EU WARNS OF NO PEACE DEAL IN ME

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.

Magnitude 7.4 quake hits near New Zealand Sun Sep 30, 3:40 AM ET

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4 hit some 500 km (300 miles) southwest of New Zealand on Sunday, but there were no reports of damage and authorities discounted the risk of a major tsunami. The quake occurred at around 6:24 p.m. local time, and was felt throughout the south of New Zealand's South Island, said Warwick Smith of state agency GNS Science.

There was initially some concern there may have been a tsunami, but that possibility has now been discounted, Smith said.The quake was near to the Auckland Islands, a group of seven uninhabited islands 467 km south of South Island.A police spokeswoman in Invercargill, a city at the bottom of the South Island, said: It didn't feel that strong to me: many of the people in the station didn't even feel it.Japan's Meteorological Agency put the quake's magnitude at 7.4, while Geoscience Australia said it was 7.6.A spokesman for Geoscience Australia said seismologists were expecting no damage given the distance offshore and might review the magnitude figure.Volcanic arcs and oceanic trenches partly encircling the Pacific Basin form the so-called Ring of Fire, a zone of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and the location of the top 10 earthquakes in the world since 1900. All of the top 10 measured an 8.5 magnitude or above.Earlier on Sunday, a strong earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.1 swayed buildings on the Pacific island of Guam, but there were no immediate reports of damage and no tsunami alert was issued.

Quake near Guam sways buildings Sun Sep 30, 2:36 AM ET

GUAM (Reuters) - A strong earthquake swayed buildings on the Pacific island of Guam on Sunday but there were no immediate reports of damage and no tsunami alert was issued. The magnitude 7.1 quake occurred at 12.09 p.m. local time near the U.S. territory, with its epicenter at a depth of 30 km, Japan's Meteorological Agency said on its Web site (www.jma.go.jp/en/quake).Some residents said high-rise blocks swayed and goods fell off supermarket shelves. But two hours after the quake, local television had reported no damage to buildings on Guam, an island east of the Philippines which is home to a major U.S. military base.We felt it. It was swinging back and forth for a minute or two, said Patrick Chan, a Guam-based meteorologist at the U.S. National Weather Service. It's not expected to cause a tsunami. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, based in Hawaii, said in a statement there was no destructive widespread tsunami threat. Neither Guam nor the Philippines issued tsunami warnings.

The U.S. Geological Survey also recorded a quake in the same area, which it said on its Web site (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter) was of magnitude 6.8 and centered about 345 km (215 miles) south-southeast of Guam.

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.

Tropical storm Lekima leaves 10 dead or missing in Philippines Sun Sep 30, 6:03 PM ET

MANILA (AFP) - Tropical storm Lekima killed nine people and left another missing in the Philippines after unleashing landslides, floods and big waves, rescuers said Sunday. The weather bureau here lowered all cyclone alerts on the main island of Luzon as the storm dissipated into a weaker tropical depression in the South China Sea.A landslide buried two houses in a mountain village near the town of Hingyon late Saturday, killing eight people, the civil defence office here said.One other family member was missing while a nine year-old boy was injured, it said in an updated report.

Meanwhile, a military rescue unit recovered the body of a drowning victim in northern Manila, it said.The storm swept across Luzon with maximum sustained winds of 65 kilometres (40 miles) an hour on Saturday, shutting down ferry services, swelling dams and rivers, and unleashing floods that displaced some 3,400 people, the government agency said.Huge waves also smashed onto the Sarangani coast of the main southern island of Mindanao, damaging 29 houses in the village of San Nicolas.Ferry services between Luzon and the central islands resumed Sunday, but small fishing boats and other craft were warned to stay in port due to big waves.

Melissa weakens in Atlantic Sun Sep 30, 5:01 PM ET

MIAMI - Tropical Storm Melissa weakened into a depression Sunday far out in the open Atlantic while the remnants of Tropical Storm Karen dwindled away in the central Atlantic, forecasters said.
At 5 p.m. EDT, the degenerating remnants of Melissa were centered about 665 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands and posed no immediate threat to land, according to the National Hurricane Center. The system was moving west-northwest near 14 mph, and its maximum sustained winds were near 30 mph — down from 45 mph on Saturday.Karen faded into an area of disturbed weather Sunday and the hurricane center quit issuing advisories for the system. Early Sunday, it was centered about 495 miles east of the Leeward Islands.

In the eastern Pacific, Tropical Storm Juliette was about 335 miles off the coast of Mexico but did not threaten land.Meanwhile, Mexican officials reported Sunday that the death toll from Hurricane Lorenzo, which faded after hitting Mexico's Gulf coast on Friday, had risen to six.Forecasters expect this year's Atlantic hurricane season to be busier than average. Last month, they said as many as 16 tropical storms were likely to form, with nine strengthening into hurricanes. The season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.On the Net:National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Canadian navy: volcano erupts off Yemen OCT 1,07

TORONTO - A volcano has erupted on a tiny island off the coast of Yemen, spewing lava and ash hundreds of feet into the air, a Canadian naval vessel near the island in the Red Sea reported Sunday. There were no immediate reports of deaths, but at least eight people were missing. The Yemeni government asked NATO to assist in searching for survivors on Jabal al-Tair island, which lacks a settled population but includes military installations.
The Yemeni news agency SABA confirmed the eruption and said a military garrison on the island is being evacuated. It wasn't clear how many people were stationed on the island, which is used for naval control and observation because large cargo ships pass nearby.

Ken Allan, a Navy spokesman, said a NATO fleet just outside the territorial waters of the island reported seeing a catastrophic volcanic eruption at 7 p.m. local time. The two-mile-long island is about 70 miles off the coast of Yemen.At this time, the entire island is aglow with lava and magma as it pours down into the sea. We do not have confirmation of how many people were on this island at the time of the eruption, Allan said in an e-mail.The lava is spewing hundreds of feet into the air, with the volcanic ash also (rising) a thousand feet in the air, Allan said.The Canadian Armed Forces said they are trying to locate nine people believed to be at sea after the Yemen coast guard requested help. SABA reported that the Yemeni government said eight people were missing. It is unclear why there was a discrepancy or if the reports were even talking about the same people.The NATO fleet was sailing toward the Suez Canal when it spotted the eruption. The government of Yemen asked NATO to assist in the search for survivors and the closet ship, the HMCS Toronto, is heading toward the island.Yemen is a poor tribal Sunni Muslim country at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

SATAN BOOTED OUT OF HEAVEN

ISAIAH 14:12-23
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, (SATAN) son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;
17 That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?
18 All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.
19 But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.
20 Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.
21 Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.
22 For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD.
23 I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts.
24 The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand.

REVELATION 12:3-4
3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon,(SATAN) having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven,( 1/3 OF ANGELS FELL WITH SATAN AT THE FALL) and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman (MARY JESUS MOTHER) which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.(JESUS WAS JEWISH,THIS IS PERSECUSSION AGAINST ISRAEL).

REVELATION 20:2
2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

REVELATION 9:14-16
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand:(200 MILLION MAN ARY) and I heard the number of them.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)

GENESIS 6:1-7
1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God (DEMONIC FALLIN ANGELS) came in unto the daughters of men,(INTERCOURSE WITH HUMAN WOMEN) and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

JUDE 6-16
6 And the (DEMONIC FALLIN) angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation,(HAD SEX WITH HUMANS) he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.(THATS OUR DAY NOW)(THESE GET LOOSED AT THE EUPHRATES TO KILL A THIRD PART OF MEN IN WW3).US - IRAQ WAR IS THE UNLOOSING OF THESE DEMONIC DEMONS I BELIEVE.
7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
8 Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.
10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.(JESUS)
16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.

U.S. Embassy rips Iraq partition plan By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writer OCT 1,07

BAGHDAD - U.S. and Iraqi forces killed more than 60 insurgent and militia fighters in intense battles over the weekend, officials said Sunday. The U.S. Embassy, meanwhile, joined a broad swath of Iraqi politicians — both Shiite and Sunni — in criticizing a nonbinding U.S. Senate resolution seen here as a recipe for splitting the country along sectarian and ethnic lines. The U.S. military also announced the death of an American soldier killed Saturday in a roadside bombing and gunfire attack in eastern Baghdad. There were 62 U.S. military deaths in September, the lowest monthly toll since July 2006 when 43 American soldiers were killed, according to a preliminary Associated Press tally.U.S. aircraft killed more than 20 al-Qaida in Iraq fighters who opened fire on an American air patrol northwest of Baghdad, the U.S. command said.The firefight between U.S. aircraft and the insurgent fighters occurred Saturday about 17 miles northwest of the capital, the military said.

The aircraft observed about 25 al-Qaida insurgents carrying AK-47 assault rifles — one brandishing a rocket-propelled grenade — walking into a palm grove, the military said.Shortly after spotting the men, the aircraft were fired upon by the insurgent fighters, it said.The military did not say what kind of aircraft were involved but the fact that the fighters opened fire suggests they were low-flying Apache helicopters. The command said more than 20 of the group were killed and four vehicles were destroyed. No Iraqi civilians or U.S. soldiers were hurt.Coalition forces have dealt significant blows to Al-Qaida Iraq in recent months, including the recent killing of the Tunisian head of the foreign fighter network in Iraq and the blows struck in the past 24 hours, military spokesman Col. Steven Boylan told The Associated Press.

Iraq's Defense Ministry said in an e-mail Sunday afternoon that Iraqi soldiers had killed 44 terrorists over the past 24 hours. The operations were centered in Salahuddin and Diyala provinces and around the city of Kirkuk, where the ministry said its soldiers had killed 40 and arrested eight. It said 52 fighters were arrested altogether.The ministry did not further identify those killed, but use of the word terrorists normally indicates al-Qaida.In a separate operation, U.S. forces killed two insurgents and detained 21 others during weekend operations against al-Qaida.
Intelligence led to a raid early Sunday that netted what the U.S. military called 15 rogue members of the Mahdi Army militia at an undisclosed Baghdad location.

The mainstream of the militia, the armed wing of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's organization, has been ordered by the religious leader to stop attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces.But many one-time members of the group have split off and are acting independently of al-Sadr's control. Some have gone to Iran for training and are receiving weapons and financing from the Islamic regime in Tehran.The Senate resolution, adopted last week, proposed reshaping Iraq according to three sectarian or ethnic territories. It calls for a limited central government with the bulk of power going to the country's Shiite, Sunni or Kurdish regions, envisioning a power-sharing agreement similar to the one that ended the 1990s war in Bosnia. Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden, a Democrat presidential candidate, was a prime sponsor.

In a highly unusual statement, the U.S. Embassy said resolution would seriously hamper Iraq's future stability.Our goal in Iraq remains the same: a united, democratic, federal Iraq that can govern, defend, and sustain itself, the unsigned statement said.
Iraq's leaders must and will take the lead in determining how to achieve these national aspirations. ... attempts to partition or divide Iraq by intimidation, force or other means into three separate states would produce extraordinary suffering and bloodshed, it said.The statement came just hours after representatives of Iraq's major political parties denounced the Senate proposal.The Kurds in three northern Iraqi provinces are running a virtually independent country within Iraq while nominally maintaining relations with Baghdad. They support a formal division, but both Sunni and Shiite Muslims have denounced the proposal. At a news conference earlier in the day, at least nine Iraqi political parties and party blocs — both Shiite and Sunni — said the Senate resolution would diminish Iraq's sovereignty and said they would try to pass a law to ban any division of the country.

This proposal was based on the incorrect reading and unrealistic estimations of Iraq's past, present and future, according to a statement read at a news conference by Izzat al-Shahbandar, a representative of the secular Iraqi National List. On Friday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told The Associated Press that dividing Iraq is a problem, and a decision like that would be a catastrophe.Iraq's constitution lays down a federal system, allowing Shiites in the south, Kurds in the north and Sunnis in the center and west of the country to set up regions with considerable autonomous powers. Nevertheless, ethnic and sectarian turmoil have snarled hopes of negotiating such measures, especially given deep divisions on sharing the country's vast oil resources. Oil reserves and existing fields would fall mainly into the hands of Kurds and Shiites if such a division were to occur.

Also Sunday, a judge delayed court proceedings for a second U.S. Army sniper accused in the deaths of two unarmed Iraqi civilians a day after a military panel sentenced a 22-year-old specialist to five months in prison for his role in the killings. Jorge G. Sandoval was convicted Thursday of planting evidence on one of the unidentified Iraqis killed last spring. He was acquitted of two murder charges. Sandoval had faced five charges in the deaths of the two unidentified Iraqi men. In dramatic testimony during the four-day court-martial, his colleague, Sgt. Evan Vela, testified he had pulled the trigger and killed one of the men Sandoval was accused of murdering. Vela, 23, said the sniper team was following orders when it shot the men during two separate incidents near Iskandariyah, a Sunni-dominated area south of Baghdad, on April 27 and May 11. On Sunday, a military judge postponed a pretrial hearing for Vela for at least a month. Vela's civilian defense lawyer had asked that the hearing be closed to the media because of classified information expected to be discussed. AP correspondents Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Katarina Kratovac and Kim Curtis contributed to this report.

JERUSALEM DIVIDED

ZECHARIAH 12:1-5 King James Bible
1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
4 In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.

JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

ZECHARIAH 14:1-9 King James Bible
1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. 5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.

ISRAELS TROUBLE

JEREMIAH 30:7
7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;(ISRAEL) but he shall be saved out of it.

DANIEL 12:1,4
1 And at that time shall Michael(ISRAELS WAR ANGEL) stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people:(ISRAEL) and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation(May 14,48) even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro,(WORLD TRAVEL,IMMIGRATION) and knowledge shall be increased.(COMPUTERS,CHIP IMPLANTS ETC)

Israelis, Palestinians to meet on peace By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer Sun Sep 30, 9:31 PM ET

JERUSALEM - After months of sounding each other out, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are getting to work this week on formulating a joint vision of a peace deal to be presented at a November peace conference in the U.S., their aides said Sunday. However, the two sides are far apart on how specific the joint document should be, underscoring the conflicting expectations and the considerable potential for failure. The Palestinians want to take a detailed framework agreement to the conference, while Israel wants a shorter and vaguer statement.From now and until mid-November, the agenda should be clearly set out, Abbas said Sunday in Cairo, Egypt. More than 36 countries will attend the conference and this big gathering requires us to go there with a definite document to pave the way later for the detailed negotiations (for) the final settlement.Israeli officials have said the conference would at best point negotiators in the right direction, but not yield solutions to the core issues of any final peace settlement, such as division of the disputed city of Jerusalem and future borders.

Separately, Palestinian officials were drafting their own proposed outline of a peace deal which was being circulated among Palestinian leaders for comment. According to a copy obtained by The Associated Press, the Palestinians are ready to swap some land with Israel and limit the number of Palestinian refugees returning to their homes in the Jewish state, but also demand the return of all areas of Jerusalem captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.
The draft sets several deadlines. After the signing of a framework agreement, a final peace deal should be reached within 13 months and all Israeli settlers should leave Palestinian territory within three years.Israel is likely to object to such a timeline and the proposed division of Jerusalem.Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat denied the existence of a Palestinian position paper. He also said the Palestinians will not take any documents to Wednesday's meeting between Abbas and Olmert.Olmert's aides said he would host Abbas at his Jerusalem residence on Wednesday morning.Initial reports had indicated the meeting would be held Tuesday, but an official in Olmert's office said it had been put back for what he said were technical reasons.Erekat said the two leaders would meet privately at first, and would then be joined by their teams.

Abbas and Olmert met five times in recent months, to sound each other out and build trust. Abbas said the talks were wide-ranging, but until now we cannot say that we are negotiating.The U.S. is sponsoring the peace conference, which is to take place in Annapolis, Maryland, most likely in late November. The U.S. wants the conference to lead to a resumption of peace talks, which broke down in January 2001. Washington wants key Arab states, notably Saudi Arabia, to attend and lend backbone to the meeting.

Israel freeing 87 jailed Palestinians to aid Abbas Sun Sep 30, 6:26 PM ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel releases 87 jailed Palestinians on Monday in a bid to shore up President Mahmoud Abbas against rival Hamas Islamists and ahead of a U.S.-sponsored conference on Palestinian statehood. The prisoners, all members of Abbas's embattled Fatah or smaller secular factions, will be bussed out of the desert stockade of Kitsyot by 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) to Israel's boundaries with the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Prisons Service said.The freeing of prisoners is highly emotive for Palestinians, who see their nearly 11,000 brethren held in Israeli jails as fighters for freedom from Israeli occupation. Many Israelis say such amnesties encourage violence by Palestinian militants.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is to meet Abbas later in the week to discuss their peacemaking agendas, said only prisoners without blood on their hands -- a reference to deadly attacks against the Jewish state -- and willing to sign a document renouncing violence would be freed.Fatah lost control of Gaza in June to Hamas, which rejects peace efforts with Israel that include a Middle East conference planned for November under U.S. auspices. Palestinians are divided on whether the parley will bring them closer to statehood.Abbas's office has welcomed the planned prisoner release but said more needed to be done on the issue. The last such gesture by Israel was on July 20, when some 250 prisoners, most of them from Fatah, went free.Twenty-nine of the 87 prisoners on Monday's release roster come from Gaza and the others from the West Bank. Israel had been expected to release more than 100 Palestinian prisoners. Asked about the lower figure, political sources said several prisoners had not met criteria set by the security services.

U.S.-hosted Mideast peace talks likely in Annapolis Sun Sep 30, 2:08 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is likely to hold its Middle East peace meeting in Annapolis, Maryland, a site without the echoes -- positive and negative -- of the Camp David presidential retreat, a U.S. official said on Sunday. The official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak on the matter publicly, said the gathering of Israeli, Palestinian and other Arab officials, was likely to take place at the U.S. Naval Academy in mid-to-late November.Annapolis, the capital of Maryland, was temporarily the U.S. capital after the 1783 signing of the Treaty of Paris, in which the British recognized the United States as an independent state. It is 35 miles east of Washington.The U.S. official said no final decision had been made on the location and timing of the meeting, saying that the dates were still up in the air and that it was conceivable that the venue could change, although he did not expect that.The meeting represents the most dramatic involvement of the Bush administration in trying to broker peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians after what critics regard as nearly seven years of U.S. neglect of the problem.

In July 2000, former U.S. President Bill Clinton hosted a Middle East peace summit at Camp David with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat that failed to reach a final agreement.Camp David, which is 65 miles north of Washington, was the venue used by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter for the secret negotiations that led to a 1978 peace deal between Egyptian President Anwar Al Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.The U.S. official said he believed the Camp David history was considered in deliberations on where to host this year's meeting, but did not know how much it played in the decision.History sometimes helps. Sometimes it doesn't. I would assume that was part of the thought process, I just don't know how much of a factor it was, the U.S. official said.A State Department spokesman said no decision has been made on the venue or the date for the peace meeting.Unfortunately, at this point, we cannot confirm that, said Deborah Goode, spokeswoman for the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis said when asked about reports that it would be the site of the peace conference.(Additional reporting by Paul Eckert)

Portugal warns of impact of failure at Mideast conference Sat Sep 29, 4:30 PM ET

LISBON (AFP) - Portugal, which holds the presidency of the EU, warned Saturday that failing to reach some kind of deal at a US-sponsored Middle East conference in November would have extraordinary consequences. After talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Lisbon, Foreign Minister Luis Amado said the conference was a chance to reach an agreement in principle that would clear the way for a future Palestinian state.Failure in this process would be extremely dramatic and would have extraordinary consequences, in particular in terms of strengthening extremism, radicalism, and not just in the region, he said.But if an agreement was reached, it could overcome the divisions between Palestinians, divided since the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in June, he said.Abbas said the November conference in Washington was a chance to achieve peace, and he paid tribute to the very significant role of the European Union in the process.He said his talks with Amado and Prime Minister Jose Socrates in Portugal were focused on the Palestinians' economic situation.The Palestinian leader refused to confirm the date of his next meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, saying only: We have met six times... and we will continue to do so.Amado also paid tribute to former British prime minister Tony Blair, the special envoy for the Middle East Quartet -- the United States, EU, Russia and United Nations -- saying he had been very well accepted by the Palestinians and was working on institutional issues which were fundamental to creating a new state.