ISRAEL MARKS HOLOCAUST DAY

BREAKING NEWS - BLACKSBERG VIRGINIA TECH SHOOTINGS 7-12AM EDT BY STAN BOWMAN JR

A LONE GUNMAN OR MORE SHOT DEAD 21 AND INJURED 21 STUDENTS AT VIRGINIA TECH TODAY. IT ALL HAPPENED AT 2 DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE CAMPASS IN VIRGINIA. AT VIRGINIA TECH AND NORRIS HALL, BUT REPORTS SAY THERE COULD BE 4 DIFFERENT AREAS OF THE SCHOOL WERE THE SHOOTING OCCURED. THE 1 GUNMEN IF ONLY 1 WAS SHOT DEAD.

FOLKS I FIND THIS INTERESTING THAT THE ISRAELIS CELEBRATE THE DEATH OF 6 MILLION JEWS ON THIS DAY TODAY WHEN A MASSACRE NOW OCCURS TO GENTILES (WORLD) ON THIS VERY DAY. LIKE I SAID GOD IS GIVING A WAKE UP CALL TO THE WORLD TO REPENT AND GET BACK TO PRAYER IN SCHOOLS AND THE 10 COMMANDMENTS.

THIS IS THE DEADLIEST SCHOOL MASSCRE IN US HISTORY. THE HOLOCAUST WAS THE WORST MASSACRE OF ISRAELIS IN HISTORY AND ALSO ANOTHER COMPARISON YET. AT 10AM THE ISRAELIS WERE MARKING THEIR MASSACRE WHILE IN VIRGINIA THE GUNMEN MURDERED MOST OF THE VICTOMS AROUND THE SAME TIME THIS MOURNING.

1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS.2-Small quake strikes Southern California. 3-Storm pummels East Coast with rain, wind. 4-The Nation's Weather. 5-Israel, Poland mark Holocaust day. 6-Sirens Wail in Israel and Echo Around the World for 6 Million. 7- Iran: Sanctions could push nuclear drive. 8-Teething polar bear cub off display. 9-Britain and the Constitutional Treaty.

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 = Mon Apr 16 10:48 AM EDT

APR 16,07
MAP 6.2 WEST OF MACQUARIE ISLAND
MAP 4.8 SOLOMON ISLANDS
MAP 2.8 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 4.9 RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN
MAP 4.9 ALBANIA
MAP 2.5 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.1 BONIN ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 2.7 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.7 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII

APR 15,07
MAP 2.8 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.2 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.8 SOUTHERN XINJIANG, CHINA
MAP 2.7 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 2.9 HAWAII REGION, HAWAII
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.5 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 2.8 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 3.1 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.0 KEPULAUAN TALAUD, INDONESIA
MAP 5.1 KYRGYZSTAN
MAP 3.3 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 2.5 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.7 MOUNT ST. HELENS AREA, WASHINGTON
MAP 2.8 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 2.8 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 5.1 MOLUCCA SEA
MAP 4.4 TONGA
MAP 4.7 WESTERN HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 2.6 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.7 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 2.5 MOUNT ST. HELENS AREA, WASHINGTON
MAP 5.8 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.7 WESTERN IRAN
MAP 5.4 WESTERN HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 4.6 ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE
MAP 2.8 WASHINGTON

Small quake strikes Southern California Sun Apr 15, 8:04 PM ET

SAN DIEGO - A small earthquake shook a tiny desert town Sunday near the Mexican border, but no injuries or damage were reported, officials said. The magnitude 4.2 quake struck at 3:57 p.m. PDT, 5 miles southwest of the tiny town of Ocotillo, according to seismologists at the California Institute of Technology.It shook the building some but it didn't knock anything down, said Helen Lynch, an employee at Ocotillo's Old Highway Cafe. It lasted about five seconds.Lynch said no one at the cafe was unnerved because earthquakes are fairly common in the area.Last year we had eight or ten, she said.Ocotillo, about 85 miles east of San Diego, has a population of fewer than 300 people.

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.

Storm pummels East Coast with rain, wind By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press Writer APR 16,07

NEW YORK - People were evacuated from flooded homes Monday and hundreds of thousands had no electricity as a fierce nor easter drenched the Northeast with record rainfall. Residents in at least one New York City neighborhood paddled through streets in boats.

And in suburban Mamaroneck, Nicholas Staropoli said a truck near his home actually floated up on the riverbank.Rain was still falling Monday morning in the New York area and New England after it began early Sunday along the East Coast from Florida to New England. The National Guard was sent to help with rescue and evacuation efforts in the suburbs north of New York City.Firefighters plucked Kathleen Reale and her twin boys from their window in suburban Mamaroneck using a front-end-loader. Water reached up to her knees in her garage and basement and her family was evacuated to a shelter.I mean everything will be ruined, she said Monday. Everything will be gone. It's unbelievable.The shelter was filled to capacity Monday morning with about 300 people sleeping on cots. Mamaroneck, in Westchester County, called for voluntary evacuations of areas on Long Island Sound.The rain totaled 7.81 inches in Central Park from early Sunday to Monday morning, the National Weather Service said. The previous record in the park for April 15 was just 1.8 inches, set in 1906.

Snow fell in inland areas, including 17 inches in Vermont, with flakes still falling Monday across sections of Pennsylvania, upstate New York and Maine.Nearly 300,000 homes and businesses had lost power from Maryland to Maine.

In Westchester County, north of New York City, all public schools were closed Monday. Cars were stalled in water on numerous roads and several major highways were closed at times by flooding. New Jersey also had school closings, highways blocked by water and dozens of residents being evacuated from homes, authorities said. Hundreds of people had been evacuated from their homes in southern West Virginia as crews worked to pump water from a private lake near Hamlin to keep an unstable earthen dam from collapsing.If the dam breaks, millions of gallons of water could pour into Hamlin, Mayor Brian Barrett said Monday. We're being told it could be eight or nine feet of water, Barrett told the Herald-Dispatch of Huntington.Coastal residents were urged to evacuate in parts of Maine, and a nursing home in Portland was evacuated as a precaution, state officials said. In southeastern New Hampshire, parts of downtown Newmarket were evacuated because of flooding.

Flights were delayed Monday at the New York area's three major airports, where airlines canceled more than 500 flights Sunday as wind gusted to 48 mph, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Dozens more flights were canceled in Philadelphia, Boston and elsewhere in New England. We came up to see the city, said Amby Lewis, the leader of a girl scout troop from North Carolina who was stranded at LaGuardia airport. And the lovely weather rolled in and we've been stuck ever since.The storm about 20,000 runners in Monday's Boston Marathon something to worry about besides Heartbreak Hill as the course was doused with several inches of rain driven by wind gusting to more than 30 mph.When you live in the Northeast, you've got to respect this kind of weather, said marathoner Rob Comitz, 31, from Harleysville, Pa. Power outages affected more than 10,000 households and businesses in the New York area and more than 55,000 customers elsewhere in the state, more than 30,000 in Maryland, 50,000 in Pennsylvania, more than 43,000 across Connecticut, at least 46,000 in New Hampshire, 17,000 in Maine, 25,000 in Vermont and 12,000 in Massachusetts, utility officials said.

At least three tornadoes touched down Sunday in South Carolina. One cut a 14-mile-long, 300-yard-wide swath through Sumter County in the central part of the state, killing a woman and seriously injuring four other people. One person was killed by a tornado in South Carolina, and two died in car accidents one in upstate New York and one in Connecticut. The storm rattled the Gulf states Friday and Saturday with violent thunderstorms after taking Texas with at least two tornadoes, and it was blamed for five deaths in Texas and Kansas.

The Nation's Weather By WEATHER UNDERGROUND, For The Associated Press
Mon Apr 16, 7:24 AM ET

The storm that battered the mid-Atlantic and Northeast was swirling over the New Jersey and Long Island coasts early Monday morning. Strong wind gusts and coastal flooding were feared. Storm surge levels were forecast to reach up to 6 feet above normal high tide levels across western portions of the Long Island Sound. Elsewhere along the coast, water levels could rise at least 2 feet above their already high spring tide heights.

Heavy snows continue to be a threat across the interior of the region, especially in New England. Parts of New Hampshire could see more than a foot of snow.Across the rest of the nation, much calmer weather was anticipated, with only a few showers and thunderstorms in the central Rockies breaking up a swath of dry conditions from the western Great Lakes to the West Coast.A low pressure system was moving into the Northwest, bringing rain to coastal portions of Washington and Oregon. Aside from these two areas of precipitation, the West was expected to experience a quite pleasant day.Temperatures in the Lower 48 states on Sunday ranged from a low of 15 degrees at Moriarty, N.M., to a high of 88 degrees at Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

ISRAEL WILL BECOME A NATION. LITERALLY IN THE SPRING.

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

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

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

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

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

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

ISRAEL WILL BE IN CONTROL OF JERUSALEM, THE SIGN OF THE START OF THE

LAST GENERATION.

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

I BELIEVE THE VERSES ABOVE LITERALLY SAY FROM THE DRY BONES OF THE HOLOCAUST CAME THE MIRACULAS MIRACLE OF THE REBORN NATION OF ISRAEL.

Israel, Poland mark Holocaust day By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer APR 16,07

JERUSALEM - Sirens sounded across Israel Monday morning, bringing life to a standstill as millions of Israelis observed a moment of silence to honor the memory of the victims of the Holocaust. The two-minute siren at 10 a.m. is an annual tradition marking Israel's Holocaust remembrance day, which began Sunday evening and ends at sundown Monday. Pedestrians froze in their tracks, buses stopped on busy streets, and cars on major highways pulled over as the country paused to pay respect to the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis.All day, television stations devoted their broadcasts to historical documentaries and movies, and radio stations played somber music and interviews with survivors.

Schools held memorial services, places of entertainment were shut down and the Israeli flag was waved at half staff.

At Yad Vashem, Israel's official Holocaust memorial and museum, the nation's leaders gathered along with Holocaust survivors for the annual wreath-laying ceremony at the Warsaw Ghetto Square. Later, ordinary Israelis flocked to the museum's hall of remembrance to recite names of victims. Other ceremonies, prayers and music performances were planned.In Poland, thousands of Jews from around the world, many draped in blue-and-white Israeli flags, gathered at Auschwitz.About 8,000 people walked amid the barracks at the former Nazi death camp for the annual March of the Living, a two-mile walk from the notorious Auschwitz wrought-iron gates, reading Arbeit Macht Frei, or Work Sets You Free, to the death camp of Birkenau, where most of the gas chambers were located.

A shofar, or ram's horn, sounded the event's start.We are all very proud to walk with our flags, said Zohar Cohen, a 16-year-old visiting from Ashkelon, Israel. Especially in this place in Poland, where the Germans tried to exterminate all Jews.The U.S. military said Monday that 34 Jews who died serving as slave laborers for the Nazis were honored with the dedication of gravestones in a ceremony at the U.S. Army airfield in Germany where their mass grave was recently discovered.More than 200 mourners were on hand for Sunday's ceremony to dedicate the gravestones to the anonymous victims of the Echterdingen concentration camp that were discovered in September 2005 during construction at the airfield.At Sunday night's opening ceremony at Yad Vashem, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert noted that Israel celebrates its 59th independence day next week.

The renewal of the Jewish people, its shaking off the ashes of the Holocaust for a new life and national rebirth in its historic birthplace, is the pinnacle of its victory, he said.But the plight of the Holocaust survivors in Israel has been difficult. Many arrived directly from Europe to fight in the Jewish state's war of independence in 1948, and have since struggled to cope with the physical and emotional burdens of World War II.Recent data reveals that about a third of the remaining Holocaust survivors in Israel live under the poverty line, drawing widespread outrage.We must never accept a reality in which even one of the Holocaust survivors in Israel is living without dignity, Acting President Dalia Itzik said in a speech Sunday.The government announced it was establishing a commission to solve the matter, but hundreds gathered in front of parliament Monday to protest what they called the state's neglect of survivors.

With the passing years fewer and fewer survivors remain. There are some 250,000 survivors in Israel, about half of the worldwide total. Nearly 10 percent of the aging population dies each year.In Israel, 2,000 die each month, a rate of 65 daily, according to experts cited in Israeli newspapers Monday.

With each passing day, the world loses its last live voices who can directly attest to the horrors of the Holocaust and confront a growing tide of worldwide Holocaust denial. To this purpose, Yad Vashem has led a vigorous campaign in recent years to complete its database of names of Holocaust victims, encouraging survivors to come forth and fill out pages of testimony for those murdered, before their names and stories are lost forever. Even so, Yad Vashem has only managed to gather just 3.1 million names. In the museum's vast Hall of Names, half the folders remain empty. Reading from her list of names on Monday, Michal Beer halted to choke back the tears. The 78-year-old survivor of the Terezin concentration camp has submitted more pages of testimony than anyone else, documenting the lives of 450 friends and relatives, including her father and almost all the Jews in her hometown of Prostejov, in the Czech Republic. I feel as if a great weight has lifted from my heart, she said of the pages of testimony. No one would have remembered them, if I hadn't done this, who would have?

Soon, I will no longer be around. We really are the last ones.

Sirens Wail in Israel and Echo Around the World for 6 Million
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu APR 16,07

Sirens wailed in Israel for 2 minutes at 10 a.m. Monday in memory of six million victims of Nazi terror while communities around the world stand united with the Jewish People at Holocaust remembrance ceremonies. In Israel, the entire country came to a halt as cars and buses stopped and people in buildings and on the streets stopped in their tracks and stood silently to unite in prayer and remember the six million who were butchered by Nazis. During the memorial services which followed, survivors related the horrible past with some breaking a 60-year-silence to bring to light new episodes of horror. In the Knesset and at Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Museum and Remembrance Authority, names of victims are being read aloud. In Europe, several thousand young Jews are participating in the traditional three-kilometer March of the Living. The march begins from the site of the former German concentration camp Auschwitz and retraces the steps that Jews were forced to take on their way to the gas chambers at the Birkenau death camp, the largest that the Nazis operated. In major cities and rural towns in American and around the world, survivors are revealing the nightmares that still haunt them.

In Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said at a memorial service in Ottawa Sunday, There are still people who would perpetrate another Holocaust if they could. Implying but not directly referring to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Prime Minister Harper added, Politicians... must stand up to those who advocate the destruction of Israel and its people today, and they must be unequivocal in their condemnation of anti-Semitic despots, terrorists and fanatics.Israeli Ambassador to Canada Alan Baker was more direct and said, Any attempt to resurrect such designs, as we are presently witnessing emanating from the president of Iran and others, must be firmly dealt with by all responsible nations and peoples of the world.In Austria, a project in coordination with Yad Vashem provides a video link between school children and Holocaust survivors, who will answer questions after telling the stories of the nightmares of the Nazi era. Recent studies have shown that anti-Semitism is on the rise again in Europe, and the Austrian program is designed to educate the younger generation to the threat of another genocide against Jews. Henry Golde, age 77 and one of the last survivors in the state of Wisconsin, has launched a tour of schools in the state. He published his memoirs in the Ragdolls three years ago.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger related stories related by his mother, who told him of bodies she saw lying on the side of the road, shot to death because they were Jews.As time takes its toll and blurs the past, children of survivors are concerned about the new wave of Holocaust denial.

They had no graves, no names it is important to remember they were once here, said Eda Yardeni Taylor of Macon, Georgia, whose mother survived Auschwitz. Henry Freidman of Atlanta related that he worked in a German munitions factory and didn't hear of the concentration camps until after the war because the German propaganda was very, very good. Learning the extent of the persecution and seeing the devastation was shocking and horrifying. Friedman moved to the United States after the war and married and had a son, but like many survivors, For many, many years, I wasn't able to talk about it. It was very painful. He says that now he feels an obligation to pass down to generations the stories of the Nazi era. If you forget, its destined to happen again, said a young non-Jewish girl who participated in a memorial ceremony in Kentucky. Its our generations duty to stop it.

Iran: Sanctions could push nuclear drive By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer APR 16,07

TEHRAN, Iran - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday warned that Iran would respond to additional U.N. sanctions with new nuclear advances, in yet another show of defiance to international demands that the country roll back its atomic program. The U.N. Security Council has set a deadline of late May for Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program, warning it will gradually ratchet up its punishments. The council imposed limited sanctions in December and strengthened them slightly last month because of Iran's refusal to suspend enrichment.

The enrichment process can produce fuel for nuclear reactors or if taken to a higher degree the material for atomic bombs. Iran, however, denies accusations from the U.S. and some of its allies that the country is secretly developing nuclear weapons.After the first resolution, we undertook the nuclear fuel cycle; after the second one, we began the industrial phase of nuclear fuel; and if another resolution is issued, new capabilities of the Iranian nation will surface, the state broadcasting company's Web site quoted Ahmadinejad as saying in a speech in the southern city of Kazeroun.

The U.N.'s latest sanctions ban Iranian arms exports and freeze the assets of 28 individuals and companies involved in Iran's nuclear or ballistic missile programs.

Iran has rejected the sanctions and announced a partial suspension of cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Association.The Iranian president did not specify how the country would ramp up its development in response to a third set of sanctions.Last week, Iran said it had begun operating 3,000 centrifuges at its Natanz plant — nearly 10 times the previously known number. The U.S., Britain, France and others criticized the announcement, but experts expressed skepticism that Iran's claims were true.During Monday's speech, Ahmadinejad reiterated that Iran would not back down from its right to pursue nuclear development and maintained the peaceful nature of the country's program.The Iranian nation will use all capacities of nuclear energy in agriculture, industry, medicine and generating electricity, he said.Iran's defiance has heightened concerns in the region that the U.S. or Israel could respond with a military strike against the country's nuclear facilities.

The U.S. stoked these fears last month when it held a military exercise off Iran's coast that included two aircraft carrier groups, its largest show of force in the region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Mullen attempted to quell concerns Monday by saying the U.S. had no plan to attack Iran and the heightened naval presence was meant to reassure its regional allies.I'm aware of no plans that involve any kind of attack on Iran, Mullen told reporters in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. All efforts with respect to Iran, I believe, need to be handled through the diplomatic channels.

MY FAVORITE POLAR BEAR KNUT HAS TEETHING TROUBLES BOOO, THE POOR CUTE KID.

Teething polar bear cub off display APR 16,07

BERLIN - Knut, the Berlin Zoo's lovable polar bear cub, was taken off display Monday because of teething pains. He is getting his right upper canine, zoo veterinarian Andre Schuele told The Associated Press.Earlier, the 4 1/2-month old cub's daily public appearance was cut short after only 30 minutes and he was put on antibiotics.At the moment he is resting on his blanket and sleeping, Schuele said, adding that despite his lethargy Knut did eat his regular meal in the morning. Thousands of people line up daily to see the cub, and his button-eyed face has been a fixture for newspapers, television and the Internet.Born at the zoo on Dec. 5, Knut was rejected by his mother and hand-raised by zookeepers. So potent is his appeal that zoo attendance has roughly doubled to 15,000 on average daily since his debut, officials said. He has his own blog and TV show and appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair.Schuele did not know if Knut would be strong enough for public appearances in the next days.We don't know yet — the little one is not a machine, he said.

Britain and the Constitutional Treaty
16.04.2007 - 09:24 CET | By Richard Corbett

EUOBSERVER / COMMENT - As discussions recommence on what to do about the Constitutional Treaty, now ratified by two thirds of the member states of the European Union, the question arises as to what is the position of the UK.

Anyone following such debates across Europe rapidly finds that the UK is lumped together with Poland and the Czech Republic as the opponents of the draft Constitution, a position seized on with relish by some French politicians who are keen to point the finger at somebody else and make us forget that it was France that (not for the first time) has blocked reform of the European Union.Naturally, eurosceptics in Britain like to portray the Constitutional Treaty as something that is not in Britain's interests or has even been foisted on a reluctant Britain.

This is in fact far from being the case. Britain was central to the negotiations that agreed the text, the government signed the treaty and, as Tony Blair said to the House of Commons in June 2004:This constitutional treaty represents a success for the new Europe that is taking shape, is a success for Britain.Of course, the British government is realistic enough to know that the current text of the Constitutional Treaty is unlikely to be ratified as it stands by all member states without further ado.

France alone will see to that. One of the leading French presidential candidates has called instead for a mini-treaty. The other one has called for a complete re-negotiation of the Constitutional Treaty. In such circumstances the British government is being realistic in holding fire and not holding a referendum on a text that may well be moribund, or at least subject to additions or modifications. If it were a matter for simple parliamentary ratification, the government could well consider adding Britain to the list of countries that have endorsed the Constitution as a political gesture. However, the requirement for a referendum on the text as it stands - or, presumably, on anything approaching its scope and carrying the name Constitution - precludes such an approach.

Needless to say, the results of the referendums in France and the Netherlands, notwithstanding the positive outcomes of referendums elsewhere, have almost certainly made it more difficult to win referendums in some of the other member states. Voting on a text that very few people will have read leaves the debate very vulnerable to superficial perceptions. One of the strongest perceptions that will linger in people's minds is the rejection by people in France and the Netherlands - and never mind that many of those voters were really expressing opposition to the government of the day rather than to the text itself.

Securing a compromise will not be easy

Perceptions are political reality, and there is no way around the fact that securing a compromise around a text that will be acceptable to all 27 governments and capable of ratification will not be easy. Among the options available, it is not yet clear what is likely to achieve consensus. These options include:
* Treaty-plus options: keeping the text intact but adding protocols to it or declarations interpreting it in order to respond to concerns that have been expressed.
* Re-negotiating the text: re-examining the content, the style and name of the Constitutional Treaty, if possible without re-opening some of the complex bargains which were struck.
* A mini-treaty: bringing in the emergency repairs needed for the institutional system to enable the union to cater for an ever growing number of members.

Of course, a mix of additional protocols, some re-writing and some deletions is also conceivable - but the more complex the approach, the longer it is likely to take. Nor should we forget that some 22 countries attended the Friends of the Constitution meeting in Madrid in January and expressed their attachment to keeping the current text as intact as possible.Whichever option is chosen, there will have to be an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) to negotiate and endorse whatever the new package entails. Such an IGC could, in theory at least, be short and sweet, and be held over this summer and early autumn enabling a new text to emerge by the end of the year. Whether that is feasible as a timetable will depend on the degree of consensus that emerges at the European Council meeting in June.Already, some British voices are attempting to identify what are the essential elements that should be salvaged from a British perspective. Lord Kerr, formerly Britain's ambassador to the EU and former Secretary General of the Convention, whose knowledge on these matters is vast, writing in the Financial Times at the end of February, identified seven vital elements:

* Replacing the six monthly rotating "Buggin's turn" Presidency of the European Council with a full-time fixed term president, chosen by the heads of government to chair their meetings.
* Empowering the EU's High Representative for foreign policy with co-ordinating all external relations of the EU Commission and Council, on both of which he would sit.
* Introducing the reformed qualified majority voting system envisaged under the Constitutional Treaty which is more proportionate to the size of each country.
* Introducing the subsidiarity mechanism for involving national parliaments in prior scrutiny of all EU legislative proposals.
* Subjecting the Commission President to election by the European Parliament.
* Making more visible the principle of conferral, whereby the EU may only act within the powers given to it by the Member States.
* Introducing a secession clause, explicitly empowering Member States to leave the European Union if they so wish.

To the list I would, myself, add some others -

* Cutting the size of the Commission.
* Making all EU legislation subject to the double scrutiny of requiring approval by national ministers in the Council and elected MEPs in the European Parliament.
* Giving more prominence to the treaty article obliging the union to respect the national identities of Member States.

The charter of rights

More tricky is what to do about Part II of the Constitutional Treaty - the charter of rights.Intended as a limitation on the powers of the Union, by obliging it to respect rights that, for the most part, member states themselves already have to respect, it has become embroiled in a debate about whether national courts would defer to the EU court when deliberating on rights cases under national law.Perhaps the solution here would be to have a single article saying that the EU institutions are obliged to respect the charter on rights approved in 2000 in Nice, but that this would not apply to Member States (except when they are applying European law).Another complex matter is the ambition of the Constitutional Treaty to codify all previous treaties into a single document.This worthy idea led to a hasty re-casting of the original set of treaties which, whilst shorter, still represented a constitutional text of inordinate length.Perhaps, here too, an answer might be to have a single article empowering the European Council, by unanimity, to codify and reorganise the existing treaties and to delete redundant articles, provided that the Court of Justice certifies that, in so doing, they are not increasing the competences or powers of the European Union.

Finally, there will no doubt be many suggestions for other additions to the treaty. Some of these should be looked upon favourably: articles on tackling climate change, respecting social security systems of member states and others may well make the text of the treaty more acceptable in some or all the Member States.Negotiating these aspects may well be tricky but will inevitably be part of the final package.All in all, it is high time that British politicians and others start thinking carefully about the details of this debate. Above all, they should not abandon this terrain to the tangential cliches that the eurosceptics are determined to push it down. Their unrealistic and sensationalist portrayal of the issues is already leading the debate in a direction that is totally divorced from what the Constitutional Treaty actually says and from the political reality of what is likely to be negotiated among the 27 Member States. This must be countered by a measured, factual and intelligent contribution to the debate by the true eurorealists - those who know that Britain's interests are best served if we and our neighbouring countries can agree on a settled, well functioning, democratically accountable European framework, better able to address those issues where a joint approach is mutually advantageous.The author is a Labour MEP