Last month, for instance, WND reported that more Americans were murdered this year by illegal aliens than the combined death toll of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan since those military campaigns began.

In another disturbing expose, WND reported that a wave of illegal-immigrant gang rapes is sweeping the U.S. while public officials and law-enforcement authorities fear drawing the link.

As Deborah Schurman-Kauflin, a Ph.D. researcher of violent crimes, told WorldNetDaily: "It appears as if there is a fear that if this is honestly discussed, people will hate all illegal immigrants. So there is silence. But in being silent about the rapes and murders, it is as if the victims never even existed."

Even on the nation's highways, record high numbers of unlicensed, unregistered, uninsured drivers many of whom are illegal aliens are driving up the numbers of highway deaths in the U.S.

The last two paragraphs of his remarks revealed once again his steadfast and driving conviction, as reported in WND, that a messianic figure known as the "Mahdi" to Muslims is poised to reveal himself after an apocalyptic holocaust on Earth that leaves most of the world's population dead.

"I emphatically declare that today's world, more than ever before, longs for just and righteous people with love for all humanity; and above all longs for the perfect righteous human being and the real savior who has been promised to all peoples and who will establish justice, peace and brotherhood on the planet," Ahmadinejad said at the U.N. "Oh, Almighty God, all men and women are your creatures and you have ordained their guidance and salvation. Bestow upon humanity that thirsts for justice, the perfect human being promised to all by you, and make us among his followers and among those who strive for his return and his cause."

With Iran on the verge of producing nuclear weapons and already in possession of sophisticated medium-range missiles, mystical pre-occupation with the coming of a Shiite Islamic messiah is of particular concern because of Iran's potential for triggering the kind of global conflagration Ahmadinejad envisions will set the stage for the end of the world.

Ahmadinejad is on record as stating he believes he is to have a personal role in ushering in the age of the Mahdi. In a Nov. 16, 2005, speech in Tehran, he said he sees his main mission in life as to "pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance."

According to Shiites, the 12th imam disappeared as a child in the year 941. When he returns, they believe, he will reign on earth for seven years, before bringing about a final judgment and the end of the world.

Ahmadinejad is urging Iranians to prepare for the coming of the Mahdi by turning the country into a mighty and advanced Islamic society and by avoiding the corruption and excesses of the West.

All Iran is buzzing about the Mahdi, the 12th imam and the role Iran and Ahmadinejad are playing in his anticipated return. There's a new messiah hotline. There are news agencies especially devoted to the latest developments.

Ahmadinejad and others in Iran are deadly serious about the imminent return of the 12th imam, who will prompt a global battle between good and evil (with striking parallels to biblical accounts of "Armageddon"). Some interpretations of the events that precede his coming include a war that wipes out most of the world's population.

Only the British will find themselves between a rock and a hard place. They have had a strategic partnership with the U.S. forever, but have also had their natural pull from Europe. So far, they have had many reasons to stick with the winner. However, when they see their century-old partner falling, will they firmly stand behind him or will they deliver the coup de grace?

Still, we should not forget that currently the two leading oil exchanges are the New York's NYMEX and the London's International Petroleum Exchange (IPE), even though both of them are effectively owned by Americans. It seems more likely that the British will have to go down with the sinking ship, for otherwise they will be shooting themselves in the foot by hurting their own London IPE interests.

It is here noteworthy that for all the rhetoric about the reasons for the surviving British Pound, the British most likely did not adopt the Euro namely because the Americans must have pressured them not to: otherwise the London IPE would have had to switch to Euros, thus mortally wounding the dollar and their strategic partner.

At any rate, no matter what the British decide, should the Iranian Oil Bourse gain momentum and accelerate, the interests that matter those of Europeans, Chinese, Japanese, Russians, and Arabs will eagerly adopt the Euro, thus sealing the fate of the dollar. Americans cannot allow this to happen, and if necessary, will use a vast array of strategies to halt or hobble the exchange's operations:

Sabotaging the Exchange this could be a computer virus, network, communications, or server attack, various server security breaches, or a 9-11-type attack on main and backup facilities.
Coup d'état?this is by far the best long-term strategy available to the Americans.

Negotiating Acceptable Terms & Limitations this is another excellent solution to the Americans. Of course, a government coup is clearly the preferred strategy, for it will ensure that the exchange does not operate at all and does not threaten American interests. However, if an attempted sabotage or coup d'etat fail, then negotiation is clearly the second-best available option.

Joint U.N. War Resolution this will be, no doubt, hard to secure given the interests of all other members of the Security Council. Recent rhetoric about Iranians developing nuclear weapons undoubtedly serves to prepare this course of action.

Unilateral Nuclear Strike this is a terrible strategic choice for all the reasons associated with the next strategy, the Unilateral Total War. The American will likely use Israel to do their dirty nuclear job.

Unilateral Total War this is obviously the worst strategic choice. First, the U.S. military resources have been already depleted with two wars. Secondly, the Americans will alienate other powerful nations. Third, major reserve countries may decide to quietly retaliate by dumping their own mountains of dollars, thus preventing the U.S. from further financing its militant ambitions.

Finally, Iran has strategic alliances with other powerful nations that may trigger their involvement in war; Iran reputedly has such alliance with China, India, and Russia, known as the Shanghai Cooperative Group, a.k.a. Shanghai Coop.

Whatever the strategic choice, from a purely economic point of view, should the Iranian Oil Bourse gain momentum, it will be eagerly embraced by major economic powers and will precipitate the demise of the dollar.

"The dollar could lose as much as 30 percent of its value in 2007," econometrician John Williams, who publishes the website Shadow Government Statistics, told WND. "In 2007, we are likely to see the economic downturn of 2006 develop into a structural recession and yet we have international trade and federal budged deficits careening out of control."

Williams explained, "U.S. interest rates are still relatively low, compared to Europe. This will make it increasingly attractive for central bankers to consider moving foreign exchange reserves out of the dollar."

The dollar, which began January 2006 at 88.86 on the FOREX international currency index ended the year at 83.67, a drop of approximately 6 percent. For the year, the dollar fell approximately 11.5 percent versus the euro, 13.6 percent versus the British pound, and by 7.3 percent versus the Swiss franc.

China, the second largest holder of U.S. debt, reduced purchases of U.S. bonds 1.7 percent in the first 10 months of the year. Central bankers in Venezuela, Indonesia and the UAE have said they will invest less of their reserves in dollar assets. Iran's switch to euros is the greatest threat yet to dollar supremacy. The usage of the euro is now universal in Iran and it will spread to other Islamic oil-producing countries as well. The share of dollars as a percentage of OPEC foreign reserves has fallen from 67 percent to 65 percent in the first half of 2007.

Iran's decision to hold only Euros may prompt a U.S. decision to launch a pre-emptive attack, Chapman speculated, with the public argument being Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons in defiance of the U.N. Security Council.

"Saddam Hussein signed his death warrant," Chapman argued, "when he got the U.N. to agree that he could hold his oil-for-food reserves in euros. Ahmadinejad appears determined to go down the same path."
Chapman expects the Chinese to take advantage of a strong commodities market in 2007, investing an increasing percentage of their foreign exchange reserves in gold.

"Remember," Chapman said, "all you hear about is the Dow being up 16 percent this year, but you do not hear that gold is up 23 percent. As the dollar continues to decline in 2007, we expect gold to continue increasing in value. Gold in 2007 could easily exceed $780 an ounce."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who defeated Kollek as Jerusalem's mayor in 1993, issued a statement saying that Israel mourned the loss of "one of the giants of its founding fathers."

Olmert, who characterized Kollek as "the builder of the new Jerusalem after the Six Day War," noted that when Kollek was elected Jerusalem's mayor in 1965, it "was a divided city that did not enjoy the credit it was worthy of. When he finished his term in 1993, Jerusalem was a large, modern city, united and blessed with many residents. Teddy Kollek spread Jerusalem's fame around the world."

Olmert said that Kollek had a deciding influence on Jerusalem's way of life, culture, and inter-relationship between its residents. He fashioned its vistas, Olmert said, and built its institutions.

"Kollek's name will forever be a part of the glory of Jerusalem," he said.

Olmert said that Kollek did not only work on behalf of Jerusalem, and cited his days as David Ben-Gurion's long-time adviser during which he "had a decisive contribution to the diplomatic and military efforts that brought about Israel's independence in 1948."
Defense Minister Amir Peretz issued the following statement: "Teddy was a symbol of this nation's building and the cohesion of the Jerusalem. He set a personal example to all public figures."

Nazareth, considered one of the holiest cities for Christians, is described in the New Testament as the childhood home of Jesus. It contains multiple important shrines and churches, including the famous Church of the Basilica of the Annunciation, the site at which many Christians believe the Virgin Mary was visited by the Archangel Gabriel and told that she had been selected as the mother of Jesus.

The Islamic Movement, the main Muslim political party in Nazareth, said it organized yesterday's march to celebrate Eid ul-Adha, or the Feast of the Sacrifice, which commemorates the Muslim belief Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son Ishmael for Allah.

Christian and Jewish faith dictates it was Isaac, not Ishmael, whom Abraham almost sacrificed.

Spain's Islamic Board wrote to Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday, calling on him to grant them permission to worship in the cathedral, parts of which were built as a mosque during Spain's period of Islamic rule.

The group said in their letter: "What we wanted was not to take over that holy place, but to create in it, together with you and other faiths, an ecumenical space unique in the world which would have been of great significance in bringing peace to humanity."

The Roman Catholic cathedral had originally been a mosque but was converted into a cathedral in the 13th century. The mosque itself was built on the site of the earlier cathedral of St Vincent which was demolished by Cordoba's Muslim rulers following the Islamic invasion and occupation of parts of southern Spain in the eight century.

In December, Spain's Catholic Bishops Conference released a statement, quoted by newspaper ABC, saying it "did not recommend" Muslims prayed at the Cathedral and was not prepared to negotiate the building's shared use with other faiths.

Spain's last Muslim territory fell with the conquest of Granada in 1492 after almost eight centuries of Muslim rule.
Today, more than a million of Spain's 44 million people are Muslims, many of them recently arrived immigrants from North Africa.

In late January, masked Palestinian gunmen took over a European Union office in Gaza City to protest publication of a dozen cartoons about Islam, Mohammed and self-censorship in the Danish newspaper the Jyllands-Posten.
They stormed the building, burned Danish flags and spearheaded an international boycott of Denmark's products.
The rage was manufactured pretext. The cartoons had been published four months earlier with little fanfare.
It wasn't until a delegation of instigating Danish imams toured Egypt with the cartoons - plus a few inflammatory fake ones - that the fire started burning.
The mainstream media fell for the ruse and were slow to acknowledge it after American bloggers and Danish television exposed the scheme.
What was really behind Cartoon Rage? Muslim bullies were attempting to pressure Denmark over the International Atomic Energy Agency's decision to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council for continuing its nuclear research program.
The chairmanship of the council was passing to Denmark at the time.
Western journalists, analysts and apologists were too clouded by their cowardice and conciliation to see through the smoke.
More than 800 were injured in the ensuing riots and 130 people paid with their lives.
The innocents included Italian Catholic priest Andrea Santoro, who was shot to death in Turkey on Feb. 5 by a teenage boy enraged by the illustrations.
The Muslim gunman shouted, "Allahu Akbar!" as he murdered Santoro while the priest knelt praying in his church.
Several brave moderate Muslim editors who stood up to the madness were jailed, fined and convicted of crimes related to insulting Islam. The Danish cartoonists remain in hiding.
The world soon tired of Cartoon Rage, but the Muslim ragers were just warming up.
They found excuses large and small to riot and threaten Western infidels.
In India, they protested the magazine publication of a picture of a playing card showing an image of Mecca and also burned Valentine's Day cards. An insult to Islam, they screamed.
In Spain, they protested a Madrid store for selling a postcard with a mosque on it with the words "We slept here." An insult to Islam, they protested.
In Pakistan, they burned down a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant and Pizza Hut, and toppled Ronald McDonald. In Jakarta, they smashed the offices of Playboy magazine. You know why.
In June, a trial against journalist Oriana Fallaci for insulting Islam commenced in Bergamo, Italy. She had been charged by Muslim rager Adel Smith of the Muslim Union of Italy of "vilipendio" - vilifying Islam - in her post-9/11 books slamming jihad.
A judge had refused to throw out the case. She faced a pile of death threats and accusations of "Islamophobia" for speaking truth to Islamo-power.
Fallaci's death from cancer during the fifth anniversary week of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks pre-empted the trial in Italy, but her passing did nothing to pre-empt the eternal rage of the perpetually outraged.
The day she died, the grievance-mongers were shaking their fists and calling for the head of Pope Benedict XVI for his speech that made reference to a 14th century conversation touching on holy war and jihad.
For engaging in open, honest intellectual and spiritual debate, he was condemned, lit afire in effigy and targeted anew.
The ragers bombed Christian churches in Gaza City and Nablus. They murdered Italian Sister Leonella Sgorbati, an elderly Catholic nun shot in the back by a Somalian jihadist stoked by Pope Rage.
"Whoever offends our Prophet Mohammed should be killed on the spot by the nearest Muslim," a Somalian cleric had declared. The Vatican made nice with Muslim leaders.
In September, it was a Berlin production of Mozart's "Idomeneo" that featured the decapitated head of Mohammed.
Then, it was former British foreign secretary Jack Straw, who had the audacity to make the obvious observation that full Muslim veils impede communications between women and Westerners. Offensive.Disturbing. An insult to Islam.
Not to be outdone, a delegation of extortionist imams boarded a U.S. Airways flight in Minneapolis in November and tried to manufacture an international human-rights incident. They clamored for a boycott and threatened to sue.
The good news: The fire didn't catch this time. The bad news: As Fallaci warned before her death:
"The hate for the West swells like a fire fed by the wind. The clash between us and them is not a military one. It is a cultural one, a religious one and the worst is still to come."

In separate comments to the station's English program, Lombardi said that capital punishment cannot be justified "even when the person put to death is one guilty of great crimes," and he reiterated the Catholic Church's overall opposition to the death penalty. Executing Saddam "is not a way to reconstruct justice" in Iraqi society, the spokesman said. "It might fuel the spirit of revenge and sew seeds of new violence."

Lombardi expressed the hope that leaders "do everything possible" so that "from this dramatic situation ways might open to reconciliation and peace."
The Vatican's top official for dialogue between religions, Cardinal Paul Poupard, said: "We pray to the Lord and for the dead and the living so that this will not become an occasion for new violence."

"We are always sad when men take lives which belong to the Lord," Poupard told the Italian news agency ANSA. In an interview published in an Italian daily earlier in the week, the Vatican's top prelate for justice issues, Cardinal Renato Martino, said executing Saddam would mean punishing "a crime with another crime."

People who thought he was a monster who had brought disaster to his country had their beliefs confirmed. And so did those who looked back on his reign with nostalgia, as a time when Iraq was stable, and the streets were safe as long as you supported his regime. Iraq today is in the grip of a series of terrible wars. Most people have other things to worry about than the fate of their old dictator.

The Iraqi people, who suffered grievously under Saddam Hussein, continue to suffer. The one point of agreement in Washington about their position in Iraq is that it is bad. Even President George W Bush now says "We're not winning, we're not losing" in Iraq.

In the New Year, he has promised to make some decisions about what the US does next in Iraq. It looks as if he may not take the advice that was in the recent report by the foreign policy grandees led by the former Secretary of State James Baker and the former Democratic Congressman Lee Hamilton.
Their opening line was succinct, and more accurate than the president's description: "The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating."

The Baker-Hamilton report, at first, seemed to offer the Americans a way out. It recommended switching US forces from combat to training Iraqis - and asked for a diplomatic initiative that would engage all the countries of the region. But the report was also a polite, but firm denunciation of the ideologically driven foreign policy of the Bush administration.

By the week before Christmas, it looked as if swallowing it would be too much for the White House. There was even talk of sending more troops to Iraq.
What also emerged much more clearly towards the end of 2006 was the capacity of the killing in Iraq to pull in its neighbours.

The Saudis have been gravely concerned about the impact of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq since before it happened, and that feeling has deepened. A number of recent reports have suggested that Saudi Arabia would intervene in Iraq to protect its Sunni minority, with whom there are strong tribal and religious ties, if the US decided to get out. That may be one factor pushing the Americans to stay the course.

The Saudis are acutely conscious of the way that Iran has been, so far, the big winner in the invasion and occupation of Iraq. The US obligingly removed Saddam Hussein, Iran's biggest enemy in the region, and broke the Sunni ascendancy in Iraq. Thanks to the US, Shia Iran has Shia Muslim allies in top jobs in the Iraqi government and military.

Iraq is now a major exporter of instability.

The US-led invasion threw a big rock into the pool of the Middle East. It has kicked up waves, not ripples, which will wash around the region long after Saddam Hussein is dead and buried.

Two groups of Iraqis, the Kurds and the Shias, make up a majority of the population and since the US-led invasion of 2003, they have taken control of the government. Before then, they were the oppressed as Saddam Hussein ruled with absolute ruthlessness through his Sunni-dominated military and intelligence services.

The plight of the Kurds became well known around the world in 1988 when the Kurdish town of Halabja in eastern Iraq was gassed. The atrocity was but part of a wider campaign against the Kurds, which had its own name - the "Anfal". Saddam Hussein did not trust them. He accused them of wanting a separate state and of helping the Iranians with whom he was at war.

Reporters who penetrated the Kurdish region of northern Iraq after the defeat of Saddam Hussein in Kuwait in the first Gulf War of 1991 found a wasteland. Village after village had been destroyed. Piles of rubble told where houses had been. In the midst of the destruction there lay a splendid palace built by Saddam Hussein for himself.

In the south, the Shias, encouraged by a call to arms by the then US President George Bush senior, rose up. But there was no help from outside and Iraqi helicopter gunships established the control by violence that was the hallmark of Saddam Hussein's rule. It is no wonder therefore that the Kurds and the Shias will not shed tears for him.

Some, many even, among the Sunni population will. Saddam had his power base among them and they powerfully support the insurgency. To them he was an Iraqi hero who had overthrown the old ways and had given them pride.

Others, especially the middle classes of all backgrounds - might look back to the days when they could walk the streets and drive around the country with no fear of being blown up.
Saddam Hussein never ruled over a land at peace and at ease with its neighbours and the world.

His execution marks the end of a chapter. But it does not mark the end of the chaos that Iraq faces. His fate has become almost a sideshow in the great struggle now unfolding in Iraq. His dying wish, expressed in a letter written in jail, called for Iraqis to unite. They are unlikely to listen.

The Bush administration, struggling to set a new course in Iraq, will try to make capital out of Saddam Hussein's removal. But it was thought when he was captured in December 2003 ("We got him," declared the American administrator Paul Bremer) that it would demoralise the insurgency. It did not.

And nor will his death. The future of Iraq and its place in the Middle East remains to be determined by players other than Saddam Hussein.

Two co-defendants, Saddam Hussein's half-brother and a former chief judge, are to be executed at a later date. All three were sentenced to death by an Iraqi court on 5 November after a year-long trial over the 1982 killings of 148 Shias in the town of Dujail.

Video footage of the execution is expected to be released as final proof of Saddam Hussein's demise although it is expected to stop short of showing the actual death. There were jubilant scenes in the Baghdad Shia stronghold of Sadr City, with people dancing in the streets and sounding their car horns.

The BBC's Peter Greste in Baghdad says Shias have generally welcomed Saddam Hussein's death and hailed the execution as justice for the suffering endured under his leadership. But Saddam's own Sunni tribesman were angered by his treatment and may well protest once more, our correspondent adds.

UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett welcomed the fact that Saddam Hussein had been tried by an Iraqi court "for at least some of the appalling crimes he committed" and said "he has now been held to account".

France called on Iraqis to "look towards the future and work towards reconciliation and national unity".

North Korea's nuclear program and a strengthening US-Japan alliance are also evolving factors that make Asia-Pacific security more volatile, forcing China to boost its armed forces, the 2006 Defense White Paper argued. "To build a powerful and fortified national defense is a strategic task of China's modernization drive," said the white paper, the fifth ever issued by Beijing.

It said that China's defense expenditures had grown by more than 15 percent every year since 1990, although that figure falls to 9.6 percent once inflation is taken into account. China's defense white papers are scrutinized carefully by overseas observers for clues about future policies and the fate of the 2.3-million-strong People's Liberation Army (PLA), the world's largest military.

Addressing its own nuclear capability, China said it was based on "a self-defensive nuclear strategy." "Its fundamental goal is to deter other countries from using or threatening to use nuclear weapons against China," it said.China remains firmly committed to the policy of no first use of nuclear weapons at any time and under any circumstances, it said.

"It unconditionally undertakes not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states or nuclear-weapon-free zones, and stands for the comprehensive prohibition and complete elimination of nuclear weapons." Looking to the future, the white paper pointed to the need to boost China's capacity to win high-tech wars and those fought at sea.

By the middle of the century, China aims to be capable of winning "information wars", a form of conflict in which high-tech operations such as attacks on the adversary's computer systems play a crucial role. "The PLA is carrying out a strategic project for training a large contingent of new-type and high-caliber military personnel suited to the task of informatization of the armed forces," it said.

The Vatican did not release details of the content of Ahmadinejad's letter, but Iran's state-run IRNA news agency said the note focused on Saturday's Security Council vote approving sanctions against Iran in the standoff over its nuclear program.The Vatican said Benedict stressed his apolitical role in his brief meeting with Mottaki.

The Pope "reaffirmed the role that the Holy See intends to carry out for world peace, not as a political authority but as a religious and moral one ... so that peoples' problems will always be solved in dialogue, mutual understanding and peace," the Vatican said in a statement.

Earlier this month, the Vatican indirectly criticized a conference of Holocaust deniers held in Iran, saying the Holocaust "was a great tragedy before which we cannot remain indifferent" and which must serve as a warning to people's consciences.

Also this month, Benedict met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who urged Christians to protest Holocaust denials. Ahmadinejad has called for the destruction of Israel and questioned whether the Nazi genocide of 6 million Jews took place.

On Saturday, the U.N. Security Council voted to impose limited sanctions on Iran for its refusal to cease enrichment of uranium - a process that produces the material for either peaceful nuclear power or warheads.
The United States and its allies accuse Iran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover for developing a nuclear bomb. Iran denies this, saying its program is strictly for generating electricity from nuclear fuel.

Ahmadinejad told a gathering in Tehran on Sunday that Iran is a "nuclear country," whether the world liked it or not.

The letter, published today, said: "During the Congregation of Procurators of 2003 and during the recent meeting of Major Superiors of the Society of Jesus, it became increasingly clear that the Society has reached a situation foreseen by Saint Ignatius in the Constitutions (680): in which there are 'very difficult things touching upon the whole body of the Society,' 'for more service to God our Lord.' It is a situation that requires a General Congregation."

Thus, the general congregation is convoked with the dual objective of electing a new superior general and addressing other important matters for the Society of Jesus. According to the Jesuit Constitutions, the office of superior general is for life. A new superior general is elected only in the case of death, grave illness or if, in conscience, the general thinks he must resign.

The first case of resignation was that of Father Pedro Arrupe, who on Sept. 3, 1983, unable to exercise his office due to grave illness, presented his resignation to the general congregation and the latter accepted it.

His successor was Father Kolvenbach, elected Sept. 13, 1983. He will turn 80 in 2008. One of Kolvenbach's greatest achievements as General has been restoring the lines of communication between Borgo Santo Spirito (the General Curia of the Jesuits) and the (Papal) apartment." As of Jan. 1, 2005, the Jesuits numbered 19,850, including 13,966 priests.

In the letter, Father Kolvenbach explains that he made his decision "after having obtained the consent of His Holiness Benedict XVI" and after hearing the opinions of the Society's representatives.