62,000 POSSIBLY DEAD NOW

GENESIS 16:11-12 (ISHMAEL THE ARABS)
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

AND IN GENESIS 6:11-13 THE WORD FOR VIOLENCE IN THE HEBREW LANGUAGE IS HAMAS. ACCIDENT NO WAY, JESUS SAID THE WORLD WOULD BE DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH DUE TO VIOLENCE AND TERRORISM (HAMAS)IN THE LAST DAYS.

HAMAS STILL POISONING ARAB CHILDRENS MINDS WITH HATE AGAINST ISRAEL.
http://www.infolive.tv/en/infolive.tv-22108-israelnews-hamas-continues-incite-young-palestinians

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.

WELL THIS WILL GO INTO THE MILLIONS AFFECTED BY THIS CYCLONE. GEORGE W GET OUT OF THE PEACE PROCESS I BEG YOU, BEFORE HURRICANE SEASON STARTS. YOU CAN NOT PRESSURE ISRAEL TO DIVIDE GODS HOLY CITY JERUSALEM AND NOT EXPECT DISASTERS LIKE THIS TO OCCUR IN AMERICA.

I BELIEVE THIS DISASTER IS DIRECTLY RELATED TO RICE IN ISRAEL, PRESURRING ISRAEL TO GIVE THE ARABS A STATE OF THEIR OWN. I BELIEVE GOD IS GIVING THE WORLD A WAKE UP CALL. REPENT AND GO BY GODS (KING JESUS,THE TRUE GOD OF ISRAELS) WAYS OR THIS WILL BE A WALK IN THE PARK COMPARED TO THE FUTURE.

Myanmar cyclone toll climbs to nearly 22,500
By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government raised its death toll from Cyclone Nargis on Tuesday to nearly 22,500 with a further 41,000 missing, nearly all of them from a massive storm surge that swept into the Irrawaddy delta.The United Nations' World Food Program began doling out emergency rice in Yangon and the first batch of more than $10 million worth of foreign aid arrived from Thailand on Tuesday, but a lack of specialized equipment slowed distribution.Despite the magnitude of the disaster -- the most devastating cyclone to hit Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people died in Bangladesh -- France said the ruling generals were still placing too many conditions on aid.The United Nations is asking the Burmese government to open its doors. The Burmese government replies: Give us money, we'll distribute it. We can't accept that, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told parliament.Of the dead, only 671 were in the former capital, Yangon, and its outlying districts, state radio said. The rest were all in the vast swamplands of the delta.

More deaths were caused by the tidal wave than the storm itself, Minister for Relief and Resettlement Maung Maung Swe told a news conference in the rubble-strewn city of five million, where food and water supplies are running low.The wave was up to 12 feet high and it swept away and inundated half the houses in low-lying villages, he said, giving the first detailed description of the weekend cyclone. They did not have anywhere to flee.

As many as 10,000 people died in one coastal town alone.

Information Minister Kyaw Hsan said the military were doing their best, but analysts said there could be fallout for the former Burma's rulers, who pride themselves on their ability to cope with any challenge.The myth they have projected about being well-prepared has been totally blown away, said analyst Aung Naing Oo, who fled to Thailand after a brutally crushed 1988 uprising. This could have a tremendous political impact in the long term.U.S. President George W. Bush urged the regime to accept U.S. disaster experts who have so far have been kept out, and said the United States stood ready to do a lot more to help.The military junta must allow our disaster assessment teams into the country, Bush told reporters, adding he was prepared to make U.S. naval assets available for search and rescue.

SEVERAL HUNDRED THOUSAND HOMELESS

Reflecting the scale of the crisis, the junta said it would postpone to May 24 a constitutional referendum in the worst-hit areas of Yangon and the sprawling delta.However, state TV said the May 10 vote on the charter, part of the army's much-criticized roadmap to democracy, would proceed as planned in the rest of the southeast Asian nation, which has been under army rule for the last 46 years.Its political plans have been slammed by Western governments, especially after the bloody suppression of protests in September.The total left homeless by the 190 km (120 miles) per hour winds and storm surge is in the several hundred thousands, United Nations aid officials say.The Information Minister said the government had sufficient stocks of rice despite damage to grain stored in the huge delta, known as the rice bowl of Asia 50 years ago when Burma was the world's largest exporter.But in the delta, even villages that managed to withstand the worst of the winds are running out of food and water.There's not much food, one woman at a pineapple stall in Hlaing Tha Yar, an hour's drive west of Yangon, told Reuters. The price of a cabbage is now 1,000 kyats instead of 250.In Yangon itself, people queued up for bottled water and there was still no electricity four days after the cyclone hit.Prices of food, fuel and construction materials have skyrocketed, and most shops have sold out of candles and batteries. An egg costs three times what it did on Friday.

MASSIVE, TERRIBLE

The disaster drew a rare acceptance of a trickle of outside help from the diplomatically isolated generals, who spurned such approaches in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Thailand flew in nine tonnes of food and medicine, the first foreign aid shipment, but a Reuters cameraman on the plane said supplies were unloaded by hand as no forklift trucks were available -- a worrying sign of the army's lack of vital kit.Two Indian transport planes are due to fly in early on Wednesday and more are on standby, New Delhi said.State media have made much of the army's response, showing footage of soldiers manhandling tree trunks or top generals climbing into helicopters or greeting homeless storm victims in Buddhist temples.Aid agency World Vision in Australia said it had been granted special visas to send in personnel to back up 600 staff in the impoverished Southeast Asian country.This is massive. It is not necessarily quite tsunami level, but in terms of impact of millions displaced, thousands dead, it is just terrible, World Vision Australia head Tim Costello said.(Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Darren Schuettler and Sanjeev Miglani)

Transport, visa hurdles slowing aid to victims of Myanmar cyclone By Alexander G. Higgins, The Associated Press MAY 6,08

GENEVA - Travel and visa obstacles on Tuesday hampered aid deliveries to the hundreds of thousands of people in Myanmar now believed to be homeless after the devastating cyclone, officials said. But a green light from Myanmar's military rulers on accepting international aid has started the global relief effort rolling. This assistance is on its way, said United Nations relief spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs, but she said UN workers planning to assess needs are still awaiting their visas to enter the country.

The death toll in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, was in the tens of thousands with many more still missing, state radio reported Tuesday. As many as one million people may have been left homeless. The European Union would be providing $3.1 million, according to a statement released by Slovenia, president of 27-country bloc.

However, the United States, France and others complained about Myanmar's reluctance to accept direct aid. President George W. Bush called on Myanmar's military junta to allow the United States to help with disaster assistance, saying the U.S. already has provided some assistance but wants to do more. We're prepared to move U.S. navy assets to help find those who have lost their lives, to help find the missing, to help stabilize the situation. But in order to do so, the military junta must allow our disaster assessment teams into the country, he said. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said France was putting up 25 per cent of the multimillion-dollar EU contribution. But Kouchner complained that officials in Myanmar were insisting on distributing an additional French contribution of just over $300,000 themselves, which he said was not a good way of doing things.It's not a lot but we don't really trust the way the Burmese ministry would use the money, said Kouchner, who is also a co-founder of French aid group Doctors Without Borders.

Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier Bernier said in a statement earlier that Canada was calling on Burmese authorities to provide full and unhindered access to humanitarian organizations to allow them to assist with the relief efforts.Canada has set aside up to $2million for urgent relief. International Co-operation Minister Beverley Oda said Ottawa was working closely with UN agencies, the Red Cross and other non-governmental organizations to determine how Canada's support can best meet the humanitarian needs of the people, once access is allowed by the Burmese government.Anne-Francoise Moffroid, the EU desk officer dealing with the crisis, said it was difficult to know how many people will need aid. Affected areas are isolated and difficult to reach and infrastructure has been destroyed, she said. Many volunteers from the local Red Cross have died in the disaster, she said. I think it will be a major challenge to bring assistance to these areas.Simon Horner, spokesman for the EU humanitarian office, called it a massive disaster, particularly in the Irrawaddy delta. The reports that are coming back from some of our partner organizations ... is that there are some communities where the destruction is close to 100 per cent, Horner said.

The military government generally makes it difficult for aid workers to move around the country without permission, and obtaining visas to bring in more international staff also is an obstacle. The UN emergency relief co-ordinator said that a number of organizations felt visas were a concern and that the United Nations was asking the Myanmar government to ease the situation.

Since we now have the green light for international aid to go there, I hope we will get the visas as soon as possible, UNICEF spokeswoman Veronique Taveau said. The UN, Red Cross and other aid organizations have been organizing shipments to the country. Our first shipment is arriving today, said Eric Porterfield, spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. He said the federation was working with the Myanmar Red Cross, which has been playing a leading role in the initial distribution of aid. The national Red Cross staff and 18,000 volunteers are handing out plastic sheets, drinking water, insecticide-treated bed nets and clothes, Porterfield said. China is providing $1 million in aid, including relief materials worth $500,000, to help with disaster relief and rehabilitation efforts, a spokesman said. The Norwegian government alone said it would give up to $1.96 million. Spain said it would donate $775,000 to the World Food Program, while Switzerland said it would send an initial $475,000 and the Swiss Red Cross $190,000. Singapore said it will provide $200,000 for tents, ground sheets, sleeping bags, medical supplies, drinking water and emergency food. The Czech government allocated $154,000, while Denmark said it was giving $103,600.

Sweden offered logistical support and water cleaning systems to the UN operation. With files from The Canadian Press.

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.

VOLCANO PICTURES
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/events/wl/071114_chile

Emergency evacuation as Chile volcano spews lava
By Antonio de la Jara and Simon Gardner MAY 6,08

SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - Lava started to spew from an erupting volcano in southern Chile on Tuesday and authorities ordered the immediate evacuation of all remaining residents from a nearby town.

Chaiten volcano, in Patagonia around 760 miles south of the Chilean capital Santiago, began erupting on Friday, sending a towering plume of ash into the sky that has since coated the surrounding area and reached as far as Argentina.The National Emergency Office said the volcano was spitting bits of lava and rock, and that around 300 remaining civilians and troops were being evacuated by boat across a fjord. However, emergency officials had not yet detected lava flow down the volcano's sides.Local television reported loud groaning sounds emanating from the 3,280-foot (1,000-meter) volcano, which had been dormant for thousands of years.The situation has changed suddenly, national emergency official Rodrigo Rojas said in an interview.Today the volcano is erupting with pyroplastic material on a different scale, he added. We ... have ordered the immediate precautionary evacuation of all civilians, military and press in Chaiten.Authorities have already evacuated around 4,200 people -- nearly the whole population -- from Chaiten, which is six milesfrom the volcano. Evacuation is complicated by the fact southern Chile is fragmented by fjords and access is often difficult.We hope the evacuation happens in an optimum way, said President Michelle Bachelet, who visited the area on Monday. I hope this evolves in the least harmful way possible.

DENSE CLOUD OF ASH

Luis Lara, a government geologist, said he did not expect a catastrophic collapse of the volcano, but that a cloud of dense, very hot material could coat the surrounding area.This produces a more complicated scenario, Lara said. A dense cloud of pyroplastic material could move down its slopes, and that causes much more damage (than a spray of lava).The entire volcano will not (collapse), but the eruptive column could, and that is sufficient material to be displaced down its sides and into areas nearby, he added. Lava flow would not reach Chaiten, but hot fragments, ash and gas could.Authorities are also evacuating a second town, Futaleufu, which has also been coated with ash. The area is some distance from Chile's vital mining industry farther north.Some of Futaleufu's 1,000 or so residents had already crossed into neighboring Argentina, where some areas have also been showered with ash and where authorities last week closed schools and treated some for breathing problems.The ash is more than 6 inches thick in some places, contaminating water supplies and coating houses, vehicles and trees and contaminating water supplies, and authorities are moving thousands of head of cattle from the area.

Chile has the world's second most active string of volcanoes behind Indonesia.(Additional reporting by Monica Vargas and Manuel Farias; Editing by Kieran Murray)

Ash spews 20 km into the air in new eruption reported at Chile's Chaiten volcano By The Associated Press MAY 6,08

SANTIAGO, Chile - The Chaiten volcano spewed lava and blasted ash more than 20 kilometers into the sky on Tuesday, prompting a total evacuation of the provincial capital and other settlements. President Michelle Bachelet interrupted a speech in the capital to announce that the volcano is exploding so a total evacuation of the town of Chaiten has been ordered.Rains following the eruption have carpeted surrounding areas in ash and mud. Hard hit is Chaiten, a small provincial capital of wooden houses and cobblestone streets just 10 kilometers from the volcano in southern Chile. More than 4,000 people had fled earlier and the few remaining residents were being transferred to two navy ships. Palena province Gov. Fernando Aguilar said some people were resisting, but everybody must leave.

The volcano's five-day eruption has sent a thick column of ash into the stratosphere, streaming across Patagonia to the Atlantic. Carmen Fernandez, head of Chile's Emergency Bureau, said the final evacuation order covers 300 people, including police, soldiers, emergency personnel, a few reporters and some residents. Fernandez said the amount of lava emerging from the volcano is very small and very thick, so it is moving very slowly.Authorities were also evacuating the ash-coated town of Futaleufu, about 120 kilometers east of Chaiten near the Argentine border. Many people there wore surgical masks or cloth across their mouth to guard against the gritty ash. Officials in Argentina also reported ash fall over wide areas in the southern part of the country.

Vog — volcanic smog — kills plants, casts a haze over Hawaii By AUDREY McAVOY, Associated Press Writer Mon May 5, 6:40 PM ET

OCEAN VIEW, Hawaii - For eight years, Tony and Sam Bayaoa have grown thousands of bright red, yellow and pink protea flowers on their farm. Then in March, Kilauea volcano opened a new vent and began spewing double the usual amount of toxic gas. Now about 70 percent of their crop is dried, brown and brittle.The first reaction was — did someone poison the plants? said Tony Bayaoa, whose two-acre farm is 35 miles from the volcano. I've lost my livelihood.Big Island crops are shriveling as sulfur dioxide from Kilauea wafts over them and envelops them in vog, or volcanic smog. People are wheezing, and schoolchildren are being kept indoors during recess. High gas levels led Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to close several days last month, forcing the evacuation of thousands of visitors.Residents of this volcanic island are used to toxic gas. But this haze is so bad that farmers are thinking about growing different crops, and many people are worrying about their health.Kirk Brewer, 33, an electrician who moved to the Big Island in 2006 from Southern California, blames his headaches and wife Tracy's itchy skin, sore throat and runny nose on the vog.

It's a bummer when you go to the other islands and see how clear and blue it is, but we'll just deal with it, Brewer said.When educator Ann Peterson of Kona went the bank last week, she and the teller were making the same noises in their throats. They looked at each other and said in unison, Vog!Kilauea on the Big Island has been erupting continuously since 1983. But in mid-March, a new vent formed at the summit, giving Kilauea two large sulfur dioxide outlets instead of one.Sulfur dioxide, a pollutant that is also generated by burning coal and oil, can lead to asthma and other respiratory illnesses and aggravate lung and heart disease. When combined with dust and sunlight, it makes vog. Mixed with atmospheric moisture, it produces acid rain.Exceptionally thick gray-white vog has hovered over parts of the Big Island for weeks, particularly those areas downwind of the crater. The wind has blown vog to Oahu, some 200 miles to the north, bathing Honolulu in a light haze. (The vog is no threat to the U.S. mainland, some 2,500 miles away.)Some crops are doing fine. Coffee and macadamia nuts, two of the Big Island's mainstays, appear unaffected. Koa and ohia trees are healthy, but eucalyptus leaves are turning brown, as are Asiatic lilies.Protea may be the hardest hit, though experts don't know why. The hand-size blossoms are used in tropical floral arrangements and are a $1.8 million-a-year business in the islands.

Kelvin Sewake of the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture said he is not sure if it is the gas or acid rain that is killing the plants. He said Big Island protea growers have always suffered sulfur dioxide burns, but he has never seen it this bad.Dan Wegner, the biggest protea farmer in Ocean View, with about 15 acres, said he usually records $70,000 in annual sales. This year, he is not sure if he will reap half that.This is taking my viable business right now and putting it right in the dumper. I don't know what I'm going to do, Wegner said. It's frightening.One reason the vog is worse is that the new vent is farther inland than the older Puu Oo vent on the mountain's seaside slope. While gas from the Puu Oo vent often blows out to sea, the new plume is more likely to hit farms and communities in concentrated form.

The county has issued only two temporary, voluntary evacuation advisories for Ocean View and Pahala, which have a combined population of just over 4,000. The vog that has settled over the Big Island has little or no odor. The emergency room at Ka'u Hospital in Pahala is seeing an average of three people a day — up from two — with symptoms such as coughing and shortness of breath.

Dr. Cliff Field, ER director, said he is more concerned about the potential long-term harm. Large amounts of vog may cause emphysema and chronic lung disease over time. Still, he questioned whether living next to Kilauea is any worse than living in a city like Los Angeles. Sally Ancheta of the American Lung Association of Hawaii said people should stay inside when the vog is bad. But she added: I would not recommend anybody leaving. It's too good of a place to live.(This version CORRECTS that Kilauea volcano opened a new vent in March).

DISEASES

REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

Bird flu spreads to South Korean capital MAY 6,08

SEOUL (AFP) - Bird flu has spread to South Korea's capital Seoul despite a massive nationwide cull that saw the slaughter of six million ducks and chickens in recent weeks, officials said Tuesday.

The agriculture ministry said a case was reported at a small aviary run by Gwangjin district officials in eastern Seoul.This was the first outbreak in Seoul. We believe it has been caused by infected pheasants that district officials purchased at an open market in the city of Seongnam south of Seoul, a ministry official told AFP.

All 53 chickens, turkeys and pheasants at the aviary were slaughtered Monday night, he said.Initial blood tests showed pheasants and chickens were infected with bird flu, although the type of the virus is not yet known, he said.Health officials are conducting blood tests to determine whether it was caused by the virulent H5N1 strain.Quarantine officials slaughtered poultry in a nearby public park and also plan to decontaminate aviaries and poultry farms in other parts of Seoul.A major theme park in southern Seoul culled 221 ducks, wild chickens and geese in its aviary.More than six million chickens and ducks have been slaughtered since the country's latest outbreak was reported on April 1, the ministry said.South Korea's previous outbreak was between November 2006 and March last year, resulting in the temporary suspension of poultry exports to Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and elsewhere.The H5N1 strain has killed more than 240 people worldwide since late 2003. No South Koreans are known to have contracted the disease.

Pandemic flu threat remains substantial, health experts say By ELIANE ENGELER, Associated Press Writer MAY 6,08

GENEVA - The world still faces a substantial threat of a flu pandemic and countries need to speed up preparations for a global outbreak, health experts said Tuesday. We can't delude ourselves. The threat of a pandemic influenza has not diminished, said Keiji Fukuda, coordinator for the World Health Organization's Global Influenza Program.Fukuda spoke to a meeting of around 150 health experts from governments, WHO and other agencies to update WHO's pandemic influenza preparedness plan.Scientists fear that the H5N1 strain of bird flu virus — which began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003 — could mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans, potentially sparking a pandemic that kills millions. So far, most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds.Fukuda said more than 150 countries had some kind of national preparedness plans but some of them were merely a piece of paper acknowledging the risk.He said it was crucial that all levels of society were involved in the preparations and that everyone knows where to go for information.If somebody is sick in the family for example and it's difficult to get to hospital, they need to know what sort of advice might be available, Fukuda told The Associated Press.

WHO says 382 people have come down with bird flu since 2003, and that 241 of them have died. Indonesia, with 108 of the deaths, is seen by experts as a potential hotspot for a pandemic.WHO is updating its 2005 preparedness plan to include progress in research on flu viruses, stronger international cooperation and experience with human cases of bird flu.Our understanding of the virus, the effects on people, the epidemiology how viruses move around the world, is much greater than it was a few years ago and this continues, Fukuda said.Stockpiles of antivirals have been built since 2005, he said. WHO has stockpiled a total of 5 million antiviral treatment courses ready to be handed out if a pandemic breaks out.He said the development of a possible pandemic vaccine have made significant strides.A few years ago it would not have been possible to talk about pandemic vaccines, he said. All of a sudden we have new things to work with.Experience and research over the last few years have led experts to believe that it is possible to stop a pandemic influenza right at the beginning of the outbreak, said Fukuda, adding that they recognized it will be difficult.Fukuda said WHO will take into account the revised International Health Regulations in updating its pandemic preparedness plan, which is expected to be published by the end of the year.Max Hardiman from WHO's secretariat for the health regulations said the agreement, which took effect in 2007, should help the world to know about a pandemic outbreak as soon as possible.

The health regulations oblige countries to report new disease threats with global public health significance, such as new flu subtypes. They also allow the WHO to act on credible information sources, rather than being reliant strictly on official government channels.Hardiman said measures to contain a pandemic should avoid unnecessary travel restrictions. Under the health regulations countries are putting in place measures to curb the spread of a pandemic, he said. These include assuring access to medical centers, control of airports and other points of entry and preparations to isolate sick people and quarantine contacts. One day we will face a pandemic but we don't know when, Fukuda said.

New disease outbreaks in China; 12,000 children infected By HENRY SANDERSON, Associated Press Writer MAY 6,08

BEIJING - New outbreaks in three Chinese provinces and Beijing put the number of children infected with hand, foot and mouth disease above 12,000 and the death toll has risen to at least 26, China reported Tuesday. The official Xinhua News Agency said outbreaks in southwest Yunnan, the northeastern province of Jilin and the tropical island of Hainan, putting the total number of infections at 12,164.Two kindergartens in Beijing were temporarily shut down Tuesday after children there showed symptoms of the disease, Xinhua said. There have been 1,482 cases in Beijing, most in kindergartens, it said.At least 26 children in China so far have died from the disease. Twenty-four of the deaths, in the central province of Anhui and Guangdong province in the south have been blamed on enterovirus 71, one of several viruses that cause the disease, Xinhua said.Two other children — one in Guangdong and another in the coastal province of Zhejiang — have also died of hand, foot and mouth disease but it wasn't immediately clear which strain of virus killed them, it said.Although nearly all the deaths have been blamed on the virus known as EV-71, it was not immediately clear how many of the overall infections were traced to it. Xinhua said in Yunnan only nine of the 113 cases were caused by EV-71.

The hardest-hit areas include the provinces of Anhui, Guangdong, Zhejiang, and the capital Beijing. There have been smaller outbreaks in Hebei, Jiangsu, Hunan, Hubei, Shaanxi, Jiangxi and Henan provinces and in the city of Chongqing.Xinhua said the jump in cases was due in part to a new regulation from the Ministry of Health classifying hand, foot and mouth disease among those that have to be reported to the central government.Enterovirus causes a severe form of hand, foot and mouth disease with symptoms including fever, mouth sores and rashes with blisters. It is easily spread by sneezing or coughing. The viruses mainly strike children ages 10 and younger. Some cases can lead to fatal swelling of the brain.

There is no vaccine or specific treatment, but most children affected by mild forms of the disease typically recover quickly without problems.Vietnam has recorded some 2,000 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease in the first four months of this year, said Nguyen Huy Nga, director of the Ministry of Health's Department of Preventive Medicine. Between 10 and 20 percent were caused by EV71.

Ten fatalities caused by the virus have been reported in the first four months, he said.The number of cases represents an increase of 40 percent against the same period of last year, he said.Associated Press Medical Writer Margie Mason in Hanoi, Vietnam, contributed to this story.

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.(A DAYS WAGES FOR A LOAF OF BREAD)

REVOLUTIONS AND COMMOTIONS OVER FOOD PRICES WORLDWIDE. VOLCANO ERUPTING YET AGAIN IN CHILE. OIL HITS $122.00 A BARREL. 63,000 PLUS DEAD IN MYNAMAR.GEORGIA THREATENS WAR WITH RUSSIA....CAN U SAY LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS NATIONS IN DISTRESS WITH(MASS CONFUSION). AND I BELIEVE ALL THESE HAPPENINGS ON EARTH ARE BECAUSE THE WORLD HATES ISRAEL AND WANTS THEIR LAND SPLIT UP TO THE ARABS

Oil nears $123 on $200 oil prediction, supply concerns By JOHN WILEN, AP Business Writer MAY 6,08

NEW YORK - Oil futures blasted to a new record over $122 a barrel Tuesday, gaining momentum as investors bought on a forecast of much higher prices and on any news hinting at supply shortages. Retail gas prices edged lower, but appear poised to rise to new records of their own in coming weeks. A new Goldman Sachs prediction that oil prices could rise to $150 to $200 within two years seemed to motivate much of Tuesday's buying, although a falling dollar and increasing concerns about declining crude production in Mexico and Russia contributed, analysts say.The Energy Department raised its oil and gasoline price forecasts, but also predicted that high prices will cut demand more than previously thought.Light, sweet crude for June delivery jumped to a new record of $122.73 a barrel before retreating slightly to trade up $2.10 at $122.07 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.Oil prices have nearly doubled from about $62 a barrel a year ago, which Goldman sees as a sign that the world is in the midst of a super spike in oil prices. Analyst Arjun Murti said in a research note released Monday that prices would ultimately force demand to fall sharply.

Not everyone shares Goldman's view. Tim Evans, an analyst at Citigroup Inc., countered Goldman's analysis with a note predicting that crude prices could as easily fall to $40 a barrel as rise to $200 over the next two years because supplies are, as Evans put it, comfortable.James Cordier, president of Tampa, Fla., trading firms Liberty Trading Group and OptionSellers.com, said Goldman's prediction isn't necessarily new: We've heard numbers like these out of Goldman Sachs, especially over the last 12 months.Indeed, it's not the first time Murti has espoused a super spike theory; in an April 2005 note, he predicted the oil market was in the early stages of an unprecedented rally that would send prices from a then-record of about $57 a barrel to $105.But some investors respond to such predictions by buying, Cordier said.Meanwhile, in a monthly report, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration predicted oil prices will average $110 a barrel this year, up $9 from last month's forecast. The EIA also said high prices will cut U.S. demand for petroleum products by 330,000 barrels a day this year; last month, the EIA predicted U.S. petroleum consumption would fall by 210,000 barrels a day.But strong demand for oil from countries such as China, India, Russia, Brazil and in the Middle East will support high prices and keep global oil demand growing by about 1.2 million barrels a day this year, unchanged from last month's forecast, the EIA said.A falling dollar on Tuesday also gave traders reason to buy. Investors often buy commodities such as oil as a hedge against inflation when the dollar falls, and a weaker greenback makes oil cheaper to investors overseas. Many analysts feel the dollar's protracted decline is the real reason oil prices have nearly doubled since last year.

Cordier said investors are also increasingly concerned about falling oil production in Russia and Mexico, which are both major oil producers. And prices are still supported by concerns about supply disruptions in Nigeria, where production at a Royal Dutch Shell PLC facility was cut after a weekend attack, and in Iraq, where Kurdish rebels warned they could launch suicide attacks against American interests to punish the U.S. for sharing intelligence with Turkey after Turkey bombed rebel bases in Iraq on Friday.At the pump, meanwhile, the national average price of a gallon of regular gas slipped 0.1 cent overnight to $3.61, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Analysts are split over how high gas will go; while prices have slipped lower since May 1, leading some analysts to say gas is close to peaking, others predict the fuel will follow oil's upward surge.

You're going to see new highs for gas prices, probably for the weekend, said Cordier, who predicts an average price of $4 a gallon in the coming weeks.In its report, the EIA said gas prices will peak at a montly average of about $3.73 a gallon in June, about 13 cents higher than its previous forecast.In other Nymex trading Tuesday, June gasoline futures rose 5.87 cents to $3.1116 a gallon after earlier setting a new trading record of $3.126. June heating oil futures rose 5.48 cents to $3.3613 a gallon after rising to their own trading record of $3.3634, and June natural gas futures rose 5.4 cents to $11.232 per 1,000 cubic feet.In London, June Brent crude futures rose $2.35 to $120.48 on the ICE Futures exchange.

Oil passes $120, gas prices slip more than a cent By JOHN WILEN, AP Business Writer MAY 5,08

NEW YORK - Oil futures surged to a new record over $120 a barrel Monday, raising concerns about higher prices for gasoline and goods and services throughout the economy. Retail gas prices fell more than a cent over the weekend, but oil's advance increased the likelihood that pump prices would resume their climb. Supply threats that emerged overseas and a weaker dollar sent light, sweet crude for June delivery to a new trading record of $120.21 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange before futures retreated slightly to trade up $3.46 at $119.78.Oil's sharp rise this year has driven gas prices to unprecedented levels, prompting consumers to reconsider summer vacation plans and limit daily excursions; they're also spending less at malls and shopping centers because they're paying more not just for fuel, but for all kinds of goods and services.The mix of factors that drove oil to its latest record were a microcosm of the forces that have nearly doubled oil prices from their levels of about $62 a barrel one year ago. The dollar weakened against the euro on Monday, attracting investors to commodities such as oil which they see as a hedge against inflation. Also, a falling dollar makes oil less expensive to investors overseas. A series of Fed rate cuts starting last year weakened the dollar considerably against foreign currencies; analysts blame the dollar's protracted decline for oil's sharp rise this spring.

Supply outages or threats emerged in Iraq, Nigeria and from Iran on Monday; events in all three nations have caused prices to spike many times in recent months.On Monday, the (oil) market is bolstered by news out of Iraq, where Turkish forces have once again been involved in cross-border raids against ... insurgents, and Nigeria, where rebels attacked three oil wells and pipelines feeding (an) export terminal over the weekend, said Addison Armstrong, director of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Conn., in a research note.Kurdish rebels warned they could launch suicide attacks against American interests to punish the U.S. for sharing intelligence with Turkey after Turkey bombed rebel bases in Iraq on Friday. Oil traders worry that any conflict in the Middle East will cut oil shipments out of Iraq. Several previous incursions by Turkish forces into Iraq have caused oil prices to rise.In Nigeria, a Royal Dutch Shell PLC spokesman said attackers hit an oil facility belonging to Shell's joint venture in southern Nigeria and that some oil production has been shut down. Years of unrest in Nigeria have cut off nearly a quarter of the major U.S. supplier's oil output.Also pushing oil prices higher Monday were concerns about Iran after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday his country will not bend to international pressure and give up its nuclear program. Iran is the second largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.Beyond the occasional threats to crude supplies, global demand for oil continues to grow. While demand for oil and gasoline has been soft in the U.S., the Chinese and Indian economies are growing by double digits, boosting global demand for oil.At the pump, meanwhile, the average national price of a gallon of regular gas slipped to $3.611 a gallon on Monday, down 1.1 cents from Friday, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Prices reached a record $3.623 a gallon on Thursday.

Diesel prices also fell, slipping to a national average of $4.239 from a record $4.251 on Thursday. The runup in prices of diesel, used to power most trucks, trains and ships, is one reason why food prices are so high.The slight relief motorists are seeing at the pump could end quickly if oil's rise continues. Analysts say gas prices could still go up another 10 cents or so. Indeed, Andy Lebow, senior vice president at MF Global Inc., thinks the gas price declines of the last four days are almost entirely due to crude oil's sharp drop last week; prices fell from $119.93 on Monday as low as $110.30 on Thursday before rebounding. Gas prices tend to follow prices in the futures market, but with some lag.

In other Nymex trading Monday, June gasoline futures rose 7.27 cents to $3.0391 a gallon, and June heating oil futures rose 9.43 cents to $3.313 a gallon. June natural gas futures rose 36.9 cents to $11.146 per 1,000 cubic feet.Associated Press Writers Yahya Barzanji in Iraq, George Jahn in Vienna and Gillian Wong in Singapore contributed to this report.

FAMINE

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: 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.

Hundreds turn out for second day of food protests in Somalia By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN, Associated Press Writer Tue May 6, 9:55 AM ET

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Hundreds of youths in Somalia's capital lobbed stones at shops and cars and set tires ablaze Tuesday in a second day of violence over soaring food prices. Besides rising prices, the protests have been driven by shopkeepers' refusal to accept some bank notes, apparently out of concern over counterfeiters. On Tuesday, shop owners met and agreed to begin accepting the notes again.Tuesday's unrest was not as widespread as the day before, when tens of thousands took to the streets in rioting that spread to all 13 districts of the capital. Troops fired into the crowds on Monday, killing two people.On Tuesday, the protests were confined to the city's Dharkenley and Wadajir neighborhoods. But shops across the city remained shuttered, with traders fearing the riot could spread and prompt looting.

Down with those printing the fake money! the young men yelled, denouncing the growing number of counterfeiters who have contributed to escalating prices. Down with opportunists!The Mogadishu Traders' Union said it decided Tuesday to again accept the old 1,000-shilling notes and ordered its private security units to enforce that at the city's main Bakara market.We, the big traders, have already decided to accept the old note and today we want to tell other businesses also to accept the decision, said Abas Mohamed Duale, deputy chairman of the union.Protests and riots over rising food prices have recently hit other nations, including Haiti, Egypt, Cameroon and Burkina Faso. The price of rice and other staples has risen more than 40 percent since mid-2007.The Asian Development Bank said Monday that a billion poor people in Asia need food aid to help cope with the skyrocketing prices.

Soaring fuel prices, growing demand from the burgeoning middle classes in India and China and poor weather have contributed to the jump in food prices worldwide, economists say. Africa has been particularly hard-hit.In Mogadishu, the price of corn meal has more than doubled since January. Rice has risen during the same period from $26 to $47.50 for a 110-pound sack.The cost of food has also been driven up by the plummeting Somali shilling, which has lost nearly half its value against the U.S. dollar this year because of growing insecurity and a market clogged with millions of counterfeit notes. The shilling has tumbled from about 17,000 to 30,000 per $1.Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed said Monday that he planned to create a new currency in a bid to fight against counterfeiters who helped spark massive inflation in the country. Ahmed — speaking in Paris, where he met with top French officials — did not directly respond to a question about the current situation in the Somali capital, saying only the country has been in chaos, in anarchy for a long time.He said counterfeiters have long flourished in the lawless country flooding it with an incalculable number of fake bills.That led us to the kinds of financial and economic problems we're seeing, Ahmed said. But today we are determined to fight that and to create ... a new currency.

Somalia has been without a functioning government since the 1991 overthrow of dictator Siad Barre.Over the past year, thousands of civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands forced from homes in fighting pitting Islamist insurgents against a U.N-sponsored transitional government supported by troops from neighboring Ethiopia.The U.N. food security unit warned last week that half of Somalia's population of 7 million faces famine. It blamed an enduring drought as well as soaring food prices.

Position Haiti at the epicenter of a U.S. war on hunger Tue May 6, 12:15 AM ET By DeWayne Wickham

Before Emira Woods arrived in Haiti last week, she had heard the stories about people there making a meal out of dirt. But as dire as the food crisis is in that impoverished Caribbean nation, she wondered whether such accounts were overblown.I wanted to see to what extend it was sensationalized, and to what extent it was real, Woods said Sunday, as she recounted to me her visit to Cit é Soleil, a notorious slum on the western edge of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital.The first thing we heard was that … for many people without access to food this was a way to survive, said Woods, a senior official of the Institute for Policy Studies. So it was very much real, this notion of eating mud cakes.

In fact, it was both real and surreal.

Like the thin, square-shaped synthetic food that was the staple of millions of starving people in the 1973 movie Soylent Green, Haiti's mud cookies are the product of a world teetering on the brink of global famine — a world in which basic foodstuffs are in short supply.Also in short supply is the patience of hungry people in places such as Haiti, where food riots occurred last month. The roaming mobs have given Port-au-Prince the real-life look of the movie's fictional portrayal of New York City in 2022.In Soylent Green, New Yorkers — and people in much of the rest of the world — have been reduced to eating a synthetic form of plankton (made of human flesh, it turned out) after the naturally produced plankton is found to be in short supply. In the world of that sci-fi movie, meat, vegetables and fruit are scarce. Only the very rich can get that stuff — and then only in small amounts.Ironically, a New York Times review of Soylent Green panned the possibility of such a widespread food shortage. There is, of course, every reason to view the next century with some fear, the reviewer said. But Soylent Green projects essentially simple, muscular melodrama a good deal more effectively than it does the potential of man's seemingly witless destruction of the earth's resources.

As it has turned out, the human capacity for self-destructive behavior is greater than that movie review was able to imagine 35 years ago. Prices of the staples we all depend on for a healthy diet, like eggs, bread, milk, fruits, are rising by eye-popping leaps and bounds, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, said last week as he opened a hearing on this nation's skyrocketing food costs.Last month, Josette Sheeran, head of the United Nations World Food Program, said 34 nations have seen thousands of hungry people pour onto the streets demanding relief.What's to blame for the creeping food shortage? There's a long list of suspects: drought, overpopulation, global warming, surging demand for and rising price of oil (which makes processing and transporting food more costly), government mismanagement of agricultural policies, and man's age-old inhumanity to man — war.

In Haiti, there is a confluence of all these factors. Once a rich, self-sufficient nation, Haiti is the epicenter of the global food crisis and Cité Soleil is point zero, said Woods.Last week, President Bush asked Congress for an additional $770 million to help feed the world's hungry. In all, Bush said, the United States will give $5 billion in 2008 and 2009 to combat hunger.That's a good thing. But the Bush administration could make an even greater contribution by coming up with a plan to wipe out hunger at its epicenter — in Haiti. Given this country's history of heavy-handed involvement in Haiti's domestic affairs and the ineffective government the Bush administration has foisted on the Haitian people, such a move would be a great victory in the fight against global hunger.DeWayne Wickham writes on Tuesdays for USA TODAY.

OZONE DEPLETION

ISAIAH 30:26-27
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:

MATTHEW 24:21-22,29
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened (Daylight hours shortened)
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

REVELATION 16:7-9
7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.

Scientists: Warming may greatest threat to tropical species Mon May 5, 8:47 PM ET

WASHINGTON - While global warming is expected to be strongest at the poles, it may be an even greater threat to species living in the tropics, scientists say. Tropical species are accustomed to living in a small temperature range and thus may be unable to cope with changes of even a few degrees, according to an analysis in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.There's a strong relationship between your physiology and the climate you live in. In the tropics many species appear to be living at or near their thermal optimum, a temperature that lets them thrive. But once temperature gets above the thermal optimum, fitness levels most likely decline quickly and there may not be much they can do about it, Joshua J. Tewksbury said in a statement.

The research was led by Tewksbury, an assistant professor of biology at the University of Washington and Curtis A. Deutsch, an assistant professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles.Concern over global warming has largely focused on arctic species like the polar bear. But such animals may be accustomed to living in a wide range of temperatures, while there tends to be little change in the tropics, so there has been no need for species there to adapt.The direct effects of climate change on the organisms we studied appear to depend a lot more on the organisms' flexibility than on the amount of warming predicted for where they live, Tewksbury said. The tropical species in our data were mostly thermal specialists, meaning that their current climate is nearly ideal and any temperature increases will spell trouble for them.On the Net:
PNAS: http://www.pnas.org

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.(TRADE 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).

Singapore's Lee Says Southeast Asia Will Be Like European Union By Douglas Wong and Haslinda Amin

May 5 (Bloomberg) -- Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of Singapore, predicted that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations eventually will allow people and money to move freely within the region like the European Union. It may take 50 years, 100years, I don't know, but that's the future, Lee, 84, told Bloomberg Television in an interview on April 29 that airs today. Lee's comment about Asean was in response to a question about whether Singapore and Malaysia should reunite. The city was expelled from Malaysia in 1965 -- two years after joining the country -- as Singapore resisted the government's policy of discriminating against ethnic Chinese to help disadvantaged Malays. I do not believe, having been apart now for 43 years nearly, that it is easy to come together, Lee said. What we have to do is to come together in the wider context of Asean, where we first start with a free-trade area, where we have a common market, then we have a community and easy flow of people, ideas, goods, capital, eventually become something like the European Union.

Founded in 1967, Asean today has 10 members: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The countries last year set a 2015 target for EU-style economic integration, though without a common currency, so the region can compete with China and India for exports and investments.

Freedom of Movement

Asean leaders have already agreed to free-flow of skilled labor by 2015, said Eduardo Pedrosa, secretary-general of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council. Broadening that to include all their people would further strengthen Southeast Asia's competitiveness.

Lee was prime minister of Singapore for 31 years, starting in 1959, when Britain first allowed it limited self-government. Lee now holds the title minister mentor and is chairman of the Government of Singapore Investment Corp., which manages $100 billion. His son, Lee Hsien Loong, 56, is the current prime minister. The elder Lee championed the creation of Malaysia in 1963, when the British territories of Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak were combined with independent Malaya. He served in the Malaysian parliament in Kuala Lumpur until Singapore was kicked out in 1965. He wept when he declared Singapore's independence in a televised speech. On current Malaysia-Singapore relations, Lee said that there's a lot we can do for each other as Asean members without reunifying.

No Going Back

In a September interview with the UCLA Media Center, Lee said that if Malaysia would just educate the Chinese and Indians, use them and treat them as their citizens, they can equal us and even do better than us and we would be happy to rejoin them.In the Bloomberg interview, Lee repudiated that view, despite gains in March elections by opposition politicians in Malaysia who favor scrapping the country's pro-Malay policies and treating Chinese and Indian citizens equally. Lee said Malaysia and Singapore, which is 75 percent Chinese, have been separate for too long to reunify. How we do go back to that situation? It is not possible, apart from the economics, Lee said. When I was a student you couldn't tell the difference between a Malayan and a Singaporean; now you can.In the interview, Lee also said he plans to attend the opening of the Olympics in Beijing in August and expects other Asian leaders to do so as well.

Protesting Tibet Crackdown

There is no reason for them to offend the Chinese, he said. Some world leaders, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, have said they may boycott the opening ceremony to protest the Chinese government's crackdown on Tibetan protesters and the country's human rights record. Lee also criticized China's handling of the Tibet crisis, saying the government should not have ejected Western reporters from the territory following the outbreak of rioting in March. Had they engaged the west, all this would have turned out differently, said Lee. Why didn't they? Because there was a chasm between their mental makeup and that of the west. So they say all western correspondents out, that means you've got something to hide. I think that was not very wise.He said China should shrug off any pro-Tibetan-independence protests at the games. If I were them I would expect that and say `so what? Lee said. Unfortunately they are still in the old set way they react, but they're learning.

Pollution in China

Lee also predicted that Beijing will curb pollution in time for the games. Recalling a parade celebrating the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic of China in Beijing in 1999, Lee said that after he expressed surprise at how clear the sky was then, he was told that the city had shut factories for two weeks. Beijing plans to close factories for the Aug. 8-24 games, halt construction and take about half its cars off the roads to improve air quality. I have no doubt it will meet world standards, Lee said. The International Olympic Committee has said it will reschedule events if pollution threatens to harm athletes. To contact the reporters on this story: Douglas Wong in Singapore at dwong19@bloomberg.net; Haslinda Amin in Singapore at Hamin1@bloomberg.net

EU rules out linking Russia up to Nabucco pipeline MAY 5,08

BRUSSELS (AFP) - The European Commission ruled out on Monday the possibility of linking Russia up to the Nabucco gas pipeline, stressing that Europe would stick to its aim of diversifying EU supplies. Nabucco, which is supposed to supply the bloc with gas from the Caspian Sea region by 2012-2013 while bypassing Russia, lies at the heart of the European Union's diversification strategy.

Russia is working with its own project, South Stream, EU Energy Commissioner Andris Pielbalgs told reporters hours after meeting Russian Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko.They have never expressed any wish to join Nabucco, Pielbalgs said. We should not ask Russia to join a project which they have never shown interest to join.He said there were currently no discussions between Russia's Gazprom and the Nabucco consortium and we should not speculate on issues that are not on the agenda.Safety and security in energy is in diversity, he added.EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner also excluded the possibility of linking Russia up to the Nabucco network.It's of high strategic interest and importance that we keep to our strategic goal of diversification, not just other resources but also other pipelines, she said, announcing that Egypt would contribute some two billion cubic metres of gas per year to the pipeline from 2010.Russia will always be an important supplier but we also have big countries around that have potentially very big reserves and they need to develop their reserves, she said.The consortium behind Nabucco has struggled to get construction underway in the absence of enough investors amid fears that the EU will not find the 30 billion cubic metres of gas per year necessary for it to be viable.Against that backdrop, former head of the International Energy Agency Claude Mandil said in April that Russia should be associated with Nabucco, which enjoys US backing.

EU states muscle in on bloc's judicial body
06.05.2008 - 09:28 CET | By Renata Goldirova

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission has dropped its plan to table a piece of legislation granting more powers to the EU's judicial body, Eurojust, after being wrong-footed by a group of 14 member states. Austria, Belgium, Estonia, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands have come together to table their own proposal - seen as a move to put a lid on anything too ambitious by the commission.Under the proposal, all national members would enjoy a minimum four-year-long, renewable mandate as well as a minimum set of powers, including the possibility to undertake an investigation or prosecution of specific acts and to set up a joint investigation team.In addition, they would have full access to a number of national databases such as registers on national criminal records and on arrested persons, investigation registers and DNA registers.

European public prosecutor
But the proposal does not mention a European public prosecutor although one EU diplomat suggested the arrangements are seen by some as interim or a stepping stone to a single prosecution office.
A public prosecutor remains a highly controversial issue, as any such move at the EU level would require harmonising the definitions of crimes or introducing a European criminal code. By tabling an own initiative, the group of 14 have stolen a march on the commission, which was also set to put forward a concrete legislative proposal to boost Eurojust powers this year.It will no longer make a legislative proposal, a spokesperson told EUobserver, as the planning has been overtaken by the submission of the present initiative.He added, however, that the commission backs the ideas as they take into account the commission views to a large extent.

Under current EU rules, member states are allowed to bypass the Brussels' executive in most justice and home affairs matters, as these fall under their exclusive competence. But they are to lose this power next year with the coming into force of the EU's latest treaty. This new document will give the European Parliament a strong say in this highly sensitive area.If all goes to plan, the proposal should be adopted in July. The new rules are expected to make the Hague-based body more flexible and effective when helping member states to deal with cross-border crime. Currently, its team is highly dependent on the capitals' goodwill to cooperate and the list of responsibilities they allow their representatives in Eurojust. Fresh statistics show that the number of cross-border incidents reported to Eurojust has been gradually rising since the legal structure was set up five years ago. In 2007, Eurojust handled 1,085 cases linked to 49 different types of crime - something that amounts to a 41 percent increase compared to 2006 (771 cases).Crime against property or public goods (457), drug trafficking (207) as well as swindling and fraud (178) top the crimes chart. The UK made the biggest use of the Hague-based network of judges and prosecutors, asking for its assistance in 104 cases. Germany used it 83 times, France 77 and the Czech Republic 7

DOES THIS NOT SOUND LIKE THE TOWER OF BABEL,ALL ONE LANGUAGE.

Bringing Down the Language Barrier - Automatically
posted by Thom Holwerda on Fri 2nd May 2008 20:52 UTC, submitted by irbis

One of the biggest problems facing the European Union today is the fact that within its borders, 23 languages are spoken. This means that all the important documents have to be translated by a whole army of translators, which costs the taxpayer more than 1 billion Euros a year - and companies trading within the EU spend millions more. The EU-funded TC-STAR project aims to tackle this issue with technology: a system that eats speech in one language, and outputs that same speech in another.Speech-to-speech translation is one of the most difficult language-related activities you can engage in. I study English in Amsterdam, and a part of that study is of course spent on translating Dutch material to English; even though we focus on text-to-text translations, we've been given glimpses of speech-to-speech translation as well, and this has made me aware of the incredible knowledge and mental agility required to do this. You need to know both the source as well as the target language inside-out, and especially when the translating is done live, you need to be able to keep up with the speakers. Despite all this, translating can be a very soothing activity; I find almost nothing as comfortable as sitting behind my computer, with several paper dictionaries scattered around my keyboard, stumbling from fixed expression to fixed expression, from saying to saying.

According to ICT Results, the TC-STAR project, the first project in the world addressing unrestricted speech-to-speech translation, needs to perfect three key technologies in order to operate properly: Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) transcribes the spoken words to text, while Spoken Language Translation (SLT) translates the source language to the target language. Text to Speech (TTS) finalises the process by turning written words into speech. While none of these technologies are new, none of them are anywhere near perfect. In order to optimise the output of each of the three technologies, the TC-STAR project combined several ASR and SLT systems, which made the output considerably more accurate. The system translated speech between Spanish and English, as well as radio broadcasts from Chinese to English (which is probably all the more impressive). Based on the BLEU (Bilingual Evaluation Understudy) method, a way of comparing machine and human translations, evaluations of the quality of translations improved by between 40% and 60% over the course of the project, while up to 70% of words were translated correctly, even if they were not placed in the right position in a sentence.The system obviously still cannot match human translators, but the TC-STAR project states that within a few years, a commercially viable automatic speech-to-speech translator might become available. Until then, the components of the project have been released under an open-source license.

DRUG PUSHERS AND ADDICTS

REVELATION 18:23
23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries (DRUGS) were all nations deceived.

REVELATION 9:21
21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries (DRUGS), nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

Nearly 100 students at San Diego State arrested in drug bust By ALLISON HOFFMAN, Associated Press Writer MAY 6,08

SAN DIEGO - Authorities say nearly 100 students have been arrested at San Diego State University on drug-related charges. Drugs, cash and guns were seized from sellers and buyers in the bust that followed a five-month undercover operation.The San Diego County district attorney's office says the 96 arrests include fraternity members. Defendants are scheduled to appear in state court to face charges Tuesday afternoon.

US diplomat: Israel and Palestinians have same peace goal By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer Mon May 5, 9:34 AM ET

SHANNON, Ireland - Israel and the Palestinians have the same clear goal to settle their worst differences this year, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday, concluding a round of classic shuttle diplomacy that emphasized the Bush administration's growing role as middleman. I think they know precisely what they are trying to do. They are trying to get to an agreement by the end of the year that is going to resolve the core issues, Rice said.She was responding to tension over whether Israel is scaling back ambitions in an attempt to achieve a real deal on President Bush's watch. Palestinians want any agreement to spell out the borders of an eventual Palestinian state and to make other hard calls, while Israel's goals appear less defined.Palestinians fear that Israel is playing a double game, negotiating the eventual separation of the Jewish state from an Arab one next door and at the same time expanding Jewish housing on land the Palestinians claim for that homeland.Suspicion is also rising that Israel is stalling on promises to lift some antiterror roadblocks in the West Bank. The network of hundreds of barriers and checkpoints have stopped would-be suicide bombers from crossing into Israel but contribute to economic lassitude and unemployment among Palestinians. The United States has increased pressure on Israel to remove some restrictions to help the Palestinian economy and build confidence in negotiations Bush launched last fall.I don't think there's any bad faith here — I don't, Rice told reporters traveling with her en route back to Washington after the latest in a series of meetings with the players in the discussions.

It's not undue caution to worry about the removal of obstacles that were put there for security reasons, she said.The puzzle, Rice said, is to find ways to remove barriers to Palestinian movement that satisfy both sides. She said the United States is checking back after roadblocks are lifted to see if the change helped. That is a very particular business, Rice said, done at the level of one neighborhood or one business.That's really just more complicated work, and I think we're going to really start to do that, the secretary said.Meanwhile, a top Abbas aide sharply criticized the administration, just after Rice wrapped up two days of talks.The aide, Nabil Abu Rdeneh, said the U.S. needs to step up its involvement and exert pressure on Israel to live up to its peace obligations, such as freezing Jewish settlements.That's why there should be American pressure on Israel, instead of continous visits and statements, he said in an apparent reference to Rice's frequent trips to the region. Settlements are continuing, the siege is continuing, and Israelis aren't serious enough.Abbas aides said the Palestinian president is giving the negotiations two or three more months to produce progress. Abbas retains the option of walking away from the talks if he believes progress is impossible. In that case, the president will take a dramatic decision, he'll inform the Palestinian people of the complete story of negotiations, and he'll take the right decision at the right moment, the aide said.When Rice visited in March, Israel promised to remove 61 roadblocks. The United Nations recently reported that only 44 had been dismantled, and most of them had no or little significance.This time, Rice asked for and got a detailed readout on the barriers Israel has lifted so far.Then I was able as a result of that to go back to the Israelis and say, Look, these don't seem to have made a difference, is there some other way to make a difference for that population?

Bush's peace initiative envisioned that Israel and the Palestinians would bargain alone for a political settlement this year but said the United States would judge whether both sides were living up to past promises that would be the bedrock of any new deal.Rice started to fill in that outline on this visit, going from one camp to the other and back again and skipping lofty peace rhetoric in favor of jargon about movement and access.I've had extensive discussions with them and it has helped to build my confidence in what they are doing, Rice said. She brushed past the political question of the moment during her weekend visit in Israel and the West Bank: Whether Israeli Prime Minster Ehud Olmert can survive his fifth corruption probe in two years in office. Olmert underwent police questioning the day before Rice arrived. We'll just keep working with the Israeli government, Rice said. Olmert met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday, part of a regular exchange that Rice has encouraged. Negotiating teams meet more regularly but their sessions are secret. Secret settlement negotiations have the best chance for success, Rice said. She acknowledged frustration bred by a lack of visible progress. They understand that the absence of activity, a lot of public activity ... makes people wonder whether anything is going on.

WARS AND RUMURS OF WARS.

MATTHEW 24:6
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

MARK 13:7
7 And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.

Georgia says very close to war with Russia By Mark John MAY 6,08

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Russia's deployment of extra troops in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia has brought the prospect of war very close, a minister of ex-Soviet Georgia said on Tuesday.

Separately, in comments certain to fan rising tension between Moscow and Tbilisi, the foreign minister of the breakaway Black Sea region was quoted as saying it was ready to hand over military control to Russia.We literally have to avert war, Temur Iakobashvili, a Georgian State Minister, told reporters in Brussels.
Asked how close to such a war the situation was, he replied: Very close, because we know Russians very well.We know what the signals are when you see propaganda waged against Georgia. We see Russian troops entering our territories on the basis of false information, he said.At a banking event in Madrid, Vice Finance Minister Dimitri Gvindadze said the Georgian economy was holding up despite the tensions. However ratings agency Fitch said a conflict would likely hit Georgia's ratings but not immediately Russia's.Obviously if we have an unfreezing of the conflict that will be extremely negative for the country (Georgia) and would lead to negative ratings action, Fitch's Edward Parker told Reuters in London.Georgia, a vital energy transit route in the Caucasus region, has angered Russia, its former Soviet master with which it shares a land border, by seeking NATO membership.

Russia has said its troop build-up is needed to counter what it says are Georgian plans to attack Abkhazia, a sliver of land by the Black Sea, and has accused Tbilisi of trying to suck the West into a war -- allegations Georgia rejects.Tensions have been steadily mounting and escalated after Georgia accused Russia of shooting down one of its drones over Abkhazia in April, a claim Russia denied.An extra Russian contingent began arriving in Abkhazia last week. Moscow has not said how many troops would be added but said the total would remain within the 3,000 limit allowed under a United Nations-brokered ceasefire agreement signed in 1994. Diplomats expect the reinforcement to be of the order of 1,200.

SECURITY GUARANTEES

Russian soldiers acting as peacekeepers patrol areas between Georgian and Abkhazian forces but handing full military control of the breakaway province to the Kremlin would alarm both the Georgian government and its allies in the West.Those 200 km (120 miles), the distance between the Psou and the Inguri rivers, are all Abkhazia. We agree to Russia taking this territory under its military control, Sergei Shamba, foreign minister of Abkhazia, told Russian newspaper Izvestia.In exchange, we will demand guarantees of our security.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow had not received an official request from Abkhazia for its military to take control of the region.Iakobashvili urged EU states to take a more active role in the region, with options including the deployment of border monitors or a police mission.Diplomats said EU President Slovenia was studying sending a delegation at the level of state secretaries to Georgia as a gesture of solidarity, but a number of ex-communist EU states were insisting it should be a full-fledged ministerial visit.(Additional reporting in Moscow by James Kilner; Editing by Dominic Evans.