PANDEMIC MAY COST 623 BILLION

1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS. 2-Three quakes jolt Afghanistan, eight hurt 3-4.1 Earthquake Hits Saudi Arabia. 4-Earthquake hits Hawaii's Big Island. 5-Death toll climbs to 80 as floods ravage Somalia. 6-Modeller warns of worse storms to come. 7-Kinder weather helps fight against Australia fires. 8-American Billionaire Urges European Union to Proceed Piecemeal. 9-Poll: Netanyahu next prime minister. 10-Tehran vows to press ahead with reactor after IAEA denies aid. 11-China, Pakistan To Ink Free Trade Deal. 12-Company Takes Robot Realism to New Level. 13-Nefesh b Nefesh Launches Push for Mega-Aliyah. 14-MIDEAST: PRODI, BOTH SIDES MUST ACCEPT PEACE INITIATIVES. 15-Palestinian factions agree on limited ceasefire with Israel. 16-Personal Issues Bog Down Olmert-Peretz Cooperation. 17-Vancouver boil-water advisory reaches one week. 18-Flu Pandemic May Cost $623 Billion, World Bank Says.

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.

WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)

Update time = Fri Nov 24 10:00 PM EDT

NOV 24,2006
MAP 3.3 KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA

NOV 23,2006
MAP 5.0 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 3.2 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 5.7 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 5.0 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 2.9 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 5.1 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 3.5 KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 3.8 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 5.0 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.9 CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN SEA
MAP 3.1 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 4.3 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 4.5 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 3.2 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 5.4 NORTHERN XINJIANG, CHINA
MAP 3.8 VIRGINIA
MAP 3.8 KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 4.6 SLOVAKIA-UKRAINE BORDER REGION
MAP 4.5 EASTERN TURKEY
MAP 2.7 SOUTHERN ALASKA

Three quakes jolt Afghanistan, eight hurt
23 Nov, 2006 ISTAFP

MAZAR-I-SHARIF (Afghanistan): Three minor earthquakes shook Afghanistan's northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif on Thursday with eight people wounded in a scramble to flee buildings, an official said. Eight people were admitted to hospitals in the city with injuries after the quakes, the head of the city's hospitals Mirwais Radie said. Some were hurt jumping out of buildings or from crushes as people rushed to evacuate buildings, he said. There was minor damage such as mirrors being cracked by the tremors. No immediate measurement of the strength of the quakes was available as the war-damaged country does not have systems for recording seismic activity.The first quake struck around 5:00 am local time (0600 IST). I was asleep. There was a bad earthquake and we fled from the house into the streets, said university student Nilofar, who uses only one name. All my neighbours were t here.

We waited for about 20 minutes before going back in. The second quake was hours later and less powerful, but one at around 11:00 am sent people back into the streets fearing that buildings might collapse. Afghanistan is often hit by earthquakes, especially around the Hindu Kush mountain range that is near the collision of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates, where seismic activity is high.

4.1 Earthquake Hits Saudi Arabia
23/11/2006,By Ali Mateer

Jeddah, Asharq Al-Awsat- An earthquake measuring 4.1 on the Richter scale shook the city of Haradh in Eastern Saudi Arabia, Wednesday.

The earthquake struck at 3.30pm local time. This time last year, an earthquake of similar magnitude was recorded in the same region. The national network of seismic monitoring in the Saudi Geological Survey, the official legal authority that monitors earthquakes in the kingdom recorded the earthquake and its activity.Hani Zahran, an engineer and the director of the National Center for Earthquakes of the Geological Survey told Asharq Al Awsat that residents in the region of Haradh felt the tremor, however, there were no human or material damages incurred. The earthquake monitoring stations that are deployed in Saudi Arabia record earthquakes of varying degrees and in locations of seismic activity, however, the majority of these earthquakes have not been felt by residents.He added.

Geologists told Asharq Al Awsat that the cause of frequent earthquakes in recent years in the Arabian Peninsula is attributed to the fact that the region is located near active seismic borders on both the north-eastern and western borders. They stated that the Arab plate which includes the GCC states, Yemen and parts of Iran and Greater Syria collides with the Iranian plate (the Zagros Mountains) and the Turkish plate (the mountains of Anatolia).

In turn, this causes the movement of the Arab plate by two centimetres annually causing an expansion to the Red Sea area and causing friction between the two plates in the eastern region of the Arab plate.In September 2005, an earthquake measuring 3.7 on the Richter scale shook Mecca and caused panic amongst the citizens of Otaibah, a neighbourhood situated near the Holy Mosque. Official statements regarding the intensity of the tremor contradicted each other and this led to a decision by the Saudi cabinet to assign the responsibility of monitoring seismic activity to the Saudi Geological Survey, which is to include all centres affiliated to King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology, King Abdul Aziz University, King Saud University and King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals under the umbrella of the Geological Survey.

Earthquake hits Hawaii's Big Island Thu Nov 23, 6:41 PM ET

KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii - An earthquake with a magnitude of at least 4.5 struck off the northwest coast of the Big Island on Thursday in the same area where two stronger temblors struck last month. The quake, centered about 11 miles northwest of Puuanahulu, shook homes on the Big Island, Maui and Oahu, but it did not produce a tsunami threat, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.The U.S. Geological Survey estimated its magnitude at 5.0; the Tsunami Warning Center estimated it at 4.5.Boulders and other debris forced the temporary closure of Highway 19 near Laupahoehoe on the Big Island, said state Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Ishikawa.There were isolated power outages in Kona on the Big Island, but no other damages were immediately reported.Magnitude 6.7 and 6.0 earthquakes shook the islands Oct. 15, causing power outages, bridge collapses and road closures. Those quakes caused an estimated $200 million in damages.

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

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;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
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.

Death toll climbs to 80 as floods ravage Somalia by Mustafa Haji Abdinur
Thu Nov 23, 3:32 PM ET

MOGADISHU (AFP) Heavy flooding in Somalia killed at least seven people overnight, bringing the death toll to 80 from three weeks of torrential rains, witnesses and aid workers have said. With the emergence of cholera cases, humanitarian groups raced to southern Somalia Thursday to avert a possible disaster that would be exacerbated by fears of war between the Islamic fighters and government forces backed by Ethiopian troops.Of the casualties, four were mauled by crocodiles lurking in floodwater in Mustahil district of Somalia's Hiraan region, where the River Shabelle broke its banks and swept through villages, they said.We were told by the villagers that four bodies were recovered floating on the floods, said Abdulahi Mao Nur, an elder in the region's capital Beledweyne, told AFP.Crocodiles killed them because they had serious injuries. Two of them had their legs eaten, Nur told AFP by
telephone.

We don't know how to overcome this problem because every day, we are getting information about crocodiles killing and wounding livestock and human beings, he added.Last week, crocodiles killed nine people in the same district, forcing tens of thousands to flee to higher ground, where they are surviving on wild fruit and face an outbreak of waterborne diseases.Humanitarian workers said three other people died when their hut collapsed under heavy flooding in Lower Shabelle region in southern Somalia, one of the most affected regions in the country.Three people were found dead after the hut they lived in collapsed. They couldn't manage to escape and nobody was there to rescue them, said Abdulkadir Hudo, a local aid worker.As heavy downpours continued to wreak havoc in Somalia, which is already beset by years of conflict, relief organisations scrambled to rescue the flood-affected people, estimated at nearly one million.The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross on Wednesday launched a massive emergency relief operation to the Somalia's Juba, Gedo, Shabelle and Hiraan regions where floods have washed farmlands and roads, disrupted food supplies and cut off villages.The ICRC airlifted tarpaulins to assist 324,000 people in those areas while the UN's World Food Programme said a large Ilyushin-76 aircraft and two heavy-lift helicopters would airdrop food.The Somali government has warned of an imminent disaster if aid agencies do not rapidly deliver food and other essential items to the most remote regions, most of which are inaccessible.

Somalia, a nation of about 10 million, has lacked any disaster response mechanism since the country was plunged into anarchy after the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.In addition to the conflict, hundreds of thousands of people have been affected by years of droughts, famine, floods and absence of permanent humanitarian operations.In neighbouring Kenya, a man drowned in Rift Valley's Keiyo region, a provincial commissioner said, bringing the death toll to 38 people killed while around 200,000 others, including 80,000 refugees, require urgent relief supplies.Southern Ethiopia is still reeling from flash floods in August and September, which left 639 dead and affected over 350,000 people, again chiefly hitting the ethnic Somali region.Aid groups have warned that the situation in the three eastern Africa countries is expected to worsen over the coming weeks as the torrential rain continues.

According to the UN, between 1.5 million and 1.8 million people in the three nations have been affected by the flooding, which has altered the way of life for the largely agricultural and pastoral communities.

Thursday, November 23, 2006 ,Royal Gazette
Modeller warns of worse storms to come

NEW YORK (Reuters) The 2006 hurricane season is ending on November 30 with US homeowners and insurers unscathed, but forecasters warn that the years ahead will not be so calm.

While the first predictions for 2007 are due in early December, Risk Management Solutions, a firm that models damages from hurricanes, sees annual storm losses for the next five years rising 40 percent in the US Gulf and up to 30 percent in the Atlantic.2006 was only a respite, said Robert Hartwig, chief economist of the
Insurance Information Institute. The trend is for more hurricane activity, not less.Insurers are awaiting a first look at the 2007 season, which starts on June 1 and ends on November30, from Colorado State University hurricane forecaster Dr. William Gray and his team on December 8.

The Climate Prediction Center of the US government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is due to give its end-of-season report on November 30.Forecasters were wrong in 2006, unanimously predicting an above-average season for hurricanes based on warmer-than-usual Atlantic waters that often fuel hurricanes.But wind patterns and dust storms in the Sahara squelched tropical disturbances before they started, forecasters said. As a result, there were only nine storms that got names this year. That compares with 28 in 2005, including the trio of Katrina, Rita and Wilma that caused more than $100 billion in losses.One season does not set a trend, however. Yes, we got off easy, but our expectation is that 2007 will be another tough year, said Robert Blumber, a managing director in Marsh Inc.’s global property group, a unit of Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc., the world’s largest insurance brokerage firm.

Insurance premiums for catastrophe-exposed areas such as Florida have gone up by 50 percent to 100 percent in some areas. Deductibles, the amount an insured pays before coverage kicks in, have risen to 5 percent from 2 percent in past years, Blumber
said.

This has as much to do with growth in storm-ridden areas as the weather itself, according to companies who predict what future catastrophe losses could look like.Florida’s population is growing by two percent a year, said Tom Larsen, a vice president with Eqecat Inc. As a result, the disaster modeller sees the loss potential in the Sunshine State doubling every 15 to 20 years.Risk Management Solutions said its view that damage will be 40 percent higher in 2007 to 2011 is based on comparison to its statistics compiled starting in 1900.

FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS

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.

Kinder weather helps fight against Australia fires
24 November 2006 (Reuters)

SYDNEY: Milder weather has helped firefighters make significant inroads against dozens of bushfires burning across southeast Australia but authorities said the danger was not over. More than 50 fires were still burning across New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, with tens of thousands of hectares of tinder-dry land already burnt out. Three firefighters were injured as they battled one of the biggest blazes near the township of Molong, about 250km west of Sydney. One was injured from smoke inhalation and two were injured by trees that fell, Rural Fire Service spokesman Simon Heemstra said, adding that none of the injuries was serious.The body of an elderly man had been found tangled in a wire fence on Tuesday after a small grassfire south of Sydney which was not related to the major blazes.

Firefighters say Australia faces an extreme fire danger this summer after a worsening drought left rural areas bone dry. Scientists fear that climate change will bring more frequent higher temperatures and less rainfall. Winds of up to 100 kph fanned a major blaze in the Blue Mountains on Sydney's western outskirts on Wednesday.AdvertisementAdvertisementBut cooler, calmer weather on Thursday helped firefighters who lit backburning fires to consume some of the tinder-dry undergrowth as well as steer the blazes away from townships.The flames were only about 2.5km from the township of Mount Tomah and were still burning out of control but officials said mild weather was forecast for the next two days.The threat from fires flared again in the southwest of neighbouring Victoria state, where one blaze had already burnt out 10,000 hectares since it began 10 days ago.

Water-bombing aircraft joined firefighters trying to control that blaze but their efforts were being hampered by hot, dry conditions and inaccessible terrain.The fire had escaped containment lines and officials were concerned no rain was expected. If you could order it for me, I would take buckets full of it, firefighting official Bill Spears told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. In January 2004, the deadliest bushfires in 22 years killed nine people injured in South Australia. Four people were killed and 530 homes destroyed in Canberra in 2003. That same year, bushfires fuelled by drought ravaged a slice of Australia three times the size of Britain.

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.(TR 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).

THE EU DICTATOR

REVELATION 6:1-2,13:1-3,7-9,16
1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
2 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.(THIS IS THE EU DICTATOR)
1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.(7 HEADS ARE THE 7TH WORLD EMPIRE IN HISTORY (THE EU) AS WELL AS THE VATICAN WHICH IS BUILT ON 7 HILLS. 10 HORNS ARE 10 KINGS THAT ARISE FROM THE EU, THEN #11 COMES ON THE SCENE BECOMES THE HEAD OF 3 OUNTRIES AND THEN THE EU DICTATOR, COMES FROM 1 OF THE 3 COUNTRIES THAT RULE FOR THIS TERM. I BELIEVE THE 3 COUNTRIES RULING AT THE TIME ARE SPAIN AND 2 OF THE ORIGINAL 6 THAT STARTED THE EU. FROM 1 OF THESE 3 COUNTRIES COME THE FUTURE EU DICTATOR PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION WHO GUARENTEES ISRAELS SECURITY FOR A LAND FOR PEACE 7 YEAR TREATY.
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.(THE JEWISH EU DICTATOR GETS HIS POWER FROM SATAN,HE COMES FROM THE OCCULT).
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.(THE DICTATOR HAS A FALSE RESURRECTION. JUST LIKE JESUS HAD A LITERAL RESURRECTION THIS DICTATOR GETS MURDERED AT THE 3 1/2 YR MARK OF THR 7 YEAR TREATY AND COMES BACK TO LIFE. THIS IS HOW HE CAN
CLAIM TO BE GOD AND GET AWAY WITH IT AND CONTROL THE WHOLE EARTH.
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

DANIEL 11:36-40
36 And the king shall do according to his will;(EU PRESIDENT) and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS A EUROPEAN JEW) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(HES A MILITARY GINIUS) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds (CONTROL HEZBOLLAH,AL-QUAIDA MURDERERS ETC) with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south(EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR PROTECTING ISRAELS SECURITY) and the king of the north(RUSSIA) 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.

American Billionaire Urges European Union to Proceed Piecemeal
By John F. McManus ,2006-11-22

TO READ THE ARTICLE http://euobserver.com/?aid=22915

ARTICLE SYNOPSIS:
Speaking in Brussels at the European Policy Center, leftist U.S. philanthropist George Soros urged Europe's leaders to shelve the European Constitution and proceed toward what he terms an open society by a step by step building process.

COMMENTARY:
Knowing that the EU Constitution had been rejected by voters in France and The Netherlands, American billionaire George Soros recommended that Europe's leaders cease forcing the Constitution down people's throats and, instead, implement its various steps piecemeal. His recommendation remarkably parallels the call for piece by piece erosion of the U.S. Constitution stated by Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) guru Richard N. Gardner, and the same advice given by CFR member Zbigniew Brzezinski who called for piecemeal transfer of power from the U.S. to a world government in one of his books.

The EU Constitution quietly favored by Soros, who is also a CFR member, states that it shall have primacy over member states. Though rejected by voters in a few formerly independent nations, its various provisions are, in fact, being enacted as Soros recommended. He is pleased with this method of compromising sovereignty because he feared that forcing the Constitution down people's throats would create a backlash that would imperil the drive toward the open society he favors. His open society, however, is a clever term used to disguise the goal of world government that he seeks. Revealingly, the EU Constitution is full of references expressing subservience to the United Nations.

It can only be hoped that more people in the 25 formerly independent nations that are already entangled in the EU will awaken and remove their country from this obvious path to world government. It can also be hoped that the American people will awaken before leaders here take our nation into the carbon copy of the EU known as the North American Union.John F. McManus.John F.

McManus is President of The John Birch Society.

Poll: Netanyahu next prime minister
By Ynetnews,November 23, 2006

A poll conducted by Israel's largest newspaper this week revealed that if elections were held today, Binyamin Netanyahu would be Israel's next prime minister.Disappointed with the performance of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government, Israeli voters would give Netanyahu's Likud 20 Knesset seats, up considerably from its current 12.Olmert's Kadima Party would drop from 29 seats to 15, the same number the Labor Party would receive, compared to the 19 it holds today.Rightist immigrant party Israel Our Home, led by Avigdor Lieberman, would receive 10 mandates, and popular Israeli-Russian industrialist Arcadi Gaydamak would win 13 seats if he decided to run.Together with Lieberman, Gaydamak and the religious parties, Netanyahu would be able to form a right-wing coalition enjoying of a firm 69-seat majority.The only fear is that the ultra-leftist Meretz Party, which is expected to increase from five seats to eight, will merge with Labor, making it the largest Knesset faction.

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

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.

Tehran vows to press ahead with reactor after IAEA denies aid
Compiled by Daily Star staff ,Friday, November 24, 2006

Iran said Thursday that it would continue with the construction of a heavy-water nuclear reactor even after the UN nuclear watchdog's board of governors indefinitely blocked Tehran's bid for technical aid.But diplomats said the ruling, which the International Atomic Energy Agency's board adopted by consensus after days of haggling between industrialized and developing nations, left a theoretical possibility of revisiting in the future Iran's request for expert advice on the construction of a reactor in Arak.In reaction, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the IAEA was legally required to provide technical assistance to Iran, a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Iran has repeatedly said its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.It is the duty of the IAEA to help. If they help, we will appreciate it. If not, we will do it on our own, Mottaki told reporters in Tehran.

The Arak reactor, according to Iranian officials, is to replace a smaller light-water research reactor in Tehran, built by the United States before Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. In a compromise hammered out in negotiations ahead of the IAEA board meeting, Iranian requests for IAEA technical assistance on six other nuclear energy projects judged not to pose a risk of being diverted to bomb-making were approved by the board.The decision is that the [Arak] project will be definitely put on hold, IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters. Obviously, if matters [with Iran] move in a different direction in future, the board might consider to revisit the decision.Iran sought on-site IAEA safety advice at the Arak complex under construction. It said the IAEA had a duty to ensure all nations nuclear programs were safe, but vowed to complete the reactor by 2009 whether granted IAEA expertise or not.http://www.dailystar.com.lb

Gregory Schulte, the US ambassador to the IAEA, told reporters the Arak item was not deferred, not put on hold, it was removed entirely from the IAEA program.But Ali Asghar Soltanieh, the chief Iranian representative, said Iran would not be deterred, telling reporters: The Iranian government is determined to continue the construction of this heavy-water reactor. The session of the 35-nation IAEA board also debated a November report by ElBaradei describing Iran's evasions of investigations dating to 2003.

ElBaradei chided Iran for not fully cooperating with agency experts trying to establish that its nuclear program is not being used to make weapons. We have reached a period of standstill, he told reporters.But he said that Iran had recently compromised on two issues agreeing to provide access to the operating records of its pilot uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and allowing inspectors to take more samples from a facility that had yielded suspicious traces of enriched uranium.These are important steps in the right direction, he said of Iran's gestures, possibly made to help blunt Western pressure for tough UN Security Council sanctions.What we really require from Iran is a full explanation of the development of its nuclear program from start to finish, ElBaradei said. Agencies

China, Pakistan To Ink Free Trade Deal
Agreement Would Increase Bilateral Trade By $15 Billion In Five Years

(CBS/AP) China's visiting President Hu Jintao will sign a free trade deal with Pakistan that will more than triple bilateral trade to $15 billion in five years, a Pakistani diplomat said Thursday. Hu, who arrived in Islamabad on the first visit to Pakistan by a Chinese leader in 10 years, will sign a raft of economic and energy deals on Friday aimed at expanding a burgeoning bilateral trade relationship that grew 39 percent last year to $4.26 billion.

Salman Bashir, Pakistan's envoy to China, said a free trade agreement will be the most important document signed during Hu's four-day visit, the first by a Chinese leader to this Muslim nation in 10 years. We are expecting to take volume of bilateral trade to $15 billion within the next five years with the implementation of the FTA (free trade agreement), Bashir told the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan.

The Chinese leader was greeted at Islamabad's international airport by Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and the entire Cabinet as well as the heads of each of the defense services. Artillery blasted a 21-round salute, a brass band played China's national anthem, drum-beating musicians performed traditional songs and scores of school children waved miniature Chinese and Pakistani flags. Hu was later driven in a heavily guarded convoy for a banquet at Pakistan's presidency building. In an arrival statement, Hu said his visit was aimed at deepening friendship, expanding cooperation and planning the future of our relationship. China already provides Pakistan nuclear and defense industry assistance and is its third-largest trading partner, after the United States and the European Union. Pakistan is expected to buy large-ticket weapons worth at least $10 billion in the next five years at least 4 billion from China alone. The weapons include the Chinese-Pakistani produced JF-17 fighter planes, the F-22 Chinese frigates and Chinese components for the Pakistani military’s new main battle tank known as Al-Khalid, reported CBS

Farhan Bokhari from Islamabad.

In New Delhi, Hu offered his assistance, if asked, to help resolve lingering disputes between Pakistan and its nuclear-armed archrival India, but added that he would not choose sides between the neighbors, who have fought three wars since their 1947 independence, including two over the Himalayan Kashmir region. I look forward to having in-depth exchange of views with President Pervez Musharraf and other Pakistani leaders (on) bilateral relations as well as international and regional issues of mutual interest, state-run Pakistani TV quoted Hu as saying.

In what is expected to be the first of several economic deals made during Hu's trip, Pakistan and Chinese officials agreed to establish a joint investment company, involving the China Development Bank, to undertake urban and rural infrastructure projects in Pakistan. Dr. Salman Shah, finance adviser to Pakistan's prime minister, said the agreement was reached during talks he held Thursday with the vice governor of the China Development Bank, the state-run agency reported. China will provide necessary financial support in the industrial, services, agricultural, health care and education sectors, Shah said.

Pakistan is an impoverished country of 160 million people which has been seeking increased foreign investment to help boost its infrastructure and industry demands, as well as expand much-needed energy sources.

Bashir, the ambassador, said China and Pakistan have established a framework to expand energy cooperation. They will investigate building an energy corridor providing Beijing access to oil and gas resources of Central and Western Asia and developing oil refining and storage facilities in Pakistani coastal areas. China's official Xinhua news agency has reported that China would conclude an accord with Pakistan in November to sell Islamabad reactors for six nuclear power plants to be built during the next 10 years. Pakistan has been seeking U.S. support to boost its nuclear energy program, calling for a deal along the lines of one between Washington and New Delhi. That deal allows U.S. civilian nuclear trade with India in exchange for Indian safeguards, and inspections at its 14 civilian nuclear plants. Eight military plants would be off-limits.

But the Bush administration has rejected Pakistan's call amid lingering concerns about Islamabad's past suspect nuclear dealings led by disgraced atomic scientist and black market trader A.Q. Khan.

Pakistan’s track record arouses much concern in Washington. This is the bottom line, a U.S. official in Washington told CBS News on condition of anonymity. China has already provided funding and expertise to help build a 300-megawatt nuclear power station in 1999 at Chashma in the eastern province of Punjab. In April last year, the two countries began building a second nuclear power plant near the old one. On Friday, Hu holds talks with Musharraf and Aziz before delivering a live televised address to the nation. On Saturday, he travels to the eastern city of Lahore for further talks with political and business leaders.

POSSIBLE ROBOT (EU LEADER LOOKALIKE)

KNOWLEDGE INCREASE (COMPUTERS) AND TRAVEL.

DANIEL 12:4
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

REVELATION 13:13-15
13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

REVELATION 14:9-11
9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

Company Takes Robot Realism to New Level
Email Print Normal font Large font November 23, 2006 - 9:50AM

David Hanson's robots can creep people out. Their heads are so lifelike, their skin so textured and realistic, that Candy Sidner, a competing roboticist, called his Albert Einstein robot spookily cool .a giant step forward.Hanson, who started his career as an artist and spent time working in Disney's Imagineering Lab, said he flirts with being too realistic for comfort. His work, he said, poses an identity challenge to the human being.If you make it perfectly realistic, you trigger this body-snatcher fear in some people, he said.

Making realistic robots is going to polarize the market, if you will. You will have some people who love it and some people who will really be disturbed.Hanson's robotics company in Dallas is the flip side of an industry focused on making robots more human on the inside. Hanson makes conversational character robots. They are mostly human-looking heads using a skin-like material that he invented called Frubber. They are battery-powered, walk and are expressive, but from the neck down they don't look human at all.

The issue of being too human-looking is called uncanny valley syndrome, and Hanson embraces it with the passion and line-crossing of an avant-garde artist, which he also is.

Hanson made a robot head modeled on his own, but it wasn't for use as a robot. It was part of an art show where he made his self-portrait robot a large homeless robot figure in a box.The idea was to go out of the comfort zone of science, he said.But Hanson is also a businessman who is designing entertainment robots for the home. He hopes to have two-foot robots with human-looking heads that are more cartoonish than uncannily accurate that can dance, make eye contact, talk and recognize your face. The idea is to price them at $3,000 and get them on the market in about a year.It would be very much like Astro Boy in the old TV series, Hanson said.
On the Net:Hanson Robotics: http://www.hansonrobotics.com/index.php%emph_

ISRAEL WILL BECOME A NATION. LITERALY IN THE SPRING.

GENESIS 12:1-3
1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram,(CHANGED TO ABRAHAM LATER) Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:(PALESTINE,ISRAEL)
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

EZEKIEL 36:24
24 For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.

EZEKIEL 37:9-28
9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds,(ALL THE WORLD) O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.(COME TO LIFE)
10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.(ISRAEL WILL HAVE A POWERFUL ARMY)
11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.(BURNED BY HITLER)
12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.(THE DRY BONES COME TO LIFE IN ISRAEL)
13 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,
14 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.
15 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
16 Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions:
17 And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.
18 And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these?
19 Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.
20 And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes.
21 And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:
22 And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:
23 Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.
24 And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.
25 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.
26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.
27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
28 And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.

MATTHEW 24:32
32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:(ISRAEL WAS LITERALLY REBORN JUST BEFORE SUMMER,MAY 14,1948).

MARK 13:28
28 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near:

DANIEL 9:24
24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

ISRAEL WILL BE IN CONTROL OF JERUSALEM, THE SIGN OF THE START OF THE LAST GENERATION.

LUKE 21:24
24 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

Nefesh b Nefesh Launches Push for Mega-Aliyah
By Ezra HaLevi (INN)

The Nefesh B’Nefesh Aliyah assistance organization is holding three mega-events in the coming weeks aimed at educating the larger Jewish public about immigration to Israel.The half-day programs are part of a series of specially tailored programs, events and individual counseling sessions taking place throughout the U.S., Canada and UK this winter, the organization says. The programming is designed for those already actively planning their immigration, as well as those merely contemplating Aliyah. Pre-and Post-Aliyah guidance and strategies will be discussed as well as services and benefits offered by Nefesh B’Nefesh (NbN). The events will include seminars, videos and other presentations focusing on specific issues such as children, families, education and networking in Israel.

There will also be individual sessions run by a team of experts who will fly in from Israel to offer first-hand professional advice to participants.By enabling participants to tailor sessions according to their own specific interests, Nefesh B’Nefesh aims to bring more relevant and helpful information on Aliyah to local communities, an NbN statement said. The personally tailored sessions will include: Employment, Healthcare, Community options, The Aliyah process, the Education system, Retirement, Taxes and Aliyah and others.Nefesh B’Nefesh’s specially designed mega-events respond to the need for on-site personal guidance by experienced professionals who can offer more useful and practical information and guidance on Aliyah, explained Nefesh B’Nefesh Co-Founder and Executive Director, Rabbi Yehoshua Fass. We hope this enhanced service will make it that much easier for people to actualize their dreams and make living in Israel a reality.

The Toronto mega-event will take place on Thursday, November 30, at the Novotel North York Hotel, 3 Park Home Avenue, Toronto between 7:00 PM and 10:30 PM.

The New Jersey MEGA will take place on Sunday, December 3, at the Crowne Plaza Englewood, 401 South Van Brunt Street, Englewood, NJ between 10:15 AM and 2:00 PM. The New York MEGA will be held on the same day at the Holiday Inn at JFK Airport, 144-02 135th Ave. Jamaica, NY between 7:00 PM and 10:00 PM.Nefesh B’Nefesh ran information events in 2005 attended by more than 12,000 participants. NbN, working together with the Jewish Agency, has successfully brought close to 10,000 new Olim (immigrants) to Israel since 2002.

ISRAELS TROUBLE

JEREMIAH 30:7
7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;(ISRAEL) but he shall be saved out of it.

DANIEL 12:1,4
1 And at that time shall Michael(ISRAELS WAR ANGEL) stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people:(ISRAEL) and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation(May 14,48) even to that same
time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro,(WORLD TRAVEL,IMMIGRATION) and knowledge shall be increased.(COMPUTERS,CHIP IMPLANTS ETC)

MIDEAST: PRODI, BOTH SIDES MUST ACCEPT PEACE INITIATIVES

(AGI) - Rome, Nov. 23 - For the peace process in the Middle East, Italy, France and Spain have simply shared the idea of re-launching it, starting from the positive experience of their collaboration in Lebanon and of their shared sensibility of Mediterranean countries. In any case, all the European initiatives, in order to be successful, must be extended to the other E.U. partners and contain elements able to be accepted by all the conflicting sides.This was stated by the President of the Council Romano Prodi to France Presse. Prodi continued, Together with France, we recognize the necessity of an ambitious Mediterranean policy and we have direct cooperation. We are working together, even with Spain, for the re-launching of financial cooperation in the Mediterranean with the creation of a fund primarily for small and medium companies.(AGI).

Palestinian factions agree on limited ceasefire with Israel

A senior Palestinian official affirmed on Thursday that the armed Palestinian factions have agreed on a limited ceasefire with Israel.

Khader Habib, Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza, told reporters that representatives of national and Islamic factions, who met with Prime Minister Ismail Haneya in Gaza on Thursday night, has agreed on a limited ceasefire with Israel. He stressed that the ceasefire is mutual and synchronous, noting that Israel stops its military operations in Gaza and the West Bank, while Palestinian militants stop firing rockets at Israel.The agreement also needs the acceptance of both Fatah and Hamas movements, he added. On Monday, the Israeli army launched a ground military operation into northern Gaza Strip, where 12 Palestinians have been killed and more than 20 others wounded in the latest Israeli operation. As Palestinian militants continued to launch rockets against southern Israeli cities, Israel decided on Wednesday to continue its military operations in Gaza. Source: Xinhua

Personal Issues Bog Down Olmert-Peretz Cooperation
By Hana Levi Julian (INN)

Thursday's weekly meeting between PM Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz is unlikely to mend the rift between the two, but it may at least keep matters of state on the front burner.The two men have been sniping at each other for days, but a recent telephone conversation between Peretz and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas set off a firestorm between the two.

Olmert accused Peretz of exceeding his authority by making contact with Abbas to discuss possiblities for peace. He also claimed that Peretz had damaged existing contacts with the PA and accused the defense minister of not providing a full, detailed report of the conversation.Peretz told Olmert that his own previous contacts with Abbas constituted the same faux pas of maintaining contact with PA officials without informing him. The Defense Minister added Abbas had initiated the conversation and that he had simply returned the call.

Amir won't put down the phone on anyone who calls him, said an associate of Peretz, according to the Haaretz news service. He is the defense minister and chairman of the Labor party and will advance peace issues. That is why he was elected, he said.It is believed by political observers that Peretz's days as Defense Minister are numbered, and that Olmert may use Thursday's meeting to further his goal of ousting him.

Peretz is facing similar troubles within his own party, with calls by Labor members for him to step down from the Defense Ministry and hand his job over to someone within the ranks who has more military expertise.Unofficially, it is being reported that today’s meeting with the prime minister will lead to a respectful formula that will permit Peretz to resign, possibly to take another senior post in the government. In that scenario, former prime minister and retired IDF chief of staff, Ehud Barak, will be brought in to take over the Defense Ministry.According to a Geocartography poll released last Tuesday, some 60% of the nation is calling for Peretz’s resignation, with even more calling on IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz to step down as well.

DISEASES

REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

Vancouver boil-water advisory reaches one week
Updated Thu. Nov. 23 2006 9:30 PM ET,CTV.ca News Staff

Almost a million people are still waiting for clean tap water in the Vancouver area, and officials have shut off supply from one of three reservoirs to speed up disinfection. Meanwhile, health officials said it could take until Friday to confirm possible E. coli contamination.

A water sample taken at the University of British Columbia tested positive for the harmful bacteria. Because the water had a high level of chlorine that would have killed E. coli, it's possible the sample was contaminated by the tester. One official believed a nearby compost site affected the water.(The test water) was sitting low, and unfortunately some water run-off from a compost pile that was near it came over, and had been sitting around the water test station, the university's Gordon Apperley told CTV Vancouver.

About 1,000 tests have been taken since the boil-water advisory came into effect last Thursday, and not a single person has become sick. High turbidity levels the amount of cloudiness in the water, caused by silt prompted the advisory after torrential rains. The turbidity makes it difficult for officials to effectively chlorinate the water. That advisory remains in effect for the City of Vancouver,
North Vancouver, Burnaby and parts of West Vancouver.

In those communities, boiled water or bottled water should be used for drinking, brushing teeth and washing food.The advisory will end when Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) officials determine the turbidity levels are low enough. Most people in the Vancouver area get their water from the Capilano, Seymour and Coquitlam reservoirs.Turbidity levels in Capilano's water supply were dropping so slowly that officials took it off line, although the gradual addition of clean water is helping the situation.

Levels are also changing slowly in Seymour's water, but the supply has more exposure to chlorine. We have about 45 minutes in the Capilano system for the chlorine to work on those bugs before you hit the first customer, whereas in the Seymour system we have about three hours, Paul Archibald, water supply operations manager for the Greater Vancouver Regional District, told The Canadian Press.

Vivianna Zanocco of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority said Seymour is also being helped by the gradual addition of fresh water.What we're seeing in Seymour is that the turbidity at the lower levels is quite high, but at the upper levels, where there's new water coming in either from rain or from fresh streams, it's actually very clean, she told CTV Vancouver. Officials said it could take at least another week to clean the Seymour reservoir, and several weeks to clean the Capilano reservoir. With a report by CTV Vancouver's Jill Bennett and files from The Canadian Press

Flu Pandemic May Cost $623 Billion, World Bank Says
By Jason Gale

Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) A severe influenza pandemic would cost the U.S. $623 billion, or about 60 times more than an average flu season, and constitute a major global recession, the World Bank said.

Economists at the Washington-based World Bank estimated a contagion capable of killing more than 1 percent of people worldwide could cause losses of $1.5 trillion to $1.8 trillion globally. The spread of the H5N1 avian influenza strain has put the world closer to another pandemic than at any time since 1968, when the last of the previous century's three major outbreaks occurred, according to the World Health Organization. The Bank, which funds projects to alleviate poverty, is working with countries to improve hospitals and laboratories to bolster disease surveillance and management of avian flu. Human fatalities from the H5N1 strain of the virus this year have surpassed the previous two years combined, providing more chances for the virus to mutate into a lethal pandemic form. Even with such efforts, an eventual human pandemic at some unknown point in the future is virtually inevitable, the Bank said in an e-mailed report today. Because such a pandemic would spread very quickly, substantial efforts need to be put into place to develop effective strategies and contingency plans that could be enacted at short notice.

Deadly Virus

The H5N1 virus is known to have infected 258 people in 10 countries in the past three years, killing 153 of them, the WHO said on Nov. 13. Millions could die if H5N1 becomes as easily transmissible between people as season flu. Seasonal flu causes the deaths of as many as 500,000 people annually. In the U.S., the disease results in about 36,000 deaths and more than 200,000 hospitalizations each year, costing more than $10 billion, the White House said in a statement last year. Egypt reported a suspected new H5N1 human case in the central city of Sohag, the Al-Ghomhuria newspaper reported today, without saying where it got the information. A 25-year-old woman was transferred to the hospital for treatment, the paper said. The country's health ministry said it found a new outbreak of avian influenza in poultry in the northern governorate of Mounifiya, the state-run Middle East News Agency reported. The ministry slaughtered all the poultry in the area and took samples from people who cam in contact with the infected birds, MENA reported.

1918 Pandemic

A pandemic can start when a novel influenza A-type virus, to which almost no one has natural immunity, emerges and begins spreading.

Experts believe that a pandemic in 1918, which may have killed as many as 50 million people, began when an avian flu virus jumped to people from birds. Disease trackers are monitoring for signs the virus is becoming adept at infecting humans, not just birds. The H5N1 strain was first detected in a farmed goose a decade ago in Guangdong, the same province of China where severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, was reported in 2003. During SARS, air travel to Hong Kong plunged by as much as 75 percent during the worst four months of the epidemic and retail sales fell by an average of 9 percent, the World Bank said in its report, Evaluating the Economic Consequences of Avian Influenza, by Andrew Burns, Dominique van der Mensbrugghe and Hans Timmer.

Economic Model

The World Bank's economic modeling for a flu pandemic assumed a 20 percent decline on an annualized basis in air travel and other mass transportation, as well as in services such as restaurant dining, tourism and non-essential retail shopping. Pandemics are typically experienced in at least two waves, with infections peaking in winter, the authors said. That could cause the world economy to shrink by 3.1 percent, while gross domestic product could be cut by as much as 4.4 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, the study said. Developing countries would be hardest hit because higher population densities and poverty accentuate the economic impacts in some countries, the authors said. The world economy may contract by 4.8 percent during the first year of a severe pandemic, 2 percent in a moderate outbreak and less than 1 percent in the event of a mild pandemic.

Purely Illustrative

Given the tremendous uncertainties surrounding the possibility and eventual nature of a pandemic inflation, these simulations must be viewed as purely illustrative, the World Bank said. They provide a sense of the overall magnitude of potential costs. Actual costs, both in terms of human lives and economic losses, are likely to be very different. Poultry farmers in infected countries have already suffered because of outbreaks.

The World Bank in January estimated the cost at $10 billion in Asia alone. The virus has since been found in wild birds and domestic poultry in at least 38 countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. South Korean health inspectors are testing poultry for H5N1 on a farm where 6,000 birds died this week in the southwest of the Korean peninsula, the agricultural ministry said in a briefing today. In Somalia, dozens of bird carcasses have been found in Elbaraf, 55 kilometers (34 miles) north of the town of Johwar, raising fears of an H5N1 outbreak in the Horn of Africa, Reuters reported today, citing Ali Hamud, a local veterinarian.To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Gale in Singapore at j.gale@bloomberg.net