World News joined 2

[OMEN]

The US military is investigating a marine accused of promoting Christianity in Iraq by giving coins to civilians with a Bible verse written on them in Arabic, US officials have said.
"They have initiated an investigation into that and there is some evidence of an individual that was doing that," said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman.
The Marine has been accused of distributing the coins to Iraqis as they passed through a check point in Falluja, US officials said.
"Where will you spend eternity?" was written on one side of the coins, according to a report from McClatchy News Service.
On the other was a Bible verse written in Arabic referring to Jesus: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16."
If true, the Marine would have violated US military rules that prohibit the promotion of any religion, faith or practice.
"This has our full attention," Colonel James Welsh, the US commander in western Iraq, said in a statement. "We deeply value our relationship with the local citizens and share their concerns over this serious incident."
Christians make up around 3 per cent of the population in mostly Muslim Iraq.
The United States, with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been accused by Islamist groups of seeking to convert Iraqis and of denigrating Islam. The Bush administration rejects such charges but has been embarrassed by the actions of some US troops.
Last week, President George W Bush apologised and promised to prosecute a US soldier accused of using a copy of the Koran, Islam's holy book, for target practice in Iraq.
Handing out or exchanging coins is a tradition within the US military. The coins are most often minted with the emblem of a unit or other military affiliation and senior commanders have their own coins.
Often, US defence secretaries hand out their coins or a "Combating Terrorism" coin to troops in the war zone and sometimes to visitors. Service members often collect dozens of these sought-after coins

Reuters

[JohnCenaFan28]

Interesting story, thanks.

[OMEN]

A helicopter has crashed into a building in a busy central district of Panama City, killing several people, officials and emergency workers said.
Panama City Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro said two senior Chilean military personnel visiting Panama for an anti-terrorism conference were in the helicopter, and said that at least one of them was dead.
Emergency workers said there could be several more dead, either more passengers or people in the building, which houses a store. A Reuters reporter at the scene saw body parts on the ground as the building blazed. The back end of the helicopter was torn off in the crash and landed on a nearby office building.
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

Reuters

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the news.

[OMEN]

Israel's foreign minister has deepened the uncertainty over Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's ability to survive a corruption scandal by saying their party had to prepare for a possible early election.
Olmert has responded with a business-as-usual approach to a demand by Defence Minister Ehud Barak that he step aside.
But the comments by Olmert's deputy, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and other members of their centrist Kadima party could increase pressure on the prime minister to go.
Livni, Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians, said Kadima should "take decisions" and start preparing for "any scenario", including an early general election and an internal leadership vote.
Widely regarded as a top candidate to replace Olmert, Livni did not call for Olmert to step down but said "values and norms" must be upheld in Israeli politics.
Addressing members of his left-leaning Labor faction, Barak said he would force the issue if Olmert failed to act.
"The prime minister has to make decisions. Factions have to make decisions, and if they don't, we will make the decisions for them," said Barak, whose party is Olmert's largest coalition partner.
Olmert has made clear through aides that he has no intention of stepping down. At a welcoming ceremony for Denmark's prime minister on Thursday, Olmert made no reference to Barak's call to go on leave or quit.
"I intend to discuss with the visiting prime minister ... the international effort to stop Iran's nuclear (program), the regional peace process, the war against terror and the strengthening of radical Islam in the Middle East and worldwide," Olmert said, hitting his usual talking points.
Olmert plans a three-day visit to Washington next week for talks with President George W. Bush and a speech to the annual policy conference of a pro-Israel lobbying group.
POLITICAL TURMOIL
Barak threatened on Wednesday to pursue an early election, which would trigger political turmoil that could derail Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, after a U.S. businessman told an Israeli court he had handed Olmert envelopes with thousands of dollars in cash.
Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz convened prosecutors and police officers on Thursday to discuss the way forward in the investigation against Olmert.
Mazuz issued a statement after the meeting saying the investigation would be speeded up "in order to complete it as soon as possible". He gave no precise timeframe for a decision on whether to indict the prime minister.
Olmert has ridden out similar storms in the past. He has pledged to resign if charged and denied any wrongdoing in accepting what he has described as above-board election campaign contributions.
Barak, a former prime minister, has been hazy on what steps he might take, and when.
He stopped short of making a move that would immediately bring down the government and trigger a snap election. Polls suggest the right-wing Likud under Benjamin Netanyahu would defeat Labor if a vote, not due until 2010, were held now.
A top Likud lawmaker, former foreign minister Silvan Shalom, predicted an election would be held in November.
A cartoon in Israel's most popular newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, illustrated what some commentators saw as Barak's failure to take stronger action.
It showed Barak wearing bunny ears and holding a carrot, an allusion to Hebrew slang in which "rabbit" means "coward".
The American Jewish businessman at the centre of the case, Morris Talansky, is due back in Israel in July when he will be cross-examined by Olmert's lawyers.
Chief prosecutor Moshe Lador said after Talansky testified on Tuesday it was too early to tell if charges would be brought against Olmert.

Reuters

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the story.

[OMEN]

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has defended the Bush administration's record in Iraq after sharp criticism of the war in a new book by a former White House spokesman.
"The one thing that I am certain was not a mistake was to liberate the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein," said Rice, who was national security adviser when the Iraq war began in 2003.
Speaking at a news conference ahead of an international conference on Iraq, Rice said she had not read the book by former White House press secretary Scott McClellan, but added that removing Saddam was "the right thing to do".
In his book, McClellan accuses President George W Bush of using propaganda to sell the Iraq war - a dramatic break from the close-knit Bush inner circle.
Rice said she would not comment on a book she has not read, but said people often did not understand the full implications of events until long after they had happened.
But she said liberating Iraqis from "the monster that was Saddam Hussein" was neither unilateral nor a mistake.
"It was not the United States of America alone that believed that he had weapons of mass destruction that he was hiding," Rice said.
The Iraq war was fought over charges that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction based on intelligence that later proved to be faulty.
"So the story is there for everyone to see. You can't now transplant yourself into the present and say we should have known things that we in fact did not know in 2001, 2002, 2003. The record on weapons of mass destruction was one that appeared to be very clear," Rice said.
She added: "If the world did not believe that at the time, then I would ask why was Iraq under some of the most severe sanctions that the international community has ever imposed?"

Reuters

[JohnCenaFan28]

IMO, the war was not the right thing to do at all...

[OMEN]

A female teacher who allegedly told a 15-year-old male student to treat her like a sex slave has been charged with sexually penetrating a child.

Nazira Rafei, 25, a Melbourne high school teacher, is charged with one count of sexually penetrating a child under 16 and four counts of an indecent act with a child under 16.

The incidents allegedly occurred at Roxburgh Park, in Melbourne's outer north, in February and March this year.

Police also accuse the teacher of making an unwarranted demand by harassing the student last Monday not to disclose the relationship.

During a brief filing hearing at the Melbourne Magistrates' Court today, Ms Rafei's lawyer Steve Pica indicated she would plead not guilty.

"This case is likely to attract a fair degree of media attention," Mr Pica told the court.

"I do want to place on the record that my client has been fully cooperative with police and is pleading not guilty."

Ms Rafei was not required to formally enter a plea.

Police allege Ms Rafei had sexual intercourse with a child under her "care, supervision or authority".

It is alleged on one occasion the teacher told the student to "treat her like a sex slave" as she lay on top of him pinching his nipples in the back seat of her car.

Another charge relates to Ms Rafei allegedly kissing the student on his lips and touching his genitals through clothing.

Two other indecency charges relate to her allegedly hugging in a "sexual context" and kissing on the mouth a child under 16 in her care.

Magistrate Felicity Broughton adjourned the case for committal mention on August 29.

Ms Rafei made no comment as she left court flanked by her lawyer

AAP

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the news.