1-This Week with Rabbi Eckstein (SUKKOT). 2-Hikes, Concerts and Festivities Planned For Sukkot Holiday. 3-Nor'easter taking shape in Mid-Atlantic 4-Typhoon Xangsane, flood toll reaches 169. 5-Israeli Company Strikes Oil Near Dead Sea. 6-Commission bureaucrats are getting too powerful, says Verheugen. 7-Syria and EU Discuss Situation in the Region. 8-Iran: Foreign tourists welcome at nuclear sites. 9-No Future for the Jews in the Diaspora. 10-EU wise group welcomes Sarkozy constitution initiative. 11-EU, U.S. reach deal on sharing passenger data from trans-Atlantic flights. 12-Source of E. coli outbreak sought.
Holiday of Sukkot, (known commonly as the Festival of Booths or
Feast of Tabernacles)This Week with Rabbi Eckstein
October 5, 2006
Dear Friend of The Fellowship,
Yom Kippur, a solemn and introspective holiday during which Jews atone for their sins against God and man, ended this past Monday evening. And today, Jews begin the transition into one of the most joyous times on the Jewish calendar as we celebrate the festival of Sukkot.
This wonderful holiday which starts this Friday at sunset, is both a harvest festival celebrating God's faithful blessings and a time remembering the Exodus from Egypt and our forefathers' journey into the Promised Land. In recalling God's favor in rescuing them from the hands of their captors, we build sukkot (booths for temporary dwelling) that resemble the shelters used during their period of wandering in the desert (Leviticus 23:39-43). Today, these booths are colorfully decorated and serve as festive gathering places for family and friends during the seven-day observance of Sukkot.
http://www.ifcj.org/site/PageServer?pagename=rabbistudy_holidays_Sukkot
This theme of displacement, wandering, and return to the Holy Land is a common thread in Jewish life, even in modern times. For example, after the Holocaust in the 1940's, hundreds of thousands of Jews from Europe and Arab lands came to the newly-formed state of Israel. In the '80s, Operation Solomon brought the first of thousands of Ethiopian Jews to the Israel - and more continue to arrive each month. And in just a few weeks, over two hundred Bnei Menashe, descendants of the ancient Jewish tribe of Menashe who settled in northeast India, will begin the next chapter of their historic return to the home of their forefathers.
Today, through our On Wings of Eagles program, The Fellowship continues to help fulfill biblical prophecy by bringing needy Jews living under anti-Semitic oppression back home to Israel. One of our critical tasks in this ministry is helping those who make aliyah adapt to their new lives in Israel.
Sadly, the Israeli government simply cannot provide new émigrés with all they need during this time of transition. This is because the tremendous need to defend against terrorism and to rebuild after last summer's devastating war launched by Hezbollah has stretched social services resources to the limit, and beyond.
And now, by helping with klitah (resettlement), our On Wings of Eagles outreach provides new émigrés with short-term needs such as food, shelter, and medical care, as well as long-term needs for job and language training. That is why I prayerfully ask for your continued support of this important work. Each dollar you contribute helps needy émigrés realize the promise of a new life in the Holy Land and become full, productive citizens of Israel. Your gift now during Sukkot, is further evidence to them that their days of wandering are over and that they have finally come home to Israel.
My deepest appreciation to you, dear faithful partner, for your support of this important and prophetic ministry. May God continue to bless you, as you have blessed His people.
With prayers for shalom, peace,
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein
President
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Hikes, Concerts and Festivities Planned For Sukkot Holiday
By Ezra HaLevi(INN)
Scores of events are set to take place across Israel in honor of the week-long Sukkot holiday, the Festival of Booths. Concerts, hikes and other recreational activities, as well as gatherings marking the traditional pilgrimage to Jerusalem are planned.
Exploring the Land of Israel
The Jewish Agency has arranged for all nature preserves and parks in northern Israel to be open to the public free of charge during the course of the festival. The initiative aims to encourage tourism to the north, which was devastated by the recent war with Hizbullah terrorists in Lebanon.
The sites include:
Zippori National Park
Ahziv National Park
Horshat Tal National Park
Baram National Park
Tel Hazor National Park
Nahal Ayoun Nature Reserve
Nimrod Fortress National Park
Kursi National Park
Corazim National Park
Ein Afek Nature Reserve
Nahal Amoud Nature Reserve
Hamat Tiberias National Park
Beit She'arim National Park
Beit Alfa Synagogue National Park
Kochav Hayarden National Park
Tel Megiddo National Park
Nahal Me'arot Nature Reserve
Majersa (Batiha) Nature Reserve
Gamla Nature Reserve
Hula Valley Nature Reserve
Yehiam Fortress National Park
Beit She'an National Park
Agmon Hahula Yarden Park
More details can be found at JewishAgency.org
On Tuesday, October 10, a hike through the Judean Hills from one of the largest towns in the Hevron region to one of the smallest and youngest hilltop communities will take place. The hike, billed as In the footsteps of our fathers and organized by Youth for the Land of Israel, will depart from Kiryat Arba and reach Maaleh Hever in the Hevron Hills. The rugged hike begins at 11 AM, leaving from Kiryat Arba’s Nir yeshiva. Motorists will meet behind the local municipality and tour local hilltop communities, traveling in a convoy along the route King David used to escape King Saul, and joining the festivities in Maaleh Hever as well.
There will also be a shorter, downhill, hiking route available for families with strollers or small children. For more information, call: 052 580 2666, 052 655 5184 or 052 311 4627
Dozens of hikes and tours of the Gush Etzion region are being offered by the Kfar Etzion field school. Places like the flat-topped Herodion mountain fortress, caves and natural springs will be explored. Click here for more information (in Hebrew).On October 9-11 the town of Sussia, in the Hevron hills, will be recreating life there 1,200 years ago, with performances, hikes, barefoot grape juicing and other activities. For more information call 02 996 3424, email info [at] susya.org.il or visit Susya.org.il. On October 10-11 the Dwelling in the Desert Festival will take place at the Joe Alon Center in the northern Negev Desert. The festival includes models of sukkahs throughout Jewish history as well as desert tents, musical instruments and a photography exhibition about the development of the Negev. For more information call 050-7366125 or click here (Hebrew).The Gush Katif women's seminary, reestablished in the Lachish region, is hosting a family wine and cave experience on October 9, from 10:30 AM to 5 PM. Wine will be hand-prepared in ancient presses and the network of caves used during the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Romans will be open to visitors and explored with the help of guides. For more information, call: 054 667 1554 or 054 667 1555.
The fourth annual Judean Kite Festival will take place in the hilltop community of Pnei Kedem, located in southeast Gush Etzion
Tuesday, October 10 from 11 to 5. For information and schedules of chartered buses call 02-930.9076 or email: mollmutty@yahoo.com
Western Wall and Temple Mount
Each day of the festival (as well as Friday night), prayers will take place at the Western Wall with lengthy singing and dancing in the tradition of the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. The daily morning prayers, which include the Hallel prayer and marching with the four species, will begin each day except Monday (see below) at 8:15 AM and be held up against the middle divider between the men’s and women’s sections. For more information call 054-596-9598.Visits for Jewish men and women who wish to ascend the Temple Mount in accordance with Jewish law are being offered over the course of the Sukkot Festival. All tours begin at 7.30 AM, beginning at the Mughrabi Gate, adjacent to the main entrance to the Western Wall plaza.
Tours will be offered each day in various languages:
Sunday October 8: Dr. Yoel Elitzur (Hebrew), Rabbi Chaim Richman (English), Shmuel Ben Hamu (French)
Monday October 9: Dr. Michael Ben-Ari (H), Nachum Schnitzer (E), Archeologist Yaffa Musaii (Women only, Hebrew)
Tuesday October 10: Dr. Yaacov Heyman (H), Rabbi Nachman Kupietzky (E), Yosef Dayan (Spanish)
Wednesday October 11: Menachem Ben-Yashar (H), Rabbi Zvi Rugan (E), Lily Richman (Women only, Bilingual)
Thursday October 12: Golan Shai-Cohen (H), Adv. Shmuel Caspar (E), Moshe Garbuz (Russian)
Sunday October 15: Yoel Lerner (Bilingual)
Participants must undergo physical preparations and immerse in a ritual bath beforehand, as well as arrive dressed in non-leather shoes. Police currently require a passport to ascend the mount and forbid the carrying up of religious articles aside from tzitzit and head coverings. For more information about the free tours and instructions on how to prepare, call (02) 571 0171 or 050 658 0224
(from outside Israel: +972 2 571 0171 or +972 50 658 0224).
Jerusalem’s Municipality has erected Israel’s largest sukkah. The temporary structure is constructed by each Jewish family and is a staple of the festival, which entails dwelling in sukkot. The municipal Sukkah of Stars is decorated with light fixtures from France and is located in Safra Square, just outside the Old City. It has an area of 500 square meters, measures six meters tall, and will be
open to the public all through the week.On Sunday, October 8 a joyous Simchat Beit HaShoeva, which commemorates the water libation performed in the Holy Temple, will take place in Jerusalem’s City of David, just below the Old City’s Dung Gate. Hassidic singers Yaakov Shweky and Chaim Yisrael will be performing. The event begins at 5:30 PM Several other City of David hikes and tours will be offered, including the Pilgrims' Route, ancient aqueducts tour, the newly established Jerusalem Trail and a survey of the sifting Temple Mount remnants in the Emek Tzurim valley. For more information, visit cityofdavid.org.il/succoth.asp or email
Foundation [at] cityofdavid.org.il
Several tours are being offered of the Jewish sites and residences in Jerusalem’s eastern half, liberated in 1967 and developed ever since. Half-day tours, offered by the Jerusalem Capital Development Fund will visit historical sites including the huge Jewish cemetery on the Mt.of Olives and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem. Jewish homes in the Shimon Hatzadik, Maaleh Hazeitim and other eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods will be visited as well. For more information, visit: http://www.jcdf.org/tournow.html or contact
Reuven Grossman at tours [at] jcdf.org or 052-579-0958.Beit Orot will also be offering a 3 1 hour tour of the area, visiting the same sites and following in the footsteps of the IDF soldiers who liberated the eastern half of the capital in 1967. For more information or to join a group, email: trips [at] beitorot.org or call (from the US) 201 530 0210 or (from Israel) 02 628 4155.
Lectures, Film Screenings and Conferences
A new documentary about the expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif will be screened each night of the intermediate days of the festival in downtown Jerusalem. The movie, Home Game, uses the metaphor of Gaza's Jewish basketball competition to portray the pain of the Disengagement and determination of the evicted residents.The screenings will take place at the OU Israel Center in Jerusalem (22 Keren HaYesod, diagonally opposite the Dan Panorama Hotel) on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at 8 PM during the holiday.The 27th annual Christian Feast of the Tabernacles will also take place in Jerusalem over the festival, attended by more than 4,000 Christians from more than 80 nations who will arrive in Jerusalem. The event is sponsored by the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem. Israel’s Ministry of Tourism bills the Feast of Tabernacles as the largest annual tourism event in Israel.
Concerts
On Sunday and Monday, October 8-9, the entire Cave of the Patriarchs in Hevron will be open to the public, including the Tomb of Isaac, which is usually used as a mosque by local Arabs. Guided tours of the city will be given and large musical morning prayers will take place at 9:15 AM each day. Klezmer sensation Moussa Berlin will accompany the Hallel prayer and hassidic singer Mordechai Ben David will perform in the afternoon on the second day. Other performers include Adi Ran, Daklon, Shlomo Katz, Chaim Dovid Saracek, Shira Hadasha, Udi Davidi, Yoni Shlomo and Mendy Jerufy. For more information, call 1-800-400-456.The annual three-day free Beit Shemesh music festival will take place from October 8-10, featuring The Andalusi Orchestra (Sunday at 8 PM), Rockia, Para Aduma, Haakevot, Shlock Rock, Aaron Razel, Adi Ran, Moshav Band and Shai Gabso (Monday from 8 PM) and Udi Davidi, Naftali Abramson, Pey Dalid, Chaim Dovid, Shlomo Katz, Shlomo Gronich and Reva L'Sheva Tuesday night at 8 PM. For more information, visit shemeshfest.com
Tuesday night October 10 a cantorial concert will take place at Jerusalem’s Menachem Begin Heritage Center, entitled And they
came to Zion in Song.Performing with the Tel Aviv Cantorial Institute will be Chazan Naftali Hershtik. For more information and tickets, call: 02-565-2020.Information about many more concerts, lectures and celebrations can be found on the web site of the Jerusalem Municipality.
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.
Nor'easter taking shape in Mid-Atlantic W. Verno, Meteorologist, The Weather Channel Fri Oct 6, 9:17 AM ET
Northeast
The Mid-Atlantic will be impacted by increasing rain, wind, and possible flooding into the weekend. A strong upper level disturbance will interact with a front over the Mid-Atlantic, and result in rain, heavy at times, from Philadelphia and Washington, south through Virginia. In addition to the threat for possible flooding, a few stronger thunderstorms will also be possible over southern Virginia.
Strong northeast winds will also increase across these areas making for a raw day. Meanwhile, high pressure will span the New England States, resulting in dry, but cool conditions today, with some areas experiencing freezing temperatures overnight Friday into Saturday morning. This general weather pattern will continue into Saturday, but by Sunday, the rains and wind over the Mid-Atlantic should lessen, and the temperatures should begin to moderate over the Northeast.
West
A strong upper disturbance will continue to transport abundant moisture northward through the four corners area today. Numerous showers the thunderstorms will impact pasts of southwest California, Arizona, Utah, western Colorado, and southern Idaho today.
The potential for heavy downpours moving over the same areas will increase the threat for flash flooding, particularly over Arizona and Utah. Also in these areas, a few severe thunderstorms will also be possible today. Meanwhile, over the Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies, a cold front will trigger a few showers there, along with cool temperatures. Into Saturday, a deep low pressure is forecast to develop over the northern Rockies. This will produce increased wind and rain, with some higher elevation snows over that area, while pulling the persistent showers and thunderstorms over the four Corners, a bit further east into New Mexico and Colorado.
Dry conditions will build across the west coast as the unsettled weather shifts further east.
South
A cold front will move south through the southeastern states today, producing a few showers over southern Georgia, into South Carolina.
High pressure will build across much of the south behind this front, resulting in partly cloudy skies, and cooler temperatures. Afternoon highs today will range from the 70s from Atlanta to Memphis, to the 80s along the Gulf Coast, to the 90s in Florida and southern Texas.
Meanwhile, a strong upper level disturbance impacting the Mid-Atlantic will spread increased chances of rain and wind into North Carolina, including the Raleigh area. This general weather pattern will persist into Saturday, with cooler conditions remaining in place over much of the south, and rains over the Carolinas.
Midwest
Large high pressure will span much of the Great Lakes, Midwest, and Plains today, resulting in mostly sunny skies and dry conditions. Cool conditions will remain in the Great Lakes and Midwest, where afternoon temperatures will be in the 60s, warming to the 70s and 80s westward over the High Plains. Winds will also be increasing over the Plains today, as strong southerly flow develops on the backside of high pressure. These general conditions will persist over the Great Lakes and Midwest into Saturday, however over the central Plains; very windy conditions will develop as a deep low pressure rapidly forms over the northern Rockies.
Temperatures will also soar Saturday afternoon in these areas under strong southerly flow, with readings into the 80s.
Typhoon Xangsane, flood toll reaches 169 Thu Oct 5, 12:57 AM ET
HANOI (Reuters) - Flooding killed dozens of people in the days after Typhoon Xangsane raked the Philippines and Vietnam, officials said on Thursday as the combined death toll rose to at least 169 with 79 others missing. The Vietnam government said 59 people died and 7 were missing after the typhoon hit on Sunday, but state-run media accounts indicated a higher death toll of at least 68, citing provincial disaster reports.The typhoon's fierce winds and rain destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of homes when it slammed into Vietnam's central coast after bringing parts of the Philippines, including the capital Manila, to a standstill last week.
In Vietnam, nearly 320,000 homes were destroyed or submerged. Xangsane, which means elephant in the Lao language, damaged roads, telecommunications and power networks, fisheries and crops along a roughly 1,000 km (600-mile) stretch.The government estimated the cost of the damage at 10 trillion dong ($624 million).Workers have been cleaning up the resort city of Danang and the nearby UNESCO-heritage town of Hoi An. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) tourism ministers meeting is scheduled for October 12 to 17 in Hoi An.In the Philippines, the typhoon killed 110 people, injured 88 and 72 were missing, officials said on Thursday.
More than 2.3 million people were affected by the typhoon in the Philippines and about 80,000 remained in temporary shelters after losing their homes in the disaster.The typhoon weakened into a tropical storm, moved west to Laos and dissipated over northern Thailand.Hundreds, if not thousands, of people are killed and property and crops damaged each year by tropical storms in Vietnam and the Philippines, which has the South China Sea between them.(Reporting by Ho Binh Minh in HANOI; Carmel Crimmins in MANILA)
Israeli Company Strikes Oil Near Dead Sea
14:38 Oct 05, '06 / 13 Tishrei 5767
by Hillel Fendel(INN)
An Israeli company reports it has struck oil in the Dead Sea region, possibly worth up to $350 million. The company, Ginko Oil Exploration, says that oil spurted on Monday from a depth of 1,800 meters (1.12 miles), and that further tests will be carried out in the coming days. The oil, estimated at about 6.5 million barrels' worth, was found just north of the Dead Sea.Ginko extracted about 120,000 barrels of crude oil from the site about ten years ago, but gave up the initiative. The drilling has now been renewed, as it has in many places around the world, because of the steep increase in oil prices. Ginko has already acquired pipelines and containers for transporting the extracted fuel. In April 2004, Ginko discovered a seven-meter layer of natural gas in the same region. Israel has produced only 20 million barrels of oil in the last half-century, the Associated Press reports - less than what the Saudis produce every three days.
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).
Commission bureaucrats are getting too powerful, says Verheugen
05.10.2006 - 09:39 CET | By Honor Mahony
European Commission vice-president Guenter Verheugen has spoken out strongly against the power of high-ranking civil servants within the commission who are able to influence decisions according to their personal whims.In an interview with German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the German commissioner in charge of the important industry portfolio said the whole development in the last ten years has brought the civil servants such power that in the meantime the most important political task of the 25 commissioners is controlling this apparatus.There is a permanent power struggle between commissioners and high ranking bureaucrats. Some of them think: the commissioner is gone after five years and so is just a house keeper, but I'm sticking around, he continued.
He suggests that his own project to simplify 54 EU laws has fallen foul of stubborn commission bureaucrats. Before the summer he strongly criticised internally some general directorates who evidently did not want to take the head of the commission's aim to reduce bureaucracy seriously, because it did not fit in with their own ideas.Mr Verheugen, who is now in his second term as EU commissioner having previously been in charge of enlargement, noted that the problem will get worse again once Bulgaria and Romania join the EU because then there will be two new general directorates units in the commission that deal with specific areas and that is a problem.
Illustrating how power struggles happen, the commissioner said it all occurs under the surface.The commissioners have to take extreme care that important questions are decided in their weekly meeting, and not decided by the civil servants among themselves.Unfortunately it sometimes happens in the communication with member states or parliament that civil servants put their own personal perspective across as the view of the commission, he told the newspaper.Citing a concrete example the 62-year old social democrat commissioner said that commission bureaucrats had tried to sort out the use of pesticides between them and the issue only came to the attention of their political masters the commissioners when the bureaucrats fell out over the issue.
Noting that the way some commission officials communicate is technical and arrogant, which he finds appalling, Mr Verheugen said that only a change in political culture in the commission would improve the situation.He suggests that commissioners should be able to move around the powerful general directors, something which they cannot do at the moment, pointing out that when something goes wrong then it is always commissioners who take the flak.In my opinion, too much is decided by civil servants,he said in conclusion.
Syria and EU Discuss Situation in the Region
Wednesday, October 04, 2006 - 04:15 PM
DAMASCUS, (SANA) Syria and EU Discussed on Wednesday bilateral relations and the Mideast peace process.
Talks during a meeting between Members of the European Commission delegation headed by Chairman of Mideast Unit at the European Union Alan Seater and Assistant Foreign Minister Ahmad Arnous dealt with the peace process in the Middle East and implementation of the relevant United Nations resolutions, in addition to the situation in Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq .They also discussed the Syrian-European relations and aid programs which the commission intends to extend to Syria during the upcoming period of 2007-2010 as well as priorities that Syria sees in these programs.
Discussions between members of the European Commission delegation and Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Abdullah al-Dardari touched upon importance of boosting relations between Syria and European Union to cover different fields of developments.They also conferred on having a look at the suggested program in the blue print of the EU strategy for cooperation with Syria during 2007- 2010 in the economic reform domains and networks of social protection in addition to develop business environment and public and local services .Both sides agreed to continue discussions aiming at reaching a joint action paper in order to help in enhancing prospects of cooperation and pushing them forward.Thawra –Sawsan
EZEKIEL 38:3-6
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.
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)
JOEL 2:20,30
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.
Iran: Foreign tourists welcome at nuclear sites
Journalists, U.N. inspectors have had trouble getting easy access
MSNBC News Services
TEHRAN, Iran /Iran’s hard-line president has ordered nuclear facilities opened to foreign tourists to prove that the nation’s disputed atomic program is peaceful, state-run television reported on Wednesday.After an order by the president ... foreign tourists can visit Iran’s nuclear facilities,the head of Iran’s tourism division, Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, was quoted as saying.Mashai said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued the order to show that Iran’s nuclear program it aims to generate fuel, not weapons.We are reviewing the related instructions in this regard,he reportedly said.An official said tourists could visit the facilities, including the Natanz uranium enrichment plant, 150 miles south of Tehran, the centerpiece of Iran’s disputed atomic fuel drive.
New tourism niche?
Despite offering attractions such as ancient Persian ruins, intricately tiled mosques and spice-filled bazaars, as well as skiing in its northern mountains, tourism is underdeveloped in the Islamic Republic, where strict religious dress codes require women to cover their heads and bodies.And it is unclear whether tourists will flock to see Iran’s nuclear facilities, which are ringed by anti-aircraft batteries.Foreign and Iranian journalists, who often request visits, have been given only occasional tours of Natanz, the uranium conversion facility of Isfahan or Bushehr, the site of Iran’s first nuclear power plant that is still being built.Even U.N. inspectors, who are given routine access to nuclear sites, have complained about some restrictions in the past, although Iran denies causing any
obstructions.
U.S. visitors might be fingerprinted
The report did not clarify the definition of a foreign tourist. The announcement came a day after Iran’s parliament voted to debate a bill that would require the government to fingerprint all U.S. citizens visiting Iran.The draft law would require all American citizens to be fingerprinted when they enter Iran.
The measure was in retaliation for the fingerprinting of Iranian travelers visiting the United States a procedure implemented in 2002 for Iranians and citizens of several other countries.The U.S. and some of its allies fear Iran is seeking to enrich uranium to develop nuclear weapons.Senior U.N. diplomats said Tuesday that Iran’s refusal to freeze uranium enrichment had sabotaged talks meant to defuse the standoff over its nuclear program, opening the way for the Security Council to start considering sanctions next week.The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
No Future for the Jews in the Diaspora
By Hana Levi Julian(INN)
Likud Knesset opposition leader Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu warned American Jews on Thursday There is no future for Jews in the Diaspora.An Islamic terror plot was foiled in Prague. Netanyahu cited assimilation and intermarriage as the main reasons for the statement on Thursday. He cautioned American financial supporters of the IDF Nahal hareidi program to work especially against assimilation in their communities.The only hope for the Jewish people in the Diaspora is Israel,he said, to the surprise of the leaders and other Diaspora Jews in the room. Sources close to Netanyahu confirmed he had made the statements, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Not The First Warning by Israeli Leaders
President Moshe Katsav issued a similar warning six years ago when he said in September 2000, The only branch that can ensure the continuation of the Jewish nation is the Jewish State.Katsav insisted at the time that Jewish education in the Diaspora was a short-term solution that would last at most two or three generations. We have legitimized living in the Diaspora and have said it does not bother us, he said, but caused a groundswell of shock and anger when he maintained that Israeli leaders should no longer justify Jews remaining in countries outside the State of Israel.
An Ominous New Threat to Diaspora Jews in the Czech Republic
A report by the Yediot Aharonot daily newspaper Friday added an additional grim reason to the concern for the future of Diaspora Jewry: the threat of Islamic terrorism.Reports of an Islamic terrorist plot to kidnap and ultimately murder a large group of Jews in Prague brought back frightening echoes of the pogroms of Eastern Europe.
The plot, which came to light around Rosh Hashana, has meant increased police patrols and questions for residents and tourists in the Czech capital. The Mlada Fronta Dnesnewspaper quoted unnamed intelligence sources who said the terrorists would have imprisoned the captives in the Great Synagogue of Prague while demanding unspecified terms they knew would not be met. According to the source, the terrorists planned to blow up the building, destroying everything and everyone inside. The report did not include information on whether anyone had been arrested in connection with the plot, nor did it offer any clue as to the identity of the conspirators.
The Feeling Will be Different From Now On
Rabbi Manis Barash, head of the Chabad House in the Czech Republic’s capital noted, Unfortunately the Jewish communities in Europe are used to threats and actions as well. Now it has reached us. Israeli officials have been monitoring the situation, said a member of the Jewish community who asked to remain anonymous. A similar situation recently occurred in Norway as well, noted Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev.We are aware of the existence of extremist groups in the European continent that wish to harm Israeli representatives and local Jewish communities,he said, adding that Israeli consulates and embassies are dealing with the situation. Regev did not specify the security measures which were in place. As Czech Jews enter the holiday of Sukkot, (known commonly as the Festival of Booths or Feast of Tabernacles) Rabbi Barash said Jewish life in the city, that draws countless tourists from Israel and other countries, is tense. Terror alerts at the airport, the Jewish Quarter and other areas in the capital have raised the stress level to an unprecedented high.The feeling will be different from now on,he commented.We still walk on the streets, but on this holiday we are naturally more fearful and suspicious.
EU wise group welcomes Sarkozy constitution initiative
05.10.2006 - 17:13 CET | By Mark Beunderman
EUOBSERVER /
BRUSSELS /Members of a select group of EU politicians tackling the bloc's constitutional deadlock have told EUobserver they are open to changes to the EU constitution, welcoming the fact that French minister Sarkozy recently re-opened
the debate on the charter.The circle of high-profile European politicians led by Italian interior minister Giuliano Amato last weekend (29-30 September) held its first meeting in Rome, with two members of the group telling EUobserver after the talks that they have no taboos.The substance of the EU constitution is more important than its form,said Belgian MEP and former prime minister Jean-Luc
Dehaene who was one of the senior architects of the charter rejected by French and Dutch voters last year.
Another member of the group, Spanish centre-right MEP Inigo Mendez de Vigo, said the Rome meeting had welcomed recent proposals by French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy for a mini treaty made up of only parts of the constitution. We discussed the proposal of Mr Sarkozy and we thought it was a good initiative,he said. We may not fully agree with it but it made a difference that a French politician who has important responsibilities takes the initiative himself of saying: this is what I think. We appreciated the fact that Mr Sarkozy has gone into the arena. Mr Mendez de Vigo added that another plan by Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt to create a nucleus of closely integrated eurozone states, was also mentioned by participants as another proposal that we have.
But the text of the constitution remains an important point of departure for the group which will hold its next conclave in December, the Spanish politician indicated. We will think for the next meeting: what are the essential parts of the constitution? What is really essential in the constitution for Europe to work in the forthcoming years?
Vitorino joins group
The Amato group includes two former prime ministers Paavo Lipponen of Finland and Wim Kok of the Netherlands as well as two European commissioners Danuta Hubner (regional policy) and Margot Wallstom (communications) and German interior minister
Wolfgang Schauble plus his predecessor Otto Schily.
France also has two particpants former foreign minister Michel Barnier and former finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn while UK ex-commissioner Chris Patten is another prominent member. Mr Mendez de Vigo said the group will soon be joined by Antonio Vitorino, a Portuguese ex-commissioner, plus one member from a Baltic state and one from a central European country, bringing the total number of 'wise' men and women to 14. The group, which will produce a report just before next year's June EU leaders summit on the constitution, strongly stresses its independence, having its own €100,000 budget provided by the German Bosch Foundation.
We are a group of private participants,said Mr Dehaene, with commission officials stressing that Ms Hubner and Ms Wallstrom are participating in their private capacity.
High political stakes
But the political weight of the group is highlighted by the fact that both Germany and France have two members, each representing the main centre-right and centre-left political forces. Germany in particular has high stakes in the group, as it holds the EU presidency in the first half of next year and is tasked with making concrete proposals on how to deal with the shelved constitution.
We know that others will deal with decisions,said Mr Mendez de Vigo. We started from the idea that the German presidency has to make a proposal on the procedure, but also, surely, on content [of a new treaty]. Our motto is: we'll try to give you a hand.
EU, U.S. reach deal on sharing passenger data from trans-Atlantic flights Updated 10/6/2006 11:25 AM ET
LUXEMBOURG (AP) The European Union and the United States agreed Friday on a new anti terrorism agreement that will give the FBI and other U.S. law enforcement agencies access to data about passengers on U.S.-bound flights.
The interim deal reached after a nine-hour, trans-Atlantic video conference that took place nearly a week after negotiators missed an Oct. 1 deadline replaces a 2004 air passenger privacy agreement the EU's high court voided last May for purely technical reasons.The agreement is valid until July 2007, after which the EU and the U.S. plan to have a permanent accord. The 25 EU governments are expected to give final approval to the interim deal next week.
EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini welcomed the agreement, saying the United States and the EU will employ comparable standards of data protection.He said the deal should defuse fears in the European Parliament of a loss of privacy for Europeans flying to the United States.Under the agreement, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security no longer will have an automatic right to pull data from European airlines' computer systems, but must ask for such information.The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency may disclose passenger data to other American law enforcement agencies only if they have comparable standards of data protection, Frattini told reporters.
He said it cannot give them direct electronic access to the data and limits the duration of its storage.EU negotiator Jonathan Faull said the EU and the U.S. are aiming for a broader deal after July 2007 that would provide for sharing of more data than the 34 details listed under Friday's agreement.
British Home Secretary John Reid called the interim agreement another major step in the fight against terrorism (showing that) the common alliance against terrorism is, on both sides of the Atlantic, very strong.French Justice Minister Pascal Clement said the Europeans got concrete guarantees with respect to privacy protection for EU nationals.Negotiations collapsed last week when the EU denied a request by U.S.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff for a more routine sharing of passenger data among U.S. law enforcement agencies.The new agreement lets airlines continue to legally submit 34 pieces of data such as passenger names, addresses, seat numbers, credit card and travel details, as well as their no-show records for transfer to U.S. authorities within 15 minutes of a flight's departure for the United States.Frattini said there was a concrete risk of privacy erosion had a trans-Atlantic accord not been reached. In that case, a patchwork of bilateral agreements would have been the privacy protection basis.
EU officials said they shared Washington's concerns about terrorism, but demanded strict data protection guarantees in return for a more routine sharing of personal details of air passengers among U.S. law enforcement officials.Washington had warned that airlines failing to share passenger data would face fines of up to US$6,000 (euro4,700) per passenger and the loss of landing rights.
The negotiations revealed divisions between the U.S. and the Europeans over how far governments should go in curbing personal freedoms to prevent terrorist attacks.Privacy restrictions tend to be tougher in Europe than in the United States, and the Europeans wanted to deny U.S. officials the right to go into airline reservation systems.
Martine Roure, a spokesman for the Socialists, the European Parliament's second-largest group, expressed satisfaction there is a new agreement. The U.S. authorities must now apply all the data protection guarantees we ask of them.Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Posted 10/6/2006 10:35 AM ET
Source of E. coli outbreak sought
Tainted spinach was the source of an E. coli outbreak in the U.S. recently.
Carly Weeks, CanWest News Service
Published: Friday, October 06, 2006
OTTAWA /The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Ontario health ministry are trying to determine the source of an E. coli outbreak that has left more than 30 people sick, including five who required hospitalization, in two different Ontario cities. Health officials believe there is a link between the reports of illnesses that have streamed in from Sudbury, Ont., and Hamilton.
But they have not been able to determine what food caused the outbreak of the potentially deadly bacteria.While officials believe the bacteria likely came from fresh produce most likely lettuce the food inspection agency said there’s little hope it will be able to determine the source of the outbreak.The food link has not been demonstrated yet by tests,said CFIA spokesman Marc Richard. Should there be a food link demonstrated, then we can recall (the product), but given this is a fresh product, that is less likely because it was all eaten or thrown away weeks ago.Health officials are also trying to figure out how two communities located in different parts of the province were affected by the same bacteria outbreak, and why no other community seems to have experienced similar problems. The news of the outbreak comes on the heels of a massive E. coli outbreak that claimed the lives of two people, including a two-year-old boy, in the United States, and made more than 190 others sick, including an Ontario woman.Officials in Hamilton are investigating 20 cases of E. coli, of which 11 have been confirmed. All of the cases are confined to Hillfield Strathallan College, a private-run school.
Officials first learned of the outbreak on Sept. 26, he said.
In Sudbury, health officials are investigating 14 cases. Four people in that city had to be hospitalized after eating food that had been contaminated with E. coli bacteria. Most of the people affected are believed to have eaten contaminated food at a local restaurant. © CanWest News Service
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Friday, October 06, 2006
10 TRIBES COME HOME TO ISRAEL
1-Cluster of earthquakes near Mt Cook. 2-Quake shakes up water table in Maine. 3-S.East Asian flood toll, damage rise after typhoon. 4-Borneo and Sumatra burn as forest fires rage. 5-Global trade goes more global. 6-Vatican-Muslim dialogue back to square one: cardinal. 7-Beijing secretly fires lasers to disable US satellites. 8-Rice Cites Concern for Palestinians, But Low Expectations Mark Visit. 9-Mahdi Followers Claim US Is Trying To Prevent His Return. 10-87 die from mosquito diseases in India. 11-Right On: A miracle of biblical proportions.
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.
Cluster of earthquakes near Mt Cook
Posted at 11:28am on 05 Oct 2006
A shallow cluster of earthquakes 30km north-west of Mt Cook this week has seismologists looking at what may be causing the activity.The biggest quake was on Monday, reaching 4.7 on the Richter scale; with successive earthquakes being smaller, but closer to the surface.GMS Science seismologist Todd Nicholson says it's unusual to have so much seismic activity around Mt Cook.Eight earthquakes were recorded on Monday, and one or two quakes each day since then.The deepest quake was 8km on Monday, with 5km depths recorded on the same day and on Wednesday.Copyright © 2006 Radio New Zealand
Quake shakes up water table in Maine Wed Oct 4, 1:42 PM ET
BAR HARBOR, Maine - Monday's earthquake lowered the water level by 3 1/2 feet at one location in a national park, an unusual event, but one that wasn't expected to hurt the water supply, officials said. By Wednesday, the water level was still falling but beginning to level off, said Gregory Stewart, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. The drop in water level was observed at one of the agency's monitoring wells in Acadia National Park.Bar Harbor and some municipalities on Mount Desert Island near the epicenter of the quake have public water systems, but most residents in outlying areas rely on wells for drinking water. The Hancock County Emergency Management Agency said it had not received any reports of compromised wells.
The earthquake Monday evening registered a magnitude of 3.9 and followed quakes with magnitudes of 3.5 and 2.5 on Sept. 22 and 26.The latest earthquake caused rocks to fall onto Acadia National Park's Park Loop Road and burst some water pipes, but no injuries were reported.The Geological Survey said the drop in water level was more of an oddity than something for residents to worry about.We're not trying to create some kind of public scare. It's more of a public interest thing. It's a pretty dramatic change, Stewart said.
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.
S.East Asian flood toll, damage rise after typhoon Wed Oct 4, 12:30 AM ET
HANOI (Reuters) - Flooding and landslides triggered by Typhoon Xangsane have raised the death toll to more than 150 in the past week from the storm that hit Vietnam and the Philippines, officials said on Wednesday.
The typhoon's fierce winds and rain destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of homes when it slammed Vietnam's central coast on Sunday after bringing parts of the Philippines, including the capital Manila, to a standstill last week.Vietnamese officials said more than 50,000 houses were still submerged along a roughly 1,000 km (600-mile) area from northern Nghe An province to Gia Lai province in the south. Tien Phong (Vanguard) newspaper said the evacuation of 6,000 people started on Tuesday in Nghe An.
Vietnam's resort city of Danang, the country's fourth largest with 1 million people, was hardest-hit by the typhoon, both in terms of casualties and damage to homes, power supply and its seafood industry.The National Flood and Storm Control Committee said at least 42 people were killed in Vietnam by the storm or swept away by floods in its aftermath. Seven were missing and 502 injured.
Initial estimates of damage were around 9.98 trillion dong ($623 million), the government said.The committee warned residents across the storm-damaged region to be prepared for flash floods, landslides and flooding in the low-lying areas.
Officials in the Philippines said on Wednesday that the death toll had risen to 110 from 78 on Monday.At least 88 people were injured and a further 79 were still missing. Around 2.9 billion pesos ($58 million) worth of properties were damaged by Xangsane, which means elephant in the Lao language.The storm weakened after crossing into Vietnam and moved west across Laos and into Thailand.Hundreds, if not thousands, of people are killed and property and crops damaged each year by tropical storms in the two countries, which are separated by the South China Sea.(Reporting by Nguyen Nhat Lam in Hanoi and Carmel Crimmins in Manila)
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.
Borneo and Sumatra burn as forest fires rage
mongabay.com,October 4, 2006
Forest fires are again burning across Borneo and Sumatra according to satellite images released this week by NASA. The fires, set on a seasonal basis for land-clearing for agriculture, have blanked the region with smoke that has interrupted air travel and driven air quality to unhealthy levels. NASA notes that despite a governmental ban on open burning, seasonal fires continue to occur on the Indonesian islands each year, peaking in the dry season of late summer and early fall.
Smoke from agricultural and forest fires burning on Sumatra (left) and Borneo (right) in late September and early October 2006 blanketed a wide region with smoke that interrupted air and highway travel and pushed air quality to unhealthy levels. This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite on October 1, 2006, shows places where MODIS detected actively burning fires marked in red. Smoke spreads in a gray-white pall to the north. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team.
In 1982-1983 more than 9.1 million acres (3.7 million ha) burned on the island of Borneo before monsoon rains arrived, while more than 2 million hectares of forest and scrub land burned during the 1997-1998 el Niño event, causing $9.3 billion in losses. The fires also produced wide-ranging and severe economic, political, social, health, and ecological damage to Indonesia and the neighboring Southeast Asian nations of Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, and Thailand, already in the midst of an economic crisis.
Satellite analysis of the 1997-1998 fires revealed that 80 percent of the fires could be linked to plantations or logging concession holders. The haze from the 2005-2006 fires resulted in heated exchanges between Indonesian and Malaysian government officials. Malaysia and Singapore offered assistance in fighting Indonesian blazes, while simultaneously scolding the country for its lack of progress in controlling the wild fires. Indonesia in turn blamed Malaysian firms for rampant illegal logging in the country, which left its forests more susceptible to conflagrations.
Despite some protective measures, including an Indonesian proposal to implement the death penalty for illegal loggers and fire starters, such fires are only expected to worsen in the future as the region's forests face increasingly dry conditions due to climate change and degradation. Of special concern are the region's peatlands which, when burned, release massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmoshpere and are extremely difficult to extinguish. Dr Susan Page, of the University of Leicester, estimates that Southeast Asian peat lands may contain up to 21 percent of the world’s land-based carbon. The 1997 fires released 2.67 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
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).
Global trade goes more global
Khaleej Times 2006 ,By Prof. Tom Lambert FRSA
IT HAS become common practice for countries in all regions of the world to develop trading blocks. So we have the European Union, Asean in South East Asia and the North American Free Trade Agreement. In previous articles I have suggested that Mena is well placed to develop a massive domestic market as a springboard for more widespread global trade by the countries that have little international trade experience with guidance and support from the more knowledgeable nations.Not all such arrangements reach their full potential as quickly as is hoped. For example Asean is at times beset by problems emanating from unequal economic development. Similar problems will need to be overcome in Mena, which is why I believe that strong, experienced and effective leadership is necessary.
Other international trading blocks have limited initial membership. Mena may need to consider a similar approach. The point is, however, that whatever barriers may exist the potential can be exploited.
IBSA
Effective exploitation of local markets can be the pathway to enhanced prosperity through strategic global trade initiatives. India has, in recent years, offered a role model of success to her neighbours in many areas of international business. Many pundits believe that with a young and talented workforce India will overtake China and become the major hub of global trade and commerce in the region.India has a demographic advantage in having a younger population than her vast neighbour median age 24.9 years.
Combining this with an education system that is more attuned to international business and scientific needs is expected to provide a telling competitive edge. China will, of course continue to prosper, but many now expect India to become the dominant Asian trading nation.Two years ago the Indian government was instrumental in creating something of a new trade block model linking her with the continents of Africa and South America. IBSA is a trading group that brings together India, Brazil and South Africa, the three most successful countries in their regions, in a triumvirate of trade. The goals begin modestly by global standards with an initial trade target of $10 billion. The indications are that that target will be achieved and trade will develop along with increasing good will.
Brasilia
In September the heads of government met with business leaders from the three countries in Brasilia. They announced their intention of working together to develop mutually beneficial trade and technology exchanges that will, in due course, go beyond the three countries that are directly involved in the initial links.Brazil is the leading member of MERCOSUR, a trading block in which its partners are Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Its objective is to facilitate the free movement of goods, services, technology, capital and people between the member countries. South Africa has a similar role in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the Southern African Customs Union. India has strong relationships with Asean and is a leading member of G-20; a grouping of countries from across the globe that has had considerable success in opposing the combined might of the EU and USA on occasion. All three countries have strategies in place to combat Aids and poverty. Each has still a long way to go. Increased trade will be a major factor in economic and social success.
Corporate governance
In his speech to captains of industry gathered in Brasilia Prime Minister Manmohan Singh indicated that the primary role of the trilateral relationship would be mutual trade, but beyond that establishing an IBSA mechanism for the exchange of information and experiences on regulatory issues could lead to a harmonisation of standards an important factor in international business governance.It is arguable that expanding trade will naturally extend to regulatory harmonisation. As part of the development of a level playing field, mutual understanding and trust harmonisation may emerge naturally. A model may lie in China's approach to trade
with Africa as I discussed in a previous article.If harmonisation comes from evolutionary rather than revolutionary forces it may well prove to be acceptable and robust.
Transport
Not surprisingly the distance between three continents has been a barrier to both trade and tourism. The three leaders agreed that their faith in the future of IBSA would need to drive a framework that would lead to improvements in transport linkages between the three countries. The potential is there and is waiting to be realised. The means has, to some degree, still to be found.
Energy
Economic development is energy dependent and, as nobody understands better than the oil-rich countries of the Mena region, oil stocks may be massive, but they are finite. The trilateral approach plans to bring together the areas of energy expertise of its three members.
Brazil is a world leader in the production of ethanol. South Africa has important experience in coal gasification and has an already well developed synthetic fuel industry. India has massive resources of coal and expertise in wind and solar energy that will be developed by the growing number of engineers that the country is producing. Mena has also great potential for renewable energy resources.
Make poverty history
In spite of their pre-eminence regionally, India, South Africa and Brazil still experience major problems of poverty and health at home. The three leaders have committed themselves to using the benefits of an increasingly prosperous IBSA to improve the lives of their people. Important as this is the intention is to go further and to work together to establish a clear pathway to economic development that will reach beyond their borders enriching the lives of other countries in their respective regions.
Mena
In a number of ways the Middle East North Africa region has parallels with the countries of IBSA and their neighbours. There are well-developed economies that are already global players. There is, overall, a relatively young workforce. There are important natural resources combined with considerable technical know how. Knowledge and experience exist that can be shared in an international learning community. There have been major initiatives in education in particular in the UAE and Qatar from which we can all learn.
Considerable financial resources exist to support human capital. At the same time there remain unrealised human potential and poverty in some parts of the region. Perhaps India, Brazil and South Africa can offer another model from which leadership in the region can take whatever is relevant to exploit the considerable advantages and promise that are so evident.
REVELATION 17:2
2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.(THE VATICAN THROUGH DIALOGUE)
Vatican-Muslim dialogue back to square one: cardinal By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor Wed Oct 4, 11:22 AM ET
PARIS (Reuters) - Vatican relations with the Islamic world must be restarted from square one because Muslims insist on misinterpreting Pope Benedict's recent comments on Islam, Germany's top Catholic cardinal said in an article on Wednesday.
Cardinal Karl Lehmann, head of the German Catholic Bishops Conference, accused Muslim critics of running a campaign against the Pope and said the Pontiff had nothing to apologize for.The blunt comments from Lehmann, whose rich and influential church has close ties to the German-born Pope, seem to have been sparked by an unusual call from the 56-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) for him to retract his words.The OIC call came a day after Benedict had received Muslim ambassadors to the Vatican and repeated his regrets for any misunderstanding of his September 12 speech in which he quoted a Byzantine emperor saying Islam was evil and violent.
These open or hidden threats have to stop,Lehmann said in the weekly newspaper of his Mainz diocese.
Obviously we have to start at square one because we're not talking here about important contents of a necessary dialogue, but about the fundamental requirements for one to succeed.There is freedom of religion and speech in our civilization. The Pope can also be criticized. But there are elementary rules that apply for factual and fair contacts with each other and with clear statements, he wrote.One cannot constantly repeat completely unfounded misunderstandings when the texts are so clear.The dispute over Benedict's use of a quote sharply critical of Islam has further strained Vatican ties with Muslims who already knew he has spoken in the past against Turkey's entry into the European Union because of that country's Islamic roots.
Benedict's repeated protest that he did not agree with the quote has not convinced Muslim critics, who say he has still not gone far enough to undo the damage they feel he has done.Some accuse him of undoing years of bridge-building by his predecessor. When John Paul was pope, there was no problem for Muslims, commented Cemal Usak, a Turkish Muslim activist. Pope Benedict may not like Islam but he has to respect Muslims.
A FULL-BLOWN CAMPAIGN
Lehmann noted that Benedict's speech in Regensburg during a visit to his native Bavaria evoked no critical reaction at first and journalists had no questions about it at a news conference the cardinal gave after the Pope left Munich on September 14.Only a few days later did a full-blown campaign from outside begin,he wrote, calling it astounding that critics should repeatedly say the Pope had insulted Islam and Muslims.Lehmann's article echoed a statement last week by the bishops he leads complaining some critics had tried to escalate the dispute with ever new charges, demands or even threats.The Catholic Church and many people in our country and around the world, who respect and defend the right of free speech, will not be bullied, the bishops' conference said after its meeting in Fulda last week.
The German bishops, an influential voice at the Vatican because of their church's financial power and theological depth, also repeated Benedict's frequent calls for Muslim countries to give their Christian minorities equal rights.Meeting shortly after a Berlin theater canceled a Mozart opera for fear it might prompt Muslim protests, the bishops also expressed concern about self-censorship over religion. We are concerned that fear of religiously motivated violence is spreading, not only in Germany, and leading to a direct or indirect limitation of free speech,they said.
2ND WAVE CHINA AND KINGS OF THE EAST MARCH TO ISRAEL
REVELATION 16:12
12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.(THIS IS THE ATATURK DAM IN TURKEY,THEY CROSS OVER).
DANIEL 11:44 (2ND WAVE OF WW3)
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)
REVELATION 9:12-18
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.(IRAQ-SYRIA)
15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.(1/3 Earths Population die in WW 3 2ND WAVE)
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand:(200 MILLION MAN ARMY FROM CHINA AND THE KINGS OF THE EAST) and I heard the number of them.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
Beijing secretly fires lasers to disable US satellites
By Francis Harris in Washington
China has secretly fired powerful laser weapons designed to disable American spy satellites by blinding their sensitive surveillance devices, it was reported yesterday.The hitherto unreported attacks have been kept secret by the Bush administration for fear that it would damage attempts to co-opt China in diplomatic offensives against North Korea and Iran.Sources told the military affairs publication Defense News that there had been a fierce internal battle within Washington over whether to make the attacks public. In the end, the Pentagon's annual assessment of the growing Chinese military build-up barely mentioned the threat.After a contentious debate, the White House directed the Pentagon to limit its concern to one line, Defense News said.
The document said that China could blind American satellites with a ground-based laser firing a beam of light to prevent spy photography as they pass over China.According to senior American officials: China not only has the capability, but has exercised it.American satellites like the giant Keyhole craft have come under attack several times in recent years.Although the Chinese tests do not aim to destroy American satellites, the laser attacks could make them useless over Chinese territory.The American military has been so alarmed by the Chinese activity that it has begun test attacks against its own satellites to determine the severity of the
threat.Satellites are especially vulnerable to attack because they have predetermined orbits, allowing an enemy to know where they will appear.
The Chinese are very strategically minded and are extremely active in this arena. They really believe all the stuff written in the 1980s about the high frontier,said one senior former Pentagon official.There has been increasing alarm in parts of the American military establishment over China's growing military ambitions.Military experts have already noted that Chinese military expenditure is increasingly designed to challenge American military pre-eminence by investing in weaponry that can attack key systems such as aircraft carriers and satellites.At the same time, China is engaged in a large-scale espionage effort against American high-tech firms
working on projects such as the multibillion-pound DD(X) destroyer programme.Several spy rings have been cracked and the FBI is increasing the number of counter-intelligence staff tracking the Chinese effort.
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)
Rice Cites Concern for Palestinians, But Low Expectations Mark Visit
By Robin Wright,Washington Post Staff Writer,Thursday, October 5, 2006; Page A26
RAMALLAH, West Bank, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pledged Wednesday to redouble U.S. efforts to alleviate the economic plight of Palestinians facing escalating tensions and the threat of a humanitarian crisis. But U.S. officials cautioned not to expect any significant breakthroughs as prospects for a renewed Arab-Israeli peace process seem further away than ever.At a joint news conference here with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, Rice said the Bush administration was very concerned about humanitarian conditions and the economic situation in the Palestinian territories.It is a great sadness, during this
time of Ramadan, that Palestinians, many of them, are deprived of basic needs,she said.Abbas, underscoring the dire state of the peace process, said talks with the Hamas movement on formation of a national unity government are dead and suggested he may dissolve the Palestinians' seven-month-old government.
The dialogue now does not exist,Abbas said. If Hamas continues to balk at forming a unity government, which would force it to recognize Israel's right to exist, Abbas said he was prepared to use his constitutional powers to resolve the political deadlock. All options are open,he said.The only option I reject is civil war,Abbas said, noting that clashes between Hamas and his Fatah party over the past week have been the deadliest since the Palestinian Authority was created in 1994.On Wednesday, a Hamas official in the West Bank town of Qalqilya was assassinated by four masked gunmen who fled the scene. Asked about the killing and the recent violence, a senior Palestinian police official at the presidential compound in Ramallah called Hamas donkeys,reflecting the deep-rooted antipathy between the two largest Palestinian factions.
Rice, on her sixth trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories as secretary of state, has come with fewer prospects for major progress in the near future than on any previous visit. She is struggling just to revive an agreement to open border crossings between the Gaza Strip and the outside world, which she brokered in November after all-night negotiations.
The agreement gave Palestinians some control over their own border for the first time since the 1967 Middle East war. But according to Palestinian and U.S. sources, the border has been closed for all but about seven days since June 25, when Palestinian guerrillas captured an Israeli soldier. It reopened Wednesday and was scheduled to be open Thursday, U.S. and Arab sources said, coinciding with Rice's trip and Palestinian requests for relief during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
During their one-on-one discussions, Abbas gave Rice a lengthy document detailing the Palestinians' needs on cross-border movement and ways to push implementation of the 11-month-old accord, according to the Palestinian president's chief of staff, Rafiq Husseini.Rice is trying to win agreement from the Israelis to ensure that the pivotal Karni crossing between Gaza and Israel is open for Palestinian exports in time for the harvest, which begins in about three weeks, according to U.S. and Western sources.After she held talks over dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem on Wednesday night, the Israelis indicated willingness to open Karni in the near future but did not give a date. Rice is scheduled to hold talks Thursday morning with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Amir Peretz.Another Palestinian proposal on the table, backed by the United States and its allies, calls for almost doubling Abbas's presidential guard to about 6,000 members and widening the force's mandate for security purposes. A senior State Department official said the presidential guard has proved to be the Palestinians' most effective security force and is already deployed at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
FALSE TEACHERS,PROPHETS,DECIEVERS
MATTHEW 24:4-5,11,24-25
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
25 Behold, I have told you before.
1 TIMOTHY 4:1-2
1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
MARK 13:22-23
22 For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.
23 But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things.
2 TIMOTHY 3:13
13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
Mahdi Followers Claim US Is Trying To Prevent His Return
The followers of Moqtada al-Sadr believe that the US invaded Iraq to prevent the return to Earth of their sect's messiah-like figure, the Mahdi, or 12th imam.Hojatoleslam al-Sadr claims that his militia is preparing for the day when the Mahdi, the last direct descendent of the revered Shia figure Ali, reappears. Shia believe that the Mahdi, who disappeared in 868, will bring justice to Earth.At a prayer service in the central Iraqi city of Kufa on September 15, the cleric told a crowd of thousands that the Americans were collecting a dossier on the Mahdi to prevent his return. Did you ever ask yourself about why all of this, the bloodshed and the prisons? Why are the brothers fighting each other for a political game planned by the Americans? This all happened because they (the Americans) are waiting for the Mahdi. This planning started ten years ago. They have a big file for Imam Mahdi and they just need his picture to complete it.
Hojatoleslam al-Sadr and his advisers are convinced that the Americans want to destroy Islam and stop the Mahdi. The Americans are trying to hijack Islamic movements. Whatever they did in Afghanistan and Iraq are all attempts to hijack the Mahdi's return.
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).
87 die from mosquito diseases in India
New Delhi: Outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases in northern and southern India left ordinarily overburdened hospitals and clinics swamped with patients Wednesday, and officials said at least 87 people had succumbed to the infections.At New Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India's premier state-run hospital, a makeshift ward was set up in a hallway to deal with hundreds of dengue fever patients, some of whom were forced to hold intravenous drip bags above their heads because of a lack of equipment.
The dengue outbreak began in late August, and the death toll in New Delhi and surrounding areas of northern India rose to 16 on Wednesday when a patient at the institute died.The situation was even worse in the southern state of Kerala, where 71 people have died in the past month from another mosquito-borne disease, a rare viral fever known as chikungunya, said the state's health minister P. K. Sreemathi.In the hardest-hit district of the state, Alappuzha, some 40,000 people were showing symptoms of the disease such as high fevers and severe joint pain – and thousands had been hospitalized, said the area's chief medical officer, K. Velayudhan.
Across the state, local authorities were overwhelmed by the outbreak, and Sreemathi said a World Health Organization team made up of experts from India's National Institutes of Communicable Diseases was to arrive Thursday.The expert heath team from WHO needs to make an on-the-spot assessment to tackle the situation,she told media from Alappuzha.The outbreaks of dengue in the north and chikungunya in the south come as the annual monsoon tapers off across much of the subcontinent, leaving behind countless small pools and puddles of dirty, stagnant water where infectious mosquitoes breed. Open sewers that are features of many Indian towns and cities provide even more breeding grounds.
ISRAEL ON EARTH DURING TRIBULATION 7 YR PEACE TREATY
ISAIAH 42:1
1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
ISAIAH 45:4
4 For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.
ISAIAH 65:9,22
9 And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.
22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
ROMANS 11:28
28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes.
THE CHURCH ELECT IN HEAVEN DURING 7 YR TREATY (TRUE CHURCH THAT IS)
1 PETER 1:2
1:2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
REVELATION 7:1-17 (144,000 JEWISH RABBIS PREACH DURING 7 YR TREATY)
1 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
2 And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
3 Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
4 And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.
5 Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand.
6 Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nepthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand.
7 Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand.
8 Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand.
9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
11 And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,
12 Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.
13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15 Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.
17 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
JPost.com ,Oct 4,06
Right On: A miracle of biblical proportions
By MICHAEL FREUND
In a few weeks' time, Sara Haunhar will at last fulfill a lifelong dream, one that she has been nurturing for over the past eight decades. Together with her daughter Miriam, and some 216 other members of the Bnei Menashe of northeastern India, the 84-year old widow will board a charter flight next month, and finally begin the long journey home to Zion. It is a voyage that began many centuries ago - 27, to be exact when the Assyrian empire invaded the Land of Israel and cast most of our people into the darkest recesses of the exile. It was the ancient equivalent of a Holocaust, a devastating blow in which the overwhelming majority of the world's Israelites ten out of twelve tribes! suddenly and mysteriously vanished. Many thought they were gone forever, as they marched off into the mists of history, with little or no apparent hope of return. But now, after so many years of wandering and dispersion, the descendants of these lost Jews are finally, triumphantly, coming back.
The significance of this should be readily apparent, even to the most hardened of cynics. After all, whoever heard of an ancient lost tribe returning to its ancestral homeland 2,700 years after their deportation? Without exaggerating, it seems fair to say that this is a miracle of Biblical proportions. Sara Haunhar certainly thinks so. Last year, in September 2005, she sat patiently before a rabbinical court, which had been dispatched to India by Israel's Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar to restore the Bnei Menashe to the Jewish people. Previously, in March 2005, the Chief Rabbi had ruled that the Bnei Menashe are descendants of the Jewish people, and he agreed to do what he could to help them to return. The rabbinical judges peppered Sara with questions about Jewish life and lore, gently probing her knowledge of Judaism and her commitment to formally rejoining the people of Israel.
ONE OF the rabbis who was there later described the ensuing scene with great emotion. Impressed by Sara's sincerity and dedication, the judges informed her that they were pleased to welcome her back into the fold of Israel. Naturally, Sara began to cry, with the flow of tears rolling down her furrowed cheeks moving all those present. When one of the judges leaned over and asked her if she was alright, Sara composed herself and told them, All of my life, I was afraid that I would die before I would merit to see God's Holy Land. But now that you have accepted me as a Jew, I know that I will soon be able to set foot on the land of my ancestors, the Land of Israel. Growing up, Sara had always lived an intensely Jewish life, along with the rest of the 7,000-strong Bnei Menashe community, which resides primarily in the northeastern Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur.
The Bnei Menashe observe the Sabbath, practice circumcision on the eighth day, keep the laws of Kashrut and scrupulously uphold the rules of family purity.
Thanks to the tolerance which epitomizes Indian society, the Bnei Menashe have been able to build dozens of synagogues across the country's northeast, where they turn three times a day in prayer towards Jerusalem, longing to be reunited with their friends and family already living in the Jewish state. In just the past decade, nearly 1,000 members of the community have made aliya. They are valuable and productive members of Israeli society, serving in the army, working hard and supporting their families, and raising adorable Jewish children. Indeed, this past summer, at the height of the war, a dozen young Bnei Menashe men were fighting on the frontlines in combat units in Lebanon and Gaza, defending the land of Israel and the Jewish people. One of them, St.-Sgt. Avi Hanshing, a 22-year old paratrooper, was injured during a clash with Hizbullah terrorists in southern Lebanon.
I had to fight to come to Israel, Hanshing said, recalling the inexplicable obstacles that Israel's government routinely puts in the way of Bnei Menashe aliya. Now, he added, I have to fight for the country. THE ARRIVAL next month of the immigrants from India will mark a welcome turning point for the community. For the first time, a large group of Bnei Menashe immigrants will arrive here together, proudly, as Jews, with their heads held high and their hopes bright for the future. As chairman of Shavei Israel, an organization that assists the Bnei Menashe, it is a day that I am looking forward to with a lot of very special anticipation.
For years, we have lobbied, struggled and pressed the Bnei Menashe's case, in an effort to persuade the Israeli government to open the door for these wonderful people. In June, we nearly had to petition Israel's Supreme Court to force certain government ministers to allow the aliya to take place, and it was only after we met with aides to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that the final approval was actually forthcoming.
And so, I can not help but pray that this first batch of 218 immigrants next month will herald the arrival of many, many more in the years to come. This special event will take place thanks in no small measure to the friendship, backing and support of Jewish Agency Chairman Zeev Bielski, and Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, who are teaming together with Shavei Israel to make this aliya a reality. Pooling their resources, the Agency and the Fellowship will fly the immigrants here and enable them to be housed in Israel's north, in the towns of Karmiel and Upper Nazareth, where they will receive added absorption benefits thanks to the generosity of Christians and Jews alike.
There is something extremely fitting about this, too, for as the prophet Isaiah foretold some 2,500 years ago, the nations of the world would play an active role in the return of the Jewish people to their land. In Isaiah 49:22, the Bible says: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the nations, and set up my standard to the peoples, and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.
I have no doubt that the love, concern and practical help being provided by Israel's Jewish and Christian supporters worldwide is part and parcel of the fulfillment of this verse. And it sends goosebumps down my arms when I think about how the vision of Isaiah is literally coming to pass before our eyes. The aliya of the Bnei Menashe is a historic event. It is a timely and welcome example of just what Israel, and its wondrous rebirth, is truly all about: the ingathering of our exiles, not only from the four corners of the earth, but from our people's dark and often painful history, too. And it should serve as a potent reminder that despite all the problems and difficulties this country may face, we should not hesitate to join Sara Haunhar and her fellow Bnei Menashe in declaring, Thank God for the State of Israel.
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.
Cluster of earthquakes near Mt Cook
Posted at 11:28am on 05 Oct 2006
A shallow cluster of earthquakes 30km north-west of Mt Cook this week has seismologists looking at what may be causing the activity.The biggest quake was on Monday, reaching 4.7 on the Richter scale; with successive earthquakes being smaller, but closer to the surface.GMS Science seismologist Todd Nicholson says it's unusual to have so much seismic activity around Mt Cook.Eight earthquakes were recorded on Monday, and one or two quakes each day since then.The deepest quake was 8km on Monday, with 5km depths recorded on the same day and on Wednesday.Copyright © 2006 Radio New Zealand
Quake shakes up water table in Maine Wed Oct 4, 1:42 PM ET
BAR HARBOR, Maine - Monday's earthquake lowered the water level by 3 1/2 feet at one location in a national park, an unusual event, but one that wasn't expected to hurt the water supply, officials said. By Wednesday, the water level was still falling but beginning to level off, said Gregory Stewart, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. The drop in water level was observed at one of the agency's monitoring wells in Acadia National Park.Bar Harbor and some municipalities on Mount Desert Island near the epicenter of the quake have public water systems, but most residents in outlying areas rely on wells for drinking water. The Hancock County Emergency Management Agency said it had not received any reports of compromised wells.
The earthquake Monday evening registered a magnitude of 3.9 and followed quakes with magnitudes of 3.5 and 2.5 on Sept. 22 and 26.The latest earthquake caused rocks to fall onto Acadia National Park's Park Loop Road and burst some water pipes, but no injuries were reported.The Geological Survey said the drop in water level was more of an oddity than something for residents to worry about.We're not trying to create some kind of public scare. It's more of a public interest thing. It's a pretty dramatic change, Stewart said.
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.
S.East Asian flood toll, damage rise after typhoon Wed Oct 4, 12:30 AM ET
HANOI (Reuters) - Flooding and landslides triggered by Typhoon Xangsane have raised the death toll to more than 150 in the past week from the storm that hit Vietnam and the Philippines, officials said on Wednesday.
The typhoon's fierce winds and rain destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of homes when it slammed Vietnam's central coast on Sunday after bringing parts of the Philippines, including the capital Manila, to a standstill last week.Vietnamese officials said more than 50,000 houses were still submerged along a roughly 1,000 km (600-mile) area from northern Nghe An province to Gia Lai province in the south. Tien Phong (Vanguard) newspaper said the evacuation of 6,000 people started on Tuesday in Nghe An.
Vietnam's resort city of Danang, the country's fourth largest with 1 million people, was hardest-hit by the typhoon, both in terms of casualties and damage to homes, power supply and its seafood industry.The National Flood and Storm Control Committee said at least 42 people were killed in Vietnam by the storm or swept away by floods in its aftermath. Seven were missing and 502 injured.
Initial estimates of damage were around 9.98 trillion dong ($623 million), the government said.The committee warned residents across the storm-damaged region to be prepared for flash floods, landslides and flooding in the low-lying areas.
Officials in the Philippines said on Wednesday that the death toll had risen to 110 from 78 on Monday.At least 88 people were injured and a further 79 were still missing. Around 2.9 billion pesos ($58 million) worth of properties were damaged by Xangsane, which means elephant in the Lao language.The storm weakened after crossing into Vietnam and moved west across Laos and into Thailand.Hundreds, if not thousands, of people are killed and property and crops damaged each year by tropical storms in the two countries, which are separated by the South China Sea.(Reporting by Nguyen Nhat Lam in Hanoi and Carmel Crimmins in Manila)
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.
Borneo and Sumatra burn as forest fires rage
mongabay.com,October 4, 2006
Forest fires are again burning across Borneo and Sumatra according to satellite images released this week by NASA. The fires, set on a seasonal basis for land-clearing for agriculture, have blanked the region with smoke that has interrupted air travel and driven air quality to unhealthy levels. NASA notes that despite a governmental ban on open burning, seasonal fires continue to occur on the Indonesian islands each year, peaking in the dry season of late summer and early fall.
Smoke from agricultural and forest fires burning on Sumatra (left) and Borneo (right) in late September and early October 2006 blanketed a wide region with smoke that interrupted air and highway travel and pushed air quality to unhealthy levels. This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite on October 1, 2006, shows places where MODIS detected actively burning fires marked in red. Smoke spreads in a gray-white pall to the north. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team.
In 1982-1983 more than 9.1 million acres (3.7 million ha) burned on the island of Borneo before monsoon rains arrived, while more than 2 million hectares of forest and scrub land burned during the 1997-1998 el Niño event, causing $9.3 billion in losses. The fires also produced wide-ranging and severe economic, political, social, health, and ecological damage to Indonesia and the neighboring Southeast Asian nations of Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, and Thailand, already in the midst of an economic crisis.
Satellite analysis of the 1997-1998 fires revealed that 80 percent of the fires could be linked to plantations or logging concession holders. The haze from the 2005-2006 fires resulted in heated exchanges between Indonesian and Malaysian government officials. Malaysia and Singapore offered assistance in fighting Indonesian blazes, while simultaneously scolding the country for its lack of progress in controlling the wild fires. Indonesia in turn blamed Malaysian firms for rampant illegal logging in the country, which left its forests more susceptible to conflagrations.
Despite some protective measures, including an Indonesian proposal to implement the death penalty for illegal loggers and fire starters, such fires are only expected to worsen in the future as the region's forests face increasingly dry conditions due to climate change and degradation. Of special concern are the region's peatlands which, when burned, release massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmoshpere and are extremely difficult to extinguish. Dr Susan Page, of the University of Leicester, estimates that Southeast Asian peat lands may contain up to 21 percent of the world’s land-based carbon. The 1997 fires released 2.67 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
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).
Global trade goes more global
Khaleej Times 2006 ,By Prof. Tom Lambert FRSA
IT HAS become common practice for countries in all regions of the world to develop trading blocks. So we have the European Union, Asean in South East Asia and the North American Free Trade Agreement. In previous articles I have suggested that Mena is well placed to develop a massive domestic market as a springboard for more widespread global trade by the countries that have little international trade experience with guidance and support from the more knowledgeable nations.Not all such arrangements reach their full potential as quickly as is hoped. For example Asean is at times beset by problems emanating from unequal economic development. Similar problems will need to be overcome in Mena, which is why I believe that strong, experienced and effective leadership is necessary.
Other international trading blocks have limited initial membership. Mena may need to consider a similar approach. The point is, however, that whatever barriers may exist the potential can be exploited.
IBSA
Effective exploitation of local markets can be the pathway to enhanced prosperity through strategic global trade initiatives. India has, in recent years, offered a role model of success to her neighbours in many areas of international business. Many pundits believe that with a young and talented workforce India will overtake China and become the major hub of global trade and commerce in the region.India has a demographic advantage in having a younger population than her vast neighbour median age 24.9 years.
Combining this with an education system that is more attuned to international business and scientific needs is expected to provide a telling competitive edge. China will, of course continue to prosper, but many now expect India to become the dominant Asian trading nation.Two years ago the Indian government was instrumental in creating something of a new trade block model linking her with the continents of Africa and South America. IBSA is a trading group that brings together India, Brazil and South Africa, the three most successful countries in their regions, in a triumvirate of trade. The goals begin modestly by global standards with an initial trade target of $10 billion. The indications are that that target will be achieved and trade will develop along with increasing good will.
Brasilia
In September the heads of government met with business leaders from the three countries in Brasilia. They announced their intention of working together to develop mutually beneficial trade and technology exchanges that will, in due course, go beyond the three countries that are directly involved in the initial links.Brazil is the leading member of MERCOSUR, a trading block in which its partners are Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Its objective is to facilitate the free movement of goods, services, technology, capital and people between the member countries. South Africa has a similar role in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the Southern African Customs Union. India has strong relationships with Asean and is a leading member of G-20; a grouping of countries from across the globe that has had considerable success in opposing the combined might of the EU and USA on occasion. All three countries have strategies in place to combat Aids and poverty. Each has still a long way to go. Increased trade will be a major factor in economic and social success.
Corporate governance
In his speech to captains of industry gathered in Brasilia Prime Minister Manmohan Singh indicated that the primary role of the trilateral relationship would be mutual trade, but beyond that establishing an IBSA mechanism for the exchange of information and experiences on regulatory issues could lead to a harmonisation of standards an important factor in international business governance.It is arguable that expanding trade will naturally extend to regulatory harmonisation. As part of the development of a level playing field, mutual understanding and trust harmonisation may emerge naturally. A model may lie in China's approach to trade
with Africa as I discussed in a previous article.If harmonisation comes from evolutionary rather than revolutionary forces it may well prove to be acceptable and robust.
Transport
Not surprisingly the distance between three continents has been a barrier to both trade and tourism. The three leaders agreed that their faith in the future of IBSA would need to drive a framework that would lead to improvements in transport linkages between the three countries. The potential is there and is waiting to be realised. The means has, to some degree, still to be found.
Energy
Economic development is energy dependent and, as nobody understands better than the oil-rich countries of the Mena region, oil stocks may be massive, but they are finite. The trilateral approach plans to bring together the areas of energy expertise of its three members.
Brazil is a world leader in the production of ethanol. South Africa has important experience in coal gasification and has an already well developed synthetic fuel industry. India has massive resources of coal and expertise in wind and solar energy that will be developed by the growing number of engineers that the country is producing. Mena has also great potential for renewable energy resources.
Make poverty history
In spite of their pre-eminence regionally, India, South Africa and Brazil still experience major problems of poverty and health at home. The three leaders have committed themselves to using the benefits of an increasingly prosperous IBSA to improve the lives of their people. Important as this is the intention is to go further and to work together to establish a clear pathway to economic development that will reach beyond their borders enriching the lives of other countries in their respective regions.
Mena
In a number of ways the Middle East North Africa region has parallels with the countries of IBSA and their neighbours. There are well-developed economies that are already global players. There is, overall, a relatively young workforce. There are important natural resources combined with considerable technical know how. Knowledge and experience exist that can be shared in an international learning community. There have been major initiatives in education in particular in the UAE and Qatar from which we can all learn.
Considerable financial resources exist to support human capital. At the same time there remain unrealised human potential and poverty in some parts of the region. Perhaps India, Brazil and South Africa can offer another model from which leadership in the region can take whatever is relevant to exploit the considerable advantages and promise that are so evident.
REVELATION 17:2
2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.(THE VATICAN THROUGH DIALOGUE)
Vatican-Muslim dialogue back to square one: cardinal By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor Wed Oct 4, 11:22 AM ET
PARIS (Reuters) - Vatican relations with the Islamic world must be restarted from square one because Muslims insist on misinterpreting Pope Benedict's recent comments on Islam, Germany's top Catholic cardinal said in an article on Wednesday.
Cardinal Karl Lehmann, head of the German Catholic Bishops Conference, accused Muslim critics of running a campaign against the Pope and said the Pontiff had nothing to apologize for.The blunt comments from Lehmann, whose rich and influential church has close ties to the German-born Pope, seem to have been sparked by an unusual call from the 56-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) for him to retract his words.The OIC call came a day after Benedict had received Muslim ambassadors to the Vatican and repeated his regrets for any misunderstanding of his September 12 speech in which he quoted a Byzantine emperor saying Islam was evil and violent.
These open or hidden threats have to stop,Lehmann said in the weekly newspaper of his Mainz diocese.
Obviously we have to start at square one because we're not talking here about important contents of a necessary dialogue, but about the fundamental requirements for one to succeed.There is freedom of religion and speech in our civilization. The Pope can also be criticized. But there are elementary rules that apply for factual and fair contacts with each other and with clear statements, he wrote.One cannot constantly repeat completely unfounded misunderstandings when the texts are so clear.The dispute over Benedict's use of a quote sharply critical of Islam has further strained Vatican ties with Muslims who already knew he has spoken in the past against Turkey's entry into the European Union because of that country's Islamic roots.
Benedict's repeated protest that he did not agree with the quote has not convinced Muslim critics, who say he has still not gone far enough to undo the damage they feel he has done.Some accuse him of undoing years of bridge-building by his predecessor. When John Paul was pope, there was no problem for Muslims, commented Cemal Usak, a Turkish Muslim activist. Pope Benedict may not like Islam but he has to respect Muslims.
A FULL-BLOWN CAMPAIGN
Lehmann noted that Benedict's speech in Regensburg during a visit to his native Bavaria evoked no critical reaction at first and journalists had no questions about it at a news conference the cardinal gave after the Pope left Munich on September 14.Only a few days later did a full-blown campaign from outside begin,he wrote, calling it astounding that critics should repeatedly say the Pope had insulted Islam and Muslims.Lehmann's article echoed a statement last week by the bishops he leads complaining some critics had tried to escalate the dispute with ever new charges, demands or even threats.The Catholic Church and many people in our country and around the world, who respect and defend the right of free speech, will not be bullied, the bishops' conference said after its meeting in Fulda last week.
The German bishops, an influential voice at the Vatican because of their church's financial power and theological depth, also repeated Benedict's frequent calls for Muslim countries to give their Christian minorities equal rights.Meeting shortly after a Berlin theater canceled a Mozart opera for fear it might prompt Muslim protests, the bishops also expressed concern about self-censorship over religion. We are concerned that fear of religiously motivated violence is spreading, not only in Germany, and leading to a direct or indirect limitation of free speech,they said.
2ND WAVE CHINA AND KINGS OF THE EAST MARCH TO ISRAEL
REVELATION 16:12
12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.(THIS IS THE ATATURK DAM IN TURKEY,THEY CROSS OVER).
DANIEL 11:44 (2ND WAVE OF WW3)
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)
REVELATION 9:12-18
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.(IRAQ-SYRIA)
15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.(1/3 Earths Population die in WW 3 2ND WAVE)
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand:(200 MILLION MAN ARMY FROM CHINA AND THE KINGS OF THE EAST) and I heard the number of them.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
Beijing secretly fires lasers to disable US satellites
By Francis Harris in Washington
China has secretly fired powerful laser weapons designed to disable American spy satellites by blinding their sensitive surveillance devices, it was reported yesterday.The hitherto unreported attacks have been kept secret by the Bush administration for fear that it would damage attempts to co-opt China in diplomatic offensives against North Korea and Iran.Sources told the military affairs publication Defense News that there had been a fierce internal battle within Washington over whether to make the attacks public. In the end, the Pentagon's annual assessment of the growing Chinese military build-up barely mentioned the threat.After a contentious debate, the White House directed the Pentagon to limit its concern to one line, Defense News said.
The document said that China could blind American satellites with a ground-based laser firing a beam of light to prevent spy photography as they pass over China.According to senior American officials: China not only has the capability, but has exercised it.American satellites like the giant Keyhole craft have come under attack several times in recent years.Although the Chinese tests do not aim to destroy American satellites, the laser attacks could make them useless over Chinese territory.The American military has been so alarmed by the Chinese activity that it has begun test attacks against its own satellites to determine the severity of the
threat.Satellites are especially vulnerable to attack because they have predetermined orbits, allowing an enemy to know where they will appear.
The Chinese are very strategically minded and are extremely active in this arena. They really believe all the stuff written in the 1980s about the high frontier,said one senior former Pentagon official.There has been increasing alarm in parts of the American military establishment over China's growing military ambitions.Military experts have already noted that Chinese military expenditure is increasingly designed to challenge American military pre-eminence by investing in weaponry that can attack key systems such as aircraft carriers and satellites.At the same time, China is engaged in a large-scale espionage effort against American high-tech firms
working on projects such as the multibillion-pound DD(X) destroyer programme.Several spy rings have been cracked and the FBI is increasing the number of counter-intelligence staff tracking the Chinese effort.
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)
Rice Cites Concern for Palestinians, But Low Expectations Mark Visit
By Robin Wright,Washington Post Staff Writer,Thursday, October 5, 2006; Page A26
RAMALLAH, West Bank, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pledged Wednesday to redouble U.S. efforts to alleviate the economic plight of Palestinians facing escalating tensions and the threat of a humanitarian crisis. But U.S. officials cautioned not to expect any significant breakthroughs as prospects for a renewed Arab-Israeli peace process seem further away than ever.At a joint news conference here with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, Rice said the Bush administration was very concerned about humanitarian conditions and the economic situation in the Palestinian territories.It is a great sadness, during this
time of Ramadan, that Palestinians, many of them, are deprived of basic needs,she said.Abbas, underscoring the dire state of the peace process, said talks with the Hamas movement on formation of a national unity government are dead and suggested he may dissolve the Palestinians' seven-month-old government.
The dialogue now does not exist,Abbas said. If Hamas continues to balk at forming a unity government, which would force it to recognize Israel's right to exist, Abbas said he was prepared to use his constitutional powers to resolve the political deadlock. All options are open,he said.The only option I reject is civil war,Abbas said, noting that clashes between Hamas and his Fatah party over the past week have been the deadliest since the Palestinian Authority was created in 1994.On Wednesday, a Hamas official in the West Bank town of Qalqilya was assassinated by four masked gunmen who fled the scene. Asked about the killing and the recent violence, a senior Palestinian police official at the presidential compound in Ramallah called Hamas donkeys,reflecting the deep-rooted antipathy between the two largest Palestinian factions.
Rice, on her sixth trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories as secretary of state, has come with fewer prospects for major progress in the near future than on any previous visit. She is struggling just to revive an agreement to open border crossings between the Gaza Strip and the outside world, which she brokered in November after all-night negotiations.
The agreement gave Palestinians some control over their own border for the first time since the 1967 Middle East war. But according to Palestinian and U.S. sources, the border has been closed for all but about seven days since June 25, when Palestinian guerrillas captured an Israeli soldier. It reopened Wednesday and was scheduled to be open Thursday, U.S. and Arab sources said, coinciding with Rice's trip and Palestinian requests for relief during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
During their one-on-one discussions, Abbas gave Rice a lengthy document detailing the Palestinians' needs on cross-border movement and ways to push implementation of the 11-month-old accord, according to the Palestinian president's chief of staff, Rafiq Husseini.Rice is trying to win agreement from the Israelis to ensure that the pivotal Karni crossing between Gaza and Israel is open for Palestinian exports in time for the harvest, which begins in about three weeks, according to U.S. and Western sources.After she held talks over dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem on Wednesday night, the Israelis indicated willingness to open Karni in the near future but did not give a date. Rice is scheduled to hold talks Thursday morning with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Amir Peretz.Another Palestinian proposal on the table, backed by the United States and its allies, calls for almost doubling Abbas's presidential guard to about 6,000 members and widening the force's mandate for security purposes. A senior State Department official said the presidential guard has proved to be the Palestinians' most effective security force and is already deployed at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
FALSE TEACHERS,PROPHETS,DECIEVERS
MATTHEW 24:4-5,11,24-25
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
25 Behold, I have told you before.
1 TIMOTHY 4:1-2
1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
MARK 13:22-23
22 For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.
23 But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things.
2 TIMOTHY 3:13
13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
Mahdi Followers Claim US Is Trying To Prevent His Return
The followers of Moqtada al-Sadr believe that the US invaded Iraq to prevent the return to Earth of their sect's messiah-like figure, the Mahdi, or 12th imam.Hojatoleslam al-Sadr claims that his militia is preparing for the day when the Mahdi, the last direct descendent of the revered Shia figure Ali, reappears. Shia believe that the Mahdi, who disappeared in 868, will bring justice to Earth.At a prayer service in the central Iraqi city of Kufa on September 15, the cleric told a crowd of thousands that the Americans were collecting a dossier on the Mahdi to prevent his return. Did you ever ask yourself about why all of this, the bloodshed and the prisons? Why are the brothers fighting each other for a political game planned by the Americans? This all happened because they (the Americans) are waiting for the Mahdi. This planning started ten years ago. They have a big file for Imam Mahdi and they just need his picture to complete it.
Hojatoleslam al-Sadr and his advisers are convinced that the Americans want to destroy Islam and stop the Mahdi. The Americans are trying to hijack Islamic movements. Whatever they did in Afghanistan and Iraq are all attempts to hijack the Mahdi's return.
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).
87 die from mosquito diseases in India
New Delhi: Outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases in northern and southern India left ordinarily overburdened hospitals and clinics swamped with patients Wednesday, and officials said at least 87 people had succumbed to the infections.At New Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India's premier state-run hospital, a makeshift ward was set up in a hallway to deal with hundreds of dengue fever patients, some of whom were forced to hold intravenous drip bags above their heads because of a lack of equipment.
The dengue outbreak began in late August, and the death toll in New Delhi and surrounding areas of northern India rose to 16 on Wednesday when a patient at the institute died.The situation was even worse in the southern state of Kerala, where 71 people have died in the past month from another mosquito-borne disease, a rare viral fever known as chikungunya, said the state's health minister P. K. Sreemathi.In the hardest-hit district of the state, Alappuzha, some 40,000 people were showing symptoms of the disease such as high fevers and severe joint pain – and thousands had been hospitalized, said the area's chief medical officer, K. Velayudhan.
Across the state, local authorities were overwhelmed by the outbreak, and Sreemathi said a World Health Organization team made up of experts from India's National Institutes of Communicable Diseases was to arrive Thursday.The expert heath team from WHO needs to make an on-the-spot assessment to tackle the situation,she told media from Alappuzha.The outbreaks of dengue in the north and chikungunya in the south come as the annual monsoon tapers off across much of the subcontinent, leaving behind countless small pools and puddles of dirty, stagnant water where infectious mosquitoes breed. Open sewers that are features of many Indian towns and cities provide even more breeding grounds.
ISRAEL ON EARTH DURING TRIBULATION 7 YR PEACE TREATY
ISAIAH 42:1
1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
ISAIAH 45:4
4 For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.
ISAIAH 65:9,22
9 And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.
22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
ROMANS 11:28
28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes.
THE CHURCH ELECT IN HEAVEN DURING 7 YR TREATY (TRUE CHURCH THAT IS)
1 PETER 1:2
1:2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
REVELATION 7:1-17 (144,000 JEWISH RABBIS PREACH DURING 7 YR TREATY)
1 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
2 And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
3 Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
4 And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.
5 Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand.
6 Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nepthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand.
7 Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand.
8 Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand.
9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
11 And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,
12 Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.
13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15 Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.
17 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
JPost.com ,Oct 4,06
Right On: A miracle of biblical proportions
By MICHAEL FREUND
In a few weeks' time, Sara Haunhar will at last fulfill a lifelong dream, one that she has been nurturing for over the past eight decades. Together with her daughter Miriam, and some 216 other members of the Bnei Menashe of northeastern India, the 84-year old widow will board a charter flight next month, and finally begin the long journey home to Zion. It is a voyage that began many centuries ago - 27, to be exact when the Assyrian empire invaded the Land of Israel and cast most of our people into the darkest recesses of the exile. It was the ancient equivalent of a Holocaust, a devastating blow in which the overwhelming majority of the world's Israelites ten out of twelve tribes! suddenly and mysteriously vanished. Many thought they were gone forever, as they marched off into the mists of history, with little or no apparent hope of return. But now, after so many years of wandering and dispersion, the descendants of these lost Jews are finally, triumphantly, coming back.
The significance of this should be readily apparent, even to the most hardened of cynics. After all, whoever heard of an ancient lost tribe returning to its ancestral homeland 2,700 years after their deportation? Without exaggerating, it seems fair to say that this is a miracle of Biblical proportions. Sara Haunhar certainly thinks so. Last year, in September 2005, she sat patiently before a rabbinical court, which had been dispatched to India by Israel's Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar to restore the Bnei Menashe to the Jewish people. Previously, in March 2005, the Chief Rabbi had ruled that the Bnei Menashe are descendants of the Jewish people, and he agreed to do what he could to help them to return. The rabbinical judges peppered Sara with questions about Jewish life and lore, gently probing her knowledge of Judaism and her commitment to formally rejoining the people of Israel.
ONE OF the rabbis who was there later described the ensuing scene with great emotion. Impressed by Sara's sincerity and dedication, the judges informed her that they were pleased to welcome her back into the fold of Israel. Naturally, Sara began to cry, with the flow of tears rolling down her furrowed cheeks moving all those present. When one of the judges leaned over and asked her if she was alright, Sara composed herself and told them, All of my life, I was afraid that I would die before I would merit to see God's Holy Land. But now that you have accepted me as a Jew, I know that I will soon be able to set foot on the land of my ancestors, the Land of Israel. Growing up, Sara had always lived an intensely Jewish life, along with the rest of the 7,000-strong Bnei Menashe community, which resides primarily in the northeastern Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur.
The Bnei Menashe observe the Sabbath, practice circumcision on the eighth day, keep the laws of Kashrut and scrupulously uphold the rules of family purity.
Thanks to the tolerance which epitomizes Indian society, the Bnei Menashe have been able to build dozens of synagogues across the country's northeast, where they turn three times a day in prayer towards Jerusalem, longing to be reunited with their friends and family already living in the Jewish state. In just the past decade, nearly 1,000 members of the community have made aliya. They are valuable and productive members of Israeli society, serving in the army, working hard and supporting their families, and raising adorable Jewish children. Indeed, this past summer, at the height of the war, a dozen young Bnei Menashe men were fighting on the frontlines in combat units in Lebanon and Gaza, defending the land of Israel and the Jewish people. One of them, St.-Sgt. Avi Hanshing, a 22-year old paratrooper, was injured during a clash with Hizbullah terrorists in southern Lebanon.
I had to fight to come to Israel, Hanshing said, recalling the inexplicable obstacles that Israel's government routinely puts in the way of Bnei Menashe aliya. Now, he added, I have to fight for the country. THE ARRIVAL next month of the immigrants from India will mark a welcome turning point for the community. For the first time, a large group of Bnei Menashe immigrants will arrive here together, proudly, as Jews, with their heads held high and their hopes bright for the future. As chairman of Shavei Israel, an organization that assists the Bnei Menashe, it is a day that I am looking forward to with a lot of very special anticipation.
For years, we have lobbied, struggled and pressed the Bnei Menashe's case, in an effort to persuade the Israeli government to open the door for these wonderful people. In June, we nearly had to petition Israel's Supreme Court to force certain government ministers to allow the aliya to take place, and it was only after we met with aides to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that the final approval was actually forthcoming.
And so, I can not help but pray that this first batch of 218 immigrants next month will herald the arrival of many, many more in the years to come. This special event will take place thanks in no small measure to the friendship, backing and support of Jewish Agency Chairman Zeev Bielski, and Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, who are teaming together with Shavei Israel to make this aliya a reality. Pooling their resources, the Agency and the Fellowship will fly the immigrants here and enable them to be housed in Israel's north, in the towns of Karmiel and Upper Nazareth, where they will receive added absorption benefits thanks to the generosity of Christians and Jews alike.
There is something extremely fitting about this, too, for as the prophet Isaiah foretold some 2,500 years ago, the nations of the world would play an active role in the return of the Jewish people to their land. In Isaiah 49:22, the Bible says: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the nations, and set up my standard to the peoples, and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.
I have no doubt that the love, concern and practical help being provided by Israel's Jewish and Christian supporters worldwide is part and parcel of the fulfillment of this verse. And it sends goosebumps down my arms when I think about how the vision of Isaiah is literally coming to pass before our eyes. The aliya of the Bnei Menashe is a historic event. It is a timely and welcome example of just what Israel, and its wondrous rebirth, is truly all about: the ingathering of our exiles, not only from the four corners of the earth, but from our people's dark and often painful history, too. And it should serve as a potent reminder that despite all the problems and difficulties this country may face, we should not hesitate to join Sara Haunhar and her fellow Bnei Menashe in declaring, Thank God for the State of Israel.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
KOREA READY FOR NUKE TEST
1-Small quake rocks Maine; No injuries. 2-Experts forecast one more Atlantic hurricane this season. 3-Typhoon toll rises in Philippines and Vietnam. 4-Worst storms for company in more than 3 years. 5-EU heading for single UN seat, UN official says. 6-Brussels to urge major PR drive on EU enlargement. 7-Robots and media scrutiny to shape EU military future. 8-UNIFIL says could resort to use of force beyond self-defense. 9-Blair visits Madrid to discuss peace process. 10-Aznar warns of 'Islamic fascist' threat. 11-Lebanon: UN peacekeepers lay out rules of engagement, including use of force. 12-Article 301 a Key Condition of Turkey's EU Bid. 13-Fatah, Hamas Preparing for War With Israel. 14-EU must adapt to global economic challenge: Blair, Zapatero. 15-North Korea Vows First Nuclear Test.
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.
Small quake rocks Maine; No injuries Tue Oct 3, 10:07 AM ET
BAR HARBOR, Maine - A small earthquake sent rocks tumbling onto a road in Acadia National Park and burst water pipes, but no injuries were reported, officials said Tuesday. The earthquake struck about 8 p.m. Monday and could be felt in Bangor and Augusta. It had a preliminary magnitude of 3.9, said John Ebel, director of the Weston Observatory at Boston College.That's a good shake to the people who felt it. It would feel like heavy truck passing by to people in Bar Harbor and 20 or 30 miles out,Ebel said.Part of Acadia's Park Loop Road was closed due to a rockslide. Some power outages also resulted, said Jeff Chamberlain, dispatcher for the Bar Harbor Police Department.
Maine has experienced a recent string of small earthquakes following a long period of seismic inactivity. People on Mount Desert Island, home to Acadia National Park, experienced a magnitude 3.5 quake on Sept. 22. Before that, a magnitude 3.8 earthquake was recorded in the northern part of the state on July 14.By contrast, the 1980s were much more active,Ebel said, citing quakes in eastern Maine in 1984 and in western Maine four years later.
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.
Experts forecast one more Atlantic hurricane this season Tue Oct 3, 12:48 PM ET
MIAMI (AFP) - US forecasters have predicted there would be one more hurricane during this Atlantic hurricane season which ends November 30. A report from Philip Klotzbach and William Gray, of Colorado State University, said that our October-only forecast calls for two named storms, one hurricane, no major hurricanes ...We forecast no tropical cyclone activity in November. Our below-average prediction for October-November activity is largely due to the rapid emergence of an El Nino event (in the Pacific) during the latter part of this summer,they added.Klotzbach and Gray in August forecast 15 named storms and seven hurricanes. But they have had to adjust their forecast downward this year.
US landfall has been well below average,they added. Two hurricanes have made landfall along the US coastline this year. Eighty-three percent of the average full season Net Tropical Cyclone (NTC) activity has occurred so far this year.Last year shattered hurricane records, with 28 named storms, 15 of them hurricanes.The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 30.
Typhoon toll rises in Philippines and Vietnam Tue Oct 3, 4:21 AM ET
DANANG, Vietnam (Reuters) - Typhoon Xangsane killed at least 120 people in the Philippines and Vietnam and left tens of thousands homeless, officials said on Tuesday. The typhoon swept fierce winds and rain into Vietnam's central coast at the weekend after leaving a trail of destruction in the northern and central Philippines, including the capital, Manila.Vietnam officials said at least 42 died in several central provinces and the resort city of Danang, Vietnam's fourth largest city of about 1 million, which took the brunt of the typhoon when it hit on Sunday.The death toll is not completed yet as we are still receiving casualty reports from districts and communes in the provinces,said an official at the Danang Flood and Storm Control Committee.
She said 24 people had died in Danang. A city health official was quoted in state-run media as saying more than 1,000 residents had been hospitalized.Homes collapsed and roofs were ripped off in Danang and the nearby ancient town of Hoi An.Typhoon Xangsane, which means elephant in the Lao language, killed 78 people and injured 81 in the Philippines, disaster officials said on Tuesday. Another 69 people were missing after the typhoon ripped through the archipelago last week.A police spokesman said the toll could climb close to 150.The storm weakened after landing in Vietnam and moved westward across Laos and into Thailand.
Many of an estimated 300,000 people who were evacuated in Vietnam's central coastal provinces to safer locations before the typhoon struck returned to find their houses had been destroyed.The official Vietnam News Agency said tens of thousands were left homeless and that the storm caused millions of dollars in damage.Hundreds, if not thousands, of people are killed and their property and crops damaged each year by tropical storms in the two Southeast Asian countries, which are separated by the South China Sea.Another tropical storm, with maximum winds of 85 kph (52 mph) and gusts of up to 100 kph, was moving toward the northern tip of the Philippines, weather forecasters said. The storm was expected to be around 190 km east northeast of the archipelago on Friday.
Oct. 03, 2006
ComEd works on power for 157,000 customers
Worst storms for company in more than 3 years
(Reuters) — Commonwealth Edison Co. was working to restore electricity to 157,000 customers still without power in and around Chicago following severe thunderstorms Monday night, a spokeswoman for the company said Tuesday. At its peak, the storm left about 320,000 powerless at about midnight. This was the worst storm in the company's history since July 2003, when a storm knocked out power to 488,000 customers. ComEd, a subsidiary of Exelon Corp. of Chicago, transmits and distributes electricity to about 3.7 million customers in Northern Illinois.
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.
EU heading for single UN seat, UN official says
03.10.2006 - 09:53 CET | By Helena Spongenberg
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The UN's deputy secretary general believes the European Commission will in future represent the EU in the United Nations as the voice of the European bloc worldwide.I think it will go in stages,Mark Malloch Brown told EUobserver on Monday (2 October). He explained that the European Commission already has an observer seat on the executive board for funds and programmes, where the commission is a big donor.We are going to see a growing spread of that and then steady formalisation of it institution by institution, probably starting in the UNDP or UNICEF [development aid units] first,Mr Malloch Brown said.
It is not going to happen with a flash and a bang,he added, but said he hoped that it will happen as quickly as possible.The main obstacles to such a move, explained Mr Malloch Brown, could be that sovereign [UN] member states are wary of the rise of international institutions seeking to become a layer between them and another international institution.There is a lot of political theory in the way and it is not limited to the EU member states there are a lot of other member states that see this as the thin end of the wedge and that other regions will then make the same case for regional organisations,he said.Mr Malloch Brown explained that the European Commission office in New York working on UN issues tends to be on the good side of issues so people are kind of quite keen to see it evolve so it will get there but it is just going to be steady persuasion.
I'm a huge fan of it,he stated. The number two UN official was in Brussels to speak at a policy briefing on UN reform in Brussels arranged by EU think-tank Friends of Europe.
UN reform needed
He called on the EU to refrain from shying away from UN reform, saying it is urgently needed.Mr Malloch Brown told the audience that current UN governance, including the UN security council, no longer reflects global reality because it is still largely based on the outcome of World War II. A security council without real membership opportunities for countries such as India, Brazil or any African country is clearly not reflecting how power is distributed today,he said.He compared UN reform to the EU's own development in two ways. Firstly, it never stops due to constantly evolving challenges and risks and secondly, it is a politically difficult process for national states concerned about the transfer of power .When it comes to reform, I would say we have covered the first mile, but this will be a marathon,he told his audience of ambassadors, journalists, EU officials and business leaders.
Brussels to urge major PR drive on EU enlargement
04.10.2006 - 09:56 CET | By Mark Beunderman
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS /The European Commission is next month set to call upon EU leaders to launch a major communication effort on enlargement but Brussels itself is struggling to find the right wording to convey the bloc's expansion more positively. The commission is currently preparing itself for a highly sensitive debate on enlargement with EU leaders, with the topic to be the dominant theme at their December summit. Reflecting the current enlargement fatigue felt by EU public opinion, national governments in June tasked the commission to flesh out a special report on the union's own readiness to welcome new members known in EU jargon as absorption capacity due out on 8 November.
But commission officials said on Tuesday (3 October) that Brussels will tell EU leaders that they themselves have the prime responsibility for convincing an enlargement-weary public. The commission's enlargement director general, Michael Leigh, told an audience at the European Policy Centre on Tuesday that Brussels will call for a major communication effort. There is an important effort of explanation to be made...we will deal with this issue in the report on 8 November,he said with other commission sources saying Brussels will demand leadership on the issue from member states.The EU is more than just Brussels. Everyone has a responsibility to explain enlargement, not just future enlargements but also previous rounds,said one official. The planned appeal to member states comes after the commission appeared last week to have adopted a more cautious approach towards EU expansion itself, with commission president Jose Manuel Barroso announcing a freeze on enlargement until the bloc has sorted out its own institutional problems.
What capacity?
Meanwhile, commission officials are struggling to find the right wording for the report on absorption capacity and are considering alternatives to the term absorption capacity itself. Absorption capacity, a phrase currently en vogue in EU politics, is often used to highlight the limited means the bloc has to expand, but it has gradually become a political synonym for negative EU public opinion towards enlargement.Maybe among the population the notion of absorption capacity creates a misunderstanding,one commission official said.It suggests that states merge with each other whereas in reality member states of course can retain their own culture and identity.After an informal brainstorming seminar of the commission in April, senior commission officials had mooted the term functioning capacity as a more accurate term, primarily referring to institutional arrangements necessary to make enlargement work.
It is however unlikely that absorption capacity will completely disappear from the November commission report, with EU leaders sticking to the term in their June conclusions despite the commission's uneasiness with the expression.Perhaps it's better not to engage in a dogmatic squabble on wording which citizens are not interested in anyway,said one commission source.
France prefers yet another term
Meanwhile, not all member states are completely happy with absorption capacity as an expression either, with France preferring assimilation capacity instead. Absorption capacity makes you think of a swamp absorbing water, said a French diplomat.By contrast, the union's capacity to assimilate new members would refer to both institutions and values, the contact said, explaining that being European is a balance between what you used to be before becoming a member and being only European. France opposes the term functioning capacity which only focuses on Brussels institutions and completely leaves the issue of public opinion aside. Enlargement has several dimensions including the perception by public opinion,said the diplomat reflecting the French population's strong signs of scepticism towards further expansion of the bloc.
EVIL INVENTIONS ARE PREDICTED IN THE BIBLE.
ROMANS 1:29-32
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
EUROPEAN UNION ARMY
DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (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.(TRADING BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS) that shall arise: 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 NATIONS)
25 And he (EU PRESIDENT) shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.(3 1/2 YRS)
DANIEL 8:23-25
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king (EU DICTATOR) of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences,(FROM THE OCCULT) shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power:(SATANS POWER) and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes;(JESUS) but he shall be broken without hand.
DANIEL 11:36-39
36 And the king (EU DICTATOR) shall do according to his will; 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 JEWISH) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.(CLAIM TO BE GOD)
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(WAR) 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 with a strange god,(DESTROY TERROR GROUPS) 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.
REVELATION 19:19
19 And I saw the beast,(EU LEADER) and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse,(JESUS) and against his army.(THE RAPTURED CHRISTIANS)
Robots and media scrutiny to shape EU military future
03.10.2006 - 17:39 CET | By Honor Mahony
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – EU defence ministries are going to have to contend with a shrinking recruitment pool for soldiers, a public that is more cautious about interventionist operations and 24/7 media scrutiny, according to a long-term military planning report approved by defence ministers on Tuesday (3 October).The 28-page study looks to a future where Europe will be externally dependent for 90 percent of its oil and 80 percent of gas by 2025 and where strong migratory pressures due to the fast-growing populations in Africa and the Middle East offset by stable and ageing European population are set to cause direct or indirect challenges to Europe's security interests.However, Europe's possible need to act in any of these regions or situations will be tempered by a more clued-up, risk-averse society.
Military action, not explicitly authorised by the UN, may become increasingly controversial,states the report, adding military operations will be subject to ever-increasing scrutiny by elected officials, media and populations.It also notes that the spread of readily accessible information and ideas about basic rights as well as the environmental impact of military action are also likely to affect people's perceptions of military conflict.Caution may be reinforced by increased concern with the legality of military action, as globalisation disseminates the concept of international law,says the study.
No more soldiers?
As well as the social perceptions, defence ministries will also have to deal with the fact that less and less people are likely to become soldiers, with the armed forces recruitment pool (16-30 years) to fall by over 15 percent by 2025.As armed forces professionalise and the falling birth-rate increases competition in the labour market for young men and women, personnel costs will, in practice, pre-empt more and more of defence spending unless manpower is reduced,says the report. With some 2 million people currently in uniform in Europe, there is plenty of scope to do this, it highlighted. One way of overcoming this problem would be to outsource and to resort to increased automation, from warships to robots, the report suggested.Looking at the changing nature of warfare, the report notes that we are transitioning from the industrial age to the information age of war.
It suggests that future conflicts will be high-tech against low-tech, Goliath against David, centrally-controlled and network enabled operations against disruptive tactics of local or regional [and] transnational guerrilla groups.In the future, the objective of intervention by force will not necessarily be victory in the traditional sense but moderation, balance of interests and peaceful resolution of conflicts although the force needed to require this outcome may be substantial.The report concludes by suggesting that member states cut manpower numbers, exploit new technology more quickly and improve intelligence leading to a point where EU military planners react more rapidly to situations using many actors including other international organisations, are selective in the type of force they use and can provide sustainable solutions to conflicts.
Last update - 07:32 04/10/2006
UNIFIL says could resort to use of force beyond self-defense
By Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz Correspondent, DPA and Haaretz Service
The United Nations explained Tuesday the rules of engagement that will be used by its peacekeepers who are supervising a cease-fire in south Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel since August 14.The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said it could resort to the use of force beyond self-defense, but did not give details on the means which will be used.UNIFIL commanders have sufficient authority to act forcefully when confronted with hostile activity of any kind, a UN statement said.All UNIFIL personnel may exercise the inherent right of self-defense. In addition, the use of force beyond self-defense may be applied to ensure that UNIFIL's area of operations,it said.According to the statement the UN mandate is aimed at protecting UN personnel, facilities, installations and equipment; ensuring the security and freedom of movement of UN personnel and humanitarian workers; and protecting civilians under imminent threat of physical violence.
Should the situation present any risk of resumption of hostile activities, UNIFIL rules of engagement allow UN forces to respond as required,? UNIFIL stated in a press release issued Tuesday, in regard to the mandate given to UN forces under the UN security council?s resolution 1701.According to UNIFIL, in cases where specific information is available regarding movement of unauthorized weapons or equipment, the LAF [Lebanese Armed Forces] will take required action. However, in situations where the LAF are not in a position to do so, UNIFIL will do everything necessary to fulfill its mandate in accordance with Security Council Resolution 1701.
Issues dealt with in the UNIFIL statement were discussed this past week by Israeli representatives, the Lebanese Army, and UNIFIL officers in southern Lebanon. Israeli representatives said that under Resolution 1701, UNIFIL forces must work to locate and identify Hezbollah weapons and ammunition stores, and that in instances where UNIFIL encounters Hezbollah members, to remove their weapons from them. This issue was later removed from the agreement.
The release further stated that UNIFIL has deployed 5,200 soldiers, out of a maximum 15,000 allowed under Security Council resolution 1701. It said UNIFIL, whose task is to support the Lebanese army in the area, has set up temporary checkpoints at key locations within its area of operations.It added that Lebanese troops have established permanent checkpoints... to stop and search passing vehicles and would act if they find unauthorized weapons.UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which ended the war on August 14 calls for peacekeepers to monitor the southern Lebanese border region along the border with Israel and make sure it is free of any armed personnel other than those of the Lebanese armed forces and UNIFIL.
Since the cease-fire, Hezbollah guerrillas have kept out of sight in southern Lebanon, but their chief Hassan Nasrallah has rejected in several speeches the laying down his movement's arms as required by the UN resolution.Hezbollah official in southern Lebanon Sheikh Nabil Kawook said Tuesday that Hezbollah guerrillas are still in the border areas with Israel with their weapons.I tell [Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert, our guerrillas are still there, but not visible, so nothing has changed since July 12, the Hezbollah official said.
Israel launched a offensive against Lebanon on July 12 in response to the cross-border kidnapping of two of its soldiers by Hezbollah.
Blair visits Madrid to discuss peace process
By: ThinkSpain
British prime minister, Tony Blair, is in Madrid today for a meeting with the president of the Spanish government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, that will cover a number of issues including progress in the Basque peace process. According to a Moncloa Palace source, Mr Zapatero has always found Mr Blair's advice based on his experience in Northern Ireland extraordinarily valuable.
The two leaders, who are meeting for the fifth time since 2004, will also discuss a range of economic and cultural issues, although illegal immigration will also be high on the agenda. Both men recognise that there are important differences between the troubles in Northern Ireland and the Basque question, but believe there are also similarities.
Mr Zapatero has always insisted that the road to peace is going to be long, hard and difficult, three adjectives that could be used to describe the five year negotiation process in Ulster, that enjoyed its own highs and lows.The fundamental difference between the two situations is that, in Ulster, the talks were conducted within a framework of all-party and institutional cooperation, and away from the spotlight of party political posturing. Other agenda items are reported to include, aid for Africa, EU Mediterranean border control policy, Turkey's application to join the EU, and the UN's Millenium Objectives.Tuesday, October 3, 2006
Aznar warns of Islamic fascist threat
By: ThinkSpain Sept 3,06
Ex-president Aznar was made an honorary professor of the Peruvian Applied Sciences University in Lima yesterday. During his acceptance speech, Mr Aznar warned of the rising threat from Islamic fascists,which is his way of describing Islamic terrorists.
He also described the Cuban government as a bloody tyranny,and criticised a certain left wing without utopia and without ideals that embraces the most radical causes
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)
Lebanon: UN peacekeepers lay out rules of engagement, including use of force
3 October 2006 – United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon have the authority to use force against hostile activity of any kind, whether in self-defence, to ensure their area of operations is not used for hostile activities or to resist attempts by force to prevent them from discharging their duties, according to guidelines published today. Should the situation present any risk of resumption of hostile activities, UNIFIL rules of engagement allow UN forces to respond as required, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said in a statement, laying out the terms of the Security Council mandate that established it in August to oversee the cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hizbollah.
UNIFIL commanders have sufficient authority to act forcefully when confronted with hostile activity of any kind, the statement added, noting that the force so far had 5,200 out of a maximum of 15,000 permitted under Security Council resolution 1701. UNIFIL has set up temporary checkpoints at key locations within its area of operations, while permanent checkpoints are being established by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to stop and search passing vehicles. Yesterday it confirmed that Israel had vacated all but one of the positions it had taken during the fighting and that the LAF were taking over. In case specific information is available regarding movement of unauthorized weapons or equipment, the LAF will take required action, the statement said. However, in situations where the LAF are not in a position to do so, UNIFIL will do everything necessary to fulfil its mandate in accordance with Security Council resolution 1701.
Among the resolution’s key terms include the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from positions they occupied in South Lebanon, the deployment of Lebanese and UN forces in the area, and the banning of any other armed personnel and weapons there. Laying out specific guidelines, the statement said all UNIFIL personnel may exercise the inherent right of self-defence; use force to ensure that their area of operations is not used for hostile activities; and resist attempts by force to prevent them from discharging their duties under the Council mandate.Moreover force may be used to protect UN personnel, installations and equipment; to ensure the security and freedom of movement of UN personnel and humanitarian workers; and to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence in the areas of deployment.
Meanwhile the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is helping Lebanon speed up the recovery of its agriculture sector following the devastating impact of the fighting on both people and the economy.All agricultural areas were directly or indirectly affected by the war, from fruit trees, vegetables, tobacco and cattle to irrigation systems, farm machinery and forestry. FAO initiatives include a damage and needs assessment mission currently under way and efforts to strengthen veterinary services to prevent and control Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) outbreaks.FAO will also provide a team of five experts in crop and animal production, fisheries and forestry.
Article 301 a Key Condition of Turkey's EU Bid
By Cihan News Agency ,Tuesday, October 03, 2006 ,zaman.com
Olli Rehn, European Union (EU) Commissioner for Enlargement, urged at a conference organized by Turk-Is and the Finland Labor Confederation that Turkey speed up the reform process, adding that could help eliminate strong opposition to Turkey's EU membership.Commissioner Rehn delivered a speech on Tuesday in a conference on The European Social Model and Syndicated Rights in the European Union (EU) Negotiation Process in Ankara, capital city of Turkey. I cannot even imagine a member state in the European Union that would not respect such a fundamental European principle as the freedom of expression,Rehn stated at the conference.
He urged Ankara that the controversial Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), which sets out penalties for insulting the Turkish Republic, its officials or Turkishness, has been used to bring charges against dozens of journalists, publishers and scholars, and will most likely affect the upcoming EU progress report on Turkey in a negative way. Rehn warned the Turkish government to repeal or ameliorate the article. Hence, those opposing repealing the unjustified restrictions of free speech in article 301 and other parts of Turkish law are effectively opposing a key condition of EU membership,he remarked. The reforms in Turkey will determine the pace of the negotiations. The next step should be freedom of expression,he added. Rehn is scheduled to meet with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and Turkey's Chief E.U. Negotiator Ali Babacan.
For further information please visit http://www.cihannews.com
Fatah, Hamas Preparing for War With Israel
By Hillel Fendel(INN)
Hamas has smuggled up to 1,300 tons of weapons from Egypt into Gaza and is preparing for the option of launching a large-scale conflict with Israel. So states a Fatah report quoted by WorldNetDaily. The weapons, WND reports, include between several hundred and 1,300 tons of advanced rockets; anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles; rocket propelled grenades; raw explosives; rifles; ammunition; and other heavy weaponry.Israel has long complained that the arrangements at the Egypt-Gaza border crossing are not satisfactory, and that the European monitors are ineffectual in stopping the smuggling. Then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon agreed to the deal last November, after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice arrived in the region and gave her stamp of approval.
WND's Aaron Klein quotes Abu Ahmed, leader of the northern Gaza chapter of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group, as saying the terrorists are working towards, and succeeding in, turning Gaza into a Hizbullah-like threat against Israel. We learned from Hizbullah's victory that Israel can be defeated if we know how to hit them and if we are well prepared,Abu Ahmed said. We are
importing rockets and the knowledge to launch them and we are also making many plans for battle.WND also quotes another terrorist leader Abu Abdullah, reported to be a top member of the Izaddin Al-Kassam Brigades of Hamas detailing the preparations for war against Israel.In the last 15 months, Abu Adullah said, though the fighters of Hamas kept the ceasefire, we did not stop making important advancements and professional training on the military level. In the future, after Hamas is obliged to stop the ceasefire, the world shall see our new military capabilities.He said that Hamas and Hizbullah, which has cells in Sinai, are cooperating in importing rockets and guerilla training.
EU must adapt to global economic challenge: Blair, Zapatero by Chris Wright Wed Oct 4, 9:31 AM ET
MADRID (AFP) - Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish host Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero have jointly urged European Union states to adapt to the economic challenges posed by developing economies led by China and India. After discussing Monday Zapatero's efforts to further a fledgling peace process in the Basque country, drawing from Blair's experiences in Northern Ireland, the two heads of state spoke Wednesday about the world economy as the British leader wound up his visit.Following roundtable talks with Spanish and British business leaders critical of regulations across the European Union's internal market, the leaders urged EU members to increase the pace of reform within the 25-nation bloc.
The economies of Spain and Britain have been successful over the years in terms of growth, in terms of jobs, in terms of enterprise and industry,Blair said.But we know for the future we need to do more,he continued, demanding greater innovation and flexibility to keep pace with a changing world.Blair added: We know that at each stage we need to up our game, become even more competitive, more successful and ensure the job opportunities are there for the people of the future.Zapatero said the EU must give European citizens the capacity to renovate and urged EU governments to show economic leadership in a global market.We must advance the market more rapidly and reform our (economic) model, develop and innovate,he said, adding that he backed a drive to encourage universities to tailor higher education to the demands of business.
A Spanish government source said both leaders discussed a broad range of issues, including the Middle East, where Spain is the EU's third largest provider of ground forces to the UN mission in Lebanon. The main focus, however, was economic, the source said.
Business leaders who attended the meeting at Blair's hotel in central Madrid included Emilio Botin, chairman of Santander Bank, which acquired Britain's Abbey National for 13.19 billion euros (17.12 billion dollars) in Europe's largest retail banking takeover in November 2004.Also present were the chairmen of Telefonica and Ferrovial, Cesar Alierta and Rafael del Pino, while British participants included British Airways' Lord Garel Jones.Telefonica bought Britain's O2 earlier this year in a 27 billion euro (34 billion dollar) deal, and a consortium led by Spanish construction group Ferrovial bought out British airports operator BAA this summer for 11.4 billion euros (14.8 billion dollars) as Spain once again flexed its newly-found economic muscle.
Last year Spain became Britain's seventh-largest trade customer with a ten percent share, overtaking Ireland to become the ninth-largest importer to Britain. Britain's direct investment of 21 billion euros in Spain trails only France and the United States.
But the business leaders complained of over-regulation in sectors such as energy, which they said had yet to be properly exposed to competition.The Spanish energy sector is the scene of clashes between political and corporate forces with Madrid keen to see the emergence of a Spanish energy giant.The three biggest companies in the sector Endesa, Iberdrola and Union Fenosa are all subject to merger or acquisition speculation with Madrid trying to fend off a hostile takeover bid from German utility giant E.ON.
Madrid has run into trouble with the European Commission over its attempts to thwart the E.ON bid.Zapatero said he had identified three key business priorities: advance more speedily the European common market, increase Research, Development and Innovation (RDI), and reform the university system so that it better prepares graduates for the global business world. Both leaders said RDI needed to rise from two to three percent of GDP to compete with the United States and Japan.
INVENTION OF THE ATOMIC BOMB.
2 PETER 3:10-11
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
NUCLEAR WEAPONS WILL BE USED.
2 TIMOTHY 3:1
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
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.
REVELATION 9:18
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
LUKE 17:34-37
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).
MATTHEW 24:37-51
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49 And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
North Korea Vows First Nuclear Test
By CHOE SANG-HUN and JOHN O’NEIL
Published: October 3, 2006
SEOUL, Oct. 3 — North Korea announced today that it plans to conduct its first nuclear test, sharply escalating its standoff with the United States and setting off ripples of alarm in Japan and South Korea.Nuclear Threat Initiative on North Korea (nti.org)A State Department spokesman said a test would pose an unacceptable threat to peace and stability in Asia. John R. Bolton, the American ambassador to the United Nations, said he would raise the matter with the Security Council on Wednesday. Japan’s foreign minister promised harsh measures in return, while South Korea raised the security level of its forces. Also today, an Iranian official proposed a new solution to the standoff over its nuclear program, suggesting that France create a consortium that would oversee a uranium enrichment plant in Iran.
North Korea has never before acknowledged having nuclear weapons, although intelligence officials have said they believe it has several. Analysts said today that a test could destabilize the balance of power in the region, perhaps pushing Japan to develop its own nuclear weapons, and could raise the risk of a military clash between North Korea and the United States.In a statement released by the state-run news agency, North Korea declared that the U.S. extreme threat of a nuclear war and sanctions and pressure compel the country to conduct a nuclear test, an essential process for bolstering nuclear deterrent, as a corresponding measure for defense.The statement gave no indication of when such a test might occur. Last month, Kim Seung Kyu, director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, told his country’s parliament that North Korea is capable of conducting an underground nuclear test at any time.
Japan’s new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, called a test unacceptable and said that it would worsen’ North Korea’s position, Reuters reported. The Japanese foreign minister, Taro Aso, said that Tokyo would respond harshly to a test. South Korea expressed deep regret and concern over the announcement and raised its security level. Yang Chang-Seok, who leads the government’s unification efforts, said the planned test “poses a grave threat to peace and will have a decisively negative impact on relations between the two countries, according to Agence France-Presse.John R. Bolton, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, told The Associated Press that a nuclear test would be extraordinarily serious.
American officials have said that if North Korea were to conduct nuclear tests, the United States would seek Security Council sanctions through a procedure that carries the threat of military action.In London, a spokesman for Britain’s foreign ministry said a test would be a highly provocative act with serious consequences.North Korea has a history of making provocative declarations meant to get attention for its demands. But this summer it set off similar alarms around the region when it followed through on threats to test-fire a long-range ballistic missile and several shorter-range missiles, defying calls by China, its chief ally in the region, and other countries to cancel the tests. China, South Korea, Russia and Japan have joined the United States in what are known as six-party talks with North Korea since then, but for almost a year, North Korea has boycotted those negotiations, citing a crackdown led by the United States on what the Bush administration calls widespread counterfeiting and money laundering by the North.
North Korea lashed out at the moves, saying Washington had left no dastardly means and methods untried in a foolish attempt to isolate and stifle it economically and bring down the socialist system chosen by its people themselves.It called the crackdown a de facto declaration of war. The North Korean statement today said that its ultimate goal is to settle hostile relations between it and the United States and remove nuclear threats from the vicinity, according to the A.P. If it follows through on its threat, it could leave the Security Council struggling to resolve two nuclear crises at once, as talks drag on over Iran’s program. Today, the deputy chief of Iran’s atomic energy agency, Muhammed Saeedi, told French radio in an interview from Tehran of a new proposal to end the standoff, according to news services.
To be able to arrive at a solution, we have just had an idea, he said. He suggested that France work through two of its state controlled nuclear companies to create a consortium that would build a nuclear enrichment facility in Iran. That way, he said, France could control in a tangible way our enrichment activities.Nuclear Threat Initiative on North Korea (nti.org)Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign minister, called the idea interesting but said it needed more study. Mr. Solana is leading negotiations on behalf of Europe over a package of incentives meant to persuade Iran to shut down its nuclear program, which it calls peaceful but many countries see as a prelude to the development of nuclear weapons.
American officials have supported the current round of negotiations, mostly because Russia and China would block any move now to have the United Nations Security Council impose sanctions. But they have also worried that Iran is seeking to buy time for its program through endless talks, and trying to split what had been a solid international coalition against it. The French president, Jacques Chirac, has taken a softer line than the leaders of Great Britain and Germany, suggesting last month that the threat of sanctions be dropped if Iran agrees to a temporary halt to nuclear enrichment. But today French officials rejected the idea that they might reach a separate deal with Iran on Mr. Saeedi’s enrichment plan, saying the channel of dialogue must go through Mr. Solana, according to A.F.P.
French officials also reminded Iran that Mr. Solana is still waiting to hear whether it will offer to halt enrichment.Last year Moscow proposed a similar idea for internationally supervised enrichment, but at a plant located in Russia. That idea won the support of the United States and other nations, but was rejected by Tehran, which insisted on retaining the right to conduct enrichment work on its own soil. The United States has said it hopes that Mr. Solana’s discussions conclude early this month, and say it will push quickly for sanctions if no deal is reached. North Korea’s intentions now will likely play a role in a number of planned meetings on nuclear issues.Its statement about nuclear testing coincided with announcements in Japan that Mr. Abe will visit Beijing and Seoul next week. Mr. Abe, a hawk on North Korea, was expected to make North Korea a high priority in the talks.
A nuclear test by North Korea will shake up the military balance between North Korea, Japan and South Korea, which has been based on conventional weapons, said Nam Sung Wook, a North Korea expert at Korea University in Seoul.“The sense of insecurity will spike in South Korea, and calls could mount in Japan for nuclear armament.But he noted that North Korea has made many threats that it has not followed through on. “Right now, there is a 50-50 chance of North Korea testing a nuke, Mr. Nam said. Much of the decision will depend on what China and South Korea say after their summits with Abe.He said that North Korea could finish preparations for a test within three weeks, and would wait for a timing with a maximum impact.In recent weeks, there have been sporadic news reports in Washington, Tokyo and Seoul that North Korea may be preparing for an underground nuclear test. The reports cited activities around underground facilities near the border with China or on the North’s remote northeast coast.North Korea plans to step up production of fuel for nuclear weapons unless the United States drops financial sanctions, according to an American scholar, Selig S. Harrison, a longtime Korea specialist based in Washington who visited Pyongyang last month.
Choe Sang-Hun reported from Seoul, and John O’Neil from New York.
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.
Small quake rocks Maine; No injuries Tue Oct 3, 10:07 AM ET
BAR HARBOR, Maine - A small earthquake sent rocks tumbling onto a road in Acadia National Park and burst water pipes, but no injuries were reported, officials said Tuesday. The earthquake struck about 8 p.m. Monday and could be felt in Bangor and Augusta. It had a preliminary magnitude of 3.9, said John Ebel, director of the Weston Observatory at Boston College.That's a good shake to the people who felt it. It would feel like heavy truck passing by to people in Bar Harbor and 20 or 30 miles out,Ebel said.Part of Acadia's Park Loop Road was closed due to a rockslide. Some power outages also resulted, said Jeff Chamberlain, dispatcher for the Bar Harbor Police Department.
Maine has experienced a recent string of small earthquakes following a long period of seismic inactivity. People on Mount Desert Island, home to Acadia National Park, experienced a magnitude 3.5 quake on Sept. 22. Before that, a magnitude 3.8 earthquake was recorded in the northern part of the state on July 14.By contrast, the 1980s were much more active,Ebel said, citing quakes in eastern Maine in 1984 and in western Maine four years later.
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.
Experts forecast one more Atlantic hurricane this season Tue Oct 3, 12:48 PM ET
MIAMI (AFP) - US forecasters have predicted there would be one more hurricane during this Atlantic hurricane season which ends November 30. A report from Philip Klotzbach and William Gray, of Colorado State University, said that our October-only forecast calls for two named storms, one hurricane, no major hurricanes ...We forecast no tropical cyclone activity in November. Our below-average prediction for October-November activity is largely due to the rapid emergence of an El Nino event (in the Pacific) during the latter part of this summer,they added.Klotzbach and Gray in August forecast 15 named storms and seven hurricanes. But they have had to adjust their forecast downward this year.
US landfall has been well below average,they added. Two hurricanes have made landfall along the US coastline this year. Eighty-three percent of the average full season Net Tropical Cyclone (NTC) activity has occurred so far this year.Last year shattered hurricane records, with 28 named storms, 15 of them hurricanes.The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 30.
Typhoon toll rises in Philippines and Vietnam Tue Oct 3, 4:21 AM ET
DANANG, Vietnam (Reuters) - Typhoon Xangsane killed at least 120 people in the Philippines and Vietnam and left tens of thousands homeless, officials said on Tuesday. The typhoon swept fierce winds and rain into Vietnam's central coast at the weekend after leaving a trail of destruction in the northern and central Philippines, including the capital, Manila.Vietnam officials said at least 42 died in several central provinces and the resort city of Danang, Vietnam's fourth largest city of about 1 million, which took the brunt of the typhoon when it hit on Sunday.The death toll is not completed yet as we are still receiving casualty reports from districts and communes in the provinces,said an official at the Danang Flood and Storm Control Committee.
She said 24 people had died in Danang. A city health official was quoted in state-run media as saying more than 1,000 residents had been hospitalized.Homes collapsed and roofs were ripped off in Danang and the nearby ancient town of Hoi An.Typhoon Xangsane, which means elephant in the Lao language, killed 78 people and injured 81 in the Philippines, disaster officials said on Tuesday. Another 69 people were missing after the typhoon ripped through the archipelago last week.A police spokesman said the toll could climb close to 150.The storm weakened after landing in Vietnam and moved westward across Laos and into Thailand.
Many of an estimated 300,000 people who were evacuated in Vietnam's central coastal provinces to safer locations before the typhoon struck returned to find their houses had been destroyed.The official Vietnam News Agency said tens of thousands were left homeless and that the storm caused millions of dollars in damage.Hundreds, if not thousands, of people are killed and their property and crops damaged each year by tropical storms in the two Southeast Asian countries, which are separated by the South China Sea.Another tropical storm, with maximum winds of 85 kph (52 mph) and gusts of up to 100 kph, was moving toward the northern tip of the Philippines, weather forecasters said. The storm was expected to be around 190 km east northeast of the archipelago on Friday.
Oct. 03, 2006
ComEd works on power for 157,000 customers
Worst storms for company in more than 3 years
(Reuters) — Commonwealth Edison Co. was working to restore electricity to 157,000 customers still without power in and around Chicago following severe thunderstorms Monday night, a spokeswoman for the company said Tuesday. At its peak, the storm left about 320,000 powerless at about midnight. This was the worst storm in the company's history since July 2003, when a storm knocked out power to 488,000 customers. ComEd, a subsidiary of Exelon Corp. of Chicago, transmits and distributes electricity to about 3.7 million customers in Northern Illinois.
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.
EU heading for single UN seat, UN official says
03.10.2006 - 09:53 CET | By Helena Spongenberg
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The UN's deputy secretary general believes the European Commission will in future represent the EU in the United Nations as the voice of the European bloc worldwide.I think it will go in stages,Mark Malloch Brown told EUobserver on Monday (2 October). He explained that the European Commission already has an observer seat on the executive board for funds and programmes, where the commission is a big donor.We are going to see a growing spread of that and then steady formalisation of it institution by institution, probably starting in the UNDP or UNICEF [development aid units] first,Mr Malloch Brown said.
It is not going to happen with a flash and a bang,he added, but said he hoped that it will happen as quickly as possible.The main obstacles to such a move, explained Mr Malloch Brown, could be that sovereign [UN] member states are wary of the rise of international institutions seeking to become a layer between them and another international institution.There is a lot of political theory in the way and it is not limited to the EU member states there are a lot of other member states that see this as the thin end of the wedge and that other regions will then make the same case for regional organisations,he said.Mr Malloch Brown explained that the European Commission office in New York working on UN issues tends to be on the good side of issues so people are kind of quite keen to see it evolve so it will get there but it is just going to be steady persuasion.
I'm a huge fan of it,he stated. The number two UN official was in Brussels to speak at a policy briefing on UN reform in Brussels arranged by EU think-tank Friends of Europe.
UN reform needed
He called on the EU to refrain from shying away from UN reform, saying it is urgently needed.Mr Malloch Brown told the audience that current UN governance, including the UN security council, no longer reflects global reality because it is still largely based on the outcome of World War II. A security council without real membership opportunities for countries such as India, Brazil or any African country is clearly not reflecting how power is distributed today,he said.He compared UN reform to the EU's own development in two ways. Firstly, it never stops due to constantly evolving challenges and risks and secondly, it is a politically difficult process for national states concerned about the transfer of power .When it comes to reform, I would say we have covered the first mile, but this will be a marathon,he told his audience of ambassadors, journalists, EU officials and business leaders.
Brussels to urge major PR drive on EU enlargement
04.10.2006 - 09:56 CET | By Mark Beunderman
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS /The European Commission is next month set to call upon EU leaders to launch a major communication effort on enlargement but Brussels itself is struggling to find the right wording to convey the bloc's expansion more positively. The commission is currently preparing itself for a highly sensitive debate on enlargement with EU leaders, with the topic to be the dominant theme at their December summit. Reflecting the current enlargement fatigue felt by EU public opinion, national governments in June tasked the commission to flesh out a special report on the union's own readiness to welcome new members known in EU jargon as absorption capacity due out on 8 November.
But commission officials said on Tuesday (3 October) that Brussels will tell EU leaders that they themselves have the prime responsibility for convincing an enlargement-weary public. The commission's enlargement director general, Michael Leigh, told an audience at the European Policy Centre on Tuesday that Brussels will call for a major communication effort. There is an important effort of explanation to be made...we will deal with this issue in the report on 8 November,he said with other commission sources saying Brussels will demand leadership on the issue from member states.The EU is more than just Brussels. Everyone has a responsibility to explain enlargement, not just future enlargements but also previous rounds,said one official. The planned appeal to member states comes after the commission appeared last week to have adopted a more cautious approach towards EU expansion itself, with commission president Jose Manuel Barroso announcing a freeze on enlargement until the bloc has sorted out its own institutional problems.
What capacity?
Meanwhile, commission officials are struggling to find the right wording for the report on absorption capacity and are considering alternatives to the term absorption capacity itself. Absorption capacity, a phrase currently en vogue in EU politics, is often used to highlight the limited means the bloc has to expand, but it has gradually become a political synonym for negative EU public opinion towards enlargement.Maybe among the population the notion of absorption capacity creates a misunderstanding,one commission official said.It suggests that states merge with each other whereas in reality member states of course can retain their own culture and identity.After an informal brainstorming seminar of the commission in April, senior commission officials had mooted the term functioning capacity as a more accurate term, primarily referring to institutional arrangements necessary to make enlargement work.
It is however unlikely that absorption capacity will completely disappear from the November commission report, with EU leaders sticking to the term in their June conclusions despite the commission's uneasiness with the expression.Perhaps it's better not to engage in a dogmatic squabble on wording which citizens are not interested in anyway,said one commission source.
France prefers yet another term
Meanwhile, not all member states are completely happy with absorption capacity as an expression either, with France preferring assimilation capacity instead. Absorption capacity makes you think of a swamp absorbing water, said a French diplomat.By contrast, the union's capacity to assimilate new members would refer to both institutions and values, the contact said, explaining that being European is a balance between what you used to be before becoming a member and being only European. France opposes the term functioning capacity which only focuses on Brussels institutions and completely leaves the issue of public opinion aside. Enlargement has several dimensions including the perception by public opinion,said the diplomat reflecting the French population's strong signs of scepticism towards further expansion of the bloc.
EVIL INVENTIONS ARE PREDICTED IN THE BIBLE.
ROMANS 1:29-32
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
EUROPEAN UNION ARMY
DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (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.(TRADING BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS) that shall arise: 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 NATIONS)
25 And he (EU PRESIDENT) shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.(3 1/2 YRS)
DANIEL 8:23-25
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king (EU DICTATOR) of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences,(FROM THE OCCULT) shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power:(SATANS POWER) and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes;(JESUS) but he shall be broken without hand.
DANIEL 11:36-39
36 And the king (EU DICTATOR) shall do according to his will; 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 JEWISH) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.(CLAIM TO BE GOD)
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(WAR) 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 with a strange god,(DESTROY TERROR GROUPS) 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.
REVELATION 19:19
19 And I saw the beast,(EU LEADER) and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse,(JESUS) and against his army.(THE RAPTURED CHRISTIANS)
Robots and media scrutiny to shape EU military future
03.10.2006 - 17:39 CET | By Honor Mahony
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – EU defence ministries are going to have to contend with a shrinking recruitment pool for soldiers, a public that is more cautious about interventionist operations and 24/7 media scrutiny, according to a long-term military planning report approved by defence ministers on Tuesday (3 October).The 28-page study looks to a future where Europe will be externally dependent for 90 percent of its oil and 80 percent of gas by 2025 and where strong migratory pressures due to the fast-growing populations in Africa and the Middle East offset by stable and ageing European population are set to cause direct or indirect challenges to Europe's security interests.However, Europe's possible need to act in any of these regions or situations will be tempered by a more clued-up, risk-averse society.
Military action, not explicitly authorised by the UN, may become increasingly controversial,states the report, adding military operations will be subject to ever-increasing scrutiny by elected officials, media and populations.It also notes that the spread of readily accessible information and ideas about basic rights as well as the environmental impact of military action are also likely to affect people's perceptions of military conflict.Caution may be reinforced by increased concern with the legality of military action, as globalisation disseminates the concept of international law,says the study.
No more soldiers?
As well as the social perceptions, defence ministries will also have to deal with the fact that less and less people are likely to become soldiers, with the armed forces recruitment pool (16-30 years) to fall by over 15 percent by 2025.As armed forces professionalise and the falling birth-rate increases competition in the labour market for young men and women, personnel costs will, in practice, pre-empt more and more of defence spending unless manpower is reduced,says the report. With some 2 million people currently in uniform in Europe, there is plenty of scope to do this, it highlighted. One way of overcoming this problem would be to outsource and to resort to increased automation, from warships to robots, the report suggested.Looking at the changing nature of warfare, the report notes that we are transitioning from the industrial age to the information age of war.
It suggests that future conflicts will be high-tech against low-tech, Goliath against David, centrally-controlled and network enabled operations against disruptive tactics of local or regional [and] transnational guerrilla groups.In the future, the objective of intervention by force will not necessarily be victory in the traditional sense but moderation, balance of interests and peaceful resolution of conflicts although the force needed to require this outcome may be substantial.The report concludes by suggesting that member states cut manpower numbers, exploit new technology more quickly and improve intelligence leading to a point where EU military planners react more rapidly to situations using many actors including other international organisations, are selective in the type of force they use and can provide sustainable solutions to conflicts.
Last update - 07:32 04/10/2006
UNIFIL says could resort to use of force beyond self-defense
By Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz Correspondent, DPA and Haaretz Service
The United Nations explained Tuesday the rules of engagement that will be used by its peacekeepers who are supervising a cease-fire in south Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel since August 14.The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said it could resort to the use of force beyond self-defense, but did not give details on the means which will be used.UNIFIL commanders have sufficient authority to act forcefully when confronted with hostile activity of any kind, a UN statement said.All UNIFIL personnel may exercise the inherent right of self-defense. In addition, the use of force beyond self-defense may be applied to ensure that UNIFIL's area of operations,it said.According to the statement the UN mandate is aimed at protecting UN personnel, facilities, installations and equipment; ensuring the security and freedom of movement of UN personnel and humanitarian workers; and protecting civilians under imminent threat of physical violence.
Should the situation present any risk of resumption of hostile activities, UNIFIL rules of engagement allow UN forces to respond as required,? UNIFIL stated in a press release issued Tuesday, in regard to the mandate given to UN forces under the UN security council?s resolution 1701.According to UNIFIL, in cases where specific information is available regarding movement of unauthorized weapons or equipment, the LAF [Lebanese Armed Forces] will take required action. However, in situations where the LAF are not in a position to do so, UNIFIL will do everything necessary to fulfill its mandate in accordance with Security Council Resolution 1701.
Issues dealt with in the UNIFIL statement were discussed this past week by Israeli representatives, the Lebanese Army, and UNIFIL officers in southern Lebanon. Israeli representatives said that under Resolution 1701, UNIFIL forces must work to locate and identify Hezbollah weapons and ammunition stores, and that in instances where UNIFIL encounters Hezbollah members, to remove their weapons from them. This issue was later removed from the agreement.
The release further stated that UNIFIL has deployed 5,200 soldiers, out of a maximum 15,000 allowed under Security Council resolution 1701. It said UNIFIL, whose task is to support the Lebanese army in the area, has set up temporary checkpoints at key locations within its area of operations.It added that Lebanese troops have established permanent checkpoints... to stop and search passing vehicles and would act if they find unauthorized weapons.UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which ended the war on August 14 calls for peacekeepers to monitor the southern Lebanese border region along the border with Israel and make sure it is free of any armed personnel other than those of the Lebanese armed forces and UNIFIL.
Since the cease-fire, Hezbollah guerrillas have kept out of sight in southern Lebanon, but their chief Hassan Nasrallah has rejected in several speeches the laying down his movement's arms as required by the UN resolution.Hezbollah official in southern Lebanon Sheikh Nabil Kawook said Tuesday that Hezbollah guerrillas are still in the border areas with Israel with their weapons.I tell [Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert, our guerrillas are still there, but not visible, so nothing has changed since July 12, the Hezbollah official said.
Israel launched a offensive against Lebanon on July 12 in response to the cross-border kidnapping of two of its soldiers by Hezbollah.
Blair visits Madrid to discuss peace process
By: ThinkSpain
British prime minister, Tony Blair, is in Madrid today for a meeting with the president of the Spanish government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, that will cover a number of issues including progress in the Basque peace process. According to a Moncloa Palace source, Mr Zapatero has always found Mr Blair's advice based on his experience in Northern Ireland extraordinarily valuable.
The two leaders, who are meeting for the fifth time since 2004, will also discuss a range of economic and cultural issues, although illegal immigration will also be high on the agenda. Both men recognise that there are important differences between the troubles in Northern Ireland and the Basque question, but believe there are also similarities.
Mr Zapatero has always insisted that the road to peace is going to be long, hard and difficult, three adjectives that could be used to describe the five year negotiation process in Ulster, that enjoyed its own highs and lows.The fundamental difference between the two situations is that, in Ulster, the talks were conducted within a framework of all-party and institutional cooperation, and away from the spotlight of party political posturing. Other agenda items are reported to include, aid for Africa, EU Mediterranean border control policy, Turkey's application to join the EU, and the UN's Millenium Objectives.Tuesday, October 3, 2006
Aznar warns of Islamic fascist threat
By: ThinkSpain Sept 3,06
Ex-president Aznar was made an honorary professor of the Peruvian Applied Sciences University in Lima yesterday. During his acceptance speech, Mr Aznar warned of the rising threat from Islamic fascists,which is his way of describing Islamic terrorists.
He also described the Cuban government as a bloody tyranny,and criticised a certain left wing without utopia and without ideals that embraces the most radical causes
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)
Lebanon: UN peacekeepers lay out rules of engagement, including use of force
3 October 2006 – United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon have the authority to use force against hostile activity of any kind, whether in self-defence, to ensure their area of operations is not used for hostile activities or to resist attempts by force to prevent them from discharging their duties, according to guidelines published today. Should the situation present any risk of resumption of hostile activities, UNIFIL rules of engagement allow UN forces to respond as required, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said in a statement, laying out the terms of the Security Council mandate that established it in August to oversee the cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hizbollah.
UNIFIL commanders have sufficient authority to act forcefully when confronted with hostile activity of any kind, the statement added, noting that the force so far had 5,200 out of a maximum of 15,000 permitted under Security Council resolution 1701. UNIFIL has set up temporary checkpoints at key locations within its area of operations, while permanent checkpoints are being established by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to stop and search passing vehicles. Yesterday it confirmed that Israel had vacated all but one of the positions it had taken during the fighting and that the LAF were taking over. In case specific information is available regarding movement of unauthorized weapons or equipment, the LAF will take required action, the statement said. However, in situations where the LAF are not in a position to do so, UNIFIL will do everything necessary to fulfil its mandate in accordance with Security Council resolution 1701.
Among the resolution’s key terms include the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from positions they occupied in South Lebanon, the deployment of Lebanese and UN forces in the area, and the banning of any other armed personnel and weapons there. Laying out specific guidelines, the statement said all UNIFIL personnel may exercise the inherent right of self-defence; use force to ensure that their area of operations is not used for hostile activities; and resist attempts by force to prevent them from discharging their duties under the Council mandate.Moreover force may be used to protect UN personnel, installations and equipment; to ensure the security and freedom of movement of UN personnel and humanitarian workers; and to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence in the areas of deployment.
Meanwhile the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is helping Lebanon speed up the recovery of its agriculture sector following the devastating impact of the fighting on both people and the economy.All agricultural areas were directly or indirectly affected by the war, from fruit trees, vegetables, tobacco and cattle to irrigation systems, farm machinery and forestry. FAO initiatives include a damage and needs assessment mission currently under way and efforts to strengthen veterinary services to prevent and control Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) outbreaks.FAO will also provide a team of five experts in crop and animal production, fisheries and forestry.
Article 301 a Key Condition of Turkey's EU Bid
By Cihan News Agency ,Tuesday, October 03, 2006 ,zaman.com
Olli Rehn, European Union (EU) Commissioner for Enlargement, urged at a conference organized by Turk-Is and the Finland Labor Confederation that Turkey speed up the reform process, adding that could help eliminate strong opposition to Turkey's EU membership.Commissioner Rehn delivered a speech on Tuesday in a conference on The European Social Model and Syndicated Rights in the European Union (EU) Negotiation Process in Ankara, capital city of Turkey. I cannot even imagine a member state in the European Union that would not respect such a fundamental European principle as the freedom of expression,Rehn stated at the conference.
He urged Ankara that the controversial Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), which sets out penalties for insulting the Turkish Republic, its officials or Turkishness, has been used to bring charges against dozens of journalists, publishers and scholars, and will most likely affect the upcoming EU progress report on Turkey in a negative way. Rehn warned the Turkish government to repeal or ameliorate the article. Hence, those opposing repealing the unjustified restrictions of free speech in article 301 and other parts of Turkish law are effectively opposing a key condition of EU membership,he remarked. The reforms in Turkey will determine the pace of the negotiations. The next step should be freedom of expression,he added. Rehn is scheduled to meet with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and Turkey's Chief E.U. Negotiator Ali Babacan.
For further information please visit http://www.cihannews.com
Fatah, Hamas Preparing for War With Israel
By Hillel Fendel(INN)
Hamas has smuggled up to 1,300 tons of weapons from Egypt into Gaza and is preparing for the option of launching a large-scale conflict with Israel. So states a Fatah report quoted by WorldNetDaily. The weapons, WND reports, include between several hundred and 1,300 tons of advanced rockets; anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles; rocket propelled grenades; raw explosives; rifles; ammunition; and other heavy weaponry.Israel has long complained that the arrangements at the Egypt-Gaza border crossing are not satisfactory, and that the European monitors are ineffectual in stopping the smuggling. Then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon agreed to the deal last November, after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice arrived in the region and gave her stamp of approval.
WND's Aaron Klein quotes Abu Ahmed, leader of the northern Gaza chapter of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group, as saying the terrorists are working towards, and succeeding in, turning Gaza into a Hizbullah-like threat against Israel. We learned from Hizbullah's victory that Israel can be defeated if we know how to hit them and if we are well prepared,Abu Ahmed said. We are
importing rockets and the knowledge to launch them and we are also making many plans for battle.WND also quotes another terrorist leader Abu Abdullah, reported to be a top member of the Izaddin Al-Kassam Brigades of Hamas detailing the preparations for war against Israel.In the last 15 months, Abu Adullah said, though the fighters of Hamas kept the ceasefire, we did not stop making important advancements and professional training on the military level. In the future, after Hamas is obliged to stop the ceasefire, the world shall see our new military capabilities.He said that Hamas and Hizbullah, which has cells in Sinai, are cooperating in importing rockets and guerilla training.
EU must adapt to global economic challenge: Blair, Zapatero by Chris Wright Wed Oct 4, 9:31 AM ET
MADRID (AFP) - Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish host Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero have jointly urged European Union states to adapt to the economic challenges posed by developing economies led by China and India. After discussing Monday Zapatero's efforts to further a fledgling peace process in the Basque country, drawing from Blair's experiences in Northern Ireland, the two heads of state spoke Wednesday about the world economy as the British leader wound up his visit.Following roundtable talks with Spanish and British business leaders critical of regulations across the European Union's internal market, the leaders urged EU members to increase the pace of reform within the 25-nation bloc.
The economies of Spain and Britain have been successful over the years in terms of growth, in terms of jobs, in terms of enterprise and industry,Blair said.But we know for the future we need to do more,he continued, demanding greater innovation and flexibility to keep pace with a changing world.Blair added: We know that at each stage we need to up our game, become even more competitive, more successful and ensure the job opportunities are there for the people of the future.Zapatero said the EU must give European citizens the capacity to renovate and urged EU governments to show economic leadership in a global market.We must advance the market more rapidly and reform our (economic) model, develop and innovate,he said, adding that he backed a drive to encourage universities to tailor higher education to the demands of business.
A Spanish government source said both leaders discussed a broad range of issues, including the Middle East, where Spain is the EU's third largest provider of ground forces to the UN mission in Lebanon. The main focus, however, was economic, the source said.
Business leaders who attended the meeting at Blair's hotel in central Madrid included Emilio Botin, chairman of Santander Bank, which acquired Britain's Abbey National for 13.19 billion euros (17.12 billion dollars) in Europe's largest retail banking takeover in November 2004.Also present were the chairmen of Telefonica and Ferrovial, Cesar Alierta and Rafael del Pino, while British participants included British Airways' Lord Garel Jones.Telefonica bought Britain's O2 earlier this year in a 27 billion euro (34 billion dollar) deal, and a consortium led by Spanish construction group Ferrovial bought out British airports operator BAA this summer for 11.4 billion euros (14.8 billion dollars) as Spain once again flexed its newly-found economic muscle.
Last year Spain became Britain's seventh-largest trade customer with a ten percent share, overtaking Ireland to become the ninth-largest importer to Britain. Britain's direct investment of 21 billion euros in Spain trails only France and the United States.
But the business leaders complained of over-regulation in sectors such as energy, which they said had yet to be properly exposed to competition.The Spanish energy sector is the scene of clashes between political and corporate forces with Madrid keen to see the emergence of a Spanish energy giant.The three biggest companies in the sector Endesa, Iberdrola and Union Fenosa are all subject to merger or acquisition speculation with Madrid trying to fend off a hostile takeover bid from German utility giant E.ON.
Madrid has run into trouble with the European Commission over its attempts to thwart the E.ON bid.Zapatero said he had identified three key business priorities: advance more speedily the European common market, increase Research, Development and Innovation (RDI), and reform the university system so that it better prepares graduates for the global business world. Both leaders said RDI needed to rise from two to three percent of GDP to compete with the United States and Japan.
INVENTION OF THE ATOMIC BOMB.
2 PETER 3:10-11
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
NUCLEAR WEAPONS WILL BE USED.
2 TIMOTHY 3:1
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
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.
REVELATION 9:18
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
LUKE 17:34-37
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).
MATTHEW 24:37-51
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49 And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
North Korea Vows First Nuclear Test
By CHOE SANG-HUN and JOHN O’NEIL
Published: October 3, 2006
SEOUL, Oct. 3 — North Korea announced today that it plans to conduct its first nuclear test, sharply escalating its standoff with the United States and setting off ripples of alarm in Japan and South Korea.Nuclear Threat Initiative on North Korea (nti.org)A State Department spokesman said a test would pose an unacceptable threat to peace and stability in Asia. John R. Bolton, the American ambassador to the United Nations, said he would raise the matter with the Security Council on Wednesday. Japan’s foreign minister promised harsh measures in return, while South Korea raised the security level of its forces. Also today, an Iranian official proposed a new solution to the standoff over its nuclear program, suggesting that France create a consortium that would oversee a uranium enrichment plant in Iran.
North Korea has never before acknowledged having nuclear weapons, although intelligence officials have said they believe it has several. Analysts said today that a test could destabilize the balance of power in the region, perhaps pushing Japan to develop its own nuclear weapons, and could raise the risk of a military clash between North Korea and the United States.In a statement released by the state-run news agency, North Korea declared that the U.S. extreme threat of a nuclear war and sanctions and pressure compel the country to conduct a nuclear test, an essential process for bolstering nuclear deterrent, as a corresponding measure for defense.The statement gave no indication of when such a test might occur. Last month, Kim Seung Kyu, director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, told his country’s parliament that North Korea is capable of conducting an underground nuclear test at any time.
Japan’s new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, called a test unacceptable and said that it would worsen’ North Korea’s position, Reuters reported. The Japanese foreign minister, Taro Aso, said that Tokyo would respond harshly to a test. South Korea expressed deep regret and concern over the announcement and raised its security level. Yang Chang-Seok, who leads the government’s unification efforts, said the planned test “poses a grave threat to peace and will have a decisively negative impact on relations between the two countries, according to Agence France-Presse.John R. Bolton, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, told The Associated Press that a nuclear test would be extraordinarily serious.
American officials have said that if North Korea were to conduct nuclear tests, the United States would seek Security Council sanctions through a procedure that carries the threat of military action.In London, a spokesman for Britain’s foreign ministry said a test would be a highly provocative act with serious consequences.North Korea has a history of making provocative declarations meant to get attention for its demands. But this summer it set off similar alarms around the region when it followed through on threats to test-fire a long-range ballistic missile and several shorter-range missiles, defying calls by China, its chief ally in the region, and other countries to cancel the tests. China, South Korea, Russia and Japan have joined the United States in what are known as six-party talks with North Korea since then, but for almost a year, North Korea has boycotted those negotiations, citing a crackdown led by the United States on what the Bush administration calls widespread counterfeiting and money laundering by the North.
North Korea lashed out at the moves, saying Washington had left no dastardly means and methods untried in a foolish attempt to isolate and stifle it economically and bring down the socialist system chosen by its people themselves.It called the crackdown a de facto declaration of war. The North Korean statement today said that its ultimate goal is to settle hostile relations between it and the United States and remove nuclear threats from the vicinity, according to the A.P. If it follows through on its threat, it could leave the Security Council struggling to resolve two nuclear crises at once, as talks drag on over Iran’s program. Today, the deputy chief of Iran’s atomic energy agency, Muhammed Saeedi, told French radio in an interview from Tehran of a new proposal to end the standoff, according to news services.
To be able to arrive at a solution, we have just had an idea, he said. He suggested that France work through two of its state controlled nuclear companies to create a consortium that would build a nuclear enrichment facility in Iran. That way, he said, France could control in a tangible way our enrichment activities.Nuclear Threat Initiative on North Korea (nti.org)Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign minister, called the idea interesting but said it needed more study. Mr. Solana is leading negotiations on behalf of Europe over a package of incentives meant to persuade Iran to shut down its nuclear program, which it calls peaceful but many countries see as a prelude to the development of nuclear weapons.
American officials have supported the current round of negotiations, mostly because Russia and China would block any move now to have the United Nations Security Council impose sanctions. But they have also worried that Iran is seeking to buy time for its program through endless talks, and trying to split what had been a solid international coalition against it. The French president, Jacques Chirac, has taken a softer line than the leaders of Great Britain and Germany, suggesting last month that the threat of sanctions be dropped if Iran agrees to a temporary halt to nuclear enrichment. But today French officials rejected the idea that they might reach a separate deal with Iran on Mr. Saeedi’s enrichment plan, saying the channel of dialogue must go through Mr. Solana, according to A.F.P.
French officials also reminded Iran that Mr. Solana is still waiting to hear whether it will offer to halt enrichment.Last year Moscow proposed a similar idea for internationally supervised enrichment, but at a plant located in Russia. That idea won the support of the United States and other nations, but was rejected by Tehran, which insisted on retaining the right to conduct enrichment work on its own soil. The United States has said it hopes that Mr. Solana’s discussions conclude early this month, and say it will push quickly for sanctions if no deal is reached. North Korea’s intentions now will likely play a role in a number of planned meetings on nuclear issues.Its statement about nuclear testing coincided with announcements in Japan that Mr. Abe will visit Beijing and Seoul next week. Mr. Abe, a hawk on North Korea, was expected to make North Korea a high priority in the talks.
A nuclear test by North Korea will shake up the military balance between North Korea, Japan and South Korea, which has been based on conventional weapons, said Nam Sung Wook, a North Korea expert at Korea University in Seoul.“The sense of insecurity will spike in South Korea, and calls could mount in Japan for nuclear armament.But he noted that North Korea has made many threats that it has not followed through on. “Right now, there is a 50-50 chance of North Korea testing a nuke, Mr. Nam said. Much of the decision will depend on what China and South Korea say after their summits with Abe.He said that North Korea could finish preparations for a test within three weeks, and would wait for a timing with a maximum impact.In recent weeks, there have been sporadic news reports in Washington, Tokyo and Seoul that North Korea may be preparing for an underground nuclear test. The reports cited activities around underground facilities near the border with China or on the North’s remote northeast coast.North Korea plans to step up production of fuel for nuclear weapons unless the United States drops financial sanctions, according to an American scholar, Selig S. Harrison, a longtime Korea specialist based in Washington who visited Pyongyang last month.
Choe Sang-Hun reported from Seoul, and John O’Neil from New York.
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