The latest rocket, which the military's spokeswoman said struck a field in the Eshkol region in southern Israel, comes after a string of Israeli air raids targeting militant training camps across the Gaza Strip on Saturday night.

The military said the attacks "targeted a number of terror hubs... in response to recent rocket fire into Israel."

The air raids came after tensions rose along the Israel-Gaza border this week following clashes in which an Islamic Jihad gunman was killed and a rocket attack on the Israeli city of Beersheba hit a house but caused no casualties.

It was the first rocket to reach the city since the devastating offensive Israel waged against Gaza December 2008 to January 2009, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to warn the territory's militants not to "test" the Jewish state.  Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Sunday that the country's alert level had been raised in response to the renewed rocket fire and regional instability.

"The security examination was undertaken after the new Palestinian rocket fire on Sunday and because of the continued unrest in the Arab and Muslim world," he said.

Justin Taylor, vice president of editorial at Crossway, wrote a blog post suggesting that Bell had become a universalist and was moving "farther and farther away from anything resembling biblical Christianity." (Universalism asserts that all people will be saved and that an eternal hell is not a part of God's plan for a new heaven and new earth.) In response, Pastor John Piper issued a tweet that linked to the post and added, "Farewell Rob Bell," suggesting that such a position disqualifies Bell from Christian fellowship. Neither Taylor nor Piper have read the book in question.

Their questions bear a striking resemblance to the questions raised by Bell in a now-viral video trailer for "Love Wins". In it, Bell asks: Will only a few select people make it into heaven? How does one become one of these few? Is Ghandi really in hell? Will most of humanity be damned to hell? Is the gospel good news or bad news?

At this point Bell's official response to these questions remains unclear. Some have speculated that with endorsements from popular theologians like Eugene Peterson and Greg Boy, it is more likely that Bell has adopted a view called "conditionalism," which holds that the unsaved will ultimately cease to exist rather than suffer eternal torment in hell. Just the fact that a variety of terms are getting tossed around the blogosphere reveals the diversity of the Christian tradition regarding the doctrine of hell, a diversity too often brushed aside by Reformed theologians like Piper whose definition of Orthodoxy remains rather narrow.

A UFO spied in the skies over Sao Paulo has all of Brazil buzzing. The amateur footage, shown on Brazilian TV station G1, shows blurry footage of a disc-shaped object hovering in the clouds for a minute or so -- before disappearing in a bright flash of light, followed by a trail of colorful bursts.

But is it an alien visitation, or merely the latest in a storied tradition of forgeries? G1's anchors explain that two passersby saw the object as they were driving in their car, near the town of Agudos in Sao Paulo state. They hopped out of the car to shoot the video with their handheld camera.

According to the TV station, the cinematographers reported the earth shaking at about the same time the object vanishes in a blast of light, noting that other people reported the earth moving in the same general area.

Video-editing expert Philip Cavaca told G1 that the film was a well-made montage -- but a hoax nonetheless. "It can be seen in one frame," he told the station. "When the truck goes by, you can tell that the UFO was moved, which is un-noticeable to the naked eye," he said. According to Cavaca, by freezing the image you can see the exact frame in which the "UFO" alters.

Watch the UFO video and judge for yourself at G1.globo.com.

The two-day meeting began at the Buddhist temple in Bauddhanath (Kathmandu) and ended in Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautama Buddha. Organised by the Buddhist World Peace Association, the initiative will go on the road to Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, South Korea and other predominantly Buddhist nations. It will also travel to an additional 50 nations.

According to Kenseng Lama, one of the organiser of the Nepali event, the prayer meeting is meant to counter rising conflicts and the repression of religious minorities. The initiative will be taken to countries where religious freedom is violated, like Myanmar. Slogans will change in such locations to avoid friction with the authorities. "We Nepalis prayed to see the right to freedom of religion enshrined in a new constitution," Lama said.

A number of Christian religious leaders, both Catholic and Protestant, joined Buddhist religious leaders in prayer vigils.

"We support the event," said Binod Thapa, a Protestant leader, "because like Buddhists we want more religious freedom."

"Under the new government, minority rights and the separation between state and religion are among the new founding principles of the new constitution," he noted. Yet, Christians in Kathmandu and other Nepali cities still do not have a place to bury their dead, and are still threatened by Hindu extremists.

"We are honored to have Tony Blair join us for this Civil Forum," said Rick Warren, founding pastor of the Orange County, Calif., mega church and author of the best-selling book, "The Purpose Driven Life." "His work as Prime Minister has truly contributed to subjugating the five global giants, which we work to fight in the Saddleback PEACE Plan. I am looking forward to engaging in discussion regarding how government, business and the Church can continue to help efforts toward peace."
 
Warren and Blair will talk about efforts to alleviate the five global giants Warren has identified in his PEACE Plan, including pandemic diseases, extreme poverty, illiteracy, self-centered leaders and spiritual emptiness. Warren's PEACE Plan seeks to mobilize millions of Christians around the world to Promote reconciliation, Equip servant leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sick and Educate the next generation. 

"As my wife Kay and I have been implementing the PEACE Plan in 68 developing countries, we have seen first-hand many of the hundreds of thousands of lives that have been changed through Prime Minister Blair's efforts," Warren said. "I hope that this Forum will enlighten American people on Mr. Blair's work in partnering and bringing about this process of change."
 
At the upcoming Civil Forum, Blair is expected to discuss the situation in the Middle East, and its impact not only on the region but in the wider world. He will also discuss the challenges that globalization brings to the modern world, and the reasons why he has set up his Faith Foundation as a way of building peaceful co-existence and understanding of why religion matters in the world.  

The event will be held in the main auditorium of Saddleback Church on March 6 at 6:00 p.m. PDT. All free tickets were distributed to Saddleback Church attendees. No additional general admission tickets are available. Saddleback Church will have overflow venues available on the Saddleback Campus for anyone wishing to view the event via video feed and will also stream live online at http://www.SaddlebackCivilForum.com.
 

The regular dialogue the two faiths have maintained since the Catholic Church renounced anti-Semitism at the Second Vatican Council, should be "a model for transformed relations with Islam," Rabbi Richard Marker told an interfaith conference.

"The focus of the world is no longer specifically on Jewish- Christian amity. We must, for so many reasons, involve the third of our Abrahamic siblings... Islam."  

Christian and Jewish leaders increasingly meet their Muslim counterparts to seek common ground and better understanding, but none of these discussions have the history or depth of the Catholic-Jewish dialogue officially begun in 1971.  

In those 40 years, the Catholic Church has apologized for its sins against the Jewish people and recognized Judaism as its spiritual "elder brother," a step that Jewish leaders praise as a historic change in perspective.

"Many Jews have organized Jewish-Catholic dialogue so it is totally focused on what we Jews think are Christian failures," he said. "This situation cannot continue much longer." Catholic officials were unlikely to want to continue such a one-sided dialogue, he said, and some Jews see the need to define their role in an increasingly pluralist world.