ONE RELIGION IN ROME (VATICAN)

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.

Cyclone lashes Myanmar after missing Bangladesh MAY 2,08

YANGON (AFP) - A severe cyclone was expected to hit Myanmar's main city Yangon later Friday after the storm missed neighbouring Bangladesh, meteorologists said.Severe cyclone Nargis had already hit outlying coastal regions and was packing winds of 120 to 150 miles (192 to 240 kilometres) per hour, Tun Lwin, director general of the meteorological department in Yangon, told AFP.The storm was centred about 210 kilometres west of Haing Gyi island at the mouth of the Ayeyawaddy (Irrawaddy) river, or about 430 kilometres southwest of Yangon.It started to hit Ayeyawaddy Division since this morning. It will hit Ayeyawaddy, Yangon and Bago Divisions later today. The tide could be increased by 10 to 12 feet (three to 3.5 metres), he said.Myanmar's state-run newspapers have run warnings about the impending storm.Haing Gyi island could not be contacted for further information after it was hit.The meteorological department said it was not yet known whether the storm had caused any damage or casualties.In Bangladesh, fishing crews have been been told to stay close to the shore and not to venture into the Bay of Bengal, after fears it would slam into the southeast coast.But government forecaster Ayesha Khatun said the disaster-prone country was likely to escape the impact of Nargis.It is not going to hit Bangladesh. It will hit Myanmar later today, although the southern tip of Bangladesh could be affected, she said.

Bangladesh is still picking up the pieces after last November's devastating cyclone Sidr which smashed into the southern coast, killing more than 3,000 people.Half a million people perished in Bangladesh in a cyclone in 1970. Some 138,000 died in 1991 in a tidal wave caused by a cyclone.

High winds, hail, heavy rain damages hundreds of homes in Missouri By The Associated Press MAY 2,08

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Hurricane-force winds, hail and heavy rain have injured several people and damaged hundreds of homes and businesses in Missouri. Authorities in the Kansas City area say the worst damage is in the city's northern and eastern suburbs. The U.S. weather service says winds reached almost 130 kilometres an hour as storms moved through the areas overnight Thursday. Other states also have been hit. The U.S. National Weather Service says a tornado likely touched down Friday morning in central Arkansas. Injuries and damage are reported, but no details are available. At least two tornadoes and large hail was reported in Oklahoma late Thursday, though no injuries or significant damage was reported there.

River levels dropping in N.B. capital but high water still causing headaches By The Canadian Press MAY 2,08

FREDERICTON - Flood waters have stabilized in Fredericton and are expected to significantly decline over the weekend as dry, sunny weather helps tame the swollen St. John River. Emergency officials said Friday water levels in Fredericton were about eight metres above sea level, and they were expected to drop to 7.7 metres by Saturday. Andy Morton of the Emergency Measures Organization said the main factor is a good forecast over the next few days, calling for cool, dry weather. It's a godsend, he said. Nevertheless, many streets in Fredericton remain flooded and closed, while many downtown businesses and government offices have shut their doors.

Close to 800 homes have had power disconnected because of the high water. Prime Minister Stephen Harper was to arrive in the province on Friday to get a first-hand look at flood damage in the area. He was also expected to fly with Premier Shawn Graham to tour flooded areas. The high water is now moving downstream, heading for the mouth of the river at the Bay of Fundy. Downstream of Fredericton, that's the area we're most concerned about now, Morton said in an interview. Water levels will continue to increase for Maugerville, Sheffield and Jemseg all the way down through the Kennebecasis Valley right to the City of Saint John. That trend will continue for the next few days.Morton said emergency officials are continuing to get requests for emergency evacuations. To date, more than 600 people in the Fredericton area have left their homes because of the flood.

We're seeing more people wanting to get out of areas already flooded, he said. We're getting requests from people looking for emergency evacuations because they are seeing more water than they were prepared for.NB Power says it has disconnected more than 750 customers. The flood is causing major problems for farmers with livestock. One farmer in Maugerville was struggling to save his dairy herd on Friday. The farmer has no power, but the roughly 140 have to be milked twice a day. Officials were looking for ways to move the herd off the farmer's flooded property and relocate the cows to higher ground.

Maine river crests after surging to record high By DAVID SHARP, Associated Press Writer Fri May 2, 7:43 AM ET

FORT KENT, Maine - The rain-swollen St. John River crested early Thursday after hitting a record high, forcing residents to flee to higher ground as more than 100 homes flooded. Rain and melting snow raised the St. John to more than 30 feet — about 5 feet above flood stage — causing widespread flooding. The previous record crest of 27.3 feet was set in 1979.Floodwaters flowed down streets and swamped homes, businesses, yards and the landmark St. Louis Catholic Church in the center of town.At Quigley's Building Supply, the waters filled the lumber yard in less than half an hour, sending lumber downriver and putting the yard under 12 feet of water.Manager Justin Dubois was philosophical about the losses.

It's frustrating but at least everyone's OK. Everything is replaceable, he said.Nearby, Christine Chasse used a snow shovel to push water and debris out of her two-car garage. A hastily made berm protected her home from the Fish River on one side while the town levee protected her home from the St. John River on other side.
Still, the waters managed to flood her basement and turn her yard into a lake. Her family moved the furniture to the second floor when they were told to evacuate.I'm very sad to see the church under water, and I realize there are some people worse off than us, she said.About 1,000 residents were told to leave and as many as 140 homes were flooded. Authorities said it could be this weekend before people are allowed to return to their flooded homes, and driving around Aroostook County was a challenge because so many bridges and roads were closed.But officials sighed with relief that water did not spill over a levee. Also, the International Bridge that connects Maine and Canada held up, despite fears that the raging waters could drag it down, choking the fast-moving river and sending more water into the town.

If the bridge had let go, that would've been the end for Fort Kent. The whole town would've washed out, Police Chief Kenneth Michaud said Thursday. No one was hurt, he said.The spring flooding realized the worst fears of emergency management officials after a winter in which some parts of northern Maine saw more than 200 inches of snow. Despite the melting snow, it seemed that the region had dodged heavy floods until 3 to 4 inches of rain fell on Tuesday.

That deluge, combined with melting snow, sent rivers and streams rising across northern Maine.Elsewhere, flood warnings were issued for portions of the Penobscot, Kennebec, Aroostook, St. Francis and Mattawamkeag rivers. Small numbers of evacuations were reported in Van Buren, Wallagrass, Milford and Masardis.More than 100 state roads and dozens of local roads were shut down or had lanes closed, said Lynette Miller, a spokeswoman for the Maine Emergency Management Agency. Four bridges were also closed.Forecasters predicted the St. John River would fall below flood stage on Friday morning. But residents won't be allowed to return to their homes near Main Street until the water recedes enough for engineers to inspect the levee and bridge, Michaud said.Associated Press writer Bob Salsberg in Boston contributed to this report. On the Net:
Maine Emergency Management Agency: http://www.state.me.us/mema

Significant severe weather outbreak expected Wayne Verno
Fri May 2, 6:13 AM ET

Explosive thunderstorm development occurred last night over parts of the central Plains. This brought 15 reports of possible tornadoes, along with numerous reports of large hail, in some cases to the size of soft balls. As much as 24 inches of snow fell in parts of western South Dakota, with wind gusts as high as 64 mph in the Rapid City area. This brought blizzard conditions to parts of western South Dakota and Wyoming. A strong storm system over the northern Plains was responsible for all of this active weather late yesterday and overnight, and will continue the threat for severe thunderstorms and blizzard conditions today. Severe thunderstorms will be ongoing this morning over parts of the eastern Plains, into the Midwest and Mississippi Valley, with additional thunderstorm development likely over the Mississippi Valley and Midwest later this afternoon and evening. Areas including Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Memphis, Little Rock, Shreveport, Jackson, and Baton Rouge will be at risk for severe thunderstorms. Tornadoes, very large hail, and damaging winds will all be possible, along with localized flash flooding. The risk for severe thunderstorms will shift into the Southeastern States on Saturday, potentially impacting areas like Knoxville, Atlanta, Birmingham, and Mobile. Meanwhile, strong gusty winds and heavy snow will continue over the eastern Dakotas, into parts of Wyoming. Wind gusts of 45 to 65 mph will be possible, bringing blizzard conditions to parts of the area. Additional accumulations today will range from 4 to 8 inches, especially in the higher elevations. Strong gusty winds will also impact parts if the Front Range of the Rockies, into the western Plains today, behind the storm system. Wind gusts of 40 to 60 mph will be possible from eastern Colorado, through western Kansas.

Christians who study Bible Prophecy - nuts? MAY 1,08

If you are a Christian, and you believe that Bible prophecy is being fulfilled in this generation, then you are probably the oddball in your church.In fact, scratch probably. It is pretty much a dead-bang certainty that you are. It is fascinating to me that a person can be pro-choice, anti-Israel, pro-gay marriage, and be labeled a Christian progressive. But if you believe that God not only knows the future, but recorded it for us in advance, well, then you're a nut.

Most Christians are ok with the idea that God created the universe. Whether or not they accept it as a literal creation or some kind of modified evolutionary scheme notwithstanding, few Christians would argue that creation is beyond God's power. For reasons nobody has ever been able to logically articulate to me, Christians have no problem agreeing that the First Advent of Jesus Christ was prophesied. But prophecies pointing to His Second Advent are merely symbolic and not to be taken literally. If YOU do, then you are a nut. There are some churches, on the other hand, that are wholly given over to the study of Bible prophecy for the last days. If you are a member of a church like that, not only are YOU a nut, but you probably belong to a cult. If you wanted to draw a cartoon in which you wanted one of the characters to be instantly recognized as being a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic, the most recognizable way would be to draw a guy with a long beard wearing a burnoose and brandishing a sign saying, Repent! The end is near!

And that's just the way the subject is treated by other Christians. To the world, if you study Bible prophecy, you are probably not just crazy, but dangerous. If you believe Nostradamus knew the future, you're a harmless eccentric, if you believe the Mayans calculated The End of The World As We Know It (TEOTWAWKI) you are an historian. If you believe St Malachy, you are a Catholic theologian. But if you believe that the God of the Universe has a Divine Plan that culminates with the judgment of mankind during the Tribulation Period, based entirely on a literal reading of His Word, then there's something wrong with you. The Mayan Indians, whose culture died out 1400 years ago, developed a complex calendar system that continues to fascinate scientists to this day. The Mayan Calendar divides the history of man into five distinct ages and this present age is scheduled to end exactly at 11:11 am (Greenwich Mean Time), on 24 December, 2012. The Mayans believed that on that date and time, the world as we know it will end with the final destruction of mankind on the earth. Nostradamus is credited with having predicted the 9/11 attacks as kicking off the end of days. According to one celebrated quatrain a King of Terror wearing a blue turban will attack the Great City, etc., etc. Although his most famous quatrain makes reference to the King of Terror in the seventh month of 1999 and the 9/11 attacks took place in the 9th month of 2000, for Nostradamus fans, that was close enough. An 12th-century Irish priest recorded a prophecy in which he allegedly named the rest of the Popes in human history, from Celestine II (1143-1144) to the last pope at the end of the world.

According to St. Malachy, there would be exactly 112 Popes. Malachy predicted the second last Pope would be called a Benedictine. I wrote about St Malachy's Benedictine prophecy in April, 2005, as the new Pope was being selected. Cardinal Ratzinger chose, as his papal name, Pope Benedict the XVI. According to St Malachy, the Benedictine's reign will be short, (Ratzinger is in his 80's) and he will be succeeded by the last Pope, Peter the Great.The various adherents of the Mayans, Nostradamus, St Malachy (and there are others) all share the same basic worldview that could be paraphrased thusly: let every man be true and God a liar. All the various secular prophets prove is that Satan knows his time is short. There is a singular difference between secular prophecies and Bible prophecy that reveals the source of the information.

Secular prophecies can only predict events, not outcomes. Bible prophecy tells how they turn out. I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done. (Isaiah 46:9b-10a)

Satan is the universe's master deceiver. His ultimate goal is to be received as God. Only God is capable of prophecy. But Satan has a counterfeit plan of his own, and he has had six thousand years to develop it. Since he knows what he has planned, it is no trick to reveal the plan to some secular prophet. Satan doesn't know how his plan will turn out, any more than any other created being, but he does know what he has in mind. From our dimension of time, it seems like prophecy. Remove the element of time, and what seem now to be prophecy would no more than the outline of a plan. Extra-Biblical prophecies, are part of that overall plan to counterfeit the miracles of God, so that, one day, he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. (2nd Thessalonians 2:4)

If one examines the extra-Biblical prophecies for the truth they contain, rather than looking for the sensational, what what learns is that it isn't just prophecy nuts who believe in Bible prophecy. Satan believes it, too, or he wouldn't be trying to counterfeit it.

What it does establish is that even Satan has an idea of the time of the end -- and Satan thinks it will be sometime around 2012. We know that, of the day and hour, no man knoweth, but we are told we will know that it is near, even at the doors. And from that time, Jesus tells us, Verily I say unto thee, this generation shall not pass, until all these things be fulfilled. (Matthew 24:34)

TEOTWAWKI on December 24, 2012? I don't think so. But soon? No doubt about it.

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(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

DANIEL 8:23-25
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king (EU DICTATOR) of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences,(FROM THE OCCULT) shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power:(SATANS POWER) and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes;(JESUS) but he shall be broken without hand.

Mideast Quartet presses Arab states, Israel by Guy Jackson MAY 2,08

LONDON (AFP) - Key world powers called Friday on Arab states to fulfil their promises of aid for the Palestinians and voiced deep concern over the humanitarian impact of a nine-month-old Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip. In a joint statement issued after the Middle East Quartet held talks in London, the powers also called on Israel to stop building or extending settlements in the West Bank.

The Mideast Quartet -- the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union -- urged Arab donor states to follow through on commitments to the Palestinians made at a Paris conference in December.The Quartet encouraged the Arab states to fulfil both their political and financial roles in support of the Annapolis process, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, citing an agreed statement.US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who attended Friday's talks, said: I think there have been pledges that have been fulfilled but clearly when you make a pledge you ought to fulfil it.That is the point that I will be making to all states.

At the Paris meeting, the international community pledged more than seven billion dollars (4.5 billion euros) in aid, including 1.5 billion dollars in budgetary support, mostly to be spent on civil servants' salaries.According to the State Department, of the 717 million dollars contributed so far, 500 million dollars have come from the EU, Britain, Norway, France and the United States.Some 215 million dollars have been paid by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Algeria, and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Friday that Kuwait had agreed to make an immediate payment of 80 million dollars.Fayyad, speaking after a separate meeting in London on aid for the Palestinians, said while he welcomed the Kuwaiti move, the main obstacle to economic reconstruction in Gaza was the Israeli blockade.

Life there is extremely miserable, he told journalists. There is no substitute to re-opening the crossings.The Quartet also urged Israel to ease the blockade to allow humanitarian supplies into Gaza.The Quartet called for continued emergency and humanitarian assistance and the provision of essential services to Gaza without obstruction, Ban added.Former British prime minister Tony Blair, now the Quartet's envoy, said the situation in Gaza was terrible.

But he said before the blockade could be lifted, it was essential that rocket attacks from the Hamas-controlled territory into Israel ceased.Before the London talks, aid agencies had warned of an impending humanitarian crisis in Gaza and urged the Quartet to press Israel to end the blockade, which it imposed after Islamist group Hamas seized power in June.The Quartet also called on Israel to freeze all settlement activity including natural growth, and to dismantle outposts erected since March 2001.Rice was due to go on from London to Jerusalem and the West Bank, to try to kickstart stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, ahead of a visit to the region by President George W. Bush later this month. Blair also voiced optimism that an agreement on a Middle East peace deal was possible faster than people think.Hamas has insisted that, as part of any truce to end violence, Israel must lift the blockade, but Israel on Thursday rejected an Egyptian proposal to ease restrictions. Separately, on Iran, a six-power grouping comprising the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany agreed to make a new offer to Tehran to resolve the nuclear standoff between the West and the Islamic republic. I am glad to say that we have got agreement on an offer that will be made to the government of Iran, said British Foreign Secretary David Miliband after talks with his counterparts. Miliband said the contents of the offer would only be disclosed to Iran. The West fears Iran wants to use its nuclear programme to make atomic weapons but Iran insists the drive is peaceful and solely aimed at providing energy for a growing population.

Israel's military shows off unmanned, armed patrol vehicle MAY 1,08

Israel's newest soldier can see at night, never nods off on sentry duty and can carry 660 pounds without complaining.The Guardium, a remote-controlled, unmanned vehicle commissioned by the Israeli military and shown to The Associated Press on Monday, is among the first such machines to be ready for the battlefield. The army said it had not yet entered service, however, and declined further comment.The four-wheeled vehicle is designed to replace human soldiers in dangerous roles, and sometimes tedious missions, cutting casualties.Like the pilotless drones that have become a mainstay of air forces in Israel, the U.S. and elsewhere, the Guardium is operated from a command room far from the front line. It can carry cameras, night-vision equipment and sensors, as well as weapons like machine guns.The Guardium even has a limited capability to operate on its own. Following preprogrammed routes, it can navigate alone on patrol along a barrier fence or make its way through a city _ the vehicle knows how to deal with intersections, traffic and road markings.Relying on cameras that scan 360 degrees at all times, the vehicle's sensors send alerts of anything suspicious to the remote operator, who can take control at any time.The Guardium never mentally wanders or falls asleep during mind-numbing guard or patrol missions in dangerous war zones.

Representatives of armies with troops who are taking high casualties in asymmetric warfare, from threats like roadside bombs, get excited about this product, said Erez Peled, general manager of G-Nius Unmanned Ground Systems, the company that developed the Guardium.The operator works with two large video screens and a joystick as well as a steering wheel and gas and brake pedals that lend the control console the look of a video arcade game.Any kid who grew up with a PlayStation will be able to come in here and learn this in seconds, Peled said.A single Guardium costs approximately $600,000. With the control system, the price runs to several million dollars, depending on what equipment is installed on the vehicle.John Pike, director of the Virginia-based military think tank Globalsecurity.org, said there is only one other similar vehicle operational _ a South Korean robot used to patrol the demilitarized zone with North Korea. With the details of the Korean vehicle classified, Pike could not say which was more advanced.

Robots like this are potentially the future of ground warfare, Pike said.A robot does what it's told, and you'll be able to get them to advance in ways it's hard to get human soldiers to do. They don't have fear, and they kill without compunction.More importantly, he said, A robot means you don't have to write a condolence letter.

REVELATION 17:1-2
1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.(VATICAN IN POLITICS)

One World Religion - Proposal to create a Religious UN in Rome http://www.agi.it MAY 1,08

The leader of the Italian Democratic Party, Walter Veltroni, today proposed the creation of an Organization of Religions Nations Rome-based, and said that the idea liked by both the secretary of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, and Pope Benedict XVI.Veltroni explained that his idea is the creation of a palace of religions in Rome, like the United Nations in New York, where representatives of all faiths of the world can meet and talk among themselves.The political leader said that it has already proposed his initiative, which he called United Religions (Religions Nations), both Pope Benedict XVI and the secretary of the UN, who liked the idea.Veltroni announced today that proposal during an appearance before reporters in Rome as a farewell, after it yesterday submit his resignation as mayor of the city to begin his campaign as a candidate for president of the Government in the upcoming April elections.Rome is the headquarters for three of the United Nations agencies that deal with food: the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Organization for Food and Agriculture (FAO) and the Global Agenda Food (WFP).

Shi'ite leaders join Vatican in defending faith, reason

Vatican, Apr. 30, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Vatican and Iranian leaders agreed that faith and reason are intrinsically non-violent during an April 30 meeting at the Vatican. Following his regular Wednesday audience, the Holy Father spoke with participants in the conference jointly sponsored by the Vatican and Iran. The Vatican delegation was headed by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue. The Shi'ite religious leaders from Iran were led by Mahdi Mostafavi, the president of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization in Tehran. The meeting was part of a series of exchanges between the Vatican and Iran, which began when Iranian foreign minister Manoucher Mottaki suggested talks between religious leaders as a means of easing tensions between Catholics and Muslims in the wake of the Pope's Regensburg address. A spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry said that discussions between the Holy See and the Islamic Republic of Iran were natural, since both are religious states.

In a joint statement released after their meeting, the Vatican and Iranian officials agreed with a major thrust of the Pope's Regensburg address, saying: Faith and reason do not contradict each other. The scope of faith might at times go beyond the power of reason, they said, but they would never be in contradiction. Both faith and reason have been sometimes misused to perpetrate violence, the joint statement observed. But this misuse should not undermine confidence in either faith or reason. The two groups agreed to continue their talks, in the hope that collaboration will promote genuine religiosity.In a bow to Muslim concerns, the statement included a commitment to encourage respect for symbols considered to be sacred and to promote moral values. In an apparent reference to incidents such as the publication of the Danish cartoons lampooning Muhammed, the statement condemned derision of religious beliefs.The Vatican and Iranian delegations agreed that Christians and Muslims should go beyond tolerance in encouraging respect for one another. They cautioned against judging either faith on the basis of single verses taken from the Bible or the Qu'ran, instead asking for a deeper understanding of the two faiths.

RPT-Mideast conflict must not hinder Med Union-Sarkozy
Wed 30 Apr 2008, 15:29 GMT

TUNIS, April 30 (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must not be allowed to obstruct his planned Union for the Mediterranean, which he said would change the world.Sarkozy aims to launch the new grouping of 27European Union countries and their southern neighbours in Paris on July 13.He was forced to scale back plans for a full EU-style Mediterranean Union after fierce resistance from Germany, which feared it would split the EU and siphon off common funds.Last month, EU leaders agreed to a limited form of union involving a regular summit between EU and Mediterranean leaders, with a joint presidency and a small secretariat.Syria, Libya and some other Arab countries also appear lukewarm over the project as it might suggest an indirect normalisation of their relations with Israel without any settlement of the Palestinian conflict.I know that, inside the project of the Union for the Mediterranean, there is the issue of Israel and the issue of Palestine, Sarkozy said. I'm fully aware that all this is in the background ... but this should not stop us acting. It should encourage us to act.He was addressing university students at the end of a three-day visit to Tunisia to boost cooperation on trade, nuclear energy and migration between the two countries.

Failure ... would mean taking a terrible responsibility towards our children and all future generations, said Sarkozy, adding that the new Union will change the world.He dismissed fears that the plan would tie EU states into an unwanted political corset, saying the new grouping would allow some states to work closely together and others to stay on the sidelines.Everyone should stay calm. No one is imposing anything, he said. (Reporting by Emmanuel Jarry; writing by Lamine Ghanmi; Editing by Kevin Liffey) Reuters 2008.

Spain marks bicentenary of French war(AFP)1 May 2008

MADRID - Spain celebrates the bicentenary Friday of the 1808-1814 Peninsular War, which ousted Napoleon's troops from the country but also sparked the loss of Madrid's empire in the Americas.

Exhibitions, reenactments, concerts and a film are planned to mark the anniversary throughout the country, but particularly in Madrid, where on May 2, 1808 thousands of citizens rose up against the French army of Napoleon Bonaparte.Napoleon, who by then controled much of continental Europe, sent his troops into Spain in late 1807 on the pretext of supporting an invasion of Portugal.But he quickly alienated the nation by usurping the Spanish throne for his brother Joseph in April 1808.The spontaneous and chaotic Madrid uprising was swiftly crushed by French troops, and hundreds of citizens were shot in retaliation. But the revolution spread throughout the country.In August of that year, Britain sent a force into the Iberian Peninsula to support its new ally Spain.On April 10, 1814 Britain's Duke of Wellington defeated the French at Toulouse in the last battle of a conflict known in Britain as the Peninsular War, in Spain as the War of Independence and in France as the Spanish War.The partisan struggle conducted by the Spanish allowed the British to pursue a more conventional war against the stretched forces of Napoleon. It also introduced the word guerrilla into the English language.

Without Wellington, Spain would have never won against Napoleon, said historian Ronald Fraser, author of the book Napoleon's Cursed War.The guerrilla war was insufficient. Wellington commanded real armies, which were required to defeat Napoleon.The war contributed to Napoleon's abdication in 1814.It also launched the notion of a romantic Spain, with partisans fighting for their freedom, a far cry from the image of the Conquistadors who ravaged South America, noted Professor Jose Alvarez Junco of Madrid's Complutense University.But it also had unfortunate consequences for Spain, as its colonies in the Americas saw it as an opportunity to demand their independence.Led by Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin, they rose up, and Spanish domination of South America was finally ended at the Battle of Ayachucho in Peru in 1824.The war against the French also left Spain divided between the afrancesados, who embraced the liberal ideas brought in from France, and the monarchists backed by a fundamentalist clergy.And it led to the restoration of royal absolutism under King Ferdinand VII.

After the war came the return of the most infamous king in Spanish history, Fernando VII, the abolition of constitutional rights, and the crushing proof that Spaniards got their enemies confused in 1808, Spanish writer Arturo Perez Reverte said in an article in the newspaper El Pais.Reverte is the curator of a special exhibition on the Madrid uprising based on his book A Day of Anger. Two of Francisco de Goya's most emblematic paintings depicting the revolt--The Second of May, 1808: The Charge of the Mamelukes and The Third of May, 1808: The Execution of the Defenders of Madrid -- have also been restored for a special exhibition at Madrid's Prado Museum.

The Third of May painting will also be re-created in a Madrid street spectacular that incorporates music, dance and theatre to reenact the uprising.King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia, other members of the royal family and Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will also attend a ceremony on Friday in the Madrid suburb of Mostoles, where the revolt began.

WORLD GOVERNMENT

DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.
25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

DANIEL 12:4,1
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

REVELATION 13:1-3,7,8,12,16-18
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.
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.
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
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.
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
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.

REVELATION 17:3,7,9-10,12,18
3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

President of Iran - Global government based on Islam, mankind's gravest need. MAY 1,08

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Monday evening at the inauguration ceremony of new head of National Center for Globalization Studies, mankind's gravest need today is a global government.Appreciating the services rendered by the former head of that center (formerly called the International Center for Dialogue among Civilizations), Dr. Mohammad Nahavandian, the President said that choosing Esfandiar Rahim-Masha'ie was based on precise calculations, and in accordance with a plan for the center.The president added, The Center for Globalization Studies must be a very dynamic center, able to take long studies forward, thanks to the presence of thinkers and intellectuals from various academic fields, able to pursue globalization discussions throughout the world.

Pointing out that God has definitely been pursuing objectives in creation of man, he stressed, Almighty Allah has drawn the horizons of man's blessed life in this world and how to achieve that objective, based on man's innate desires and in the framework of his social relations with the others.The President emphasized, Man is created to be a global creature, as all divine religions are global, and if he would be deprived of this aspect of his personality, neither anything would remain of his humanity, nor any of his potentials and talents would find a proper ground for manifestation.Proposing that the rule of single law in the entire world is a bare necessity for the mankind, he said, The existence of a thousand laws in the world, and then expecting that the global society would reach a status of equilibrium, justice, and tranquility is wishing for the impossible.He added, It is not possible to observe global justice under such conditions that each country is ruled based on a different set of laws.Ahmadinejad said, The entire monotheist Arch-Prophets (PBUT) were leaders for the whole mankind, and accordingly, so long as a single law would not be put to effect globally, and a single perfect, and noble human being would not take the charge of a global government, the God given talents of the people would not be materialized, and there would be no sign of divine justice in the world.

He considered mankind's progress throughout history a constant move towards perfection, reiterating, Today, globalization has become an issue for daily talk of even ordinary folks, under such conditions that signs for accelerating move of the mankind towards the peaks of perfection are countless, and ever increasing.The IRI President stressed that pure Mohamedan Islam has answers to modern man's entire questions, adding, World nations would accept Islam in large groups if pure Islam would one day be presented to them free from all non-Islamic attachments.Ahmadinejad said, The entire developments in the world are pieces of a puzzle, being fit in their place in order to complete God's general scheme for a perfect world for the mankind, but in the process of this completion some people achieve perfection, while others fall in the abbeys of annihilation, and nowhere is ever devoid of God's will and Divine Rule, nor of his Caliph on earth. He said that the era for drawing border lines between Islam, Christianity, and Judaism is now over, reiterating, Unadulterated Christianity and Judaism are the same as they are entirely manifestations of the same Divine Truth.The President stressed, The single and solid plan and order that we should present for the lives of the world people should be in a way to be acceptable by the pure innate nature of the entire mankind, and such laws need to be based on divine teachings.

The leader of Europe? Answers an ocean apart MAY 1,08

Henry Kissinger, U.S. secretary of state in the 1970s, once asked, Who do I call if I want to reach Europe? A new poll shows a trans-Atlantic gap in the answer today.Most Americans think the call should be placed to Gordon Brown in London. But Europeans - especially the French - tend to think Angela Merkel should pick up the receiver in Berlin, according to the poll by Harris Interactive for the International Herald Tribune and France 24 television.When asked what country is the leader of Europe today, a majority of Germans, perhaps unsurprisingly, picked Germany: 57 percent, the same figure as among Spaniards. Among the French, that figure rose to an astonishing 68 percent. The Italians and British were divided on the question between Germany and Britain.On the other side of the Atlantic, 63 percent of Americans saw Britain as Europe's leading nation.Looking to the future, the breakdown was roughly the same across the board when people from the six nations were asked about which country will have the most influence in Europe over the next decade.

When asked about political personalities, Europeans chose Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, as No. 1, with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France as a distant second choice. Americans, by contrast, named Brown, the prime minister of Britain, as most influential.These questions loom large in Europe with the prospect of an election in January for a newly empowered presidency of the European Council, a post that currently rotates every six months among the 27 members of the European Union. Under the Lisbon treaty, which EU leaders agreed to in December after the defeat of a proposed constitution, the leaders would choose a president of the European Council for a 30-month term, renewable once.The Lisbon treaty, which is moving toward ratification by Jan. 1, also envisions retaining the presidency of the European Commission, a five-year post currently held by José Manuel Barroso, thus giving two possible answers to Kissinger's question.Two political bloggers in Europe, Jan Seifert and Jon Worth, want to see that number reduced to one. Their Web site, whodoicall.eu, has a petition calling for a merger of the two presidencies.Worth said in an interview that the commission presidency is democratically legitimate, because members of the European Parliament vote on it. The council president, by contrast, will be appointed by vote of the 27 heads of state. Worth argues that the commission president has more legitimacy because the heads of state are rarely chosen in elections where European politics are at issue, in contrast to members of the European Parliament.What concerns us would be the possibility of a strong council president and a weak commission president, Worth said. In the end, you have to look at leadership and legitimacy.But a substantial minority of Europeans disagree with Seifert and Worth. The poll showed widespread opposition to the very concept of a European president, much less combining the roles of the two future presidencies. While opposition did not reach a majority in any country, Britons were most opposed, at 46 percent, while Italians were the least, at 14 percent.

The idea does sound a bit scary, Worth conceded. You have to ask, though, what the alternative is.When offered a laundry list of possibilities for a possible president of Europe, along with the choice that there be no president, only a few individuals reached a threshold of 10 percent in any country. Merkel was named in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain was named in Britain, Italy and the United States. People in two countries named favorite sons: Jacques Delors, former European Commission president, in France, and former Prime Minister Felipe González in Spain.

Website: www.out-of-zion.com The CARMEL ALERT May 2nd 2008 A compilation of news reports from the past week for theinformation of those committed to praying for Israel and the salvation of the Jewish people.

Guest Comment: Why Does Most of the World Hate the Jews?
- author unknown
Why does the world hate the Jews? What have the Jews ever done to the world? They survived -- not as Israelis, but as Jews. The world would have no problem with a secular Israel. Or with a Muslim Israel. What it cannot live with is a JEWISH Israel. It cannot even explain why. One of the most enduring mysteries of the ages is, to my mind, the phenomenon of anti-Semitism. It doesn't follow any logical pattern that could explain it -- indeed, taken as a purely social phenomenon, it makes no sense whatever. Anti-Semitism appears to be universal; it has existed in every generation, among every people, on every continent upon which the Jew has put his foot.

European anti-Semitism dates back to the days of the Roman Empire, but Jews have been the targets of discrimination and pogroms on every continent and virtually every nation on the earth. There is no nation that can claim to be free of anti-Semitism, and at the same time, there is no nation that can credibly claim it was harmed by its indigenous Jewish population.

Although an infinitesimal fraction of the global population, Jews have been awarded a quarter of all the Nobel Prizes given in the 20th century for chemistry, economics, literature, peace, physics and medicine. Even the nations of the Arab world could have peace with Israel for the asking. Yet there is no nation on earth more universally despised. Some anti-Semites (those who admit to themselves that they are) will argue that the Jews are Christ-killers invariably citing Matthew 27:25 as their proof text. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.America has no more faithful or trusted an ally among all the nations of the world than it has in Israel. It is hard to imagine criticism emanating from Israel on a par with the kind of criticism routinely heaped on the US by its other close allies like Britain, France or even Canada. And America has few enemies more virulent than the Palestinian terrorist groups like Hamas. But the US is basing its entire peace process on creating a terrorist state on Israel's borders. Never in international history has a nation been created while its people were engaged openly in a war of annihilation with the nation sponsoring its creation. No other nation on the face the earth would even countenance being put in such a situation, let alone being forced into such a suicidal situation by its closest ally.

In 1993, Israel was prepared to turn the Palestinian Authority into the jewel of the Middle East. It would have stood as a testament to Israeli tolerance. But the Palestinians couldn't get beyond their blind hatred of the Jews, and as soon as the opportunity presented itself, they attacked. Why? The rest of the world, particularly in the West, is neither blind nor stupid. The Western diplomats who scold Israel for retaliating against unprovoked rocket attacks against civilian targets KNOW that they would react with far less restraint were they the ones on the receiving end of the rocket fire. They KNOW that the war would end the second the Palestinians stopped attacking. Yet they support the Palestinian right to launch unprovoked random attacks against Israeli targets and condemn Israel for responding with military action. Compare Israel's human rights violations -- even the most transparently fictitious ones -- to actual human rights violations ongoing in Islamic nations like the Sudan, or Saddam Hussein's Iraq, or Syria's Assad regime. There are no mass graves in Israel. Yet more UN resolutions have been passed condemning Israel over the past sixty years than those passed against all the rest of nations of the world combined. It defies logical explanation.

So global anti-Semitism doesn't make logical sense politically, economically, socially or religiously. Yet it continues to thrive, despite its self-destructive nature. So why does almost everyone hate the Jewish people ? There is but one logical explanation for anti-Semitism, and that explanation is spiritual. The Bible says that Satan is the god of this world, and that it is his goal to be worshipped as such. The existence of Israel is a constant reminder to the god of this world that his days are numbered. His goal is to eradicate all traces of God from the face of the earth. And standing in his way is the Jewish state of Israel. The Bible also says that the Jews are the Chosen People of God and that they will not only endure as a people to serve as God's 'ensign to the nations' that He exists, but that their existence is evidence of His ability to keep His word. The politicians, media and Church leaders who oppose Israel and the Jewish people, actually oppose YHVH Himself ! To oppose Israel is to oppose the God of Israel, for it is He who has resurrected this tiny land that is the cause of much of the world's troubles. ( Psalm 102:13-16) It is He who is bringing the Jewish people back to the land of their forefathers, to POSSESS it ( Jeremiah 30:3 ) And it is He who is very soon going to enter into judgement with the whole world because of how they have treated the Jewish people ( Joel 3:1-3)

The Lord bless you as you bless Israel by standing in defense of her right to exist on the land given to the Jewish people by the God of Israel . Lets pray that Israel will turn back to their God. Do not be silent, but share this with your fellow Christians, share it with your pastors, and with anyone you have a chance to speak to. Lets also pray for that breakthrough to the Muslims, and please remember to pray for our son Jordan, and all of his fellow soldiers in the IDF.

Shabbat Shalom ... David & Josie

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.

Tanks, Rockets Roll Across Red Square in Soviet Parade Revival MAY 1,08

More than 100 tanks, rocket launchers and armored vehicles, flanked by 8,000 soldiers, rattled across the tarmac, while sorties of jet fighters ripped through the sky as army generals saluted below.The display wasn't in communist North Korea or China. It was a practice for a May 9 parade of Russian military hardware on Moscow's Red Square, the first since the Soviet era. The rehearsal took place at Alabino, 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of Moscow, on an overcast morning and accompanied by a recording of Kremlin chimes.When you are dealing with other countries, you should not look weak, says Konstantin Fedotov, 82, a retired colonel who took part in the first parade in June 1945 and is one of about 20 veterans watching the rehearsal. We have to show that we are not toothless and can react to events against us now.

President Vladimir Putin has called the end of the Soviet Union a catastrophe, and when the army crunches the cobblestones in front of the Kremlin next month Muscovites will get another reminder of his efforts to restore Russian power and its symbols. Putin has endorsed a history book lauding Stalin and won popularity by facing up to the West with Cold War-style rhetoric.The event will mark Victory Day, commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. This year, it arrives two days after Putin hands over the presidency to chosen successor Dmitry Medvedev after eight years.

Military Might

The display helps the government to justify defense spending as 20 percent of Russians struggle below the poverty line, according to Yevgeny Volk, a Moscow-based analyst for the Heritage Foundation, a U.S. research group.It also demonstrates Russia's strength while former Soviet republics such as Georgia forge ties with the West. Russia's $1.4 trillion economy has been growing at an annual average rate of more than 7 percent under Putin, driven by energy resources.This is a signal to the West that Russia is restoring its military might, says Volk. There is also a psychological factor, nostalgia among the current elite for Soviet times. It resembles a return to the old days.The last exhibition of military hardware on Red Square was on Nov. 7, 1990, the day the Soviets remembered the Bolshevik Revolution. Less than a year later, the Soviet Union collapsed as states like Estonia and Ukraine declared independence.

Next month, Muscovites will watch T-90 battle tanks, S-300 surface-to-air missile launchers and personnel carriers trundle past Lenin's mausoleum up to the multicolored onion domes of St. Basil's Cathedral. The generals and politicians will ride in ZIL limousines, the armored car of choice for Soviet leaders.

No Cold War

Putin says the parade is about pride and tradition, not saber-rattling. Russia increased defense spending 22 percent last year alone, to 835.6 billion rubles ($35.8 billion).The site for the rehearsal was specially built to prepare for the parade, with makeshift podiums and a grandstand where veterans watched and saluted.From there, troops and their equipment move next week to nighttime drills on the 23,100 square meters of Red Square, sandwiched between the Kremlin and the GUM shopping mall.This is beautiful. We have to know where taxpayers' money is going on buying weapons for the army, says Vladimir Bakin, the general in charge of the parade. If our army is strong, then our state is stable.Fedotov, the retired colonel, liked what he saw from his perch in Alabino. He worked in military reconnaissance during the Great Patriotic War, as Russians call World War II, and is keen to make sure the country doesn't get attacked again.Parades are a demonstration of power, a demonstration of the army's readiness, says Fedotov, in his red-and-gold-trimmed peaked army cap and white scarf to keep out the morning chill. The armed forces have to exist.

Europe or Eurabia?

The future of Europe is in play. Will it turn into Eurabia, a part of the Muslim world? Will it remain the distinct cultural unit it has been over the last millennium? Or might there be some creative synthesis of the two civilizations? The answer has vast importance. Europe may constitute a mere 7 percent of the world's landmass but for five hundred years, 1450-1950, for good and ill, it was the global engine of change. How it develops in the future will affect all humanity, and especially daughter countries such as Australia which still retain close and important ties to the old continent.

I foresee potentially one of three paths for Europe: Muslims dominating, Muslims rejected, or harmonious integration.

(1) Muslim domination strikes some analysts as inevitable. Oriana Fallaci found that Europe becomes more and more a province of Islam, a colony of Islam. Mark Steyn argues that much of the Western world will not survive the twenty-first century, and much of it will effectively disappear within our lifetimes, including many if not most European countries. Such authors point to three factors leading to Europe's Islamization: faith, demography, and a sense of heritage.The secularism that predominates in Europe, especially among its elites, leads to alienation about the Judeo-Christian tradition, empty church pews, and a fascination with Islam. In complete contrast, Muslims display a religious fervor that translates into jihadi sensibility, a supremacism toward non-Muslims, and an expectation that Europe is waiting for conversion to Islam.

The contrast in faith also has demographic implications, with Christians having on average 1.4 children per woman, or about one third less than the number needed to maintain their population, and Muslims enjoying a dramatically higher, if falling, fertility rate. Amsterdam and Rotterdam are expected to be in about 2015 the first large majority-Muslim cities. Russia could become a Muslim-majority country in 2050. To employ enough workers to fund existing pension plans, Europe needs millions of immigrants and these tend to be disproportionately Muslim due to reasons of proximity, colonial ties, and the turmoil in majority-Muslim countries.In addition, many Europeans no longer cherish their history, mores, and customs. Guilt about fascism, racism, and imperialism leave many with a sense that their own culture has less value than that of immigrants. Such self-disdain has direct implications for Muslim immigrants, for if Europeans shun their own ways, why should immigrants adopt them? When added to the already-existing Muslim hesitations over much that is Western, and especially what concerns sexuality, the result are Muslim populations that strongly resist assimilation.The logic of this first path leads to Europe ultimately becoming an extension of North Africa.

(2) But the first path is not inevitable. Indigenous Europeans could resist it and as they make up 95 percent of the continent's population, they can at any time reassert control, should they see Muslims posing a threat to a valued way of life.This impulse can already be seen at work in the French anti-hijab legislation or in Geert Wilders' film, Fitna. Anti-immigrant parties gain in strength; a potential nativist movement is taking shape across Europe, as political parties opposed to immigration focus increasingly on Islam and Muslims. These parties include the British National Party, Belgium's Vlaamse Belang, France's Front National, the Austrian Freedom Party, the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, the Danish People's Party, and the Swedish Democrats.

They will likely continue to grow as immigration surges ever higher, with mainstream parties paying and expropriating their anti-Islamic message. Should nationalist parties gain power, they will likely seek to reject multiculturalism, cut back on immigration, encourage repatriation of immigrants, support Christian institutions, increase indigenous European birthrates, and broadly attempt to re-establish traditional ways.Muslim alarm will likely follow. American author Ralph Peters sketches a scenario in which U.S. Navy ships are at anchor and U.S. Marines have gone ashore at Brest, Bremerhaven or Bari to guarantee the safe evacuation of Europe's Muslims. Peters concludes that because of European's ineradicable viciousness, its Muslims are living on borrowed time As Europeans have perfected genocide and ethnic cleansing, Muslims, he predicts, will be lucky just to be deported, rather than killed. Indeed, Muslims worry about just such a fate; since the 1980s, they have spoken overtly about Muslims being sent to gas chambers.

Violence by indigenous Europeans cannot be precluded but nationalist efforts will more likely take place less violently; if any one is likely to initiate violence, it is the Muslims. They have already engaged in many acts of violence and seem to be spoiling for more. Surveys indicate, for instance, that about 5 percent of British Muslims endorse the 7/7 transport bombings. In brief, a European reassertion will likely lead to on-going civil strife, perhaps a more lethal version of the fall 2005 riots in France.

(3) The ideal outcome has indigenous Europeans and immigrant Muslims finding a way to live together harmoniously and create a new synthesis. A 1991 study, La France, une chance pour l'Islam (France, an Opportunity for Islam) by Jeanne-Hélène Kaltenbach and Pierre Patrick Kaltenbach promoted this idealistic approach. Despite all, this optimism remains the conventional wisdom, as suggested by an Economist leader of 2006 that concluded that dismissed for the moment at least, the prospect of Eurabia as scaremongering.This is the view of most politicians, journalists, and academics but it has little basis in reality. Yes indigenous Europeans could yet rediscover their Christian faith, make more babies, and again cherish their heritage. Yes, they could encourage non-Muslim immigration and acculturate Muslims already living in Europe. Yes, Muslim could accept historic Europe. But not only are such developments not now underway, their prospects are dim. In particular, young Muslims are cultivating grievances and nursing ambitions at odds with their neighbors.One can virtually dismiss from consideration the prospect of Muslims accepting historic Europe and integrating within it. U.S. columnist Dennis Prager agrees: It is difficult to imagine any other future scenario for Western Europe than its becoming Islamicized or having a civil war.

But which of those two remaining paths will the continent take? Forecasting is difficult because crisis has not yet struck. But it may not be far off. Within a decade perhaps, the continent's evolution will become clear as the Europe-Muslim relationship takes shape.The unprecedented nature of Europe's situation also renders a forecast exceedingly difficult. Never in history has a major civilization peaceably dissolved, nor has a people ever risen to reclaim its patrimony. Europe's unique circumstances make them difficult to comprehend, tempting to overlook, and virtually impossible to predict.

Agreement reached on incentives for Iran on nuclear program MAY 2,08

LONDON - World powers negotiating with Iran have agreed on a repackaged offer of incentives to try to coax the Islamic regime into rolling back its disputed nuclear program, Britain's foreign secretary said Friday. However, the details of the amended offer being made by the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany were not revealed.We've got an agreement on an offer that will be made to the government of Iran, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said following a meeting of the group at Britain's Foreign Office.Miliband said he hoped for a response in a timely manner, but set no deadline and did not say what the group would do if Iran rejected the package or failed to respond.Iran has denied pursuing nuclear weapons, saying its program is geared toward generating electricity.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS WILL BE USED.

REVELATION 14:18-20
18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
20 And the winepress was trodden without the city,(JERUSALEM) and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.(200 MILES) (THE SIZE OF ISRAEL)

ISAIAH 66:15-18
15 For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.
17 They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD.
18 For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.

ISAIAH 26:21
21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.(WW3,1/2 earths population die).

ISAIAH 13:6-13 KJV
6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:(FROM FRIGHT)
8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

ISAIAH 24:17-23 KJV
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

2 TIMOTHY 3:1
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.

JOEL 2:20,30
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.

ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.

EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.

ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

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

REVELATION 9:18
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)

LUKE 17:34-37
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).

MATTHEW 24:37-51
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49 And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

WW3 THE 3 WAVES THAT MARCH TO ISRAEL

DANIEL 11:40-45
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south( EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) and the king of the north (RUSSIA AND MUSLIM HORDES OF EZEK 38+39) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.(JORDAN)
42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA 2ND WAVE OF WW3) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)
45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

REVELATION 14:18-20
18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
20 And the winepress was trodden without the city,(JERUSALEM) and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.(200 MILES) (THE SIZE OF ISRAEL)

The Third and Final Wave of WW3 is when all Nations march to Jerusalem, but JESUS bodily returns to earth and destroys them,sets up his KINGDOM OF RULE FOR 1000 YEARS THEN FOREVER.

2ND WAVE CHINA AND KINGS OF THE EAST MARCH TO ISRAEL

REVELATION 16:12
12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.(THIS IS THE ATATURK DAM IN TURKEY,THEY CROSS OVER).

DANIEL 11:44 (2ND WAVE OF WW3)
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)

REVELATION 9:12-18
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.(IRAQ-SYRIA)
15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.(1/3 Earths Population die in WW 3 2ND WAVE)
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand:(200 MILLION MAN ARMY FROM CHINA AND THE KINGS OF THE EAST) and I heard the number of them.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)

ASIA: Talking Peace, Preparing for War

Northeast Asia heaved a sigh of relief at the latest news of a breakthrough in the nuclear negotiations with North Korea. The prospects of integrating North Korea into the international community and constructing a peace and security structure for the region have never been rosier.But the headlines of the United States and North Korea narrowing their differences over the declaration of the latter's nuclear programme are deceptive. Despite all the talk of peace in the current Six-Party Talks, the military trends in the region tell a very different story.Even though it looks relatively peaceful on the outside, Northeast Asia is in fact the heart of the global military-industrial complex. The armies that confront each other in this region -- the United States, Russia, China, Japan, and the two Koreas -- are the largest in the world. They are responsible for at least 65 percent of the world's military spending.

Not only is Northeast Asia one of the most heavily militarised regions of the world, it is currently in the middle of a major arms race. Five of the six countries in the negotiations to shut down North Korea's nuclear programme have increased their military spending by 50 percent or more in the last five years.Recent events are only making matters worse. The cold war is heating up again on the Korean peninsula in the wake of conservative Lee Myung Bak's inauguration as South Korea's new president. China is desperately trying to put out fires on its periphery, from Tibet to Xinjiang. And nationalist politicians in Japan are pushing for an end to the country's peace constitution.Northeast Asia's arms race, which has been largely hidden from view, is threatening to break into the open.The most paradoxical part of this arms race is in Korea itself. Although the two halves of the peninsula have established joint ventures, tourism projects, and numerous cultural exchanges over the last decade, both sides continue to spend copious amounts on the military.

South Korean presidents Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun touted their engagement policies with the North. But between 1999 and 2006, South Korean military spending jumped more than 70 percent. In 2007, South Korea launched its first Aegis-equipped destroyer and announced a plan to build three more at a cost of 1.0 billion dollars each by 2020. The new South Korean president Lee Myung Bak has supported this vision of a new blue water navy, and South Korean military spending will go up by an estimated 10 percent a year through 2020. Although it spends anywhere from one-quarter to one-third of its entire GDP on the military, North Korea can't keep up with the South, which spends as much, or more, on its military than the North's entire gross domestic product. The decline of North Korea's economy has undermined its conventional military posture, which is one reason Pyongyang opted for a nuclear programme in the first place. In other words, the current nuclear crisis in Northeast Asia today is at least partly a result of the region's accelerating conventional arms race and North Korea's inability to keep pace.This approach of peace through strength on the Korean peninsula owes a great deal to the policies of the most powerful military force in the region.

The United States, responsible for nearly 50 percent of all global military expenditures, is the prime mover of the arms race regionally and internationally. The George W. Bush administration has increased military spending 74 percent since 2001. A sizable portion of the 607-billion-dollar Pentagon budget request for 2009, which doesn't even include the supplemental funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, will go to maintaining and expanding the U.S. military presence in the Pacific. And none of the leading presidential candidates has recommended freezing, much less reducing, U.S. military outlays.The big-ticket items in next year's budget -- the CVN-78 Advanced Aircraft Carrier, the DDG-1000 Zumwalt-Class Destroyer -- are of little use in fighting terrorism. The Pentagon's long-range plan to build a 313-ship navy is meant to counter the only potential great power that the United States sees on the horizon: China.China is spending around 50 billion dollars a year on its military. But if U.S. estimates are correct, China's actual defence budget is closer to 120 billion dollars, which makes it the number two military spender in the world. With this money, China is pushing forward with an ambitious naval programme that will include the addition of five new nuclear-powered attack subs and a mid-sized aircraft carrier.

China is also modernising its air force with an upgrade of fighters, tanker aircraft, and transport planes. Even with this modernisation programme, however, China's military pales in comparison to U.S. forces in the Pacific region and makes no attempt to rival U.S. global reach.Part of the U.S. strategy to offset China's rising power in the region has been to push Japan to create a normal military. Japan's peace constitution has constrained the offensive capabilities of the Japanese military, still referred to as the Self-Defence Forces, since the end of World War II.More recently, an influential group of policymakers in the ruling party want to break free of these constraints. The Japanese military is not satisfied with what is already a top-notch military. This year, the air force will be upgraded with an in-air refueling capability to permit long-range bombing missions.Also on the wish list of the Japanese Defence Agency -- which was upgraded to ministry level last year -- are an aircraft carrier, F-22 Raptor stealth planes, nuclear-powered submarines, and long-range missiles. Defence spending remains low in Japan, and it is the only country in the region that hasn't dramatically increased its military budget. But that will change as part of normalising the country's military and foreign policy.A closer U.S.-Japan military alliance is only the beginning. At the upcoming summit between President Bush and Lee Myung-Bak, one proposal on the table is a new security alliance for Asia that would link the United States, South Korea, Japan, and possibly other countries in Southeast Asia and Oceania.Such talk of explicit alliances, as well as Washington's moves to establish a global missile defence system and encroach on Russian interests in Central Asia, has encouraged Moscow to boost its own military spending and ramp up cooperation with China. With the renewed growth of the Russian economy on the strength of energy sales, Russian arms expenditures began to take off again in the new millennium, increasing nearly four-fold between 2000 and 2006.

The old geopolitical competition between the continental powers of the Eurasian heartland and the maritime powers of the rimland is re-emerging. China, Russia, and the Central Asian states have built the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. And the United States is building its own necklace of allies from India to Australia to Japan to contain this Eurasian challenge.This spiraling arms race jeopardises all short-term victories, such as the recent compromise between the United States and North Korea. And it raises the stakes for what might otherwise be rather minor disagreements, such as the Japanese and Korean dispute over Tokdo/Takeshima island.But the arms race in Northeast Asia and globally is not simply a potential threat. The international community needs a huge amount of capital to address a range of current threats -- nuclear proliferation, climate change, the destabilising gap between rich and poor. By drawing funds away from human needs, many analysts believe this new arms race is itself a threat to humanity.

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

Payment Services Directive: The end of the cash era?
Published: Wednesday 30 April 2008

From November 2009 new EU rules will allow alternative providers such as mobile phone operators to deliver new payment services alongside banks and credit card firms, paving the way for a more efficient non-cash economy. However, details of the actual implementation of the rules in member states remain unclear.

After months of fierce debate, the Payment Services Directive was adopted by the EU Council of Ministers in March 2007. The dispute pitted the UK and Sweden against the Mediterranean bloc of France, Italy and Spain. The former trumpeted a more liberal approach to regulatory requirements for non-bank service providers, while the latter fought for a stricter set of rules, in particular concerning the granting of credit.The final deal obliges non-bank providers to limit the duration of cross-border credit conceded to 12 months, but does not introduce any time restriction for national operations (see EurActiv 27/03/07).The EU Parliament's green light came a month later, and it was published in the EU's Official Journal on 13 November 2007 (see EurActiv 25/04/07). The definitive entry into force of the new set of rules is foreseen for November 2009, by which date member states are supposed to have finished transposing the directive into national law.

Issues:
The Payment Services Directive (PSD) aims to create a true European market for payments while improving national businesses at the same time, offering consumers more and cheaper services.In addition, the directive is a precondition of the establishment of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), an initiative by the European banking sector which seeks to establish the same procedures and obligations across the EU for credit transfers, direct debits and payment cards. The deadline for the implementation of the three targets is the end of 2010 (see EurActiv 29/01/08).

A European market for payments

The first objective of the directive is to tear down the legal and technical barriers that have thus far prevented the creation of a European market for payment services. With the new rules in place, European businesses and consumers will be able to use a single bank account regardless of their country of operation.Today, an Irish company that invests and operates in Italy needs to rely on Italian banks to carry out a range of basic financial operations. Tomorrow, the same company will be able to keep on using the same Irish account for all its operations in Italy and elsewhere in the eurozone.Moreover, the execution time for payments will be capped at one working day. A shopper will have the right to demand to use an amount deposited into his or her bank account by the end of the business day after the date of the payment's execution - the so-called D+1 rule. This will apply both throughout the eurozone and for cross-border payments. Currently, banks can legally take up to five days to make a payment.The PSD is expected to be very useful for consumers too because it establishes the legal basis for cross-border direct debits, an instrument increasingly used to pay bills or to carry out regular payments.

Thanks to the direct debit system, householders can forget about queuing at post offices or filling calendars with dates to pay different bills: an automatic payment order easily solves the problem. However, at the moment this is not possible in a simple cross-border manner between all EU countries. The rent of a Erasmus student studying abroad must still be paid in the old time-consuming and delay-prone way. The PSD should make this a distant memory.Another significant improvement expected of the PSD is the ability to use debit cards across the EU. Debit cards are increasingly used by consumers as they are widely accepted and allow expenses to be managed much more easily and quickly. They are particularly suitable for small purchases, for which retailers often do not accept the use of credit cards.This useful financial instrument, currently often not permitted in another EU country, will now be made available by the PSD.

New payment providers

In Japan, all you need for shopping on a Saturday is your mobile phone. After the purchase, the telephone is passed over a reading machine which, interacting with chips or smart cards embedded in the handset, executes the payment and deducts it from the remaining credit.In London, paying for the Tube in cash is already old-fashioned as the large majority of commuters use pre-paid contactless smart cards (the Oyster card) to access the Underground. A growing number of supermarkets across the world provide customers with their own payment cards to shop in their stores. These are often actual credit instruments, which are increasingly used by the average consumer.Money remitters, which help immigrants transfer credit back home to their relatives, are providing their customers with mobile phone payments more often. Thus transferring money to the other side of the world takes as much time and effort as sending a text message.All these new systems have been hovering over continental Europe for years but are still far from being applied on a large scale. One of the purposes of the PSD is to remove barriers to market entry for new payment services providers such as telecoms operators, supermarkets or money remitters. The aim is to increase competition within national markets as well as cross-border activities, which are the most affected by the lack of a clear legal framework.

However, banks and traditional payment card companies, such as Visa or MasterCard, risk facing strong competition from a range of new actors. Consumers may prefer to use their mobile handsets for the payment functions carried out by payment cards, therefore harming card companies and the banks issuing the cards. Or they could make payments with smart cards directly linked to their bank accounts at the expense of companies like Visa.Nevertheless, opportunities for these companies are also at hand, the Commission argues, as credit card firms stand only to benefit from an increased shift to electronic payments. And in fact Visa announced in April an ambitious target to provide one in five euros by electronic means in Europe by 2015, up from the current one in nine. As for banks, the introduction of online accounts was supposed to harm them and force the closure of high-street branches. But this has not happened yet.

Old money and eMoney

In general, the Commission predicts that higher competition in payment services will increasingly lead consumers to choose electronic instruments (plastic cards, smart cards, mobile phones) for their purchases, contributing to the progressive elimination of cash.The old coin-and-note system is indeed inefficient compared to new electronic means. Studies embraced by the Commission estimate that payment-related costs amount to around 3% of GDP and are driven mainly by cash-related expenses. Getting rid of coins and notes would generate enormous savings for the EU economy, they argue.Cash is expensive because it has higher production costs and is not as safe. Stealing physical money is easier than stealing electronic credit, for instance. Therefore, the cost of a transaction in cash is calculated to be between 30 and 55 euro cents, already charged by retailers within the price of the product. The Commission estimates that electronic payments only cost a few euro cents.The Payment Services Directive does not cover Internet payments. Online purchases are regulated by the eMoney Directive adopted in 2000. The Commission is currently waiting for the PSD to enter into force before coming out with new proposals to amend the eMoney Directive and integrate it into the PSD.

Transposition hurdles

The adoption of the PSD does not mean that the new rules will be applicable immediately. The text is now under revision by national authorities, which have to transpose it into national law. But the complexity of the PSD, considered more complicated than the average EU directive, means uncertainties remain as to the final outcome of the legislative procedure in the specific countries.The margins of discretion left to national lawmakers by the text are big enough to justify the establishment of a special Transposition Group chaired by the Commission and made up of representatives of national regulators.The Group has already met twice and plans to hold a further three meetings in 2008 and still more in 2009, according to the pace of transposition of the directive. The first problems emerging from the initial phase of the transposition regard the most and the least developed EU countries in terms of electronic payments.Where supermarkets are not equipped to provide smart cards or in countries where mobile operators limit their activities to communication services, it is clearly more difficult to implement an advanced set of rules, suitable per se to very advanced systems.

On the other hand, the most developed member states can experience problems of transition from their current electronic payment systems to the new ones laid down by the PSD and applied by SEPA. The Netherlands, Estonia and Belgium, which are currently among the EU leaders in ePayments, will see their technologies outpaced by the innovations stemming from the new legal framework.


Positions:
Speaking after the EU Council's adoption of the PSD, Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said: This is a directive that will not only improve the system for payments in the EU, but also opens the way to provide consumers with tangible benefits from financial markets integration.Belgian authorities welcomed in general terms the new directive, but pointed to the potentially negative effects for its national Proton system, which already allows consumers in Belgium to carry out quick and small payments with a pre-paid card. We are mindful of the fact that the improvement of cross-border payment systems should not have negative consequences for domestic payment systems. We are thinking in particular of the increase in the price of domestic payments, the disappearance of certain methods of payment and the reduction, through possible maximum harmonisation, of the level of protection currently enjoyed by consumers within their own countries, they commented.

Italian authorities warned that non-cash payments, in particular credit card payments, are on the increase and are increasingly likely to concern transactions connected with state gaming. However, the introduction of rules aimed at promoting the development of payment services in the internal market may have undesired effects on the public gaming sector and in particular on betting, they added.British authorities focused instead on a pro-market approach: Reinforcing competition should be a core objective of the New Legal Framework. Creating the conditions in which payment service providers can operate and grow without being hindered by unnecessary regulation and increased compliance costs is vital.BEUC, the European consumers' organisation, commented : Many consumers cannot benefit concretely from the Single Euro Payments Area. It is high time to deliver on efficient but also secure and convenient payments. Enforcement of existing legislation will not be enough: binding instruments backed with appropriate sanctions are needed.EuroCommerce, which represents the retail, wholesale and international trade sectors in Europe, welcomed the PSD initiative: Great benefits are expected from a well functioning Internal Market for Payments, they said. After the adoption of the directive, Secretary-General Xavier Durieu said: It will open the very much closed market of payment systems to competition and force banks to be more transparent: every European citizen and business will benefit from it.The Euro Banking Association (EBA), which brings together the biggest European banks, commented : In order to achieve a Single Euro Payment Area, the new legal framework for payments in the internal market should focus on the definition of the characteristics and effects of commonly used payment instruments throughout the single currency zone. The most stringent need today is for a common definition and uniform scheme for direct debits.

After the adoption of the directive, Guido Ravoet, the secretary-general of the European Banking Federation (EBF) declared: "Banks are finally given the legal basis on which they can fully develop and implement the Single Euro Payments Area.Visa Europe said it supports the general aim of the new legal framework and welcomes the overhaul of the existing legislation in order to ensure consistency and avoid overlap. Nevertheless, at the same time, Visa EU believes that further regulation should only be used as an instrument when deemed necessary, and consequently when a specific need is identified, and no lesser means of achieving the same objective such as self-regulation are available. Visa Europe's President and CEO Peter Ayliffe did not hide his partial disappointment after the final adoption of the directive: As a strong believer in the benefits that a truly internal market in payments would bring, I would have hoped for a greater level of harmonisation.MasterCard's position is less conciliatory. We seriously question the appropriateness of covering all retail payment instruments (credit transfers, direct debits, debit and credit card payments, electronic purse, micro payments, etc.) under the same legal framework. As each of these payment instruments has specific features, it does not seem to us appropriate to include all of them under a one size fits all type of legal framework, the firm commented.Western Union, a leading provider of money remittance services around the world, commented: If new competitive forces are to be encouraged and not stifled in Europe, different regulation that supports the safe and efficient operations of payment service providers will be necessary. Therefore, the imposition of bank-style regulation would be inappropriate and costly.

Orange, the mobile brand of France Telecom, asked for a different approach to micro-payments, which are the most frequently made via mobile handsets and where the risk for consumers is considered lower. Moreover, Orange added: Mobile operators offer a range of premium rate mobile services to both their pre-pay and post-pay customers. We do not accept that these services can be defined as payment services given the intrinsic relationship mobile operators have with their customers in supplying these services.Vodafone echoed Orange’s position: The critical test is the proportionality of regulation. Proportionality means that regulation should not be tied to a service per se, but to risks associated with that service. Mobile payment services give rise to modest risks.PayPal Europe, the most widely known eMoney service, showed a moderate interest in the PSD: We would be supportive of any initiative to harmonise the licensing of money transmission and remittance services within the EU. As these types of service involve a lesser degree of regulatory risk than both eMoney issuance and banking, it should be made clear that any authorised electronic money institution should be entitled to undertake money transmission within the scope of its e-money authorisation without any requirement for additional authorisation within the EU.