IRAN LAUNCHES MILITARY EXCERCISE

1-Stars born '12 billion years ago. 2-EU to play key role in humanitarian assistance, reconstruction in Lebanon. 3-Israeli Ambassador Tells Vatican that the Israeli-Lebanese Conflict Ended with no Victors . 4-Indonesia battles hundreds of forest fires. 5-Floods, storms claim 14 lives in central region. 6-Floods and tornadoes as freak storms batter Britain. 7-Iran launches massive military exercise.

GENESIS 1:14-16
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

GENESIS 15:5-6
5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

GENESIS 22:15-18
15 And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,
16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:
17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

EXODUS 32:13
13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.

So if GOD created the STARS 12 BILLION YEARS AGO and he says ISRAEL WILL INHERIT THE LAND FOREVER, ISRAEL AND ALL CAN BE ASURE THAT ISRAEL WILL OWN THE PROMISED LAND LIKE GOD PROMISED THEM FOREVER.

Stars born '12 billion years ago' Nicholas Read, Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, August 18, 2006

One of the greatest mysteries of the universe is close to being solved, thanks to a team of astrophysicists led by a University of B.C. astronomer.Harvey Richer and his colleagues from Canada, the U.S. and Australia have uncovered for the first time hard evidence of when the first stars formed -- roughly 12 billion years ago, or about 1.5 billion years after the universe began.

They did it by identifying and photographing the faintest stars ever seen by a human being.Richer's research, the details of which are published in the latest edition of Science magazine, involved examining a globular star cluster about 8,500 light-years away from Earth.Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope for five days, Richer and his team took hundreds of high-resolution photos of the cluster and, as a result of going through them pixel by pixel, determined its oldest stars. Stars so faint, Richer says, that it's like looking at a birthday candle on the moon.Because the fainter the star, Richer explains, the older it is.Stars are essentially masses of gas that react and explode. That's what gives them their luminosity.But stars, like birthday candles, burn out over time, although they do so at measurable rate.

These things are like cosmic clocks; they cool at a predictable rate, Richer said in a phone interview from Prague where he presented his research at a conference of the International Astronomical Union on Thursday. So what that means is that if we can measure the temperature [of the star], we can measure the age.And while Richer refused to give the precise age of the stars -- he and his team are still working on their exact calculations -- he can say they were formed roughly 12 billion years ago. By comparison, our sun, which he described as middle aged, is only 4.5 billion years old.However, the stars he examined are not the universe's first stars. Those are now gone, he says, burnt to a cosmic crisp.The stars he studied are the next generation of stars the Cain and Abel of the heavens. They are also among the oldest known stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, he said.Richer examined two kinds of stars: red dwarfs, which are reaching the end of their ability to react and explode; and white dwarfs, which are remnants of stars that died long ago. He likens the latter to spent white coals in a barbeque in that they're still hot but they don't cook any more.

By checking the temperatures of these smouldering coals, as it were, he was able to estimate how long ago it was that they were full-fledged stars.These stars, which died long ago, were among the first to have formed in the universe. Pinning down their age narrows down the age range of the universe.The first stars were born only when the universe was cool enough to accommodate the forces of gravity, says Richer about a billion years after the so-called Big Bang. Hydrogen and helium began to collide, causing explosions that generated light -- the first the universe had ever seen -- and produced as a byproduct all the other elements in the periodic table.In other words, they formed the building blocks of everything that exists in the universe today.You and I are star stuff, Richer says.The carbon and oxygen you're breathing now was at one point the interior of a star.
nread@png.canwest.com,© The Vancouver Sun 2006

DANIEL 7:23
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU) 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.(TRADING BLOCKS)

EU to play key role in humanitarian assistance, reconstruction in Lebanon

The European Union on Friday pledged to play a key role in humanitarian assistance and reconstruction in Lebanon. It also vowed to help find a political solution in the Middle East conflict. Finnish Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paula Lehtomaki, whose country holds the current EU presidency, made the pledge at a press conference in Helsinki. Lehtomaki returned Thursday from her Middle East tour. She visited Lebanon on August 14-16 and Israel on August 17 as the EU envoy.

Accompanying Lehtomaki was Louis Michel, the European commissioner for development and humanitarian aid. Lehtomaki said that people in Lebanon had started returning to their homes from the temporary camps immediately after the ceasefire came into force. The need for humanitarian assistance in southern Lebanon was enormous, she stressed.

The EU would be a leading force in the reconstruction process, Lehtomaki said, adding that the EU member states and the EU Commission had jointly pledged 115 million euros (147 million U.S. dollars) in humanitarian aid to Lebanon. Lehtomaki also told reporters that following the ceasefire, a comprehensive solution for the entire region must be found and that it was the only way to achieve lasting peace and sustainable development for the whole region. In devising a political solution, the situation of the Palestinians must not be forgotten, she added. Source: Xinhua

Israeli Ambassador Tells Vatican that the Israeli-Lebanese Conflict Ended with no Victors Posted on August 18, 2006

By The Universe: The bloody conflict between Israel and Lebanon has ended with no victor, the Israeli ambassador to the Vatican has said.However, Ambassador Oded Ben Hur added that the aftermath of the fighting offers an opportunity for the West and the Catholic Church to support moderate Muslims by helping to rebuild Lebanon and help the return of refugees.The ambassador also encouraged Church leaders to promote a new wave of pilgrimages to the Middle East, which he said would send a calming message and help restore normality in the region.We don't need to claim victory because there is no room for victory. Let (Hezbollah) claim victory. We would like to claim peace,said Mr Ben-Hur.We have a problem on a world scale, and we have to deal with it. The Western world should react with a relentless, unyielding war against terrorism, uprooting them, stopping all their financial sources and looking for them wherever they are.

He also added that the fighting had also opened the West's eyes to Hezbollah's activities as a state within a state. With a cease-fire in place, the country's legitimate government now has a golden opportunity to exert national sovereignty over its own territory, said Mr Ben-Hur.I think at this point it is extremely important to start with a new wave of pilgrimages to the Middle East, to send a pacifying, calming message to the whole world,he said.We know that the Christian community in the Middle East has always been a positive, bridging factor between populations, and we would like to see this happening again.He also said the assistance Christian communities offered to many Muslim refugees during the Lebanese fighting should help Lebanon remain a model of Christian Muslim coexistence.

The greatest Christian response to the Muslim threat will be to show the force of good over evil, to embrace this area,he said.Israel, the ambassador said, has already invited the pope to visit the Holy Land, and Ben-Hur said his understanding was that the pope had intended to make the trip in 2007.We hope that it's still on,he said. We hope the church itself will help create the conditions for his coming,he said.

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.

Indonesia battles hundreds of forest fires

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Firefighters battled hundreds of forest fires on the Indonesian island of Borneo Friday, as haze blanketed at least two cities in the region, officials said.There are fires burning all over farmers' land,said Yohannes Sudarto, a forestry ministry official coordinating firefighting efforts in Central Kalimantan, a province on Borneo island.He said that 45 firefighters were trying to put out the fires, but were struggling because in many places they had no access to water.It is difficult in several places where there is no water, and it's far from rivers, what we need is mobile tanker,Sudarto told AFP from Central Kalimantan's capital,Palangkaraya.

He said firefighters in areas without a water source were using shovels and brooms to fight the blazes.Thick haze covered parts of Palangkaraya and outlying rural areas, said Sudarto.In West Kalimantan, the regional capital Pontianak was shrouded in haze, with visibility down to 50 metres (164 feet) at 0100 GMT, reported state television TVRI.Local police were shown attempting to put out hundreds of fires in the province. TVRI said the province recorded 1,200 hot spots on Friday.In Central Kalimantan, 30 firefighters were attempting to control fires raging across around 50 hectares (123.5 acres) of forest, said Ahmad Yani, a forestry department official.

An official in Jakarta said complete figures for the number of hotspots for Borneo and Sumatra islands on Friday were not available, but on Thursday there were more than 900 hotspots across three provinces in Kalimantan.Burning in Indonesia and some parts of Malaysia to clear land for crops causes an annual haze that typically afflicts Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand as well as Indonesia itself.The government has outlawed land clearing by fire but weak enforcement means the ban is largely ignored.© 2006 ANTARA

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun,(OZONE DEPLETION) and in the moon,(MAN ON THE MOON) and in the stars;(JUPITOR BOMBARDED) and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) 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.(GLOBAL WARMING)

Floods, storms claim 14 lives in central region
14:40' 18/08/2006 (GMT+7)

The death toll in the central region has climbed to at least 14 after floods devastated homes and destroyed coastal communities.

Yesterday, Hanoi residents experienced the heaviest rain of the wet season. Statistics released by the Central Steering Committee for Storm and Flood Control on Tuesday show that Binh Thuan Province has suffered the highest number of fatalities at seven. Most were fishermen swept away by the floods. Nghe An Province has reported four victims, two of which were struck by lightening.

Quang Tri, Dac Lac and Lam Dong provinces all reported at least one person missing. The victim in Lam Dong is a 16-year-old boy, a resident of Cat Tien District, who went missing after being swept away by flood waters while on his fishing boat. The floods, triggered by prolonged downpours, have also injured seven people in provinces in the central and southern regions.

The committee said that nearly 7,000 homes were destroyed and more than 1,600 people evacuated.The committee also warned of shortages of safe drinking water after more than 2,600 wells were submerged.The floods have eroded 8,000cu.m of rock and soil and have blocked traffic on hundreds of kilometres of road.The initial loss has been estimated at VND125.5bil (US$781,000).Authorities from the Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) Province of Dak Nong said yesterday that heavy rains caused a serious landslide on kilometre 20 of National Highway 28 on the Quang Khe Pass, after a hill collapsed into an abyss.The province has temporarily banned vehicles from the area.In Da Lat City in Lam Dong Province, dozens of trees fell during violent storms, risking lives and buildings. The National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said that while water levels in rivers in the central and southern central provinces were receding, water levels in the northern central provinces of Thanh Hoa and Ha Tinh continued to rise.Yesterday, Hanoi residents experienced the heaviest rain of the wet season.A three-hour downpour in the morning flooded streets across the city, resulting in traffic congestion. Weather forecasters said the northern region would continue to experience heavy rains in many parts and urged residents in mountainous areas to take precautions against flash floods and landslides.

Missing fishermen

High waves sank nine boat fishing offshore Kien Giang Province in the south, said deputy head of Phu Quoc District's Storm and Flood Control Department, Nguyen Hong Cuong. At least three fishermen were reported missing. Local fishermen also discovered a body in the water near Tho Chau Island in Kien Giang.(Source: Viet Nam News)

Floods and tornadoes as freak storms batter Britain
Fred Attewill,Saturday August 19, 2006,The Guardian

Torrential rain, lightning strikes and even tornadoes have swept across the UK as the record-breaking July heatwave fades into memory. The freak weather has caused power cuts, mudslides and local flooding from Cornwall to the Midlands.Five archaeologists were injured when a tornado flipped over a Portakabin they were sheltering in as winds threw debris up to 60 metres (200ft) in the air. Four were taken to hospital with minor injuries, including a broken foot, after the storm ripped through Baston Fen, Lincolnshire, where they were excavating at a quarry.In Kidderminster, Worcestershire, a mother and her one-year-old baby were flung three metres across a bedroom when their house was struck by lightning. Kate Saunders, 26, was stripping wallpaper when the lightning hit her roof yesterday. It sounded like a bomb blast,she said.The south-west was also hard hit as severe storms caused widespread flooding and forced the emergency services to evacuate homes.

Fire crews were called out to more than 40 reports of flooding across Bristol, while in the Somerset resort of Weston-super-Mare 20 people were evacuated after an electricity substation caught fire when it was hit by lighting early yesterday morning.Cornwall was lashed by intense storms on Thursday evening, which saw a torrent of mud and water sweep through the village of Gulval, near Penzance.A spokesman for the Met Office said severe weather warnings remained in force across south-east Scotland, the West Midlands and south-west England, with heavy rain forecast.

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 have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek;(SYRIA) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

EZEKIEL 38:4-6
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE 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.

Iran launches massive military exercise

Tehran, Aug. 19 (AP): Iran today launched a series of large-scale military exercises aimed at introducing the country's new defensive doctrine, State-run television reported. The television report said the military exercise would occur in 14 of the country's 30 provinces and could last as long as five weeks. The first stage of the manoeuvers began with air strikes in the southeastern province of Sistan Va Baluchistan, the report said. The military exercises come as Iran faces heightened international scrutiny because of its contentious nuclear programme and for supporting the guerrilla group Hizbollah in Lebanon. Iran has denied Israeli accusations it is arming and training Hizbollah fighters, but also has declared Hizbollah victorious in its battle against the Jewish State, which ended Monday when a UN ceasefire resolution went into effect.

The Islamic Republic, which views the United States as an arch foe, also is concerned about the US military presence in neighbouring Iraq and Afghanistan and Israel's threats to destroy its nuclear facilities. The military exercise involving 12 infantry regiments, is called The Blow of Zolfaghar, in reference to a sword that belonged to Imam Ali, one of the most revered figures of Islam for Shia Muslims. A majority of Iran's 70 million people are Shias. Iran has routinely held war games over the past two decades to improve its combat readiness and test locally made equipment such as missiles, tanks and armored personnel carriers.