FLORIDA BLACKOUT

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.

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.

Rare Quake Rattles Sleeping Britain
5.3-Magnitude Temblor Is Strongest To Hit U.K. Since 1984; Minor Damage, One Injury Reported MANCHESTER, England, Feb. 27, 2008

(CBS/AP) The strongest earthquake to hit Britain in more than two decades was felt across large parts of the country early Wednesday, officials said. Some homes had minor damage and British media said one man had been hospitalized. The British Geological Survey said the 5.3-magnitude quake struck at about 1 a.m. (8 p.m., Tuesday, Eastern) and was centered about 125 miles north of London.
According to reports on British news channels, a man from Lincolnshire was hospitalized with a broken pelvis after the quake brought his chimney crashing through his roof and onto his bed.

Julian Bukits of the British Geological Survey called it the most powerful quake in Britain since a 5.4 temblor hit North Wales in 1984. This was a very large earthquake in UK terms, but in world terms, average, Bukits told The Associated Press. This one has been felt throughout the whole of England and southern Scotland.Many people across the region - unaccustomed to such quakes - reported feeling their homes shaken. It was scary, David Somerset told The Associated Press by telephone from Driffield, around 60 miles from the epicenter. He was working on the computer at the time. It was a strange sensation as the room, ornaments and chest of drawers started wobbling and making a loud rumbling noise, he said. One resident of Market Rasen, the town where the quake was centered, told Britain's Sky News, I thought it was an explosion from the petrochemical plant here, but my wife said, no, that was an earthquake. I was in bed at the time and suddenly there was quite a big bang and shaking that woke us up, said Laura Bocock, who lives close to Market Rasen, in northeast England. It sounded like someone had hit the bungalow and (I) was quite frightened. I couldn't get back to sleep because I was scared it could happen again.

Laura Bocock, Felt England quake I couldn't get back to sleep because I was scared it could happen again.According to officials, the quake was centered 15 miles under ground, which offered enough of a rock buffer to soften the blow, even directly above in Market Rasen. The man who told Sky he initially suspected an explosion said most of his neighbors seemed unfazed. I saw one of my neighbors out in his pajama bottoms, but other than that, I think everybody slept through it.(CBS)Lincolnshire police, however, said they had received dozens of phone calls about the temblor and that some minor damage to homes had been reported. This is a moderate earthquake, Rafael Abreu of the U.S. Geological Survey told Sky News from the United States. He described the tremor as a shallow interplate earthquake. He said his U.S.-based group initially put the magnitude at 4.7 but would likely adopt the 5.3-magnitude rating from his British counterparts. Bukits said Britain is hit annually with about 200 quakes but only 10 percent are strong enough to be felt. A quake of magnitude 5 is capable of causing considerable damage. The North West Ambulance service said its crews had also reported feeling the quake but had received no actual calls from the public, said a spokeswoman, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with the service's policy. John Jenkin of Bourne said the jolt knocked objects from the shelves of his home. A woman in Notting Hill, a wealthy section of London, reported that her radio was bumping up and down on a shelf for several seconds. CBS Interactive Inc.

Indonesian region struck by quakes By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press Writer Tue Feb 26, 5:31 PM ET

JAKARTA, Indonesia - The fault line that spawned the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami has ruptured nearly 20 times this month, causing three strong earthquakes. The activity shows the stress the seam is under and could be a harbinger of worse to come, scientists warn.

Kerry Sieh, from the California Institute of Technology, has studied the fault for more than 10 years. He likened it to a length of rope in an imaginary tug of war between a group of men and an elephant.One by one, two by two, the men are getting worn out and are letting go of the rope. That puts more stress on each of the remaining men, he wrote in an e-mail Tuesday. Who knows which one will let go next, or whether they will let go all at once? Sieh and other scientists using Global Positioning System transmitters to measure the uplift of the quakes say another massive temblor sometime in the next 100 years or so is likely, but they cannot predict exactly when that will occur.The fault line is the boundary between the Eurasian and Pacific tectonic plates that have been pushing against each other for millions of years, causing huge pressure to build up. It runs the length of the west coast of Sumatra about 125 miles offshore.

The steady stream of earthquakes it has produced this month do not seem to be alarming residents much. Witnesses say some have prompted people to flee swaying homes, but few are heeding or are aware of the tsunami warnings that routinely accompany the big jolts.People did not really care because such a tremor is nothing new, Erwin, a resident in the coastal town of Padang, said minutes after a powerful quake early Tuesday. It was just like the one in the afternoon, said Erwin, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name.The 2004 earthquake off Aceh province in northwest Sumatra had a magnitude of 9.2, making it the most powerful temblor in four decades. It triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in 12 Indian Ocean countries, more than half in Indonesia.Three months after the tsunami, a magnitude 8.6 quake farther down the fault line killed 1,000 people. Then in September last year, an 8.7 quake opposite Bengkulu province damaged thousands of homes, killed about 25 people and sent a 10-foot tsunami crashing into nearby coastlines.Last Wednesday, a magnitude 7.4 quake killed three people and damaged scores of houses. Since Sunday, four other events strong enough to prompt tsunami warnings by international agencies have jolted the region.

They are best seen as part of a chain that began in 2004, said Dr. Fauzi, a top scientist at Indonesia's National Earthquake Center. The stability of the fault has been disturbed, said Fauzi, who goes by a single name.Since the Indian Ocean tsunami, Indonesia has spent millions of dollars to establish a nationwide tsunami warning system, but there are still only a few warning sirens in Sumatra's threatened western coast and other beach areas.Officials and residents of the two most populous cities of Padang and Bengkulu said no sirens sounded following the recent earthquakes despite warnings issued by the country's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency.

We don't have such equipment, said Suyud, an official at Bengkulu's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency. If there were tsunami warnings issued it was only government officials who knew that from text messages on their cell phones.

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.

Cold and blustery East Wayne Verno
Wed Feb 27, 9:57 AM ET

Northeast

A storm system will continue to move away from the New England States today, allowing steadier, heavy snow over northern New England to taper off later today; but not before bringing storm totals to a foot or more over some parts of the area. Meanwhile, a strong northwest flow of cold air will continue to support scattered snow showers from the eastern Great Lakes, through the interior Mid-Atlantic and through the Appalachians today through tonight. Several inches will accumulate in some of the persistent snow bands off Lake Ontario in western New York State and through some parts of the central Appalachian Mountains. Temperatures will remain cold through the entire Northeast both today and Thursday, with afternoon highs running 15 to 20 degrees below average. Slightly milder air will push in from the South on Friday, ahead of a fast moving weather disturbance coming in from the Northwest. This will spread scattered rain and snow showers across the Northeastern States Friday into Friday night.

South

A strong northwest flow of cold air will continue to surge across the Tennessee Valley, into the Southeastern States today, resulting in gusty winds of 20 to 30 mph and temperatures 10 to 20 degrees below average. Snow showers will bring several inches to parts of the southern Appalachian Mountains, with snow flurries and snow showers also occurring as far south as Atlanta. Cold temperatures are expected across these same areas overnight, with temperatures well below freezing by Thursday morning. A general warming tend is expected Friday, into the weekend, as southerly flow increases, and warmer air from Texas and the southern Plains begins to shift eastward. There will be a few showers across the Tennessee Valley Friday, as a weakening cold front enters that area; otherwise a better chance for showers and thunderstorms will come early next week.

Midwest

A northwest flow of cold air will support scattered lake effect snow showers over the central Great Lakes region today, with some accumulation in some of the persistent snow bands. Scattered rain and snow showers will streak across the northern Plains and Upper Midwest on Thursday, as a fast moving weather disturbance slides in from the Northwest. This will move across the Great Lakes and Upper Ohio Valley on Friday. Temperatures will remain chilly over the Great Lakes and Midwest today and Thursday, but milder air from the central Plains will advance north into the Midwest by Friday.

West

A cold front will brush by the Pacific Northwest today, bringing some rain showers, along with some higher elevation snow, to parts of Washington, Oregon, northern Idaho, and western Montana. There will then be a break for Thursday, before the next storm system approaches the Northwest on Friday, spreading rain across western Washington and Oregon. This rain will become more dominate through the lower elevations of the Pacific Northwestern States by Saturday, with higher elevation snow through the Cascades and interior mountains. Gusty winds will also impact the coastal areas. Meanwhile, dry conditions, and generally warmer than average temperatures, will dominate the remainder of the West today through Saturday. Afternoon highs will average 5 to 10 degrees above average across much of Washington, Oregon, California, and Arizona.

Philippine floods kill 35, survivors rebuild homes Wed Feb 27, 12:11AM ET

MANILA (Reuters) - Residents in central and southern Philippine were rebuilding houses as floods subsided after two weeks of heavy rains that killed 35 people and left 10 missing, officials said on Wednesday. We're returning to normal, said Ben Evardone, governor of Eastern Samar, one of four areas declared under a state of calamity.Hundreds of thousands of people were returning to their dwellings, although in some parts of the province houses were still submerged in flood waters, officials said.A majority of the deaths were due to drowning, but at least 11 people were killed by landslides which environmental groups have blamed on illegal logging.Total damage to roads and bridges in three flood-hit southern regions was put at 825.5 million pesos ($20 million) while 263 million pesos worth of agricultural crops, mostly rice and corn, were destroyed.The Philippines is lashed by an average of about 20 typhoons a year, with landslides and floods common across the archipelago.The weather bureau has said the country may be hit by more typhoons this year due to the La Nina wet weather phenomenon which could bring rains even during the summer months of April and May.($1 = 40.4 pesos)(Reporting by Rosemarie Francisco; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

REVELATION 16:10
10 And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,

Florida Blackouts Affect One Million Across State
By KIRK SEMPLE February 27, 2008

MIAMI — A wide-ranging blackout swept across Florida on Tuesday, affecting nearly one million households and businesses, knocking out traffic signals and trapping scores of people in elevators. It also forced two nuclear reactors to shut down.Workers used a helicopter on Tuesday to reach power lines. Utility company officials said the situation could have been worse, perhaps even spreading throughout the Southeast, if not for measures adopted by the power industry after the blackouts in August 2003 that paralyzed the Northeast and Midwest. Electricity was restored in most areas by nightfall Tuesday.Officials quickly dispelled fears that sabotage might have been at the root of the blackouts, which began shortly after 1 p.m. There is absolutely no evidence that there was any foul play involved in this power outage,” Mayor Carlos Alvarez of Miami-Dade County said at a news conference about two hours after the blackouts began. Still, such fears were prevalent.Ulises Orozco said he was in a 50-story office building in Miami when the power went out, and workers poured down darkened stairwells to the street.It was pitch black, Mr. Orozco said, and nobody knew what was going on. It was hot and humid within the stairwell, but most people chose to evacuate the building anyway because there were all these conspiracy theorists talking about terrorism.Aletha Player, a spokeswoman for Florida Power & Light, which operates the electrical grid in southern Florida, said the blackout began with some equipment failure in a substation in western Miami-Dade County.

A spokesman for the North American Electrical Reliability Corporation, an industry group that sets rules for the North American power grid, said a short-circuit in the substation was to blame. The protective devices that are supposed to keep the short-circuit isolated to that substation did not work properly, said the spokesman, Stan Johnson.The problem spread quickly across most of southern Florida, from the Atlantic Coast to the Gulf Coast, and as far north as Tampa in the west, Gainesville in the center and Daytona Beach in the east, officials said. Police and fire officials in South Florida, which was hardest hit, said the biggest problems were traffic congestion and people trapped in elevators. Detective Alvaro Zabaleta, a spokesman for the Miami-Dade Police Department, said there were no reports of looting or thefts.Lt. Elkin Sierra, a spokesman for Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue, said the department received at least 30 calls about people stuck in elevators, but he said most were freed within 15 minutes. The City of Miami Fire and Rescue received reports of more than 50 people trapped in elevators, said a spokesman, Ignatius Carroll.About 40 car accidents were reported to Miami-Dade fire officials in a two-hour period, Mr. Carroll said, more than triple the daily average. At least eight power plants and 15 major transmission lines were knocked out by protective mechanisms, much like a circuit breaker in a house, designed to safeguard equipment and prevent wider blackouts.

State and power industry officials said that apart from the initial failure, the system worked as it should have. Mr. Johnson said that after the 2003 blackouts the industry instituted safeguards to prevent a similar occurrence.This is a serious event; I don’t mean to downplay it, he said. But all the due diligence that was done limited it to Florida.Among the affected power plants was the Turkey Point nuclear complex in southern Miami-Dade County, where two reactors shut themselves down within seconds of the initial failure when automatic devices sensed a voltage drop on the incoming power lines, said Holly Herrington, a spokeswoman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Washington. Reactors draw power from the grid to run pumps and other equipment.According to Florida Power & Light, 700,000 to 800,000 of its 4.4 million customers were without electricity at the peak of the blackout, though power was restored to most by 3:30 p.m. and to all but about 800 by 5:30 p.m.

Progress Energy in Raleigh, N.C., said about 130,000 of its customers in central and northern Florida were affected. About 50,000 households and businesses in Tampa and other areas of west-central Florida lost power, said Laura Duda, a spokeswoman for TECO Energy in Tampa. Matthew L. Wald contributed reporting from Washington, Carmen Gentile from Miami and Cristela Guerra from Daytona Beach, Fla.

FAMINE

REVELATION 6:5-6
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

Oil hits new high near $102 a barrel as weakening dollar draws investors to commodities

By GILLIAN WONG,Associated Press Writer AP - Thursday, February 28SINGAPORE - Oil prices rose to a new intraday high near US$102 a barrel Wednesday as a slide in the U.S. dollar prompted investors to pump more money into energy futures as a hedge against inflation.

The dollar sank to a record low against the euro after the release of three disheartening U.S. economic reports Tuesday that show that the economy is slowing even as prices are rising. The dollar's decline prompted investors to seek a safe haven from turmoil in the financial markets and the threat of inflation.Crude has cracked through the US$100-level again and that's driven by financial investors moving money into commodities markets, said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.The U.S. dollar weakened against the euro and the economic data also indicated that inflation in the U.S. rose in January, and commodities are generally considered a hedge against inflation, Shum said. We are therefore seeing these strong prices that have really little to do with oil market fundamentals.Light, sweet crude for April delivery spiked as high as US$101.70 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, midafternoon in Singapore, before slipping back slightly to US$101.55, up 67 cents.The contract on Tuesday jumped US$1.65 to settle at US$100.88 a barrel, a record close.In London, Brent crude added 65 cents to US$100.12 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange, below the intraday record of US$100.30 a barrel set earlier in the session.

The U.S. Labor Department said wholesale inflation rose by 1 percent in January on soaring oil and food costs. And Standard & Poor's also reported that U.S. home prices fell 8.9 percent in the last three months of 2007 from a year earlier. It is the sharpest drop in the S&P/Case-Shiller quarterly index's history.A report by the Conference Board, a business-backed research group, that its Consumer Confidence Index fell to the lowest since February 2003, far below what analysts had been expecting, indicated that consumers might continue to curb their spending in the coming months.But traders in both the energy market and the U.S. stock market, which also advanced sharply, seemed largely unfazed. Oil has risen in recent days amid an increase in speculative buying, with some traders believing that global demand will be high enough to support higher crude prices even if the American economy is slowing.In currency trading, the euro rose above US$1.50 for the first time, reaching US$1.5057 before falling back slightly to US$1.5048.Analysts expect the U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration to report later Wednesday that the nation's crude oil stocks rose last week by 2.4 million barrels, which would be the seventh straight week of gains.Gasoline inventories are expected to rise by 400,000 barrels while supplies of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel, fell by 1.8 million barrels last week, according to a Dow Jones Newswires poll of analysts.

Also supporting prices were concerns about supply disruptions from unrest in Iraq, a major oil exporter. Turkish ground forces pushed their offensive against Kurdish rebels deeper into the north of Iraq, seizing seven guerrilla camps, officials said Tuesday.In other Nymex trading Wednesday, heating oil futures rose 0.65 cent to US$2.8215 a gallon (3.8 liters) while gasoline prices added 0.2 cent to US$2.5525 a gallon.Natural gas futures lost 2.6 cents to US$9.18 per 1,000 cubic feet.

SIGNS OF THE END OF THE AGE (NOT THE WORLD) THE WORLD GOES ON FOREVER.

GENESIS 1:5,14
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:(ISRAELS HOLY DAYS AND SABBATH STARTS AT 6PM) And for SIGNS (PROPHECY SIGNS TO HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE, OUR DAY)

SIGNS IN THE SUN, MOON AND STARS

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.

NASA Takes Aim at Moon with Double Sledgehammer Jeremy Hsu
Staff Writer SPACE.com Wed Feb 27, 7:02 AM ET

Scientists are priming two spacecraft to slam into the moon's South Pole to see if the lunar double whammy reveals hidden water ice.The Earth-on-moon violence may raise eyebrows, but NASA's history shows that such missions can yield extremely useful scientific observations.I think that people are apprehensive about it because it seems violent or crude, but it's very economical, said Tony Colaprete, the principal investigator for the mission at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.NASA's previous Lunar Prospector mission detected large amounts of hydrogen at the moon's poles before crashing itself into a crater at the lunar South Pole. Now the much larger Lunar Crater and Observation Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission, set for a February 2009 moon crash, will take aim and discover whether some of that hydrogen is locked away in the form of frozen water.LCROSS will piggyback on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission for an Oct. 28 launch atop an Atlas 5 rocket equipped with a Centaur upper stage. While the launch will ferry LRO to the moon in about four days, LCROSS is in for a three-month journey to reach its proper moon smashing position. Once within range, the Centaur upper stage doubles as the main 4,400 pound (2,000 kg) impactor spacecraft for LCROSS.

The smaller Shepherding Spacecraft will guide Centaur towards its target crater, before dropping back to watch - and later fly through - the plume of moon dust and debris kicked up by Centaur's impact. The shepherding vehicle is packed with a light photometer, a visible light camera and four infrared cameras to study the Centaur's lunar plume before it turns itself into a second impactor and strikes a different crater about four minutes later.This payload delivery represents a new way of doing business for the center and the agency in general, said Daniel Andrews, LCROSS project manager at Ames, in a statement. LCROSS primarily is using commercial-off-the-shelf instruments on this mission to meet the mission's accelerated development schedule and cost restraints.

Figuring out the final destinations for the $79 million LCROSS mission is like trying to drive to San Francisco and not knowing where it is on the map, Colaprete said. He and other mission scientists hope to use observations from LRO and the Japanese Kaguya (Selene) lunar orbiter to map crater locations before LCROSS dives in.Nobody has ever been to the poles of the moon, and there are very unique craters - similar to Mercury - where sunlight doesn't reach the bottom, Colaprete said. Earth-based radar has also helped illuminate some permanently shadowed craters. By the time LCROSS arrives, it can zero in on its 19 mile (30 km) wide targets within 328 feet (100 meters).Scientists want the impactor spacecraft to hit smooth, flat areas away from large rocks, which would ideally allow the impact plume to rise up out of the crater shadows into sunlight. That in turn lets LRO and Earth-based telescopes see the results.By understanding what's in these craters, we're examining a fossil record of the early solar system and would occurred at Earth 3 billion years ago, Colaprete said. LCROSS is currently aiming at target craters Faustini and Shoemaker, which Colaprete likened to fantastic time capsules at 3 billion and 3.5 billion years old.

LCROSS researchers anticipate a more than a 90 percent chance that the impactors will find some form of hydrogen at the poles. The off-chance exists that the impactors will hit a newer crater that lacks water - yet scientists can learn about the distribution of hydrogen either way.We take [what we learn] to the next step, whether it's rovers or more impactors, Colaprete said. This comes as the latest mission to apply brute force to science.The Deep Impact mission made history in 2005 by sending a probe crashing into comet Tempel 1. Besides Lunar Prospector's grazing strike on the moon in 1999, the European Space Agency's Smart-1 satellite dove more recently into the lunar surface in 2006.LCROSS will take a much more head-on approach than either Lunar Prospector or Smart-1, slamming into the moon's craters at a steep angle while traveling with greater mass at 1.6 miles per second (2.5 km/s). The overall energy of the impact will equal 100 times that of Lunar Prospector and kick up 1,102 tons of debris and dust.It's a cost-effective, relatively low-risk way of doing initial exploration, Colaprete said, comparing the mission's approach to mountain prospectors who used crude sticks of dynamite to blow up gully walls and sift for gold. Scientists are discussing similar missions for exploring asteroids and planets such as Mars.Nevertheless, Colaprete said they may want to touch the moon a bit more softly after LCROSS has its day.

DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TR BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).

Top German judge questions democratic innovations to EU treaty 27.02.2008 - 17:26 CET | By Honor Mahony

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Germany's most senior judge has suggested that while democracy has been strengthened in the EU's new treaty, a key innovation involving national parliaments does not go far enough and member states have no guarantee that EU powers will not continue to grow.Professor Hans-Juergen Papier, president of Germany's constitutional court, points out that the principle of democracy is for the first time dignified with its own section in the treaty.But speaking to an audience in Berlin's Humboldt University last week, the judge picked holes in the one of the main democratic improvements contained in the treaty - the role given to national parliaments to scrutinise proposed EU laws and say whether they think the EU is acting in an area where action would better be taken at member state or regional level, the so-called subsidarity principle.Under the treaty rules, MPs are sent legislative proposals by the commission for examination. If they think the EU should not be acting in this area they have eight weeks to notify the commission, which is not bound to act.

If one third of national parliaments get together to complain about an EU law, it must be reviewed and the commission must give reasons if it intends to keep the law. The European Court of Justice may also be called on by member states to look into whether the subsidiarity principle is being upheld.Professor Papier points out that the sheer number of laws coming from Brussels - there were 18,167 regulations and 750 directives between 1998 and 2004 - means that the MPs' early warning system is somewhat impractible.He also notes that the eight week deadline for delivering an opinion on an EU law considered as going too far from parliament is likely to prove too short in practice, while the numerous parliament opinions needed to get a law reviewed would require considerable international coordination in the two month timeframe.The constitutional law expert also says it remains unclear whether the European Court of Justice, when presented with a case will stick to looking purely at the verification of the subsidiarity question or whether whether the EU has competence in the particular area.

According to Professor Papier, the dynamics of subsidiarity are connected to the ever closer union principle meaning that there is from the point of view of member states no fixed limit guaranteed to the creeping transfer of competences [to EU level].Referring to the welcome fact that the EU's charter of fundamental rights is a binding part of the new treaty, the judge nevertheless the says that London and Warsaw's decision to opt out of the charter reveals the deeply rooted mistrust of a union and a court that pulls ever more competences to it.He says that at first glance this mistrust appears misplaced because the charter specifies that it only applies to EU law.But at second glance, the reservations of Poland and the United Kingdom cannot be dismissed fully out of hand, says Professor Papier referring to EU case law.In 2005, the EU's highest court ruled that a national law on the possibility of limiting the work contracts of older people did not only break the EU's non-discrimination law but also the general legal principle of non-discrimination.Professor Papier points out that the time period for implementing the EU non-discrimination law had not yet run out for member states so the court had used the general legal principle of community law.According to later statements by an attorney general of the European court of justice, quoted by the judge, the principle was less derived from legal texts but from a platonic legal heaven, with a vagueness concerning both their content and their actual existence.

Brussels urges Bosnia not to miss opportunity for closer EU ties 27.02.2008 - 09:29 CET | By Renata Goldirova

Amid concerns that Bosnian Serbs could follow Kosovo's example and withdraw their Serb Republic from Bosnia-Herzegovina, the European Commission has said the multi-ethnic country could in April sign a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), a key pact seen as the first step to EU membership. I would expect we should be able to sign an SAA with Bosnia-Herzegovina shortly, that is in April, on condition that Bosnia-Herzegovina can adopt the required laws concerning police reform, EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn said on Tuesday (26 February), according to Reuters.He added: It's a great opportunity for the country and I trust the leaders will not miss this opportunity.The positive signal comes during turbulent times in the region. Criticism of Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence has been mounting in Bosnia-Herzegovina, too. Thousands of Bosnian Serbs gathered in the city of Banja Luka on Tuesday, with their prime minister, Milorad Dodik, saying: We only have a little patience left and this will not last for very long.The Bosnian Serb parliament has already warned it would consider a referendum to secede from Bosnia.The country, currently under international administration, consists of two governing entities - the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, primarily inhabited by Bosniaks and Croats, and Republika Srpska, home of Bosnia's Serbs.

Serbia

The EU enlargement commissioner also sent a message of encouragement to Serbia, saying the country has a very real and tangible European perspective.I trust that the Serbian leaders will pay attention to the fact that 70 percent of the Serbian population is in favour of membership of the European Union, Mr Rehn added.
Serbia-EU ties have cooled after Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica refused earlier this month to allow the signing of a political agreement offering Belgrade closer trade relations, relaxed visa requirements and educational cooperation. He claimed the EU should have chosen between Serbia and Kosovo. Meanwhile, Serbia continues to voice its opposition to Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence. Branislav Ristivojevic, a legal adviser to Prime Minister Kostunica, announced the country will file a complaint to the international court of justice against the US administration for recognising the fake state of Kosovo.If the US do not annul their illegal decision, we will come to all international tribunals, Mr Ristivojevic was cited as saying by AFP news agency.

Kosovo's prime minister, Hashim Thaci, has meanwhile warned Belgrade against efforts to rule Serb-dominated parts of Kosovo. I am constantly in contact with NATO to prevent anyone from touching even one inch of Kosovo's territory, he said.