FABULOUS OR FREAKY FRIDAY

COULD THIS APPARISION OF JESUS IN THE CLOUDS MEAN THE RAPTURE IS NEAR, I PRAY COME QUICKLY KING JESUS THE GOD OF ISRAEL AND THE WORLD THAT THIS IS A SIGN THAT THE RAPTURE IS SOON AND THAT PEOPLE REPENT AND CALL ON YOU KING JESUS TO BE SAVED FOREVER.
http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=79412

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.

The Nation's Weather By WEATHER UNDERGROUND, For The Associated Press – Thu Oct 30, 7:39 am ET

AccuWeather Cold, stormy weather was to leave the Northeast early Thursday, while milder air stretched from the Plains to the Midwest and the interior West stayed clear.Only a few areas of morning snow showers were lingering in the most northern areas of the Northeast. The rest of the region was seeing decreasing cloud cover as high pressure builds and seasonable temperatures return.In the South, high pressure will allow for sunny skies and dry conditions across the mid-Atlantic and Gulf states. Overnight lows will drop to near freezing temperatures.The Midwest also will enjoy high pressure and highs in the 50s and 60s.Low pressure was to move through the Plains, bringing windy conditions to the region. It is also expected to trigger some high clouds over the central and southern Plains, but will not produce rain.

To the West, a low pressure system will continue to approach the West Coast from the Pacific Ocean. The system will bring scattered showers and increasing winds to the Pacific Northwest on Thursday. Northern California will see cooler conditions with cloudy skies, while southern California will remain warm and dry.Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Wednesday ranged from a low of 8 degrees at Mount Washington, N.H., to a high of 95 degrees at Santee, Calif.On the Net:Weather Underground: http://www.wunderground.com National Weather Service: http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov
Intellicast: http://www.intellicast.com

Meteor Shower Could Spur Bright Fireballs SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist
SPACE.com joe Rao OCT 31,08

space.com – 1 hr 31 mins agoThe Taurid meteors, sometimes called the Halloween fireballs, show up between mid-October and mid-November, but Nov. 5 to 12 will likely be the best time to look for them this year, taking into account both their peak of activity and the effect of increasingly bright moonlight on viewing conditions. After the Moon sets – around 11 p.m. local time on Nov. 5, later on subsequent nights – some 10 to 15 meteors may appear per hour. They are often yellowish-orange and, as meteors go, appear to move rather slowly. Their name comes from the way they seem to radiate from the constellation Taurus, the Bull, which sits low in the east a couple of hours after sundown and is almost directly overhead by around 1:30 a.m. Meteors – popularly referred to as shooting stars – are generated when debris enters and burns up in Earth's atmosphere. In the case of the Taurids, they are attributed to debris left behind by Encke's Comet, or perhaps by a much larger comet that upon disintegrating, left Encke and a lot of other rubble in its wake. Indeed, the Taurid debris stream contains noticeably larger fragments than those shed by other comets, which is why in certain years – and 2008 is predicted to be one – this rather elderly meteor stream occasionally delivers a few unusually bright meteors known as fireballs.

Two streams

The Taurids are actually divided into the Northern Taurids and the Southern Taurids. This is an example of what happens to a meteor stream when it grows old.
Even at the beginning, the particles could not have been moving in exactly the same orbit as their parent comet; their slight divergence accumulates with time. Meantime the Sun is not the only body gravitationally controlling the particles' orbits; the planets are having subtle effects on the stream. As the positions of the planets are constantly changing, the particles pass nearer to them on some revolutions than others – diverting parts of the stream, fanning it out and splitting it. So what was originally one stream diffuses into a cloud of minor streams and isolated particles in individual orbits, crossing Earth's orbit at yet more widely scattered times of the year and coming from more scattered directions until they are entirely stirred into the general haze of dust in the solar system.

Another fireball year?

Dr. Victor Clube, an English astrophysicist and is an expert on comets and cosmology, indicated back in 1992 that the Taurid meteor stream contains perhaps a half a dozen full-size asteroids whose orbits place them squarely in the stream. Clube and his colleagues argue that the Taurids' range of orbits indicates they were all shed by a huge comet, originally 100 miles across or more, that entered the inner solar system some 20,000 years ago. By 10,000 years ago it was desiccated and brittle; Encke's Comet might actually be the biggest leftover chunk.Encke's has the shortest known orbital period for a comet, taking only 3.3 years to make one complete trip around the sun. Meteor expert David Asher has also discovered that the Earth can periodically encounter swarms of larger particles in certain years and 2008is predicted to be one of those years.In the September 2008 issue of Meteor Trails (the journal of the American Meteor Society), Robert Lunsford writes: Maximum rates for the southern branch occur near November 5th and the northern branch peaks near November 12th. This year the Moon is favorable during the first week of November but the northern Taurids peak only a day before full Moon.The two radiants lie just south of the Pleiades. So during the next couple of weeks, if you see a bright, slightly tinted orange meteor sliding rather lazily away from that famous little smudge of stars, you can feel sure it is a Taurid. Adds Lunsford: 2005 was the last swarm year . . . many exceptional fireballs were seen especially along the U.S. East Coast on Halloween evening when fireballs as bright as the full Moon were witnessed.

Will 2008 offer a repeat performance? Only by going out and viewing this display will we know for sure!

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York.

Archaeologist says he found oldest Hebrew writing By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer OCT 30,08

HIRBET QEIYAFA, Israel – An Israeli archaeologist has discovered what he believes is the oldest known Hebrew inscription on a 3,000-year-old pottery shard — a find that suggests Biblical accounts of the ancient Israelite kingdom of David could have been based on written texts.A teenage volunteer discovered the curved shard bearing five lines of faded characters in July in the ruins of an ancient town on a hilltop south of Jerusalem. Yossi Garfinkel, the Israeli archaeologist leading the excavations at Hirbet Qeiyafa, released his conclusions about the writing Thursday after months of study.He said the relic is strong evidence that the ancient Israelites were literate and could chronicle events centuries before the Bible was written. This could suggest that some of the Bible's accounts were based on written records as well as oral traditions — adding credence to arguments that the Biblical account of history is more than myth.The shard was found near the stairs and stone washtub of an excavated home. It was later discovered to bear characters known as proto-Canaanite, a precursor of the Hebrew alphabet.The Israelites were not the only ones using the proto-Canaanite characters, and other scholars suggest it is difficult — perhaps impossible — to conclude the text is Hebrew. However, Garfinkel based his identification on a three-letter verb from the inscription meaning to do, a word he said existed only in Hebrew.

That leads us to believe that this is Hebrew, and that this is the oldest Hebrew inscription that has been found, he said.Hirbet Qeiyafa sits near the modern Israeli city of Beit Shemesh in the Judean foothills, an area that was once the frontier between the hill-dwelling Israelites and their enemies, the coastal Philistines. The site overlooks the Elah Valley, said to be the scene of the slingshot showdown between David and the Philistine giant Goliath, and near the ruins of Goliath's hometown in the Philistine metropolis of Gath.Carbon-14 analysis of burnt olive pits found in the same layer of the site as the pottery shard helped archaeologists date it to between 1,000 and 975 B.C., the same time as the Biblical golden age of King David's rule in Jerusalem.Archaeology has turned up only scant finds from David's time in the early 10th century B.C., leading some scholars to argue the Bible's account of the period inflates the importance of him and his kingdom. Some have even suggested his kingdom may not have existed at all.But the fortified settlement where the writing was found contains indications that a powerful Israelite kingdom existed near Jerusalem in David's time, says Garfinkel.If his claim is borne out, it would bolster the case for the Bible's accuracy by indicating the Israelites could record events as they happened, transmitting the history that was recorded in the Old Testament several hundred years later.Modern Zionism has traditionally seen archaeology as a way of strengthening the Jewish claim to Israel and regarded David's kingdom as the glorious ancestor of the new Jewish state. As a result, finding evidence of his rule has importance beyond its interest to scholars.The script, which Garfinkel suggests might be part of a letter, predates the next significant Hebrew inscription by between 100 and 200 years. History's best-known Hebrew texts, the Dead Sea scrolls, were penned on parchment beginning 850 years later.

The shard is now kept in a university safe while philologists translate it, a task expected to take months. But several words have already been tentatively identified, including judge,slave and king. The inscription was shown to other scholars at a peer presentation of the findings.Some scholars are hesitant to embrace Garfinkel's interpretation, and his findings are already being wielded in the ongoing debate over whether the Bible — written hundreds of years after many of its events are supposed to have occurred — is more fact or legend. But the find is certain, at the very least, to prove useful in understanding the development of language and ancient alphabets.Other prominent Biblical archaeologists warned against jumping to conclusions.Hebrew University archaeologist Amihai Mazar said the inscription is very important, but suggested that calling the text Hebrew might be going too far.

The differentiation between the scripts, and between the languages themselves in that period, remains unclear, he said. If the inscription is Hebrew, it would connect the Hirbet Qeiyafa settlement to the Israelites and make the text one of the most important texts, without a doubt, in the corpus of Hebrew inscriptions, said Aren Maier, a Bar Ilan University archaeologist. While the site is likely to add another building block to the historical record, archaeologist Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University said the claims about it went beyond the strict boundaries of science. Finkelstein, who has not visited the dig but attended a presentation of the findings, warned against what he said was a revival in the belief that what's written in the Bible is accurate like a newspaper.

Rice to make yet another push for peace in Middle East by Sylvie Lanteaume Sylvie Lanteaume – Thu Oct 30, 4:40 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit the Middle East next week to pursue efforts for a deal on the contours of Israeli-Palestinian peace before handing over to a new US administration.Secretary of State Rice will travel to Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Jordan and Egypt from November 5 to 9, just after US presidential election results are likely to be known, her deputy spokesman Robert Wood said.She will meet with her quartet counterparts and senior government officials to discuss efforts to achieve positive and lasting peace in the region, consistent with the Annapolis process and the shared goal of a two-states solution, Wood said.Rice helped revive the peace talks in November last year in Annapolis, Maryland, based on a road map launched in 2003 by the quartet of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.The Israelis and Palestinians pledged last year to secure a deal enshrining the road map goal of a Palestinian state living in peace next to a secure Israel by the time President George W. Bush leaves office on January 20.Although both sides have begun tackling simultaneously the core issues of borders, the status of Jerusalem and refugees -- an adjustment to the roadmap -- they have made little visible progress toward achieving that goal.

Wood did not say exactly when the quartet would meet.

But an Egyptian official said the quartet will meet in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on November 9 -- the same day Palestinian groups begin reconciliation talks in Cairo -- to review the peace negotiations.And a European Union diplomat in Brussels said that the meeting would be held from November 8-9 and include Israeli and Palestinian delegates.On September 26, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, the quartet members urged Israel and the Palestinians to make every effort to conclude an agreement before the end of 2008" on all the core issues.

The quartet said it would be informed of the progress in negotiations during a meeting with the parties in the region before the end of the year.The quartet has come under criticism from aid agencies, which warned last month that it was losing its grip on the peace process and must radically revise its approach.It will be Rice's 19th visit to the Middle East in two years, and the eighth visit since she and Bush hosted the international conference in Annapolis.The negotiations -- the first to take place since previous ones collapsed in bloodshed in 2000 -- have stumbled on Jewish settlement building in the West Bank and Jerusalem.They are also complicated by the division of the Palestinian territories into a West Bank run by the US-backed Palestinian Authority and a Gaza Strip run by the Islamist movement Hamas, which seized power there in June last year.The negotiations are also hobbled by lame duck US and Israeli governments which will be replaced in the New Year by administrations infused with new popular mandates from national elections.With chances of a breakthrough appearing slimmer than ever, Rice has nonetheless pledged to leave no stone unturned in her quest for a deal defining the contours of peace by January 20.As time draws near for the end of this administration, I still believe that we must make every effort in the time that we have to lay this foundation for peace, Rice told a conference here two weeks ago.

CNN NEWS VIDEO
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YAHOO NEWS VIDEO
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MIDEAST CONFLICT NEWS
http://news.yahoo.com/video/1874;_ylt=A0wNcxFdg6xIgbkAwD6z174F

ABC NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/2461

FOX NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/3074

FOX BUSINESS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/3045

AP NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/2529

BBC NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/2918

REUTERS VIDEO NEWS
http://news.yahoo.com/video/2704

AFP NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/3091

CNBC NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/3245

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

WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS FRI OCT 31,2008

09:30 AM -3.03
10:00 AM -6.22
10:30 AM +31.42
11:00 AM +12.66
11:30 AM +99.79
12:00 PM +26.24
12:30 PM +74.23
01:00 PM +82.19
01:30 PM +174.74
02:00 PM +182.15
02:30 PM +179.52
03:00 PM +215.36
03:30 PM +93.18
04:00 PM +144.32 9325.01

S&P 500 968.75 +14.66

NASDAQ 1720.95 +22.43

GOLD 723.5 -15.0

OIL 67.79 +1.83

TSE 300 -74.75 9,781.46

CDNX +35.55 915.30

S&P/TSX/60 -7.51 592.06

DOW OCTOBER FACTS
-3 of the top 10 point gains in DJIA'S history has occurred.
-Has had 2 10+% gains.

DJIA OCTOBER TIMELINE
-Oct 6 closes below 10,000 points for the first time in 4 years,since Oct 26,2004.
-Oct 13 snaps 8 day losing streak, finishes day with biggest one-day point gain in history,up 936.42 points or 11.08%.
-Oct 15 has its 2nd worst point drop in its history-fell 733.08 points.
-Oct 28 climbs 889.35 points or 10.88%,2nd largest point gain and 6th biggest percentage gain in history.

TOP 5 DJIA OCTOBER GAINERS
1-AT&T,2-PFISER,3-EXXON MOBILE,4-MERCK,5-VERIZON

TOP 5 DJIA OCTOBER LOSERS
1-ALCOA,2-CATERPILLAR,3-CITIGROUP,4-GENERAL MOTORS,5-BANK OF AMERICA.

NASDAQ FACTS OCTOBER
-Lost 18.8% as of oct 30.
-Biggest monthly drop (POINT & PERCENTAGE)since feb 2001.
-Biggest Oct month point drop in its history.
-Biggest Oct monthly percentage drop since 1987.

S&P 500 OCTOBER FACTS
-Biggest monthly point drop ever.
-Worst monthly percentage performance since Oct 1987.

TODAYS STATS
Dow was -58 points at low today.
Dow was +244 at high today.
Dow down 15% this month.
Bank CEO's are claiming $40 BILLION from bailout package for severences.
-Tight range.
-Low volume.
-Worst month since 87.
-Best week since 1974.
-Crude down 33% this week. Oil down more than 55% from July record high.
-Oil up 3% this week.
-Oil up nearly 4% this month.
-Major averages touch 3 week highs.
Dow Industrials on pace for best weekly point gain on Record.
Dow,S&P500,Nasdaq on pace for 1st-ever concurrent10%+ weekly gains.
AAA:National Average for retail gas at $2.50/Gallon.
WSJ:Boeing Satellite unit hit by $237 MILLION Punitive damage Verdict.
Wallstreet closing out great week,terrible Month.
Stocks almost up 2% today.
Nasdaq falls 18% in October.
Nasdaq up 10.9% this week.
Dow on track for worst month since 1998.
Dow falls 14% in October.
Dow gains 11.4% this week.
S&P heading for worst month since October 1987.
S&P down 17% in October.
S&P up 10.7% this week.

MARKET STRATEGY
-stay cautious on market.
-Investors don't completely comprehend depth and breadth of economic downturn.
-Carry lots of cash,limit exposure to risk.
INVESTMENT STRATEGY
-Important to be cautious,keep significant cash holdings.
-Use pair trade stategy.

HARSH STORM THREATENS GLOBAL ECONOMY.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081030/ts_nm/us_financial6

Stocks jump to add to week's large gains By TIM PARADIS, AP Business Writer OCT 31,08

^DJI 9,325.01 +144.32
^GSPC 968.75 +14.66
^IXIC 1,720.95 +22.43

AP –NEW YORK – The stock market has closed out a horrendous October, its worst month in 21 years, with a big advance as more investors took chances on stocks turned into bargains by waves of intense selling.The Dow Jones industrials rose 141 points to the 9,322 level, but ended the month down 14.1 percent. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 16.9 percent during October as the stock market fell victim to investors' anguish over frozen credit markets and what looked like an inevitable recession.Friday's session gave the market its first back-to-back advances in more than a month. Investors who have become used to bad economic news dealt calmly with data showing a drop in consumer spending.Another reason for the advance: Funds that dumped stocks furiously as the end of their fiscal year approached were finished with their selling.

Stocks jump to add to week's large gains By TIM PARADIS, AP Business Writer OCT 31,08

AP – NEW YORK – Wall Street bolted higher Friday as investors looked to extend the week's big gains, even after a report that showed worried consumers are cutting back on their spending. The major market indexes each rose more than 1.5 percent, including the Dow Jones industrial average, which jumped nearly 200 points.The Commerce Department said personal spending fell by 0.3 percent last month, as expected, the biggest decline since June 2004. Combined with flat readings in both July and August, it led to the worst quarterly performance in 28 years.But Wall Street's reaction to the data was far from frantic. Given this week's readings on flagging consumer confidence and shrinking gross domestic product, investors have largely discounted the fact that Americans are fearful about the economy and their shrinking investment portfolios.October has been the worst month for the market in 21 years — and many stocks are looking like bargains right now. Heading into the session, the Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 18.2 percent for October; the index fell 21.8 percent in October 1987.Before committing to a direction, the market is going to want to put the presidential election next week behind it and focus on the October employment report due next Friday — which should provide some insight into how long and how severe the economic downturn could be.The market is settling into a little bit of a holding pattern ahead of the election and jobs report, said Craig Peckham, market strategist at Jefferies & Co. The fear level has clearly subsided, but there's still a pervasive tone of unease.In midafternoon trading, the Dow rose 190.04, or 2.07 percent, to 9,370.73.Broader stock indicators also advanced. The S&P 500 index rose 21.45, or 2.25 percent, to 975.54, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 29.62, or 1.74 percent, to 1,728.14.The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 19.94, or 3.88 percent, to 534.12.Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by about 3 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to a light 742.1 million shares. Light volume can raise questions about the conviction behind the market's moves.In other economic data, the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index, a measure of manufacturing activity, fell to a reading of 37.8 — much worse than the 48.0 figure that analysts anticipated. But the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment data came in at 57.6, slightly better than the 57.5 expected.

Alongside the unsurprisingly downbeat readings, investors also considered whether government help for struggling homeowners might be able to help stabilize the housing market and alleviate a worry for many homeowners, even those not behind on mortgage payments.Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, speaking by satellite to a Berkeley, Calif., conference said the housing finance system will require better safeguards to allow it to function during times of strain in the market. He outlined a number of possible ways to structure housing finance in the future, though he did not indicate his preferences.The Bush administration is mulling a proposal that would help around 3 million homeowners avoid foreclosure by having the government guarantee billions of dollars worth of distressed mortgages. It could include changes to loans that would lower interest rates for a five-year period.Treasury demand let up slightly as stocks rose. The three-month Treasury bill, considered one of the safest assets around, yielded 0.43 percent, higher than 0.37 percent late Thursday. A low yield translates to high demand. The 10-year Treasury note's yield was 3.96 percent, down from 3.97 percent.The dollar was mostly higher against other major currencies. Gold prices declined.Crude oil fell $1.73 to $64.23 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 5.01 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 2.01 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 2.44 percent, and France's CAC-40 rose 2.33 percent. On the Net: New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com

Denmark re-thinks euro adoption amid financial crisis
VALENTINA POP Today OCT 31,08 @ 09:29 CET

The financial crisis makes it evident that Denmark needs to join the euro, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Thursday (30 October), while recent polls show that 50 percent of Danes are now in favour of scrapping the krone.The euro ensures political and economical stability in Europe and the current financial turmoil makes it evident that Denmark has to join the Euro, Mr Rasmussen said at the European Liberal Democrats annual conference in Stockholm.Due to the financial crisis, Denmark's national bank had to intervene in the foreign-exchange market to support the krone, which is closely pegged to the euro, and to drive up interests rates to 5.5 percent, a historical high that translates into considerably higher mortgages and credits for Danish citizens.Mr Rasmussen said that a referendum to switch to the euro could be held in 2011. Initially the Prime Minister was planning to organise a referendum this autumn, but the Irish No vote on the Lisbon treaty boosted the euroscepticism in the country, FAZ reports.Danish voters already rejected several times the switch to euro. In 1992, they voted no to the Maastricht treaty which was only passed with an opt-out for euro-adoption. A referendum in 2000 on adopting the single currency was also lost by 53.2 percent to 46.8 percent. Yet a recent poll showed that a slim majority of 50.1 percent of the Danes were now in favour of the euro.The financial crisis may yet see Iceland join the EU itself to seek shelter. But Denmark's neighbouring country Sweden, who also rejected the euro in a 2003 referendum faces similar currency problems, has no plans to re-run the vote for some years from now, foreign minister Carl Bildt said earlier this month.

The euro debate has also heated up in eastern Europe. In Poland, President Lech Kaczynski at first supported government plans to shoot for euro adoption by 2012, but later appeared to change his mind.I have serious doubts. We have to think of those who have no savings and for whom the price rises linked to euro adoption could take away 10 percent or more of their income, he said on Thursday, Gazeta Wyborcza reports.The Kaczynski-friendly head of the Polish Central Bank, Slawomir Skrzypek, also said the 2012 date may be too ambitious, with his remarks causing the zloty to dip against the euro in trading.Business leaders in the Czech Republic have also called for swift entry, but the message was quashed by the country's central bank chief Zdenek Tuma on Thursday, who said the financial crisis is not a good time for policy-making.At a time when the waters are stormy, even a good swimmer will not take a dive. For me, no decision should be made now, Tuma said, AFP reports. "We will know better next year.Conditions to join the euro are tough, with countries being required to have inflation and budget deficits at sustainable low levels, something many eastern European countries are failing in due to unreformed public finances and soaring budget deficits.

TSX holds onto triple-digit losses as New York battles with reds
Fri Oct 31, 11:36 AM By David Friend, The Canadian Press

TORONTO - The Toronto stock market continued to see red in morning trading as commodities prices weakened in the final session of a terrible month of declines.

New York was fighting its own battle, and briefly moved higher before losing its momentum and falling into the negative. Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index slid 237.7 points to 9,618.5. The index had risen more than 1,300 points over the three previous sessions But even with three days of solid gains this week, the TSX is down about 16 per cent since the start of the month. The Canadian dollar was 0.49 of a cent lower at 81.61 cents US, after jumping 0.47 cent Thursday. Statistics Canada reported that gross domestic product took a 0.3 per cent decline in August, after a strong 0.7 per cent increase in July. The TSX energy sector was four per cent lower as the December crude oil contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $1.23 to US$64.73 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold dropped $4.90 to US$733.60 an ounce. Goldcorp Inc. (TSX:G) lost $1.02 to $23.50 on the TSX after reporting third-quarter net income of US$297.2 million, up from $75.8 million, thanks to a big non-cash foreign exchange gain, while operating results deteriorated. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 2.71 points to 9,177.98 after a U.S. Commerce Department report said personal spending fell 0.3 per cent last month, the biggest decline since June of 2004. New York's Nasdaq composite index slid 2.45 points to 1,696.07 while the S&P 500 dropped 1.57 points to 952.52. The TSX Venture Exchange moved up 8.09 points to 887.84. Canadian investors are assessing the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission's policy review issued after markets closed Thursday, which disappointed television broadcasters and provided mixed changes for cable-TV and satellite operators.

Canwest Global Communications (TSX:CGS) was down seven cents or 6.9 per cent, Rogers Communications Inc. (TSX:RCI.B) declined $1.61 or 4.5 per cent to $34.14 and Shaw Communications (TSX:SJR.B) was up 10 cents to $21.21. SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. (TSX:SNC) shares were up 76 cents to $32.38 after third-quarter profit rose to $91.3 million from $63.2 million although the global engineering firm's revenue slipped to $1.69 billion from $1.79 billion. Fortis Inc. (TSX:FTS) had third-quarter earnings of $49 million, as revenue increased to $727 million from $651 million. Its shares dipped 90 cents to $25.60. Priszm Income Fund (TSX:QSR.UN) said Jeff O'Neill has resigned as its chief executive officer effective immediately. Units in the KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut restaurant operator moved 15 cents lower to $2.25. NorSask Forest Products Ltd., owned by the Meadow Lake, Sask., tribal council, is shutting down its sawmill and laying off 62 workers on the Friday before Christmas. The United Steelworkers union says the closure is a further indication of the forest industry crisis across Canada, and neither the provincial nor federal governments have shown any interest in finding meaningful solutions to the ongoing disintegration.Auto parts supplier ArvinMeritor says it will cut 1,250 jobs to help cut costs on weakness in the U.S. economy and poor auto sales. Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell five per cent and the Hong Kong Hang Seng index declined 2.5 per cent. The FTSE 100 index was up 0.49 per cent in the afternoon in London, while the German DAX moved up 1.8 per cent and the French CAC-40 fell 0.21 per cent.

Asian shares fall, to post worst month ever By Rafael Nam Rafael Nam – OCT 30,08

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Most Asian shares fell on Friday as concerns over the global economy and caution ahead of a Bank of Japan rate decision halted a powerful three-day rally, sending safer havens such as regional bonds and the yen higher.Regional shares were set to end October as their worst month on record -- worse even than during the Asian financial crisis a decade ago -- as global economies buckle under the weight of the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression.Policy makers have responded by cutting interest rates and injecting liquidity, but investors fear the measures may only have a temporary effect in what could be a severe and long-lasting global recession.Oil prices dropped more than $1 a barrel on Friday after data showed the U.S. economy suffered its sharpest contraction in seven years in the third quarter, as consumers cut spending and businesses reduced investment.Though the decline was less than expected, it bodes ill for export-dependent Asian economies, analysts said.It was still weak and the consumption contribution fell sharply suggesting bad news for Asian exports and regional growth going forward, especially as the U.S. economy is set to register even bigger declines over coming quarters, Calyon analysts wrote in a note to clients about the U.S. economic growth data.The MSCI index of Asian stocks outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) was down 1.1 percent at 10:50 p.m. EDT, stemming a 19 percent rise over the past three sessions, a gain powerful enough to put the index on course for its biggest weekly gain on record.But the index was still down some 25 percent for the month, highlighting the severe falls seen throughout Asia. Japan's Nikkei (.N225) this month hit a 26-year low.

Nervousness about whether the Bank of Japan will follow the U.S. Federal Reserve and other regional central banks in cutting interest rates prevailed, sending the Nikkei down 2.7 percent.Concerns about global growth and profit-taking sent other indexes lower, with Hong Kong (.HSI) down 3.9 percent, while Shanghai (.SSEC) and Sydney (.AXJO) shed just over 1 percent.Commodities, which are sensitive to global demand, have also been routed this month. U.S. crude futures slumped $1.4 to $64.55 a barrel, less than half the record near $150 it had hit in July.Platinum dropped to $783 an ounce, down from the notional New York close of $817. The metal had hit a life-time high of $2,290 in March.But the yen rose against the euro and the dollar, supported as investors unwind investments in risky assets that had been funded by borrowing the low-yielding yen.The dollar eased 0.2 percent against the yen to 98.40 yen, while the euro fell 1.1 percent against the yen to 125.87 yen.Other safe-haven assets gained as well, with Japanese government December futures up 0.40 point to 138.31.(Editing by Dhara Ranasinghe)

Commodities boost TSX for third day Thu Oct 30, 5:34 PM
By Jennifer Kwan

TORONTO (Reuters) - The Toronto Stock Exchange's main index jumped more than 3 percent on Thursday, its third straight day of healthy gains, led by commodity issues as market sentiment remained buoyant after Wednesday's rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve.Heavily weighted stocks that led the market higher included EnCana Corp , up 5.9 percent at C$62.70, Canadian Natural Resources , up 7.02 percent at C$62.34, and Royal Bank of Canada , up 4.7 percent at C$47.58,.It's a carry through of some of the relief in the market from the rate cut yesterday, suspecting that might help to boost the economy a little bit, said Michael Sprung, president at Sprung & Co. Investment Counsel.Therefore the price of oil and commodities might not get as depressed as feared before, he said.We might be seeing the market exhibiting a little bit more stability here and perhaps some of the extreme volatility that has been so characteristic of the market in October is beginning to dissipate, Sprung added.The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 354.65 points, or 3.73 percent, to 9,856.21, with all of its 10 main groups higher.Also providing some support was preliminary data that showed U.S. third-quarter gross domestic product shrank less than forecast by economists.The GDP number, if they had been disastrous, would have been a different story, said Elvis Picardo, analyst and strategist at Global Securities in Vancouver.But certainly from a macro perspective the fact that U.S. markets are stabilizing is a very big positive.

The data comes a day after the U.S. central bank cut rates by 50 basis points to 1 percent in a bid to stimulate the economy.The composite's rise builds on two straight days of gains as investors have started to move back into riskier assets, which could be a sign that the market may be ready to climb even higher after the extreme volatility of recent weeks, analysts say.The TSX is down 16 percent so far this month.The materials sector was up 5.7 percent on Thursday with top gold producer Barrick Gold up 7.1 percent at C$29.88. Earlier Barrick reported a drop in third-quarter profit.Energy issues rose 5 percent with Imperial Oil up 5 percent at C$42.00 after the country's largest oil producer and refiner reported a surge in quarterly profit.Despite the cheer on the TSX, demand fears pushed the price of gold [ID:nN30584211] and oil down.The heavily weighted financial services sector rose 2.5 percent with Great-West Lifeco up 0.23 percent at C$25.75. The big insurer reported a lower quarterly profit in part on charges related to impaired assets.Market volume was 622.05 million shares worth C$8.22 billion. Advancers outpaced decliners 1,067 to 486. The blue chip S&P/TSX 60 index closed up 23.36 points, or 4.05 percent, at 599.57.The Dow Jones industrial average rose 189.73 points, or 2.11 percent, at 9,180.69, while the Nasdaq Composite Index ended up 41.31 points, or 2.49 percent, at 1,698.42.($1=$1.20 Canadian)(Reporting by Jennifer Kwan; editing by Richard Valdmanis)

Ukraine currency strengthens on hopes of IMF loan By MARIA DANILOVA, Associated Press OCT 30,08

Ukraine KIEV, Ukraine – Ukraine's battered currency rose Thursday, partly on hopes the country could secure a hefty International Monetary Fund loan to overcome a severe financial crisis.The market responded to Parliament's approval Wednesday of a series of stabilization bills, required by the IMF to receive the $16.5 billion loan.

Parliament must still approve the bills in a final reading Friday, after which the IMF would have to approve the aid package.The Ukrainian economy, which grew strongly over the past four years, has been one of hardest-hit by the global crisis among emerging markets, and experts predict a recession next year.The global credit crunch, coupled with problems at a key bank prompted a run on banks that cleared the system of $3.4 billion this month.The hryvna closed at 6.15-6.25 to the U.S. dollar on the foreign currency exchange, according to the Inter Business Consulting agency, after reaching a record low of 7.2 to the dollar the day before. The currency has lost about a quarter of its value since the beginning of the year.Currency traders also reacted to the National Bank's offer to sell dollars to all players at close to the market rate. That, combined with a more transparent policy on the foreign currency market, had been a key demand of the IMF.This is a very positive dynamic, said Iryna Piontkivska, an analyst with Troika Dialog Ukraine. The market has to believe that the National Bank is really doing this.

LAW OF THE LAND Wow! It's still OK to pray in Jesus' name,Court ruling says judges shouldn't parse the content of a particular prayer October 30, 2008 12:00 am Eastern By Bob Unruh 2008 WorldNetDaily

The judges on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals have used a case from Cobb County, Ga., to proclaim that praying in Jesus' name is acceptable at county board meetings when other constitutional provisions are followed.The ruling this week sets up a conflict with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which concluded in an opinion written by ex-Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor that city officials properly excluded from a rotation of leaders for opening prayers at a municipal meeting a pastor who prayed in Jesus' name.Finally an appeals court with some common sense has ruled what I've been saying all along. The government cannot parse the content of anybody's prayer, nor forbid prayers offered in Jesus name in legislative bodies, or by government chaplains, said Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt.

Klingenschmitt was discharged from the U.S. Navy in a dispute with his commander over praying in uniform in Jesus' name, although he later won a victory in Congress that now allows other chaplains to pray as their conscience dictates.His personal case seeking reinstatement remains pending.This victory for Jesus prayers deals a serious blow to the ACLU's national campaign to silence all mention of Jesus' name from utterance in the public square, he said. It proves Jesus is not an illegal word, and this court decision proves it's fully constitutional to pray in Jesus name at public events, especially if you're a government-paid chaplain, as long as we all take turns.If the anti-Christian lawyers for the ACLU dare to appeal this good ruling to the Supreme Court, this case would stand opposite the bad ruling in Turner v. Fredericksburg [from the 4th Circuit], said Klingenschmitt.In the new 11th Circuit ruling, the judges took on the objections brought by some taxpayers in Cobb County that their county commission and planning commission opened meetings with prayers assigned among local religious leaders on a rotating basis.When legislative prayers do not have the effect of affiliating the government with any one specific faith or belief … it is not for [the court] to embark on a sensitive evaluation or to parse the content of a particular prayer, the court ruling said.

We would not know where to begin to demarcate the boundary between sectarian and nonsectarian expressions and the taxpayers [who brought the case] have been opaque in explaining that standard, the court said. Even the individual taxpayers cannot agree on which expressions are sectarian.The opinion said representatives of Christianity, Islam, Unitarian Universalism and Judaism have been represented.The prayers have included references to Jesus,Allah,God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,Muhammad,and Heavenly Father,the court said.Those who objected, the court said, argue that the Estabslihment Clause permits only nonsectarian prayers … but we disagree.The ruling said precedent makes it clear that the content of the prayer is not of concern to judges where … there is no indication that the prayer opportunity has been exploited to proselytize or advance any one, or to disparage any other, faith or belief.Whether invocations of Lord of Lords or the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Mohammed are sectarian is best left to theologians, not courts of law,the court said.

Rev. Hashmel Turner

Attorneys with The Rutherford Institute have asked the high court to overturn the opinion issued by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which came in the case of Hashmel Turner, a Christian who was told he alone of all council members in Fredericksburg, Va., would not be allowed to use the name of his God during the routine meeting prayers.The appeals court had concluded that such prayers actually were government speech and, therefore, not protected by the First Amendment. But Rutherford lawyers say the city's attempt to dictate the content of prayers violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment as well as Turner's free speech and free exercise rights.That's trouble, the institute said. In fact, the decision has already triggered a discriminatory backlash against state-trooper chaplains in Virginia and … threatens to undermine free speech rights around the country.The O'Connor ruling, said the appeal, theoretically could permit a city council to prepare the text of an approved prayer and require any council members who wish to pray to read from the approved script.Such government demands, the appeal said, are unprecedented in the history of this Court's First Amendment jurisprudence.In fact, It violates this Court's outright prohibition on the government prescribing or proscribing the content of any prayer. It gives government unbridled authority to discriminate against religious viewpoints under the government speeech umbrella without any accountability, the institute's appeal said.Klingenschmitt has set up a Prayer Rally for Persecuted Police Chaplains Saturday, from 10-11 a.m. at the Capitol Square Bell Tower in downtown Richmond in support of the six Virginia State Police chaplains who resigned their chaplain posts rather than agreed to stop praying in Jesus name as ordered by state officials.Nearly 100 Virginia pastors already have pledged to mobilize their churches in support of the chaplains.Pastors wrote the Virginia governor seeking a change in the policy that suddenly was announced by Col. W. Steven Flaherty to chaplains. The dispute became public through the work of Charles W. Carrico Sr., a member of Virginia's House of Delegates, a former trooper.State officials said the policy was imposed because they were worried about future lawsuits because of the O'Connor opinion.Said the appeal, Unquestionably, the city council's policy was aimed directly at Councilor Turner and his practice of closing prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Unquestionably, after the policy was adopted, other city council members were permitted to pray in the name of other deities and to utter prayers reflecting denominational influences. … whereas councilor Turner was excluded from praying.

Air Force: Nuke missile silo fire went undetected By DAN ELLIOTT, Associated Press – Thu Oct 30, 7:41 pm ET

AFP DENVER – A fire caused $1 million worth of damage at an unmanned underground nuclear launch site last spring, but the Air Force didn't find out about it until five days later, an Air Force official said Thursday.The May 23 fire burned itself out after an hour or two, and multiple safety systems prevented any threat of an accidental launch of the Minuteman III missile, Maj. Laurie Arellano said. She said she was not allowed to say whether the missile was armed with a nuclear warhead at the time of the fire.Arellano said the Air Force didn't know a fire had occurred until May 28, when a repair crew went to the launch site — about 40 miles east of Cheyenne, Wyo., and 100 miles northeast of Denver — because a trouble signal indicated a wiring problem.She said the flames never entered the launch tube where the missile stood and there was no danger of a radiation release.The fire, blamed on a faulty battery charger, burned a box of shotgun shells, a shotgun and a shotgun case that were kept in the room, Arellano said. A shotgun is a standard security weapon at missile silos.Arellano said the battery chargers at all U.S. missile launch site have been replaced.She said the incident wasn't reported sooner because of the complexity of the investigation.The damage from the fire was estimated at $1 million, including the cost of replacing damaged equipment and cleanup.An Air Force report of the incident released Thursday found flaws in the technical orders for assembling battery charger parts, inspection procedures and modifications of the launch complex ventilation system. It was also critical of the presence of flammable materials.Cheyenne Mayor Jack Spiker, who said he learned of the incident when contacted by a reporter Thursday, said the fire doesn't undermine his confidence in the safety of the missile operations.It's rare that they have an accident, and the accidents have never really, that I know of, amounted to much because of the safety devices that are built into the system, he said.

The revelation was the latest in a string of embarrassing missteps involving the nation's nuclear arsenal. In 2006, four electrical fuses for ballistic missile warheads were mistakenly shipped to Taiwan, and in 2007, a B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear-tipped missiles when it flew between Air Force bases in North Dakota and Louisiana.The Air Force announced last week it was setting up a new Global Strike Command to better manage its nuclear-capable bombers and missiles.Associated Press writer Matt Joyce in Cheyenne, Wyo., contributed to this report.

Intel says Iran plans secret nuclear experiments By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer – Thu Oct 30, 2:09 pm ET

VIENNA, Austria – Iran has recently tested ways of recovering highly enriched uranium from waste reactor fuel in a covert bid to expand its nuclear program, according to an intelligence assessment made available to The Associated Press.The intelligence, provided by a member of the 145-nation International Atomic Energy Agency, also says a report will soon be submitted to the Iranian leadership for a decision on whether to go ahead with the project.The alleged tests loosely replicate Saddam Hussein's attempts to build the bomb nearly two decades ago. But experts question the conclusion by those providing the intelligence that Tehran, too, is trying to reprocess the fuel to make a nuclear weapon.They note that the spent fuel at issue as the source of the enriched uranium is not enough to yield the approximately 30 kilograms (65 pounds) of weapons-grade material needed for a bomb.

Still, they say that the alleged experiment appears plausible — if not as a fast track to weapons capability then as a step that could move it further along that path.With Iran's nuclear program already under international scrutiny, any new efforts by Tehran to increase its nuclear expertise and its store of enriched uranium would set off alarm bells — particularly if that stock was highly enriched. The higher the enrichment the easier it is to reach the 90 percent level used in the fissile core of nuclear warheads.The 3-page intelligence report, drawn from Iranian sources within the country, says the source material would be highly enriched — some at above 90 percent, the rest at 20 percent.In contrast, Iran's enrichment program under constant IAEA monitoring has churned out material that is less than 5 percent enriched, in line with the fuel needs of modern reactors.Procedures were evaluated for recycling fuel by dissolving fuel rods for irradiated waste and then reprocessing the material into uranium metal, says the intelligence assessment. Uranium metal is used for nuclear warheads.Sufficient data was collected for planning production lines for recovering the fuel, says the assessment, which gave Tehran's Jaber ibn Hayan Laboratories, run by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, as the location for the experiment.Top officials of AEOI are in the final stages" of writing a report for the Iranian leadership for assessment on whether to go forward with reprocessing, according to the intelligence.The laboratories and the Tehran Nuclear Research Center, the site of the reactor, have figured in suspect experiments, including clandestine plutonium separation attempts uncovered by the IAEA.If the information is accurate then Iran is trying to get their nose in the tent of reprocessing material potentially suitable for a warhead, said David Albright, whose Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security tracks suspect secret proliferators.On the surface it may have nothing to do with making a bomb, but in the end that's what it could be about.IAEA spokespeople were unavailable Thursday but an official of the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog said the agency would not comment. He asked not to be named because he was not authorized to be quoted by name.Both Albright and a senior Vienna-based diplomat agreed that the alleged experiment roughly jibed with Saddam's efforts to chemically process research reactor fuel to recover enriched uranium — in the case of Baghdad, enough and at a sufficiently high level of enrichment to make a bomb.

Close to success, the Iraqis saw their plans fail with the destruction of the Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center during the first Gulf War of 1990-1991.This is the 'Iraqi scenario, said the diplomat, referring to the alleged Iranian experiment. He — like the source of the intelligence — demanded anonymity because their information was restricted. But both he and Albright noted that the purported source for the fuel — Tehran's TNRC research reactor — was unlikely to have enough material for reprocessing into the core of a warhead. The five-megawatt reactor initially ran on weapons-grade uranium fuel enriched to 93 percent that was provided by the U.S. in the late 1960s to the then pro-Washington regime. But measured in terms of potential proliferation, the amount was small — only 7 kilograms (15 pounds). Then, in the late 1980s, Argentina helped reconfigure the reactor core and provided about 115 kilograms (250 pounds)of uranium. In contrast to modern reactors that run on low-enriched fuel, that material was highly enriched to about 20 percent. Albright said that even optimal reprocessing would probably yield less than about half of the 30 kilograms (65 pounds) of weapons-grade uranium needed for a bomb. That restriction makes it unlikely that Iran was looking to the TNRC reactor for that immediate purpose. Instead, an Iranian reprocessing plans could be part of Tehran's attempts to push the nuclear envelope. U.S.-led efforts for tough U.N. sanctions for Iran's refusal to suspend enrichment have been consistently blocked by Russia and China. Tehran also has support of developing countries traditionally suspicious of Washington. Defying weak sanctions, the Islamic Republic has moved further through enrichment toward developing weapons capability — now anywhere from six months to several years away, depending on the source. Iran may be banking on further international inaction if it announces it will reprocess, perhaps arguing that it will need it as a source for new fuel for the research reactor. If allowed to do so, it will have moved another step ahead on the path to being able to develop warhead material. It's the idea that Iran wants to slowly develop nuclear weapons capability under the tent and it does it slowly so that people will accept it, said Albright. It's (a matter of) keeping your head down, moving slowly and deliberately and winning at each step.