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Over the past week an unprecedented level of attention has been received by my YouTube channel, where for several months we have hosted a powerful video documenting torture and abuse of prisoners in Yekaterinaburg. For more than 60 days, the controversial video had about 6,500 views, but after a Wall Street Journal article about Lev Ponomarev linked to it, within days there were more than 30,000 views and hundreds of comments. However yesterday I received the following notification in my email inbox: Dear Member: After being flagged by members of the YouTube community and reviewed by YouTube staff, the video...

The Algerian situation is an example of the complexities and difficulties of nuclear weapons intelligence. Questions about the capabilities and intentions of potential members of the nuclear club, whose activities are invariably surrounded by tight secrecy, have characteristically shaped the policy debate on nuclear proliferation. Declassified U.S. government documents on pending controversies, e.g., over Iran and North Korea, are practically impossible to obtain, even on the earliest stages of the controversy. Thus, recently declassified documents from 1991 on the then-secret debate over Algeria's nuclear ambitions provide a rare glimpse of an early post-Cold War test of the nuclear nonproliferation regime.

Things of late are not going the way of Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. After having relatively little trouble ramming through Parliament a series of controversial projects, Zapatero’s golden touch may be fading. Not only did his Socialist party lose out in the recent regional elections, but now his partners-in-peace have the gall to call him a fascist – and issue a return to arms.

At the law’s signing Governor Lynch said he believes that the civil unions will not "threaten" marriage – something that Bishop Robinson must also mistakenly believe. Perhaps Gov. Lynch and Bishop Robinson would do well to look across the ocean at Spain, where following the Socialist government's platform - that includes fast-track divorces and same-sex marriages - that country now has the distinguished award of leading Europe in divorces coupled with one of the world's lowest birthrates (ex-immigrants).

“For me it’s not too clear why some people are making bio-fuels,” said Cortez. “If you are making fuel from corn, then really you are just making a disguised gas,” which has high emissions. Cortez argued that bio-fuels should only be made if they are “clean,” with a policy to lower emissions. According to Cortez, for this reason the use of corn for the production of bio-fuels is not ideal, whereas sugar-cane could be. Otherwise it is just a policy to meet “social demands,” Cortez said, alluding to recent measures in the United States to implement funding of bio-fuels. “It...

World's Last Chance, a group that takes reading the Bible to all-new-extremes, claims to be "exposing one of the last unfulfilled prophecies of the Bible. Specifically, World's Last Chance believes that they have found clues within scripture that suggest Pope John Paul II is coming back ... and will be the next pope after Benedict XVI. That's right, as crazy it sounds, they believe that Pope John Paul II is going to magically appear here on earth and make our lives hell. With folks like this, it's no wonder that Christians get a bum rap. "How will the next pope...

The Basque terrorist organization, ETA, claimed Tuesday afternoon responsibility for the recent bombing at Madrid's Barajas airport that claimed the lives of two Ecuadoreans. At the same time, ETA in its statement published in the Basque language newspaper Gara, said that its so-called truce with the Spanish government remains in place, while at the same time warning that there could be further terrorist acts as a response to what it claims are "aggressions againt Euskal Herria," or the Basque Country.

There has not been a collapse of homosexuals rushing to get married in Spain, despite very high-profile exceptions. In Madrid in 2005 there were 259 same-sex couples married, 201 of which were between men, and the remaining 58 cases between women. Interestingly, of the Gay marriages, 182 were between Spaniards, 35 were with a South American, 15 included a North American partner, while 10 were with Central Americans, seven were with Europeans, and there was one Asian. Those figures highlight not only the apathy toward the institution of marriage on the part of the homosexual subculture, but also the government's...

It is a holiday protocol predicament. A town in Florida placed a Jewish Menorah in the center of its public forum, forcing the Christian Nativity scene to one side. While to some the question would be moot or just a matter of decorative taste, according to Sondra Snowdon, a self-described Christian activist, it is a clear case of religious discrimination. Snowdon, who claims to have received numerous death threats, made news in recent years for taking Bay Harbor Islands, Florida to court to allow a Nativity scene at Christmas." Now, Snowdon says, the town isn’t complying with a Federal court...

Interestingly enough, people seem to be missing one point. At least from the reviews that I have read, the book doesn't argue that Muslims will kill the Pope. Instead, according to Kaya's novel, the Pope is being targeted by, get this, Catholics

Self-published Christian songwriter Rebecca Hansen has no qualms regarding her participation in a film that some people are calling ‘Brokeback Hooters.’ In fact, Hansen even considered playing the lead lesbian role. *** A tacky gay-rights flick to make Ed Wood proud features the voice and music of a Christian singer – a singer who for years served on worship teams at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church. But even the Christian music angle can't redeem this film's soft-porn touch: One film poster show’s a bird’s eye view of two naked women embracing in a bathtub. The film’s trailer shows multiple scenes of...

Political strategists should keep an eye on the help wanted pages out of Spain. Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, Madrid’s Partido Popular Mayor, could be putting out a call - especially after the brouhaha following his decision this past Saturday to marry two gay men. Ironically, rivers of ink aren’t being poured over the legality of Gallardon’s act – that being solved, at least temporarily, by the Socialist government’s legislation last year – but by the fact that he is a very visible member of the Center-Right PP, and at least in some circles had been seen as a possible contender for the...

Drinking beer in moderation can be good for you: In fact, two beers a day could help reduce the risk of getting Alzheimer's, according to a report that justifies the inclusion of the drink as a basic element in the Spanish diet and its "possible protecting factor."

If it wasn't enough worrying about all the baby anti-Christs being born today, now there is religious group claiming that a nuclear attack could be launched on New York before the weekend. "The Lords’ Witnesses in all seriousness therefore beg everyone in NYC of any religious or anti religious persuasion whatsoever, who has faith that God can predict the future, to leave NYC before the second weekend in June and, if interested, to read all about our great Biblical understandings from some other place! And more to the point, at some time after that weekend," a press release from The...

Tweety is the poster-child for violent crime in Spain – a different image from the smiling, and laughing young man seen on the home-videos in my family’s personal collection. *** His name was Luis Samuel, but when he was younger friends called him Piolin, Spanish for “Tweety Bird.” He immigrated to Spain from Peru a decade ago but he died Monday in Madrid, Spain with an off-duty policeman’s bullet in his brain. He was 29. My wife read about it in a Spanish newspaper where we live before receiving a telephone call from Piolin’s godfather – who is also the...

I've been thinking a lot lately, perhaps it's no surprise, on the public face of Opus Dei, much of it no doubt the result of The Da Vinci Code. The more I think about it, the more I am inclined to say that The Da Vinci Code is a blessing in disguise not only for Opus Dei, but also for Christians worldwide – and in the end, for society. There is no doubt that the movie is a blasphemous caricature of Christianity, but the result of the film (and book) is that it is causing people to question and delve...

Pope Benedict XVI is one of the “most prepared” popes in the last two or three centuries, but he’s “not sexy,” says veteran author and journalist John Allen in an interview in a Spanish newspaper. “Culturally he (Benedict) is very prepared to be pope, perhaps the best so in the last two or three centuries. But from the journalistic point of view he’s not very ‘sexy’,” said Allen, according to the Spanish El Pais newspaper. “Without a doubt, John Paul II is the most ‘sexy’ of the modern popes. Whatever he said, it ended up on the front pages of...

Bowing to pressure from Christian groups, the Indian government has decided to review federal censors' permission for the screening of The Da Vinci Code movie in India. The controversial film was set to hit Indian cinemas on May 19, but three days before its release, a federal minister said the government would give the nod only if Catholic Church officials give their approval.

Are you one of those curious types who after reading The Da Vinci Code want to see what is really inside an Opus Dei center, the group author Dan Brown mistakenly claims harbors sadistic albino assassins? While I certainly wouldn't classify myself as a "sadistic albino assassin," I would say that it is indeed quite easy to see the inside of an Opus Dei center. In fact, in Madrid I simply called up and asked to come over for a visit. Nobody turned me down, and I imagine that's the way it is around the world. Indeed, it is so...

You know how we are supposed to thank God for all things? Well, I thank God for spammers. Don't get me wrong, I also in an earthly sense dislike them, but lately I'm thanking God for them - through gritted teeth, mind you (but I'm working on that too). But I've decided to take a new tack, to use spammers to help me in my walk with God. Let me explain. I believe that we can use our daily situations in life to help us grow closer to God. In fact, that is one of the things that St Josemaria...