US TEACHER PROMOTES NAUNION

1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS. 2-2 killed by reported tornado in La. 3-Rains, mudslides kill 24 in southeast Brazil. 4-Dear Friend of The Fellowship, Jimmy Carter. 5-Why do people insert prayers into the Western Wall? 6-Hybrid embryo work under threat. 7-Bush, Merkel push Mid-East talks. 8-Nuclear test would deepen N.Korea's isolation - Rice 9-Radionuclides spreading around the world. 10-Ollmert-Mubarak Meeting Overshadowed by Ramallah Raid. 11-El Al Won't Fly on Sabbath Without Rabbinical Dispensation. 12-Brussels divided on future shape of EU commission. 13-Residents of planned union to be North Americanists.

EARTHQUAKES

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)

Update time = Sat Jan 6 12:14 AM EDT

SAT JAN 06,07
MAP 2.9 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA

FRI JAN 05,07
MAP 2.8 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.0 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.4 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 5.7 SOUTH OF ALASKA
MAP 5.0 GUAM REGION
MAP 4.6 PAGAN REGION, NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS
MAP 5.6 NIAS REGION, INDONESIA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.0 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 NORTHERN ALASKA

JAN 04,07
MAP 3.2 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 3.0 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 3.0 KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA
MAP 3.4 MONA PASSAGE, PUERTO RICO
MAP 2.9 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 3.5 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.0 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 4.9 SOUTHERN PERU
MAP 3.0 OREGON
MAP 2.7 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.1 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA

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.

Rains, mudslides kill 24 in southeast Brazil
Fri Jan 5, 2007 11:11 PM GMT

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - At least 24 people died in mudslides and more than 12,000 were left homeless this week following heavy rain in southeast Brazil, with the death toll likely to rise as the hunt for bodies goes on, the Civil Defence said on Friday. Most of the deaths occurred in Rio de Janeiro state when shacks built illegally on steep slopes surrounding mountainous towns were swept away.The number of victims could rise further. The Civil Defence is still on alert and we're still searching for missing people, said Cpl. Leonardo Franco at Civil Defence.Marcos Sanches from the National Space Research Climate Studies Centre said that in the first five days of January the Mantiqueira mountains near Rio de Janeiro received half the usual average monthly rainfall, and further rains were likely this weekend.Wet weather, if prolonged, could discourage visitors to the annual Carnival in Rio de Janeiro in February but tourist bookings there have not been affected yet by the rains.Mudslides killed 16 Brazilians in Petropolis, an historic mountain resort near Rio, in January 2003. In December 2001, 52 people died in mudslides in Rio de Janeiro state.

Since October, the heavy rains have killed at least 17 people in neighbouring Minas Gerais, one of Brazil's biggest mining and agricultural states.At least two people have died in Sao Paulo, Brazil's main industrial state which lies just southwest of Rio de Janeiro.Reuters 2007.

2 killed by reported tornado in La. JAN 05,07

NEW IBERIA, La. - Powerful storms killed at least two people, flooded streets and ripped apart homes as they swept from Louisiana through South Carolina on Friday. Much of the worst damage was in Louisiana's Iberia Parish, where what appeared to be a tornado hit the New Iberia area just before 4 p.m. Thursday.We were just sitting and watching a movie, and then all of a sudden the wind started blowing and it got really bad, said Joyce Firmin of Iberia Parish. It just sounded like a bunch of trucks or an airplane or something was coming toward the house.Firmin's daughter, 14-year-old Jaci, said she could hear branches snapping and power lines popping during the storm. My ears were popping a lot, she said. When we came out, everything was down.

The storm killed a woman and 6-year-old girl in their home, the Iberia Parish Coroner's Office said, and at least 15 other people were injured.Nine more people were hurt when the storm reached east-central Mississippi's Kemper County late Thursday and early Friday, according to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

There's more damage out here than what we initially thought, Ben Dudley, Kemper County's emergency management director, said after trips to communities ofBlackwater and Damascus on Friday. We're looking at eight to 10 homes destroyed and several with major damage.Carnell Newton said most of those injured in Blackwater were his relatives — including a woman who suffered a head injury and was upgraded from critical to serious condition Friday.They were in a doublewide (mobile home) and it just exploded, Newton said.Laquita Clark, 21, said the storm knocked her two-bedroom home off its foundation and turned it into a disaster area. She had been next door at the time.

Five more homes and businesses were damaged in southern Mississippi's Stone County.In northwest South Carolina, 15 people were injured when a suspected tornado piled cars on top of each other Friday afternoon outside an elementary school, officials said. No students were injured.In Alabama, several vacant mobile homes parked outside a mobile home plant in Hamilton were damaged and power lines were down, officials said.

Trees were down across stretches of Georgia.From a Louisiana hospital, Steven Bruno described how he was flipped over twice while furniture and glass flew around his mobile home on Thursday. His girlfriend, who is six months pregnant, washospitalized for fetal monitoring, and the hospital gown he was wearing is now the only thing he owns, he said.Whether his home and others in southern Louisiana were hit by a tornado won't be determined until storm surveys are conducted.In New Orleans, city workers had been dispatched early to clean drains and prepare for possible flooding ahead of the heavy rain.

Southern Louisiana has been pounded by major storms that bumped its December rainfall total to more than 10 inches, nearly twice the normal average, and forecasters on Friday warned that more rain was coming.More showers and thunderstorms are on the way Saturday afternoon and evening as we get another cold front coming through. We're in a progressive pattern — almost like clockwork, every three days we'll get a front through, said weather service forecaster Kent Kuyper.

This Week with Rabbi Eckstein - January 5, 2007
Dear Friend of The Fellowship, Jimmy Carter

Since its release a few weeks back, a number of people have approached me asking my opinion about a book written by former president Jimmy Carter entitled, Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid.It is difficult to add much to what has already been said about this book. Its factual errors and anti-Israel bias have been exposed by many who truly know and have a deep understanding of the Middle East including some of Carter’s closest associates.

One of these is Middle East historian and Emory University professor of Israeli studies Kenneth Stein, who in the ‘80s acted as the first director of the Carter Center, the former president’s non-profit organization. Mr. Stein recently ended a 23-year relationship with the Carter Center because of what he called the book’s one-sided nature, and factual errors, copied materials not cited, superficialities, glaring omissions, and simply invented segments.As you will see from the comments below, Mr. Stein is just one of the many, notable voices that are a part of the chorus of criticism for Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid:

Mr. Carter repeatedly mentions Security Council Resolution 242, which called for return of captured territories in exchange for peace, recognition, and secure boundaries, but he ignores that Israel accepted and all the Arab nations and the Palestinians rejected this resolution… But you wouldn't know that from reading the history according to Mr. Carter. Alan Dershowitz, New York Sun[Carter] says that the only division of territory that is recognized by the United States and the international community is the pre-1967 Green Line.

It is hard to believe that Carter does not know that this claim is simply false… The Green Line is just the 1949 armistice line from the end of Israel’s War of Independence. Neither the United States nor the international community recognized this as the final border between Israel and Jordan. Ira Forman, Washington Jewish WeekThe demonization of Israel begins with the book's title … Carter's use of (the word apartheid) seems aimed at delegitimizing Israel as a South Africa-type state… Had he taken the time to explain, he would have had to mention that Israel has airlifted many tens of thousands of black Ethiopian Jews from misery into new homes. He would also have had to mention that Arabs (in Israel) have Israeli citizenship, vote, and hold office. David Makovsky, U.S. News and World Report.In 1990, Carter met Arafat, who told him the PLO never advocated the annihilation of Israel and that it was the Zionists who invented the idea that the Palestinians wanted to drive the Jews into the sea. Carter cites this as if it were undeniable when he could have referred to the PLO charter’s call for Israel’s destruction. Mitchell Bard, author, Myths and Facts.The list of inaccuracies in this book could go on and on. Carter’s claim that Israel never agreed to accept peace terms at the 2000 Camp David accords is disputed by public record and all eyewitnesses, including chief negotiator Dennis Ross, who said, on this issue, he’s wrong…everyone is entitled to their own opinion. They’re not entitled to their own facts. Carter absurdly blames Israel for the Christian exodus from the Middle East, ignoring the fact that Christians living under Muslim rule are subject to all kinds of state-sanctioned oppression and the fact that in Israel they enjoy many more freedoms than anywhere in the Arab world.

In fact, the only good thing I can say about this disturbingly biased book is that it acts as a powerful reminder of how critically important it is, when dealing with the media on any topic, for each and every one of us to know and rely on the facts. The words of a former president carry authority. Someone hearing Carter’s misinformation might accept it as truth unless they know the facts and are able to challenge and correct what is being distorted.I invite you to join with me this New Year and commit to becoming a well-informed advocate for Israel. The more each of us know about the history of Israel and the Jewish people, and their ongoing struggle for peace, freedom, and security, the better we will be able to counter false information like that found in Mr. Carter’s book.

We should always remember that, in the battle for fair treatment for Israel in the court of public opinion, the truth is the best weapon we have because the facts are on Israel’s side.We at The Fellowship will help inform you through articles and information in our Weekly Newsletter and posted on our website so you will be able to challenge the myths, misconceptions, and outright lies about Israel that are repeated every day in the media. On the right hand side of this page you will find links to websites of organizations that also provide trusted information about Israel and the Middle East. Please take some time today to visit these and get informed.

Thank you for standing for the truth and Israel.

With prayers for shalom, peace,

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein
President International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

Why do people insert prayers into the Western Wall? BY Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein JAN 05,07

According to Jewish sources, the now-famous custom of putting written prayers into the crevices of the kotel, or Western Wall, in Jerusalem began in the 18th century CE in the north African country of Morocco.

There, a young man named Azulai was told by his spiritual teacher that he needed to move to Israel. And when you do arrive, his teacher said, here is a note that I want you to put into the Western Wall.Azulai diligently sewed the note into the lining of his jacket so he would be sure not to lose it. But when he arrived in Israel, he was so overcome by the sights and experiences that he forgot about the note. However, Azulai soon began to struggle as he tried to find his place in Israel. As he walked home dejectedly one day, he remembered his spiritual teacher's note. He ran home, took it from the lining of his jacket, and placed it into one of the cracks in the Western Wall.

As the story goes, his fortunes began to change. A local rabbi, seeing Azulai's life had turned better, asked him, What happened to prompt this change? At first, Azulai could think of no reason for his blessings. But then he remembered the note he had placed in the Wall. The rabbi urged Azulai to retrieve and read it - and when he did he read this prayer: Dear God, please let my student Azulai become successful in Israel.Today, thousands of people put notes into the Western Wall.Of course, we are not praying to the Wall, but praying in the presence of God. God's presence is everywhere, but Jews believe that His presence dwells in a special way in Jerusalem, where the ancient Temple once stood.

Since the Western Wall is the only surviving portion of the Second Temple, it represents the Holy of Holies and the special presence of God. The Talmud teaches that all prayers ascend to God through Jerusalem, so writing a prayer and putting it in the Wall is a special way of placing our prayers before God. Periodically, all the notes are removed and buried, along with other holy objects that are not being used anymore.

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.

Friday, 5 January 2007, 00:17 GMT
Hybrid embryo work under threat

Early embryos yield stem cells.UK scientists planning to mix human and animal cells in order to research cures for degenerative diseases fear their work will be halted.They accuse the body that grants licences for embryo research, the HFEA, of bowing to government pressure if it fails to consider their applications. Ministers proposed outlawing such work after unfavourable public opinion.The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is to discuss if two research requests come under its remit.To shut this down at the moment is a real affront to patients Stem cell scientist Professor Chris Shaw

Why create chimeras?

The creation of hybrid human-animal embryos was first suggested as a way of addressing the shortage of human eggs available for research. But the HFEA says it is unresolved whether this type of controversial work is permissible under existing laws - or even whether it falls under the HFEA's jurisdiction to grant a licence. The resulting embryos made are more than 99% human, with a small animal component. Opponents say this is tampering with nature and is unethical. The researchers have called for greater understanding of what they are trying to achieve.

Public opposition

The public was consulted on hybrid embryo work among other issues for an overhaul of outdated laws on fertility treatments and embryo research.

Ministers felt the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 needed to be updated as science has moved on significantly.The new white paper says scientists will be able to push forward research in some areas, such as altering the genetic structure of cells that make embryos. But government proposes prohibiting them from making human-animal hybrids or so-called chimeras - where genetic material is taken from humans and put it into a host animal egg. That is then allowed to grow to a very early embryo stage in the lab as a source of stem cells for research.

Hybrids

Scientists are hopeful that studies on stem cells - immature cells that can become many types of tissue - could lead to greater understanding and even a cure for many diseases, including Alzheimer's.

They say using human-animal mixes rather than human eggs to get the stem cells makes sense because human eggs are in short supply, plus the process is less cumbersome and yields better results. Professor Chris Shaw from Kings College London, along with his colleague Dr Stephen Minger, has applied for a licence for stem cell work on Motor Neurone Disease. We hope that the HFEA has found this is one hurdle too many and they are not prepared to jump over it Josephine Quintavalle of CORE ethics He said:To shut this down at the moment is a real affront to patients. We do not have a single drug that makes a difference to the disease course. Dr Minger, who hopes to look at the genetic causes of conditions like Parkinson's disease, said he had been told that the HFEA was unlikely to grant his application. A second team of scientists, led by Professor Lyle Armstrong at Newcastle University, has applied to research how different tissues grow in the body. Dr Evan Harris MP, Liberal Democrat member of the Science and Technology Select Committee, warned there would be fierce opposition from scientists and parliamentarians to any draft bill which included such a ban.

Scientific progress

An HFEA spokesman said: We need to decide whether the law prohibits this research, whether it falls under our remit at all, and then we can look at whether we have a fundamental view on this type of research. We have a duty to consider any application put before us. If the HFEA decides it is outside its remit, the scientists will not legally need a licence to continue with their work. A spokesman for the Department of Health stressed that the new law, which still needs to be debated in Parliament, would contain a clause allowing for the possibility that this type of work should be permitted in the future. Josephine Quintavalle, of CORE ethics, said: This is creating an animal-human hybrid and that has to beacknowledged as something that does not meet with approval. We hope that the HFEA has found this is one hurdle too many and they are not prepared to jump over it.

Last Updated: Friday, 5 January 2007, 01:27 GMT
Bush, Merkel push Mid-East talks - No more back rubs, Mr Bush promised Mrs Merkel

US President George W Bush has backed a proposal by German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a new meeting of the Middle East Quartet on the Palestinian issue.

Russia, the EU, the US and the UN should play a larger role in the Middle East peace process, the two leaders agreed in talks in Washington. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to the region shortly. Mrs Merkel also said that a window of opportunity for a world trade agreement was closing fast. Mr Bush, who caused Mrs Merkel to flinch when he gave her an impromptu neck massage at a summit in Russia last year, also joked he would give her no back rubs.

Climate change

Mr Bush said after the meeting: Madame Chancellor had a good idea to convene the quartet. We're strongly committed to a two-state solution. Two democracies supporting each other's rights to exist. However, Mr Bush said the quartet should not become involved in other Middle East issues, such as Lebanon and Syria. The leaders discussed a number of other issues, including trade, Sudan's Darfur region and climate change. On climate change, Mr Bush said: I believe there is a chance now to put behind us the old stale debates of the past. Mrs Merkel said: On the one hand, we obviously need economic growth, but on the other hand, a reduction, also of greenhouse gases. Mrs Merkel also said time was running out for a world trade deal. Mr Bush said he thought a deal was still possible but added: We've got hard work to overcome our obstacles. Five-year talks on global trade barriers and subsidies - the so-called Doha round - collapsed in July. Germany currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the EU and year-long presidency of the G8 nations.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS WILL BE USED.

ISAIAH 26:21
21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.(WW3,1/2 earths population die).

ISAIAH 13:6-13 KJV
6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:(FROM FRIGHT)
8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

ISAIAH 24:17-23 KJV
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

2 TIMOTHY 3:1
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.

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.

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.

Saturday January 6, 3:50 AM
Nuclear test would deepen N.Korea's isolation - Rice - Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A fresh nuclear test by North Korea would deepen the communist state's isolation, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday, following a report the North was preparing its second atomic explosion. The North Koreans would have to know that any such test would obviously further deepen their isolation, Rice told reporters after talks in Washington with South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon. I'm not going to speak about intelligence information, but we don't see any change in the circumstances that we currently face, she said when asked about a possible test.

Song said there were no signs of an imminent nuclear test, which would be North Korea's second since Oct. 9, when it conducted a small underground test that drew swift world condemnation and punitive U.N. sanctions. ABC News quoted unidentified U.S. defense officials in a report on Thursday that said Pyongyang appeared to have made preparations for a new nuclear test. The South Korean minister said he and Rice agreed that it is North Korea's turn to come back to us with a positive and realistic response to the proposals tabled in Beijing. The two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and China failed in their latest round of talks in Beijing last month to make any progress in suspending the North's nuclear programs in exchange for aid and better ties with Washington and Tokyo.

Radionuclides spreading around the world JAN 05,07

IN the estimate of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), there are millions of dangerous sources of radiation. It seems, that are competing against natural sources - rivers, creeks, and springs, and not without success - the word source is getting an increasingly negative connotation.We have split the atom and tamed it for our own purposes, and now it is our moral duty to be responsible for it. But so far we have not shown much responsibility, and so we can expect more shocks like the British polonium incident. Litvinenko has died, but his name is still much in the news, and we hear more revelations.The IAEA, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, reports that it does not control turnover of radionuclides because they are outside its sphere of monitoring. How could such an omission happen? One of the IAEA’s tasks is to prevent proliferation of radioactive materials. The public was shocked to find out that the IAEA only controls nuclear materials, that is, those, which are used in the production of a classic nuclear bomb.

A dirty bomb, the terrorists dream, is outside their control.

The IAEA registers illegal radionuclide trafficking only when it gets voluntary reports from the states concerned.

Who wants to have additional problems?Meanwhile, radionuclides and other radioactive materials have spread so much that it will not be easy to establish rigid control over them. Moreover, it is civilian radioactive sources used in medicine,metallurgy, agriculture, mining, and machine building that are becoming more dangerous than strictly controlled nuclear facilities.The IAEA reports that every year the world produces over 10,000 medical devices for radiotherapy and up to 12,000 industrial radiographic sources of radiation. It is indeed surprising that they are not under tough control of some international infrastructure.Professor Alexander Borovoi from the Kurchatov Institute Russian Research Center and former IAEA consultant on radiation, recalled a tragic incident which took place in the Brazilian city of Goiania in 1987. Garbage removers found a medical device based on cesium-137 at a dump in one of the poorest areas. Having broken it, they saw a blue luminous dust. They decided that it was something very precious or even supernatural, and invited neighbors and relatives to have a look. As a result, 244 people received dangerous doses of radiation, and hundreds of others damaged their health to different extent.

Sources of radiation, which are stolen, lost or left behind by careless owners, are creating huge problems. In its report on the safety of sources of radiation at its international conference in Vienna in March 2003, the IAEA acknowledged that a hundred countries had no effective control over sources of radiation for lack of relevant infrastructures. The IAEA has officially registered up to 300 cases of
illegal trafficking in radionuclides since 1993. This situation is fraught with danger for the world community.About 30 per cent of radioactive sources are used inappropriately even in the most advanced countries.In the former Soviet Union, all radioactive materials were subject to extremely rigid control. At the Kurchatov Institute, where I’ve worked my whole life, we had to go through numerous procedures in order to get radionuclides for research. We had to get a special permit and process a heap of papers through different channels, Professor Borovoy said. They meticulously checked up on us all along, and we had to account for every microgram.

The modernized control system still rests on strict Soviet tradition. Head of Rostekhnadzor (Federal Environmental, Engineering, and Nuclear Supervision Agency) Konstantin Pulikovsky said: We have found no deviations from the requirements on the storage and movement of nuclear materials, including polonium, at any of the structures under our supervision.

Nuclear materials are under control, but there are still problems withradionuclides, or isotopes, as revealed by Radon, a service in charge of monitoring radiation in Moscow round the clock. Its deputy director general Oleg Polsky opines, from 20 to 60 cases of radioactive pollution are tracked every year. Radon is very meticulous and tough, which has won Moscow the reputation of one of the world’s radiation safest capitals.The situation in former Soviet republics is far more complicated. Local revolutions and change of government have resulted in the loss of control over sources of radiation left from the Soviet times.

Tom Parfitt wrote in the London Times in 2003: Georgia with its piles of abandoned Soviet hardware, weak law enforcement and shaky separatist regimes, has become a potential goldmine of radioactive sources. At least three times in the past five years a trafficker has been caught here with 1 kg of low-enrichment uranium. A smuggler trying to cross the border with it had a tablet of the heavy metal stuffed in a teabag.Speaking at a Vienna conference, IAEA officer Abel Gonzalez said that in 1995 a whole family was exposed to radiation in the Estonian village of Tammiku when one of its members found a tiny piece of radioactive material of unknown origin and put it into a drawer in the kitchen table. As a result, he and his family received lethal radiation doses.Another case took place on the other side of the globe - in Thailand. Local scrap shop owners cut the metal parts of a stolen cylinder used for the treatment of cancer, and took out a radiation source of cobalt 60. Three of them died, and 11 were heavily exposed.

Investigators found two more such cylinders stored in a parking lot.

On January 12, 2005, a system of radiation control set off an alarm on the territory of the Murmansk merchant marine port, when a seaman from the Chinese Yong Tai vessel (Hong Kong) was going through customs.

His clothes and other belongings were contaminated with an isotope of cesium-137.Those who are dreaming of a dirty bomb would be happy to get the container with radioactive cesium-137, and americium-241, which was lost by the Puerto Rican Geoexport Company as a result of negligence during transportation. Terrorists would have been glad to learn that the American Buoy Inspection Service in Louisiana kept containers with radionuclides at unlocked premises.The IAEA Data Base registered 103 cases of illegal trafficking in nuclear and radioactive materials in 2005. How many more similar emergencies should happen for the world community to take action? Or are we lunatics marching towards disaster? The polonium incident in London is another marker of radionuclides, which are tacitly spreading all over the world. RIA Novosti - Saturday, January 6, 2007

Ollmert-Mubarak Meeting Overshadowed by Ramallah Raid
By Hana Levi Julian (INN) JAN 05,07

The IDF raid in Ramallah that left four dead cast a pall over the Thursday meeting between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The meeting between the two leaders was described as tense, as Mubarak himself told reporters at a joint news conference following the talks.

I expressed to the Prime Minister our indignation at what happened today inRamallah, Mubarak noted, and said that Israel and all the people in the region will achieve peace only by refraining from all practices which obstruct its course. Olmert apologized for the civilian deaths, but pointed out that the operation was necessary to stop terrorists from carrying out deliberate operations to kill Israeli civilians. Things developed in a way that could not have been predicted in advance, he said. If innocent people were hurt, this was not our intention, highlighting the difference between attacks by PA terrorists specifically aimed at maiming and killing Israeli civilians, and IDF operations targeting the murderous terrorists.

Mubarak Cold on Most of Agenda, Warm on Shalit

Discussions between the two men on the issue of continuing violations by Palestinian terrorist of the six-week-old ceasefire between Gaza terrorists and Israel were also tense.Israel’s demand that the PA put a complete stop to the Kassam rocket attacks - of which there have been some 80 since the ceasefire went into effect - was met with a complete lack of sympathy. These Kassam rockets, they will fire them every other day, Mubarak said. Shall we stop the peace process because one or two individuals fire rockets?

Olmert replied that Israel has been more than generous in restraining the IDF from responding to the rocket fire.

Mubarak Hints: We'll Go Nuclear

If nuclear weapons are developed in this region and endanger Egypt, we certainly can't sit back and do nothing, Mubarak said. Though until now Egypt's nuclear program has been said to be designated only for peaceful purposes, Mubarak implied that his country would be forced to develop nuclear weapons. It was not clear if he was referring to a nuclear threat from Iran or from Israel.

Talks between Olmert and Mubarak on the issue of negotiations between Israel and the PA were also cold. Olmert’s insistence that Hamas could not be part of talks with Israel was also met with a retort by Mubarak, Then try with the Palestinian Authority. Some of the tension was also over the issue of Egypt’s responsibility for preventing terrorists from smuggling weapons from Egypt into Gaza.
Olmert asked Mubarak to tighten up the security at the border to prevent further arming of PA terrorists who then aim their weapons at Israel. The number of guns and other war materiel entering Gaza from Egypt continues to increase ever since control of the border area was transferred from Israel to the PA.

Mubarak was less than cordial over the issue, however, telling Olmert bluntly that Egyptian security personnel were doing their best, but could not be expected to close the border completely. The one issue that did not cause conflict between the two leaders was the need to secure the release of IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit, held hostage by Hamas terrorists since they kidnapped him last June.The Egyptian president pledged to continue his efforts to convince the kidnappers to release their IDF hostage. We are working on releasing the Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and on releasing the Israeli prisoner held by the Palestinians. I hope that we will soon arrive at a solution in this matter, he said.For his part, Olmert praised Mubarak for the efforts of his intelligence officers on Israel’s behalf. I thanked him for the efforts to bring about the release of the soldier... who is still held by Hamas, which is not prepared to release him, he added.

MATTHEW 24:15-22
15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) (this is at the 3 1/2 yr mark of 7 yr treaty)
16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.(daylight hours shortened, not days)

El Al Won't Fly on Sabbath Without Rabbinical Dispensation
By Hillel Fendel (INN) JAN 05,07

An agreement has been signed between El Al and representatives of the hareidi-religious public regarding Sabbath flights. The agreement paves the way for the removal of the hareidi boycott on the Israeli airline. The Rabbis Committee for the Sabbath and El Al resolved that an agreed-upon rabbi would be appointed to decide each case in which a Sabbath flight appears to be required. The company will thus not operate Sabbath flights without the rabbi's approval - which presumably will not be forthcoming unless a life-saving need applies.Other details of the agreement were not released, except that it was signed with the approval of the generation's leading rabbis, the committee stated.The boycott began after the nationwide Histadrut Labor Union strike several weeks ago. El Al, seeking to clear the strike-caused backlog and bring stranded passengers home a day earlier, flew several planes on the Sabbath. Many hareidi-religious passengers have said that they see no reason to prefer an Israeli company if it openly desecrates the Sabbath.

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).

Brussels divided on future shape of EU commission
05.01.2007 - 09:29 CET | By Andrew Rettman (Eu Observer)

The European Commission is showing signs of division on EU institutional reform, with Polish commissioner Danuta Hubner attacking German commissioner Guenter Verheugen's idea that small EU states do not need fully-fledged commissioners.Creating two categories of member states and accepting size as a criterion, on the basis of which a country would have the right to designate a commissioner, is groundless and, speaking frankly, unacceptable, Ms Hubner told Polish press agency PAP on Thursday (4 January.).One day earlier Mr Verheugen - industry commissioner and commission vice-president - had suggested that small states should get deputy commissioners in key policy areas rather than full commissioners with light portfolios to create an efficient, small and highly competent commission.The debate comes ahead of the EU's attempt to revive its moribund treaty-reform process this year, with the accession of Romania and Bulgaria in January straining the credibility of the one-stateone-commissioner system after Bucharest got a new multilingualism portfolio, widely seen as negligible. The EU's 27 member states contrast starkly in terms of size with Germany on 82.5 million while Malta has just 400,000 people in a situation that is reflected in the EU's qualified majority decision-making mechanism which gives more votes to big countries.

But the idea that small states are less equal than big ones remains a political taboo, with all capitals keen to have their man at the commission's top table to guard prestige and make sure that information about Brussels' internal thinking flows back home. The draft EU constitution - rejected in French and Dutch referendums in 2005 - sketched out an equal rotation system for commissioner posts while the current Nice treaty says the number of commissioners should be reduced once the EU has 27 members, with Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey also waiting to join.

MEPs should get more say

Meanwhile, Poland's commissioner for regional policy backed Mr Verheugen's suggestion the European Parliament should select the commission president who would then select his own team, instead of the current situation where member states sort out all the appointments behind closed doors. You could consider the merits of a smaller commission, Ms Hubner said. But a small commission would have to have a totally different method of selection, where commissioners are not selected by member states...The method of selection should be grounded in the European Parliament.She added the 27-strong team of commissioners is functioning well but the bigger the commission gets the more power ends up in the hands of its president, amid claims by some observers that the current commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso already has a presidential style. I don't see any weakening of the commission...Work is going well. But there is a natural tendency, the bigger a body is, the more the presidential system dominates, because it is necessary to look for ways to take decisions efficiently, even if these ways are less democratic, to speak brutally, Ms Hubner explained.

Residents of planned union to be North Americanists
Arizona State University teaches how continent to be integrated
January 5, 2007 - 1:00 a.m. Eastern - By Bob Unruh - 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

Arizona State University is teaching that the U.S., Mexico and Canada need to be integrated into a unified superstate, where U.S. citizens of the future will be known as North Americanists, according to the taxpayer-funded Building North America program. The program openly advocates for the integration of economic issues across the continent, and in many places goes further – such as the call for a common North American currency. One teaching module made available online for professors to integrate into their teachings was written by George Haynal, senior fellow at the Norman Patterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University, and implied a joint military is required. Since the security of the continent "is a joint need; it should be supplied as a common enterprise.

Given the nature of the threats against our security in the current environment, the first task is to reinvent borders. We must exercise the responsibility for protecting our society against external threats where we can do so most effectively, not where infrastructures happens to be in place, he added. Multilateral cooperation is going to be essential among governments. It is clear, to me at least, that we must … move beyond NAFTA and do so with a purposeful determination, he wrote. Another teaching paper advocates the adoption of a unified North American currency, the amero, modeled after the euro currency of the European Union. The programming the university is providing for help in teaching the new North American focus is just the latest evidence of the mounting campaign for a de facto North American Union. Although most in the establishment press are not covering the controversy, it has earned the opposition of a number of high-level voices including congressmen like Tom Tancredo, Virgil Goode and Ron Paul, and newsmen like CNN's Lou Dobbs who has described the U.S. government's actions in this effort as Orwellian.

Paul, a maverick Republican from Texas, has denounced such integration plans and warns that most members of Congress aren't aware of the situation, and that he is opposing any transnational superhighway projects such as the Trans-Texas Corridor project in his home state. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas .Why? The ultimate goal, he said, is not simply a superhighway, but an integrated North American Union – complete with a currency, a cross-national bureaucracy and virtually borderless travel within the union. Like the European Union, a North American Union would represent another step toward the abolition of national sovereignty altogether.

Rep. Goode, R-Va., already has introduced a resolution expressing the sense of Congress that the U.S. should not engage in further NAFTA advances.

But progress already is significant down the road to a joint government, evidenced by confirmation that the U.S. government is planning to provide full Social Security benefits to Mexicans as well as a report by the powerful Council on Foreign Relations, considered by many to be something of a shadow government, that calls for the transfer of massive amounts of wealth from the U.S. to Mexico and the setup of a security perimeter around North America. A Canadian website set up by those who fear the loss of their Canadian national sovereignty already has established a timeline for the program. The Arizona State contribution to the move towards a one-government continent was launched because of the notion that economic integration in the NAFTA Triad (Canada-U.S.-Mexico) was advancing despite the lack of press and public attention it received …and a new website would allow those of us in the Triad to link up with the growing body of research about how businesses, governments, and organizations were shaping, and adapting to, the evolution of a shared economic space. We are now bringing together the fruits of this research endeavor in a new, updated and redesigned Building North America website…the group said. We are betting on the continued existence of scholars and policy practitioners who would benefit from a site which would consolidate the research and data we are all generating, and thereby build community among us. A telephone number for the managers of the site was unavailable, and a WND e-mail to the site did not generate a response. But the goal is clear: The links, documents, and other materials on this site have been selected, organized, and in some cases designed to advance teaching and research on North American regional integration. … At the same time the site also aims to benefit the broader community of North Americanists, within the academy and beyond, by putting at our collective fingertips – or mouse-reach – the kinds of current and historical material that will benefit research into, and understanding of, North American integration – past, present and future. The site cross-references and links to organizations and university centers such as the Center for North American Studies at American University in Washington, D.C., institutional home for Robert Pastor.

American University Professor Robert Pastor

Pastor has been described as a leading intellectual force in the move to create an EU-style North American Community, and recently told WND he believes a new 9/11 crisis could be the catalyst to merge the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Pastor said that in such a case the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP – launched in 2005 by the heads of the three countries at a summit in Waco, Texas – could be developed into a continental union, complete with a new currency, the amero, that would replace the U.S. dollar. In May 2005, Pastor was co-chairman the Council on Foreign Relations task force that produced a report entitled Toward a North American Community, which he has claimed is the blueprint behind the SSP declared by President Bush, Mexico's then-President Vicente Fox, and Canada's then-Prime Minister Paul Martin. At American University, Pastor directs the Center for North American Studies where he teaches a course entitled North America: A Union, A Community, or Just Three Nations? As WND previously has reported, Pastor is on the board of the North American Forum on Integration, the NAFI, a non-profit organization that annually holds a mock trilateral parliament for 100 selected students drawn from 10 universities in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Arizona State also lists government agencies in support of the merging of various functions that historically have been handled by each government, such as the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and others. The website's archive contains influential papers and articles which have shaped the debate on North America, including the 2005 document from the Council on Foreign Relations called Building a North American Community: Report of the Independent Task Force on the Future of North America.

Also available is a series of Teaching Modules, where Haynal's instructions are available. The section leads off with an introductory guide to Building North America Into Your Course, as well as a more structured Matrix offering sample units by theme and subfield … Each of these TMs either has, or will have in the near future, an accompanying Teaching Note with more detailed suggestions for incorporation into a variety of courses.

Among the organizations being promoted are the Council of The Americas, the free market thinktank Fraser Institute, North America Works, North American Integration and Development Center, North America's Super Corridor Coalition, North American Integration and Development Center at UCLA, the Mexican Embassy, NORAD, North American Development Bank, NAFTA Secretariat, North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation and North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation, One of the teaching notes lists Earl Fry's work titled: The Role of Subnational Governments in the governance of North America.

Subtitled Mapping the New North American Reality, that paper argues that provinces in Canada and states in the United States and Mexico are quite efficiently setting up their own integrated North America with or without their federal governments' participation.

It even warns against renegade states like South Dakota, which has undermined treaties and agreements signed by national governments with its requirements for inspections of Canadian cattle, hogs and wheat. The North American Union plans were cited by WorldNetDaily editors as the Number One story on the news site's list of 10 most underreported stories for 2006. The January 2007 edition of WND's monthly Whistleblower magazine, which explores this topic in-depth, is titled PREMEDITATED MERGER: How our leaders are stealthily transforming the U.S.A. into the North American Union.