VARIOUS NEWS SATURDAY

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.

JOHN BOLTON ON JOHN LOEFFLER - NEW WORLD ORDER LINGO TO WATCH FOR IN NEWS
http://britanniaradio.blogspot.com/2009/03/john-loeffler-steel-on-steel-must.html#links
http://loudobbsradio.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1308
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/the-coming-war-on-sovereignty-15080
http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2008/11_action_plan_mgi.aspx.
http://brendabowers.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/john-bolton-on-%E2%80%98the-coming-war-on-american-sovereignty%E2%80%99-a-must-read/
FAMILY SECURITY MATTERS
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/
BIBLE PROPHESIES ONE GOVERNMENT-ONE CURRENCY
http://www.gotquestions.org/one-world-government.html

The Coming War on Sovereignty
John Bolton March 2009

Barack Obama’s nascent presidency has brought forth the customary flood of policy proposals from the great and good, all hoping to influence his administration. One noteworthy offering is a short report with a distinguished provenance entitled A Plan for Action,1 which features a revealingly immodest subtitle: A New Era of International Cooperation for a Changed World: 2009, 2010, and Beyond.In presentation and tone, A Plan for Action is determinedly uncontroversial; indeed, it looks and reads more like a corporate brochure than a foreign-policy paper. The text is the work of three academics—Bruce Jones of NYU, Carlos Pascual of the Brookings Institution, and Stephen John Stedman of Stanford. Its findings and recommendations, they claim, rose from a series of meetings with foreign-policy eminences here and abroad, including former Secretaries of State of both parties as well as defense officials from the Clinton and first Bush administrations. The participation of these notables is what gives A Plan for Action its bona fides, though one should doubt how much the document actually reflects their ideas. There is no question, however, that the ideas advanced in A Plan for Action have become mainstays in the liberal vision of the future of American foreign policy.That is what makes A Plan for Action especially interesting, and especially worrisome. If it is what it appears to be—a blueprint for the Obama administration’s effort to construct a foreign policy different from George W. Bush’s—then the nation’s governing elite is in the process of taking a sharp, indeed radical, turn away from the principles and practices of representative self-government that have been at the core of the American experiment since the nation’s founding. The pivot point is a shifting understanding of American sovereignty.

While the term sovereignty has acquired many, often inconsistent, definitions, Americans have historically understood it to mean our collective right to govern ourselves within our Constitutional framework. Today’s liberal elite, by contrast, sees sovereignty as something much more abstract and less tangible, and thus a prize of less value to individual citizens than it once might have been. They argue that the model accepted by European countries in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which assigned to individual nation-states the right and responsibility to manage their own affairs within their own borders, is in the process of being superseded by new structures more appropriate to the 21st century.In this regard, they usually cite the European Union (EU) as the new model, with its 27 member nations falling under the aegis of a centralized financial system administered in Brussels. On issue after issue, from climate change to trade, American liberals increasingly look to Europe’s example of transnational consensus as the proper model for the United States. That is particularly true when it comes to national security, as John Kerry revealed when, during his presidential bid in 2004, he said that American policy had to pass a global test in order to secure its legitimacy.This is not a view with which the broader American population has shown much comfort. Traditionally, Americans have resisted the notion that their government’s actions had to pass muster with other governments, often with widely differing values and interests. It is the foreign-policy establishment’s unease with this long-held American conviction that is the motivating factor behind A Plan for Action, which represents a bold attempt to argue that any such set of beliefs has simply been overtaken by events.To this end, the authors provide a brief for what they call responsible sovereignty. They define it as the notion that sovereignty entails obligations and duties toward other states as well as to one’s own citizens, and they believe that its application can form the basis for a cooperative international order. At first glance, the phrase responsible sovereignty may seem unremarkable, given the paucity of advocates for irresponsible sovereignty. But despite the Plan’s mainstream provenance, the conception is a dramatic overhaul of sovereignty itself.

Global leaders,the Plan insists, increasingly recognize that alone they are unable to protect their interests and their citizens—national security has become interdependent with global security. The United States must therefore commit to a rule-based international system that rejects unilateralism and looks beyond military might, or else resign [our]selves to an ad-hoc international system. Mere traditional sovereignty is insufficient in the new era we have entered, an era in which we must contend with the realities of a now transnational world. This rule-based international system will create the conditions for global governance.The Plan suggests that the transition to this new system must begin immediately because of the terrible damage done by the Bush administration. In the Plan’s narrative, Bush disdained diplomacy, uniformly preferring the use of force, regime change, preemptive attacks, and general swagger in its conduct of foreign affairs. The Plan, by contrast, rejects unilateralism and looks beyond military might. Its implementation will lead to the successful resolution of dispute after dispute and usher in a new and unprecedented period of worldwide comity.As the Obama years begin, we certainly do need a lively debate on the utility of diplomacy, but it would be better if that debate were not conducted on the false premise offered by A Plan for Action. In reality, in the overwhelming majority of cases, foreign-policy thinkers on both sides of the ideological divide believe diplomacy is the solution to the difficulties that arise in the international system. That is how the Bush administration conducted itself as well.The difference arises in the consideration of a tiny number of cases—cases that prove entirely resistant to diplomatic efforts, in which divergent national interests prove implacably resistant to reconciliation. If diplomacy does not and cannot work, the continued application of it to a problematic situation is akin to subjecting a cancer patient to a regimen of chemotherapy that shows no results whatever. The result may look like treatment, but it is, in fact, only making the patient sicker and offering no possibility of improvement.

Diplomacy is like all other human activity. It has costs and it has benefits. Whether to engage in diplomacy on a given matter requires a judicious assessment of both costs and benefits. This is an exercise about which reasonable people can disagree. If diplomacy is to work, it must be preceded by an effort to determine its parameters—when it might be best to begin, how to achieve one’s aims, and what the purpose of the process might be. At the cold war’s outset, for example, Harry Truman’s Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, frequently observed that he was prepared to negotiate with the Soviets only when America could do so from a position of strength.Time is one of the most important variables in a diplomatic dance, because it often imposes a cost on one side and a benefit to its adversary. Nations can use the time granted by a diplomatic process to obscure their objectives, build alliances, prepare operationally for war, and, especially today, accelerate their efforts to build weapons of mass destruction and the ballistic missiles that might carry them. There are concrete economic factors that must be considered as well in the act of seeking to engage an adversary in the diplomatic realm—the act of providing humanitarian assistance as an act of good will, for example, the suspension of economic sanctions, or even resuming normal trade relations during negotiations.Obviously, the United States and, indeed, all rational nations are entirely comfortable paying substantial costs when they appear to be wise investments that will lead to the achievement of a larger objective. Alas, such happy conclusions are far from inevitable, and failing to understand the truth of this uncomfortable and inarguable reality has led nations to prolong negotiations long after the last glimmer of progress has been snuffed out. For too many diplomats, there is no off switch for diplomacy, no moment at which the only sensible thing to do is rise from the table and go home.Has one ever heard of a diplomat working to fashion an exit strategy from a failed negotiation? One hasn’t. One should.

Diplomacy is a tool, not a policy. It is a technique, not an end in itself. Urging, however earnestly, that we engage with our enemies tells us nothing about what happens after concluding the initial pleasantries at the negotiating table. Just opening the conversation is often significant, especially for those who are legitimized merely by being present. But without more, the meaning and potency of the photo op will quickly fade.That is why effective diplomacy must be one aspect of a larger strategic spectrum that includes ugly and public confrontations. Without the threat of painful sanctions, harsh condemnations, and even the use of force, diplomacy risks becoming a sucker’s game, in which one side will sit forever in naïve hope of reaching a settlement while the other side acts at will.Diplomacy is an end in itself in A Plan for Action. So, too, is multilateralism. The multilateralism the Plan celebrates and advocates is, of course, set in sharp contrast to the portrait it draws of a Bush administration flush with unilateralist cowboys intent on overturning existing international treaties and institutions just for the sport of it. Defining unilateralism is straightforward: the word refers to a state acting on its own in international affairs.2 It is a critical conceptual mistake, however, to pose multilateralism simply as its opposite.Consider, for example, the various roles of the United Nations, the North American Treaty Organization, and the Proliferation Security Initiative. The UN, the Holy Grail of multilateralism, is an organization of 192 members with responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security lodged in its Security Council. NATO is a defense alliance of 26 states, all of which are Western democracies. The Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), created in 2003 by the Bush administration, now includes 90-plus diverse countries dedicated to stopping international trafficking in weapons of mass destruction.

Each organization is clearly multilateral, but their roles are so wildly different that the word ceases to have any meaning. For example, if the United States confronted a serious threat, it would be acting multilaterally if it took the matter either to NATO or the UN. Both options would be multilateral, but widely divergent in diplomatic and political content, and quite likely in military significance as well. They would be comparable related in the same way a steak knife is comparable to a plastic butter knife.The PSI offers an even starker contrast, for unlike either the UN or NATO, it has no secretary general, no Secretariat, no headquarters, and no regularly scheduled meetings. One British diplomat described the initiative as an activity, not an organization.In fact, the model of the Proliferation Security Initiative is the ideal one for multilateral activity in the future, precisely because it transcends the traditional structures of international organizations, which have, time and again, proved inefficient and ineffective.Multilateralism is, in other words, merely a word that describes international action taken by a group of nations acting in concert. For the authors of A Plan for Action, however, multilateralism has an almost spiritual aspect, representing a harmony that transcends barriers and oceans.Harmony is designed to stifle any discordant notes, and so is the multilateralism envisioned by an American foreign policy guided by responsible sovereignty. It is one in which the group of nations, of which the United States is but a single player among many, initiates policies and activities that would likely be designed to constrain the freedom of action of the United States in pursuit of that harmony—not only in its activities abroad, but also in its activities within the 50 states.

There is a precedent for this in the conduct of the European Union, whose 27 nations now possess a common currency in the form of the euro and an immensely complex series of trade and labor policies intended to cut across sovereign lines. The EU is the model A Plan for Action proffers for the responsible sovereignty regime its authors wish to import to the United States. EU bureaucrats based in Brussels have been reshaping the priorities and needs of EU member states for a decade now, and proposing a system based on the design of the EU suggests a desire to subject the United States to a kind of international oversight not only when it comes to foreign policy but also on matters properly understood as U.S. domestic policy.That very approach has been on display at the United Nations for years in an effort to standardize international conduct that has come to be known as norming.In theory, there is good reason to create international standards—for measurement, for example, or for conduct on the high seas. But norming goes far beyond such prosaic concerns. The UN has, for example, repeatedly voted in different committees to condemn the death penalty, in a clear effort to put pressure on the United States to follow suit. Similar votes have been taken on abortion rights and restricting the private ownership of firearms.Such issues have been, and likely will again be, the subjects of intense democratic debate within the United States, and properly so. There is no need to internationalize them to make the debate more fruitful. What is common to these and many other issues is that the losers in our domestic debate are often the proponents of internationalizing the controversies. They think that if they can change the political actors, they can change the political outcome. Unsuccessful in our domestic political arena, they seek to redefine the arena in which these matters will be adjudicated—moving, in effect, from unilateral, democratic U.S. decision-making to a multilateral, bureaucratic, and elitist environment. For almost any domestic issue one can imagine, there are likely to be nongovernmental organizations roaming the international arena desperately trying to turn their priorities into norming issues.This is what responsible sovereignty would look like. For the authors and signatories of A Plan of Action, sovereignty is simply an abstraction, a historical concept about as important today as the sovereigns from whose absolute rights the term originally derived. That is not the understanding of the U.S. Constitution, which locates the basis of its legitimacy in we the people, who constitute the sovereign authority of the nation.Sharing sovereignty with someone or something else is thus not abstract for Americans. Doing so by definition will diminish the sovereign power of the American people over their government and their own lives, the very purpose for which the Constitution was written. This is something Americans have been reluctant to do. Now their reluctance may have to take the form of more concerted action against responsible sovereignty if its onward march is to be halted or reversed. Our Founders would clearly understand the need.

EUROPEAN UNION DESTROYING DEMOCRACY, WRECKING LIVES
Campaigners from throughout Europe and across the political spectrum unite in defence of citizens’ democratic rights .Public meeting Freedom and Democracy, not EU Dictatorship, Euston, London, Sat 4 April 2009

Trade unionists, as well as independent politicians and campaigners from Ireland, Germany and even Nigeria will be among the guest speakers at a public meeting to be held in Euston, London, on Saturday 4th April, organised by the cross-party Campaign for an Independent Britain (CIB) to protest against what they see as the growing dictatorship of the European Union. German campaigner against the Lisbon Treaty/EU Constitution, Henry Nitzsche, an independent member of the Bundestag, and veteran Eurosceptic Sir Teddy Taylor, a Conservative MP for over 30 years, will join labour movement activist Brian Denny of the Rail & Maritime Union
(RMT), representing Trade Unions against the EU Constitution (TUAEC), Frank Keoghan of the Irish People’s Movement, and Dele Oguntimoju of the Nigerian Movement for National Reformation in denouncing the profoundly undemocratic nature of the EU. The meeting has been organized by the CIB in response to the recent ComRes opinion poll which showed that the overwhelming majority of the British people want the chance to vote in a national referendum on whether or not the UK stays in the European Union. In the same poll, three quarters of voters said they thought that UK politicians on the whole don’t do enough to stand up for British interests in Europe. CIB spokesman Andy Smith said: The tide is turning decisively against the European Union. Despite the millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money that Gordon Brown’s government and the bureaucrats in Brussels have spent on trying to persuade the British people to love the EU, all we really want is to leave it! Poll after poll shows that Britons are overwhelmingly hostile to the EU, they know that Brussels is responsible for taking away our democratic rights and that the UK’s membership of the EU costs us dearly in terms of cuts to our public services, higher taxation, and the destruction of British jobs. There is widespread recognition nowadays that we would be better off out.

He added that the Campaign for an Independent Britain had organised this major public meeting because we believe it is important to provide as many opportunities as possible for Eurosceptics to gather together and network, and to learn new insights into the EU dictatorship from their various different perspectives. We also felt it was extremely important to hear from people from Europe and Africa, so that we can try to understand the motivations of those people who share the British Eurosceptic view. Euroscepticism is often seen as purely British – English in fact – and one of the aims of our meeting on 4th April is to create a broadly-based, cross-party event at which participants from throughout the EU (and beyond) and from right across the political spectrum, can meet together to plan the next phrase of our joint campaign.

The EU wants to extend its powers even further through the Lisbon Treaty – but CIB is fighting hard to block this latest power gab. That’s why we’ve called this meeting: Freedom and democracy, not EU dictatorship. Anyone interested in attending should go to the CIB website, www.eurosceptic.org.uk.-ENDS Press contact: Andy Smith, Press Officer, Campaign for an Independent Britain, tel: 07737 271676, email: press@eurosceptic.org.uk

TESTING THE FAITH Suit claims recognition of God violates law,Brief challenges plan to stop acknowledging prayer March 21, 2009 12:15 am Eastern 2009 WorldNetDaily

A court should reject arguments from those who seek relentless extirpation of any reference to religion in public life, according to a brief submitted in opposition to a Wisconsin lawsuit that challenges the National Day of Prayer. The lawsuit was filed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which asserted the law that sets the first Thursday in May as National Day of Prayer should be declared in violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The case pending in a Wisconsin court now, however, has drawn the attention of the American Center for Law and Justice, the ACLJ, which submitted a friend-of-the-court brief asking for the case to be dismissed.The ACLJ's filing includes a list 60 pages long of presidential and other proclamations recognizing America's need for a day of prayer and said the concept was adopted even as the U.S. was being created as a nation. At the end of the years 1777, 1781 and 1782 the Continental Congress recommended that the states set apart a day for prayer and thanksgiving. At the Constitutional Convention itself, Benjamin Franklin urged that prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business,the ACLJ argued. It was George Washington who offered the first presidential proclamation urging a day of public thanksgiving and prayer.He said it is in an especial manner our duty as a people, with devout reverence and affectionate gratitude, to acknowledge our many and great obligations to Almighty God and to implore Him to continue and confirm the blessings we experience,the filing argued.

This is another twisted legal attempt to remove prayer from public life, said the ACLJ's director, Jay Sekulow. The fact is that a day set aside for prayer for the country is a time-honored tradition woven into the very fabric of our nation. From the time of our Founding Fathers to the present day, such proclamations and observances reflects the nation's rich history. The courts have been clear on this issue: there is no constitutional crisis here. We're hopeful that the court will take the only action appropriate in this case and dismiss this lawsuit,he said. The brief said the U.S. Supreme Court already has addressed the dispute, too. In Marsh v. Chambers,the United States Supreme Court conducted a searching examination of the nation's history when considering a challenge to the Nebraska state legislature's practice of opening its session with prayer by a paid chaplain. Upholding the practice, the court held that historical evidence sheds light not only on what the draftsmen intended the Establishment Clause to mean, but also on how they thought that Clause applied to the practice authorized by the First Congress – their actions reveal their intent.In its brief filed with the court in Madison, Wis., the ACLJ represents itself and 31 members of the 111th Congress, including Rep. J. Randy Forbes, R-Va., who chairs the Congressional Prayer Caucus. Other members of Congress represented are Robert B. Aderholt, Michele Bachmann, Roscoe G. Bartlett, John A. Boehner, John Boozman, Eric Cantor, K. Michael Conaway, Mary Fallin, Virginia Foxx, Trent Franks, Scott Garrett, Louie Gohmert, Wally Herger, Peter Hoekstra, Walter B. Jones, Jim Jordan, Doug Lamborn, Thaddeus G. McCotter, Patrick T. McHenry, Mike McIntyre, Jeff Miller, Sue Wilkins Myrick, Randy Neugebauer, Pete Olson, Mike Pence, Joseph R. Pitts, Heath Shuler, Adrian Smith, Lamar Smith and Joe Wilson. Even the drafter of the First Amendment, James Madison, issued four proclamations in the early 1800's calling the nation to a day of prayer,the ACLJ noted.

The ACLJ contends that the strategy to purge all religious observances and references from American public life must not be indulged.The ACLJ's brief can be read here. WND columnist Jonathan Falwell addressed the concerns in a column. The problem with this lawsuit, as I see it, is that America has a rich history of honoring God. From our nation's very first inaugural address by George Washington – in which he requested that the Bible be opened to Deuteronomy chapter 28 – we see the tradition of publicly paying tribute to God,he wrote. George Washington understood that this nation is a gift from the Sovereign God, and he recognized the need for the nation to honor Him. It is the duty of all nations,Washington said,to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God and to obey His will,Falwell wrote. We must fight to preserve our history, my friends, because there are those who want to ignore and destroy it,he said.

Pope condemns sorcery, urges Angolans to convert By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer MAR 21,09

LUANDA, Angola — Tens of thousands of Angola's Catholics lined the streets of the capital on Saturday for a blessing from Pope Benedict XVI, who urged the country's faithful to reach out and convert people who believe in witchcraft.In today's Angola, he said at Mass in the capital, Catholics should offer the message of Christ to the many who live in the fear of spirits, of evil powers by whom they feel threatened.He also gave a message of hope to young people, including some wounded and maimed during Angola's long civil war, when he addressed a crowd of some 30,000 people at drum concert later.I think of the many tears you shed for the loss of relatives, he told the crowd at a soccer stadium where he watched a drum concert by young men with the painted faces, and dancers in colorful costumes. The civil war started with Angola's 1975 independence from Portugal and ended in 2002.The 81-year-old pontiff, wearing white robes, looked tired and moved slowly in the tropical heat during the youth appearance in late afternoon.In the morning, Benedict attracted thousands onto the streets every time his motorcade passed and delighted the crowds by speaking in Portuguese.Drawing on the more than 500 years of Roman Catholicism in Angola, he called Christianity a bridge between the local peoples and the Portuguese settlers. The country's history as a Portuguese colony gave the country Christian roots. Eighty percent of the 16 million people are Christian, about 65 percent Catholic.

The pope began his day addressing Catholic clergymen and nuns, telling them to be missionaries to those Angolans living in fear of spirits, of malign and threatening powers. In their bewilderment they end up even condemning street children and the elderly as alleged sorcerers.In Africa, some churchgoing Catholics also follow traditional animist religions and consult medicine men and diviners who are denounced by the church. People accused of sorcery or of being possessed by evil powers sometimes are killed by fearful mobs.Local media have reported that police last year rescued 40 children who had been held by two religious sects after being accused by their own families of witchcraft.Benedict counseled Catholics to live peacefully with animists and other nonbelievers and urged Angolans to be the new missionaries to bring people who believe in sorcery to Christ.Benedict spoke at a Mass at the capital's blue-domed St. Paul's Church, where light streamed through stained glass windows onto veiled nuns and priests and bishops resplendent in white and lilac robes.

The pope lovingly caressed the faces of children and sketched the cross on their foreheads.Security was unusually tight, with military sharpshooters atop buildings in the capital. The National Police said they have deployed 10,000 officers. Security agents blocked cell phones in the church, apparently by sending a signal.This is a very emotional day for me, my first time to get a Papal blessing, said Sister Iliria Olivera, from Oaxaca in Mexico, among hundreds of foreign missionaries in the church. Olivera for nine years has been working with her Sisters of the Divine Pastor, teaching children and running a maternal health clinic outside Luanda.On Friday, Benedict lamented what he called strains on the traditional African family, condemning sexual violence against women and chiding countries that have approved abortion.The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, who is traveling with the pope, told journalists at a briefing Saturday that Benedict in that speech was referring to abortion when used as a means of population control.Earlier in the weeklong trip, the pope's first to Africa, Benedict drew criticism from aid agencies and some European governments when he said that condoms were not the answer to Africa's severe AIDS epidemic, suggesting that sexual behavior was the issue. Among the young people in the stadium Saturday was Valdomero Dias, who said he understood the pope's message as leader of the church. But abstinence is very difficult for young people,said Dias, a 27-year-old bachelor who helps run the scouting movement.

Amnesty International on Saturday called on the pope to use his influence to halt the threat of forced evictions for residents of Luanda to make rise for high-rise apartments and office buildings. Many have been given cheap houses in faraway satellite towns that have no running water or electricity. Amnesty said that between 2003 and 2006, thousands of people were forcibly evicted from land belonging to the Catholic Church in three Luanda districts. Asked at the press briefing about Amnesty's allegations, Lombardi referred the question to an Angolan bishop, Monsignor Jose Manuel Imbamba. The prelate denied that anyone had been evicted or houses destroyed.We help the poor, we don't send them away,Imbamba said. AP correspondent Michelle Faul and reporter Casimiro Siona contributed to this report.

THE MEDIA IS SO BIAS AGAINST ISRAEL ITS REDICULAS USING THE TERMS CHILDREN AND SCHO0LYARD IN THIS STORY TO GIVE THE PALESTINIAN MURDERERS FAVOUR.......SICK MEDIA.JERUSALEM WILL BE ISRAELS CAPITAL FOREVER WORLD AND DON'T FORGET IT. NO MATTER HOW THE MEDIA IS HATING AND BIAS AGAINST ISRAEL,GOD RULES AND ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM WILL NEVER BE SEPARATED AFTER JESUS THE TRUE MESSIAH AND GOD OF ISRAEL AND THE WORLD RETURNS TO RULE FROM JERUSALEM FOREVER,THEN IT WILL BE THE WORLD JEWISH CAPITAL.

Israel police ban Arab culture day in Jerusalem By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer MAR 21,09

JERUSALEM – Israeli authorities broke up a series of Palestinian cultural events in Jerusalem on Saturday, disrupting a children's march and bursting balloons at a schoolyard celebration in a crackdown that underscored the emotional battle over control of the disputed holy city.Elsewhere in Jerusalem, hundreds of Israelis gathered outside the residence of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to mark the 1,000th day in captivity of an Israeli soldier held by Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. The demonstration took place at a protest tent set up by the soldier's family, and many in the crowd quietly waved yellow glow sticks in a show of solidarity.Palestinian activists called for Saturday's celebrations to mark the Arab League's designation of Jerusalem as the capital of Arab culture for 2009. The 23-nation group chooses a different city for the honor each year.

But Israel said the events violated a ban on Palestinian political activity in Jerusalem. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas criticized the crackdown.Announcing the ban on Saturday's events, Israel's internal security minister, Avi Dichter, accused Abbas' Palestinian Authority of being behind the activities. Israel does not allow the Palestinian government to have a presence in Jerusalem, saying it undercuts Israel's claim to the city.At one event, teenage girls at an east Jerusalem Catholic school released a few dozen balloons in the red, white, green and black colors of the Palestinian flag over the walled Old City. Israeli military police and soldiers quickly moved into the schoolyard and popped the remaining balloons, students said.

Zein, an 18-year-old student, said the police popped them with their hands and told them they weren't allowed to release them into the air. She asked not to use her last name, fearing further problems with the police.An Israeli intelligence official at the school who refused to give his name said the balloons were burst because they are Palestinian.Police spokesman Shmuel Ben Ruby said 12 people were detained. Police also broke up attempts by Palestinian school children to march into the Old City.The dispute over Jerusalem lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has been the most sensitive issue in peace talks.Israel says the entire city of Jerusalem is its undivided capital. Palestinians want east Jerusalem — captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war and site of key Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites — as the capital of a future state.Israel annexed the eastern part of the city after the 1967 war, and today, some 180,000 Jewish Israelis live in east Jerusalem neighborhoods. The annexation is not internationally recognized.Speaking in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, Abbas said Israel's policies in Jerusalem were undermining the chances for peace.The policy of discrimination, suppression, stealing the land, destruction of neighborhoods, and homes, the policy of falsifying the past, destroying the present and stealing the future should all stop if peace is to have a real opportunity in this land,he said.He urged the incoming Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to resume stalled peace negotiations on all issues of dispute, including Jerusalem. The conservative Netanyahu rejects any division of the holy city.Olmert had hoped to arrange a prisoner swap with Hamas that would bring home the captured soldier, Sgt. Gilad Schalit, before he leaves office. Netanyahu is putting together a coalition government following elections last month and has two more weeks to complete the task.

But earlier this week, Olmert said Hamas' demands were excessive, strongly signaling he would turn over the matter to Netanyahu. Hamas is seeking the release of some 450 imprisoned militants, including dozens convicted of killing Israelis, in exchange for Schalit.Schalit's father, Noam, urged Olmert to continue his efforts. We want Gilad Schalit back home immediately — immediately, not in another 1,000 days, not even in another 100 days,he told the crowd Saturday night. Schalit's family set up the protest tent two weeks ago to push for a last-minute deal. In a country where military service is mandatory, the case has gripped the nation's attention, and thousands of people have stopped by the tent to support the family. The family planned to return home to northern Israel later Saturday, but his father said their struggle would go on. This hasn't ended, dear Gilad,he said.

Canada bars Galloway over Hamas support Sat Mar 21, 6:55 am ET

OTTAWA, (AFP) – George Galloway has been blocked from visiting Canada because of his support of Hamas, which is banned here, the Canadian immigration minister's office said.I'm sure Galloway has a large Rolodex of friends in regimes elsewhere in the world willing to roll out the red carpet for him, Alykhan Velshi, spokesman for Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, told AFP.Canada, however, won't be one of them, he said in an email.Galloway was to give a speech in Toronto at the end of the month, but has been denied entry over his opposition to Canadian troops in Afghanistan, said the Sun.In a comment piece published in the Guardian on Saturday, Galloway described the ban as absurd, hypocritical, and in vain because his allies in the country were seeking a judicial review.And there are other ways I can address those Canadians who wish to hear me, he wrote.From coast to coast, minister Kenney notwithstanding, I will be heard -- one way or another.Velshi said Galloway was deemed inadmissible to Canada due to national security concerns.It was an operational decision" by border security officials based on a number of factors, not only those mentioned in the Sun piece,he said.Such a decision could be overturned by ministerial order, but it is not warranted in this case, he said.We're going to uphold the law, not give special treatment to a street-corner Cromwell who brags about giving financial support to Hamas, a terrorist organization banned in Canada,Velshi said.

Opposition New Democratic Party MP Olivia Chow however accused the government of censorship for not allowing Galloway to tout his anti-war messages in Canada.Denying him entry to this country is an affront to freedom of speech and shows the Canadian government is frightened of an open debate on an unpopular war, she said in a statement.This week, Galloway traveled to Gaza at the head of a humanitarian convoy. He praised the Palestinian resistance and condemned Israel's 22-day offensive launched in December, in which 1,300 Palestinians died, as genocidal aggression.The MP also donated thousands of dollars and dozens of vehicles to the Hamas-run government in the Gaza Strip.

DISEASES

REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

Chef: Norovirus may be cause of Fat Duck illnesses By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer – Fri Mar 20, 12:15 pm ET

LONDON – Chef Heston Blumenthal and health officials say a virus may have caused an outbreak of illness among diners at England's Michelin-starred Fat Duck restaurant.

The restaurant was closed for more than two weeks starting Feb. 24 after scores of diners were struck by bouts of diarrhea and vomiting. Initial reports said 40 diners had fallen ill, but the Health Protection Agency said Friday that 529 people have now reported becoming sick after eating at the Fat Duck.Blumenthal was quoted by Australia's Hospitality magazine as saying several members of staff and customers had tested positive for norovirus, an easily transmitted bug known as winter vomiting disease.It is categorically not food poisoning, we know that, Blumenthal was quoted as saying.The Health Protection Agency said it was still conducting tests to determine the cause of the outbreak but confirmed that norovirus infection had been detected in six members of staff and eight diners.The agency said restaurant staff had continued to work while ill with the virus, in contravention of public health guidelines.The agency ruled last week that it was safe to reopen the restaurant in Bray, 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of London. It said it had given the restaurant advice on how to deal with staff illness.The Fat Duck reopened on March 12, and Blumenthal said diners were not staying away as a result of the illnesses.

It's affected the restaurant big time because (we) had to cancel 800 people because of the closure but in terms of the business and people wanting to come in then no, he was quoted as saying.Norovirus is the most common stomach bug in Britain. Outbreaks sicken up to 1 million people in the U.K. every year, though they are usually confined to hospitals, nursing homes and schools.The virus spreads via contact with an infected person, food, water, or contaminated surfaces. It can also survive for days in the environment.The Fat Duck, one of only three British restaurants awarded the Michelin food guide's top three-star rating, was named the best place in the world to eat by Restaurant magazine in 2005.The 42-year-old self-taught chef is known for elaborate culinary concoctions such as snail porridge and bacon-and-egg ice cream.
AP Medical Writer Maria Cheng contributed to this report.

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

EU expanding its sphere of influence,Russia says
VALENTINA POP Today MAR 21,09 @ 16:17 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Eastern Partnership is an EU attempt to expand its sphere of influence in the quest for hydrocarbons, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said, in Moscow's first major broadside against the new policy. We are accused of having spheres of influence. But what is the Eastern Partnership, if not an attempt to extend the EU's sphere of influence, including to Belarus, the minister said on Saturday (21 March) at the Brussels Forum, a high-level symposium.He added that the Czech EU presidency and the European Commission are putting undue pressure on Belarus by suggesting it might be marginalised if it follows Russia in recognising the independence of Georgian breakaway regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia.Is this promoting democracy or is it blackmail? It's about pulling countries from the positions they want to take as sovereign states,Mr Lavrov said.The EU on Friday formally launched the Eastern Partnership, a €600 million policy to forge closer political and trade links with six former Soviet countries - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Azerbaijan and Georgia are important for the EU's pursuit of alternative gas and oil import routes from the Caspian Sea region. Belarus also hosts a major gas pipeline system.The invitation of Belarus leader Lukashenko to an Eastern Partnership launch summit in May and the pace of EU-Belarus rapprochement in the partnership process continue to hang in the balance, however. Czech foreign minister Karl Schwarzenberg in February said it would be "difficult" to make progress if Minsk takes the Russian line on Georgia. Mr Lavrov's choice of words on Saturday was piquant, with former-Communist EU members often accusing Moscow of blackmailing its neighbours or thinking in terms of Cold War-era spheres.He said Russia has special relations with eastern European countries because of hundreds of years of common history and Russia's open labour market.

Sweden, the co-author of the Eastern Partnership project together with Poland, rejected Mr Lavrov's position as completely unacceptable.The Eastern Partnership is not about spheres of influence. The difference is that these countries themselves opted to join,Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt told EUobserver at the Brussels Forum. The EU's position on Georgia is not blackmail but is about upholding the principles of the EU and international law, which Russia should also be respecting, he added.

Appeasement won't work

The Lavrov speech should dispel the idea that Russia will agree to a formula of more EU, less NATO for its former vassals, according to EU and NATO-aspirant Georgia. Mr Lavrov just confirmed that whatever choices Eastern European countries make, be it NATO or EU, they are not acceptable to Russia. Moscow continues to see the Euro-atlantic aspirations of these countries as an attempt to leave its sphere of influence,Georgian minister for reintegration Temuri Yakobashvili told this website.

The fact that Russia sees the European Partnership as a zero-sum game proves wrong those who believe that giving up NATO aspirations would solve the problems with Moscow. Appeasing Russia will not work.Ukraine, home to a large ethnic-Russian minority hostile to NATO expansion, is taking a more nuanced approach. There is a difference, NATO has a huge legacy from the bipolar world of the Cold war, which the EU does not have,Ukraine deputy premier Hryhoriy Nemyria said. The strategic priority of our country is integration in the EU. This is the way to modernise our country and we welcome the Eastern Partnership policy, because it uses de facto the same instruments as for EU candidates. We know it's not about membership, but membership is also not completely ruled out for the future.

BILDERBERGS EXCITE POLITICOS
http://www.freemasonrywatch.org/blog/?p=103

LOU DOBBS LEFT WING CONSPIRACY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qj3GIpKPLc&feature=player_embedded

ENVIROMENTALISTS ARE FRAUDS,SCAMMERS (CULT RELIGIONISTS)
http://www.freemasonrywatch.org/blog/?p=73
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfHW7KR33IQ&feature=player_embedded

Czech president attacks Al Gore’s climate campaign
Jan. 31, 2009

Czech President Vaclav Klaus took aim at climate change campaigner Al Gore on Saturday in Davos in a frontal attack on the science of global warming. I don’t think that there is any global warming,said the 67-year-old liberal, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union. I don’t see the statistical data for that. Referring to the former US vice president, who attended Davos this year, he added:I’m very sorry that some people like Al Gore are not ready to listen to the competing theories. I do listen to them.Environmentalism and the global warming alarmism is challenging our freedom. Al Gore is an important person in this movement.

Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, he said that he was more worried about the reaction to the perceived dangers than the consequences.I’m afraid that the current crisis will be misused for radically constraining the functioning of the markets and market economy all around the world,he said. I’m more afraid of the consequences of the crisis than the crisis itself. Klaus makes no secret of his climate change scepticism — he is also a fierce critic of the European Union — and has branded the world’s top panel of climate experts, the UN’s IPCC, a smug monopoly.

New York: Albany County Staging Attack on Ammunition Sales
National Rifle Association of America Press release March 20, 2009

At Monday night’s meeting of the Albany County Legislature, Legislators PhillipSteck (D), Douglas Bullock (D) and Wanda Willingham (D) introduced Local Law A, a proposal that would regulate the purchase of ammunition in Albany County. Local Law A would require that a valid firearms license be shown when purchasing ammunition. The law would also mandate that retailers keep a record of ammunition sales, including the type, caliber, and quantity of the ammunition, make, model and serial number of the firearm it is for, as well as the purchaser’s name and address. As if that is not enough, Local Law A would also create a secondary method of gun registration for both long guns and handguns. Local Law A has been sent to the Law Committee. Congress has tried ammunition registration in the past, only to discover that it was not only ineffective for law enforcement, but also completely unmanageable due to the sheer volume of transactions. Ammunition registration creates huge record keeping requirements and provides no useful benefits for law enforcement; which is why it was repealed under the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986. Please contact the members of the Law Committee and the County Legislators TODAY and respectfully voice your opposition to Local Law A. Contact information for the members of the Law Committee can be found below. County Legislators can be reached by phone at (518) 447-7168 or fax (518) 447-5695.For more contact information, please visit http://www.albanycounty.com/departments/legislature/legislator.asp?id=165 .

George L. Infante - District 01
9 McDonald Road
Albany, NY 12209
Home: (518) 449-5822

Christopher T. Higgins - District 06
88 Dove Street
Albany, NY 12210
(518) 320-8580
christopher.higgins@albanycounty.com

Donald W. Rahm - District 09
271 South Main Avenue
Albany, NY 12208
Phone: (518) 489-2277
donald.rahm@albanycounty.com

Phillip G. Steck - District 15
12 Paul Holly Drive
Loudonville, NY 12211
Phone: (518) 463-7786
psteck@nycap.rr.com

Robert J. Beston - District 16
1406 6th Avenue
Watervliet, NY 12189
Home: (518) 272-1038

Shawn M. Morse - District 18
PO Box 402
Cohoes, NY 12047
(518) 470-4126
smorse@nycap.rr.com

William M. Hoblock - District 26
20 DeLucia Terrace
Loudonville, New York 12211
Home: (518) 465-2906
whoblock@nycap.rr.com

Patrice Lockart - District 27
12 Peach Tree Lane
Albany, NY 12205
(518) 456-3866
plockart@nycap.rr.com

Bryan M. Clenahan - District 30
30 Woodlake Road
Albany, NY 12203
Telephone: (518) 464-7601
bryan.clenahan@albanycounty.com

BORN IN THE USA? Taitz to FBI: Investigate tampering at Supremes 305 million Americans need to know if foreign national is usurping presidency March 21, 2009
12:15 am Eastern By Bob Unruh 2009 WorldNetDaily

Orly Taitz
A California attorney battling on a number of fronts to obtain documentation of Barack Obama's eligibility to be president is asking the FBI and U.S. Secret Service to investigate suspected tampering at the U.S. Supreme Court. Orly Taitz, who is pursuing nearly half a dozen causes through her Defend Our Freedoms Foundation, says the issue of Obama's eligibility to meet the Constitution's demand for a natural born president has been before the Supreme Court at least four times. But she wonders whether the justices actually were given the pleadings to review. I believe … that there was tampering with documents and records by employees of the Supreme Court and the justices never saw those briefs,she alleges in a letter to the FBI's Robert Mueller, the Secret Service's Mark Sullivan and Attorney General Eric Holder. Three hundred five million American citizens … need to know whether a foreign national is usurping the position of the president and the commander in chief,she wrote.

Taitz raises questions about forgery of court records, tampering with court records, cyber crime, erasing of court records from the docket, fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud and other related crimes.Specifically, she points to the handling of her own case, Lightfoot v. Bowen, which was submitted to the Supreme Court on an emergency basis. Although it was scheduled for a conference, no hearing ever was held. Join one third of a million people who are seeking the truth on whether Obama meets the Constitution's natural born citizenship clause. Taitz notes that references to the case were erased from the docket of the Supreme Court on Jan. 21, shortly after Obama, the defendant, met with eight of the nine justices behind closed doors. It happened just two days before her case was scheduled to be reviewed in conference.

Secondly, Taitz notes that in her conversation with Justice Antonin Scalia at a book-signing in Los Angeles several weeks ago, he appeared to have no knowledge of the cases that had been submitted. She said she mentioned her case and those brought by Cort Wrotnowski, Philip Berg and Leo Donofrio. In the presence of several attorneys, law students and Secret Service agents Justice Scalia kept saying that he didn't know anything … even though all of the plaintiffs have received notification that all of those cases were reviewed by all nine justices,she said. Taitz said she's also concerned that the Supreme Court docket was somehow modified. Did somebody from outside break and enter into the computer system of the Supreme Court or was it done by one of the overzealous employees who wanted to keep Obama in the White House?" she asked.I demand to see the printout of entries of both internal docket seen by justices and the external docket seen by the public to verify if those were identical at all times, particularly between January 20th and January 23rd,she said. She also raised the possibility that justices' signatures may have been stamped on documentation.

U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts

Her allegations, she said, were part of what she submitted to Chief Justice John Roberts when she met him at the University of Idaho a week ago. Due to the … great urgency of the matter in relation to the national security of the United States … I demand immediate investigation of this matter,Taitz wrote. Taitz also is developing a Quo Warranto case that has been submitted to Holder. Essentially, the case demands to know what authority Obama is using to act as president. An online constitutional resource says Quo Warranto affords the only judicial remedy for violations of the Constitution by public officials and agents.As WND reported, Taitz already has submitted a motion to the Supreme Court for re-hearing of Lightfoot v. Bowen, a case she is working on through Defend Our Freedoms alleging some of her documentation may have been withheld from the justices by a court clerk. WND has reported on dozens of legal challenges to Obama's status as a natural born citizen. The Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, states, No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.Some of the lawsuits question whether he was actually born in Hawaii, as he insists. If he was born out of the country, Obama's American mother, some suits contend, was too young at the time of his birth to confer American citizenship to her son under the law at the time. Other challenges have focused on Obama's citizenship through his father, a Kenyan subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of his birth, thus making him a dual citizen. The cases contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born.Although Obama officials have told WND all such allegations are garbage, here is a partial listing and status update for some of the cases over Obama's eligibility:

New Jersey attorney Mario Apuzzo has filed a case on behalf of Charles Kerchner and others alleging Congress didn't properly ascertain that Obama is qualified to hold the office of president.Pennsylvania Democrat Philip Berg has three cases pending, including Berg vs. Obama in the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a separate Berg vs. Obama which is under seal at the U.S. District Court level and Hollister vs. Soetoro a/k/a Obama, (now dismissed) brought on behalf of a retired military member who could be facing recall to active duty by Obama.Leo Donofrio of New Jersey filed a lawsuit claiming Obama's dual citizenship disqualified him from serving as president. His case was considered in conference by the U.S. Supreme Court but denied a full hearing.Cort Wrotnowski filed suit against Connecticut's secretary of state, making a similar argument to Donofrio. His case was considered in conference by the U.S. Supreme Court, but was denied a full hearing.Former presidential candidate Alan Keyes headlines a list of people filing a suit in California, in a case handled by the United States Justice Foundation, that asks the secretary of state to refuse to allow the state's 55 Electoral College votes to be cast in the 2008 presidential election until Obama verifies his eligibility to hold the office. The case was dismissed by Judge Michael P. Kenny.Chicago attorney Andy Martin sought legal action requiring Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle to release Obama's vital statistics record. The case was dismissed by Hawaii Circuit Court Judge Bert Ayabe.Lt. Col. Donald Sullivan sought a temporary restraining order to stop the Electoral College vote in North Carolina until Barack Obama's eligibility could be confirmed, alleging doubt about Obama's citizenship. His case was denied.In Ohio, David M. Neal sued to force the secretary of state to request documents from the Federal Elections Commission, the Democratic National Committee, the Ohio Democratic Party and Obama to show the presidential candidate was born in Hawaii. The case was denied.Also in Ohio, there was the Greenberg v. Brunner case which ended when the judge threatened to assess all case costs against the plaintiff.In Washington state, Steven Marquis sued the secretary of state seeking a determination on Obama's citizenship. The case was denied.In Georgia, Rev. Tom Terry asked the state Supreme Court to authenticate Obama's birth certificate. His request for an injunction against Georgia's secretary of state was denied by Georgia Superior Court Judge Jerry W. Baxter.California attorney Orly Taitz has brought a case, Lightfoot vs. Bowen, on behalf of Gail Lightfoot, the vice presidential candidate on the ballot with Ron Paul, four electors and two registered voters.In addition, other cases cited on the RightSideofLife blog as raising questions about Obama's eligibility include: In Texas, Darrel Hunter vs. Obama later was dismissed.In Ohio, Gordon Stamper vs. U.S. later was dismissed.In Texas, Brockhausen vs. Andrade.In Washington, L. Charles Cohen vs. Obama.In Hawaii, Keyes vs. Lingle, dismissed.

5,000 evacuated after hazardous acid spill in Pa. MAR 21,09

WIND GAP, Pa. – Evacuation orders for about 5,000 people in northeastern Pennsylvania remain in effect even as authorities say the leak of a hazardous chemical has been contained.Authorities say a tanker truck carrying more than 16 tons of hydrofluoric acid overturned early Saturday near Wind Gap, about 60 miles north of Philadelphia.

Northampton County spokesman John Conklin says the driver was treated for injuries and released. There were no other immediate reports of injuries.Conklin says hazardous materials teams managed to stop the slowly dripping liquid. He says not enough of the chemical leaked to create a toxic cloud.Hydrofluoric acid in low doses can irritate the eyes, nose, and respiratory tract. Inhalation can be fatal.

http://www.brugesgroup.com/maps/ForeignPressMap00.gif
Development bank urges G20 to remember Africa Fri Mar 20, 12:21 pm ET

GENEVA (AFP) – African Development Bank president Donald Kaberuka on Friday urged the Group of 20 not to forget Africa when it meets next month to seek ways to stimulate the ailing global economy.We will be concerned if in the course of the G20 process... to resolve the financial issues, and associated economic issues, development is not included in the agenda, he said.We cannot imagine a stimulus to the world economy (that) ignores Africa, he added, pointing out that the continent is home to some 900 million people.We think we are part of the solution to the crisis, and should therefore be integrated into international discussions on the issue, he added.South Africa is the only African country within the G20 industrialised and emerging market economies whose leaders are to meet in London on April 2.However, the chairmen of the New Partnership for Africa's Development and the African Union Commission are also due to attend.Kaberuka said the economic crisis is also taking a toll on African nations, with the continent's gross domestic product growth to slow to 3.5 percent from 5.4 percent posted in 2008.The crisis is reaching us and is hitting very hard, he added.The Rwandan said he supported World Bank chief Robert Zoellick's proposal to create a fund to help the most vulnerable countries, with the value of the fund to be set at 0.75 percent of the total value of economic rescue packages around the world.

Such a measure would generate by our calculations 15 billion dollars, he said.He also called on donors to honour their pledges in development aid, notably on doubling aid and on improving efficiency.

EU pledges new IMF money but no new stimulus funds By AOIFE WHITE, AP Business Writer – Fri Mar 20, 2:27 pm ET

BRUSSELS – European Union nations have already spent enough to try to boost sluggish demand, the bloc's leaders said Friday, calling instead for better financial regulation to restore market confidence and fix the ailing world economy.They also raised new red flags against protectionism after French carmaker Renault SA said it was moving jobs out of low-wage Slovenia and into recession-hit France, and urged more funding for the International Monetary Fund to help countries hard hit by the crisis.Stimulus spending, market confidence, financial regulation and free trade will be key issues at a Group of 20 summit of the world's leading rich and developing economies next month in London.The plan EU leaders outlined Friday stands in stark contrast to President Barack Obama's heavy stimulus spending and could make for tough negotiations at the April 2 summit on how best to resolve the global economic crisis.

Getting lending flowing again to businesses and households means more rules and oversight for the financial system and a stronger role and more resources for the IMF, the EU leaders said at a summit that ended Friday.Leaders of the EU's 27 nations insisted it was too soon to inject extra billions of euros (dollars) into their own economies to fight a recession that has sent industrial output diving and the EU's jobless rate soaring.Europe is doing all that was necessary to restore growth, EU leaders said in a joint statement.British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said solving the banking crisis was the biggest task facing the world right now.This is a global banking crisis that's spread right across the world, Brown told reporters at the talks in Brussels.To solve that problem you've got to get countries working together.

His cure for the world economy was restructuring the banking sector to curb corporate bonuses and clamp down on taxes and the shadow banking system that helped create an investment bubble.At the same time, Brown said the EU must urge all nations to counter plunging world trade by making finance available to exporters and importers and shunning protectionist trade barriers.The EU's concrete promises were few. Nations backed doubling IMF lending to $500 billion, saying they stood ready to provide some euro75 billion ($100 billion) if needed.EU leaders also raised an emergency bailout fund for EU members that don't use the euro from euro25 billion to euro50 billion ($67.7 billion) — a move to assure eastern European countries who could face problems balancing their books this year.The only real money they laid on the table was some euro5 billion ($6.7 billion) in unused EU farm subsidies that they will spend on energy links, green power and broadband Internet instead of returning it to governments.They repeated their usual call for Europe to stay true to the great economic project of leveling national barriers to create a single market, saying this was central to making the recession in Europe shorter and less severe.But that sounded hollow, after France's Renault SA announced Friday it would move excess production from a car plant in Slovenia to a French site and create 400 French jobs in the process.France was forced under EU pressure to drop a demand that carmakers getting state handouts should bring jobs home from eastern Europe. EU regulators immediately sounded alarm bells about Renault's decision, saying they would "verify" if it was acting legally.EU leaders delayed a decision until at least July about how much aid they will offer to poor, mostly African nations, to entice them to sign a new global climate change pact at the end of the year. The United Nations, environmental and aid groups say delaying the move threatens efforts to combat global warming.Associated Press writers Constant Brand, Raf Casert, Robert Wielaard, Holly Fox, Barbara Schaeder and Claudia Kemmer contributed to this report.

Confusion reigns over possible eurozone bailout plan
ANDREW WILLIS 20.03.2009 @ 14:57 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A summit of EU leaders in Brussels on Friday (20 March) was the scene of some confusion as to whether member states have agreed the bones of a eurozone bailout plan.A senior German politician, Otto Bernhardt, member of the German chancellor's CDU party, told Reuters early on Friday that eurozone finance ministers agreed at a recent meeting the main components of a eurozone bailout plan that would see richer countries contribute to a special reserve fund to which struggling eurozone members could apply.However, German finance minister Peer Steinbrück was somewhat cryptic when asked about the funds existence at a press conference later in the day. I can't confirm such a meeting or such conclusions, adding that no eurozone member currently had difficulties in meeting debt payments. In the unlikely case that it did happen, the eurozone would be ready for action,he said.Mr Bernhardt told Reuters that the fund has already been set up with the European Central Bank and is ready to help eurozone countries at a moments notice, continuing that we won't let anyone go bust.We are in a position to act within 24 hours. The ECB would take immediate action,he said.The ECB can make an unlimited amount of money available.Ireland, which Mr Bernhardt said was in the worst situation of all immediately denied the existence of such a plan.Finance ministers didn't discuss anything to do with a rescue package for members of the euro zone Irish foreign minister Micheal Martin told Irish radio on Friday morning.A German spokesperson said there is no such plan and that Mr Bernhardt said he had been misinterpreted. European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said: I am not aware of this kind of decision.

But Mr Bernhardt was quite precise in the details he gave to Reuters, speaking of a quid pro quo arrangement on corporate tax, something that has also been previously reported in Irish newspapers.We would look very closely at past sins, Mr Bernhardt said.We will not tolerate there being low-tax countries like Ireland for example. We will insist on a minimum corporate taxation rate.Germany has long been irritated by Ireland's low corporate tax rate, standing at 12 percent.However, sweetners to business formed the backbone of Ireland's Celtic Tiger years attracting huge amounts of foreign investment and Brian Cowen's government wants to continue to use it to get the country – hit by a falling property market and plummeting exports - out of the financial doldrums.In a speech delivered to Microsoft's headquarters in Brussels on Thursday (19 March), Mr Cowen said the government plans highly favourable business supports, tax regime and infrastructural supports,in a bid to turn Ireland into a smart economy.

Talk of a eurozone bailout have cropped up persistently in recent weeks.Earlier this month at a breakfast meeting at the European Policy Centre think-tank, economy commissioner Joaquin Almunia said the EU did have plan to help struggling eurozone states but refused to elaborate on the details. It is not clever to talk in public about this solution.Last month, Mr Steinbrueck said that richer eurozone countries may have to come to the aid of single currency nations that are having problems. The euro-region treaties do not foresee any help for insolvent states, but in reality the others would have to rescue those running into difficulty,he said on 17 February.

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank on Friday denied the existence of a rescue fund.

The reported information is for the ECB untrue, a spokeswoman for the Frankfurt-based central bank said, reports Bloomberg news agency. The euro dropped after the comment was published.

THE FED BREAKS THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA GIVES THE MONEY TO THE BANKERS WORLDWIDE TO GOBBLE UP PROPERTY AND THE FED JUST GETS MORE PROPERTY TILL THEY COUNTROL THE COUNTRY THEN EVENTUALLY THE WORLD.OVIOUSLY THE BIG MONEY IS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION AS THE BIBLE SAYS THEY HAVE THE DICTATORIAL WORLD DOMINATION.

2 corporate credit unions taken over by government,Regulators take over 2 big wholesale credit unions, seek to stabilize corporate credit unions
Marcy Gordon, AP Business Writer Friday March 20, 2009, 9:59 pm EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal regulators on Friday seized control of two large institutions that provide wholesale financing for U.S. credit unions, a move they say was needed to stabilize the credit union system.The National Credit Union Administration said it has taken over and put into conservatorship the two corporate credit unions, U.S. Central Federal Credit Union, based in Lenexa, Kan., and Western Corporate Federal Credit Union, in San Dimas, Calif. U.S. Central has about $34 billion in assets while Western Corporate, known as WesCorp, has an estimated $23 billion in assets.A conservatorship enables the government to operate a financial institution. Corporate credit unions provide financing and investment services to the much larger population of retail credit unions. Some of the 28 corporate credit unions in the U.S. have sustained steep losses on paper from the depressed value of the mortgage-linked securities they hold.The NCUA, which oversees some 7,800 federally insured credit unions, said it will continue to take any and all steps necessary to preserve a well-functioning system of corporate credit unions and to protect the assets of (retail credit unions) and their members during the ... financial market dislocation.The financial services provided by the two corporate credit unions will continue uninterrupted and there will be no direct impact on the 90 million members of retail credit unions nationwide, the NCUA said in a news release.

It said retail credit unions, which are cooperatives owned by their members, remain financially strong -- with net worth exceeding 10 percent of assets, and sustained growth in assets and membership despite the deep recession.The NCUA staff recently completed a stress test of the mortgage- and other asset-backed securities held by all corporate credit unions, including U.S. Central and WesCorp, and found that an unacceptably high concentration of risk was contained in those two institutions, the agency said Friday. Securities held by the two have continued to lose value since late January, reducing their available cash and worsening a loss of confidence on the part of their member credit unions, the NCUA said.In January, the NCUA injected $1 billion of capital into U.S. Central. At the same time, the agency moved to guarantee tens of billions of dollars in uninsured deposits at corporate credit unions overall, the latest in a series of actions to shore them up in the face of financial stress.

The NCUA said it would automatically guarantee uninsured deposits at all corporate credit unions through February and then on a voluntary basis through Dec. 31, 2010.

The agency's insurance fund is financed by fees paid by credit unions. As is the case with banks and thrifts, regular deposit accounts in federally insured credit unions are covered up to $250,000.In December, the agency made more than $40 billion available to support several corporate credit unions with a new borrowing from the Treasury Department and provided another $2 billion to help struggling homeowners.The NCUA also has proposed restructuring the corporate credit union system with an eye to enhancing its stability.U.S. Central has said it expected to report a substantial loss for 2008, due to around $1.2 billion in charges for impairments in its holdings of mortgage-backed securities.

Up to three million march in French mass protest
ELITSA VUCHEVA 20.03.2009 @ 09:15 CET

In a record turn-out, as many as three million people hit the streets in France on Thursday (19 March) to protest against the government's economic policies in response to the global crisis, according to union estimates. The numbers were closer to 1.2 million, say the police. The country's airports, trains, schools and public transport were disrupted by the mass demonstration - the second general strike faced by France in two months.The event mobilised more people than the similar one in January when between one and two million people protested in France's cities.The country's eight main trade unions, who had called for the protests, demanded that the government react.I cannot believe the government will stay immobile in the face of a phenomenon of this size, Bernard Thibault of the General Labour Confederation said on state television France 2.If things continue like this, the marches will get bigger, Bernard van Craeynest, the leader of trade union CFE-CGC, was reported as saying by Le Monde.Representatives of the opposition were also participating in the protests.

It is important that the government changes its economic, social and fiscal policy, Paris' Socialist mayor Bertrand Delanoe said.For his part, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon defended his government's actions and ruled out any new economic recovery plan in France at this stage, saying it should first be clear what the effects of the €26 billion plan announced in December are.Mobilisation [in the streets] will not solve the problems of the world crisis,Mr Fillon said.

EU-wide problem

The French protests come as unemployment reached eight percent in the country, and new figures published on Friday by the National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) say the number of jobless people will reach 8.8 percent by the end of the first half of 2009.The institute also forecasts a prolongation of the recession in the first half of this year in France, saying GDP will shrink by up to 1.5 percent in the first quarter alone – its worst drop since 1975.Meanwhile, strikes have been taking place in other EU countries as well, including Italy. A major demonstration is also to be organised by unions, NGOs and charities on 28 March in London, ahead of the G20 meeting on 2 April, to call on global leaders to put people first,Le Figaro reports.EU premiers and presidents, gathered for a two-day summit ending on Friday in Brussels, are expected to declare in a final document that the rapid increase of unemployment is central to our concerns.The Czech Republic, currently at the helm of the EU's six-month rotating presidency, has also called a social affairs summit in Prague on 7 May, aiming to tackle the social consequences of the economic crisis.On Thursday, John Monks, secretary-general of the European Trade Union Confederation's (ETUC), called on the EU to be ambitious and adopt a new social deal at this summit.