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Face to Face, Obama Tries to Persuade Putin on Syria President Obama met with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia at the Group of 20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, on Monday. By HELENE COOPER June 18, 2012 SAN JOSÉ DEL CABO, Mexico — President Obama and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir V. Putin, finally had their face-to-face meeting on Monday, as Mr. Obama pressed Mr. Putin to work with him to ease President Bashar al-Assad of Syria out of power, a move increasingly viewed by the West as the only way to end the bloodshed that has been under way...

(Reuters) - The United States expressed alarm that its protégés in the Egyptian army were abusing hopes for democracy by ordering more military rule just as the Muslim Brotherhood was claiming victory in the country's first free presidential election. The Islamists' self-assurance was contested by the other candidate in the run-off race, a former general who was prime minister when Hosni Mubarak was ousted last year by an army anxious to save itself from the revolution in the streets. But there was still no result from the two-day poll, although independent officials privately spoke of a likely win for Islamist...

China Radio seeks accounts of Jewish refugees who lived in the country during WWII.They were reluctant adventurers whose painful decision to leave their homes in Europe and travel thousands of miles over land and sea was driven by fear of Nazi persecution rather than wanderlust. Nonetheless, the experience of thousands of Jews who took refuge in China during World War II was one they would never forget. Now, on the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the People’s Republic of China and Israel and 67 years after the war ended, China Radio International is inviting former Jewish...

German neo-Nazis helped Palestinian terrorists kill 11 Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, newly released intelligence files reveal. Abu Daoud, who is believed to the mastermind of the atrocity, met fascist Willi Pohl in Dortmund, according to a city police dossier kept secret for 40 years. But despite the file being passed on to the German federal intelligence agency, Verfassungsschutz, there is no evidence that they acted upon the 2,000-page report. And this lack of action allowed Daoud, who is named in the police report as his alias Saad Walli, to travel the country to meet fellow terrorists...

And Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam, and he smote his hands together: and Balak said unto Balaam, I called thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast altogether blessed them these three times. Therefore now flee thou to thy place: I thought to promote thee unto great honour; but, lo, the Lord hath kept thee back from honour. And Balaam said unto Balak, Spake I not also to thy messengers which thou sentest unto me, saying, If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord, to...

<p>Russia has announced it is readying two warships to sail to Syria to protect Russian citizens, in a sign that it is taking precautions against a worsening of the security situation there.</p> <p>A spokesman for Russia’s Black Sea fleet, Vyacheslav Trukhachev, told Russia’s Interfax news agency the mission would be undertaken “in case of necessity”. His comments appeared designed to clarify speculation that warships had already set sail for Syria. Interfax had earlier quoted an anonymous official as saying that was the case on Monday morning.</p>

Monday morning's attack by terrorists against Israeli workers building the security fence on the southern border is further evidence of the increasing failure of Egyptian security efforts in Sinai, said Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Speaking at a meeting of his Atzma'ut faction, Barak said that several recent events, including Grad rocket attacks against Israel over the weekend, meant that Egypt needed to do more to fulfill its international obligations. “We see Monday's attack as a very serious incident,” Barak said. “It comes in the wake of an incident on Shabbat in which two Grad rockets were fired into southern Israel...

In an interview on CNN in advance talks between Iran and Western countries on Tehran's nuclear program, President Shimon Peres said that “time is running out” for Iran. You cannot provoke the world, assuming the world is made of fools only," Peres told the network. The talks got underway in Moscow Monday, after several inconclusive sessions over the past several months in Baghdad and Istanbul. The talks, with the U.S., Britain, China, Russia, France and Germany on one side of the table and Iran on the other, were “not going well,” an Iranian source quoted by European news agencies said...

The Israel Defense Force has moved tanks closer to Egypt following a cross-border attack into the Jewish state by bomb-laden terrorists who targeted defense contractor crews building a border fence. Ynet News reported that armored units will supplement existing IDF forces in the region, even though Israeli tank maneuvers so close to Egypt's border is a violation of the peace treaty with Cairo. The paper said the last time IDF bolstered its presence in the area was n August 2011, following a terror attack by the Islamic Jihad, which left nine Israelis dead. The paper's chief military commentator, Ron Ben...

TEHRAN – An informed source has announced that Iran, Russia, China, and Syria plan to stage a joint war game in Syria in the near future, the Persian service of the Fars News Agency reported on Monday. 90,000 forces from the four countries will be involved in the war game, the informed source said. No official from the countries has confirmed the news report, but a Syrian official, who spoke on conditional anonymity, announced that the joint war game will be launched in Syria.

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Isaiah 41 22. “Yet you have not called on me, Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves for me, Israel. 23. You have not brought me sheep for burnt offerings, nor honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with grain offerings nor wearied you with demands for incense. 24. You have not bought any fragrant calamus for me, or lavished on me the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your offenses. 25. “I, even I, am he who blots out your...

Study: Father's Day Must Be Every Day - Critical For Child's DevelopmentBy Rebecca Matok Israel News AgencyJerusalem, Israel --- June 17, 2012 ... A father's love and presence is as important to a child’s emotional development as a mother’s, a large-scale study has confirmed. Investigating the cases of more than 10,000 sons and daughters revealed how a cold or distant father can damage a child’s life, sometimes for decades to come. The review of 36 studies from around the world concluded that a father's love is at least as important to youngsters as that of their mothers. Researcher Professor Ronald...

No debt repayments, higher salaries and freedom from EU-IMF tutelage: Greece under the radical leftists, who are poised to win a June 17 election, seems a world removed from its current recession nightmare. The Syriza party has pledged to tear up Greece’s loan agreement with the EU and the IMF, which is currently keeping the country on its feet but at the cost of an unprecedented wave of austerity cuts and structural reforms. If implemented, such a programme, which would also mean the nationalisation of banks and a halt to privatisation, could well mean Greece’s ejection from the eurozone, potentially...

An act of war from an organization that has penetrated deeply into the U.S. Government. "Officials: Hamas ordered Grad attack on Israel at request of Muslim Brotherhood," by Avi Issacharoff and Gili Cohen for Haaretz, June 16 (thanks to David): Israeli security officials say that the rockets that landed on Friday in the area near Ovda and Mitzpeh Ramon, were launched after a request by senior leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. According to these officials, the rockets were launched from the Sinai Peninsula by a Bedouin unit, according to Hamas orders, even though Hamas itself wasn't the initiator...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Isaiah 43 14. This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “For your sake I will send to Babylon and bring down as fugitives all the Babylonians, in the ships in which they took pride. 15. I am the Lord, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator, your King. ” 16. This is what the Lord says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, 17. who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to...

Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said: He hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open: How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel! As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river’s side,as the trees of lign aloes which the Lord hath planted,and as cedar trees beside the waters. He shall pour the water out of his buckets,and his seed shall be in many waters,and his king...

In hawkish remarks that drew cheers from an audience of religious conservatives, Mitt Romney accused President Obama on Saturday of being more afraid that Israel might attack Iran than that Iran will develop a nuclear weapon. The Republican presidential candidate, who frequently attacks the administration for failing to back Israel's government more aggressively, ratcheted up his criticism a notch. He responded with ridicule when asked what he would do, if elected, to strengthen U.S. relations with the Jewish state. "I think, by and large, you can just look at the things the president has done and do the opposite," Romney...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Isaiah 43 8. Lead out those who have eyes but are blind, who have ears but are deaf. 9. All the nations gather together and the peoples assemble. Which of their gods foretold this and proclaimed to us the former things? Let them bring in their witnesses to prove they were right, so that others may hear and say, “It is true.” 10. “You are my witnesses, ” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before...

Israel today said it's official India Facebook page has the most 'Likes' after that of the US and the United Kindgom. The ISRAEL in INDIA Facebook page, launched by the Israelian Embassy in August, 2010, has received almost 20,000 'likes', a figure surpassed only by the pages of the US and the UK. Two decades after India and Israel established full diplomatic relations, ties between the two nations are extending far beyond traditional diplomacy, the Embassy said in a statement. Less than two years after the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi launched its activity on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and other...

My 1,700-mile road trip across Iran began with a giddy paean to America, reinforcing my view that at the grass-roots level, this may be the most pro-American nation in the Middle East. “We love America!” gushed a former military commando, now a clothing seller, my first evening in the spiritual center of Mashhad. He was so carried away that I thought he might hug me, and although he acknowledged that his business was suffering greatly from Western sanctions, he said he blamed his own leaders.