Jerusalem bulldozer 'terrorist' kills 3 in rampage

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli authorities are investigating why a Palestinian resident of Jerusalem rammed his bulldozer into several cars and buses Wednesday, killing three people before Israeli police shot him dead.

Israeli authorities are labeling it a terrorist attack, although they say there is no clear motive and the man -- a construction worker -- acted alone. It is not known if he had links to any terrorist organization. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told CNN the bulldozer operator drove down a busy thoroughfare in West Jerusalem, crashing into four cars and two buses, before heading toward a crowded market.

"We believe he acted on his own and tried to kill as many people as possible," Rosenfeld said.

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Long time no see

"When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You're talking anti-Semitism."

-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Misunderstanders of Islam Reportedly Stone to Death Pakistani Couple Who Committed Adultery

A couple found guilty of adultery by an Islamic "qazi" court was stoned to death by Taliban militants in Pakistan's northwest border region, according to a report in Dawn, Pakistan's English-language newspaper.

The execution, which reportedly took place Monday, is the first by stoning reported in the region, which borders Afghanistan. "Qazi" courts, which are allowed to administer Islamic law outside the Pakistani judicial system, traditionally have ordered execution by firing squad in cases of adultery.

The married woman, identified as Shano, had allegedly eloped on March 15 with Daulat Khan Malikdeenkhel.

A spokesman for the Taliban said a complaint had been received from the woman's family that she had been abducted by Daulat Khan. They later changed the report to say she had run away with him.

Taliban militants captured the couple as they were returning from Karachi, the spokesman said.
Dawn reported that the woman's body was buried by local residents not far from the execution site. The man's body was handed over to his relatives for burial.

Professor Loses 32 Pounds In Hunger Strike

TAMPA, Fla. -- A former University of South Florida professor in prison on contempt of court charges has lost 32 pounds in a monthlong hunger strike, according to Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, who visited Sami Al-Arian Monday.

Al-Arian was acquitted on serious terrorism charges and is expected to be deported as soon as he is released from prison.

But he has refused to testify to a federal grand jury in Alexandria investigating Muslim charities and businesses in northern Virginia.

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Report: Non-Muslims Deserve to Be Punished

Religion of Peace is at it again

Hamas Claims Responsibility for Massacre at Jerusalem Seminary

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip claimed responsibility Friday for a militant attack on a Jerusalem rabbinical seminary that killed eight Israelis.

A Hamas radio presenter said the group's military wing had "promised a jolting response" to this week's violence in the Gaza Strip in which more than 120 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military, many of them in the northern Gaza town Jebaliya.

The radio referred to the Jerusalem attack as "the fruits of what happened in Jebaliya" and called on believers to "celebrate this victory against the brutal enemy."

The announcement came as thousands of mourners marched in funeral processions for the dead students, Israel slapped a closure on the West Bank and an Israeli official indicated that fledgling peace talks with the Palestinians would go on despite the violence.

Israel will push ahead with talks "so as not to punish moderate Palestinians for actions by people who are not just our enemies but theirs as well," the Israeli official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the government had yet to make an official announcement.

Paging Al Gore: Twelve-month long drop in world temperatures wipes out a century of warming

Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on.
No more than anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But now, that evidence has been supplanted by hard scientific fact. All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously.

A compiled list of all the sources can be seen here. The total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C -- a value large enough to wipe out most of the warming recorded over the past 100 years. All in one year's time. For all four sources, it's the single fastest temperature change ever recorded, either up or down.

Scientists quoted in a past DailyTech article link the cooling to reduced solar activity which they claim is a much larger driver of climate change than man-made greenhouse gases. The dramatic cooling seen in just 12 months time seems to bear that out. While the data doesn't itself disprove that carbon dioxide is acting to warm the planet, it does demonstrate clearly that more powerful factors are now cooling it.

Let's hope those factors stop fast. Cold is more damaging than heat. The mean temperature of the planet is about 54 degrees. Humans -- and most of the crops and animals we depend on -- prefer a temperature closer to 70.


Historically, the warm periods such as the Medieval Climate Optimum were beneficial for civilization. Corresponding cooling events such as the Little Ice Age, though, were uniformly bad news.

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