ROME (AP) — The United States and some European allies are edging closer to direct involvement in Syria's civil war with plans to deliver meals, medical kits and other forms of nonlethal assistance to the rebels battling President Bashar Assad.The U.S., Britain, France and Italy aren't planning to supply the Free Syrian Army with weapons or ammunition. But moves are afoot to significantly boost the size and scope of their aid to the political and military opposition. Such decisions could be announced as early as Thursday at an international conference on Syria in Rome.Britain and France are keen to give the rebels the means to protect themselves from attacks by Assad's forces, including Scud missiles fired in recent days against the city of Aleppo, U.S. and European officials say.Assistance could mean combat armor, vehicles and other equipment not deemed to be offensive, the officials said. It could include training in battlefield medical care and the protection of human rights, they said.For now, the Obama administration is advancing more modestly. It is nearing a decision whether to give ready-made meals and medical supplies to the opposition fighters, who have not received direct U.S. assistance.U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was expected to announce the new contributions at the Rome conference, in addition to tens of millions of dollars intended for rule of law and governance programs.The shifts in strategy are part of a step-by-step process that could lead to direct military aid to carefully screened members of the Free Syrian Army if the nearly 2-year conflict continues. Some 70,000 people have died in the fighting.The European Union last week renewed an arms embargo against Syria for three months. But foreign ministers made clear that the decision could be reviewed while they look at ways to increase pressure on Assad to leave.Washington has provided $385 million in humanitarian aid to Syria's war-weary population and $54 million in communications equipment, medical supplies and other nonlethal assistance to Syria's political opposition. The U.S. also has screen rebel groups for Turkey and American allies in the Arab world that have armed rebel fighters.No U.S. dollars or provisions have gone directly to rebels. That decision reflects concerns about forces that have allied themselves with more radical Islamic elements since Assad's initial crackdown on peaceful protesters in March 2011.Kerry said Wednesday in Paris that both the U.S. and Europe want a negotiated solution to the crisis and would speak to the leaders of the Syrian National Coalition about that. He also said the world must be prepared to do more to support the rebels and he accused Assad's government of engaging in "criminal behavior.""We want their advice on how we can accelerate the prospects of a political solution because that is what we believe is the best path to peace, the best way to protect the interests of the Syrian people, the best way to end the killing and the violence," he said at a news conference with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius."That may require us to change President Assad's current calculation," Kerry said. "He needs to know that he can't shoot his way out of this. And so we need to convince him of that, and I think the opposition needs more help in order to be able to do that."Fabius offered a similar assessment.
"The situation is unbearable and we need to find the means to a transition and for Assad's departure," he said. "We agree all of us on the fact that Mr. Bashar Assad has to quit."Britain's Foreign Office also said it would increase its support for Syria's opposition.The possibility of a sudden change in U.S. strategy comes as President Barack Obama begins a second term and Kerry succeeds Hillary Rodham Clinton as the top U.S. diplomat.Freed from the constraints of a re-election campaign, administration officials say there is greater leeway now for new approaches than last year, when Obama rebuffed a plan by Clinton, then-CIA Director David Petraeus and then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to arm the Syrian rebels.The administration remains cautious, officials say, and is resisting European pressure to expand military aid to include the kind of items that Britain and France are considering.Few Americans want to see their country dragged into another war of complicated loyalties and sectarian rivalries in the Muslim world, a little more than a year after leaving Iraq and with 66,000 U.S. combat troops still in Afghanistan.Administration officials say they don't have enough assurances that rebel units under the sway of Islamic fundamentalists won't turn their weapons on Israel or other U.S. allies and fragile states in the region.Lebanon is torn by some of the same internal sectarian divisions as Syria and Jordan is struggling with its political reform path.Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, warned on Wednesday that a victory by Syrian rebels would lead to more fighting in Iraq and a new haven for al-Qaida.Greater instability in any of Syria's neighbors would pose a whole new set of problems.Still, officials said the U.S. was considering a gradually upgraded involvement in Syria to bolster moderate forces within the rebel ranks and help the fledgling political opposition win greater backing among Syrians, especially minority groups that have remained largely loyal to Assad and his government.
Debate within the administration on how best to accomplish these goals has increased in recent months as diplomatic efforts have failed to end the war. The Syrian opposition insists that only weapons, intelligence support and other forms of military aid truly can tip the balance.U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, urged the administration to consider lethal aid."We should want the best organized, the best equipped and most dominant groups in the opposition to be groups that are friendlier to our national interests," Rubio, a Florida Republican, said Wednesday at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
The position is similar to one Kerry held as a senator, and one he reminded reporters of this week when he proposed the creation of opposition safe zones and suggested providing rebels with U.S. weaponry.

But in his first month as secretary of state and on his first official trip overseas, the 2004 presidential candidate has been vaguer."We have a lot of ideas on the table, and some of them, I am confident, will come to maturity by time we meet in Rome," Kerry said this week. "Others may take a little more of a gestation period, but they're no less part of the mix and part of the discussion."What I can tell you is we are determined that the Syrian opposition is not going to be dangling in the wind wondering where the support is or if it's coming, and we are determined to change the calculation on the ground for President Assad."

__Klapper reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Kenneth Thomas in Washington, Sylvia Hui in London, and Silvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels clashed Thursday with government forces around a historic 12th century mosque inside the walled old city of Aleppo, activists said.The rebels won new support from the Obama administration. The U.S. pledged an additional $60 million in assistance and — in a significant policy shift — will for the first time provide nonlethal aid like food and medical supplies.U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced the new support and the decision to back the rebel fighters on the sidelines of an international conference on Syria in Rome, where European nations were also expected to signal their intention to provide fresh assistance to the opposition, possibly including defensive military hardware.The rebels have made a number of strategic gains in northern Syria in recent weeks, including the capture of a hydroelectric Dam and some military bases. They have also launched attacks deep in the heart of Damascus, President Bashar Assad's seat of power.But at the same time, the opposition has grown more critical of the international community, accusing it of not providing adequate support.In Aleppo, a key battleground in the civil war, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there were clashes around the 12th century Umayyad Mosque in the walled old city with rebels controlling part of it and government troops holding another part.The Observatory, which relies on reports from activists on the ground, also said rebels continue to battle troops for control of a police academy west of Aleppo.Rebels launched an offensive on Aleppo, Syria's largest urban center and its commercial capital, in July 2012.In months of street fighting, opposition fighters have slowly expanded the turf under their control. The fighting has left much of the city in ruins, and caused damage to its rich archaeological and cultural heritage.The Umayyad Mosque, also known as the Great Mosque of Aleppo, sits near a medieval covered market in the Old City, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The mosque was heavily damaged in October 2012 just weeks after a fire gutted the old city's famed market. Clashes at the historic site have raged for days.Fighting also intensified in the outskirts of Aleppo around a police academy that has recently emerged as a new front in the battle for the city.The police complex includes educational facilities for recruits and several army outposts to protect it. Anti-regime activists say the government has turned the facility into a military base, using it to shell opposition areas in Aleppo's countryside as well as rebel-held neighborhoods inside the city.In the central city of Homs, state media reported a car bombing with some casualties and extensive material damage.State-run SANA news agency said the car bomb was detonated by terrorists, a term the regime uses for rebels. It did not say how many people were killed in the blast.An official in the Homs governor's office told The Associated Press that the city was hit by two explosions, killing four people and injuring at least six. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.He said some of the injured are in critical condition.In Rome, Kerry is meeting Syrian opposition leaders and their Western backers in a bid to bolster Assad's political opponents and speed up his ouster.The U.S. and its European allies have been reluctant to arm the opposition fighters on the ground for fear the weapons could end up in the hands of Islamic militants, battling Assad's troops among the rebels.So far, the U.S. has largely limited its assistance to the Syrian opposition to funding for communications and other logistical equipment.___Associated Press writer Albert Aji contributed to this report from Damascus, Syria.

Diplomats urge EU to block Jerusalem settlements

By KARIN LAUB | Associated Press – 21 hrs ago FEB 27,13

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Nearly two dozen European diplomats have urged the EU to intensify efforts to block Israeli settlement in and near Jerusalem, saying such construction on occupied lands is the "single biggest threat" to a Mideast peace deal, according to an internal report Wednesday.The diplomats also said the EU must ensure that aid to Israel and preferential trade agreements don't inadvertently benefit settlements, according to the report obtained by The Associated Press.They recommended that the EU "prevent, discourage and raise awareness" of direct investments by European companies in settlements, but did not elaborate.While the recommendations are non-binding, the report, endorsed by 22 heads of mission posted in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, reflects Israel's growing international isolation over the settlement issue.President Barack Obama confronted Israel over settlements early in his first term, but then backed off, and it's not clear if he will make another serious attempt to pressure Israel in his second term.

Israel built dozens of settlements after capturing the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in 1967. More than half a million Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, complicating efforts to partition the land under a future peace deal. Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005."Settlement construction remains the single biggest threat to the two-state solution," the report said, portraying the policy as "systematic, deliberate and provocative."Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said he had not seen the EU report, only what was published in the media. "The mission of a diplomat is to build bridges, not to foster confrontations," he said. "The EU consuls have therefore failed miserably in their mission."The issue of settlements must be addressed in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Palmor said.The Palestinians have said they will not resume negotiations unless Israel freezes settlement construction on lands they claim for their state, including the Gaza Strip, where Israel no longer has settlements.Palestinians have negotiated in the past while settlement expansion continued, but said they are no longer willing to engage in open-ended negotiations they suspect largely serve Israel as a diplomatic cover for tightening its grip on occupied lands through settlements.The EU report singled out Israeli policies in east Jerusalem, particularly several major settlement projects being planned there.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has often come out against dividing Jerusalem. Israel annexed the eastern sector, sought by the Palestinians as a capital, weeks after capturing it in the 1967 Mideast war, a move not recognized internationally. Beyond its greatly expanded borders of Jerusalem, Israel has not annexed West Bank territory.The EU report said Israel approved an unprecedented number of settlement plans in and near east Jerusalem in response to the Palestinians' successful bid in November to win U.N. recognition for a state of Palestine in the occupied lands.If the current pace of settlement building on Jerusalem's southeastern flank continues, "an effective buffer between east Jerusalem and Bethlehem (in the West Bank) may be in place by the end of 2013, thus making the realization of a viable two-state solution inordinately more difficult, if not impossible," it said.
The consuls recommended that the EU intensify efforts to "counter settlement activity" in and near east Jerusalem and make sure EU aid programs don't inadvertently benefit settlements. They also proposed developing voluntary guidelines for EU tour operators to prevent support for settlement businesses in east Jerusalem.It remains unclear what impact the report will have. The recommendations have not been endorsed by the EU, and the European bloc in any case plays only a supportive role in U.S.-led international efforts to broker an Israeli-Palestinian deal.___Associated Press writer Mohammed Daraghmeh contributed.

Jordan sees new surge in Syrians fleeing civil war

By DALE GAVLAK | Associated Press – Wed, Feb 27, 2013

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — A Jordanian official says there is a new surge in Syrians fleeing across the border to Jordan as fighting intensifies in southern Syria.A government spokesman for Syrian refugee affairs told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Jordan now hosts 418,529 Syrian refugees.Anmar Hmoud says 2,490 Syrians crossed into Jordan overnight, with the numbers averaging about 3,000 per night in recent days.

By the end of March, Jordan could have as many as half a million Syrian refugees.Some of those coming through unofficial border crossings find shelter in Jordan's Zaatari camp, now home to more than 105,700 refugees. Many more live among Jordanian families.The camp has seen sporadic violent protests over its harsh desert conditions.The U.N. says there are nearly 925,000 Syrians displaced throughout the region.

Rights group: Tamil suspects raped by government

By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI | Associated Press – Tue, Feb 26, 2013

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — An international human rights group alleges Sri Lankan security forces continue to use torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence against suspected members of the Tamil Tiger rebels and their supporters, nearly four years after the end of the country's civil war. The military denied the allegations.In a report released Tuesday, New York-based Human Rights Watch said that although the decades-long war ended in May 2009, politically motivated sexual violence against suspects in custody continues to this day. It called for an international investigation into the practice."Sri Lankan security forces have committed untold numbers of rapes of Tamil men and women in custody," said Brad Adams, the group's Asia director."These are not just wartime atrocities but continue to the present, putting every Tamil man and woman arrested for suspected LTTE involvement at serious risk," Adams said, using the acronym for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the formal name of the rebels.The violent 26-year war saw ethnic minority Tamil rebels fighting for their own homeland against troops from the Sinhalese majority government. More than 100,000 people were killed on both sides before the government crushed the rebels with a bloody push into rebel-controlled northern areas. A U.N. report has said tens of thousands of civilians were killed in the final five months of fighting alone.The rebels themselves have been accused of widespread atrocities, including holding civilians as human shields, using child soldiers and killing people who tried to leave areas under their control.The report comes as the United Nations Human Rights Council is set to discuss Sri Lanka's alleged wartime abuses at its annual meeting in Geneva this week. The United States has said it will introduce a resolution at the meeting urging a full accounting of what happened at the end of the war.Military spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya rejected Human Rights Watch's allegations, saying they lack credibility. He called them "fabricated allegations" and "good creative writing."The 41-page report, titled "'We Will Teach You a Lesson': Sexual Violence against Tamils by Sri Lankan Security Forces," provides detailed accounts of 75 cases of alleged rape and sexual abuse that occurred from 2006-2012 in both official and secret detention centers throughout Sri Lanka.Human Rights Watch said most of the victims spoke to them outside of Sri Lanka, and it corroborated their accounts with medical and legal reports. Because Human Rights Watch was not able to openly conduct research in Sri Lanka or interview people still in custody, it said the cases in its report likely represent only a tiny fraction of custodial rape in political cases.

It said many of the cases followed a pattern of an individual being abducted from home by unidentified men, taken to a detention center, and abusively interrogated about alleged activities of the rebels. It said men and women reported being raped on multiple days, often by several people, with the army, police, and pro-government paramilitary groups frequently participating.The victims also described being beaten, hung by their arms, partially asphyxiated, and burned with cigarettes. None of those who spoke to Human Rights Watch had access to legal counsel, family members or doctors while they were detained, the group said.

Wanigasooriya, the military spokesman, said there had been no cases of rape or sexual harassments as described in the report."If there are proper complaints with the relevant authorities, the army is ready to investigate them," he said.He said security forces rescued 300,000 civilians during the war and have resettled them, while another 12,000 ex-rebel combatants have been rehabilitated."None of these persons have come with a complaint of this nature. This is another lie the Human Rights Watch has released," he said.

Last week, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay faulted Sri Lanka for failing to properly investigate reports of atrocities during the war, and said government opponents continue to be killed and abducted."The government's response to allegations of sexual violence by its security forces have been dismissive, deeming them as 'fake' or 'pro-LTTE propaganda,'" Adams said in a statement Tuesday. "It's not clear who in the government knew about these horrific crimes. But the government's failure to take action against these ongoing abuses is further evidence of the need for an international investigation."

DRUG PUSHERS AND ADDICTS

1 PET 5:8
8 Be sober,(NOT DRUGED UP OR ALCOHOLICED) be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

REVELATION 18:23
23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries (DRUGS) were all nations deceived.

REVELATION 9:21
21 Neither repented they of their murders,(KILLING) nor of their sorceries (DRUGS AND DRUG PUSHERS), nor of their fornication,(SEX OUTSIDE MARRIAGE OR PROSTITUTION FOR MONEY) nor of their thefts.(STEALING)

Support for legalizing pot in California hits new high: survey

By Eric M. Johnson | Reuters – FEB 28,13

(Reuters) - A record but still narrow majority of California voters, or 54 percent, favor legalizing marijuana for personal, recreational use with restrictions like those placed on alcohol, a poll showed on Wednesday.

California was the first of 19 states and the District of Columbia to legalize pot for medical use, doing so in 1996, although voters rejected efforts to legalize the drug for recreational use in 2010.But support for legalizing pot, which the federal government considers an illegal narcotic, appears to be growing in the U.S. West, where Colorado and Washington state last year became the first states to legalize its recreational use.

Roughly 54 percent of California voters surveyed by the non-partisan Field Poll supported legalizing pot, with support highest among residents of the San Francisco Bay Area. Another 43 percent opposed legalization.The support was the highest since the Field Poll first asked about pot legalization in 1969, when 13 percent of California voters were in favor. In 2010, the last time Field Poll asked voters about the issue, 50 percent favored legalization.Of the 834 registered voters polled, roughly 72 percent supported existing laws governing the California medical marijuana industry, one of the nation's largest. Some 67 percent opposed federal efforts to crack down on businesses operating therein.Additionally, 58 percent of voters polled said they would favor allowing dispensaries in their town or city, with stronger support in more liberal enclaves of the state, such as San Francisco and Los Angeles, the data show.The aging "baby boomer" generation with more laid-back attitudes about pot use was driving the increase in support for more relaxed marijuana rules, said Mark DiCamillo, the director of The Field Poll."They are basically replacing an older generation that was more opposed to legalizing marijuana," he said.Majorities of voters age 65 or older, Latinos age 40 or older, and Republicans oppose legalizing marijuana, the data show.The poll, conducted from February 5-17, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Tim Dobbyn)

Corporations urge Supreme Court to embrace gay marriage

By Lawrence Hurley and Aruna Viswanatha | Reuters – 16 hrs ago FEB 27,13

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 200 businesses on Wednesday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down a federal law that restricts the definition of marriage to heterosexual unions, in one of corporate America's most prominent efforts to support same-sex marriage.The companies signed on to a friend-of-the-court brief in Windsor v. United States, a high-profile case challenging the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). They ranged from technology giants Microsoft Corp and Google Inc to Wall Street financiers such as Citigroup Inc and Goldman Sachs Group Inc to vineyards and yogurt makers in California.

Thomson Reuters Corp, which owns the Reuters news agency, also supported the submission.The companies want the Supreme Court to void a key provision in the federal law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. They largely stayed away from constitutional arguments attacking the law and instead focused on the business nuisance the law created.DOMA forces employers to treat employees with same-sex spouses differently from those with opposite-sex partners, the companies said, depriving gay employees of certain healthcare and retirement benefits that may be on offer. The law also creates headaches for human resources officials, they said."HR departments would tell you it is a disaster trying to deal with DOMA when you are a large employer, because you have these employees who are legally married, but now you've got to put them in a different box for W-2s, for ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act), for retirement benefits, and it's really vexing," said Sabin Willett in an interview. Willett wrote the brief for his law firm, Bingham McCutchen, which handled the matter pro bono.
Separately, lawyers representing another group of employers, including some of the same companies, said they planned to file a brief on Thursday in a related case that questions a California law, known as Proposition 8, banning gay marriage.The two cases are to be argued before the Supreme Court on March 26 and 27. A decision is expected by the end of June.While corporate America has long offered domestic partnership benefits and made efforts to attract gay employees, the filing seemed to represent a new step in an effort to promote the issue."It is old news that big business is friendly to lesbian and gay unions," said Yale law professor William Eskridge, who has argued on behalf of gay rights. "But there has never been a business brief quite like this one with so many signatories on such a landmark issue," he said.A group of prominent Republicans, including former advisers to President George W. Bush, are also expected to file a brief challenging the California law, adding heft to backers of gay rights.The arguments appeared directed at Justice Anthony Kennedy, as a moderate and potential swing vote, to show the kind of wide support that exists, Eskridge said.
'HURTING BUSINESS'
The brief grew out of a previous effort to represent business interests in another case challenging the DOMA law, according to Willett.That case brought together some 70 companies that felt courts may not have understood the full business impact of the law."When people talk about DOMA, they usually, and rightly so, focus on its impact upon human beings ... but people may not realize, and courts may not realize, this thing is hurting business, too," Willett said.In the brief filed on Wednesday, the companies argued that DOMA "requires that employers treat one employee differently from another, when each is married, and each marriage is equally lawful."DOMA does not create any uniformity nationwide, they said, because 12 states either authorize same-sex marriage or recognize marriages that have been performed in other states.
That creates a burden for employers, particularly those who do business nationally, they added.The law also forces companies to discriminate, sometimes in contravention of their own internal policies and local laws, when dealing with healthcare plans and other benefits, the companies said.In briefs already filed in support of restricting marriage to heterosexual unions, business interests have not been represented. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has not taken a stand on the issue.(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley and Aruna Viswanatha; Editing by Howard Goller, Cynthia Osterman and Prudence Crowther)

EVENTS IN TIME (BIBLE PROPHECY LITERALLY FULFILLED)(BY GOD)

Thursday, February 28, 2013

POPE RATZINGERS LAST MESSAGE TO THE WORLD

Winds of change at Vatican pave way for new pope

Winds of change at Vatican pave way for new pope

Winds of change at Vatican pave way for new pope

Winds of change at Vatican pave way for new pope

LAST DAY AS POPE

Swiss Guards in central role in papal retirement

Pope Benedict pledges obedience to successor

Vatican goes into slo-mo until a new pope is picked

The Catholic Church has complex rules for what can -- and mostly what cannot -- be done when there's no pope.

Pope Set for Vatican Airlift as Cardinals Size Up Dossier

Preparing Conclave

‘Evil, Corruption’

Vatican Rebuke

Christ’s Life

Pope Benedict's last day: what happens now?

Pope Benedict XVI's historic departure on Thursday sets in motion a timetable of centuries-old traditions after he steps down in a resignation that is unprecedented in modern Catholic history. Here is what to expect in the coming weeks.

Benedict XVI: “I do not abandon the cross”

Benedict XVI’s last General Audience. The reasons for the Pope’s resignation and faith in the Catholic Church

PUTIN TELLS RUSSIA TO GET READY FOR FOREIGN THREATS

EU diplomats urge financial sanctions on Israeli settlers

Revealed: Arabs Behind 'Israeli Attack'

Lt. Gen. Obering: Iron Dome’s Lessons Learned

Eli Yishai concedes likely opposition role for Shas

Leader of ultra-Orthodox party says Lapid and Bennett, who appear poised to join Netanyahu, are driven by desire to ‘harm’ Torah

EU: financial tax should be used for development aid and climate

Russia's Putin tells army to shape up for foreign threat

US, Europe move to expand role in Syrian conflict

Syrian clashes reach 12th century Aleppo mosque

Diplomats urge EU to block Jerusalem settlements

Jordan sees new surge in Syrians fleeing civil war

Rights group: Tamil suspects raped by government

Support for legalizing pot in California hits new high: survey

Corporations urge Supreme Court to embrace gay marriage

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