EU TO TRAIN PA FORCES

EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH

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

EARTHQUAKES

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

Moderate quake hits southwest China, 231 hurt AUG 1,08

BEIJING (AFP) - A 5.8-magnitude earthquake hit southwest China on Friday, the US Geological Survey said, close to the area devastated by a massive tremor in May that left nearly 70,000 dead.Chinese state media quoted local officials as saying that 231 people were hurt in the quake, which struck 65 kilometres (40 miles) north of Mianyang, which was severely hit by the 8.0-magnitude quake on May 12.The tremor, which hit at 4:32 pm (0832 GMT), struck not far from an area hit by three quakes one week ago that killed one person and injured at least 17.Friday's quake caused severe landslides and sent tonnes of rock tumbling down mountainsides in the north of Sichuan province on a route that leads to Huanglong and Jiuzhaigou, two popular tourist spots, Xinhua news agency said.Along that route in Pingwu County, 540 homes were destroyed and 2,450 others damaged, local press officer Meng Xiancai told Xinhua.Residents in the area ran out into the road in panic after the quake, the report said.I thought another May 12 earthquake occurred, a person identified only by the surname Zhang told Xinhua.Many residents said they were too scared to return home and would spend the night outdoors, the report said.

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.

MEMORABLE 2008 SEVERE WEATHER SEASON
http://news.yahoo.com/s/wcom/20080801/we_wcom/memorable2008_severe_weather_season

Summertime: heat and storms Kevin Roth
Thu Jul 31, 6:06 PM ET

Midwest

A strong disturbance rolls out of the Upper Midwest through the lower Great Lakes and Ohio Valley producing strong and severe thunderstorms Friday. Damaging wind and hail are the primary threats from the thunderstorms, but an isolated tornado cannot be ruled out. The activity should move along a stalled boundary between a building heat wave over the eastern Plains and more pleasant temperatures over the Great Lakes. Over the weekend that boundary should slowly lift northeastward causing the heat wave to expand into the middle Mississippi Valley. High temperatures should climb into the upper 90s to lower 100s with heat indices topping 110 degrees from the western Ohio Valley southwest to eastern Kansas, including St. Louis and Kansas City, through early next week. Another dangerous element to this heat wave will be the overnight temperatures. In the bigger urban areas like St. Louis and Kansas City temperatures may not dip below the 80 degree mark Saturday night, Sunday night and possibly Monday night.

Northeast

Most of the Northeast will be between systems allowing for a mostly sunny and very warm Friday. Afternoon showers and thunderstorms are likely across northern New England, far northeastern New York state, southwestern New York state and western Pennsylvania. The storms to the north could contain some small hail and briefly gusty winds. Thunderstorms over southwest New York and western Pennsylvania could be stronger containing damaging winds and larger hail. Scattered thunderstorms occur over the entire region Saturday as an upper level disturbance moves through the region. Those storms should keep the region slightly cooler-than-average with highs mainly in the 70s north and the 80s south. Lingering showers and storms are possible across New England Sunday while the remainder of the region has clearing conditions. Temperatures should remain a bit below average Sunday before hotter air builds in next week.

South

The heat wave across the southern Plains and Texas builds eastward through the remainder of the South through the weekend. High temperatures should reach the 90s to lower 100s with heat indices of 100 to 115 degrees for all areas except Florida by Saturday. The heat briefly abates across the Southeast Sunday with highs mostly in the upper 80s to middle 90s, but it returns in full force Monday and Tuesday. About the only relief from the heat would be the threat of afternoon thunderstorms. Unfortunately they are most likely to occur across Florida and along the Gulf Coast.

West

Heat remains the big story for much of the western half of the country into the weekend. High temperatures Friday and Saturday range from the lower 80s over the higher elevations to the middle 90s to lower 100s in the interior valleys and along the front range of the Rocky Mountains to the 105 to 115 degree range in the deserts. The typical holdouts to the extreme heat will be the Northwest and coastal California where temperatures should hold in the 60s along the coast to the middle 80s inland.

Tranquil tropics continue Wayne Verno
Fri Aug 1, 12:05 PM ET

In the Atlantic basin, a tropical wave moving through the northeastern Caribbean will enhance showers and thunderstorms over the Dominican Republic and Haiti through today. However, strong westerly winds aloft will prevent any type of tropical cyclone development in this area. Weak low pressure northeast of Cape Verde Islands in the far eastern Atlantic is encountering colder waters; further weakening is expected. In the eastern Pacific basin, scattered areas of thunderstorms remain poorly organized and no tropical cyclone development is anticipated here as well.

TROUBLE IN THE HOLY LAND Christians, Jews praying on Temple Mount seek religious war Muslim authorities say even right to talk to God on holy site exclusively theirs August 01, 2008 12:40 am Eastern By Ryan Jones 2008 Israel Today

Temple Mount

If Jerusalem's Temple Mount stands at the heart of the Middle East conflict, and if Muslim intransigence regarding the religious rights of others at the site is any indication, then it would appear all talk of regional peace is somewhat premature.In an interview with Israel Today, Azzam Khatib, director of the Islamic Trust (or Waqf) that safeguards the mosques that sit atop the Temple Mount, said that Jews and Christians who try to pray at the ancient holy site are effectively declaring war.Any non-Muslim who seeks such an approach is really seeking a religious war, said Khatib, who insisted that the Temple Mount is an exclusively Muslim site and that Jews and Christians should not even want to pray there.Khatib even took issue with the use of the term Temple Mount, angrily demanding the site be called al-Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary.Khatib refused to consider the possibility that the site was once home to the First and Second Jewish Temples, calling such claims unsubstantiated myths. When presented with a citation from a 1929 tourist guide published by the Supreme Muslim Council that acknowledged the Temple Mount as the site of Solomon's Temple, Khatib rejected the idea that such a book was ever published by a Muslim authority.According to Khatib, when the Muslims first arrived in Jerusalem 1,400 years ago, the Temple Mount area was barren, and no hard evidence of previous structures remained, making any non-Muslim claims to the hilltop mere speculation.When the Muslims came here they never found any standing building or any culture still alive, so they never threatened any standing building, said the Waqf director. We are not going to entertain theories about buildings that may or may not have been here before.

Always a fount of contradiction, the Muslim officials later negated their own claims that the Temple Mount was empty in A.D. 600 with their stories of Muhammad's midnight visit to the Al Aksa Mosque that today towers over the southern end of the raised compound.

Pointing to a massive retaining wall, which if the Muslim officials are to be believed should also not have existed 1,400 years ago, a Waqf guide identified the spot where Muhammad tied his horse, Buraq, after legend has it he traveled thousands of miles in the span of just a few hours.Various Waqf officials also failed to provide a single, cohesive answer as to why the gate on the eastern side of the Temple Mount, known in the Bible as the Golden Gate, is sealed shut. Historical Muslim sources state that the gate was sealed and a cemetery planted in front of it to prevent Jesus' prophesied return.But Khatib said the gate was closed simply because it was built in front of a cemetery and it's difficult to approach a gate while passing through cemeteries, through graves.

When pressed as to why a gate would be built where a cemetery already existed, Khatib's aide and translator chimed in and altered the story, saying that the gate had been there first and after the blocking of the gate, and people stop using the gate, people made use of the area (by burying their dead).A third explanation was provided by a Waqf official identified as Abu Qatis, who mumbled something about a Crusader massacre of Muslims at the gate.

Returning to the issue of protection of access to and religious freedom at the Temple Mount, Khatib and his aide vigorously denied suggestions that Jewish and Christian visitors are ever denied entry. Moments later, however, Khatib defended the practice of turning away visiting Jews and Christians as legitimate payback for Israeli security measures that deny access to the Temple Mount to Palestinian Arab Muslims from outside Jerusalem's municipal boundaries.You cannot expect us to allow in everyone when Palestinians from just outside Jerusalem cannot come here and pray, said Khatib.An Israeli police officer standing guard at one of the Temple Mount's entrances told us that the restrictions on Muslim access are only enforced occasionally, and were only made necessary because of past Muslim riots at the site that ended with stones being hurled onto Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall.This is just an excuse, insisted Khatib. Tell me, during the last five years in Jerusalem, what riots do we have in this area? Clearly unfamiliar with having their positions challenged, Khatib and his aide abruptly ended the interview when it was suggested that perhaps the lack of violence over the past five years was due to the Israeli measures.With reporting by Michael Schneider and Nicole Jansezian.

WELL HAL AGREES WITH ME I SEE, HE THINKS OBAMA IS A FORERUNNER OF THE ANTICHRIST (EU WORLD DICTATOR) ALSO.

How Obama prepped world for the Antichrist August 01, 2008
1:00 am Eastern 2008 By Hal Lindsay

Obama's World Tour was planned as the high point of his campaign, with the candidate retracing the footsteps of great presidents of the past, hobnobbing with world leaders and as one pundit put it, making the Europeans love us again.Obama drew huge crowds in Berlin where he addressed them, oddly enough, as fellow citizens of the world. It was a typically flowery Obama speech, but it hit an unexpectedly sour note when he dramatically intoned:People of Berlin – people of the world – this is our moment. This is our time. ... With an eye toward the future, with resolve in our hearts, let us remember this history, and answer our destiny, and remake the world once again.Pundits on both sides are trying to sort it out. It's a great speech, like I said, if somebody is running for president of the world, but it was too much, even for a compliant and Obama-friendly press corps.The politically progressive newspaper of record, the Washington Post nicknamed Obama the presumptuous nominee after his European performance.The Boston Globe's Boston.com ran a piece in its Political Intelligence section called the Obama Arrogance Watch. David Letterman did one of his signature Top 10 skits entitled, Top Ten Signs Obama is Overconfident, leading off with a proposed bill to change Oklahoma to Oklabama.The London Sunday Times Online ran a brilliant satire piece called He ventured forth to bring light into the world.

A sample paragraph: When he was 12 years old, they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organization with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope? Before wrapping up his tour, Obama stopped by to address a gathering of minority journalists in Hawaii, where he once again apologized for what a rotten place America either used to be, or still is. It is hard to tell from his comment, I personally would want to see our tragic history, or the tragic elements of our history, acknowledged.(Wouldn't anybody besides me personally like to see somebody in the White House who doesn't think America needs apologizing for?)Barack has apologized to the French and Germans for Americans who are too ignorant to learn their language before embarking on their once-in-a-lifetime two-week visit abroad.He's apologized for the simple Midwestern rednecks who, forced to cling to religion and guns to justify their antipathy, just can't help themselves.There was a time when it was considered unpatriotic to be ashamed of America, but that time is long past. Being proud of America means you are probably a Bush-loving neoconservative, so the only sure way to prevent such misidentification is to apologize for it at every opportunity.

America has never faced so many different crises at the same time in living memory. The war with al-Qaida and Islamic terror, the Iran crisis, Afghanistan, nuclear proliferation, the rising price of oil, the falling dollar, enemy acronyms like OPEC, NAM, OIC, U.N. ... Obama is correct in saying that the world is ready for someone like him – a messiah-like figure, charismatic and glib and seemingly holding all the answers to all the world's questions.

And the Bible says that such a leader will soon make his appearance on the scene. It won't be Barack Obama, but Obama's world tour provided a foretaste of the reception he can expect to receive.He will probably also stand in some European capital, addressing the people of the world and telling them that he is the one that they have been waiting for. And he can expect as wildly enthusiastic a greeting as Obama got in Berlin.The Bible calls that leader the Antichrist. And it seems apparent that the world is now ready to make his acquaintance.

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).

JOHN BOLTON ON OLMERTS RESIGNATION
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=9055912&ch=4226720&src=news

OLMERT TO SEPT DOWN IN SEPTEMBER
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=9051324&ch=4226714&src=news

Israel's foreign minister has edge in party race By Adam Entous AUG 1,08

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has a clear edge in the Kadima party race to replace scandal-hit Ehud Olmert, polls showed on Friday, but officials questioned her ability to form a coalition and become prime minister. Two of the three polls published in major Israeli newspapers also showed Livni running nearly neck-and-neck with rightist Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu should snap parliamentary elections be called.

Olmert threw Israel into political turmoil that could hamstring Middle East peacemaking by announcing on Wednesday that he would stand down as premier after a September 17 Kadima leadership contest.Israeli police questioned Olmert for three hours on Friday over allegations he took bribes from an American businessman and made duplicate claims for travel expenses when he was trade minister and mayor of Jerusalem. Police plan to question Olmert again in the near future, officials said.Olmert, who has denied any wrongdoing, would remain caretaker prime minister until his successor builds a new coalition government, a process that could take months.That will give him some time to continue peace talks with the Palestinians and indirect negotiations with Syria, but politicians and analysts said he would lack the mandate to make commitments that would be honored by his successor.Polls in all three major newspapers showed Livni, a former intelligence agent, with a wide lead of 8-18 percentage points over her closest Kadima rival, Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz.

EARLY ELECTIONS

Kadima officials questioned the ability of Livni, Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians, to build a coalition between the country's fractious parties, increasing the chances of early parliamentary elections.Mofaz, a former defence chief known for his tough tactics in crushing a Palestinian uprising, may have an easier time winning over the ultra-Orthodox Shas party to secure the 61 seats needed in parliament to form a stable government, they said.One top Kadima official said he feared the battle to succeed Olmert will tear Kadima to apart.Speaking in Washington, Mofaz said peace talks with Syria should continue, without preconditions, after Olmert steps down.Former prime minister Netanyahu, a vocal critic of Olmert's peace moves, could try to thwart Kadima's plans to form the next government by mustering a majority in parliament, either to form his own coalition or to move up elections scheduled for 2010.But two surveys published on Friday suggested Netanyahu would face a tighter-than-expected race if Kadima picks Livni as its new leader.A poll in the mass-circulation Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper showed Netanyahu would win 30 seats over Livni's 29. Left-leaning Haaretz had Livni on 26 seats to Netanyahu's 25.Maariv showed Netanyahu clearly ahead, with Likud winning 33 seats in Israel's 120-seat parliament, and Kadima taking 20.Defence Minister Ehud Barak, the Labor Party leader, is widely seen as backing Livni, the most powerful woman in Israeli politics since Prime Minister Golda Meir in the 1970s.In a statement on Friday, he said Labor would consider joining a new coalition but added: If we need to go to elections, then we will be ready.(Additional reporting by Ori Lewis in Jerusalem and Dan Williams in Washington; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Israel: Agriculture trade deal with EU a step closer

Brussels, 1 August (AKI) - The European Union and Israel on Friday agreed in principle to further open up their food markets to one another's products, officials in Brussels announced. The European Commission said it has reached a preliminary agreement with Israel to further liberalise trade in agricultural products, fish and fishery products.It described the deal as balanced and beneficial to both sides.Around 95 percent of EU-Israeli trade in processed agricultural products is already fully liberalised, the commission said.For agricultural, fish and fishery products, substantial progress was made towards full liberalisation of trade, it said in a statement.Regarding more sensitive agricultural products such as fruit and vegetables and sugar, improved market access was achieved for both sides, the statement added. The new agreement raises quotas and lowers tariffs on a range of products including citrus fruits, grapes and goose liver, yoghurt and soya oil.The agreement still has to be formally approved by both sides. Once adopted, the agreement will create new trade opportunities for EU exporters in a large range of products that could not previously reach the Israeli markets, the statement said. Israel's major export sectors will benefit from further liberalisation and better market access.

EU IN NO RUSH FOR IRAN'S REPLY TO NUCLEAR OFFER: DIPLOMAT
Received Friday, 1 August 2008 15:34:00 GMT

BRUSSELS, Aug 1, 2008 (AFP) - The European Union is in no rush for Iran's response in the next 24 hours to an international offer of incentives for a freeze on its nuclear activities, an EU diplomat said Friday.There's no real limit, said the diplomat on condition of anonymity shortly after Washington set the weekend as a deadline to reply to the offer. We're in no rush to have an a response in the next 24 hours.We hope to have a clear answer either today or tomorrow. But if it comes Monday what difference does it make, the diplomat added.After a meeting with Iran's negotiator in Geneva, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana asked for a response in two weeks, but if it's in 16 days instead of 14 it's not a problem. We are not obsessed with a date.The package of incentives, drawn up by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, offers Tehran technology and negotiations if it suspends uranium enrichment, which the West fears could be used to make atomic weapons.

EU Trains PA Police Middle East Newsline August 01, 2008

RAMALLAH [MENL] -- The European Union has begun another training course ofPalestinian Authority police officers. The EU Police Mission to Palestine, or EUPOL, began its 11th trainingmission in Jericho on July 29. Officials said the EU was instructing 53officers in charge of law enforcement units across the West Bank at theJericho Training Center.This represents a clear commitment by the EU to long term enhancementof the entire Palestinian criminal justice system, key to establishing lawand order for Palestinians, EUPOL director Colin Smith said.

Iran heading to nuclear breakthrough: Mofaz By Dan Williams and Susan Cornwell AUG 1,08

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran is heading toward a major breakthrough in its nuclear program, an Israeli official said on Friday, as the White House warned Iran could face new sanctions if it ignores an international freeze offer. As soon as 2010 (Iran) will have the option to reach (uranium production) at military levels, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz told an audience in Washington, adding that this would be an unacceptable development.Oil prices rose $4 in early Friday trade after the warning by Mofaz stirred concerns of a possible attack on the OPEC nation that would disrupt supplies.There has been speculation that either the United States or Israel could attack Iran's nuclear facilities, though both have said force should be a last recourse.The West accuses Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian energy program; Iran denies it, and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said this week that Iran would press ahead on its nuclear path.Western powers gave Iran two weeks from July 19 to respond to their offer to hold off on imposing more U.N. sanctions on Iran if Tehran would freeze any expansion of its nuclear work.The White House said on Friday that negative consequences await if the Iranians don't respond positively. The informal deadline is this Saturday.That would possibly come in the form of sanctions, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters.The United Nations has already imposed three rounds of sanctions on Iran.Mofaz, a former Israeli defense minister and contender to replace outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, emphasized that any new sanctions should be imposed this year, instead of allowing the Iranians to stall for time past U.S. presidential elections in November.We must insist on Iran meeting the timetable set, he said in a speech to the Washington Institute. The red line should be that there is no uranium enrichment on Iranian soil.It is a race against time and time is winning, the Iranian-born Mofaz warned. But he also said he supported diplomacy and spoke of other options as last resort.

Mofaz told reporters that he had handed over to the U.S. government a list of Israeli proposals for new sanctions. These would affect Iranian leaders and others individuals of influence, as well as the general populace.Asked whether there had been any discussion with the Americans of possible U.S. green lights for Israeli military action against Iran, Mofaz said: I cannot answer the question, because it was not raised in our dialogue.U.S. officials say they are not sure what to expect from the Iranians this weekend, and that they would want to consult with the other major powers behind the offer about Iran's response, or lack of it. Those countries are Russia, China, Germany, France, and Britain.The Iranians sent mixed messages this week and it's really hard to tell what the bottom line is. And so we'll just need to wait and see if they do respond formally, Perino said.Reuters asked Mofaz whether he worried about losing U.S. support when climbing gasoline prices were often blamed on Mideast turmoil.The existence of the state of Israel is more important than the price of gas or oil, he replied. (Additional reporting by David Alexander in Kennebunkport, Maine, Editing by Anthony Boadle)

FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU Official: Olmert to give Palestinians state before quitting Prime minister plans to accelerate negotiations to reach deal on paper by next month August 01, 2008 1:00 am Eastern By Aaron Klein 2008 WorldNetDaily

JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Palestinian Authority he intends to accelerate negotiations the next few weeks to reach a deal on paper outlining a Palestinian state before he steps down from office next month, a top PA negotiator told WND.

Papers are very important. It puts limits on the new prime minister. For example, the weak point of Israeli-Syrian negotiations are papers signed by former prime ministers that now must be abided during current negotiations, said the PA negotiator, speaking to WND on condition of anonymity.Olmert told us his goal is to reach an agreement on paper, the negotiator said.He said the agreement will likely encompass understandings regarding the transfer of much of the West Bank to the Palestinians. He said he hopes the issue of Jerusalem is broached but that it might not be mentioned on paper beyond a declaration of agreement to negotiate further.Sending political shockwaves through the country, Olmert yesterday announced he will resign from office after his Kadima party holds internal elections next month to choose a new leader. He said he is stepping down due to a criminal investigation, described by police officials as serious, in which he is accused of corruption and financial improprieties.But Olmert officials have been telling reporters here the prime minister intends to continue negotiating with the PA as long as he remains in office.One Olmert official told the Haaretz daily newspaper the prime minister intends to reach an agreement with the Palestinians during the time he has left.Any agreement he reaches with the Palestinians won't be a personal agreement, and he will make sure that the (new) Kadima leadership is briefed and on board, the official added.

For his part, PA President Mahmoud Abbas' announced he would negotiate with any Israeli leader and that Olmert's departure shouldn't affect negotiations started at last November's U.S.-backed Annapolis conference, which seek to create a Palestinian state by January.Not everyone in Olmert's party was happy with the continued talks.Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, considered a frontrunner for the Kadima leadership primary, said it would be wrong to reach agreements with the Palestinians on the core issues of the conflict while Olmert's government is teetering.At this time of change in the government, we must not reach agreements on the core issues in negotiations with the Palestinians, Mofaz said. Anything that is decided now is very problematic, because it is happening before the change in the government and against the background of instability on the Palestinian side.

Turmoil ahead as Israeli PM prepares to go by Patrick Moser
Fri Aug 1, 12:27 AM ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel was bracing on Thursday for weeks of political turmoil after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's shock announcement that he would step down in September, casting a shadow over Middle East peacemaking. Wednesday's announcement opened the way for political jockeying inside Olmert's centrist Kadima party, which is scheduled to hold a leadership vote on September 17, and renewed calls for snap general elections.Everyone in this government is responsible for a string of failures. We must let the people decide through new elections, right-wing opposition leader and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu told public radio.

Opinion polls indicate that the Likud leader is a favourite to replace the embattled Olmert, whose time in office since early 2006 has been dogged by a string of corruption allegations and dismal popularity ratings.The End of Olmert's Era, said the front page of the Maariv newspaper, while the left-leaning Haaretz bluntly declared: Olmert failed in war and failed in peace.Olmert's decision raised questions over the next steps in the hobbled peace process with the Palestinians, revived at a US conference in November, and with recently launched indirect talks with longtime foe Syria.But US President George W. Bush's administration, which has played a key role in the negotiations with the Palestinians, said it would continue to push for a solution to the decades-old conflict by the end of the year.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said in Tunisia he would work with any prime minister elected in Israel, but privately Palestinian negotiators said Olmert had distinguished himself during the recent talks.The negotiations with Olmert have been the most important since 1991, one negotiator who asked not to be named told AFP. The Israelis listened to us and discussed the issues.

Another member of the Palestinian negotiating team, Mohammed Ashtiyah, said the prime minister was serious and involved.Olmert and Abbas have met 15 times in the past 12 months.Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Malki said the Palestinian Authority does not think that peace talks will be hit by Olmert's decision.We are not worried by the change in Israeli prime minister because we know that Israel is seriously engaged to remain involved in the negotiation process with the Palestinians, he told a news conference in Madrid.Hamas, which seized power in the Gaza Strip in June 2007, said Olmert's departure signalled the demise of the peace talks which the Islamist movement, pledged to Israel's destruction, had always rejected.Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called Olmert's resignation a huge blow to the Palestinian Authority, which he said had hitched its fate to the possibility of achieving an agreement by the end of the year.Olmert's surprise announcement was the crescendo of a political storm unleashed when police launched a probe in May over suspicions he had accepted large sums of money from US financier Morris Talansky to fund political campaigns and a lavish lifestyle in the 13 years before he became premier.He was to be questioned by police in Jerusalem on Friday for the fourth time since May. The interview is expected to focus on the Olmert tours affair in which he is alleged to have billed the same foreign trips several times over.I have made mistakes and I regret it, Olmert said in a televised address from his official residence in Jerusalem as he announced he would step down after the Kadima leadership election. I will quit my duties in an honourable, just and responsible manner, as I have acted throughout my mandate. I will then prove my innocence.During his time in office, Olmert also came under pressure over the devastating Lebanon war in 2006 which was widely perceived as a failure in Israel. The Olmert who spoke yesterday from the garden of his compound in Jerusalem was a crushed and battered man, tainted by allegations, lacking public trust or a sympathetic ear, Haaretz said. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and hawkish Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz are seen as the top contenders to take the helm of Kadima, and both have said they favour forming a national unity government. But Netanyahu said he had no intention of reaching any deal with Kadima regardless of its new leader. This government has finished its mission, irrespective of who will head Kadima, said Netanyahu, who served as prime minister between 1996 and 1999.

WORLD TERRORISM

2 PETER 2:5
5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

2 PETER 3:7
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men

LEVITICUS 26:16
16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you( sudden) terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

GENESIS 16:11-12
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.

ISAIAH 33:1,18-19 Woe to thee that spoilest,(destroys) and thou wast not spoiled;(destroyed) and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil,(destroy) thou shalt be spoiled;(destroyed) and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.
18 Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?
19 Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand.

JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

Fatah frees Hamas detainees in West Bank: official AUG 23,08

NABLUS, West Bank (AFP) - Fatah security forces of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Friday released several Hamas militants arrested in the West Bank in recent days, a Palestinian official said. Four Hamas militants, including Mohammed Ghazal, a member of the Hamas leadership in the West Bank, have been released on Abbas's orders, the official said, adding that more would be freed later.Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zohri said the move was not enough.

It is insufficient because around 200 Hamas members have been arrested in the past few days and we expect these political prisoners to be released, Abu Zohri told AFP in Gaza City.The Palestinian Authority said on Thursday that Abbas had ordered the release of all the Hamas militants detained by Fatah security forces recently.The arrests were part of a tit-for-tat campaign after five members of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing, and a little girl were killed a week ago by a bomb in the Gaza Strip.Hamas blamed Abbas's supporters and began a massive crackdown across Gaza, arresting more than 300 people, mostly Fatah members.Fatah denied involvement in the blast but later Abbas' security forces retaliated by arresting dozens of Hamas members in the West Bank.The two main Palestinian factions have been deeply divided since Hamas expelled Abbas's security forces from Gaza in a week of bloody street battles in June 2007, cleaving the territories into rival entities.Both sides have meanwhile insisted that the latest arrests were not politically motivated.

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

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

SIGNS IN THE SUN, MOON AND STARS

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

WATER FOUND ON MARS
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NASA Now Looking for Life's Building Blocks on Mars Andrea Thompson Senior Writer SPACE.com Fri Aug 1, 12:32 PM ET

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander may have found water ice on the red planet, but it still has a lot of work left to do to answer the question that has been on scientists' minds for decades: Has Mars ever been capable of harboring life? Phoenix scientists announced yesterday that the mission finally confirmed the presence of subsurface water ice in the north polar regions of Mars — first detected by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter in 2002 — about two months after touching down on the Martian surface on May 25.The lander is now analyzing the ice to see if it was ever a liquid and if it contains organic materials, the building blocks of life.The ice, collected from below the surface at the lander's site in the Martian arctic, could have acted like a freezer, protecting any organics that may have formed there.We have an environment where organics could be preserved, said mission scientist William Boynton of the University of Arizona.The detection of organics on Mars would not necessarily mean there is life. It would just mean that carbon and other molecules that make up life as we know it were present. Organics would be the home run or the grand slam of the mission, said Bruce Jakosky, a geologist at the University of Colorado who is not affiliated with the mission. However, if they don't find organics, that doesn't mean that there wasn't life on Mars, Jakosky said. Other missions, planned and unplanned, will keep the search alive.

Liquid water

The confirmation of the Odyssey ice observations was a key goal of the $420 million Phoenix mission, but only the first of several steps in characterizing the dirt and ice layer of Mars' Vastitas Borealis region to determine whether it may once have been habitable at some point in the planet's past.I see this as a step along the way of Phoenix getting to its major science results, Jakosky said. By itself, that's not a major result.One of those steps is determining whether the water ice ever existed in a liquid form, said Phoenix robotic arm co-investigator Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis — liquid water being a key resource for life as we know it.Phoenix will look for signs of ancient liquid water by heating up samples of the icy dirt mixture in the tiny ovens of its Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA), which can analyze the vapors given off by the heated samples to analyze their composition.TEGA has already begun heating up the sample that confirmed that the rock-hard layer beneath the surface dirt was indeed water ice — when ice begins to melt, it takes more heat to raise the temperature of the sample. Over the course of the next week, TEGA will gradually heat the sample all the way up to 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 degrees Celsius).As the sample is heated, any hydrated minerals, or those that likely formed in the presence of liquid water, show themselves as they break apart and the signature of their water is detected by the instrument, explained Boynton, a TEGA co-investigator.Finding hydrated minerals, such as carbonates, sulfates or clays, would indicate that liquid water once permeated the Martian regolith where Phoenix now sits, Arvidson said in a telephone interview last night.This water would not have flowed as rivers or streams, as it once likely did closer to Mars' equator, where hydrated salts have already been found by NASA orbiters and rovers, but would have percolated through the dirt layer as Mars' orbital motions tipped the northern parts of the planet toward the sun, warming them up, Arvidson added.

The stuff of life

The other big signature Phoenix will look for as the mission continues and the probe's ovens heat up dirt samples will be organic molecules, the building blocks of life.Finding organics would really change our way of thinking, Boynton said.But so far, organic molecules haven't shown up on Mars. When the Viking landers heated up dirt samples in the 1970s, there were really no organic molecules at all, Boynton said.But dirt near the Martian equator faces strong oxidizing pressures, which can destroy organics, Boynton added, which is why Phoenix is looking for them farther north.Organics have proven elusive to Phoenix so far; the first dirt sample analyzed by TEGA, taken from the surface, found no sign of them. But this wasn't much of a surprise to mission scientists.

We didn't really expect to find them in the surface soils, because the surface is subjected to the same oxidizing pressure as the equatorial regions, Boynton told SPACE.com.TEGA will keep looking for signs of organics in subsequent samples taken closer to the ice layer, he added.If Phoenix doesn't find organics, the mission won't be a flop, Jakosky said, because it still gives scientists valuable information about the northern region. Whatever they find is exciting, he said.If it does detect organics though, mission scientists will be cautious about interpreting the findings, Boynton said. They would assume first that any organics could be contamination brought with the spacecraft from Earth. Mission scientists will check with a blank brought from Earth to determine whether or not any organics discovered are terrestrial stowaways.

Even if the blank shows that the organics came from the Martian soil, they still may not be native, Boynton said, since the same organic-bearing meteorites that strike Earth strike Mars as well. Determining the ultimate origin of any organics would likely take bringing back a sample to Earth, a project that both NASA and the European Space Agency are working toward.And organics don't on their own equal life. Just because there are organic compounds, doesn't mean that that's life, said Kim Seelos, a postdoctoral researcher at Johns Hopkins University.

Future missions

Whether or not Phoenix finds signs of organics, it won't be the last time that NASA looks for them on Mars. NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), set to launch in 2009, will pick up where the 1970s Viking missions left off, exploring the regions closer to the equator for signs of them.MSL will be better equipped than Viking, and even Phoenix, to detect organics in dirt samples, with more powerful and sensitive equipment, as well as the ability to roam around.While life is teeming on Earth, Arvidson said, it may not have been so dense on Mars — if it ever existed — perhaps only forming in small pockets. Since Phoenix, as a lander, stays put by definition, it can only explore the patch of ground in its immediate vicinity.However, any organics detected by MSL would have formed in a much more ancient period of Mars' history because the landscape near Mars' equator formed billions of years ago. The surface that Phoenix is exploring is much younger, only tens of millions of years old.For now, Phoenix is the only chance of finding organics on this region of Mars, since no future missions in the works now are planned to return to the frozen northern reaches. To get another mission back there to look the region in greater detail, it would probably take finding organics, Boynton said.But Phoenix isn't the last gasp, or MSL isn't the last gasp to answering the question of whether life ever existed on Mars, Jakosky said.The evidence available to scientists now suggests that Mars could have harbored life, it's just a matter of finding a spot that preserves the signs of it, he added. And Phoenix's landing site, or even MSL's, may not be the ideal spot to go and look for those signs, whether by sending another rover or staging a mission to return a sample to Earth.There are plenty of other environments on Mars where Jakosky would like to look for signs of life. While he can't point to a particular spot, there is evidence that Mars once had features that could have supported life, including ancient lake beds, ancient highlands where evidence suggests that water existed for long periods of time, and hot springs — places like Yellowstone, as Jakosky describes them.Some scientists, such as Seelos, doubt that clear evidence of Martian life itself will ever be found because any life would have likely been microbial, which is not easily preserved as fossils. But Jakosky sees this as an unnecessarily pessimistic view, because ancient microbes have been preserved in some places on Earth.But it could be awhile before scientists ever answer the question of life on Earth because they currently understand so little about the history and geology of Mars, Jakosky said.We don't know the answer and I don't even know how to put odds on when and whether they will find the answer, Jakosky said.His advice is to keep using missions like Phoenix, MSL, and eventually a sample return mission to build our knowledge of Mars, as we have built the knowledge of our own planet's past.

New Images: Phoenix on Mars!
Original Story: NASA Now Looking for Life's Building Blocks on Mars
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Man accused of beheading victim on Greyhound bus appears in Manitoba court By The Canadian Press AUG 1,08

PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, Man. - The man accused in the beheading of a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus in Manitoba uttered not a word when he made his first court appearance Friday. Vince Weiguang Li, 40, of Edmonton, his feet shackled, shuffled into a courtroom in Portage la Prairie, Man., with his head bowed. He did not make eye contact with anyone the entire time he was before the judge. He would not even reply when the judge asked him if he was going to get a lawyer, and only nodded slightly when asked whether he was exercising his right not to speak. The Crown asked for a psychiatric assessment, but the judge said he wanted to give Li a chance to talk to a lawyer about that. It's early and I think the judge just wants to respect his rights to ... speak to counsel and he's giving him that opportunity, Crown prosecutor Larry Hodgson said outside court. I don't think it will be very long that they'll allow him to do that.Hodgson said if Li doesn't get his own lawyer, the court could appoint one or the case could proceed anyway. Li's next court appearance is scheduled for Tuesday in Portage la Prairie. Li is charged with second-degree murder in the gruesome slaying of Tim McLean, 22, on a Greyhound bus that was travelling from Edmonton to Winnipeg. Police have not identified the victim, but friends say it was McLean. Passengers say the young man was stabbed repeatedly before he was beheaded and his body carved up. Police have only confirmed that a man was stabbed. Some passengers also described McLean's attacker as a big man who weighed at least 200 pounds. The man who appeared in court Friday wearing a grey T-shirt and prisoner's vest appeared to be about five-foot-eight or nine with a stocky build. Hodgson couldn't offer many details about Li.

I know he was from Edmonton. I don't know why he was on the bus. That's still under investigation.The RCMP said Li has no known criminal record. Meanwhile, tributes to the victim were pouring into social networking and media websites. A Facebook website called R.I.P. Tim quickly sprang up after news of the attack. I can't believe this is happening, wrote Leah Dryburgh of Winnipeg. Tim, you were the best guy ever. You didn't deserve this at all.

Friends described McLean as a quiet, easy-going carnival worker who was heading home to Winnipeg after a job in Edmonton.

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.

HOARDING OF GOLD AND SILVER

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

BIG PAYDAY FOR BIG OIL
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OIL PROFITS ONLY HALF THE STORY
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Big Oil's biggest quarter ever: $51.5B in all By JOHN PORRETTO, AP Business Writer AUG 1,08

HOUSTON - Oil giants Chevron Corp. and Total SA wrapped up a string of gargantuan, record-breaking earnings reports Friday, a stretch in which six of the major international oil companies topped $50 billion in combined profit for the first time. While the profits of unparalleled size have brought withering criticism from Washington and disgust from consumers across the country, very few were surprised. Crude prices during the second quarter were nearly double what they were a year ago.Chevron said Friday its second-quarter profit rose 11 percent to a record $5.98 billion, despite losing money on the refining side of the business.The San Ramon, Calif.-based company said net income for the three months ended June 30 amounted to $2.90 per share, versus income of $5.38 billion, or $2.52 per share, a year earlier.Revenue rose significantly to $82.9 billion from $56.1 billion a year ago.But results for the second-largest U.S. oil company missed Wall Street forecasts and shares fell slightly in early afternoon trading. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected a profit of $3.03 per share on revenue of $92.41 billion.Like its competitors, Chevron made the bulk of its money at its exploration and production arm, also known as the upstream, where income nearly doubled from a year ago to $7.25 billion.Chevron said the average sales price for crude and natural gas liquids was $109 a barrel in the quarter, up from $57 a barrel in the year-earlier period.In addition to Chevron, soaring commodity prices led to record quarters for Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips, BP PLC and Royal Dutch Shell PLC. Exxon Mobil stood apart even from this crowd, logging the largest ever quarterly operating profit for a U.S. company. Barring companies that made huge profits on one-time gains like bankruptcy settlements and spin-offs, Exxon Mobil holds the top 10 records for biggest U.S. quarterly earnings.

French energy company Total SA said Friday its profit climbed 38.7 percent in the second quarter to $7.38 billion. Quarterly sales rose 23 percent to $75.25 billion.Altogether, the profits of the six companies jumped more than 40 percent in the second quarter to $51.5 billion, the first time big Western oil companies have ever reached that level.Total's earnings were at the top end of analysts' expectations.Unlike some other oil majors, Total reported production growth of 1.3 percent in the second quarter.Also Friday, Norway's state-controlled StatoilHydro ASA reported a 37 percent rise in second-quarter net profits to $3.7 billion.At Chevron, the company division that refines and sells gasoline actually swung to a loss of $734 million in the quarter after earning $1.3 billion a year ago. The culprit: those same crude prices that lifted upstream earnings.Like its peers, Chevron doesn't produce enough oil on its own to feed its refineries, forcing it to buy some on the open market. And it wasn't able to raise the price of gasoline and other products fast enough to recover its own rising costs for oil.

Chevron also said that planned downtime at some refineries contributed to the loss.The higher cost of crude oil used in the refining process was not fully recovered in the price of gasoline and other refined products, said Chairman and CEO Dave O'Reilly. As a result, our downstream operations incurred a loss in the second quarter, with most of the loss taking place in the United States.

Chevron said overall production in the quarter fell about 3 percent from a year ago, hurt in part by production-sharing contracts. However, on a conference call with analysts Friday, company officials said project startups will increase production in the second half of 2008 and the company should meet or exceed its full-year volume target. Chevron shares slipped 71 cents in afternoon trading to $83.85. They've traded in a range of $76.40 to $104.63 in the past year. Total shares fell 1.2 percent to 48.79 euros ($75.95) in Paris. Associated Press Writer Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

GM posts $15.5 billion loss as sales sputter Fri Aug 1, 9:39AM By Kevin Krolicki and David Bailey

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp posted a $15.5 billion quarterly loss on Friday, as North American sales dropped by 20 percent and plunging prices for SUVs prompted deep charges for its auto finance business.GM shares tumbled 6 percent in reaction to the automaker's announcement of the deeper-than-expected loss, the third-largest quarterly loss in its history.The No. 1 U.S. automaker also burned through $3.6 billion in cash in the quarter as it reduced inventory of slower-selling vehicles in its slumping home market.GM ended the second quarter with $21 billion in cash and $5 billion in credit facilities. It said it had provided notice in July that it would draw down $1 billion under a secured revolving loan facility.The struggling automaker's cash position has become an increasing concern for investors and analysts, who have begun to question whether and when GM's liquidity could fall below the levels needed to run its cash-hungry global operations.

Chief Financial Officer Ray Young said GM's second-quarter cash position was slightly better than the automaker had forecast and said GM was on track with a plan to free up $15 billion in liquidity through 2009 with a combination of cost-cutting, asset sales and new borrowing.Charges for a planned reduction of about 15 percent of GM's salaried work force in the United States and Canada will hit third-quarter results, Young said.From my perspective, we are going to get the second quarter behind us and just move ahead with our restructuring and liquidity plans that we announced over the last 60 days, Young told reporters.Erich Merkle, an automotive consultant with accounting and consulting firm Crowe Chizek, said GM's loss underscored the need for it to shed more brands outside Chevrolet and Cadillac, a step the automaker has so far resisted.

Do they have the resources to make all those different divisions competitive at the same time? I don't think so, Merkle said. You have got to take a hard look at GMC, Saturn, Buick, Pontiac -- anything really outside of Chevrolet and Cadillac.

LOSS DEEPER THAN ESTIMATES

GM's net loss was equal to $27.33 per share, compared with a profit of $891 million, or $1.56 per share a year earlier, reflecting a sharp drop in demand for the light trucks that represent about 60 percent of its sales.GM took $9.1 billion in charges against second-quarter results, including $3.3 billion for buyouts of U.S. factory workers, $2.8 billion for its exposure to bankrupt former parts unit Delphi Corp.Revenue fell to $38.2 billion from $46.7 billion.

Excluding charges, GM posted a loss of $6.3 billion, or $11.21 per share. The loss on that basis was more than four times Wall Street expectations for a loss of $2.67 per share, as tracked by Reuters Estimates.After losses totaling $51 billion over the previous three years, and a $3.25 billion loss in the first quarter, GM faced a battery of problems in the second quarter, including a slide in U.S. sales that sent its shares to a 54-year low.GM's global auto sales dropped 5 percent and it lost $4 billion on its auto operations before charges in the second quarter as record gas prices sank demand for trucks and SUVs.The automaker was also hit by some $2 billion in pretax losses from a strike by the United Auto Workers union at a key supplier and some of its own plants during the quarter.Then the market for financing leases on big SUVs collapsed, saddling both GM and its smaller rival Ford Motor Co with large losses.On Thursday, GMAC LLC, GM's former financing arm, was forced to write down the value of the GM's lease contracts because of the slumping value of the carmaker's big SUVs.Under lease contracts, automakers and their finance companies rent vehicles to consumers and sell the used vehicles when the leases expire at wholesale auctions.But the collapse in demand for SUVs this year has been accompanied by a steep drop in their resale value as consumers flock to more fuel-efficient passenger cars.

The resulting drop in resale values on SUVs prompted a $717 million charge by GMAC and bigger subsidies by GM, which retains 49 percent of the finance company after spinning off the remainder to Cerberus Capital Management.GM said declining lease values at GMAC had depressed its second-quarter results by $2 billion.Shares in GM touched a 54-year low in July and remain down over 55 percent since the start of the year. GM bonds also hit a record low on Thursday after ratings agency Standard & Poor's downgraded GM to B-minus and warned the automaker was on track to burn through roughly $16 billion this year.GM has not given a timetable for returning to profitability. Many analysts now expect that a substantial recovery for U.S. auto sales will not come until 2010.(Reporting by Kevin Krolicki; Editing by Derek Caney, Gerald E. McCormick, Dave Zimmerman)

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).

SALMONELLA BREAKTHROUGH
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CONGRESS TAKES CLOSER LOOK AT FOOD SAFETY
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Mexico criticizes US salmonella findings By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO, Associated Press Writer Thu Jul 31, 7:14 PM ET

MEXICO CITY - Mexican agriculture officials said Thursday that U.S. colleagues hunting for the source of a salmonella outbreak are rushing to a conclusion about finding the strain at a Mexican pepper farm. The salmonella sample that one U.S. official called a smoking gun was taken from a water tank that had not been used for more than two months to irrigate crops, said the director of Mexico's Farm Food Quality Service, Enrique Sanchez.Sanchez told a news conference on Thursday that the tank held rain water and suggested that roaming cattle or other factors could have recently contaminated the tank with the same strain of salmonella that has sickened 1,300 people in the United States since June.On Wednesday, Dr. David Acheson, the food safety chief for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, described the finding of the salmonella strain at a farm in the northern state of Nuevo Leon as a key breakthrough in the case.We have a smoking gun, it appears, said Dr. Lonnie King, who directs the center for food-borne illnesses at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Sanchez said the U.S. officials totally lacked scientific evidence to make such statements and said they had broken a confidentiality agreement by announcing findings before their investigation is complete.We're eating this same produce in Mexico and we haven't had any problems, Sanchez said.

He suggested the FDA officials confused the source of the samples because the tainted water was found on a farm in the Tamaulipas state municipality of Hidalgo — not in Nuevo Leon as the FDA reported.The FDA issued a statement later Thursday saying it was surprised and disappointed the Mexican response.We are confident of our findings, the statement said. FDA's analytical methods are publicly available.Miguel Angel Toscano of Mexico's Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks said Mexican investigators also took samples from the soil, water and vegetables the FDA had tested and found salmonella in some of the samples taken in Tamaulipas. But he said more tests need to be done to determine the strain.Previously, the FDA had traced a contaminated jalapeno pepper to another farm in Tamaulipas. Both farms shipped through a packing facility in Nuevo Leon, raising the possibility that contamination could have occurred there.The FDA has advised consumers to avoid raw serrano and jalapeno peppers from Mexico and any foods that contain them.Sanchez said Mexico produces 2.4 million tons of peppers per year but exports only 12,000 tons are exported fresh to the United States. Another 267,000 tons of canned or bottled peppers are sent to the U.S. each year, he said.He said pepper exports have not stopped, but U.S. authorities have been taking samples from shipments at the border and holding them up for up to a week until waiting for results.Sanchez said officials have not yet determined the scale of the warning's impact on Mexico's pepper industry.Associated Press writer Olga R. Rodriguez contributed to this report.

FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU WorldNetDaily Son of top Hamas leader converts to Christianity I hope my father and family open their eyes to Jesus and the Kingdom of God July 31, 2008 1:35 pm Eastern By Aaron Klein 2008 WorldNetDaily

Sheik Hassan Yousef (Passia.org)
JERUSALEM – The son of one of the most popular leaders in the Hamas terrorist organization has moved to the U.S. and converted to Christianity, it has emerged.In an exclusive interview with Israel's Haaretz newspaper, Masab Yousuf, son of West Bank Hamas leader Sheik Hassan Yousef, slammed Hamas, praised Israel and said he hoped his terrorist father will open his eyes to Jesus and to Christianity.I know that I'm endangering my life and am even liable to lose my father, but I hope that he'll understand this and that God will give him and my family patience and willingness to open their eyes to Jesus and to Christianity. Maybe one day I'll be able to return to Palestine and to Ramallah with Jesus, in the Kingdom of God, Masab said.Masab said he previously aided his father with Hamas activities, but he now has affection for Israel and laments Hamas.Send regards to Israel, I miss it. I respect Israel and admire it as a country, he says.You Jews should be aware: You will never, but never have peace with Hamas. Islam, as the ideology that guides them, will not allow them to achieve a peace agreement with the Jews. They believe that tradition says that the Prophet Muhammed fought against the Jews and that therefore they must continue to fight them to the death.Masab slammed Palestinian society as an entire society [that] sanctifies death and the suicide terrorists. In Palestinian culture a suicide terrorist becomes a hero, a martyr. Sheiks tell their students about the heroism of the shaheeds.Masab's father is considered the most popular Hamas figure in the West Bank. He is serving a sentence in Israel for planning or involvement in multiple terror attacks, including an infamous 2002 suicide bombing in the school cafeteria of Jerusalem's Hebrew University in which nine students and staff members were killed.In a statement to the Palestinian Maan news agency, Masab's brother, Suhaib, strongly denied that Masab converted to Christianity.But Haaretz stood by its story. The newspaper said it sent a correspondent to the U.S., who met with Masab for a detailed, in-person interview.