VATICAN DEFENDS BENEDICT 16

MY LAST COUNT BY THE ROBBER FEDS AND OFFSHORE BANKS IS $14 TRILLION STOLEN.

States to feds: Stay in D.C.! $11 trillion micromanaging price sparks explosion in sovereignty movement May 12, 2009 8:59 pm Eastern By Bob Unruh 2009 WorldNetDaily

A movement to reclaim for states all rights not specifically designated to the federal government in the U.S. Constitution is exploding across the nation, with 35 states already acting or at least considering such proposals – and one state lawmaker estimating the nation as a whole could save $11 trillion in coming years if it would succeed.WND reported not long ago when the number of states with lawmakers considering such sovereignty efforts reached 20. Now, according to the Tenth Amendment Center, such provisions have been launched in at least 35 states. They all address the Tenth Amendment that says: powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.South Carolina's S. 424 is an example. It is titled: To affirm South Carolina's sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution over all powers not enumerated and granted to the federal government by the United States Constitution. Essentially it's a reminder that the United States is made up of individual states; it's not a federal authority broken up into political subdivisions.Get Taking America Back, Joseph Farah's manifesto for sovereignty, self-reliance and moral renewal.In South Carolina, the proposals remains pending in the state Senate, where Sen. Lee Bright said he still hopes that it will be adopted this year.The proposal there notes specifically that the federal government was created by the states … to be an agent of the states,and the states currently are treated as agents of the federal government,many times in violation of the Constitution.

The resolution states:

Be it resolved by the Senate, the House of Representatives concurring: That the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina, by this resolution, claims for the State of South Carolina sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the United States Constitution.Be it further resolved that all federal governmental agencies, quasi-governmental agencies, and their agents and employees operating within the geographic boundaries of the State of South Carolina, and all federal governmental agencies and their agents and employees, whose actions have effect on the inhabitants or lands or waters of the State of South Carolina, shall operate within the confines of the original intent of the Constitution of the United States and abide by the provisions of the Constitution of South Carolina, the South Carolina statutes, or the common law as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States.Bright told WND the movement is spreading from state to state as fast as lawmakers discover it. Michael Boldin, a spokesman for the Tenth Amendment Center, said his organization has created a posting for all such proposals to be tracked.

Among the states where such proposals at least have been considered are Louisiana, Colorado, Wisconsin, Illinois, West Virginia, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Nevada, Oregon, Alabama, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Idaho, New Mexico, South Dakota, Virginia, Kentucky, Alaska, Indiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, Minnesota, South Carolina, Georgia, Kansas, Texas, New Hampshire, Missouri, Iowa, Montana, Michigan, Arizona, Washington and Oklahoma.

In North Dakota, it passed the House and Senate both in April, with the House a short time later adopting changes made by the Senate. In South Dakota, it was approved by both houses of the Legislature and under that state's rules does not need the governor's signature. Just last week, Rep. M.J. Manny Steele, a Republican in South Dakota, wrote that he believes up to $11 trillion is being wasted in the coming years by Washington's efforts to duplicate and micromanage our states' affairs.He said states should manage their own affairs and not be dependant on a federal cash cow to make ends meet. Likewise with industries, he said, citing federal cash dumps on the banking, insurance and automobile industries. After all, he agreed, with enough federal money allocated to the industry, Americans all still could be listening to 8-track tapes in their cars, but would that really be the best outcome? Steele told WND his dollar estimate was based on what President Obama himself has allocated in the coming years to spend on stimulus packages, industry bailouts and the like. If we would just let the market take care of these things,he said. His letter noted that Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Carolina legislatures joined South Dakota's in passing some statement on the Tenth Amendment this year. The results vary based on state procedures, however. In Oklahoma, the governor vetoed the plan and it was launched on its second trip through the legislature. Over the course of decades, there have been increasing federal mandates and acts designed to effectively step in and legislate the affairs of our various states from Washington D.C.,Steele said. Federal usurpation into state affairs severely limits the ability of state governments to operate according to their citizens' wishes.

MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH Notre Dame to be given Collaborator status? Abortion opponents say rescind Obama invitation or else May 12, 2009 10:38 pm Eastern
2009 WorldNetDaily

A pro-life group warns it may issue the University of Notre Dame its Collaborators designation, reserved for the worst offenders in the war over abortion, because of the school's invitation to President Obama to speak at commencement. In a letter today to university officials, Leslie Hanks, chief of the Collaborators Project, wrote:Because Notre Dame has extended the extraordinary honor of speaking at one of America's foremost Catholic colleges to one with such cavalier disregard for the sanctity of life, social tension is increasing exponentially in your community.

Collaborators Project was founded to do precisely that. Our motto is, No Child Killing with Tranquility.The Collaborators Project said on its website: For their plan to honor Barack Obama, the leading pro-abortion advocate in America, the Collaborators Project is considering designating Notre Dame with Permanent Collaborator Status (PCS). If the university does not rescind their Obama invitation to deliver their commencement address on Sunday, May 17, 2009, the CP will designate Notre Dame with PCS. This would be only the second time in its history that the Collaborators Project has issued such a designation. If this occurs, the Collaborators Project will ask Indiana and Michigan pro-lifers to add Notre Dame to their ongoing anti-abortion protest itinerary,the group said. Hanks explained to WND that only once before has the group awarded its Permanent Collaborator Status, to the Weitz Corp., which built Denver's Planned Parenthood megaclinic abortion facility. From that founding and the subsequent and ongoing protests of Weitz Corporation executive homes, we are gathering more support from citizens around the country, who still see a moral bright line which should never be crossed,the letter to Notre Dame said.Our nation has, sadly, almost forgotten her Declaration of Independence – America's birth certificate,the letter said. "President Obama, incredibly, doesn't seem to be aware of the powerful words proclaiming founding America's reverence for life, 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Witness the moral tug-of-war of a college student wrestling with the issue of abortion in the Christian film Come What May on DVD from the WND Superstore.

As public awareness grows about President Obama's invitation to address Notre Dame's upcoming commencement, South Bend, Ind., is increasingly becoming ground zero in the ongoing abortion war, which has led to nearly 50 million innocent lives having been destroyed. … Were he aware, he could not – in good conscience – continue his strong advocacy of killing pre-born babies in their mother's wombs.Hanks told Notre Dame, Should morality and common sense actually prevail and a decision to rescind President Obama's invitation is forthcoming, we will rescind our decision to designate Notre Dame University a Permanent Collaborator.WND reported Ambassador Alan Keyes was arrested at Notre Dame, along with 21 others, on charges of trespassing while he was protesting against Obama's abortion record.He later was released after an anonymous person donated bond money.Keyes explained he sees his arrest not as a matter of defying the civil authorities, but as an act of obeying God. I do not see any issue that I have with civil authority, and therefore no civil disobedience is involved, Keyes told WND. The civil authorities are acting on behest of a private party, in this case Father Jenkins, president of Notre Dame. When I set foot on Notre Dame's campus, I am, in fact, on Notre Dame's property, but that property is also part – according to its own statement – of the community of my faith. So what goes on between myself and Notre Dame is then subject to the laws that govern the community of our faith; and those are not the civil laws, but the laws of God. It is not disobedience,Keyes continued.I am obeying the church's teaching and the laws of God. Father Jenkins, in issuing the order he issued, acted unlawfully. When I act according to God's will, and someone moves against me in that context, they go against the will of God, they are unlawful, and unlawful orders do not have to be obeyed.There was no civil disobedience going on; there was obedience going on, Keyes insisted.And obedience is what this is all about – obedience to the law of God.

Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry, who made headlines last week after he was also arrested on the Notre Dame campus, told WND earlier that the protests have given pro-life activists a fresh line of defense to regroup.

Rabbi to pope: Go split Rome,Pontiff slammed for comments in support of Palestinian state May 12, 2009 2:24 pm Eastern By Aaron Klein 2009 WorldNetDaily

Pope Benedict XVI

JERUSALEM – If Pope Benedict XVI so fervently supports a Palestinian state – which would split sections of Israel – he also should divide Rome, charged the leader of a coalition of more than 350 Israeli rabbinic leaders and pulpit rabbis. I was shocked to hear that the first thing the pope had to say when he landed in Israel was that the Holy Land must be divided to make room for a Palestinian state,said Joseph Gerlitzky, rabbi of central Tel Aviv and chairman of the Rabbinical Congress for Peace, which includes some of Israel's most prominent Jewish leaders. I suggest that he divide Rome. The Holy Land was promised to the Jewish people and absolutely no human being on this earth has a right to relinquish even one inch of this land, Gerlitzky stated.Gerlitzky made the remarks at a speech today commemorating the Jewish festive day of Lag Ba'Omer, which is about the mid-way point between Passover and the day on which the Jews were said to have received the Torah. In his opening comments after disembarking at Israel's international airport yesterday, Benedict called for the creation of a Palestinian state with the hope that Israelis and Palestinians may live in peace in a homeland of their own within secure and internationally recognized borders.Gerlitzky's comments were just a taste of the criticism directed at the pope from Israeli lawmakers and religious leaders here, some of whom were disappointed with segments of Benedict's closely scrutinized visit to the Holy Land. The pontiff's speech yesterday at Jerusalem's famed Holocaust Memorial Museum has been slammed, largely for stopping short of an apology on behalf of the Catholic Church, which historians charge could have done more to save European Jews during the Holocaust. The pope's speech did not once mention Nazis or murder.

Benedict came under fire from the Jewish world earlier this year for lifting the excommunication of a bishop who had denied the Holocaust.

Israeli newspapers today were filled with criticism.

One would have expected the Vatican's cardinals to prepare a more intelligent text for their boss,one columnist, Tom Segev, wrote. Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said in a radio interview the Vatican and its German-born pope had a lot to ask forgiveness from our people for.And he is also a German, whose country and people have asked forgiveness. But he himself comes and speaks to us like a historian, as an observer, as a man who expresses his opinion about things that should never happen, and he was –what can you do? – a part of them.If we let this go, in the end they'll say, the Jewish people can manage,Rivlin said. Rivlin said of the speech that everything that we feared came to fruition.I came to the memorial not only to hear historical descriptions or about the established fact of the Holocaust. I came as a Jew, hoping to hear an apology and a request for forgiveness from those who caused our tragedy, and among them, the Germans and the church. But to my sadness, I did not hear any such thing,he said. The visit to Yad Vashem (Holocaust Museum) does not constitute an expression of regret as such,Rvilin added.The eyes of Jews across the world, and of the nation in Israel, were directed here, in anticipation of hearing honest communion – personal and determined – regarding the Holocaust of their people. And we heard nothing of the sort.Holocaust Museum chairman Avner Shalev told the Jerusalem Post there was certain restraint in the pontiff's speech, which he labeled a missed opportunity.I did not expect an apology, but we expected more,he said.This is certainly no historic landmark.

Benedict began his speech stating,I have come to stand in silence before the monument erected to honor the millions of Jews killed in the horrific tragedy of the Shoah.He continued:They lost their lives, but they will never lose their names. These are indelibly etched in the hearts of their loved ones, their surviving fellow prisoners, and all those determined never to allow such an atrocity to disgrace mankind again. I reaffirm – like my predecessors – that the church is committed to praying and working tirelessly to ensure that hatred will never reign in the hearts of men again,he said.

As we stand here in silence, their cry still echoes in our hearts. It is a cry raised against every act of injustice and violence. It is a perpetual reproach against the spilling of innocent blood,he said. I am deeply grateful to God and to you for the opportunity to stand here in silence: a silence to remember, a silence to pray, a silence to hope,the pope concluded. The Vatican today defended the pope. Spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi told reporters that Benedict had mentioned his German roots previously, specifically when visiting a synagogue in Cologne, Germany, in 2005 and at the Auschwitz death camp in Poland the following year.He can't mention everything every time he speaks,Lombardi told reporters in Jerusalem.

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 citizens call for more Europe at Brussels event
ELITSA VUCHEVA 12.05.2009 @ 09:25 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – EU-wide action against global warming, common healthcare and education systems and a more transparent and accountable union topped a list of 15 recommendations for the economic and social future of Europe, put forward by ordinary people from across Europe in Brussels on Monday (11 May).A higher level of transparency and accontability in the EU was among the 15 recommendations (Photo: EUobserver)The EU should aim to reduce global warming and phase-out fossil fuels by promoting renewable energy from water, solar, wind, hydrogen, waste and residues from industry,reads the number one recommendation from the two-day "European Citizens' Summit.The participants said the EU should intensify its efforts towards establishing a common health-care system and create the same working conditions and rules for all EU citizens based on a harmonised Labour Code.A harmonised European educational system came fourth, followed by the need to create incentives to prevent production entities from moving to countries with lower wages,and to put in place measures promoting sustainable agricultural practices.The event was organised by a group of independent foundations, universities and think-tanks from all EU member states, led by the Belgian King Baudouin Foundation, and co-financed by the European Commission.

It was preceded by the opening of a pan-European online debate in December, where some 250,000 people took part. In March, 1,605 randomly selected citizens from all 27 member states participated in national consultations to draft the recommendations.

The list of 15 was finalised by the 150 guests in Brussels.

Other advice included work on the poorly co-ordinated crime-fighting information systems among member states, improving security on the EU's external borders and bettering treatment of illegal migrants.Stricter financial regulation, boosted social protection and a higher level of transparency and accountability of [EU] politicians and civil servants were also among the main concerns.The meeting ended with a debate between the 150 guests and the leaders of the political parties in the European Parliament. This was followed by a second round of debate with the presidents of the parliament, the commission and the European Economic and Social Committee.One thing that strikes me very clearly is that most of you want more Europe, not less Europe ... There's an understanding that Europe has to do more, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said.

And now?

The guests voiced hopes that the recommendations will lead to concrete action. I don't know if they will really be applied, but they [the politicians] really do look interesting,Remy, a student from France, told this website.Stefka, a pensioner from Bulgaria said: It is the first time something like this has been done. There are [European] elections coming and the EU belongs to the citizens.These politicians have to come down to earth,she added.

THIS MONEY GOES STRAIGHT TO THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,THANKS TO INTEL AMERICA IS PAYING THE COMMISSION BIG BUCKS TO KEEP THE EU IN MONEY.AMERICA IS PAYING MONEY TO THE OFFSHORE BANKER IN THIS CASE THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION.THE EU WILL SAY KEEP THE TRILLIONS COMING AMERICA WE NEED WORLD CONTROL.

EU fines US chip-maker Intel historic €1.06bn
ANDREW RETTMAN Today MAY 13,09 @ 13:35 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU has fined US microchip supplier Intel €1.06 billion for paying its customers to keep a competitor out of the market in what amounts to the biggest EU antitrust fine in history. Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years,competition commissioner Neelie Kroes said, announcing the decision on Wednesday (13 May).Microprocessors - called the engine of the personal computer by Ms Kroes on Wednesday (Photo: stefan)If we smell that there is something rotten in the state, we act.European Commission investigators established that Intel - which makes the x86 microprocessor found in most home computers - created a complex system of rebates to encourage computer manufacturers Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and NEC to exclusively use its hardware.The California-based firm also gave German consumer electronics chain Media Markt financial benefits for stocking Intel chip-using PCs.

Intel's main competitor, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), also of California, alerted Brussels to the problem back in 2000. Intel's internal documents - seen by the commission - identified AMD as a threat.Brussels on Wednesday also demanded that Intel rein in its current rebates schemes to fit the law. The commission will be monitoring compliance closely,Ms Kroes said.The fine amounts to 4.15 percent of Intel's €28 billion worldwide turnover. It also damages the company's reputation, painting it as a predator on consumers and an enemy of innovation.Intel CEO Paul Otellini has promised to appeal the ruling in the EU courts in Luxembourg.We do not believe our practices violated European law,he said in a statement published an hour after Ms Kroes' press conference.The Directorate General for Competition of the Commission ignored or refused to obtain significant evidence.AMD welcomed the fine, calling Intel an abusive monopolist.The Brussels-based consumer welfare group, BEUC, has also asked the commission for help in bringing a collective court action to compensate computer buyers.It is not acceptable that such a number of consumers suffer damages and have no way to obtain justice,BEUC director Monique Goyens said.

Under EU law, any international company that operates in the single market must abide by its rules.Intel is to pay the €1.06 billion fine within three months into a blocked bank account, pending the result of its appeal. If it loses, the fine and interest accrued will flow into the EU's general budget. The fine is the biggest in EU history, following the previous record of €899 million against US software manufacturer Microsoft. The sum is roughly equivalent to what Cyprus receives from the EU budget each year.The Intel ruling comes after the commission in the current recession tolerated major EU state-aid grants to the banking and car manufacturing sectors, blunting Ms Kroes' reputation as a guardian of EU competition law.The Dutch commissioner is reportedly seeking a second term in Brussels.

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

Brazil flood chaos eases, but 265K still homeless MAY 12,09

SAO PAULO, Brazil – The chaos from epic flooding in northern Brazil has eased, with the number of homeless dropping from more than 300,000 to 265,000.Officials say people have started heading back home in some of the 10 states affected by the floods — an affected area three times the size of Alaska. But the death toll rose by two to 42 because two people who went swimming drowned in a torrent.Rain was still falling Tuesday in some parts of the zone stretching from the Amazon to normally dry northeastern Brazil. And officials are still trying to get aid to hard-hit areas.The flooding is the worst in at least two decades. It was blamed on an Atlantic Ocean weather system that usually moves on in March but didn't budge this year.

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).

Study: Mexico has thousands more swine flu cases By MARK STEVENSON and DAVID KOOP, Associated Press Writer – Tue May 12, 9:21 am ET

MEXICO CITY – The swine flu virus spread to more countries Tuesday as scientists estimated the new strain could have sickened 23,000 people in Mexico alone before anyone realized it was an epidemic.Fidel Castro, meanwhile, accused Mexico of hiding the epidemic until after President Barack Obama visited last month.Mexican Health Secretary Jose Cordova said his nation's shutdown of schools — which was lifted in most of the country's 31 states Monday — had averted an avalanche of cases.It would have been difficult for us to have controlled this epidemic, Cordova said in a statement, adding that Mexico had 56 deaths and 2,059 confirmed cases of swine flu.

But Castro, the former Cuban president, accused Mexico of failing to disclose the spread of swine flu until after Obama had visited en route to the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad last month.Mexican authorities did not inform the world of the presence (of swine flu), while they waited for Obama's visit, he wrote on a government Web site hours after Cuba confirmed its first swine flu case.Obama's April 16 visit came a week before Mexican health officials announced swine flu was spreading, prompting an eventual mass shutdown that brought many parts of the country to a virtual halt.Thailand and Finland reported their first confirmed swine cases Tuesday of people just arrived from Mexico. Cuba and China — both countries that had imposed strict measures on flights and travelers from Mexico — also reported their first confirmed cases.Cuba identified its patient as a Mexican student attending a Cuban medical school and China said its case involved a Chinese student who had just returned from the United States.At least 61 people have been killed by swine flu around the world, and the World Health Organization has confirmed over 5,250 cases.

Cuba's Health Ministry said a group of medical students from Mexico began arriving on the island to resume their studies April 25 — four days before Cuban authorities halted airline flights from Mexico. Fourteen of the students suffered from flu-like symptoms.A study published Monday in the journal Science estimated Mexico alone may have had 23,000 cases of swine flu by April 23, the day it announced the epidemic. The study estimates swine flu kills between 0.4 percent and 1.4 percent of its victims, but lead author Neil Ferguson of Imperial College, London, said the data remain incomplete.It's very difficult to quantify the human health impact at this stage,he said.The analysis in Science suggests there are many more cases than those confirmed by laboratories — anywhere from 6,000 to 32,000 cases in Mexico as of April 23. The flu has since spread around the world, and the study said it appears to be substantially more contagious than normal, seasonal flu.Researchers also compared the genetic sequences of the viruses in 23 confirmed cases, and came up with an estimate of Jan. 12 for their earliest common ancestor — presumably when person-to-person transmission began. But they said it could have been anywhere from Nov. 3 to March 2.

The researchers said the 2009 H1N1 flu appears to be about equal in severity to the flu of 1957 and less severe than the deadly 1918 version.In Mexico, Monday's reopening of kindergartens and primary and middle schools shut since April 24 was the latest step in efforts to restore a sense of normality. Businesses, government services, high schools and universities reopened last week.But six of Mexico's 31 states put off reopening schools for a week because of local rises in the number of flu cases, and a seventh pushed it back a day to Tuesday. The Education Department said it will tack an extra seven days onto the school calendar to make up for the lost time.But while officials praised the health and education systems for their response to the crisis, there were signs that Mexico's overburdened health system was under strain.Dozens of government health care workers, including doctors and nurses, marched and blocked streets in the Gulf coast city of Jalapa to demand higher pay and better working conditions.The government asked our help in combatting the influenza epidemic, now we are asking the government to do us justice,said nurse Mariana Cortes, one of the protest organizers.Mexico is trying to revive its economy after the epidemic pummeled tourism, the country's third-largest source of legal foreign income. Mexico provided details Monday of a $1.1 billion package to help restaurants, hotels and other businesses.At least 10 commercial banks are involved in the plan, promising three-month reprieves for small businesses with outstanding loans in Mexico City and two hard-hit states. Small businesses in beach resorts and other tourist destinations were promised a six-month grace period.Later in the day, Tourism Secretary Rodolfo Elizondo said the government would launch a $90 million publicity campaign this week urging Mexicans to vacation at home.Noting that several nations have issued travel warnings or restricted airline flights to Mexico, Elizondo said trying to promote trips to Mexico by foreigners now would be like throwing money away.With Cuba, Thailand and Finland reporting their first cases, the number of countries reporting confirmed swine flu cases grew to 33. The United States has the most confirmed cases — 2,618 — according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Swine flu has killed 56 people in Mexico, three in the U.S., one in Canada and one in Costa Rica.Associated Press writers Miguel Angel Hernandez in Veracruz, Maria Cheng in London, Randolph E. Schmid in Washington and Gillian Wong in Beijing contributed to this report.

Vatican defends Benedict from Israeli criticism By JOSEF FEDERMAN, Associated Press Writer MAY 12,09

JERUSALEM – The Vatican defended the pope Tuesday from a growing chorus of Israeli critics who accused the German-born Benedict XVI of failing to express enough remorse for the Holocaust — a controversy that threatened to eclipse a papal pilgrimage aimed at building bridges between faiths.The Holocaust is just one of the many minefields Benedict is navigating as he makes his way through the Middle East. He has also moved to calm Muslim anger over past comments, and been urged by the Palestinians to do more to advance their cause against Israel.On Tuesday, the pope delivered messages of peace while visiting the holiest Muslim and Jewish sites in Jerusalem — the Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall.But his speech Monday at Israel's national Holocaust memorial attracted the most attention in Israel, with the parliament speaker accusing Benedict of glossing over the Nazi genocide. Newspapers lambasted him for failing to apologize for what many in Israel see as Catholic indifference during World War II and the pope's own wartime actions — he served in the Hitler Youth corps and Nazi army — have also cast a shadow.The pope spoke like a historian, as somebody observing from the sidelines, about things that shouldn't happen. But what can you do? He was part of them,said parliament speaker Reuven Rivlin.The pope delivered an emotional address at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, saying the cry of those killed by the regime under which he grew up still echoes in our hearts.But only moments after he spoke, Yad Vashem's top two officials criticized him for failing to use the words Nazis or murder in his speech.Israeli newspapers Tuesday were filled with criticism. One would have expected the Vatican's cardinals to prepare a more intelligent text for their boss, columnist Tom Segev said.

Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi defended Benedict, saying the pope had mentioned his German roots previously, specifically when visiting a synagogue in Cologne, Germany, in 2005 and at the Auschwitz death camp the following year.He can't mention everything every time he speaks,Lombardi told reporters in Jerusalem.The Holocaust is an extremely sensitive subject in Israel. The Jewish state was founded in the wake of the Nazi genocide of six million European Jews, and more than 200,000 elderly Holocaust survivors live in Israel.The Vatican's wartime pope, Pius XII, has been criticized by Jews for doing little to prevent the Holocaust — a charge the church denies.Benedict's wartime history is discomforting in Israel, even though he has said he was forced to join Hitler Youth and that he later deserted the military. More recently, he upset Jewish leaders by revoking the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop.There have also been tense moments in the pope's interaction with Palestinians.At an interfaith meeting late Monday, an Islamic judge, Taysir Tamimi, commandeered the microphone and went on a lengthy tirade against Israel.The pope, who did not understand the Arabic diatribe, sat silently. But the event ended early, and a planned gift ceremony with a rabbi was held privately, apparently to avoid any further public spectacles. The Vatican said it hoped the tirade would not damage the mission of the Holy Father.Despite the controversies, the pope has been warmly welcomed by Israeli dignitaries, Muslim clerics and Christian followers at every stop.

Benedict took his message of reconciliation to the most contentious religious site the Holy Land on Tuesday, urging Israel and the Palestinians to engage in a sincere dialogue aimed at building a world of justice and peace.The pope visited the Dome of the Rock, where Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven, and the adjacent Western Wall, revered by Jews as a remnant of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem.Competing claims to the hilltop compound — known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and Jews as the Temple Mount — have sparked violence in the past. Resolving the dispute has been the most intractable issue during more than 15 years of on-and-off Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. The visit included a private meeting with the top Islamic cleric in the Holy Land, the Grand Mufti Mohammed Hussein, who said afterward he told the pope of the Palestinians' suffering and we asked for justice in this Holy Land.Asked how the pope responded, he replied, We felt he was receptive.

Late Tuesday, the pope celebrated Mass with several thousand followers in a valley beneath the spot where Jesus is believed to have prayed with his disciples before his arrest. Benedict arrived in his popemobile, smiling and blessing the crowd. He began the Mass with the traditional Latin greeting, Pax Vobis,or peace be with you. In his homily, Benedict acknowledged the difficulties, the frustration, and the pain and suffering which so many of you have endured ... I hope my presence here is a sign that you are not forgotten.He urged the Holy Land's Christians — who, caught between Jews and Muslims, have been emigrating in large numbers — to persevere.In the Holy Land there is room for everyone,he said to applause. We need peace here. I hope he can help by praying for us,said Elizabeth Smeir, 56, a Christian resident of Jerusalem who attended the Mass.Also Tuesday, the pope told Israel's two chief rabbis that the Roman Catholic Church is irrevocably committed to a genuine and lasting reconciliation between Christians and Jews.Jews suffered centuries of persecution at the hands of the church, which traditionally held them responsible for rejecting and killing Jesus. The church disavowed that view in the 1960s, rejected anti-Semitism and started dialogue with other religions. AP correspondents Aron Heller, Steve Weizman, Diaa Hadid and Amy Teibel contributed to this report.

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.

THE WOMEN OF ISLAM SURE HAVE EQUAL RIGHTS BY THE COURTS MAKING IT LEGEL TO BEAT THEM.OH BUT ISLAM IS A EQUAL RIGHTS RELIGION AND A PEACEFUL,PEACELOVING RELIGION I FORGOT.

Saudi judge says it's OK for men to beat wives By ABDULLAH SHIHRI, Associated Press Writer – Mon May 11, 2:18 pm ET

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – A Saudi judge told a conference on domestic violence that a man has the right to slap a wife who spends money wastefully and said women were as much to blame as men for increased spousal abuse, a Saudi newspaper reported.The remarks do not carry the weight of law, as they were made out of court. But such public pronouncements by Saudi judges — who are also Islamic clerics — are often widely respected.A rights activist decried the remarks and said she and other campaigners viewed them as the latest setback in women's efforts to gain the right to vote, drive, freely participate in politics and be protected from violence. Activists have become more vocal in recent years in their criticism of cases involving women's rights, including what many see as the religious police's harsh enforcement of the segregation of sexes.If a person gives 1,200 Saudi riyals ($320) to his wife and she spends 900 riyals ($240) to purchase an abaya (head-to-toe robe) from a brand shop and if her husband slaps her on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment,Judge Hamad Al-Razine was quoted as saying by the English-language Arab News newspaper on Sunday.The comments at a recent conference were given as part of an explanation for an increase in domestic violence in the country. The judge said women were equally responsible for the increase, the newspaper quoted him as saying.

The paper did not say exactly when the conference was held. The judge could not be reached for comment on Monday.Women in the audience loudly protested the judge's remarks, the newspaper said.Saudi Arabia bars women from voting, except for chamber of commerce elections in two cities in recent years, and no woman can sit in the kingdom's Cabinet. Women also cannot drive or travel without permission from a male guardian.Sohaila Zenelabideen Hammad, spokeswoman of the Saudi National Center for Human Rights, told the Associated Press on Monday that the judge's remarks are reason for concern for being too extreme.It is not acceptable, it is even forbidden in Islam to beat a woman on her face. ... No matter what the woman does, the man has no right whatsoever and under any circumstances to beat his wife on the face, said Hammad, who was not at the conference.Regrettably, there is a common understanding in the Arab and Islamic world that man is the master who looks down on the woman and has the right to do whatever he wants to her. This is wrong,Hammad said.She said she was to attend a meeting later Monday with members of UNICEF, the U.N. agency for children, to discuss the issue.Associated Press Writer Omar Sinan contributed to this report from Cairo.

AND WHILE WERE ON ISLAM, NOW WE KNOW WHY BEHEADINGS WILL BE COMMON PLACE WITH JUDGES ALLOWING THE MEN TO BEAT AND KILL THEIR WIVES AND WOMEN.

MATTHEW 24:9
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.

JOHN 15:18-20
18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me (JESUS) before it hated you.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

REVELATION 6:9-11
9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain(BEHEADED) for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

REVELATION 20:4
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

Electronic Police State 2008
Cryptome May 12, 2009

Most of us are aware that our governments monitor nearly every form of electronic communication. We are also aware of private companies doing the same. This strikes most of us as slightly troubling, but very few of us say or do much about it. There are two primary reasons for this:In this scene from Das leben Der Anderen (The Lives of Others), Stasi agents bug a target’s flat. That was then, this is now. Now the government has invasive technology that makes the Stasi’s crude bugging equipment look like child’s play.

1. We really don’t see how it is going to hurt us. Mass surveillance is certainly a new, odd, and perhaps an ominous thing, but we just don’t see a complete picture or a smoking gun.

2. We are constantly surrounded with messages that say, Only crazy people complain about the government.However, the biggest obstacle to our understanding is this: The usual image of a police state includes secret police dragging people out of their homes at night, with scenes out of Nazi Germany or Stalin’s USSR. The problem with these images is that they are horribly outdated. That’s how things worked during your grandfather’s war — that is not how things work now.An electronic police state is quiet, even unseen. All of its legal actions are supported by abundant evidence. It looks pristine.An electronic police state is characterized by this:State use of electronic technologies to record, organize, search and distribute forensic evidence against its citizens.The two crucial facts about the information gathered under an electronic police state are these:

1. It is criminal evidence, ready for use in a trial.

2. It is gathered universally and silently, and only later organized for use in prosecutions.

In an Electronic Police State, every surveillance camera recording, every email you send, every Internet site you surf, every post you make, every check you write, every credit card swipe, every cell phone ping… are all criminal evidence, and they are held in searchable databases, for a long, long time. Whoever holds this evidence can make you look very, very bad whenever they care enough to do so. You can be prosecuted whenever they feel like it — the evidence is already in their database.

Perhaps you trust that your ruler will only use his evidence archives to hurt bad people. Will you also trust his successor? Do you also trust all of his subordinates, every government worker and every policeman? And, if some leader behaves badly, will you really stand up to oppose him or her? Would you still do it if he had all the emails you sent when you were depressed? Or if she has records of every porn site you’ve ever surfed? Or if he knows every phone call you’ve ever made? Or if she knows everyone you’ve ever sent money to? Such a person would have all of this and more — in the form of court-ready evidence — sitting in a database, waiting to be organized at the touch of a button.This system hasn’t yet reached its full shape, but all of the basics are in place and it is not far from complete in some places. It is too late to prevent this — it is here. Our purpose in producing this report is to let people know that their liberty is in jeopardy and to help them understand how it is being undermined.A national ranking. Download: Report.

It’s Getting Very Serious Now Chuck Baldwin NewsWithViews May 12, 2009

First, it was a Missouri Analysis and Information Center (MIAC) report; then it was a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report; now it is a New York congressman’s bill. Each of these items, taken on their own, is problematic enough; taken together they portend a clear and present danger to the liberties of the American people. It is getting very serious now.If one doubts the intention of the elitists in government today to deny the American people their right to keep and bear arms, consider what former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is purported to have said just a couple of weeks ago.As readers may recall, the MIAC report profiled certain people as being potential violence-prone militia members: including people who supported Presidential candidates Ron Paul, Bob Barr, and myself. In addition, anyone who opposed one or more of the following were also included in the list: the New World Order, the U.N., gun control, the violation of Posse Comitatus, the Federal Reserve, the Income Tax, the Ammunition Accountability Act, a possible Constitutional Convention, the North American Union, the Universal Service Program, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), abortion on demand, or illegal immigration.The MIAC report prompted a firestorm of protest, and was eventually rescinded, with the man responsible for its distribution being dismissed from his position. The DHS report profiled many of the same people included in the MIAC report, and added returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans as potentially dangerous extremists.As I have said before, it is very likely that when all of the opinions and views of the above lists are counted, 75% or more of the American people would be included. Yet, these government reports would have law enforcement personnel to believe we are all dangerous extremists that need to be watched and guarded against. If this was not bad enough, a New York congressman has introduced a bill in the House of Representatives to deny Second Amendment rights to everyone listed above.

According to World Net Daily, May 9, 2009, A new gun law being considered in Congress, if aligned with Department of Homeland Security memos labeling everyday Americans a potential threats,could potentially deny firearms to pro-lifers, gun-rights advocates, tax protesters, animal rights activists, and a host of others–any already on the expansive DHS watch list for potential extremism.Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., has sponsored H.R. 2159, the Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2009, which permits the attorney general to deny transfer of a firearm to any known or suspected dangerous terrorist.The bill requires only that the potential firearm transferee is appropriately suspected’ of preparing for a terrorist act and that the attorney general has a reasonable belief that the gun might be used in connection with terrorism.Gun rights advocates, however, object to the bill’s language, arguing that it enables the federal government to suspend a person’s Second Amendment rights without any trial or legal proof and only upon suspicion of being dangerous.WND quotes Gun Owners of America Executive Director Larry Pratt as saying, By [DHS] standards, I’m one of [DHS Secretary] Janet Napolitano’s terrorists. This bill would enable the attorney general to put all of the people who voted against Obama on no-gun lists, because according to the DHS, they’re all potential terrorists. Actually, we could rename this bill the Janet Napolitano Frenzied Fantasy Implementation Act of 2009.Pratt was also quoted as saying, Unbeknownst to us, some bureaucrat in the bowels of democracy can put your name on a list, and your Second Amendment rights are toast.He went on to say,This such an anti-American bill, this is something King George III would have done.Now that DHS has established both a list and a lexicon for extremists,it looks to Congress to confer upon it police-state-style powers through which these individuals may be disarmed and eventually done away with. Rep. Peter King is accommodating this goal with H.R. 2159.Let me ask a reasonable question: how long does anyone think it would be, after being profiled by DHS and denied the lawful purchase of firearms, that those same people would be subjected to gun confiscation? And how long do you think it would be before DHS began profiling more and more groups of people, thus subjecting them to gun confiscation?

This was exactly the strategy employed by Adolf Hitler. The Jews were the first people denied their civil rights–especially the right to own and possess firearms. Of course, after disarming Jews, the rest of the German citizenry was likewise disarmed. And we all know where that led.I’m not sure how many of the American people realize that it was the attempted confiscation of the colonialists’ cache of arms in Concord, Massachusetts, that started America’s War for Independence. Yes, my friends, it was attempted gun confiscation that triggered (pun intended) the shot heard round the world.And now it would appear that, once again, a central government is on the verge of trying to deny the American people their right to keep and bear arms.I am told that as of 2004, 50% of the adults in the United States own one or more firearms, totaling some 270 million privately owned firearms nationwide. I would venture to say that the vast majority of these gun owners would find themselves matching the DHS profile of a potential extremist.I wonder how many gun owners realize the way they are now being targeted by their government, and just how serious–and how close–the threat of gun confiscation has become? If one doubts the intention of the elitists in government today to deny the American people their right to keep and bear arms, consider what former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is purported to have said just a couple of weeks ago. Kissinger attended a high-level meeting with Russian President Medvedev that also included former Secretaries of State James Baker and George Shultz; former Secretary of Defense William Perry; and former Senator Sam Nunn. Included in the discussions was Kissinger’s assertion that the American people were now ready to accept a New Global Order. He is also reported to have told Medvedev, By September we’ll have confiscated all privately owned guns so it really doesn’t matter what we do, we’ll still be in charge.(Even though the national news media has not reported this statement, the Internet is abuzz with Kissinger having said it. Whether Kissinger actually made that statement or not, he, and rest of his ilk, have repeatedly called for a New World Order, in which there will be no constitutional protection for the right to keep and bear arms.)This leads to a very serious question: how many of America’s gun owners would allow their government to deny them gun ownership? Further, how many would passively sit back and allow their guns to be confiscated? As humbly and meekly as I know how to say it: as for me and my house, gun confiscation is the one act of tyranny that crosses the line; debate, discourse, discussion, and peaceful dissent cease and desist at that point. I say again, it is getting very serious now.

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

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

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS WED MAY 13,2009

09:30 AM -8.12
10:00 AM -130.38
10:30 AM -123.13
11:00 AM -159.05
11:30 AM -145.20
12:00 PM -163.91
12:30 PM -147.51
01:00 PM -176.82
01:30 PM -195.06
02:00 PM -166.30
02:30 PM -183.17
03:00 PM -155.87
03:30 PM -186.05
04:00 PM -184.22 8284.89

S&P 500 883.92 -24.43

NASDAQ 1664.19 -51.73

GOLD 926.20 +2.30

OIL 57.97 -0.90

TSE 300 9706.07 -371.63

CDNX 1053.53 -24.74

S&P/TSX/60 588.87 -22.89

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -3.50%
S&P +0.56%
Nasdaq +8.81%
TSX Advances 842,declines 750,unchanged 264,Volume 2,703,404,199.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 472,Declines 369,Unchanged 395,Volume 277,834,337.

Dow -122 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -150 points at low today.
Dow +1 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $921.60.OIL opens at $58.65 today.

WEEKLY INVENTORIES
CRUDE INV -4.7 MILLION BARRELS.
GASOLINE INV -4.1 MILLION BARRELS.
DISTILLATE INV +1 MILLION BARRELS.
REFINERY UTILIZATION -1.6% TO 83.7%

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -176 points at low today so far.
Dow +1 points at high today so far.

DAY TODAY PERFORMANCE - 12:30PM STATS
NYSE Advances 561,declines 3,058,unchanged 62,New Highs 5,New Lows 50.
Volume 3,501,736,839.
NASDAQ Advances 462,declines 2,126,unchanged 93,New highs 7,New Lows 14.
Volume 964,198,695.
TSX Advances 408,declines 946,unchanged 245,Volume 1,227,152,026.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 261,Declines 341,Unchanged 299,Volume 97,686,722.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -206 points at low today.
Dow +1 points at high today.
Dow -2.18% today Volume 336,456,576.
Nasdaq -3.01% today Volume -.
S&P 500 -2.69% today Volume N/A

RECORD LOWS DOW
-Sept 30,1996 5,882.17
-Oct 30,1996 5,993.23
-Nov 6,1996 6,177.71
-Dec 16,1996 6,268.35
-Apr 15,1997 6,587.16
-Apr 21,1997 6,660.21
-Apr 28,1997 6,783.02
-May 1,1997 6,976.48
-May 7,1997 7,085.65

RECORD LOWS S&P 500
-Sept 5,1996 649.44
-Sept 6,1996 655.68
-Sept 11,1996 667.28
-Sept 12,1996 671.13
-Oct 1,1996 689.08
-Oct 28,1996 697.26
-Nov 4,1996 706.73
-Nov 5,1996 714.14
-Dec 17,1996 726.04

BUGGING SCENE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kYNK5PjoZ0&feature=player_embedded

The IMF Collects Debts on Behalf of the World's Largest Banks
Make Iceland pay for Incompetent British Bank Deregulation
by Michael Hudson Global Research, May 11, 2009

Last month the G-20 authorized the International Monetary Fund to increase its loan resources to $1 trillion. It’s not hard to see why. Weakening currencies in the post-Soviet states threaten to raise default rates on foreign-currency mortgages as collapse of the Baltic real estate bubble drags down Swedish banks, while the Hungarian property plunge threatens Austrian banks. It seems reasonable to infer that creditor-nation banks hope to be bailed out. The IMF is expected to lend the Baltic, central European and other debtor-country governments money to pay them. These hapless debtor economies are then to follow IMF conditionalities to squeeze enough money out of their populations to pay foreign creditors – and repay the Fund by imposing yet more onerous taxes on their labor and industry, making them even more high-cost and therefore pushing them even further into trade and credit dependency. This is why there have been so many riots recently in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Ukraine, as was the case for so many decades throughout the Latin American countries that introduced the term IMF riot to the global vocabulary.For fifty years the IMF has organized such payouts to creditor nations. Loans are made to debtor-country governments to promote exchange-rate and price stability.In practice this means pouring tens of billions of dollars into currency markets to make bad gambles against raiders. This is supposed to avert the beggar-my-neighbor nationalism and financial protectionism that aggravated depression in the 1930s. But the practical effect of IMF lending is to demand that debtor countries impose onerous IMF conditionalities that stifle their domestic markets. This is why the IMF was left with almost no customers until last year’s debt crisis deranged the world’s foreign exchange markets.

It is supposed to be merely incidental that the largest IMF shareholders, the United States and Britain, happen to be the major creditor nations and their banks the main beneficiaries of IMF loans. But in a Parliamentary question-and-answer session on May 6, Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown spilled the beans. Under pressure for his notorious light-touch regulation as Chancellor of the Exchequer (1997-2007), he undid half a century of rhetorical pretense by announcing that he was pressuring the IMF to bail out Britain in its nasty dispute with the Icelandic owners of a British bank that went under. He was in a position to know the nitty-gritty of who owed what and which nation’s monetary authorities were responsible for which banks. So when he said that he was strong-arming the IMF and other organizations to force Iceland’s government to pay for his own government’s mistakes, he must have known this was breaking the unwritten law of pretending that the IMF is not the servant of creditor nations in bilateral disputes with smaller economies.

Gordon Brown spills the beans on the IMF

Here’s the background. Mr. Brown and his New Labour predecessor Tony Blair have saddled British taxpayers with a generation of payments to pay for their decade of deregulating London’s financial sector. Bad mortgage lending led to the failure first of Northern Rock and then the Royal Bank of Scotland, whose ambitious junk-mortgage program had made it the world’s largest bank. At $3.8 trillion before it collapsed, it was nearly twice the size of Britain’s $2.1 trillion gross domestic product (GDP). (For a review of New Labour’s deregulatory policies see Philip Augar, Chasing Alpha: How Reckless Growth and Unchecked Ambition Ruined the City's Golden Decade [2009].) So one can understand why Mr. Brown was flailing around to blame someone for New Labour’s Don’t see, don’t ask policy.Last autumn one of Iceland’s most reckless banks, Landsbanki, announced that it had made so many bad gambles that its loans and investments could not cover what it owed its depositors. It had drawn many deposits from abroad by setting up foreign branches, including Icesave in Britain. And in a striking variation from normal practice, these branches were not incorporated as separate affiliates, which would have led them to be regulated by local British authorities. As branches of the Icelandic head office, Icesave was regulated only by Icelandic authorities – which were as thoroughly neoliberalized as those of Britain, and didn’t really have a clue as to what was going on. When Icesave went broke in October, British monetary authorities panicked. Mr. Brown sought above all to prevent its owner, Landsbanki, from doing what Lehman Brothers had just done on Sept. 14 when its New York office emptied out the funds in the account of its London affiliate just before the U.S. firm declared bankruptcy. Trying to grab whatever Icelandic assets he could, Mr. Brown overreacted (hardly a new experience for him). Responding far beyond Icesave itself, he resorted to anti-terrorist legislation passed in 2001 in the wake of the 9/11 attack on New York’s World Trade Center to freeze Icesave’s accounts – and also those of other banks in Britain owned by Iceland. Evidently he thought that classifying his peaceful NATO partner as a terrorist economy would panic its government into paying. But the effect was to cause a run on Iceland’s currency, making payment impossible. The króna entered a period of freefall on foreign exchange markets.

Mr. Brown’s bellicose behavior escalated as Britain’s own currency sank. This set the stage for his explosion last Wednesday when he explained how he intended to make Iceland pay, not only for Icesave but also for Kaupthing S&F, for which the British authorities were responsible in the case of depositors who had lost money. Unlike the unfortunate IceSave (administered as a branch of Iceland’s Landsbanki and hence subject to Icelandic regulatory authority), Kaupthing S&F is incorporated as a distinct British affiliate, and regulated and insured as such. The UK authorities accordingly have not claimed that Iceland’s government has any obligations to reimburse British depositors who have lost money. Yet when asked about the £6 million that the Christie hospital [in Manchester] stands to lose in the Icelandic bank Kaupthing,central banker Brown pretended that Kaupthing was not a British bank overseen by domestic deposit insurance authorities. The fact is that we are not the regulatory authority and that many, many more people had finances in institutions regulated by the Icelandic authorities,he insisted before Parliament.The first responsibility is for the Icelandic authorities to pay up, which is why we are in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and other organisations about the rate at which Iceland can repay the losses that they are responsible for. This naturally has prompted Icelanders to ask British authorities just which other institutions they may be talking to, and what they may be hoping to gain. The IMF’s representative in Iceland, Franek Rozwadowski, was quick to explain to the Icelandic newspaper Fréttablaðið that it was not the IMF’s role to intervene in a bilateral matter that needs to be resolved bilaterally.But fears remain that Iceland’s government will be pressured to squeeze out money from the economy to reimburse foreign speculators on the winning end of the many bad gambles that Iceland’s banks made before being de-privatized.Such fears are aggravated by the worry that Mr. Brown may have found help from a fifth column within Iceland itself. After the bank crisis last autumn, the Independence Party fell, and its coalition partner for the last six years, the Social Democrats, took charge of the administration. The government divided the failed Icelandic banks into good and bad parts so as to save what could be salvaged for Icelandic depositors to back their deposits (the good bank). The government then commissioned two British accounting firms to survey the loan portfolios of Landsbanki and Kaupthing to evaluate their assets at fair value.But much as the U.S. stress test surrendered to the banking system’s insistence on blue-sky optimism regarding what will be left over on high-risk loans and gambles, so the Icelandic contract defined fair value as it would exist if the global financial collapse was completely reversed and everything went back to normal as if nothing had happened. Under this assumption the good and bad bank assets would be worth much more than is the case under today’s real-world conditions. This dangerously over-states the net worth of Iceland’s failed banks.It was dangerous to retain firms closely associated with major clients – and hence, their source of future business – that include the parties with whom Iceland’s government stands in a potential adversarial relationship. Another problem is political pressure for a cover-up on the part of the vested Icelandic interests that had engaged in reckless behavior, and perhaps crooked self-dealing via foreign transactions.

In any event, the report was not made public on its scheduled date in mid-April, which was supposed to be just prior to the national elections on April 25. When a report on major bankruptcy by political insiders is not released on the promised date before a major election, one naturally suspects political pressure at work. Yet despite the financial crisis that plunged most Icelanders into a debt-strapped condition, the election turned mainly on political factors. The Social Democrats advocated joining the European Union and adopting the euro, hoping that this in itself may lead to domestic economic reform. The Left-Green coalition opposed giving up Icelandic political and economic sovereignty and pressed for domestic reform, as did the centrist Progressive Party. As for the Independence Party, it was swamped by one scandal after another concerning election financing, insider crony dealing and the usual array of dirty neoliberal political practices.All this occurred in an economy structured to be a creditor paradise – that is, a debtor’s hell. On top of normal mortgage interest, Icelandic personal and real estate debts are subject to indexation of the principal to reflect the consumer price index – which in turn mirrors the fall in the króna’s exchange rate, about 20% over the past year. This means that if someone bought a house for the equivalent of $100,000 a year ago with a 100% mortgage, the debt would now have risen to $120,000. But the collapse of Iceland’s economy has sent unemployment soaring and business crashing, so real estate prices have fallen by about 25%. The former $100,000 house would now have a market value of only $75,000 – just 62% of its re-indexed $120,000 mortgage, some $45,000 in negative equity.The situation actually is about to get much worse in the near future. The US$ is currently at 125 krónur (IKR), down from 62 at yearend-2007 – a 100% increase. (For the euro, the increase over the same period is 85%.) Iceland’s banks have linked many business loans, as well as auto loans and other debts to a market basket of foreign currencies, on the logic that they themselves have had to obtain money by borrowing yen, euros, sterling or dollars. Although these loans are denominated in krónur, their payment is indexed, so the effect is similar to denominating loans in foreign currency. Many loans are still benefiting from the moratorium placed on re-indexing the principal when the crisis hit last autumn, but many loans are about to be reset. Icelandic debtors who borrowed in the belief that the IKR was as stable as the dollar are now paying the price for their optimism – an optimism fed by the banks’ marketing departments, which depicted these indexing arrangements simply as an accounting formality! Business debts are especially at risk.

This shows how urgently Iceland needs to straighten out its banking mess and restructure the economy to free the population from the unique debt squeeze its laws and a decade of neoliberal mismanagement have created. Now that the banks have been de-privatized and taken back into the public domain, credit needs to be turned back into what it was before – a public utility. But this cannot be organized without knowing how much can be recovered from the failed banks to back domestic depositors. And the reports from the British accounting consultancy firms still have not been made public. Only the major creditors have received copies! Remarkably, the government said last week that they might not be released at all. The inference is that the crooked dealing has been so damning to vested Icelandic interests that it would cause a new political crisis to resolve the deepening economic crisis. The fear is that a sweetheart deal has been made with the kleptocrats whose reckless behavior (and it seems probable, illegitimate bank maneuverings with offshore accounts) plunged the economy into negative equity in the first place. The better the financial health of the failed banks appears on paper, the more presumably will be left over to pay foreigners – including the offshore accounts of the banks’ former owners in their own dealings with the banks. So from the vantage point of Icelandic depositors and debtors to these banks, a realistic pessimistic estimate of the banks’ position would protect them, while an unrealistic optimism would enable foreigners to siphon off much more money, leaving less for Iceland.In fact, the IMF has failed to oblige Iceland’s government to conform to the Letter of Intent it signed on November 15, 2008. This letter obliged Iceland to bring loan values in line with expected market values (#4), and to include an assessment of whether or not managers and major shareholders have mismanaged or abused the banks(#6). No such assessment has been made, and as described above, loan values are exceeding market values by a rising degree as property, businesses and households fall into negative equity status.The Icelandic government’s agreement with the IMF promised to make the bank assessments public upon their completion by end-march 2009 (#10). This has not been done – perhaps (one worries) because the next sentence says that the government will discuss in advance with IMF staff any changes to the adopted strategy.In view of the secrecy that now shrouds the events that pushed the banks under, one can only wonder at what developments have prompted the government and IMF to change strategy.

What the IMF did demand – as it always does – is that once the government bails out the bankers for their bad loans, the whole privatization process is to start all over again, paving the groundwork for yet new rip-offs. In view of the fact that the banking crisis will significantly constrain the public sector and burden the public for years to come as the government pays off bad loans (#12), the agreement pledges (#14) that A significant reduction in government debt through the sale of the government’s stake in the new banks could help reduce the needed fiscal adjustment over the medium term. Belatedly, the population is now up in arms – two weeks after the election! To stabilize the currency, Iceland has agreed to IMF conditionalities that prevent the government from pursuing the counter-cyclical Keynesian fiscal policy that Mr. Obama is leading in the United States. Unless the debt pressure is alleviated, Icelandic homeowners and businesses will be obliged to run down their savings each month until they are depleted – at which time they will lose their homes and forfeit their businesses to foreclosing creditors.So on Saturday afternoon, May 9, a pots and pans protest was conducted outside of Iceland’s Parliament in Reykjavik. The scenario is much like that of the color revolutions staged by U.S. neoliberals throughout the post-Soviet states. But Iceland’s kitchen-utensil revolution is organized as a protest against neoliberal policies. The protesters have picked up the thread where it left off last October a similar set of protests dislodged the Independence Party from power. The National Labor Association has broken from the new Social Democratic coalition government, reflecting the growing anger among Icelanders at their debt squeeze.Mr. Brown’s statement that he intends to use IMF leverage to deepen Iceland’s debt position by forcing its government to bail out British depositors has rubbed salt in this wound – precisely by demanding for his country what Icelanders are not receiving from their government! Its citizens want to know what pressure the country is responding to if it intends to put the interest of foreigners before their own. This double standard has motivated the population to act in a more confrontational way than would have occurred had the problem been merely domestic. Icelanders want to be told the magnitude of the financial problem – and apparent dishonesty and crony dealings – that the government is keeping secret. The answer may at long last move Iceland out of its post-feudal oligarchy. Its neoliberal privatizations and pro-financial policies may turn out not to be as entrenched and irreversible as the kleptocrats had hoped would be the case.Michael Hudson is a frequent contributor to Global Research.Global Research Articles by Michael Hudson.

Economy at turning point says Trichet
ANDREW WILLIS 12.05.2009 @ 09:26 CET

The global economy has reached a turning point, says the normally cautious eurozone central bank president, Jean-Claude Trichet, as new economic data released on Monday (11 May) suggest additional evidence of tentative green shoots of economic recovery. We are, as far as growth is concerned, around the inflection point in the cycle, said Mr Trichet at a news conference in Basel, Switzerland, where he chaired a meeting of central bankers from around the globe. Central banks have been cutting interest rates aggressively since the crisis started, with some also adopting non-standard measures such as the purchase of corporate and government debt as a means of boosting the economy.However, Mr Trichet warned against over-optimism. There has been a substantial improvement in the markets since mid-September, he said. But we have to remain very alert. We are still in uncharted waters.Adding to the cautiously upbeat sentiment are new figures released by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Monday, suggesting several larger economies are already on the mend.Despite pointing to a continued slowdown for developed countries as a whole, leading economic indicators for France and Italy have risen for three straight months, says the organisation, while those for the UK and China have risen for two straight months.The apparent trough for these four economies compares favourably with the US, Germany and Japan, where a return to growth appears to be a long way off says the OECD.Looking to the future, Mr Trichet said central banks must keep their eye on the correct time to scale back growth-promoting measures so as not to over-inflate the global economy. Insistence is put on the exit strategy, on the medium-term path that permits us to go back to a normal situation, a sound and sustainable situation,he said.

Setback for Poland

While London, Paris and Rome, were left to mull over the OECD's news, the economy of another large EU member state appeared to hit a stumbling block along its road to recovery.Speaking to the Financial Times, Polish finance minister Jacek Rostowski admitted his country's entry to the euro area – seen as a major pillar of its recovery plan – may be set back by as much as one year. The country had hoped to join the two-year waiting chamber, known as ERM-II, to the euro area this year, with a full shift to the common currency scheduled for 2012.The first of January 2012 is still realistic, but it may require some delay,said Mr Rostowski. The world crisis has come along and it would be naive to pretend it has had no effect ... If we move it by one year, that's not the end of the world.Until recently, the main impediment to Polish accession to the euro area was the country's fluctuating currency, the zloty.The currency plummeted at the start of this year as the economic crisis worsened but then regained strength and has maintained stability in recent weeks, partly due to a €15 billion credit line from the International Monetary Fund.

However, it now appears that the country's greatly reduced growth rate, causing a corresponding fall in tax receipts and an increase in the budget deficit, is the chief cause for the likely delay. Mr Rostowski says he will not increase spending and says the country's deficit will be no more than 4.6 per cent of GDP this year. A recent economic forecast by the European commission puts the figure at 6.6 per cent for this year, rising to 7.3 per cent in 2010.

Australia unveils record $44.1bln budget deficit Tue May 12, 5:50 am ET

CANBERRA (AFP) – Australia will post a record 57.6 billion Australian dollar (44.1 billion US) deficit in 2009-10 as it battles the worst global recession since the Great Depression, Treasurer Wayne Swan said Tuesday.Swan said the centre-left Labor government needed to borrow money for stimulus measures to kick-start the ailing economy and offset a 210 billion dollar slump in revenues caused by the downturn.The global recession has been unleashed on Australia with a brutal, uncompromising force, Swan told parliament.

Zapatero announces new spending measures
ANDREW WILLIS Today MAY 13,09 @ 09:31 CET

Spain's Socialist prime minister, Jose Luiz Rodriguez Zapatero, announced new spending measures in a state-of-the-nation address on Tuesday (12 May), aimed at boosting the country's ailing economy and keeping people in their jobs. During the address, he also announced new measures to cut public spending and increase tax revenues as Spain, like many others EU member states, struggles to contain its burgeoning budget deficit.These measures have a double objective: stop job losses and prepare for economic recovery with changes in our economic model,Mr Zapatero said during his speech to the Spanish parliament. Opposition parties, hoping to make gains over the government in next month's European elections, dismissed the plans as wishful thinking. New job saving measures include a proposal to lower the corporate tax rate by five per cent over the next three years for small businesses who maintain or increase the number of employees held on their books.A new €2000 incentive scheme aims to boost the country's ailing automobile sector. The government says it will contribute €500 towards the purchase of a new car, calling on regional governments to match this figure and for industry to provide the remaining €1000. Spain's vital tourism sector is to receive €600 million for modernisation projects as many penny-pinching British and Germany tourists look set to cancel this year's beach holiday in the sunny southern European country.

Until now, the country has been the world's top tourist destination after France, receiving around 60 million visitors per year, with the industry employing one in every seven Spanish workers.Spain's national statistics office reported last month that the country's unemployment rate reached 17.4 per cent in March, the highest in the EU.A chief reason for this is the large downturn in the previously booming construction sector that analysts say the government allowed to overheat. In response to this, a new €20 billion public-private Fund for a Sustainable Economy is to be set up in order the shift dependence away from the construction sector and onto more value-added industries such as the creation of renewable energy.Likewise, plans to scrap income tax reductions on house purchases for all but the lowest earners will also help to boost state coffers and prevent future inflation of the country's housing sector.Despite the new stimulus projects, Mr Zapatero said public finances will not come under greater than anticipated strain this year, thanks to €1.5 billion in government spending cuts.

Brussels unfreezes €115 million of EU aid for Bulgaria
ELITSA VUCHEVA Today MAY 13,09 @ 08:59 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The European Commission on Tuesday (12 May) unfroze €115 million in aid for Bulgaria suspended last year over Sofia's failure to properly tackle corruption.Today's decision is the result of extensive work by the Bulgarian authorities" and the European Commission's services, regional policy commissioner Danuta Hubner said at a press conference in Brussels.It marks a positive step towards normalising the implementation of EU funds in Bulgaria,she added.The unblocked money concerns a motorway project and technical assistance to Bulgaria for other road investment in the framework of the trans-European transport network.The move follows a reorganisation of the country's National Road Infrastructure Agency, aimed at ensuring it manages projects efficiently and effectively, in line with EU rules,as well as an improvement of the control systems, the commission explained. For Bulgaria it is a very big signal of success and it is also very clear for us that it is a big step,said Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Plugchieva in charge of overseeing how EU funds are spent.But we have not fulfilled all of our engagements and our homework and we have to continue with our efforts,she told journalists.In July last year Brussels froze close to €800 million of EU money to Bulgaria over corruption and fraud concerns, out of which €220 million under the PHARE pre-accession programme - aimed at improving the country's infrastructure and institutions - were irreversibly lost in November.Most of the remaining funds are still frozen, and Brussels has additionally withdrawn the accreditation of two government agencies charged with handling EU funds

Not a political decision

With the commission's decision coming two months before parliamentary elections in Bulgaria – scheduled for 5 July, Ms Hubner called on Sofia not to get distracted.It is extremely important that any elections… don't have any effect on the dynamic of implementation of the projects. We definitely need a strong commitment from everybody… that this momentum will be indeed maintained,she said.Nobody can afford now slowing down the whole process, after all the efforts that have been done on the Bulgarian side,she added.The commissioner also denied speculation that Brussels' decision and its timing was in any way linked to the elections in a bid to boost confidence in the current government of Socialist Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev.I would like to reject very strongly this type of thinking. It has first of all nothing to do with reality, but secondly it is in fact offending us,she said.

No guarantee

For her part, Ms Plugchieva said that she expected that our administration will be committed to continue with the needed reforms, but added that she could give no guarantee about what would happen during the election period or after the elections.

In all democratic countries in the EU, it's the same situation: when there are elections… it is not the same speed of work.It is a pity, but it is the reality, she said.

European biofuels firms scramble for idle lands in poor countries
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today MAY 13,09 @ 09:02 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Massive tracts of land in Africa, Russia and Ukraine are being bought up or leased by richer countries to ensure access to food and for production of biofuels - a development that could result in unrest as locals begin to lose access over their territory.An area roughly the same size as the amount of farmland in Germany is in play and at a cost of tens of billions of euros.This phenomenon, a product of the twin food and fuel crises of last year, is threatening local communities whose traditional use of such lands is being undermined by the food and energy security needs of others.This all comes from a warning issued on Monday (11May) by the US-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), an agricultural research centre funded by an alliance of 64 governments around the world.

A year after the global food crisis that saw food riots and protests spread throughout the developing world - and even to some rich countries - a number of nations have learnt their lesson.These countries - largely emerging nations such as China, India and the Gulf states - feel they must ensure food security for their people, even at the cost of the food security of other countries.At the same time, exacerbating the problem is the scramble by mainly European firms for so-called idle or marginal lands on which to grow biofuels.Stung by the criticism of scientists last year that using farmland for such crops can actually boost carbon emissions and increase food prices, biofuels firms have been scouting about for cheap wasteland.EU policies is certainly contributing to Western biofuels investment,Ruth Meinzen-Dick, one of the report's two authors, told EUobserver,When you hear the word wasteland or unused,it usually does have some use, just not uses that are officially recognised, she added,whether as a village common or as pastureland, gathering nuts, honey, or for rattan.The danger is, her report warns, that these companies risk setting off unrest as communities react to the loss of their lands.

Jatropha, palm oil

Details about the deals, the size of land purchased or leased, and the amount invested are often murky and shrouded in secrecy, according to IFPRI, but they highlight a number of agreements.UK-based Sun Biofuels has secured land in Ethiopia and Mozambique for the cultivation of biofuels produced from jatropha, as well as some 5,500 hectares in Tanzania for the same purpose. Britain's CAMS Group has also purchased 45,000 hectares for jatropha biofuels in Tanzania. The researchers found that another 10,000 hectares have been secured in Nigeria by Trans4mation Agric-tech, also of the UK.Ethiopia is home to 13,000 hectares secured under a contract farming agreement with Germany's Flora EcoPower for biofuel crop cultivation.Sweden's Skebab has secured 100,000 hectares in Mozambique for biofuels as well.Meanwhile in the east, Denmark's Trigon has secured 100,000 hectares from Russia. Sweden's Alpcot Agro has secured 128,000 hectares and Black Earth Farming 331,000 hectares in the country. Landkom, a UK firm, has leased 100,000 hectares in Ukraine.Food production meanwhile is usually the focus of the land acquisition by emerging economies. The UAE has secured some 378,000 hectares to grow corn, alfalfa, wheat, potatoes and beans, while Saudi Arabia is in the process of gaining access to 500,000 hectares in Tanzania.

Some emerging economies as well are also getting in on the biofuels bonanza. China has secured a whopping 2.8 million hectares in the Democratic Republic of Congo for oil palm and is hoping to access another 2 million hectares in Zambia for jatropha.

All told, the acreage secured through lease or purchase by Asian and European private and public investors amounts to 15-20 million hectares, at a cost of €15-20 billion ($20-30 bn).By comparison, annual net official development aid by OECD countries amounted to around €90 billion ($120bn) in 2008, €50 billion of which came from the EU.

Jobs, infrastructure

Additional investments in agriculture in developing countries ... should be welcome in principle,the report says.These land acquisitions could inject much-needed investment into agriculture and rural areas in poor developing countries, with the monies potentially creating farm jobs, improving rural infrastructure and aiding technology transfer.But, avers the report, the scale, the terms, and the speed of land acquisition have provoked opposition in some target countries as local people lose access to and control over land on which they depend.Often the agreements are not made on equal terms between the investors and local communities, resulting in smallholders who cannot effectively negotiate with these big players being displaced from their land and unable to seek redress in the event of foreign investors failing to live up to agreements. Elsewhere, people may not have formal title to the land on which they depend, but instead use it under customary tenure arrangements. As a result, they are frequently pushed off the plot so that the official owner of the land can profit from the sale or lease to the investor.According to IRIN, the UN's humanitarian information news service, the lease of coastal wetlands in Kenya by Qatar threatens to displace thousands of locals who use the region for produce and livestock farming. Local councillors have said they will go to court to prevent the government from leasing the property. In Madagascar meanwhile, the IFPRI researchers write, negotiations with South Korea's Daewoo Logistics Corporation to lease 1.3 million hectares for maize and oil palm played a role in the political conflicts that led to the overthrow of the government in 2009.

Code of conduct

It is possible to have win-win scenarios,said Ms Meinzen-Dick, but it requires making sure that local people will at least be no worse off and hopefully derive some share of the benefits from the investment.To this end, IFPRI has recommended a code of conduct for foreign land acquisition and is developing guidelines on negotiations with investors in tandem with the African Union. The researchers want to see transparency in negotiations so that existing landholders are informed and involved in any land deal negotiations.There should also be respect for existing land rights, including customary and common property rights. And when national food security is at risk, they say, domestic supplies should have priority and foreign investors should not have a right to export during an acute national food crisis.The IFPRI-African-Union guidelines are to be presented to the continent's leaders at their July summit.

France defies EU parliament on internet law
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today MAY 13,09 @ 09:29 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - In defiance of the European Parliament, the French lower house has approved a law that has widely been described as the most aggressive attempt to counter internet piracy yet.The three-strikes law that would cut off internet access to users found to be repeatedly downloading copyright content without the permission of the owner was passed by 296 votes to 233 in what is the government's second attempt to push through the bill.The legislation, which creates a new government agency, the Hadopi ( the Haute Autorite pour la Diffusion des Oeuvres et la Protection des droits sur Internet, or High Authority for the Diffusion of Works and the Protection of Rights on the Internet), which first sends a web-surfer an email warning, then a letter through the post and, finally, as the third 'strike,' can interrupt his internet access for up to a year.The bill, a flagship piece of legislation for President Nicholas Sarkozy, whose wife is a pop star, was defeated last month when deputies from the governing centre-right UMP failed to turn up to vote in sufficient numbers and the opposition Socialists managed to quash it.However, in a move targetting the French three-strikes law, last week, the European Parliament approved an amendment to a major piece of telecommunications legislation specifically outlawing the ability of governments to cut off internet access without first receiving a court order.

The European bill including the amendment must still be endorsed by the Council of Ministers, representing the EU member states, when telecoms ministers meet on 12 June. Such an endorsement is unlikely to be forthcoming, kicking passage of the entire package into the long grass, as further negotiations between the parliament and the Council will take months.However, the author of the amendment, French Socialist MEP Guy Bono, said on Tuesday evening he intends to ask the European Commission, which has consistently backed the parliament's position, to launch legal action against Paris for not respecting [European] community legistion.While the [three-strikes bill] was rejected last week by 88 percent of European deputies, the French National Assembly has bent itself to the will of the president by adopting the Creation and Internet law,he said.To flatter the ego of the prince,he added, in reference to the French president, the majority intends to pass a text that it knows quite well to be contrary to community law.This shows utter contempt for Europe and its citizens three weeks ahead of the European elections.Noting that the European bill still has to complete its full legislative procedure, Mr Bono said that the French move nevertheless flouts tradition.When two acts are discussed at the same time on both the national and [European] community level, it is good behavior to leave the community act being adopted as a primary. And so to avoid any legal uncertainty, in the event of a contradiction between the two laws, it is the European law that takes precedence and the national law that must be modified,he continued. If a French constitutional judge does not react, I will ask the European Commission to request the European Court of Justice launch infringement proceedings against the French government for not respecting community law.

Commission dodges stance on Italian asylum
VALENTINA POP Today MAY 13,09 @ 09:20 CET

EUOBSERVER/BRUSSELS – The European Commission on Tuesday (12 May) avoided giving a clear answer about the legality of Italy's recent move to send back African asylum seekers, a policy strongly condemned by the United Nations.Since last week, Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right government sent over 500 African migrants back to Libya, under a new agreement signed with Tripoli allowing Italian authorities to ship them back without first checking if they are asylum seekers.The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warned that the move was against international conventions and urged Italy on Tuesday to take the migrants back, as several of them were clearly asylum seekers.We are asking the Italian government to readmit those persons who were sent back by Italy and are identified by UNHCR as seeking international protection,the agency said in Geneva.Libya has no national asylum policy and has been known to deport African asylum seekers to countries of origin, where they risk persecution. Pressed on the issue, the European Commission declined to answer if the agreement was in line with EU law, as Italian foreign minister and former commissioner Franco Frattini claimed.Nobody is challenging the fact that it's a serious problem in the Mediterranean, dramatic for people involved and member states. It is a complex legal issue to which there is no easy answer. But we can't tell you black and white today what the situation is,European Commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger told journalists.Interior ministers are set to discuss the matter again at their next meeting in June, the spokesman for justice and home affairs, Michele Cercone added. We have to look at the question of asylum, but also at the source and work with the UNHCR to try make sure that these asylum requests are managed by Libya,he said.

The commission's careful stance on Italy comes at a time when Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right alliance is set to beef up the ranks of the European People's Party in the June elections. The EPP already gave its support to commission President Jose Manuel Barroso for a second mandate starting on 1 November. Mr Berlusconi made immigration and security his main platform in last year's general elections and seems to be repeating the strategy for the EU poll in June as well. The Italian parliament is also set to adopt an immigration package making irregular immigration a crime and to legalise vigilante citizens' patrols in cities to assist police by hunting out and reporting on any illegal activities perpetrated by immigrants.The Italian premier last week said he didn't want Italy to become a multi-ethnic society as the left wants – comments which were fiercely criticised by the Catholic church and the opposition.