The raised threat level comes as Israel prepares for Monday's Day of Atonement, known as Yom Kippur, a solemn Jewish holiday when the entire country effectively shuts down as residents fast and seek forgiveness for sins.

It was on Yom Kippur in 1973 that Israel was caught by surprise as Syrian and Egyptian forces launched a joint attack and inflicted heavy losses before being repelled.

"The first two days of that war were huge defeats for Israel," said Prof Uri Bar-Joseph, an expert on the 1973 conflict. "All the intelligence analysts failed."
Israel is determined to make sure that it is not surprised again, flagging up Syrian military preparations and signals from President Assad that his country might be readying for war.

The Syrian leader said this week that he "wanted to make peace with Israel". But he warned that his "hopes for peace could change one day".

"And if this hope disappears, then war may really be the only solution," he added.

That mixed message has proved divisive in Israel, renewing debate about whether to stay tough, or engage with Syria and solve the decades-long dispute over the strategically important Golan Heights, which Israel first captured in the 1967 Six Day War. Jewish settlers now populate the territory, which is crucial to Israel as a buffer zone with Syria and as a vantage point over its hostile neighbour, as well as providing Israel with a large proportion of its water supply.

He was held in a police station for four hours and was charged with using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress after he refused to accept a caution from the force's Minorities Support Unit.

'Blasphemous'

Mr Green denied the charge, claiming his freedom of speech was being infringed. After the case, he described his arrest as "a big wake-up call to evangelists".

The father-of-one said his treatment on the day of the festival was "disgraceful" and promised he would return to the next festival with even more supporters.

He said: "The police should concentrate on nicking villains instead of people like me going about my lawful business.

"It is important that Christians should be able to stand up for the Gospel and resist any attempt by the police to trample our civil rights.

"I'm quite pleased the CPS had the good sense to drop this case at an early stage. The police should never have arrested me in the first place, let alone charged me."

Mr Green had previously protested at the city's Wales Millennium Centre outside performances of Jerry Springer: The Opera, claiming it was blasphemous.

'Vulnerable'

Mr Green's solicitor, Mark Williams, said he regarded his client's arrest at the Mardi Gras as "an abuse of police powers" and said they would be taking action in the civil courts.

South Wales Police force has defended its handling of the case, saying the CPS decison not to go ahead with the presecution of Mr Green due to insufficient evidence did not "challenge the legality" of his arrest.

It added that the force had a "proven record" of supporting the freedom of expression in facilitating marches and demonstrations over many years.

Deputy Chief Constable David Francis said: "Equally, we are very proud of our stand on supporting and protecting the most vulnerable in our communities, especially those who are the victims of prejudice and discrimination, harassment and even hatred."

It would be a success for the EU if member states could reach agreement on a blueprint calling for continued work on the treaty.

"There will not be a final result at the end of the German presidency, but rather, if things go well, there will be a decision to continue work for a constitution that is connected to a decision about model and schedule," he said.

Steinmeier's colleague and SPD party head Kurt Beck agreed, saying "natural and cultural sensitivities (as seen in Holland and France's rejection of the constitution) could be added into a preamble in the EU constitution."

"Our goal is nevertheless ambitious," Beck said. "We don't need any compromises on formula but rather a solution that makes Europe able to work and fit for the future."
Steinmeier said Germany's task would be to serve as a mediator in getting a road map on track. He said Germany should listen to EU members' views and hold off on making its own suggestions until the end of the presidency.

On Tuesday, one of the two rockets struck near the city's open air market, where hundreds of people were doing their early morning shopping. It sprayed shrapnel, wounding one soldier, and causing a two-hour power outage in the city, Cohen said.

According to Cohen, Tuesday's blast was more powerful than previous rocket attacks and he said the rocket appeared to be more advanced than others before it.

Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for firing the rockets, which it described as Quds 3, from the Gaza Strip.

Cohen called it a "miracle" that more people were not injured, although many suffered from shock. "I'm not afraid of what happened today, but what will happen tomorrow," he said.

Expressing his "esteem and profound respect" for Islam's believers, the pope said world peace and the future of the human race depended in large part on the ability of Christians and Muslims to build "bridges of friendship" and engage one another as they confronted danger and challenges.

"Faithful to the teachings of their own religious traditions, Christians and Muslims must learn to work together ? to guard against all forms of intolerance and to oppose all manifestations of violence," the pope said. And as "religious authorities and political leaders, we must guide and encourage them in this direction."

"In a world marked by relativism and too often excluding the transcendence and universality of reason," Benedict said, "we are in great need of an authentic dialogue between religions and between cultures, capable of assisting us, in a spirit of fruitful cooperation, to overcome all the tensions together."

Quoting his predecessor, John Paul II, he also called for "reciprocity in all spheres," especially religious freedom. It is one of the pope's major arguments that if Muslims can worship and build mosques in the West, Christians should be allowed to do the same in Islamic countries, which is often not the case.

Benedict concluded by noting the start of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, and wished his visitors well.

"When threats mount up against people and against peace, by recognizing the central character of the human person and by working with perseverance to see that human life is always respected, Christians and Muslims manifest their obedience to the Creator, who wishes all people to live in the dignity that he has bestowed upon them," the pope said.

Treasurer Peter Costello, seen as heir apparent to Howard, hinted that some radical clerics could be asked to leave the country if they did not accept that Australia was a secular state, and its laws were made by parliament. "If those are not your values, if you want a country which has Sharia law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you," he said on national television.

"I'd be saying to clerics who are teaching that there are two laws governing people in Australia: one the Australian law and another the Islamic law, that is false. If you can't agree with parliamentary law, independent courts, democracy, and would prefer Sharia law and have the opportunity to go to another country, which practices it, perhaps, then, that's a better option," Costello said.

"This idea of Australia being a multicultural community has served only to dilute our sovereignty and our national identity. As Australians, we have our own culture, our own society, our own language and our own lifestyle.

"This culture has been developed over two centuries of struggles, trials and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom. We speak mainly ENGLISH, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society, learn the language!

"Most Australians believe in God. This is not some Christian, right wing, political push, but a fact, because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture.

"We will accept your beliefs, and will not question why. All we ask is that you accept ours, and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with us.
"If the Southern Cross offends you, or you don't like 'A Fair Go,' then you should seriously consider a move to another part of this planet. We are happy with our culture and have no desire to change, and we really don't care how you did things where you came from. By all means, keep your culture, but do not force it on others.

"This is OUR COUNTRY, OUR LAND, and OUR LIFESTYLE, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this. But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about Our Flag, Our Pledge, Our Christian beliefs, or Our Way of Life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great Australian freedom, 'THE RIGHT TO LEAVE'.

"If you aren't happy here then LEAVE. We didn't force you to come here. You asked to be here. So accept the country YOU accepted."

Saxton referred to the possibility of Iran possessing nuclear weapons in the near future. Iran denies the existence of a weapons program, but continues to enrich uranium despite warnings from the international community.

Ahmadinejad told the United Nations that U.S. opposition to a nuclear Iran is a political maneuver to halt development of the country.

"I am sure that the authorities in the United States are aware that Iran's nuclear issue is a political one. For 27 years the United States has been hostile with the Iranian government and by default, against the development of our country," said Ahmadinejad.

Saxton disagreed, calling for a regional coalition to disarm Iran.

He said a nuclear Iran would be "emboldened" and "poses direct threat to U.S. national security."

"I believe the ideology that rules Iran is as noxious as the radicalism that fuels al Qaeda," said Saxton. I believe Iran represents all the threats we see with al Qaeda, with the added concern that this is a state power on the brink of obtaining nuclear capabilities.

"Quite simply, Iran engages in terrorism," said Saxton.

Democratic Rep. Robert Andrews, also of New Jersey, agreed with Saxton that Iran poses a threat. "There will be few more destabilizing forces in the Middle East than Iran with a nuclear weapon," he said.

But Andrews said any change to Iran's nuclear program is up to the Iranian Revolutionary Council, saying that sanctions would be ineffective "unless they are [universally], internationally adopted."

"I think the major impediment to an international consensus that would convince Iran to back away from the nuclear precipice is our own clumsy foreign policy," he added, a foreign policy which he said is "typical of this administration."

One of the fiercest opponents of the mammoth 'World Pride' gay parade is Jerusalem City Councilwoman and National Religious Party member Mina Fenton, who helped gather tens of thousands of signatures on a petition against the event.

Fenton told reporters after collecting more than 100,000 signatures in July that she was sure it would "clarify to the Supreme Court the majority opinion, as well as the dangers and degradation involved in holding the parade.

Nonetheless, the Jerusalem municipality and police caved in to the pressure of facing a suit by the organization in Supreme Court. Efforts by Fenton and numerous others ultimately failed to prevent what the petition called a provocation and a declared mockery of all that is precious and sacred in the Holy city of Jerusalem in the eyes of the entire world."

The World Pride gay parade is now officially scheduled to be held in Jerusalem on November 10. The municipality will handle the procedural arrangements.

In an announcement afterwards, Fenton said she "notes with pain that the Supreme Court did not even debate the essential claim that the Gay Pride march would be a grave offence to most of the city's inhabitants [and] a blow at the uniqueness of Jerusalem, the Holy City." She also noted that most Jews, Christians and Moslems oppose the parade.

Following the withdrawal of the court suit by the Open House because of the issuance of a permit to hold the parade, the Supreme Court did conduct one discussion on the matter, reaching a compromise on the time the "festivities" must end in Liberty Bell Park: 45 minutes before the onset of the Sabbath.

"The holiness of the Jewish Nation and of the city of Jerusalem are no less important than the holiness of the Sabbath," Fenton remarked with bitterness. "It is a shame and disgrace that this painful topic, which touches upon the very soul of the Jewish nation, should descend to such depths of a mere technical debate."

She also had strong criticism of the police for ultimately giving in to the gay parade organizers: "The police know very well about the tremendous agitation that exists against the parade - and that's why they delayed giving the original permit last month. By agreeing now to have the parade, the police are fanning this unrest."

"It is clear to all," Fenton warned, "that hundreds of thousands of people will go out to demonstrate against having this parade in Jerusalem on Friday, Nov. 10. It is too bad that the Israeli Police, even though it knows all this, did not prevent it from happening."

Again, for the first time, our medical records, perhaps our most intimate personal information, will be available on a national data "spine", rather than kept within the confines of our GP's files. Details of children will be placed on another database, with no obvious limit to how long this information will be kept. Will a classroom transgression pop out of the system 20 years hence to scupper some job application, with the victim unaware why?

Last week, in a significant announcement issued under the guise of an innocuous-sounding "information-sharing vision statement", the
Government proposed to reverse the presumptions of confidentiality under which Whitehall has, until now, conducted its relationships with businesses and individuals. Departments will be able to share personal information obtained for one purpose with other departments that might want it for an entirely different reason. In effect, they will be able to gather all this data in one place, something we were always assured would not happen.

And there is more. The Government is about to enact the controversial part of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) that it has held back for almost six years, after obtaining support for the legislation in Parliament on the grounds that it was crucial to the fight against terrorism and crime. If it was so important, why the delay? It makes it an offence not to give the police the key to an encrypted computer entry, should they request it. Failure to do so will mean a long prison sentence.

There is also the concept of proportionality to be considered. Are we so embattled that we need, in Mr Reid's words, "to modify some of our own freedoms" to the point where they are almost unrecognisable from the liberties that our forefathers fought and died to preserve?

Once you accept that the government has the right to know where you are at all times, to demand that you tell its agents when you move home or to render up your private musings at its behest, then you have changed the nature of the individual's relationship to the state in a way that is totally alien to this country's historic, though ill-defined, covenant between the rulers and the ruled.

If enough people say "so what?" to that, as well, then Mr Blair really has left a legacy, and it is a pernicious one.

The spokesman pointed out that the Pope's address must be considered "in its totality," and not react to "quotes taken out of context and even less so" to "quotes deliberately taken out of context."

He stressed, however, that it is not for the European Commission to clarify or interpret "the theological contribution of the Pope to a theological debate" and he noted that the Holy See has already given explanations.

Laitenberger added that, for many years, the commission "has promoted intercultural dialogue and encouraged interreligious debate because it considers that it is "the best way to foment mutual understanding."

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, his Secretary of State, said that papal nuncios (ambassadors) in Muslim countries had been instructed to explain personally to political and religious leaders that the remarks had been misunderstood and taken out of context.

Security around St Peter's Square remained tight as al-Qaeda militants in Iraq vowed to conquer Rome. The Mujahidin Shura Council, an umbrella group for Sunni Islamists, said in a statement: We tell the worshipper of the Cross (the Pope) that you and the West will be defeated . . . May God enable us to slit their throats, and make their money and descendants the bounty of the mujahidin.

Another militant group in Iraq, Ansar al-Sunnah, added: The day is coming when the armies of Islam will destroy the ramparts of Rome.

Effigies of the Pope were burnt from Basra in Iraq to Muzaffarabad in Kashmir. The president of the Islamic Association of China said that the Pope had insulted both Islam and the Prophet Muhammad.

In the Vatican, dismay over the crisis was mingled with grim irony that a quotation accusing Islam of using violence had been greeted with violence.

Cardinal George Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney, said: The violent reactions in many parts of the Islamic world justified one of Pope Benedict's main fears . . . They show the link for many Islamists between religion and violence, their refusal to respond to criticism with rational arguments, but only with demonstrations, threats and actual violence.

In London yesterday Anjem Choudary, a militant Muslim lawyer, said during a protest outside Westminster Cathedral that those who insulted Islam should be killed.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, said: We pray that calm will return and our two religions can carry on working together.

The Pope had referred to remarks by the 14th-century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus, who said that everything the Prophet Muhammad brought was evil, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached. The Pope said that the quotation did not represent his personal views.

Abu Dawood told Hamid Mir, a reporter who has covered al-Qaida and met with Osama bin Laden, the attack is being coordinated by Adnan el-Shukrijumah and suggests it may involve some form of weapon of mass destruction smuggled across the Mexican border.

"Our brothers are ready to attack inside America. We will breach their security again," he is quoted as saying. "There is no timeframe for our attack inside America; we can do it any time."

As WND has previously reported, el-Shukrijumah is a trained nuclear technician and accomplished pilot who has been singled out by bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri to serve as the field commander for the next terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

The terrorist was last seen in Mexico, where, on Nov. 1, 2004, he allegedly hijacked a Piper PA Pawnee cropduster from Ejido Queretaro near Mexicali to transport a nuclear weapon and nuclear equipment into the U.S., according to Paul Williams, a former FBI consultant and author of "The Dunces of Doomsday."

"He is an American and a friend of Muhammad Atta, who led 9/11 attacks five years ago," said Dawood. "We call him 'Jaffer al Tayyar' (Jafer the Pilot); he is very brave and intelligent. (President) Bush is aware that brother Adnan has smuggled deadly materials inside America from the Mexican border. Bush is silent about him, because he doesn't want to panic his people. Sheikh Osama bin Laden has completed his cycle of warnings. You know, he is man of his words, he is not a politician; he always does what he says. If he said it many times that Americans will see new attacks, they will definitely see new attacks. He is a real mujahid. Americans will not win this war, which they have started against Muslims. Americans are the biggest supporters of the biggest terrorist in the world, which is Israel."

"Muslims should leave America," said Dawood. "We cannot stop our attack just because of the American Muslims; they must realize that American forces are killing innocent Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq; we have the right to respond back, in the same manner, in the enemy's homeland. The American Muslims are like a human shield for our enemy; they must leave New York and Washington."

Mir, the journalist, has reported previously that al-Qaida has smuggled nuclear weapons and uranium into the U.S.

"I am saying that Muslims must leave America, but we can attack America anytime," he said. "Our cycle of warnings has been completed, now we have fresh edicts from some prominent Muslim scholars to destroy our enemy, this is our defending of Jihad; the enemy has entered in our homes and we have the right to enter in their homes, they are killing us, we will kill them."

The furore, which has been likened to the Islamic world's reaction to the publication of cartoons in a Danish newspaper satirising the Prophet Mohammed, had still not been placated after the Vatican issued a statement yesterday saying the [Pope] "is very sorry some passages of his speech may have sounded offensive to the sensibilities of Muslim believers".

However, while the cartoons could rightly be considered an act of provocation, Pope Benedict's quotation from a 14th century Byzantine emperor certainly did not justify the frenzied reaction we have seen. Indeed, the Pope used the quotation to bolster his argument that faith should not be spread by "holy wars", insisting that "violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul".

These words can just as easily be applied, in fact should be applied, to the Crusades of eight-ten centuries ago, and for which Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul II, had apologised. They are applicable to all religious wars fought throughout the centuries, and indeed are still being fought in our own, brand new 21st century.

What the Pope delivered was an impassioned and eruditely argued case for religious tolerance. Unfortunately, even though the Islamic religion preaches compassion and charity, many Muslim observers have expressed their fear that fanatics are gaining the upper hand, thus fatally misrepresenting Islam. These fanatics, with Al-Qaeda at the forefront, in fact routinely refer to the West as "Crusaders".

The glorification of terrorism, the equation of suicide attacks killing innocent lives (including Muslims) with martyrdom, are an extreme expression of this fanaticism. Another, very troubling, aspect - not limited to a few fanatics but applied by various Islamic states - is the high degree of intolerance shown to members of other faiths.

While we in the West are proud of the religious freedom enjoyed by all believers and non-believers, with some Western authorities taking political correctness to extremes (as in the case of a magistrate in Italy who upheld a Muslim activist's request to remove the crucifix from a classroom in an Italian state school), the same freedom cannot be said to apply to native or foreign Christians in predominantly Muslim countries.

These Christians face persecution and are the targets of repeated violence in countries like Pakistan, the Sudan and Indonesia. And while we speak, even in erstwhile Catholic Malta, of a "growing Maltese Muslim community", we had the case in Afghanistan recently of a Muslim who, after converting to Christianity, was sentenced to death. He saved his skin only because he left the country and was offered asylum in Italy.

What the Catholic Church and all Christians expect is that Muslim countries show the same degree of tolerance which members of the Muslim faith are generally shown in the West. This is what the Pope's message is all about: violence goes against the very essence of religion.