Osama bin Laden is alive and well and living in the valley of Dir within the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. He has been there since he escaped from Tora Bora in December 2001.

The Mahdi is the rightly guided caliph who will appear during the last days of human history. His coming is foretold by the Haddith, the sacred teachings that supplement the Quran. In such writings, the Mahdi is depicted as the figure who will bring forth the "Day of Islam," when all people throughout the world believers and unbelievers alike will fall in submission before the throne of Allah.

Bin Laden possesses the distinguishing marks of the Mahdi the high forehead, the prominent nose, the gap between his teeth, and the black mole on his face. He is pleased to point out these features to photographers and reporters from al-Jazeera and other Arabic news outlets.

No Muslim will dare to capture or kill him not even a squadron of elite military personnel from the Musharraf government, let alone a group of professional bounty hunters. It is the duty of all Muslims to honour the revered leader of the Mujahadeen, who has been ordained to bring forth the Day of Islam.

Bin Laden remains protected by yet another factor. Any concerted attempt by the United States to invade any part of the North West Frontier Province by crossing the 680-mile border between Afghanistan and Pakistan in an effort to capture the world's most wanted man will be met by the resistance of the vast majority of 20 million Muslims who inhabit the formidable area.

What's more, bin Laden is protected by milmastia the Islamic code of hospitality that demands protection for fellow Muslims who seek shelter in their country even if such protection means risking their lives. Believing Muslims know that the $25 million reward comes with the price tag of apostasy and eternal damnation.

American Enterprise Institute, are urging Mr. Bush to open a new front against Iran. So too is the vice-president, Dick Cheney. The state department and the Pentagon are opposed, as are Democratic congressmen and the overwhelming majority of Republicans. The sources said Mr Bush had not yet made a decision. The Bush administration insists the military build-up is not offensive but aimed at containing Iran and forcing it to make diplomatic concessions. The aim is to persuade Tehran to curb its suspect nuclear weapons programme and abandon ambitions for regional expansion.

Robert Gates, the new US defence secretary, said yesterday: "I don't know how many times the president, secretary [of state Condoleezza] Rice and I have had to repeat that we have no intention of attacking Iran." But Vincent Cannistraro, a Washington-based intelligence analyst, shared the sources' assessment that Pentagon planning was well under way. "Planning is going on, in spite of public disavowals by Gates. Targets have been selected. For a bombing campaign against nuclear sites, it is quite advanced. The military assets to carry this out are being put in place."

He added: "We are planning for war. It is incredibly dangerous." In another sign that preparations are under way, Mr Bush has ordered oil reserves to be stockpiled. The danger is that the build-up could spark an accidental war. Iranian officials said on Thursday that they had tested missiles capable of hitting warships in the Gulf.

Colonel Sam Gardiner, a former air force officer who has carried out war games with Iran as the target, supported the view that planning for an air strike was under way: "Gates said there is no planning for war. We know this is not true. He possibly meant there is no plan for an immediate strike. It was sloppy wording.

"All the moves being made over the last few weeks are consistent with what you would do if you were going to do an air strike. We have to throw away the notion the US could not do it because it is too tied up in Iraq. It is an air operation."

It comes as the archbishops who lead the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion meet in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in an attempt to avoid schism over gay ordination and other liberal doctrines that have taken hold in parts of the Western Church. The 36 primates at the gathering will be aware that the Pope, while still a cardinal, sent a message of support to the orthodox wing of the Episcopal Church of the US as it struggled to cope with the fallout after the ordination of the gay bishop Gene Robinson.

Were this week's discussions to lead to a split between liberals and conservatives, many of the former objections in Rome to a reunion with Anglican conservatives would disappear. Many of those Anglicans who object most strongly to gay ordination also oppose the ordination of women priests.
Rome has already shown itself willing to be flexible on the subject of celibacywhen it received dozens of married priests from the Church of England into the Catholic priesthood after they left over the issue of women's ordination.

There are about 78 million Anglicans, compared with a billion Roman Catholics, worldwide. In England and Wales, the Catholic Church is set to overtake Anglicanism as the predominant Christian denomination for the first time since the Reformation, thanks to immigration from Catholic countries. The document leaked to The Times is the commission's first statement, Growing Together in Unity and Mission. The report acknowledges the imperfect communion between the two churches but says that there is enough common ground to make its call for action about the Pope and other issues.

In one significant passage the report notes: The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the ministry of the Bishop of Rome [the Pope] as universal primate is in accordance with Christ's will for the Church and an essential element of maintaining it in unity and truth. Anglicans rejected the Bishop of Rome as universal primate in the 16th century. Today, however, some Anglicans are beginning to see the potential value of a ministry of universal primacy, which would be exercised by the Bishop of Rome, as a sign and focus of unity within a reunited Church.

In another paragraph the report goes even further: We urge Anglicans and Roman Catholics to explore together how the ministry of the Bishop of Rome might be offered and received in order to assist our Communions to grow towards full, ecclesial communion. Anglicans are also urged to begin praying for the Pope during the intercessionary prayers in church services, and Catholics are asked also to pray publicly for the Archbishop of Canterbury.

However, the stance of the Archbishop of Canterbury over the present dispute dividing his Church gives an indication of how priorities could be changing in light of the gospel imperative towards church unity.
Dr Rowan Williams, who as Primate of the Church of England is its focus for unity, has in the past supported a liberal interpretation of Scripture on the gay issue. But he has made it clear that church unity must come before provincial autonomy. A logical extension of that, once this crisis is overcome either by agreement or schism, would be to seek reunion with the Church of England's own mother Church.

As they did in the months that preceded the outbreak of their jihad in September 2000, for the past several months the Palestinians have been accelerating their preparations for war. On Monday Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) Director Yuval Diskin revealed some of those preparations.

Diskin said that in 2006, the Palestinians imported 30 tons of explosives into Gaza from Egypt. Hamas has dug 10 tunnels into the western Negev from which it will be able to launch attacks against the IDF or against civilians. The situation along the breached Gaza-Egypt border is even worse. Diskin referred to the weapons and personnel smuggling tunnels there as "one big rabbit warren."

As the Palestinians prepare themselves for battle, this week they invented their justification for attacking the Jews. Just as they did in September 2000, this week Palestinian and Israeli Arab leaders opened their propaganda campaign for war by falsely accusing Israel of conspiring to destroy the mosques on the Temple Mount.

Like its excavation by the Western Wall that has been going on quietly for the past several months, the Israel Antiquities Authority coordinated its salvage dig by the Mughrabi Gate of the Old City with the Islamic Wakf, the Jordanian government and all other relevant authorities before its archeologists began their work this week. Everyone understood that the excavation is being conducted 70 meters away from the Temple Mount and will in no way affect it.

But facts are irrelevant. The Arabs are not interested in the facts. They are interested in war. As Israel's leaders praise the Saudis for their role in promoting the peace process, Al-Jazeera satellite network is broadcasting live calls to war to the entire Muslim world live from the Temple Mount.

While Al-Jazeera reporters have been kicked out of Algeria, Iraq, Sudan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Jordan for calling for war against anyone who doesn't talk like Osama bin Laden, and even the PA closed its offices twice, the Israeli government apparently has no problem with Al-Jazeera reporters calling the Islamic world to launch a genocidal jihad against the Jewish state from the Temple Mount.

Olmert's granting of permission to build the minaret in the synagogue's place "confirms 100 percent the Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount) belongs to Muslims. This proves Jewish conspiracies for a synagogue will never succeed and solidifies our presence here. It will make Muslims worldwide more secure that the Jews will never take over the Haram al-Sharif," the Waqf official said.

Rabbi Chaim Richman, director of the international department at Israel's Temple Institute, told WND Olmert's decision to allow the minaret "is repugnant to anyone who knows what it is to be a Jew." "The decision and Israel's general attitude toward the Temple Mount is the manifestation of spiritual bankruptcy in the country's leadership. Olmert is turning his back on our Jewish heritage while the rest of the world looks at us with amazement at how we can be so insensitive to our own spiritual legacy."

The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. Muslims now claim it as their third holiest site.

Around eight o'clock at night, a car with blacked out windows pulled up near the hotel - our escort to meet Soboma George, once described as one of the most powerful gang leaders in the rundown oil city of Port Harcourt. A city where kidnappings, crime and militancy have spiralled out of control - where foreign oil workers live almost under siege in their compounds. A city in the heart of the Niger Delta, where decades of poverty and neglect have left anger and violence.

Soboma George hit the headlines recently when some 60 militants wielding heavy machine guns marched through the centre of the city, fought off the police and the army, and retrieved him from a police station.
The main militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which is demanding greater local control of the oil wealth, claimed responsibility, announcing for the first time that Soboma was one of its senior commanders in the city.

He had been detained for a traffic violation, the police simply didn't recognise him. One officer said privately that, if they had, they wouldn't have dared to hold him. He said he expected the politicians to try to use the armed gangs in the elections as they had in the past. But, he said, this time the gangs had become powerful enough to use the politicians.

I asked him if he thought the violence would be as bad as 2003. "Bloodier," he said, "if the person we want is not the right person there. This time around it's we who will say this person is good, this person can work." The last election in Nigeria accelerated the development of armed gangs in the Delta. The groups moved one stage further away from control. Many are now wondering what will happen when the armed class of 2007 finally graduates.

Al-Assad said: "Iran and Syria support the peoples of the region and the enemies will only reach their goals by creating pessimism and disunity amongst Muslims." Ahmadinejad agreed that the region "should be careful about the enemies' efforts to create division and conflict amongst Muslims and make sure they do not reach their sinister goals."Under the current conditions it is necessary that Islamic countries preserve their vigilance, unity and wisdom to prevent the establishment of new conspiracies."

Al-Assad met former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and is also scheduled to meet Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.The Syrian president told Rafsanjani: "Creating conflict between Shia and Sunni in Iraq and Lebanon is the final card that America and its allies have... they try to cover their failure with false propaganda."

Washington is planning to send more troops to bolster the US-led force of about 140,000 soldiers in Iraq, and accuses the two countries of helping stir up insecurity there.Damascus has also been accused of escalating violence which has dogged Lebanon since the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former prime minister, in 2005.Tehran has been accused of arming the Shia group, Hezbollah.

Syria is a staunch supporter of Iran's controversial nuclear programme, which the US alleges is a cover for making nuclear weapons. Israel, an ally of the US, is believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East although it has never officially confirmed this status.

Iran insists its atomic drive is solely aimed at generating energy, to which it has every right within international law.

"All that matters are the delicate feelings of members of federally protected groups," said Michael Marcavage, director of RepentAmerica.com "Truth is not allowed as evidence in hate crimes trials. A homosexual can claim emotional damage from hearing Scripture that describes his lifestyle as an abomination. He can press charges against the pastor or broadcaster who merely reads the Bible in public. The 'hater' can be fined thousands of dollars and even imprisoned!"

The language is in a new proposal pending in Congress, H.R. 254, or the David Ray Hate Crimes Prevention Act. That, according to Rev. Ted Pike, of the National Prayer Network, starts out with a federal police state enforcement of "anti-hate" laws but would, as it has in other parts of the world, "lead inexorably to the end of free speech."

The plan, proposed by Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Texas, is "stealth legislation at its most devious," Pike has written in a campaign to alert people to the potential problems. He said people respond with, "This bill just wants federal power to prosecute bias-motivated violent crimes in the states what's wrong with that?"

"There's plenty wrong with that!" he said. First, the Constitution does not grant federal government the "police state privilege" of being your local law enforcement. "Unless the government finds evidence of slavery in the states, jury tampering, voter fraud, or crimes involving interstate commerce (where jurisdiction is unclear), the Constitution's message to the federal government is blunt and emphatic: 'Butt out of local law enforcement!'"

However, Pike said the authors of the new legislation have been clever, inserting in the proposal assertions that because five states do not have hate laws, the federal government has "no choice" but to "enhance federal enforcement of hate crimes." That includes new ranks of federal agents to address the "serious national problem" that exists.

Worse yet, there are some key phrases that open doors wide that many people don't want opened. For example, Pike said, the bill is to "prevent and respond to alleged violations," meaning "the government does not even have to wait until a hate crime has been committed but may act pre-emptively to 'prevent' crime."

"Judges will establish legal precedents precedents that protect groups such as homosexuals not only from physical bias-motivated violence but also from 'verbal violence,'" Pike warned. "This will include the 'hate speech' of Bible-believing evangelical Christians.

"H.R. 254 thus does more than violate states' rights in law enforcement. It also leads inexorably to an end of free speech!" he wrote.
LaBarbera noted that in "post-Christian England," the government even has set out to prosecute "homophobic" speech.

"It is almost inconceivable that the same country that gave us the rule of law and limited government and powerfully gifted Christian preachers like George Whitfield who helped shape America now bows down to the homosexual revolution of organized sin masquerading as 'civil rights,'" LaBarbera said.
Repent America, some of whose members already have served jail time simply for proclaiming the biblical message, is joining in sounding the alarm.

"Having been charged under Pennsylvania's hate crimes law for declaring the truth about homosexuality, I can assure you that if this bill is passed and signed into law, it will be used to put Christians behind bars," said Marcavage.

Oxfam's comments come as the United Nations Security Council prepares to consider whether to send a peacekeeping force into eastern Chad. Eastern Chad and Darfur have a similar ethnic make-up, with nomadic Arab groups and black African farmers both seeking access to land and scarce water points.

Chad and Sudan have both accused the other of backing rebel groups.
Attacks on civilians in eastern Chad have been steadily increasing, but the scale of the violence has now reached such levels that comparisons with neighbouring Darfur are inevitable.

More than 120,000 Chadians have so far been forced from their homes in brutal inter-ethnic attacks that bear all the hallmarks of the violence seen across the border in Sudan.
Chad's border with Sudan is already home to some 200,000 Sudanese refugees and together with the newly displaced Chadians almost half a million civilians there are now completely reliant on outside help.

The UN Security Council is preparing to decide whether to send a peacekeeping force to Chad. Chad's President Idriss Deby is broadly in favour of a force, and the UN has realised that peacekeeping troops may be the only way to prevent another Darfur from developing.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled in New York, Washington, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa, and meteorologists say the deep freeze is set to continue. At least 300,000 households were without electricity from Virginia to New Jersey, power companies said.

Reports from New York state say 10 days of heavy snowfall has left snowdrifts of up to 12ft (3.7m) deep - a record if confirmed by meteorologists.
A state of emergency has already been declared in and around Oswego county, with squalls leaving behind at least 7ft (2.1m) of snow in the area.

As it recovers from Hurricane Katrina, the Gulf Coast was also hit by the severe weather. Thunderstorms lashed the region and a tornado killed one person in Louisiana.

The head of the Anglican Church and Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams has said that he fears that the Church may split over the row sparked by the appointment of openly gay US bishop, Gene Robinson, in 2003.

The gay US bishop at the centre of controversy over his consecration has told a convention of US Anglicans "I am not an abomination before God, please, I beg you, let's say our prayers and stand up for right."

In December, two of the oldest and largest parishes in the US broke from their bishop and become a mission of the Nigerian Church over the issue. The head of the Anglican Church in Africa is Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, who leads 37 million Anglicans and is increasingly influential.

"It's very difficult to answer the why question. But if you're asking what is the main driver of these results, it's the fact that for a long time children in Britain have been under-invested in; not enough has been spent on them." He said child poverty was twice as high as in 1979, while the government was "only just beginning" to put money into health and education.

The Unicef study found Britain had the lowest proportion of children who found their friends kind and helpful - 40%, compared to 80% in Switzerland, he went on. Professor Bradshaw said that this was an indication of a "dog eat dog society".

Shadow Chancellor George Osborne accused Chancellor Gordon Brown of having "failed this generation of children". "After 10 years of his welfare and education policies, our children today have the lowest well-being in the developed world," said Mr Osborne.
He also said government could encourage parents to have greater involvement with their children through "a framework of more flexible working".

But he added: "I don't actually think government has the answer to all these problems. "This is not all about politicians in Westminster passing laws, it's about social responsibility, it's about parents taking greater responsibility for their children, it's about trusting teachers in classrooms, it's about us as neighbours in a society playing our part as well."

CHILD WELL-BEING TABLE
1. Netherlands
2. Sweden
3. Denmark
4. Finland
5. Spain
6. Switzerland
7. Norway
8. Italy
9. Republic of Ireland
10. Belgium
11. Germany
12. Canada
13. Greece
14. Poland
15. Czech Republic
16. France
17. Portugal
18. Austria
19. Hungary
20. United States
21. United Kingdom
Source: Unicef

Suppliers said a predicted 30 per cent drop in this year's crop would probably affect prices in the UK, with varieties including pinot noir and sauvignon blanc being particularly hard-hit. Bryce Fraser, managing director of independent wine merchants Corney & Barrow Scotland, said producers and suppliers were not simply using the drought as an excuse to put prices up. "People forget, even in mass-produced wineries, this is still a farming activity and is still dependant on weather," he said. "Extreme weather can have a serious effect on the harvest.

The White House said it was "surprised and disappointed" by the Russian president's comments.

"We expect to continue co-operation with Russia in areas important to the international community such as counter-terrorism and reducing the spread and threat of weapons of mass destruction," said Gordon Johndroe, press secretary for the White House National Security Council.

Mr Putin told senior security officials from around the world that nations were "witnessing an almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations".

"One state, the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way," he said, speaking through a translator.
"This is very dangerous. Nobody feels secure anymore because nobody can hide behind international law.

"This is nourishing an arms race with the desire of countries to get nuclear weapons."

BBC defence and security correspondent Rob Watson, in Munich, said Mr Putin's speech was a strident performance which may well be remembered as a turning point in international relations.

Kenya - Eleven people have died of a highly contagious disease in parts of North Eastern Province. Seven people have died in Garissa and four others in Ijara District in the past two days. Symptoms of the disease include high fever, jaundice (yellowness in the eyes), vomiting blood, diarrhoea, headache and swelling on both legs and hands. "Most victims bleed through all body openings, leading to death in about 48 hours after infection.

Republic of Congo - Cholera has killed 41 people in the port city of Pointe-Noire in the Republic of Congo (ROC) since the beginning of January, Health Minister Alphonse Gando said .

California - Hundreds of thousands of rotting fish have been found along the shoreline of California's largest lake in a rare winter die-off due to last month's cold snap.

Indonesia - Thousands of dead fishes of various kinds were recently found on some beaches of Tabanan district, a local fisheries official said Wednesday. "The beaches along 35 km of coastline has been covered with dead fishes for the past three days," Nyoman Wirna Ariwangsa, head of Tabanan district's fisheries and marine resources office.

Scotland - Doctors alerted police after a patient at a Scots hospital displayed symptoms of Lassa fever - one of the world's most dangerous diseases. He lives in Edinburgh and had gone to Nigeria to meet his fiancee.

Australia - 34-year-old Victorian knackery [or renderer] worker infected with anthrax is recovering in hospital after handling cattle carcasses affected with the bacteria.