaces the role of British foreign policy and our foreign minister.

"Thirdly, we will not agree to give up our ability to control our common law and judicial and police system.

"And fourthly, we will not agree to anything that moves to qualified majority voting something that can have a big say in our own tax and benefit system. We must have the right in those circumstances to determine it by unanimity." He added: "If we achieve those four objectives I defy people to say what it is that is supposed to be so fundamental that could require a referendum."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is currently chairman of the EU, is expected to push this week for a new treaty preserving the bulk of the constitution. She is expected to lobby for the EU to have a "single legal personality," a legally-binding charter of fundamental rights and more majority voting in criminal law and foreign policy.

A yearlong probe revealed the corporation especially partial in its treatment of single-issue politics such as climate change, poverty, race and religion, according to the London Times. "It concludes that the bias has extended across drama, comedy and entertainment, with THE CORPORATION PANDERING TO POLITICALLY MOTIVATED CELEBRITIES AND TRENDY CAUSES," the paper said.

The report cites the danger of BBC programs being undermined by the liberal culture of its staff, who need to challenge their own assumptions more. "There is a tendency to 'group think' with too many staff inhabiting a shared space and comfort zone," says the report. It notes staff tend to mimic each other's common left-leaning values.

A seminar on staff impartiality held last year is documented, WITH OFFICIALS ADMITTING THEY WOULD BROADCAST IMAGES OF THE BIBLE BEING THROWN AWAY, BUT NOT THE KORAN FOR FEAR OF OFFENDING MUSLIMS. The report also warns that celebrities must not be pandered to and allowed to hijack the BBC schedule, according to the London Telegraph.

It also offers 12 new principles for the corporation to adopt to safeguard objectivity, including: "Impartiality is no excuse for insipid programming. It allows room for fair-minded, evidence-based judgments by senior journalists and documentary-makers, and for controversial, passionate and polemical arguments by contributors and writers."

A BBC spokeswoman said: "This report is about looking forward and how we are going to face the challenges of impartiality in the modern world."

As WND reported in October, an internal BBC memo revealed senior figures admitted the national news agency was guilty of PROMOTING LEFT-WING VIEWS AND ANTI-CHRISTIAN SENTIMENT. The admissions of bias were made at the impartiality summit. MOST EXECUTIVES ADMITTED THE CORPORATION'S REPRESENTATION OF HOMOSEXUALS AND ETHNIC MINORITIES WAS UNBALANCED AND DISPROPORTIONATE.

According to senior Israeli military sources, the plan calls for 20,000 troops to destroy much of Hamas's military capability in days. The raid would be triggered by Hamas rocket attacks against Israel or a resumption of suicide bombings.

Barak, who is expected to become defence minister tomorrow, has already demanded detailed plans to deploy two armoured divisions and an infantry division, accompanied by assault drones and F-16 jets, against Hamas.

A source close to Barak said that Israel could not tolerate an aggressive "Hamastan" on its border and an attack seemed unavoidable. "The question is not if but how and when," he said.

Max-Peter Ratzel, director of Europol, the European Union's police agency, claims the continuing involvement in the war zones has boosted the threat of reprisals from al-Qaeda and represents the biggest single threat to the security of the EU.

The startling conclusion from one of Europe's most respected police chiefs represents a massive embarrassment for Tony Blair, who has repeatedly insisted that Britain's foreign policy has not contributed to the threat of Islamic terror attacks in the UK. A new Europol publication, the EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report 2007, is a chilling update on the rapid growth of a terror threat that Ratzel warns is "more serious than ever".

But a Foreign Office official last night dismissed any suggestion that British foreign policy had contributed to the terrorist threat back home. "The terrorist influence had been there long before the operations in Afghanistan or Iraq," the official added. "You can go back to the early 1990s to find evidence of al-Qaeda attacks."

The Israeli public security minister said that the Hamas-dominated Gaza Strip should be regarded as a "terror entity" and that the border with Egypt might need to be closed to stop weapons and fighters getting through.

The warning came as the violence which engulfed Gaza last week spread to the West Bank. Hundreds of Fatah gunmen stormed institutions controlled by the rival Hamas group. The Fatah fighters, who are loyal to the Palestinian president, the Western-backed Mahmoud Abbas, wanted revenge for their defeat at the hands of the Iranian-backed Hamas, which has taken control of the Gaza Strip.

A crowd looted the home of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, destroying one of the strongest symbols of the Fatah movement.

Yesterday, Fatah gunmen attacked a number of Hamas-controlled institutions on the West Bank in an attempt to seek revenge for the Islamic group's takeover of the Gaza Strip, and in an effort to stifle any possible Hamas action. In Ramallah, hundreds of Fatah gunmen took over the Palestinian parliament and other Hamas-controlled government offices, telling staff that those with ties to Hamas would not be allowed back.

In the West Bank city of Nablus, Fatah gunmen took over the Hamas-controlled city council and planted the Fatah flag on the top of the building. In Hebron, Fatah gunmen stormed government offices and ordered senior Hamas-linked officials to stay away. Abbas' newly appointed Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, moved forward with plans to form an emergency government.

Officials close to Abbas said that the government would also include members from Gaza in a bid to preserve Palestinian unity. But Hamas officials described the move as illegal. Abbas aide Yasser Abed Rabbo said the new government would be sworn in by today.

He rejected dialogue with Hamas until the group withdraws from former Fatah positions in Gaza and dissolves its militia there. "There will be no dialogue with killers who carried out field executions in Gaza," he said.
The international community has sided with Abbas in the dispute. The US consul-general in Jerusalem, Jacob Walles, said Washington would end 15 months of sanctions once the new Palestinian government is formed.

One of their initial acts was to erect a wooden cross on the shore at Cape Henry. At the foot of that cross, Rev. Robert Hunt led the 149 men of the Virginia Company in public prayer, praising God for His hand of safety and pledging that they would follow Him in their venture in this "new world." When those settlers arrived in 1607, they understood the necessity of expressing gratitude to God for His deliverance.

In the first charter of Virginia, these words are found: "Greatly commending..... their Desires for the Furtherance of so noble a Work, which may, by the Providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the Glory of His Divine Majesty, in propagating of Christian Religion to such People, as yet live in Darkness and miserable Ignorance of the true Knowledge and Worship of God."

The Second Charter of Virginia, in 1609, stated: "The principal Effect which we can expect or desire of this Action is the Conversion and reduction of the people in those parts unto the true worship of God and the Christian Religion." Virginia's Charter continued: "It shall be necessary for all such our loving Subjects to live together, in the Fear and true Worship of Almighty God, Christian Peace, and civil Quietness, with each other."

Thirteen years later, the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, in Massachusetts, because they sought the freedom to worship the God of the Scriptures without the dictates of government. The Pilgrims would soon establish the Mayflower Compact, which stated that their purpose was "advancement of the Christian faith."
Just a few years later, in 1643, the New England Confederation was formed, with this statement: "Whereas we all came into these parts of America with one and the same aim, namely, to advance the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and to enjoy the liberties of the Gospel, in purity, with peace."

THESE PEOPLE WERE NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. THERE WAS NO ACLU TO BRING LAWSUITS AGAINST THEM FOR PUBLICLY EXPRESSING THEIR FAITH.

Later, freedom and liberty, under God, were the basic elements of the Declaration of Independence, which reads: "We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

In 1787, the U.S. Constitution was drafted, giving Americans the freedoms that were so important to those who traveled those waters. Later, in the first 10 amendments, the drafters wrote that the government could not control or hinder the free worship of almighty God, nor could their beliefs be stifled simply because others may disagree.

Throughout the years to come, our nation boldly worshiped God, commonly holding public days of prayer and thanksgiving. The nation's leaders routinely expressed their dependence on Almighty God. Our schools trained children to love God and read the Bible.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, in his recent book, "Rediscovering God in America," recounts many significant monuments, memorials and documents in our nation's capital that clearly illustrate our nation was founded "under God."

George Washington, our military leader and first president, stated, "IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO RIGHTLY GOVERN A NATION WITHOUT GOD AND THE BIBLE." Imagine the outcry today if one of our nation's lawmakers made such a statement.

IT IS OBVIOUS THAT THERE ARE THOSE WHO WANT TO IGNORE, OR REWRITE, OUR NATION'S CHRISTIAN HERITAGE. IT IS FURTHER OBVIOUS THAT WE, AS CHRISTIANS, MUST FIGHT THIS EFFORT. IT IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO DO SO, FOR THE VERY FUTURE OF OUR NATION DEPENDS ON IT.