France's lower house of parliament overwhelmingly approved a new anti-terrorism bill Tuesday that would increase the use of video surveillance and allow police more time to question terror suspects. The National Assembly voted 373-27 for the bill, which still needs to clear a Senate vote in January before becoming law.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, leading efforts to strengthen laws against terrorism in response to deadly July bombings in London, sought to assure lawmakers the bill would not trample on civil liberties, as some fear.

He told the National Assembly the measures would allow police to pre-empt terror attacks and not work "after the fact."

"This debate has paved the way for providing France with a more efficient arsenal," he said. "The idea being that the worst should be avoided and that we must give greater powers to law enforcement to avoid a catastrophe."

NEWS - Roman Catholic Church abuse scandal spreads to Brazil - November 26 - Mail and Guardian Online

"A growing sex-abuse scandal is rocking the world's largest national congregation of Catholics. This week, a Brazilian priest was given a lengthy jail sentence after a court heard extracts from a diary that read like a paedophile priest's how-to manual.

Regina Soares Jurkwicz, author of Unveiling the Politics of Silence: Sexual Abuse of Women by Priests in Brazil, said the South American country could now be facing a problem of even greater dimensions than that uncovered in the US in 2002.

"The Catholic Church doesn't know what to do," she said. "In Brazil, the [typical] reaction of the Catholic hierarchy is first to try to cover up the problem or discredit the witness.

"Then, it is to transfer the priest to another community, which is not told why he was transferred there."

Jurkwicz said the problem has been exacerbated by the vast social divide between Brazil's haves and have-nots.

"The victims are almost always poor, vulnerable people," she said, arguing that Brazil's wealth gap makes it easier for priests to exploit youngsters with impunity.

According to extracts from its report, carried in Brazil's IstoE magazine, 10% of Brazil's priests -- about 1 700 clerics -- are involved in cases of sexual misconduct, including the physical abuse of children and women.

The study was also said to have found that in the past three years at least 200 Brazilian priests were referred to church psychological institutions following cases involving paedophilia. Ten clerics are in jail and a further 40 are on the run from the law.

On Thursday, Father Tarcisio Tadeu Spricigo was jailed for 14 years and eight months for sexually abusing two boys, one of them a five-year-old. In his diary, obtained by police in São Paulo, the 48-year-old priest stressed the need "to have boys who can keep a secret and without sexual scruples".

The M+G+R Foundation Comments

This is how children are damaged by such demonically depraved behavior. However, the worst part is that the real culprits are not the spiritually sick priests who engage in this behavior; the real culprits are the Church Administrators who cover up for them and, the better they cover up, the greater their Papal rewards. These men are a Living Blasphemy.

Mr. Levine, the urbane Toronto lawyer who is agent to the stars and Canada's pre-eminent deal maker in the entertainment world, also tried to get published an article Father Dolan, Opus Dei Canada's vicar, had written defending Opus Dei, but was unsuccessful.

The New York hierarchy got only as far as an exchange of correspondence with Amy Pascal, chair of Sony's motion picture group. But Father Dolan got further.

He took a trip to Hollywood and met two people whose names he'd been given by Mr. Levine, and one of them told him, "If someone gives you a lemon, make lemonade of it." And that piece of advice, said Father Dolan, altered his view of the situation.

He now saw the book and the coming film as a wonderful opportunity to talk to people about Opus Dei and explain what it really is about, and let them meet a real human being who belongs to the organization.

"It's a great teaching moment," he said.

He said he felt like the Holy Spirit was finding a way to help him.

"Michael Levine was exceptionally nice," Father Dolan said.

The U.S. government is not doing enough to protect nuclear weapons from terrorists and its handling of terrorism suspects is undermining America's image in the Muslim world, members of a commission that investigated the September 11 attacks said on Monday.

Although President George W. Bush calls arms proliferation the country's biggest threat and al Qaeda has sought nuclear weapons for a decade, the former commission's chairman Thomas Kean said, "the most striking thing to us is that the size of the problem still totally dwarfs the policy response."

"In short, we still do not have a maximum effort against the most urgent threat ... to the American people," he told a news conference, noting that half the nuclear materials in Russia still have no security upgrade.

"ATLANTA - Federal scientists say they will consider requests to ship the recently recreated 1918 killer flu virus to select U.S. research labs.

There are 300 non-government research labs registered to work with deadly germs like the Spanish flu, which killed millions of people worldwide. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will consider requests for samples from those labs "on a case-by-case basis," CDC spokesman Von Roebuck said Wednesday.

Dangerous biological agents are routinely shipped through commercial carriers like FedEx or DHL, following government packaging, safety and security guidelines.

Last month, U.S. scientists announced they had created "from scratch" the 1918 virus. It was the first time an infectious agent behind a historic global epidemic had ever been reconstructed.

Researchers said they believed it would help them develop defenses against the threat of a future pandemic evolving from bird flu, which was found to have similar characteristics as the 1918 virus.

About 10 vials of virus were created, each containing about 10 million infectious virus particles. CDC officials said at the time the particles would be stored at a CDC facility in Atlanta, and that there were no plans to send samples off campus.

But that statement did not mean there was a policy against sending samples elsewhere, Roebuck said.

A poll showing rising doubts among Americans about President George W. Bush's integrity has raised a new hurdle to the fresh start he is seeking after the indictment of a senior White House aide and other political woes.

A CBS poll on Wednesday put Bush's job approval rating at 35 percent, his lowest since taking office in 2001.

Two Republicans with close ties to the White House said morale among the White House staff has plummeted and many aides were feeling the strain of years of long hours and stress.

Another Republican said, "I do think there need to be some staff changes. People have been working at a torrid pace. It's difficult not to get burned out."

Republican political strategist Charles Black dismissed the prospect of a big White House shake-up. "I don't believe it's going to happen. They've got a very successful team there. It's well suited to this president," he said.

Iran will process a new batch of uranium at its Isfahan atomic plant beginning next week, despite pressure from the United States and European Union to halt all sensitive nuclear work, diplomats said on Wednesday.

As Tehran prepared to take steps Washington said would "further isolate Iran from the international community," Russia suggested a face-saving plan that would allow Tehran to conduct less sensitive atomic activities in a joint venture with Moscow.

Accused by Western nations of running a covert atomic weapons program, Iran had frozen all work at Isfahan late last year under a deal with France, Britain and Germany. But it resumed work at the plant in August, prompting the EU's three biggest powers to suspend talks with the Islamic republic.

The Chinese leadership has developed an "irrational fear" of so-called colour revolutions, leading to a tightening of controls over political freedom, human rights activist John Kamm said yesterday.

Mr. Kamm made the remark at a wide-ranging talk organised by the Asia Society in Hong Kong, during which he also predicted Beijing and the Vatican would resume ties by the first quarter of next year.

The activist, who has just finished a visit to China, said the Chinese leadership had become unnecessarily worried about recent regime changes in Central and Eastern Europe.

Subject: Invitation to the United States
Date: 17 Oct 2005 17:57:32 -0400
From: Austin Ruse -- C-FAM
To: C-FAM Mailing List

October 17, 2005

Dear Friend,

I am writing to invite you to come to the United States for a one-week intensive training seminar for political activists.

This series of classes will be specifically designed for non-Americans, for our friends overseas who are eager to learn from American political, media and fundraising professionals how to advance your issues in your own country.

You will learn from top notch professionals who have run political campaigns, run issues campaigns, worked with the media at all levels, and raised millions of dollars.

This program is being jointly sponsored by C-FAM and the highly respected Leadership Institute.

C-FAM, as you know, is the UN watchdog that also publishes the Friday Fax, which you subscribe to.

The Leadership Institute is the premier US teaching institute that identifies, recruits, trains, and places conservatives in politics, government, and the media. Since1979, the Leadership Institute has enrolled more than 40,000 students, many of whom are now working at the highest levels of government and public policy. You can learn more about the Leadership Institute at www.leadershipinstitute.org

At this one week intensive series of classes and lectures, you will learn how the conservative revolution happened in America, and how to emulate it in your own country.

The curriculum will be taught by political professionals who will teach you about:

* Understanding the media
* Developing and staying on message
* Building and maintaining coalitions
* Understanding legislative processes
* How to lobby
* Fundraising
* Organizing students
* How to start a newspaper
* Election strategy and tactics
* Voter identification and turnout
* Recruiting and nurturing volunteers
* Direct Mail

The conference will be one intensive week from January 22 through January 28, 2006 at the Leadership Institute in Northern Virginia, minutes from Washington DC.

Friends, this is an amazing opportunity for you to learn the techniques that can help you start a genuine conservative political movement in your country.

That is the good news. The even better news is that the cost of this high level learning experience is only $300. This includes your tuition, housing in the Leadership Institute dormitory, and three meals a day. You will have to pay your own travel expenses to and from Washington DC (the Leadership Institute is located only a few miles from Washington's Reagan National Airport in the lovely northern Virginia suburb of Arlington.

If you are possibly interested in attending these classes, you must write right away to Connie Marshner of the Leadership Institute. You can reach her at C M a r s h n e r @ L I M a i l . u s

TO BE ACCEPTED INTO THESE CLASSES, YOU HAVE TO APPLY TO CONNIE MARSHNER AND PRIOR TO ACCEPTANCE YOU WILL HAVE TO SUPPLY RELIABLE POLITICALLY CONSERVATIVE REFERENCES.

If you are interested, you should act right away. There are only 25 positions available for this valuable course of study. Feel free to email Connie with any questions or comments.

Yours sincerely,

Austin Ruse
President
C-FAM

PS This course is ideal for anyone who runs a pro-life or pro-family group, for anyone who is works at such a group, or who works on other issues, too. This is for political conservatives who want to strike a blow for tradition.

[End of e-mail from Austin Ruse]

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, cheered by thousands of supporters, signaled on Friday he stood by his call for Israel to be wiped off the map...

Iranians chanting "death to Israel" and "death to America," converged from nine points in the Iranian capital for a rally attended by most of Iran's top officials.

Ahmadinejad took a short walk in the crowd, rallying in support of his comments that the Islamic world could not tolerate the Jewish state in its heartland. He said Western criticism carried no weight.

"My words are the Iranian nation's words," he told the official IRNA news agency, when asked if he had a message for the world.

"Westerners are free to comment, but their reactions are invalid."