In the opening session of the Gang Enforcement Conference, El Salvador President Antonio Saca said the problem is one that should concern many nations. "Gangs like MS-13 have evolved into coordinated and well-financed criminal organizations," he said, making them an international problem.

"The immigration that we have experienced in the region, into Mexico and the United States is a theme we have to understand," Saca explained. "The same activity of the criminal gangs we experience here in this region is now being experienced in the United States. The territorial expansion of these criminal organizations is the principle menace we are facing from gangs like MS-13."

A select group of U.S. and international law enforcement officers, including representatives from Mexico and Latin America, is working on how to respond to the El Salvador-grown MS-13 gang (Mara Salvatrucha Gang), the tattooed drug-dealing criminals haunting the nightmares of FBI agents across the U.S.
WND reported as early as 1995 the gang reportedly was meeting with representatives of al-Qaida and smuggling operatives into the United States from Mexico.

Attorney James Trusty recently told a court in a case reported by the Washington Post that three leaders participated in or planned four murders over a span of only two years. Trusty told the court MS-13 gang members follow the "rape, kill and control" philosophy," using guns, knives and machetes. Robert Loosle, FBI special agent in charge in Los Angeles, told WND that a key focus of the conference is to make sure "everybody is on the same page" both within the U.S. and internationally in dealing with the growing problem of Hispanic gangs in the United States.

Frank Flores of the Los Angeles Police Department told the convention that MS-13 today is recruiting members not just from El Salvador, but from the Hispanic community at large and even from Los Angeles' African-American community.

Flores told the group that the Mexican Mafia controls the Hispanic groups in California from within the state prisons. "Gangs like MS-13 or the 18th Street Gang have a history that goes back into the 1980s," Flores explained. "The Mexican Mafia is organized as a crime hierarchy, along the model of the Sicilian Mafia.

The big money business for the Hispanic gangs still is drugs. All through Los Angeles any gang or gang member who wants to deal drugs is going to have to pay 'rent' to EME [the Mexican Mafia], or else they are out of business and most likely dead."

"In the world of Hispanic gangs," José Chávez of the LAPD told the conference, "all roads lead to LA. We are trying to exchange information with law enforcement throughout the U.S. and throughout Latin America. LA is becoming a 'fusion center' for information on Hispanic gangs." El Salvadoran law enforcement authorities echoed that theme.

Also in Gaza, an angry clan stormed the parliament building, carrying the body of a dead family member to demand the killers be brought to justice.

Today's rocket attack, which came on Israel's 59th Independence Day, did not cause any damage or injury. However, it marked the first time Hamas openly acknowledged firing shells toward Israel since agreeing to a cease-fire along the Gaza-Israel border in November. A spokesman for Hamas' armed wing said the group considered the truce to have ended.

"The cease-fire has been over for a long time, and Israel is responsible for that", spokesman Abu Obeida told the Voice of Palestine radio station. In recent months, Hamas had largely held back on attacks, particularly during its negotiations on a power-sharing agreement with the Fatah movement of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Now the Muslim militant group appears to be spoiling for a fight, especially in the absence of any progress toward the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit. Shalit was captured by Hamas-allied militants in Gaza last June.

"This is a message to the Zionist enemy that our strikes will continue," Abu Obeida said of the rocket fire. "We are ready to kidnap more and more, and kill more and more of your soldiers."

Shalit's kidnappers demand the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including veterans and those involved in killing or wounding Israelis.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday said that freeing soldiers was important to the government, but that it would not repeat mistakes made in the past by releasing violent prisoners who then carried out more attacks against Israelis.

However, Mr Olmert said there would be "no escape in the end from making a difficult decision on trading prisoners for captured Israeli troops."

Let me give you a real-world example. Here's a question: Which is worse? Actions or words? Robbing someone or calling him a mean name? Which one deserves the greater penalty?

Before you answer, let's say the name was really mean, like being called "Four-eyes!" I played on the public school playground, used to wear glasses and have been victimized personally by such horrific verbal assaults. They hurt my feelings. And there ought to be stiff penalties for something like that. Stiff like 23 years behind bars? I don't think so. But the state of New Hampshire does.

I know what you're thinking. Can't be. We can't criminalize name calling. The public schools would be empty with everyone behind bars until their 30s. Oh, I left something out. The mean name in New Hampshire isn't "Four-eyes," targeting the visually impaired; it isn't "Fatso," shamelessly targeting the lovers of cheesecake. The only people protected from mean names with a 23-year jail sentence are homosexuals.

Just what might H.R. 1592 do on the federal level? As Rep. (and former Judge) Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, pointed out on the House Judiciary Subcommittee, if passed, H.R. 1592 is going to put pastors in prison. Pointing to Title 18 of the US Criminal Code, Section 2 (a):

(a) Whoever commits an offense against the United States or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission, is punishable as a principal. 18 USC Sec. 2

Pastor? Have you ever counseled from a biblical perspective or read from Roman 1? I Corinthians 6? Genesis 19? Leviticus 18 or 20? Then, if H.R. 1592 becomes law and someone who has attended your church, read your materials or heard your broadcast commits a crime such as pushing away a cross-dresser's unwelcome advances you are "punishable as a principal," as someone who "counsels" and "induces" THE NOW-ILLEGAL BELIEF THAT HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVIOR IS A SIN

Think this is a stretch? Think again. In 1998, I oversaw the national "Truth in Love" campaign, which expressed hope for change for those struggling in homosexuality something for which I was accused of murder. Here's a sample of one of the full-page "Truth-in-Love" campaign ads that caused all the commotion. One ad pictured 850 ex-homosexuals with the headline, "We're standing for the truth that homosexuals can change." Brace yourself for "hateful," "bigoted" and "intolerant" speech said to be responsible for murder.

"We believe every human being is precious to God and is entitled to respect. But when we see great suffering among homosexuals, it's an inherent Christian calling to show compassion and concern."

With words like "precious," "respect," "compassion" and "concern," you can understand why the city of San Francisco would be prompted to accuse us of murder:

"It's not an exaggeration to say that there's a direct correlation between these acts of discrimination, like Matthew Shepard, such as when gays and lesbians are called sinful, and when major religious organizations say they can change if they try, and the horrible crimes committed against gays and lesbians." - City of San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Oct. 19, 1998.

We now have a governmental body on record connecting SPEECH AND VIOLENCE. It's not even violent speech. They are saying that the hopeful message that homosexuals can change is responsible for murder. That, my friend, is why the hate-crimes legislation is the most dangerous legislation in the country. It will lead to silencing our speech just as the city of San Francisco tried to do.

H.R. 1592 isn't about hate. It isn't about crime. It's about silencing our speech. But you don't care about speaking out on "issues" such as homosexuality? As I said in my book, "The Crimnalization of Christianity," if they can silence the truth, they WILL silence the Gospel. Look no further than Philadelphia where grandmothers were thrown in jail for the "hate crime" of sharing the Gospel.

Arlene Elshinnawy, a 75-year-old grandmother of three, held a sign before she was hauled off to jail: "TRUTH IS HATE TO THOSE WHO HATE THE TRUTH."

Or you can use your "RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT." But the House vote on H.R. 1592 is scheduled this week. Use it much longer, and those are the words you'll hear before you're put in the jail cell next to grandma for the "hate crime" of sharing the Gospel.

As the debate in Congress over supplemental funding for the war in Iraq heats up, the Department of Defense still cannot adequately account for billions of dollars, according to the Government Accountability Office. "For the past 10 consecutive years, we have been unable to certify the Financial Report of the U.S., which is prepared annually by the Treasury Department," Gary Engle, director of Financial Management and Assurance at the GAO, told WND. "Many of the material weaknesses that we found relate to the Department of Defense and their financial management problems."

"There are efforts underway over at DOD to address the problems, but the efforts are likely to be long-term projects," he said. WND asked Engle if it was fair to say DOD simply had "lost" billions of dollars allocated to the department by Congress. "We haven't reported that DOD has 'lost' billions of dollars," Engle objected. "It's hard to say, with the internal control problems DOD has and with the limited audit work on-going at DOD because of the control problems.

The real focus is to try to develop processes and controls and systems so DOD can be audited. "Nobody's done the work, to my knowledge, that would be able to verify if money were really lost at DOD," Engle explained. A Jan. 31 paper entitled "Financial Stewardship: A Critical Challenge Facing Our Nation," on the GAO website supports the statements made to WND by Engle and Irving.

This paper notes that the GAO has been unable to certify the U.S. Treasury GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Practices) accounting of the U.S. budget "because the federal government could not demonstrate the reliability of significant portions of the financial statements, especially in connection with major financial management challenges at the Department of Defense."

Lt. Col. Brian Maka, spokesman for DOD, objected to WND characterizing the GAO's criticism as identifying "problems" with DOD accounting.
"Characterizing the situation as 'problems' is probably an old, tired argument," Maka said. "You understand there are layers of appropriations laws that we are bound by. We have systems that are in place based on these laws that are not necessarily compatible with the GAAP principles we are required to live by."

In an e-mail to WND, Maka explained DOD is the "largest and most complex organization in the world."
Maka noted DOD owns more than 600,000 buildings in 146 countries across the globe.
"The department's assets and liabilities exceed those of WalMart, Exxon, Ford and IBM combined," he wrote. "Add to that an employment roster than includes 1.4 million active duty men and women; 740,000 civilians; 860,000 Guard and Reserve; 2 million retirees and families; and an operating budget in excess of $400 billion."

IF THE DEPARTMENT WERE A COUNTRY, HE SAID, IT WOULD HAVE THE WORLD'S 23RD LARGEST ECONOMY."

The rocket, a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), took off from the Sriharikota base in southern India at 1530 Indian time (1000 GMT). It is carrying a 352kg Italian satellite which will gather information about the origins of the universe, the AFP news agency reports.

India's space programme includes an unmanned mission to the Moon which is due to take place next year.

India has been working for some time on developing a low-cost launch system which could take on more established players around the world. Reports say that India is being paid $11m to launch the Italian satellite.
The rocket was due to send the satellite into orbit 23 minutes after takeoff.

The PSLV model rocket was first launched in 1994. It puts satellites into orbits where they cross above the earth's poles. At present, the PSLV rocket only has the capability of carrying relatively lighter loads of under 1,500 kilograms. But officials at India's space programme are hoping that can change with time.

The Petro-Dollar system is a vast banking and commerce system designed by major world economies. Japan, South Korea, France, Germany, Argentina, these nations are typical in purchase of oil without the benefit of domestic production. So they must create a system for having cash ready to make timely payments, much like a checking account.

The system's overt original purpose was to enable and facilitate payment for extremely large supplies of delivered energy products, principally crude oil but also natural gas. The commodity payment system has actually evolved to become much more far reaching. Try to purchase copper or cotton or forest timber or grains, and payment is almost assuredly demanded in US Dollar terms, the international currency for commerce in commodities generally.

What began as a checking account for oil payments has morphed into a gigantic bloated beast of a dangerous financial pyramid whose foundation has corroded and weakened as the US Dollar bear market progresses. A Euro-Dollar is a US$ held in European banks, not converted to local currency units, and serves as a buttress to support the Petro-Dollar system.

Large US energy service firms typically win contracts with oil producing nations. It is part of the Petro-Dollar game, with attached military protection unwritten into the contracts. We protect their governments, even if they are corrupt. We induce both monetary corruption and bank dependence, even when other governments are honest and object to pressured tactics. We are the big bully on the block.

IN ESSENCE, THE US GOVT RUNS THE LARGEST PROTECTION & EXTORTION RACKET IN MODERN HISTORY, PERHAPS EVER. The world is "obliged" to sop up and purchase all the debts we generate, whether they approve or not of our policies, behavior, tendency, or justification for military actions. ALMOST WITHOUT ENFORCED DISCIPLINE, THE US SYSTEM HAS EVOLVED WITH UNCHECKED ABUSE ON A MASSIVE SCALE.

Foreign central banks have few alternatives to sock away $20 to $30 billion per month, each month, every month. Practical implications are frightening. The US Govt can run a war on a credit card, with foreigners paying the costs with no say on the prosecution of that war. We continue to print money to pay bills and fund operations, with credit supply taken for granted even though our national security on a financial basis is routinely undermined.

Asia feels obliged to continue, in order to keep their industries and work force busy (avoid unemployment), and to prevent their banking systems from imploding. If a nation can manage to trade a host of commodities (like oil, natural gas, copper, iron, cotton, coffee) in euro denomination, that national economy would be far less subject to the distress of systemic rising prices.

Russia sells 81% of its oil exports to Europe, with 65% of its overall trade with the EuroZone. Therefore, it is in Russia's best interest to sell oil in euro denomination. IT APPEARS RUSSIA IS THE SPEARHEAD BEHIND THE TRANSFORMATION TOWARD THE PETRO-EURO AND CREATING A NEW SYSTEM.

Few observers seem to attach many military implications to the Petro-Dollar, its defense, its dismantling, and geopolitical shifts it might cause. Any curious thinking person with a pulse must consider that establishment of military bases in the hot Middle East was another motive. Locking in multi-billion contacts with oil field renovation and restoration is yet another motive. We did not share such contracts with European firms, much to their anger. Also, stemming the sale of Iraqi crude oil in euro denomination was another motive. THE PETRO-DOLLAR SYSTEM IS THAT IMPORTANT TO DEFEND.

The sleepy US press & media has given weapons of mass destruction 50 hours of air time for every 5 minutes of serious discussion of Petro sales in euros. Saddam Hussein's defiant sale of Iraqi oil for euros made for a highly profitable maneuver. RUSSIA is attempting to take the front position to attack the Petro-Dollar system directly, first by selling oil and gas to Europe in euro terms, second by attempting to lead OPEC in secret fashion with little publicized meetings.

Behind the scenes is anger by Russia for the construction of numerous small bases for the US Military in former Soviet Republics like Uzbekistan and Kazakstan. We seem in Putin's eyes to be encircling Russia, who might retaliate by knocking the Petro-Dollar system off its foundation pillars. THE NEW SHANGHAI COOPERATIVE GROUP represents a potential supply network which will have member nations of China, India, Russia, former Soviet Republics, and Iran as its core. New nations are being actively courted, such as Venezuela and Brazil.

Energy (crude oil & natural gas), industrial metals, and more are to be bought and sold by this new network, outside OPEC and its gaggle of disunity and diverse puppet strings held by Washington DC. In my view the "CO-OP" is likely to have been organized to be a direct assault on the Petro-Dollar, if not a consciously designed network to blockade the USA from the supply chain. MY GUESS IS THE EURO WILL BE THE CO-OP'S TRANSACTIONAL CURRENCY.

The latest development is the creation of an IRANIAN COMMODITY EXCHANGE MARKET. The US press has yet to report on it, despite the extreme importance. Would even 10% of the viewing audience understand the story or its importance? So why bother to air it? Its plan is to sell crude oil and natural gas in euro denomination. So far CHINA is a central customer to participate in the new exchange.

If the key oil pipelines are to routed through Iran, then Iran rises in strategic importance almost beyond what words can describe. Iran sits in the most important location in the entire Persian Gulf, and they are not friendly nor co-operative with the USA. Any attack of Iran by US Forces will involve the RUSSIAN AND CHINESE MILITARIES.

Financial weapons prove ineffective in defending the Petro-Dollar from Russian maneuvers. They sell directly to Europe. It is an obvious next step. Not only will Russia continue to sell energy supplies in euro terms, but Russia will balance its central bank reserves toward the Euro-Bonds. Reserves will reflect their commerce.
My assessment is that a currency war is underway between USA and Russia, with the Petro-Dollar the central battle ground. THAT WAS THE HIDDEN AGENDA BEHIND THE PUTIN VS BUSH TALKS LAST MONTH.

We are long past the buddy-buddy horseback rides in Crawford Texas with Vladimir Putin. This man Putin comes from the KGB and knows how to play chess. Our US Govt leaders know how to use sledge hammers, not move chess pieces on a complex chess board.

A TRANSITION IS IN PLACE TO HAVE THE EURO REPLACE THE US DOLLAR AS WORLD RESERVE CURRENCY, or at least to share it with the euro during a transition phase. Russia, China, India, Indonesia, South Korea all announced "diversification" away from the US$-based debt securities in their central bank reserves management. Such pronouncements serve as verbal after-shocks to basic shifts underway in the Petro-Dollar foundation earthquakes.

The initial effect is to be an effect on the oil price and a slew of commodity prices. Then might come an effect on currencys and bonds as a secondary effect. Then we might see a gold effect. An acceleration down with US Dollar could trigger a world bank crisis. Foreign banks have responded with diversification into the euro and to a minor extent into gold.

THE PETRO-DOLLAR FOUNDATION IS BEING SHAKEN UNDER OUR FEET.

So the question now is whether Royal, the first woman with a serious chance of becoming France's president, can win enough of those votes to build an anti-Sarkozy coalition and win the 50.1 percent of the votes now required for victory. One key component of her anti-Sarkozy strategy will be to make the next vote a referendum on President George W. Bush and Sarkozy's pro-American stance.

'I will not go down on my knees before President George Bush,' Royal declared last week in the closing stages of her campaign. Her followers have dubbed Sarkozy, who is of Hungarian-Jewish ancestry and something of an outsider in French politics, 'a neo-conservative who happens to carry a French passport.'

She hopes to rally all those who voted for France's slew of far-left parties, and many of those who voted for the centrist Bayrou, behind her campaign to preserve France's generous welfare and social system and against what she calls 'the cruelties and profiteering of the so-called free market system of the Anglo-Saxons.'

Sarkozy, by contrast, openly admires the low unemployment, low taxes and faster growth of Tony Blair's Britain and the U.S. economy. He made London one of his first campaign stops to appeal to the estimated 300,000 young French people who work and prosper in the City of London that it was time to come home and help him build a similar economy of free enterprise and lower taxes.

His key economic promise, which could have a dramatic effect on France's sluggish economy, is to tempt people to work as much as they choose beyond the current limit of 35 hours a week, by dropping all taxes and social insurance charges on the extra hours they work.

This is one of the three main reasons why the outcome of France's election is being watched so closely by France's partners in the 27-nation European Union. Any recovery of France's low-performing and high unemployment economy will help boost the EU as a whole, and reinforce Britain's solid growth and the recovery now under way in Germany. If all these 'Big Three' economies, who between them command more than half of the EU's total economic output, start growing in unison then the prospects are bright not only for the EU as a whole but also for the EU's long-stalled 'Lisbon Agenda' of reform.

The second reason for the EU-wide fascination with France's political drama is that the outcome is likely to determine whether the EU can move ahead with the Anglo-German push for a full free trade agreement with the United States, to drop all non-tariff barriers to trade and investment though common rules and standards on accounting and the financial sector, on competition and mergers and health and safety standards.

At its most ambitious, as seen by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and by Britain's next prime minister and Blair's almost inevitable successor Gordon Brown, the plan would build a single transatlantic economy whose 800 million people would produce half the world's economic output and meet the challenge of growth in China and India. . Segolene Royal, who reflects the broadly anti-American stance of the European left, would give this ambitious plan no support.

The third reason for the EU's passionate interest in France's election is that its outcome could finally allow progress on the plans for EU reform, after French and Dutch voters each in a separate referendum rejected the draft of a proposed new EU constitution two years ago. Sarkozy has proposed a far more modest new EU treaty, which could be passed in the National Assembly without the need of a referendum, that would give the EU a single foreign minister and scrap the 6-monthly rotation of the EU presidency.

His plan, which would get British support, would give some administrative stability and tidy up the internal rules on majority voting to allow a system that was devised 50 years ago for a Europe of six member states to work more smoothly now that it has enlarged to 27.

The Church of England published a set of green commandments today aimed at persuading Christians to help save the planet.

They are contained in a pocket-sized booklet, entitled How many light bulbs does it take to change a Christian?, instructing believers that they have a moral obligation to look after God's creation.
Backing the booklet, Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, said today: "There are many small steps that each of us can take to lighten the load on our planet and this guide gives some practical examples of where each of us can start.

At the launch of the Church's eco-drive two years ago Dr Williams said: "For the Church of the 21st Century, good ecology is not an optional extra but a matter of justice. It is therefore central to what it means to be a Christian."
Among the lifestyle changes suggested in the booklet are holidaying locally rather than travelling abroad and using a toaster rather than a grill.

Dr Aric Sigman said the Government must take action to cut TV-watching among children as too much increases the risk of health and learning problems. He wants to see parents given recommended daily amount guidelines, much as they are for salt, and said "screen media" was a major issue for public health.

Studies have shown excessive TV watching is linked to difficulty in sleeping, behavioural problems and increased obesity in children. One long-term study, published in The Lancet medical journal in 2004, found children who watched more than two hours of television a day between the ages of five and 15 saw their health suffer years later. Experts made the link between childhood viewing and raised cholesterol levels, obesity and smoking in adulthood.

Dr Sigman said: "Many believe that we shouldn't make parents feel guilty about the amount of time children spend in front of a screen and the early age at which they start. "But we must now make a clear judgment that child health is more important than parental guilt.

"At the moment, the British population watches television for more hours per day and reads less than any other nation in Europe. "Our children are Europe's most obese. An increasing number of infants have TV screens in their bedrooms and by the time children reach adolescence they spend an average of 7.5 hours a day in front of a TV screen."

Dr Sigman's recommended daily allowance is:
Children under three: No screen exposure
Children aged three to seven: 30 minutes to one hour per day
Children aged seven to 12: One hour per day
Children aged 12 to 15: One and-a-half hours a day
Children aged 16 and over: Two hours

Suddenly the smell of Britons being prepared for an attack on Iran is all pervasive. On Radio 4 this week, the BBC's political editor Nick Robinson hosted a bizarre 45-minute round-table on how Britain would react if America and Israel went ahead and bombed Iran. Broadcast on Wednesday and repeated tomorrow, it was pitched as a discussion of hypothetical 'what ifs'.

The next morning, Anatole Kaletsky, of the Times, wrote a column about Blair and US-Israeli-Saudi plans to trash Iran. Yesterday's Spectator went further. In its cover story, it states that Israel is planning to use nuclear strikes to stop the Iranian nuclear industry. It is not a question of if but when Israel will launch its missiles and bombers, we are told.

What is going on? The facts as far as we know them - based on inquiry, investigation and real sources - are these:

The Israelis, according to the strategic think tank at Tel Aviv University, stated last month that the only way to stop Iran getting operational nuclear weapons was by military strike. There are only four or five months left in which this might be done successfully, and if the US won't help Israel to do it, Israel will go it alone. US Vice-President Dick Cheney is signed up to this, and is trying to persuade George Bush.

The US military has drawn up the war plans for a strike on Iran, according to British intelligence sources. However, the chiefs of all three US armed services have told Bush not to do it. "The Americans have no serious human intelligence on the ground in Iran," a senior British commander told me recently.

As I reported on November 1, the British Army Board looked at intelligence assessments of Israeli proposals to attack nuclear sites in Iran. The briefing paper estimated this would "cause hundreds of thousands of casualties".

The Israelis and their supporters who continue to argue for an attack do so because they believe they successfully thwarted Saddam's nuclear weapons plans with their pre-emptive strike on the Osirak plant outside Baghdad in 1981. In fact, according to one of Saddam's leading nuclear scientists, Jafar Dia Jafar, the raid only encouraged Saddam to press ahead with his nuclear programme rather than stop it.

The fact is, any such strike is likely to halt the oil flow through the Gulf - and trigger a world recession. Iran is likely to attack the offshore gas fields and terminals, knocking out about one-third of the world's gas supply. This in turn could provoke global conflict and make Russia the energy superpower.

This weekend, buyers from across the Gulf states and the Middle East will descend on a huge arms fair in Dubai. Sheikhs, emirs, princes and kings will be buying anything from specialised sniper ammunition by the ton, to the highest-tech surveillance gear and even the odd British Aerospace gunboat or Eurofighter.

The Arab world will use the International Defence Exhibition (IDEX), to tool up for a coming confrontation with Iran, and to arm Sunni insurgents to fight Iran's allies in Iraq, the Shia militias. Even the Bush administration will now admit, under its collective breath of course, that Iraq is in the throes of a full-blown civil war between armed groups of its Sunni and Shia Arab communities, triggered a year ago by the destruction of the al-Laskar mosque in Samara, a revered Shia shrine.

What the American authorities are reluctant to admit, however, is that there are signs that the Sunnis of Saudi Arabia and their allies - including Jordan - have been equipping and training Sunni extremists in Iraq for some time now. Critically, not all the weaponry and munitions have been used against the militants' Shia and Kurdish Iraqi enemies. Some of them - including lethal roadside bombs - have been aimed at US forces.

"The growth of the official and unofficial Saudi and Jordanian support for the militants is one of the most worrying developments," a senior British officer has told me privately after a visit to Iraq. The Bush administration has kept mum about this while it tries to concentrate the minds of America and the world on their new public enemy number one, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the region's chief sponsor of terrorism and nuclear proliferation.

British strategic advisers to the Pentagon and the National Security Council report that, undeterred by their unfinished business in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Bush and Vice-President Cheney are now intent on opening up a third front against Iran. Their argument runs that Saddam Hussein was bad and al-Qaeda even worse, but the threat to world peace now comes from Ahmadinejad. He must be stopped before he gets a nuclear weapon and uses it against Israel.

In Baghdad this week US forces have displayed 'shaped charge' roadside bomb kits - also known as EFPs (explosively formed penetrators) - which have killed 170 American service personnel in Iraq. This figure is surprisingly precise, in contrast to much of the rest of the American presentation: the officers and intelligence analysts would not give their names, and could not substantiate their claim that the deployment of the EFPs was sanctioned "at the highest level" of the Ahmadinejad regime.

It was also reported this week that a consignment of Steyr Mannlicher HS50 sniper rifles sold by Austria to the Iranian police force had ended up in the hands of Shia militias in Iraq. This was reported by the Daily Telegraph, but no one followed it up. The innuendos, if not the facts, are clear: Bush and Cheney are ramping up the case for an attack on Iran, just as they did before invading Iraq.

David Kay, whose Iraq Survey Group torpedoed the claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, says: "If you want to avoid the perception that you've cooked the books you come out and make the charges publicly" - and, he might have added, you name your sources and define the quality of your information. Something the Bush administration has failed to do.

The Americans have also been coy about the threat to their helicopters. At least six are now admitted to have been downed by hostile fire, and the number could be as high as 50, including a Chinook loaded with dozens of troops. Who is doing this and how, the Americans will not say - for obvious security reasons. But the chances are that at least some of the helicopters have been downed by those Sunni extremist pals of Saudi Arabia and Jordan - which hardly helps the case for war against Iran.

TEL AVIV : Syria aided by Iran is making preparations for a summer war with Israel, including acquisition of advanced weaponry, placement of missiles near the Jewish state's border, and training and movements of strategic troop battalions, Israeli security officials told WND.

The information follows media interviews last week in which Syrian President Bashar Assad stated he doesn't rule out the possibility of war with Israel. Syrian officials recently have also been warning if Israel doesn't vacate the Golan Heights, Damascus will resort to "resistance." The Heights is strategic mountainous territory that looks down on Israeli and Syrian population centers; it was twice used by Damascus to mount ground invasions into the Jewish state.

The security officials said the greatest threat Syria poses to the Jewish state are the country's missiles and rockets. They noted Syria recently test-fired two Scud-D surface-to-surface missiles, which have a range of about 250 miles, covering most Israeli territory.

Israel has information Syria recently acquired and deployed Chinese-made C-802 missiles, which were successfully used against the Israeli navy during Israel's war against the Lebanese Hezbollah militia this pasty July and August. Russia recently sold to Syria advanced anti-tank missiles similar to the projectiles that devastated Israeli tanks during the last Lebanon war, causing the highest number of Israeli troop casualties during the 34 days of military confrontations. Syria and Russia are negotiating the sale of advanced anti-aircraft missiles.

Israeli security officials told WND Syria is preparing for a summer war, but said the war preparations are defensive in nature. They said Syrian war preparations are being coordinated by Iran. The officials said Syria believes Israel will attack first in response to ongoing support of Hezbollah, including the passage of large quantities of rockets to the Lebanese group. The officials also said Syria estimates the U.S. or Israel will attack Iran, and that Syria will be drawn into a larger military confrontation.

Israeli security officials note in recent months, state-run Syrian media have been broadcasting regular warlike messages unseen since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, in which Syria and Egypt launched invasions from the Golan and the Sinai desert. "The tone [in Syria] is one of preparing the public for a war," said one senior security official. He said any Syrian provocation would likely be coordinated with Iran. Tehran and Damascus, which both support Hezbollah, have signed several military pacts.

Alongside the reports of Syrian war preparations, Israel has also been taking some defensive measures. Last month, the Jewish state engaged in a nationwide wartime drill, acting out responses to various wartime scenarios, including salvos of chemical-tipped missiles and major terrorist attacks. It was the largest war drill held in Israel since its establishment in 1948.

Cho Seung-Hui's murderous rampage during which he killed 32 students and faculty members at Virginia Tech is prompting research into gun laws, resident aliens and graphically violent writings. Investigators also may want to check his medicine cabinet, because psychiatric drugs have been linked to hundreds of violent episodes, including most of the school shootings in the last two decades.

The New York Times has reported the killer was on a prescription medication, and authorities have said he was confined briefly several years ago for a mental episode. They also have confirmed that the "prescription drugs" found among his effects related to the treatment of psychological problems.

Dr. Peter Breggin, a prominent critic of psychiatric drugs and founder of the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology, said even if Cho wasn't taking psychiatric drugs the day of the shooting, "he might have been tipped over into violent madness weeks or months earlier by a drug like Prozac, Paxil, or Zoloft."

While media reports have focused on guns and gun laws, Cho's violent writings and autistic behavior at Virginia Tech and the delay in notifying students and faculty of the beginnings of the shootings, there are those who say the focus should be on his medical history.

"In my book 'Reclaiming Our Children,' I analyzed the clinical and scientific reasons for believing that Eric Harris's violence was caused by prescribed Luvox and I've also testified to the same under oath in depositions in a case related to Columbine," Breggin wrote, referring to the 1999 tragedy when Harris and classmate Dylan Klebold shot and bombed students at the Colorado school until a dozen were dead.

"In my book "The Antidepressant Fact Book," I also warned that stopping antidepressants can be as dangerous as starting them, since they can cause very disturbing and painful withdrawal reactions," he added.

He wrote that "it's not politically correct to bring criminal charges against someone who is 'mentally ill' and it's not politically correct to prosecute him or to remove him from the campus. Yet that's what was needed to protect the students. Two known episodes of stalking, setting a fire, and his threatening behavior in class should have been more than enough for the university administration to bring charges against him and to send him off campus."

He continued with a warning, "And what about drugs for the treatment of violence? The FDA has not approved any medications for the control of violence because there are no such medications. Yes, it is possible to temporarily immobilize mind and body alike with a shot of an 'antipsychotic' drug like Haldol; but that only works as long as the person is virtually paralyzed and confined and forced drugging invariably breeds more resentment.

"Instead of offering the promise of reducing violence, all psychiatric drugs carry the potential risk of driving the individual into violent madness. For example, both the newer antidepressants such as Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft and Celexa, and the antipsychotic drugs such as Risperdal and Zyprexa, cause a disorder caused akathisia a terrible inner sensation of agitation accompanied by a compulsion to move about. Akathisia is known to drive people to suicide and to aggression."

He said he's been writing for more than 15 years about the capacity for psychiatric drugs to cause mayhem, murder and suicide, but it wasn't until 2005 when the FDA issued a warning that such drugs produce "anxiety, agitation, panic attacks " Dr. John Breeding concluded in a report shortly after Columbine that there were about five million school children now being given psychiatric drugs, and the number had been doubling every 10 years since the 1970s.

"This has got to be a cause for major alarm in all adults," he said. "The bottom line is that we are giving stronger and stronger psychiatric drugs to more and more children. Many of our children are taking more than one of these drugs at a time, and many of these drugs were never even tested and approved for children."

The German Chancellor listed 12 discussion points for a new treaty, including a new name for the proposed EU foreign minister, as well as the document itself, to make the idea more palatable to sceptical nations such as the British, Czechs and Dutch.

Tony Blair insisted in interviews yesterday that a new EU treaty would not require the referendum he first promised in 2004 because the revised version would not involve constitutional changes. However, in her letter, seen by The Times, Mrs Merkel showed that she was determined to make only minimal changes to the EU Constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.

She said: Every effort will have to be made to restrict change to what is absolutely necessary to reach an overall agreement and to ensure ratification by all member states. Mrs Merkel will use the letter as the basis of one-to-one talks with key EU leaders over the next two weeks, including Mr Blair. She hopes to set out a plan for a new treaty at the EU summit in June.

It would be written by Christmas, leaving a year for the 27 EU nations to ratify it before the next European Parliament elections. Neil O'Brien, director of the eurosceptic Open Europe think-tank, said: This leak shows that we are going to have the same proposals pushed through under a different name, with a few 'presentational changes'. It is incredibly cynical but the voters are not stupid and will not be fooled.

William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, said: It is vital that any new treaty that transfers power from Britain to the EU should be subject to a referendum.

Concerns have been raised that exposure to electromagnetic fields from the power lines could be linked to health problems, including childhood leukaemia. A leaked report suggests that banning power lines within 60 metres of homes, and stopping developments within the same distance of lines is the best option to reduce exposure.

But some of those in the group that compiled the report, which includes scientists, electricity companies, and the National Grid, said it had been watered down by the industry and government bodies involved.The report stops short of recommending such a ban, which could wipe £2 billion off property prices across Britain and limit development land, instead, suggesting the government consider such a move.

In 2005, research by Oxford University found that children who lived within 200 metres of high-voltage lines had a 70 per cent higher risk of leukaemia than those who lived more than 600 metres away. Other experts have suggested that electromagnetic fields from such lines are "possibly carcinogenic" with relation to leukaemia, and some suggest illnesses including brain tumours could also be linked.