FATAH WANTS ALL OF JERUSALEM NOT JUST EAST

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PICTURE FROM INFOWARS.COM
OBAMA AND THE GODLESS LEFTWINGERS WANT JONES BAD FOR THIS JOKER POSTER.THE GODLESS OBAMA ADMINISTRATION WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH FREE SPEECH,JUST DCTATORSHIP AND KILL 2/3RDS OF THE EARTHS POPULATION THROUGH EUGENICS IS THE DEMOCRAT LEFT MODEL.

OBAMA SHUTS TOP YOUTUBE SITES FOR CRITISIZING HIM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoGTCWsYr7o&feature=player_embedded

Manufactured Protests Myth Starts To Crack
Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com Monday, August 10, 2009

The media created myth that the town hall protests raging across the country are artificially manufactured is starting to crack, as the public takes the press to task for parroting the erroneous talking point that the demonstrations are the work of lobbyists and Republican organizations, and that they are fostered by underlying racism.A caller to C-Span’s Washington Journal show perfectly clarified the issues we have been highlighting all along, that the protesters are not just Republican right-wingers,they aren’t being prodded into action by lobbyists, and the anger is not just directed against Obamacare, but against the entire agenda, and especially against Congress passing legislation thousands of pages long without even reading it.As we highlighted last week, ABC News reported that there was no evidence of lobbyists at the protests. Shortly after this, Obamanoids simply switched their talking point and started to claim that the demonstrations were all being organized by Republican organizations.The C-Span caller who labeled herself an Independent stated that she only started going to protests as recently as July 4th and before that she wasn’t even political.The caller points out that the protests are growing because, All these massive bills, thousands of pages long that are passed with almost no debate, no time for us to see what’s in it,and in complete contrast to promised of transparency on behalf of the new administration.When I watch the news people stand here and tell me that I am a member of a hired mob and that I’ve been called up by the Republican party….I’ve never been contacted by any organized group – this is an organic movement – when people stand there and lie to me about what I know is going on how can I trust them when they tell me it’s gonna save money? she said, adding, Yes people are getting angry, that doesn’t mean it’s fake, that means it’s real.

The caller then took on attempts to discredit the protests by labeling them racist by pointing out that the only person to have been physically attacked during the demonstrations was a black man who was protesting against Obama. As we reported on Friday, pro-Obamacare supporters assaulted Kenneth Gladney, who was handing out Gadsen flags outside an event in in Mehville, Missouri that opponents of the health care bill were barred from entering.Despite efforts to depict the protesters as extremist thugs and even Nazis, the real brownshirt tactics are being put into action by White House front groups such as HCAN, ACORN, MoveOn.org (a George Soros outfit), the National Council of La Raza, the eugenics front Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and the Clintonite John Podesta’s war-mongering Center for American Progress, who have organized marshals whose job it will be to police protesters and stifle their freedom of speech.In addition, the government has called on people to inform on those critical of Obamacare via an online snitch form at the White House.gov website, creating an enemies list and enabling the Obama administration to pursue its political adversaries.

AUDIT THAT FED HAS 282 HOUSE MEMBERS AND 23 SENATE MEMBERS SIGNED UP TO AUDIT THAT FED.NOW WE NEED OPENESS OF THE $23.7 TRILLION ROBBERS OFFSHORE BANKERS.YOU KNOW OF COURSE THAT EVERY TIME CHINA LENDS THE USA MONEY THEY GET AMERICAN LAND AS COLATERAL I HOPE.SO THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IS GIVING AWAY AMERICAN LAND TO OFF SHORE BANKERS.THATS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AMERICA FORCES ISRAEL TO DIVIDE JERUSALEM AND ISRAEL,NOW AMERICA IS FORCED TO GIVE UP ITS LAND TO CHINA,RUSSIA AND WHOEVER ELSE LENDS THE USA MONEY.MEASURE FOR MEASURE OBAMA,PAY ATTENTION TO PROPHECY AND GET OFF ISRAELS BACK.

China breaks up large underground bank ring AUG 10,09

BEIJING (Reuters) – Police in southern China have broken up a ring that operated as an underground bank to illegally send around 10 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) abroad since 2004, state media said on Monday.Eight of the 11 people arrested were Vietnamese, who operated in the southern region of Guangxi, which borders Vietnam, Xinhua news agency said.Most of the money was sent to Vietnam, the report added.

Beijing has pledged to crack down harder on illegal capital flows across its borders, which stem in part from the country's restrictions on currency conversion.Two years ago, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao warned that illegal fund flows could harm the country's financial stability. ($1=6.834 Yuan)(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Dean Yates)

Israel and the realists Sunday, 09 August 2009 04:11 News from Jerusalem
Israel Just say No to Obama

Voices in America calling for downgrading US relations with Israel seem to multiply by the day. One of the new voices in the growing anti-Israel chorus is the Atlantic's well-respected military affairs commentator Robert Kaplan. This week Kaplan authored a column for the magazine's online edition entitled, Losing patience with Israel. There he expressed his support for the US to downgrade its relations with Israel while pressuring Israel to allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons and facilitate the establishment of a Judenrein Palestinian state.Although Kaplan's piece adds nothing new to the current pile-on against Israel, it is a relatively concise summary of the so-called realist view of Israel and for that reason it is worth considering his arguments. As Kaplan sees things, the US's experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan in the eight years since the Sept. 11 attacks have transformed America's interests and goals in the Middle East. The frustrations in Afghanistan and the combat losses in Iraq have rendered the search for stability, rather than democracy, paramount, and created a climate in which interests are to be valued far more than friends.The notion that friends and interests may actually not be in conflict is roundly rejected by Kaplan, particularly in the case of Israel. Kaplan gives three reasons that the US's alliance with Israel no longer serves its interests. First, he repeats the familiar realist claim that the only way for the US to build good relations with the Muslim world is by distancing itself from Israel.Second, he argues that after Sept. 11, the US was wrong to believe that it shares common interests with Israel. Whereas Israel's interests would be served by preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, in Kaplan's view, the US can afford to look on a nuclear-armed Iran with indifference. On the other hand, an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear installations can place US forces in Iraq at risk. Hence, as far as Kaplan is concerned, US interests are best served by allowing Iran to become a nuclear power and preventing Israel from doing anything to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power.The third reason that Kaplan views Israel as a strategic liability to the US in this new era of realism is because it is no longer a strong military power. As he put it, Israel's failure to defeat Hizbullah and Hamas in its recent wars in Lebanon and Gaza reduced its appeal.

Like his anti-Israel colleagues in Washington, Kaplan claims that his is a realist approach to the region. But this is untrue. The realist foreign policy doctrine assumes that all nations' foreign policies reflect their national interests rather than their sentiments. That is, in determining their foreign policies, states are not motivated by their passions, but by rational choice.Beginning in the first Bush administration, Arabists like former US secretary of state James Baker began co-opting the realist label. In so doing, they sought to obfuscate their sentimental pro-Arab views of Israel behind the veneer of rational choice. Specifically, they popularized the anti-realist notion that due to their emotional rejection of Israel, Arab and Muslim states will not support America unless it puts the screws in Israel.

The realist foreign policy doctrine rejects this notion out of hand. Given its assertion that states base their foreign policies on unsentimental assessments of their national interests, true realists would argue that there is no rational bar to enemy states sharing the same allies if doing so advances their national interests. And they would be correct. Indeed, examples of such behavior abound.India and Pakistan are enemies and yet they both ardently seek closer ties with the US. So too, China has massively expanded its ties to the US since 1971 despite US sponsorship of Taiwan.The same is also the case with the Arabs and Israel. Contrary to the Arabists' impassioned claims, the waxing and waning of America's relations with Arab states over the years has borne little to no relation to the state of America's relations with Israel.The US and the Saudis have been strategic allies for upwards of seventy years. These ties have been based on their mutual interest in the free flow of Saudi oil. US-Saudi ties have been consistently maintained regardless of the vicissitudes of Washington's views of Jerusalem, or even of Washington's views of Saudi Arabia.In 1972, when Egyptian president Anwar Sadat kicked the Soviet military out of Egypt and began moving Egypt towards the US, the US was rapidly expanding its strategic ties to Israel. Sadat's decision to switch Cold War camps was a product of his own assessment of Egypt's national interests.In December 2003, Libya paved the way to renewing its diplomatic relations with the US by agreeing to disarm from its illicit nuclear program. Libya's action came at a time of unprecedentedly warm US-Israel relations. Libyan dictator Muammar Khadafi made his move because of the US invasion of Iraq, not because of US ties to Israel.All of these examples disprove the Arabists' most ardently held conviction. And the fact that this conviction is so easily refuted raises the question of why the belief that the US's alliance with Israel harms its ability to maintain and expand its alliances with Muslim and Arab states holds such currency today. The fact that US President Barack Obama and his senior foreign policy advisors are themselves Arabists no doubt is a significant contributing factor to the increased popularity of fake realism. But their hostility towards Israel doesn't explain how Israel's adversaries continue to successfully hide their Arabist ideology behind the realist label.The sad truth is that for the past sixteen years, the greatest champion of the view that Israel is a strategic liability rather than a strategic asset for the US and that the US gains more from a weak Israel than a strong Israel has been Israel itself. Successive governments in Jerusalem from the Rabin-Peres government to the Barak, Sharon and Olmert governments all embraced the Arabist view that regional stability and hence Israeli security is enhanced by a weakened Israel. Ehud Olmert's much-derided 2005 assertion that We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies,was simply a whiney affirmation of Israel's leaders' embrace of the Arabist worldview.

Kaplan cited Israel's incompetent handling of the war with Hizbullah in 2006 and its bungling of the campaign against Hamas in Gaza this past December and January as proof of the Arabist claim that it is a strategic burden. What he failed to recognize was that the Olmert government made a clear decision not to win those wars. Doing so would have exposed as folly the government's central assertion that Israel is better off being weak than strong. In light of this, it is obvious that the Arabist desire to see Israel weakened is not supported by Israel's performance in Lebanon and Gaza. Israel's performance in Lebanon and Gaza was a consequence of its leaders' adoption of the Arabist worldview. Had they rejected it, the results of those wars would likely have been much different.So too, Israel's leaders' adoption of the Arabist view caused the Rabin-Peres government to empower and legitimize terrorists from Fatah and the PLO in the 1993 Oslo accord. It similarly convinced the Barak government to surrender of south Lebanon to Hizbullah in 2000, and it persuaded the Sharon government to surrender of Gaza to Hamas in 2005. In each case, buying into the Arabist view that stability is enhanced through Israeli weakness rather than strength, Israel exacerbated regional instability and imperiled its own citizens by empowering its enemies at its own expense. Most devastatingly, the Sharon and Olmert governments imperiled Israel's very survival by deciding from 2003 through 2008 to trust the US, Europe and the UN to prevent Iran from acquiring the means to destroy the Jewish state.Today with Iran on the cusp of a nuclear arsenal, Fatah openly calling for a renewal of the Palestinian jihad against Israel, Hizbullah pointing its expanded missile arsenal at Tel Aviv and Dimona, and the Obama administration, with the help of an ever-expanding chorus of foreign policy realists advocating full-blown appeasement of both Iran and the Palestinians at Israel's expense, it is clear that the time has come for Israel to end the Arabist charade. The time has come for Israel to stop being an engine of its own demise.The Netanyahu government has a clear choice before it. On the one hand, it has Defense Minister Ehud Barak calling for business as usual. This week Barak recommended that Israel preemptively surrender to the Obama administration and accept its demand that Israel capitulate to Fatah. On the other hand, Ministers Yuli Edelstein and Yisrael Katz pointed out that at its leadership conclave in Bethlehem, Fatah exposed itself as an implacable enemy of Israel. Both Edelstein and Katz demanded that the government stop pretending Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas is a moderate who is interested in peace and expose him for the fraud that he is.Edelstein and Katz are right. It is vital for Israel to stop catering its foreign policy rhetoric to the preferences of its Arabist camp. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu must courageously acknowledge that Fatah remains a terrorist organization dedicated to Israel's violent demise. But more important than harsh words about Fatah are actions against Iran. With a growing international consensus that Iran has passed the point of no return on its nuclear program and will produce nuclear bombs in the next six to twelve months if left to its own devices, it is clear that as far as Iran is concerned, words are of no value today. Only actions count.Israel's willingness and capacity to effectively strike Iran's nuclear installations will be the ultimate proof that Arabists like Kaplan are wrong to castigate Israel as a strategic burden. By freeing itself, the region and the world from the threat of a nuclear armed Iran, Israel will strike a blow not only at Iran's ability to wipe it off the map, but at the threefold contentions of the false realists.An Israeli strike would prevent a regional nuclear arms race by freeing Arab states of the need to develop their own nuclear arsenals and so prove that a strong Israel enhances regional stability. An Israeli strike will rebuild Israel's eroded deterrent posture and put paid the notion that Israel is no longer a military power to be reckoned with. And the destruction of Iran's nuclear capacity will weaken Iran's military posture throughout the region and so weaken its terror proxies from Iraq to Lebanon to Gaza to Afghanistan. In short, a successful Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear installations will demonstrate to real rather than fake realists that a strong Israel is indispensible to regional stability and international security.In 1995, Kaplan published a critical book about the Arabist elite at the State Department in which he condemned their simplistic foreign policy outlook. No doubt an Israeli body-blow to the Arabist worldview will compel Kaplan and other new members of the anti-Israel camp to reconsider their views.JWR.

Birthplace of Roman emperor found in Italy By MARTA FALCONI, Associated Press Writer – Sat Aug 8, 2:43 am ET

ROME – Archaeologists have unearthed a sprawling country villa believed to be the birthplace of Vespasian, the Roman emperor who built the Colosseum, they said Friday. The 2,000-year-old ruins were found about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northeast of Rome, near Cittareale, lead archaeologist Filippo Coarelli said.The 150,000-square-feet (14,000-square-meter) complex was at the center of an ancient village called Falacrine, Vespasian's hometown.Even though there are no inscriptions to attribute it for sure, the villa's location and luxury make it likely it was Vespasian's birthplace, Coarelli said.This is the only villa of this kind in the area where he most certainly was born, the archaeologist said in a telephone interview from Cittareale.The 1st-century residence featured a well-preserved huge floor, decorated with luxurious marble coming from the whole Mediterranean area, he said.It's clear that such things could only belong to someone with a high social position and wealth. And in this place, it was the Flavians,the dynasty to which Vespasian belonged.The four-year excavation, which also turned up other ruins, including a necropolis burial ground, was carried out by a group of Italian and British archaeologists.Vespasian, whose full name was Titus Flavius Vespasianus, brought stability to the empire following turmoil under the extravagant Emperor Nero and a civil war among his successors.Born in A.D. 9 into a family of low-tier country nobility, Vespasian rose through the army ranks, becoming the general in charge of putting down a Jewish revolt in Judea.After being acclaimed emperor by his troops in A.D. 69 and eliminating his rivals, Vespasian found Rome facing a deep economic crisis and still recovering from the fire that consumed it under Nero.Using riches plundered from Jerusalem and proceeds from increased taxes, he launched a major public works program and started building the Colosseum — the most ambitious and best-preserved of his projects.

OZONE DEPLETION JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH DUE TO SIN

ISAIAH 30:26-27
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:

MATTHEW 24:21-22,29
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake (ISRAELS SAKE) those days shall be shortened (Daylight hours shortened)
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

REVELATION 16:7-9
7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.

Vast expanses of Arctic ice melt in summer heat By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent – Sun Aug 9, 9:19 pm ET

TUKTOYAKTUK, Northwest Territories – The Arctic Ocean has given up tens of thousands more square miles (square kilometers) of ice on Sunday in a relentless summer of melt, with scientists watching through satellite eyes for a possible record low polar ice cap.From the barren Arctic shore of this village in Canada's far northwest, 1,500 miles (2,414 kilometers) north of Seattle, veteran observer Eddie Gruben has seen the summer ice retreating more each decade as the world has warmed. By this weekend the ice edge lay some 80 miles (128 kilometers) at sea.Forty years ago, it was 40 miles (64 kilometers) out,said Gruben, 89, patriarch of a local contracting business.Global average temperatures rose 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.6 degree Celsius) in the past century, but Arctic temperatures rose twice as much or even faster, almost certainly in good part because of manmade greenhouse gases, researchers say.In late July the mercury soared to almost 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) in this settlement of 900 Inuvialuit, the name for western Arctic Eskimos.The water was really warm,Gruben said.The kids were swimming in the ocean.As of Thursday, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center reported, the polar ice cap extended over 2.61 million square miles (6.75 million square kilometers) after having shrunk an average 41,000 square miles (106,000 square kilometers) a day in July -- equivalent to one Indiana or three Belgiums daily.The rate of melt was similar to that of July 2007, the year when the ice cap dwindled to a record low minimum extent of 1.7 million square miles (4.3 million square kilometers) in September.In its latest analysis, the Colorado-based NSIDC said Arctic atmospheric conditions this summer have been similar to those of the summer of 2007, including a high-pressure ridge that produced clear skies and strong melt in the Beaufort Sea, the arm of the Arctic Ocean off northern Alaska and northwestern Canada.

In July, we saw acceleration in loss of ice, the U.S. center's Walt Meier told The Associated Press. In recent days the pace has slowed, making a record-breaking final minimum less likely but still possible, he said.Scientists say the makeup of the frozen polar sea has shifted significantly the past few years, as thick multiyear ice has given way as the Arctic's dominant form to thin ice that comes and goes with each winter and summer.The past few years have signaled a fundamental change in the character of the ice and the Arctic climate, Meier said.Ironically, the summer melts since 2007 appear to have allowed disintegrating but still thick multiyear ice to drift this year into the relatively narrow channels of the Northwest Passage, the east-west water route through Canada's Arctic islands. Usually impassable channels had been relatively ice-free the past two summers.We need some warm temperatures with easterly or southeasterly winds to break up and move this ice to the north,Mark Schrader, skipper of the sailboat Ocean Watch,e-mailed The Associated Press from the west entrance to the passage.The steel-hulled sailboat, with scientists joining it at stops along the way, is on a 25,000-mile (40,232-kilometer), foundation-financed circumnavigation of the Americas, to view and demonstrate the impact of climate change on the continents' environments.Environmentalists worry, for example, that the ice-dependent polar bear will struggle to survive as the Arctic cap melts. Schrader reported seeing only one bear, an animal chased from the Arctic shore of Barrow, Alaska, that swam close to Ocean Watch on its way out to sea.

Observation satellites' remote sensors will tell researchers in September whether the polar cap diminished this summer to its smallest size on record. Then the sun will begin to slip below the horizon for several months, and temperatures plunging in the polar darkness will freeze the surface of the sea again, leaving this and other Arctic coastlines in the grip of ice. Most of the sea ice will be new, thinner and weaker annual formations, however.At a global conference last March in Copenhagen, scientists declared that climate change is occurring faster than had been anticipated, citing the fast-dying Arctic cap as one example. A month later, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted Arctic summers could be almost ice-free within 30 years, not at the century's end as earlier predicted.

Particle collider: Black hole or crucial machine? By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS, Associated Press Writer – Sun Aug 9, 2:29 am ET

GENEVA – When launched to great fanfare nearly a year ago, some feared the Large Hadron Collider would create a black hole that would suck in the world. It turns out the Hadron may be the black hole.The world's largest scientific machine has cost $10 billion, has worked only nine days and has yet to smash an atom. The unique equipment in a 17-mile (27-kilometer) circular tunnel with cathedral-sized detectors deep beneath the Swiss-French border has been assembled by specialists in many countries, with 8,970 physicists eagerly awaiting the startup.But despite the expense, thousands of physicists around the world, many of whom hope to conduct experiments here, insist that it will work and that it is crucial to mankind's understanding of the universe.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, said Friday it would restart the collider in November at half power under pressure from scientists eager to conduct experiments to unlock secrets of the universe.But spokesman James Gillies told The Associated Press they would have to shut down yet again next year to finish repairs so that the Large Hadron Collider can operate at full energy of 7 trillion electron volts — seven times higher than any other machine in the world.CERN has been working since late last year to repair the damage caused by a faulty electrical joint. The breakdown occurred nine days after the spectacular start up of the $10 billion machine last Sept. 10 when beams of subatomic particles were sent around the accelerator in opposite directions.Fifty-three massive electrical magnets had to be cleaned and repaired after the failure. Tons of supercold liquid helium spilled out of the system, and a sooty residue had to be cleared from the tubes that are meant to be pristine, holding a vacuum in which subatomic particles can whiz around the tunnel at near the speed of light at temperatures colder than outer space.Michio Kaku, a physics professor at City University of New York who is an outspoken critic of waste in big science projects, defends the CERN collider as a crucial investment.The Europeans and the Americans are not throwing $10 billion down this gigantic tube for nothing,Kaku said.We're exploring the very forefront of physics and cosmology with the Large Hadron Collider because we want to have a window on creation, we want to recreate a tiny piece of Genesis to unlock some of the greatest secrets of the universe.He said the biggest cause of the bad accident last year was probably due to human error caused by rushing the project.But I view it as a temporary black eye. We'll get it up and running,Kaku said.

CERN expects repairs and additional safety systems to cost about 40 million Swiss francs ($37 million) over the course of several years, covered by the 20-nation organization's budget.The collider emerged as the world's largest after the U.S. canceled the Superconducting Super Collider being built in Texas in 1993. Congress pulled the plug after costs soared, and questions were raised about the value of the science it could produce.Gillies says all 20 of CERN's member nations have remained supportive and that four other countries — Cyprus, Israel, Serbia and Turkey — have asked to join. A fifth country — Slovenia — has expressed interest.Japan, India, Russia and the U.S. are observer countries that have made sizable contributions to the CERN project.CERN is now aiming to restart the machine in November with beams of subatomic particles initially running at 3.5 trillion electron volts, or TeV. That's only half the level the machine was designed for, but it's still 3 1/2 times higher than the second most powerful accelerator, the Tevatron at Fermilab outside Chicago. During last year's brief startup phase, the CERN collider only operated at half the Fermilab level.Even as the machine is being calibrated this winter, scientists will be able to conduct experiments, collecting data on the collisions of protons and lead ions in the accelerator.They hope the higher energy will enable them to see particles so far undetected, such as the elusive Higgs boson, which in theory gives mass to other particles — and objects and creatures — in the universe. Physicists have used smaller, room-temperature colliders for decades to study the atom. They once thought protons and neutrons were the smallest components of the atom's nucleus, but the colliders showed that they are made of quarks and gluons and that there are other forces and particles. And they still have other questions about antimatter, dark matter and particle mass they want to answer with CERN's new collider. They hope the fragments that come off the collisions will show on a tiny scale what happened one-trillionth of a second after the so-called Big Bang, which many scientists theorize was the massive explosion that formed the universe. The theory holds that the universe was rapidly cooling at that stage and matter was changing quickly. Some skeptics have expressed fears the high-energy collision of protons could imperil the Earth by creating micro black holes — subatomic versions of collapsed stars whose gravity is so strong they can suck in planets and other stars.

CERN and leading physicists dismiss the fears and maintain the project is safe.

The collider's teething problems are typical of complicated accelerators, but it has been especially frustrating to physicists from around the world, who already have been waiting for years to conduct their experiments on the machine. But the LHC is an example of an enormously complicated machine that is pushing the edge of accelerator technology, and it is not surprising that it has had some unanticipated problems, Neal Lane, former President Bill Clinton's science adviser and former director of the National Science Foundation.If the collider can be started soon, it will produce valuable results, said Lane, now a a physicist and public policy professor at Rice University.But, he added,If there are many more surprises, further delays, failure to meet design specifications over the next few years, then the field of experimental particle physics, worldwide, could be set back for a decade or more. The stakes are very high! Gillies told the AP that CERN management decided at the beginning of the year that it would not try to repair all parts of the collider this year.Otherwise, we would never have had a beam before halfway through next year,he said. Gillies said CERN experts have examined every one of the 1,600 superconducting magnets and each of the 10,000 electrical splices as well as copper protection to carry away any spillover current to prevent damage to the magnets if they heat up as happened Sept. 19.They decided some of the splices need to be repaired before the collider goes to full power, but that they can operate safely up to 5 TeV without further repairs now.

That has been set as the highest energy for the collider before its next shutdown for maintenance, probably in November 2010. Then the further repairs will be made so that the energy level can be ramped up.Rolf Heuer, who has taken over as CERN's director-general since the failure, said the collider has been studied very carefully and is much better understood than a year ago.We can look forward with confidence and excitement to a good run through the winter and into next year,Heuer said.

AP,GOOGLE,MICROSOFT - ALL PUPPETS OF OBAMA AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER NUTCASES WANT RIGHT WINGERS LIKE MY SITE AND MANY MANY OTHERS SHUT DOWN FOR GOING AGAINST THE FED AND ALL OBAMAS LIES.AND LEFT LUKEWARM GODLESS ESPECIALLY HATE SITES LIKE MINE BECAUSE I PUTS SCRIPTURES ON MY SITE OF WHAT GOD WILL DO TO THESE NEW AGE,NEW WORLD ORDER NUTCASES IF THEY DO NOT REPENT AND ACCEPT JESUS AS GOD OF ISRAEL AND THE WHOLE WORLD.

MEDIA MATTERS AP to distribute Soros-funded journalism,Slammed as lapdog on leash sworn in advance to left-wing causes August 09, 2009 7:47 pm Eastern By Aaron Klein 2009 WorldNetDaily

JERUSALEM – The Associated Press is delivering to its subscribing 1,500 American newspapers content, it has emerged, penned by groups with financing from philanthropist George Soros and another far-leftist billionaire who not only campaigned for President Obama but also topped donor lists to groups like ACORN and MoveOn.org.The AP announced last month it will allow its subscribers to publish free of charge work by four nonprofit groups, the Center for Public Integrity, the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, the Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica.Controversial Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., a friend of President Obama who was embroiled in a recent national race scandal, sits on the board of ProPublica. The group defines itself as an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.

Get the book that exposes the secret blueprint for ending free speech in America!

ProPublica was founded with a $10 million yearly grant from Herbert and Marion Sandler, the former chief executives of the Golden West Financial Corporation, which was one of the nation's largest mortgage lenders and savings and loans. The Sandlers last year sold their business to the Wachovia Corporation for about $26 billion, a deal which valued their personal shares at about $2.4 billion.The Sandlers are major donors to the Democratic Party and are top funders of ACORN, MoveOne.org, the American Civil Liberties Union and other far-leftist groups like Human Rights Watch.

In 2008, the Sandlers were behind two controversial California Political Action Committees, Vote Hope and PowerPac.org, which spent about $5 million in pro-Obama ads in that state. The two groups were run by the Sandler's son-in-law, Steve Phillips, the former president of the San Francisco School Board. The journalistic integrity of the Sandler-backed ProPublica, however, has been repeatedly called into question. A report by the Capital Research Center concluded ProPublica churns out little more than left-wing hit pieces about Sarah Palin and blames the U.S. government for giving out too little foreign aid. Slate reporter Jack Shafer raised questions about ProPublica's ability to provide independent nonpartisan journalism in light of the nature of the Sandler's political donations, which include giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democratic Party campaigns.The watchdog website UndueInfluence.com slammed ProRepublica's claim of independence, stating the site is as independent as a lapdog on a leash with allegiances sworn in advance to left-wing causes.Meanwhile, another of the nonprofits being distributed by the AP, the CPI, is funded by Soros' Open Society Institute.CPI churns out regular partisan pieces. One widely debunked CPI study from last year, covered extensively by the AP, claimed it found President Bush and top administration officials had issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq as part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.

Writing on FrontPageMag, Richard Poe, a writer for the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, concluded CPI and other Soros-funded so-called watchdogs have a long history of coordination with Soros and his Shadow Party. They are beholden to Soros personally for his financial support. His influence often shows in their choice of targets.The AP itself has called the arrangement to distribute pieces from the Soros and Sandler-funded nonprofits a six-month experiment that could later be broadened to include other investigative nonprofits and to serve its nonmember clients, which include broadcast and Internet outlets. It's something we've talked about for a long time, since part of our mission is to enable our members to share material with each other,said Sue Cross, a senior vice president at the AP.She added the development in 2006 of an Internet-based system for members to receive AP material made it easier to do this kind of sharing and to offer new products like the investigative service.

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).

THE NEW WORLD ORDER NUTCASES AND THE GODLESS MEDIA COMBINE TO MAKE PEOPLE LOOK BAD FOR GOING AGAINST THESE ROBBERS AND MURDERERS OF US.

Protests, heavy security mark North America summit Sun Aug 9, 7:38 pm ET

GUADALAJARA, Mexico – About 400 people marched outside the North American Leaders Summit on Sunday to protest the negative affects of free trade and to demand benefits for retired Mexican laborers who worked in the U.S.Caravans of heavily armed federal agents patrolled the streets. Dozens of police carrying riot gear manned roadblocks meant to keep protesters away from the center where U.S. President Barack Obama, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will meet for the two-day summit.

The leaders arrived in the western Mexican city of Guadalajara on Sunday.

Several Mexican, U.S. and Canadian groups announced they would hold an alternate summit to discuss the 15 years of NAFTA's economic failures, referring to the North American Free Trade Agreement enacted in 1994 to remove trade barriers among the three nations.NAFTA has been criticized for putting small Mexican farmers out of business and spurring waves of immigration to the U.S., as well as causing American jobs to move overseas.The protesters also demanded immigration reform in the U.S. and that Mexican laborers in a World War II-era guest-worker program receive the money withheld from their paychecks.Security cooperation and swine flu are among the prime topics expected to be discussed by the three North American leaders. One of Mexico's top priorities will be addressing newly established visa requirements for its citizens who want to visit Canada.

PREMEDITATED MERGER Obama warned at summit: No North American Union,Legislator blasts lack of transparency,erosion of our national sovereignty August 08, 2009 8:00 pm Eastern By Drew Zahn 2009 WorldNetDaily

Howard Phillips

With President Obama expected tomorrow for the North American Leaders' Summit in Guadalajara, Mexico, a coalition of American legislators and activists took a message to the Mexican media, denouncing economic partnerships that would undermine national sovereignty and blasting Obama's failure to keep his promises on transparency and the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Howard Phillips, chairman of The Conservative Caucus and head of the Coalition to Block the North American Union, spoke to Mexican print, television and radio media about the summit, which was known in previous years as the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership, or SPP.Discover how the SPP has been laying the groundwork for the unthinkable in Jerome Corsi's The Late Great USA – autographed! Or, if you prefer, in paperback – autographed! They're talking more and more about economic integration, which is also what preceded the creation of the European Union, incrementally, Phllips told WND. We made the point that one of the real issues is accountability. Already there are more than 20 SPP working groups and more and more decisions are being turned over to unelected bureaucrats, without any review by the legislatures of Mexico, Canada or the U.S.Phillips also released statements from current U.S. Rep. Walter Jones Jr., R-N.C., and former congressmen Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., and Virgil H. Goode Jr, R-Va., warning Obama that this meeting of the American, Mexican and Canadian heads of state is no time to renew talks of a North American Union. My eastern North Carolina constituents are troubled by our exploding trade deficit, our weakly defended borders and the erosion of our national sovereignty,Rep. Jones said in a statement prepared for the press conference.As a result, many of them have expressed their concerns about our nation's leadership role in the SPP.Many SPP working group meetings are held in secret, and the public, the press and members of Congress have no opportunity to participate or conduct oversight,Jones said. The SPP also appears to cast aside America's sovereignty and takes another step towards combining the United States, Mexico and Canada into a single EU-style North American super state.He concluded, While the American people and Congress understand the importance of promoting good relations with our neighbors, these concerns will only intensify if pursuit of the SPP continues out of public view and without congressional oversight or approval.

Phillips told WND the press conference preceding the president's arrival in Guadalajara was well attended. We had an extraordinarily good turnout by the media, including a television station, which I'm told by our interpreter, is the most widely viewed television station in all of Latin America,Phillips said.So we're very pleased with the turnout.At the press conference, Phillips distributed releases from several prominent Americans: Throughout our nation, the American people have great appreciation and affection for our great neighbors, Mexico and Canada,said Former U.S. Treasurer Bay Buchanan in a statement,however they are unified in their opposition to any form of a 'North American Union' or greater integration of the three nations.Buchanan argued that under a North American Union,All citizens of Mexico and Canada will by legal right be able to move to the United States, causing a massive wave of immigration which will further bankrupt our nation. Yet such a policy would also devastate our friends in Mexico, for they would suffer even greater loss of the manpower, finances and intellectual capital needed to make Mexico's strong and prosperous.The members and supporters of The American Cause hereby call on President Obama to renounce at the North American Leaders Summit in Guadalajara the failed and destructive Bush policy of moving the United States, Mexico and Canada towards any sort of union or integration. The sovereignty of the United States is to be preserved, protected and defended at all times; and never ever be thrown on the chopping block as a point of negotiation with foreign leaders.The 2009 meeting of the three heads of state in Guadalajara, Mexico, should arouse the interest and concern of Mexican citizens as well as Americans and Canadians,said former Rep. Tom Tancredo in his statement.We can all applaud the benefits of expanded commerce and trade without supporting an integration of legal codes, regulatory standards and financial institutions. Ambitious goals of economic integration on the European model are totally unrealistic and are in truth a Trojan horse for a political agenda that has little to do with economic progress for Americans, Mexicans or Canadians.We can debate the best means of improving legitimate trade and commerce,Tancredo said, but there is no place to debate the abandonment of sovereignty that will be required to implement the NAU.

Phillips also released statements by John F. McManus, president of The John Birch Society, and Tom DeWeese, founder and president of the American Policy Center. Cathie Adams, president of the Texas Eagle Forum, was also on hand in Guadalajara to deliver her own statement.Former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Jim Jones said agreement on a grand vision by President Obama, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to promote better economic integration would help the region become a major competitor in the world economy,Phillips said at the press conference.Although Ambassador Jones discounted the prospect of a North American Union being similar to the European Union economic model, any form of heightened economic integration would be like the proverbial camel's nose in the tent, which would undermine the independence and self-determination of Canada and Mexico, even as it would make American taxpayers subject to further budgetary profligacy.WND has previously reported that Robert A. Pastor, the American University professor who for more than a decade has been a major proponent of building a North American Community, has declared the SPP is dead,largely due to efforts to expose the SPP's North American integration agenda. WND has also reported that President Obama has actively backtracked on his campaign promises to renegotiate NAFTA in order to get provisions more favorable to U.S. workers and U.S. jobs. During the presidential campaign, Obama was forced to fire from his campaign an important economic adviser. Austan Goolsbee, an economics professor at the University of Chicago business school, was dismissed after reporters learned he had traveled to Canada to reassure Canadians that Obama's campaign promises to renegotiate NAFTA were just campaign rhetoric. In the Ohio and Pennsylvania Democratic Party primaries, candidate Obama had pledged to renegotiate NAFTA as part of his appeal to Ohio and Pennsylvania workers who have lost manufacturing jobs under the free trade agreements negotiated by Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush.Now, Goolsbee is back in the White House, having taken a leave of absence from the University of Chicago. Obama appointed him to serve as chief economist and staff director of the newly created Presidential Economic Recovery Advisory Board, chaired by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volker.Obama also appointed Goolsbee to the Council of Economic Advisors, or CEA, which is charged with assisting in the development of White House economic policy.

Obama presses for new tone in US ties with Mexico By JENNIFER LOVEN, AP White House Correspondent – MON AUG 10,09

GUADALAJARA, Mexico – President Barack Obama pressed for a new tone in the United States' relationship with Mexico but found no immediate progress Sunday on the divisions between him and Mexican President Felipe Calderon over the pace of U.S. drug-fighting aid and a ban on Mexican trucks north of the border.Obama kicked off his second trip to Mexico as president with a friendly 45-minute meeting with Calderon that touched on the vast trade relationship between their two countries, their cooperation on swine flu and the violent Mexican gangs dominating the drug trade on both sides of the border. Their talks came before the start of a lightning-quick three-way summit between the United States, Mexico and Canada.Often called the Three Amigos summit, the meeting of Obama, Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper began over dinner at a cultural institution in this town near the mountains. The summit's formal talks, the fifth for the three countries, were taking place Monday, followed by a joint appearance before reporters at midday.During the separate sit-down between Obama and Calderon, the Mexican leader raised his concerns about the speed of implementation of the United States' three-year, $1.4 billion drug-fighting package known as the Merida Initiative. One $100 million installment is being delayed over rising concerns among some in Congress about the Mexican army's abuses.The U.S. law requires Congress to withhold some funding unless the State Department reports Mexico is not violating human rights during its anti-cartel crackdown, which started in 2006.Obama told Calderon that human rights is a major priority for him, but also assured him that the State Department is working to prepare a report that recognizes all Mexico's efforts to prevent abuses, said a senior administration official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity in order to more freely describe private meetings.

Drug violence has killed more than 11,000 people since Mexico launched its crackdown. Mexican cities are essentially under siege, and the killings are spilling over the border into the United States and as far as Canada.Calderon also quizzed Obama on his earlier promise to restore a canceled pilot program that had allowed Mexican truckers to travel into the United States, the official said.The North American Free Trade Agreement required the United States to grant Mexican trucks full access to its highways by January 2000, but domestic opposition stalled that plan until a 2007 pilot program allowed some trucks. Facing opposition from U.S. labor unions and consumer groups, Obama signed a spending bill that included a ban on spending for the program.Mexico retaliated by imposing tariffs on dozens of U.S. products ranging from fruit and wine to washing machines.Obama told Calderon he would work to try to move forward but also said Congress has legitimate safety concerns about Mexican trucks, the official said.Outside the sprawling colonial-era building where they met in Mexico's second-largest city, caravans of heavily armed federal agents patrolled the streets. Dozens of police carrying riot gear manned roadblocks meant to keep protesters away.U.S.-Mexico relations went on a roller-coaster ride during the tenure of former President George W. Bush, driven by a divide over the Iraq war, the United States' building of a border fence and Bush's failure to secure immigration reform. While Obama has, like Bush, emphasized beefed-up border security, he has pledged to renew efforts to push through an immigration overhaul, including a citizenship path for illegal immigrants.And during his April visit, Obama made a welcome acknowledgment to Mexicans that Americans share the blame for violence south of the border because of drug consumption and gun trafficking.A major topic of discussion for the three leaders on Monday will be the now-global swine flu epidemic believed to have started in Mexico in April just before Obama's last trip, unbeknownst to the White House. The United States earned huge points with its southern neighbor for not joining the countries banning flights, halting trade and taking other actions that Mexico considered unfairly punitive.Obama, Calderon and Harper will look for ways to build on that earlier partnership to handle an expected new wave of cases during North America's upcoming flu season. John Brennan, Obama's chief homeland security aide, said it is as important to further link up health officials and ready vaccine and antiviral supplies as it is for the three leaders to publicly reinforce a determination not to panic when cases arise.There are people who are going to be getting sick in the fall and die, Brennan said.We want to make sure that we do everything possible to ensure the continuation of commerce, transportation and trade between the three countries.

America's first- and third-largest trade relationships are with Canada and Mexico. All three are partners in NAFTA, the largest free-trade zone in the world. Closing borders or restricting travel would be very costly for families and businesses on all sides of the borders, an important consideration given the limping economy and the fact that health experts see such actions as pointless in containing the flu's spread.The U.S. neighbors will want Obama to explain where America's economic recovery is going because both countries saw their own fortunes fall as a result of problems in the U.S. Obama will hear complaints from Calderon and Harper about Buy American requirements in the $787 billion economic stimulus package. The three leaders also are expected to take a joint stand on a recent problem in their hemisphere — the June coup in Honduras that saw President Manuel Zelaya ousted by the military.Obama has no separate session with Harper alone. The Canadian leader will see the president on Sept. 16 in Washington.

WE KNOW THESE NUTCASES WOULD NEVER TALK ABOUT MERGING CANADA,MEXICO,USA INTO ONE TRADE BLOC OF THE 10 THE WORLD WILL BE PUT INTO THE BIBLE SAYS.

US to discuss trade, drugs with Mexico and Canada By MARTHA MENDOZA, Associated Press Writer – Fri Aug 7, 1:02 pm ET

MEXICO CITY – President Barack Obama meets this weekend with leaders of Mexico and Canada at a time when drug-related violence, swine flu and the economic crisis are slipping across North America's borders like never before.Obama, along with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, are expected to work on trade and immigration, drug trafficking and security, and clean energy during their first summit Sunday and Monday in the western colonial city of Guadalajara.The bottom line is that what affects our bordering neighbors has the potential to affect us all, so we want to be certain that we have the tightest and best possible cooperation, said National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones during a White House briefing with the news media.For Mexico, the North American Leaders Summit comes at a crucial time: Washington is debating whether to withhold money to help fight Mexico's powerful drug cartels due to allegations of human rights abuses by the Mexican military.International human rights groups, including the World Organization Against Torture, want Mexico to try soldiers in civil courts, something Calderon so far has appeared reluctant to do.Complaints against the army have increased dramatically since 2006 when Calderon launched his anti-drug campaign, sending more than 45,000 soldiers to drug hotspots. This week, U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, delayed the release of $100 million of the $1.4 billion Merida Initiative, a three-year package.

Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa said her government is confident Mexico will still receive the full funding, saying officials have sent the State Department information about steps taken to ensure the protection of human rights while fighting organized crime.The Mexican army has acted correctly ... and has undertaken a series of actions to strengthen the training of its members in this matter, Espinosa told reporters this week.Calderon will surely emphasize that point in his meetings with Obama, as well as drive home how important such funding is to keep up the drug war's momentum.Mexican communities are living under siege with dozens of cartel-related killings each month. U.S. Justice Department officials say as many as 230 U.S. cities have been infiltrated by Mexican cartels and are hoping to prevent similar violence.

Drug dealing is also soaring in Canada. While the country's gang problems pale in comparison to Mexico's, the city of Vancouver — once known as the world's safest — has seen dozens of drug gang-related killings in the past two years.The leaders also are expected to take up the swine flu pandemic. Since spring, the Pan American Health Organization has reported more than 43,500 cases and 300 deaths in the U.S., 10,150 cases and 50 deaths in Canada, and 15,727 cases with 141 deaths in Mexico.Leaders also will discuss the U.S. economic crisis that has sent devastating waves to its neighbors. Both Mexico and Canada send 80 percent of their exports to the U.S., which has severely reduced its buying power. As a result, this year Mexico will see its economy contract between 6.5 and 7.5 percent, while Canada's economy is expected to shrink 2.3 percent.Other key issues are likely to include the Honduran coup, which began in late June when Honduran soldiers exiled President Manuel Zelaya. Obama and other international leaders say the coup was illegal and have called for Zelaya's return.The summit — a part of the three nations' Security and Prosperity Partnership — was established five years ago by leaders who are no longer in office, said Maureen Meyer, a Mexico expert at the Washington Office on Latin America, which promotes human rights and democracy in the region.The agenda is largely set by business interests currently, but Obama, Calderon and Harper may want to bring more citizen and legislative voices into the process, she said.Obama has made Mexican and Canadian relations a priority, meeting three times already with Calderon, sending high-level cabinet members to Mexico, and acknowledging that the U.S. is partly responsible for the cartel violence south of the border.Mexico kind of fell off the agenda for President (George W.) Bush for a long time,Meyer said.There really hasn't been this level of engagement with Mexico for years.Associated Press Writer Istra Pacheco contributed to this report.

Trade, security focus at three amigos summit By Patricia Zengerle and Mica Rosenberg – Sun Aug 9, 10:16 pm ET

GUADALAJARA, Mexico (Reuters) – Leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada -- also known as the three amigos -- talked about simmering trade issues and the threat from violent drug gangs as they began a summit on Sunday.At the top of their agenda is how to power their economies past a lingering downturn, keep trade flowing smoothly and grapple with Mexican gangs dominating the drug trade over the U.S. border and up into Canada.U.S. President Barack Obama told Mexican President Felipe Calderon when they met on Sunday evening he would work to resolve one thorny trade problem -- a lingering dispute over letting Mexican trucks drive into the United States.Under the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexican trucks are supposed to be allowed to cross into the United States, but U.S. trucking companies say Mexican trucks are unsafe. Mexico imposed tariffs of $2.4 billion on U.S. goods in March after Obama signed a bill canceling a program allowing them to operate beyond the U.S. border zone.U.S. business groups have been pressing the White House to resolve the dispute, saying the ban threatens to eliminate thousands of U.S. jobs.I think there's been a clear understanding that this issue was one that is a priority issue and one that everyone would like to see resolved as quickly as possible, a senior Obama administration official said.The two leaders held 45 minutes of cordial talks on trade, cooperation on the H1N1 flu virus, and the fight against the drug cartels, he said.Obama and Calderon will hold talks with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Monday.

Obama's national security adviser, Jim Jones, said he doubted the leaders would announce major agreements, predicting the annual summit is going to be a step in the continuing dialogue from which agreements will undoubtedly come.Canadian officials are expected to raise concerns about Buy American elements of a $787 billion economic stimulus program that they fear could shut out Canadian companies.Canada is the United States' largest trading partner.

CANADA OFFERS MOUNTED POLICE

Washington is worried about Mexican drug gangs killing rivals in record numbers, despite Calderon's three-year army assault on the cartels.But Mexico says U.S. equipment and training being given under a $1.4 billion Merida Initiative package are taking too long to arrive, partly due to concerns in the U.S. Congress over Mexico's human rights record.President Obama, as he has on a number of occasions, underscored the importance of human rights for him, for the United States and, frankly, for Mexico,the administration official said.And to be successful in the long run, dismantling and defeating these cartels requires commitment and confidence of people in all the countries affected and that we need to continue working in a manner that instills that confidence, the official said.Canada's Harper pledged up to $15 million a year to support the fight against drug traffickers in the Americas and offered the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to train Mexican police.The death rate in Mexico this year from the violence is about a third higher than in 2008, and police in the United States and Canada have blamed Mexican traffickers for crime.

Many Mexicans say the police must be cleansed of corruption before receiving aid. All of the police are bought by the narcos. Mexico's problem is corruption,said Maria Guzman, 64, a newspaper saleswoman in Guadalajara. Obama assured reporters from Hispanic media on Friday that due to the recession, now is not the time to reopen the NAFTA trade treaty, an issue that worries major exporter Mexico. A few hundred protesters from environmental groups and leftist political parties marched in Guadalajara on Sunday to a plaza near the colonial-era buildings housing the summit.

Some demanded more U.S. support for Manuel Zelaya, the president of Honduras ousted in a military coup in June. Zelaya said in Ecuador on Sunday that Washington has done too little. U.S. officials have said they would like to see a Latin American solution to the Honduran crisis and have not listed it as a main summit issue. The leaders will also jointly address climate change as they prepare for major international talks in Copenhagen in December. Obama brought the new U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual, with him on Air Force One, and a special ceremony has been organized for him to present his credentials. The U.S. Senate approved Pascual's appointment on Friday.(Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Anthony Boadle; Editing by Eric Beech)

EARTHQUAKES

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

7.1-magnitude quake hits off eastern Japan
(AFP) – AUG 09,09

TOKYO — A major, 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck off eastern Japan Sunday, the US Geological Survey said.The quake was felt across Honshu island, especially its central and northern regions, including Tokyo, at 7.56 pm (1056 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency said.The quake rocked buildings in the Japanese capital, but no damage was reported. Some local trains experienced slight delays.The Japanese agency estimated the quake's magnitude at 6.9, and at a depth of 340 kilometres (213 miles) under the Pacific ocean, roughly 170 kilometres south of the Izu peninsula.The agency said there were no fears of a tsunami.The US agency estimated the quake's depth at 303kilometres.Seismologists in Japan, which experiences around 20 percent of the world's most powerful earthquakes, believe disastrously strong quakes will strike off its Pacific coastline in the near future.Local municipalities routinely hold earthquake drills.Sunday's quake was among the largest in magnitude to strike Japan this year.On Wednesday quakes of magnitude 6.5 and 5.0 struck in separate locations in southern Japan, but caused no damage.In April, a 6.6-magnitude quake struck off northern Japan.

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.

Severe thunderstorms sweep Southern Ontario From Monday's Globe and Mail
Last updated on Monday, Aug. 10, 2009 03:09AM EDT

Toronto was pounded by a string of severe thunderstorms yesterday, with torrential winds, rain and lightning wreaking havoc across the GTA and Southern Ontario.Winds reached up to 96 kilometres an hour last night at Pearson airport, where there was a brief power outage, reports of hail and cancelled or delayed flights in the dozens. Blackouts were also reported throughout the rest of the GTA, with York region seeing power outages everywhere,said Toni Lacey, a spokesperson for York Region police.Hydro One reports about 40,000 customers have been affected by power outages, with Newmarket, Guelph and Owen Sound hit particularly hard.The GTA was first rocked by thunderstorms around noon yesterday before weather conditions calmed down. But temperatures and humidity continued to rise throughout the day and the mercury eventually reached 29 C, with the humidex hitting 40 - the perfect conditions for a storm, said Rob Kuhn, a severe weather meteorologist with the Ontario Storm Prediction Centre.Last night, downed trees and hydro lines were reported north of Toronto, as well as in areas stretching all the way up to Owen Sound. CP24 also reported that the east end of Toronto was hit hard. The weather forced the cancellation of a Nickelback concert at the Molson Amphitheatre.While the storms were predicted to end at around midnight, Mr. Kuhn said GTA residents should brace themselves for more bad weather today.

More than 20,000 without power in southern Ontario Aug 10, 2009 06:15 AM
THE CANADIAN PRESS

Thunderstorms that rolled through southern Ontario Sunday evening knocked out power to about 21,000 Hydro One customers.The largest outages are in the Barrie, Owen Sound and Newmarket areas with blackouts also reported in Alliston, Simcoe and elsewhere.

Police say the storm left some roads littered with trees and downed hydro lines.Hydro One hopes to have most customers back on the grid by early this morning, but some may have to wait until later in the day.The storm also cut the power at about 9 p.m. at Pearson International Airport, causing some flights to be delayed or cancelled.

John Stewart | Aug 10, 2009 - 8:05 AM |More storms coming

If that wasn't enough storm for you last night, hold on — there's another one, or maybe two — coming today. The violent thunderstorms and accompanying winds that ripped through Mississauga and much of southern Ontario last night brought down trees, downed power lines, caused isolated hail and generally made life miserable for anyone who happened to be outside.At Mississauga's Pearson International Airport, where a total of 40 millimetres of rain fell yesterday, flights were cancelled and the power temporarily went out, causing operational problems.With the humidity, it felt as hot as 36 degrees Celsius yesterday said Rob Kuhn, a severe weather meteorologist for Environment Canada. This is the first time it's been over 30 Celsius since ... late June,he said.Rainwater transformed streets into temporary rivers, cancelled outdoor events such as the Nickelback concert last night at the Molson Amphitheatre at Ontario Place and caused numerous flooded basements.The high humidity expected today in Mississauga is likely to bring more thunderstorm activity.
It will be cloudy this morning with a 60 per cent chance of showers, says Environment Canada. The highest risk of thunderstorms is early this afternoon.The high today in Mississauga should reach 26 degrees Celsius.There could be a few showers tonight, before it clears. There is a risk of another thunderstorm, however.The good news? There's no rain in the forecast for the remainder of the week. Skies are expected to be sunny every day, with highs from 25-28 degrees Celsius.jstewart@mississauga.net

DEADLY WEATHER
http://news.aol.ca/article/400-missing-after-typhoon-sparks-mudslide/690595/

Shanghai braces for rain after typhoon hits coast AUG 10,09

SHANGHAI (AFP) – Shanghai braced for torrential rain Monday after Typhoon Morakot slammed China's southeast coast, prompting the evacuation of nearly a million people and leaving one dead, officials said.The typhoon was downgraded to a tropical storm as it approached Shanghai but was still forecast to bring rain of up to 90 millimetres (3.5 inches) an hour to China's largest city and the eastern provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong and Anhui, the National Meteorological Centre said.The tropical storm's intensity was weakening after leaving a child dead in the city of Wenzhou on Sunday and at least 12 dead in Taiwan, where it caused the worst flooding in 50 years.The storm's centre hit the border of Zhejiang and Fujian provinces at five am Monday (2100 GMT Sunday), lashing cities in the area with 83 kilometre (51 mile) per hour winds, Shanghai's meteorological bureau said.More than 3.4 million people in Zhejiang suffered property losses as hundreds of villages were flooded and more than 1,800 houses collapsed, Xinhua said, citing the Provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

In Cangnan, one of 20 flooded counties in Zhejiang, vehicles left parked on main roads were submerged in a meter of water, according to Xinhua.The powerful storm left tens of thousands trapped after floods and mudslides in Taiwan, before landing in China's Fujian province at 4:20 pm (0820 GMT) on Sunday.A four-year-old child died in Wenzhou after his family's house collapsed in heavy rains and winds before the typhoon even made landfall in mainland China, the official news agency Xinhua reported.The child was buried along with four adults in debris and died after emergency treatment failed, Xinhua said, citing the city's flood-control headquarters.

12 killed, 10 missing as typhoon hits Japan Monday, Aug. 10, 2009.By SHINO YUASA, Associated Press Writer.

TOKYO – A typhoon slammed into Japan's west coast on Monday, bringing heavy rain that triggered floods and landslides and left at least 12 people dead and another 10 reported missing.Typhoon Etau killed 11 people in Hyogo prefecture, around 310 miles (500 kilometers) west of Tokyo, police official Shigekazu Kamenobu said. He could not provide details but said many were caught in raging waters.At least one man was swept away in a river while he was in a car. His body was later found inside the vehicle, Kamenobu said.Police said about 2,200 people were evacuated from their homes in Hyogo and were staying at public schools. Some 500 houses were flooded, with TV footage showing residents clearing up mud with shovels.A woman was also found dead in her house that was destroyed by a landslide in neighboring Okayama prefecture, police official Wataru Yamamoto said.Police said at least two people were missing in Tokushima, on the western island of Shikoku. A Tokushima police official said another woman was rescued after she became stranded in her car by floods. She is in critical condition, said the official, who declined to be named, citing department policy.

Public broadcaster NHK said at least 10 people are also missing in the typhoon. Police officials could not confirm the report.Japan's Meteorological Agency warned of heavy precipitation and landslides in eastern Japan as Etau heads north.

Typhoon forces evacuation of 1 million Chinese By GILLIAN WONG, Associated Press Writer – AUG 09,09

BEIJING – Typhoon Morakot slammed into China's east coast Sunday just hours after nearly 1 million people evacuated the area. It earlier lashed Taiwan with torrential rains that caused the island's worst flooding in 50 years and left dozens missing and feared dead.Morakot made landfall on Xiapu, a county in eastern China's Fujian province, carrying heavy rain and winds of up to 74 miles per hour (119 kilometers per hour), according to an official at the China Meteorological Administration who refused to give his name or provide other details.Taiwan, meanwhile, was recovering after the storm dumped more than 80 inches (200 centimeters) of rain on some southern counties on Friday and Saturday, the worst flooding to hit the area in half a century, the Central Weather Bureau reported.Taiwan's Disaster Relief Center said a woman was killed when her vehicle plunged into a ditch in Kaohsiung county in heavy rain Friday, and two men drowned in Pingtung and Tainan respectively. It said that 31 were missing and feared dead.About 1 million people were evacuated from China's eastern coastal provinces by early Sunday — more than 490,000 people in Zhejiang and 480,000 others in neighboring Fujian. Authorities in Fujian called 48,000 boats back to harbor.Thirty-nine outbound flights from Wenzhou city in Zhejiang were canceled Sunday, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Morakot hit Taiwan late Friday but traversed the island Saturday.

Taiwan's Disaster Relief Center reported Sunday that flash flooding had washed away a makeshift home in southern Kaohsiung, leaving 16 people missing. Three were swept away in southeastern Taitung county, including two policemen helping to evacuate villagers.Twelve others were missing, including three fishermen from a capsized boat and three others whose cars fell into a rain-swollen river, it said.In southern Pingtung county, 4,000 people were stranded in inundated villages waiting for police boats to rescue them, news media reported.In Taitung county, a six-story hotel collapsed and plunged into a river after floodwaters eroded its base, but all 300 people in the hotel were evacuated and uninjured, officials said.Morakot is the first typhoon to hit Taiwan this year. Typhoons frequently move in between July and September, often causing injuries and deaths in mountainous regions prone to landslides and flash floods.In the northern Philippines, the typhoon and lingering monsoon rains left 21 people dead and seven others missing in landslides and floodwaters, including three European tourists who were swept away Thursday, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said Sunday.

The bodies of a Belgian and two French citizens were found Friday, the council said.

More than 83,000 people in 93 northern villages were affected by floods and landslides, including 22,200 who fled their homes, it said. Displaced people began returning home as the weather cleared, it said.Meanwhile, officials said rescue helicopters and ships were still searching for about 10 Chinese crew whose ships were caught in Tropical Storm Goni, which made landfall in Guangdong on Wednesday, swept the coastal areas of Hainan Thursday and Friday but weakened into a tropical depression by Sunday.Associated Press writers Annie Huang in Taipei and Jim Gomez in Manila contributed to this report.

Typhoon Morakot sweeps Taiwan, heads to China Sun Aug 9, 4:55 am ET

TAIPEI (Reuters) – A typhoon swept through northern Taiwan, killing one and leaving four missing as it headed out to China, Taiwan's government said on Saturday.Typhoon Morakot, which had slowed down from medium-strength on Friday, continued to linger over Taiwan with winds gusts up to 119 kph (74 mph) on its way to mainland China, said the Central Weather Bureau.Morakot, listed as a category 1 storm on a 1-5 scale by the Tropical Storm Risk forecasting service (http://www.tropicalstormrisk.com), had killed one person and left four missing and 10 injured in Taiwan, bureau and disaster officials said.Morakot, the most severe this year so far in Taiwan, has forced flight cancellations and port closures after causing to deadly floods in the Philippines.Typhoons regularly hit China, Taiwan, the Philippines and Japan in the second half of the year, gathering strength from the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean or South China Sea before weakening over land.(Reporting by Faith Hung and Ralph Jennings; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

Felicia weakens to tropical storm near Hawaii By JAYMES SONG, Associated Press Writer AUG 10,09

HONOLULU – Hawaii braced for Tropical Storm Felicia on Sunday, taking no chances even though the storm weakened rapidly as it slipped toward the islands.Felicia was downgraded to a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph with higher gusts. It's expected to weaken even more before hitting Hawaii late Monday or early Tuesday, when it is expected be either a tropical storm or depression.The Central Pacific Hurricane Center said the storm's center was about 445 miles east-northeast of Hilo and 610 miles east of Honolulu as of 5 p.m. HST.Right now, the official track is right through the middle of the state, said Julie Kelly, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.Kelly said tropical storms and depressions aren't as organized as hurricanes, so the strongest winds aren't necessarily in the center, or the eye. Therefore, even if the storm stays on course or tracks away, several islands could experience heavy winds and rains.

Most of Hawaii was under a tropical storm watch.

One of Hawaii's most popular attractions, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, closed most of its roads and campgrounds until after tropical storm conditions have passed. Several beach parks on Hawaii's Big Island were also being closed Sunday afternoon because the storm was expected to increase wave heights. A building swell generated by the storm was expected to hit eastern shores of the eastern Hawaiian islands later Sunday, according to the Hurricane Center. Large surf is expected to spread to eastern shores of all islands Sunday night and Monday.The Hawaii County Civil Defense advised Big Island residents to be on alert for sudden increases in surf heights and tie down loose items outside their homes. A flash flood watch was issued for the Big Island starting Monday.Kelly said the arriving high surf was generated when the storm was much stronger, so people need to be cautious and prepare.Felicia peaked Thursday as a Category 4 storm with winds topping 140 mph.On Sunday, it was another relaxing day in paradise for many tourists, who were enjoying the sunny skies and calm before Felicia's arrival.We've been watching the Weather Channel every day, but never thought to change our plans or anything,said Lee Binschus, who was vacationing on the Big Island with his wife and two teenage daughters.We just hope it won't mess up our plans for our water tour on Tuesday.Being from the Pacific Northwest, the Binschus family said it is used to rain. Actually, I think it would be cool to see a hurricane, daughter Casey Binschus said.Some of the islands' stores were a little less peaceful. Residents stocked up on emergency items and staples, such as bottled water, rice, Spam, batteries, toilet paper and flashlights.Retired school teacher Elsie Uechi was shopping for lanterns, water and canned meat.But I hope it passes, like always,Uechi told KITV.Maybe we will be lucky again this time.Flossie, the last hurricane to threaten Hawaii, brought heavy rains and high surf to the Big Island in 2007 but caused no damage.

Weakening Hurricane Felicia moves toward Hawaii AUG 09,09

HONOLULU – A weakening Hurricane Felicia continues to slip toward Hawaii.The National Weather Service says the storm is a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph. The agency expects it weaken to a tropical storm later Sunday and to continue losing strength over the next couple of days.The Weather Service says the storm has a poorly defined center about 640 miles east of Hilo, Hawaii, and about 815 miles east of Honolulu. It is moving west and is expected to be near or over the islands by Monday.Parts of Hawaii remain under a tropical storm watch. Several beach parks on Hawaii's Big Island are being closed beginning Sunday afternoon because the storm is expected to increase wave heights.Felicia peaked Thursday as a Category 4 storm with winds topping 140 mph.

43 people killed in landslides in northern India Sun Aug 9, 10:44 pm ET

LUCKNOW, India – Landslides triggered by heavy rains killed at least 43 people in three remote villages in northern India, a police official said.Twenty bodies were pulled from the debris Sunday after the landslide buried the villages in Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand state a day earlier, said S.M. Shamim, a paramilitary force commander.He said 43 people were buried alive under the debris.Police and volunteers were digging through mud and rocks Sunday to recover the bodies of 23 others, he said.

Pithoragarh, in the Himalayan foothills, is about 310 miles (500 kilometers) northeast of the Indian capital, New Delhi. Extensive deforestation has made the region prone to landslides during monsoon rains.

FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS

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

Some respite from wildfires Fire crew fights Terrace Mountain blaze. BC Forest Service Although stubborn blazes continue to burn, fire officials are confident they're gaining the upper hand Jane Armstrong Vancouver — From Monday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Sunday, Aug. 09, 2009 10:37PM EDT

Cooler temperatures in British Columbia have given firefighters a respite from the wild fires that have burned through thousands of hectares of B.C. forest over the past four weeks.Two of the most stubborn fires – the Terrace Mountain blaze northwest of Kelowna and the Mount McLean fire near Lillooet – are still burning, but fire officials say they're gaining the upper hand.Another fire, which last week threatened the town of Bella Coola on the Central Coast, has been chased away from homes and buildings. However, another large fire in that area is still blocking the only highway to the coastal community.Hundreds of fires are burning across the province. Over the past four weeks, three have had close brushes with populated communities.

In the Kelowna region, the Terrace Mountain fire grew again on the weekend, pushing further north. As a result, fire crews Sunday set a controlled fire on its northern flank in a bid to stop it from expanding. The fire is moving down a steep slope toward a canyon, said fire information officer Mitch Miller, pushed by flaming trees that topple and torpedo down the mountain, setting more fires.Right now, the fire covers more than 8,800 hectares. Once the controlled fire is burning, it will grow to more than 9,000 hectares. The west side of Okanagan Lake has been evacuated with more than 2,000 people affected. Another 2,526 are on alert to vacate if they get the order.Despite the weekend flare-up, fire crews are making progress, Mr. Miller said. Temperatures have dropped and winds are calm.Toward the coast, a prolonged heat wave has broken and there were even showers Sunday.In Lillooet, which last weekend cleared out half the town as the Mount McLean fire roared down the mountain to within 100 metres of the community, residents were back in their homes, although still under alert to leave.Fire crews yesterday rappelled down a steep slope to build a helipad in order to get crews on the ground, said fire information officer Tim Neal. Crews from Ontario, New Zealand and Australia were pitching in to help fight another eight fires still blazing in the Lillooet region, Mr. Neal said.On the Central Coast, a fierce fire is still blocking the only route in and out of Bella Coola, a community of about 2,500.

Stephen Waugh, emergency program co-ordinator for the Central Coast Regional District, said it could be weeks before Highway 20, which runs east-west, will be fully opened. Right now, some vehicles are permitted on the route for a brief window of time in the morning when the winds are lower.It's a big, big fire, Mr. Waugh said, and it's growing.Last week, another fire, closer to town, forced several dozen people to leave their homes but that fire has been beaten back, Mr. Waugh said.While the cooler temperatures have helped firefighters, B.C.'s Interior is still as parched as ever with no rain in the forecast. Fire information officer Bruce Smith said a cold front that was expected to move into Kelowna Sunday could bring higher winds,which will challenge our firefighters.

Wildfire burns remote area in Central Coast Associated Press 08/09/2009 09:38:36 PM PDT

SANTA MARIA — A wildfire has burned about 10,000 acres in a remote part of northern Santa Barbara County. Forest Service spokeswoman Juanita Freel says the blaze on Sunday is burning in steep, inaccessible terrain in the San Rafael Wilderness about 25miles east of Santa Maria. No structures are threatened and no injuries have been reported.More than 600 firefighters, aided by at least a dozen water-dropping aircraft, were trying to knock down flames. There was no containment estimates. The fire, which began Saturday afternoon, grew quickly through the day. The blaze chewed through heavy brush and temperatures were in the mid-90s.

REBUILT 3RD TEMPLE (THE EU DICTATORS TEMPLE)

ISAIAH 30:10-15
10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
12 Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:
13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.
14 And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.
15 For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.
16 But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.

REVELATION 11:1-2
1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

DANIEL 9:27
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

REBUILT 4TH TEMPLE (THE TRUE MESSIAHS TEMPLE)

ZECHARIAH 6:12-13
12 And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD:
13 Even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.

ISAIAH 60:9-10
9 Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the LORD thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee.
10 And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee.

ISAIAH 2:1-5
1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.

MARK 11:9-10,15-17
9 And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord:
10 Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.
15 And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves;
16 And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.
17 And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.

EZEKIEL 40 TO 48 IS THIS 4TH TEMPLE TO BIG FOR THE MOUNT I BELIEVE TO BE BUILT 25 MILES FROM JERUSALEM.

TURKISH ISLAM UNION AND REBUILDING THE 3RD TEMPLE (INTERVIEW)
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/1275
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/Author.aspx/1179
http://us2.harunyahya.com/Detail/T/EDCRFV/productId/15166
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=106055
http://www.joelstrumpet.com/?p=2040
http://www.joelstrumpet.com/?p=2064
http://us1.harunyahya.com/Detail/T/EDCRFV/productId/15163/ADNAN_OKTAR_S_MEETING_WITH_SANHEDRIN_RABBIS (AUDIO OF MEETING WITH RABBIS)
http://www.unionoffaiths.com/
http://www.thesanhedrin.org/en/index.php/Hachrazah_5769_Tamuz_9#Statement_of_Jerusalem_Court

JERUSALEM DIVIDED

ZECHARIAH 12:1-5 King James Bible
1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
4 In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.

JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

ZECHARIAH 14:1-9 King James Bible
1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. 5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.

WELL SURPRISE,SURPRISE ABBAS WANTS ALL OF JERUSALEM NOT JUST EAST JERUSALEM IN THE PEACE PROCESS.NOW WE KNOW WHY THE BIBLE SPEAKS OF ALL OF JERUSALEM NOT JUST EAST JERUSALEM BEING A CUP OF TREMBLING TO ALL THE ARAB,MUSLIMS ROUND ABOUT.THESE MURDER ARABS WILL NOT STOP TILL ALL ISRAELIS ARE DESTROYED.THE ARABS ARE TRYING TO GRAB ALL ISRAELS LAND THEN THEY CAN BOMB WERE EVER THERES ISRAELIS TO ELIMINATE THEM.....WELL MY BIBLE TELLS A DIFFERENT STORY.....THESE ARAB,MUSLIMS WILL BE DESTROYED INSTEAD, AND ISRAEL IN CONTROL OF JERUSALEM WILL GO ON FOREVER.

Fatah: PA Will Take All of Jerusalem – by Peace or by Force
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu AUG 09,09

(IsraelNN.com)
The Fatah party headed by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, re-elected in the fractured party convention in Bethlehem Saturday night, concluded all of Jerusalem is a red line for the PA. Fatah will continue to sacrifice victims until Jerusalem will be returned, clean of settlements and settlers, according to a Fatah all-or-nothing policy paper, which did not distinguish between the part of the capital that was restored to Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967 and the section that was recognized by the United Nations as part of Israel in the 1949 Armistice Agreement. Abbas, who previously has said he will not extend his term of office as head of the Palestinian Authority, which Fatah leads, was re-elected unanimously for another five-year term. He was the sole candidate who stood for the position. The de facto Hamas government in Gaza prevented Fatah delegates from leaving the region for Bethlehem, but several of them voted by telephone.The convention, marked by scuffles and mud slinging, is being extended to Tuesday as it tries to rejuvenate itself following years of corruption, which opponents say remains rampant.Abbas warned at the opening of the convention that Israel faces violence from the PA if it does not agree to its terms for a new Arab state on the land of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. He claimed that attacks on Israelis are valid under international law.

Although we have chosen peace, we maintain the right to launch an armed resistance, which is legitimate as far as international law is concerned.he told approximately the 2,000 delegates.At-Tayyib Abdul-Rahim, a member of Fatah Central Committee, said following Abbas's re-election,Fatah is still a liberation movement, and since we have not achieved our goals, we have popular resistance.... If peace efforts are thwarted, there will be no security, nor stability in the region.

Rural Religious Soldiers Most Motivated; Tel Aviv Apathetic
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu AUG 09,09

(IsraelNN.com)
National religious soldiers from rural areas are the most motivated to serve in IDF combat units, but secular Tel Aviv youth are less interested, according to IDF statistics compiled from 2005-2007.No high school from Tel Aviv entered the top 50 of those that were ranked according to the number of students enlisting in the IDF and the number who volunteered for combat units. A growing phenomenon in urban areas is for graduating students not to serve in the IDF, either by leaving the country or by using methods to fail entry tests.The most motivated high school was at religious Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu, located on the border with Jordan and less than five miles south of the town of the Jordan Valley town of Beit Shean. School principal Moshe Torpaz explained to the Hebrew-language newspaper Yisrael HaYom, We place values as the highest priority, and we live in an area where everyone is closely associated with the IDF and the State of Israel.Unlike most Israelis, especially those in urban areas, who turn Independence Day into the most important event of the year with barbeques, Torpaz said that Memorial Day for Soldiers is the most significant day in our communities.He also noted that he served 100 days in reserve duty last year as deputy battalion commander.The second-most motivated school, according to the IDF rankings of 506 high schools, is located in Hispin, a small religious community in the Golan Heights.A secular high school made in into third place, but schools from Tel Aviv, Holon, Haifa and Rishon LeTzion, which scored the lowest, are notably absent, while schools from less-central areas dotted the list.The prominence of communities of national religious soldiers replaces secular kibbutzim and moshavim, which traditionally were the most highly motivated soldiers.

Communities from Judea and Samaria were not prominent on the list because a large number of students serve in the army through the Hesder yeshiva program, which until recently included 18 months of active duty. The length of service now is two years. The statistics were gathered during the tenure of IDF manpower chief Elazar Stern who conducted a running battle over the Hesder program.The trend towards more national religious soldiers also was reflected in statistics for officers' school, and it previously has been reported that knitted kippa soldiers comprise nearly one-third of young officers.One IDF source commented that the high motivation of national religious soldiers is not a coincidence. Religious education puts an emphasis on love of the People of Israel and the Land of Israel, and this is seen in their volunteering for combat units, he stated.The growing percentage of soldiers wearing a kippa has changed the entire face of the army in recent years. In the Negev, the army is building separate swimming pools for men and women at a training base because of the large number of observant soldiers. Jewish law prohibits mixed swimming.

Netanyahu: Gush Katif One Expulsion Too Many
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu AUG 09,09

(IsraelNN.com)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who voted with the Sharon government four years to expel 10,000 Jews from their Gaza and northern Samarian homes, told the Cabinet on Sunday he will not repeat the same mistake. His support for the expulsion plan, known as the 2005 Disengagement, was critical until the Sharon government had enough backers, allowing Netanyahu to vote against the program after its execution was assured.[We] won't repeat that mistake. We won't create new evacuees,The Prime Minister told ministers while recalling the expulsions from the Gush Katif region of Gaza and four communities in northern Samaria. Prime Minister Netanyahu noted that turning over the Gaza region to the Palestinian Authority did not leave Israel with peace or security while the government ruined the lives of expulsion victims.

Netanyahu at Cabinet meeting Sunday Promising not to surrender communities in Judea and Samaria to the Palestinian Authority, the Prime Minister said there will be no unilateral expulsions.We want a bilateral agreement,including recognition of Israel as a Jewish state by the PA and secure security agreements, he added.PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has refused to describe Israel as a Jewish state, which would implicitly void his demand that five million foreign Arabs, claiming ancestry in Israel, be allowed to enter the country and create a de facto Arab majority.The rhetoric appears to be more and more theoretical as both Israel and the PA have drawn opposing red lines. The convention of the Fatah party, led by Abbas, issued a resolution that calls for Jerusalem to be part of the PA, either by peace or by force, which it said is legitimate under international law. However, the Fatah policy paper did not specifically name eastern Jerusalem, leaving open a claim for sovereignty over the entire city.Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who also is chairman of the Labor party, said that the Fatah convention rhetoric is unacceptable.He added that any solution to the Middle East conflict demands a comprehensive peace agreement.

Last week, the Defense Minister claimed that the United States will present a step-by-step plan for a peace agreement and that Israel should accept it, although its contents are not yet known.

Lebanese Army's shock: National Internet routed through… Israel
Sunday, 09 August 2009 05:32 News from Jerusalem

A large Lebanese army force which raided the Lebanese Internet network center on Mt. Barukh east of the Lebanese town of Jezzine Saturday, Aug. 8 was dismayed to discover the exchange center which carries all of Lebanon's Internet links using equipment made in Israel. An intelligence sweep found the servers were routed to an exchange center in Haifa.The soldiers impounded piles of equipment and rounded up several detainees at the mountain center and several Lebanese Internet companies.Upon learning of the discovery, Hizballah demanded an immediate and thorough investigation of how all of Israeli intelligence acquired free access to all Lebanese internet communications like an open book.In recent months, Lebanon has seen one suspected Israeli spy network after another exposed across the country. Wednesday, Aug. 5, DEBKAfile first disclosed that the spy rings were not busted by Lebanese intelligence but by agents of the Russian Federal Security Service - FSB working undercover in Lebanon since early this year at the invitation of the Lebanese Shiite Hizballlah.

Russian agents may also have led the Lebanese army to their discovery of the Israeli data center on Mt. Barukh.debka

Kassam from Gaza explodes in w. Negev Sunday, 09 August 2009 10:42 News from Jerusalem Mother and children take cover in southern Israel (Photo AP)

The relative quiet on the Gaza border was broken Sunday morning when Palestinian gunmen launched a Kassam rocket into Israel.The rocket exploded in an open area in the western Negev. There were no casualties and no damage was caused.The last time a Kassam was fired from Gaza was in mid-July, when a rocket struck the Sdot Negev region. There were no casualties or damage in that incident either.Rocket attacks have been rare since Operation Cast Lead in January and have not caused any casualties.Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has vowed to respond to any rocket fire from the Strip, saying in late July, Our policy is that we are not prepared to accept rocket and missile fire on Israeli territory. For every rocket, before the elections [in February] there may not have been a response, but that has not been the case since the elections. This was and will remain our policy.Israel has recently conducted successful tests of the Iron Dome missile defense system. The system, under development by Rafael Defense Systems, is slated to become operational sometime in 2010 and is reportedly capable of intercepting short-range Kassam and Katyusha rockets fired by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hizb'allah in southern Lebanon.Yaakov Katz and Herb Keinon contributed to this report.jpost

FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU Hamas spinning Western media, study says,Islamic group talks peace in English, promotes destruction of Israel in Arabic August 09, 2009
8:04 pm Eastern By Aaron Klein 2009 WorldNetDaily

Hamas logo

JERUSALEM – A new study asserts Hamas is engaging in a spin effort of phony rapprochement with Israel in order to continue engaging with the West, while its leaders are explaining in Arabic they are still seeking the Jewish state's destruction and denying any real accommodation with Israel. Hamas is conducting a smile spin for the West, particularly the United States. Its main objectives are to ease its political isolation, improve its position vis-à-vis the Palestinian Authority and get funds to rebuild the Gaza Strip,concludes the study by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at Israel's Center for Special Studies. For the Palestinians, [Hamas] stresses that its fundamental anti-Israeli pro-terrorism strategy remains unchanged.The study quotes liberally from multiple recent Hamas interviews to U.S. and British news media outlets and compares those statements to Hamas rhetoric to the Palestinians during the same period. Khaled Mashaal, the overall chief of Hamas, was interviewed in Damascus two weeks ago by the Wall Street Journal. During the interview, Meshaal told the newspaper his group is willing to agree to an immediate reciprocal cease-fire with Israel as well as a prisoner exchange for kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Meshaal claimed Hamas and other Palestinian organizations would be ready to cooperate with any American, international or regional effort to find a just solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, end so-called Israeli occupation and allow the Palestinian people their right to self-determination.In a separate interview with the British Economist, Ahmed Yousef, Hamas' chief political adviser in Gaza, was quoted as stating,Hamas is very close on recognition of Israel We show all sorts of ideological flexibility on this.

Yousef, who conducts regular interviews with WND, told the Economist that should the Palestinian people choose the so-called two-state solution, Hamas would not object.
Yousef tried to minimize the importance of the Hamas charter, which calls for the murder of Jews and destruction of Israel. He stated,We don't use it. Why should we change it when we never use it? In an interview with the BBC, Taher al-Nunu, a Hamas spokesman, said his group welcomed the opportunity for dialogue with the international community.Meanwhile, the Center for Special Studies noted, Hamas figures continue to incite against Israel and promote terrorism when speaking to the general Palestinian public. Some Hamas figures even rejected the statements they purportedly gave to the Western media.Clarifying his remarks of recognizing Israel to the Economist, Yousef, speaking with a Hamas news website days after the interview, denied ever having said that Hamas was close to recognizing Israel. He claimed the Economist either misunderstood what he had said or had misquoted him when the interview was translated into English. In a Friday sermon at a mosque in Khan Yunis, and broadcast on Hamas' al-Aqsa television on July 24, Ismail Haniya, head of the Hamas de-facto administration in Gaza, said his group was prepared to adopt the concept of liberation in stages.Haniya said Hamas would not object to the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. However, he said this was just a temporary strategic option aimed at completely ending the occupation – meaning destroying Israel.Haniya added that resistance, a term which often includes terrorist acts, was also a strategic option to which the Palestinians would continue adhering.At a July 27 ceremony held in the Al-Zeitun neighborhood of Gaza City, Mahmoud al-Zahar, chief of Hamas in Gaza, clarified his group adheres to the position that the [Palestinian] state must contain all the territory of Palestine.

Continued al-Zahar:We are certain that what comes after the liberation of Palestine will not be only a state. After the liberation of Palestine a large revolution will reach everywhere.Sheikh Hamad al-Bitawi, a Hamas activist in the West Bank city of Nablus and a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, declared two weeks ago that Jerusalem and Palestine will only be liberated by jihad and not by negotiations.Fathi Hamad, Hamas' interior minister, reiterated on July 13 Hamas' basic, traditional positions that only resistance would make the Zionist enemy leave occupied Palestine.Hamas, he said, cannot cede one inch of the historical land of Palestine because it belongs to the Muslim endowment.

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 MON AUGUST 10,2009

09:30 AM -2.19
10:00 AM -20.55
10:30 AM -25.92
11:00 AM -7.93
11:30 AM -18.21
12:00 PM -27.05
12:30 PM -35.21
01:00 PM -44.06
01:30 PM -48.29
02:00 PM -52.14
02:30 PM -69.15
03:00 PM -45.49
03:30 PM -47.31
04:00 PM -32.12 9337.95

S&P 500 1007.10 -3.38

NASDAQ 1992.24 -8.01

GOLD 946.80 -12.70

OIL 70.79 -0.14

TSE 300 10,805.97 -79.36

CDNX 1185.21 -7.37

S&P/TSX/60 650.37 -5.34

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow +6.76%
S&P +11.87%
Nasdaq +26.84%
TSX Advances 943,declines 561,unchanged 261,Volume 1,989,945,593.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 407,Declines 369,Unchanged 392,Volume 237,564,241.

Dow -40 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -45 points at low today.
Dow +3 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $948.10.OIL opens at $70.85 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -45 points at low today so far.
Dow +3 points at high today so far.

DAY TODAY PERFORMANCE - 12:30PM STATS
NYSE Advances 1,693,declines 1,882,unchanged 91,New Highs 69,New Lows 29.
Volume 2,585,568,538.
NASDAQ Advances 1,299,declines 1,288,unchanged 136,New highs 49,New Lows 10.
Volume 750,776,287.
TSX Advances 569,declines 701,unchanged 271,Volume 688,217,484.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 294,Declines 318,Unchanged 284,Volume 139,425,890.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -78 points at low today.
Dow +3 points at high today.
Dow -0.34% today Volume 161,274,992.
Nasdaq -0.40% today Volume 1,768,761,680.
S&P 500 -0.33% today Volume N/A

Clinton presses Angola to sweeten trade ties By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer – Sun Aug 9, 3:11 pm ET

LUANDA, Angola – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton brought her democracy and development tour of Africa to oil-rich Angola on Sunday, encouraging the war-ravaged country to continue reforms and pledging to boost trade ties with a major energy producer.Clinton, on the third leg of a seven-nation trip, came to the Angolan capital to reinforce America's presence in a country where it increasingly is competing for resources with China. Beijing has loaned Angola billions of dollars in recent years without pressing reform.After meeting Foreign Minister Assuncao Afonso dos Anjos, Clinton urged the government to build on successful legislative elections held in 2008 — the first in 16 years — through presidential elections and dealing with the legacy of its 27-year civil war.We look forward to Angola building on this positive step, including the adoption of a new constitution, investigating and prosecuting past human rights abuses and holding a timely, free and fair presidential election, she said at a news conference with dos Anjos.

So Mr. Minister, we have our work cut out for us,she said.Clinton planned to meet on Monday with President Eduardo dos Santos, who has ruled for 30 years and has been criticized for postponing a presidential vote that was scheduled for this year.Angola, a former Cold War battleground, supplies vast amounts of petroleum and liquid natural gas to the U.S. market. In June, Angola surpassed Nigeria as Africa's largest petroleum producer. Last year, Angola overtook Saudi Arabia as the leading source of crude oil for China.

Clinton played down concerns about Chinese encroachment.I am not looking at what anyone else does in Angola,she said.I am looking at what the United States can do to further and deepen our relationship and provide assistance and support for the changes the Angolan government is undertaking.She also noted that the United States and China were cooperating on how to ensure that investment in Africa's energy sector promotes development.U.S. officials say Clinton's visit is intended to demonstrate the Obama administration's interest in keeping America in Africa's energy game as well as well cooperating with it on climate change.After meeting the foreign minister, Clinton attended a lunch with Angolan dignitaries and pointed out that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, had normalized U.S. relations with Angola in 1993.Now, I, as secretary of state, working with President Obama, will continue to build that relationship,she said.Later Sunday, Clinton was to witness the signing of a corporate responsibility agreement between U.S. oil giant Chevron and the Angolan government.Despite its oil wealth, Angola is mired in poverty as a result of the destruction of most of infrastructure during the war, which broke out after its 1975 independence from Portugal.The war ended in 2002, leading to major energy sector investments. But the country ranks near the bottom of U.N. development statistics and the gap between rich and poor is among the worst in the world.Dos Anjos said the government was committed to addressing the imbalance. He appealed for patience, noting it takes time to rebuild roads, factories and agriculture as well as educate a population to do more than menial labor.We are asking for more time, he said.We have the resources and we have the willingness and we can ensure a better life for our people. It is not a magic wand that will resolve this. We need programs that will gradually build wealth and create welfare.Clinton, who has visited Kenya and South Africa on her trip, was to leave Angola on Monday after seeing dos Santos and head to the Democratic Republic of Congo. From there she will travel to Nigeria, Liberia and Cape Verde. On the Net: State Department background on Angola: http://www.state.gov/p/af/ci/ao/

Sunday, August 9, 2009 Report: Oracle, Sun deal faces EU scrutinyNew Mexico Business Weekly Half of Oracle’s giving goes to Bay Area nonprofits Amy Mayer Sun Microsystems shareholders OK sale to Oracle

The planned purchase of Sun Microsystems Inc. by Oracle Corp. is being closely watched by the European Union as well as by antitrust investigators in the U.S., according to a report Friday.The Wall Street Journal reported that the $7.4 billion deal is facing hurdles by antitrust regulators in the EU, and that questions have been raised about Sun's Java software language.Redwood City, Calif.-based Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) said in June that it expected to close the deal with Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sun by August.The Journal reported that a questionnaire was sent to other companies in an effort to see whether the merger of the two companies would mean fewer choices or higher prices.

Market rally, economic growth depend on consumer By SARA LEPRO, AP Business Writer - Sun Aug 9, 2:00 pm ET

NEW YORK – Now that housing and even unemployment are showing signs of improvement, Wall Street wants consumers to do their part to heal the economy.Investors get some insight this week into how consumers are spending from a government report on July retail sales. They'll also find out if consumers helped major retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Macy's Inc. join the stream of companies that reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings and forecasts.What we'll see now is close attention to consumer behavior,said Joe Heider, president of Dawson Wealth Management in Cleveland.Analysts say investors need to see evidence that consumer spending is picking up before they'll keep the market's summer rally going. Despite signs the recession is easing, investors are still worried that consumers, whose spending accounts for 70 percent of all U.S. economic activity, could hurt the economy's chances for a robust recovery if they continue to limit what they buy.The stock market has soared in the last month as reports showed steady increases in home sales, improving corporate earnings and a stabilization in the manufacturing industry. On Friday, investors cheered an unexpected dip in the unemployment rate.The Standard & Poor's 500 index is up 15 percent in just four weeks and 49 percent from a 12-year low in early March. All the major indexes now stand at their highest levels since last fall.Lackluster sales reports from some of the nation's retailers last week were a reminder that consumers are still nervous. But Friday's surprisingly positive employment report, which showed job losses slowed last month and the unemployment rate fell to 9.4 percent from 9.5 percent in June, could signal brighter days. If job losses are stabilizing, that should give consumers more confidence to buy beyond their basic needs.

One potential problem that could deter consumers and stifle the economy's rebound is rising interest rates. As the economy improves, the Federal Reserve may be forced to raise its benchmark federal funds rate, which stands at a record low of near zero, to prevent a surge in inflation. That would force up borrowing costs including mortgage rates.Linda Duessel, equity market strategist at Federated Investors, said these fears could weigh on the market, especially as the Fed readies for a two-day meeting that begins Tuesday.The people that are going to look for an excuse to pull this market back might look at the fear of the Fed raising rates too soon,she said.Still, expectations are for the Fed to keep rates steady at least through the end of the year. Investors, though, will be watching closely for any changes in the Fed's assessment of the economy that accompanies its interest rate decision. Up until now, the Fed's stance has been cautiously optimistic, warning that growth will be slow and controlled.The market will also want to see how well Treasury auctions go this week. The Treasury Department is issuing $75 billion of long-term notes as part of its ongoing effort to fund the government's stimulus programs. Treasurys have tended to sell off ahead of the auctions, which drives yields higher, as investors fear there won't be enough demand to support the flood of supply. Long-term Treasury yields are closely tied to rates on mortgages and other types of loans, so when yields creep higher, investors get nervous.

So far, the auctions have been going relatively smoothly.

Aside from the risks posed by a slack in consumer spending and higher interest rates, the traditional summer slowdown on Wall Street in August could threaten the market's rally. As traders and investors leave for vacation, there will be lighter trading volume, and therefore increased volatility in the market, especially considering stocks have barely taken a breather after such a considerable run.Equities seem to be on a one-way train here,said Todd Colvin, vice president at MF Global.That sets us up for a potential pullback.

Survey: Gas prices nationwide jump 16 cents Sun Aug 9, 3:30 pm ET

CAMARILLO, Calif. – The U.S. price of gasoline jumped nearly 16 cents a gallon during the past two weeks to $2.64.That's according to the national Lundberg Survey of fuel prices released Sunday.Analyst Trilby Lundberg says it appears the rate of increase is slowing. The latest average price of regular gasoline is $1.20 below the price at the same time last year.The average price for a gallon of mid-grade was $2.77. Premium was at $2.88.Charleston, S.C., had the lowest price, $2.38 for a gallon for regular. Honolulu was the highest at $3.07.

Oil hovers near $71 as investors eye US consumers AUG 10,09

SINGAPORE – Oil prices hovered near $71 a barrel Monday in Asia as investors looked to signs later this week of the U.S. consumers' health.Benchmark crude for September delivery was up 17 cents to $71.10 a barrel by midday in Singapore in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Friday, the contract fell $1.01 to settle at $70.93.Crude prices have fluttered near $71 a barrel and $72 for about a week as investors try to gauge how strong a U.S. economic recovery will be this year. The government said Friday that the unemployment rate fell to 9.4 percent in June, but gasoline demand has been weak this summer.This week, the U.S. government will report July retail sales, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Macy's Inc. will announce their second quarter results.In other Nymex trading, gasoline for September delivery fell 0.65 cent to $2.00 a gallon and heating oil rose 1.15 cents to $1.92. Natural gas for September delivery gained 4.7 cents to $3.72 per 1,000 cubic feet.In London, Brent prices rose 20 cents to $73.79 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

UN chief calls for action on weapons, climate change AUG 10,09

SEOUL (AFP) – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called Monday for renewed international efforts to tackle the twin threats to the world posed by nuclear weapons and climate change.Ban, who arrived Sunday on a visit to his home country, told the annual meeting of the World Federation of UN Associations there was a rare but critical opportunity to create a safer world.For the first time in a decade, negotiators have agreed to a package of measures that can move the world away from nuclear weapons,he said of talks between Russia and the United States on cutting their nuclear arsenals.Now is our time... the time to build on this momentum, Ban told some 250 delegates from UN associations in 63 countries.Ban called for a global push for a nuclear-free world.We call it WMD -- not Weapons of Mass Destruction but instead We Must Disarm.The United States and Russia in July ended a fourth round of talks in Geneva on a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expires in December.

They agreed to meet again in a month.

At a July summit in Moscow US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev agreed on a roadmap for a new treaty that sets numerical targets for further cuts in warheads and missiles.Hans Blix, a former top UN nuclear inspector who leads the World Federation of UN Associations, echoed Ban's call. The world's military spending hit 1.4 trillion dollars in 2008, he said.It is time to wake up to the tremendous threats and wasted costs by our addiction to excessive armament,Blix said.Ban also raised the threat of global warming caused largely by greenhouse gas emissions.The United Nations is orchestrating crucial talks in the Danish capital in December, in hopes of an agreement on slashing greenhouse gas emissions.We have less than 10 years to halt the global rise in greenhouse gas emissions if we are to avoid catastrophic consequences for people and the planet, Ban told Monday's forum.This December, in Copenhagen, we have a chance to put in place a climate change agreement that all nations can embrace.He called for a major top down push from world leaders and also a strong bottom-up push from the world's UN associations.We must seize this once-in-a-generation chance,Ban said.Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, is on a 10-day private visit and returns to New York on August 18.He plans to meet President Lee Myung-Bak, Prime Minister Han Seung-Soo and Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan to discuss issues including climate change and the UN-South Korean partnership.

Croatian region calls for EU aid on landmines
VALENTINA POP Today AUG 10,09 @ 10:01 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU should step up aid for demining activities in Croatia, where almost a 1,000 square kilometers of suspected minefields still wait to be cleared - an effort which could take another 50 years at the current pace, an official from the most affected region told EUobserver.We speak on behalf of the 500 people who died after the war and the 1,500 who were injured by landmines. Our region remains the most affected one,Stjepan Ribic, the representative in Brussels of the Slavonia and Baranja region, stretching from the east of Croatia to its borders with Hungary and Serbia, said.Mr Ribic fears that the central government in Zagreb is not a strong advocate of aid to the region, which has neither posh Adriatic coast resorts beloved by EU tourists nor the prominence of a capital city.Immediately after the 1991-1995 war, international assistance was channeled to demining roads, tourist destinations and public places. Gradually, these activities became the sole responsibility of the national government, which pledged to have the country mine-free by 2010. The deadline was later extended to 2018, with some 955 square kilometres still under the skull and crossbones sign despite plans for the country to enter the EU in 2011.

The EU contributed €24 million between 1999 and 2007 as part of its direct support for post-war reconstruction. The assistance focused mainly on demining houses and yards in the area around the Adriatic resort of Zadar and along the border with Serbia, especially around the town of Vukovar.But the region of Slavonia and Baranja would need more than 10 times this amount in order to complete the clearing of suspected minefields on time, Mr Ribic said.In our area they have to check centimeter by centimeter, you can't do it with a tractor or a special machine, because there are woods, rivers, and you must pass centimeter by centimeter to be sure that you cleared the field,he explained.With no precise maps detailing the exact location of the landmines as was the case in post-war Germany, demining efforts in Croatia are harder as time passes by and, for instance, unexploded ordinance is moved along river banks.
It should be a priority of the EU, which is one of the world's biggest donors on demining efforts all around the globe - from Africa to Asia - with €1.5 billion earmarked for these activities in 1997-2007,the Croatian official said. To me it would make more sense if the EU would clean up its own yard first and then go help other countries.

Farming potential

Still the poorest region of the former Yugoslav country, Slavonia and Baranja has huge potential for bio-agriculture, if the inhabitants would finally get access to their lands. In regards to the current EU funds flowing to Croatia under the so-called Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA), the commission has said that the only way it could finance demining activities was if these were part of other projects, for instance laying bicycle tracks or golf courses. But economic development projects are hard to roll out without demining first, while most lands are privately owned, which makes them ineligible for EU funding, Mr Ribic said, urging the EU to show more flexibility in the use of IPA funds and to adapt to what he calls a unique situation in a candidate country.So far, no funds have been allocated for Croatian demining from IPA,Mirella Rasic from the commission's delegation in Zagreb told EUobserver.
She added that this was in line with the Croatian government's own needs-assessment, suggesting that Zagreb is not particularly keen on including demining in EU-sponsored programmes.

Not on the list

Mr Ribic was also astonished to see that in the commission's guidelines on EU mine action for 2007-2013, Croatia was not mentioned alongside countries such as Belarus, Bosnia, Kosovo, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Laos and Cambodia.After some insistence, Croatia was put on the register, but the EU executive stressed that this would not mean automatic support for mine action in this or any other country. Demining assistance would only be negotiated on a bilateral basis with each country, it said.The problem is that Zagreb doesn't have landmines, so this is not a priority for them. But for our region, it's the number one priority,Mr Ribic concluded.

EU accused of unfair play on Intel case
LISBETH KIRK Today AUG 10,09 @ 09:28 CET

The European Ombudsman has criticised the European Commission for mal-administration in an anti-trust case against US microchip supplier Intel, which in May resulted in the single largest fine in EU history.In an unpublished report seen by The Wall Street Journal, the ombudsman P. Nikiforos Diamandouros says the commission committed maladministration because it did not record a meeting in August 2006.At the time commission investigators interviewed an executive of computer company Dell, who had also testified about Intel in 2003 before the US Federal Trade Commission, the Wall Street Journal says.The Dell executive told commission investigators that hardware from the rival AMD company was problematic due to very poor performance, indicating that technical reasons motivated Dell to choose Intel chips.When Intel asked for a copy of the record of the meeting the commission said it did not interview the Dell executive and that no minutes of the meeting were taken, according to the ombudsman's report. Only an aide memoire was written, but this is an internal document that Intel could not get access to.The ombudsman cannot overturn the EU fine, but his report may help Intel in an appeal launched at the EU Court of First Instance in July.In the appeal Intel claims that the fine violated its human rights. Intel also argues that such fines should only be issued as the result of criminal investigations, not from administrative proceedings.

Commission spokesman Alain Bloedt on Saturday (8 August) defended the EU executive. The commission can reassure you that it surely respected Intel's right of defence, Mr Bloedt told AFP.Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years. Such a serious and sustained violation of the EU's antitrust rules cannot be tolerated, EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said back in May.The €1.06 billion Intel 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.

Israel man seeks EU money to fortify home
ANDREW RETTMAN Today AUG 10,09 @ 09:18 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A man with dual French and Israeli nationality is mounting a legal challenge to make the EU pay to fortify his home in Israel against rocket attack.Eyal Katorza from the town of Sderot near Gaza has lost his job and in the past two years seen his mother's shop close down because of mortars and Qassam rockets, which hit the area on average three or four times a day despite official ceasefires.The latest rocket landed near the Kibbutz Alumim on Sunday morning (9 August).In an eight page draft legal petition obtained by EUobserver, Mr Katorza's lawyers say the EU is obliged to protect its citizens abroad under articles 3.5 and 20of the EU treaty.The petition calls for EU reparations for lost job income, reparations for physical and psychological damages, reparations for property damages [and] monies for reinforced buildings against missiles or any other military projectiles.It also accuses the EU of allowing aid to the occupied Palestinian territories to get into the hands of persons and organisations who actually finance and perpetrate terrorism.The petition urges member states to stop the transfer of European money to Hamas and/or to any other organisations that are defined by the Israeli government as terrorist organisations.Mr Katorza is represented by the Tzivin & Co law firm in Tel Aviv and by Hugo Coveliers & Roel Coveliers in Antwerp, Belgium.

The legal team, which has experience of international lawsuits, aims to file the petition with the European Commission in Brussels on Monday and to open a case at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg in 12 months' time if the commission does not act.The lawyers have invited other EU citizens living in Israel - estimated at 300,000people - to join the petition.The EU in 2008 channeled €408 million in aid to the occupied territories under a programme which has attracted long-standing criticism from Jewish rights groups in Europe.The bulk of the money is paid out via Pegase - a financial mechanism designed to make sure EU funds go directly to Palestinian medical workers or to keep power plants going, instead of being used for political or military purposes.

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,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) 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.

After a decade in power, Putin not ready to quit By DAVID NOWAK, Associated Press Writer - Sun Aug 9, 11:20 am ET

MOSCOW – Vladimir Putin celebrated a decade in power Sunday, and it appears the former KGB strongman may maintain his grip on Russia's government for years to come.
Supporters credit him with rescuing the economy from the post-Soviet doldrums and restoring national pride. Critics say the price — rolling back democratic reforms and stifling dissent — has been too high.It has been 10 years since an ailing Boris Yeltsin promoted Putin from security chief to prime minister on Aug. 9, 1999. He was elected president the following year and in 2008 he handed the post — but not all the power — to a hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev.Putin became prime minister again, allowed almost all the men he surrounded himself with as president to remain in power, and is still understood to call the major shots.And the signs are that the 56-year-old is far from ready to loosen his grip on power. The muscle-bound St. Petersburg native stripped to the waist for a man-versus-nature photo shoot in southern Siberia earlier this week, plunging fearlessly into an icy river and climbing cliffs and trees.Observers see little impediment to Putin's goal of holding the reins until and even after 2020.

Putin can easily rule until 2012 (the next elections) or longer,said Lilia Shevtsova, of the Carnegie Moscow Center, stressing his handling of the current crisis could play a decisive role in his future.Between his two times as prime minister — the brief stint in 1999 and the current term he is serving since last year — Putin sandwiched a presidency that cleared the political landscape of opponents.Putin reversed the democratic achievements of Yeltsin by abolishing the direct election of regional governors, marginalized the liberal opposition and, critics say, instilled an atmosphere of impunity for those who silence his challengers by fair means or foul.

Under Putin, who once told journalists to keep their snotty noses out of his business, independent media are few and far between, and those outlets not under state control are intimidated into subordination. A cartoon network showing U.S. shows last month censored an episode of hit comedy South Park that poked fun at Putin.

According to a recent Freedom House count, 16 journalists have been killed since Putin came to power, with only one case solved. Probably the highest-profile death was that of Anna Politkovskaya, the Novaya Gazeta reporter who wrote articles on Chechnya and the book Putin's Russia: Life in a Failing Democracy.But many credit Putin with rebuilding a country out of the smashed remains of the late 1990s, when the ruble collapsed and the economy ground to halt.Russians in the big cities have seen their quality of life raised dramatically since 1999. Though critics say Putin has done little to lessen Russia's dependency on its abundant oil and gas resources, high world prices for the commodities have seen unprecedented economic growth.Moscow and St. Petersburg are awash with superrich, though the current global downturn has recently relegated billionaires to mere millionaires. And Putin has also helped to slow Russia's alarming population decline — down to 141 million from almost 150 million after the Soviet collapse.He has promoted a healthy lifestyle, not only by example — Putin is a judo expert and frequent swimmer — but also by a series of programs that encourage sports and warn of the dangers of smoking and drinking, ubiquitous in the worse-off regions.But perhaps guaranteeing Putin support among Russia's patriotic electorate — currently he enjoys a 78 percent popularity rating — has been an aggressive foreign policy. He has resumed Soviet-era air patrols over foreign waters and shot down efforts to expand NATO, a Western military alliance he sees as a Moscow foe, toward Russia's western fringes.As a result, Moscow's relations with Washington nose-dived. U.S. support for Georgia and Ukraine, two Westward-leaning countries formerly under Moscow's control, raised suspicions in the Kremlin that Washington was trying to turn them against Russia. Last year's Russia-Georgia war was seen as a climax of those tensions, and serious diplomacy was required by successor administrations in Moscow and Washington to reset the relationship.

Putin wants Russia in the world elite — a notion surmised most fittingly perhaps by the man he selected to succeed him, Dmitry Medvedev. Medvedev said in a recent interview with Russia's NTV network that he wants any Russian traveling abroad to be granted the same respect as that afforded to Westerners.Many consider Medvedev a stopgap president, allowing Putin to retain power while adhering to the constitution, which only allows two consecutive terms.The next election is in 2012, the maiden vote for an extended, six-year term.

Pope: Nazi concentration camps a symbol of evil Sun Aug 9, 10:20 am ET

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy – Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday that Nazi concentration camps were extreme symbols of evil and hell on earth.The German-born pontiff, who was forced to join the Hitler Youth, was remembering two saints who had died at the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.The Nazi (death camps), like any extermination camps, can be considered extreme symbols of evil, Benedict said.They are a symbol of the hell that comes to earth when man forgets God and replaces him, usurping his right to decide what is right and what is wrong, to give life and death,Benedict told pilgrims gathered for Sunday's traditional Angelus prayer.The pope said, however, that this phenomenon is not circumscribed to the death camps. Speaking at the Castel Gandolfo summer retreat, the pope took to task contemporary nihilism and behaviors that exalt arbitrariness and transform man into God — but a wrong God.The pope cited two 20-century figures who were canonized under his predecessor, Pope John Paul II: Edith Stein, a Jewish-born Carmelite nun who was killed at Auschwitz and made a saint in 1998; and Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish Franciscan friar who sacrificed his life at the death camp so that a man with a family could live and was made a saint in 1982.

Benedict visited the Auschwitz concentration camp during a trip to Poland in May 2006. He said at the time that he was coming as a son of the German people and asked God why he remained silent during the unprecedented mass crimes of the Holocaust.

Sanctions Unlikely to Stop Iran's Nuclear Quest By TONY KARON – AUG 10,09

Unless Iran responds positively to President Obama's offer of talks on its nuclear program by next month, it could face what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls crippling sanctions.That was the message from Administration officials touring the Middle East in recent weeks. And it's backed by congressional moves to pass legislation aimed at choking off the gasoline imports on which Iran relies for almost a third of its consumption, by punishing third-country suppliers. It sounds impressive and, for an undiversified economy like Iran's, potentially calamitous. But a number of Iran analysts are skeptical that new sanctions will break the stalemate. (See TIME's behind-the-scenes photos of Mir-Hossein Mousavi.) President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government has promised to present a new package of proposals on the nuclear issue to Western negotiators in the coming weeks. But that package is unlikely to reflect any shift in Tehran's rejection of the U.S. demand that it forgo the right to enrich uranium as part of its nuclear-energy program.If the U.S. position remains unchanged,says Farideh Farhi, an Iran expert at the University of Hawaii,Iran may well come to the table, but only in order to demonstrate to its own people that its regime has been recognized, not to seriously engage with U.S. proposals or give ground.(See TIME's photos: The Long Shadow of Ayatullah Khomeini.)

Iran's postelection turmoil has left Ahmadinejad politically weakened, and his focus in the coming weeks will be on assembling a government and stabilizing a divided regime, rather than on seeking a compromise with the Western powers he blames for the election debacle. Iranians have never responded well to deadlines and red lines, says Farhi,and there's no reason to believe they will do so now.In a TV interview two weeks ago, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Iran,You have a right to pursue the peaceful use of civil nuclear power. You do not have a right to obtain a nuclear weapon. You do not have the right to have the full enrichment and reprocessing cycle under your control.But both the Iranian government and its opposition believe that Iran is due the same rights as any other signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which includes the right to enrich uranium to the levels necessary for reactor fuel, under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). There is no disagreement among political leaders in Iran on proclaiming Iran's right to enrich uranium,says Farhi. Iran's previous government had shown flexibility on the pace of an enrichment program, but not on the principle. Explains Farhi: It is simply not feasible for any political leader in Iran to accept an arrangement that denies Iran the rights enjoyed by others, that treats Iran as a special case.Iran's current enrichment efforts are monitored by IAEA inspectors and certified as within permissible limits. The U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Dennis Blair, recently wrote to Congress that it is unlikely that Iran will have the technical capability to produce [weapons-grade uranium] before 2013. Blair added that U.S. intelligence believes Iran has not yet decided whether to produce weapons-grade materiel, and would be unlikely to do so while its nuclear effort remains under international scrutiny. But with hawks painting Iran's nuclear program as a grave and gathering danger and the Israelis threatening to take preemptive military action, the Obama Administration is under pressure to produce results from its efforts to engage Iran.

Effective sanctions, say Administration officials, require participation by Iran's key trading partners. That's a problem, since neither Russia nor China is convinced that there's an imminent danger of Iran producing nuclear weapons. Coalition of the willing–style sanctions of the sort envisaged by the congressional legislation may have limited impact because they're unlikely to be implemented by neighbors such as Turkey and Iraq. And the use of naval power to enforce a blockade could easily provoke a war that the U.S. military is eager to avoid. But even if crippling sanctions were somehow imposed, Tehran still might not back down.If it were possible to choke off the gasoline supply into Iran, the likelihood is that Iran's existing refinery capacity would be used first and foremost to ensure that the needs of the security forces and the regime are taken care of,says Dr. Gary Sick, a Columbia University professor and former National Security Council Iran specialist.Those who are going to suffer most will be the ordinary Iranians with whom we sympathize. You can argue that this might spur them to revolt, but more likely is that if their fuel rations are suddenly cut in half, ordinary Iranians will be very upset with the West.The economic well-being of the Iranian people has never been a first-tier priority for the Iranian regime, says Carnegie Endowment Iran analyst Karim Sadjadpour.The last three decades have shown us that this regime is willing to endure tremendous hardship rather than compromise for reasons of economic or political expediency.Farhi points out that Iran's regime began making preparations for U.S. petroleum sanctions as early as 2007, diversifying its sources of supply, moving to upgrade its refineries and implementing a comprehensive rationing system, all of which can help the regime manage the impact of a fall in gasoline imports. So what can the West possibly do? A number of Iran watchers recommend that in the postelection turmoil the Obama Administration should simply reset its clock.We should continue to allow the rifts between political Élites, and the rift between the people and regime, to widen on their own,suggests Sadjadpour.As Napoleon once said,If your enemy is destroying himself, don't interfere.The truth is, we don't know how sanctions on refined petroleum could play out, and our bottom line should be to do no harm to the prospects for political change in Iran.

Easy enough for policy analysts to say, but not for a President.A lot of people are going to be putting immense pressure on President Obama to set a deadline and take firm action,says Sick. The Administration may have no good options beyond continuing to explore diplomacy, he warns, but it's extraordinarily difficult to sell that to a chorus of people shouting Do something!

Gaza: Israeli planes strike in response to mortars By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer - AUG 10,09

JERUSALEM – Israeli warplanes bombed a smuggling tunnel along the Gaza-Egypt border early Monday in response to Palestinian rocket and mortar fire, in a brief flare-up of violence at a time of relative quiet in the volatile Palestinian territory.Such exchanges of fire, once routine, have become rare in recent months. Rocket fire from Hamas-controlled Gaza has largely subsided since a fierce Israeli offensive against militants early this year.

There were no reports of casualties in any of the attacks.

On Sunday, Gaza militants launched mortar shells at a border crossing between Gaza and Israel just as Palestinian patients were being transferred into Israel for medical treatment, according to Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Gaza Health Ministry. Hassanain said it was a miracle that no one was hurt.According to the procedure, Palestinian patients are brought to the crossing in local ambulances, transferred to Israeli ambulances and taken to hospitals inside Israel.Two small Palestinian militant factions said they fired 12 mortars at the Erez crossing. The Israeli military said about six shells exploded near the crossing as the transfer was in progress.The military said Monday's airstrike came in response to the renewed militant fire and targeted a smuggling tunnel running underground between Egypt and Gaza.Gaza has been subject to a blockade by Egypt and Israel since Hamas seized power in the territory two years ago, with Israel allowing in only vital supplies. Gazan smugglers use the tunnels to bring in everything from gas to livestock, clothes and weapons.

Fatah reappoints Palestinian president as its head By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH, Associated Press Writer – Sat Aug 8, 11:57 am ET

BETHLEHEM, West Bank – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was re-elected to lead his Fatah movement Saturday at its first convention in two decades, giving him a new mandate for peace talks with Israel, if he can also heal divisions among his people.

Abbas, who succeeded iconic Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat after his death in 2004, was elected unopposed, but the movement itself has lost its shine over the past five years. Its old guard has been accused of rampant corruption and nepotism and it has suffered military humiliation at the hands of arch-rival Hamas.

Addressing the conference Saturday, Abbas promised change.

This convention must be a new beginning for the Fatah movement, he said to thunderous applause.In our history we've had many launches and setbacks. Sometimes we have reached the edge of the abyss — but we have always returned stronger.Hundreds of delegates cheered and clapped as senior Fatah official Tayib Abdul Rahim announced that Abbas had been chosen again to lead the party.Under Fatah's constitution Abbas can only lead the party for five years, until a new conference is held, but this is the first time Fatah members have met in 20 years and it is not clear when they will convene again.Abbas pledged to lead Palestinians to statehood but the challenges facing him are many.On Abbas' watch Fatah was trounced by Hamas in 2006 parliamentary elections, partly because of its corruption-tainted image. A year later, Hamas seized the Gaza Strip by force, politically splitting the Palestinian territories in two. The Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority rules the West Bank only, and Abbas has not been able to foster reconciliation between his party and Hamas.Without a rapprochment, Abbas' claim to represent all Palestinians in peace negotiations with Israel is shaky as he cannot impose authority over all the territories he seeks for a state, and will not be able to ensure security on southern Israel's border with Gaza.

Abbas has led a crackdown on Hamas militants in the West Bank, as a part of now-stalled negotiations with Israel. The plan is to bolster his standing with the Palestinians by improving their daily lives.The indications of unity within his own movement so far judging by the Fatah conference, are not promising, as the 2,000 members meeting for the first time since 1989 have tangled repeatedly over key issues.
Already the conference has been extended until Tuesday because the original three days allotted have not been enough work through the fractious members' differences.
Only six of 18 committees have been able to present their reports so far. Younger party members have accused their elderly leaders of stacking votes to ensure the veterans' remain in important positions.

Chavez urges military to be prepared for conflict By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER, Associated Press Writer – AUG 10,09

CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez told his military to be prepared for a possible confrontation with Colombia, warning that Bogota's plans to increase the U.S. military presence at its bases poses a threat to Venezuela.Chavez has issued near daily warnings that Washington could use bases in Colombia to destabilize the region since learning of negotiations to lease seven Colombian military bases to the United States.The threat against us is growing, Chavez said Sunday.I call on the people and the armed forces, let's go, ready for combat! The former paratroop commander said Colombian soldiers were recently spotted crossing the porous 1,400-mile (2,300-kilometer) border that separates the two countries and suggested that Colombia may have been trying to provoke Venezuela's military.They crossed the Orinoco River in a boat and entered Venezuelan territory, Chavez said.When our troops arrived, they'd already left.In Bogota, Colombia's foreign ministry issued a news release denying reports that soldiers crossed into Venezuela, after a revision of troop movements by the Colombian military.Chavez said Venezuela's foreign ministry would file a formal complaint and warned Colombia that Venezuela's military will respond if there's an attack against Venezuela.Chavez said he would attend this week's summit of the Union of South American Nations in Quito, Ecuador, to urge his Latin American allies to pressure Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to reconsider plans to increase the U.S. military presence.We cannot ignore this threat,Chavez said during his weekly radio and television program, Hello President.Chavez also halted shipments of subsidized fuel to Colombia, saying Venezuela should not be sending cheap gasoline to an antagonistic neighbor.Let them buy it at the real price. How are we going to favor Uribe's government in this manner? he said.

Colombian officials say Venezuela has no reason to be concerned, and that the U.S. forces would help fight drug trafficking. The proposed 10-year agreement, they claim, would not push the number of American troops and civilian military contractors beyond 1,400 — the maximum currently permitted by U.S. law.Tensions between the neighboring South American nations also have been heightened over Colombia's disclosure that three Swedish-made anti-tank weapons found at a rebel camp last year had been purchased by Venezuela's military.Chavez has accused Colombia of acting irresponsibly in its accusation that the anti-tank rocket launchers sold to Venezuela in 1988 were obtained by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Sweden confirmed the weapons were originally sold to Venezuela's military.Chavez denies aiding the FARC. He claims the United States is using Colombia as part of a broader plan to portray him as a supporter of terrorist groups to provide justification for U.S. military intervention in Venezuela.Chavez said Sunday that diplomatic relations with Uribe's government remain frozen even though he ordered Venezuela's ambassador to return to Colombia more than a week after he was recalled.

NKorea closely watching SKorea's rocket launch AUG 10,09

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea said Monday it will closely watch the international response to South Korea's planned satellite launch after Pyongyang was brought before the U.N. Security Council for what it said was a similar move.South Korea is aiming to launch a satellite into space from its own soil for the first time as early as next week.The North said its April rocket launch also carried a satellite and was part of its peaceful space development program. However, the U.S. and neighboring countries said that was a cover story by the North, and it actually tested advanced missile technology that violated U.N. sanctions imposed on Pyongyang.The Security Council subsequently slapped new sanctions on three North Korean companies after the launch.The North, in response, quit nuclear disarmament talks with the U.S., South Korea, Japan, China and Russia, arguing the sanctions violated the talks' principle of respect for sovereignty and equality.On Monday, Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry said it will closely watch how members of six-party nuclear talks would respond to South Korea's launch, because that will once again clearly prove whether the principle of equality exists or has collapsed.A ministry statement — carried by the official Korean Central News Agency — did not say what action North Korea would take if South Korea's launch was not referred to the Security Council.Kim Bo-hyun, a spokesman at the Science Ministry, said South Korea's satellite launch was for peaceful purposes only and its plan has been transparently conducted. He said it was not appropriate to compare the South's launch to the North's.

South Korea initially planned to launch the satellite from its southern coast in late July but failed to do so because of a technical glitch.South Korea has not set an exact date for the rescheduled launch but it may take place as early as Aug. 18, Kim said.Under a 2007 six-party deal, the North pledged to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for aid and security guarantees. The disarmament process, however, has been stalled since last year over a disagreement with Washington over how to verify the North's past atomic activities.