President Barack Obama and prime ministers and other top officials from 47 countries start work Monday on a battle plan to keep nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands.

WASHINGTON President Barack Obama and presidents, prime ministers and other top officials from 47 countries start work Monday on a battle plan to keep nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands.Confronting what he calls the “single biggest threat to U.S. security,” Obama is looking for global help in his goal of ensuring all nuclear materials worldwide are secured from theft or diversion within four years.

On the eve of what would be the largest assembly of world leaders hosted by an American president since 1945 – the San Francisco conference to found the United Nations – Obama said nuclear materials in the hands of al-Qaida or another terrorist group “could change the security landscape in this country and around the world for years to come.”

While sweeping or even bold new strategies were unlikely to emerge from the two-day gathering, Obama declared himself pleased with what he heard in warm-up meetings Sunday with the leaders of Kazakhstan, South Africa, India and Pakistan.”I feel very good at this stage in the degree of commitment and a sense of urgency that I have seen from the world leaders so far on this issue,” Obama said. “We think we can make enormous progress on this, and this then becomes part and parcel of the broader focus that we’ve had over the last several weeks.”

He was referring to what had gone before this, the fourth leg of his campaign to rid the world of nuclear weapons. The United States is the only country to use the weapons, two bombs dropped on Japan to force its surrender in World War II.The high-flown ambition, which the president admits will probably not be reality in his lifetime, began a year ago in Prague when he laid out plans for significant nuclear reductions and a nuclear-weapons-free world.

In the meantime, he has approved a new nuclear policy for the United States, promising last week to reduce America’s nuclear arsenal, refrain from nuclear tests and not use nuclear weapons against countries that do not have them. North Korea and Iran were not included in that pledge because they do not cooperate with other countries on nonproliferation standards.

That was Tuesday, and two days later, on the anniversary of the Prague speech, Obama flew back to the Czech Republic capital where he and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed a new treaty that reduces each side’s deployed nuclear arsenal to 1,550 weapons. Medvedev also arrives Monday to sign a long-delayed agreement to dispose of tons of weapons-grade plutonium from Cold War-era nuclear weapons – the type of preventive action Obama wants the summit to inspire.Obama welcomes the assembled world leaders at a Washington convention center late Monday afternoon, but begins the day with a morning meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, whose intelligence apparatus is deeply involved in the Afghan war.

He then will sit down one-on-one with the leaders of Malaysia, Ukraine, Armenia and China.National Security Council spokesman Ben Rhodes said Obama would squeeze in a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey is a key NATO ally, and relations have been difficult recently, particularly over Iran. Rhodes said there were additional “pressing issues,” including normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia.

Throughout the two-day gathering, Iran will be a subtext as Obama works to gain support for a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Tehran for its refusal to shut down what the United States and many key allies assert is a nuclear weapons program. Iran says it only wants to build reactors to generate electricity.Support from Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao, who sees Obama privately Monday, is critical, but neither is firmly committed to a new sanctions regime. (AP)

Israel to Build Nuclear

JERUSALEM Israel expressed interest in building nuclear power plants. This step could certainly attract the suspicion of other countries over Israel’s nuclear activities are kept secret for so long. Israeli National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau is planning to announce this plan on the International Nuclear Energy Conference in Paris, France today. “Building a nuclear reactor to produce electricity allows Israel to produce their own energy, while eliminating the dependence on other countries,” Landau said as quoted by the Associated Press, Tuesday (9/3/2010).

Landau added, if it can be applied nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and cooperation between nations. Jewish state is indeed dependent on other countries to supply energy for the people. So far Israel’s use of coal and gas to produce electricity. Landau himself had a meeting with the French Energy Minister Jean Lous Borloo and articulate a plan of cooperation between France, Israel and Jordan, to develop nuclear power. This plan was greeted enthusiastically by the French Minister.

History of cooperation in the French-Israeli nuclear affairs lasted a long time indeed. In 1950 France helped Israel build a nuclear reactor in Dimona. In reactor development were allegedly used as the Israeli nuclear arsenal. While other reactor at Nahal Soreq, often used as research interests. Regarding the planned third reactor, the Minister Uzi Landau said, his department had no specific plans to build it until now. Development of nuclear reactor by Israel certainly can invite a strong reaction from many countries, especially in the Middle East. Meanwhile, when asked about the Jewish state’s willingness to do the inspection by the UN Nuclear Energy Agency (IAEA), it would be appropriate to the prevailing regulations. Israel has yet to sign non-proliferation treaty that aims to limit the number of countries capable of developing nuclear weapons.

discovery of an ancient road called David in Jerusalem by the archaeological

JERUSALEM, Israeli archaeological Agency Wednesday (10/2/2010) to find a street in the Old city of Jerusalem, which became the central veins of the economy and trade about 1,500 years ago. The old road was discovered when workers from the city infrastructure to conduct excavations on the side of the Jaffa Gate, west of town. Here was found a large rock, whose position was under way currently known by the street name of David, reports the Israel Antiquities Authority Board (Israel Antiquities Authority / IAA). “Today we have released a number of archaeological artifacts at a depth of 4.5 meters below the surface of the road. Many of our findings. We found a large floor slabs, which kemukinan a road in the past,” said Ofer Sion, Director of the Israel Antiquities Authority Excavations . According to the IAA, a number of ancient artifacts were also found at the dig site.

“The possibility of a road from a busy period. The main artery road, when Jerusalem became a Christian city. It is widely used, it turns out the way David held so many stories, so many human lives the journey interesting, always passing through the road which was built about 1,500 years before this, “says Zion. This ancient artifacts unearthed ancient mosaic map match, which was found in a church Jordan, which is currently known as the Madaba map, which describes the holy land in the Byzantine period. According to the IAA, in the old map is described, “To enter into the holy city of Jerusalem from the West side has to go through a very large door, which leads to a downtown street that is very busy.” Among the ancient artifacts found in excavations are coins, pottery vessels and five small bronze square, weights are likely used by traders to consider the ancient noble metals.

Jordan Relatives and friends of the Jordanian suspected as a double agent who killed eight people on a CIA base in Afghanistan

ZARQA, Jordan  Relatives and friends of the Jordanian suspected as a double agent who killed eight people on a CIA base in Afghanistan say he wanted to die in a holy war, and wrote fiery Internet articles calling for jihad against the U.S. and Israel.Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, a 32-year-old physician, struck the base near the Pakistani border last week, killing seven CIA employees and a Jordanian intelligence officer.His family and friends said Tuesday al-Balawi practiced medicine in a Palestinian refugee camp near Zarqa, also the hometown of slain al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.High-school friend Mohammed Yousef said al-Balawi fooled family and friends, telling them in March he was going to Turkey to study.(AP)

Recent combined air and ground assaults against al Qaeda in Yemen last month were American-led

combined air and ground assaults

Recent combined air and ground assaults against al Qaeda in Yemen last month were American-led, according to a U.S. special operations expert who trains Yemeni forces.”It was cruise missile strikes in combination with military units on the ground,” Sebastian Gorka, an instructor at the U.S. Special Operation’s Command’s Joint Special Operations University, told CBS News Correspondent Kimberly Dozier.”It was a very distinct signal from the Obama administration that they are serious in assisting Yemen to remove these al Qaeda facilities from its soil.”That was very much something executed by the United States, but with heavy support by the Yemeni government,” Gorka told Dozier.The target was al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula, an affiliate of Osama bin Laden’s group with a popular following in Yemen. AQAP, as it’s known in the counterterrorist world, claimed responsibility for the attempted Christmas Day bombing of Flight 253, which resulted in the arrest of Nigerian Umar Farouk AbdulmutallabU.S. counterterrorist teams have been tracking al Qaeda in Yemen since the U.S.S. Cole bombing in 2000. And the Defense Department has been training Yemeni counterterrorist forces since 1990. Training has been conducted by a range of troops. U.S. Marines did much of the training when President George W. Bush was in office. More recently, the Pentagon has dispatched units from the Army’s Special Forces/Green Berets, who specialize in what’s called “foreign internal defense.”

The top American commander in the region, Central Command’s Gen. David Petraeus, visited Yemen’s capital Sanaa Saturday. It was his last stop in a tour of the region. Earlier, when he stopped in Baghdad, he praised the joint strikes in Yemen in December.

“In one case, forestalling an attack of four suicide bombers were moving into Sana’a,” Petraeus told reporters. “Two training camps targeted and some senior leaders believed to have been killed or seriously injured as well. Certainly there were activities going on there, one of which resulted in the failed attack on the airliner.” But Petraeus was careful to emphasize that the Yemeni government was the decision maker in choosing the targets. He called it “so very important indeed that Yemen has taken the actions that it has and indeed, not just the United States, but countries in the region.” Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Britain have all had a role in providing training and other strategic assistance.

While U.S. military officials say the Yemeni counterterrorist forces aren’t yet ready to go it alone, Petraeus says their intelligence sources are proving so good that “sharing of intelligence and information” has become what he called a “two-way street,” such that “the operations that were carried out in December were very significant.” Yemeni local media report that three strikes on Dec. 17, 2009, hit Abyan, Arhab and San’a, and killed several al Qaeda targets, including one former Guantanamo detainee Hani Abdu Musalih Al-Shalan. He’d been repatriated to Yemen in June 2006 and returned into al Qaeda’s fold. More strikes on Christmas Eve targeted American-born al Qaeda cleric Anwar al Awlaki. They struck in Rafd, a mountain valley in Yemen’s Shabwa province, but intelligence officials believe Awlaki survived the attack. He was initially thought to be a more inspirational figure in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, but multiple intelligence officials tell CBS News they now believe he is taking an active role in planning operations, including the attempted December airliner bombing. U.S. officials had kept fairly quiet about the extent of American involvement in the recent Yemeni strikes. But with so many Americans asking what their government is doing to keep them safe after the Christmas Day bombing attempt, many more officials seem eager to describe how they’re striking back. They also say to stand by for more joint U.S.-Yemeni action.(CBS)