OIL AT 77 DOLLARS A BARREL

1-500,000 evacuated in China as tropical storm hits. 2-Monsoon Rain kills 25 in Pakistan. 3-wildfires continue in California 4-Lava seen out of Volcano in Philippines. 5-Israeli Dm we will break Hizb'allah. 6-Un security council debates lebanon crisis. 7-Oil settles at $77.00 a barrel.

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

Half million evacuated as tropical storm hits China by Cindy Sui
Fri Jul 14, 9:21 AM ET

BEIJING (AFP) - More than half a million people have been evacuated as severe tropical storm Bilis hit southeast China after killing 14 people in the northern Philippines.The storm landed around midday in Fujian province's Xiapu county, Xinhua news agency said Friday, citing sources with Fujian's meteorological observatory. Over 256,000 evacuees, many of whom are seafood farmers and fishermen, were moved from their coastal homes in Fujian early Thursday, the Fujian water resources department website said.

Some 42,000 fishing boats were also directed back to harbor, Xinhua said. Another 260,000 people were evacuated from dangerous areas of neighboring Zhejiang province, according to the Zhejiang water resources department's website.The storm was
heading northwest at around 15-20 kilometers (10-13 miles) per hour and packing winds of up to 108 kilometers per hour near its center, Xinhua said.Fujian's education bureau ordered schools to suspend classes and cancel outdoor activities. All parks also were closed.

Passenger liners in the province had suspended services, and flights to Hong Kong and elsewhere have been cancelled while those to Beijing have been delayed, state television CCTV said.Fifteen rescue teams have been mobilized to rescue people who might be stranded, CCTV said.Television footage showed large waves craching on coastlines. In urban areas, residents continued to ride their bicycles and walk through flooded streets.The storm brought heavy rain to Fujian, with the provincial capital Fuzhou getting as much as 25 centimeters (10 inches) of rain from Thursday night, Xinhua said.Meanwhile, workers were checking reservoirs in preparation for
flooding due to the rain, Xinhua added.Nearby provinces were also bracing for the storm.

In Zhejiang, in addition to evacuating 260,000 residents, officials called 22,540 boats and ships back to shore as of Friday morning, the water department said.The storm brought strong winds to Zhejiang measuring 10-12 degrees on the Beaufort Scale on the sea and 8-10 degrees on land, said Xinhua.Bilis lashed the northern Philippines Thursday. The 14 victims were killed by falling trees, flashfloods and landslides, officials said.The storm also hit Taiwan after moving from the Philippines and before heading to mainland China.Taiwan's TVBS news channel reported that a soldier was killed by a falling tree in southern Pingtung county due to strong winds. Bilis also slightly injured two people in Taipei and caused some 3.64 million Taiwan dollars (113,750 US dollars) in damage to crops and flooded fields, authorities said. The storm is expected to reach China's Jiangxi province, just west of Fujian, late Friday.

Also due to weather conditions, Beijing's Capital International Airport (BCIA) decided to cut its domestic flights between July 15 to September 25 due to frequent thunder storms, the General Administration of Civil Aviation was reported saying Friday. The administration said a total of 584 flights will be cut, mainly those due to depart between 5:00 pm and 8:00 pm, when thunderstorms are most likely to occur, Xinhua said. BCIA is the busiest airport in China and accounts for one quarter of the country's flights.

Monsoon rains kill 25 in Pakistan Fri Jul 14, 7:40 AM ET

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - At least 25 people have died as torrential monsoon rains lashed Pakistan, flooding roads and disrupting communications in several cities. Six members of a gypsy family including two children were killed as they slept Thursday night when the sodden wall of a neighbouring house collapsed on them, police and newspapers said Friday.Three people were electrocuted in the eastern city of Lahore by poorly maintained powerlines, officials said.

Another six people died in house collapses in Punjab, while further casualties were reported from the province's rural areas, they said.A total of 25 people have died over the past two days, health ministry official Amir Arsalan said.About 170 millimeters (6.9 inches) of rain had fallen on Islamabad since Wednesday, meteorological officials said.The monsoon rains follow a scorching heat wave when temperatures neared 50 degrees celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in some areas, claiming dozens of lives.

REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

California wildfires may merge to one.

Washington - Two California wildfires moved closer to merging into a huge inferno Friday as authorities evacuated hundreds of residents from a valley east of Los Angeles. Up to 2,000 firefighters were working around the clock to contain the blazes, which have claimed more than 40 square kilometres of scrub and dry trees in the desert heat and winds of San Bernardino county, forestry officials said.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared the county a disaster area and residents were fleeing the hard-hit Morongo Valley. Firefighters had only 20 per cent of the wildfire area under control Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported. No one has died,
but the newspaper said the main fire has destroyed 45 homes and 100 other structures, and was threatening some 3,000 more. Both fires were set off Sunday by lightning.Among the threatened sites is Pioneertown, a 1946-vintage stage set for Hollywood Western movies, about 200 kilometres east of Los Angeles. © 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with 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 through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Lava seen oozing out of Philippine volcano Fri Jul 14, 1:12 PM ET

LEGASPI, Philippines (AFP) - Lava was seen trickling from the crater of Mayon volcano, raising fears that a dangerous eruption could be imminent, government vulcanologists said. Lava pieces steamed out of the crater,said an official of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), while stressing it was not yet a hazardous eruption.There is a possibility of a hazardous eruption if the volcano's activity increases, an institute official said.Officials said they were preparing to raise the third level of a five-step alert around the 2,462-meter (8,077-foot) tall volcano, indicating it could erupt within weeks if the trend of increasing unrest continued.A six-kilometer (3.75-mile) danger zone had been set around the volcano, which no one was to enter, Phivolcs said, adding that the lava flows should pose no threat to anyone outside the danger zone.

Residents in the city of Legaspi, close to the volcano, said that at about 6:00 pm (1000 GMT) Friday they could see glowing, red lava accumulating at the top of Mayon's crater.The volcano, about 300 kilometers (176 miles) southeast of Manila, last had a major eruption in July 2001, Phivolcs said.Over a thousand people are believed to have perished when the volcano erupted in 1814.

Israeli DM: We'll break Hizb'allah
Peretz says terrorist broke rules, now will be broken
By Ryan Jones,July 14, 2006

Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz Thursday said the Lebanese terror group Hizb'allah had broken the rules of the game by striking a major Israeli population center, and would now pay a price it had not expected.Following a Hizb'allah missile attack on the coastal city of Haifa, Peretz told reporters:We expected Hizb'allah to break the rules and now we are going to break them.Peretz hinted that Israel would also take action against those regimes that harbor and support Hizb'allah and its terrorist allies.

All sovereign regimes in the region must know that they too bear responsibility, and we have no intention of letting any element responsible for this crisis off the hook.The defense minister called on his countrymen to prepare for some difficult days as Israel fights to ensure the future security of the state.I say to Israel’s citizens: We may be in for a number of difficult days, but we must remain strong so that after this period is over we will not be in a position in which Israeli children and citizens are threatened by any element in the Middle East.Earlier in the day, Peretz got to experience the Hizb'allah threat up close when a meeting he was attending at IDF Northern Command Headquarters was interrupted by a Katyusha barrage in the area. Peretz was whisked away to a safe room under the base.

ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

JEREMIAH 30:7-8
7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.
8 For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him:

UN Security Council debates Lebanon crisis; US blames Iran, Syria by Giles Hewitt 2 hours, 26 minutes ago

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Lebanon has urged the UN Security Council to help end ongoing Israeli airstrikes on its territory, but received short shrift from the United States, which blamed the crisis on Iran and Syria. Eschewing any call for Israeli restraint, US Ambassador John Bolton said Friday the escalating violence in both Lebanon and the Gaza strip was a direct result of the killing and abduction of Israeli soldiers by the Hezbollah and Hamas militant groups.Syria and Iran must be held to account for supporting regional terrorism and their role in the current crisis, Bolton told an emergency Security Council meeting.Syria provides safe haven
for Hamas and provides material support for Hezbollah, which also maintains an active presence in Syria. Iran's extensive sponsorship and financial and other support of Hezbollah is well known and is ongoing for decades, Bolton said.

He called for the immediate disarmament and disbanding of all militias in Lebanon to allow the Lebanese government to extend and exercise sole and exclusive control over its territory.He also reiterated a call for Syria to arrest Hamas leader Khaled Meshal, who currently lives in Damascus.The special council debate had been requested by the Lebanese government as Israeli planes launched fresh attacks on Hezbollah's command headquarters in Beirut's southern suburbs.According to Lebanese police, more than 60 civilians have been killed since Israel began its offensive two days ago in retaliation for the capture of two soldiers and the killing of eight others by Hezbollah.

Lebanese representative Nouhad Mahmoud called on council members to make an immediate, clear decision calling for a comprehensive ceasefire, the lifting of the air and sea blockades imposed upon Lebanon and an end to the airstrikes.We are meeting in the shadow of a widespread barbaric aggression waged by Israel against my nation, Mahmoud said.Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, responded by calling Lebanon a breeding ground for terror and said Israel had no choice but to react to the attack on its soldiers and repeated rocket firing from inside southern Lebanon.Israel's reactions were a direct response to an act of war from Lebanon, Gillerman said. I believe that most members around this table, as well as many in this chamber, including our neighbours, realise this reality.

The Security Council was later expected to adopt a presidential statement voicing support for the three-man crisis team sent by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to the Middle East on Thursday to try to defuse the situation.The team, led by Annan's special political adviser, Vijay Nambiar, will begin its week-long mission in Cairo, meeting with Egyptian officials and Arab League foreign ministers.

They are then expected to travel to Israel, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Syria.The United States on Thursday had vetoed a UN resolution calling on Israel to halt military operations in Gaza, sparked by the June 25 abduction by Palestinian militant groups of an Israeli soldier.Bolton said the veto was a response to the unbalanced nature of the draft text, which he argued laid a disproportionate amount of blame on Israel for the current crisis.The Arab-backed draft resolution had condemned Israel's retaliatory assault and called for an end to military operations and the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops. Ten of the 15-member council voted in favour, while four abstained.

REVELATION 6:5-6
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

Oil prices settle at $77 a barrel By BRAD FOSS, AP Business Writer
31 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The price of oil briefly surpassed $78 a barrel Friday and finished 4 percent higher for the week after Israeli attacks against militants in Lebanon stoked fears of a wider Middle East conflict and possible oil-supply disruption. The run-up in oil raised concerns about inflation and the economy at large, sending stock prices tumbling.OPEC tried to reassure the market by stressing its commitment to order and stability, but at the same time said it has no influence over the geopolitical turmoil underlying today's volatility.Because oil accounts for more than 50 percent of the cost of gasoline, U.S. pump prices, now averaging $2.96 a gallon nationwide, are likely to climb some more, analysts said.

On Friday, light sweet crude for August delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange soared as high as a record $78.40 a barrel in electronic trading before settling at a record $77.03, an increase of 33 cents from Thursday's record close.Gasoline futures rose by 2.36 cents to settle at $2.3249 a gallon — the highest level since late September of last year, when U.S. refinery output was sharply curtailed by hurricane damage.In London, Brent crude futures gained 58 cents to settle at $77.27 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.We've reached a level where we've put all the scare premium into the market that we can, said James Cordier, president of Liberty Trading in Tampa, Fla. At this point, we have to have a disruption to move smartly higher from here.Cordier said that while fuel demand in the U.S. is still strong, rising energy costs appear to be dampening consumer spending in other areas and that could eventually slow the economy enough to help cool energy prices.

But there won't be any significant decline until at least the end of the summer, and that assumes that the Gulf Coast sustains no serious hurricane damage this year. Israel widened its offensive on Lebanon on Friday, with fighter bombers blasting the airport for a second day and cutting off the main highway to Syria. Hezbollah has fired more than 100 rockets into Israel. More than 80 people have died, most in Lebanon, in three days of violence sparked by the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah militants.While Israel and Lebanon are not major oil suppliers, the fear is that the conflict could expand in the region, which produces nearly a third the world's oil and has almost two-thirds of its untapped reserves.Iran has threatened to use oil as a weapon if the United Nations invokes sanctions in its dispute with Tehran over its nuclear program. While OPEC's No. 2 supplier has not raised the issue of withholding oil from the market in a sign of solidarity with Hezbollah, the possibility — while deemed unlikely — weighs on the market's psychology, analysts said.

I don't think we're done on the upside, said BNP Paribas Commodity Futures broker Tom Bentz, referring to the rise in oil prices. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries issued a statement in which it blamed geopolitical factors beyond its control for the recent price volatility. The group emphasized that the market is well-supplied with crude.Indeed, oil prices did not arrive at the doorstep of $80 a barrel overnight. The combination of rising global demand, limited excess production capacity and concerns about supply interruptions from Nigeria to the Gulf of Mexico have all played a part, analysts said. So, too, has the influx of billions of dollars into oil markets in recent years by hedge funds and other financial institutions angling for profits amid global instability.

Brent for August delivery at London's ICE Futures exchange, which expires at the close of trading Friday, jumped as high as $78.03, but then fell back to $77.46, up 77 cents.In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures fell less than a penny to settle at $2.076 a gallon and natural gas futures advanced 21.8 cents to settle at $6.347 per 1,000 cubic feet.