CALIFORNIA STILL ON FIRE

FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS

REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

WILDFIRES CAUSE POOR AIR QUALITY
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NORCAL FIRES STILL RAGE
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Hundreds of fires sparked by rare lightning storm By TERENCE CHEA, Associated Press Writer Wed Jun 25, 12:51 AM ET

SAN FRANCISCO - In less than a day, an electrical storm unleashed nearly 8,000 lightning strikes that set more than 800 wildfires across Northern California — a rare example of dry lightning that brought little or no rain but plenty of sparks to the state's parched forests and grasslands. The weekend storm was unusual not only because it generated so many lightning strikes over a large geographical area, but also because it struck so early in the season and moved in from the Pacific Ocean. Such storms usually don't arrive until late July or August and typically form southeast of California.You're looking at a pattern that's climatologically rare. We typically don't see this happen at this time of summer, said John Juskie, a science officer with the National Weather Service in Sacramento. To see 8,000, that's way up there on the scale.Thousands of firefighters battled the blazes Tuesday from the ground and air. The lightning-caused fires have scorched tens of thousands of acres and forced hundreds of residents to flee their homes, though few buildings have been destroyed, said Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.It's just extremely, extremely dry, Berlant said. That means any little spark has the potential to cause a large fire. The public needs to be extra cautious because we don't need any additional wildfires.Despite the many lightning strikes that hit the ground on Saturday alone, the weekend thunderstorm brought little precipitation because the rain evaporated in hot, dry layers of the atmosphere before it hit the ground, Juskie said.

The lightning storm struck California when the state was experiencing one of its driest years on record. Earlier this month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought and directed agencies to speed up water deliveries to drought-stricken areas. Many communities are have adopted strict conservation measures.From San Francisco to Los Angeles, cities have only seen a tiny fraction of the rainfall they normally receive in a typical year. In the Central Valley, the cities of Sacramento, Modesto, Stockton and Red Bluff have recorded their driest March-to-May periods since at least the 19th century, according to the weather service.A combination of lightning and very dry fuels will spark fires, said Mark Strobin, a weather service meteorologist in Monterey. It doesn't take much nowadays especially with how dry it is.Even before the lightning struck, California had already seen an unusually large number of destructive wildfires with about 140 square miles burned, compared to about 66 square miles during the same period last year, according to state officials. The fire season typically does not peak until late summer or early fall.

This doesn't bode well for the fire season, said Ken Clark, a meteorologist in Southern California with AccuWeather.com. We're not even into the meat of the fire season at this point, and the brush is extremely dry. It's not going to get any better, it's going to get worse.The weekend's lightning storm combined with extremely dry conditions to spark about 840 separate blazes from the Big Sur area of Monterey County to Del Norte County on the Oregon border.By contrast, 574 lightning-sparked fires blackened about 86 square miles in Northern California in all of 2007.One of the state's worst wildfire years occurred in 2001, when more than 2,000 lightning-caused blazes burned about 289 square miles, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.Areas hit the hardest by the weekend thunderstorm include Mendocino County, where 131 fires have burned more than 20 square miles and threatened about 500 homes; Butte County, where 25 fires have burned about 6 square miles and threatened 400 homes; and the Shasta-Trinity Forest, where more than 150 fires have burned about 12 square miles and threatened 200 homes.On Tuesday, fire crews from Nevada and Oregon arrived after Schwarzenegger requested extra help. Smoke from the fires has darkened skies in the San Francisco Bay area and Central Valley, causing public health officials to issue air-quality warnings.The weather service has said more dry thunderstorms could strike Northern California later this week.
Associated Press Writer Alicia Chang contributed to this story from Los Angeles.

FLOOD VICTIMS GAMBLED, LOST
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IOWA BEGINS CLEANUP
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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.

Corn farmers' hopes are dashed by the flood By DAVID PITT, Associated Press Writer JUNE 25,08

DES MOINES, Iowa - This year's corn crop was Bill Talsma's lottery ticket — a potentially record-setting haul worth millions.

Then came the flood.

The raging rivers and streams destroyed nearly a quarter of the crop Talsma and his brother were growing on about 75 percent of their 9,000 acres in Iowa, and drenching rains damaged the rest. Had all his corn come in, Talsma could have seen a profit of as much as $6 million.

Now, he will be lucky to bring home a fraction of that.

I was counting on this being one of my best years ever, but now it's one that you just want to get behind you, the 50-year-old Talsma said.Across the Corn Belt states of Iowa, Illinois and Missouri, many farmers are looking at a bleak harvest after a planting season that started out with the promise of great riches.

The reason farmers were optimistic: Corn prices have been climbing to all-time highs in recent months — from $3.75 per bushel in mid-2007 to $7.25 in the past few days — because of increased demand from livestock producers, overseas markets and the ethanol industry, which relies almost entirely on corn.But a wet, cold spring tamped down expectations of a bumper crop. Then came the flooding.In Iowa, the No. 1 corn-producing state, the Iowa Farm Bureau has pegged the corn losses at $1.5 billion, plus $1.5 billion in soybean losses. It is still unclear how much damage the corn crop has suffered nationwide, because the flooding is not over.

That's the big question of the hour, said Pat Westhoff, an economist with the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri.Consumers will see the effects in higher food and ethanol prices. But for farmers it's more personal.

Although the water has receded from Talsma's land, thick mud and large ponds of water remain. Corn that should be waist-high has barely poked out of the ground in some of Talsma's low-lying fields along Interstate 80 east of Des Moines. The plants in the fields where the water has drained are sickly looking and probably won't grow to maturity.The flooded land cannot be replanted with corn this late in the growing season, since an early frost in the fall could damage or kill the crop and waste any money spent on replanting. As for growing something else, it is still too wet in many fields to plant soybeans.The math is brutal: With corn selling for $7.25 per bushel, and a reasonable yield of 180 bushels per acre, Talsma and his brother should have cleared about $1,300 an acre. Overhead on the farm — expenses such as fuel, chemicals and fertilizer — average about $400 an acre, leaving a profit of $900. On 6,750 acres of corn, that's $6.1 million.But the flood destroyed 20 percent of the crop. Talsma expects yields on the remaining ground of roughly 60 bushels an acre, cutting his profit in a best-case scenario to less than $200,000. Realistically, he expects to recover only his costs through crop insurance.

I'll probably hold my expenses together, but there will be no income, he said.For some farmers, the losses could extend past the missed payday. Farmers often sell a portion of their crop in advance through futures contracts that guarantee a certain price for a specified number of bushels. Last fall, when corn was selling for between $3.50 and $4 a bushel but futures were trading at $5, a farmer might have decided to sell thousands of bushels through such contracts.Now, farmers without any corn to deliver could be forced to buy it at today's $7 price to meet contracts that will pay them only $5. When you've lost three-fourths of your crop and all of a sudden you've forward-contracted half of it, you're already behind the eight ball, said Virgil Schmitt, a specialist with the Iowa State University Extension Service. Some farmers, expecting a premium price for corn, may have bought new equipment or paid higher land rental costs. Hopefully those people had adequate crop insurance to cover those eventualities, Schmitt said. The most expensive policies cover losses on a farmer's entire crop, based on the prevailing market price. Cheaper policies only cover a portion of the losses. Federal disaster aid for farmers will pay for some losses not covered by insurance in counties declared eligible by the government. About a third of Phil Winborn's corn and soybean crop near Iowa City is still under several feet of water. He said the crop on that land is ruined and he will have to work to get the soil back in shape for planting next year. Like Talsma, Winborn said that even land that escaped the flooding was damaged by heavy rains. Even the ones we got planted in a good timely manner are looking pretty terrible because they've just been sitting in water, he said. There is some good news: Flooded-out farmers will probably still have a chance next year to cash in on the high price of corn. Low yields this year, along with continuing strong demand for ethanol, are likely to keep prices high, said Scott Irwin, professor of agricultural marketing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Jim Brown, whose 2,500 acres in Iowa were flooded by rain, said: It's Mother Nature. We deal with it every day. We still have our houses and our livelihood. The water will disappear and we'll go back at it.Associated Press writer Christopher Leonard contributed to this story from St. Louis.

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).

Majority of French pessimistic about their country's EU presidency ELITSA VUCHEVA JUNE 25,08 Today @ 09:28 CET

Although France has been preparing its EU presidency for months and has made no secret of its ambitious plans for its chairmanship of the bloc, no more than one French person in three believes Paris will be able to boost Europe after Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon treaty.Asked if they trust their president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to re-launch Europe after the shock of the Irish No on 12 June, 57 percent of the French responded negatively and 31 percent positively, according to a poll published in financial daily Les Echos on Tuesday (24 June).Almost half of the French people do not believe their president will be diplomatic towards his EU counterparts. (Photo: The Council of the European Union)

Some 39 percent trust him to develop an ambitious project for Europe, but 53 percent remain sceptical.Additionally, almost half of those asked - 49 percent - said they did not believe Mr Sarkozy would be diplomatic towards his European partners, while 44 percent trusted him on this point.The French leader's blunt statements and overly familiar language to his counterparts are said to irritate some of them, particularly German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Recently, he also attacked EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson for pursuing a trade liberalisation deal that would lead to cut in agricultural production while a child dies of hunger every 30 seconds, and implied the commissioner had played a role in Ireland's negative vote on the Lisbon treaty.With less than a week left to the start of Paris' EU presidency – lasting from 1 July to 31 December - the majority of French have also expressed scepticism about Mr Sarkozy's ability to make a difference to the EU's economic growth (61 percent share a negative opinion, against 32 percent who are optimistic).A large majority - 71 percent - also do not believe the president will be able to limit the consequences of surging oil prices.Mr Sarkozy's proposal to cap VAT on fuels as a reaction to high prices met a cool reception from most EU leaders, although the European Commission eventually promised to study it.
The poll was carried out on 20 and 21 June for daily Les Echos and France Inter radio. Some 1,000 people were asked their opinion.

MEPs move to make EU enlargement harder
ELITSA VUCHEVA JUNE 25,08 Today @ 09:12 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – MEPs in the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee on Tuesday (24 June) approved an enlargement report stressing that the EU's own capacity to absorb new states should be taken into account when considering membership applications in the future.But the report, which is still to be voted upon in plenary, underlines that the bloc will respect the commitments it has already taken - notably to the western Balkan countries.Europe Day celebrations in Kiev - Ukraine is hoping to be a full EU member one day (Photo: EUUBC)The EU's enlargement strategy should strike a balance between the Union's geo-strategic interests, the impact of political developments outside its borders, and the Union's integration capacity, including its ability to cope with future internal and external challenges and to realise its political integration project, reads the report prepared by German centre-right MEP Elmar Brok.The so-called integration capacity is described as consisting of four elements – accession states should contribute to the EU's ability to fulfil its political objectives, rather than impair it and the bloc's institutional framework should remain efficient and effective.

Additionally, the union's financial resources should remain sufficient to guarantee social and economic cohesion and citizens should be informed about the implications of enlargement through a comprehensive communication strategy.Every enlargement must be followed by adequate consolidation and political concentration, that is to say, by a serious reassessment of the Union's institutions, policies and means in order to respond to the expectations of European citizens and to guarantee the viability of the Union as a political project, the document says.While it stresses that the EU should offer further co-operation and closer ties to it neighbours who have a definite European perspective but at present do not enjoy membership prospects, the report stops short of promising them a place in the club.Participation in the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) does neither in principle nor in practice constitute a substitute for membership or a stage leading necessarily to membership, it reads.

A new enlargement fatigue?

The document and its lukewarm approach towards further EU enlargement represent a blow for some countries – such as Ukraine or Moldova – which are currently part of the ENP, but have expressed hopes they will one day be full members of the bloc.It also comes in the aftermath of Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon treaty in a referendum 10 days ago, which has prompted divisions among EU leaders about the possibilities of continuing with the enlargement process at this stage.France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, have both declared that EU expansion will have to be halted until the document enters into force, while leaders in other countries – such as Poland – have said the process can continue.At the moment, Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey have candidate status to join the EU, while Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina have all been promised EU membership in the long run.

EU states criticised for toothless anti-discrimination laws
RENATA GOLDIROVA JUNE 25,08Today @ 09:22 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU capitals should step up efforts to combat racist crime, which continues its upward trend, the EU's Fundamental Rights Agency has said. It has also suggested that the main reason behind this growth is toothless anti-discrimination laws. It is obvious that the member states are applying the legislation quite unevenly. We must redouble our efforts to make sure that equality becomes a right in practice for everybody in the EU, Anastasia Crickley from the Vienna-based agency said on Tuesday (24 June), after publishing its 2007 report on racism and xenophobia in the EU. The report points to huge differences between member states when its comes to laws designed to crack down on racism. The gaps are linked to the level of sanctions as well as to the number of times they are actually applied. Twelve EU states did not apply any sanctions over the course of the 2006-2007 period, the report says. These countries include the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, Germany, Greece, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain.

UK most effective

On the other hand, the UK has been praised for the most effectively applied legislation in the EU for fighting ethnic discrimination. London issued more sanctions from 2006-2007 than all other member states put together.Bulgaria, Ireland, France, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Finland and Sweden are also among those whose sanctions are relatively more frequent or dissuasive compared to the rest of the EU.Effective sanctions are important to gain the trust of the victim population ... Without effective sanctions, it is unlikely that large parts of the population, companies and also legal practitioners are going to take anti-discrimination legislation very seriously, the report warns.Brussels criticised 14 governments for failing to fully implement the Racial Equality Directive in 2007.In addition, the fundamental rights agency also calls for an independent police complaints authority to be set up in each EU state - a body that would be in charge of registering and responding to abuses by law enforcement officers. Between 2005 and 2006, a general upward trend in racist crime was seen in Germany, Ireland, Austria, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and the UK.France and the UK experienced an increased number of anti-semitic crimes, while Germany and France also saw more crime with an extremist right-wing motive.

Bilateral talks would be easier with EU Lisbon treaty, says Russia RENATA GOLDIROVA 24.06.2008 @ 09:15 CET

Moscow has raised the prospect that yet another impasse over the EU's future institutional set up - caused by the recent Irish No vote to the Lisbon Treaty - could affect talks on a new pact of strategic partnership between the union and Russia. With the Lisbon treaty in force and a clearer picture of how the EU is organised, it would have been easier to negotiate the pact, Russia's ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, said on Monday (23 June).

Speaking to the Financial Times, Mr Chizhov expressed the hope that the 27-nation bloc finds a solution to treaty rejection so that long-delayed partnership talks with Russia do not face a new delay.

Above all, we're not gloating. It's not entirely a sign of the EU's strength, of course, but we'll be close­ly following developments, the ambassador said. Negotiations on a new Partnership and Co-operation pact are expected to get under way at the EU-Russia summit in Siberia later this week (26-27 June) - the first gathering under the leadership of recently elected Russian President Dmitrij Medvedev. We are prepared to deal with the EU as it is. With or without the Lisbon treaty, the EU is still there, Mr Chizhov concluded, underlining that no one should expect a major shift of policy on the Russian side under the new president.But I would say it will add a new personal touch, probably, he added.

Over the past few weeks, advances in bilateral relations became hostage to several demands tabled by EU member state Lithuania, which sought to link the process to security of energy supplies, judicial co-operation with Russia as well as to the Kremlin's role in frozen conflicts in Georgia and Moldova. Earlier, the launch of negotiations had also been blocked by Poland as a result of a trade dispute. But Warsaw dropped its opposition after Moscow agreed to end its embargo on Polish exports of meat and meat products.

Efforts to launch negotiations on a strategic partnership treaty between the EU and Russia, covering areas such as the economy, external security and justice and home affairs, date back to 2006.

European nuclear weapons sites not secure, says US report
HONOR MAHONY 24.06.2008 @ 09:16 CET

Most European sites containing US nuclear weapons are failing to meet security standards set by the Pentagon, a report has shown. The study, commissioned by the US Air Force, was released in February but much of the detail was left out.However, the Federation of American Scientists obtained a partially declassified version, which it posted on its website, showing that the security problem for nuclear weapons in Europe is much bigger than was previously known.According to the study, most sites in Europe require significant additional resources to meet standards, while inspectors uncovered inconsistencies in personnel, facilities and equipment provided to the security mission by the host nation.

Examples of areas noted in need of repair at several of the sites include support buildings, fencing, lighting, and security systems.
A consistently noted theme throughout the visits was that most sites require significant additional resources to meet [Pentagon] security requirements, reads the Blue Ribbon Review of Nuclear Weapons Policies and Procedures study.The investigation was commissioned by the Air Force following an incident last year in which nuclear warheads were flown across the United States without the knowledge nuclear safety personnel.

Hangover from the Cold War

Although the US removed many of its nuclear weapons from Europe after the Cold War, there still remains a number of weapons in NATO countries Germany, Belgium, the UK, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey.According to information displayed on the FAS website, quoting previous reports and declassified documents, the number of 00-350 B61 nuclear bombs in Europe range between 200 and 350.In Germany, the report has sparked criticism among both the Social Democrats - the junior part of the governing coalition - and opposition parties.According to the International Herald Tribune, Niels Annen, foreign affairs expert for the Social Democrats, said that nuclear disarmament would receive a big boost if Germany got rid of the weapons.The nuclear weapons are a hangover from the Cold War and must go, Guido Westerwelle, the head of the liberal Free Democrats, told the Berliner Zeitung daily on Monday.If there are any security risks, this is one more reason to remove all nuclear weapons that were kept in Germany for tactical reasons, he added.

However, the AFP news agency reports government spokesperson Ulrich Wilhelm as saying that the country is bound by NATO agreements to maintain nuclear arms as a military deterrent.For the foreseeable future ... we remain of the view that a deterring military capacity includes not only conventional capacity but also nuclear components,the spokesperson said.