Christian group banned from claiming it heals the sick in street prayer sessions outside Bath Abbey

* Group claims 'scores of people' have been 'physically healed' by its work
* Atheist says their claims could give scores of terminally ill people false hope

By Emily Allen

Christian group has been banned from claiming it can heal people after complaints to the advertising watchdog.

Healing on the Streets - Bath (HOTS) stages regular sessions outside the city’s abbey and says 'scores of people' have been 'physically healed' as a result of its work.

But atheist Hayley Stevens, from Wiltshire, took offence to the group’s adverts and claimed it could give terminally-ill people false hope.

She complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to say the claims by HOTS could 'not be substantiated' and were 'irresponsible'.

The ASA upheld her complaint, stating that testimonials found on the group’s website were 'insufficient as evidence for claims of healing'.

But Christians have reacted furiously to the decision, saying the ASA is trying to ban the 'basic Christian belief that God can heal illness'.

The watchdog has now told HOTS not to make claims which stated or implied that, by receiving prayer from their volunteers, people could be healed of medical conditions.

It was also ruled that the group should not refer to medical conditions in their adverts 'for which medical supervision should be sought'.

HOTS has reacted angrily to the decision and confirmed it will appeal against the findings.

In a statement, the group said: 'It seems very odd to us that the ASA wants to prevent us from stating on our website the basic Christian belief that God can heal illness.

'The ASA has even demanded that we sign a document agreeing not to say this, which is unacceptable to us - as it no doubt would be for anyone ordered not to make certain statements about their conventional religious or philosophical beliefs.'

It also criticised Ms Stevens, describing her as being from a group 'generally opposed to Christianity'.

They added: 'The response to what we do has been overwhelmingly positive, and we find it difficult to understand the ASA’s attempt to restrict communication about this.

'Our website simply states our beliefs and describes some of our experiences.

'We tried to reach a compromise, recognising some of the ASA’s concerns, but there are certain things that we cannot agree to - including a ban on expressing our beliefs.'

Ms Stevens also challenged whether the group’s website and leaflets could 'discourage essential treatment for conditions for which medical supervision should be sought'.

She said: 'I guess I am the only person who can state why the complaint was made and it was not made by a ‘group generally opposed to Christianity’ as HOTS Bath have alleged, not even an individual generally opposed to Christianity either.

'I couldn’t care less if somebody believes it is God, Allah or the Flying Spaghetti Monster that will heal the sick, but I do care when claims are being made that might be providing those who are extremely ill with hope where hope does not exist.

'I made the complaint because claims were being made about a range of illnesses and medical conditions being healed through prayer on the streets on Bath.

'Some of these illnesses were severe - MS, depression, crippling disease, paralysis, asthma, and cancer just to name a few.'

Thousands Trapped As Eastern Europe Freezes

Thousands of people are trapped in snow-blocked villages in Serbia and the freezing weather has caused a 20-car pile-up in Italy.

Severe cold spells have gripped eastern Europe, forcing officials to air-lift emergency food and medical supplies to some areas as the number of dead rose past 120.

At least 11,000 villagers remain trapped in remote areas of Serbia that cannot be reached because of icy roads, with temperatures sinking below -30C in some areas.

Some 34 people were injured in the car crash in a Milan road tunnel. Incredibly, no one was killed.

But there are 20 newly-reported deaths from the cold in Ukraine, another nine people have died in Poland, eight in Romania and one more each in Serbia and the Czech Republic. Most were homeless people.

European weather alert network Meteoalarm warned of "extremely dangerous" conditions and many hundreds of schools have been closed across the region.

And authorities are warning people to prepare for a further drop in temperatures next week.

The weather is affecting gas supplies, with Russia's Gazprom, which supplies a quarter of Europe's gas imports, getting more requests for exports than it can cope with because of increased demand at home.

Parts of the Black Sea froze near the Romanian coastline and snow fell on Croatian islands in the Adriatic Sea.

In Bulgaria, 16 towns have recorded their lowest temperatures since records started 100 years ago. In Sofia, cash machines were reported to have frozen.

Helicopters were also being used to rescue people and take supplies to remote villages in northern Bosnia - some of which have not had electricity for days.

"All together between 200 and 300 people are cut off," said Bosnian rescue official Milimir Doder. "We are supplying them for the second day with food and medication."

"The minuses are killing us," said Bosnian villager Goran Milat.

Ukraine has reported more than 60 deaths and hundreds more have been taken to hospital with hypothermia and frostbite.

The country's 1+1 television channel broadcast pictures of a man being treated for frostbite in his toes, which had turned completely black.

Hospitals were told not to discharge homeless patients even if their treatment was finished, to protect them from the cold.

In Romania, hundreds of people were sent to shelters to protect them from the extreme cold.

Even places unaccustomed to snow have been hit, with Marseilles receiving a light dusting.

Further afield, in Japan, 50 people are believed to have lost their lives as snow drifts bury homes

India bracing for limited conflict with pushy China, says top US intel official

Indrani Bagchi, TNN

NEW DELHI: The Indian Army may be preparing for a limited conflict with China, says the US' top intelligence official. In a testimony to the US Senate, James Clapper, director of national intelligence, said, "Despite public statements intended to downplay tensions between India and China, we judge that India is increasingly concerned about China's posture along their disputed border and Beijing's perceived aggressive posture in the Indian Ocean and Asia-Pacific region."

Commenting on the Indian military modernization, Clapper said, "The Indian Army believes a major Sino-Indian conflict is not imminent, but the Indian military is strengthening its forces in preparation to fight a limited conflict along the disputed border, and is working to balance Chinese power projection in the Indian Ocean," he said.

Giving a glimpse of the developing Indo-US ties, Clapper said India endorsed a stronger US presence in east Asia. China's aggressive behaviour has been tempered recently, he said, but the drivers of such approach persist.

He said Pakistan continues to maintain a state of enmity with India, despite the recent overtures from either side. "Pakistan and our interests are not always congruent...their existential threat continues to be India."

The US intelligence official also said that India is unlikely to send troops or heavy equipment to Afghanistan, fearing a backlash from Pakistan. "New Delhi in the near term is unlikely to send troops or heavy equipment to Kabul because it does not want to provoke Pakistan," Clapper said.

"Although Chinese leaders have affirmed their commitment to a peaceful and pragmatic foreign policy - and especially to stable relations with China's neighbours and the rest of the world - Beijing may take actions contrary to that goal if it perceives that China's sovereignty or national security is being seriously challenged," he said.

India, too, he said, would go slow on the issues like Siachen Glacier and Sir Creek. "Less progress has been made in discussions over the difficult border issues of Siachen Glacier and Sir Creek, and we judge New Delhi will maintain a go-slow approach in these negotiations," Clapper added.

'Begin military plans to thwart Iran nukes'

By OREN KESSLER

Visiting Israel, ex-CIA chief James Woolsey calls for US air strikes to decimate the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

Iran is working to obtain a nuclear weapon, a former CIA chief said Wednesday while visiting Israel, and the US should begin military preparations to block the Islamic Republic from reaching that goal.
“To believe anything other than that Iran is working to get a nuclear weapon is hopelessly naive,” James Woolsey said in an interview on the sidelines of the Herzliya Conference.

“At some point someone is going to have to decide to use force to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. I’d argue that those who say we can deal adequately with Iran through deterrence are quite naive.

“National survival is at issue. In the near term that’s the case for Israel, but in the somewhat longer term it is [the case] for the US, which from Iran’s point of view, is the ‘Great Satan,’” he continued. “This is a world-class problem, not an eastern Mediterranean or Persian Gulf problem. The politics of the world will change if this regime gets the bomb.”

Woolsey, a graduate of Yale Law School, was CIA director under president Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1995. The veteran intelligence official identifies himself as a Democrat, but has held high-level positions in administrations from both major parties, and has long advocated a robust US foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East.

Today, the 70-year-old is chairman of Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank.

Woolsey said commentators who view the Iranian nuclear threat through the prism of Cold War deterrence are misreading history.

“By the 1960s, the Soviets were operating with a nearly dead ideology,” he said.

“Though the Soviet leadership had many flaws – and I’m delighted we won the Cold War instead of them – by that time fanaticism was not one of their characteristics, at least for most of them.”

Debates over whether the Iranian regime is rational, he said, also miss the point.

“People who believe there are only two categories of individual – the rational and the stark-raving mad – are quite untutored in human psychology and human history,” he said.

“It’s not only raving lunatics who want to destroy a country, culture or civilization they hate.”

Woolsey said Iran’s theocratic leadership promotes an aggressive, totalitarian ideology akin to Nazi Germany and Fidel Castro’s Cuba.

“During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Castro knew Cuba would be destroyed, but he didn’t care. He felt that if the United States were destroyed, he’d be carrying out his life’s mission,” he said. “As for Hitler, he had a two-part plan: Kill the Jews and take over Europe. Iran’s President Ahmadinejad says he’s got a plan as well: Kill the Jews and take over the Middle East.

“There’s no basis for the proposition that if you’re so intemperate as to decide to use a nuclear weapon you are a blithering, incoherent fool. You might be a shrewd, nasty fool.”

Containing the Iranian threat, he said, will require a credible show of military force aimed at Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

“They’re at the heart of this regime – they’re the instrument of oppression, and they run the Basij militia. They control the nuclear, space and ballistic- missiles program, as well as the Quds Force,” he said, referring to the Guards branch responsible for overseas operations.

“They’re at the heart of everything repressive internally, or aggressive externally.”

Woolsey suggested sending approximately five carrier battle groups – each comprising an aircraft carrier and its escort vessels – to the Indian Ocean, accompanied by bomber support, if possible.

“What these [battle groups] are capable of doing – should the trigger be pulled – is taking out everything related to the Revolutionary Guards,” he said. “Not the civilian infrastructure, not the electric grid, not the regular army, not civilian institutions.”

Still, he said, certain questions would need to be answered before forcibly engaging Iran, including: “How fast the nuclear enrichment is going; whether they’re working on a plutonium bomb as well; whether they’re working on a weapon that could be delivered, or something that would simply be detonated in the desert somewhere – like North Korea does to make clear they’re a nuclear power; or whether they’re more ambitious.

“All these could affect the specific tactics, but I don’t think these should affect the vigor of the sanctions, or preparations to take out the Guards.”

In such a scenario, he said, ground forces would be unnecessary.

“No one is suggesting ground troops or mass bombing of parts of Iran,” said Woolsey. “Instead, it would be an operation similar to what might have been suggested to the Royal Air Force sometime in the mid-1930s to take out the Gestapo, SS and stormtroopers.”

“The US conducted air operations like this twice in the 1990s in Serbia – once on behalf of the Bosnians, and once on behalf of the Kosovars – both Muslim peoples, by the way,” he added. “We didn’t lose a single aircraft or pilot, and now in Kosovo there is a Bill Clinton Avenue and statue.”

Mega volcanoes 'may be predicted'

By Neil Bowdler / Science and health reporter, BBC News

The eruption of some of the largest volcanoes on the planet could be predicted several decades before the event, according to researchers.

Analysis of rock crystals from the Greek island of Santorini suggests eruptions are preceded by a fast build-up of magma underground, which might be detected using modern instrumentation.

Such volcanoes can produce enough ash and gas to temporarily change the global climate.

Volcanologists refer to history's largest volcanoes as "caldera-forming eruptions", as the magma ejected is so voluminous that it leaves a massive depression on the Earth's surface and a crater-like structure known as a caldera.

The largest of these volcanoes have been dubbed "supervolcanoes" and their eruptions can trigger devastation with global impacts.

Such volcanoes can lie dormant for hundreds of thousands of years before blowing. But while researchers believe seismic data and other readings would give us a few month's notice of such an eruption, the new study suggests we might anticipate these events much earlier.

"When volcanoes awaken and when the magma starts to ascend to the surface, cracking rock as it does, it sends out signals," Prof Tim Druitt of France's Blaise Pascal University and lead researcher told BBC News.

"You get seismic signals, you get deformation of the surface, increasing gas emission at the surface - and this can be detected.

"The question we're addressing here is what's going on at depth prior to these big eruptions. The classical view was that during long repose periods over thousands of years, magma slowly accumulates a few kilometres below the volcano and finally it blows.

"What we're finding is that there's an acceleration phase of magma build-up on a time scale of a few decades, and that's surprisingly short given the thousands of years of repose that have preceded that eruption."

The evidence comes from analysis of crystals in pumice rock from the Santorini site, which the researchers in France, Switzerland and Singapore analysed using modern instrumentation including electron and ion microprobes.

"The changes in composition of the crystals with time provide little histories of how the magma itself has evolved," said Prof Druitt.

"What we found was that all the crystals in the magma grew within a few decades of the eruption."
Early warning

Caldera-forming eruption sites can be found all over the world, although it is believed that all are currently dormant. They include sites in Yellowstone National Park in the United States, Campi Flegrei in Italy and Santorini and its accompanying islands.

The eruption at the latter site over 3,600 years ago is called the "Minoan" eruption as it occurred at the height of the Minoan civilisation on the nearby island of Crete and was once thought to have caused its collapse, although that is now a moot point.

Predicting such events years rather than months before they happen could prove vital, says Prof Druitt.

"What we're saying is that all caldera volcanoes, even those in remote regions of the globe, should be monitored using highly sensitive modern instruments in order to pick up these deep signals which may suggest reactivation," he said.

"If you had a big eruption of this sort, let's say in the middle of Europe today, the effects would be enormous and a few months might not be enough to get your act together."

Commenting on the paper, Prof David Pyle, a volcanologist from Oxford University said: "This new work on Santorini sheds new light on what happens in the lead-up to the rare catastrophic eruptions, like the Bronze Age 'Minoan' eruption, which happen every 20,000 years or so.

"The new evidence from mineral grains appears to strengthen the idea, which has been developing in recent years, that large magma systems appear to awaken from long periods of repose only shortly (months, years or decades) prior to eruption.

"That is, the magma which eventually erupts appears to rise into position, in the top few kilometres of the crust, only a short time before the eruption begins."
However, he said the next problem was to try to understand what was causing this accelerated build up of magma.

"The challenge for volcanologists is to understand what it is that causes these bursts of melt movement; to understand where the melts have come from, and to be able to recognise their signals before an eruption begins."