Ahmadinejad declares Israel will be 'eliminated' as world leaders gather at UN

Israel has "no roots" in the Middle East and will be "eliminated." International efforts to stop a bloody civil war in Syria amount to "meddling." And he may even break bread with Occupy Wall Street.

With 120 world leaders in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the one getting all the attention. The Islamic firebrand, who is scheduled to speak to the assembly on Wednesday, has made headlines with virtually every interview he's given since his arrival in New York. A Sunday night plea from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to tone down inflammatory rhetoric seemingly had no effect.

Much of Ahmadinejad's bluster was aimed squarely at Israel, which accuses the Islamic Republic of manufacturing illegal nuclear weapons. IN an interview with CNN's Piers Morgan set to air tonight, Ahmadinejad, whose regime has barred international weapons inspectors from key sites in Iran, said the Israelis are making it up.

"Of course the Zionists are very much, very adventuresome, very much seeking to fabricate things and I think they see themselves at the end of the line," Ahmadinejad said. "I do firmly believe that they seek to create new opportunities for themselves and their adventurous behaviors."

He also weighed in on the violent protests that have broken out in the Middle East in reaction to an Internet film trailer that negatively portrays Islam's Prophet Mohammad.

"Of course, what took place was ugly," Ahmadinejad said. "Offending the Holy Prophet is quite ugly. This has very little or nothing to do with freedom and freedom of speech. This is the weakness of and the abuse of freedom, and in many places it is a crime. It shouldn’t take place, and I do hope the day will come in which politicians will not seek to offend those whom others hold holy. We also believe that this must also be resolved in a humane atmosphere, in a participatory environment, and we do not like anyone losing their lives or being killed for any reason, anywhere in the world."

Ahmadinejad's mix of sabre-rattling, provocation and was dismissed by White House spokesman Tommy Vietor, who reaffirmed to Reuters the U.S. commitment to Israel's security.

"President Ahmadinejad's comments are characteristically disgusting, offensive and outrageous," Vietor said. "They underscore again why America's commitment to the security of Israel must be unshakeable, and why the world must hold Iran accountable for its utter failure to meet its obligations."

"President Ahmadinejad's comments are characteristically disgusting, offensive and outrageous."

- White House spokesman Tommy Vietor

Ahmadinejad said on Monday that Iran has been around for thousands of years, Reuters reports, but Israel has existed for only 60 or 70.

"They (Israel) have no roots there in history," Ahmadinejad added. "They do not even enter the equation for Iran."

Israel is believed to be considering a pre-emptive strike to take out Iran's burgeoning nuclear weapons capabilities, but Ahmadinejad scoffed at the prospect of an attack on his country.

"Fundamentally we do not take seriously the threats of the Zionists," he said. "We have all the defensive means at our disposal and we are ready to defend ourselves."

The White House condemned the Ahmadinejad's comments Monday afternoon.

"President Ahmadinejad's comments are characteristically disgusting, offensive, and outrageous," said National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor. "They underscore again why America's commitment to the security of Israel must be unshakeable, and why the world must hold Iran accountable for its utter failure to meet its obligations." 

Ahmadinejad has previously taken to the UN podium to defend Iran's nuclear program, attack Israel and the west and even question whether Muslim terrorists were behind the 9/11 attacks. Last year and in other years, western diplomats have walked out en masse as Ahmadinejad spoke.

In his speech at the UN's high-level meeting on the rule of law on Monday morning, Ahmadinejad once again defended Iran's nuclear program, asserting that its enrichment project is for peaceful purposes  and that it was not too late for dialogue with the United States to resolve differences. He also said Iran is neutral about the Syrian civil war, and denied it is providing weapons or training to the government of President Bashar Assad.

He refused to say whether Iran would accept a government not led by the Assad regime, which for years has been Iran's closest ally in the Middle East.

Ahmadinejad said this would be his last trip to New York as president of Iran, because his term is ending and he is barred from seeking a third consecutive term. But he did not rule out staying active in Iranian politics and said he might return as part of future Iranian delegations to New York.

While in the Big Apple, the Iranian leader will also meet with members of Occupy Wall Street, Fars News Agency reports.

Christopher DeVito, executive director of the advocacy group Iran180, said the organization will have a protest at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza on Wednesday when Ahmadinejad is scheduled to speak. Iran180 wants a change in Iran's nuclear and human rights policies.

Tension between some Arab states and Israel is perhaps even more raw this year than in years past. Aside from Iran's nuclear threat, instability in the region, brought on by democratic uprisings, deadly protests generated by an anti-Islamic video and the ongoing civil war in Syria are all weighing heavily on the world body.

Ki-moon predicted that the ministerial session, which starts Tuesday, will be among the busiest ever, reflecting "the tumultuous time in which we live — a time of turmoil and transition." It is also taking place "against a backdrop of widespread violence linked to intolerance," he said.

Ahead of the opening ministerial session, which President Barack Obama will address, the U.N. chief has invited leaders to the first high-level meeting on the rule of law on Monday, hoping they "will send a strong signal to the world's people that they are serious about establishing well-functioning institutions and delivering justice."

The Syrian conflict has bitterly divided the most powerful members of the Security Council, paralyzing the only U.N. body that can impose global sanctions and authorize military action. Russia, Syria's key protector, and China, have vetoed three Western-backed resolutions aimed at pressuring Assad to stop the violence and start political talks with opponents of his family's 40-year dictatorship who began demonstrating against his regime 18 months ago.

Fox News' Ed Henry and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Union hypocrisy? Labor group pickets fellow union’s construction project

A Pennsylvania construction local has found an unlikely target for its latest picket -- a credit union run by a fellow labor organization.

The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) was carrying signs and chanting slogans in front of the future site of the United Food and Commercial Workers federal credit union in downtown Pittston. They even have the ubiquitous inflatable rat, the attention-grabbing icon labor locals use to draw attention to employers who use non-union labor. 

IUPAT union representative Bob Griffiths said he never expected a fellow union to bypass organized labor to save a buck. The local's members have done work at the UFCW’s three other locations in neighboring towns, and Griffiths said his own local's 260 members have banked with the UFCW's credit union. Now he's told them to take their business elsewhere.

“When we asked why they were not using union workers, they [UFCW] told us that they did not own the building,” Griffiths told FoxNews.com. “We’ve found another credit union that is all-union. We are going to recommend that our members transfer their accounts.”

Representatives for the UFCW did not immediately respond to repeated requests for comment.

Griffiths speculates that the non-union work is a cost-cutting measure and that the credit union circumvented using union work by claiming that the building, which will be a fully operational banking location, will be sold or leased to the UFCW upon completion.

“It’s about the principal, not losing the work,” he added.

Members of IUPAT intend to keep picketing while construction continues.

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Chicago's O'Hare latest location to turn to goats for landscaping

CHICAGO –  Travelers may soon be doing a double take when they gaze out their plane windows at O'Hare International Airport, the latest location to consider trading in lawn mowers and landscapers for goats.

Chicago News and Weather | FOX Chicago News

The Chicago Department of Aviation is looking for about 30 goats and a herder for a pilot program, aimed at taming the grass and weeds in one area of the airport grounds that's difficult to mow. The agency is the latest government body to find that goats not only never ask for a pay raise or take vacation, they can also get to those had-to-reach spots.

"They may have steep slopes, very hard to get to with heavy machinery, and those machines also emit pollution," explains Amy Malick, point person for sustainability at the Department of Aviation.  "They're burning fossil fuel. So as a sustainability initiative we're looking to bring in animals that do not have emissions associated with them, at least to the same extent that heavy machinery would."

The farm formula is not a completely new concept. Atlanta's airport began using goats this week and San Francisco has been doing it for years.

Goatscaping goes beyond airports. Towns, businesses, and even homeowners are finding this four-legged solution helps maintain land, uses fewer chemicals, and cuts down on noise. Both Google and Yahoo have used goat herds to clean up the land around their California headquarters. Nearly 300 billies went to work on the Presidio Golf Course in San Francisco this month, chewing their way through acres of dense brush of thicket and hemlock so golfers could more easily spot their wayward balls.  The goats can get to parts of the golf course that never get attention because lawn mowers can't access them.

Gentle, easy to manage, and often less expensive than human landscapers, goats are popular workers. They also leave behind natural fertilizers and expose soil and seeds that can encourage native grasses and wildflowers to grow, which can also cut down on pesticide use. The goats are accompanied by herders and sometimes herd dogs to keep them in line.

In Charlotte, Vt., local cemeteries are using goats and sheep to trim the grass. Stephen Brooks, chairman of the Charlotte Cemetery Commission, told Vermont Public Radio he thinks the grazing could save Charlotte about $2,000 in fuel costs this year. While there are huge cost benefits, Brooks says if you add too many animals to one area, they chew the grass down faster so they need to monitor the sheep and goats to keep the level of grass down, relative to its growth rate.

Last month, town officials in Seaside Park, N.J., considered using goats to remove a patch of poison ivy that overlooks Barnegat Bay. Visitors to the bay have been deterred from certain areas due to the ivy, which is not poisonous to the goats. Although it could be an expensive endeavor-- costing up to $20, 000-- the solution is better for the environment than using chemicals.

With all these advantages, towns and businesses are likely to increase their use of the animals. Each goat can eat about five to eight pounds of weeds per day and the never call in sick.

Click for more from MyFoxChicago.com.

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Joss Whedon's S.H.I.E.L.D. TV Series to Feature New Characters

While at the Toronto International Film Festival promoting his film, Much Ado About Nothing, Joss Whedon sat down with MTV News and revealed that the Marvel S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series that he's currently developing is "very far" along in the developmental process and that he's already pitched it to ABC - with new S.H.I.E.L.D. characters in place of Nick Fury, Agent Coulson and Maria Hill.

Click the pic to watch the interview over at MTV.

One of the things fans have been speculating about is how involved would Fury and the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team, most recently seen in Whedon's The Avengers, would be on a week-to-week TV show.  Budget-wise and availability-wise.  So this idea of new agents and characters answers that question.

"It's new characters" Whedon stated. "It needs to be it's own thing. It needs to be adjacent, but you don't want to do a show where you're constantly going, 'Iron Man just left, but he was totally here a minute ago.' You want them to do their own thing. What does S.H.I.E.L.D. got that the heroes don't have? To me, it's that they're not superheroes. But they live in that universe. Even though they're a big organization, that makes them underdogs and that's interesting to me."

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