IRAN THREAT TO HIT GULF

1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS. 2-Landslides, storms kill 77 in Bangladesh. 3-Floodwaters follow savage Australian storm. 4-66 die in China flooding, landslides. 5-EU step to resume Palestinian aid. 6-Iran threat to hit gulf states

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 = Tue Jun 12 12:00 AM EDT

June 11,07
MAP 2.8 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.1 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.8 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 4.5 OFF THE EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA, RUSSIA
MAP 4.6 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.6 PERU-ECUADOR BORDER REGION
MAP 2.5 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.9 UTAH
MAP 3.2 KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 5.2 PERU-ECUADOR BORDER REGION

JUNE 10,07
MAP 3.0 KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 4.8 NEAR THE WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 4.4 NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP 4.3 FIJI REGION
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 3.4 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.8 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.5 WASHINGTON
MAP 4.5 SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP 3.4 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.7 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 4.7 MARIANA ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.5 OREGON
MAP 3.4 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA

JUNE 9,07
MAP 4.3 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.9 GULF OF ALASKA
MAP 4.5 MOLUCCA SEA
MAP 2.6 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 4.4 HALMAHERA, INDONESIA
MAP 2.9 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.7 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 4.4 NEAR THE COAST OF NICARAGUA
MAP 5.1 SIMEULUE, INDONESIA
MAP 4.6 SIMEULUE, INDONESIA
MAP 2.5 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.3 NEW MEXICO
MAP 3.0 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 2.8 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.1 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.8 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, 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.

Landslides, storms kill 77 in Bangladesh by Nurul Alam JUNE 11,07

CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh (AFP) - Landslides and lightning strikes have left dozens dead in Bangladesh as torrential monsoon rains pounded the disaster-prone country, officials said Monday.

At least 70 people were killed when weekend rains flooded the southeastern port city of Chittagong and set off landslides in surrounding areas. A further seven people were struck by lightning in two northern and western districts.Chittagong police and city council officials said the landslides had buried dozens of homes in hilly districts around the city of five million, and warned the death toll could still rise.The situation is very grave ... it is still raining hard in the city, Chittagong police chief Moinur Rahman Chowdhury told AFP.Local government chief Mukhlesur Rahman said so far 70 bodies had been recovered in the port city. Most of the victims were killed by landslides.These are the worst ever rain-triggered landslides in Chittagong, said head of the city's fire brigade Rashedul Islam, adding that it could take at least another 24 hours to recover all the dead.

Home after home has been buried in tonnes of mud and we still haven't reached all the affected areas yet, he said.Thousands of troops, police and fire brigade personnel, plus civilian aid teams, had been mobilised while mosques were asked to provide shelter to those evacuating their homes, Rahman said.Fakhruddin Ahmed, head of the country's emergency government, had sent communications minister M.A. Matin to the city to coordinate the relief effort.It's a huge task but we are trying to reach everyone, Rahman added.Communications within the city were paralysed and telephone links with the rest of the country were down.One-third of the city is now under three to four feet (around one metre) of water, affecting more than 1.5 million people, said Chittagong's mayor, ManjurulAlam.Bangladesh's meteorological office has also warned that low-lying areas in coastal districts and small islands were likely to be submerged under tidal water.

It said further heavy rains were expected all over Bangladesh during the next 24 hours.We have asked fishing trawlers and boats not to go to deep sea as squally weather and rains will continue for some time, the department's Sanaul Haq Mandal said.Officials said flights to the city's Shah Amanat International Airport had been temporarily suspended and Chittagong Seaport, which handles more than 90 percent of the country's foreign trade, was also forced to close.Landslides are a regular occurrence in hilly areas of Chittagong. Experts have previously warned of environmental disasters due to the government's failure to stop the illegal clearing of hill areas for housing.The landslides were very much linked to the cutting of hills in this region, Rahman said.

Floodwaters follow savage Australian storm Mon Jun 11, 5:49 AM ET

MAITLAND, Australia (AFP) - Floodwaters engulfed homes and farms and swept through areas north of Sydney on Monday while disaster workers began a massive clean-up following deadly storms which battered Australia's east coast. New South Wales state premier Morris Iemma said the level of destruction around Maitland, some 130 kilometres (80 miles) north of Sydney in the Hunter Valley, was heartbreaking.It's unbelievable, the amount of water. It's almost as if the entire valley is covered in water, he said after flying over the region.Prime Minister John Howard said the water, dumped on Sydney and regions to the north during several days of severe storms starting Friday, had rendered the area almost unrecognisable from the air.It is a vivid illustration to me, as it has been to other people, just how savage the storms have been, he said.Violent storms lashed Sydney and Newcastle and the Central Coast to the north over the weekend, cutting power to tens of thousands of homes, disrupting train and ferry services and leaving nine people dead.Among those killed were five people from the same family, including three children, who died when their car plunged into a swollen creek after the road collapsed beneath them.

As the rain abated, it was feared that Maitland would be inundated if a levee failed to keep the Hunter River at bay.Some 100 properties were flooded but the threat of more widespread damage eased overnight after floodwaters rose more slowly than expected.Fears that Newcastle lay in the path of the flooding eased on Monday after the weather bureau downgraded its forecast for the river level. Newcastle was hammered by the storm system, with a massive freighter washed aground on a popular beach by giant waves and officials describing the city as looking as if it had been hit by an earthquake.

Officials said they were now concentrating on cleaning up after the gale force winds and torrential downpours.We just want to tidy things up and we'll be in recovery mode for some weeks and months to come, Newcastle Council general manager Janet Dore said.It's been incredible -- it's been quite devastating.

Premier Iemma, who has ordered recovery centres be set up in the Hunter Valley and on the Central Coast to coordinate disaster relief, said the damage bill would be tens of millions of dollars.Just one shopkeeper, it all went. He copped a triple whammy, he said.He lost his business, he lost his car and when he went home on Friday night, he arrived home to a house that had been destroyed by fallen trees. So if you take that family and those circumstances, that's nearly one million dollars.Meanwhile, workers were still trying to reconnect thousands of homes to the electricity grid some four days after they were cut off by the storm. We have to go in and rebuild and restring entire lines because the poles have just collapsed where the side of the road may have just collapsed, EnergyAustralia spokesman Anthony O'Brien said. Maritime officials were hopeful that the 40,000-tonne bulk carrier Pasha Bulker, which sits stranded on Nobby's Beach at Newcastle, could be towed away despite a hole in the hull. A salvage team, which found the outer hull was breached but that the inner hull appeared intact, was working to stabilise the vessel so it can be dragged into port by several tugs later this week, they said. Despite the devastation, Australians have been wary of criticising the rain which comes as the country experiences the worst drought in living memory. There is some consolation, Maitland resident Tim Bean told The Sydney Morning Herald. We definitely needed the water, but perhaps not this much.

66 die in China flooding, landslides Sun Jun 10, 11:53 PM ET

BEIJING - Landslides and flooding unleashed by heavy rains have killed at least 66 people in China and left nearly 600,000 homeless, a state news agency reported Monday. The highest death toll was in southeastern Guangdong province, where 18 people were killed and four were missing since the rains started Thursday, the Xinhua News Agency said. More than 72,000 people were evacuated from their homes.The populous province is the heart of China's export-driven light manufacturing industries, but there was no word of any damage to factories or shipping facilities.Deaths and damage were reported throughout southern China and the northwest. Torrential rains, mudslides and floods have also hit Hunan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Jiangxi and Fujian provinces, where at least 48 people died, Xinhua said.
China suffers deaths and damage every summer when seasonal rains cause flash floods.

Big cities are sheltered by giant dikes but deaths are reported in farm communities that lack protection from rising rivers, and in mountain towns that are hit by flash floods.Millions of people in central and southern China live on reclaimed, flood-prone farmland.Flooding and typhoons killed 2,704 people last year, according to the China Meteorological Administration. That was the second-deadliest year on record after 1998, when summer flooding claimed 4,150 lives.In Guangxi, the floods killed 13 people and destroyed hundreds of homes, Xinhua reported. The province is a poor, mountainous region to Guangdong's west.Thousands of students who were taking national university entrance exams in Guangxi had to move to emergency centers after school buildings were flooded, the agency reported.Rains in Guangxi destroyed 29 reservoirs and forced 59 factories to suspend production, Xinhua said, citing Chen Rundong, deputy director of the regional flood control office.

EU step to resume Palestinian aid JUNE 12,07

Mr Fayyad, left, is a former official at the World Bank The EU has signed an agreement to train officials in the Palestinian Authority's Finance Ministry, so that direct aid can resume in the future.

An official said this agreement was to provide technical assistance, not financial aid. The Palestinian Authority has been under an aid embargo since the militant movement Hamas won elections last year.

The BBC's Alix Kroeger in Brussels says the step is part of an EU bid to resume aid without breaking its rules. It cannot provide aid to Hamas officials because the group is on the EU's list of terrorist organisations. The EU and the other major donors have set up a mechanism to bypass the Palestinian Authority but continue to pay for health services and fuel costs.

Earlier this year, the EU signalled it would be prepared to work with some ministers it considered reliable, including Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad. On a visit to Brussels, Mr Fayyad, a former World Bank official, said training would be useful to prepare officials for the resumption of direct aid, after a year without it. The EU got agreement from other donors, including the Americans, for the offer of technical assistance. An official in Brussels said: We are not giving them money to do other things, we are training them, we are giving them technical knowledge of something.

Iran denies threat to hit Gulf states if US attacks from them
Compiled by Daily Star staff - Tuesday, June 12, 2007

A former Iranian defense minister dismissed as baseless Monday a report quoting him as saying Iran would attack Gulf countries used as a launch pad for a US strike on Iran. Admiral Ali Shamkhani was reacting to comments published Sunday in the US Journal of Defense News. The Journal quoted Shamkhani as saying that in the event of a US strike, Iran would stun the US missile-defense system using dozens if not hundreds of missiles that will be launched simultaneously at certain targets.Special targets would include Arab Gulf states that help Washington to justify a strike, the journal quoted Shamkhani as saying. It quoted him as saying that the missiles would be fired not only at US bases but also at strategic facilities such as oil refineries and power stations.But Shamkhani dismissed the report as a bunch of lies.

We consider the oil facilities of Arab nations just as important as Iran's oil refineries, Shamkhani told state media. He described regional Arab countries as Iran's real friends.There was no interview [with the Journal] and the news is fake and unreal, he said in remarks carried by Iran's Student News Agency (ISNA). He said the Iranian government's policy was based on generating regional peace, security and sustainable stability Shamkhani, head of Iran's Strategic Defense Research Center, called for better cooperation with Gulf countries in security and defense issues.The US has targeted unity among Muslims by generating propaganda through its related media and plotting political intrigues in order to justify its illegal presence in the region, said Shamkhani, describing Sunday's report as rumor-mongering, ISNA said.I ask the Arab states: Hasn't Iran concluded joint defense and non-aggression agreements with them? Shamkhani said. Can a country which has constantly tried to respect such agreements be viewed as a threat? Shamkhani also runs the Center of Strategic Studies, a think tank comprised of former senior foreign, defense and interior ministers who advise supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Shamkhani was also quoted by the Journal as saying: All the talk about a Sunni-Shiite divide and Iranian expansionist or hegemonic ambitions are lies spread by the US and Israel to rally regional support and justify a military attack on Iran ... All the troubles in the region are caused by the US military presence and Israel. http://www.dailystar.com.lb Iran has an array of medium-range missiles and claims that its longer-range Shahab-3 missile has a reach of 2,000 kilometers which would put US bases on the Arabian Peninsula within reach. Earlier Sunday, Iranian Parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel ruled out the possibility that our neighbors ... will allow the US to use their territory in attacking Iran.But if this actually happens, we will be forced to defend ourselves ... We will target those bases or points used to attack Iran, he told reporters during a trip to Kuwait.Adel said some Gulf states, which he did not name, had assured Tehran they would not allow their territory to be used in the event of an attack on Iran.On Monday Kuwait said it would not allow the US to use its territory as a launch-pad for any attack on Iran.Asked if Washington had made such a request, Defense Minister Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Sabah told reporters: The United States did not ask [to use Kuwaiti military facilities for any attack] and even if it did, we will not allow anybody to use our territory.Kuwait is concerned about any strike on the Bushehr nuclear power station that Russia is building for Iran. The station lies 300 kilometers from Kuwait.

In Vienna, UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Monday the brewing confrontation with Iran over its atomic ambitions must be defused, as Tehran failed to provide sensitive information it had promised.A meeting Monday between ElBaradei and a senior Iranian negotiator was cancelled since the Iranians didn't want to talk substance at this point on questions about possibly weapons-related work in a long-running investigation by the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a diplomat said.I am increasingly disturbed by the stalemate and the brewing confrontation - a stalemate that urgently needs to be broken, and a confrontation that must be defused, ElBaradei told an IAEA meeting in Vienna.The IAEA's 35-nation board of governors began Monday in Vienna a week-long meeting that could bring Iran a step closer to a third round of UN sanctions. - Reuters, The Daily Star