GAZA ENEMY ENTITY - ISRAEL

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.

Hurricane Ivo forms off Mexico SEPT 20,07

MEXICO CITY - A Pacific storm strengthened into a hurricane late Wednesday but it was expected to weaken, the National Hurricane Center said. Hurricane Ivo, centered about 570 miles south of the Baja California Peninsula, was forecast to head northwest, then take a clockwise turn toward the Baja while weakening, the National Hurricane Center said.Ivo had sustained winds of about 86 mph late Wednesday.
While the current forecast shows it turning toward land, the Hurricane Center said the forecast past three days was highly uncertain.

Typhon Wipha weakens in China; 7 killed SEPT 20,07

SHANGHAI, China - Typhoon Wipha weakened as it slammed China with strong winds and torrential rains, officials said Thursday. At least seven people were reported killed as the storm destroyed thousands of homes and triggered landslides. Wipha was downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical storm Wednesday after it hit land in southern Zhejiang province, south of Shanghai, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing the Ministry of Civil Affairs.Five people died in landslides, reports in state media said Thursday. News reports said two other deaths were blamed on the storm: a Shanghai man was electrocuted and a Taiwan construction worker died when scaffolding collapsed. Another three people were reported missing.Weather photos showed Wipha spread over a large area centered on eastern China's Shandong province Thursday. The storm was forecast to pass over the Yellow Sea toward the Korean peninsula.A total of 2.7 million people were evacuated from coastal or flooded areas and unsafe housing in Shanghai and other areas affected by the storm, Xinhua said.The storm destroyed thousands of houses, wrecked fish ponds and disrupted power to more than 100 communities, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and provincial officials reported.

Preliminary estimates put the damage at $638 million.

Shanghai, a city of 20 million, closed schools, ferries and other transport links following forecasts of torrential rains and strong winds. But the city suffered little damage and by Thursday children returned to school under clear skies.

Wipha is a woman's name in Thai.The storm played havoc with sports events, as well as regional transport.Organizers of the women's World Cup rescheduled Wednesday's Shanghai match between Norway and Ghana to Thursday and moved it to the neighboring city of Hangzhou. Three Wednesday games were rescheduled for Thursday, to allow them to be played simultaneously with other final group matches.

Four dead, four missing after floods in Slovenia Wed Sep 19, 1:47 PM ET

LJUBLJANA (AFP) - Four people died and four were still missing Wednesday, the day after the heaviest rains in 30 years hit Slovenia's northwest, causing flooding and mudslides, state radio said. Two people were killed late Tuesday when a mudslide swept into a house in the Celje region, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Ljubljana, and two more died earlier in the day in the Cerklje region, some 60 kilometres (35 miles) northwest of the capital, the station said.Another four people, including a mother and her nine-year-old child, are still missing, the radio quoted local authorities in the region as saying.The rains, which dumped up to 300 litres of water per square metre in only a few hours in some places, were the heaviest registered in the last three decades, the Slovenian Defense and Rescue agency said.The agency said that more than 350 houses had been flooded or damaged in the Gorenjska region and especially in the town of Zelezniki, some 60 kilometres northwest of Ljubljana, where the Sora river inundated the centre, carrying away more than 150 cars.

The Slovenian government promised urgent measures to help local people.

Traffic on many roads in the Gorensjka region was still disrupted Wednesday while many villages were without electricity or drinking water, or were cut off because of damaged roads.The Sora river also swept away 11 out of 13 wooden buildings that were part of the Franja Hospital museum, built by anti-Nazi fighters during World War II in a nearby mountaneous region.Slovenia wants the museum to be included in UNESCO's world heritage list.

Iran leader denied on WTC wreath request By PAT MILTON, Associated Press Writer SEPT 20,07

NEW YORK - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked permission to lay a wreath at the World Trade Center site when he comes to New York City next week, but the request was denied, a police official said Wednesday. The U.S. also has denied a visa to Iran's United Nations ambassador in Geneva to attend next week's General Assembly meeting because he was involved in the 1979 U.S. hostage crisis, a U.N. official said.Ahmadinejad, who is arriving Sunday to address the United Nations' General Assembly, had asked this month for permission to visit the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, police spokesman Paul Browne said.The request to enter the fenced-in site was rejected because of ongoing construction there, Browne said.

Requests for the Iranian president to visit the immediate area would also be opposed by the NYPD on security grounds, Browne said.The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, told reporters Wednesday that the United States would not support Iran's attempt to use the site for a photo op.Iran can demonstrate its seriousness about concern with regard to terrorism by taking concrete actions, such as dropping support for Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and suspending their uranium enrichment program, Khalilzad said.Browne said Ahmadinejad had asked permission from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, U.S. Secret Service and police department. The police and the Secret Service provide security to visiting heads of state.The Port Authority, which owns the trade center site and is the only agency that could grant permission to go inside, said it attended a meeting with police regarding dignitary visits, not specifically about Ahmadinejad. At that meeting, it was determined that no dignitaries would be allowed inside the site due to ongoing construction, said Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman.It wasn't clear whether Ahmadinejad wanted to descend to the base of the trade center site, where the twin towers once stood, or lay a wreath on a public sidewalk outside the site.

Mohammad Mir Ali Mohammadi, spokesman for the Iranian mission to the U.N., said he was not notified offically that Ahmadinejad would not be allowed at the site, but said it was unfortunate.President Ahmadinejad intended to lay a wreath at the site of ground zero in order to pay tribute to the victims of the terrorists attack of Sept. 11, 2001. We are hopeful that we can still work something out with the police department, he said.White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said a visit to ground zero is a matter for the city of New York, but it seems more than odd that the president of a country that is a state sponsor of terror would visit ground zero.
It was not clear what role Ali Reza Moaiyeri, Iran's U.N. ambassador in Geneva, played in the 1979 hostage crisis. The U.N. official who said his visa was denied spoke on condition of anonymity because there has been no public announcement.
Richard Grenell, spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, said, although we don't comment about specific visa cases we certainly would not allow a person into the United States who has taken Americans as hostages.Iran and the U.S. have not had diplomatic relations since Washington cut its ties with Tehran during the hostage crisis in which U.S. diplomats were held hostage for 444 days. The Bush administration has accused Iran of arming Shiite Muslim militants in Iraq and seeking to develop nuclear weapons.In a television appearance earlier this week, Ahmadinejad said his country wanted peace and friendship with the United States, as tensions continued to mount between the two countries.The deputy commander of Iran's air force said Wednesday that plans have been drawn up to bomb Israel if the Jewish state attacks Iran, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency. The United States and its key European allies are calling for a new round of U.N. sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear program, but Russia has warned against the use of force in Iran and opposes new sanctions to punish Tehran.

Rice to meet Abbas in search of accord SEPT 20,07

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Condoleezza Rice takes her shuttle diplomacy to the Palestinian leadership on Thursday as she works to narrow their differences with Israel before Washington hosts a major Middle East peace conference. The U.S. secretary of state has found growing interest in intensifying the dialogue, a senior aide said after she met Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
But all sides have given little away on the specifics of their talks and details of the planned gathering remain unclear.It could range from zero to a full-blown agreement. They are not in a position yet to put a label on it, the senior State Department official told reporters when asked how Rice could reconcile seemingly contradictory Israeli and Palestinian views of what the conference near Washington might achieve.Labels are really not a very good way to capture what is going on, he said, adding: This appears to be a serious discussion about fundamental issues.
Olmert, who will meet Rice again on Thursday after she has spoken with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, has cautioned against expecting more than a declaration of principles for establishing a Palestinian state.
Abbas has made clear he wants a deal that goes beyond previous agreements on the broad outlines of how the 60-year-old conflict can be resolved and sets a framework for resolving core disputes on borders, security and the status of Jerusalem and of Palestinian refugees from territory that is now Israel.

ENEMY GAZA

Rice may hear concerns from Abbas and his prime minister, Salam Fayyad, over Israel's decision on Wednesday to declare the Gaza Strip an enemy entity, as well as about the pace of Israeli moves to ease movement for people in the West Bank. Fayyad's government has already said it wants Washington to press Israel not to cut energy and other supplies to the 1.5 million people of Gaza, despite hostility between the leaders in the West Bank and the Hamas Islamists who seized power in the coastal enclave in June after routing forces loyal to Abbas.Rice, who U.S. officials said was unaware of Israel's plan when she flew in, said Washington shared Israeli opposition to Hamas but expected humanitarian supplies to continue. She also said the internal Palestinian conflict should not jeopardize plans to found a single state in both the West Bank and Gaza.The conference, penciled in for November 15 or shortly thereafter, forms a major part of U.S. President George W. Bush's strategy to promote stability in the Middle East before he leaves office in a little over a year, ending a presidency marked by the violence in Iraq since the U.S. invasion.

He has encouraged Arab states to attend but several have said they will only do so if they see it producing agreement on fundamental issues for Palestinians. Also unclear is whether states regarded as hostile, notably Syria, should be invited.
Highlighting uncertainty surrounding the nature of the gathering, when asked whether Syria would be welcome Rice told a news conference simply: We haven't invited anyone yet.(Reporting by Sue Pleming and Alastair Macdonald in Jerusalem)

Iran: Retaliation for any Israeli attack By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer SEPT 20,07

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran has drawn up plans to bomb Israel if the Jewish state should attack, the deputy air force commander said Wednesday, adding to tensions already heated up by an Israeli airstrike on Syria and Western calls for more U.N. sanctions against Tehran. Other Iranian officials also underlined their country's readiness to fight if the U.S. or Israel attacks, a reflection of concerns in Tehran that demands by the U.S. and its allies for Iran to curtail its nuclear program could escalate into military action.French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Sunday that the international community should prepare for the possibility of war in the event Iran obtains atomic weapons, although he later stressed the focus is still on diplomatic pressures.The comments come as the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, Adm. William Fallon, is touring Persian Gulf countries seeking to form a united front of Arab allies against Iran's growing influence in the region.Iran has periodically raised alarms over the possibility of war, particularly when the West brings up talk of sanctions over Tehran's rejection of a U.N. Security Council demand that it halt uranium enrichment.We have drawn up a plan to strike back at Israel with our bombers if this regime (Israel) makes a silly mistake, Iran's deputy air force commander, Gen. Mohammad Alavi, said in an interview with the semiofficial Fars news agency.Alavi warned that Israel is within range of Iran's medium-range missiles and fighter-bombers.

The Iranian air force had no immediate comment on the Fars report. But Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammed Najjar told the official IRNA news agency that we keep various options open to respond to threats. ... We will make use of them if required.
Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards also weighed in, saying Iran has prepared its people for a possible confrontation against any aggression.White House press secretary Dana Perino said Alavi's comment is not constructive and it almost seems provocative.Israel doesn't seek a war with its neighbors. And we all are seeking, under the U.N. Security Council resolutions, for Iran to comply with its obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, she said.During a stop in Jerusalem, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington is committed to diplomacy, but added that the U.S. hasn't taken any military options off the table. She said that it can't be business as usual with Iran, a country whose president has spoken of wiping Israel off the map.For diplomacy to work, she said, it has to have both a way for Iran to pursue a peaceful resolution of this issue and it has to have teeth, and the U.N. Security Council and other measures are providing teeth.Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said his government took Iran's threat very seriously and so does the international community.Unfortunately we are all too accustomed to this kind of bellicose, extremist and hateful language coming from Iran, he said.

Israeli warplanes in 1981 destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor being built by Saddam Hussein's regime, and many in the region fear Israel or the U.S. could mount airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities if Tehran doesn't bow to Western demands to cease uranium enrichment.Iran, which says it isn't trying to produce material for atomic bombs but rather fuel for reactors that would generate electricity, has said in the past that Israel would be the first retaliatory target for any attack. But Alavi's comments were the first to mention specific contingency plans.David Ochmanek, an international policy analyst with the U.S.-based RAND Corporation, said Iran has the capability to attack Israel with a limited number of ballistic missiles, but Israel could potentially inflict greater damage on Iran. If Israelis attacked Iran it would be with high precision weapons that could destroy military targets, he said. They could destroy Iran's nuclear reactor and do damage to the enrichment.The Iranian response would be quite different, Ochmanek said. It would be small numbers of highly innaccurate missiles and the intention would be to do this for psychological purposes rather than to destroy discrete targets. It's an asymmetrical relationship.A top Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander warned earlier this week that U.S. bases around Iran would also be legitimate targets.

Today, the United States is within Iran's sight and all around our country, but it doesn't mean we have been encircled. They are encircled themselves and are within our range, Gen. Mohammed Hasan Kousehchi told IRNA. U.S. forces are in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the Persian Gulf, Kuwait hosts a major U.S. base, the U.S. 5th Fleet patrols from its base in Bahrain, and the U.S. Central Command is housed in Qatar.
Tensions have been raised by a mysterious Israeli air incursion over Syria on Sept. 6. Israel has placed a tight news blackout on the reported incident, while Syria has said little. U.S. officials said it involved an airstrike on a target. One U.S. official said the attack hit weapons heading for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, an ally of Syria and Iran, but there also has been speculation the Israelis hit a nascent nuclear facility or were studying routes for a possible future strike on Iran. Former Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday he was involved from the beginning in the alleged airstrike, the first public mention by an Israeli leader about the incident. Netanyahu, the leader of the parliamentary opposition, did not give further details. Edward Djerejian, founding director of Rice University's Baker Institute, said the accusation that Israel had violated Syrian airspace, and possibly launched an attack on Syrian territory, was putting new concerns on an already tense situation. The region is very nervous, said Djerejian, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Syria.

With Iran adding to the talk of military options, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns called Wednesday for U.N. Security Council members and U.S. allies to help push for a third round of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. But Russia's U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said Moscow opposes new sanctions, adding they could hurt a recent agreement between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency aimed at resolving questions about the Iranian program. Two U.N. resolutions imposing sanctions on Iran have failed to persuade the country to suspend uranium enrichment. Burns said he would host a Friday meeting of the Security Council's permanent members — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France. Talks on a new resolution are also expected next week in New York, when world leaders attend the annual ministerial session of the U.N. General Assembly. Associated Press Writers Sarah DiLorenzo and Carley Petesch in New York and Mark Lavie in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Bush calls for expansion of spy law By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer SEPT 20,07

FORT MEADE, Md. - President Bush said Wednesday he wants Congress to expand and make permanent a law that temporarily gives the government more power to eavesdrop without warrants on suspected foreign terrorists. Without such action, Bush said, our national security professionals will lose critical tools they need to protect our country.It will be harder to figure out what our enemies are doing to train, recruit and infiltrate operatives into America, the president said during a visit to the super-secret National Security Agency's headquarters. Without these tools, our country will be much more vulnerable to attack.The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act governs when the government must obtain warrants for eavesdropping from a secret intelligence court. This year's update — approved just before Congress' August break — allows more efficient interceptions of foreign communications.Under the new law, the government can eavesdrop without a court order on communications conducted by a person reasonably believed to be outside the U.S., even if an American is on one end of the conversation — so long as that American is not the intended focus or target of the surveillance.In requesting the change, the Bush administration said technological advances in communications had created a dire gap in the ability to collect intelligence on terrorists.Such surveillance generally was prohibited under the original law if the wiretap was conducted inside the U.S., unless a court approved it. Because of changes in technology, many more foreign communications now flow through the U.S. The new law, known as the Protect America Act, allows those to be tapped without a court order.

Civil liberties groups and many Democrats say the new changes go too far. Democratic leaders in Congress set the law to expire in six months so that it could be fine-tuned; that process now is beginning on Capitol Hill.Democrats hope for changes that would provide additional oversight when the government eavesdrops on U.S. residents communicating with overseas parties.Sen. Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said lawmakers understand the need to update the law, but also the need to protect the rights and liberties of Americans.For over five years, the president carried out a warrantless surveillance program that ignored the law and the role of court oversight, Rockefeller said. Today, the president continues to seek unchecked surveillance powers that many of us in Congress cannot support. The fact is, the Protect America Act did provide authority for collection, but it did not include sufficient protections for Americans. There's no reason we can't do both, Rockefeller said.The president needs to step up to the plate and show that he is willing to work with Congress to get this important legislation passed.Bush timed his visit to Fort Meade to press his case.The threat from al-Qaida is not going to expire in 135 days, he said, so I call on Congress to make the Protect America Act permanent.He also urged lawmakers to expand the law, not restrict it. One provision particularly important to the administration, but opposed by many Democrats, would grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies which may have helped the government conduct surveillance before January 2007 without a court order.

Bush was joined at the podium in an NSA hallway by Vice President Dick Cheney, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell and others.The president received private briefings from intelligence officials and mingled with employees in the National Threat Operations Center. While cameras and reporters were in the room, the large video screens that lined the walls displayed unclassified information on computer crime and signal intelligence.Along one wall at NSA is a sign that says, We won't back down. We never have. We never will.National Security Agency: http://www.nsa.gov/

Israel declares Gaza enemy entity By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer
SEPT 20,07

JERUSALEM - Israel declared the Palestinian-controlled Gaza Strip an enemy entity on Wednesday and said it would cut utilities to the territory. The move complicates a U.S. plan to relaunch peace talks aimed at establishing a separate Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel made the provocative decision hours before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived for talks setting up what President Bush hopes will be a pivotal peace conference this fall. Rice neither endorsed nor criticized Israel's move.Israel did not announce a date for cutting off services. The decision is likely to reinforce perceptions among Palestinians and their Arab backers that Israel will do as it sees fit regardless of the cost to civilians and that the U.S. will not block Israel.Rice said the U.S. is trying to help both sides reach common understanding. But she did not say if the U.S.-sponsored peace meeting will address the hardest issues in the six-decade conflict, including the final borders of a Palestinian state.The U.S. has not said exactly what it wants to achieve from the summit, nor who will attend.Rice wants to recruit Arab states to reinforce the Palestinians in any deal with Israel, but the conference will carry little weight if regional players such as Saudi Arabia choose to sit it out. The meeting also has little chance of success if Israel is seen as unwilling to make hard concessions to the Palestinians and the U.S. is seen an unable to force Israel's hand.The U.S.-sponsored conference is meant to invigorate peace efforts that largely lay fallow during George W. Bush's presidency and set clear guidelines for forming a Palestinian state.

The Gaza designation overshadowed any public talk of peace prospects as Rice began two days of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.Israel did not inform the U.S. in advance of Wednesday's action, a U.S. diplomat said. Israel has been considering something similar for several weeks, however, to try to halt Palestinian rocket fire on Israeli towns from launching sites in Gaza. The decision lets Israel cut electricity, water and other services that the impoverished, crowded coastal territory depends on Israel to provide.New York-based Human Rights Watch said cutting off fuel and power would violate Israels duty as an occupying power to safeguard the health and welfare of the occupied population and it would also intensify the existing humanitarian crisis.Israel has been carrying out airstrikes and limited ground strikes. It also has sealed Gaza's borders, halting trade, while permitting little more than humanitarian aid into the area.Hamas militants who hold de facto control in Gaza have not been directly involved in the rocket attacks, but the movement has done little to halt the fire. Israel says it holds the group responsible.Rice tried to tread carefully at a press conference with Israel's foreign minister, Tzipi Livni. Grim-faced, Rice said the U.S. will not turn its back on civilians in Gaza and that Hamas is a hostile entity to the United States as well.
The Israeli designation covers all of Gaza, not just Hamas militants who took control in June. The U.S. and Israel regard Hamas as a terrorist organization and refuse to deal with it.

Livni said Israel was not obliged to deliver anything to Gaza beyond humanitarian aid.When it comes to the humanitarian needs, we have our own responsibilities, Livni said. All the needs which are more than humanitarian needs will not be supplied by Israel to Gaza Strip.Livni said the decision is legal. International aid groups said it was unacceptable to blame civilians for the actions of rogue militants.Gisha, a human rights group that works for greater freedom of movement in Gaza, said the action was immoral and illegal, constituting prohibited collective punishment of civilians.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate leader on whom Rice and Israel have pinned reinvigorated hopes for peace, quickly condemned the Israeli move. This oppressive decision will only strengthen the choking embargo imposed on 1.5 million people in the Gaza Strip, increase their suffering and deepen their tragedy, Abbas' office said in a statement. Abbas is in a bitter rivalry with Hamas, which overran forces from his Fatah movement and seized control of Gaza. The takeover ended more than a year of paralysis in Palestinian politics as Fatah and Hamas vied for primacy in a divided government and international aid dried up.
Abbas has installed a new government in the larger and more populous West Bank, but still claims authority over Gaza. An independent Palestinian state would include both territories, which lie on either side of Israel. Among the Israeli officials Rice saw Wednesday was the defense chief, Ehud Barak. He has hinted that Israel may have to relaunch military operations in Gaza more than two years after a unilateral pullout of Israeli forces and settlers. Rice planned to meet with Abbas and other West Bank Palestinians on Thursday. Associated Press writers Laurie Copans and Aron Heller contributed to this report.