RUSSIA ALARMED AT BUILDUP IN BLACK SEA

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.

New Orleans mulls evacuation as Gustav looms By Kathy Finn AUG 27,08

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Three years after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Louisiana coast, New Orleans residents on Wednesday again confronted the prospect of an evacuation as Tropical Storm Gustav loomed. Not since Katrina struck on August 29, 2005, have residents faced a forced departure from their homes and businesses as many still struggle to rebuild their lives in a city famed for its jazz clubs and Mardi Gras festival.Storm levees broke under the onslaught of Katrina, flooding 80 percent of New Orleans and killing almost 1,500 people in the city and along the Gulf of Mexico coast. The hurricane caused $125 billion in wind and flood damage.

With Tropical Storm Gustav swirling near Cuba and likely to enter the Gulf of Mexico as a hurricane this weekend, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said an evacuation could begin as early as Friday -- three years to the day after Katrina inundated New Orleans.Jindal said he had activated the state's catastrophic action team and could declare a state of emergency as early as Thursday. He also put the Louisiana National Guard on alert.We all need to be prepared and ready to respond, from the citizen level and at every level of government, Jindal said.Jindal, elected as governor in October 2007, is hoping to avoid heavy criticism that fell on his predecessor, Kathleen Blanco, for not reacting quickly enough after Katrina.Federal agencies and the New Orleans city government also faced the wrath of residents over their response to the disaster, while President George W. Bush was criticized for his role, including his initial decision to view the devastated city only from the air.After Katrina, chaos broke out in New Orleans as stranded flood victims waited days for help. Many residents who fled the hurricane have not returned.On Wednesday, Gustav drifted away from Haiti and the Dominican Republic after killing 16 people. Forecasters warned the storm may still become a dangerous hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, with their models showing it most likely on track to hit anywhere from the Florida panhandle to Texas.Jindal said if the threat continues, his state could make 700 buses available for assisted evacuations, which could begin on Friday for people who need help due to medical or other conditions.He advised other residents of the southern parishes to review their own emergency plans and be prepared to evacuate if an order is given.The state's Office of Emergency Preparedness held a conference call on Wednesday afternoon with the presidents of all area parishes and emergency personnel to review current conditions and disaster plans.The Louisiana SPCA announced it would shut down its shelter and begin evacuating the animals to other shelters.(Editing by Chris Baltimore and John O'Callaghan)

OZONE DEPLETION

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

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

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

Arctic sea ice drops to 2nd lowest level on record By SETH BORENSTEIN and DAN JOLING, Associated Press Writers AUG 27,08

WASHINGTON - More ominous signs Wednesday have scientists saying that a global warming tipping point in the Arctic seems to be happening before their eyes: Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is at its second lowest level in about 30 years. The National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that sea ice in the Arctic now covers about 2.03 million square miles. The lowest point since satellite measurements began in 1979 was 1.65 million square miles set last September.With about three weeks left in the Arctic summer, this year could wind up breaking that previous record, scientists said.Arctic ice always melts in summer and refreezes in winter. But over the years, more of the ice is lost to the sea with less of it recovered in winter. While ice reflects the sun's heat, the open ocean absorbs more heat and the melting accelerates warming in other parts of the world.Sea ice also serves as primary habitat for threatened polar bears.We could very well be in that quick slide downward in terms of passing a tipping point, said senior scientist Mark Serreze at the data center in Boulder, Colo. It's tipping now. We're seeing it happen now.

Within five to less than 10 years, the Arctic could be free of sea ice in the summer, said NASA ice scientist Jay Zwally.It also means that climate warming is also coming larger and faster than the models are predicting and nobody's really taken into account that change yet, he said.Five climate scientists, four of them specialists on the Arctic, told The Associated Press that it is fair to call what is happening in the Arctic a tipping point. NASA scientist James Hansen, who sounded the alarm about global warming 20 years ago before Congress, said the sea ice melt is the best current example of that.Last year was an unusual year when wind currents and other weather conditions coincided with global warming to worsen sea ice melt, Serreze said. Scientists wondered if last year was an unusual event or the start of a new and disturbing trend.This year's results suggest the latter because the ice had recovered a bit more than usual thanks to a somewhat cooler winter, Serreze said. Then this month, when the melting rate usually slows, it sped up instead, he said.The most recent ice retreat primarily reflects melt in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast and the East Siberian Sea off the coast of eastern Russia, according to the center.The Chukchi Sea is home to one of two populations of Alaska polar bears.Federal observers flying for a whale survey on Aug. 16 spotted nine polar bears swimming in open ocean in the Chukchi. The bears were 15 to 65 miles off the Alaska shore. Some were swimming north, apparently trying to reach the polar ice edge, which on that day was 400 miles away.Polar bears are powerful swimmers and have been recorded on swims of 100 miles but the ordeal can leave them exhausted and susceptible to drowning.And the melt in sea ice has kicked in another effect, long predicted, called Arctic amplification, Serreze said.

That's when the warming up north is increased in a feedback mechanism and the effects spill southward starting in autumn, he said. Over the last few years, the bigger melt has meant more warm water that releases more heat into the air during fall cooling, making the atmosphere warmer than normal.On top of that, researchers were investigating alarming reports in the last few days of the release of methane from long frozen Arctic waters, possibly from the warming of the sea, said Greenpeace climate scientist Bill Hare, who was attending a climate conference in Ghana. Giant burps of methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas, is a long feared effect of warming in the Arctic that would accelerate warming even more, according to scientists. Overall, the picture of what's happening in the Arctic is getting worse, said Bob Corell, who headed a multinational scientific assessment of Arctic conditions a few years ago: We're moving beyond a point of no return.Science Writer Seth Borenstein reported from Washington and Dan Joling reported from Anchorage, Alaska. AP writer Arthur Max contributed from Accra, Ghana. On the Net: National Snow and Ice Data Center image:
http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/daily_images/N_daily_extent_hires. png

MUSLIM NATIONS

EZEKIEL 38:1-12
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW)and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

EZEKIEL 39:1-8
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.

JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

US, Russia anchor military ships in Georgian ports By SERGEI GRITS and JIM HEINTZ, Associated Press Writers AUG 27,08

BATUMI, Georgia - A U.S. military ship loaded with aid docked at a southern Georgian port Wednesday, and Russia sent three missile boats to another Georgian port as the standoff escalated over a nation devastated by war with Russia. Georgia's government said its short war with Russia had caused $1 billion in damages, while European leaders called the Kremlin's moves in two breakaway Georgian regions an unacceptable attempt to unilaterally redraw the map of the Caucasus region.The dockings came a day after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recognized the Georgian territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, which Georgia answered Wednesday by recalling all but two diplomats from its embassy in Moscow.The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Dallas, carrying 34 tons of humanitarian aid, docked in the Black Sea port of Batumi, south of the zone of this month's fighting between Russia and Georgia. The arrival avoided Georgia's main cargo port of Poti, still controlled by Russian soldiers.The U.S. Embassy in Georgia had earlier said the ship was headed to Poti, but then retracted the statement. Zaza Gogava, head of Georgia's joint forces command, said Poti could have been mined by Russian forces and still contained several sunken Georgian ships hit in the fighting.Poti's port also reportedly sustained heavy damage by the Russian military. In addition, Russian troops have established checkpoints on the northern approach to the city and a U.S. ship docking there could be perceived as a direct challenge.Meanwhile, the Russian missile cruiser Moskva and two smaller missile boats anchored at the port of Sukhumi, the capital of Abkhazia, some 180 miles north of Batumi. The Russian navy said the ships were involved in peacekeeping operations.Although Western nations are calling the Russian military presence in Poti a clear violation of a European Union-brokered cease-fire, a top Russian general said using warships to deliver aid is devilish.Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn warned that NATO has already exhausted the number of military forces it can have in the Black Sea under international agreements and warned Western nations against sending more ships.

Can NATO — which is not a state located in the Black Sea — continuously increase its group of forces and systems there? It turns out that it cannot, Nogovitsyn was quoted as saying Wednesday by the Interfax news agency.Western leaders assailed Russia for violating Georgia's territorial sovereignty.We cannot accept these violations of international law, of accords for security and cooperation in Europe, of United Nations resolutions, and the taking ... of a territory by the army of a neighboring country, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Wednesday.

Britain's foreign minister, David Miliband, said Moscow succumbed to the temptations of power politics with its invasion of Georgia and warned Russia not to start a new Cold War. Yesterday's unilateral attempt to redraw the map marks a moment of real significance, he said.Russia is more isolated, less trusted and less respected than two weeks ago, Miliband added in a speech during a visit to Kiev to show support for Ukraine, which like Georgia is a former Soviet republic whose pro-Western leader angered the Kremlin by seeking membership in NATO.President Bush has urged Russia to reconsider its irresponsible decision.Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili called Bush on Tuesday evening, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said Wednesday, but he declined to provide detail about the conversation, other than that Bush had gotten an update from Saakashvili.Europe, the United States and other leaders around the world will make the case to Russia that this is a very shortsighted decision on their part, Fratto said, adding that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in contact with her counterparts around the world about the issue.Many of the Russian forces that drove deep into Georgia after fighting broke out Aug. 7 in the separatist region of South Ossetia have pulled back, but hundreds at least are estimated to still be manning checkpoints that Russia calls security zones inside Georgia proper. The U.S. and other Western countries have given substantial military aid to Georgia, angering Russia, which regards Georgia as part of its historical sphere of influence. Russia also has complained bitterly about aspirations by Georgia and Ukraine to join NATO. In Tbilisi, boxes of aid were sorted, stacked and loaded onto trucks Wednesday for some of the tens of thousands of people still displaced by the fighting. Some boxes were stamped USAID — from the American People.

Tim Callaghan, head of the USAID response team, told an AP television crew that aid workers would continue to assess the needs of those affected by the fighting and provide other assistance as required.The United Nations estimated that nearly 160,000people had to flee their homes, but hundreds have returned to Georgian cities like Gori in the past week. In Tbilisi, Georgia's capital, Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze said Russia had inflicted damage worth $1 billion. That is about a third of the entire government budget for last year and Georgian leaders are hoping for substantial economic aid from the West to help recover. Gurgenidze added that despite the extensive damage, the fighting had not fundamentally hurt the country's economy, which has boomed in recent years, with annual growth of 10 percent to 12 percent in 2006 and 2007. The Georgian economy has continued functioning more or less as normal, the financial system kept functioning, the exchange rate has held up, the consumers have kept consuming, Gurgenidze said. Russia's ambassador to Moldova, meanwhile, said the country's leaders should be wary of what happened in Georgia and avoid a bloody and catastrophic trend of events in the separatist, pro-Russia region of Trans-Dniester. The ambassador, Valeri Kuzmin, said Russia recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia because of Georgia's aggression against South Ossetia.Trans-Dniester broke away from the former Soviet republic of Moldova in 1990. A war broke out between Moldovan forces and separatists in 1992 leaving 1,500 dead. Trans-Dniester is supported by Russia but is not recognized internationally. Russia has 1,500 troops stationed there to guard weapons facilities.

Russia Sees New Realm of Concern: Black Sea Sergei Grits/Associated Press
The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Dallas at Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi on Wednesday. AUG 27,08 By ANDREW E. KRAMER

MOSCOW — Russian commanders said Wednesday they were growing alarmed at the number of NATO warships sailing into the Black Sea, conceding that NATO vessels now outnumbered the ships in their fleet anchored off the western coast of Georgia.

Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters
South Ossetian residents in the capital, Tskhinvali, on Tuesday celebrated Russia's recognition of South Ossetia as an independent state. As attention turned to the balance of naval power in the sea, the leader of the separatist region of Abkhazia said he would invite Russia to establish a naval base at his territory’s deep-water port of Sukhumi.And in a move certain to anger Russia, Ukraine’s president, Viktor A. Yushchenko, said he would open negotiations with authorities in Moscow to raise the rent on the Russian naval base at Sevastopol, which is in Ukraine’s predominantly Russian province of Crimea. The United States is pursuing a delicate policy of delivering humanitarian aid on military transport planes and ships, to illustrate to the Russians they do not fully control Georgia’s airspace or coastline.

The policy has left American and Russian naval vessels maneuvering in close proximity off the western coast of Georgia, with the Americans concentrated near the southern port of Batumi and the Russians around the central port of Poti. It has also left the Kremlin deeply suspicious of American motives.What the Americans call humanitarian cargoes — of course, they are bringing in weapons, the Russian president Dmitri Medvedev, told the BBC in an interview on Tuesday, adding: We’re not trying to prevent it.The White House dismissed all assertions that the Pentagon is shipping weapons under the guise of humanitarian aid, calling them ridiculous.

Apparently testing Russian assurances that their forces have opened the port of Poti for humanitarian aid, the United States Embassy in Tbilisi said a Coast Guard cutter, the Dallas, would attempt to dock there on Wednesday, well within a zone controlled by the Russian military during the war.The Dallas, however, docked instead at Batumi, to the south. It was carrying 34 tons of humanitarian aid. Georgian military officials said the other port may have been mined, The A.P. reported.During the conflict with Georgia, Russian soldiers occupied the port and sank Georgian ships in the harbor. Russian officials have said their forces are now out of the city, but that they are still occupying positions at checkpoints just to the north. Russian ships are also patrolling off the coast.In Moscow, the naval maneuvering was clearly raising alarms. Russian commanders said the buildup of NATO vessels in the Black Sea violated a 1936 treaty, the Convention of Montreux, they maintain limits to three weeks the time non-coastal countries can sail military vessels on the sea.Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the deputy head of the Russian general staff, told a briefing in Moscow that under the agreement, Turkey, which controls the straits of Bosporus and Dardanelles, must be notified 15 days in advance before military ships sail into the sea, and that warships cannot remain longer than 21 days.The convention stipulates a limited number of vessels, he said. That is, the same state cannot deploy a certain group without any limit.He said any sustained NATO deployment would require rotating ships through the straits.It was unclear Wednesday how many NATO ships were currently in the Black Sea. A spokesman at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers in Europe, in Mons, Belgium, said there were four NATO warships there on a previously scheduled exercise called Active Endeavor, for training in anti-terrorist and anti-pirate maneuvers. But he cautioned that other NATO countries could have ships in the sea not operating under NATO command.

Obviously, there are other NATO-affiliated nations out doing things, Lt. Col. Web Wright, the spokesman, said. But I can’t speak for those nations.The United States guided missile destroyer McFaul, for example, docked over the weekend in Batumi to deliver humanitarian aid. A report on the Russian news agency Interfax cited this ship, along with three others, as operating in the sea though it was unclear whether it referred to vessels taking part in the previously scheduled exercise.Reporting was contributed by Ellen Barry in Vladikavkaz, Russia; Helene Cooper in Washington; Nicholas Kulish in Tallinn, Estonia; and Steven Erlanger in Paris.

France accuses Russia of ethnic cleansing
PHILIPPA RUNNER AUG 27,08 Today @ 10:04 CET

Talk of war and ethnic cleansing hit European TV channels on Tuesday (26 August) as France and Russia debated Moscow's hard backing of rebel groups in Georgia. But plans for next week's EU summit and new EU-Russia energy links remain unaltered for now.We fear a war and we don't want one, French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said on the France 2 television station, after Russia gave formal recognition to Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions earlier in the day. If it's hot, we don't want it.The minister showed a map of South Ossetia and pointed to the town of Akhalgori, saying: Tonight, Russian troops are sweeping through it, pushing Georgians out and over the border. It's ethnic cleansing.In a separate interview on France's LCI channel, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev dared the EU to impose diplomatic sanctions at next week's EU summit. If they want a degradation of relations, they will get it, he said. The ball is in the European camp.We are not afraid of anything, including the prospect of a new Cold War, the president also said on the Russia Today TV channel. On the Arabic Al-Jazeera network he spoke of using military means against a future US missile base in Poland. Meanwhile, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov accused NATO members of rearming Georgia. They are even starting to supply new types of weapons, restoring the military infrastructure that was used in the aggression, he said, Ria Novosti reports.The rhetoric coming from Poland and Georgia was no less harsh, with Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski telling Polish daily Dziennik Russia will again lose in a confrontation with the 10 times richer West. The end of the revival of Russia's imperialism has started, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said, calling for Europe to impose a travel ban on Russian leaders and their families, while claiming he has serious signals that the crisis will speed up Georgia's integration with NATO and the EU.

Business as usual?

Germany continued to sound a calmer note throughout the day, however, indicating that suspension of EU-Russia treaty talks is still not on the cards. We will not solve conflicts if we do not talk to each other, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on a visit to Lithuania, DPA reports.Ms Merkel's trip to the Baltic states and Sweden is aimed at promoting a new Germany-Russia gas pipeline - Nord Stream - which Germany calls a strategic European project, but which the former-communist EU states fear will strengthen Russia's energy leverage against eastern Europe.Meanwhile, French EU presidency officials quietly brushed aside a joint proposal by Poland, Sweden and the Baltic countries to invite the fiery Mr Saakashvili to the EU summit on Monday. The idea did not meet with much enthusiasm, a Polish diplomat told PAP.Russia's recognition of the rebel enclaves will make the EU meeting more complicated, Dutch Green MEP Joost Lagendijk commented. With this, it will be more difficult for the moderates to say: We should not alienate Russia, he told AFP.

Kosovo parallel

With Russia continuing to draw parallels between South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Kosovo -which has been recognised 46 countries worldwide - individual Belarusian MPs were the only non-Russian entities to back Moscow in its recognition of the two rebel regions so far.I'm sure that Belarus will become one of the first countries to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Belarus lower house delegate Aleksei Ostrovsky said, BelaPAN reports. But Minsk remained quiet on Wednesday morning, with EU diplomats noting that President Alexander Lukashenko is currently trying to improve relations with Brussels to offset Russia's influence on his eonomically-fragile dictatorship.The Shanghai Co-operation Organisation [China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan security alliance] is to meet in Tajikistan to discuss the Georgia issue on Thursday. But Moscow's traditional allies have also taken a back seat in the conflict for now, amid an EU push to offer Central Asia new ways of breaking Russia's monopoly on its transit of oil and gas to Europe.

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

Ireland shoots down idea of swift Lisbon revote
LEIGH PHILLIPS AUG 27,08 Today @ 09:25 CET

The Irish government has insisted that no second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty is in the works after Europe minister Dick Roche on the weekend told press that another vote on the text would be appropriate.Nothing whatsoever has been decided vis-a-vis the next step, because we're only in the process of analysis at this stage, the Irish Times quotes an unnamed government spokesperson as saying. People who are saying another referendum or legislation, they are all jumping ahead to an outcome, and the government isn't anywhere near that.Meanwhile, the UK's Financial Times reports that Irish government officials have privately conceded that any second referendum, should one take place, would not occur before next year's European Parliamentary elections, but rather in the second half of 2009.The government clarification comes after a storm of criticism attacking Mr Roche's comments from campaigners for both the Yes and No sides in the failed June referendum as well as all main opposition parties.Irish Europe minister Dick Roche had told the Irish Independent newspaper earlier this week: A referendum is the appropriate response to the position we are in, while stressing that it was his personal view at this stage.

The government has made it clear that no option has been ruled in or out. We cannot exclude that at some stage and in the right circumstances it may be necessary to consult the people once again.In response, the Labour Party's deputy leader, Joan Burton, described the minister's comments as unwise and unhelpful, adding: There can be no question of simply putting the same proposition to the people once again.

There is no basis for believing that a second referendum would produce a different outcome to the one we got on 12 June, she said, saying the government should not be threatening to ram another referendum down people's throats.Leading opposition party Fine Gael's European affairs spokesperson, Lucinda Creighton, said Mr Roche's remarks showed the government had learnt nothing from its disastrous referendum campaign.Meanwhile, her colleague, MEP Gay Mitchell said of the minister: I think he is jumping the gun. I don't think it's helpful ... I don't think it's helpful to be coming out in the month of August with proposals or solutions one way or the other.

According to the Irish Independent newspaper, both Ms Burton and Sinn Fein's Mary Lou McDonald believe the government was using Mr Roche's comments as a trial balloon in order to see what the popular response to a second referendum would be.Ms McDonald said the move displayed another example of a government without a plan.