News Clips: February 10

British Diplomat Arrested for Hatred
Haaretz.com - A senior diplomat in the British Foreign Office has been arrested for inciting religious hatred. While watching a TV report at a London gym, diplomat Rowan Laxton began shouting and swearing at the TV against Israelis. Laxton continued the tirade even after being approached by other gym users. Laxton was arrested and charged with "inciting religious hatred", which carries a maximum seven-year prison term, but has since been released on bail. Laxton, who has lived in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, is considered an expert on the Middle East.

Support for "Stimulus" package falling
Politico.com - Support for President Barack Obama’s proposed $800 billion stimulus package fell in the past month as Americans took a more polarized stance toward the plan, according to a new Pew Research Center poll. Fifty-one percent of 1,303 adults polled from Feb. 4-8 said they thought the stimulus was a good idea, compared with 57 percent in early January.

The percentage drop in support for the package was doubled by the increase in those who think the legislation is a bad idea, up from 22 percent to 34 percent. Among those who think the stimulus package is a bad idea, 61 percent said that the plan will be ineffective while another 27 percent said the price tag is too high.

Among those who have heard ‘a lot’ about the package, 41 percent said it was a ‘bad idea’ compared with 28 percent who think the same based on ‘a little’ information. For those who have heard a lot about the package, 16 percent more respondents said it was a ‘bad idea’ in February than did in January.

Indonesian Radical Group Claim Jihadists Will Go To Gaza
CTB - Yusuf al Qardhani, chairman of the Indonesian Islamic Defender's Front claimed that two snipers and four suicide bombers would go to the Gaza Strip next week in order to fight against Israel. Qardhani claimed that a group of 50 terrorists would be sent to other Islamic countries also. The central office of the Islamic Defender's Front in Jakarta claimed that two other batches of jihadists had been sent to Gaza in January.

Released Gitmo Prisoner was known to be aggressive terrorist
CTB - In April 2008, following an inexplicable release from custody at Guantanamo Bay, Abdullah al-Ajmi carried out a suicide bombing on behalf of Al-Qaida in the Iraqi city of Mosul.
Now, the NEFA Foundation has obtained a copy of the 2005 Pentagon Administrative Review Board assessment of al-Ajmi. According to the document, al-Ajmi was known to be an aggressive terrorist, had stated that he "will kill as many Americans as he possibly can", and his overall behaviour had been aggressive and non-compliant.
The Pentagon was aware that al-Ajmi was a serious terrorist threat, that he would most certainly perform terrorist actions on release, and was still released. Shortly after his release, al-Ajmi executed a suicide truck bombing on behalf of Al-Qaida, targeting local Iraqi security forces.

Al Franken still not the Senator
Breitbart.com - Judges in the Minnesota Senate trial, concerned with the recounting of ballots for the election of the Senate position, have ordered that 24 previously uncounted ballots for Franken be included.

That decision means it is more likely that other rejected absentee ballots would get counted, competitor Norm Coleman hopes. If the now uncounted ballots, totalling about 4,700, are counted, it could upset the 249 vote lead Franken now has.

Pope Benedict defends life from conception
CNA - Monday morning stressed to the new ambassador from Brazil that life needs to be defended from conception to natural birth. Pope Benedict lauded how Brazil has always been a "stern defender" of human dignity and hoped that "the protection of unborn children" would continue to be true. Speaking of biological experimentation, the Pope said that the church had always promoted ethical principles that protect "the existence of the embryo and it's right to be born."

British foster parent disqualified for converting a Muslim
CNA - A british woman who has successfully fostered more than 80 children has been disqualified from service as a caregiver after a teenage Muslim girl in her charge converted to Christianity. The woman, a Christian in her 50s, said she discouraged the girls interest in Christianity and did not pressure her to convert.

Abandoning Islam is strongly condemned in the Koran and is considered taboo in Muslim communities. Officials advised the teenage girl to reconsider her decision and to stop attending Christian meetings. In November, they removed the caregiver from the register, claiming she breached her duty as a foster parent. "They consider that in some way she should have taken steps to prevent the conversion,” the caregiver’s solicitor Nigel Priestley explained.

Priestly is demanding a judicial review of the council’s decision. He claims they breached Article 9 of the Human Rights Act, which guarantees freedom of religion for both the caregiver and the girl. He said that the now 17-year-old teenager, who has returned to her parents’ custody, was “distressed” that her action had produced such effects and supports her former caregiver’s challenge.

The Christian Institute is funding the caregiver’s legal case. Institute official Mike Judge commented on the case, saying: "I cannot imagine that an atheist foster carer would be struck off if a Christian child in her care stopped believing in God. "This is the sort of double standard that Christians are facing in Britain."

Cojoined twins successfully separated
CNN - Two month old twins Preslee and Kylee Wells, twins co-joined at the chest and having connected hearts and livers, were successfully separated by doctors at the Children's Hospital of Oklahoma University Medical Center. The doctors waited two months before attempting separation, saying they waited because they needed the organs to be "a little stronger".

Federal regulators ask pastors for help
LATimes.com - FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein spoke at a public forum at the Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Los Angeles, asking the Baptist Ministries Conference of LA to include information on the recently pushed-back June 12 TV switch in their sermons. "It's sort of an ad-hoc approach to handling this situation, but the next four months will fly by and we need to be ready," he said. Adelstein and five local FCC field officers handed out applications for $40 coupons for digital-to-analog converter boxes.

FCC field officers are planning more meetings in schools, churches and neighborhood centers before the switch, Adelstein said. The Monday meeting at Mount Moriah was organized by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. Consumer's in general don't seem to care about the analog to digital switch, but the FCC is pushing the issue while spending tax money on converter box coupons.

Christians arrested in Iran under "apostasy" charges
RSN - Two previously arrested converts from Islam have finally been released on bail with an open case, although charges against them are still unknown. The two Christian converts, a husband and wife, are members of an officially registered church, and were said to have held Bible studies at their home. Iranian Christians have feared the two could be charged with "apostasy", which is "leaving Islam", a crime in Iran punishbale by death. According to a source, the arrests are part of the Iranian governments increased harassment of Christians. In 2008, there were 73 documented arrests of Christians in Iran. A source working closely with churches in Iran expects there to be more arrests this year. A high-profile church leader was also taken into custody this year, the source said, and is still being held.

Komen cancer cure institute and Planned Parenthood
LifeNews.com - A new video released by a group that serves as a watchdog for information on the link between abortion and breast cancer exposes the relationship between Susan G. Komen for the Cure and Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion business.

Karen Malec, the head of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer tells LifeNews.com that the video, "Komen's Dark Side," exposes the irregular relationship between the breast cancer organisation and Planned Parenthood.

In 2007 alone, Komen chapters gave $711,485 from April 1, 2005 to March 31, 2006 to Planned Parenthood affiliates. The amount of the grants from Komen affiliates to Planned Parenthood appears to be on the rise and 25 Komen affiliates now have a partnership with the abortion business.

Nationalized Health Care in "stimulus" bill
WND - Betsy McCaughey, former lieutenant governor of New York and an adjunct senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, has released a commentary warning about the likelihood of rationed care – or a health care system that simply provides treatment when it determines the cost-benefit ratio for the treatment and the patient meets its guidelines.

The "stimulus" bill has plans to spend $50 billion "over five years" to create a system of electronic health records for every person who sees a doctor. "Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion," wrote McCaughey. "These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department."

"If the Obama administration's economic stimulus bill passes … in its current form, seniors in the U.S. will face … rationing. Defenders of the system say that individuals benefit in younger years and sacrifice later." Other nations that utilize such programs typically deny costly treatments to patients who are senior citizens, and McCaughey warns that would be the case in the United States, too.

California can't pay it's people
SFGate.com - Remember back in October of '08, when California said they were going to run out of money? Well, their irresponsible budgeting will take over 58 of their counties when they get IOU's instead of checks. Not money: A promise of money. Paul McIntosh, executive director of the California Association of Counties, said "It's a huge concern, there are counties that only have a couple weeks of cash on hand and could have trouble meeting payroll."

While state Controller John Chiang insists that social services money is only being delayed for a month and will be repaid in March, a spokeswoman for the controller said the normal March payments might then have to be delayed for a month if no budget agreement has been reached.
Friday's deferred payment is just the first step, Chiang warned. The state's cash crunch means that the counties also won't get an $83 million payment scheduled for Feb. 25 . "The controller shares the counties' frustration," said Hallye Jordan, a spokeswoman for Chiang. "But he has to defer payment on everything to make sure there's money for mandated expenses like debt service, education, pensions and payroll."

The state requires counties to provide foster care programs, adult protective services, welfare payments and a laundry list of other social services and normally provides much of the money to run them. But while the legal requirements remain, the money has disappeared.