NORTH KOREA AND PLUTONIUM

GOOD NEWS!WorldNetDaily You made a difference: ChristianU2uber
Concerned readers help police find boy persecuted on YouTube April 25, 2009
12:50 am Eastern By Drew Zahn 2009 WorldNetDaily

ChristianU2uber

A 12-year-old boy who had been mercilessly ridiculed and even told to kill himself by members of the YouTube.com community has removed himself and his videos from the website, thanks in part to people reporting the cruel treatment to the authorities. As WND reported, the boy, known for certain only by his screen name ChristianU2uber, made a series of videos about himself and about his faith for a popular video-sharing website, YouTube, which generated over a million views and tens of thousands of comments. His video Gay Marriage – Is It Right or Wrong?, however, started a fierce backlash from the online community, as harsh and often profane comments poured in ridiculing the boy, calling him names and even calling for the boy's death. Kill Christianity, and then kill yourself, responded a YouTube community member identified as greenacidfusion. A commenter calling himself WizzyBoy 520 added, How do you know the Bible isn't full of lies? You, just like everyone who is against gay marriage, is a mentally retarded bigot. No exceptions. Now go to h---.The response was so brutal, many WND readers, bloggers and concerned YouTubers began seeking protection for the boy, including intervention by the police. Upon hearing the outcry, WND has learned, Internet crime specialists in Texas were able to locate the boy and his family and persuade ChristianU2uber to remove the videos and receive counseling.

I wanted to update you that we have located this 12-year-old, and we spoke to him and his parents,said Sgt. Chris Meehan of the Collin County Sheriff's Office's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, in an email.The minor has decided to remove his videos from his site and delete his YouTube account. Further, we will be providing him with counseling to get through this matter.Meehan explained that the attention generated by WND and concerned bloggers resulted in "numerous cybertips reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding ChristianU2uber.How many times have we heard about – after the fact – the warning signs were there on websites, Facebook, MySpace, where if people had taken the time, perhaps tragedy could have been prevented,wrote Lyndon Evans on his FOCUS blog, when he learned of the treatment ChristianU2uber was getting on YouTube. Please, contact whoever you feel can help this young man.Evans, who publishes news links, blogs and other information of interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender readers, was joined by several voices in the LGBT community in issuing a call to help, not condemn, ChristianU2uber. In the world of Internet blogs and commentary, there's a wide field upon which the left, right and center can mix it up, argue and point up and hammer out their differences – sometimes with the use of fairly harsh language, writes Kilian Melloy, a contributor to Boston's EDGE. But recently, both left and right seem to have come to an agreement in the case of a 12-year-old boy identified as ChristianU2uber.The consensus, Melloy continues, ChristianU2uber, also known as Scott, needed some form of intervention on his behalf, given the tone and tenor of his postings and other Internet communications, as well as the often rough-and-tumble comments that his postings have drawn from anonymous users.According to Sgt. Meehan, many people heeded that call for intervention, and Scott – if that's ChristianU2uber's real name –has stepped out of YouTube's harsh spotlight for now, with others around to help him.

I know that you and numerous others have expressed concern over his well-being and safety,Meehan wrote to WND. I can tell you that he is doing well, and he will receive any help he needs to deal with any issues he is having.

WND ON THE AIR Shut Up author on Glenn Beck today Brad O'Leary says Obama has plot to silence talk radio April 25, 2009 12:00 am Eastern 2009 WorldNetDaily

Brad O'Leary, author of the latest WND Books release, Shut Up, America! The End of Free Speech, will be a guest on Glenn Beck's Fox News TV show tomorrow.The segment will air at about 5:45 p.m. Eastern Time. Beck's show repeats at 9 p.m. and also Sunday at 3 p.m.O'Leary contends that as popular opposition to reinstitution of the so-called Fairness Doctrine mounts, Obama and the Democrat-dominated Congress will end-run critics with legislation to curb dissent on talk radio through localism rules and community watchdog boards. In Shut Up, America! The End of Free Speech, O'Leary says the plan amounts to the development of party-approved commissar committees to censor the kind of lively and free-wheeling debate America has known since the scrapping of the Fairness Doctrine by President Reagan's Federal Communications Commission in 1987. By demanding radio stations answer to local community watchdog boards to ensure programming is balanced,fair,diverse,tolerant and serving the public interest locally, O'Leary says the planned rules and legislation will once again make talk radio accountable to politicians, political activists and bureaucrats at the FCC. Tell your government to stay away from censoring talk radio and manipulating news coverage: Sign WND's Petition to Block Congressional Attacks on Freedom of Speech and Press now!The ultimate threat over the heads of radio stations is license renewal, O'Leary explains.

Far-left groups such as ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) stand at the ready to pressure these boards into silencing conservative talk radio programs, either through intimidation or the loss of broadcast licenses, says O'Leary, who, during the presidential campaign, wrote the best-selling book, The Audacity of Deceit: Barack Obama's War on American Values.The book points out there were only 75 radio talk shows in the U.S. during the last year of the Fairness Doctrine rules. Today, there are more than 3,000. The liberals' once-dominant media forum is fading fast, in part because Americans have discovered real diversity of ideas elsewhere, O'Leary writes. The enemies of free speech know this. They also know that, if they are to accomplish their goal of stifling all debate, they will have to control all media outlets.If you are a member of the media and would like to interview Brad O'Leary, please e-mail Tricia Erickson.

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).

MISSING VIRUS IN MD.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKcHmA5KnD0&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Einfowars%2Ecom%2F&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw

Swine Flu Is Deadly Mix Of Never-Before-Seen Viruses
Paul Joseph Watson Infowars April 25, 2009
http://www.infowars.com/swine-flu-is-deadly-mix-of-never-before-seen-viruses/

Swine flu panic is spreading in Mexico and soldiers are patrolling the streets after it was confirmed that human to human transmission is occurring and that the virus is a brand new strain which is seemingly affecting young, healthy people the worst, and that the bug is a never-before-seen intercontinental mixture of human, avian and pig viruses from America, Europe and Asia.Clues that the virus may be a synthetic creation are already manifesting.According to reports, the virus is a never-before-seen form of the flu that combines pig, bird and human viruses which consists of an intercontinental mix of viruses from North America, Europe and Asia.CDC officials detected a virus with a unique combination of gene segments that have not been seen in people or pigs before, according to an Associated Press report.This strain of swine influenza that’s beencultured in a laboratoryis something that’s not been seen anywhere actually in the United States and the world, so this is actually a new strain of influenza that’s been identified,said Dr. John Carlo, Dallas Co. Medical Director (video clip here).Alarming reports are now filtering in about people catching the illness who have had no contact with pigs whatsoever. These include a man and his daughter in San Diego County, a 41-year-old woman in Imperial County and two teenagers in San Antonio, Texas. In fact, in all U.S. cases, the victims had no contact with any pigs.

Dr. Wilma Wooten, San Diego County’s public health officer, told KPBS We have had person-to-person spread with the father and the daughter, says Wooten, And also with the two teenagers in Texas, they were in the same school. So that also indicates person-to-person transfer.Dr. Wooten says it’s unclear how people were exposed to swine flu. She says none of the patients have had any contact with pigs, according to the report.Although the situation in the U.S. looks under control, panic is spreading in Mexico, where 800 cases of pneumonia in the capital alone are suspected to be related to the swine flu and the virus has hit young and healthy people, which is very rare with an flu outbreak. Despite the danger of a pandemic, the U.S. border with Mexico remains open.Mexico has shut schools and museums and canceled hundreds of public events in its sprawling, overcrowded capital of 20 million people to try to prevent further infections,reports Reuters.My level of concern is significant, said Dr. Martin Fenstersheib, the health officer for Santa Clara County. We have a novel virus, a brand-new strain that’s spreading human to human, and we are also seeing a virulent strain in Mexico that seems to be related. We certainly have concerns for this escalating.The WHO insists that the outbreak has pandemic potential and has been stockpiling supplies of Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir, a pill that can both treat flu and prevent infection, according to officials.As we previously highlighted, those that have a stake in the Tamiflu vaccine include top globalists and BIlderberg members like George Shultz, Lodewijk J.R. de Vink and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Indeed, Rumsfeld himself played a key role in hyping an outbreak of swine flu back in the 1976 when he urged the entire country to get vaccinated. Many batches of the vaccine were contaminated, resulting in hundreds of sick people and 52 fatalities.The fact that the properties of the strain are completely new, that the virus is spreading from people to people, and that the young and healthy are being hit worst, has disturbing parallels to the deadly 1918 pandemic that killed millions.It is unclear as to why, if the virus is a brand new strain, that public health officials are so confident programs of mass vaccination, which are already being prepared, would necessarily be effective.It certainly wouldn’t be the first time that deadly flu viruses have been concocted in labs and then dispatched with the intention of creating a pandemic.When the story first broke last month, Czech newspapers questioned if the shocking discovery of vaccines contaminated with the deadly avian flu virus which were distributed to 18 countries by the American company Baxter were part of a conspiracy to provoke a pandemic.Since the probability of mixing a live virus biological weapon with vaccine material by accident is virtually impossible, this leaves no other explanation than that the contamination was a deliberate attempt to weaponize the H5N1 virus to its most potent extreme and distribute it via conventional flu vaccines to the population who would then infect others to a devastating degree as the disease went airborne.However, this is not the first time that vaccine companies have been caught distributing vaccines contaminated with deadly viruses.In 2006 it was revealed that Bayer Corporation had discovered that their injection drug, which was used by hemophiliacs, was contaminated with the HIV virus. Internal documents prove that after they positively knew that the drug was contaminated, they took it off the U.S. market only to dump it on the European, Asian and Latin American markets, knowingly exposing thousands, most of them children, to the live HIV virus. Government officials in France went to prison for allowing the drug to be distributed. The documents show that the FDA colluded with Bayer to cover-up the scandal and allowed the deadly drug to be distributed globally. No Bayer executives ever faced arrest or prosecution in the United States.In the UK, a 2007 outbreak of foot and mouth disease that put Britain on high alert has been originated from a government laboratory which is shared with an American pharmaceutical company, mirroring the deadly outbreak of 2001, which was also deliberately released.As we reported yesterday, last time there was a significant outbreak of a new form of swine flu in the U.S. it originated at the army base at Fort Dix, New Jersey.

Mexico City cancels all public events to fight flu By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer APR 25,09

MEXICO CITY – A deadly new swine flu strain that has killed at least 20 people in Mexico City and sickened more than 1,000 has pandemic potential, the World Health Organization chief said Saturday — but some fear it may be too late to contain the outbreak.With 24 new suspected cases of the swine flu reported Saturday, Mexico City said schools would remain closed and all public events suspended until further notice — including more than 500 concerts, sporting events and other gatherings including the popular weekly bicycle rides on streets closed to traffic.A hotline set up the previous day fielded 2,366 calls from frightened city residents who suspected they might have the disease. City Health Secretary Armando Ahued said 10 new possible cases of infection have been discovered in the metropolis of 20 million people.

Officials say more than 1,000 people have been infected nationwide. Tests show 20 people have died of the swine flu, and 48 other deaths were probably due to the same strain.This virus is a mix of human, pig and bird strains that has epidemiologists around the world deeply concerned. The World Health Organization convened in Geneva Saturday to consider whether to declare an international public health emergency — a step that could lead to travel advisories, trade restrictions and border closures.The agency's director-general, Margaret Chan, said the outbreak involves an animal strain of the H1N1 virus, and it has pandemic potential — but it is too early to say whether a pandemic will actually occur.The CDC and Canadian health officials were studying samples sent from Mexico, and some governments in Asia and Latin America began monitoring passengers arriving on flights from Mexico.But it may be too late to contain the outbreak, given how widespread the known cases are. If the confirmed deaths are the first signs of a pandemic, then cases are probably incubating around the world by now, said Dr. Michael Osterholm, a pandemic flu expert at the University of Minnesota.The same virus also sickened at least eight people in Texas and California, though there have been no deaths north of the border, puzzling experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.No vaccine specifically protects against swine flu, and it is unclear how much protection current human flu vaccines might offer.

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 RUSSIA-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 (MUSLIMS) 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)

DANIEL 11:40-43
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.

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.

Israel's FM: Iran is obstacle to Mideast peace Fri Apr 24, 8:09 am ET

JERUSALEM – Iran is the main obstacle to peace in the Mideast, Israel's new foreign minister said in an interview published Friday.Avigdor Lieberman told The Jerusalem Post that it will be impossible to resolve any problem in our region without dealing with Iran's nuclear program and its support for militant groups opposed to Israel, such as Hezbollah and Hamas.His comments come as differences have appeared between the hard-line government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Obama administration over the peace process. President Barack Obama has said the U.S. seeks a two-state solution, with the creation of a Palestinian state next to Israel, while Netanyahu has not publicly embraced the principle.Israelis have also expressed concern over Obama's calls for outreach to Iran, which Israel considers its top nemesis.Lieberman said the obstacle to a peace deal is not Israel. It is not the Palestinians. It's the Iranians.He dismissed the two-state solution formula as a slogan. Lieberman did not rule out peace talks or a Palestinian state in the interview, saying only that the right conditions had to be created. He did not elaborate.

His comments came a day after his deputy Danny Ayalon said Iran must be reined in for any realistic hope of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. However, Ayalon said action on Iran was not a pre-condition for pursuing peace.Lieberman told the Post that the government was currently preparing its policy platform and that Netanyahu will present it when he meets Obama at the White House in mid-May.One of Israel's most divisive politicians, Lieberman led his party to gains in the recent election with a campaign questioning the loyalty of Israel's one-fifth Arab minority.Since becoming Israel's foreign minister, the blunt-talking Lieberman has sparked controversy by dismissing recent peace efforts led by the U.S. Before becoming foreign minister, he riled Israel's key Egyptian allies by suggesting Egypt's president should go to hell.

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)

WARS AND RUMURS OF WARS.

MATTHEW 24:6
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

MARK 13:7
7 And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.

North Korea begins extracting plutonium By Miyoung Kim and Jon Herskovitz - Sat Apr 25, 6:53 am ET

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea has started to extract plutonium from spent fuel rods at its nuclear arms plant, its foreign ministry said on Saturday, further raising regional tensions already stoked by its defiant rocket launch this month.The announcement came hours after a U.N. Security Council committee on Friday placed three North Korean companies on a U.N. blacklist for aiding Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs, eliciting a sharp rebuke from a North Korean envoy.Reclusive North Korea has lashed out at being punished for the April 5 launch, widely seen as a disguised long-range missile test that violated U.N. resolutions, saying it would boycott six-way nuclear talks and bolster its nuclear deterrent.The reprocessing of spent fuel rods from the pilot atomic power plant began as declared in the Foreign Ministry statement dated April 14, North Korea's official news agency KCNA quoted a foreign ministry spokesman as saying.This will contribute to bolstering the nuclear deterrence for self-defense in every way to cope with the increasing military threats from the hostile forces,it said.South Korea's foreign ministry said it had no immediate comment on the North's announcement and Japan said it would urge Pyongyang to resume international nuclear talks.The UN Security Council... is telling North Korea to respond to the calls for resuming the six-party talks at an early stage. Japan will also try to persuade (North Korea),Kazuo Kodama, a spokesman at the Japanese foreign ministry, told Reuters.

PRESSURING WASHINGTON

North Korea, which was hit with U.N. sanctions after missile tests in July 2006 and its only nuclear test a few months later, has used its military threat for years to gain global attention and squeeze concessions out of regional powers.By making these moves early in the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, it has more cards to play during his presidency and forces him to make crucial decisions about how it will manage its relations with Pyongyang, analysts said.North Korea wants to continue provoking new crises, to demand the attention of the U.S. and others, said Zhu Feng, professor at Peking University.The biggest issue is still North Korea provoking a crisis, and the U.S. ignoring them. That makes getting the six-party talks restarted again a difficult diplomatic issue.North Korea struck a deal with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States to disable its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear plant in exchange for massive aid and ending its international ostracism.It has expelled U.N. and U.S. nuclear inspectors at Yongbyon, located about 100 km (60 miles) north of Pyongyang, who had been overseeing steps to put the entire plant out of operation for at least a year.Rebuilding parts of Yongbyon could increase the regional security threat because Pyongyang could add to its meager stockpile of fissile material, increasing the likelihood that it could conduct another nuclear weapons test.Experts said it could take North Korea, which conducted its only nuclear test in October 2006, as little as three months to have the reprocessing facility up and running again.Experts said North Korea, which has enough fissile material for six to eight nuclear bombs, wants to separate plutonium from spent fuel rods cooling at the plant that could yield it enough material for at least one more nuclear bomb.

North Korea has told foreign nuclear experts that it can produce domestically all the material it needs to run the reprocessing facility, such as non-corrosive metals and various chemicals. But other parts of the plant may be beyond repair, because international trade sanctions make it difficult for it to obtain components needed for its reactor and nuclear fuel fabrication facility. The North would also need to rebuild the cooling tower in order to resume the reactor's operations. North Korea blew up the tower almost a year ago in what it said was a demonstration of its commitment to the nuclear deal. North Korea will stay away from international nuclear disarmament talks, Russia's foreign minister said on Friday after visiting Pyongyang and pressing North Korea to return to the sputtering discussions. (Additional reporting by Yoko Kubota in Tokyo, and Lucy Hornby in Beijing) (Editing by Bill Tarrant)

Tentative signs of eurozone recovery
ANDREW WILLIS 24.04.2009 @ 09:14 CET

Although the 16-member euro area is still very much in the throws of its worst recession since World War II, some positive data suggest the end may be in sight. The purchasing managers' index – an indication of future activity in the areas of services and manufacturing – jumped from 38.3 to 40.5 points in March, giving rise to hope that the green shoots of recovery seen elsewhere in the world may be spreading to Europe. The new figures, compiled by research group Markit and released on Thursday (23 April), are still well below the 50-point threshold that marks an increase in economic activity. But the new data for March show the rate of economic decline has slowed to the lowest level seen in the last six months and exceed economists' prior predictions of a rise to 39 points.

Analysts responded positively to the news.

The first signs of improvement in eurozone business cycle are starting to emerge, said economist Marco Valli at Italian bank Unicredit reports AFP.The welcome news comes after gloomy predictions from the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday that the euro area is fairing worse than the US and is set to contract by 4.2 percent this year and 0.4 percent in 2010.

Industrial orders

The EU's statistics office, Eurostat, released new figures on Thursday showing a fall in industrial orders for the euro area in February of 0.6 percent compared to January levels. The modest decrease compared to January's drop of two percent has added to feelings that the eurozone's recession may be bottoming out. However, the fall in industrial orders of 34.5 percent when February 2009 is compared to February 2008 highlights the huge decrease in economic activity experienced in the zone over the last year.Also on Thursday, good news in France, where the Insee statistics office reported a rise in business confidence, was mixed with caution from Germany where leading economists said the euro area's largest economy would continue to contract until a least the middle of next year. The report by four leading economic institutes said Germany's reliance on exports would delay its recovery compared to other euro area countries and that rises in unemployment this year would create added pressure on domestic consumption, which so far has held out.

Bickering at IMF over new money for lending agency By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer APR 25,09

WASHINGTON – World finance officials are bickering over the best way to get the International Monetary Fund more money for its revitalized role in helping shore up capital-starved countries.While Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and fellow finance ministers held talks Saturday at the IMF's headquarters near the White House, protesters clashed with police outside. Several activists were pushed to the ground by police after they tried to march onto a blocked street. Police used pepper spray on the protesters. One protester had blood on his hands, and an officer had blood on the back of his shirt.The demonstrators, angered by world leaders' handling of the economic crisis, held signs that read Capitalism do not resuscitate and chanted, Pump up the people power.On the agenda at the IMF meeting is how to supply a portion of the $1.1 trillion increase in resources for international lending institutions. That was a goal that President Barack Obama and other leaders set at the Group of 20 nations summit in London on April 2.Geithner said major progress toward increasing the IMF's resources must be an important outcome of these meetings. The international community should act quickly. He said the U.S. has committed to seeking congressional approval for up to $100 billion, matching commitments for the same amount made by Japan and the European Union, respectively.There seems to be a growing divide within the 185-nation IMF. Emerging economic powers such as China, Russia, Brazil and India are insisting that the United States, France, Britain and other old-line powers listen to their ideas on different funding approaches.The rich nations had hoped to get China and the other nations to commit to billions of dollars of support for their effort at these meetings.But those countries are insisting the IMF consider issuing bonds as a way to raise the support. The countries would buy the IMF bonds rather than extending the support in loans. The IMF has never issued bonds before, although the idea was explored in the 1980s. Both the bonds and loans would require the IMF to pay interest.The debate, however, is also tied up in arguments the emerging economies are making about a greater say at the IMF — at the expense of the current power structure that favors the U.S. and Europe.The IMF session also was expected to deal with a proposal to increase the agency's oversight abilities to monitor global activity. The goal is to prevent a repeat of the current banking crisis.The World Bank also is holding its spring meeting over the weekend.Associated Press writers Harry Dunphy and Nafeesa Syeed contributed to this report.On the Net:
IMF: http://www.imf.org World Bank: http://www.worldbank.org

APRIL 25, 2009 Geithner Sounds Darker Tone Than G-7 Article By DEBORAH SOLOMON,WALL STREET JOURNAL

WASHINGTON -- Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the world's economies are beginning to stabilize but cautioned that it is too early to say risks have receded and that more action needs to be taken to counteract the worst financial crisis in generations.Financial conditions in some markets have shown modest improvement, Mr. Geithner said, adding that it would be wrong to conclude that we are close to emerging from the darkness that descended on the global economy early last fall.The secretary struck a more somber tone than a statement released by the Group of Seven finance ministers who gathered in Washington before weekend-long meetings at the International Monetary Fund.In their statement, the finance ministers said the pace of decline in our economies has slowed and some signs of stabilization are emerging. Economic activity should begin to recover later this year amid a continued weak outlook, and downside risks persist.The finance chiefs pledged to continue efforts to shore up financial institutions across the globe, including providing liquidity support,injecting capital into banks and taking all necessary actions to ensure the soundness of systemically important institutions. The group also promised to deliver the scale of sustained fiscal effort necessary to restore growth.Mr. Geithner said the ability of other countries to shore up their economies is critical to the U.S. recovery.Recovery in the U.S. depends significantly ... on recovery in those large and previously rapidly growing markets, he said. Some economists worry about growth in Europe.The meeting took place the same day the U.S. released the methodology behind stress tests it is conducting on the nation's 19 largest banks. The tests are part of the U.S. response to the financial crisis.Mr. Geithner said he did not discuss the preliminary results of the stress tests with his counterparts but said they all agreed to make sure there's enough capital in the financial system. Mr. Geithner has pledged to make enough capital available so banks can resume making loans.Write to Deborah Solomon at deborah.solomon@wsj.com

TEXT - G7 communique, Washington, April 24
Sat Apr 25, 2009 1:10am

(Reuters) - Following is the text of the communique issued by finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven industrialised nations on Friday in Washington:

We met today amid the deepest and most widespread economic downturn and financial stress witnessed in decades. The global landscape has changed from a period of robust growth, rapidly increasing capital flows to emerging markets and significant trade expansion until only a few years ago to one now characterized by recession, de-leveraging and a contraction in trade. We have acted resolutely to support growth and restore confidence in the financial system and the flow of credit. Recent data suggest that the pace of decline in our economies has slowed and some signs of stabilization are emerging. Economic activity should begin t o recover later this year amid a continued weak outlook, and downside risks persist. As our Leaders underscored in London, we are committed to act together to restore jobs and growth and to prevent a crisis of this magnitude from occurring again. Against this background:

-We are swiftly implementing macroeconomic support and we reaffirm our commitment to deliver the scale of sustained fiscal effort necessary to restore growth. We will take whatever actions are necessary to accelerate the return to trend growth, while preserving long term fiscal sustainability. We call on the IMF to monitor actions taken and report regularly to us and the G20.

-We will continue to act, as needed, to restore lending, provide liquidity support, inject capital into financial institutions, protect savings and deposits and address impaired assets. We reaffirm our commitment to take all necessary actions to ensure the soundness of systemically important institutions.

-We have pledged resources for the IMF and are working with the G20 and others to provide the resources it needs to help restore global financial stability. We support a substantial increase in MDB lending and full and exceptional use of MDB balance sheets in order to mitigate the effects of the global recession on emerging markets and developing countries.

-In particular, we welcome the progress being made in mobilizing temporary bilateral financing for the IMF; this financing will be rolled over into the IMF's New Arrangements to Borrow, which in turn will be increased by up to $500 billion and see its membership expanded. We are working to implement the $250 billion general SDR allocation, as well as to use additional resources from the IMF's agreed gold sales to support the poorest, consistent with the IMF's new income model. We are implementing the initiative to provide at least $250 billion in trade finance.

-We welcome the IMF's introduction of new facilities, such as the Flexible Credit Line, to help countries with strong fundamentals respond to the crisis, and support its use by Mexico, Poland, and Colombia. In the context of the current crisis, consistent with the IMF's mandate, we back the case-by-case use of IMF resources to support the fiscal needs of countries with solid medium-term fiscal prospects. We also support the IMF and World Bank and regional development banks working closely together to carefully analyse the special situations countries face - such as the need to recapitalize banks or facilitate debt rollovers - and to take these into account in their programs.

-We will refrain from raising new barriers to investment or to trade in goods and services, imposing new export restrictions, or implementing World Trade organisation (WTO) inconsistent measures to stimulate exports. The WTO will monitor and report publicly on this commitment.

Many countries are now playing a major role in the global economy and we welcome their contribution to the collective international effort to promote recovery. We welcome China's continued commitment to move to a more flexible exchange rate, which should lead to continued appreciation of the Renminbi in effective terms and help promote more balanced growth in China and in the world economy. We will work with our international partners to modernize the governance of the international financial institutions in order to enhance their relevance, effectiveness, and legitimacy.

We reaffirm our shared interest in a strong and stable international financial system. Excess volatility and disorderly movements in exchange rates have adverse implications for economic and financial stability. We continue to monitor exchange markets closely, and cooperate as appropriate.

We also discussed regulatory reform in our countries and at the international level and will implement swiftly the commitments made in London. We underscored the imperative of: strengthening our national efforts to address systemic risks; extending the perimeter of regulation to include all systemically important institutions, markets, and instruments; ensuring sound regulation, adequate capitalisation of financial institutions, and strengthened risk management practices; enhancing transparency; reinforcing international collaboration; improving accounting standards on valuation and provisioning; and bolstering market integrity. In this latter regard, we urge the OECD, FSB, and FATF to intensify their work in conducting objective peer reviews of countries' efforts to strengthen international standards in taxation, prudential supervision, and AML/CFT, respectively, and to identify non-cooperative jurisdictions and develop a toolbox of effective countermeasures. We look forward to regular reports on progress on these issues. We welcomed the IMF and FSB's joint pilot early warning exercise. We also welcomed the expansion in the membership of the FSB and committed to strengthen its institutional underpinnings so that the FSB can play a more prominent role in promoting international financial stability.
Thomson Reuters 2009

G7 signals worst of world recession may be over By Gernot Heller and Louise Egan – Fri Apr 24, 10:19 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Finance chiefs from the G7 powers said on Friday the global economy may be past the worst phase of a recession although recovery was not yet assured, and they pledged to make sure that big financial firms are sound.Group of Seven finance ministers and central bankers said after a meeting that economic activity should begin to recover later this year. However, they said the outlook remained weak and there was a risk that the global economy may still worsen.We are right to be somewhat encouraged, but we would be wrong to conclude that we are close to emerging from the darkness that descended on the global economy early last fall, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a statement.It was a less dire assessment than the G7 finance officials delivered at their last gathering in February, when they warned that the severe downturn would persist through most of 2009and made no mention of promising signs of stability.Recent data suggest that the pace of decline in our economies has slowed and some signs of stabilization are emerging, the G7 said in a closing communique.We will continue to act, as needed, to restore lending, provide liquidity support, inject capital into financial institutions, protect savings and deposits and address impaired assets. We reaffirm our commitment to take all necessary actions to ensure the soundness of systemically important institutions,the statement said.Japanese Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said signs of stabilization was an expression with a question mark.But we understand that the G7 statement has indirectly expressed the view that the worst may be possibly over for the world economy,he added.The G7, which comprises the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, met a day before the International Monetary Fund and World Bank begin their twice-yearly meetings. The larger G20 group, which includes emerging economies such as China and India, held a meeting after the G7 but issued no official statement.

Geithner said both groups had the same agenda.

The agenda will be: What are we doing? Are we doing enough to help attenuate the risks in this recession, lay the foundation for an earlier recovery, lay the foundation for a more balanced, more sustainable recovery? he said.

FIX THE BANKS

The G7 has been under growing pressure to speed up efforts to rid banks of bad assets that have constrained lending and plunged the global economy into its deepest recession since World War Two.The International Monetary Fund, which has estimated that losses at financial institutions around the globe could exceed $4 trillion, urged rich nations to prioritize repairing the financial sector because the world economy cannot fully recover unless credit is flowing.The IMF is absolutely right when it asks countries to deal with toxic assets because transparency is crucial for recovery, said Mario Draghi, head of the Financial Stability Board, a newly fortified group designed to coordinate global regulatory reform.But some European officials questioned how the IMF calculated the magnitude of bank losses. The Fund estimated that European banks may need to write down $750 billion in bad assets, while U.S. firms had $550 billion more to go.We are looking at it very carefully and we think there are methodological issues we have to clarify with the IMF, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet told a news conference after the G20 meeting.I am not criticizing the IMF (but) we have to look at it very carefully.U.S. regulators have put 19 of the largest U.S. banks through stress tests to assess whether the government will have to pump more money into them. Geithner said the results of the stress tests were not discussed at the G7 meeting. The Federal Reserve released a paper on Friday outlining the methodology of the tests, and said banks needed to hold substantially more capital than is usually required to weather a potential worsening of the recession. Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who has expressed frustration over the slow pace of progress in fixing the banks, said after the G7 meeting that he was pleased with U.S. and British efforts to implement their bank repair plans.We're going in the right direction,he said. With attention firmly focused on the banking sector, the G7 made no changes to its closely watched statement on currency markets, repeating its February caution that excess volatility and disorderly movements in exchange rates were unwelcome.(Reporting by G7 team; Writing by Emily Kaiser and Glenn Somerville; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Personal fortunes riding on the fate of GM's debt By KIMBERLY S. JOHNSON, AP Auto Writer Kimberly S. Johnson, APR 25,09

GROSSE ILE, Mich. – Retired Chrysler LLC project manager Clifford St. Pierre and his wife Patricia bought $200,000 in General Motors Corp. notes three years ago, thinking it was a sound way to finance their retirement.The 10-year securities carry a 7.2 percent interest rate and what they viewed as an almost bulletproof yearly payout of more than $14,000. We made a decision to buy bonds in the largest manufacturer in the world, he said from his home on Grosse Ile, an island in the Detroit River about 25 miles south of GM's headquarters.Their next semiannual payment is due in July, but St. Pierre, 70, now spends his free time scouring news reports, trying to figure out whether that check will ever be in the mail.His biggest fear is that he'll lose most —if not all — of his original investment if a debt-for-equity swap for GM shares that's being talked about happens.A group of institutional investors that includes Fidelity and John Hancock formed a committee to negotiate terms of such an exchange with GM, which is seeking to slash its debt and make other cuts to stave off bankruptcy and receive more federal aid.The parties haven't held formal talks since late March, and in the meantime the value of the unsecured notes similar to those bought by the St. Pierres continue to slide. They now trade on the secondary market for about 9 cents on the dollar, down from close to 90 cents a year ago.Although large investors hold the bulk of GM's $28 billion of unsecured debt, about $5 billion to $6 billion of that debt is held by individuals like the St. Pierres who are finding that they have little say in, or knowledge of, the negotiations.I have to believe the committee is doing what they can to get the best possible deal, St. Pierre said. But he worries that the larger investors will eventually agree to accept a big haircut and move on, leaving he and his wife facing the prospect of getting only pennies on the dollar — or just equity in a new GM, as the government's auto task force has suggested. That would wipe out 80 percent of their total retirement savings.GM has been surviving on $15.4 billion in loans from the Treasury Department and would get more if it can satisfy the government with its restructuring efforts. Although GM also needs concessions from the United Auto Workers union to qualify for the money, President Barack Obama has said further government support depends on GM substantially cutting its debt load.If bondholders reject demands from GM and the government, the Detroit automaker will likely seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection that would leave it up to a bankruptcy judge to determine the terms of extinguishing GM's debt. St. Pierre and other individual bondholders would be forced to go along with whatever the court deems appropriate to keep GM afloat.It's very possible they would wind up with just a fraction of the face amount, said Richard Hilgert, president of Automotive Financial Research LLC.The court might be willing to throw a bone to those lower on the recovery waterfall, just to make the process move a bit more quickly.The government is demanding GM cut more than two-thirds of its unsecured debt, and it's reportedly pressuring GM to offer bondholders only equity in the revamped company. In that case, their recovery would depend on the automaker's stock performance.There's no carrot, no real attractive carrot to get individual bondholders, or even institutional ones to take it, said Kip Penniman, managing director for KDP Investment Advisers. There's going to be a substantial number of holdouts that say no without a meaningful incentive.

GM has said it is preparing a public exchange offer that will finally tell every bondholder — large and small — what the company is offering. The details will have to be released soon if GM wants to retire its debt before the government's June 1 restructuring deadline.If St. Pierre participates in such an exchange, he likely would get at least a small part of his investment back. If he rejects the offer, and if a bankruptcy court doesn't force him to exchange his bonds, he could hold them until they mature in 2011 in the hopes of getting some or all of his principle back. Such an outcome, however, is unlikely.St. Pierre said he doesn't know what the better option would be right now, as neither option would be enough money to cover a medical emergency or leave to his three adult daughters and grandson.Overall he wants the task force to lighten up on squeezing concessions out of bondholders, and he's called the offices of U.S. Sens. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. and Carl Levin, D-Mich., to urge them to pressure the auto task force to consider the plight of small investors.

Stabenow, at a recent event in Detroit, said she's addressed the issue with chairman Steven Rattner and others on the auto task force.I am constantly reminding them about families and retirees in Michigan, and how this affects people differently than it does the bondholders on Wall Street,she said.