FILE - In this April 26, 2009 file photo, Miss California USA Carrie Prejean listens to a question at the Rock Church during services in San Diego.(AP Photo/Denis Poroy, File) 
AP picture-FIRE FIGHTERS BATTLING THE FLAMES NEAR LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA
assurancegroup.com CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES STILL RAGE.
ABC News picture HURRICANE JIMENA HEADS TO CALIFORNIA.INTERESTING A HURRICANE AND OUT OF CONTROL WILDFIRES IN CALIFORNIA.CAN YOU SAY JUDGEMENT COMIN ON AMERICA FOR HATING JESUS (GOD)AND ISRAEL.AND ONE MORE INTERESTING FACT,CALIFORNIA IS THE NEW AGE OCCULT CAPITAL OF AMERICA,THIS IS NO ACCIDENT.
AUDIT THE FED HAS 282 HOUSE MEMBERS AND 23 SENATE MEMBERS SIGNED UP SO FAR.
HERES HOW THE NEW WORLD ORDER WORKS,MY TAKE.THEY ELIMINATE SMALL BANKS AND THE WORKERS (NWO) GET THEIR BONUS'AND SEVERENCE PAY.THEN WHEN ALL THE SMALL BANKS ARE WEEDED OUT OF COMMISSION AND JUST THE 7 CONTINENTAL BANKS ARE LEFT AS WORLD CONTROLLERS HEADED BY THE I.M.F AND THE EUROPEAN UNION,THEN THE NEW WORLD ORDER HIRE ALL THEIR MOST EUGENICIST,ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT SUPPORTERS WHO WILL HAVE MADE MILLIONS FROM THEIR SMALL BANK FOLDING AND NOW WILL BE MAKING BILLIONS OR TRILLIONS OFF THE WORLD AS THE NEW WORLD ORDER NUTCASES TAKE ULTIMATE WORLD CONTROL.
MBA TO RECREATE FREDDIE,FANNIE
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1236599516&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1236815258&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1236938703&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1237033650&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1237114368&play=1
ECONOMIC NEWS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1236540259&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1236515440&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1236493008&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1236486981&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1236783296&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1236744004&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1236783273&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1236701954&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1237183977&play=1
CNBC TODAY TALK OF THE FED VIDEOS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1237183961&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1236867934&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1236650915&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1236544013&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1236507810&play=1
GO CARRIE GET THEM GODLESS FOR GOING AGAINST OUR KING AND SAVIOUR KING JESUS THE GOD OF ISRAEL AND THE WHOLE EARTH AND YOURSELF.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC1a6RiXhpQ&feature=player_embedded
Carrie Prejean sues pageant organisers for religious discrimination By Bill Mann FIRST POSTED SEPTEMBER 1, 2009
Carrie Prejean, the former Miss California who was stripped of her title after she spoke out against gay marriage during the Miss USA pageant, is to sue the organisers of the state competition for libel, slander and religious discrimination. She has filed a lawsuit against Keith Lewis and Shanna Moakler, co-directors of Miss California, stating that her title was taken from her solely because of her support of traditional marriage,her lawyer Charles LiMandri said yesterday. Prejean (above, with Donald Trump) became the poster girl of the American right in April this year after she told Miss USA pageant judge Perez Hilton that she believed that a marriage should be between a man and a woman when quizzed about gay unions. The subsequent uproar over her comments on such a key issue of America's culture wars saw Prejean immediately lose her chance of winning the national contest, and subsequently have her state crown taken off her.Along the way Prejean was feted across the conservative media. On Sean Hannity's Fox News show, the host gushed: There's a lot of people cheering you tonight that you stood on your principles, that you put principles above winning. Not enough people do that. And I admire you a lot for it. But the right began to turn against when the emergence of a series of semi-nude modelling photos tarnished her goody-two-shoes image.
I am not perfect, and I will never claim to be... I am a Christian, and I am a model,she said at the time.Models pose for pictures, including lingerie and swimwear photos.But the photographs seemed to put her in breach of a contract signed with the Miss California pageant organisers: a clause required contestants to reveal whether they had ever posed nude or semi-nude, and the 21-year-old answered in the negative. On June 10, she was eventually stripped of the Miss California title. Her lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles on Monday, claims that Moakler, Lewis and pageant PR man Roger Neal directed a conspiracy against her, making false and defamatory statements... in order to injure her reputation and to justify their plan to wrongfully revoke her title.She also claims religious discrimination, saying that Moakler had informed her that she simply had to stop mentioning God at all... despite [their] knowledge of her deeply held religious beliefs as a Christian and her status as a student at a Christian college.
Fired Miss California sues pageant.Monday, August 31, 2009 | 4:46 PM ET CBC News
Carrie Prejean filed a claim seeking unspecified damages in a Los Angeles court on Monday.Her attorney said she was ousted for comments she made to Perez Hilton that marriage should be between a man and woman.You can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage,Prejean said after being asked about gay marriage.And you know what? I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offence to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised.Her attorney, Charles S. LiMandri, said he intends to make the case that Prejean was fired solely for her remarks.When they fired her, Miss California officials said she lost her job for failing to make required appearances, and for making unsanctioned public appearances.The suit names pageant executive director Keith Lewis and actress and former Miss USA Shanna Moakler who said Prejean gave a Shape magazine interview, and hosted the show Fox and Friends without permission.
This was a decision based solely on contract violations, including Ms. Prejean's unwillingness to make appearances on behalf of the Miss California USA organization, Lewis said in June.Prejean is not speaking to the media about the suit, but her attorney said her plans to do broadcasting work have dried up since she lost the title. She is doing some motivational speaking engagements and has a book coming out in November.
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).
Swedes plan big bang institutional summit in October-The summit will be dependent on whether the treaty has been ratified in all member states (Photo: EUobserver)HONOR MAHONY 01.09.2009 @ 17:43 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Sweden is hoping to clear up the EU's distracting institutional issues in one grand summit next month in order to drag the union's focus back to pressing international issues.Speaking to MEPs on Tuesday (1 September) Cecilia Malmstrom, Sweden's Europe minister, said: Our aim is - if everything goes smoothly and the Lisbon treaty is adopted - that at the October council ...we can decide on all the institutional issues.The gathering of EU leaders at the end of next month should appoint the new list of commissioners, the new EU foreign minister and the president of the European Council.According to Mrs Malstrom, the summit should also agree a loose framework for the EU's fledgling diplomatic service.The minister was responding to a series of questions from euro-deputies in the constitutional committee on how the Lisbon treaty – which faces a referendum in Ireland on 2 October and final approval in three other countries – should function in practice.Deputies raised concerns about whether the new foreign policy chief will be subject to some parliamentary oversight; what the exact powers of the EU president will be and how this person should interact with the presidency countries that will continue to do the basic day-to-day running of the union.Mrs Malmstrom admitted that many issues remain unclear, not least because the Swedish presidency cannot openly canvass opinion among member states on some of the sensitive questions, in case they are accused of pre-empting the result of the Irish referendum.It plans to conduct extensive discussions on the scope of the new diplomatic service, the role of the EU president and the functioning of the future rotating presidencies as soon after the Irish vote as possible, if it results in a Yes.
Brussels has for months been preoccupied with questions about who is to fill the new posts and what sort of new squabbles they might bring to the crowded EU scene, although climate change and the economic crisis are nominally top of the EU's to-do list.With the EU having a well established tradition of scrapping noisily and at length over titles and posts and who should get them, Mrs Malmstrom chided MEPs for being too concerned with arcane institutionalia.We tend to focus a little too much on institutional issues and too little on issues that are of real concern for the daily life of the citizen. They are concerned about having a job or not,she said.In this spirit, she also urged MEPs to vote this month on Jose Manuel Barroso's bid to become European Commission president for a second time, rather than dragging out the decision until October, as some have threatened to do.We think that these extraordinary times of very, very big economic crisis and climate change on the agenda demands European leadership. We need strong European institutions and we need to take the lead globally,the minister said.
Berlusconi threatens to wreck EU summit unless commission shuts up
LEIGH PHILLIPS 01.09.2009 @ 17:54 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - In a fit of pique, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has threatened to block the upcoming European Council - the top summit of all of Europe's premiers and presidents - if commission spokespeople do not learn to keep quiet.Commission spokespeople and even commissioners themselves must not speak publicly on any topic,Mr Berlusconi demanded when speaking reporters in Gdansk during a ceremony marking the start of the Second World War.The voice of Europe,he said, must be expressed exclusively by the president of the commission or his immediate spokesperson. If this did not happen, he added, he would block the functioning of the European Council.Mr Berlusconi, furious at the commission's request for clarification by Italy concerning the deportation of immigrants, took out his anger at the commission spokesperson who had been responding to a question by a journalist about the refugees.On Monday (31 August), Dennis Abbott, of Britain, had told Italian reporters that the commission had requested that Italy explain its decision to send back a boatload of around 70 refugees to Libya.The commission is aware of the latest news regarding the forced return of the refugees, the spokesperson told the reporter, and that the commission will send a request for information to the two countries involved, Italy and Malta, to assess the situation.
The commission emphasises that any human being has the right to submit an application that recognises the status of refugee or international protection,he added.It is thought that this last comment is what infuriated the Italian leader. His comments were immediately splashed on the front pages of the websites of leading Italian newspapers La Stampa, La Repubblica and Corriere della Serra.
We'll suspend our vote
The spokesperson recalled that Jacque Barrot, the justice commissioner, had said as much in a letter from 15 July to the chairman of the European Parliament's civil liberties committee, Lopez Aguilar.The principle of non-refoulement [the legal term for the protection of refugees from being turned back], as interpreted by the European Court of rights, essentially means that states must refrain from rejecting a person (directly or indirectly) where this could run a real risk of being subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading punishment or treatment.States cannot reject the refugees at the frontiers of territories where their life or their freedoms could be threatened because of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or their political opinion. Obligations must be fulfilled during the implementation of border controls in accordance with the Schengen Border Code, including for surveillance activities at sea.In response to journalists' questions about the matter in Gdansk, Mr Berlusconi said: I will bring this issue to the next summit of heads of state and government.The prime minister then said his position is decisive and clear: We will suspend our our vote, blocking the functioning of the European Council unless it is determined that no commissioner and no spokesperson for the commission can intervene publicly any more on any issue.He said: Speaking should rest only with the president of the commission and his spokesman. If commissioners and spokesmen continue as they have done all these years, they should be fired in a definitive manner.Mr Berlusconi believes that comments made by spokespeople of the commission are regularly used by the Italian opposition against him.The statements by spokespeople create a situation that is unacceptable because they just give ammunition to the opposition.
No need for polemics
Reacting to Mr Berlusconi's outburst, Mr Abbott told EUobserver: The commission is working with Italy and other member states on this issue and all other policy issues in an objective and loyal way, as is always the case.If the commission seeks information or clarifications from member states, this is not a criticism. It is, in the first place, because we want to help. We can only be objective if we are in possession of all the relevant facts.The commission's press service is eager to defuse the row while at the same time keen to defend Mr Abbott.There is no reason for polemics,Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen, a senior commission spokeswoman, told this website.There is an important challenge to be resolved. We must resolve it together.
At the same time, Ms Hansen underscored that the commission has a responsibility to respond to journalists' questions.The commission is accountable under the treaty. It has a duty under the treaty to provide information and communication. It does so in the way it is constituted under the treaty,She added that Mr Abbott should not be the focus of anyone's ire.We are a collegiate body, so he speaks on the basis of agreed information. He enjoys the full backing of all his colleagues. All for one and one for all.It is understood that Mr Berlusconi has had as many as three similar flare-ups with commission spokespeople in the past, but never before so demonstrably or in public.
MEPs outraged
Socialists in the European Parliament were outraged at Mr Berlusconi's ultimatum.We call on the EU presidency and European Commission President Barroso to react immediately and personally against this outrageous attack on the European Institutions,said Martin Schulz, head of the centre-left in the parliament in a statement.Berlusconi should not even dream of telling the EU not to speak out. Europe has had more than enough painful experience of being silenced.
Poland keen to shed anti-Russian image inside the EU
ANDREW RETTMAN Today SEPT 2,09 @ 08:45 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Positive chemistry between Russia and Poland at a World War II remembrance event on Tuesday (1 September) could open a new chapter of realpolitik in bilateral ties, with implications for Poland's place in the EU.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Polish leader Donald Tusk on Tuesday morning spent 30 minutes chatting in a friendly manner in view of cameras on a pier in the Polish town of Sopot on the Baltic Sea coast.The meeting - the first of its type in eight years - stood out next to ceremonies commemorating the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II in nearby Westerplatte, where around 20 European leaders gathered to pay respects.Mr Putin in an open letter in Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza the same day held out the prospect of putting Russian-Polish relations on the same privileged footing as Russian-German ties.The Russian-German partnership has become an example of reaching out to one another, of looking to the future while paying attention to past memories ...I am sure that Russian-Polish relations will sooner or later attain the same level,he wrote.The Russian premier offered to open national archives on the Katyn massacre, where Russian soldiers in 1940 killed 21,768 Polish officers and intellectuals being held as prisoners of war.
He also signed an agreement giving Polish ships passage to Polish waters - the Zalew Wislany - through a Russian-controlled gap in a Baltic Sea promontory.For their part, Polish politicians avoided any Russia-critical remarks.Even the nationalistic Polish President, Lech Kaczynski, restrained himself to a muted allusion to Russia's 2008 partition of Georgia, saying that infringements of territorial integrity are wrong also today.Russia and Poland have a perspective of working together as partners, of building relations appropriate to two great European nations, Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski said. This [Mr Putin's letter] is the kind language that one partner should use with another.
Prickly relations
Poland and Russia have endured prickly relations since Poland joined Nato and the EU, culminating in Poland's veto in 2006 of an EU-Russia partnership pact under the government of Lech Kaczynski's brother, Jaroslaw.The Kaczynski twins' style of diplomacy reinforced Poland's reputation in EU circles as a Russophobe country, which should be marginalised in the interest of broader EU-Russia ties. The reputation did not help Mr Sikorski's failed bid in 2009 to become the new chief of Nato. It also threatens to complicate Poland's role as the EU presidency in 2011 and its relationship with the new, Russia-friendly US government. The Polish administration remains sceptical about Russia's strategic intentions despite the thaw in Sopot, however.One test of the detente will come in upcoming Russian-Polish negotiations on prices for Russian gas in 2010. If the talks end in disruption of supplies, as in Ukraine earlier this year, they may revive Polish accusations that Russia uses energy as a political weapon against former Communist states.
Personal image
Mr Putin's personal image in Polish society as a cynical ex-KGB agent will also be hard to erase.Anti-Putin protesters in Sopot on Tuesday erected a three metre-high phallus with Putin written on the side of the structure, leading to three arrests, Polish daily Dziennik reports.We consider Vladimir Putin as a person responsible for war crimes in Chechnya, violations of human rights law, and the murder and intimidation of activists,one of the protesters said.
FIRST OBAMA BLACKMAILS THE MEDIA MEMBERS AND STATIONS, NOW THE PEACE PROCESS CAN YOU SAY COOOORRRUPPTION
Obama’s political blackmail Tuesday, 01 September 2009 17:27 News from Jerusalem Obama. Chicago-style political hardball (Photo AP)
As reported last week, President Obama has now linked forcing Israeli concessions on a two-state solution to American help with Iran and its nuclear ambitions. The Obama administration is prepared to offer Israel tougher action against Iran’s nuclear program if the Netanyahu government agrees to stop building in east Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria.
In essence, political blackmail.
This linkage underscores Israel’s relative powerlessness in its dialogue with the US. Simply put, Netanyahu has no cards to play. Bibi has nothing of value to trade. He has zero leverage. He has nothing to threaten as retaliation.Presient Obama’s Chicago-style political hardball has serious implications for Israel. Forcing Israel to go it alone with Iran by withholding targeting information, satellite images, over-flight permissions, technical help jamming air defenses – and a whole host of other behind-the-scenes assistance – reduces the chance of Israeli military success.
But President Obama’s mafia-style offer that Israel cannot refuse also has serious implications for America. And if American voters knew, it is a policy they would reject.Let me repeat that. American voters would reject a policy of forcing Israel to go it alone.In a May 2009 Rasmussen poll, 49% of Americans agreed that, if Israel launches an attack against Iran, the United States should help Israel. Thirty-seven percent (37%) believed the United States should do nothing while just 2% believe the US should help Iran.Sixty-six percent (66%) of all voters said that preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons is more important than preventing war between Iran and Israel. That was up 14 percentage points from 52% in July 2008.Americans understand better than the Obama administration, it seems, that it is in the US’ vital interest that should Israel decide it has no option except a military strike on Iran, that the Israeli mission must succeed.
Launch national campaign
Netanyahu surely understands that as well. But…Bibi has no cards to play. In the face of political blackmail on a vital issue such as Iran, he can only retreat inch by inch and hope for better ground to defend. Without leverage, Netanyahu is forced to bargain away the Jewish claim to Judea and Samaria while hoping to keep a tenuous hold on an undivided Jerusalem.Caroline Glick is right when she says of the Israeli negotiating position, The game is rigged against us.But here in America we can apply the ultimate political leverage – the American voter – to put some cards in Bibi’s hand.We can use those poll numbers of American support and common sense as a platform to launch a national campaign designed to break the linkage between the two-state solution and American help on Iran.We can remind American voters why, absent of the world preventing a nuclear Iran, Israel might be forced to make the difficult choice of a military strike as a means of self-defense.And we can send a message through the American voter to President Obama – it is in the US’ vital national interest that any Israeli military strike succeed. Don’t deny Israel the help it needs as part of your diplomatic initiatives in the Middle East. Should it come down to a military strike, help Israel succeed. The world – and the US – will be better for it.Without a concerted, national campaign in America, without a campaign that makes President Obama pay a political price for his linkage policy, a campaign that causes the Obama administration pain, I fear Judea and Samaria, and probably a united Jerusalem, may be lost.I close with another quote from Caroline Glick, As we have been all too often in our history, today Israel stands alone against our enemies. We can either defeat them, or we can be defeated. The choice is ours.by Michael Fenenbock, President of MAX Films and a long-time American political consultant. With his wife Daphne Weisbart, he founded www.DeNukeIran.com. Michael and Daphne live in New York, but spend much of their time in Jerusalem.ynet.
OBAMA STORY UNRAVELLING
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=107889
TEXAS WOMAN SUES OBAMA
http://www.newschannel10.com/Global/story.asp?S=11023507
OBAMA SIGN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4Buyu04vP4
ISLAM CLAIMS JESUS IS ANTICHRIST WORLD LEADER.(THEY WILL SEE THE TRUTH SHORTLY)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of8udqXbUT4&feature=related
FALSE TEACHERS,PROPHETS,DECIEVERS
MATTHEW 24:4-5,11,24-25
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many(MILLIONS) shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.(NEW AGERS SAY 'I AM' gods)(I AM)-(GOD) IS JESUS' TITLE,NEW AGERS BLASPHEME)
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
25 Behold, I have told you before.
1 TIMOTHY 4:1-2
1 Now the (HOLY)Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some(CHRISTIANS) shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
MARK 13:22-23
22 For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.
23 But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things.
2 TIMOTHY 3:13
13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
DEUTORONOMY 18:10-12
10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
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.
HURRICANE APPROCHES CALIFORNIA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A92BT06yUmI&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCZV1gQ1y0g&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQd49geK1tM&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfnHen0NkxA&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy3oqJZn7yE&feature=player_embedded
Hurricane Jimena lashes southern Baja California By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer – SEPT 2,09
LOS CABOS, Mexico – Heavy winds, battering waves and intense rain pummeled residents and tourists in this vacation resort as dangerous Hurricane Jimena, one of the largest hurricanes this year, raked Baja California's southern coast late Tuesday.
The state prepared shelters to hold up to 29,000 people as Jimena, which weakened to a still threatening Category 3, churned northward with 115 mph (185 kph) winds. But Baja California's biggest resort, Los Cabos, appeared to be escaping major damage from the storm beyond power outages and mud-choked roads.Ashley Legeyt, 62, a retiree from British Columbia who lives in Cabo San Lucas, pushed through the oncoming storm onto an exposed rocky point where he leaned against the onslaught of the hurricane's outer winds.It's like getting sandblasted with water! said Legeyt, his back to the wind, sand and spray blowing in from the ocean.It's quite strong.The Mexican government declared a state of emergency for Los Cabos and the Baja California Sur state capital of La Paz and schools, many ports and most businesses were closed. Rescue workers from the Red Cross and the Mexican military prepared for post-hurricane disaster relief, and two Mexican army Hercules aircraft flew in medical supplies.Jimena's core was on course to pass near or over southern Baja California Wednesday and the central part of the peninsula late Wednesday or early Thursday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Service. Its center was missing the peninsula's resort-studded southern tip, instead heading for landfall farther north on a desolate stretch of desert coastline.Its outer fringes were lashing the resorts, however, kicking up huge waves and flooding streets.Authorities reported no injuries or major damages in Los Cabos, but expressed concern about what might happen when the hurricane made landfall further up the coast.It could be ugly at Bahia Magdalena," state Interior Secretary Luis Armanado Diaz said, referring to a sparsely populated bay with a smattering of fishing villages.Diaz said the hurricane might actually help alleviate the state's drought.
If it continues like this, and there is not a major impact, it will help more than it will hurt,said Diaz, referring to the much-needed rain.Residents and tourists gathered Tuesday to watch the huge waves battering the shore near Cabo San Lucas, as the wind whipped up sand and salt spray.Los Cabos resident Eduardo Meraz, 25, went swimming in the pounding surf at the height of the storm, and — still dripping wet — said he liked it.I'm not afraid. I respect the sea, said Meraz.The water is nice but the waves really toss you around.Paula Arenas took her 2-year-old nephew Mauro out to a rock outcropping to see the hurricane.I've spent a lot of time living here. We are used to hurricanes, Arenas said.Receptionist Martha Pina stood in awe at the entrance to the SolMar hotel on the very tip of the peninsula, watching the mountains of roiling, white-capped water slamming into the coast just yards (meters) beyond the hotel's swimming pool.This is the first time I've seem them so big ... It is beautiful,Pina said.All the hotel's guests — many of whose rooms were just steps from the maelstrom of the sea — had been transferred to another hotel as a precaution.
Not everyone was enchanted with Jimena's raging show.
Martin Melchior, a 25-year-old construction worker, stood outside his plywood, tin-roofed shack and nervously eyed the thin, battered power cables that snake over the sodden ground in the Cactus shantytown where he lives, the result of hundreds of unregistered hookups to the city's power system. But even as police trucks moved through the muddy streets urging people to join an estimated 2,000 residents already in shelters, Melchior said he wouldn't go.There are too many people in the shelters, and you can't get any peace. Someone tells you: This is my space,he said. Francisco Cota, head of Los Cabos civil defense, said more than 2,000 people from low-lying neighborhoods and squatters' camps had sought refuge in shelters at schools, and many more were staying with relatives in safer areas. Children ran through strong gusts of wind waving pieces of paper and trash bags under bands of intermittent rain. Forecasters predicted the hurricane would drop 5 to 10 inches of rain in Baja, and dry stream beds already were gushing torrents.Most tourists had already fled by Tuesday, leaving 75 percent of hotel rooms vacant. Some of those who remained came out to see the storm with avid anticipation, fighting the winds and rain at the shore.Hurricane chaser Brian Osburn of Pensacola, Florida, stood on a beach in high tech gear and protective padding while holding a plastic-encased, submersible high-definition video camera to record the pounding surge and gusts.I think Cabo San Lucas is still in for a good blow,Osburn said, holding his waterproof microphone into the shrieking winds.
Others wandered deserted streets, some ankle-deep in water, enjoying the storm.
We're going to go get some more liquor and go back to the room and just watch it, Mark Lopez, 29, a truck dispatcher from San Jose, California, said as he walked near a marina with a half-dozen friends. We're making the most of it.Many slum dwellers concerned about looting refused to leave their imperiled shanties. Marco Nino, 24, a bricklayer, warily eyed a growing stream that rushed past his plywood and sheet metal home.We are here with our nerves on edge,he said.If this hits, the roof is not going to hold. Other storms have passed but not this strong.By Tuesday evening, Jimena had winds of 115 mph (185 kph), still a major hurricane with potential to do huge damage. It was located about 90 miles west-northwest of Cabo San Lucas and traveling northwest near 13 mph (20 kph). Local officials say Hurricane Juliet, also a Category 4 hurricane on a similar course that killed several people and caused $20.5 million in September 2001, was the most damaging hurricane in the storm-prone state's history. That 145-mph (230 kph) storm made a raging 12-day trip through Mexico and the southern United States.Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Erika formed in the open Atlantic, east of Antigua and Barbuda. The storm had top winds around 60 mph (95kph), and could grow stronger in the next couple of days.Associated Press writers Martha Mendoza and Julie Watson in Mexico City contributed to this report.
Mexico evacuates thousands ahead of hurricane By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer – SEPT 1,09
LOS CABOS, Mexico – Heavy winds, battering waves and bands of intense rain pummeled residents and tourists in this vacation resort as Hurricane Jimena, one of the largest hurricanes this year, neared the coast on Tuesday.The center of the roaring Category 4 hurricane was on course to pass west of Los Cabos late Tuesday or early Wednesday, close enough to punish the picturesque beaches and fishing villages that fringe the harsh desert.Ashley Legeyt, 62, a retiree from British Columbia who lives in Cabo San Lucas, pushed through the oncoming storm onto an exposed rocky point where he leaned against the onslaught of the hurricane's outer winds.It's like getting sandblasted with water! said Legeyt, his back to the wind, sand and spray blowing in from the ocean.It's quite strong.The Mexican government declared a state of emergency for Los Cabos and the Baja California Sur state capital of La Paz and schools, many ports and most businesses were closed. Rescue workers from the Red Cross and the Mexican military prepared for post-hurricane disaster relief, and two Mexican Army Hercules aircraft loaded with medical supplies arrived.Francisco Cota, head of Los Cabos civil defense, said that more than 2,000 people from low-lying neighborhoods and squatters' camps had sought refuge in shelters at local schools, and many more were staying with relatives in safer areas.Another 5,000 people have been evacuated, and 159 shelters with a capacity for 29,000 people now stand ready, state civil protection spokesman Luis Armando Diaz.With the storm just 110 miles (175kilometers) south of the city, most tourists had already fled by Tuesday, leaving 75 percent of hotel rooms vacant. But some of those who remained came out to see the storm with avid anticipation, fighting the winds and intermittent bands of rain at the shore.
Hurricane chaser Brian Osburn of Pensacola, Florida, stood on a beach in high tech gear and protective padding while holding a plastic-encased, submersible Hi-definition video camera to take shots of the pounding surge and gusts.I think Cabo San Lucas is still in for a good blow,said Osburn, holding his waterproof microphone into the shrieking winds.Others wandered the now-deserted streets, some ankle-deep in water, enjoying the storm.We're going to go, get some more liquor and go back to the room and just watch it, said Mark Lopez, 29, a truck dispatcher from San Jose, California, as he walked near a marina with a half-dozen friends.We're making the most of it.Many slum dwellers concerned about looting refused to leave their imperiled shanties.Marco Nina, 24, a bricklayer, warily eyed a growing stream that rushed past his plywood and sheet metal home.We are here with our nerves on edge,he said.If this hits, the roof is not going to hold. Other storms have passed but not this strong.By Tuesday afternoon, Jimena had weakened slightly, with winds of 135 mph (215 kph), still a major hurricane with potential to do huge damage.Local officials say Hurricane Juliet, also a Category 4 hurricane on a similar course that killed several people and caused $20.5 million in September 2001, was the most damaging hurricane in the storm-prone state's history. That 145-mph (230 kph) storm made a raging 12-day trip through Mexico and the southern United States.On Tuesday, hurricane force winds extended as far as 45 miles (75 kilometers) and tropical storm force winds extended 140 miles (220 kilometers).Hurricanes reach Category 5 at 156 mph (250 kph).Farther out in the Pacific, Tropical Depression Kevin had top winds of 35 mph (55 kph) and was expected to weaken to a remnant low.Associated Press writers Martha Mendoza and Julie Watson in Mexico City contributed to this report.
Hurricane Jimena roars toward Baja California Canwest
News Services September 1, 2009
Hurricane Jimena on Monday roared toward Mexico's Baja California as an extremely dangerous Category Five storm, Mexican officials said as they planned emergency evacuations for 20,000 families.Jimena was packing winds of up to about 250 kilometers per hour, but was expected to weaken slightly before making landfall in Baja California late today or early Wednesday, the National Weather Service said.The center of the hurricane was 460 kilometers south of Cabo San Lucas as of early today, said the US National Hurricane Center, an American agency which tracks and predicts storms.
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.
FIRE VIDEO
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkdbJCVzGXs&feature=player_embedded
Huge wildfire portends bad Calif. fire season By GREG RISLING, Associated Press Writer – SEPT 1,09
LOS ANGELES – Firefighters reported progress Tuesday against a gigantic blaze on the edge of Los Angeles that might be just a preview of even greater dangers ahead. The peak Southern California fire season hasn't even started yet. The worst fires typically flare up in the fall, when ferocious Santa Ana winds can drive fires out of wilderness areas and into suburbs. As a result, Southern California could be in for a long wildfire season.When you see a fire burning like this, with no Santa Ana winds, we know that with the winds, it would be so much worse, so much more intense, said Los Angeles County fire Capt. Mark Whaling.The Santa Anas are so devastating when they carry fire because they sweep down from the north and reach withering speeds as they squeeze through wilderness canyons and passes and plunge into developed areas.Even though winds have been mostly calm since the blaze began along the northern fringe of Los Angeles and its suburbs, the flames have spread over 199 square miles of forest in a week.Citing new damage assessments, officials Tuesday raised the number of destroyed homes from 53 to 62 but said the number of homes remaining under mandatory evacuation orders was reduced by 300 to 6,000. Up to 12,000 homes were considered threatened at the height of the fire, though not all were ordered evacuated. One of the threatened houses was the home where the movie "E.T." was filmed.
But it was not the only significant blaze in Southern California.
In the inland region east of Los Angeles, 2,000 homes were being threatened by a fire of more than 1.5 square miles in the San Bernardino County community of Oak Glen, and a nearby 1.3-square-mile blaze was putting 400 homes at risk in Yucaipa. More than twice as many homes had been threatened but aircraft held the fire back and it was 70 percent contained by Tuesday evening.There's action everywhere, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said as a helicopter interrupted his comments at a news conference in San Bernardino County.Containment of the big fire, known as the Station Fire, rose to 22 percent. U.S. Forest Service incident commander Mike Dietrich said he felt better but was not willing to say a corner had been turned.
Right now if I were in a boxing match I'd think we're even today,Dietrich said.
Weather was more humid, which helps brush resist burning, but the downside was a possibility of dry lightning. Some sprinkles were reported, but no significant rain.
Officials were worried about the threat to a historic observatory and TV, radio and other antennas on Mount Wilson northeast of Los Angeles. But on Tuesday, firefighters set backfires near the facilities before a giant World War II-era seaplane-turned-air tanker made a huge water drop on flames below the peak.The fire was still moving toward Mount Wilson, but Dietrich said he was confident that any damage would be minimized.The Station Fire is one of hundreds of wildfires in a season that usually does not gather steam until October, when the Santa Ana winds arrive.This year's destructive Southern California wildfires began in May, when 80 homes were destroyed and more than a dozen others were damaged in the Santa Barbara area. Sundowner winds, a localized version of a Santa Ana, whipped a brush fire into an inferno in neighborhoods on the edge of the Los Padres National Forest.Wind has not been a problem in the current fire, but drought has. The region is in the midst of a three-year drought, and the tinder-dry forest is ripe for an explosive fire.
Residents had a range of emotions as they watched the fire — and they knew the lack of wind was a godsend.I'm a little concerned but not overly worried, said retiree Paul Westmoreland, 77, who lives in the Seven Hills neighborhood in Tujunga.But if we had had high winds, this whole area would have gone.Some of the spectators were residents who followed orders to leave but could not resist coming back to their neighborhoods.Jennifer Pelon, 43, came back Tuesday morning to see if her 3,000-square-foot home on a hillside was still standing. She nervously watched as flames licked a ridgeline only yards from her home.It's a lot of stress and anxiety, watching,she said.It's your whole life up there.At the huge fire command center, Glendale firefighter-paramedic Jack Hayes, 31, recounted how he manned a 2,000-gallon water truck to extinguish flames bearing down on backyards.We've been knocking them all down and saving some homes, he said.
Hayes said he had not taken a day off for a week.You can't sleep, said Hayes, who had the beginnings of a beard and bloodshot eyes. You're ready to go and there's always something you could be doing.Two firefighters — Capt. Tedmund Hall, 47, of San Bernardino and firefighter Specialist Arnaldo Arnie Quinones, 35, of Palmdale — were killed Sunday when their vehicle plummeted off a mountain road. Quinones' wife is expecting a child soon, and Hall had a wife and two adult children. In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama sent their condolences to the firefighters' families. Gibbs said the White House will do whatever it can to assist state and local governments. The cash-strapped state has spent $106.5 million of its $182 million emergency firefighting fund, and was hoping to get federal assistance to ease the burden. The Station Fire was the biggest but not the most destructive of the wildfires currently burning in California. Northeast of Sacramento, a fire burning over a half square mile destroyed 60 structures over the weekend, many of them homes in the town of Auburn. The fire was 80 percent contained Tuesday and no longer threatened any homes.Associated Press writers Jacob Adelman and Robert Jablon in Los Angeles and Juliet Williams in Sacramento contributed to this report.
Firefighters gain on blaze near Los Angeles By RAQUEL MARIA DILLON, Associated Press Writer – 3:15PM SEPT 1,09
LOS ANGELES – Firefighters set backfires and removed brush with bulldozers across a huge swath of Southern California forest on Tuesday to try to contain a 190-square-mile wildfire that has destroyed 53 homes and threatened thousands more in foothill suburbs.The commander of the vast firefighting operation expressed a positive outlook for the first time in the week since the blaze erupted in the Angeles National Forest north of Los Angeles and grew into a giant.I'm feeling a lot more optimistic today than I did yesterday and the crews are doing fabulous work out there on the grounds but the bottom line is that they're fighting for every foot, said Mike Dietrich of the U.S. Forest Service.The fire continued to spread in wilderness but Dietrich said the containment figure was expected to rise substantially from the current 5 percent after overnight progress was mapped. He noted that bulldozers had carved up to 12 miles of lines and no new structures were lost overnight.Some 3,600 firefighters and aircraft were working across a 50-mile span to battle the blaze.There's action everywhere,Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said as a thundering helicopter interrupted his news conference at the scene of two other wildfires burning in the inland region east of Los Angeles.Firefighters were keeping a close eye on the weather. Hurricane Jimena roared toward Baja California, but was not forecast to have much of a factor in firefighting efforts because it is expected to dissipate by the time it hits Southern California.
Meteorologist Curt Kaplan says there was a 20 percent chance of a thunderstorm in the fire area Tuesday, but that could end up being a bad thing because the storm could spawn 40-mph wind gusts. The one factor that's helped firefighters this week has been the lack of wind to drive the flames. Kaplan says temperatures will begin slowly cooling later in the week.The good news is that it's humidity, Dietrich said. The bad news is that it may produce lightning, possibly dry lightning, over parts of the fire area.The blaze threatened some 12,000 homes but had already done its worst to the suburban Tujunga Canyon neighborhood, where residents returned to their wrecked homes.Bert Voorhees and his son on Monday fetched several cases of wine from the brackish water of their backyard swimming pool, about all he salvaged from his home.You're going to be living in a lunar landscape for at least a couple of years, and these trees might not come back,the 53-year-old Voorhees said.Are enough of our neighbors going to rebuild? About 2,000 people were chased from their homes in triple-digit heat as fire bosses said it could take weeks to contain the fire. Fire spokesman Paul Lowenthal said Tuesday that the blaze is expected to be fully surrounded Sept. 15.Some people wouldn't leave. Authorities said five men and one woman refused several orders to evacuate a remote ranch in a canyon near Gold Creek. The Los Angeles County sheriff's office had initially said the people were trapped and could not be rescued.When we tried to get them out, they said they're fine, no problem, they didn't want to leave,said fire spokesman Larry Marinas.
Dietrich said people who choose to stay take their lives in their own hands.
As the sheriff said, they'll take their next of kin and ask where their dental records are stored and we'll go back in after it. We can't be their guardians or parents.The swath of fire extends from the densely populated foothill communities of Altadena, La Canada Flintridge, La Crescenta, Tujunga and Sunland on the south to the high desert Acton in the north.Beth Halaas knew her creekside home in Big Tujunga Canyon was gone when she saw her favorite Norwegian dishware on television news. But she was desperate to see for herself and cajoled fire officials to escort her through barricaded roads. It's just stuff,she murmured, as her 5-year-old son Robert kicked at a deflated soccer ball in his sandbox. She raked ceramic cups from the ashes.Two firefighters — Capt. Tedmund Hall, 47, of San Bernardino and firefighter Specialist Arnaldo Arnie Quinones, 35, of Palmdale — were killed when their vehicle plummeted off a mountain road on Sunday. Quinones' wife is expecting a child any week, and Hall has a wife and two adult children. In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama send their condolences to the familes of two firefighters who died battling the blaze. Gibbs said the White House was receiving updates on the fires and will do whatever it can from the federal level to assist state and local governments. The 53 homes destroyed included some forest cabins, said U.S. Forest Service spokesman Dennis Cross. He did not know how many were full-time residences.At late morning, the fire was close to facilities at the historic observatory on Mount Wilson northeast of Los Angeles, a KCBS-KCAL TV helicopter showed from above the 5,700-foot-high peak. The flames appeared small, however, creeping under trees on land with no thick brush. Firefighters were on the mountain.
Fire crews earlier set backfires and sprayed fire retardant at Mount Wilson, which is also the site of at least 20 television transmission towers, radio and cell phone antennas. The observatory is home to giant telescopes and several multimillion-dollar university programs in its role as both a landmark for its discoveries and a thriving modern center for astronomy.T.J. Lynch and his wife, Maggie, were among residents who evacuated late Monday after the eerie orange glow on the horizon turned into flames cresting the hill near their Tujunga home.It's pretty surreal, pretty humbling, how your life is represented in these objects that you collect and then you have to whittle them down,he said, describing the difficulty of choosing what to bring with them.He said his wife would miss the 1965 Mustang that she has owned since she was a teenager. He would miss the antiques that decorate their home.
It's a beautiful place — is? Was? I don't know anymore,he said of their home. The blaze in the Los Angeles foothills was the biggest but not most destructive of California's wildfires. Northeast of Sacramento, a wind-driven fire destroyed 60 structures over the weekend, many of them homes in the town of Auburn.The 340-acre blaze wiped out an entire cul-de-sac, leaving only smoldering ruins, a handful of chimneys and burned cars.The fire was 80 percent contained Tuesday and no longer threatened any homes, said MaryAnn Aldrich, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.East of Los Angeles, firefighters had 40 percent containment of 1,013-acre fire that damaged one home, threatened 2,000 others and forced the evacuation of a scenic community of apple orchards in the Oak Glen area of San Bernardino County.A few miles away, an 840-acre wildfire on the edge of Yucaipa was 25 percent contained but rising winds Tuesday morning were pushing flames toward the community. Some 2,100 residents of 900 homes were urged to evacuate, said Jason Meyer, a state forestry spokesman.Associated Press Writers John Antczak, Daisy Nguyen and Solvej Schou in Los Angeles and Samantha Young in Auburn contributed to this report.
Cool weather offers respite in California wildfire
By Rob Woollard (AFP) – SEPT 1,09
LOS ANGELES — A monster blaze raging above Los Angeles grew in size Tuesday as weary firefighters voiced hope that a break in searing temperatures would allow them to make inroads against the inferno.The runaway wildfire, which has claimed the lives of two firefighters, gutted 53 homes and is threatening 12,000 more properties, has now churned through more than 121,762 acres (49,275 hectares ) in just six days.An estimated 10,000 people have been evacuated from their homes and the flames are threatening a critical telecommunications facility as well as a historic hilltop observatory.But a cooler weather front which brought increased humidity raised hopes that firefighters could make progress Tuesday, incident commander Mike Dietrich said.
The conditions today will be much more favorable for firefighting and we'll take advantage of the weather to try and increase our containment very aggressively, take advantage while it's down, Dietrich said.More than 3,655 firefighters are battling the fire in the Angeles National Forest, which sent Monday a huge mushroom cloud of smoke billowing across the city and east toward Las Vegas.The inferno threatened communications antennas for numerous television and radio stations, cell phone providers and law enforcement agencies on Mount Wilson in the San Gabriel Mountains.
Firefighters were hacking away at and brush in order to create firewalls and set lines of retardant aimed at protecting the Mount Wilson Observatory.A squadron of aircraft, including eight air tankers and 13 helicopters, have been deployed to bombard the blaze.On Monday authorities pushed back an estimate for when the fire would be contained, saying the blaze was now unlikely to be brought under control before September 15.In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs offered condolences from President Barack Obama to the families of the two firefighters who died when their truck plunged down a mountainside as they battled the flames on Sunday.In the last many hours we have seen two firefighters lose their lives, the President and First Lady obviously send their condolences to the two families, Gibbs said, adding that Washington was monitoring the crisis.It is a situation which we continue to monitor here and ensure that whatever we can do from the federal end to help state and local governments respond, we are doing,Gibbs said.
The Los Angeles fire was only one of several destructive blazes across California.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday toured the scene of a fire in Placer County, northeast of Sacramento that had charred 275 acres (110 hectares) of forest and gutted some 50 homes.Schwarzenegger urged residents who received an evacuation order to flee immediately.I think the key thing is whenyou hear from law enforcement, anything about evacuation, follow their orders,he said.There were conflicting reports on Monday about the fate of five people who ignored evacuation orders in Los Angeles and were criticized by authorities after requesting rescue from firefighters.However one of the five reportedly trapped denied requesting help and said the group was not in danger. Their fate was unclear early Tuesday.
California is frequently hit by wildfires due to its dry climate, winds and recent housing booms that have seen home construction spread rapidly into rural and densely forested areas.In 2007, the state suffered some of the worst devastation from wildfires in its history that left eight people dead, gutted 2,000 homes, displaced 640,000 people and caused a billion dollars of damage.
DISEASES
REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).
DRUG PUSHERS AND ADDICTS
REVELATION 18:23
23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries (DRUGS) were all nations deceived.
REVELATION 9:21
21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries (DRUGS), nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
YOUR CAPTAIN MESSIAH OBAMA HAS SPOKEN,HE WANTS USE TO GET KILLED BY TAKING THE FLU VACCINES.WHILE YOUR AT IT DRINK THAT KILLER WATER AND KEEP YOUR HEADS IN THE SAND SAYS OBAMA PRIVATELY,WE CAN NOT LET THE MASSES WAKE UP TO TRUTH.
Obama says Americans should get swine flu vaccine By JULIE PACE, Associated Press Writer – SEPT 1,09
WASHINGTON – With a potentially deadly swine flu outbreak looming, President Barack Obama is urging Americans to take steps to prevent infection.Obama was briefed Tuesday on the nation's preparedness for swine flu by senior officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. Following the meeting, Obama said the government is preparing across all levels, but all Americans have a role to play in the response.I don't want anybody to be alarmed, but I do want everyone to be prepared,he said.The global swine flu epidemic first emerged in April, sickening more than 1 million Americans and killing about 500. More than 2,000 people have died worldwide. Health officials are preparing for a surge in cases this fall, and one White House report from a panel of experts suggests up to half the U.S. population could catch swine flu during a pandemic.Vaccine development is ongoing and is likely to be available by October. The president said the vaccine for swine flu — known as the H1N1 virus — would be voluntary, but strongly recommended.Certain groups are more vulnerable to swine flu, including children under 2, pregnant women and people with health problems like asthma, diabetes and heart disease.Like the seasonal flu, swine flu spreads through coughs and sneezes of people who are sick. Obama said there are common sense precautions people can take to lower their risk of infection, like washing their hands frequently and staying home if they feel sick.I know it sounds simple, but it's important and it works,Obama said.
CDC Warns Neurologists To Watch For Nerve Disease Following Swine Flu Shots
Echoes British concerns over Guillain-Barre syndrome Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com Wednesday, September 2, 2009
The CDC has followed in the footsteps of British health authorities by warning neurologists to look out for cases of the nerve disease Guillain-Barre syndrome caused by the swine flu vaccine.Doctors in Britain were advised last month by the government to carefully track cases of the disease and report each one to the Health Protection Agency. A letter sent by 600 neurologists indicated that there is concern at the highest levels that the vaccine itself could cause serious complications, according to a Daily Mail report.During the 1976 swine flu scare in the U.S., which prompted the government to order a mass vaccination program to cover the entire population, the vaccine caused more deaths than the actual virus, prompting a public backlash that cost the then director of the CDC his job.
SImilar concerns about the vaccine are now being replicated over 30 years later.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Neurology have asked all neurologists to report new cases of Guillain-Barre in people who get vaccines this fall and winter to the Food & Drug Administration’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System,reports The Oregonian.Guillain-Barre syndrome can cause paralysis and breathing difficulties and is sometimes fatal. It also produces a tingling sensation and weakens limbs.As we have previously documented, the swine flu vaccine is being rushed through safety procedures while governments have provided pharmaceutical companies with blanket immunity from lawsuits arriving out of the vaccine causing deaths and injuries.It was previously revealed that some batches of the vaccine will contain mercury, a toxin linked with autism and neurological disorders. The vaccine will also contain the dangerous ingredient squalene, which has been directly linked with cases of Gulf War Syndrome and a host of other debilitating diseases.Several surveys have revealed that huge numbers of health professionals all over the world will refuse to take the swine flu vaccine despite government plans to institute mass vaccination programs. A new poll released yesterday found that just 6 per cent of pregnant women would definitely take the vaccine following concerns about its safety.
POLICE STATE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4SmFxyust0&feature=player_embedded
POLICE STATE, USA Cops jump on swine-flu power: Shots heard round the world Pandemic bill allows health authorities to enter homes, detain without warrant September 01, 2009 9:11 pm Eastern By Chelsea Schilling 2009 WorldNetDaily
A pandemic response bill currently making its way through the Massachusetts state legislature would allow authorities to forcefully quarantine citizens in the event of a health emergency, compel health providers to vaccinate citizens, authorize forceful entry into private dwellings and destruction of citizen property and impose fines on citizens for noncompliance.If citizens refuse to comply with isolation or quarantine orders in the event of a health emergency, they may be imprisoned for up to 30 days and fined $1,000 per day that the violation continues.
Massachusetts' pandemic response bill
Pandemic Response Bill 2028 was passed by the Massachusetts state Senate on April 28 and is now awaiting approval in the House. As stated in the bill, upon declaration by the governor that an emergency exists that is considered detrimental to public health or upon declaration of a state of emergency, a local public health authority, with approval of the commissioner, may exercise the following authorities (emphasis added):to require the owner or occupier of premises to permit entry into and investigation of the premises;to close, direct, and compel the evacuation of, or to decontaminate or cause to be decontaminated any building or facility, and to allow the reopening of the building or facility when the danger has ended; to decontaminate or cause to be decontaminated, or to destroy any material;
to restrict or prohibit assemblages of persons; to require a health care facility to provide services or the use of its facility, or to transfer the management and supervision of the health care facility to the department or to a local public health authority; to control ingress to and egress from any stricken or threatened public area, and the movement of persons and materials within the area; to adopt and enforce measures to provide for the safe disposal of infectious waste and human remains, provided that religious, cultural, family, and individual beliefs of the deceased person shall be followed to the extent possible when disposing of human remains, whenever that may be done without endangering the public health;
to procure, take immediate possession from any source, store, or distribute any anti-toxins, serums, vaccines, immunizing agents, antibiotics, and other pharmaceutical agents or medical supplies located within the commonwealth as may be necessary to respond to the emergency;to require in-state health care providers to assist in the performance of vaccination, treatment, examination, or testing of any individual as a condition of licensure, authorization, or the ability to continue to function as a health care provider in the commonwealth;to waive the commonwealth's licensing requirements for health care professionals with a valid license from another state in the United States or whose professional training would otherwise qualify them for an appropriate professional license in the commonwealth;to allow for the dispensing of controlled substance by appropriate personnel consistent with federal statutes as necessary for the prevention or treatment of illness;to authorize the chief medical examiner to appoint and prescribe the duties of such emergency assistant medical examiners as may be required for the proper performance of the duties of office;
to collect specimens and perform tests on any animal, living or deceased;
to exercise authority under sections 95 and 96 of chapter 111;to care for any emerging mental health or crisis counseling needs that individuals may exhibit, with the consent of the individuals .State and local agencies responding to the public health emergency would be required to exercise their powers over transportation routes, communication devices, carriers, public utilities, fuels, food, clothing and shelter, according to the legislation.Don't let the fear get to you! Read How To Overcome The Most Frightening Issues You Will Face This Century
Local public health authorities will be required to keep records of reports containing the name and location of all people who have been reported, their disease, injury, or health condition and the name of the person reporting the case. In addition, citizens may be subject to involuntary transportation.Line 341 of the bill states, Law enforcement authorities, upon order of the commissioner or his agent or at the request of a local public health authority pursuant to such order, shall assist emergency medical technicians or other appropriate medical personnel in the involuntary transportation of such person to the tuberculosis treatment center. No law enforcement authority or medical personnel shall be held criminally or civilly liable as a result of an act or omission carried out in good faith in reliance on said order.
Vaccinate or isolate
Whenever the commissioner or a public-health authority decides it is necessary to prevent a serious danger to the public health, they are authorized:
(1) to vaccinate or provide precautionary prophylaxis (preventative procedure) to individuals as protection against communicable disease and to prevent the spread of communicable or possible communicable disease, provided that any vaccine to be administered must not be such as is reasonably likely to lead to serious harm to the affected individual; and
(2) to treat individuals exposed to or infected with disease, provided that treatment must not be such as is reasonably likely to lead to serious harm to the affected individual. An individual who is unable or unwilling to submit to vaccination or treatment shall not be required to submit to such procedures but may be isolated or quarantined … if his or her refusal poses a serious danger to public health or results in uncertainty whether he or she has been exposed to or is infected with a disease or condition that poses a serious danger to public health, as determined by the commissioner, or a local public health authority operating within its jurisdiction. (emphasis added)Under such circumstances, authorities are also allowed to decontaminate individuals and perform physical examinations, tests and specimen collection to determine whether an individual presents a risk to public health.If a citizen refuses, he or she may be isolated, quarantined and/or detained for as long as may be reasonably necessary,the bill states.Law enforcement authorities are authorized to arrest without warrant any person whom the officer has probable cause to believe has violated an order for isolation or quarantine and shall use reasonable diligence to enforce such order. Any person who knowingly violates an order for isolation or quarantine shall be punished by imprisonment of not more than 30 days and may be subject to a civil fine of not more than $1,000 per day that the violation continues.(emphasis added)
Other state quarantine orders
Iowa's Facility Quarantine Order
As WND reported, a blank document from the Iowa Department of Public Health has been discovered online, designed to be filled in with the name of an H1N1 virus victim who is required to relocate from his or her home to a quarantine facility.The form, which began appearing Aug 31 in e-mails and on the Internet, has concerned a confused public already swimming in conflicting reports about the severity of the swine flu and intrusive government measures that many fear may be taken if the disease becomes a pandemic.The Iowa document, which WND confirmed with state officials is authentic, has done little to calm the public's fears.The Iowa Department of Public Health has determined that you have had contact with a person with Novel Influenza A H1N1,the form reads.The Department has determined that it is necessary to quarantine your movement to a specific facility to prevent further spread of this disease.The Department has determined that quarantine in your home and other less restrictive alternatives are not acceptable,the document continues, before listing mandatory provisions of compliance with relocation to a quarantine facility.According to the CDC, the following states have implemented legal actions in response to the H1N1 virus:Florida – the Florida surgeon general suspended distribution permit requirements Florida statutes to allow wholesale distribution of Tamiflu and Relenza. The state has also distributed a series of blank quarantine order forms, including a voluntary home quarantine agreement, a quarantine to residence order, a quarantine to residence order (non-compliance), a quarantine to facility order, quarantine detention order, quarantine of facility order, building quarantine closure order and area quarantine closure order.Iowa – In addition to the facility quarantine order listed above, Iowa has also made available forms for voluntary home confinement, home quarantine and home isolation.
Massachusetts – Massachusetts lists its own procedures for isolation and quarantine.
North Carolina – The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services released a draft isolation order that would provide for imprisonment for up to two years and pretrial detention without bail for any citizen who fails to comply with an isolation order.Washington – Washington grants authority to local health officers to issue emergency detention orders causing citizens to be immediately and involuntarily isolated or quarantined for up to 10 days.In addition, governors and health commissioners in the following states have declared a state of emergency since April following concerns about the H1N1 virus: California, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.Next step: Mandatory swine flu vaccines? According to the White House, Since the novel 2009-H1N1 flu virus emerged in the United States during the third week of April, the president has received regular briefings and asked his Cabinet to spare no effort in addressing this national security challenge.The White House also lists as a priority,Preparing for a voluntary, but strongly recommended, H1N1 flu shot program to be available to all Americans that wish to participate over a period of time.
Barbara Loe Fischer, president of the National Vaccine Information Center, referenced the controversial Massachusetts bill in her commentary, Swine flu vaccine: Will we have a choice? Fischer said,Public health doctors have persuaded legislators to pass pandemic influenza legislation that will allow state officials to enter homes and businesses without the consent of occupants, to investigate and quarantine individuals without their consent, to require licensed health-care providers to give citizens vaccines and to ban the free assembly of citizens in the state.She said World Health Organization doctors immediately went into high gear within days of identifying the new swine flu virus emerging out of Mexico and declared a public-health emergency. Now, Fischer says, the CDC is taking the opportunity to exercise unprecedented power.Whenever the CDC now declares a public-health emergency, that declaration allows the Food and Drug Administration to permit emergency-use authorization for drug companies to fast-track creation of experimental drugs and vaccines that do not have to be tested as thoroughly as vaccines that go through the normal FDA-licensing process.In this case, Congress responded to the public health emergency declaration by giving a group of drug companies $1 billion to fast-track experimental swine flu vaccines that may include whole, live or killed, or genetically engineered human and animal viruses, chemicals and potentially reactive oil-based adjuvants that manipulate the immune system to boost the vaccine's potency. People who already have sensitive immune systems, such as those with allergy and autoimmune disorders, may be at special risk.Furthermore, Fischer said 80 percent of all flu-like illness in a normal flu season is not caused by type A and B strains of influenza contained in annual flu shots.
While Fischer argues that citizens should be given the opportunity to voluntarily submit to flu vaccinations, she said, Vaccine-acquired immunity is temporary while immunity gained after recovering from influenza is longer lasting.She said people born before 1957 may be naturally protected and at lower risk of being infected because they have long-lasting antibodies working against the virus and helping them resist infection.Will health officials allow our children and grandchildren to get the same kind of natural, longer-lasting protective antibodies to type A and B influenza, including the new swine flu? she asked.It looks like few choices will be allowed.
Cure more deadly than disease?
Although White House science advisers have warned that up to 90,000 Americans might die from H1N1 during the coming flu season, the head of the CDC responded by telling the public to ignore such a high morality estimate, saying the current H1N1 couldn't kill that many people without mutating. Use of a similar swine flu vaccine in the United States in 1976 resulted in 25 people suffering from severe paralysis and dying from respiratory failure after being injected with the vaccine – more than the number of lives claimed from the virus itself.Additionally, the vaccine is said to contain thimerosal, a preservative ingredient composed of mercury that has been linked to autism in young children.The FDA states, Thimerosal has been removed from or reduced to trace amounts in all vaccines routinely recommended for children 6 years of age and younger, with the exception of inactivated influenza vaccine.
Thimerosal has also been linked to Guillain-Barre syndrome, or GBS – a serious disorder that occurs when the body's immune system mistakenly attacks the nervous system and may result in death.In 1976, health officials found nearly 500 cases of GBS, and the vaccine was withdrawn 10 weeks after the link with GBS was suspected. Following the 1976 vaccination against swine flu in the U.S., a retrospective study found a likely eight-fold increase in the incidence of GBS.Now that the nation is preparing for another round of H1N1 flu shots, the Oregonian reported that the federal government is urging neurologists to keep a close watch for new cases of GBS.In a study conducted at the University of Hong Kong, the British Medical Journal reported that less than half of 8,500 doctors and nurses in public hospitals will accept vaccination against the swine flu – even following increases in the World Health Organization's pandemic alert level.The study revealed,The major barriers identified were fear of side effects and doubts about efficacy.According to the following London report, investigative journalist Wayne Madsen revealed that even scientists who helped develop a vaccine for small pox are saying they will not take the vaccine and urging friends and family to refrain from taking the injection as well:Nonetheless, federal authorities are preparing to launch a nationwide campaign to convince Americans to get the swine flu vaccine, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Government officials have expressed concern that public demand for immunization will not be high enough.Many parents (in focus groups) expressed a lot of concerns about 2009 H1N1 vaccine. Those concerns were centered around the fact that it was new and it was being developed quickly, said Kris Sheedy, a communications director with the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.There were comments such as 'this is new and I don't want my child to be a guinea pig.According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the government will spend about $16 million on outreach to convince people of the need to get the swine flu vaccine.
As WND reported, alarmist language over possible outbreaks of swine flu as well as a series of moves by the federal government are fueling fears federal agents will soon be forcing citizens to be vaccinated – prompting the Constitution Party to launch a pre-emptive defense against any such effort.Fischer warned that Americans must become educated about vaccination, influenza, vaccine risks and public health laws in their states.Every pharmaceutical drug, including vaccines, carries a risk. And those risks are greater for some than others,she said.In this time of fear, we can't let that fear take away our freedom to make voluntary health decisions. The human right to informed consent to medical risk taking gives citizens the power to make sure that the cure is not more dangerous than the disease.
Canada says it's well-prepared for new H1N1 flu wave Tue Sep 1, 5:25 pm ET
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) – Canada is well-prepared if a second wave of the H1N1 flu pandemic hits this fall, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said on Tuesday, following criticism of the country's state of readiness by a leading medical journal.
We are well-positioned, we are seen as world leaders responding to the pandemic, Aglukkaq told reporters after announcing funds to build new health-care facilities in remote aboriginal communities.Canada, a country of 33.6 million people, plans to buy 50.4 million doses of pandemic vaccine and begin immunizations in November. Canada was the first country in the world to develop a pandemic plan and will now refine it before flu season begins this fall, said Dr. David Butler-Jones, the country's chief public health officer, who was answering questions with Aglukkaq.The current plan will not be able to immunize in time vulnerable populations such as aboriginal people, young children and people with chronic medical conditions, the Canadian Medical Association Journal said in an editorial on Monday.Australia and the United States are taking a faster approach to licensing vaccines without adjuvants for vulnerable groups, the journal said. An adjuvant is a substance added to the vaccine to improve the immune response so that less vaccine is needed.Time is running out. Only by providing fast-track standard vaccine (without adjuvants) might high-risk groups be protected in a timely way,the journal said.Vaccines with adjuvants have been shown to work better than those without and protect against changes in the virus, Butler-Jones said.The goal in Canada is to ensure as much vaccine as possible as soon as possible, he said.At the same time, it must be considered safe and effective.
The flu pandemic has killed 72 people in Canada.
Local health authorities across Canada are planning for a surge of patients in intensive care units, Butler-Jones said. The best way for the Canadian government to support ICUs is to make vaccines available as soon as possible, he said.A conference of Canadian and international public health officials that is set to start in the Western Canadian city of Winnipeg on Wednesday will help sort out how people will be prioritized for vaccination, Aglukkaq said.(Reporting by Rod Nickel; editing by Peter Galloway)
Pope backs Italy church in Berlusconi row By ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press Writer – Tue Sep 1, 3:09 pm ET
ROME – Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday gave his full support to the Italian Catholic Church after it was dragged into a media row linked to Premier Silvio Berlusconi's sex scandal.The Italian Bishops Conference said Benedict had spoken by telephone with its president, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, to discuss the current situation.
Benedict expressed to Bagnasco his esteem, gratitude and appreciation,the Bishops Conference said in a statement. Vatican officials confirmed the phone call but would not elaborate.Bagnasco and other top church officials have been defending a Catholic editor who was attacked by a Berlusconi family newspaper after demanding that the premier answer allegations over his purported relationships with young women.Il Giornale, which is owned by the premier's brother Paolo, on Friday alleged that the chief editor of the Avvenire daily had a homosexual scandal in his past.
The paper alleged that Dino Boffo had been fined several years ago for harassing the wife of a man in whom he was purportedly interested. Boffo has denied the allegations.The Bishops Conference, which owns Avvenire, staunchly defended Boffo, and Bagnasco called the allegations disgusting.Berlusconi quickly distanced himself from Il Giornale's claim, but the incident damaged the premier's church ties, already frayed by the scandal.Following Il Giornale's article, a meeting between Berlusconi and the pope's top aide, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, was scrapped. The meeting had been widely seen as a chance for Berlusconi to clear the air with the Vatican.Support from Catholic voters is considered crucial for any Italian government to come to power, and good ties with the Vatican are courted by many politicians.Berlusconi has been on the defensive since his wife announced in spring she wanted to divorce the premier, citing his alleged relationships with young women. Allegations have included that women were paid to attend Berlusconi's parties, while a high-class prostitute said she spent a night with him at his Rome residence.Berlusconi has denied having any improper relationships or paying women for sex, and dismisses the scandal as a plot by left-leaning media. But many, including Avvenire, have demanded more answers from the 72-year-old conservative billionaire media mogul.
AMERICA (POLITICAL BABYLON)
EZEKIEL 39:21
21 And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.
ISAIAH 18:1-2
1 Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:
2 That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!
JEREMIAH 50:11,37,12
11 Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of mine heritage, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls;(BACKSLIDERS)
37 A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her; and they shall become as women: a sword is upon her treasures; and they shall be robbed.(A NATION OF MINGLED PEOPLE)
12 Your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bare you shall be ashamed:(MOTHER ENGLAND) behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
JEREMIAH 51:13,7,53
13 O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness.
7 Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD's hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.
53 Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the LORD.
REVELATION 18:3,5,7
3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
7 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.
JEREMIAH 50:3,24
3 For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD. (RUSSIA A SNEAK ATTACK ON AMERICA)
REVELATION 18:9-11,15-21
9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,(NUKE ATTACK I BELIEVE)
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.
11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
15 The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,
16 And saying, Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!
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,
18 And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!
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.
20 Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.
21 And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.
Missing ship may have held missiles
10:07AM Tuesday Sep 01, 2009
Speaking to the press with a screen showing the Arctic Sea behind him, Mikhail Voitenko, editor of Maritime Bulletin-Sovfracht, said the hijacking was beyond the means of ordinary pirates. Photo / AP, Alexander Zemlianichenko.Reports are emerging that the Arctic Sea, a Russian-manned cargo ship recently rescued after a piracy attack was intercepted by Israel as it carried a secret cargo of weapons to the Middle East, says TIME magazine.Reporter on piracy and a former commander of the Estonian armed forces, Admiral Tarmo Kouts said in an interview with TIME that only a shipment of missiles could account for Russia's bizarre behaviour throughout the month long saga.There is the idea that there were missiles aboard, and one can't explain this situation in any other way,he said in the interview.As a sailor with years of experience, I can tell you that the official versions are not realistic.But this theory has been vehemently denied by Russia's envoy to NATO, Dmitri Rogozin, who says Kouts should stop running his mouth reports TIME.On July 21 the Arctic Sea sailed from Finland to Algeria reportedly with approximately NZ$2.9 million worth of timber as cargo.On July 30, Swedish police said the ship's owner had reported that the crew claimed the vessel had been boarded by masked men on July 24 near the Swedish island of Gotland.The invaders reportedly had tied up the crew, beat them, claimed they were looking for drugs, then sped off about 12 hours later in an inflatable craft.By the time the Swedish report of the attack had emerged, the ship had already passed through the English Channel, where it made its last known radio contact on July 28.
On August 12, the Russian navy sent out a search party.
The disappearance of the 98m freighter perplexed experts and officials across Europe, with speculation about what happened ranging from its being seized by pirates to involvement in a murky commercial dispute.TIME writes that there are baffling details left unexplained.
Unanswered questions raised by TIME, include:
-What did the brother of one of the alleged hijackers, Dmitri Bartenev, mean when he told Estonian TV that his brother and the other suspected pirates had been set up ... They went to find work and ended up in a political conflict. Now they are hostage to some kind of political game?
-Why would hijackers target the Arctic Sea when there were other ships carrying much more valuable cargo in waters?
-Why did Israeli President Shimon Peres pay a surprise visit to Russia a day after the ship was rescued?
-Why were destroyers and submarines used to look for a missing vessel carrying timber?
-Why did Russia wait so long to send its navy to find the ship?
-Why were 2 military-cargo planes used to carry 19 alleged pirates and crew back to Moscow?
-On arrival, why were the ship's crew detained along with the alleged hijackers for days of questioning, with no access to their families or the media? Times Online reports that General Nikolai Makarov, the Russian Army's top general has hinted that there might be more to the story than first thought.We know is that it is carrying timber, but an investigation should determine whether it is carrying anything else. Makarov told reporters says Times Online.- NZHERALD STAFF
Coldest, Driest, Calmest Place on Earth Found
livescience Staff livescience.com – Mon Aug 31, 4:51 pm ET
The search for the best observatory site in the world has lead to the discovery of what is thought to be the coldest, driest, calmest place on Earth - a place where no human is thought to have ever set foot. To search for the perfect site to take pictures of the heavens, a U.S.-Australian research team combined data from satellites, ground stations and climate models in a study to assess the many factors that affect astronomy - cloud cover, temperature, sky-brightness, water vapor, wind speeds and atmospheric turbulence.The researchers pinpointed a site, known simply as Ridge A, that is 13,297 feet (4,053 meters) high up on the Antarctic Plateau on the continent at the bottom of the world.The study revealed that Ridge A has an average winter temperature of minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 70 degrees Celsius) and an extremely low amount of water in the air.The site is also extremely calm, which means that there is very little of the atmospheric turbulence that elsewhere makes stars appear to twinkle.It's so calm that there's almost no wind or weather there at all,said study leader Will Saunders, of the Anglo-Australian Observatory in Australia.
All these elements combine to make the perfect recipe for an astronomical observation post: The astronomical images taken at Ridge A should be at least three times sharper than at the best sites currently used by astronomers, Saunders said. Because the sky there is so much darker and drier, it means that a modestly-sized telescope there would be as powerful as the largest telescopes anywhere else on earth.The site would even be superior to the best existing observatories on high mountain tops in Hawaii and Chile, Saunders said. Researchers assert that a telescope at the site could take images nearly as good as those from the space-based Hubble telescope.Located within the Australian Antarctic Territory, the site is 89 miles (144 km) from an international robotic observatory and the proposed new Chinese Kunlun base at Dome A, a higher point on the Antarctic Plateau.The finding was detailed on Aug. 31 in the Publications of the Astronomical Society.
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/
CNBC VIDEOS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15839263/site/14081545/?tabid=15839796&tabheader=false
HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS WED SEPT 02,2009
09:30 AM -5.40
10:00 AM -28.57
10:30 AM -26.76
11:00 AM +12.01
11:30 AM +18.54
12:00 PM -4.16
12:30 PM +6.30
01:00 PM +14.36
01:30 PM +9.59
02:00 PM -5.07
02:30 PM -2.42
03:00 PM -7.11
03:30 PM +0.37
04:00 PM -29.93 9280.67
S&P 500 994.75 -3.29
NASDAQ 1967.07 -1.82
GOLD 981.80 +25.30
OIL 68.06 +0.01
TSE 300 10,701.53 +11.75
CDNX 1185.37 +22.13
S&P/TSX/60 642.82 +0.61
MORNING,NEWS,STATS
YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow +6.09%
S&P +10.49%
Nasdaq +24.85%
TSX Advances 466,declines 1,040,unchanged 216,Volume 478,128,044.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 322,Declines 479,Unchanged 330,Volume 181,593,936.
Dow -6 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -44 points at low today.
Dow +24 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $966.70.OIL opens at $67.72 today.
INVENTORIES
CRUDE OIL -400,000 BARRELS.
GASOLINE -3 MILLION BARRELS
DISTILLATE INV +1.2 MILLION BARRELS
REFINERY UTILIZATION +3.1% TO 87.2%
AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -44 points at low today so far.
Dow +24 points at high today so far.
DAY TODAY PERFORMANCE - 12:30PM STATS
NYSE Advances 1,512,declines 2,044,unchanged 90,New Highs 40,New Lows 36.
Volume 3,218,523,486.
NASDAQ Advances 1,236,declines 1,263,unchanged 124,New highs 11,New Lows 09.
Volume 857,523,617.
TSX Advances 571,declines 618,unchanged 236,Volume 235,567,850.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 306,Declines 282,Unchanged 220,Volume 70,861,322.
WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -44 points at low today.
Dow +24 points at high today.
Dow -0.32% today Volume 175,112,801.
Nasdaq -0.09% today Volume 1,876,192,030.
S&P 500 -0.33% today Volume N/A
OBAMA CARE
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1236172548&play=1
BATTLE OF THE BLOGGERS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1236137802&play=1
BONUS BASHING
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1236172508&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1236216192&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1236216172&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1236177481&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1236062238&play=1
SUPER REGULATOR NEEDED
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1236037988&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1235983081&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1235742906&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1235715960&play=1
Recession and hot weather push CO2 emissions down in EU
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today SEPT 2,09 @ 09:12 CET
Greenhouse gases in the European Union have fallen again for the fourth year in a row.According to figures released on Monday by the European Environment Agency, the EU's own ecological bureau, emissions from the 15 EU member states that signed up to the Kyoto Protocol fell by 1.3 percent in 2008, compared with 2007.The drop takes emissions down 6.2 percent below 1990 levels - the baseline year. As parties to the protocol, the EU-15 are committed to reducing emissions by eight percent on the baseline level by 2012.For the whole of the EU, emissions dropped 1.5 percent in 2008, bringing the level to 13.6 percent lower than in 1990.These provisional figures are a further confirmation that the EU is well on track to reach its Kyoto target, even if one should recognise that part of the reduction in emissions is due to the economic slowdown,said EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas upon the release of the data.This trend needs to be further consolidated in the coming years.The commissioner used the occasion to encourage EU member states to rapidly implement the bloc's climate and energy package, passed last year.Green campaigners welcomed the reduction, but warned that this has been largely a result of external factors, rather than a product of efforts on the part of EU actors.
There has been a clear trend of decreasing emissions, but we've seen increasing temperatures year after year, which means that households are heating their homes less,Greenpeace Europe's Joris den Blanken told EUobserver.Then of course there is the economic downturn, so this is to be expected.There have been energy efficiency gains, but these have largely been achieved, again, by households, with industry and transport doing very little,he added.So the result is actually that the EU is more or less on target, linearly, to achieving its reduction targets, but from sitting back and doing not very much at all. Only by kicking up its ambitions to at least 30 percent reductions on 1990 levels by 2020 would they begin to be doing more than business as usual.The organisation also pointed out that while emissions overall are indeed decreasing, for the transport sector in Europe, emissions are still rapidly increasing.
EU lobbying firms justify gaps in financial reporting
ANDREW RETTMAN 01.09.2009 @ 17:44 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Multi-million euro gaps between the officially-audited accounts of Brussels lobbying firms and their declarations on an EU register are not linked to under-reporting, the companies say.Hill and Knowlton in Brussels recorded a turnover of €12.8 million for 2007 at the National Bank of Belgium. But its entry for 2007 on the European Commission's lobbyist register said it was paid just €8.1 million for representing interests to EU institutions on behalf of clients.Similar gaps exist at many of the top advocacy firms in the EU capital.APCO officially recorded a turnover of €12.7 million for 2007. But it declared EU lobbying income of €5.9 million. Burson-Marsteller recorded €8.9 million but gave an EU declaration of €7 million. Edelman recorded €2.7 million but told the EU it gets over €1 million for lobbying.Part of the reason is that the Brussels offices of major public relations firms work on projects which do not target the EU institutions. Hill and Knowlton has a PR department which has helped with Europe-wide consumer product launches. Burson-Marsteller has co-ordinated Olympic city bids. We have an international team that speaks 22 languages, so we hub a lot of work out of Brussels,APCO's managing director in Brussels, Garry Walsh, said.The gaps get bigger because the EU has excluded from its register any lobbying related to ongoing EU competition law cases.The European Commission's fuzzy definition of what constitutes representing interests to EU institutions also plays a role in creating the discrepancies, however.Some firms do not count monitoring (keeping the client informed of changes to EU policy) as lobbying. Some do not count media work, such as pitching the client's ideas to the Brussels press corps. Some also exclude organising social events with EU officials. It's hair-splitting. No administrative system can capture it. OK, so this morning I did monitoring for my client. But this afternoon I did lobbying.It's about the overall balance, am I monitoring or lobbying?" Edelman director, Laurent Chokouale Datou, said.
Closing the gap
Hill and Knowlton, APCO, Burson-Marsteller and Edelman say they take a maximalist approach to their EU declarations.But in practice, Fleishman-Hillard, Kreab Gavin Anderson and Ogilvy are among the few big EU advocacy companies whose general turnover matches its EU register entry.Fleishman-Hillard recorded €6.4 million in Belgium and declared €6.3 million to the EU. Kreab Gavin Anderson partner, Karl Isaksson, said the firm will this week declare €4 million to the EU, which is close to its overall income. Ogilvy recorded €2.6 million and declared €2.5 million.
Fleishman-Hillard and Kreab Gavin Anderson said they have chosen to declare almost everything in the EU register to avoid confusion, with pro-transparency NGOs suspicious of hidden clients in the sector. Meanwhile, the European Commission, which is due to publish a one year review of its register later this month, has indicated it will not propose any sweeping changes for now.We will give more guidance so there is less room to decide what should be included,the commission official in charge of the register project, Kristian Schmidt, told EUobserver.But generally, people have gone to great lengths to put forward figures that they can defend and we recognise that ...I think people are playing the game as good sports.
A top 10
The Belgian National Bank records can be used to create a back-of-the-envelope league table of Brussels PR firms by size of overall turnover. The top 10 would read: Hill and Knowlton, Burson-Marsteller, APCO, Fleishman-Hillard, Kellen Europe (not in the EU register), Kreab Gavin Anderson, Edelman, Ogilvy, Grayling (not in the EU register) and Interel.Some other large PR firms in Brussels, such as Pleon, GPlus, Hume Brophy and Weber Shandwick either have incomplete Belgian accounts or do not report in Belgium.
UK to lend IMF 15.5 bln dlrs amid global crisis Tue Sep 1, 4:54 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The UK will provide the International Monetary Fund with some 15.5billion dollars to support the IMF's lending capacity amid the global downturn, the multilateral institution said Tuesday.The IMF said the British financing was part of a commitment made by the European Union in March 2009 to contribute up to 75 billion euros -- then equal to about 100 billion dollars -- to support the IMF's lending capacity.Borrowing agreements have also been signed with Japan, Norway's central bank Norges Bank and Canada.These agreements contribute toward an increase in fund resources that was requested in April 2009 by G20 (Group of 20) leaders and the International Monetary and Financial Committee in order to provide timely and effective balance of payments assistance to its members in the current crisis, the Washington-based institution said.The action was part of a 1.1 trillion dollar plan agreed by G20 leaders in early April to tackle the global financial and economic crisis.The G20 also planned to triple IMF resources to 750 billion dollars to support the institution's ability to help member countries weather the worst slump since World War II.The IMF's finances have come under pressure as the global crisis spread from the advanced economies to the developing world, stifling trade flows and investment.Last week the IMF injected 250 billion dollars into its 186 member nations' foreign exchange reserves to cushion the blows of the global economic crisis.The disbursement, by far the largest general allocation in the institution's six-decade history, was made Friday.The IMF plans a special allocation of 33 billion dollars on September 9. That distribution will correct for the fact that countries that had joined the fund after 1981 -- more than one fifth of the current membership -- had never received an allocation of Special Drawing Rights, the IMF's currency equivalent.
91 countries agree to illegal fishing treaty Tue Sep 1, 4:32 pm ET
ROME – A group of 91 countries reached an agreement Tuesday on a U.N.-backed treaty that aims to leave those engaged in illegal fishing without a safe haven.The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, which brokered the talks, said the treaty will make it harder for illicit catches to be brought ashore and sold on the market.This should reduce the incentive for activities such as fishing without a license, using banned gear, disregarding fishing seasons and making catches that are illegal or undersized. Such behavior can threaten endangered species and damage the legitimate fisheries industry.Under the treaty, foreign fishing vessels wishing to dock in port will be required to request permission in advance and report on their activities and the fish they have aboard, the Rome-based agency said in a statement.
Nations can also decide to apply the new rules to their own fishing fleets.
The treaty also commits countries to regular inspections to check papers, fishing gear and ship's records that can often reveal illegal activities, FAO said.The treaty will now have to receive final approval at the FAO Conference in November. It will then enter into force once 25 states have ratified it. Countries involved in the deal include the United States, Japan, Canada and several European nations.
Worries about banks drag stock market lower By SARA LEPRO and TIM PARADIS, AP Business Writers – SEPT 1,09
NEW YORK – The stock market's six-month rally finally gave way Tuesday, succumbing to resurgent worries about the fragility of the banking industry and the economy as a whole.A mix of rumors and growing concerns that more banks will fail pummeled the financial industry, which had posted some of the biggest gains since the stock market began its huge advance in March. Investors saw a batch of economic reports that just weren't good enough as a parallel reason to sell.All the major indexes fell more than 1.5 percent, including the Dow Jones industrials, which lost about 170 points. Meanwhile, bond prices edged higher as investors sought the safety of government debt. The price of oil tumbled as the dollar strengthened and amid concerns that the economy isn't strong enough to support higher demand for energy.
Analysts said there were other forces at work in the market, including lingering concerns about the Chinese economy, whose problems would affect the rest of the world. And investors, cognizant of the market's tendency to sag in September, also seized upon that to justify pulling money out of stocks.Banks and insurance companies were the most notable losers, but they also had been pumped up the most in a rally that lifted the market more than 50 percent since hitting 12-year lows in March.Traders said rumors were making the rounds in the market. But with the government reporting last week that 400 banks were in trouble during the second quarter, investors' anxiety about the health of the financial industry is heightened.
Anton Schutz, portfolio manager of Burnham Financial Industries Fund and Burnham Financial Services Fund, said talk of a possible major bank failure rattled the market.Nothing has been substantiated, he said.This market is easily spooked after we've had such a run,he said.The plunge in stocks came even as the Institute for Supply Management reported that U.S. manufacturing grew in August for the first time since January 2008. The market also shrugged off another positive economic report, the sixth straight monthly increase in pending home sales.Investors have long since factored in an economic recovery into stock prices, but analysts, worried that investors have been too optimistic, have been anticipating a downward turn. Trading has been choppy recently as investors also questioned whether their bets on the economy have been warranted.The market's priced all of this in, and a lot more, quite frankly,said Jeff Buetow, managing partner at Innealta Portfolio Advisors.I just don't see the growth out there.On the surface, the day's economic numbers were good. But a deeper look at the data gave some cause for concern.Analysts said both the manufacturing and housing reports got a boost from government stimulus efforts, including the Cash for Clunkers program that has since expired, which means the recovery in those industries may not continue at the same pace.In both cases it seems headlines overstate details by a touch,said Tom di Galoma, head of U.S. rates trading at Guggenheim Capital Markets LLC.People reviewed the numbers and said this type of demand is just not sustainable.Investors are also hesitant to buy stocks ahead of Friday's employment numbers, which could reveal more bad news about the job market, one of the worst remaining problem areas in the U.S. economy.
In late afternoon trading, the Dow dropped 170.11, or 1.8 percent, to 9,326.17. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 19.52, or 1.9 percent, to 1,001.10, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 35.07, or 1.8 percent, to 1,973.99.Nearly five stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.1billion shares compared with a light 675.8 million shares traded at the same time Monday. Volume has been light as some traders break away for vacation before Labor Day. That can leave the market vulnerable to big swings.In other trading, the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 12.13, or 2.1 percent, to 559.94. Bond prices turned mostly higher after stocks began to fall and investors went in search of safer assets. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.38 percent from 3.40 percent late Monday. Light, sweet crude for October delivery tumbled $1.82 to $68.14 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, bringing down shares of energy companies with it. Gold prices fell.Although the market pulled back in recent days, stocks managed to put in their best August since 2000. September, however, is historically the worst month for stocks.It's a self-fulfilling prophecy, said Steve Stahler, president of The Stahler Group in Baton Rouge, La., of investors entering the month knowing it's typically weak.Stahler added that there are no longer indicators on the horizon that can continue to propel the market forward at such a dizzying pace.We've had a heck of a run,Stahler said.When has that type of gain been sustainable? It never has.The reaction to the day's economic reports signaled that many traders are more concerned about how much stocks have rallied.
The Institute for Supply Management said Tuesday that its index of manufacturing activity rose to 52.9 in August, up from 48.9 in July and well above the reading of 50.5 analysts had been expecting. A reading above 50 signifies growth in the industry — something that hasn't happened since January 2008. Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors said its index of pending U.S. home sales rose 3.2 percent in July to 97.6, more than the 96.5 forecast by analysts. It was the reading's highest level in more than two years, helped by a surge of first-time buyers taking advantage of a tax credit that expires this fall.It was the sixth straight increase and 12 percent above the same month last year.Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 0.4 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 dropped 1.8 percent, while Germany's DAX index tumbled 2.5 percent and France's CAC-40 fell 1.9 percent. China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.6 percent after a 6.7 percent plunge on Monday that sent a wave of selling around the globe.
Offshore private banking model is dead, experts say By Lisa Jucca, European Wealth Management Correspondent – Tue Sep 1, 11:50 am ET
ZURICH (Reuters) – A U.S. tax probe against Swiss bank UBS has killed traditional offshore banking and wealth managers will have to improve their offers to survive, bankers and industry experts said on Tuesday.Offshore private banking involves managing the wealth of rich clients from a foreign location.However, some clients have exploited the system to avoid paying taxes, especially if carried out in traditional banking secrecy strongholds like Switzerland and Liechtenstein.The situation has been thrust into the limelight since Washington accused UBS of using Swiss bank secrecy laws to help wealthy clients avoid paying taxes and forced it last month to hand over some treasured client data.UBS's capitulation to the U.S. tax authorities and a global crackdown on tax evasion are denting the allure for banks to shelter untaxed money, experts say.The entire offshore banking model seems to be dead,said Teodoro Cocca, a professor for Wealth and Asset Management at the Johannes Kepler University in Austria.Forget bank secrecy and focus on onshore or on tax compliant business,he told an audience of Swiss private bankers.Experts say there has been almost no growth in the offshore private banking business in recent years, even though some small players are still attracting tax-sensitive money. The returns offered are just becoming too risky, Cocca said.
Top bankers say private banks in Switzerland, the world's largest offshore center with an estimated $2 trillion in managed wealth, should learn from UBS's troubles and compete more with other banks on their home turfs.The consequences of the crisis at UBS have been dramatic,said Pierre de Weck, Head of Private Wealth Management at Deutsche Bank.I have been for years an advocate that Switzerland should build from a position of strength and attract capital not because of confidentiality, he said. Our big offshore center has to learn the onshore skills to survive.
DIVERSIFIED OFFER
De Weck said private banks based in well-known financial centers such as Switzerland and London, the world's second largest offshore financial center and a gateway to such banking secrecy hubs as Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, would continue to offer services to foreign clients.He said this was especially true for clients based in underdeveloped markets that have yet to build diversified financial services.If you are a shipbuilder in Greece, you have your money in Switzerland or London, because Greece has not got the capability (to offer the same breadth of financial services),de Weck said.However, private banks will have to be prepared to bear the higher costs of ensuring clients pay their taxes back home.Offshore compliant is a business model. Offshore non-compliant is not,said Sebastian Dovey, Managing Partner at specialized wealth management consultancy Scorpio Partnership.The onshore model is the model many more players will start to tackle. It looks like it is a better business.In a world of increased transparency and with cash-strapped governments seeking more tax money, clients will still be attracted to specialized financial centers, but this should be because of a better offer rather than tax advantages, bankers said.The key issue is: What are you wanting from an offshore center? said Angela Knight, chief executive of the British Bankers Association.At the moment, what is not a workable proposition is whether there are tax advantages and confidentiality advantages. These are rushing out of the window right now.(Editing by Karen Foster)
Oil prices fall as stock markets decline By MARK WILLIAMS, AP Energy Writer –SEPT 1,09
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Oil prices dipped again Tuesday despite new indications that the U.S. manufacturing and housing industries may be on the mend.Benchmark crude for October delivery fell $1.91 to settle at $68.05 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.The contract Monday lost $2.78 to settle at $69.96, meaning crude has fallen almost 6 percent this week.On Tuesday, however, it appeared energy prices were rebounding after the Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing executives, said its manufacturing index rose to 52.9 in August. That is the first reading above 50, which indicates expansion, since January 2008. It's also the highest since June 2007.The National Association of Realtors said pending U.S. home sales rose to the highest level in more than two years as first-time buyers rushed to take advantage of a tax credit that expires this fall.That type of news this year has pushed energy prices higher because if heavy industries are ramping up production and people are buying homes, it is likely that spending on energy will rise as well.The bounce in energy prices Tuesday was short-lived and both equity and energy markets reversed course before noon.PFGBest analyst Phil Flynn questioned whether the manufacturing report gave a skewed image of the economy.The question is the sustainability,he said.
Another possible reason for the volatile prices Tuesday is the low volume on the floor of the Nymex.It is typical for futures prices to swing in the week before a holiday and some traders said there was nothing to be read into falling prices before the Labor Day weekend begins.I'm not putting anything on what we see this week,said oil analyst and trader Stephen Schork.Looking ahead, there is little to suggest that the supply of crude or gasoline will be constrained.Even though most energy experts believe the government will report a draw-down in gasoline and crude stocks Wednesday as part of its weekly report, levels remain very high and the driving season is coming to a close.Gasoline consumption fell 5 percent for the week ended Friday from a year ago when approaching Hurricane Gustav caused a spike in consumption along the Gulf of Mexico, according to the MasterCard Spendig Pulse report. Consumption was down from the previous week by 2.9 percent, in part because of bad weather along the East Coast caused by tropical storm Danny.MasterCard's report is based on aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments network, coupled with estimates for all other payment forms, including cash and check.Prices at the pump, meanwhile, fell 0.3 cents overnight to $2.607, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. Prices are 6.9 cents above levels of a month ago, but $1.079 below year ago levels.The Energy Information Administration reported late Tuesday that retail gasoline prices fell for the third straight week. In other Nymex trading, gasoline for October delivery fell by 2.77 cents to settle at $1.7822 a gallon and heating oil fell 4.96 cents to settle at $1.7589 a gallon. Natural gas shed 15.6 cents to settle at $2.821 per 1,000 cubic feet.In London, Brent crude fell $1.92 to settle at $67.73.Associated Press writer George Jahn in Vienna and Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.
Brazil, India, S. Africa press for IMF reform SEPT 1,09
BRASILIA (AFP) – Signs that the global crisis is easing should not stall plans to overhaul the world's financial system, including reform of the IMF, the foreign ministers of Brazil, India and South Africa said on Tuesday.The risk is that, with the crisis subsiding, some reforms will not be carried out deeply enough,Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told a news conference after talks in Brasilia with his counterparts.Amorim, India's S.M. Krishna and South Africa's Maite Nkoana-Mashabane held the meeting to prepare a summit between their countries in Brazil's capital that is scheduled for October 8.They issued a joint statement calling for a continued expansion of the International Monetary Fund's reserves and a shake-up of countries' representation and voting rights on that and other Bretton Woods institutions.They also backed negotiations aimed at sealing a free trade agreement between India, the South American trade bloc Mercosur, and the Southern Africa Customs Union.The ministers said they wanted to see trade between their nations top 25 billion dollars by 2015, up from 10 billion dollars currently.
Canada's Liberals vow to bring down government By Randall Palmer – SEPT 1,09
SUDBURY, Ontario (Reuters) – The Liberal Party on Tuesday vowed to bring down the minority Conservative government, leaving the fate of Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the hands of other parties.In a risky announcement that offers no guarantee of electoral success, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said Harper had failed to help Canadians deal with economic crisis.The Liberal Party cannot support this government any further. We will hold Stephen Harper to account. We will oppose his government in Parliament,he told cheering members of the Liberal Parliamentary caucus in Sudbury, Ontario.The Liberals now want to bring in a non-confidence motion in the government once Parliament resumes later this month.Provided all three opposition parties vote against the government, that would mean an election in the first half of November, just over a year after the last federal election.The left-leaning opposition New Democrats, who have repeatedly said they will oppose Harper, took a cautious line.We're going to wait and see exactly what the Liberals are going to table. We're not going to jump in and speculate as to how we'll go,New Democrats national director Brad Lavigne told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
The leader of the separatist Bloc Quebecois -- no friend of Harper -- will react to Ignatieff's announcement at 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT) on Wednesday.Polls show the Liberals and Conservatives deadlocked at around 32 percent support, well below the 40percent needed to guarantee a majority in the 308-seat House of Commons.I guess I want to know -- are they crazy? National Post columnist Don Martin told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.Harper won his first minority government in January 2006 and increased his grip on power in October. The Liberals have kept him in power by abstaining on key government legislation, including the budget.But the party has saber-rattled about an election before, only to back down, most recently in June when the Conservatives agreed to set up a bilateral panel on jobless benefits.
Ignatieff's uncompromising language on Tuesday indicates he no longer sees any room for compromise.After four years of drift, four years of denial, four years of division and discord, Mr. Harper, your time is up,he said to a standing ovation.
Harper says Canadians do not want an election now, and a vote would imperil a C$46.2 billion ($42 billion) two-year stimulus package unveiled in the January budget.I think it's pretty clear Canadians want Parliament to focus on the economy,he said in Calgary.Canada's dollar dipped briefly, and then recovered.The political developments just add a little more uncertainty and that's a negative for the Canadian dollar,said RBC Capital Markets technical strategist George Davis.
Ignatieff took over as Liberal leader last December after the party did poorly in the October election. Since then he has revitalized the party and helped it raise the money it will need to fight an election.Yet the former Harvard academic and professional journalist could be vulnerable to attacks from Conservatives, who say the decades he spent outside Canada mean he had little idea what Canadians need or want from their government.(Additional reporting by Scott Haggett, Louise Egan, Frank Pingue, Jennifer Kwan and Ka Yan Ng)(Writing by David Ljunggren)
East Jerusalem lags behind west as school begins By JEN THOMAS, Associated Press Writer – Tue Sep 1, 10:44 am ET
JERUSALEM – Thousands of children in Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods were kept out of classrooms on the first day of school Tuesday because of Israeli government neglect, activists and human rights groups said.The Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem lack more than 1,000 classrooms needed to accommodate schoolchildren, according to the report issued by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and Ir Amim, an Israeli nonprofit that promotes coexistence in the city.The report estimates that more than 5,000 would-be students in east Jerusalem were not enrolled in any school.There has been a huge increase in the population in east Jerusalem, and that has not been followed by a huge increase in classroom construction, said Sarah Kreimer, associate director of Ir Amim.The Jerusalem municipality rejected the report, saying the numbers were distorted.Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it, a move that has not been recognized by the international community. Palestinians want east Jerusalem for the capital of a future state.Israel sees the whole city as its capital but allows significant gaps in municipal services, building permits and public funding between the relatively prosperous Jewish west and the poorer Arab neighborhoods of the east. Jerusalem's Arabs — roughly a third of the city's population of 750,000 — also largely boycott municipal elections to avoid recognizing Israeli control, a move that means forfeiting any clout they could wield at City Hall.Of the nearly 90,000 children between 5 and 18 years old living in east Jerusalem, fewer than half were enrolled in municipal public schools last year, the report said.
Students who don't make it into public school because of the classroom shortage are forced to consider private schools, often at a steep cost, Kreimer said. Some families get priced out, and many students end up at home.The report also said many existing classrooms were small, crowded, unventilated and lacking support classes or playgrounds.Fares Kales, a father of five who heads the parent-teacher association in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, called the lack of classrooms a policy to discriminate.Kales said 50 children who were supposed to start first grade Tuesday at one Silwan elementary school were not enrolled because of a lack of space.
In west Jerusalem, you won't see a parent walking around for five hours looking for a place for his child's mandatory education and can't find a seat in a classroom,he said.The municipality challenged the numbers in the report and said it had a multiyear plan for the construction of new schools. In the last two years alone, the statement said, the city built new schools with 200 classrooms for Arab schoolchildren.In wake of this great effort, the gaps in the education system in all parts of Jerusalem have been growing smaller recently, in contrast with what is presented in the distorted report,the statement said.
The report notes that the city is working toward acquiring 25 lots for construction to build 650 new classrooms, but calls that effort too little, too late.Menachem Klein, a political scientist at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv, said Israel's unequal policies in Jerusalem are part of a battle for supremacy over the city.Israel is not interested in allocating the budget to Palestinian Arabs that Israel sees as a demographic threat to the Jewishness of the city,Klein said.
Foreigners free to own Nigerian banks: official Tue Sep 1, 4:46 pm ET
ABUJA (AFP) – Nigeria will not preclude foreigners from owning any bank in the country, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor said Tuesday but added that the government did not want to sell the five ailing banks.The principle objective of the Central Bank at this point in time and the principal focus is not to sell the banks, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi told a news conference.We at the Central Bank will not preclude a bank from owning a Nigerian bank because it is foreign. We have said we do not in principle stand in the way of a foreign bank owing a Nigerian bank, added Sanusi, who met foreign creditors in London at the weekend.Sanusi last month dismissed the chief executives of five key banks for mismanagement and running the institutions into insolvency.The CBN said the total loan portfolio of the five banks -- Afribank, Intercontinental Bank, Union Bank, Oceanic Bank and Finbank -- stood at 2.8 trillion naira (17.8 billion dollars, 12.6 billion euros).On Monday 16 senior bank officials were in Lagos charged with economic and financial crime offences .The nation's anti-graft agency EFCC said it would enlist the support of International Police (Interpol) to arrest fleeing chiefs of the five ailing banks.
The CBN boss had announced the appointment of new chiefs for these affected five banks and a bailout of 400 billion naira (2.55 billion dollars/ 1.8 billion euros) to them.Once these banks are stabilised, our preference is for these institutions to have core investors that will run them professionally and put in place the governance system that will ensure that we do not have a recurrence of the kind of things that we had in the past, Sanusi said.Sanusi said the core investors could be local or foreign but warned that any interested foreign investor must show a clear commitment to the Nigerian economy and the development of the Nigerian economy.He said that his London trip last week was particularly to meet correspondent banks and creditors to assure them of the safety and soundness of the institutions (banks).
Brazil, India, S. Africa press for IMF reform Tue Sep 1, 3:37 pm
ET
BRASILIA (AFP) – Signs that the global crisis is easing should not stall plans to overhaul the world's financial system, including reform of the IMF, the foreign ministers of Brazil, India and South Africa said on Tuesday.The risk is that, with the crisis subsiding, some reforms will not be carried out deeply enough, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told a news conference after talks in Brasilia with his counterparts.Amorim, India's S.M. Krishna and South Africa's Maite Nkoana-Mashabane held the meeting to prepare a summit between their countries in Brazil's capital that is scheduled for October 8.They issued a joint statement calling for a continued expansion of the International Monetary Fund's reserves and a shake-up of countries' representation and voting rights on that and other Bretton Woods institutions.They also backed negotiations aimed at sealing a free trade agreement between India, the South American trade bloc Mercosur, and the Southern Africa Customs Union.The ministers said they wanted to see trade between their nations top 25 billion dollars by 2015, up from 10 billion dollars currently.
Flaherty pleased with more stable C$ By Allan Dowd – Mon Aug 31, 8:06 am ET
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) – Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who warned this month that steps could be taken to curb a sharp rise in the Canadian dollar, said on Sunday he was pleased with the currency's recent stability.Flaherty said he had been hearing complaints from businesses that volatility in the Canadian dollar was making it difficult for them at a time when the country was already struggling to revive its economy.We've seen some relative stability of late, and that's good for our businesses in Canada," Flaherty told a media briefing in Vancouver ahead of a speech to a meeting of international tax and accounting experts.
The Canadian dollar rallied more than 20 percent from a four-year low in March to its 2009 high in August, when comments from Flaherty that steps could be taken to curb its rise helped reverse the trend.The currency was trading at C$1.0956 or 91.27 U.S. cents, during the overnight session in Asia, weakening from C$1.0949, or 91.33 U.S. cents, just before Flaherty's latest comment.While the Canadian dollar's rise has been linked to higher oil prices and an improved outlook for the global economy, there have been complaints that it was also being pushed along by speculators.The Bank of Canada has also expressed concern that persistent Canadian dollar strength could threaten the economic recovery by hampering the country's exporters.
STIMULUS STILL NEEDED
Flaherty, who was speaking in Vancouver in advance of the Sept 4-5 meeting of G20 finance ministers, said he believed it was too soon for Canada or other countries to back away from the economic stimulus packages they have enacted.Economists have said that while the world economy is showing signs of improving, the G20 leaders will have to show that they can withdraw the stimulus used to spur that recovery in an orderly way without derailing it.I share the view that we are seeing stability in the financial systems of late, but it would be a mistake to assume that we have entrenched economic growth, Flaherty told reporters in Vancouver.Flaherty said the need for continued emphasis on stimulus was particularly true for G20 countries.
There will be a time when we can talk about how we rebalance the system later on. We can have early discussions on that subject, but I would not want to move away from the emphasis now on implementing the stimulus packages, he said.Canada would also keep up the pressure on other countries on the need to improve global financial oversight, using Canada as and example, Flaherty indicated.Flaherty and other Canadian officials who once winced at suggestions their banking system was boring now embrace the word to describe how its banks largely avoided the hammering that hit many international rivals during the current global economic storm.The Canadian system clearly works, and works well, Flaherty said in prepared remarks to be delivered to the 63 Congress of the International Fiscal Association, which is meeting on Canada's Pacific coast.He noted Canada's financial system had not seen the proliferation of sub-prime mortgage products that triggered the U.S. meltdown and that no Canadian banks have required an injection of public funds.Despite hailing the Canadian system as one for the world to follow, Flaherty reiterated his call for Canada to adopt a single securities regulator - replacing the current system that puts securities regulation in the hands of the country's provinces. Ottawa's plan has drawn some provincial resistance, especially in Quebec. Flaherty said the proposed Canadian securities regulator will have a financial stability mandate just as the country has for its existing regulatory systems. (Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson.)
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.
Hamas leader denies Nazi genocide of Jews By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer – Mon Aug 31, 2:54 pm ET
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – A Hamas spiritual leader on Monday called teaching Palestinian children about the Nazi murder of 6 million Jews a war crime, rejecting a suggestion that the U.N. might include the Holocaust in Gaza's school curriculum.A senior Israeli official said such statements should make the West think twice about ending its boycott of Hamas, in place since the group seized Gaza by force in 2007. Israeli officials called the comments as obscene and said they place Hamas in a pariah club of Holocaust deniers that includes Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Hamas spiritual leader Younis al-Astal lashed out after hearing that the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, the main U.N. body aiding Palestinian refugees, planned to introduce lessons about the Holocaust to Gaza students.Adding the Holocaust to the curriculum would amount to marketing a lie and spreading it, al-Astal wrote in a statement.I do not exaggerate when I say this issue is a war crime, because of how it serves the Zionist colonizers and deals with their hypocrisy and lies,he wrote.A U.N. official said no decision has been made about introducing Holocaust education in Gaza.Many Palestinians are reluctant to acknowledge Jewish suffering, fearing it might diminish their own. Attitudes toward the Holocaust range from outright denial to challenging its scope.Hamas has been making overtures to the West, hoping to end a stifling blockade of Gaza. And the statements about the Holocaust by senior Hamas officials could undermine the group's attempt to present itself as pragmatic. The U.S. and Europe list Hamas as a terror group, but there have been growing calls, particularly in Europe, to talk to the militants. Hamas control of Gaza is seen as a key obstacle to any Mideast peace deal.Three teachers at U.N. schools said that according to the new program, basic information about the Holocaust was expected to be taught to eighth grade students as part of human rights classes.Two of the teachers said they were told about the lesson plan by colleagues involved in the new syllabus. Another teacher said he attended a recent meeting with education officials where he was told to try to teach the new syllabus without offending parents' sensibilities.
All three said they had not received the syllabus for the human rights classes yet, even though the school year began in late August. They requested anonymity because they are not allowed to speak to reporters.UNRWA provides education, health care and welfare services to more than half of Gaza's 1.4 million people. Spokesman Chris Gunness said a final decision has not been made about the Holocaust course for Gaza schools.While the Holocaust is currently not included on the basis of age appropriateness, all elements (of the curriculum) remain under review and under evolution,he said.Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri also objected to including what he referred to as the so-called Holocaust in the lesson plan.We think it's more important to teach Palestinians the crimes of the Israeli occupation,he said.Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said countries contemplating ending their boycott of Hamas must seriously reconsider after the Hamas statements, which he described as obscene.The Holocaust is not taught in West Bank schools, said an education ministry official in Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas' government.Israelis have long complained that Palestinian textbooks present Israel only as an enemy, despite a series of interim peace deals. Also, they charge that maps in the books do not show Israel at all.Palestinians make similar charges about Israeli education. Recently Israel's education minister ordered a halt to using the accepted Arabic term nakba, or catastrophe, to describe the results of the two-year war that followed Israel's creation, when about 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes.
The U.N. runs 221 schools in Gaza for more than 200,000 students and is the largest independent agency in the territory, controlled by Hamas since a violent takeover in 2007. The West Bank, the other territory that is supposed to comprise a future Palestinian state, is controlled by Hamas' Western-backed rivals of the Fatah movement, led by President Mahmoud Abbas.Some 6 million Jews were killed in the Nazi campaign to wipe out European Jewry, and the urgent need to find a sanctuary for hundreds of thousands of survivors contributed to the creation of Israel after World War II.Many Palestinians are reluctant to acknowledge the full extent of the Holocaust because they feel it provided legitimacy for Israel's establishment. A majority of Gaza's 1.4 million people are Palestinian refugees or their descendants.
Some parents opposed the idea of their children learning about the Holocaust.I don't want them teaching my children Jewish lies,Mohammed Silmi, 33, said Monday, after driving his son to a U.N. school in Gaza City on the back of a motorbike.It will just be Zionist propaganda.Hamas' founding charter calls for Israel's destruction, though senior Hamas officials have recently said they would accept a Palestinian state alongside Israel as an interim stage to full Islamic control of the region.
Hamas is frequently at loggerheads with the U.N. refugee agency, which it considers the only serious challenge to its control of Gaza. Over the summer, Hamas accused the U.N. of spreading immorality in summer camps for children, because it offered activities such as folk dancing and crafts.With additional reporting by Rizek Abdul Jawad in Gaza City.
Iran says ready for nuclear talks with world powers By Parisa Hafezi – SEPT 1,09
TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran has prepared an updated nuclear proposal and is ready to talk to world powers, state television quoted the Islamic Republic's chief nuclear negotiator as saying on Tuesday.The announcement was made a day before six world powers were expected to hold high-level talks in Germany on what to do about Iran's contentious nuclear program. The West suspects the Islamic state is seeking to build bombs. Iran denies the charge.Iran has prepared an updated nuclear proposal and is ready to resume negotiations with world powers,al-Alam, Iran's Arabic-language satellite channel, quoted chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili as saying.The official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying Iran was ready to use its capacities to remove common concerns on the international scene.Such language may cause suspicion in Western capitals that Iran's proposal, like others before, fails to specifically address their concerns about its nuclear ambitions and is a ruse to buy time and avert the threat of more punitive measures.A senior U.S. official was dismissive of the remarks attributed to Jalili, a leading nuclear hard-liner, saying there was not a hint of substance in them.The official told Reuters he believed the comments were timed to split the P-5 (powers) by giving China and Russia reason to break ranks on Iran sanctions.Moscow and Beijing, major trade partners of Iran, have long opposed harsh sanctions.Iran has repeatedly rejected demands to halt uranium enrichment, which can have both military or civilian purposes, or even freeze it at current levels of output.U.S. President Barack Obama gave Iran until later this month to take up a six-power offer of talks on trade benefits if it shelves nuclear fuel production, or face wider sanctions that could target Iran's vulnerable gasoline sector.The content of Tehran's proposal and the extent to which it addressed the six powers' concerns, was not immediately clear.We've seen the reports, though we have not heard anything conclusively from the Iranians on that, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. Of Obama's offer of talks, he said:It's still out there, it is still waiting for a response.
ECONOMIC INCENTIVES
Asked about the report of Iran's readiness for talks, a Western diplomat told Reuters in Vienna: If it is confirmed ... it would of course be very welcome.But a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said it had not yet been contacted by Iran: "For us, the situation hasn't changed.Germany will host talks on Iran's nuclear program this week with the United States, China, France, Britain and Russia.German Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking at a joint news conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, said on Monday Iran should realize how very serious the Obama deadline was.Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi condemned those remarks and said sanctions would not work.Their interfering comments show that they do not have any realistic or correct understanding about developments in Iran and are a clear interference in other country's internal affairs,the official news agency IRNA quoted him as saying.An International Atomic Energy Agency report last week said Iran had again ignored U.N. Security Council demands it stop enriching uranium and open up to IAEA investigators to exclude the possibility of military dimensions to its nuclear activity. Washington and its allies may go after Iran's gasoline imports in a possible fourth round of sanctions. That could seriously hurt Iran, which, although it is the world's number five oil exporter, imports up to 40 percent of its gasoline.Russia and China have reluctantly backed three rounds of moderate sanctions touching on Iran's nuclear and missile industries since 2006, though they managed to water down some measures before voting for them in the U.N. Security Council.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said back in April, before his disputed re-election in June, that Iran had prepared its own proposals to end the stalemate. But no details emerged.The six powers originally offered Iran trade, financial and diplomatic incentives in 2006 in exchange for a suspension of enrichment. Iran's response hinted at some flexibility but ruled out suspension as a precondition for talks. The six improved the offer in June 2008 but retained the precondition. Iran said it wanted a broader peace and security deal, dismissed by Western officials as vague and irrelevant, and rejected any condescending formula to shelve enrichment. Diplomats say Western officials have suggested a face-saving way into talks could be a verified freeze in enrichment expansion, with suspension still the goal in exchange for benefits to Iran. But Tehran has ruled out any such freeze.(Additional reporting by Reza Derakhshi in Tehran, Sylvia Westall in Vienna, Noah Barkin in Berlin and Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Jon Boyle)
Europe marks anniversary of WWII beginning By RYAN LUCAS and DAVID RISING, Associated Press Writers – SEPT 1,09
GDANSK, Poland – On a wind-swept peninsula where shells lobbed from a German battleship ignited World War II 70 years ago, European leaders vowed Tuesday never to forget the lessons of the 20th century's bloodiest conflict.Evidence of continued animosity was not far from the surface, however, as Poland pushed for greater acknowledgment from Russia of its role in starting the war, while Russia sought to minimize the impact of Moscow's 1939 pact with Berlin.At dawn on Gdansk's Westerplatte peninsula, Poland's leaders marked the hour the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein shelled a tiny Polish military outpost housing the navy's arsenal. It was the war's opening salvo.Red and white Polish flags fluttered in a breeze as the officials opened the ceremony at 4:45 a.m. (0245GMT). Later, Poland's president, prime minister and others placed wreaths at the foot of the towering granite monument to the defenders of Westerplatte as an honor guard looked on.The blitzkrieg on Poland launched nearly six years of war that engulfed the world and left more than 50 million people dead as the German war machine rolled over Europe.
Poland alone lost 6 million citizens, half of them Jews. During the German occupation, the country was used as a base for the Nazis' genocide machinery: It was home to Auschwitz, Majdanek, Sobibor and other death camps built by the Nazis to annihilate Europe's Jews.Remembering the cruelty, remembering the extermination of peoples and nations, is perhaps the most important and most effective shield against the danger of another war,Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in a solemn afternoon ceremony with European and American officials along the waterfront on Westerplatte.
Nobody in the world who will remember the events here in Gdansk in 1939 and the horrible events around the world in the years that followed ... will ever do anything to allow that nightmare to return.A Polish sailor bugled Taps as a wreath decorated with the red and white of Poland's flag was placed in memory of the war's victims.German Chancellor Angela Merkel apologized for her nation, saying that remembering the war and its victims was its everlasting historical responsibility.
There are no words that can even approximately describe the suffering of this war and the Holocaust,Merkel told dignitaries, including Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, French Premier Francois Fillon, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, and U.S. National Security Adviser James Jones, as well as Tusk and Poland's president, Lech Kaczynski.I bow before the victims.Many historians see the signing of the Nazi-Soviet pact a week before the hostilities began as a critical development in Berlin's march to war.The pact, formally a treaty of nonaggression, was signed Aug. 23, 1939, in Moscow by Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop, the foreign ministers of the two countries.In addition, the treaty included secret protocols that divided eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence. The Soviet Union attacked Poland from the east sixteen days after the Nazis invaded from the west.Putin sought to downplay the treaty's importance, saying it was only one factor to be considered in the context of the western powers' appeasement of Hitler, along with agreements signed by other countries with the Nazis, including a Polish-German nonaggression pact.All of these acts brought about this tragedy, the start of World War II, and naturally we need to admit such mistakes,Putin said.Our country has done so. ... Our parliament has condemned the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and we are right to expect that other countries that made deals with the Nazis should do the same.
Kaczynski defended Poland's nonaggression treaty, saying that it had also signed one with the Soviet Union, and that neither could be compared in any way to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.He said that Poland has a right to access the truth about its history — including the murder of some 22,000 Polish officers by the Soviets in the Katyn forest during the war.You cannot adopt the principle that only those who were defeated must speak of their darkest episodes, and the victors do not, he said. There is one truth.Tusk, who met with Putin earlier in the day, took a softer approach, acknowledging the Red Army's defeat of the Nazis in Poland and vowing his nation and Russia would investigate together the painful elements of our common history.If, in the past, it was possible for the Poles and the Germans and the Russians and the Germans, for God's sake, why isn't it possible for the Poles and the Russians? he said.At the height of the war, the European theater stretched from North Africa to the outskirts of Moscow, and pitted Germany and its allies, including Italy, against Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the United States, along with a host of other countries, including Polish forces in exile.
The war in Europe ended May 8, 1945, with Germany's unconditional surrender.
President Barack Obama, who was not at Tuesday's ceremonies, sent a message noting that today, as a NATO member, Poland is protected by a treaty that says an attack on one is an attack on all.We celebrate together the determination of the people of Poland to fight authoritarianism and to choose democracy and freedom,Obama said in the message to Poland.Today, we live in a different era in which the United States and Poland are close allies, partners in meeting global challenges to our security and prosperity, and in supporting fundamental human rights around the world.
Young Turks a major obstacle to Turkey's EU goals By Thomas Grove – Tue Sep 1, 8:06 pm ET
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The license plate on Yunus Danacioglu's Turkish-made car carries an empty blue band waiting for European Union stars like those adorning automobile plates from Ireland to Bulgaria.The only difference between his plate and others in Istanbul is that he has covered that band with a red and white Turkish flag, featuring a crescent and star, to show his loyalties.What do I think of the European Union? Danacioglu, 20, said in a throng of Istanbul traffic.Make Istanbul the capital of the European Union and then I'd support it.Danacioglu, who works as a taxi driver, says it is more important to be proud of being Turkish than to pretend to be European, and surveys suggest many others in Turkey's huge and growing youth population feel the same.That bodes poorly for Turkey's already troubled EU accession bid as a study in May showed that young people, once touted by Turkish politicians as an asset for aging Europe, are the group where opposition to joining the European bloc is strongest.Anti-EU attitudes are most prevalent in our youth, said Yilmaz Esmer, a political science professor at Bahcesehir University, whose study showed 32 percent of youth against joining the EU, a level higher than any other age group.Of Turkey's 72 million people, more than half are under the age of 30and that proportion will increase for the next 20-25 years, say demographers.Our youth seems to be less Western-oriented, more nationalistic and as religious as their older counterparts, which is due to our schools, our textbooks,Esmer said.
A military coup in 1980 rewrote many of the rules for Turkey's educational system. It boosted the role of the military in the curricula and mandated religion courses, helping bring religion under state control in the predominantly Muslim country.
Turkey's young people are also suffering the most from its deep recession. The economy contracted by 13.8 percent in the first quarter of the year, and nearly one in four young men and women are jobless.
ISSUE OF TRUST
Unlike other EU candidate countries, especially former communist bloc countries whose youth saw the EU as a way to break from the past, Turkey's youth are more likely to want to see Turkey go it alone.The education system, which has been criticized for crystallizing nationalism and religious consciousness, contains national security courses taught by military officers as well as religion classes that focus almost exclusively on Sunni Islam.Turkish textbooks have also been blamed for fanning nationalism, in their accounts of the war of independence when Turkish soldiers fought Italian, French, British and Greek forces to reclaim former Ottoman territory.It's still an issue of trust for Turkey, said Alp Aslan, 20, who plans to study construction engineering next year.I don't think a lot of young people trust the European Union because these are the same countries that were trying to grab swathes of Turkey not even 100 years ago.Many of Turkey's young men and women became politically conscious not during the years of EU enthusiasm that led to the opening of Ankara's accession talks in 2005, but in the subsequent atmosphere of enlargement fatigue that saw some EU members discredit the idea of Turkey's membership.Leaders in France and Germany want a privileged partnership for Turkey rather than outright membership. In the country where 99 percent of the population is Muslim, the media portray this as an example of anti-Turkishness and double standards.We have given so much to the European Union already in terms of reforms and we've seen nothing in return. France and Germany don't want us and they never will,said Aslan, summing up a widely held viewed among Turks.Brussels wants Turkey to limit the power of the army, improve free speech, grant more rights to minorities and adopt and implement 80,000 pages of European laws and regulations ranging from the environment to food safety. These reforms are painful and require sustained support from public opinion.
A WAY FORWARD
Support for the EU is still high among those who see EU-backed reforms in the relatively poor, conservative country as a way forward on democratic issues. I want Turkey in the European Union because Turkey has a long way to go in terms of learning how to deal with its minorities, to respect freedom of speech and thought, said Hayri Ince, 24, a social theory student, at Istanbul's Bilgi University. But Aygen Aytac of the United Nations Development Programme, who wrote a report last year on Turkish youth, said that without swift investment in Turkey's educational system the conditions that contribute to rising nationalism, anti-EU sentiment and youth unemployment will be aggravated in the coming years. University education is often seen as a modifying factor, offsetting the more nationalistic tones of the country's primary and secondary curricula.If you don't invest in those people, if you can't give them the jobs and educate them, the youth won't mean much besides problems,said Aytac.For the 12 million people around college age, Turkey has 94 state universities that most families can afford. Few can afford the high tuition fees at Turkey's 45 private colleges.(Editing by Sara Ledwith)
Madonna wrapping up world tour in Israel By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer – SEPT 1,09
TEL AVIV, Israel – Madonna brought her mix of provocative music and spirituality to the Holy Land with a concert Tuesday in front of 50,000 fans who had endured a 16-year wait since the pop icon's last gig in Israel.Madonna is wrapping up her worldwide Sticky & Sweet tour with two concerts this week in a country whose place at the heart of the Mideast conflict has made it more of a magnet for diplomats than big-name performers.Madonna took the stage about a half hour late Tuesday night, opening the show with her 2008 single, Candy Shop.Flanked by male and female dancers, all dressed in tight black outfits, Madonna pranced around the stage in a black, sleeveless body suit, fishnet stockings and black knee-high leather boots. With the exception of a brief Hello Israel, the show appeared to be tightly scripted, stretching from new songs like Beat Goes On to the 1983 classic Celebrate.
The 51-year-old entertainer claims a special bond with the Jewish state.
She's been dabbling in Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism, for more than a decade and has taken on a Hebrew name, Esther. She's come on private pilgrimages in recent years, and has visited the Jewish holy site at the Western Wall in Jerusalem since arriving in Israel on Sunday.Madonna was sceduled to perform again on Wednesday at Tel Aviv's Hayarkon Park, the same outdoor site as Tuesday's show.One of the reasons she attracts such large crowds is that she has a special connection to Israel,said Chen Shasha, a 24-year-old law student attending the concert.Israelis appreciate the fact that someone appreciates them and approaches them and is willing to look into things such as Kabbalah.Israeli radio stations played Madonna songs through the day Tuesday, and recorded Madonna tunes greeted concertgoers as they lined up to enter the concert grounds. On Israel's Army Radio, a DJ interrupted a song briefly to quip that tonight, Aunt Esther is playing at Hayarkon Park.Late Monday, the pop diva dined with Israel's moderate parliamentary opposition leader, Tzipi Livni, at Madonna's request, Livni spokesman Gil Messing said. Her main political rival, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will receive Madonna at his Jerusalem residence on Friday.Madonna last performed in Israel in 1993 but came on private pilgrimages in 2004 and 2007 along with other Kabbalah devotees.Her previous two stops on the current tour, in Romania and Bulgaria, were marred by controversy.In Bulgaria, Orthodox Church officials accused the singer of showing disrespect for Christianity. In Romania, she was booed during her concert for criticizing widespread discrimination against eastern Europe's Gypsies, also known as Roma.
In Israel, some rabbis have criticized her involvement in Kabbalah. Madonna was raised a Roman Catholic. She wrote in an article for an Israeli newspaper last month that the study of Kabbalah helped her understand life better.Jewish tradition holds that Kabbalah is so complicated and so easily misunderstood that students may only begin to approach it with a strong background in Jewish law and only after age 40.
Still, Madonna's fans are happy she's in Israel. Her first show sold out quickly, and a second was added.After years of concerns over political tensions and violence, more world artists are performing to Israel.Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney performed a year ago, but he drew criticism from Palestinians who said his concert amounted to support for Israel's occupation of the West Bank. David Brinn, a music critic for The Jerusalem Post, said Madonna's performances are a sign that Israel is becoming more attractive as a concert venue. The Pet Shop Boys played Israel in July, pop sensation Lady Gaga was here last month, the rock band Faith No More is playing Tel Aviv on Tuesday night, and the iconic songwriter Leonard Cohen is to perform later this month.For a long time, it was security-related, and artists and managers didn't want to take a chance,he said of the dry spell in concerts.They realized it is safe in comparison to other countries, and it is viable for artists to come here.
