ITS JULY 19,10 10:30AM SURPRISE THERES A NORTH AMERICAN UNION MEETING IN WASHINGTON TODAY ABOUT ENERGY.THATS CAP & TAX AND CLMATE CHANGE CARBON CREDIT TAXES.CANADA,MEXICO AND OTHER NATIONS ARE IN WASHINGTON AS WELL AS THE ENERGY MINISTER NOB TANAKA WANTING $46 TRILLION DOLLARS FOR ENERGY BY 2015.NOW WERE WILL THIS $46 TRILLION COME FROM PEOPLE.WAKE UP TAXES,TAXES,AND TRILLIONS IN TAXES TO PAY THE BANK OF THE WORLD THE CARBON TAXES TO FUND THIS NORTH AMERICAN UNION ENERGY SCAM.
CNBC TANAKA NEED $46 TRILLION FOR ENERGY
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1547015014&play=1
States back emission trading rules
ANDREW WILLIS 16.07.2010 @ 09:26 CET
EU member states have unanimously backed commission proposals that will see carbon-emitting industries buy roughly half of their emission allowances from 2013 onwards.
The agreement by a committee of national experts this week (14 July) relates to phase three of the EU's emissions trading system (ETS), with companies currently receiving their allowances for free.Under the plans, Brussels has pushed the idea of a single European auctioning system to sell the pollution permits in the future.This, it argues, will maximise auctioning efficiency and keep carbon prices sufficiently high to bring down emissions, the ultimate aim behind cap and trade schemes. While agreeing to the single platform in theory, member states voiced concerns it could potentially have a negative impact on national trading systems, leading them to insist on the right to opt out from the EU-wide scheme at a later date.Poland, the UK, Germany and Spain were chief among those expressing concerns.
As part of the agreement, Europe's embattled aviation sector will also be brought into the bloc's emission's trading system from 2012, with 15 percent of allowances to be auctioned, a proportion set to remain the same in subsequent years.EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard welcomed the deal despite the opt outs. I am satisfied to see that member states have found a compromise that will provide a basis for a solid common auction platform, said the Danish politician who hosted the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen 2009 before joining the EU executive in February.She added that governments wishing to leave the common platform would first have to meet certain criteria that ensure the proper functioning of auctions and the carbon market.This week's deal will now see the commission submit the draft regulation to the European Parliament for a three-month scrutiny period.Provided the parliament does not raise objections, the new rules will then become law.
ALEX JONES WEEKLY SHOWS AFTER 3PM
http://rss.nfowars.net/20100718_Sun_Alex.mp3
http://rss.nfowars.net/20100719_Mon_Alex.mp3
http://rss.nfowars.net/20100720_Tue_Alex.mp3
http://rss.nfowars.net/20100721_Wed_Alex.mp3
http://rss.nfowars.net/20100722_Thu_Alex.mp3
http://rss.nfowars.net/20100723_Fri_Alex.mp3
http://rss.nfowars.net/20100725_Sun_Alex.mp3
Censored Videos Obama Deception, Police State 4 Back on YouTube
Matt Ryan Infowars.com July 19, 2010
In an act that goes completely against YouTube’s long-held policy of refusing to replace videos that were listed as removed by user, films that have been removed by hack have been returned to YouTube’s live site. Original embeds of the ChangeDaChannel version of The Obama Deception and Police State 4 are working once again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw&feature=player_embedded
When the videos were removed over the weekend, searches for Obama Deception censored ranked number 1 on Google Hot Searches along with Fall of the Republic and infowars. With such a tremendous response, it appears that Google has reversed their original policy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Klqv9t1zVww&feature=player_embedded
Google Spies, Censors Users
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKzEjjdRl6s&feature=player_embedded
UPDATE: GOOGLE/YOUTUBE HAS REACTIVATED THE ORIGINAL LINKS TO THE OBAMA DECEPTION AND POLICE STATE IV…DEVELOPING…Steve Watson Prisonplanet.com Monday July 19, 2010
Following the censorship and deletion from YouTube of a viral upload of Alex Jones’ seminal documentary, The Obama Deception, as well as a surge in google searches of the term, it has now become clear that the search engine giant is blocking specific terms related to the film.As we reported Friday, the term Obama Deception had surged to number one on the Google trends rankings, above Lindsay Lohan, the BP Oil Spill or the death of George Steinbrenner. What’s more, the viewcount grew by nearly 100,000 in that same single day, demonstrating the accelerated attention the film has been receiving.Then suddenly the version of the documentary that had 6.5 million views and was linked to from all over the Internet was deleted, presumably by someone at YouTube or Google who had overriding access to the user account.Now, the term isn’t even in the top 500 trends - it doesn’t even register when searching.As a response Alex Jones asked his readers and listeners to search the term obama deception censored. Extremely quickly that term also hit the top spot, with links to Prisonplanet and Infowars articles we had written covering the news. However, that term now also no longer registers on Google trends.Today Alex is asking readers and listeners to search the term Google spies, censors users.Whether you like it or not, Google is hugely influential over the distribution of content over the Internet. The blogosphere and a large section of the wider media operates according to what is trending. This was evident with The Obama Deception, which started to get scores of fresh reviews this weekend, over 18 months after its original release, solely due to its top spot on Google trends.
We are engaged in an infowar against the controlled corporate media that continually feeds the general public pointless distractions such as the private lives of Mel Gibson and Tiger Woods – that is why exposing the censorship of meaningful material is a big deal.We have previously reported on Google’s connections to the intelligence community . There is also no doubt that Google will be one of the corporations at the forefront of the government’s drive to use cybersecurity as a pretext for restricting the openness of the Internet.DEVELOPING…We are currently attempting to re-upload the full length HQ version of The Obama Deception to the original director account, however, this is taking some time owing to file compression issues and the fact that the account holder now lives in a rural area.
Obama Deception Censorship Draws Major Response
Matt Ryan Infowars.com July 18, 2010
Thanks to our dedicated readers and listeners, within twenty minutes of Alex Jones’ Sunday show ending where the news broke of The Obama Deception being taken off YouTube, three of the top ten Google Trend search terms were held by Infowars, Fall of the Republic, and The Obama Deception Censored. This sudden and extreme response can only be attributed to the numbers and dedication of our audience. This is an example of just how powerful the truth is and how important each and every voice is to spreading the truth and shouting down lies and deception.On behalf of everyone at Infowars, thank you.All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.-Thomas Jefferson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKzEjjdRl6s&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgUpFzJ5P6A&feature=player_embedded
Censorship Alert: Obama Deception Illegally Removed from You Tube - Made to look like a hack, Thought Police Block Mega-Viral Anti-Establishment Documentary After More than a Year of Dominating Viewcounts, Ranking #1 in Search Engines and Waking Up Millions to the False Left-Right Paradigm Perpetuated by Obama Aaron Dykes
Infowars.com July 18, 2010
http://www.infowars.com/censorship-alert-obama-deception-illegally-removed-from-you-tube/
Alex Jones is on high-alert after someone managed to compromise the ChangeDaChannel You Tube account and criminally remove the most-viewed version of The Obama Deception available online, which had more than 6.5 million views and whose URL link ranked among the top of all Obama related searches.The channel’s owner was tipped-off about the breach, and was subsequently able to change the password and prevent further deletions of Alex Jones and other patriot documentaries. Both he and members of the Infowars staff believe the video could have only been pulled from behind the scenes at Google or by a government-level cybersecurity admin with access to YouTube records, as the passwords were carefully guarded and unlikely to be guessed at.The film, which has been attacked before, was censored at a critical time. Just one day before on Friday’s broadcast, Alex challenged activists to drive Obama Deception up in the search engines. Only a few hours later, Google trends rankings revealed that it was the #1 search term, above Lindsay Lohan, the BP Oil Spill or the death of George Steinbrenner. What’s more, the viewcount grew by nearly 100,000 in that same single day, demonstrating the accelerated attention the film has been receiving. Further, as a result of topping the online trends charts, dozens of fresh reviews in online papers and blogs were published, including Blue Star Chronicles, Mahoo News and Live Street Journal.This was a criminal act, and You Tube needs to investigate, track the IP and find out who did it, Alex Jones said.The Obama Deception was getting more and more popular, and the establishment doesn’t like the fact that it exposes the Left-Right paradigm and identifies Obama as a puppet,he added.Fighting back against the censorship of The Obama Deception and other patriot works is in your hands. Already, your hard work to promote and propagate this information has resulted in tremendous success. You are equally capable of responding to this negative act with a positive outpouring of numbers in the way of spreading the video, searching for the term and a million other ways of promoting the truth out there. Once again, it is up to you.
The Obama Deception has drawn fierce attacks since its release in March 2009– not only strong words attempting to discredit the powerful information the film puts forward, but in attempts to limit and block the film online. Nevertheless, an estimated 25 million have seen the film worldwide, thanks to hundreds of online versions and DVDs handed out by dedicated activists.Even so, Google merchant and other shopping carts have blocked its sale after labeling the film as anti,hate or otherwise inappropriate.Before the film was even released, FBI officials asked suspiciously about the film during a visit to Alex’s office, where they attempted to gather information about the documentary, office employees and other information. Earlier in the film’s release, YouTube was caught fudging the viewcount and other statistics for the film. This past week, Alex Jones’ Facebook was blocked for displaying a Gadsden flag– a key icon of the Revolutionary War–which drew ire. The Obama Deception was taken down only a few months ago after a false copyright complaint blocked it for several weeks, but was later restored. Even a Christian version of YouTube has censored an upload of the film.Images of President Obama as the Joker created a stir last year as well– and it was clear from interference that free speech did not apply to those holding signs with the image at rallies or putting up posters around town or on social networking sites.
21ST CENTURY THOUGHT POLICE: INTERNET CENSORSHIP ALERT
A cadre of White House Intelligensia as well as a new breed of Cyber Security at the Pentagon have taken it upon themselves to regulate the Internet, conform free speech to their gated-and-streamlined Internet 2 model and offensively take on offending web entities. This action has been boldly led by the likes of Senator Jay Rockefeller, who in support of cyber security bill, stated that it might have been better if we’d never invented the Internet. More dramatically, Joe Lieberman and others have called for Chinese-style censorship and enabling a kill switch at the behest of President Obama or his successors.Further, a literal information war has been declared in the online space, a veritable frontier battleground for freedom in the 21st Century virtual world. CENTCOM announced its intention to engage bloggers and counter errors or disinformation.The Air Force has a similar operation, as does the Pentagon.Likewise, Obama’s Information Czar Cass Sunstein outlined a report for the Journal of Political Philosophy recommending engagement on the part of the government to infiltrate conspiracy groups in order to undermine them via postings on chat rooms and social networks sites. Even more outrageously, he has envisioned a scheme to censor conspiracy theories or tax those who disseminate them. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan has also advocated regulating political speech and even banning books.The flag@whitehouse.gov program even asked supporters to identify fishy blogs or websites that might be promoting disinformation about health care or other aspects of the White House agenda. The same concept took place during the 2008 campaign where Missouri ran an add threatening to arrest critics who told a lie about Obama or promoted disinformation such as claims that Obama was born in Kenya.
The web has become the most important public space for political discussion in the 21st Century, as has been very democratic in its access to blogs, alternative news, individual and even unpopular opinions, the promotion of ideas and candidates (regardless of budgets or notoriety), audio-visual and printed archives and other vital material that should be protected under Constitutional and democratic principles, but are instead being bullied.Blocking information is not new, but will only accelerate in the realm of the 21st Century Internet. Opponents of freedom would like to silence widespread online dissent, and will only find justification for moving forward to shut it down and censor its content. The Constitution and Bill of Rights put in place strong protection for expression and personal belief, and a high-tolerance for free speech for a reason– especially when criticizing or questioning high officials and leaders.
OBAMA’S “CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE” IS ELECTION DILEMMA FOR DEMOCRATS
Cadres of angry Obama supporters have been attacking The Obama Deception since its released less than 2 months after Barack Obama’s inauguration. Despite attempts to label the film as racist or anti-government,The Obama Deception has reached many people, and unnerved the establishment so much, that Alex Jones reportedly made the supposedly leaked White House enemies list, proving that the film has undermined Obama’s effectiveness. Instead of being able to easily ram-through legislation with the aid of Democratic majorities in BOTH houses, Obama has been forced to fight for issues that are simultaneously gaining in their unpopularity with the public daily. Carbon taxes, the bailout for bankers, health care legislation, amnesty for illegal aliens– alongside the collapsing ecomony– have driven massive fury. All these issues and more have been covered in Alex Jones’ controversial documentary since the dawn of the Obama Administration. The Fall of the Republic further expands that analyze and goes even deeper.Top news pundits are now saying that the Democrats may likely lose control of not only the House, but the Senate as well in the November 2010 elections. Rahm Emanuel is fleeing his Chief of Staff position; former Clinton Aides are speculating that only a terror attack like 9/11 or the Oklahoma City bombing save the Obama Administration, and bolster a political rescue from the angry uprising that has been unseating incumbents, supporters of Health Care and other unpopular legislation, but especially the Congressional Democrats.With the upcoming midterm elections, the Obama White House is more desperate than ever to regain their credibility, silence those calling the Emperor naked and reign in the destruction of America to fit the schedule of his social-engineering masters.
SOLUTIONS: FIGHTING BACK FOR FREE SPEECH AND ON-LINE LIBERTY — A CALL TO ACTION!
As Paul Joseph Watson has recently observed, the lights are going out for free speech on the Internet. But the best defense against such strong attempts to censor and control the web, is to fight back with a full offensive. The same activists who’ve made The Obama Deception one of the most viewed online films of all time, and who’ve driven its name into the top of search trends can once again demonstrate to the powers to be that we are a force of significant numbers. Make it clear that we will never stop fighting and that we will see that this powerful film– and so many other activist tools– aren’t shut down, and instead are spread everywhere into the physical and virtual world.Fight back against criminal sabotage and outright censorship:
- by spending 5 minutes or so every time you go online to send The Obama Deception or Police State 4 or Endgame into the top of Google, Yahoo, Bing and StartPage’s search engines.
- break apart marketing for mindless celebrities or government propaganda placement and use the hype to bring attention to real issues of the day or powerful documentaries that tell the truth
- by spreading other links to The Obama Deception to your friends, family, coworkers and everyone else you know. Spreading these links will, in turn, make them more dominant in search engine results, and help drive the trend as well
- by sending out the new upload of The Obama Deception on Change Da Channel, featuring a warning by Alex Jones about how dire the need is to spread the film and stop the Internet policing
- using Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other social networking sites to virally share The Obama Deception as well as key news articles
-pass out DVDs, pamphlets and flyers in the physical world to people you encounter, and keeping physical and offline archives of vital information that can survive outside of the increasingly-regulated Internet
-wherever it seems relevant, let your Congressman, city representatives, etc know that you support a free Internet; urge them to vote against a kill switch and to carefully guard against cyber security that is really surveillance and censorship.
- Get The Obama Deception on DVD and make copies forevermore or download the film in high-quality on PrisonPlanet.tv and share it with your familiars.
Share these working links to The Obama Deception:
MrV1420 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrpRocaEfQE
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7886780711843120756#
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1250419
http://www.vidoemo.com/yvideo.php?i=ZUFhUU5BcWuRpQ3dhTHc&the-obama-deception-hq-full-length-version=
fearblocke – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8pKq9FzmtQ
jh4t3d – (Spanish Subtitles) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtAdmaXuaA0&feature=related
bedoboy – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP_AdVVKFdM
Hashstarr – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85IEs4nCgfo&feature=related
stopcenzurze – (Czech Subtitles) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVhRafT4AkA&feature=related
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=9f6_1237453305
http://www.viddler.com/explore/Bootlead/videos/20/
http://vimeo.com/3676634
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4706364/obama_deception/
Support youtube.com/ChangeDaChannel
Support youtube.com/TheAlexJonesChannel
Please continue to support Infowars.com and PrisonPlanet.com– we cannot do it without you.Update: ChangedaChannel is managed from a rural area which has resulted in a small delay in re-uploading the films that were taken down. We are in the process of encoding and uploading the videos and they should be back up soon. Thank you for your effort and please keep spreading the word about this important film.
DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.
JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.
EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.
REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all,(WORLD SOCIALISM) both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM
WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/
CNBC VIDEOS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15839263/site/14081545/?tabid=15839796&tabheader=false
HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS MON JULY 19,2010
09:30 AM +2.87
10:00 AM +66.52
10:30 AM -7.72
11:00 AM +6.73
11:30 AM +18.77
12:00 PM +15.89
12:30 PM +24.82
01:00 PM +41.77
01:30 PM +18.12
02:00 PM +12.03
02:30 PM +38.22
03:00 PM +70.08
03:30 PM +58.73
04:00 PM +56.53 10,154.43
S&P 500 1071.25 +6.37
NASDAQ 2198.23 +19.18
GOLD 1,182.60 -4.60
OIL 76.47 +0.46
TSE 300 11,543.50 -26.20
CDNX 1362.19 -17.30
S&P/TSX/60 676.64 -2.20
MORNING,NEWS,STATS
YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow +55 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -7 points at low today.
Dow +55 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,181.40.OIL opens at $76.65 today.
AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -8 points at low today so far.
Dow +73 points at high today so far.
WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -8 points at low today.
Dow +73 points at high today.
GOLD ALLTIME HIGH $1,260.90 (NOT AT CLOSE)
EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH(BECAUSE OF SIN AND GODLESS PEOPLE)
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
Two strong quakes strike Papua New Guinea
Sun Jul 18, 12:22 pm ET
SYDNEY (AFP) – Papua New Guinea was hit by two strong earthquakes around 30 minutes apart on Sunday, geologists said, though no tsunami warning was issued.A 7.3-magnitude quake hit at 11:35 pm local time (1335 GMT) around 105 kilometres (65 miles) east of Kandrian on New Britain island, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, at a depth of 58 kilometres.USGS initially gave the magnitude of this quake as 6.8.
Around half an hour earlier, USGS recorded a 6.9-magnitude quake 110 kilometres east of Kandrian, at a depth of 58 kilometres.The epicentres of both quakes were around 525 kilometres northeast of Papua New Guinea's capital Port Moresby.The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no threat of a widespread destructive tsunami from either quake, based on previous earthquake and tsunami data.Papua New Guinea, which is mired in poverty despite rich mineral deposits, sits on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, a hotspot for seismic activity due to friction between tectonic plates.
Some Gaza women smolder over Hamas' water-pipe ban By DIAA HADID and IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writers – Sun Jul 18, 4:08 pm ET
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – There are few pleasures left for Gaza's 1.5 million people, squeezed by both a blockade and Hamas efforts to impose its strict Muslim lifestyle. And women here just lost another one.Gaza's Hamas rulers have banned women from smoking water pipes in cafes, sending plainclothes agents through popular beachside spots Sunday to enforce the edict. Some women in the Palestinian territory are grumbling.This is silly, said Haya Ahmed, a 29-year-old accountant who said she has smoked water pipes for 10 years. We are not smoking in the streets but in restaurants, where only a few people can enter.She predicted the ban would actually make water pipes more tempting for rebellious young women. Everything forbidden becomes desirable. The decision will lead to more smokers,Ahmed said.Many Gazans pile into beach cafes in the evenings to puff on water pipes well into the wee hours of the morning. Islamic law does not ban women from smoking the traditional tobacco-infused pipes, but many frown upon the practice.The water pipe restrictions are just the latest in a yearlong Hamas campaign to gradually enforce a strict Muslim life code on the people of Gaza — many of whom are conservative Muslims themselves and not entirely opposed. But the secular minority feels the crunch.Hamas, the Islamic militant group that overran Gaza three years ago, has banned women from riding motorbikes — mostly impoverished women riding behind their husbands on cheaply bought Vespas. Teenage girls are pressured by their Hamas-loyal school teachers to cover up in loose robes and headscarves.Men, meanwhile, are the ones mostly targeted if they are seen alongside women in public. And they too are bullied by Hamas officials if they dress in ways considered too Western — like shorts instead of long pants.Hamas frequently mixes its strict interpretation of Islamic law with conservative Gaza tradition. Over the weekend, the two dovetailed to produce the smoking ban.
It is inappropriate for a woman to sit cross-legged and smoke in public. It harms the image of our people,Ihab Ghussein, Hamas Interior Ministry spokesman, said in a statement Sunday. Police spokesman Ayman Batneiji claimed husbands have divorced wives who smoked in public, without substantiating his claim.Many residents are deeply sensitive to any effort by Hamas to infringe on leisure activities in the territory, which already are limited. A three-year-long blockade by Israel and Egypt has depressed the economy, limiting options in entertainment and practically every other facet of life.Some women were seen smoking hookahs Sunday, despite the ban. Natasha Ali was taking turns puffing on a water pipe with her husband, Suleiman, at a seaside restaurant Sunday evening.I don't think that anyone could force me to do something against my freedom or my wife's freedom, said Suleiman Ali.However, many in Gaza see the water pipe as inappropriate for women because of its sexual connotation and because it looks crass for ladies to smoke, said Palestinian anthropologist Ali Qleibo.It's a sentiment shared in conservative Saudi Arabia, where both sexes are banned from smoking hookahs. It's frowned upon in Egypt, too, although women frequently smoke in trendy restaurants out of view of the general public. Women in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan openly smoke water pipes.Hamas sometimes backs down when Gazans resist new rules. A ban on men working in ladies hair salons was never enforced, and a demand that female lawyers cover their hair before they enter courtrooms was quietly rescinded.But Hamas has successfully banned women from riding motorbikes. Last year the group swooped down on moonshiners, banned foreigners from bringing alcohol into Gaza and ordered shopkeepers to take down scantly clad mannequins.Plainclothes officers frequently stop couples walking in the streets, demanding to see marriage licenses. Some residents say they have been interrogated, even beaten, on suspicion they are gay or had extramarital sex.
Six young men told The Associated Press that they were all harassed by plainclothes agents who demanded they move away from women they were walking with, because they weren't married. One man said he was detained and slapped around. Human rights activist Subhiya Juma said she is aware of hundreds of similar cases. An Internet cafe owner said he was ordered to ban women from his establishment last year after another plainclothes agent saw women smoking inside. Two other Gaza cafe owners said they asked men and women to sit at separate tables to avoid harassment by Hamas police.In Gaza, art cafe owner Jamal Abu Qumsan, 43, was accused of having extramarital sex in May. The allegations were made during an interrogation that began over a hip-hop concert he wanted to host. Hamas officials are reluctant to allow Western-style music performances in Gaza, musicians say.Abu Qumsan said Hamas police whipped him, leaving red welts along his legs and buttocks during hours-long interrogations over several days. He has released photographs showing the wounds. It's unclear how many similar cases exist. Few other Gazans would acknowledge being targeted for their sex lives because of the shame of even being suspected of deviating from the territory's conservative sexual codes.Last year, a 23-year-old man was interrogated for a week over rumors he was gay. He requested anonymity for fear of further reprisals. In another case, the New York-based Human Rights Watch reported that a gay man was held in a Gaza jail.Ghussein, the Interior Ministry spokesman, denied claims they were trying to coerce Gazans into adopting a strictly Islamic lifestyle.If we wanted to make Gaza like the Taliban, then we could have done that very easily,Ghussein said.
Asian shares retreat after Wall Street tumble
JULY 18,10
TOKYO – Asian stock markets fell Monday after U.S. consumer confidence weakened and corporate results fell short of expectations.The region's losses came after Wall Street tumbled on Friday, with all major U.S. indexes losing 2.5 percent or more. Second-quarter results from Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. disappointed investors because revenue fell even as the banks generated an increase in profits.
Adding to the gloom was a twice-monthly survey from the University of Michigan and Reuters which showed that consumers in the world's biggest economy are becoming more pessimistic. That suggests the U.S. economic recovery will slow and is bad news for Asian economies whose exporters rely on America as a key market.Hong Kong's Hang Seng index shed 194.42 points, or 1 percent, to 20,060.80 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200lost 1.4 percent to 4,362.80. Seoul's Kospi fell 0.3 percent to 1,733.18.Benchmarks in mainland China and Taiwan also retreated. Markets in Japan were closed for a national holiday.In Seoul trade, major banks lost ground, with KB Financial Group Inc. down 1.3 percent and rival Woori Finance Holdings Co. falling 2 percent.
Australia's Aquarius Platinum Ltd. tumbled 24 percent amid worries over the potential impact of new mining safety rules by South Africa.In New York on Friday, the Dow fell 261.41, or 2.5 percent, to 10,097.90. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 31.60, or 2.9 percent, to 1,064.88. The Nasdaq composite index fell 70.03, or 3.1 percent, to 2,179.05.In currencies, the dollar rose to 86.66 yen from 86.56 yen. The euro fell to $1.2911 from $1.2929.Benchmark crude for August delivery was down 24 cents at $75.77 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract settled down 61 cents at $76.01 on Friday.
Hungary braces for volatility after EU, IMF walk away from budget talks
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today JULY 19,10 @ 09:29 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU and IMF negotiators abandoned talks on the weekend with Hungary's government over its plans to rein in its budget deficit, bluntly saying Prime Minister Victor Orban's strategy was inadequate, a move that is likely to set off panic in the markets and see the forint and Hungarian bonds take a steep dive.
In what analysts are nearly unanimously calling a very rare development, the International Monetary fund and the European Union abruptly called off their review of Budapest's €20 billion bail-out, originally agreed in 2008. Without a successful conclusion to the review, further funds cannot be dispersed.Both overseeing bodies said Hungary had achieved good progress in terms of fiscal consolidation - the country has one of the lowest budget deficits in the EU - but this was not enough.
More remains to be done to cement these gains and put Hungary on a strong and sustainable growth path,the international lender said in a statement that to untrained eyes appears as politely bland as any other institutional communique but to investors is a red flag.Additional measures will need to be taken to achieve these objectives,it repeated.The development is intended as a warning to centre-right leader Victor Orban, who campaigned to the left of the ruling Socialists, promising a lightening of the draconian austerity measures imposed by his predecessors, which had cut the country's deficit from 9.3 percent of GDP in 2006 to 3.8 percent two years later but had drained almost all popular support from the governing centre-left.Taking a page out of the Greek government's playbook, Mr Oban immediately after winning the election said that the country's economic and fiscal situation was much worse than the previous government's pronouncements had suggested and announced that he would indeed have to impose stringent austerity measures of his own.However, the prime minister's negotiating team still tried to limit the fall-out by asking the EU-IMF team for some leeway in 2011 after agreeing to abide by this year's 3.8 percent of GDP goal.
But this was judged insufficient,
Hungary has returned to a positive economic growth path and now has one of the lowest budget deficits in the EU. I welcome the authorities' commitment to the 2010 deficit target,said EU economy commissioner Olli Rehn, after his team walked away from talks.However, the correction of the excessive deficit by next year will require tough decisions, notably on spending.The EU-IMF pair also warned that balancing the country's accounts can only done by cutting public services and privatisation. The other option available, raising taxes on corporations or the wealthy is out of the question, as, they argue, this threatens investment and growth.
Mr Orban had intended to raise some half a billion euros (187 billion forints) via a new tax on banks and insurance firms. The IMF however said this is likely to adversely affect lending and growth.More subtlely, the EU's Mr Rehn said: Care will also be needed to ensure a stable environment for both domestic and international investors.Brussels and the IMF will be hoping a swift sharp spanking from the markets will chasten Mr Orban's government, but the move will also unnerve investor thinking about the condition of economies across the bloc, particularly in eastern Europe.Markets had calmed somewhat in recent months and begun to train their eyes on state and local spending in the United States after months of speculation about the state of European countries' sovereign debt, but worries are likely to return if the assumption that the EU and IMF will automatically ride to the rescue of any failing economy is undermined.The worry is that not just the forint, but the Polish zloty and other eastern currencies could witness some collateral damage resulting from the EU-IMF action.Both Brussels and Washington also appear oblivious to any possible political fall-out. Jobbik, Hungary's far-right party with its own paramilitary wing, won 17 percent in recent elections, up from single digit support two years ago - largely a result of the economic crisis and the imposition of austerity by the Socialists.After the election, political analysts warned that if Mr Orban's conservative Fidesz party was unable to convince the IMF and Brussels of the need for some leeway, Jobbik would be waiting in the wings to pick up the pieces.The openly anti-gypsy and anti-semitic but also anti-capitalist Jobbik offered its own advice following the EU-IMF move.The choreography is expected Monday that will follow will take the following steps: politicians, analysts and journalists serving the global financial powers will lay into the government for not worshipping foreign pressure,the party's deputy parliamentary group leader, Tamas Hegedus, said in a statement, describing such critics as collaborators.However, to draw attention: a radical, that is a radical change, the actual recovery of sovereignty can only be expected if we do not stop halfway with what has happened over the past twenty years, presenting a blind alley of economic model, but move toward a real paradigm shift in economic policy.Local elections are scheduled for October.
Ashton calls on Israel to open border crossings to Gaza
VALENTINA POP Today JULY 19,10 @ 09:30 CET
On her second trip to the Middle East, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called on Israel to open border crossings to Gaza and fully lift the unacceptable blockade imposed on the Palestinian territory.There are small signs of change in policy to allow goods into Gaza, but we continue to call for the opening of the crossings to enable people and goods to move around, Ms Ashton said on Sunday (18 July) while visiting a UN school in Gaza. She pledged an extra €2 million from the EU budget for schools and NGO work in Gaza.Her return to the region, only four months after her first visit there, was aimed to show EU support and press the Israeli authorities on lifting a four-year blockade imposed on the Gaza strip.
Speaking after a meeting with Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, the British peer welcomed the recent ease of the blockade as an important step forward, but stressed that the EU continues to see the embargo as unacceptable, unsustainable and counterproductive.Following the deadly attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla on 31 May, Israel bowed to international pressure and started allowing a wider range of goods into the territory, with the exception of weapons and dual-use items. It has also agreed to let construction materials into Gaza, as long as they are destined for projects under international supervision. But exports are still banned and people cannot move freely over the border.Israel is also not willing to lift the blockade on Gaza's ports, arguing that the maritime embargo is needed to prevent the Islamist Hamas movement from shipping in military-grade weapons and long-range rockets.Ms Ashton said she could envisage sending EU monitors to the crossings to support a smooth handling of goods, as long as the Western-backed Palestinian Authority was also involved.On Saturday, the EU official also met the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Salam Fayyad, to whom she pledged an extra €40 million as direct financial support.What we have today is 75 percent less (volume of traffic) than what we had in the first half of 2007... That's not what we are looking for,Mr Fayyad said, according to AFP.The economy of Gaza cannot be sustained only by importation, there needs to be exports,he stressed.
Ms Ashton's second visit to Gaza and Israel showed a preparedness to be more independent-minded,former British cabinet minister and EU commissioner Chris Patten told the Guardian on Sunday, during his own visit to the region. The default European position should not be to wait to find out what the Americans are going to do, and if the Americans don't do anything to wring our hands. We should be prepared to be more explicit in setting out Europe's objectives and doing more to try to implement them,he said.
German business chiefs criticise China
ANDREW WILLIS Today JULY 19,10 @ 09:30 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Two of Germany's leading industrialists publicly attacked China's business environment during a meeting with the country's premier, Wen Jiabao, over the weekend (17 July). Jurgen Hambrecht, chairman of giant chemical company BASF, and Peter Loscher, chief executive of industrial conglomerate Siemens, added their voices to a growing clamour of criticism against Chinese rules that are seen as disadvantaging foreign firms.Mr Hambrecht said foreign companies are frequently forced to transfer business and technological know-how to Chinese companies in exchange for market access.That does not exactly correspond to our views of a partnership, he told Mr Wen at the roundtable discussion in the northwestern Chinese city of Xian, according to German journalists who attended the meeting. The strong statements are particularly noteworthy due to their public nature and delivery during a meeting also attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in China as part of a four-day state visit.Mr Loscher voiced widespread complaints about draft Chinese public procurement rules which are intended to support indigenous innovation, a policy foreign companies fear could shut them out of lucrative government contracts.
The Siemens boss also called on China to remove investment restrictions in certain sectors, reported German daily Handelsblatt. At present, foreign companies can be required to form joint ventures with Chinese companies when setting up shop in China, as exemplified by the Shanghai Volkswagen Automotive company. Mr Wen reportedly responded to the criticism by telling Mr Hambrecht to calm down, insisting that China remained committed to opening its economy.Currently there is an allegation that China's investment environment is worsening. I think it is untrue, Mr Wen said.But the comments from two of Europe's leading industrialists come on top of a recent survey by the EU's chamber of commerce in China which showed that foreign executives hold an increasingly gloomy outlook regarding China's regulatory setup.The increasing fears of discrimination led the EU chamber's president Jacques de Boisseson to suggest firms may even consider pulling out of China altogether.
Nobody should take for granted that European companies will continue investing whatever the business environment,said Mr De Boisseson.
Ashton eyes October for decision on top jobs
ANDREW RETTMAN 16.07.2010 @ 09:24 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton is to shortly unveil the names of 31 new heads and deputy heads of EU delegations. But the 10 top jobs in the European External Action Service (EEAS) are to be doled out in October.
The British baroness is currently conducting interviews with the final two or three candidates for each of the 31 diplomatic posts and will announce the results en bloc before the EU's summer recess.The most prestigious placements are Brazil, China, Japan and South Africa. The list also covers several strategically-important missions such as Bosnia, Chad, Georgia, Haiti, Iraq, Lebanon and Pakistan. Member states that are too small to compete for the 10 first-tier EEAS jobs, or which are ineligible for other reasons, such as Belgium, which already has EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy, will be looking to the diplomatic postings as a consolation prize.Personal merit will also play a role. She [Ms Ashton] knows the EEAS will stand or fall on the quality of heads of mission. The first generation of EEAS heads of mission will have a big job to do to give the service credibility, a senior EU diplomat said.Ms Ashton plans to advertise the top 10 posts after EU foreign ministers sign off on the legal blueprint for the EEAS on 26 July. But she will be unable to make the appointments until EU institutions clear the 2010 salaries budget for the new body - worth €9.5 million - in a move expected in September.The 10 posts are the EEAS secretary general; two deputy secretary generals; an official in charge of budgets and personnel; the chair of the Political and Security Committee (PSC); the head of the SitCen intelligence-sharing bureau; and four directors general (DGs). One DG will handle a thematic directorate handling issues such as human rights and UN relations. The others will each take charge of a geographic directorate, splitting the globe into industrialised countries, developing countries and a final set including post-Soviet states, the Western Balkans and the Middle East. Another 10 or so second-tier posts will come up for grabs at the same time.Ms Ashton is considering a classic EU recruitment process consisting of joint interview panels with member states, EU commission and Council officials. But due process is likely to be outweighed by political considerations. Member states have been lobbying vis-a-vis Ms Ashton from day one. She has a pile of papers on her desk proposing candidates, a contact in her inner circle told this website.
The constellation of names will keep changing over the summer. But as things stand, the French ambassador to the US, Pierre Vimont, is interested in the secretary general post, worth €216,000 a year. France is also fishing for the PSC job for its current PSC ambassador Christine Roger. A French EU official, Patrice Bergamini, is already the temporary head of SitCen and may be reluctant to let go the reins.German EU official Helga Schmid is said to be a shoe-in for deputy secretary general. Berlin can expect little else - in the wider scheme of things, it already has the post of EU parliament secretary general and is in 2011 and 2012 expected to pick up the European Central Bank president, EU parliament president and EU Council secretary general jobs.Poland, with the support of other Visegrad states - the loose eastern alliance, is pushing its junior minister for Europe, Mikolaj Dowgielewicz, for the other deputy secretary general post. A Polish secret service officer, whose name is being kept out of the press for security reasons and who is currently chairing a temporary working group on EEAS counter-intelligence systems, could also emerge as a candidate for the SitCen post.Italian EU official Stefano Sannino is being talked about as a potential personnel and budgets chief. As for the other major countries, the UK already has Ms Ashton and most of her cabinet, while Spain is considered to have had its turn after Spanish diplomat Javier Solana spent 10 years as her predecessor. On top of this, the Spanish foreign ministry antagonised Ms Ashton by competing for power during the Spanish EU presidency.Smaller EU members are unlikely to give way softly to their big cousins, however. There's a theory that says if the big countries run the EEAS they will not want to make it too effective so that it doesn't encroach on their turf, a diplomat from one smaller EU country said.
Veteran Irish EU officials Catherine Day and David O'Sullivan are being talked about as alternatives for the personnel and budgets role. Romania is reportedly competing with Poland for the deputy secretary general job and Swedish PSC ambassador Olof Skoog is also a runner for the PSC president post.If Ms Ashton creates a new human rights supremo in the second tier of EEAS management, an Estonian EU official, Riina Kionka, could be in line for the role. The baroness has said several times she wants to see more women in high-level posts.
A few good men
In a final round of 2010 recruitment, Ms Ashton in the October to December period is also looking to hire 80-or-so extra diplomats to beef-up staff at strategic embassies, especially multilateral missions in Addis Abbaba, Geneva, New York and Vienna.When she cuts the red ribbon on the EEAS headquarters on 1 December, probably in the Triangle building or in the so-called Axis building in the Schuman roundabout area of the EU quarter in Brussels, it will house around 500 senior officials and their assistants, all shifted en masse from the commission and the Council. EEAS foreign delegations will employ a further 400-or-so people holding a diplomatic rank. Member states' diplomats will begin to feed into the service from 2011 onward, with the whole process of getting the EEAS on its feet causing much confusion in foreign ministries.Does the fact that I did not submit my candidature previously (before the European Parliament got involved in the process) mean I won't be able to do it now? ... Will the whole process start from scratch now that we have a new legal blueprint? Do candidatures have to be submitted within the framework of the foreign ministries diplomats belong to? one exasperated diplomat from a southern EU country emailed EUobserver asking for advice this week.
DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADE BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).
Mushrooming EU institutions cause unease amid era of national austerity
LEIGH PHILLIPS 16.07.2010 @ 17:45 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - There is a growing nervousness at the top of the European Commission at a threat to the very legitimacy of the European Union if the bloc's institutions continue their mushrooming while beyond Brussels, public spending is being slashed to the bone.Speaking to a group of reporters, one very senior commission official let rip about his frustration at the forward march of institutional expansion and how so many European actors appear to be blithely oblivious to the incongruence of their situation amid austerity everywhere else in Europe.Austerity measures at the moment have yet to really set in, but in the autumn, this is going to be tangible, with salary and social benefit reductions, pension cuts. People will begin to feel it, the official said on condition he would not be named.And people will look at us and say: How is it that they are immune, they keep growing when we are having to cut back? The number one issue should be to stop the mushrooming of the institutions. We don't need new institutions.There is a tendency to think every time there is a new problem, the EU can solve it with a new institution.We have to launch the new external action service, which involves additional costs; and the parliament wants more money. I was worried that the Van Rompuy taskforce would create a new institution,he continued, referring to the EU Council president's investigation into possibilities for greater economic governance of the bloc in the wake of the sovereign debt crisis.What was stopped, fortunately, was the creation of a eurozone secretariat, pushed by the French. The idea is still flying about though. Economic governance should be about finance ministers working more closely together, not creating yet another institution.As it is, the administrative costs of setting up the new European Systemic Risk Board and three new economic supervisory bodies overseeing the banking, insurance and securities sectors amount to €15 million, which was less than some had feared.The EU's new foreign office and diplomatic corps, the External Action Service, was originally envisaged as being budget neutral.
But next year, the service would like to have more - new building security, VIP access. This is not wise in the present climate. This is precisely the kind of institution that will keep demanding more money,the official continued.In 2011, the administrative costs for all EU institutions will climb 4.4 percent, with the total amounting to €8.3 billion out of the bloc's budget.The admin costs of the commission itself will rise slightly less, on 2.9 percent, with the total costs amounting to €3.7 billion.The cost rises from other institutions including the European Parliament, the Committee of the Regions, the Economic and Social Committee, the European Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors and the various agencies will come to 4.8 percent, with the total costs amounting to just over €3 billion.Particularly incongruous at a time when, for example, earlier this year, Romania had attempted to slash pensions across the board by 15 percent before the country's top court struck down the measure as unconstitutional, the cost of EU pensions will rise 6.9 percent next year, with the total cost amounting to €1.275 billion, coming mainly from the cost of people heading into retirement.Most embarrassing of all, the cost of the European Schools, the nursery, primary and secondary schools providing high-quality free education to the children of EU civil servants, will grow a full 12.5 percent, with the total amounting to €174 million.In proportion to the administrative costs of member states, he stressed, these figures are actually not that high, but the divergent fiscal paths of the EU institutions and the member states has not gone without notice in some national capitals.In early July, the European Central Bank, the ne plus ultra of fiscal austerity taskmasters, warned Bucharest in a letter against the government's plans to slash the pay of employees of the country's central bank by 25 percent, making the bankers appear to be looking after their own while leaving it for everyone else to tighten their belts. The political class of Europe is getting really frustrated with the EU institutions. They should show some restraint, they say. They are growing at a time of national austerity. And they are right.Inside the commission, people are slowly coming around to this view as well, because there is a growing recognition that the credibility, the legitimacy of the institutions is at stake.We should liquidate some institutions, otherwise we could in late 2011 be forced to do so, he said, predicting then as the date by which austerity will truly be biting.We need to show some measure of restraint at least, a gesture, such as doing away with the parliament's Strasbourg seat, he said.
The French city of Strasbourg is the official seat of the European Parliament and its secretariat is in Luxembourg, but most work is done in the parliament's buildings in Brussels and the cost of the travelling circus shuttling between the three cities in 2011 will come to an estimated €240 million over what would be spent for a single location. France however has consistently called the move to a single seat non-negotiable.We should also shut down the Economic and Social Committee and Committee of the Regions, he added, referring to the two institutions that represent the interests of EU subnational regions and employers and workers. Both have only consultative rights in the EU legislative process. In German, such institutions are referred to as Tintenburgen, or Ink Castles, producing a mountain of reports that few people pay any attention to.These institutions were born when the parliament had no power, was not a factor. Now this is a duplication. There is no real need for these bodies.Europe needs a bit of masochism, he joked.
Netanyahu Digs in on Conversion Law
by Hillel Fendel JULY 19,10
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said, I will not lend my hand to any legislation that will cause a split in the Jewish People. The Chief Rabbi has said that not passing the bill will cause the split.The reference is to a bill that passed in the Knesset Law Committee last week, after having previously passed its first reading in the full Knesset, regulating the conversion of non-Jews to Judaism.
The bill is championed by Law Commmittee Chairman MK David Rotem, a religious observant member of the Israel Our Home party. It makes it technically easier to convert to Judaism in Israel, but stipulates that this must be done under the auspices of the Chief Rabbinate and according to Jewish Law.
How to Define Split
Both opponents and supporters of the bill threaten that if their view is not accepted, a split in the Jewish People is likely to result - but they appear to have different definitions of the word split. When Netanyahu said at the Cabinet meeting on Sunday that the bill's passage would cause a split, he meant that Reform and Conservative Jews would be angered and resentful at having their own conversions to Judaism not recognized.However, Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar explained that the split to be caused if the bill is not passed, and if Reform conversions are recognized in Israel, would be quite tangible. If the Supreme Court gives a green light to Reform conversions, Heaven forbid, the nation will be split in half,the Chief Rabbi said. Half the nation won't marry the other half. It's not a game. It's not just a social situation - it will literally tear the nation apart. And the ones who will lose the most will be those who don't observe the Torah and its commandments, because we simply will not be able to marry their children.Interior Minister Eli Yishai, leader of the Shas Party, and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's Israel Our Home party – which was established to aid new immigrants, mainly from the former Soviet Union – have formed an unlikely alliance on this issue. Yishai said that if the bill does not pass, “it will force [religious] families to keep family trees, and will lead to a deep split in the people. Not passing this law will lead to a grave spiritual danger for the Jewish nation.
Rotem Against Netanyahu
MK Rotem attacked the Prime Minister, saying, he is mistaken and is misleading others. This law does not divide the nation. It has nothing to do with conversions performed abroad. It rather comes to make it easier for new immigrants to convert here, adding courts and the like. Reform and Conservatives have been exerting pressures on everyone during the past two weeks, and suddenly Netanyahu gives in. He is the one who asked me to come to an agreement with the religious parties on conversion, and that is what I did. Now he forgets about all that, and opposes the law without even having read it seriously.Despite this, Rotem said that he will not raise the bill for a final vote in the Knesset unless Netanyahu supports it. If the bill is not voted on this week, it will have to wait until three months from now when the Knesset Members return from their summer recess.(IsraelNationalNews.com)
A Definitive Essay on the Laws of Conversion to Judaism
by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed JULY 19,10
Judaism's Positive Approach to Converts
The laws relating to Jewish converts are among the most astounding laws in the Torah. The Torah (Bible) teaches us clearly that any non-Jew who truly seeks to join the Jewish people may do so according to Jewish law, putting the lie to those who have called the Jewish people or their laws racist.The Nazis ruled out the possibility of joining the Aryan race.Jews who had converted to Christianity were viewed as Jewish in the eyes of the racist Nazis. This, however, is not the way of Judaism. In fact, if a German or an Arab should seek to join the Jewish People, even if he is the son of a fierce anti-Semite, he is accepted. Moreover, we are to love him more than other Jews, in keeping with the commandment to love the convert, for you too were strangers in the land of Egypt (Deuteronomy 10:19).
Relating to Converts
After a person converts to Judaism, he is like any other Jew. One must be more sensitive to his feelings than those of other Jews because of the extreme difficulties that he faces. It is not easy to leave one's people and one's home in order to join a nation with an ancient culture, shared history and rich tradition which is not easily absorbed even after many years of study.This explains why Jewish Law rules that whoever grieves the convert transgresses three Biblical prohibitions (Baba Metzia 59b). First, it is written Do not grieve one another (Leviticus 25:17), which applies to all Jews, including the convert. Then the Torah adds two more specific laws against grieving the convert: You shall not wrong a stranger, nor oppress him; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt (Exodus 22:20), and If a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. But the stranger who dwells with you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself…(Leviticus 19:33-34).We are twice commanded to love the convert (Rambam, Hilchot Deot 6:4). Firstly, we must love the convert like any other Jew, as it is written, Love your fellow as yourself (Leviticus 19:18). And again, regarding the convert in particular, it is written, Love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt (Deuteronomy 10:19).The A-lmighty Himself loves the convert, as it is written, He loves the convert to give him food and clothing (Deuteronomy 10:18).
Conversion
Jewish law's attitude to conversion appears contradictory at first glance. There is enormous respect and love for the convert who has left his people in order to join the Jewish people; on the other hand, there is an attempt to dissuade him from converting.Howver, the reason that Judaism seeks to dissuade the convert is in order to be certain he sincerely wishes to join the Jewish people and that this is not just a passing phase.The Code of Jewish Law, Shulchan Aruch, rules (Yoreh Deah 268:2) that when a non-Jew comes before a rabbi and requests to convert, the rabbi must say to him: Why do you want to convert? Don't you realize how much the Jewish people suffer in this world? … Even today there is much anti-Semitism in the world, and many Muslims wish to do away with us. And all of this is because we are Jewish. So why do you want to join our suffering nation? … A non-Jew can also be righteous and can even reach a level of divine inspiration.If at this point the non-Jew changes his mind about converting, that is fine.However, if he says, Despite this, I desire to join you, he is immediately accepted, and the second stage of the conversion process begins. He is taught the fundamentals of Jewish faith, the prohibition against idolatry, and a number of other laws. Then he is told, You should know that so long as you are not Jewish, it is permissible for you to labor on the Sabbath and to eat pork or other non-kosher animals. When you convert, however, all of these things become forbidden, and if you violate the Torah you will be punished. If he agrees and accepts this upon himself, he is converted.
How Much Must the Convert Learn Before Conversion?
There is no need to teach a prospective convert the entire Torah. It is sufficient to teach him some of its foundations, and if he accepts them, he can convert, according to Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh Deah 268:2), which states: He is taught some of the minor commandments and some of the major commandments, and he is taught some of the punishments for violating the commandments,but, we do not overburden him and we are not overly strict with him.
The Essence of the Conversion
The essence of converting to Judaism is to accept commitment to the Torah and the commandments before a rabbinic court. The prospective convert is taught the fundamentals, and if he demonstrates a willingness to accept the rest, he is converted immediately, and thereafter continues to study and grow as a Jew.This practice has its source in a number of Talmudic anecdotes, the most famous one being the following from Tr. Shabbat 31a: A non-Jew once came before Shammai the Elder and said to him, I wish to convert, but I will only do so on the condition that you teach me the entire Torah while I stand on one foot. Shammai pushed him away, reasoning that it is impossible to teach a person the entire Torah on one foot. But the same individual came before Hillel the Elder, and Hillel agreed to convert him, telling him, That which is undesirable to you, do not do to your fellow. This is the entire Torah, the rest is all commentary.In other words, the idea that a person should not do to others that which he himself finds undesirable is the central idea of the Torah. Since there are many precepts that do not seem to be connected with this idea, it follows that in order to understand Hillel’s words, the convert must continue studying.Yet the law says that if a non-Jew is not ready to accept upon himself all of the commandments, it is forbidden to convert him. How, then, did Hillel convert this non-Jew who only knew about loving your fellow man? Hillel understood that this non-Jew had pure intentions, but lacked knowledge. He was certain that when it came down to it, he would continue to learn Torah and fulfill all of the commandments (Tosafot, Yevamot 109b). From here we learn that it is unnecessary to learn all of the Torah's laws before converting; it is sufficient that the rabbinic court reach the conclusion that the convert earnestly intends to join the Jewish people and accept upon himself the yoke of the Torah (Beit Yosef 268, end).However, if the rabbinic court accepts someone who does not intend to keep the commandments to begin with, this will cause great damage to the Jewish people, and in this regard the Sages said (Yevamot 109b): Evil will come upon those who accept [insincere] converts.
Conversion in Practice
In sum, two matters must be clarified by the rabbinic court before it can accept a convert: 1) Does the convert harbor ulterior motives? 2) Is the convert ready to accept the Torah and its commandments? When it is clear that the convert is sincere on both counts, the main part of the conversion process is complete, and the rabbinic court proceeds to the practical aspects of conversion. Just as the Jewish people entered a covenant with the A-lmighty by way of three acts - circumcision, ritual immersion, and sacrifice - so must the non-Jew who seeks to join us enter the covenant of the Jewish people via circumcision for men, ritual immersion, and sacrifice.As the Holy Temple does not exist today, conversion does not include sacrifice. However, regarding circumcision and ritual immersion, one who has not carried out these two acts is not a convert.
Accepting the Commandments
No other nation in the world possesses a concept resembling Jewish conversion. Many countries grant citizenship to immigrants, parallel to the idea of a 'ger toshav' in Jewish law. A ger toshav is a non-Jew who is permitted to live in the land of Israel on the condition that he keeps the Seven Noahide Laws and accepts Jewish sovereignty over the Land of Israel.An Italian who receives American citizenship remains Italian as well, but a convert to Judaism becomes Jewish in all respects - not only as far as citizens' rights are concerned, but also as far as absolute national belonging.Therefore, the foremost condition of conversion is that the convert accept upon himself the Torah. The Torah is essentially an expression of the national character of the Jewish people. The spirit of the Torah and the spirit of the nation are one. Just as the Jewish people became a nation by accepting the Torah at Mount Sinai, so must one who wishes to join the Jewish people accept upon himself the Torah as an individual before a rabbinic court.However, if after the rabbinic court becomes convinced that the convert's intentions are pure and converts him, the convert begins to neglect the Torah, he continues to be considered Jewish. Just as a Jew who does not yet observe all of the commandments of the Torah is nonetheless considered Jewish, so too, a convert who subsequently neglects the Torah remains Jewish.
Defining the Acceptance of the Commandments
As noted above, there is no need to teach a prospective convert all of the complexities of the law. He is taught the essentials, beginning with commandments relating to Jewish faith, and the prohibition of idolatry, then commandments teaching one how to behave toward others, and then the fundamental laws relating to the Sabbath, family purity, and kosher food.What if the convert is prepared in principle to accept the Torah commandments, but believes that now and then he will have to transgress some of the commandments? The eminent Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodinski (“The Achiezer”) holds that it is possible to convert such a person. This is because we relate to the acceptance of commandments in principle. In principle, the convert has agreed to take upon himself observance of the commandments, and it is only on occasion that he believes he will transgress.Although there are important authorities who disagree with this opinion, in practice, many follow the ruling of Rabbi Grodinski, and if it is clear to the rabbinic court that the convert accepts the commandments in principle, it is possible to convert him.A Reform or Conservative conversion is not valid at all because the convert in principle does not accept all of the commandments.(IsraelNationalNews.com)
Jews in France Connecting with Roots – via their Names
by Hillel Fendel JULY 19,10
A French organization named The Strength of the Name has been formed to help Jews change their French last names to their original Jewish ones.No one knows why it is happening precisely now, but some 30 French Jews have decided the time has come for them to restore their Jewish family names. Kim Willsher, reporting for the Los Angeles Times, writes that after World War II, French officials urged Jewish immigrants to change their names to better blend in with French society. Though they were not obligated, their experiences during World War II intimidated most of them into doing so.Thus, Benjamin Fajnzylber (Feinzilber) became Benjamin Fazel, the Rozenkopfs became the Rosents, the Frankensteins turned into Franiers, and the Wolkowiczs - the Volcots.Now, Michael Wolkowicz – a psychoanalyst and Associate Professor at the Universities of Paris , Tel Aviv, and Glasgow – is among the leaders of the new campaign to recover old Jewish names. The problem is that French law stipulates that though foreign sounding family names may be changed to those that sound more French-like, once they are changed, they are not permitted to be changed back again.Another leader of the drive is Celine Masson, also a psychoanalyst and a Professor at the University Paris-Diderot. She actually founded the La Force du Nom (The Strength of the Name) organization, together with French lawyer Nathalie Felzenszwalbe, whose family never changed its original name. Masson’s family was originally surnamed Hassan, before moving to France in the 1960s in a wave of Jewish immigration from Tunisia.French officials suggested making the name sound more French-sounding,Willsher reports, and while not forced to change, Celine Masson's father agreed to do so.
There was a lot of anti-Semitism in those days, Celine says. I was born a Masson, but the name means nothing. It carries no history, it says nothing about my family, my roots, where we came from.Jeremie Fazel, too – the grandson of Benjamin – has decided to try to change his name back to Feinzilber. His current last name doesn't feel right; it says nothing about my family or our history.Cyril Aslanov, Associate Professor of Linguistics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and expert on the history of Jewish and formerly-Jewish surnames, is also a leading member of the organization.Hundreds of thousands of Jews, most of them Holocaust survivors, arrived in France in the 1940s and 50s. Mainly poor and stateless, Willsher writes, and fearful of latent anti-Semitism in a country from which 76,000 Jews were dispatched to concentration camps, most were just grateful to be allowed to stay. There was no legal obligation for them to drop their family names, but they often were encouraged to do so.The Strength of the Name has submitted requests for name-changes to the State Council, which has said it will deal with them individually. Though the Strength of the Name people do not believe the law against restoring family names can be revoked, they are hoping that exceptions will be made for them, paving the way for many other Jews to restore their original names.Everyone needs to know where they come from,says Fazel. A family's name is part of the compass in life.
(IsraelNationalNews.com)
Landslides leave 20 missing in China
Mon Jul 19, 6:11 am ET
BEIJING – Landslides triggered by flooding left at least 20 people missing in a mountain village Monday, as workers repaired roads, reservoirs and evacuated hundreds of thousands while heavy rains continued lashing China.Rescuers searched for the missing in the village of Muzhu after days of rain sent hillsides tumbling through that and several other nearby villages in the central province of Shaanxi late Sunday, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.In nearby Sichuan province, a weekend of torrential rains left 23 dead and forced nearly 600,000 to evacuate their homes, Xinhua said.The death toll from summer storms is 146 with another 40 people still missing, mostly in regions along the Yangtze River Basin, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.Along the Yangtze, emergency crews worked to drain overflowing reservoirs and pile up sandbags to prevent flooding. Rising river waters also put to the test the massive Three Gorges Dam, which this week is expected to see its highest water level since completion, state broadcaster CCTV reported.The report said water flows in the Yangtze could match those of 1998, one of the worst flood years in the past six decades.
Flash floods stain Singapore's reputation as urban paradise
by Philip Lim – Sun Jul 18, 6:26 pm ET
SINGAPORE (AFP) – Singaporeans were salvaging cars, soaked belongings and damaged goods on Sunday after a third flash flood in two months submerged low-lying areas of the city-state.Shops and houses along posh Orchard Road were again hit by floods on Saturday after heavy rain overwhelmed the drainage system of the wealthy metropolis, which is often lauded for its excellent urban management.The flooding took place just before parliament was to debate the issue on Monday following public clamour for explanations for earlier floods, which are normally associated with neighbouring capitals like Manila and Jakarta.Residents in affected houses hauled out sodden furniture and opened windows and doors on Sunday after muddy water from overflowing canals receded.We never had floods like that, said Peter Wong, 49, a long-time resident in a row of houses in eastern Singapore invaded by calf-high floodwaters on Saturday.Everything was gone, the carpets as you can see are damaged, the bottom of all the sofa seats are still soaking wet now, after 24 hours. We had to replace a new fridge, the fridge is totally damaged, Wong told AFP.I'm trying to keep a cool head over this but it is frustrating. My life is disrupted, added the hotelier, who failed to take out insurance against acts of God like floods.The Straits Times said some restaurants lost live fish stored in tanks.A major highway was also closed for two and a half hours, while motorists and commuters had to be rescued from stranded vehicles, but there were no reports of major injuries.
Saturday's flash floods were the third since June 16.
Flash floods were a rare occurrence in Singapore until recently, with a climate expert interviewed by the Straits Times attributing the problem to regional weather phenomena such as Typhoon Conson and Indonesian squalls.Critics had blasted the Public Utilities Board (PUB) for not being prepared to handle the first two floods, while the department defending itself by saying abnormal weather conditions and clogged drains were to blame.The flooding issue has become so serious that the Singapore parliament is scheduled to address the problem when it convenes on Monday amid forecasts of more rain.
MUSLIM NATIONS
EZEKIEL 38:1-12
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW)and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE RUSSIA-MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.
ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
DANIEL 11:40-43
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south( EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) and the king of the north (RUSSIA AND MUSLIM HORDES OF EZEK 38+39) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.(JORDAN)
42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.
EZEKIEL 39:1-8
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.
JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
WW3 THE 3 WAVES THAT MARCH TO ISRAEL
AMOS 9:10
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.
DANIEL 11:40-45
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south( EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) and the king of the north (RUSSIA AND MUSLIM HORDES OF EZEK 38+39) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.(JORDAN)
42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA 2ND WAVE OF WW3) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)
45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.
REVELATION 14:18-20
18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
20 And the winepress was trodden without the city,(JERUSALEM) and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.(200 MILES) (THE SIZE OF ISRAEL)
The Third and Final Wave of WW3 is when all Nations march to Jerusalem, but JESUS bodily returns to earth and destroys them,sets up his KINGDOM OF RULE FOR 1000 YEARS THEN FOREVER.
2ND WAVE CHINA AND KINGS OF THE EAST MARCH TO ISRAEL
REVELATION 16:12
12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.(THIS IS THE ATATURK DAM IN TURKEY,THEY CROSS OVER).
DANIEL 11:44 (2ND WAVE OF WW3)
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)
REVELATION 9:12-18
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.(IRAQ-SYRIA)
15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.(1/3 Earths Population die in WW 3 2ND WAVE)
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand:(200 MILLION MAN ARMY FROM CHINA AND THE KINGS OF THE EAST) and I heard the number of them.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
WARS AND RUMURS OF WARS.
MATTHEW 24:6
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
MARK 13:7
7 And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.
New powers given to Russia's security agency
JULY 19,10
MOSCOW – The upper house of Russia's parliament has passed a bill granting expanded powers to the country's main security agency, a move that critics say echoes the era of the Soviet KGB.The bill, which now goes to President Dmitry Medvedev to be signed into law, would allow the Federal Security Service to issue warnings to people suspected of preparing to commit crimes against Russia's security.Human rights and democracy activists say this power could be used to intimidate government opponents and stifle protests.The security service is the main successor agency to the KGB.The bill was approved Monday by the upper house by a vote of 121-1. The sole vote against was cast by the house's speaker, Sergei Mironov, who said he had was apprehensive about the measure.
China seals oil port after spill By Chen Aizhu and Ben Blanchard - JULY 19,10
BEIJING (Reuters) – One of China's biggest ports, Dalian, shut on Monday after an pipeline explosion triggered a major offshore oil spill, forcing a refinery to cut processing and importers to divert cargoes elsewhere.The aftermath of the weekend fire could disrupt shipments of oil, iron ore and soy and add to pressure for stricter environmental standards in China, already reeling from a toxic copper mine leak in the south of the country which burst into headlines last week amid accusations of a cover up.The fire began on Friday while a crude oil tanker was being off-loaded.Nobody was hurt, but hundreds of firefighters battled for more than 15 hours to douse the fire, and state media said about 1,500 tonnes of oil had spilled into the sea, causing a 183 sq km (71 sq mile) slick, 50 sq km of which was severe.Of the 50 sq km area, 20 sq km had been cleaned up and 160 tonnes of oil had been collected by 6 p.m. (1000 GMT) on Monday the local government said in a statement. The clean up operation may take five days, it said, without giving a timeframe for the port.As many as six Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs), or 12 million barrels of crude oil, are set to be diverted, shipping sources said, possibly to South Korea or any one of another half dozen VLCC terminals in China.
Dalian's Xingang oil port is home to a 19 million-barrel strategic petroleum reserve facility, one of China's four state storage bases already in operation, as well as commercial storage run by CNPC and PetroChina that may be even bigger.It is also a transfer spot for two major refineries, Dalian Petrochemical Corp and WEPEC, both operated by PetroChina with a combined processing capacity of 600,000 barrels per day (bpd).PetroChina has set up a contingency plan to cope with one week's closure of the main oil port that receives crude shipments regularly and is also an export hub for gasoline and diesel.Industry sources are divided on how long the port will stay shut, with some estimating between seven and more than 10 days, but officials could not give a timeframe.PetroChina has started trimming refinery operations at one of the plants, the 200,000-bpd WEPEC, by several thousand tonnes per day.The port was sealed right after the explosion. We have a one-week contingency plan, but are hoping that the oil spill can be cleaned up as soon as possible, an oil executive said.The incident drew the attention of top Chinese officials, including President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and security chief Zhou Yongkang, who all issued statements and instructions during the blaze. But port officials did not show up at a news conference on Monday morning, a city government official said.Workers are using skimmers and dispersants to break up the oil slick and stop it spreading, the official China Daily said. The pollution is concentrated about 100 km (62 miles) offshore.By Sunday evening, about 7,000 meters of floating booms had been set up and at least 20 oil skimmers were working to clean the spill, the newspaper quoted local officials as saying.There are no residents within 3 km (1.8 miles) of the affected site, and little marine farming, the report added.
MARKET IMPACT EYED
While the main oil facilities at the port were not damaged, a Dalian-based shipping agent told Reuters that 80-90 percent of all the berths of Dalian port, which includes Xingang, were shut, including for iron ore and grain cargoes. Dalian customs authority has handled about 10 percent of China's soy imports so far this year, with $175 million worth arriving in May, the last month for which figures are available. We aren't sure yet how much of the port is closed or for how long it will be closed but if it isn't just confined to the Xingang area then the impact on soybean imports is going to be massive, said Li Qin, an analyst Capital Futures in Beijing. If the port is closed the volumes are bound to drop. Imports were actually rising in June and there are a huge number of orders that can't just be canceled or diverted to other ports.Other soy market participants played down the importance of the accident, saying many buyers were well supplied, and the port was already congested, so a few days more made no odds. Dalian Port, whose shares fell 5 percent, said the accident had not caused any direct damage to the oil terminal's main facilities, the impact being limited to ancillary facilities such as control systems, but it was still assessing the effect on its operations. Analysts played down comparisons with BP Plc's spill in the Gulf of Mexico and said PetroChina's parent, China National Petroleum Corp, could easily cover the damage costs.It's not going to be a major cost in the big scheme of things. It's going to be in the tens of millions of dollars, not tens of billions of dollars, said David Johnson at RBS, who estimated the cost at $50 million. The question is, who owns the oil in the tanker and whether the oil is insured. But some of them will have to pay the clean-up costs. The question is, who's going to be liable? It's like the BP story -- whose fault is it? (Additional reporting by Wee Sui-Lee in HONG KONG, Ruby Lian in SHANGHAI and David Stanway in Beijing; Luke Pachymuthu, Florence Tan and Naveen Thukral in SINGAPORE; Editing by Ramthan Hussain)
I WRITE NEWS ABOUT AND PUT NEWS ARTICLES ABOUT ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM PERTAINING TO BIBLE PROPHESY HAPPENINGS.JOEL 3:20 But Judah (ISRAEL) shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.(THATS ISRAEL-JERUSALEM WILL NEVER BE DESTROYED AGAIN)-WE CHRISTIANS ARE ALL WAITING PATIENTLY FOR THE PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE TO OCCUR.SO WE CAN GO TO JESUS AND GET OUR NEVER DYING BODIES.SO WE CAN RULE OVER CITIES OURSELVES.WHILE JESUS RULES FROM DAVIDS THRONE FOREVER IN JERUSALEM.
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- ELIJAH & MOSES PREACH 3 1/2 YEARS
- THE LAST GENERATION
- FROM NEBUCHADNEZZAR TO TODAY.
- ISRAEL-JERUSALEM TOGETHER FOREVER
- WW3 THE WAVES.
- EU'S 10 POINT PEACE PLAN.
- WAR IN HEAVEN REV 12
- 2024 CANADA PREDICTIONS.
- ISRAEL BIRD MIGRATION.
- 2-STRONG MAN BEHIND THE SPIRIT.
- ISRAEL DEFEATES ALL ENEMIES.
- I ASKED AI LEADER QUESTIONS.
- ISRAEL AND EUS HISTORY TO END OF TRIBULATION.
- ABORTION IS MURDER OF A GENERATION OF CHILDREN.
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