Four American missionaries who intended to carry more than 300 Bibles into China say Chinese authorities have confiscated the holy books at an airport.

Patrick Klein, 46, and three volunteers with Vision Beyond Borders, a Sheridan, Wyo.-based evangelical organization, moved to a motel Monday after staying in the Kunming airport in southwestern China for two nights in protest, a ministry spokeswoman said.

“The government was asking them to leave (the airport) but they were asking for the Bibles back before they were willing to leave,” said Dyann Romeijn, a regional coordinator with the ministry who is based in Billings, Montana.

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Tens of thousands of evangelical Christians converged on the National Mall here Saturday to highlight moral issues before the fall presidential election with a day of fasting, prayer and music.

Organizers of TheCall DC said 70,000 people turned out for the event, though that number could not be confirmed independently by the National Park Service.

“It was a spiritual confrontation,” said Lou Engle, the evangelical activist who founded TheCall in 2000, “challenging the nation to end abortion and releasing God to act on behalf of … the unborn.”

The 12-hour event featured a variety of speakers, including former Republican presidential candidate and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and Anita King, niece of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Our time together has indeed demonstrated to us the breadth and richness of the Communion. It has been a privilege to be here together, to represent our dioceses and to grow in respect and affection for one another. With the many differences among us we have found ourselves profoundly connected with one another and committed to God’s mission. Many of us have experienced a real depth of fellowship in our Bible Study Groups and have been moved, sometimes to tears, by the stories our brothers and sisters have told us about the life of their churches, their communities and their own witness. For many bishops, especially those for whom this has been their first Lambeth Conference, they have understood for the first time what a precious thing it is to be an Anglican. There has been a wonderful spirit of dialogue and we want that to continue beyond the Conference by every means possible – “the indaba must go on,” as one group expressed it. For many of us have discovered more fully why we need one another and the joy of being committed to one another. At a time when many in our global society are seeking just the sort of international community that we already have, we would be foolish to let such a gift fall apart.

That mood set the atmosphere in which we talked about the three issues that were pulling us apart – (1) the action of the Episcopal Church in ordaining a partnered gay man as a bishop, (2) the authorisation in some churches of blessing of same-sex unions and (3) the unwelcome incursions into dioceses by bishops from other dioceses, or even provinces and continents, to exercise pastoral care and oversight to those disenchanted with their own bishop. What our group discussions helped us to do was to see that we were not dealing with “the American Church” or “the African bishops”, but with a number of brothers (and some sisters), each with a name and an individual personality – Simon, Neff, Mary, Michael, Greg, Gerard and so on – and each struggling, in their own way, to be loyal to the Gospel and to the Church, to respond both to their culture and the local pastoral needs they faced, each becoming more conscious of the affect of their words and actions on people on the other side of the world. This was a very important opening of eyes.

It meant, of course, that talk of “winning” and “losing” became less and less appropriate. It meant that people came to realise that they wanted us at all costs to find ways of staying together in one communion, recognising the huge loss if we do not. It meant that there were required some provisions to keep us together through a testing time. Although there is more to it than this, the two key proposals were “covenant” and “moratoria”.

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Ernie Long believes he has been to hell. He can even narrow it down to a particular moment.

His mother was dying of cancer. As she lay on her death bed, he swiped her last $5 and the car keys from her purse, went out and got high. When he returned, she was dead.

Long goes quiet, thinking about it in the chapel of Guiding Light Mission in Grand Rapids, Mich. When he first moved to the homeless shelter, he recalls, he would wake up in the night haunted by what he’d done.

“The shame and guilt engulfed me,” he says quietly. “I couldn’t stop crying.”

Today, Long is an intake supervisor for Guiding Light’s recovery program. He believes Jesus saved him from the pit of hell and wants other men to be saved too, here and hereafter.

“I think hell is being in the absence of purpose,” says Long, 64, who was addicted to crack cocaine before coming to Guiding Light two years ago. “When I had no purpose, no direction, I actually felt like I was living in hell.”

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Benedict XVI affirmed that Christians must offer the personal testimony of their relationship with Jesus Christ and their identification with him.

“He instructs us so that we will remain in his love without being conformed to the dictates of this world,” he said. “Thus, with our whole life, with the joy of knowing that we are loved by Jesus, whom we can call brother, we will be valid instruments for him to continue to attract all with the mercy that flows from his cross.”

The Pope encouraged: “Drink the vivifying water that flows from the side of the Savior and satiates with its crystalline freshness all those who thirst for justice, peace and truth; those who are submerged in the thick fog of sin or the darkness of violence. Feel the consolation of Christ and offer the balm of his love to the afflicted, those who are weighed down by sorrow or who have remained wounded by the coldness of indifference or the scourge of corruption.”

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Women are waiting longer to have children, and more women than ever are choosing not to have children at all, according to a new Census Bureau report.

Twenty percent of women ages 40 to 44 have no children, double the level of 30 years ago, the report said; and women in that age bracket who do have children have fewer than ever ”” an average of 1.9 children, compared with the median of 3.1 children in 1976.

“A lot of women are not having any children,” said Jane Lawler Dye, a Census Bureau researcher who did the report, which looked at women of childbearing age in 2006. “It used to be sort of expected that there was a phase of life where you had children, and a lot of women aren’t doing that now,” Ms. Dye said.

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Bishop [Michael] Hough said he returned to Australia a “Rowanite”, convinced by the message and approach to managing the church taken by Archbishop Williams.

“Rowan was pilloried, attacked and mocked – but he got on with being the Archbishop of Canterbury,” Bishop Hough said.

He said the approach taken at the conference to ensure all bishops had a chance to speak was to divide the 800 bishops – about 300 bishops boycotted the conference – into groups of about 40.

This was, Bishop Hough said, an African model of reaching consensus called Indaba.

“The term that Rowan used were `the bonds of affection that bind us’,” Bihsop Hough said.

“If we can’t build on those then what are we doing here?”

“Rowan said God’s watching us, the world’s watching us. If we don’t handle our heritage with integrity then we fail in God’s eyes.

“If we don’t handle conflict then we have failed in the world’s eyes.”

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Credit market turmoil has driven the U.S. into a recession and may topple some of the nation’s biggest banks, said Kenneth Rogoff, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.

“The worst is yet to come in the U.S.,” Rogoff said in an interview in Singapore today. “The financial sector needs to shrink; I don’t think simply having a couple of medium-sized banks and a couple of small banks going under is going to do the job.”

The U.S. housing slump has triggered more than $500 billion of credit market losses for banks globally and led to the collapse and sale of Bear Stearns Cos., the fifth-largest U.S. securities firm. Rogoff said the government should nationalize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the nation’s biggest mortgage-finance companies, which have lost more than 80 percent of market value this year.

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae “should have been closed down 10 years ago,” he said. “They need to be nationalized, the equity holders should lose all their money. Probably we need to guarantee the bonds, simply because the U.S. has led everyone into believing they would guarantee the bonds.”

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The morning after Pastor Rick Warren interviewed both major presidential candidates at his evangelical church in Orange County, he delivered a Sunday sermon urging his congregation to judge Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain on how their characters would affect their decisions as leaders.

“Don’t just look at issues, look at character,” Warren said to a crowd of nearly 3,000 during one of two morning sermons at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest. “Look at the candidate and say, ‘Does he live with integrity, service with humility, share with generosity, or not?’ ”

Dressed in his usual bluejeans, Warren delivered the sermon titled “The Kind of Leadership America Needs” using Bible passages about faith and compassion. He did not speak of the differing views expressed by Obama and McCain when they appeared on the same stage Saturday, saying simply that “they were very different in personality, in philosophy, in direction, in goals and in vision, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Some who attended the Sunday services said Warren’s nationally televised conversations with the contenders offered a glimpse of the candidates’ qualities.

“It was a powerful forum in that we were exposed to the soul of who these two men were,” said Jim Christensen, 54, of Rancho Santa Margarita. “Before this, I only got what pundits wanted us to hear. Issues of character, issues of value, you don’t usually hear those types of things.”

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John McCain generally received better reviews than Barack Obama for his appearance at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. At the event, Obama and then McCain sat for an hour with the Rev. Rick Warren, who posed identical questions to the White House hopefuls. The Wall Street Journal reports there were “several moments when Sen. McCain’s reply was sharp and to the point. Sen. Obama, by contrast, took longer pauses after many of his questions, and his answers often came together slowly.” In his New York Times column, William Kristol says it “was McCain’s night. Obama made no big mistakes. But his tendency to somewhat windy generalities meant he wasn’t particularly compelling. McCain, who went second, was crisp by contrast, and his anecdotes colorful.”

On the CBS Evening News, Josh Kraushaar of Politico.com said, “I think Barack Obama did well for himself, but I think the clear winner in the forum was John McCain. He is someone who does not wear religion on his sleeve. He does not talk about his personal life and he felt very much at ease with this type of forum.” McClatchy reports Obama “impressed people with his ease talking the language of faith, no small feat for a Democrat. But McCain may have shored up support from this critical group.”

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Senator Barack Obama has all but settled on his choice for a running mate and set an elaborate rollout plan for his decision, beginning with an early morning alert to supporters, perhaps as soon as Wednesday morning, aides said.

Obama’s deliberations remain remarkably closely held. Aides said perhaps a half-dozen advisers were involved in the final discussions in an effort to enforce a command that Obama issued to staff members: that his decision not leak out until supporters are notified.

Obama had not notified his choice — or any of those not selected — of his decision as of late Monday, advisers said. Going into the final days, Obama was said to be focused mainly on three candidates: Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia and Senator Joseph Biden Jr. of Delaware.

Some Democrats said they still hoped that he would choose Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, or Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, who has been under steady consideration by Obama’s campaign.

By all indications, Obama is likely to choose someone relatively safe and avoid taking a chance with a game-changing selection. A similar strategic choice now faces Obama’s Republican rival, Senator John McCain of Arizona, who has been under pressure from some Republicans to make a more daring choice.

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“Born to be battered…the loving phone call book. Underline it, circle things, write in the margins, turn down page corners, the more you use it, the more valuable it gets to be.”

–So reads an old advertisement by the South Central Bell Telephone Company which illustrates well what our approach to the Bible should be.

On Sept. 7, 2006, Nouriel Roubini, an economics professor at New York University, stood before an audience of economists at the International Monetary Fund and announced that a crisis was brewing. In the coming months and years, he warned, the United States was likely to face a once-in-a-lifetime housing bust, an oil shock, sharply declining consumer confidence and, ultimately, a deep recession. He laid out a bleak sequence of events: homeowners defaulting on mortgages, trillions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities unraveling worldwide and the global financial system shuddering to a halt. These developments, he went on, could cripple or destroy hedge funds, investment banks and other major financial institutions like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The audience seemed skeptical, even dismissive. As Roubini stepped down from the lectern after his talk, the moderator of the event quipped, “I think perhaps we will need a stiff drink after that.” People laughed ”” and not without reason. At the time, unemployment and inflation remained low, and the economy, while weak, was still growing, despite rising oil prices and a softening housing market. And then there was the espouser of doom himself: Roubini was known to be a perpetual pessimist, what economists call a “permabear.” When the economist Anirvan Banerji delivered his response to Roubini’s talk, he noted that Roubini’s predictions did not make use of mathematical models and dismissed his hunches as those of a career naysayer.

But Roubini was soon vindicated. In the year that followed, subprime lenders began entering bankruptcy, hedge funds began going under and the stock market plunged. There was declining employment, a deteriorating dollar, ever-increasing evidence of a huge housing bust and a growing air of panic in financial markets as the credit crisis deepened. By late summer, the Federal Reserve was rushing to the rescue, making the first of many unorthodox interventions in the economy, including cutting the lending rate by 50 basis points and buying up tens of billions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities. When Roubini returned to the I.M.F. last September, he delivered a second talk, predicting a growing crisis of solvency that would infect every sector of the financial system. This time, no one laughed. “He sounded like a madman in 2006,” recalls the I.M.F. economist Prakash Loungani, who invited Roubini on both occasions. “He was a prophet when he returned in 2007.”

Over the past year, whenever optimists have declared the worst of the economic crisis behind us, Roubini has countered with steadfast pessimism.

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There was a bit of a controversy in London last week. One of the reporters for The Times, who has a reputation for nastiness and undermining the Church of England, surfaced a letter from Archbishop Williams that stated his view that a same-sex relationship “might…reflect the love of God in a way comparable to marriage.” The headline sensationalized it, speaking in the present tense, although the letter was written eight years ago. Williams has stated that as a theologian he is often “thinking aloud,” but he was not doing so as a bishop.

Of course the reporter was only too happy to call others for comments, particularly the Primate of the Southern Cone, who immediately questioned ++Rowan’s credibility as Archbishop of Canterbury, and disparaged the Lambeth Conference. He is a leader of the GAF-CON group, and is known to have more than just a foot out of the door. It was observed that he and a few other Primates chose not to receive communion from or with the Archbishop.

Within a day of the first article, nineteen Church of England bishops, led by +Tom Wright, a conservative, wrote The Times to criticize the newspaper’s and reporter’s bid to “scupper the conference.” [read the letter and related articles in the links at the end of this letter] They also supported ++Rowan’s right to his own views, even those with which they disagree; saying that he has acted appropriately as Archishop of Canterbury, and praising his leadership of the Lambeth Conference.

I was very pleased to see this letter of support. However, it is very clear that there are some within and others outside the Anglican Communion who are only too happy to undermine it by half-truths, innuendo, disinformation, and in many cases, out-right lies. At this point, it seems clear to me that we are experiencing the break-up of The Anglican Communion as we have known it. A number of Primates did not come to Lambeth, and showed by that act that they believe the rest of us have nothing to say to them. We have said what we could in the public arena but that allows for no nuances and does not have the strength of relationships to build on. The dynamics of this are like a congregational fight. Those who leave are, in affect, saying they want no reconciliation, they do not wish to work on a relationship. The saddest part is that they discard not only those with whom they disagree or are angry, they discard the friends who have stood by them, perhaps in agreement, but certainly in love. The difficulty on a larger scale is that anger can be just as intense as with those we know well, but love and affection are not, for distance and infrequency of meeting inhibit intimacy and trust, and a suspicious word can undermine so much. We have known some of that here.

I will consider posting comments on this article which are submitted first by email:

KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com

Actually it is hard to see how there could be an ”˜orderly separation’ between traditionalists and liberals because in many cases the fault-lines do not lie between provinces but within them. In America attempts are to be made in September to depose traditionalist bishops while court battles rage over church property. There is nothing orderly about this.

It is also hard to see how Anglicans can be said to have ”˜reaffirmed their mutual bonds’ when bishops at Gafcon committed themselves to setting up a ”˜province of North America’ as an alternative to the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada.

Rowan Williams is pinning his hope on the Covenant and on a ”˜Pastoral Forum’ made up of members representative of the breadth of the Communion and able to travel and offer, in the words of the Windsor Continuation Group, ”˜pastoral advice and guidelines in conflicted, confused and fragile situations’. There is no guarantee that either the Covenant or the Pastoral Forum will prove acceptable to the Communion. There are questions about whether Parliament would give its approval to the Church of England entering the Covenant if this were seen as narrowing the broad national and popular base of the church.

As the Archbishop of Canterbury told the final Lambeth press conference, winning support for the Covenant among the 44 national and regional churches of the Communion could take up to 2013. That date coincides with the call by some bishops at Lambeth for another gathering in five years’ time. If Williams intends to see the matter through to some kind of resolution, he may be residing in Lambeth Palace for some years to come. Fortunately he is only 58.

In the meantime it remains essential to keep the moratoria on the ordination of gay and lesbian priests and the blessing of same-sex unions in place. It is difficult to see this happening if traditionalist bishops from elsewhere in the Communion continue to take parishes and dioceses in the US under their wing or ordain bishops for North America.

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When Honora Wolfe and her husband moved to the outskirts of Boulder, Colo., she wanted an environmentally friendly way to commute to her job as a bookshop owner in the city.

Wolfe, 60, found her solution about a month ago: an electric bicycle. It gets her to work quickly, is easy on her arthritis and is better for the environment than a car.

“I’m not out to win any races,” she said. “I want to get a little fresh air and exercise, and cut my carbon footprint, and spend less money on gas. And where I live, I can ride my bike seven months out of the year.”

The surging cost of gasoline and a desire for a greener commute are turning more people to electric bikes as an unconventional form of transportation. They function like a typical two-wheeler, but with a battery-powered assist. Bike dealers, riders and experts say they are flying off the racks.

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Birth-control pills could screw up a woman’s ability to sniff out a compatible mate, a new study finds.

While several factors can send a woman swooning, including big brains and brawn, body odor can be critical in the final decision, the researchers say. That’s because beneath a woman’s flowery fragrance or a guy’s musk the body sends out aromatic molecules that indicate genetic compatibility.

Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes are involved in immune response and other functions, and the best mates are those that have different MHC smells than you. The new study reveals, however, that when women are on the pill they prefer guys with matching MHC odors.

MHC genes churn out substances that tell the body whether a cell is a native or an invader. When individuals with different MHC genes mate, their offspring’s immune systems can recognize a broader range of foreign cells, making them more fit.

Past studies have suggested couples with dissimilar MHC genes are more satisfied and more likely to be faithful to a mate. And the opposite is also true with matchng-MHC couples showing less satisfaction and more wandering eyes.

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Barack Obama and John McCain enter their final week before the start of the US presidential nominating conventions amid intense speculation about who they plan to choose as their respective running mates ”“ with Mr Obama almost certain to make his choice in the next few days.

Mr Obama, whose four-day Democratic convention starts next Monday in Denver, will this week attend election rallies and “town hall” meetings in the swing states of New Mexico, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia ”“ any of which could provide a potential venue to announce his pick.

Obama aides deny any knowledge of the possible timing or venue of what is traditionally the most closely guarded secret in a presidential campaign. But veteran Democratic operatives say the choice is likely by Thursday. The Republican convention in Minneapolis starts in two weeks.

“Obama cannot announce during the Denver convention and it makes no sense in terms of the news cycle to announce during a weekend,” said one Democrat with no ties to the Obama campaign. “So I would be very surprised if he left it later than Thursday.”

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Most outside observers might think it is commonplace to mix religion and politics in megachurches (which are defined as Protestant Christian congregations with 2,000 or more weekly attendees). After all, much of the religion coverage in this election has centered around two high-profile megachurch pastors ”” Jeremiah Wright with Obama and John Hagee with McCain ”” who no doubt created long, nagging headaches for both nominees. (I’m guessing Obama’s was closer to a migraine.)

But such high profile incidents distort the reality of the role of politics in a majority of America’s megachurches. My national research and experiences with these very large churches since the late 1980s tell a very different story. The research data refute a number of myths that are prominent in society’s perception of political activity in megachurches. Here are three doozies….

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High gas prices have prompted automakers to shift to more efficient cars and new technologies. Toyota’s Prius hybrid has been a runaway success. And General Motors has been pouring resources into its Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid expected in about 2010 that will run entirely on electricity for drivers going less than 40 miles per day.

Wind and solar energy are becoming more competitive as the result of advancing technology and the fact that prices have risen for coal and other traditional sources of electricity. And Americans are turning to public transit in record numbers.

These changes are much more dramatic than anything resulting from proposals borne of political expedience. To be sure, high prices cause hardships, and the worst could come this winter from painfully high home heating oil prices; Congress and the president should look hard at increasing funds to help the poorest through a tough winter. But if oil prices continue falling, much of the recent momentum could be slowed, to the delight of those who profit from feeding the nation’s addiction.

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Demand for free school supplies is up across the USA, reflecting deepening hardships caused by the weak economy, social service groups say.

Shepherd Community Center, an inner-city Indianapolis ministry, dispensed 2,500 backpacks stuffed with supplies last year. This year it’s giving away 3,200.

“There’s more of a demand than we can fill,” says executive director Jay Height. “The economy is hitting us hard.”

Donations were down for this year’s school supplies giveaway at Lake Cities Food Pantry in Texas. The pantry chipped in $500 to cover costs, says coordinator Renee Grems. “Everybody’s feeling a little stretched.”

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Professor Dawkins met a class of children, some of them indoctrinated by that crazily literal minority who think the world began 6,000 years ago on a divine drawing board. Instead of explaining natural selection and letting them work out that maybe the Creator works in more mysterious ways than the Genesis myth, he offered them a choice as stark as any bonkers tin-hut preacher from the Quivering Brethren shouting: “Repent or burn!”

Evolution or God – take your choice, kid! The moment one of them found an ammonite on the beach, Professor Dawkins demanded instant atheism. OK, he is provoked, as we all are, by nutters. But most believers are not creationists. Some are scientists. They reckon that an omnipotent being capable of giving humans free will is equally capable of setting a cosmic ball rolling – Big Bang, abiogenesis, all that – and letting it proceed through eons of evolution, selection and struggle. One of the oddest aspects of Dawkins’s TV programme, rich in antelope-mauling and gobbly snakes, was his emotional implication that, gee, Nature is too cruel to have been invented by God! A wet, mawkish, bunny-hugging argument.

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Our consumer society is greatly to blame here: if every advert promises you success if you’d only buy this car, wear this watch, acquire this handbag, then dissatisfaction with what you have and what you are is an inevitable outcome. Putting your life on hold, in the belief that this job, this thing, this event, will magically make it all right, holds no chance of peace. Noticing what is right under your nose ”” which is the wonder of being alive in a world already full of possibilities ”” brings riches no material item ever can.

Martha Gellhorn, the war correspondent and one-time wife of Ernest Hemingway, was a close friend of mine. By the time she died in 1998, Martha was in her late eighties, but she was still as alert and fiery as a woman of 30. Her body, which finally betrayed her, had aged, but her mind never did, and I think her secret was that she always lived in the present. Not for her harking back to better times, complaining that things today weren’t as good as they had been; not for her complaining that if only this or that would happen, then her life would be magically transformed.

Most of us don’t live like this. Our mental chatter, or the civil war in our head, as Bob Geldof once memorably described it to me, goes something like this: “If only I hadn’t done that, then everything would be all right.” If you think like that ”” and most of us do ”” you end up doing things not for their own sake, but for the result you hope they will have. So, when you go to a party and manage to strike up a conversation with a hot director, you’ll be missing what he says, because what you’re actually thinking is: “Perhaps he’ll give me a job.” The party passes you by as you’re too busy concentrating on some future goal to appreciate what is going on around you.

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STUDENTS from Moriah College and Punchbowl Boys High approached each other with trepidation when they came together in the morning, but by the end of the day they had discovered they had more similarities than differences.

About 20 students from each school met in Punchbowl last week as part of a program called Together for Humanity, which aims to promote cross-cultural understanding and tolerance between religious groups.

Up to 250 students from seven schools representing children from Islamic, Jewish, Catholic and Anglican backgrounds met to ask each other questions about their beliefs and to plan future sporting activities and projects together.

Tascale Greenberg, a 13-year-old year 8 student from Moriah College at Queens Park said she was surprised to find the students at Punchbowl Boys High, which has a large population of students of Islamic background, shared so many common interests.

“We came to the school and we learnt about how at the end of the day we are the same people and just kids,” she said. “I thought it was going to be very awkward and scary to come. I thought they’d just look at us.

“But they were just normal and friendly to talk to.”

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A prominent religious leader known not to mince words declared on Sunday that the Bahamas is presently “drifting” and he is not entirely optimistic about its future.

“I am ambivalent and sometimes I am not optimistic,” said Archbishop Drexel Gomez. “I think that we are just ambling along and making our way. At present I think we are drifting a bit. I don’t really see any clear signals in terms of going in a certain direction and certainly this whole question of empowering people and creating a situation in which Bahamians feel that this is their country and they have a say in what happens, I don’t see that happening.”

The Anglican Archbishop for the West Indies and Diocesan Bishop of the Bahamas, was a special guest Sunday on the Jones & Co. radio talk show hosted by Wendall Jones and Godfrey Eneas.

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Pervez Musharraf, a key Muslim ally in the US-led War on Terror, resigned as President of Pakistan today to avoid impeachment by a hostile parliament, nine years after he seized power in a bloodless coup.

Mr Musharraf, who stepped down as army chief last year, announced his resignation in a rambling and sometimes emotional one-hour address to the nation following a dramatic slump in his popularity over the last 18 months.

The ruling coalition, which trounced his allies in a parliamentary election in February, had drawn up impeachment charges yesterday and warned him that it would present them to parliament this week if he did not resign.

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Rapidly rising global food costs have contributed to the worst hunger crisis in East Africa for eight years, with at least 14 million people at risk of malnutrition, aid agencies said yesterday.

In Ethiopia, the worst-affected country in the region, the Government said that 4.6 million people faced starvation, but aid agencies claimed that the true figure was closer to 10 million.

Drought has worsened food shortages, and Oxfam said that the number of acute malnutrition cases had reached its highest level since the droughts of 2000, when mortality rates peaked at more than six people per 10,000 per day. The official definition of a famine is more than four deaths per 10,000 per day.

Ethiopian farmers said that the crisis was caused by the absence of the Belg rains, which were due in February and March. “It’s really hard. People are eating whatever they can find,” said Gemeda Worena, 38, the tribal head of Fendi Ajersai, a village in southern Ethiopia where six children died in one week this month. “We hadn’t had rain for the last eight months. We had to buy water to save our lives, but now we have nothing.”

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Even as Russia pledged to begin withdrawing its forces from neighboring Georgia on Monday, American officials said the Russian military had been moving launchers for short-range ballistic missiles into South Ossetia, a step that appeared intended to tighten its hold on the breakaway territory.

The Russian military deployed several SS-21 missile launchers and supply vehicles to South Ossetia on Friday, according to American officials familiar with intelligence reports. From the new launching positions north of Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, the missiles can reach much of Georgia, including Tbilisi, the capital.

The Kremlin announced Sunday that Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, had promised to begin the troop withdrawal in a conversation with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, who negotiated a six-point cease-fire agreement. Mr. Medvedev did not specify the pace or scope of the withdrawal, saying only that troops would withdraw to South Ossetia and a so-called security zone on its periphery.

The United States and European leaders reacted with wariness, and Russia’s recent military moves appeared to add an element of frustration.

“Well, I just know that the Russian president said several days ago Russian military operations would stop. They didn’t,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “This time I hope he means it. You know the word of the Russian president needs to be upheld by his forces.”

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From Martin Marty:

Here are some compensations in the situation:

First, you don’t have to explain your situation to anyone, including family and friends … Your enemies, if you have any, won’t care, and your friends will understand. Speaking of friends, here is where they come in. More than offering shoulders to cry on, they can help you in coping, imagining, and networking. It’s time to cash in the friendship chips-and ready yourself to help out colleagues and friends.

Adapt, is counsel No. 3. When autos killed the Studebaker buggy business, Mr. Studebaker started making autos, and thrived for decades. I say to the laid-off: your education, training, and experience made, or should have made you into an adaptable sort … I hope that the many who suffer in the period of “creative destruction” in this period are surrounded by and aware of people of prayer, who care.”

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Ryan Dempster cradled the card deck as deftly and lovingly as he does baseballs. He took the ace of spades from the top, shuffled it into seeming oblivion and removed a two of clubs off the top as proof.

“But I can make it come back,” Dempster said coyly. He tapped the deck and flipped over the top card.

Bingo.

“See?” he said. “There’s your ace.”

A fine amateur magician, Dempster’s best trick this season has been turning himself into an ace ”” of the Chicago Cubs. His next stunt? Trying to make 100 years disappear.

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