BUSH HAILS ISRAELIS AS CHOSEN PEOPLE

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.

Aftershock rattles China quake zone By NG HAN GUAN, Associated Press Writer MAY 16,08

YINGXIU, China - A powerful aftershock knocked out roads and communications in some of the most quake-ravaged parts of central China on Friday, as emergency crews rescued 163 people who had survived up to 100 improbable hours trapped in the ruins. As Saturday dawned, rescuers were holding out hope of finding more survivors and authorities were preparing for the daunting task of housing and feeding millions left homeless.With the official death toll at more than 22,000, an air force unit reached Yinchanggou, a scenic spot in the mountains north of the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu, finding landslides had swept away rustic small hotels.There are several hundred hotels, including farmer homestays, probably 800 in all. They are all rubble now, Cai Weisu, an official with an air force unit from the Chengdu Military Region, told Sichuan Television. Most of the dead are tourists, he said, but did not identify whether they were foreign or Chinese.

Tens of thousands of people are considered buried or missing throughout the disaster zone. There were about 12 million people living within a 60-mile radius of the epicenter of Wenchuan, according to a study on the potential impact of the quake by Xu Mingbao, a senior researcher at the University of Michigan's China Data Center.Acutely aware its response to China's worst disaster in 30 years could affect Beijing's image heading into the Olympic Games, President Hu Jintao ramped up the government's public relations efforts, making his first trip to the stricken region.And in response to swelling anger, government officials accustomed to tightly controlled media took the unusual step of fielding questions from people online about why thousands of schools that collapsed were not built to be quake-safe.Damage from the magnitude-5.5 aftershock — one of dozens of strong tremors since the devastating quake Monday — was a temporary setback to the mammoth relief operation. Repair crews were rapidly restoring mobile phone services and unblocking roads within four hours, state media reported.Trucks navigated around boulders and splintered pavement that clogged roads into the forest-clad mountains of Beichuan county, about 100 miles north of Chengdu.China Central Television reported Saturday that rescue teams in the earthquake zone pulled 163 people alive from the rubble on Friday.Augmenting the 130,000 soldiers and police deployed, the official Xinhua news service said specialized international teams had joined the effort_ the first time ever that China has accepted outside professionals for help in a domestic disaster.On Saturday, teams from South Korea, Singapore and Russia joined a Japanese specialist group.

Meanwhile, a U.S. Air Force cargo plane loaded with tents, lanterns and 15,000 meals left Hawaii Saturday for China. It is the first aid flight from the United States to help in Sichuan province. Another Air Force delivery was due to go to China from Alaska.In one hard hit area, soldiers slogged up a slippery mud path Friday into the village of Yingxiu, as some of their comrades stayed back and used rubble from landslides to patch the road so supply and rescue vehicles could get closer.Most buildings in the village collapsed in the quake and the rest appear damaged beyond repair. Hundreds of residents huddled in tents. Small groups of soldiers, some lugging body bags, rushed from place to place checking reports of people trapped. They pulled out bodies and — at least twice — survivors. Others dug a burial pit and laid in at least 80 bodies.

Helicopters whirred overhead, bringing supplies and dropping leaflets with survival instructions that included not drinking dirty water and staying away from collapsed buildings. We should trust the party and the government, the leaflets also said.The government said it would investigate why so many school buildings collapsed in the quake and severely punish anyone responsible for shoddy construction. Officials in at least six provinces promised to tear down dangerous school buildings to protect students, state media reported. The quake destroyed about 6,900 classrooms, not including those in the hardest-hit counties.China's education system is chronically underfunded. Building experts said the problem here, as in many other parts of the world, was a lack of commitment by governments to improve the quality of school buildings. Schools should never collapse, and hospitals and fire stations should never collapse. These are all civic structures that are needed in a disaster, said Roger Bilham, a professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder. So when I hear a school has collapsed, I point the finger at politics.
More than 4 million apartments and homes were damaged or destroyed in Sichuan, Housing Minister Jiang Weixin told reporters. Worried relatives went to sites where missing loved ones might be. In the city of Hanwang, Zhou Furen walked for hours in borrowed shoes to a factory where her son had worked.

I've been coming here every day, sitting here in the early morning, waiting, she wept. He's been missing for more than three days now. But for my son I would come every day.The government said it had allocated $772 million for earthquake relief, according to the central bank's Web site, nearly five times the amount two days earlier. China has also received $457 million in donated money and goods for rescue efforts, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. AIR Worldwide — a catastrophe risk modeling firm — estimated losses to both insured and uninsured property would likely exceed $20 billion. Associated Press writers Audra Ang in Beichuan, Tini Tran in Hanwang and Cara Anna in Beijing contributed to this report.

US monitoring China's nuclear sites after quake By LILY HINDY and ANGELA CHARLTON, Associated Press Writers Fri May 16, 7:03PM ET

American experts are monitoring nuclear facilities in China's earthquake zone, officials said Friday, after France's nuclear watchdog reported that some had suffered minor damage. The French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety said Chinese authorities reacted well to the quake and immediately shut down nuclear sites for inspection.Thierry Charles, the group's director of plant safety, said China's nuclear safety agency, NNSA, had reported no leaks of radioactivity since the quake.He said the Chinese reported light damage to older nuclear facilities that were being dismantled before the quake, noting that seismic construction codes were less strict when those sites were built. China did not specify which facilities had damage, he said.China has a research reactor, two nuclear fuel production sites and two atomic weapons sites in Sichuan province, where the magnitude-7.9 quake struck Monday, the French agency said. All were between 40 and 90 miles from the epicenter.French authorities do not yet have a full picture of any possible damage at the nuclear weapons sites, where information is more closely guarded, Charles said.At this stage, I don't think there were any leaks, because they would have reported them by now. The worst to worry about now is degradation of buildings, cracks, this kind of thing, he said.

U.S. officials are monitoring China's nuclear facilities in the quake zone, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. He said he had no information about any damage.Wang Baodong, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said he had no information about the state of the atomic sites. But he told reporters the Chinese government was preparing for every consequence as it worked to rescue survivors and repair damage.Nuclear experts said there several possibilities if any significant damage occurred at the plants, at least one of which is alongside a river. A radioactive leak could cause environmental harm, while internal damage could set back China's nuclear modernization, they said.Mianyang, an industrial city of 700,000 people that is the headquarters of China's nuclear weapons design industry, was on the edge of the disaster area. The site has been likened to the U.S. nuclear facility at Los Alamos, N.M.The plutonium production reactor at Guangyuan, China's largest, is also in the quake zone.Damage to these plants could potentially be a serious issue for the Chinese government, said Hans Kristensen, a nuclear arms expert at the Federation of American Scientists.He said the reactor at Guangyuan is at the center of China's fissile material production.If there is damage to (the reactor), it would disrupt China's warhead maintenance capabilities, Kristensen said. That could have impacts for several years.Matthew Bunn, a senior researcher at Harvard University's Project on Managing the Atom, said the risk of radioactive leaks depended mostly on how the facilities were designed, details of which are known only by the Chinese government.

Only in the reactor's case would there likely be any significant danger of some kind of radioactive release that would affect a large area. And how big that danger is depends enormously on specifics of the reactor's seismic design that are not well known outside the Chinese nuclear weapons program, Bunn said.Jeffrey Lewis, director of the Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative at the New America Foundation who visited Mianyang last summer, said the buildings were designed to withstand earthquakes.

I would be surprised if there were any human impact, said Lewis, referring to radioactive leaks. If anything, there is a possibility for structural damage.Associated Press writer Foster Klug in Washington contributed to this report.

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.

Death toll from Myanmar cyclone nearly doubles MAY 16,08

YANGON, Myanmar - The official death toll nearly doubled to 78,000 from Myanmar's killer cyclone as heavy rains on Friday lashed much of the area stricken two weeks ago, further hampering relief efforts. Aid workers shackled by the country's military regime struggled to get even the most basic data about the needs of up to 2.5 million survivors. The Red Cross warned that a lack of clean water may swell the ranks of the dead.Myanmar state television said the official death count from the May 3 cyclone was 77,738, with 55,917 others missing.The toll was nearly double the 43,000 previously reported, but the TV announcement suggested it might be close to a final figure. It said the government had carried out search and rescue and relief work and collection of data, promptly, immediately and extensively.The release of the figures led to dire warnings from the United Nations and renewed calls for the military regime to allow international aid workers access to devastated areas.More than two weeks after the event, we are at a critical point, said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Unless more aid gets into the country — quickly — we face the risk of an outbreak of infectious diseases that could dramatically worsen today's crisis.Jean-Maurice Ripert, France's ambassador to the U.N., criticized the junta for refusing to allow a French navy ship to deliver 1,500 tons of food, drugs and medication to the Irrawaddy delta using small boats.

He said refusing to allow aid to be delivered to those in need could lead to a true crime against humanity if we go on like that.On Saturday, the FSS Mistral, carrying 1,500 tons of food, drugs and medication, was sailing near the Irrawaddy delta, hoping for permission to bring the aid to the needy, French officials said.
Myanmar's ruling junta, meanwhile, put up a security cordon around Yangon to restrict travel to the Irrawaddy delta, where scenes of devastation were rife.A small tour to the disaster zone arranged for Saturday will give diplomats their first up-close look at the effects of the cyclone and at the government relief effort.John Holmes, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, was to go to Myanmar on Sunday in an attempt to persuade the junta to admit more U.N. relief workers and to greatly increase aid efforts, said Amanda Pitt, a U.N. spokeswoman in Bangkok, Thailand.If you look at the situation with China, they have accepted relief and assistance teams from Russia, Taiwan and Japan, Pitt said, referring to the response to the earthquake there. They know they can't do it on their own.The junta maintains it has the situation under control. But after two weeks, the U.N. remains largely in the dark about the situation on the ground.We simply don't have the information, and I can't say when we will have it, said Steve Marshall, a U.N. official who just left Myanmar.The Red Cross has put the death toll as high as 128,000 and the most recent official figures on dead and missing have the U.N. saying the number could easily reach 130,000.The highest death estimate is carried by the British government's Department for International Development, which says that unofficial estimates suggest the number of dead or missing is in the region of 217,000. The department said the estimate was reported to them by sources on the ground with knowledge of the situation. They gave no other details and said the estimates could not immediately be verified.

The U.N. estimates some 1.5 million to 2.5 million survivors are in desperate need of food, water, shelter and medical care. If the storm was so massive that it's basically swept away, killed 130,000 people, we can only imagine what it's done to settlements on the ground, said Stephanie Bunker, a New York-based spokeswoman for Holmes. Myanmar is entering the monsoon season and disaster experts warn the wet weather could complicate relief efforts. Heavy rain pelted the country Friday. Aid groups have reached only 270,000 people so far, and the situation for survivors will likely get more difficult as time passes without proper help. Lack of clean water will be deadly in the Irrawaddy delta, Thomas Gurtner, the head of operations for the international Red Cross, told The Associated Press in Geneva. To be able to provide clean water to hundreds of thousands of people stranded in the delta requires a major operation, which we have neither the material, the logistical nor the staff capacity to do, he said.

Officials also worry about disease outbreaks.

The U.S. military flew four more flights of emergency supplies into Yangon on Friday, raising its total to 17 since Monday. Two of the flights carried aid provided by the Thai government. India was also readying flights. The U.N. says the regime has issued only 40 visas to its staffers and another 46 to nongovernment agencies and has confined the personnel to the immediate Yangon area. Marshall, the U.N. official, said the military has set up checkpoints on the two main roads to the delta to keep foreigners out of the disaster zone. Even local staff have to negotiate with the military to gain access to the camps. UNICEF said Friday the agency's fourth flight into Myanmar, scheduled for Saturday, would deliver several tons of food for malnourished children. Radio broadcasts are trying to help lost children find their families, it said. In the meantime, ordinary people are stepping in, with shopkeepers handing out rice gruel and medical students caring for the sick. But the government was reportedly interfering with those efforts as well. In an interview with the Democratic Voice of Burma, the abbot of Mandalay's Maha Gandaryon monastery said monks were stockpiling relief supplies and getting trucks to take in aid. We are still in the preparation stages, he told the radio, which is critical of the junta. We have contacted some private organizations and services, and found out that they were told by the authorities not to work with us in aid distribution. They said we can't go with them.

SPAIN TO HOST BUSINESS FORUM
http://www.ameinfo.com/156990.html

PSALMS 83 COMPLETES THE PROPHECY PUZZLE
http://missing-peace-bsalhus.blogspot.com/2008/05/83rd-and-final-piece-to-middle-east.html

Last-days birth pains have begun May 16, 2008 1:00 am Eastern

The world has endured an almost mind-numbing series of shocks in recent weeks, from the unprecedented swarm of tornadoes across the American Midwest to the death and destruction wrought by Cyclone Nargis as it tore a path through Myanmar, better known as Burma.

There were 368 documented tornadoes in the U.S. in January and February of this year, shattering the previous record of 243 over that two-month period, set in 1999. February's total of 232 tornadoes also shattered previous records.Cyclone Nargis ripped Burma apart, killing at least 128,000, according to Red Cross estimates, and creating some 2.5 million refugees.Al Gore was quick to blame global warming. In an interview on NPR to plug his appropriately named book on global warming, Assault on Reason, he told host Terry Gross: And as we're talking today, Terry, the death count in Myanmar from the cyclone that hit there yesterday has been rising from 15,000 to way on up there to much higher numbers now being speculated. . … And last year a catastrophic storm last fall hit Bangladesh. The year before, the strongest cyclone in more than 50 years hit China – and we're seeing consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with continued global warming.

Maybe. But Germany's Institute of Marine Scientists says we're in for a 10-year period of global cooling. There sure seems to be a lot of opposition to what is supposed to be settled science.Global warming can't explain away the devastating earthquake that all but flattened a huge portion of western China. The death toll from Monday's quake is approaching 20,000, with twice that number still listed as missing. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Monday's earthquake was the 25th significant earthquake registered so far this year.Back in 1969, the year I wrote The Late, Great Planet Earth, the USGS identified a total of seven significant earthquakes. I had noted in 1969 that there was a slight but discernible increase in worldwide earthquake activity since Israel's rebirth in 1948.During the entire decade of the 1970s, the USGS recorded a total of 44 earthquakes it classified as significant. The following decade, from January 1980 to December 1989, the USGS recorded 47 significant earthquakes. That is for the entire decade. From 1990 through the end of 1999, the USGS records 57 significant earthquakes. From 2000 thru to Monday's earthquake in Sichuan, China, the USGS recorded an astonishing 109 earthquakes of at least magnitude 7.0 and 13 earthquakes measuring between 8.0 and 9.9 on the Richter Scale.

On the other side of the world, the long-dormant Chaitan volcano erupted May 2 for the first time, say geologists, in more than 7,000years. The BBC reported that a government volcano expert warned there could be a big eruption at any time.There could be a major explosion that could collapse the volcano's cone, said Luis Lara of the National Geologic and Mining Service.The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization warned that Iran had detected a new highly pathogenic strain of wheat stem rust. The U.N. said the fungal disease could spread to other wheat-producing states in the Near East and western Asia that provide one-fourth of the world's wheat supply. The new strain, called Ug99, is capable of infecting up to 90 percent of the existing strains of wheat worldwide – and once infected, crop losses range between 70 percent and total loss.

Coupled with the losses already sustained as a result of the typhoon-related flooding in Java, Bangladesh, and India and from agricultural pests and diseases in Vietnam, it starts to add up. Last year, Australia suffered its second consecutive year of severe drought and a near complete crop failure; heavy rains reduced production in Europe; Argentina suffered heavy frost; and Canada and the U.S. both produced low yields. Food riots have broken out in Egypt, Haiti and several African states, including Mauritania, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Senegal.Meanwhile, the drums of war continue to beat around the planet. Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad renewed his threat to destroy Israel this week. Hezbollah took over West Beirut, while the Arab world mourned the catastrophe of Israel's 60th birthday with threats of annihilation of the Jewish state. In Israel, President Bush again warned that allowing the Iranian regime to obtain nuclear arms would be unforgivable, signaling a continuation along a path that can only lead to an eventual war that will engulf the whole Middle East.

When Jesus was asked by His disciples to tell them what signs would precede His return at the end of the age, He warned that nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines, plagues and earthquakes in various places, He said (Matthew 24 and Luke 21). Using an analogy immediately understandable to all peoples in all nations, he said of these signs, All these are the beginning of birth pains.Jesus used a Greek word for the labor pains of a woman about to give birth. Jesus knew that every generation could understand the illustration. His meaning is clear. Just as a woman experiences birth pains that increase in frequency and intensity just before giving birth, so ALL the signs of His return would increase in frequency and intensity just before His return. Hey, for he first time in history, all of the signs have appeared together in the same time frame and are increasing in frequency and intensity. That, coupled with the fulfillment of the great predicted sign that Israel became a nation again after 2,000 hopeless years of worldwide dispersion, indicates that Jesus Christ is already at the door ready to return. Are you ready?

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)

Oil sets record near $128; pump price at high, too By ADAM SCHRECK, AP Business Writer Fri May 16, 8:24 PM ET

NEW YORK - News that Saudi Arabia had boosted its oil output by 300,000 barrels a day was greeted as a non-event on oil markets — the move wasn't anywhere near the kind of production increase needed to bring prices down on Friday. And traders were equally unimpressed by the U.S. government's plan to stop adding to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.One day, two moves designed to allay concerns about an overheated oil market that's squeezing motorists and inflating the prices of all sorts of goods.The response in the oil trading pits? Traders did what they've been doing for months now, and pushed crude oil and gasoline futures to new highs.All in all, we're seeing another strong move here on little fundamental news, said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates, an oil trading advisory firm in Galena, Ill.

The reason for the disconnect has little to do with political decisions in Washington or Riyadh, and everything to do with market expectations. The Saudi production increase was seen in the market as minuscule, and no one expected the suspension of shipments to the U.S. government's Strategic Petroleum Reserve to have much impact on supplies.Even more important, the traders placing the bets expect prices to just keep moving higher.Goldman Sachs, one of the world's most influential investment banks, underscored that sentiment Friday when it hiked its oil price forecast for the second half of the year to $141 a barrel, up from $107 previously. Analysts at the bank argue that the oil market is undergoing a structural repricing that will continue to play out for some time to come.We would view any pullback in oil, regardless of the size or duration — although a correction could be as large as 15 percent — as an opportunity to re-establish long positions in oil before the summer, Goldman Sachs advised traders.Translation: Buy when barrels go on sale, because prices are bound to keep heading higher.And buy they did Friday. The price for a barrel of benchmark light, sweet crude for June delivery jumped $2.17 to settle at record close of $126.29 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier in the session, prices surged to $127.82 a barrel, also a new high.It was the eighth time in the past 10 sessions traders rewrote the record books, and the first time prices topped $127 a barrel.Investors shrugged off the news from Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi that the world's largest oil producer had decided to increase production last week. The market also had little reaction to the Energy Department's announcement said it would cancel shipments into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for six months beginning July 1.It's ridiculous because I don't think this is going to bring the price down, said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp., of the Energy Department's move.

The effect of Saudi Arabia's decision was also not clear. The increase, which went into effect last Saturday, is relatively small, lifting total output from the world's leading producer to 9.45 million barrels per day by June.The addition of 300,000 barrels won't make a lot of difference, said Mir Yousufuddin, who monitors crude prices for the U.S. Energy Information Administration.The announcement came during a visit by Bush, who was in the kingdom to appeal for a more significant increase in production. Bernard Picchi, an energy analyst at research firm Wall Street Access, called the increase a token amount and said the effect on prices would have been different if Saudi Arabia had boosted production by 1 million or 1.5 million barrels a day.

Saudi Arabia often adjusts its output to meet demand, and the increase coincides with the start of the peak driving season in the U.S. The Middle Eastern nation has in the past acknowledged the ability to produce as much as 11 million barrels a day. James Cordier, president of Liberty Trading Group in Tampa, Fla., agreed that the moves by both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia were insignificant and would do little to dent the rally in oil prices. Like a number of other analysts, he believes prices are rising not because of a speculative bubble, but simply reflect finite supply and soaring global demand. Crude's latest surge comes a week before the Memorial Day holiday, the traditional start of the summer driving season, suggesting that retail gas prices still have further to rise. Motorists are now paying a national average of $3.787 a gallon for regular gasoline, up nearly a penny from the previous day, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Diesel prices also have risen to record levels, meaning that even Americans who don't drive will likely face even higher prices on all sorts of goods because of increased shipping costs. A gallon of diesel now sells for $4.482 a gallon. Oil prices could rise even higher as U.S. demand picks up during the summer months, when gasoline consumption is typically the heaviest. Traders are clearly betting gasoline prices have a way to go too: Gasoline futures jumped to a record $3.2438 a gallon on the Nymex before easing slightly to settle at $3.2235, up 5.777 cents. In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures rose 8.04 cents to settle at $3.7028 a gallon. Natural gas futures fell 30.5 cents to settle at $11.094 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, July Brent crude surged $2.36 to settle at $124.99 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. Associated Press Writers H. Josef Hebert in Washington and Jennifer Loven in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, contributed to this report.

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).

EU to tussle with Latin America's Pink Tide at Lima summit
15.05.2008 - 17:24 CET | By Leigh Phillips

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Tussles over biofuels, trade and even capitalism itself are likely to take centre stage in Lima, Peru on Friday, as European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and some 60 heads of state from the EU and Latin America and the Carribean (LAC) descend on the Peruvian capital for the fifth EU-LAC summit.Under the protection of some 85,000 soldiers and police who have set up the usual array of roadblocks, traffic detours and zones restricted to local citizens, the leaders are to rattle through what is an ambitious agenda. Although the leaders will focus on two key issues – combating inequality and tackling climate change – poverty, social inclusion, sustainable development, energy and the environment in general are also set for discussion. At the summit, the commission is to announce Euroclima, a €5 million fund for Latin American projects that tack climate change. Additionally, the two camps are hoping to boost trade and increase economic co-operation. The EU would like to see some movement towards an agreement in the Doha round of world trade negotiations. The Doha round has been stalled since 2001 largely due to the differing trade priorities of poor and wealthy nations. However, the politicians will also likely end up discussing a range of off-agenda topics that have forced themselves onto the front pages in the last few weeks, such as food shortages and the miniature cold war between Colombia and Ecuador that has simmered away since the former bombed alleged encampments of Colombia's Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) within Ecuador without Quito's permission in March.

Merkel, Hitler and Chavez
The discussions are expected to be quite fractious, as the largely liberalising perspective of the EU comes up against what can be fairly described as currently the most left-wing continent on the planet. Ahead of the meeting, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned other Latin American nations against the left-wing populist policies of Venezuela's perennially beret-adorned president, Hugo Chavez, who responded in typical bombastic fashion by comparing Ms Merkel to Adolf Hitler.On Sunday (11 May), Mr Chavez criticised the objectives of the European Union in their dealings with Latin America and the Caribbean.The EU is coming here to help us. Where is their plan to help the poor? Ask the president of Haiti how much promises from Europe and the United States have done, he said, according to DPA, the German Press Agency.In recent years, centre-left and socialist governments have been elected in all but a few nations across the region – the so-called Pink Tide.Nonetheless, Latin American and Caribbean leaders are not all of one mind.

The more centre-left presidents Lula da Silva of Brazil, Michele Bachelet of Chile, and Peru's own Alan Garcia largely support the free market and the so-called Washington Consensus – policies of fiscal discipline, deregulation, privatisation and trade liberalisation – albeit with more of a social cushion than their centre-right counterparts would prefer. Meanwhile, to their left, Evo Morales – Bolivia's first indigenous leader in 500 years, Mr Chavez and Ecuador's Rafael Correa are committed to building what they call a socialism of the 21st century, and have instituted a range of policies that favour the poor of their countries, such as boosting health and literacy programmes and, more controversially, the nationalisation of key industries. Fernando Lugo, a former Catholic bishop and adherent of liberation theology won Paraguay's presidency in April, adding to the continent's collection of progressives. Analysts expect Mr Lugo's policies, as with those of Argentina's Cristina Kirchner, to fall somewhere between that of Mr da Silva and Mr Chavez.

Biofuels debate will be central
The sides align themselves slightly differently however when it comes to the question of biofuels.EU leaders last spring agreed that the EU should increase the use of biofuels in transport fuel to ten percent by 2020, up from a planned 5.75 percent target to be achieved by 2010.But the European Union has come under repeated pressure from international institutions such as the World Bank and the UN World Food Programme, as well as environmental and development NGOs, to abandon its biofuels targets due to concerns that the controversial fuels contribute to global warming and food price rises.As a result, the commission has touted as-yet undefined sustainability standards that it says will ensure the biofuels Europe uses are green.Brazil, the world's leading producer of ethanol, while publicly supporting these sustainability criteria, is very worried that if standards are too strict, European markets will be closed off to them.On the other hand, most of the other LAC countries have lined up against both Brazil and the EU's positions on biofuels, aghast at the site of Haiti's government falling in April as a result of food riots on the island nation.Even Peru's moderate Mr Garcia complains that biofuel crop cultivation is pushing up the prices of staples such as corn, rice and wheat, and is planning to ask for a limit to biofuel production.I have no doubt that the theme of food will be central to the debates of the summit, Peru's foreign minister, Jose Garcia Belaunde, said last week. As with many such international gatherings, an alternative People's Summit, is currently being held all week in a working class Lima neighbourhood, with attendants from social, labour and indigenous groups. The Brussels Consensus is the new Washington Consensus, and has started a new period of neocolonialism, said Brid Brennan of the Netherlands-based Transnational Institute, one of the organisers of the People's Summit.However, unlike similar counter-summits elsewhere, this one will also be attended by a number of heads of state, notably Mr Chavez, Mr Morales, Mr Correa and the new president of Cyprus, Dimitris Christofias.

External relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, trade commissioner Peter Mandelson, and development commissioner Louis Michel will join President Barroso at the EU-LAC summit.The EU-LAC summit was preceded on Thursday (15 May) by the second EU-LAC Business Forum, bringing together business and political leaders, and will be followed on Saturday by separate summits between the EU and each of Mexico, Chile, the Andean Community and Central America.

Study sees no realistic Plan B in case of Irish EU treaty rejection 15.05.2008 - 17:25 CET | By Honor Mahony

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A rejection by Irish voters of the EU treaty in next month's referendum would be a catastrophe for Europe, because there is no credible Plan B, a new study has concluded.A paper by the Bertelsmann foundation, a German think-tank, believes there are four possible courses of action if charter is rejected in Ireland on 12 June, but none is especially exhilarating.It authors suggest that putting the treaty to voters again as happened in 2002 following Ireland's vote against the Nice Treaty the previous year is not particularly probable as French and Dutch voters were not asked to vote again on the now ditched EU constitution, which they rejected in 2005.But amending the treaty is also seen as unrealistic as it is unclear what Ireland would need to change in the treaty to make it appeal to voters a second time round. In addition, this route would have to be approved by all member states, meaning going back to the drawing board and re-opening old institutional and political sores.

Offering Dublin the chance to opt out of certain areas could mean that ratification would not have to be re-commenced in other member states but it is unclear where the country could opt out. It already does not take part in substantial parts of justice and home affairs areas and sensitive areas for the country, such as tax issues, remain unanimity issues under the Lisbon Treaty.The paper suggests that the final option is that the EU abandons its attempts to introduce comprehensive treaty reforms looking instead to minimal reforms which could be introduced by a mini-treaty or by inter-institutional agreements.A No in the Irish referendum would simply be a catastrophe for Europe, the paper concludes. Meanwhile Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg broke the political taboo on talking about a possible treaty rejection by Irish voters, but offered a more prosaic reaction.He said it would lead to the usual European crisis.Then we will look for some solution. However, at present, no one is ready to consider that the outcome may not be good, he was quoted as saying on Wednesday (14 May) by Czech news agency CTK.

20 May: European Maritime Day set up by European institutionspublished on Thursday, May 15, 2008 under Agriculture & Fisheries

The European Union has decided to celebrate the achievements and potential of Europe's ocean and seas by declaring 20 May as a dedicated European Maritime Day. The official launch ceremony will be held in Strasbourg, where Commission President José Manuel Barroso, European Council President Janez Janša and the President of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Pöttering will sign a Joint Tripartite Declaration.European Maritime Day will provide an occasion to highlight the crucial role that oceans and seas play in the everyday life not only of coastal communities, but of all EU citizens, and for Europe's sustainable growth and jobs at large. Based on a proposal from the Commission, this dedicated Maritime Day will also encourage better stewardship of coastal zones, seas and oceans by all citizens and actors concerned.The Commission hopes that citizens and stakeholders living and working in Europe's maritime regions will seize this occasion to showcase their contribution to the EU as a whole, and to stimulate broad debate around the challenges they face.The first ever European Maritime Day on 20th May 2008 will see the European Parliament vote on a report on the EU's Integrated Maritime Policy.The report highlights, inter alia, the exceptional maritime dimension conferred on the EU by its extensive coastline, islands and outermost regions. It also underlines the unique opportunities offered by the maritime sector as regards innovation, research, environment and biodiversity, calling for these to be fully taken into account in the emerging Integrated Maritime Policy. Furthermore, the report stresses how the involvement of regional and local partners is essential to making a success of the maritime policy and advocates closer cooperation between Europe's coastal regions.

There will be a Ministerial Panel headed by the Slovenian Presidency in which members of the Governments of France, Germany, Portugal and Norway will participate. Discussions will focus on how to promote continued stakeholder dialogue in support of the development of an Integrated Maritime Policy and ensure that the new policy is fully adapted to the regional dimension of maritime affairs.The sea, the maritime sectors and marine resources are essential for Europe's prosperity and well-being. By setting up a European Maritime Day, we, as Europeans, want to celebrate this reality and to raise awareness about maritime opportunities and our new Integrated Maritime Policy, said the President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso.Since the proposal of an Integrated Maritime Policy by the European Commission on October 2007 and its subsequent endorsement by Heads of State and Government at the European Council of 14 December 2007, real progress has been made towards building a coherent framework to promote synergies and resolves potential conflicts between different sea-related policy areas. In line with the detailed Action Plan published in October, the Commission itself has already come forward with proposals to combat illegal fishing, boost development of EU ports and port cities, re-assess the social framework regulating seafaring jobs, and promote a better fit between energy policy and maritime policy. It has also carried out a stock-taking exercise looking at maritime surveillance systems, and the offshore activities and competences of the Member States.

EU plans international embassies By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels Last Updated: 2:31AM BST 03/05/2008

The European Union will open its own embassies under a plan critics fear represents a power grab by Brussels officials pushing for a federal superstate. The secret plan represents the first time that full EU embassies have been discussed seriously. The Embassies of the Union would be controlled by a new EU diplomatic service created by the Lisbon Treaty. The Daily Telegraph has seen a high-level Brussels document discussing plans for a European External Action Service (EEAS) which was proposed under the new EU Treaty, currently being ratified in Westminster.

Talks have so far remained behind closed doors. Officials fear political fallout over plans to implement the new Treaty before it has been fully ratified. Working papers circulating in Brussels suggest that more than 160 EU offices around the world, including in member states, would become embassies. The new service would rival established diplomatic services. Britain, with one of the world's largest, maintains 139 embassies and high commissions in capital cities. Equally controversial is a proposal for EU ambassadors who would be accountable to the European Parliament.

Parliament should aim for proper hearings of special representatives and ambassadorial nominees in the tradition of the US Congress for nominations of a clearly political nature, says the document. Plans for the new foreign service have raised highly sensitive political issues by giving trappings of statehood to the EU and by fusing, for the first time, national diplomats with existing eurocrats. A vicious battle over who should control the diplomatic corps has broken out between national governments and the European Commission. Countries such as Britain are alarmed that the EEAS, which is expected to take on some consular activities, would be a stepping stone to a single supranational euro-diplomatic service. Meanwhile, Brussels officials fear that, if controlled by national governments, the new EEAS would draw power from Community bodies, such as the Commission, to inter-governmental institutions such as the Council of the EU, which represents member states.

Any inter-governmentalism of policy areas under Community competence has to be avoided, states the confidential document. The EEAS will have to be in a specific way administratively connected to the European Commission.The EEAS will number between 2,500 to 3,000 officials at its inception in January next year. It is then expected to grow to 7,000, or even up to 20,000, according to different estimates. Britain, which loses its veto over the EEAS after it is created by a European summit decision expected in October, is expected to contribute around 20 to 30 senior diplomats to the EU service. William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, said yesterday: As predicted the renamed EU Constitution is forming the basis of a power grab by the EU. It exposes Labour's stupidity in giving up the veto on an area key to Britain's interests.A Foreign Office spokesman said: The UK opposes and will argue against naming EEAS offices embassies.

Trade minister urges EU to want Canada's oil MAY 15,08

OTTAWA (AFP) — Canada's trade minister, itching for a free trade pact with a wary European Union, said on Thursday the EU should want to deepen its trade relations with Canada for its oil.Canada's an energy power, Trade Minister David Emerson told a conference on the prospects of closer economic ties between Canada and the EU.

And Canada's development of huge oil and gas reserves in the coming decades, particularly in the Arctic, is a very, very powerful reason why partners like the EU should want to deepen their relationship with Canada, he said.I think if the European Union is visionary, they'll realize that Canada could be one of the most critical, strategic trade moves that they make in the next few decades.Canada and the EU are currently studying removing barriers to improve bilateral trade, currently at 110 billion dollars annually, but the EU has not shown much interest in a full free trade pact with Canada.At an estimated 173 billion barrels, the oil sands in western Canada are the second largest oil reserve in the world behind Saudi Arabia, but they have been neglected, except by local companies, because of high extraction costs.Since 2000, skyrocketing crude oil prices and improved extraction methods have made exploitation more economical, and have lured several multinational oil companies to mine the sands.The Arctic, meanwhile, is believed to hold the world's largest remaining undiscovered oil and gas fields, and the receding ice cap due to global warming is said to be opening up the region to greater development.

US COULD STRIKE IRAN THIS YEAR
http://www.infolive.tv/en/infolive.tv-22568-israelnews-sources-jerusalem-say-u-s-could-strike-iran-year

Bush hails Israelis as chosen people but ignores Palestinians on catastrophe day By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem Friday, 16 May 2008

President George Bush lavished anniversary praise on Israel yesterday, as Palestinians commemorated the Nakba or catastrophe when 700,000 were forced from or fled their homes 60 years ago.In a special address to the Israeli Knesset, Mr Bush declared that the US was proud to be the closest ally and best friend in the world of a nation that was a homeland for the chosen people and had worked tirelessly for peace and... fought valiantly for freedom.And in a speech that linked together Hamas, Hizbollah and al-Qa'ida, the President likened those – including good and decent people – who urged negotiations with terrorists and radicals, with supporters of appeasing the Nazis before the Second World War.On Iran, Mr Bush said that permitting the world's leading sponsor of terror to possess the world's deadliest weapon would be an unforgiveable betrayal of future generations.Mr Bush's speech was notable for only one reference to Palestinian aspirations for a state. He did not allude to the current negotiations between the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, and the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, on the outlines of two-state solution that he himself helped to kick-start at the Annapolis conference last year.

Instead, his only mention was in a passage envisaging Israel's 120th anniversary – 60 years hence – in which Palestinians would have the homeland they have long dreamed of and deserved – a democratic state that is governed by law. By that time, he prophesied, the Middle East would consist of free and independent societies, and Hamas, Hizbollah and al-Qaida would have been defeated as Muslims across the region recognise the emptiness of the terrorists' vision and the injustice of their cause.Nor did Mr Bush make even an oblique reference to the fact that he was delivering his speech on the day that Palestinians annually commemorate the Nakba in the 1948war that left a victorious Israel in control of 78 per cent of mandatory Palestine.As sirens sounded and thousands of black balloons were released across the West Bank, several thousand Palestinians gathered in Ramallah's main Manara Square to hear a taped address by Mr Abbas urging reconciliation and an end to Israeli settlement building in the West Bank to facilitate negotiations on a future state. Sixty years have passed, he said. It's time to end the Nakba for the Palestinian people.But a Nakba day message from Hamas, which controls Gaza, called on Palestinians to continue resistance and urged the Palestinian President to abandon the illusion of negotiations.At least one Palestinian youth was injured in Gaza after several dozen teenagers broke away at the end of a Hamas-organised protest near the northern Erez crossing. As youths threw stones, Israeli forces fired live rounds and tear gas.Three Arab Knesset members were led away before the President's speech by security guards after unfurling a banner saying We shall overcome.Mr Bush repeated the symbolic oath traditionally uttered by Israeli soldiers at Masada, the fortress where 960 Jews in the first century rebellion against Roman rule committed suicide rather than surrender, and which he had visited yesterday: Masada shall never fall again. He added to a standing ovation: And America will be at your side.But his speech did not mention the occupation of Palestinian territory since the 1967 war or restate US and international stances critical of Israel – such as demands for settlement outposts to be removed or for expansion of settlements to be halted. Nor did he mention that those calling for some engagement with Hamas include some former Israeli military and intelligence figures.Mr Olmert told parliamentarians that he was confident that a peace agreement would be approved in the Knesset by a large majority and... supported by the vast majority of the Israeli public.

The CARMEL ALERT May 16th 2008
A compilation of news reports from the past week for the information of those committed to praying for Israel and the salvation of the Jewish people.Guest Comment: I am a Zionist By Reuven Koret Originally Published on Independence Day, May 13, 2002

I belong to a people who brought the Bible to the world, transmitting the tradition of the Torah, the Ten Commandments, and the idea of One God from generation to generation. I am part of an ancient nation that reclaimed its homeland two thousand years after being expelled from it, rising up like a phoenix from the ashes and impotence of the Holocaust. I am a citizen of a country that has gathered in her scattered people, taking in refugees from one hundred nations, rescuing the persecuted and the impoverished, welcoming idealists and adventurers and restless wanderers who chose to join her, like me. I am defended by the IDF, the finest small fighting force in the world, a citizens' army with high moral standards and purity of arms second to no other nation. I am grateful to merit Jerusalem as my capital, the place to which our people have always turned, the city that our soldiers reunited and redeemed from desecration after our enemies destroyed her synagogues and sacred sites, using her shrines as garbage dumps and the tombstones of our ancestors to line their sewers. I am grateful to walk the streets in a land where a Jew can wear a skullcap or a Star of David or a black robe without fearing ridicule or persecution or even looks askance.

I speak and understand Hebrew, the sacred tongue of Holy Writ, a dead language revived by our people so that our nation would have a common basis for communication. I am proud that every child can read the Torah in its original form. I raise my children in schools where the victories and tragedies of our people are remembered, where the holidays celebrate our God and our traditions. I participate in the only democracy in a region of the world where freedom of expression and human rights are otherwise absent. I live in a land where I can speak of our national flaws, our social failings, our fallible leaders - and there are many, many of each --without fear of being censored, imprisoned or executed. I am proud that our country is hated by some of the most vicious, cruel, backward, repressive, terror-supporting dictatorships in the world.

I am proud that the morally vapid governments of Europe, Africa, and Asia, along with the UN in which their majorities rule, have nothing better to do than to condemn us. I am proud that our strongest ally is the greatest nation in the world, and proud that its people and its elected representatives stand by us and prevent us from isolation and condemnation by lesser nations with weaker moral fiber. I am proud of our entrepreneurial accomplishments, our research, our technologies, our innovative products. I am proud of our artists, our musicians, our authors, our athletes, and our pilots. I'm proud of our national airline, and its legendary security checks, and I'm proud that by now they let me pass with a few perfunctory questions. I am proud of my fellow citizens, who have shown such grace and courage under fire, refusing to allow their love of life and their passion forfreedom to be sapped by death-seeking, freedom-hating terrorists. I am proud of our compassionate leftists, and our patriotic rightists. I'm proud of our unbending ultra-Orthodox and our ultra-rational secularists.

I'm proud of our pioneering settlers and our peace-seeking activists. I am proud that we are a stiff-necked people. I belong to a people who dwell alone, yet shine a light unto the world. We may not always be right, but we're never as wrong as our enemies claim. And even when we are wrong, we are a nation that seeks to make things right. Our people holds the birthright to the land on which we live, inscribed in the Bible, well proven by archaeological excavations, and verified by the investment of agricultural, industrial, and financial investments we have made, sealed by our sweat and by our blood, by our tears of sorrow and of joy, to develop and defend our country. We stretch out our hands in peace to our Arab neighbors, in full knowledge that they rejected the UN Partition in 1947, invaded our fledgling state in 1948, tried to strangle us in 1967, surprised us on Yom Kippur in 1973.

We pray for a just settlement with the Palestinian people, even though from the inception of the PLO in 1964, before the conquests of the Six Day War, their leadership has been dedicated to liberating Palestine, which means eliminating Israel. We have endured from the Palestinians unceasing terror attacks ever since, and despite all political agreements and diplomatic initiatives, we see that the Palestinians continue to incite their people to despise us and to aspire to destroying us.We have offered to share our land with our neighbors, but we will not give land to be used to drive us into the sea. Even if hundreds of millions of people hate us, even if some nations pray we did not exist, even if some of our enemies won't rest till they kill us and many in the rest of the world don't give a damn, I couldn't be prouder. We have come home, and this is it. I am an Israeli, a citizen of the one and only Jewish homeland. I thank God that I was a born in a time when I could fulfill the dream of two thousand years to return to Zion.

I am a Zionist, a believer and supporter and defender of our reborn nation. And you who read these words, with compassion and understanding and identification - whether you are Jewish or not, Israeli or not -- you are a Zionist, too. The Lord bless you as you bless Israel by standing in defense of her right to exist on the land given to the Jewish people by the God of Israel . Lets pray that Israel will turn back to their God. Do not be silent, but share this with your fellow Christians, share it with your pastors, and with anyone you have a chance to speak to. Lets also pray for that breakthrough to the Muslims, and please remember to pray for our son Jordan, and all of his fellow soldiers in the IDF.

Shabbat Shalom ... David & Josie