RICE - RUSSIA ON PATH TO ISOLATION

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.

I BELIEVE THE FUTURE EU DICTATOR WILL BE GIVEN KING OF THE EU IN A CEREMONY LIKE THIS ONE.
http://www.tvw.org/media/MediaPlayer.cfm?evid=2008040031&TYPE=V&bhcp=1

Johnson space center to reopen next week: NASA Thu Sep 18, 1:15 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, which was shut down as Hurricane Ike barreled toward the US Gulf Coast, will reopen next week, US space officials said Thursday. Officials in a statement set a September 22 date for reopening the space center, which controls many systems aboard the orbiting International Space Station (ISS).Space officials said the center emerged unscathed from the killer hurricane, which exacted billions of dollars of damage around the region.The space center shut down on September 11, as the monster storm steamed toward the US mainland. Johnson Space Center officials temporarily handed over control of the ISS to backup facilities elsewhere in Texas and in Alabama.The hurricane killed more than 100 people in the Caribbean, then killed more than 17 across nine US states after making landfall in southeastern Texas.

Frustration mounts over return to hurricane stricken Texas city by Mary Ann Azevedo Wed Sep 17, 10:49 PM ET

GALVESTON, Texas, (AFP) - Frustration mounted over delays in returning to Galveston, the Texas coastal city hard-hit by powerful Hurricane Ike over the weekend, as the death toll caused by the storm continued to rise. Ike killed at least 50 people in the 11 southern and midwestern states, CBS News reported. Of those, at least 30 were killed in Texas, according to local news media.As of late Wednesday nearly two million people in the areas affected by Ike were in the dark, though power had been restored to more than a million households, Texas Governor Rick Perry said.Restoring power is a top priority now that search and rescue efforts are concluding, said Perry.Search and rescue efforts along the Texas coast are nearly complete, Perry said, adding that more than 3,500 residents were rescued and some 28,600 structures searched.Also Wednesday the US Coast Guard re-opened portions of the Houston Ship Channel to commercial traffic, with restrictions.Galveston Mayor Lyn Ada Thomas on Wednesday urged people who chose to remain in the island-city when Ike struck to leave. Some 15,000 are believed to still be in Galveston.The medical and health concerns on Galveston Island are becoming more and more serious, she said.

Up to 300 people have been trickling out of the island each day since Ike struck, said Colonel John Nicols of the Texas National Guard.Thomas said Tuesday that residents who show photo ID cards at highway checkpoints could return, but only to check on their property during daylight hours under a look and leave program.However officials abruptly halted the program hours later due to an overwhelming influx of people, said Galveston City Manager Steve LeBlanc.We just simply cannot handle the volume of people, he said.The change left thousands who fled Galveston ahead of the storm frustrated and confused, and created massive gridlock on roads leading into the city.The island's only hospital, the University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston (UTMB-G), was offering limited services, even though the number of patients seeking care had increased significantly over the past 24 hours, officials said.Like much rest of the island, we're standing but not very functional, said UTMB-G President David Callendar, adding that it could take up to two months for the hospital to be fully functional.Texas health commissioner David Lakey said that Galveston patients needing serious medical attention will have to be airlifted to Houston.I still strongly feel that this island is not a suitable place for individuals to live, he said.Stephen Pustilnik, the city's chief medical examiner, said that 16 bodies have been delivered since the storm hit, but of those only seven were storm-related deaths and the rest died of natural causes. They may be terminating the search for survivors but they haven't searched all the areas of the county for the deceased, he told AFP. So we expect that number will change.

New Israeli leader Livni starts coalition talks By Alastair Macdonald and Adam Entous Thu Sep 18, 3:24 PM ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni began talks on forming a new coalition government on Thursday after edging home in a party leadership contest that set her on course to replace Ehud Olmert as prime minister. Among those she spoke with by telephone was U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who hopes Livni and Olmert can still clinch some form of peace deal with the Palestinians before the Bush administration quits the White House in just four months.Palestinian negotiators welcomed her election in Wednesday's poll, though they hold out little hope of a major breakthrough.Livni, a lawyer and former Mossad agent, faces other battles -- to stave off an early parliamentary election that she would probably lose and to build a multi-party cabinet on the remains of the fractious administration Olmert will leave behind when he finally steps down under the weight of a corruption inquiry.Olmert is determined to go on handling talks with the Palestinians as caretaker premier until Livni forms a new team. The woman who would be Israel's first female leader since the redoubtable Golda Meir in the 1970s said after her narrow win in the Kadima party ballot that her priority was stability.Livni, 50, began what could be a weeks-long process of forging new coalition agreements by meeting two of the men she beat to the leadership of Kadima, a centrist party founded just three years ago by Ariel Sharon and which is the biggest group in a fragmented Israeli parliament with only 29 of 120 seats.Analysts say that holding Kadima itself together could be as big a challenge as cutting deals with other coalition parties. Media reports said that Mofaz cancelled a meeting with Livni scheduled for Friday.Mofaz stunned her supporters overnight when a protracted count defied exit poll forecasts of a double-digit winning margin for the foreign minister.

In the end, hours after Livni had claimed victory, she was declared the winner by just 431 votes, or 1.1 points, with 43.1 percent of the vote. Two other candidates trailed well behind.

STABILITY PRIORITY

The national mission ... is to create stability quickly, Livni said outside her Tel Aviv home at dawn. On the level of government in Israel, we have to deal with difficult threats.To resist calls from right-wing opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu for an early parliamentary election -- which polls indicate Netanyahu's Likud would win -- Livni must persuade Defence Minister Ehud Barak to keep his Labour party in the coalition and do the same for the Jewish religious party, Shas.

She met Barak at a routine security cabinet meeting on Thursday and later held talks with Shas leader Eli Yishai.Though Barak allies have called for an election, Labour is wary of actually going to a vote, given Likud's strength. Shas has made clear it wants assurances of welfare payments for its mostly poor, religious constituency as part of any deal.Netanyahu, a hawkish prime minister a decade ago, told a news conference: The cleanest thing, the responsible thing, the right thing and most democratic thing is to go to new elections.We need to let the millions of Israeli citizens choose who will lead them and not ... a few hundred Kadima voters.Allies said Livni was likely to pursue similar approaches to the Palestinians as under the Olmert government, though indirect talks with Syria may slow as Livni, who has been less involved in that process, waits for a new U.S. president in the new year.We negotiate with whomever our neighbors choose, be it Livni or anyone else, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said. Dubbed Mrs Clean in the media, the often dour foreign minister is seen by some as the antithesis of Olmert, a glad-handing veteran politician who hit trouble when an American businessman testified to giving him envelopes stuffed with cash. But the daughter of prominent Zionist guerrilla fighters of the 1940s will require combative spirit and political flair to live up to some supporters' hopes she can be a new Golda Meir. Commentators questioned whether her narrow victory in a vote among party activists gave her a mandate for tough decisions. Mofaz's campaign threatened to appeal but the Iranian-born former defence chief, popular among fellow Jews of Middle Eastern as opposed to European origin, finally accepted the result and said he planned now to take a break from politics. Olmert will notify the cabinet on Sunday of his resignation, and must then go to Israel's president, who will be traveling abroad, to formally resign, said Olmert's spokesman, Mark Regev. (Additional reporting by Allyn Fisher-Ilan, Ari Rabinovitch and Douglas Hamilton in Tel Aviv, Wafa Amr in Ramallah and Jeffrey Heller, Avida Landau, Ori Lewis and Joseph Nasr in Jerusalem; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; editing by Robert Hart)

FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU Did 15,000 Arabs just determine Israel's new leader? More people vote in Jewish state's version of American Idol September 18, 2008 3:01 pm Eastern By Aaron Klein 2008 WorldNetDaily

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni

JERUSALEM – Did fewer than 15,000 Arabs just determine who will serve as Israel's next prime minister? That may be the case following Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's slim win here by just 431 votes in yesterday's primary for the leadership of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima party. The primary elections had a high Arab turnout.

Now, if Livni can form a stable governing coalition – meaning if she can recruit enough parties to maintain a plurality of the Knesset's 120 seats – she would finish out Olmert's term in office, becoming prime minister in his place until new elections are held as scheduled late next year.But if she does lead the country, Livni will hardly have a mandate, as she was elected not by the majority of the Israeli public, but in internal party elections in which less than 0.5 percent of Israelis took part. More than 10 times that number vote in Israel's version of American Idol.According to the final tally, Livni won the Kadima primary election with 43.1 percent of the vote, or 16,936 registered Kadima members. Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz came in a very close second with 42 percent, or 16,505 votes.

The question becomes who voted in yesterday's Kadima primary, in which registered party members who are regular citizens took part.About 14,000 of Kadima's 74,000 registered voters are not Jewish, according to polling data, including 6,900 registered Arab Druze and 4,600 Muslim Arabs. The rest are largely Bedouin tribe members.Poll stations reported yesterday that non-Jewish Kadima voters evidenced the highest turnout. Only about 50 percent of all eligible Kadima voters took part in the election.Kadima member and Deputy Foreign Minister Majalli Whbee, who coordinates party issues related to the non-Jewish sector, estimated yesterday that many Muslim voters would take part in the elections last night, following a feast that ended the day of Ramadan fasting.After the feast, voters will arrive (to polling stations) en masse, Whbee told YnetNews.Yesterday, Livni sought and received the extension of voting time by 30 minutes, possibly allowing more Muslim voters to reach the polls following the feast.The Jerusalem Post reported that in some Arab polling stations, such as Beit Jan in the North, Livni crushed Mofaz.Livni has been leading Olmert's team negotiating with the Palestinian Authority in talks aimed at creating a Palestinian state, at least on paper, before January. Her election in the primaries would favor continued negotiations.To that effect, the PA has been urging local Israeli Arab leaders to help campaign for Livni.Her slim win may have even been by less than 431 votes. In one polling station in the city of Rahat a ballot was disqualified after a man tore it up and scattered hundreds of envelopes that were inside. The ballot reportedly contained 430 votes.Mofaz's team pointed out that in theory, if every single person there voted for Mofaz, Livni would have won by a single vote.We cannot have our prime minister chosen by one vote only, Mofaz's lawyer told Israel Radio.Also possibly affecting voting, in the last 15 minutes of the elections Israel's major news networks all reported, wrongly, Livni would win by a large margin.

Eventually, Mofaz decided not to challenge yesterday's election, paving the way for Livni's possible ascent to Israel's highest office.Ynet quoted PA officials as being happy with the results.Even if our formal position is that we work with whoever is elected, it is no secret that working with Livni will be much easier. She knows the material, and there is no need to start from scratch with her, the source told Ynet.

Livni understands that the solution to the situation is a quick diplomatic agreement with us, the source said.

UN envoy says Mideast peace efforts at crossroads By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer Thu Sep 18, 6:06 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS - Peace talks by Israel and the Palestinians are at a crossroads 10 months after their leaders agreed to try to reach an accord this year and both sides need to step up their efforts to meet that goal, the United Nations' Mideast envoy said Thursday. While there are some positive developments, there are also several factors that cause concern, Robert Serry told the U.N. Security Council. The important period ahead must see decisive advances towards peace.Despite continuing negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, he said, it appears so far that no agreement has been reached on the core issues.However, it also appears that there have been substantive discussions, the potential of which must be built on with a continuation of intensive negotiations, Serry added.He addressed the council a day after Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was elected as the new leader of the governing Kadima Party, replacing corruption-tainted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.Livni, a soft-spoken diplomat who has played a central role in peace talks with the Palestinians and prefers negotiation to confrontation, said she intends to form a new government.

We look to an urgent continuation of the negotiations, and for all parties to honor their Annapolis and road map commitments, Serry said.A U.S.-hosted conference in Annapolis, Md., last November drew 44 nations, including Israel's neighboring Arab states, whose support is considered vital to any peace agreement. Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed then to try for a deal by the end of 2008.

The road map for peace efforts was drafted by the Quartet of Mideast mediators — the U.S., European Union, Russia and U.N. Ministers from the Quartet are scheduled to meet Sept. 26 on the sidelines of the annual high-level session of the U.N. General Assembly.At the Quartet meeting, Serry said, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hopes to move Israeli-Palestinian negotiations forward as well as to push reconciliation among the rival Palestinian factions — the Fatah movement, which controls the West Bank, and Hamas, which controls Gaza.Ten months after negotiations were relaunched at Annapolis, and with just over three months until the end of the year, the Middle East peace process stands at a crossroads, Serry said. We must continue to strive for agreement on all core issues in accordance with the agreed timeframe of Annapolis.

Ahmadinejad says Israel won't survive By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer Thu Sep 18, 12:17 PM ET

TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lashed out at Israel on Thursday, saying the Jewish state would not survive, even if it gave up land for a Palestinian state. He also dismissed allegations that his country is trying to make nuclear arms. Speaking to reporters in Tehran, the hard-line leader smirked at the former mantra of the Israeli right of a Greater Israel that would include land Palestinians want for a future state. The idea has since been abandoned, with the Israeli political consensus now being that there would be a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, on either side of Israel.I have heard some say the idea of Greater Israel has expired, Ahmadinejad said. I say that the idea of lesser Israel has expired, too.Ahmadinejad used the news conference to speak at length before traveling to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly that opened Tuesday.The Iranian president repeated previous anti-Israel comments, calling the Holocaust a fake and saying that Israel is perpetrating a holocaust on the Palestinian people.

The remarks appear to be part of Ahmadinejad's effort to deflect criticism at home over failed economic policies. Iran's inflation hit 27.6 percent last month.He might also be trying to repair damage caused by his vice president, Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, who was recently quoted as saying Iranians were friends of all people in the world — even Israelis.Speaking about Iran's controversial nuclear program, Ahmadinejad said the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency has no right to consider documents provided by the U.S. alleging Tehran sought to make an atomic bomb.On Monday, an International Atomic Energy Agency report said Iran had blocked a U.N. investigation into allegations it tried to make nuclear arms and that the inquiry was deadlocked.

Ahmadinejad said the report verified the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran says is only for electricity production.

Ultra-Orthodox party emerging as Israel kingmaker By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer Thu Sep 18, 3:12 PM ET

JERUSALEM - An ultra-Orthodox Jewish party run by an octogenarian rabbi who has said Hurricane Katrina was divine punishment emerged Thursday as the kingmaker in forming the next Israeli government. Having won a fight to be leader of the ruling Kadima Party, Tzipi Livni now will likely need Shas as a partner to become prime minister. But Shas opposes any compromise on Jerusalem, and including it in a coalition could tie her hands in peace talks with the Palestinians.Livni's narrow victory in a party primary Wednesday to replace corruption-tainted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as Kadima's chairman means she can become prime minister if she can put together a coalition government of her own.Livni, now the foreign minister, has said she would like to keep the current four-party coalition intact.Two of Kadima's partners, Labor and the Pensioners, aren't expected to balk. But Shas and its spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, are wild cards. The party holds 12 of parliament's 120 seats, enough to make or break the current majority bloc of 67 lawmakers.Livni had barely declared victory Thursday morning when Shas laid down its demands.If it's clear Jerusalem is on the negotiating table and social-economic needs are not taken into consideration, then we won't be part of the coalition, Shas spokesman Roi Lachmanovitch said.Shas Cabinet minister Ariel Attias said the party wants more funding from the cash-strapped government for the welfare projects that are popular with its low-income constituents.Formal coalition negotiations won't begin until Olmert officially resigns and President Shimon Peres assigns Livni the task of forming a new government, which could happen next week.But Livni said she would begin informal coalition negotiations immediately. In one of her first acts as Kadima leader, she scheduled a meeting with Shas leaders late Thursday. Shas leader Eli Yishai said they discussed setting up a coalition.If Livni can't keep the coalition intact, elections would likely be called for early next year — some 18 months ahead of schedule. In either case, Olmert will remain as a caretaker leader until a new Cabinet is approved.

With opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu and his hard-line Likud Party polling well, Livni is under heavy pressure to keep the 67-seat coalition intact and avoid elections.Netanyahu made his preference clear. The cleanest and most democratic thing to do is to hold a general election, he told reporters Thursday.Shaul Mofaz, the ex-defense minister and military chief who lost to Livni in the Kadima primary, called a news conference to announce plans to leave politics.I am not asking for role or a position in the Cabinet or the parliament, he said. He did not say whether he planned to resign now or just not to seek another term in parliament.

Negotiations could drag on for weeks.

Kadima lawmaker Amira Dotan said she expected Shas to make excessive demands. This is the way we educated them for a long, long time, she said, referring to concessions made to Shas to entice the party into governing coalitions.Dotan said Kadima is ready to compromise but has other options. Kadima is a centrist party, she said, so a number of parties can very easily make a coalition with Kadima. She mentioned the small dovish Meretz party and smaller religious parties, which together have one less seat than Shas. Israeli politicians traditionally have been willing to meet Shas' spending demands. But declaring a moratorium on Jerusalem negotiations would be tough for Livni. As Israel's lead peace negotiator, she is committed to discussing all issues with the Palestinians. The future of Jerusalem, claimed by Israel and the Palestinians, is at the heart of the conflict. Menachem Friedman, an expert on Jewish religious society in Israel, said Shas ultimately wants to stay in the government. He said Shas realizes any agreement with the Palestinians is a long way off. Jerusalem is a matter of wording, Friedman said. He thinks Shas will be more intransigent about its budget demands because the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sector, where most men shun work for religious study, is in desperate need of resources. With Yosef at the helm, Shas burst onto Israel's political scene in the 1990s, appealing to the resentment of Sephardim — Israelis of Middle Eastern and North African descent — who were long snubbed by Israel's European-born ruling elite. Yosef, a former chief rabbi of Israel who was born in Iraq, enjoys a papal-like authority among his followers, who revere him for his religious scholarship and his devotion to empowering the disenfranchised Sephardim.

But in wider Israeli society, Yosef — known as much for his sunglasses, turban and gold-embroidered robes as his sometimes outrageous pronouncements — is highly controversial. He once enjoyed a reputation as a dovish religious figure, arguing that the saving of Israeli lives pre-empted settling occupied lands and that serious efforts should be made to reach a peace accord with the Arabs. But he did not support the 1990s peace agreements with the Palestinians and denounced Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005. In one speech, Yosef said the Old City of Jerusalem, home to shrines sacred to Judaism, Islam and Christianity, was swarming with Arabs like ants.They should go to hell — and the Messiah shall speed them on their way, he said. On another occasion, Yosef castigated then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza pullout, then implored: May God strike him down.Yosef also stirred controversy by describing the Holocaust as God's retribution against the reincarnated souls of Jewish sinners. He said Katrina was punishment for godlessness in New Orleans and U.S. support for the Gaza pullout. And he once said that walking between two women is like walking between two donkeys or between two camels.Livni could theoretically lead a minority government with the tacit backing of far-left and Arab parties outside a ruling coalition. But such an arrangement would make it difficult for her to claim a mandate for sweeping agreements with the Palestinians or with Syria.

EU DICTATOR (WORLD LEADER)

REVELATION 17:12-13
12 And the ten horns (NATIONS) which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

REVELATION 6:1-2
1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
2 And I saw, and behold a white horse:(PEACE) and he that sat on him had a bow;(EU DICTATOR) and a crown was given unto him:(PRESIDENT OF THE EU) and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.(MILITARY GENIUS)

REVELATION 13:1-10
1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.(THE EU AND ITS DICTATOR IS GODLESS)
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.(DICTATOR COMES FROM NEW AGE OR OCCULT)
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death;(MURDERERD) and his deadly wound was healed:(COMES BACK TO LIFE) and all the world wondered after the beast.(THE WORLD THINKS ITS GOD IN THE FLESH, MESSIAH TO ISRAEL)
4 And they worshipped the dragon (SATAN) which gave power unto the beast:(JEWISH EU DICTATOR) and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?(FALSE RESURRECTION,SATAN BRINGS HIM TO LIFE)
5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.(GIVEN WORLD CONTROL FOR 3 1/2YRS)
6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God,(HES A GOD HATER) to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.(HES A LIBERAL OR DEMOCRAT,WILL PUT ANYTHING ABOUT GOD DOWN)
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints,(BEHEAD THEM) and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.(WORLD DOMINATION)
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.(WORLD DICTATOR)
9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.(SAVED CHRISTIANS AND JEWS DIE FOR THEIR FAITH AT THIS TIME,NOW WE ARE SAVED BY GRACE BUT DURING THE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH, PEOPLE WILL BE PUT TO DEATH (BEHEADINGS) FOR THEIR BELIEF IN GOD (JESUS) OR THE BIBLE.

THE WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS

Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.

DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come (ROMANS IN AD 70) shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMANS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
27 And he( EU ROMAN, JEWISH DICTATOR) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:( 7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,( 3 1/2 YRS) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Europeans keep faith out of politics
PHIIPPA RUNNER Today @ 09:31 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Europeans remain strongly religious but like to keep faith out of politics while cultivating an open mind to various forms of spirituality, according to a new survey by the Bertelsmann Foundation. Seventy four percent of people in Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Austria, Poland and Switzerland said they were religious. Italy (89%) and Poland (87%) topped the German NGO's Religion Monitor chart, with France at the lower end on 54 percent.Christian faith still has a strong influence in Europe (Photo: EUobserver.com)

More than half of Europeans regularly practice their faith and 61 percent pray, with church attendance higher in Poland than in Italy and with Roman Catholics describing themselves as more highly religious than Protestants.The Christian faith still has a strong influence in Europe, the survey said. The role which [religion] plays in tying together the countries of the European Union should not be underestimated.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the premier of EU-aspirant Turkey, says that Europe is not a Christian club. But reality suggests something else. Europe is still based on Christian values, the NGO's Philipp Hildmann told Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza.The survey also found that religion plays a small role in Europeans' political outlook and the most intimate aspects of their personal lives, however.Just 27 percent said religion influences their political choices and 35 percent said it affects their sex lives, with Roman Catholic Poland also keeping to the trend on 29 percent and 49 percent, respectively.Europeans described themselves as open-minded, with 92 percent agreeing with the statement that there is probably a kernel of truth in every faith.

More and more people are also turning to non-institutional forms of worship, such as private meditation, while 11 percent believe in pantheism - identifying God with Nature - and 31 percent are open to the idea.Looking further afield, the US is more religious than Europe with 89 percent of people holding some type of faith. Nigeria and India are the most religious worldwide on 99 percent.Russia - which the Bertelsmann Foundation did not include in its definition of Europe - is the most secular, with 51 percent of Russians saying they are religious and just 7 percent calling themselves very religious.

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).

EVANGELICALS TO UN, INDICT IRAN
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1221489063594&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Balkans model to underpin EU's Eastern Partnership
VALENTINA POP Today SEPT 18,08 @ 09:37 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU policies applied to the Western Balkans - such as a regional free trade area - are inspiring the Eastern Partnership with Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and hopefully Belarus, participants at a conference organized Wednesday (17 September) by the German Konrad Adenauer think-tank learned.Free trade should be the way to Europe for eastern countries, as in the Balkans (Photo: European Commission)Initially a Polish-Swedish proposal endorsed in June by all member states, the Eastern Partnership is designed to deepen ties with the European neighbours to the east, balancing the 'Mediterranean Union' with the southern neighbours of Europe, as Polish MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski put it. The Georgian conflict sped up the process of drafting the eastern policy by the European Commission, with president Jose Manuel Barroso scheduled to sketch out the main features already at the EU summit on 15 October.We might be inspired by the experience with the Western Balkans that countries which perhaps didn't work so well together in the past, will do so in specific areas like energy or transport. We should put forward the idea of creating a free trade area between these countries - something which worked quite well in the Balkans, Gunnar Wiegand, director for Eastern Europe, Southern Caucasus and Central Asia within the European Commission, explained.The new policy will consist of a bilateral dimension and a multilateral one, the latter being really new, in addition to existing cooperation mechanisms, he said.

There would be something fundamentally new if we would create some form of regular political dialogue at the highest level between the 27 and the five, hopefully the six countries in a not too distant future, Mr Wiegand said, referring to Belarus as the potential sixth country.Speeding up or initiating visa facilitation agreements was an idea championed by the Polish and Swedish speakers, who stressed that it is easier for South Ossetians and Abkhazians with a Russian passport to travel to Europe than it is for someone with a Georgian passport.But the commission official mentioned the substantial political resistance from some member countries on a future visa facilitation agreement with Ukraine, while underlining that EU-Ukraine negotiations on an Association Agreement was an important example to follow for the other countries of the Eastern Partnership.Regarding the other EU co-operation platform in the region, the Black Sea Synergy, which includes Turkey and Russia, Mr Wiegand said that there will have to be a choice whether one wants to establish a good form of this multilateral process or whether one wants to use existing mechanisms where also other players continue to have a role.Mr Saryusz-Wolski, the chairman of the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee, warned that the problem is not what to put in the Eastern Partnership, but how to implement the available instruments. He stressed the need for benchmarks, individual evaluation of each country and called for appropriate funding, the current envelope of €2 billion for the entire EU neighbourhood policy - which also includes the southern Mediterranean rim - being insufficient.Speaking of other frozen conflicts such as Transnistria and Nagorno Karabakh in the light of the events in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Mr Wolski underlined the need for the EU to anticipate, not just to react, for instance by helping Ukraine's majority-Russian region of Crimea with better infrastructure and other pragamatic solutions.

Accession after 2020

With the perspective of EU membership for the partnership countries set out in 10-15 years, the focus should be on doing something now and helping the countries to establish strong institutions, rule of law and a functioning market economy, German MEP Elmar Brok said. Mr Brok, who used to be Mr Wolski's predecessor as the chairman of the foreign affairs committee, was presented as a forefather of the Eastern Partnership, as he championed a similar idea three years ago, called the Neighbourhood Policy Plus for the same group of countries.We need to have a step by step approach. Visa facilitation is important, WTO, gradually passing from an association agreement to a free trade area. It means to go further as far as possible in terms of these countries adopting the aquis communautaire, rather than focusing on the membership perspective, which is too distant, he said.

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

WELL SEE WHAT TOMORROW BRINGS AS THE STOCKS WERE UP 400 POINTS TODAY.

Possible financial crisis fix sends stocks soaring By PATRICK RIZZO, JEANNINE AVERSA and MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Business Writers SEPT 18,08

WASHINGTON - The stock market finally found reason to rally Thursday, and Congress promised quick action as the Bush administration prepared a plan to rescue banks from the bad debt at the heart of the worst crisis on Wall Street since the Great Depression. Details of the plan were still being worked out, but Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson emerged from a nighttime meeting on Capitol Hill to say he hoped to have a solution aimed right at the heart of this problem.As word of a government plan began to reach Wall Street earlier in the day, the Dow Jones industrial average jumped 410 points, its biggest percentage gain in nearly six years.The rebound also came after an infusion of billions of dollars by the Federal Reserve and world governments aimed at getting nervous banks to stop hoarding money and lend again.

Stocks had fluctuated throughout the day, without severe swings in either direction, until CNBC reported the administration might back a new agency to take bad assets off the books of struggling financial institutions, much like it did in the aftermath of the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s.After the discussions Thursday night, Paulson said the goal was to come up with a comprehensive approach that will require legislation to deal with the illiquid assets on bank balance sheets. He did not provide any details, but the plan taking shape called for Congress to give the administration the power to buy distressed bank assets.Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said that probably would not mean creating a new government agency.It will be the power — it may not be a new entity. It will be the power to buy up illiquid assets, Frank said. There is this concern that if you had to wait to set up an entity, it could take too long.Frank said his committee could begin drafting legislation as early as Wednesday.Paulson, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and other officials planned to work through the weekend on a solution. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that once the administration had presented its proposal, we hope to move very quickly to come to an agreement.There was no immediate word how much the rescue plan might cost.The banks still standing are staggering under the weight of billions of dollars of bad loans and mortgage debt arising from the wave of home foreclosures in the United States, and lending has tightened around the world in response.Before the sun rose on Wall Street on Thursday, the Fed said it would boost by as much as $180 billion the amount of cash it would supply to foreign counterparts that are short on dollars. For banks in the United States, the Fed supplied $105 billion in short-term loans later in the day.

But, at least initially, those efforts did little to unfreeze the global credit markets. Banks remained extremely reluctant to lend money.The No. 2 official at the International Monetary Fund, John Lipsky, said the past few days were searing manifestations of a financial crisis that has expanded to historic proportions. He predicted the turbulence would continue for some time to come.British financial regulators also banned short-selling the stock of financial companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. U.S. regulators tightened rules on short-selling Wednesday.

The Fed said it had authorized the expansion of swap lines, the process by which it supplies reserves to other central banks, to include amounts up to $110 billion for the European Central Bank and up to $27 billion for the Swiss National Bank.The Fed also said new swap facilities had been authorized with the Bank of Japan for as much as $60 billion, $40 billion for the Bank of England and $10 billion for the Bank of Canada. For more than a year, investors around the world have watched with growing alarm as the U.S. economy, the world's largest, has struggled to right itself amid massive home foreclosures, many of them from mortgages issued to homeowners with bad credit. The turmoil has swallowed some of the most storied names on Wall Street. Three of its five major investment banks — Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch — have either gone out of business or been driven into the arms of another bank. The Dow's gain of nearly 4 percent on Thursday sent the average back above 11,000 and nearly erased its losses from a day before. But as the uncertainty wore on, investors continued to flock to Treasury securities, considered a haven in times of crisis, and the price of gold rose yet again. And worries about even the safest investments intensified as Putnam Investments abruptly closed a $15 billion money market fund because institutional investors had pulled their cash. Bush canceled out-of-town fundraising trips to Alabama and Florida to stay in Washington and huddle with Paulson and the heads of the Fed and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In an appearance earlier in the day, the president acknowledged serious challenges in the markets and said: The American people can be sure we will continue to act to strengthen and stabilize our financial markets and improve investor confidence.The credit troubles reverberated around the globe. Asian stocks closed lower. European stocks rose but struggled to hold on to the gains. Russia closed its stock exchanges for a second day, and President Dmitry Medvedev pledged a $20 billion injection into financial markets. In the United States, investors worried for another day about the health of the banks still standing. Earlier in the week, venerable Lehman Brothers was forced into bankruptcy, and Merrill Lynch was driven into the arms of Bank of America. On Thursday, Morgan Stanley scrambled to strike a major deal or raise more cash that will reassure investors and prevent more damage to its battered stock. Its CEO, John Mack, reached out to China's Citic Group overnight about a possible investment, according to a person familiar with the talks. Morgan Stanley is also considering a combination with retail bank Wachovia Corp. and an investment from Singapore Investment Corp., one of the world's biggest sovereign wealth funds, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the discussions were still ongoing. On Capitol Hill, lawmakers in both parties became increasingly vocal about their concerns with the Bush administration's handling of the current crisis.

Administration officials refused to attend a closed-door briefing with House Republicans this morning, leaving their congressional allies in the dark about the government's $85 billion emergency loan to insurer American International Group, House GOP leader John A. Boehner said. And Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., the Banking Committee chairman, was irritated that Paulson twice canceled appearances he was to have made before the panel this week. Associated Press writers Catrina Stewart in Moscow, Matt Moore in Frankfurt, Ellen Simon in New York and Chris Rugaber, Deb Reichmann and Julie Hirschfeld Davis in Washington contributed to this report.

Morgan Stanley, others may get gov't lifeline By JOE BEL BRUNO, AP Business Writer SEPT 18,08

NEW YORK - America's battered financial services industry is close to getting the lifeline it was desperately seeking as government leaders sketched out a plan late Thursday to rescue banks from bad debts that threatened their survival. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said after a meeting with congressional leaders that there was consensus on a plan to deal with illiquid real estate and other assets on the books of financial institutions.That could require massive amounts of additional federal funding, but leaders from both parties in Congress said they are prepared to act quickly on legislation needed to save big Wall Street firms and Main Street banks alike from collapse amid the biggest realignment of the financial system since the Great Depression.Though specific details have not been spelled out, the legislation could spare the weakest banking companies from failure. And it takes some of the immediate pressure off the two remaining major independent investment banks, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, to reach deals with deposit-taking institutions to ensure a steady flow of funds for their operations.That was one of the reasons Merrill Lynch hastily agreed to be acquired by Bank of America Corp. earlier this week.SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, who attended the closed-door meeting at the Capitol with Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, also had good news for financial companies struggling to fend off investors who sell their stock short — a bet that they can buy it back later at a cheaper price and make a profit.

Cox told the lawmakers the SEC may order a temporary emergency ban on all short-selling — not just the aggressive forms it already has targeted, according to a person familiar with the matter.The ban might apply to stocks of selected financial companies, to all financial companies or even possibly to all public companies. Cox and the other four SEC commissioners were meeting Thursday night to consider the plan, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the possible action hasn't been publicly announced.These latest government moves come too late for Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch & Co. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the three Wall Street pillars that have lost independence or been toppled since the credit crisis began a year ago.This staves off judgment day, said Anthony Sabino, professor of law and business at St. John's University. This is a detox for banks, and will help cleanse themselves of the bad mortgage securities, loans and everything else that has hurt them.Investors took comfort from the potential for some kind of government intervention. Shares of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley shot up more than 10 percent in after-hours trading late Thursday.Until a late reversal in the trading day Thursday, the dramatic slide in the shares of those two investment banks led many to think they had to act quickly to tie up with commercial banks or overseas investors with deep pockets.The reason: Investment banks rely heavily on short-term borrowing to finance their proprietary trading and lending businesses, and the recent credit market disruptions have hammered home the point that they need to find more stable sources of funds to ride out market volatility.People are finally realizing that we are probably in the worst financial crisis since the Depression, said Alfred E. Goldman, chief market strategist for Wachovia Securities, a 49-year veteran of Wall Street. We're in a period of excessive fear.Economists including former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and investors like Wilbur Ross had been predicting more banks would fail in a shakeout reminiscent of the Great Depression. After the stock market's crash in 1929, 9,000 institutions failed and $140 billion of deposits were wiped out in the following decade.The government adopted policies to protect bank depositors since then and government agencies have already closed nearly a dozen insolvent banks while making provisions to reopen them under new ownership in recent months.Global banks and brokerages have written down more than $350 billion of distressed investments since the crisis began last year, and now bankers are looking to avoid becoming another statistic.Morgan Stanley, the No. 2 U.S. investment bank, had been in talks with a number of potential suitors and investors to help it survive, according to people familiar with the situation who asked not to be identified by name because the discussions were still ongoing. John J. Mack, chief executive of the 73-year-old securities firm, on Thursday told the company's 48,000 employees in a town hall meeting that he's doing everything possible to keep the embattled bank afloat. A day earlier, Mack complained in a memo to employees that their bank was in the midst of a market controlled by fear and rumors.He made a round of telephone calls late Wednesday to strike a deal or raise cash in a bid to calm investors and prevent more damage to Morgan Stanley's free-falling shares, these people said.

Morgan Stanley also opened up talks with China's sovereign wealth fund and state-owned bank Citic Group, and the Singapore Investment Fund about a possible cash infusion, people familiar with the discussions said. There also were advanced negotiations with executives from retail bank Wachovia Corp., one person said. Other suitors could include big global banks such as Britain's HSBC Holdings PLC and Germany's Deutsche Bank. Wachovia declined to comment about a potential deal. Spokesmen for GIC and Citic could not immediately be reached for comment. Meanwhile, Seattle-based Washington Mutual, which has lost billions and seen its shares plummet due to subprime mortgage exposure, hired Goldman Sachs to contact potential bidders —a list that so far includes Wells Fargo & Co., JP Morgan Chase & Co. and HSBC. And in London, Britain's Lloyds TSB Lloyds TSB announced a $21.85-billion deal to take over struggling HBOS PLC, Britain's biggest mortgage lender. This isn't just a U.S. problem, it is a global problem, Stu Schweitzer, JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s global markets strategist told the bank's institutional clients on a conference call this week. The economy has its problems, the financial system has its problems, we can believe in Armageddon or believe that in the end, step by step and trial and error, the authorities will get it right.AP Business Writers Jeannine Aversa and Marcy Gordon in Washington, Michael Liedtke in San Francisco and Tim Paradis in New York contributed to this report.

Bank of Canada sees tame inflation, not too low SEPT 18,08

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The rate of underlying inflation in Canada is well below the Bank of Canada's 2 percent target but not so low that it suggests economic weakness, Deputy Governor John Murray said on Thursday.At the same time, Murray cautioned against assuming inflation worries were over as some measures of price growth suggest the real inflation rate is slightly above the target.Can we assume that inflation in Canada is not much of a problem? I wouldn't want to go that far, but the relatively low level of CPIX (core inflation) does provide at least some reassurance that inflationary pressures are reasonably contained, he said in the text of a speech he was delivering in Toronto.The central bank targets 2 percent inflation and would be more likely to cut interest rates if it thought the inflation rate would significantly undershoot that goal and to raise rates if inflation were spinning out of control.To guide it in monetary policy, the bank closely watches core inflation, which excludes volatile items and is considered a more reliable measure of long-term price trends. Core inflation stood at 1.5 percent in July while total inflation, which includes items such as gasoline, jumped to a five-year high of 3.4 percent.Both measures are expected to hit the 2 percent market in the latter half of 2009, Murray said.(Reporting by Louise Egan; editing by Rob Wilson)

Fed, central banks move to boost global confidence By PATRICK RIZZO and JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Business Writers SEPT 18,08

NEW YORK - The worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression forced the Federal Reserve and central banks in other countries to pump billions of dollars into the world's banking system in an urgent bid to stop further damage. The Fed plowed as much as $180 billion into money markets overseas. At home, the New York Federal Reserve acted to ease a spike in overnight lending rates by injecting $55 billion into the banking system.Wall Street initially rallied, but it shed the gains and traded mostly lower by midday. Treasury securities and gold soared as investors fled to their relative safety.President Bush canceled an out-of-town trip to stay in Washington and to huddle with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Bush pledged to do all that was necessary to stem the crisis, whose fallout threatens the already fragile economy.The American people can be sure we will continue to act to strengthen and stabilize our financial markets and improve investor confidence, Bush said.On Capitol Hill, lawmakers in both parties are becoming increasingly vocal about their concerns with the Bush administration's handling of the crisis.

Administration officials refused to attend a closed-door briefing with House Republicans Thursday morning, said Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio, the GOP leader, leaving their congressional allies in the dark about recent actions to prop up insurer American International Group Inc. and whether further bailouts might be on the horizon.We are a separate branch of our government. (Lawmakers) are entitled to information, and I understand that there's a lot of sensitive talks underway — this is unprecedented — but having said that, members of Congress have a responsibility to their constituents and to the American taxpayers to have a better understanding of what's happening, Boehner said.Republican presidential candidate John McCain said that if he were president, he would fire Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox.The move by the Fed and its overseas counterparts was aimed at boosting waning confidence and getting banks around the world to open their ever-tightening purse strings. Banks have been increasingly reluctant to lend to each other as distrust spread throughout the financial system.A sharp rise in borrowing costs has worsened as bad bets on dodgy mortgage-backed securities claimed more Wall Street giants. The total amount of commercial paper fell by $52.1 billion for the week that ended Wednesday, as banks cut back the short-term loans companies from small garment factories to General Electric Co. depend on for their daily operations. At the same time, the interest rate on those short-term loans more than doubled, with rates for seven-day paper jumping to 4.5 percent from 2.5 percent.

Asian stocks closed lower. European shares rose, but struggled to maintain the gains.

Russia closed its stock exchanges for a second day Thursday as President Dmitry Medvedev pledged a 500 billion ruble ($20 billion) injection into financial markets to stem a dizzying plummet in share prices — and quash fears of a repeat of the country's 1998 financial collapse.The Dow Jones industrials slipped about 13 points in midday trading Thursday after dropping 450 points Wednesday when a Fed bailout of American International Group Inc., one of the world's largest insurers, failed to settle the markets' frayed nerves. About $700 billion in investments vanished and trading volumes set new records Wednesday.Investors were dumping their money into 3-month Treasury bills, considered one of the safest investments around. Gold prices spiked near $900 an ounce.Demand for super-safe Treasuries surged Wednesday, sending the yield on the 3-month Treasury bill briefly into negative territory for the first time since 1940. That meant investors were willing to pay more for certain Treasury securities than they expected to get back when the investments matured, a rare event.

Worries that other financial companies could fail cast a pall on the central banks' step, however.Morgan Stanley's stock price plunged again Thursday as the investment bank scrambled to strike a major deal or raise more cash that will reassure investors and prevent more damage to its free-falling shares. John Mack, CEO of the bank — now one of only two large standalone investment banks — reached out to China's Citic Group overnight about a possible investment, according to a person familiar with the talks. Morgan Stanley is also considering a combination with retail bank Wachovia Corp. and an investment from Singapore Investment Corp., one of the world's biggest sovereign wealth funds, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the discussions were still ongoing. In Washington, the president was to meet with economic advisers, including Paulson, over much of the day. Our financial markets continue to deal with serious challenges, Bush said. As our recent actions demonstrate, my administration is focused on meeting these challenges.Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., the Banking Committee chairman, was peeved when Paulson twice canceled appearances he was to have made before the panel this week. Senators will have to wait until Tuesday to hear from the Treasury secretary and Bernanke on the financial meltdown. A group of House GOP conservatives circulated a letter to Paulson and Bernanke calling on them to refrain from conducting any additional government-financed bailouts for large financial firms. Regardless of the precautions taken, the risk to taxpayers and to the long-term future health of our economy remain just too great to justify, wrote the group, led by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas. Asked by lawmakers Tuesday if they could promise there would be no more government rescues of major financial institutions in the wake of the bailout for AIG, Paulson and Bernanke refused to commit, said several sources familiar with the conversation. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private. The Fed said it had authorized the expansion of swap lines, or reciprocal currency arrangements, with the other central banks, including amounts up to $110 billion by the ECB and up to $27 million by the Swiss National Bank. The Fed also said new swap facilities had been authorized with the Bank of Japan for as much as $60 billion; $40 billion for the Bank of England and $10 billion for the Bank of Canada. All told, Fed action increased lines of cash to central banks by $180 billion to $247 billion.

For more than a year, investors around the world have watched with growing alarm as the U.S. economy, the world's largest, has struggled to right itself before being tipped over the edge by massive foreclosures, shrinking consumer spending and rising inflation. The turmoil has swallowed some of the most storied names on Wall Street. Three of its five major investment banks — Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch — have either gone out of business or been driven into the arms of another bank. The two remaining — Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley — were under siege. After the government bailed out the insurer AIG and a money fund broke the buck, investors were worried about the riskiness of most assets. It was the fourth consecutive day of extraordinary turmoil for the American financial system, beginning with news on Sunday that Lehman Brothers, would be forced to file for bankruptcy. The 4 percent drop Wednesday in the Dow reflected the stock market's first chance to digest the Fed's decision to rescue AIG with an $85 billion taxpayer loan that effectively gives it a majority stake in the company. AIG is important because it has essentially become a primary source of insurance for the entire financial industry. Jobs, too, have been affected by the tighter credit. With banks unwilling to lend, businesses are reluctant to expand. New applications for unemployment benefits rose last week, although much of that increase was due to the impact of Hurricane Gustav, the Labor Department said Thursday. But the four-week average of new claims, which smooths out fluctuations, rose by 5,000 to 445,000. Economists consider initial claims above 400,000 a sign of a struggling economy. A year ago, the figure stood at about 320,000. On Wednesday, the Treasury Department, for the first time in its history, said it would begin selling bonds for the Fed in an effort to help the central bank deal with its unprecedented borrowing needs.
Associated Press Writers Catrina Stewart in Moscow, Matt Moore in Frankfurt, Ellen Simon in New York and Julie Hirschfeld Davis in Washington contributed to this report.

Oil rises as investors eye US financial turmoil By J.W. ELPHINSTONE, AP Business Writer SEPT 18,08

NEW YORK - Oil prices broke back above $100 a barrel Thursday amid growing concerns about U.S. financial turmoil, then gave back some of their gains as a Federal Reserve cash injection into the credit markets calmed investors. Light, sweet crude for October delivery added 26 cents to $97.42 a barrel in midday trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier, the contract reached as high as $102.24 a barrel as worries intensified about the stability of the U.S. financial system.There was a surge in panic buying earlier. Oil is the ugly stepsister in the flight to quality in commodities, said Phil Flynn, an energy analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago. But the new liquidity in the system seems to be calming the markets somewhat.The Federal Reserve along with other foreign central banks on Thursday pumped as much as $180 billion into global money markets in an effort to stem a worsening global credit crisis. The emergency measure follows a week of chaos on Wall Street that saw the demise of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the forced takeover of Merrill Lynch and Co., and the unprecedented government bailout of American International Group Inc.Oil had jumped Wednesday as investors fled equities to crude, gold and other commodities as a short-term safe haven amid global market unrest. Last Friday, oil had fallen below $100 for the first time since April, extending a two-month decline in response to weakening demand for energy.Stepped-up attacks by Nigerian militants against the country's oil infrastructure helped support oil prices earlier Thursday. In a fifth day of violence, Nigeria's main militant group said Wednesday that it had destroyed an oil-pumping station and a pipeline crossing southern Nigeria in a rare daylight attack.

A spokesman for Nigeria's state oil company said Wednesday that militant attacks are now cutting the country's daily oil production by about 1 million barrels a day, 40 percent of what the country produced before the militant campaign began three years ago.In the last few days, militant attacks in Nigeria have been stirring up again, but that's on the back burner right now, said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with consultancy Gertz & Purvin in Singapore. I see downward pressure on oil in the near-term, with the key support level at US$90.Meanwhile, the U.S. government reported Wednesday a bigger-than-expected drop in crude supplies, reflecting the shutdown of virtually all Gulf Coast oil production because of Hurricane Ike and Hurricane Gustav.The Energy Information Administration said U.S. crude stocks fell by 6.3 million barrels for the week ending Sept. 12, much bigger than the 3.7 million barrel drop expected by analysts surveyed by the energy research firm Platts.In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures fell by nearly 1.44 cents to $2.7839 a gallon, while gasoline prices lost 2.42 cents to $2.42 a gallon. Natural gas for October delivery slipped 3.57 cents to $7.628 per 1,000 cubic feet.In London, November Brent crude gained 55 cents to $95.39 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Associated Press Writer Alex Kennedy contributed in Singapore and Associated Press Writer George Jahn in Vienna, Austria, contributed to this report.

Israel's Livni now in battle for premiership by Patrick Moser
SEPT 18,08

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Fresh from her election as the head of Israel's governing Kadima party, Tzipi Livni on Thursday set out to become the country's second woman prime minister and avert snap elections that could stall Middle East peacemaking. In her victory speech, the foreign minister said she wanted to form a new government as quickly as possible, a daunting challenge for the new leader of a party dogged by corruption scandals and involved in uneasy alliances.The 50-year-old Livni narrowly won Wednesday's party leadership vote to replace scandal-plagued Prime Minister Ehud Olmert , who is standing down to battle a number of corruption allegations.Livni secured 43 percent of the vote and a lead of just one percentage point -- or 431 votes -- over her main rival, Transport Minister and hawkish former army chief Shaul Mofaz.This gives her a mandate from half a percent of the Israeli population, the mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot daily said in an analysis of the vote, pointing out more people would turn out for next week's Paul McCartney concert in Tel Aviv.But Livni's victory could see her follow in the footsteps of Golda Meir who served as the country's first woman prime minister from 1969 to 1974.For the second time in its history, Israel has positioned itself on the frontlines of gender progressiveness and has elected a woman to head a governing party, perhaps even as prime minister, the Israel Hayom daily said.But the election looks unlikely to end the political turmoil brought on by the graft accusations against Olmert, as it remains uncertain whether Livni will be able to garner sufficient parliamentary support to form a government.

She is going to have to engage in exhausting negotiations that will oblige her to be more guileful and manipulative than she has ever had to be before, the Yediot Aharonot said in an editorial.The former Mossad spy, who has been leading the US-backed peace negotiations with the Palestinians, will have 42 days to form a government in order to avert an early election that opinion polls say would bring the right-wing Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu to power.I will do my utmost not to disappoint you. I want to do what's best for the country, she told supporters.But just how tough a challenge she faces became immediately obvious as the Shas party, which has played the role of kingmaker in the past, laid out its conditions for taking part in a Livni government.Eli Yishai, who heads the religious party, said this included ruling out any negotiations on the future of Jerusalem.Israel considers the city its eternal and undivided capital, including east Jerusalem which it annexed after the 1967 war and which the Palestinians demand as the capital of their promised state.The issue is a key sticking point in negotiations between the two sides that were revived at a US-hosted conference in November but have since made little tangible progress.The continuing political turbulence further dims chances of reaching a peace deal by the end of the year, a goal Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas set at the November conference in Annapolis, Maryland.Israel is also engaged in Turkish-brokered negotiations with Syria.Livni will continue with the peace process. The peace process is part of Livni's platform and is one of the main reasons she was elected, MP Yitzhak Ben Yisrael told AFP.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said the vote was an internal Israeli affair but that he hoped it would lead to stability. We hope there will be comprehensive and serious negotiations and that the Israeli voter will choose the removal of the settlements and the wall, and strong cooperation with a Palestinian partner, he told AFP. Olmert, who announced on July 30 that he would step down once Kadima picked a new leader, has faced public uproar over a string of corruption investigations that could lead to criminal charges against him. He is likely to wait until after the late September Jewish New Year celebrations and formally resign early next month, according to Israeli media.

Iran vows no nuclear retreat despite sanctions threat By Parisa Hafezi
SEPT 18,08

TEHRAN (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday Iran would not halt sensitive nuclear work the West suspects is aimed at making bombs and brushed aside threats of more sanctions. Ahmadinejad, who is due to attend the U.N.'s general assembly debate next week, also said he was willing to meet with both U.S. presidential candidates while in New York.We are ready for talks that are completely free and in front of the media and at the site of the United Nations with America's presidential candidates, he told a news conference.Dealing with Iran has become an issue in the November U.S. presidential election campaign, with Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain sparring over Obama's stated readiness to talk to Ahmadinejad and other U.S. adversaries if elected.Ahmadinejad has previously expressed willingness to hold direct talks with U.S. President George W. Bush. But Washington says Tehran must first suspend uranium enrichment before the two sides can sit down and talk about nuclear and other issues.Major powers have offered a package of trade and other incentives if the Islamic Republic stops enriching uranium, a process the West believes Iran is seeking to master to build nuclear warheads. Tehran denies the charge.Ahmadinejad made clear Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, had no plans to back down in the dispute.

Whatever they do, Iran will continue its activities. Sanctions are not important, he said. The era of (uranium enrichment) suspension has ended.The United States, Britain and France this week vowed to seek harsher sanctions on Tehran over its defiance of U.N. demands for full disclosure and a halt to enrichment, which can have both civilian and military purposes.Their calls came after the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report on Monday that Iranian stonewalling had brought to a standstill its investigation into whether Iran had covertly researched ways to make an atom bomb.

NO SURRENDER

Ahmadinejad said the IAEA report had confirmed the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear work and that Tehran had cooperated with the Vienna-based U.N. agency with full transparency.But he also said the IAEA had no mandate to consider Western intelligence, which alleges that Iran had linked projects to process uranium, test high explosives and modify a missile cone in a way suitable for a nuclear warhead.

Iran, which has repeatedly denied the allegations, says its nuclear activities are only for generating electricity.Ahmadinejad told Iran's Press TV earlier on Thursday: The United States government has made a claim that is beyond and outside of the purview and the provisions of the IAEA and the IAEA does not have a mandate really to examine such claims.Iran has withstood three rounds of limited U.N. sanctions imposed so far and may count on Russia, at odds with Western powers over Georgia, to hold up harsh action by the U.N. Security Council, analysts say.The United States and Israel have not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the nuclear standoff.Ahmadinejad, who again predicted the demise of Israel, said Iran would defend itself if attacked but that the Jewish state was in a weak position to launch attacks against any other country, Press TV reported. (Additional reporting by Zahra Hosseinian and Edmund Blair; writing by Fredrik Dahl; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Opinion
Russia and NATO's identity question Thu Sep 18, 4:00 AM ET

Ever since the Soviet Union's 1991 collapse, when NATO lost its enemy and its prime reason for being, the West's military alliance has been in existential limbo. Is its purpose to fight terrorism beyond Europe? Is its identity tied to adding new European countries? Now, with Russia's August invasion of Georgia, NATO's angst is escalating. Until now, much of the internal wrangling in the alliance had been about out-of-area deployments. NATO belatedly intervened to stop atrocities as neighboring Yugoslavia disintegrated in the 1990s. It meanwhile ventured into Afghanistan to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda – but halfheartedly and ill-equipped. Whether NATO is meant for a more global mission, and if so, whether it can gear up for it are basic questions expected to be the focus of the alliance's 60th anniversary summit next year. But newer NATO members, such as the Baltic countries, are urging a renewed focus on the alliance's traditional mission: territorial defense.Moscow's reversion to sphere of influence talk and action has awakened these countries' memories of suffocation in that sphere. They feel vulnerable sitting out there on Russia's western edge. They never were militarily fortified when they joined NATO; there was no imminent enemy.At the same time, Russia's muscularity has deepened the divisions in NATO about taking on new members, specifically, putting Georgia and Ukraine on the path to membership – a subject that the members will take up for the second time in December. Is the alliance, already overstretched and underappreciated, really prepared to risk war with nuclear-armed Russia to eventually defend these outposts – as its mu-tual defense clause guarantees? That question hardly applied to NATO aspirants during Russia's weak years, but it's a sobering one now.NATO's ambivalence about responding to the new strong Russia can be seen in its mixed messages.

In a show of solidarity, its ambassadors met this week in Georgia, where the NATO secretary-general proclaimed that the road to NATO is still wide open. The US ambassador to NATO, Kurt Volker, said Russia should not be allowed to veto Georgia's future. Nor should its conflicts serve as an excuse to keep Georgia out of the alliance.Yet even Mr. Volker, perhaps NATO's strongest backer of Georgia, was cautious about the timing, as was NATO's secretary-general. Indeed, NATO doesn't allow for taking on members involved in territorial conflicts. And debate continues on whether Russia's needed cooperation on important global issues, such as Iran and energy, should be the more powerful driver in NATO's relations with Moscow. Perhaps the best way to keep it in check for now is through an economic and diplomatic squeeze. Russia's financial markets are already hurting.NATO can start addressing its identity question by reaching a consensus on the nature of the Russia threat. Is Georgia a one-off event to be contained? Or does NATO expect other Russian provocations in Europe, perhaps even against its own members? Not until NATO understands the new Russia can it figure out what to do about it.

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).

China formula scare spreads to ice-cream, yogurt By Ian Ransom SEPT 18,08

BEIJING (Reuters) - Hong Kong has ordered the recall of a Chinese company's products after milk, ice cream and yogurt were found to be contaminated with melamine, the compound responsible for killing four children in a China health scandal.Tainted milk powder produced in China has made thousands ill, and triggered sackings and detentions and rocked public trust already battered by a litany of food safety scares involving tainted eggs, pork and seafood in recent years.Now the scandal has spread to milk, ice-cream and yogurt ice-bars. Hong Kong ordered the recall of a Chinese company's products on Thursday after tests found that eight of 30 of its products, including milk drinks, were tainted with melamine.The company, Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co Ltd, was a Beijing Olympic Games sponsor and is one of 22 Chinese firms implicated in the scandal.A regional Chinese health authority said on Thursday a fourth child had died at a hospital in remote northwestern Xinjiang. The report on the authority's website (www.xjwst.gov.cn) gave no further details.Milk tainted with melamine, a compound banned in food, has killed three other babies, two in China's northwestern Gansu province and one in eastern Zhejiang.The health scare erupted after Sanlu Group last week revealed it had produced and sold melamine-laced milk, and a subsequent probe found a fifth of 109 Chinese dairy producers were selling products adulterated with the substance.At the latest count, 6,244 children have become ill with kidney stones after drinking powdered milk laced with melamine, with three deaths and 158 suffering acute kidney failure.

It's just a terrible situation, it's really scary, said a 34-year-old father surnamed Zhou, cradling one of his eight-month twins outside a Beijing children's hospital.You expect small brands to have quality issues, but these are big brands, name brands. The authorities need to improve their oversight, said Zhou, queuing to have his children examined.Dozens of lawyers and rights campaigners have mobilized to support families stricken by the toxic powder. One said they had already received nearly a thousand phone inquiries, underscoring the political volatility of China's latest food safety scandal.

SACKINGS

Local media have largely kept quiet about claims that Sanlu and officials in Shijiazhuang, where the company is based, concealed the poisonings from the public and senior authorities during the Beijing Olympics in August.But an outraged commentary on the official Xinhua agency blamed the group for covering up substandard milk.The hard lesson we should learn from this tragedy: never overestimate the credibility of any company, the report warned.Sanlu is 43 percent owned by New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra, and New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said on Monday that Chinese officials acted last week only after her government pressed Beijing.A vice governor of Hebei, Yang Chongyong, said on Wednesday that Sanlu knew long ago that melamine was being used in its milk from as early as 2005, and that 41 of 372 milk stations supplying the company had been found to have problems. The firm is still struggling to trace 35 tons of contaminated powder, Xinhua quoted newly elected Chairman Zhang Zhenling saying on Thursday. We will specially dispatch staff to the remote rural and mountainous areas to retrieve the milk powder, he said. Sanlu's milk was popular among poorer Chinese parents because it was seen as reliable but relatively cheap. Two Chinese dairy firms had also exported baby milk powder to Yemen, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Gabon and Burundi.

Though there has been no bad reaction, the quality watchdog has demanded that these companies take action to recall the products, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Jiang Yu said. Melamine is rich in nitrogen, used to measure protein, and so can be used to disguise diluted milk. It can cause kidney stones and other organ problems.

Hebei police seized 222 kg of melamine and arrested 12 people on Thursday, bringing the total detained in the scandal to 18. Six were melamine dealers and the others 12 dealers suspected of selling contaminated milk. Another 10 have been held including sacked Sanlu chairwoman, Tian Wenhua, and authorities are hunting for another milk dealer. (For a factbox on recent scandals, see CHINA-PRODUCT/SAFETY (FACTBOX) or click on)(Editing by Nick Macfie and Sanjeev Miglani)

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.

RICE - RUSSIA ON PATH TO ISOLATION
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/18/world/main4457347.shtml

GATES - RICE RUSSIA WILL FACE CONSEQUENSES
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/18/world/main4457347.shtmlhttp://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/18/world/main4457347.shtml

From The TimesSeptember 19, 2008 Russia ratchets up US tensions with arms sales to Iran and Venezuela(Misha Japaridze)

Russia's strategic aircraft, the Tu-160 or White Swan, the world's largest supersonic bomber. A pair of them touched down in Venezuela this week as Moscow announced big new arms sales.Tony Halpin in Moscow and Alexi Mostrous in Washington
Russia defied the United States yesterday by announcing plans to sell military hardware to Iran and Venezuela. The head of the state arms exporter said that he was negotiating to sell antiaircraft systems to Iran despite American objections. Russia has already delivered 29 Tor-M1 missile systems under a $700 million (£386 million) deal with Iran in 2005. Contacts between our countries are continuing and we do not see any reason to suspend them,” Anatoli Isaikin, the general director of Rosoboronexport, told the RIA-Novosti news agency at an arms fair in South Africa.

Reports have circulated for some time that the Kremlin is preparing to sell its S300 surface-to-air missile system to Iran, offering greater protection against a possible US or Israeli attack on the Islamic republic’s nuclear facilities. The missiles have a range of more than 90 miles (150km). Sergei Chemezov, the head of the state-owned Russian Technologies, also disclosed that Venezuela’s leader, Hugo Chávez, wanted to buy antiaircraft systems, armoured personnel carriers, and SU35 fighter jets when they come into production in 2010. The Deputy Prime Minister, Igor Sechin, one of the closest allies of Mr Putin, the Prime Minister, visited Venezuela and Cuba this week. Kommersant, the financial newspaper, said that Russia was forming alliance relations with the two antiAmerican regimes as a response to US involvement in former Soviet republics. The Russian moves mark a serious deterioration in relations between Washington and Moscow. Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, threated to block Russia’s membership of key international organisations. She told the Kremlin that its authoritarian policies could prevent it from joining the World Trade Organisation and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which coordinates economic policies among industrialised countries. In an outspoken speech to the German Marshall Fund, an institution promoting greater cooperation between America and Europe, Dr Rice said: The picture emerging is of a Russia increasingly authoritarian at home and aggressive abroad. Russia’s bid to join the World Trade Organisation is now in question. And so too is its attempt to join the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.She added: Russia’s international standing is worse now than at any time since 1991.The WTO is due to meet in Geneva on Thursday to discuss Russia’s bid to join the global trade body, a process that began in 1993, soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Dr Rice said that Russia’s actions in Georgia fitted into a worsening pattern of behaviour, which included its intimidation of its sovereign neighbours, its use of oil and gas as a political weapon, its threat to target peaceful nations with nuclear weapons, its arms sales to states and groups that threaten international security and its persecution – and worse – of Russian journalists and dissidents.

She repeated the US commitment to put forward a $1 billion economic support package for Georgia. The European Union has already pledged $500 million. At the heart of the dispute between the two former Cold War adversaries is Moscow’s insistence that America and its Nato allies are interfering in Russia’s near abroad and threatening its interests. The Kremlin is furious about plans to site an antimissile shield in Eastern Europe. The interceptors are designed to stop ballistic missile attacks from Iran but Russia believes the system in Poland and the Czech Republic is aimed at weakening its military capability. Ruslan Pukhov, the director of the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in Moscow, said that it was logical to conclude a lucrative contract with Iran in the current situation, when the US and the West in general are stubbornly gearing toward a confrontation with Russia.

Deadly deals

— Russia is believed to export arms to about 80 countries

— Venezuela bought Russian fighter jets and helicopters worth £540 million in 2006; Indonesia bought a similar amount in 2007

— China’s arms deals with Russia were worth £1 billion a year but dwindled in 2006 and no new contracts are planned

— In 2005 Russia agreed to sell 30 Tor M-1 air-defence missile systems to Iran

Sources: Global Security, RIA-Novosti, Agencies

America's Arms Warning To Russia Russian Jets In Venezuela 2:26am UK, Friday September 19, 2008

The US Defence Secretary has told Sky News that another Russian attack on Georgia once it has joined Nato would result in an American armed response.We would stand by our commitments says Robert Gates.Robert Gates told Sky's foreign affairs editor Tim Marshall that Nato's charter would require it.I have been a very strong proponent of the view that Nato is a military alliance not a talk shop, he said.Article five means what it says - so there is a commitment to go to the assistance of our allies if they are challenged.Meanwhile the Russian Navy says the war in Georgia has shown the world that Moscow is once again a force to be reckoned with.Its Black Sea Fleet has now returned to its base in Crimea in Ukraine, but the region is becoming a new frontline in the stand-off between Russia and the West.But Mr Gates told Marshall: I don't think there is a new Cold War. This Russia is not the Soviet Union.

Gates On Georgia

He added: If anything, it's trying to recapture perhaps some of the past glory of the Russian Empire.I think Georgia is going to prove to be a pyrrhic victory for Russia over the long term.His comments came as defence ministers from all 26 Nato states gathered in London to discuss possible Nato reforms.Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer reaffirmed his support for Georgia to become a full member of the alliance despite Russian opposition.In a speech to the Royal United Service Institute, Mr Scheffer said: Why is it that we should be the ones who deny a nation who has these aspirations to help them come true? Gordon Brown is set to meet Georgian prime minister Vladimir Gurgenidze today for talks at Downing Street.Mr Brown has said that if Georgia and Ukraine want to join Nato, we should make it possible.

Secretary Rice Addresses U.S.-Russia Relations At The German Marshall Fund
Secretary Condoleezza Rice Renaissance Mayflower Hotel Washington, DC September 18, 2008

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you very much, Craig. Thank you for that kind introduction. I would like to thank Senator Bennett for being here, as well as members of Congress and members of the German Marshall Fund Board. I want to thank everyone at the Fund for inviting me to speak today. The German Marshall Fund is an indispensable organization – especially for our transatlantic alliance, but increasingly for our partnerships beyond Europe as well. So thank you for the great work that you do in fostering unity of thought, unity of purpose, and unity of action. These are the elements that the United States and Europe need more than ever today. You have made an immeasurable impact in helping us to reaffirm and strengthen our nation’s ties with Europe these past few years. And so, again, thank you very, very much. I’m honored to be here. Now, this is actually the first time that I have spoken at the German Marshall Fund as Secretary of State. And I venture to say, given our short time in office, that it is likely the last. Now, I’m glad that you recognized that that was not meant to be an applause line. (Laughter.) I have come here today to speak with you about a subject that’s been on everyone’s mind recently: Russia and U.S.-Russian relations. Most of us are familiar with the events of the past month. The causes of the conflict – particularly the dispute between Georgia and its breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia – are complex. They go back to the fall of the Soviet Union. And the United States and our allies have tried many times to help the parties resolve the dispute diplomatically. Indeed, it was, in part, for just that reason that I traveled to Georgia just a month before the conflict, as did German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, among others. The conflict in Georgia, thus, has deep roots. And clearly, all sides made mistakes and miscalculations. But several key facts are clear: On August 7th, following repeated violations of the ceasefire in South Ossetia, including the shelling of Georgian villages, the Georgian government launched a major military operation into Tskhinvali and other areas of the separatist region. Regrettably, several Russian peacekeepers were killed in the fighting. These events were troubling. But the situation deteriorated further when Russia’s leaders violated Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity – and launched a full scale invasion across an internationally-recognized border. Thousands of innocent civilians were displaced from their homes. Russia’s leaders established a military occupation that stretched deep into Georgian territory. And they violated the ceasefire agreement that had been negotiated by French and EU President Sarkozy.

Other actions of Russia during this crisis have also been deeply disconcerting: its alarmist allegations of genocide by Georgian forces, its baseless statements about U.S. actions during the conflict, its attempt to dismember a sovereign country by recognizing Abkhazia and South Ossetia, its talk of having privileged interests in how it treats its independent neighbors, and its refusal to allow international monitors and NGOs into Abkhazia and South Ossetia, despite ongoing militia violence and retribution against innocent Georgians.What is more disturbing about Russia’s actions is that they fit into a worsening pattern of behavior over several years now. I’m referring, among other things, to Russia’s intimidation of its sovereign neighbors, its use of oil and gas as a political weapon, its unilateral suspension of the CFE Treaty, its threat to target peaceful nations with nuclear weapons, its arms sales to states and groups that threaten international security, and its persecution – and worse – of Russian journalists, and dissidents, and others. The picture emerging from this pattern of behavior is that of a Russia increasingly authoritarian at home and aggressive abroad.Now, this behavior did not go unnoticed or unchallenged over the last several years. We have tried to address it in the context of efforts to forge a constructive relationship with Russia. But the attack on Georgia has crystallized the course that Russia’s leaders are now taking and it has brought us to a critical moment for Russia and the world. A critical moment – but not a deterministic one. Russia’s leaders are making some unfortunate choices. But they can still make different ones. Russia’s future is in Russia’s hands. But its choices will be shaped, in part, by the actions of the United States, our friends, and our allies – both in the incentives that we provide and the pressure that we apply. Now, much has been said recently about how we have come to this point. And some have attempted to shift the responsibility for Russia’s recent pattern of behavior onto others. Russia’s actions cannot be blamed, for example, on its neighbors like Georgia. To be sure, Georgia’s leaders could have responded better to the events last month in South Ossetia, and it benefits no one to pretend otherwise. We warned our Georgian friends that Russia was baiting them, and that taking this bait would only play into Moscow’s hands.

But Russia’s leaders used this as a pretext to launch what, by all appearances, was a premeditated invasion of its independent neighbor. Indeed, Russia’s leaders had laid the groundwork for this scenario months ago – distributing Russian passports to Georgian separatists, training and arming their militias, and then justifying the campaign across Georgia’s border as an act of self-defense. Russia’s behavior cannot be blamed either on NATO enlargement. With the end of the Cold War, we and our allies have worked to transform NATO – form – to bring it from an alliance that manned the ramparts of a divided Europe, to a means for nurturing the growth of a Europe whole, free, and at peace – and an alliance that confronts the dangers, like terrorism, that also threaten Russia.We have opened NATO to any sovereign, democratic state in Europe that can meet its standards of membership. We’ve supported the right of countries emerging from communism to choose what path of development they pursue and what institutions they wish to join. And this historic effort has succeeded beyond imagination. Twelve of our 28 neighbor NATO allies are former captive nations. And the promise of membership has been a positive incentive for these states: to build democratic institutions, to reform their economies, and to resolve old disputes, as nations like Poland, and Hungary, and Romania, and Slovakia, and Lithuania have done. Just as importantly, NATO has consistently sought to enlist Russia as a partner in building a peaceful and prosperous Europe. Russia has had a seat at nearly every NATO summit since 2002. So to claim that this alliance is somehow directed against Russia is simply to ignore recent history. In fact, our assumption has always been – and it still is – that Russia’s legitimate need for security is best served not by having weak, fractious, and poor states on its borders – but rather peaceful, prosperous, and democratic ones.It is simply not valid, either, to blame Russia’s behavior on the United States – either for being too tough with Russia, or not tough enough, too unaccommodating to Russia’s interests or too naïve about its leaders. Since the end of the Cold War – spanning three administrations, both Democratic and Republican – the United States has sought to encourage the emergence of a strong, prosperous, and responsible Russia. We have treated Russia not as a vanquished enemy, but as an emerging partner. We have supported – politically and financially – Russia’s transition to a modern, market-based economy and a free, peaceful society. And we have respected Russia as a great power, with which to work to solve common problems.

When our interests have diverged, the United States has consulted Russia’s leaders. We’ve searched for common ground. And we have sought, as best we could, to take Russia’s interests and ideas into account. This is how we have approached contentious issues – from Iran, to Kosovo, to missile defense. And I have traveled repeatedly to Russia, the last times – two times with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, to try to foster cooperation.Increasingly, Russia’s leaders have simply not reciprocated. And their recent actions are leading some to ask whether we are now engaged in a new Cold War. No, we are not. But it does beg the question: Where did this Russia come from? How did the Russia of the 1990s become the Russia of today?

After all, the 1990s were, in many ways, a period of real hope and promise for Russia. The totalitarian state was dismantled. The scope of liberty for most Russians expanded significantly – in what they could read, in what they could say, in what they could buy and sell, and what associations they could form. New leaders emerged who sought to steer Russia toward political and economic reform at home, toward integration into the global economy, and toward a responsible international role. All of this is true. But many Russians remember things differently about the 1990s. They remember that decade as a time of license and lawlessness, economic uncertainty and social chaos. A time when criminals and gangsters and robber barons plundered the Russian state and preyed on the weakest in Russian society. A time when many Russians – not just elites and former apparatchiks, but ordinary men and women – experienced a sense of dishonor and dislocation that we in the West did not fully appreciate. I remember that Russia, because I saw it firsthand. I remember old women selling their life’s belongings along the old Arbat – plates and broken teacups, anything to get by. I remember that Russian soldiers returned home from Eastern Europe and lived in tents, because the Russian state was just too weak and too poor to house them properly. I remember talking to my Russian friends – tolerant, open, progressive people – who felt an acute sense of shame during that decade. Not at the loss of the Soviet Union, but at the feeling of not recognizing their own country anymore: the Bolshoi theater falling apart, pensioners unable to pay their bills, the Russian Olympic team in 1992 parading into the games under a flag that no one had ever seen, and receiving gold medals to an anthem that no one had ever heard. There was a humiliating sense that nothing Russian was good enough anymore. This does not excuse Russia’s behavior, but it helps to set a context for it. It helps to explain why many ordinary Russians felt relieved and proud when new leaders emerged at the end of the last decade, who sought to reconstitute the Russian state and reassert its power abroad. An imperfect authority was seen as better than no authority at all.What has become clear is that the legitimate goal of rebuilding the Russian state has taken a dark turn – with the rollback of personal freedoms, the arbitrary enforcement of the law, the pervasive corruption at various levels of Russian society, and the paranoid, aggressive impulse, which has manifested itself before in Russian history, to view the emergence of free and independent democratic neighbors – most recently, during the so-called “color revolutions” in Georgia, and Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan – not as a source of security, but as a source of threat to Russia’s interests.

Whatever its course, though, Russia today is not the Soviet Union – not in the size of its territory, the reach of its power, the scope of its aims, or the nature of the regime. Russia’s leaders today have no pretensions to ideological universality, no alternative vision to democratic capitalism, and no ability to construct a parallel system of client states and rival institutions. The bases of Soviet power are gone.And despite their leaders’ authoritarianism, Russians today enjoy more prosperity, more opportunity, and in some sense, more liberty than in either Tsarist or Soviet times. Russians increasingly demand the benefits of global engagement – the jobs and the technology, the travel abroad, the luxury goods and the long-term mortgages. With such growing prosperity and opportunity, I cannot imagine that most Russians would ever want to go back to the days, as in Soviet times, when their country and its citizens stood isolated from Western markets and institutions.This, then, is the deeper tragedy of the choices that Russia’s leaders are making. It is not just the pain they inflict on others, but the debilitating costs they impose on Russia itself – the way they are jeopardizing the international credibility that Russian businesses have worked so hard to build, and the way that they are risking the real, and future, progress of the Russian people, who have come so far since communism. And for what? Russia’s attack on Georgia merely proved what we had already known – that Russia could use its overwhelming military advantage to punish a small neighbor. But Georgia has survived. Its democracy will endure. Its economy will be rebuilt. Its independence will be reinforced. Its military will, in time, be reconstituted. And we look forward to the day when Georgia’s territorial integrity will be peacefully restored. Russia’s invasion of Georgia has achieved – and will achieve – no enduring strategic objective. And our strategic goal now is to make clear to Russia’s leaders that their choices could put Russia on a one-way path to self-imposed isolation and international irrelevance. Accomplishing this goal will require the resolve and the unity of responsible countries – most importantly, the United States and our European allies. We cannot afford to validate the prejudices that some Russian leaders seem to have: that if you press free nations hard enough – if you bully them, and you threaten them, and you lash out – they will cave in, and they’ll forget, and eventually they will concede. The United States and Europe must stand up to this kind of behavior, and to all who champion it. For our sake – and for the sake of Russia’s people, who deserve a better relationship with the rest of the world – the United States and Europe must not allow Russia’s aggression to achieve any benefit. Not in Georgia – not anywhere.

We and our European allies are therefore acting as one in supporting Georgia. President Sarkozy, with whom we have worked very closely, is especially to be commended for his leadership on this front. The transatlantic alliance is united. Just this week, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer led all 26 of our alliance’s ambassadors on a mission to Tbilisi to demonstrate our unwavering support for the Georgian people. The door to a Euro-Atlantic future remains wide open to Georgia, and our alliance will continue to work through the new NATO-Georgia Commission to make that future a reality.We and our European allies will also continue to lead the international effort to help Georgia rebuild – an effort that has already made remarkable headway. The United States has put forward a $1 billion economic support package for Georgia. The EU has pledged 500 million Euros, and it is preparing to deploy a large mission of civilian observers and monitors to Georgia. In addition, with U.S. and European support, G-7 foreign ministers have condemned Russia’s actions and pledged to support Georgia’s reconstruction. The Asian Development Bank has committed $40 million in loans to Georgia. The IMF has approved a $750 million stand-by credit facility. And the OSCE is making plans for expanded observers, though Moscow is still blocking this. Conversely, Russia has found little support for its actions. A pat on the back from Daniel Ortega and Hamas is not a diplomatic triumph. At the same time, the United States and Europe are continuing to support – unequivocally – the independence and territorial integrity of Russia’s neighbors. We will resist any Russian attempt to consign sovereign nations and free peoples to some archaic sphere of influence.The United States and Europe are solidifying our ties with those neighbors. We are working as a wider group, including with our friends in Finland and Sweden, who have been indispensable partners throughout this recent crisis. We are backing worthy initiatives, like Norway’s High North policy. We are working to resolve other regional disputes, such as Nagorno-Karabakh, and to build with friends and allies like Turkey a foundation for cooperation in the Caucasus. And we will not allow Russia to wield a veto over the future of the Euro-Atlantic community – neither what states are offered membership, nor the choice of states that accept it. We have made this particularly clear to our friends in Ukraine. The United States and Europe are deepening our cooperation in pursuit of greater energy dependence* – working with Azerbaijan, and Georgia, and Turkey, and the Caspian countries. We will expand and defend open global energy in the economy from abusive practices. There cannot be one set of rules for Russia, Inc. – and another for everyone else. Finally, the United States and Europe, as well as our many friends and allies worldwide, will not allow Russia’s leaders to have it both ways – drawing benefits from international norms, and markets, and institutions, while challenging their very foundation. There is no third way. A 19th century Russia and a 21st century Russia cannot operate in the world side by side. To reach its full potential, though, Russia needs to be fully integrated into the international political and economic order. But Russia is in the precarious position today of being half in and half out. If Russia ever wants to be more than just an energy supplier, its leaders have to recognize a hard truth: Russia depends on the world for its success, and it cannot change that. Already, Russia’s leaders are seeing a glimpse of what the future might look like if they persist with their aggressive behavior. In contrast to Georgia’s position, Russia's international standing is worse than at any time since 1991. And the cost of this self-inflicted isolation has been steep.

Russia’s civil nuclear cooperation with the United States is not going anywhere now. Russia’s leaders are imposing pain on their nation’s economy. Russia’s bid to join the World Trade Organization is now in jeopardy. And so too is its attempt to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. But perhaps the worst fallout for Moscow is that its behavior has fundamentally called into question whose vision of Russia is really guiding that country. There was a time recently when the new president of Russia laid out a positive and forward-looking vision of his nation’s future. This was a vision that took into account Russia’s vulnerabilities: its declining population and heartbreaking health problems; its failure thus far to achieve a high-tech, diversified economy like those to Russia’s west and increasingly to Russia’s east; and the disparity between people’s quality of life in Moscow, and St. Petersburg, and in a few other cities – and those in Russia’s countryside. This was a vision that called for strengthening the rule of law, and rooting out corruption, and investing in Russia’s people, and creating opportunities not just for an elite few, but for all Russian citizens to share in prosperity.This was a vision that rested on what President Medvedev referred to as the Four I’s: investment, innovation, institutional reform, and infrastructure improvements to expand Russia’s economy. And this was a vision that recognized that Russia cannot afford a relationship with the world that is based on antagonism and alienation.This is especially true in today’s world, which increasingly is not organized around polarity – multi-, uni-, and certainly not bi-. In this world, there is an imperative for nations to build a network of strong and unique ties to many influential states. And that is a far different context than much of the last century, when U.S. foreign policy was, frankly, hostage to our relationship with the Soviet Union. We viewed everything through that lens, including our relations with other countries. We were locked in a zero-sum, ideological conflict. Every state was to choose sides, and that reduced our options. Well, thankfully, that world is also gone forever, and it’s not coming back. As a result, the United States is liberated to pursue a multidimensional foreign policy. And that is what we are doing.We are charting a forward-looking agenda with fellow multiethnic democracies like Brazil and India, and with emerging powers like China and Vietnam – relationships that were once colored by Cold War rivalry. We are transforming our alliances with Asia – in Asia with Japan and South Korea, Australia and the Philippines, with other countries of ASEAN and expanding them for platforms for our common defense to catalysts – as catalysts for fostering regional security, advancing trade, promoting freedom, and building a dynamic Asia-Pacific region.We are rebuilding relations with countries like Libya, whose leaders are making responsible choices to rejoin the international order.

We are deepening partnerships, rooted in shared principles, with nations across Africa – and to support the new African agenda for success in the 21st century. We’ve quadrupled foreign assistance to promote just governance, investment in people, fighting disease and corruption, and driving development through economic freedom.We are moving beyond 60 years of policy in the broader Middle East during the Cold – which, during the Cold War, led successive administrations to support stability at the price of liberty, ultimately achieving neither.And we are charting a hopeful future with our friends and allies in the Americas – from whom we were, at times, deeply estranged during the Cold War. Here, we have doubled foreign assistance. And now, we are pursuing a common hemispheric vision of democratic development, personal security, and social justice. Anachronistic Russian displays of military power will not turn back this tide of history. Russia is free to determine its relations with sovereign counties. And they are free to determine their relationships with Russia – including in the Western hemisphere. But we are confident that our ties with our neighbors – who long for better education and better health care and better jobs, and better housing – will in no way be diminished by a few, aging Blackjack bombers, visiting one of Latin America’s few autocracies, which is itself being left behind by an increasingly peaceful and prosperous and democratic hemisphere. Our world today is full of historic opportunities for progress, as well as challenges to it – from terrorism and proliferation, to climate change and rising commodity prices. The United States has an interest in building partnerships to resolve these and other challenges. And so does Russia.The United States and Russia share an interest in fighting terrorism and violent extremism. We and Russia share an interest in denuclearizing the Korean peninsula and stopping Iran’s rulers from acquiring the world’s deadliest weapons. We and Russia share an interest in a secure Middle East where there is peace between Israelis and Palestinians. And we and Russia share an interest in preventing the Security Council from reverting to the gridlocked institution that it was during the Cold War. The United States and Russia shared all of these interests on August 7th. And we share them still today on September 18. The Sochi Declaration, signed earlier this year, provided a strategic framework for the United States and Russia to advance our many shared interests.We will continue, by necessity, to pursue our areas of common concern with Russia. But it would be a real shame if our relationship were never anything more than that – for the best and deepest relationships among states are those that share not only interest, but goals, and aspirations, and values and dreams.Whatever the differences between our governments, we will not let them obstruct a deepening relationship between the American and Russian people. So we will continue to sponsor Russian students and teachers and judges and journalists, labor leaders and democratic reformers who want to visit America. We will continue to support Russia’s fight against HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. And we will continue to support all Russians who want a future of liberty for their great nation.

I sincerely hope that the next president and the next secretary of state will visit Russia and will take time to speak with Russian civil society, and will give interviews to Russia’s diminished but still enduring independent media, just as President Bush and I have done.The United States and our friends and allies – in Europe, but also in the Americas, and Asia, and Africa, and the Middle East – are confident in our vision for the world in this young century and we are moving forward. It is a world in which great power is defined not by spheres of influence or zero-sum competition, or the strong imposing their will on the weak – but by open competition in global markets, trade and development, the independence of nations, respect for human rights, governance by the rule of law, and the defense of freedom.

This vision of the world is not without its problems, or its setbacks, or even its significant crises – as we have seen in recent days. But it is this open, interdependent world, more than any other in history, that offers all human beings a greater opportunity for lives of peace, prosperity, and dignity.Whether Russia’s leaders overcome their nostalgia for another time, and reconcile themselves to the sources of power and the exercise of power in the 21st century – still remains to be seen. The decision is clearly Russia’s – and Russia’s alone. And we must all hope, for the good of the Russian people, and for the sake of us all, that Russia’s leaders make better and right choices.

Thank you very much. (Applause.)


MODERATOR: Thank you so much, Secretary Rice. That was a very compelling and thoughtful speech. The Secretary has agreed to take three questions. Where is the first one? Over here.


QUESTION: Madame Secretary, Russia is a petro-state, and its level of assertiveness pretty much correlates to the price of oil. The price of oil is down by 30 or 40 percent, and the oil markets look like they’re going to get softer. Would you expect Russian behavior to be at all modified because of the price of oil and its importance to their economy?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I don’t know if their behavior will be modified. I do know that there are significant vulnerabilities for petro-states that do not diversify. And there are significant vulnerabilities for petro-states that depend on their ability to engage in monopolistic behavior during good times, when those – when the price of oil is down and that monopolistic behavior doesn't pay off in terms of customers. So those are facts that I understand and realities that I understand that are independent of Russia in particular.I will say that there had been a time when Russia talked a lot about the diversification of its economy because of its – this period of oil boom. But again, half in and half out. It’s difficult to diversify your economy if rule of law and transparency and predictability of contracts is not available. And so whatever the future of the price of oil may portend, I think that the problems in the Russian economy are ones that are there structurally, and they will, of course, be more vulnerable or made worse when commodity prices are, as they are, headed south.But there are just certain structural problems with being a petro-economy. And if you look at places that have handled it well, for instance like Norway, they have taken very different course, and of course, as a democratic state, have had to take a different course.

MODERATOR: Next question. Over there.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) German Marshall Fund. About the G-8, I just wonder what your thinking is of the G-8 now. Is it time, perhaps, to reinvent it, to make it larger? And how do you see Russia’s role now in the G-8?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I think that Russia has called into question whether it shares the goals and aspirations of many of these institutions. And what has happened thus far – first of all, there’s never been a G-8 finance ministers, and so the G-7 finance ministers have been the ones that have been working on the Georgia package and so forth. We have also met at the level of G-7 foreign ministers meeting telephonically a couple of times because issuing one statement that said that it was unusual for G-7 foreign ministers to criticize the behavior of another – of a member of the G-8. So there is a lot of activity that has taken place outside the context of the G-8, and more in the context of the G-7. I think that we will have to see. The jury is still out on a couple of elements about Russia, and I hope that Russia will, frankly, stop digging the hole that it has dug by recognizing Abkhazia and South Ossetia. One of the things that Russia could do to show that it understands that a different course is necessary would be not to try to alter the status quo in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. So no permanent military bases. Don’t start exploring for resources in territory that is clearly within the international boundaries of a member-state of the United Nations. I think these are the kinds of issues that people are going to be looking at. Is Russia going to block the entry of observers and monitors into Abkhazia and South Ossetia itself? Is Russia going to actually withdraw its forces fully and go back to the status quo ante? So there is a lot to still look at here, but I think that the last couple of months have clearly – or the last month or so, has clearly cast a pall on the question of Russian engagement with the diplomatic and economic and security institutions that were built on certain premises about what kind of engagement and interaction Russia wished to have with the world.

MODERATOR: Final question. Okay, way over there.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. Thank you for excellent speech.There are a few things I would like you to elaborate if you can. First, you didn’t talk about unintended consequences of a strained relationship with Russia. You mentioned the cooperation on terrorism and nonproliferation. But what – if they don’t collaborate, that would be a major setback for everybody.The second point is: Don’t you think that we as Western democracies have somehow lost our moral force in invading Iraq and now we have difficulty at making – Russia understands that invading is not such a good thing and, you know, you’re breaking international law? Thank you very much.

SECRETARY RICE: Yes. Well, let me – on the first question of the consequences, look, I think we still have an interest in cooperation on terrorism, and I think Russia still has an interest. Russia, given its problems with extremism on its periphery, has always understood that it had an interest in cooperating on terrorism. I might note, too, that separatism and terrorism, in some of that area around the south of Russia – the southern flank – go somewhat hand in hand. And so, the recent moves by Russia, I think, have consequences also for the way that those regions will develop. And we will continue to do what we do with every state, which is to share information, to share whatever intelligence we have. Because none of us have an interest in another terrorist attack, and I expect that to continue.If you remember, the United States was most – probably the most supportive country in the world of – with Russia after Beslan. And I don’t think that that is going to stop. And I think if there are those out there who would wish to exploit what they see as tensions in U.S.-Russian relations, they shouldn’t do it. Because the common fight against terrorism is one that I expect to continue. As to Iraq, I think we have to be very clear here. Saddam Hussein was an international outlaw by numerous, numerous, numerous Security Council resolutions which Russia itself had voted for, including the last resolution, 1441, which called for consequences should the Iraqis not carry through on the demands of that resolution. This was a state that had attacked its neighbors, used weapons of mass destruction both against its own people and against its neighbors. It was a state that had started two major wars and that frankly was an outlaw state. And it was a brutal state to its own people. What the United States and the coalition of states that liberated Iraq did was to give the Iraqi people an opportunity to build a new and decent kind of society. Now to be sure, it has been harder than any of us might have dreamed. But if you look at where Iraq is today, reemerging as a strong Arab state in the center of the Middle East, but a multiethnic, democratic state with a functioning parliament, with a functioning government whose neighbors are recognizing that and going back in important numbers from places like UAE and Bahrain and Jordan to reestablish embassies there, if you look at an Iraq that will not seek weapons of mass destruction like the Saddam Hussein regime, that will live in peace and security with its neighbors and that will give its own people a chance for democratic governance, I don’t think that that bears any resemblance to invading a small democratic neighbor whose only crime, apparently, was that it wished to be a part of the emerging transatlantic world. And so I just don’t think that there is any comparison, and we shouldn’t allow the Russians to make such an argument.

MODERATOR: Thank you so much.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you very much. (Applause.)2008/744 * independence.Released on September 18, 2008