iraqslogger.com WW3 STARTS AT THE EUPHRATES RIVER IN THE FUTURE,SO WATCH FOR HAPPENINGS AT THE EUPHRATES THAT SET OFF WW3 AND THE DEATH OF 2 BILLION PEOPLE IN THE FUTURE.
watchmanbiblestudy.com THE FIRST WORLD GOVERNMENT IN THE BIBLE-THE TOWER OF BABEL,AND THE FUTURE TOWER OF BABEL THE EUROPEAN UNION,THE WORLD CONTROLLER.
EU OBSERVER PICTURE-EU TO REINVENT ITSELF.EU CALLS FOR WORLD GOVERNMENT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7D21rPpBrk&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Feuro%2Dmed%2Edk%2F%3Fp%3D1277&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFs99zBTRO0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTfv6uOHgqQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVeMBNB0cII&feature=related
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4291770489472554607&ei=iaRTSrzHAoqUqQL1gMGqDw&q=EU&hl=en
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVeMBNB0cII&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVmtbLc4t6M&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Feuro%2Dmed%2Edk%2F%3Fp%3D1277&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv5cqh26CC0&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Feuro%2Dmed%2Edk%2F%3Fp%3D1277&feature=player_embedded
EXCELLENT EU REVIEW - WORLD REGIONS,GLOBAL CURRENCY
http://exposureroom.com/members/cybersilence.aspx/assets/d37a8ebc60694cc98173b8f32cfe898d/
EU-NEW SOVIET UNION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM2Ql3wOGcU&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6Cj1b-rp1E&feature=player_embedded
WORLD GOVERNMENT UNDER TREATYS-INTERNATIONAL LAW
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_government
TRANSATLANTIC POLICY
http://www.tpnonline.org/
JOAN VEON ON TAMAR YONAH 2008 (WORLD GOVERNMENT)
http://britanniaradio.blogspot.com/2009/07/we-are-already-under-global-government.html#links
GEORGE HUNT-WORLD BANK ,RELIGION&RULERS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OvpjRglW9U&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFnxNowaaIU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=584x0zkmHgw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsZvQcZ9Mu4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGl3DHrVMFY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg90X7OkEsU&feature=related
INSIDE VIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BANKERS
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=36666041
UNDERSTANDING WORLD GOVERNMENT
http://www.womensgroup.org/
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=504526035342184251
BANK OF INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENT PRESS
http://www.bis.org/events/agm2009/pcvideo.htm
HISTORY OF WAR AND THE FEDERAL RESERVE
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1874212534444628577&hl=en
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).
Barroso: Europe needs to reinvent itself
HONOR MAHONY Today SEPT 3,09 @ 17:15 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso has said Europe needs to reinvent itself with a transformational agenda or the 27-nation club risks sliding towards irrelevance.Mr Barroso made the comments Thursday (3 September) in a 41-page policy document laying out plans for the EU's near future and designed to woo members of the European Parliament into backing him for a second five-year term in office.Much of the paper focuses on the current economic crisis, with the commission having been strongly criticised in the past for acting too late and too timidly. In the document, Mr Barroso pledges to push for greater economic policy co-ordination and increase commission surveillance of public finances as well as push for stricter financial regulation and bring banks back to good health.The next months and years will determine how quickly and strongly we will recover from the crisis and how much influence we have in shaping a new world order,says the paper.Under his leadership, the commission would over the next few years boost Europe's entrepreneurial culture, produce plans for a sustainable fisheries policy and launch a major initiative to adapt EU policies to the threat of climate change.
Two major reports on the remaining gaps in the internal market and the problems of cross-border purchasing are also promised.Mr Barroso's new priorities will need a root and branch reform for the EU budget.While member states use the budget negotiations to fight to pay the least possible, the paper says the budget should be based on solidarity and budget-sharing and dips its toe into the thorny issue of tax by venturing that the own resources issue must not be shirked.
Something for everyone
The paper will form the basis of discussions with each of the seven political groups in the European Parliament next week – discussions Mr Barroso is hoping will lead to a decision to put his nomination to a vote on 16 September.The conservative commission chief, who was nominated by national governments in June, can count on the backing of the largest faction, the centre-right European People's Party, as well as the anti-federalist European Conservatives and Reformists, but needs broader backing among the 736 MEPs to secure a second five-year mandate.His paper is a careful mixture of defence of the internal market but with emphasis on social values. It speaks of the destructive dichotomy of unregulated markets or over-powerful states.The language reflects the fact that he needs to receive backing from the Socialists – who condemn what they call his over-attachment to the free market – and the Liberals, who have been strong critics of his handling of the financial crisis.Meanwhile, a pledge to let member states alone choose whether to cultivate GM crops appears to be an overture to the Greens.In an apparent response to criticism that he spent too much of his first appointment bowing to the wishes of large member states, Mr Barroso promised new ambition.I spent a lot of energy in these last few years as someone forging a consensus,he said presenting the report, noting that it has now been proven that the EU can work with 27 member states. I want to go further now.His guidelines also contain plenty of sops to the parliament, an institution ever more conscious of its weightier role in the EU's institutional make-up.In future, Mr Barroso promises regular participation in a question hour in the parliament, more meetings with political leaders in the assembly and to keep MEPs more in the loop on external policy.
EUROPEAN UNION ARMY
DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (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.(TRADING BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS) that shall arise: 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 NATIONS)
25 And he (EU PRESIDENT) shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.(3 1/2 YRS)
DANIEL 8:23-25
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king (EU DICTATOR) of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences,(FROM THE OCCULT) shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power:(SATANS POWER) and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes;(JESUS) but he shall be broken without hand.
DANIEL 11:36-39
36 And the king (EU DICTATOR) shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS JEWISH) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.(CLAIM TO BE GOD)
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(WAR) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god,(DESTROY TERROR GROUPS) whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.
REVELATION 19:19
19 And I saw the beast,(EU LEADER) and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse,(JESUS) and against his army.(THE RAPTURED CHRISTIANS)
European defence league poised for debate on dormant pact
ANDREW RETTMAN Today SEPT 2,09 @ 17:33 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A group of the EU's major foreign policy players is waiting to find out what happens to the Lisbon treaty before deciding if it should keep or scrap an old musketeer defence pact.The security pact is found in Article V of the Modified Brussels Treaty, created in 1954 at the height of the Cold War.If any of the high contracting parties should be the object of an armed attack in Europe, the other high contracting parties will ... afford the party so attacked all the military and other aid and assistance in their power,it states.The contracting parties are EU and Nato member states France, Germany, the UK, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Greece. The pact is similar to Nato's Article V, which is sometimes called the musketeer clause as it echoes the all for one, one for all motto of the protagonists in Alexandre Dumas' novel The Three Musketeers.The Brussels Treaty is significant because it is the only European defence pact in existence.
In terms of legal theory, if a Nato and Brussels Treaty member state was attacked and the US-led Nato alliance failed to honour its musketeer clause, the country could instead invoke the Brussels Treaty as a back-up.In practice, the scenario is unthinkable due to Nato's political and operational importance.But the 1954 treaty is also significant because some of its 10 parties are interested in keeping it alive so that Article V can in future be used as the basis of a new EU-level defence pact, a source at the Western European Union (WEU) told EUobserver.
Don't throw out the baby with the bath water
The WEU is the largely-dormant institution in charge of implementing the Brussels Treaty. It costs €13.4 million a year to run, has 65 staff at offices in Brussels and Paris and is chaired by EU foreign relations chief Javier Solana. The WEU expects its 10 member states to hold talks on its future in the few months after the fate of the Lisbon treaty becomes clear.One option is to scrap the WEU secretariat but to keep the Brussels Treaty intact as a legally-binding agreement, so that Article V lies ready to hand.If the Irish referendum on 2 October says yes to Lisbon, ratification could follow before 2010. A No result could unravel the Lisbon Treaty, with no EU plan B having been prepared.
Framing a European defence
The Lisbon Treaty does not contain a European defence pact. But Lisbon would give EU member states a mandate to progressively frame a common defence policy that might lead to a common defence.An EU official told this website that if the Brussels Treaty musketeer clause is in future put forward as the basis of a new EU defence pact, it would need to be rephrased to reflect post-Cold War sensibilities. If it was ever transposed into an EU treaty, it would have to be different language. It's in the past. Times have changed,the EU official said.
REVELATION 9:12-18
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.(IRAQ-SYRIA)
15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.(1/3 Earths Population die in WW 3 2ND WAVE)
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand:(200 MILLION MAN ARMY FROM CHINA AND THE KINGS OF THE EAST) and I heard the number of them.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
Turkey, Iraq and Syria tussle over water rights By SUZAN FRASER, Associated Press Writer – SEPT 3,09
ANKARA, Turkey – Tensions rose Thursday in a water rights battle over the historic Tigris and Euphrates rivers, as Iraq and Syria appealed for more water amid a severe drought but Turkey said it was already too overstretched to do that.The issue threatens to disrupt the newly warm relations between Turkey and its neighbors and complicate wider efforts to bring stability to the region, as the populations of the three countries increase and the demand for water grows.It is very important and Iraq is already getting much less water due to some dams constructed in Turkey and Syria, said Nagesh Kumar, a water expert at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.There is potential for international conflict in this region on water disputes.Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said the country's southeast region was also suffering from low rainfall and drought but Turkey was still releasing more water than it was legally obligated to do so out of humanitarian concerns for its neighbors.He said Turkey was releasing on average 517 cubic meters per second instead of the required 500 cubic meters per second, sacrificing its own energy needs in the process.Water isn't abundant in Turkey, Yildiz said on the sidelines of a meeting between Turkey, Iraq and Syria to discuss water-sharing issues.We cannot top this amount any further.
Drought-stricken Iraq has accused its upstream neighbors Turkey and Syria of taking too much from the rivers and their tributaries. Below-average rainfall and insufficient water in the Euphrates and Tigris rivers have left Iraq parched for a second straight year, wrecking swaths of farmland and threatening drinking water supplies.The drought has also dealt a blow to Iraq's hopes that reductions in sectarian violence over the last year would fuel an economic recovery. Instead, lower than expected oil prices have crimped government revenues and the scarcity of water will force Iraq to spend money to import crops like wheat and rice to meet domestic demand.The water situation in Iraq in the past two years has not been good at all,Iraq's Minister of Water Resources Abdul-Latif Jamal Rasheed said.We are suffering from a serious water shortage. Rainfall has decreased by 40 percent. The drought has intensified.This month Iraq will require more water from Turkey and Syria and we believe that this will not be denied,he said.Rasheed also hinted that Syria wasn't sending all of the water down to Iraq.Turkey says its is sending 500 cubic meters per second, but that amount is not reaching us, Rasheed said.We have to look at the water that is coming from Syria.Nader al-Bunni, Syria's irrigation minister, contended his country was letting more water flow into Iraq than required by agreements.We understand Iraq's need for more water and we are letting 69 percent of the waters in the Euphrates for the brethren people of Iraq. We have increased the amount from 58 percent to 69 percent,he said.Sharing water from the Tigris and Euphrates has been a potential source of conflict since the 1970s when Turkey and Syria began constructing dams. To avoid strife, the three nations have been holding a series of meetings between ministers and water experts — Thursday's was the sixth such meeting in the last two years.Turkey has recently established friendly ties with Syria — a country it had long accused of harboring Kurdish rebels — and has been actively participating in Iraq's reconstruction.Instead of giving the downstream nations more water, Turkey is advocating using water more efficiently through joint projects.Thursday's meeting was on setting up joint stations to measure water volume at the rivers, as well as exchanging more information about climate and drought and creating joint education programs for more sustainable water management.Turkish Environment Minister Veysel Eroglu noted that Turkey was sacrificing its own energy production to release water from dams and alleviate water shortages downstream.The Euphrates and Tigris basins are extremely arid,Eroglu said.We are relinquishing our energy needs to make sure that Iraq and Syria are not left without water.
EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
INDONESIA QUAKE PICTURES
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-09/02/content_11986611.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P__rHb_3SCk&feature=player_embedded
Indonesian quake leaves 57 dead, dozens missing By IRWIN FEDRIANSYAH, Associated Press Writer – Thu Sep 3, 7:28 am ET
CIKANGKARENG, Indonesia – Indonesian rescue workers pulled bodies Thursday from homes buried in a landslide triggered by a powerful earthquake that killed at least 57 people and severely damaged more than 10,000 buildings.At least 110 people were hospitalized with injuries from Wednesday's 7.0 magnitude quake, centered just off the coast of densely populated Java island, Disaster Management Agency spokesman Priyadi Kardono said. Ten were in critical condition.Everything is gone, my wife, my old father-in-law and my house ... now I just hope to find the bodies of my family, 34-year-old farmer Ahmad Suhana said as he pried at giant stones with a crowbar.
Heavy digging equipment had not reached parts of the worst affected district in West Java province, which President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited Thursday. Police, military personnel and villagers used their hands to remove rubble.Yudhoyono cautioned rescue workers to be wary of dozens of aftershocks although they are becoming less powerful.He pledged $500,000 in national assistance to help victims.
More than 24,800 homes, offices, schools and mosques were damaged, about 10,000 seriously, the Disaster Management Agency said on its Web site. At least 3,100 people were forced into temporary shelters, and the Red Cross said it distributed 1,500 tents, as well as blankets, clean water and other provisions.Some rural areas, particularly along the southern coast, could not be reached by telephone and there may be more victims and damage, officials said.Many of the deaths and injuries were caused by falling debris or collapsed structures.The death toll continued to rise Thursday. More than a dozen bodies were dug out of the rubble in Cianjur district, where a landslide buried a row of homes in the village of Cikangkareng. Villagers were searching for more than 30 friends and relatives listed as missing and feared dead.Maskana Sumitra, a district administrator, said 11 houses and a mosque were buried by the landslide.The chance of survival is so slim ... but we have to find them,Sumitra said.When the quake struck Wednesday afternoon, it was felt hundreds of miles (kilometers) away on the neighboring resort island of Bali. In the capital, Jakarta, 125 miles (190 kilometers) north of the underwater epicenter, thousands of panicked office workers flooded out of swaying skyscrapers onto the streets, some of them screaming.
A tsunami warning was issued after the quake but was lifted an hour later.
Hospitals in towns and cities across West Java quickly filled with scores of injured people, most with broken bones and cuts.In Cikangkareng, Dede Kurniati said her 9-year-old son was playing at a friend's house when the earthquake struck and is now buried under the rocks.I lost my son ... now I just want to see his body, I want to bury my lovely son properly,she said, weeping.Indonesia, a vast archipelago, straddles continental plates and is prone to seismic activity along what is known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. A huge quake off western Indonesia caused a powerful tsunami in December 2004 that killed about 230,000 people in a dozen countries, half of them in Aceh province.Associated Press writers Ali Kotarumalos and Niniek Karmini in Jakarta contributed to this report.
Indonesian quake leaves 46 dead, dozens missing By IRWIN FEDRIANSYAH, Associated Press Writer – SEPT 2,09
CIKANGKARENG, Indonesia – Rescuers dug through rocks and debris with their bare hands Thursday in search of dozens of villagers believed buried in a landslide triggered by a strong Indonesian earthquake that killed at least 46 people and caused widespread damage.At least 110 people were hospitalized with injuries from the 7.0 magnitude quake just off the coast of densely populated Java island, Disaster Management Agency spokesman Priyadi Kardono said, adding that 10 were in critical condition.The earthquake Wednesday afternoon caused destruction across West Java province, where 700 buildings toppled or were badly damaged. Many of the deaths and injuries were caused by falling debris or collapsed walls and roofs.In the village of Cikangkareng in Cianjur district, a landslide buried a row of homes under tons of rock and mud. At least 13 bodies were recovered and villagers were searching for dozens of people believed missing, Kardono said.Everything is gone, my wife, my old father-in-law and my house ... now I just hope to find the bodies of my family, farmer Ahmad Suhana, 34, said as he pried at giant stones with a crowbar.Heavy digging equipment had not reached the remote village, which President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was to visit later Thursday. Police, military personnel and villagers used their hands.Maskana Sumitra, a district administrator, said 11 houses and a mosque were buried by the landslide and estimated that more than 50 people were trapped and feared dead.The chance of survival is so slim ... but we have to find them,Sumitra said.
The prolonged shaking from the quake was felt hundreds of miles (kilometers) away on the neighboring resort island of Bali.In the capital, Jakarta, 125 miles (190 kilometers) north, thousands of panicked office workers flooded out of swaying skyscrapers onto the streets, some of them screaming.The Disaster Management Agency said at least 46 people were confirmed dead.The earthquake was shaking everything in my house very strongly for almost a minute, Heni Maryani, a resident of the town of Sukabumi, told el Shinta radio.I grabbed my children and ran out. I saw people were in panic. Women were screaming and children were crying.Hospitals quickly filled with scores of injured people, most of them with broken bones and cuts.A tsunami warning was issued after the quake struck at mid afternoon but was lifted an hour later. Several dozen aftershocks were measured by geological agencies.Indonesia, a vast archipelago, straddles continental plates and is prone to seismic activity along what is known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. A huge quake off western Indonesia caused a powerful tsunami in December 2004 that killed about 230,000 people in a dozen countries, half of them in Aceh province.
Indonesia quake death toll 42, likely to rise - Wed Sep 2, 2009 5:45pm EDT1 10:17am EDT By Pipit Prahoro and Heru Asprihanto
PANGALENGAN, Indonesia (Reuters) - The death toll from a powerful earthquake in Indonesia, which killed at least 42 people and forced thousands to flee buildings, is likely to rise, government agencies said early on Thursday morning.The 7.0 magnitude quake shook buildings in the capital Jakarta on Wednesday afternoon and flattened homes in villages closer to the epicenter in West Java.Reuters reporters at the scene early on Thursday morning saw many damaged houses, as well as makeshift tents and shelters on the streets and in fields.They have taken refuge not only because their houses were ruined, but also because they fear there will be aftershocks,said local official Obar Sobarna. There were about 5,000 people taking refuge in the area, he added.At least 42 people were killed and more than 300 people injured, the government said. Officials said about 1,300 houses were damaged although local media put the number at 3,500.Another 42 people were missing, presumed dead, after the quake triggered a landslide in the district of Cianjur, about 60 miles south of Jakarta, said Priyadi Kardono, spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.Kardono told Reuters the death toll could be much higher as scores of houses and offices had collapsed or suffered severe damage. Some areas near the epicenter could not be contacted for several hours, and communications were slow to recover.Communications with the coastal areas were completely cut, so we don't know the conditions there, Kardono said.No reports have come from those areas, although we assume those were the most affected ones. It's possible the death toll could grow higher.The health ministry said it was sending medical teams to the affected areas in West Java. State news agency Antara reported that villagers were clearing rubble from collapsed buildings to try to find survivors and bodies.
QUAKE-PRONE
Indonesia's 17,000 islands are scattered along a belt of volcanic and seismic activity known as the Pacific ring of fire, one of the most quake-prone places on earth.More than 170,000 Indonesians were killed or listed missing after a 9.15 magnitude earthquake off Indonesia's Aceh province on Sumatra triggered a tsunami in December 2004. A total of 230,000 people died in affected Indian Ocean countries.
Indonesia's seismology agency put the magnitude of Wednesday's quake at 7.3 with the epicenter 142 km (88 miles) southwest of Tasikmalaya, in West Java.Many houses are flattened to the ground,said Edi Sapuan in Margamukti village, not far from Tasikmalaya.Only the wooden houses remain standing. Many villagers are injured, covered in blood.We ran as soon as the quake hit. Then five minutes later my house collapsed,Edi told Reuters.The quake was felt as far away as Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city, about 500 km (300 miles) northeast of Tasikmalaya, and on the resort island of Bali, about 700 km (420 miles) to the east.Indonesia's main power, oil and gas, steel, and mining companies with operations in West and Central Java island closest to the quake's epicenter said they had not been affected and suffered no damage.At least 38 people were injured in Jakarta, a health ministry official said. Buildings shook and thousands of people streamed onto the streets from office and apartment blocks, residents in Jakarta said.The chandelier started moving and it started shaking really strong,said Jakarta resident Victor Chan, who lives in a 34th floor apartment.It lasted quite long. I was really scared and rushed downstairs.
Everything was shaking and my neighbor shouted quake, quake,said Nur Syara, from the 31st floor of the same building. You could hear the walls creaking. I lay down on the floor. I was scared things would collapse.(Reporting by Olivia Rondonuwu, Telly Nathalia, Fitri Wulandari, Muklis Ali, Tyagita Silka, Andreas Ismar, Karima Anjani, and Retno Palupi in Jakarta; Writing by Paul Tait and Sara Webb; Editing by Bill Tarrant and Robin Pomeroy)
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 prompts evacuations, but crews make progress By RAQUEL MARIA DILLON, Associated Press Writer – SEPT 3,09
LOS ANGELES – Firefighters brought a sprawling wildfire near Los Angeles under greater control Thursday, despite a flare-up in a remote canyon that prompted about 25 nearby residents to be evacuated.The blaze was 38 percent contained Thursday morning, up from 28 percent the previous day. The fire now measures 144,743 acres, or 226 square miles, and is one of the largest wildfires in Southern California history.Despite the overall progress, firefighters encountered a flare-up in the canyon as strong downslope winds just kind of blew the fire up, said U.S. Forest Service official John Huschke. Twenty-five people in 11 homes were evacuated.
Everything else looks really good,he said.Some 12,000 homes in foothill communities below the fire's southeastern edge officially remained threatened, although other communities farther west that were under siege for days were out of danger.The forecast called for hot and dry weather in the next couple days, with Thursday's high hovering around 100 in the fire area, the National Weather Service said.The wildfire, now in its eighth day, destroyed 64 homes, burned three people and left two firefighters dead. During the night, a firefighter injured his leg when he fell 20 foot from a cliff and was taken to a hospital by a medical helicopter, officials said. He was in stable condition.Full containment was expected Sept. 15, meaning fire officials expect that they will have the blaze completely surrounded by then.
Many homes were saved, but damaged areas looked like war zones to some returning evacuees.It's like, is this really our house? Is it really still here? T.J. Lynch said about returning to his home in the Tujunga neighborhood late Wednesday. Because we had made peace with the fact that we'd never see our stuff again.It looks like nothing changed, but when the sun comes up tomorrow, I expect we'll see the hills blackened and gray,the screenwriter said.We'll hike up the hill and see how close it came to our neighbors.Officials said they were pleased with the progress, but said they have much more work ahead.We're changing the pace and treating this as a marathon,U.S. Forest Service incident commander Mike Dietrich said. If it were a 26-mile race, we'd only be at mile six.The search for what sparked the blaze intensified Wednesday when U.S. Forest Service investigators gathered along a road in a blackened forest to hunt for clues near where the fire started. They shook soil in a can and planted red, blue and yellow flags to mark evidence beneath a partially burned oak tree at the bottom of a ravine.
Deputy incident commander Carlton Joseph said the fire was human-caused,meaning it could have been started by anything from a dropped cigarette to a spark from something like a lawn mower. Forest Service officials said there was no lightning in the area at the time and no power lines in the vicinity, but later backtracked on Joseph's comments, saying they are looking at all possible causes.The only thing I can say is it is possibly human activity,Forest Service Commander Rita Wears said.
The fire also cast a smoky haze over the Los Angeles area and gave the night sky an eerie glow. The smoke spread throughout the West, affecting air quality in Las Vegas and combining with soot from local fires to block mountain views in Denver.
Associated Press writers Greg Risling, Thomas Watkins, Jacob Adelman and Daisy Nguyen in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Human caused giant California wildfire, official saysFirefighters make progress as officials seek to determine what set off fire that has burned nearly 219 sq miles of land Associated Press guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 2 September 2009 19.57 BST
Firefighters made more progress today against a giant wildfire that has ravaged a national forest north of Los Angeles as investigators searched for information about how the fire started.Officials are still trying to figure out what set off the blaze in the Angeles National Forest that has burned nearly 219 sq miles or 56,717 hectares (140,150 acres). Deputy incident commander Carlton Joseph said today that the fire was human-caused, but it's not known specifically how it was started or whether it was accidental or arson.Joseph said a human cause could include a range of things from a dropped cigarette to a spark from something like a lawnmower. Joseph says investigators have several leads and notes that lightning has been ruled out as a possible cause.Firefighters have created a perimeter around 22% of the blaze, largely by removing brush with bulldozers and setting controlled burns. Bulldozers still have 95 miles of fire line to build, mostly on the blaze's eastern front near the San Gabriel Wilderness Area.Arnold Schwarzenegger, California's governor, visited the fire area this morning and served breakfast to firefighters, scooping hot cereal into paper bowls and giving them plenty of protein so they get all pumped up for the next fight out there with those fires.The crews are making excellent progress based on the improved weather conditions, US Forest Service incident commander Mike Dietrich said today.Since erupting on 26 August, the blaze has destroyed more than five dozen homes, killed two firefighters and forced thousands of people from their homes.
Officials also were keeping a close eye on the wind, which had been calm overnight but could pick up today and move flames closer to homes and a historic observatory on Mount Wilson.In a hillside community of Glendale, Frank Virgallito stood in a group anxiously watching a controlled burn edge toward their neighbourhood.
Virgallito said he and his neighbours had been on high alert since Friday but ignored a voluntary evacuation.You don't sleep well,Virgallito said.I get up every hour and a half or two hours to get a good view of where the fire is. For four days we've been a little sleep-deprived. It's unnerving.Virgallito said he saw deer, coyote and skunks scampering down his street away from the heat and ash of the smouldering wilderness.Officials also worried about the threat to a historic observatory and TV, radio and other antennas on Mount Wilson north-east of Los Angeles. But yesterday, firefighters set backfires near the facilities before a giant second world war-era seaplane-turned-air tanker made a huge water drop on flames inching toward the peak from the north and west.By nightfall, 150 firefighters and engines were stationed at the peak to defend the towers, said spokesman Paul Lowenthal.The flames crossed the Angeles Crest Highway into the San Gabriel wilderness to the east yesterday, Lowenthal said. Firefighters made progress on fire breaks to the north near Acton and south-west from Altadena to the Sunland neighbourhood.Firefighters and longtime residents know it could be so much worse. Autumn is the season for the ferocious Santa Ana winds to sweep in from the north-eastern deserts, gaining speed through narrow mountain canyons, sapping moisture from vegetation and pushing flames farther out into the suburbs.
If we had Santa Anas, we still have all this open land here on the western flank and islands of vegetation would throw embers into the air, which would blow down to the homes,spokesman Henry Martinez said, his voice trailing off as he imagined the worst-case scenario.Let's hope that doesn't happen.The wildfire season usually doesn't gather steam until the winds hit in October, but the fire has been driven by dryness instead of wind. The region is in the midst of a three-year drought, and the tinder-dry forest is ripe for an explosive fire.Fire officials said 12,000 homes were threatened, but as evacuations are lifted, that number will likely fall.
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 Jimena makes landfall on Baja California By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer – SEPT 2,09
LOS CABOS, Mexico – Hurricane Jimena plowed over Baja California on Wednesday, tearing off roofs, knocking down power poles and bringing welcome rainfall to a drought-stricken state.The storm made landfall Wednesday afternoon between Puerto San Andresito and San Jaunico, a sparsely populated area of fishing villages on the Pacific coast of the peninsula.Wind gusts and heavy rains blew down dozens of trees and lamp posts in Loreto, the nearest significant resort town to the area where Jimena made landfall, according to Humberto Carmona, a city official manning an emergency response center. About 500 people were in shelters in Loreto, which lies roughly on the other side of the narrow peninsula from where Jimena made landfall.
The federal government said more than 11,000 people went to shelters in the peninsula.The picturesque beach resorts of Los Cabos, on the southernmost tip, were mostly spared overnight, when the roaring hurricane toppled signs, choked streets with mud and knocked out power, but did little serious damage. No injuries were reported.Winds fell from Tuesday's roaring 150 mph (240 kph) Category 4 blasts to 80 mph (130 kph), making Jimena a Category 1 storm. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said it was expected to weaken further as it runs north up the Baja peninsula, which is home to about 3.5 million people, including more than 150,000 U.S. citizens, according to the U.S. State Department. Jimena was located about 40 miles (65 kms) south of Santa Rosalita, and moving north near 12 mph (19 kph).Winds damaged some homes in the small farming city of Ciudad Constitucion, Baja California Sur Gov. Narciso Agundez told the Cabo Mil radio station.In Los Cabos, Ariel Rivero, 49, a fishing boat captain who grew up in Long Beach, California, and moved here 30 years ago, surveyed the marina where his boat, the Great Escape, was undamaged.We really lucked out,Rivero said.If it had hit Cabo head on, this place would have been a disaster,he said of the hundreds of tightly packed boats, some worth millions, and the surrounding resort hotels now basking in the calm.All those windows would have blown out, (boat) cleats breaking, antennas breaking ... it would have been a disaster,Rivero said.Workers took down sheets of plywood from a shuttered Starbucks and other stores as they prepared to reopen, and workers swept up tree branches, sand and trash deposited in the streets by minor flooding. Fishing boat owners and captains cleaned out water from the heavy rains and checked moorings and masts.
Everyone is kind of breathing a sigh of relief,said Shari Bondy, who rents homes and runs a campground with her family in the remote coastal fishing village of Bahia Asuncion, halfway up the peninsula from Los Cabos.With the weakening storm expected to arrive there Thursday night, she said everything is still all boarded up, roofs are tied down, everything is ready, but right now we have blue skies.In the town of Mulege, midway up Baja's east coast, tour operator Salvador Castro Drew said locals are keeping a close watch on a flood-prone river.We have some rain and some wind right now,he said,but what we're worried about is when the rain comes down from the mountains.Baja California Sur state Interior Secretary Luis Armando Diaz said he was still worried about the storm's strike along the coast further north, but he said Jimena could 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,he said.Forecasters predicted the hurricane would drop 5 to 10 inches (12 to 25 centimeters) of rain onto arid Baja deserts, and dry stream beds already were gushing torrents.But Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen said Jimena would not bring much-needed rain to quench Southern California's wildfires, and will instead head back over the Pacific Ocean.Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Erika was losing strength as it moved west of Antigua and Guadeloupe with top winds of about 40 mph (65 kph).A tropical storm warning was in effect for Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Anguilla and islands of the Netherlands Antilles and French Caribbean territories, meaning tropical storm-force winds could hit over the next 24 hours. Erika was 315 miles (510 kilometers) east-southeast of San Juan Puerto Rico Wednesday afternoon and was moving westward at about 10 mph (17 kph).Associated Press writers Martha Mendoza and Julie Watson in Mexico City contributed to this report.
Hurricane Jimena swirls past southern Baja resorts By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer – SEPT 2,09
LOS CABOS, Mexico – Hurricane Jimena plowed over Baja California on Wednesday, tearing off roofs, knocking down power poles and bringing welcome rainfall to a drought-stricken state.The storm made landfall Wednesday afternoon between Puerto San Andresito and San Jaunico, sparsely populated area of fishing villages on the Pacific coast of the peninsula.Wind gusts and heavy rains blew down dozens of trees and lamp posts in Loreto, the nearest significant resort town to the area where Jimena main landfall, according to Humberto Carmona, a city official manning an emergency response center. About 500 people were in shelters in Loreto, which lies roughly on the other side of the narrow peninsula from where Jimena made landfall.
The picturesque beach resorts of Los Cabos, on the southernmost tip, were mostly spared overnight, when the roaring hurricane toppled signs, choked streets with mud and knocked out power, but did little serious damage. No injuries were reported.
Winds fell from Tuesday's roaring 150 mph (240 kph) Category 4 blasts to 85 mph (140 kph), making Jimena a Category 1 storm. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said it was expected to weaken further as it runs north up the Baja peninsula, which is home to about 3.5 million people, including more than 150,000 U.S. citizens, according to the U.S. State Department.Winds damaged some homes in the small farming city of Ciudad Constitucion, Baja California Sur Gov. Narciso Agundez told the Cabo Mil radio station.In Los Cabos, Ariel Rivero, 49, a fishing boat captain who grew up in Long Beach, California, and moved here 30 years ago, surveyed the marina where his boat, the Great Escape, was undamaged.We really lucked out, Rivero said.If it had hit Cabo head on, this place would have been a disaster,he said of the hundreds of tightly packed boats, some worth millions, and the surrounding resort hotels now basking in the calm.All those windows would have blown out, (boat) cleats breaking, antennas breaking ... it would have been a disaster,Rivero said.
Workers took down sheets of plywood from a shuttered Starbucks and other stores as they prepared to reopen, and workers swept up tree branches, sand and trash deposited in the streets by minor flooding. Fishing boat owners and captains cleaned out water from the heavy rains and checked moorings and masts.Everyone is kind of breathing a sigh of relief,said Shari Bondy, who rents homes and runs a campground with her family in the remote coastal fishing village of Bahia Asuncion, halfway up the peninsula from Los Cabos.With the weakening storm expected to arrive there Thursday night, she said everything is still all boarded up, roofs are tied down, everything is ready, but right now we have blue skies.In the town of Mulege, midway up Baja's east coast, tour operator Salvador Castro Drew said locals are keeping a close watch on a flood-prone river.We have some rain and some wind right now, he said,but what we're worried about is when the rain comes down from the mountains.
Baja California Sur state Interior Secretary Luis Armando Diaz said he was still worried about the storm's strike along the coast further north, but he said Jimena could 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,he said.Forecasters predicted the hurricane would drop 5 to 10 inches (12 to 25 centimeters) of rain onto arid Baja deserts, and dry stream beds already were gushing torrents.But Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen said Jimena would not bring much-needed rain to quench Southern California's wildfires, and will instead head back over the Pacific Ocean.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Erika was moving across the Atlantic with top winds of about 40 mph (65 kph). Tropical-storm-force winds extended as far as 205 miles (335 kilometers) from the center.The Hurricane Center said Erika was very near Guadeloupe in the Leeward Islands and moving westward at about 10 mph (17 kph).Associated Press writers Martha Mendoza and Julie Watson in Mexico City contributed to this report.
Tropical Storm Erika weakens slightly: NHC Elliot Abrams AccuWeather Wed Sep 2, 8:12 am ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Erika, which formed late Tuesday in the western Atlantic Ocean, weakened slightly early Wednesday as it approached the northern Leeward Islands, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in its last advisory.At about 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT), the disorganized center of Erika was located about 160 miles east-southeast of the Leeward Islands, moving west at 7 miles per hour with maximum sustained winds down slightly to about 45 mph.Tropical storm warnings have been issued for Antigua, Barbuda, Montserrat, St. Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla, St. Martin, Saba and St. Eustatius.Erika, the fifth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, was expected to turn west-northwest with slightly increased forward speed over the next day or two, and some strengthening was possible on Thursday.NHC projected wind speed to increase to as much as 60 to 65 mph over the next two days before dropping back to about 55 mph by the weekend.Most computer models show the system taking a northwesterly track toward Florida or the Southeast U.S. coast, but some models show it steering a more westerly course toward Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Cuba.Elsewhere, NHC said thunderstorm activity associated with a tropical wave in the far eastern Atlantic near the Cape Verde Islands had decreased and development, if any, of this system was expected to be slow to occur as it moved west or west-northwest at 10 to 15 mph.
NHC gave this system a low chance - less than 30 percent - of becoming a tropical cyclone during the next 48 hours.Energy traders keep a close eye on storms that could enter the Gulf and disrupt offshore U.S. oil and natural gas production or refinery operations along the coast.Commodities traders likewise watch storms that could damage agriculture crops such as citrus and cotton in Florida and other states along the coast to Texas.Pricing of insurance-linked securities, which transfer insurance risks associated with natural disasters to capital markets investors and can be used to hedge other weather risk exposures, can also be affected by the path of a storm.Elsewhere, tropical cyclone formation was not expected during the next 48 hours.NHC will issue its next advisory at 11 a.m. EDT.(Reporting by Joe Silha, editing by John Picinich)
Thousands flee flooding in Burkina Faso AccuWeather By Mathieu Bonkoungo – SEP 2,09
OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) – Five people were killed and 150,000 left homeless in Burkina Faso on Wednesday as heavy rainfall triggered flooding across West Africa.In neighboring Niger, at least two people were killed and 20,000 left without shelter because of the rain that has also caused major floods in Senegal.We have been able to find shelter for about 110,000 people but there are others who have taken refuge with their neighbors,Burkina Prime Minister Tertius Zongo told reporters after an emergency cabinet meeting.There are at least 150,000 people to cater for.Aid groups in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou, which has a population of about 1 million, said the flood water had smashed bridges and roads and could hamper their work.
Bridges and dams have been destroyed, the main hospital in Ouagadougou which is close to a dam was inundated and some patients including about 60 children were evacuated,Rosine Jourdain of the Belgian Red Cross in Burkina Faso said by phone.An electrical plant was also destroyed so I think we are going to have some power supply problems.In Niger, thousands were made homeless by flooding in the uranium-rich region of Agadez when their homes collapsed after the river Kora burst its banks.An official source said at least two bodies had been found and that three people were missing.Ali Hamidou, a craftsman and resident of the town of Agadez, said:This is one of the worst disasters in the history of Agadez.Seasonal rains from June regularly cause fatal floods and mudslides in West Africa. In 2007, about 300 people were killed and more than 800,000 were affected when homes, crops and infrastructure were washed away.(For more news on humanitarian issues please visit www.alertnet.org; email Alertnetnewsdesk@reuters.com)(Additional reporting by George Fominyen in Dakar and by Abdoulaye Massalaki in Niamey, Niger; Editing by Charles Dick)
Wind, current combined to raise E Coast sea level Mon Aug 31, 12:45 pm ET
WASHINGTON – Folks living along the East Coast were in higher water early this summer thanks to a change in the wind and current flow.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday the higher than normal sea levels were caused by persistent winds from the northeast — pushing water toward shore — and a weakening of the Florida current that feeds water into the Gulf Stream.Water levels ranged from six inches to two feet above normal in areas from Maine to Florida during June and July, the agency said.While the ocean varies and unusual conditions do occur, Mike Szabados, director of NOAA's Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services, said in a statement, What made this event unique was its breadth, intensity and duration.The high water was intensified in June by a strong spring tide, officials added.While it wasn't a record for northeasterly winds or for the decline in the Florida current, the combination of the two helped raise sea levels all along the coast.On the Net:National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: http://www.noaa.gov
Could Hurricane Jimena put out California’s wildfires?
By Eoin O'Carroll | 09.01.09
Hurricane Jimena, with its 135 mile-per-hour winds, is barreling toward the Mexican peninsula of Baja California, and will likely head north after it makes landfall. Meanwhile, wildfires are raging east of Los Angeles, threatening thousands of homes. Is there a chance the hurricane could put out the fires? Maybe, but probably not. Jimena is unlikely to strike the area of the wildfires. As the Associated Press notes, the storm is heading toward Arizona and New Mexico, well away from Los Angeles.Still, the rain from Jimena might help a little, as the region has been abnormally dry this year. There is a chance that there could be some humidity that could help with the firefighting,John Heil, a spokesman for the US Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region, told the Bright Green Blog over the phone.But even this isn’t very likely. The forecasting service AccuWeather describes the odds that moisture from the storm could reach Southern California as not a zero percent chance. Not exactly a sure thing.If Jimena’s moisture is able to spread into the region, it would be a great benefit. However, it would take a couple of events like this to really make a difference,said AccuWeather meteorologist Heather Buchman.
Others are concerned that weather conditions could make things worse. Inland News Today quotes the National Weather Service’s Rob Krohn, who says that there’s a slight chance of thunderstorms near the fires.It’s almost unheard of for a hurricane to strike California. Scientific American quotes National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hurricane expert Chris Landsea (there’s a law requiring journalists to invoke the phrase aptly named whenever referring to him), who explains that hurricanes in the northern hemisphere tend to move north-northwest, which means that they tend to plough into the East Coast, but move away from the West Coast.The same article also quotes MIT oceanographer Kerry Emmanuel, who notes that some hurricanes in the Pacific can curve back east. But, he says, the water is too cold off of California’s coast to sustain them.All this scientific stuff aside, what would happen if a hurricane did somehow manage to land right on top of a wildfire? Would the two natural disasters cancel each other out? Or would they combine into a giant blazing hurriflame, perhaps followed by an earthquake and a Godzilla rampage?
Probably the former. The Forest Service’s John Heil said he couldn’t begin to answer this one because he’s never heard of it happening before in California. But there’s some evidence that in 2003, the remnants of Hurricane Claudette helped douse wildfires in Arizona.
When it comes to hurricanes, what's in a name? by Sara Hussein Sara Hussein – SEPT 2,09
WASHINGTON (AFP) – With three months left in the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season, storm watchers can be sure that there will not be another Hurricane Katrina, or Rita, or Wilma this year, or ever again.The names of these devastating hurricanes and other destructive storms have been retired,never to reemerge, so that new monikers can be assigned to the weather systems that develop each hurricane season.
The task of striking and replacing names falls to the World Meteorological Organization's Hurricane Committee, which devotes part of its annual meeting to the process of voting to remove names and devising new ones.Assigning names to tropical depressions, storms and hurricanes has been common practice for hundreds of years, in part because it made it easier for coastal stations and ships to identify and transmit information about weather systems.In the 1800s, storms that developed in the West Indies were commonly named after the saint's day on which they occurred, such as the ferocious Hurricane Santa Ana, which killed hundreds when it hit Puerto Rico in 1825.The practice of naming storms was popularized by meteorologist Clement Wragge in the 19th century and formally adopted by the Miami-based National Hurricane Center in 1953, when six lists of female names were compiled -- each containing one name for all but five letters in the alphabet.There's five letters that we do not have in there -- q is one of them, and then u, x, y, z. And the reason for that is there are not enough names... that we'd be able to put them in the list and have enough to replace them,said National Weather Service spokesman Dennis Feltgen.In 1978, meteorologists began to assign men's names to storms forming in the Eastern North Pacific and the practice widened the following year to include Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico weather systems.The six lists are used in rotation, so the names that survive from this year's hurricane list will next be up for usage again in 2015.Only once since reliable records began in 1944 has an Atlantic storm season produced more storms than names on a list and forced the use of a backup option -- the Greek alphabet.The 2005 season, which included the devastating Hurricane Katrina, produced a record 27 named storms, ending with Delta, Epsilon and Zeta. Unsurprisingly, a record five names -- Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan and Wilma --were retired that year.
In all, more than 70 names have been retired for the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico region, Feltgen said, and the process of devising new names is usually a low key process that attracts little attention.But in 2001, the Hurricane Committee found it had created an uproar by adding, among others, the names Israel and Adolph to the Eastern North Pacific storm list.Jewish leaders expressed outrage at the decision, and though officials noted that Israel and Adolph, spelled with a ph unlike Adolf Hitler, were common boy's names, they retired the names at the end of the season.
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.
Flu virus found in Canada hog herds By Rod Nickel – Wed Sep 2, 12:51 pm ET
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) – The H1N1 pandemic flu virus spread in June to several hog farms in the Western Canadian province of Manitoba, but the hogs later recovered and there was no cause for concern, according to the province's chief veterinary officer.
In a report published by the ProMED newsletter of the International Society for Infectious Diseases, Dr. Wayne Lees said the virus was discovered in several Manitoba herds, including sow barns, nursery barns and feeder barns in various locations in the province.Manitoba is Canada's top producing province of born pigs, with 9 million pigs born annually.The herds were not quarantined, but their movement was limited to prevent the virus's transmission to other herds, Lees said. Farm workers wore protective equipment to avoid infection.No flu-related deaths occurred and the disease was mild, with the pigs showing symptoms such as a mild cough and runny nose, Lees wrote.The pigs, which included sows, piglets, feeder and finished pigs, recovered within four to seven days of becoming sick.The virus was initially detected at the end of June, the Winnipeg Free Press newspaper reported Lees as saying. Lees was traveling on Wednesday and not immediately available for comment.
The virus was spread to hogs by human contact with the animals, Lee is reported as saying.It hasn't shown any evidence to date that would cause me to be unduly concerned,Lees said.
No animal went to slaughter while sick, he said.
The hogs have all been processed for use in the food supply, said Andrew Dickson, general manager of the Manitoba Pork Council, unlike recovered pigs from an Alberta hog farm that their owner slaughtered because packers refused to buy them.In April, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) quarantined an infected hog farm in the province of Alberta. The CFIA has since decided it will no longer quarantine herds but will monitor them to make sure the animals recover.Meat packers and export markets have reacted with less alarm to the virus in pigs since the initial outbreak, Dickson said in an interview.The importing countries are recognizing this disease for what it is and are following recommendations of international bodies like the World Health Organization, who have said pork is safe to eat, Dickson said.You can't get the flu virus from eating pork.About a dozen countries placed trade restrictions on Canadian pork following the virus' spread to the Alberta farm, but some have since lifted bans.Hogs in Australia and Argentina have also since tested positive for the pandemic flu.It's popping up all over the place,Dickson said.
The North American hog industry has been hit hard by its association with the H1N1 flu, which health officials initially labeled swine flu.Trade restrictions have pressured prices, while Canadian farmers have also seen exports of live pigs to the United States shrink because of the restrictive country-of-origin labeling law.
(Editing by Marguerita Choy)
Obama Czar’s SHOCK ADMISSION: Green Jobs Goal is Complete Revolution Away From Gray Capitalism
http://www.prisonplanet.com/obama-czar%e2%80%99s-shock-admission-%e2%80%98green-jobs%e2%80%99-goal-is-%e2%80%98complete-revolution%e2%80%99-away-from-%e2%80%98gray-capitalism%e2%80%99.html
WWF ADD EXPLOITING 911
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1mFoTQNivc&feature=player_embedded
China to approve single-dose swine flu vaccines By GILLIAN WONG and RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, Associated Press Writers – Wed Sep 2, 3:49 pm ET
BEIJING – The answer may be near to a crucial question about vaccine for the advancing swine flu — one shot or two? Chinese officials say they are about to approve vaccines that prevent the new flu in a single dose.If they're right, it would be good news. Many health researchers fear it will take two shots to protect people, vastly complicating efforts to stem the spread of the illness.The World Health Organization says it is encouraged after reviewing the test details from one of the two Chinese vaccines. However, experts said more results are needed from other vaccine makers to determine if one dose would be potent enough.Australia-based CSL should know within days whether one dose of its vaccine, administered to volunteers in that country in late July, was enough. CSL to date has been mum.In about two weeks, the U.S. expects to announce initial test results from its vaccine, which is the same type as one of the Chinese versions, said Dr. Anthony Fauci of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.From what I've seen and heard of the data, it looks encouraging,Fauci said of the clinical trials of the Chinese vaccine from Sinovac Biotech Ltd.This is very good news. Let's hope the material that we're using has similar results.
Most experts agreed.
Everybody is desperately hoping that one (shot) will do because then that's much easier to administer,said Jodie McVernon, a vaccine expert at the University of Melbourne who is involved in Australian trials of swine flu vaccines for young children. She had not seen the Chinese trial results.However, James McGlothlin, a member of Purdue University's pandemic planning committee, was cautious about the Chinese report.They've got some very good scientists over there, but anything that sounds too good to be true ought to be scrutinized, he said in a telephone interview.
I'd like to look at some of the clinical trials,that led to the one-dose conclusion, he said.In China, the rules are a little bit different in terms of human subjects, and it's not clear what safety factors were in place, he said.China's State Food and Drug Administration said on its Web site it will make a decision this week on approving the two vaccines, which completed testing last month and passed reviews by panels of about 40 experts. Four other vaccines are being reviewed, it said.
Government-backed vaccine makers Sinovac and Hualan Biological Engineering Inc. said their studies show one shot of vaccine is effective on people ages 3 to 60. More than 3,000 people participated in the trials.Sinovac says it has the capacity to produce up to 30 million doses of swine flu vaccine in a year, while Hualan said it can make 160 million doses.Stockpiling vaccines is China's latest move in its aggressive approach to contain the spread of swine flu in the country of 1.3 billion people and relatively limited medical resources. It has quarantined travelers on suspicion of contact with infected people and ordered schools to test students' temperatures.The Health Ministry says around 3,700 cases of swine flu have been confirmed on the mainland — none fatal.China aims to have enough swine flu vaccine for 5 percent of the public by the end of the year, and although health officials have not released detailed vaccination plans, they have said health workers, public service workers and students are priority groups.
Should China export vaccines, however, quality concerns could arise.
Though China is a worldwide manufacturing center for pharmaceuticals, suppliers have been known to substitute cheaper and sometimes lethal ingredients. Tainted cough syrup was linked to several deaths in Central America and blood thinners made with contaminated products are suspected in dozens of deaths in the U.S. in recent years.
Last week, Mexico's health secretary, Jose Angel Cordova, said Mexico is considering buying vaccines from China, which would be more than 40 percent cheaper than other vaccines being offered to the government. But Mexico would want a guarantee that China's vaccine is safe and effective, he said. The World Health Organization said information provided by Sinovac showed that in studies, the vaccines were tested in three formulations of 15 micrograms per dose, and all gave antibody responses that satisfied regulatory criteria. That vaccine dose is the same amount the U.S. government is testing.We have no reason to doubt what Sinovac is reporting,said Melinda Henry, a WHO spokeswoman in Geneva.Certainly if one dose proves sufficient to produce the desired immune response, this would be very encouraging in terms of augmenting the global supply of vaccine in the near future.International health experts say swine flu has not been as severe as initially feared. At least 2,185 people have died, but most cases are mild and require no treatment. Worries remain that a rash of new infections could overwhelm hospitals and health authorities, particularly in poorer countries.White House advisers have estimated that in a worst case scenario, half the U.S. population could become infected and the World Health Organization predicts that within two years nearly one-third of the world's population will have caught it.Science Writer Randolph E. Schmid reported from Washington, D.C. Medical writers Maria Cheng in London and Lauran Neergaard in Washington contributed to this report.
LAND FOR PEACE (THE FUTURE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH)
JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
THE WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS
Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.
DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
Israelis, Palestinians resume high-level talks By JOSEF FEDERMAN, Associated Press Writer – Wed Sep 2, 2:34 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Israel and the Palestinians on Wednesday held their first high-level talks since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office in March, pledging to step up economic cooperation despite the absence of peace negotiations.The meeting came as experts said the West Bank economy could be on the brink of improvement at a time when most countries are treading water at best — if Israel eases restrictions. Palestinians said Israel must dismantle its system of roadblocks and checkpoints that are strangling their economy.In their meeting Wednesday, Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom and Palestinian Economics Minister Bassem Khoury shared ideas for improving trade, agreed to hold regular meetings and established lower-level working teams, participants said.Netanyahu is promoting the idea of economic peace as a step toward a full peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Though Palestinians are suspicious, noting that Netanyahu only recently and reluctantly endorsed the idea of Palestinian statehood, they are eager to bolster their economy and overcome years of stagnation.A West Bank economic revival could shore up the standing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is locked in a power struggle with the militant Islamic Hamas. Two years ago Hamas overran Gaza, triggering an Israeli blockade that has further impoverished the crowded seaside territory.
Abbas has been left in control of only the West Bank. Brisk economic development there would serve as a stark contrast to the fate of Gaza under Hamas.Since Netanyahu took office, he has taken down some roadblocks and eased other restrictions in the West Bank, allowing smoother movement of goods. Owners of shops, restaurants and entertainment spots say business is improving.Shalom, who serves as Israel's minister for regional development, sought to assure the Palestinians that economic progress is a first step and not an end in itself.Our objective is economic peace,he said.That doesn't prevent political dialogue, but rather assists it and gives it momentum.After the meeting, he told Israel Radio that he expects negotiations to resume in the next few weeks.The Obama administration has been pressing for renewed negotiations based on an Israeli pledge to halt construction in its West Bank settlements. Netanyahu has refused to give a blanket pledge, but Israelis feel a compromise can be worked out.The meeting Wednesday at a Jerusalem hotel was the first Cabinet-level encounter between the Netanyahu and Abbas governments. The agenda included easing restrictions on the entry of Palestinian businesspeople and VIPs to Israel; boosting Israeli meat exports to the West Bank and dairy imports from the West Bank to Israel; allowing more Palestinians to seek medical care in Israel, and long-delayed plans to build joint industrial parks, Israeli officials said.The two sides agreed to meet every four to six weeks and to set up teams to handle day-to-day issues, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the talks were closed.
Earlier this year, the International Monetary Fund predicted that the Palestinian economy could grow by 7 percent in 2009, the first optimistic forecast in three years and remarkable in an era of world retrenchment — but only if Israel allows more freedom of movement in the West Bank. In contrast, Israel's central bank predicts zero economic growth in Israel this year.Khoury told The Associated Press that growth in 2008 was 2.2 percent, less than the population increase.He said significant growth depends on Israel.We hope it will not only be words but there will also be some actions on the ground as well so we can really see the end of these measures that are stifling the growth of the Palestinian economy, Khoury said. Israel says it needs the measures to prevent Palestinian attacks.Abbas' prime minister, Salaam Fayyad, has made economic development a top priority. Last week, he issued a plan for a series of public-works projects, even without a peace deal, that would prepare Palestinian society for independence.Also Wednesday, Hamas officials in the West Bank said Israel freed nine Hamas lawmakers imprisoned three years ago in a crackdown. Hamas legislator Mahmoud Ramahi said his colleagues had all completed their prison terms, and their release was not seen as a goodwill gesture. Israeli officials had no comment.Israel rounded up more than 30 Hamas lawmakers in 2006 after Hamas militants captured an Israeli soldier, apparently as bargaining chips. The soldier is still being held in Gaza.
AND THE ARABS(MUSLIMS)CLAIM ISRAEL AS THEIR CITY MEANWHILE GOD REVEALS THE TRUTH THROUGH ARCHEOLOGY THAT ISRAEL OWNS ISRAEL IN THE FAR PAST AND IN THE DISTANT FUTURE,ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM TOGETHER FOREVER NEVER ENDING WITH KING JESUS RULING.
Israeli archaeologists find ancient fortification By JEN THOMAS, Associated Press Writer – SEPT 2,09
JERUSALEM – Archaeologists digging in Jerusalem have uncovered a 3,700-year-old wall that is the oldest example of massive fortifications ever found in the city, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Wednesday.The 26-foot-high wall is believed to have been part of a protected passage built by ancient Canaanites from a hilltop fortress to a nearby spring that was the city's only water source and vulnerable to marauders.The discovery marks the first time archaeologists have found such massive construction from before the time of Herod, the ruler behind numerous monumental projects in the city 2,000 years ago, and shows that Jerusalem of the Middle Bronze Age had a powerful population capable of complex building projects, said Ronny Reich, director of the excavation and an archaeology professor at the University of Haifa.The wall dates to the 17th century B.C., when Jerusalem was a small, fortified enclave controlled by the Canaanites, one of the peoples the Bible says lived in the Holy Land before the Hebrew conquest. The kingdom thought to have been ruled from Jerusalem by the biblical King David is usually dated to at least seven centuries later.A small section of the wall was first discovered in 1909, but diggers have now exposed a 79-foot portion, and Reich believes it stretches much further. Reich said budget constraints related to the global financial crisis put an end to the excavation, at least for now.The wall is enormous, and that it survived 3,700 years —this is, even for us, a long time,Reich said. It was remarkable that a fortification of this kind was not dismantled for later building projects, he said.
When you just stand there and see it, it is amazing,he said.The wall and other archaeological finds at the site will be opened to the public beginning Thursday, the Antiquities Authority said.Archaeological research at the site known as the City of David, just outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City, is caught up in the struggle for control over the city.The archaeological site, one of the richest in a country full of ancient remains, is in the midst of a Palestinian neighborhood in east Jerusalem.The City of David digs are funded by Elad, a Jewish settler organization that also buys Palestinian homes and brings Jewish families into the neighborhood. Palestinian and Israeli critics have charged that the archaeology is being used as a political tool to cement Jewish control over parts of Jerusalem that Palestinians want for the capital of a future state.Israel captured the Arab section of Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war.Unlike other areas it captured, Israel quickly annexed east Jerusalem and declared the whole city as its capital. In some rounds of failed peace talks, Israel has indicated willingness to cede Arab sections to a Palestinian state, but no agreement was reached.The current Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken such offers off the table, and no peace negotiations are in progress now.
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).
Irish PM confident on treaty as his ratings plunge By Andras Gergely – Wed Sep 2, 5:31 pm ET
DUBLIN (Reuters) – Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen said on Wednesday he was confident voters would approve the European Union's reform treaty in October even as his government's popularity fell to a record low.Cowen launched his campaign for a Yes in the referendum, focusing on Europe as a safe haven during recession -- a view which is widespread in Ireland, according to the European Commission's latest Eurobarometer survey published on Wednesday.But an opinion poll showed voters were increasingly dissatisfied with Cowen's handling of the recession, boosting the risk of a protest vote against him on October 2 and making a Yes result more difficult than recent surveys suggest.Last year, Irish voters rejected the Lisbon treaty, designed to streamline EU decision-making. After winning concessions on key policy areas including neutrality and retaining an Irish EU commissioner, polls suggest a majority of people are supportive.I think Ireland will ... ratify this treaty, I am confident the context and content ... will bring this about,Cowen told state television.Asked at an earlier news conference if he would resign if Ireland voted No again, Cowen said: No. I don't contemplate defeat.Pressed further on whether his political survival was on the line, Cowen said:It's not about me, ... the survival of the country ... that's what the treaty is about. Political comings and goings, that's something we deal with every other day.
FRAGILE SUPPORT
An Irish Times/TNS mrbi poll previewed on the newspaper's website showed 85 percent of voters were dissatisfied with the government's performance, 77 percent were not happy with Cowen's own work and only 15 percent, a record low, satisfied with him.
The poll also showed Cowen's Fianna Fail party in third place at 16 percent behind opposition Fine Gael and Labour.The Irish Times did not release forecasts for the Lisbon referendum outcome, but bookmaker Paddy Power said gamblers were increasingly betting on a Yes vote and cut the odds on a successful passage of the charter to 1/10from 1/7.The treaty, which is designed to give the EU a greater voice in world affairs, cannot take effect until it is ratified by all 27 members. The presidents of Poland and the Czech Republic have said they will wait for an Irish Yes before they approve it.On Tuesday, Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said feedback he had received showed voters were increasingly supportive of the treaty but that trend was still fragile and could turn around.The Eurobarometer poll did not support Dublin's claim that there was a high level of understanding of the Lisbon treaty among Irish voters, who cited lack of information as a key reason for rejecting it in 2008.
Only 40 percent of respondents said they understood how the EU worked, putting Ireland close to the bottom of the ranking of the 27 EU member states, with the commission adding that a lack of understanding was correlated with a negative image of the EU.The Irish Times/TNS mrbi poll was conducted on Monday and Tuesday via face-to-face interviews of 1,000 people.(Reporting by Andras Gergely; Editing by Charles Dick)
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 THU SEPT 03,2009
09:30 AM +5.38
10:00 AM +37.11
10:30 AM -7.33
11:00 AM +6.88
11:30 AM +17.53
12:00 PM +15.64
12:30 PM +28.79
01:00 PM +14.28
01:30 PM +28.14
02:00 PM +19.88
02:30 PM +9.82
03:00 PM +6.35
03:30 PM +18.21
04:00 PM +63.94 9344.61
S&P 500 1003.24 +8.49
NASDAQ 1983.20 +1613
GOLD 994.10 +15.60
OIL 68.00 -0.05
TSE 300 10,921.49 +220.17
CDNX 1215.51 +30.62
S&P/TSX/60 655.89 +12.94
MORNING,NEWS,STATS
YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow +5.75%
S&P +10.13%
Nasdaq +24.73%
TSX Advances 707,declines 780,unchanged 227,Volume 511,057,297.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 473,Declines 394,Unchanged 305,Volume 186,926,450.
Dow +26 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -30 points at low today.
Dow +51 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $985.70.OIL opens at $68.77 today.
AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -30 points at low today so far.
Dow +51 points at high today so far.
DAY TODAY PERFORMANCE - 12:30PM STATS
NYSE Advances 2,190,declines 1,339,unchanged 108,New Highs 76,New Lows 29.
Volume 2,504,401,316.
NASDAQ Advances 1,381,declines 1,101,unchanged 130,New highs 10,New Lows 05.
Volume 847,364,973.
TSX Advances 835,declines 416,unchanged 225,Volume 281,416,362.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 375,Declines 223,Unchanged 268,Volume 91,493,650.
WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -30 points at low today.
Dow +68 points at high today.
Dow +0.69% today Volume 168,730,691.
Nasdaq +0.82% today Volume 1,783,868,765.
S&P 500 +0.85% today Volume N/A
MADOFF UPDATE
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1237841471&play=1
COMMERCIAL REALTY IS IT THE NEXT TO GO
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1237765576&play=1
GOLD BREAKOUT
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1237835806&play=1
FUTURE OF FANNIE,FREDDIE & BANK NEWS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1237618222&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1239462797&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1239278112&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1239250019&play=1
THE FUTURE OF THE FED
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1237718260&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1237365918&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1237307843&play=1
CHINA THE MINERAL HOARDER
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1237311949&play=1
ZERO DOWN CLUNKERS-PETER SCHIFF
http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=7149
What Would the United States Look Like Without the Federal Reserve?
American Banking News Thursday, Sept 3, 2009
Since H.R. 1207 was introduced by Dr. Ron Paul in Congress this February, there has been a growing movement questions whether the Fed should continue to operate without more oversight and some question whether or not the Federal Reserve should continue to operate at all.Currenty, Paul’s Audit the Fed legislation has 282 co-sponsors and there are two similar pieces of legislation in the senate. If the legislation is passed, it will allow the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review the Federal Reserve’s balance sheets and their policy deliberations and monetary transactions. Currently Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, opposes the plan, saying it would undermine the Fed’s independence.The Audit the Fed act has a real chance in passing, but some supporters of the legislation, including Ron Paul, want to take it further than that by ending the Federal Reserve all together. Paul introduced a piece of follow-up legislation, entitled H.R. 833: The Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act which would wind down and eliminate the Federal Reserve over the course of the year. Currently, the act has no co-sponsors, but is gaining a lot of grass-roots support. Paul hopes that members of Congress will join his movement to end the Federal Reserve after they see the results of a full audit of the Federal Reserve. Paul also authored a book about his proposal to end the Federal Reserve, entitled End the Fed.Although the movement is in its infancy and still gaining momentum, it’s not too crazy to think that the United States wouldn’t be better off without the Federal Reserve. Since the Federal Reserve System was brought into force into 1914, the United States economy has grown at a slower pace than it did before 1914, despite significantly improved productivity. The rate of inflation has been substantially worse since the introduction of the Federal Reserve, despite the fact that the Federal Reserve was around during the greatest period of deflation in US History—the Great Depression.
Apologists for the Fed would certainly have a different take. They would note that the United States was in recession half of the time between the Civil War and 1914 and only 21% of the time since the Fed came into force. However, the frequent down-turns before 1914 weren’t the result of a lack of a central bank, but more-so because of poorly thought government regulations, such as bans on branch banking making it so that banks could not survive localized economic trouble. The Federal Government also forced banks to trade notes at a discount whenever the bank offering the note was from another area.Throughout the Civil War, state bank notes were taxed into oblivion to make the way for nationalized banks. Since national banks were forced to accept each other’s notes at their face value, the currency was uniformed, but those national bank notes had to be backed by Federal bonds. That requirement proved disastrous after the Civil War because of a shortage of bonds, which resulted in 4 currency panics between 1873 and 1907, which prompted the establishment of the Federal Reserve.Until 1907, many reformers simply hoped to abolish the restrictions placed on banks during the Civil War, and allowing them to issue notes and allowing banks to branch nationwide to standardize currency instead of the requirement to have the backing of government bonds. Reformers looked to Canada where a similar system had been functioning successfully for several decades.Although Congress did consider several pieces of legislation similar to what Canada had, none of those made it out of Congress because local bankers were determined to block any proposal for branch banking that would threaten their local monopolies.
After the adoption of a system similar to Canada’s failed, only then did reformers consider the establishment of a central reserve bank. As a result, the Federal Reserve Act allowed for the creation of 12 new banks to do what other banks were prevented from doing themselves, establishing branch networks and issuing currency backed by commercial assets.The Federal Reserve was a poor substitute for deregulation. Since the Fed had monopoly privileges in issuing currency, it allowed them to cause unchecked inflation. By 1919, the US Inflation rate jumped to nearly 20%. Since the Federal Reserve had a monopoly on currency, it also had to make sure that there was enough currency in the market to avert a crisis. Soon after, two of the worst monetary contractions in history, the first in 1921, and the second between 1929 and 1933 took place.Would a Canadian-style asset-based currency have survived the Great Depression any better? It turns out that Canada’s did. Between 1929 and 1933, 1/3rd of the United States’ money stock was wiped out and Canada’s monetary supply only dropped by 13%. In Canada, there were no bank failures, where as there were over 6,000 in the United States! Although Canada fared better during the great depression, it moved to Central Banking in 1935 because of a movement to get more easy money.If it were 1934, a call to end the Federal Reserve would not have been considered anywhere close to crazy. 75 years and several crisis’s later, we’ve all but forgotten what the world would look like without the Federal Reserve system, but that doesn’t mean the idea is any less valid than it was during the Great Depression.
FEDS INTERESTING WEEK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_QehEftnhg&feature=player_embedded
The Fed’s Interesting Week Ron Paul Campaign For Liberty
Tuesday, Sept 1, 2009
It has been an interesting week indeed for the Federal Reserve. Early this week, it was announced that President Obama intends to reappoint Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to a second term in January, signaling a vote of confidence in him. Bernanke seems to be popular with the administration and with Wall Street, and with good reason. His lending policies have left big banks flush with newly created cash that covers up old mistakes and allows for new ones. By buying up mountains of Treasury debt he has also enabled spending to soar to ridiculous levels that should startle any responsible economist, and scare any American concerned about the value of the dollar. However, these highly sensitive decisions about our money are not made by economists, they are made by politicians. Bernanke, like most of his predecessors, is the politician’s best friend. However, there is no reason to believe any other central planner would behave any differently, considering the immense political pressure on the Fed.Fed policies have been as bad for the economy as they are good for politicians and bankers, as the recently released numbers on the debt and deficit demonstrate. For the first time since World War II the annual budget deficit is projected to be over 11 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. It is also projected that by 2019 the national debt will be 68% of GDP. Our path, if unchanged, is completely untenable.
The administration claims that it inherited a dire situation from the last administration, which is absolutely true. However, that hasn’t stopped them from accepting all the policies and premises that got us here, and accelerating those policies to rapidly make a bad situation much worse. The bailouts started with the last administration. They have gotten bigger with this one. The last administration gave us expanded government involvement in healthcare with a new prescription drug benefit. This administration gave us a renewal and expansion of SCHIP, and now the current healthcare takeover attempts. In reality, we can afford none of this, but shady monetary policy allows Washington to continue along its merry way, aggravating all our economic problems.Not everyone in government finds it acceptable that the Fed wields so much power and privilege in secrecy. Last week, a federal judge ruled against Fed secrecy, compelling them to release under the Freedom of Information Act information regarding which banks received emergency loans, and under what terms. The Fed will, of course do everything in its power to fight this ruling and it is certainly not the last word on the issue. Still, it is encouraging to see that the interests of the taxpayers were defended victoriously in court, while the Fed only sees the plight of its big banker friends.Meanwhile HR 1207 and S604, legislation to open up the Fed’s books to a complete audit, continue to gain momentum in Congress as the people continue to insist on real transparency of the Federal Reserve. One way or another, the days of Fed autonomy are coming to an end, as well they should. No one should have the power to debauch the currency and gut the economy as they do. It is time they answered for their actions, so the people can understand that we truly are better off with freedom instead of Fed tyranny.
EU countries push for bank pay crackdown Wed Sep 2, 3:46 pm ET
BRUSSELS (AFP) – An EU drive to curb bankers' bonuses won guarded commitment from Britain on Wednesday, as ministers pushed for a crackdown on the pay practices partly blamed for the financial crisis.European Union finance ministers widely backed French-led proposals seeking an immediate end to bloated bonuses, while Britain signed up only to general principles, according to a source close to the British Treasury delegation.Meanwhile a British official said Wednesday that the government would make its own proposals for reforms on bankers' pay at the meeting of G20 finance ministers starting in London on Friday.Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg, whose country currently chairs the European Union, said a strong common European position on bankers' pay was agreed in Brussels amid signs of excessive risk-taking returning to markets.But he insisted:There is a need for muscle and teeth, not only principles and guidelines.The issue will now be picked up by the leaders of the world's biggest industrialised economies, led by the United States.
In London this weekend, a preparatory meeting of finance ministers from the Group of 20 leading economies will attempt to outline a common position to take to a G20 summit in Pittsburgh on September 24-25.Announcing Britain's own proposals, a British official quoted by Dow Jones Newswires said: The UK is committed to ending the short-term bonus culture and pay practices that could threaten the stability of the financial system.Those rules would include having bonuses paid over five years, with some of the money to be clawed back if the traders' long-term performance weakens.Britain will also seek rules to ensure that banks cannot guarantee bonuses to their staff and that a significant proportion of bankers' remuneration comes in the form of non-cash payment such as stocks, the official said.Britain is opposed however to French plans, widely supported in Brussels, to impose a mandatory cap on bankers' bonuses.Borg admitted there is a lot of work still to be done, but said the EU had put a lot of pressure on the other side of the Atlantic.Asked how he expected to acquire regulatory bite, Borg said targeted action would have to be agreed by the G20 countries -- but said the EU was now standing united going to the summit.
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said progress on penalties had been reached.The European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, Joaquin Almunia, said new regulations must be introduced and that the EU attitude was that the financial sector could no longer consider it business as usual.He added:We are committed not to forget the experience of this (economic) crisis.The issue has become increasingly politicised since major banks in the United States, Britain and France ramped up provisions allowing for bonuses on emerging from the credit crunch.
The bankers are acting like it's 1999 but it's actually 2009,Borg had boomed on his way in to Wednesday's meeting. The bonus culture must come to an end and it must come to an end in Pittsburgh.Many bank chiefs believe similar caps across the board would be ineffective.London's conservative mayor Boris Johnson warned on Wednesday that bankers could easily wriggle out of new regulations.It is only too easy for banks and other firms to re-designate forms of remuneration that were previously bonuses as salary,he said, but added that banks had to offer a sign of their duty to wider society.Meanwhile, Borg also secured agreement to raise EU financing of the International Monetary Fund to 125 billion euros (175 billion dollars). With more than 20 million people unemployed across the EU,We will see social tension in our societies given that we are still in a very precarious position in terms of the labour market,he warned.In that kind of environment, it's very important that we... give a clear message that the old bonus structure must come to an end.
The $531 Trillion Dollar Derivatives Time Bomb
Gabriel O’Hara Wise Up Journal September 3, 2009
What are derivatives? Some investors describe them as dormant economic weapons of mass destruction. They essentially are large leveraged bets on top of stocks, bonds and commodities. Money can be made within months or seconds by betting if a stock will go up, down or even remain the same. With no credit rating you can place a bet worth double your account balance. Big time investors get greater leverage with these instantaneous loans.The New York Times, Oct 8th 2008: The derivatives market is $531 trillion, up from $106 trillion in 2002. This market is setup with odds similar to a racetrack. Trillions are won and lost (transferred) every second. But unlike a racetrack the big players have ultimate control. Their trillions can make stocks move. A 4% up swing in a stock can cause a derivative bet to rise more than 100% in value or vice versa. A low performing stock that rises only 6% a year could actually have many 3, 6 or 9 percent swings weekly or monthly (some stocks daily). There are billions to be made over and over again by the people that control billions and trillions thus the markets. A grand game approved by the top.The globe’s GDP is at $60.1 trillion. The globe’s total financial assets were reported as $167 trillion in 2006. A few trillion lower today no doubt. The highly volatile derivatives market is worth noting because it dwarfs the entire world’s GDP and total financial assets combined.Alan Greenspan, the former long-term chairman of the central bank of the United States, constantly double-spoke over his career. He made statements that the current unchanged derivatives market is the best thing since sliced-money and occasionally he gave dire warnings. On May 9th 2003 the New York Times published the following: Mr. Greenspan, as he has done in the past, praised derivatives, saying their benefits materially outweighed the risks and had insulated the financial system from the stock market crash and economic downturn. New York Times, Oct 8th 2008: Mr. Greenspan warned that derivatives could amplify crises because they tied together the fortunes of many seemingly independent institutions. The very efficiency that is involved here means that if a crisis were to occur, that that crisis is transmitted at a far faster pace and with some greater virulence,he said.With double-speak Greenspan can always be right in his autobiography. Historians can choose if he was one of the experts giving warnings or they can put the blame on him. Quite often the qualified experts that helped crash a system are the ones in charge of building the next system.
The $531 trillion dollars derivatives market contains a mind-boggling amount of high-risk credit in the hands of a small few that could completely finish off the collapse of the current global economy (for a new global replacement). New York Times, May 9th 2003: he detailed the potential dangers to financial markets if a big derivatives dealer had to exit the market. In his speech, delivered to the conference by satellite, Mr. Greenspan said that a single dealer accounts for about a third of the global market in both interest rate and credit derivatives, and a few dealers account for more than two-thirds.The span between the green-cash haves and have-nots grew larger under Greenspan. The majority of people around the world rely on the economy for their livelihoods. But what runs the integrated global economy? Credit! Greenspan is not one of the minority with trillions of dollars, and trillions more in credit, tied in derivatives. His work was benefiting the dominant minority of the market. Those who own the gold get others to make their rules. If everything runs on money and you own the money, it’s easy to run things.The new financial system is currently being openly discussed, if not already fully constructed on paper. Have no doubt that the paid experts will be given plenty of corporate and government media time sprouting how wonderful the new system will be for the ordinary man while saying enough bad things about the old system to keep us happy or they might even put the blame on the greedy public. A few bank employees (bank managers) have already been scarified in the media. Of course, the real economic managers, the top bank owners, will create the new system. The same people that profited from the sheering of the current system. The trillion dollar banking families of the globe don’t want to end their river of wealth, making easy money from the public, which means the World Bank and the European Central Bank don’t what that either. The current system would be updated with desired regulations (a better game for a few) and new banking language that the general public don’t understand, like with any good con. However, not until after some turmoil as turmoil is needed for large-scale changes to be accepted. As the EU Commission President, Manuel Barroso, said, the kind of occasion where the crisis calls in to question all certainties and minds are more open to change, these are very special moments.A spokesperson for the upcoming system, Gordon Brown, said all that the nation bankrupting bailouts and social chaos are the difficult birth pangs of a new global order and the expert’s task now is nothing less than making the transition to a new internationalism,reported by the Daily Mail on Jan 27th 2008. This is what happens when people desire to be managed.
Who runs what?
What did Milton Friedman, a Nobel Prize winning economist, have to say about the track record of the central bank in the United States? He said,the Federal Reserve definitely caused the Great depression by contracting the amount of currency in circulation by one-third from 1929 to 1933.Contracting or inflating the money supply are only two tools among many utilised by central banks to direct economies.No individual running the European Central Bank are elected by the public, they are hand picked, and no EU institution has authority over the decisions of the ECB. The ECB is an independent corporate entity. Article 106.2 of the EU’s 1992 Maastricht treaty states,the ECB shall have legal personality. Article 107 says the ECB and national central banks are totally independent from member state governments and any other body including the EU. It even forbids the community of institutions and bodies and any government of a Member State or from any other body from instructing or advising the ECB and national central banks. Article 108.2 allows the ECB to publish or withhold any or all information on decision-making. As we all know, the ECB have the EXCLUSIVE right to AUTHORIZE the issue of bank notes within the Community.Although acquitted, the European Central Bank President, Jean-Claude Trichet, was on trial with eight others for his part in signing off official accounts during a time of fraud at one of France’s biggest banks (Credit Lyonnais) which resulted in a €31 billion Euro bailout. The right kind of people always seems to get picked for the top.
On June 25th 2007 while everyone was happy with the booming economy the Telegraph published that the Bank for International Settlements’, the ultimate bank of all central banks, 77th annual report talked of a coming global depression. The people behind this bank don’t have crystal balls. They are the movers and shakers that make things happen. Great depressions (great for some) create fantastic discounts for those with credit and bust those nasty competitors, especially the many small family run competitors. Since Sept 2007 billions of national emergency funds have been injected in to the global financial markets keeping buyers for the large sellers. Bank stocks lost almost 50% of their value by Dec 2007. The 6 o’clock news did not tell people about the credit crash until late 2008. Wait until the derivatives bubble – in the hands of a small few – pops, then we’ll have a brand new global financial architecture and it certainly won’t be good for the people if we allow the crisis creators to build it.Removal of control over people’s livelihoods and lives is needed for once.
More EU states join anti-bank bonus group
ANDREW RETTMAN 02.09.2009 @ 16:33 CET
EU support is swelling for Franco-German plans to limit bonuses paid to bankers in the aftermath of the financial crisis, but the UK continues to cast doubt on the scheme.The finance ministers of EU presidency country Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg at an EU finance ministers' meeting in Brussels on Wednesday (2 September) all backed the austerity measures. Swedish minister Anders Borg gave the catchphrase of the day, saying that bankers are acting like it's 1999 but it's actually 2009.The EU anti-bonus group is gathering momentum ahead of a G20 summit in Pittsburgh, US, on 24 September, where French President Nicolas Sarkozy aims to shape a global bank regulation deal.The French model includes caps and taxes on bonuses, as well as staggering payments over three yeas and canceling rewards if investments fail.German Chancellor Angel Merkel recently said that existing bank culture drives people up the wall.The European Commission earlier this year also recommended linking bonuses to long-term company performance.The new policies come in the context of popular outrage that individual bank chiefs have become millionaires while using public money to bail out their failed firms.
In Belgium, Jean-Paul Votron left his job as CEO at the bankrupt Fortis bank with €6.3 million in his back pocket. In the UK, Fred Goodwin walked away as CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland with an €800,000 a year pension shortly before the bank posted disastrous losses.The UK, home to one of the EU's major financial hubs in the City of London, could prove a stumbling block for France, however.UK leader Gordon Brown in an interview in the FT out on Tuesday voiced disapproval of imposing a mandatory cap.I think that is very difficult in an international environment,he said.
London mayor Boris Johnson is at the same time leading a City of London campaign to get the EU to back off on regulating hedge funds.It's always open to people to construe it as a naked attempt by Paris and Berlin to attack the competitiveness of the City of London,he told the BBC on Wednesday.Some independent analysts have also portrayed French plans as a knee-jerk political reaction to please the public. Talents are just going to leave the industry and do their business elsewhere, so I don't think it's a workable avenue,Otto Waser, an analyst at the Swiss-based R&A Research & Asset Management told Bloomberg.
Rothschild Said to Start Fund; Chairman’s Son Joins (Update1)
By Jacqueline Simmons and Anne-Sylvaine Chassany
Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Rothschild, the largest family-owned bank, plans to raise a 500 million-euro ($711 million) investment fund as chairman David de Rothschild’s son joins the firm, two people familiar with the plan said. Alexandre de Rothschild, 29, moved to the family bank from Argan Capital, Bank of America Corp.’s former European private equity division, to work on the project, said the people, who declined to be identified before the fundraising is completed. Rothschild Managing Director Marc-Olivier Laurent, 57, will oversee the fund, the people said. The two-century-old firm, which is run by 66-year-old David de Rothschild, plans to buy minority stakes in closely held companies after the pace of global mergers and acquisitions dropped 46 percent in the past year. The fund’s backers include Rothschild partners and clients. It will target companies valued at 100 million euros to 500 million euros, the people said. It’s normal for them to bring in family members to ensure succession,said Anis Bouayad, founder of Paris-based advisory firm AB Conseils.The bank has always found a way to promote its own, while also bringing outside talent to the top jobs.Javed Khan, who joined Rothschild from New York-based private equity firm Blackstone Group LP in June, and Emmanuel Roth, a former executive at investment firm Paris-Orleans, will also manage the fund, the people said. Rothschild plans to complete the fundraising before the end of the year, they said.
Family is Fine
In a business, the key is to have the best people,David de Rothschild said in a 2005 interview, addressing the subject of succession.The family is fine as long as they do a good job. If they don’t, it has to be someone else.David de Rothschild took managerial control of the U.K. side of the bank after his cousin Evelyn retired in 2004, cementing control of both the Paris and London businesses by a French Rothschild, a first for the family firm. David’s younger brother, Edouard, stepped down in 2004 after helping to expand the French bank. Today, he oversees France Galop, the country’s horse-racing association. David’s cousin, Eric, is chairman of Rothschild’s asset-management and private-banking units and also runs the family’s Chateau Lafite vineyard.Mayer Amschel, founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty, started out buying and selling old coins in a Frankfurt Jewish ghetto in the late 1700s and built an embryonic banking business by extending credit to clients. In the early 1800s, he sent his five sons to establish bases in London, Paris, Naples and Vienna, in addition to Frankfurt.
His great-great-grandson, Guy de Rothschild, rebuilt the French business in the 1950s and 1960s after reclaiming the bank, which had been seized by the pro-Nazi Vichy regime. In 1981, the French bank was nationalized by Socialist President Francois Mitterrand. Two years later, David persuaded the French government to grant the Rothschilds a new banking license.To contact the reporter on this story: Jacqueline Simmons in Paris at jackiem@bloomberg.net. Anne-Sylvaine Chassany in Paris at achassany@bloomberg.net.
Great Barrier Reef under serious threat: report Wed Sep 2, 6:16 am ET
SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia's Great Barrier Reef is in serious jeopardy as global warming and chemical runoff threaten to kill marine species and cause serious outbreaks of disease, a report warned Wednesday.The World Heritage-listed reef was already showing the impacts of climate change, with two episodes of mass coral bleaching in the past 10 years, the Marine Park Authority's inaugural reef outlook report said.While populations of almost all marine species are intact and there are no records of extinctions, some ecologically important species, such as dugongs, marine turtles, seabirds, black teatfish and some sharks, have declined significantly,the authority wrote.Coral disease, outbreaks of toxic blue-green algae and infestation by pestilent species such as the crown-of-thorns starfish appeared to be becoming more frequent and more serious, it added.The 345,000-square-kilometre (133,000-square-mile) attraction had deteriorated significantly since European settlement in 1788 and was at a crossroads, the report warned.Almost all the biodiversity of the Great Barrier Reef will be affected by climate change, with coral reef habitats the most vulnerable,the report said.Coral bleaching resulting from increasing sea temperature and lower rates of calcification in skeleton-building organisms such as corals because of ocean acidification, are the effects of most concern and are already evident.The runoff of nitrogen-based pesticides from local farming areas was a particular concern, the report said, adding that their impact remained largely unknown.
Environment Minister Peter Garrett said the report showed strong decisive action needed to be taken, and pledged to halve agricultural runoff by 2013 and to reduce sediment loads by 20 percent by 2020.Improving the quality of water flowing into the reef is one of the most important things we can do to help the reef withstand the impacts of climate change,Garrett said.Australia's centre-left government has already pledged 52 million dollars (42 million US) to improve water quality on the reef.It has also agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 25 percent of 2000 levels by 2020 if world leaders sign up to an ambitious reduction goal in Copenhagen in December.Without an agreement, Australia's target will remain unchanged at five percent.
Sector Snap: Regional bank stocks extend sell-off Wed Sep 2, 1:23 pm ET
NEW YORK – Regional bank stocks fell sharply Wednesday, extending a recent losing streak as concerns about rising loan losses remained high ahead of the government's unemployment report.Among the biggest decliners were SunTrust Banks Inc., which tumbled $1.39, or 6.4 percent, to $20.34 in afternoon trading, and Huntington Bancshares Inc., which fell 23 cents, or 5.4 percent, to $4.02.Investors fear that bank stocks, which led the market's rally on the way up, may have outpaced the companies' earnings potential, considering that loan losses are expected to keep rising for the foreseeable future. Businesses and consumers have struggled to pay off debt this year amid falling home prices and rising unemployment, saddling banks with higher loan losses.The market is anxiously awaiting the Labor Department's report on August job losses, due Friday. Last month, investors cheered an unexpected dip in unemployment and are eager to see if the rate of job losses continues to decline.Worries about the stability of banks have heightened since the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said last week its list of problem banks rose to more than 400 in the second quarter, the highest level since June 1994. On Tuesday, rumors about a possible big bank failure triggered a wave of selling in the broader market.
Eighty-four banks have failed this year, compared with 25 last year and just three in 2007. Hundreds more are expected to fall in the coming years largely because of souring commercial real estate loans. Regional banks hold a large concentration of these loans.With several bank stocks having doubled or even tripled in value since the stock market began rallying in early March on the belief the economy was turning around, investors have begun to question whether the surge has been warranted given the challenges the industry still faces.In a note to clients on Wednesday, Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. analyst Christopher Mutascio weighed in on the valuations of several bank stocks in relation to his expectations for normalized earnings. Of the 10 large-cap banks in his analysis, Mutascio believes BB&T Corp. and U.S. Bancorp are the most expensive, while PNC Financial Services Inc. and Comerica Inc. are currently the cheapest.BB&T shares slid 38 cents to $26.26, while U.S. Bancorp shed 29 cents to $20.95.PNC Financial lost 18 cents to $40.24 and Comerica dropped 61 cents, or 2.4percent, to $25.06.He also said SunTrust Banks Inc. and Regions Financial Corp. appear to be richly valued.Regions shares lost 24 cents, or 4.3 percent, to $5.30.
Cleveland-based KeyCorp fell 23 cents, or 3.8 percent, to $5.92, and Fifth Third Bancorp fell 25 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $10.01.
US economy vulnerable, job market a concern: Fed by Veronica Smith – Wed Sep 2, 3:09 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that the US economy remained vulnerable to adverse shocks,with the weak labor market of particular concern.In minutes released from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on August 11-12, the central bank said that most participants saw the economy as likely to recover only slowly during the second half of this year, and all saw it as still vulnerable to adverse shocks.Labor market conditions remained of particular concern to meeting participants,the minutes said.The publication of the FOMC minutes came ahead of the government's employment data for August due Friday.The Labor Department jobs report, seen as one of the best indicators of economic momentum, is expected to show job losses slowed and the unemployment rate rising to 9.5 percent, from a 26-year high of 9.4 percent in July.Payrolls firm ADP reported Wednesday that the private sector shed 298,000 jobs in August, the smallest number of jobs since September 2008, adding to data indicating an improvement in the albeit dire jobs market.Members of the policy-making FOMC commented about the continued poor conditions in the labor market that were expected to improve only slowly.Business contacts generally indicated that firms would be quite cautious in hiring when demand for their products picks up,the minutes said.
The Fed policymakers agreed that the incoming data and anecdotal evidence since the previous FOMC meeting on June 23-24 had strengthened their confidence that the downturn in economic activity was ending and that growth probably would resume in the second half of the year.Though participants expected the pace of recovery to pick up in 2010, they expressed a range of views, and considerable uncertainty, about the likely strength of the upturn -- particularly about the pace of projected gains in consumer spending and the extent to which credit conditions would normalize.
The central bank policy-makers now saw smaller downside risks to their economic growth forecasts than observed in the prior meeting.With prospects of only a gradual uptick in economic activity, substantial resource slack amid weak demand and subdued inflation, the FOMC decided to hold its key target interest rate at near-zero.The committee thought it most likely that the federal funds rate would need to be maintained at an exceptionally low level for an extended period,the minutes said.
Most participants expected that conditions would lead to subdued and potentially declining wage and price inflation over the next few years; a few saw a risk of substantial disinflation.The FOMC also agreed to maintain its program of asset purchase to support the recovery, but decided to slow the pace of a 300-billion-dollar program to buy Treasury securities and extend the wind-down of that program to the end of October to help promote a smooth transition in markets.
US wants to fill need for climate forecasts By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS, Associated Press Writer – Wed Sep 2, 1:45 pm ET
GENEVA – The global need to cope with climate change is fueling a desire to make climate forecasts as common as weather forecasts, U.S. officials attending a U.N. conference said Wednesday.Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration that creates weather forecasts for the United States, said the world needs better ways to share information about climate change.We're seeing now a convergence between what users are beginning to ask for and the ability of the scientific community to provide something on a scale and in a fashion that is relevant to what the users need,Lubchenco told The Associated Press.She said the World Climate Conference, with up to 2,000 people from 150 nations attending in Geneva this week, is critically important in the effort to create such a climate forecast system and deal with other needs arising from global warming.Predicting climate — forecasting general weather patterns over a period of months or longer — will help countries adapt to climate change that will happen because of greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere regardless of any future agreements to limit carbon emissions.Lubchenco, who heads a delegation of nearly 50 U.S. scientists and officials at the conference, said in an AP interview that climate forecasters will help decision-makers ranging from farmers planning what crops to plant to city planners and national legislators.
Farmers are certainly a good example of who need information about climate, but so too might be water managers for a city or city planners for a coastal community —Where should we grow and in what direction? she said.Forecasts will also provide long-term guidance on how high to build bridges to protect them from storm surges.
Climate services is a new concept,said Thomas Karl, director of NOAA's National Climate Data Center.In the past there wasn't a recognition that the climate community could provide information which you could base decisions on.He said in a separate AP interview that planners hope that within a year or two we can actually have a framework for climate services so that they can work out how to deliver the information in a coordinated way.You get a weather forecast and people count on it because they take action on it, plans, emergency management. We want to do the same thing for climate services.The climate predictions would be a month, a season or even decades ahead, he said.Karl said weather forecasts have pretty good predictability up to 10 days, but after that it becomes difficult to say when a certain type of weather will occur on a given day.Climate forecasts will tend to say things like August will have an 80 percent likelihood of a very severe heat wave, while a weather forecast would predict a certain high temperature for a certain day.
Karl said the United States can already make some climate predictions accurately.
Like right now we've got an El Nino occurring,he said, referring to the phenomenon of warmer seas in the eastern Pacific that change weather patterns around the world.
NOAA has good skill during these conditions" in forecasting the amount of winter precipitation in the southeastern United States and West Coast.But sometimes the science isn't there and there may be limits to our predictability,Karl said. He said the climate conference's moves toward better sharing of weather information among countries will be a big help.All the information that's collected around the world goes into initializing these models, and the more data the more information we get the better these models are,Karl said.
Pfizer to pay record $2.3B penalty for drug promos By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer – SEP 2,09
WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutors hit Pfizer Inc. with a record-breaking $2.3 billion in fines Wednesday and called the world's largest drugmaker a repeating corporate cheat for illegal drug promotions that plied doctors with free golf, massages, and resort junkets.Announcing the penalty as a warning to all drug manufacturers, Justice Department officials said the overall settlement is the largest ever paid by a drug company for alleged violations of federal drug rules, and the $1.2 billion criminal fine is the largest ever in any U.S. criminal case. The total includes $1 billion in civil penalties and a $100 million criminal forfeiture.Authorities called Pfizer a repeat offender, noting it is the company's fourth such settlement of government charges in the last decade. The allegations surround the marketing of 13 different drugs, including big sellers such as Viagra, Zoloft, and Lipitor.As part of its illegal marketing, Pfizer invited doctors to consultant meetings at resort locations, paying their expenses and providing perks, prosecutors said.They were entertained with golf, massages, and other activities,said Mike Loucks, the U.S. attorney in Massachusetts.
Loucks said that even as Pfizer was negotiating deals on past misconduct, they were continuing to violate the very same laws with other drugs.To prevent backsliding this time, Pfizer's conduct will be specially monitored by the Health and Human Service Department inspector general for five years.In an unusual twist, the head of the Justice Department, Attorney General Eric Holder, did not participate in the record settlement, because he had represented Pfizer on these issues while in private practice.Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli said the settlement illustrates ways the Justice Department can help the American public at a time when budgets are tight and health care costs are rising.Perrelli announced the settlement terms at a news conference with federal prosecutors and FBI, and Health and Human Services Department officials.The settlement ends an investigation that also resulted in guilty pleas from two former Pfizer sales managers.Officials said the U.S. industry has paid out more than $11 billion in such settlements over the past decade, but one consumer advocate voiced hope that Wednesday's penalty was so big it would curb the abuses.There's so much money in selling pills, that there's a tremendous temptation to cheat,said Bill Vaughan, an analyst at Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports.There's a kind of mentality in this sector that (settlements) are the cost of doing business and we can cheat. This penalty is so huge I think consumers can have some hope that maybe these guys will tighten up and run a better ship.The government said the company promoted four prescription drugs, including the pain killer Bextra, as treatments for medical conditions different from those the drugs had been approved for by federal regulators. Authorities said Pfizer's salesmen and women created phony doctor requests for medical information in order to send unsolicited information to doctors about unapproved uses and dosages.Use of drugs for so-called off-label medical conditions is not uncommon, but drug manufacturers are prohibited from marketing drugs for uses that have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. They said the junkets and other company-paid perks were designed to promote Bextra and other drugs, to doctors for unapproved uses and dosages, backed by false and misleading claims about safety and effectiveness.
Bextra, for instance, was approved for arthritis, but Pfizer promoted it for acute pain and surgical pain, and in dosages above the approved maximum. In 2005, Bextra, one of a class of painkillers known as Cox-2 inhibitors, was pulled from the U.S. market amid mounting evidence it raised the risk of heart attack, stroke and death.A Pfizer subsidiary, Pharmacia and Upjohn Inc., which was acquired in 2003, has entered an agreement to plead guilty to one count of felony misbranding. The criminal case applied only to Bextra. The $1 billion in civil penalties was related to Bextra and a number of other medicines.A portion of the civil penalty will be distributed to 49 states and the District of Columbia, according to agreements with each state's Medicaid program.Pfizer's top lawyer, Amy Schulman, said the settlements bring final closure to significant legal matters and help to enhance our focus on what we do best — discovering, developing and delivering innovative medicines.In her statement, Schulman said: We regret certain actions taken in the past, but are proud of the action we've taken to strengthen our internal controls and pioneer new procedures.In financial filings in January, the company had indicated that it would pay $2.3 billion over the allegations.The civil settlement announced Wednesday covered Pfizer's promotions of Bextra, blockbuster nerve pain and epilepsy treatment Lyrica, schizophrenia medicine Geodon, antibiotic Zyvox and nine other medicines. The agreement with the Justice Department resolves the investigation into promotion of all those drugs, Pfizer said.The government said Pfizer also paid kickbacks to market a host of big-name drugs: Aricept, Celebrex, Lipitor, Norvasc, Relpax, Viagra, Zithromax, Zoloft, and Zyrtec.The allegations came to light thanks largely to five Pfizer employees and one Pennsylvania doctor, who will now share $102 million of the settlement money.FBI Assistant Director Kevin Perkins praised the whistleblowers who decided to speak out against a corporate giant that was blatantly violating the law and misleading the public through false marketing claims.
To rein in the abuses, the government's five-year monitoring will force Pfizer to notify doctors about Wednesday's agreement, encourage them to report any similar behavior, and publicly post any payments or perks it gives to doctors. Under terms of the settlement, Pfizer must pay $1 billion to compensate Medicaid, Medicare, and other federal health care programs. Some of that money will be shared among the states: New York, for example, will receive $66 million, according to the state's attorney general, Andrew Cuomo.When Pfizer originally disclosed the settlement figure, it also announced plans to acquire rival Wyeth for $68 billion. That deal, which would bolster Pfizer's position as the world's top drugmaker by revenue, is expected to close before year's end.Shares of Pfizer dropped 14 cents to $16.24 in midday trading.AP Business Writer Linda A. Johnson in Trenton, N.J., contributed to this report.
BP taps vast pool of crude in deepest oil well By CHRIS KAHN,Chris Kahn, Ap Energy Writer – SEPT 2,09
NEW YORK – Nearly seven miles below the Gulf of Mexico, oil company BP has tapped into a vast pool of crude after digging the deepest oil well in the world. The Tiber Prospect is expected to rank among the largest petroleum discoveries in the United States, potentially producing half as much crude in a day as Alaska's famous North Slope oil field.The company's chief of exploration on Wednesday estimated that the Tiber deposit holds between 4 billion and 6 billion barrels of oil equivalent, which includes natural gas. That would be enough to satisfy U.S. demand for crude for nearly one year. But BP does not yet know how much it can extract.The Gulf of Mexico is proving to be a growing oil province, and a profitable one if you can find the reserves,said Tyler Priest, professor and director of Global Studies at the Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston.The Tiber well is about 250 miles southeast of Houston in U.S. waters. At 35,055 feet, it is as deep as Mount Everest is tall, not including more than 4,000 feet of water above it.Drilling at those depths shows how far major oil producers will go to find new supplies as global reserves dwindle, and how technology has advanced, allowing them to reach once-unimaginable depths.Deep-water operations are considered to be the last frontier for pristine oil deposits, and the entire petroleum industry is sweeping the ocean floor in search of more crude.BP needs to invest years of work and millions of dollars before it draws the first drop of oil from Tiber. Such long waits are not uncommon. Three years after announcing a discovery at a site in the Gulf called Kaskida, BP has yet to begin producing oil there.
Projects like the Tiber well will not reduce U.S. dependency on foreign oil, which continues to grow. But new technology does permit access to major oil finds closer to U.S. shores.BP expects Tiber to be among the company's richest finds in the Gulf on par with its crown jewel, the Thunder Horse development. Thunder Horse produces about 300,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, as much crude as half of Alaska's famous North Slope.Even if Tiber produces that much, it would still be a trickle compared with the largest oil producers in the world — the Ghawar field in Saudi Arabia, which produces 5 million barrels per day.But because it's close to home, Tiber would be especially attractive to refiners in America, where the government wants to cut down on oil imports from the Middle East.Early indications are that it's a significant positive discovery, said Matt Snyder, lead analyst with Wood MacKinzie's Gulf of Mexico research team.Exploration companies recently have been pushing drilling operations farther from shore because of technological improvements that allow them to handle extreme depths and pressure, Snyder said.It's an expensive process. A production platform costs more than $1 billion to build. Drilling a deep-water well can add another $100 million, and if crude is located, it could cost another $50 million to bring the oil to the surface.And when they finally get down there, it's very hot,said Leta Smith, a director with Cambridge Energy Research Associates' Global Oil Supply Group.It could be upwards of 250 degrees Fahrenheit. The pressures can be the most challenging aspect of it. These rocks are over-pressured, which means you need to have a lot of special equipment.For an ambitious project like Tiber to pay off, experts say crude must cost at least $70 to $75 per barrel, though lower prices have never slowed the industry. When crude prices fell below $20 per barrel in the late 1990s, exploration and Thunder Horse never slowed.
They're not swayed by daily price swings when it comes to planning deep-water exploration,Priest said.BP's discovery is the latest in what's called the lower tertiary region, an ancient section of rock in the Gulf that is roughly 300 square miles and formed between 24 million and 65 million years ago.Chevron Corp. drilled one of the first wells in the region in 2001, followed by more than a dozen others from companies such as Royal Dutch Shell, Australian oil company BHP Billiton, BP and Total SA, according to the U.S. Department of Interior's Minerals Management Service.In 2006, Chevron estimated that the lower tertiary holds between 3 billion and 15 billion barrels. But it has taken years to develop wells for commercial use.
Smith said that the first drops of crude from the lower tertiary will arrive in 2010 with Shell's Perdido operation and Petrobras's Cascade and Chinook developments. BP has a 62 percent working interest in the Tiber well. Petrobras owns 20 percent while ConocoPhillips owns 18 percent.
Oldest Swiss Bank Tells Clients to Sell U.S. Assets or Leave
By Warren Giles
Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Wegelin & Co., Switzerland’s oldest bank, is telling wealthy clients to sell their U.S. assets, or switch banks, because of concerns new rules will saddle investors with tax obligations in the world’s biggest economy. U.S. proposals to extend reporting requirements for banks whose clients buy American stocks and bonds coupled with estate tax liabilities that may be inherited by the heirs of people who have such holdings prompted the advice from the St. Gallen, Switzerland-based bank, said Managing Partner Konrad Hummler.We came to the conclusion that it’s a threat to our clients,Hummler, who is also president of the Swiss Private Bankers Association, said in an interview yesterday during a conference in Zurich. It’s also a threat to us as a bank because as a custodian we are an executor to the estate. We find this aspect discomforting, so we recommend selling all American securities whatsoever.Hummler said he plans to raise the subject today at a meeting of the Private Bankers Association, which counts Pictet & Cie., Lombard Odier & Cie. and Mirabaud & Cie. among its members. Swiss banks, which manage $2 trillion, or 27 percent, of the world’s privately held offshore wealth, are struggling to protect bank secrecy after the government agreed to hand over the names of 4,450 UBS AG clients to U.S. tax authorities. Hummler said he wouldn’t ask other association members to follow Wegelin’s lead. Wegelin, founded in 1741, manages more than 20 billion Swiss francs ($18.7 billion) in client assets.Every member is free to decide and act on their own,he said.
HSBC Studies
Alexandre Zeller, head of HSBC Holdings Plc’s private bank in Switzerland, said his company is still studying the new rules for qualified intermediaries and will do everything it can to comply with them. Often in these agreements you have to understand how this will be applied, and it would be premature, especially for an international bank, to take such a decision,he said today, referring to Wegelin’s position.It’s not on the agenda for the moment.The U.S. has proposed increasing reporting and oversight requirements for so-called qualified intermediaries -- foreign banks that withhold taxes on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service. In addition, new rules may mean that people who spend limited periods of time in the U.S. acquire tax obligations, including estate taxes, creating an unacceptable risk for Wegelin’s clients, Hummler said.If a client decides to keep his U.S. investments,then finally he has to change banks,Hummler said.We’re talking about probabilities,Hummler said.My responsibility toward clients has to include any kind of probability, and if I see a real threat then we have to act.
U.S. Alternatives
Wegelin is finding alternative ways of investing in the U.S. that won’t impose reporting requirements on the bank or tax liabilities on clients, Hummler said. The good thing is that in today’s world you can build up U.S. exposure in equities and as well in bonds through derivatives and index funds and so on, so we are switching to a European-made American exposure.Germany and France have also sought to weaken Swiss secrecy laws as they crack down on tax evaders.The French government, which signed a double-taxation treaty with Switzerland on Aug. 27, obtained the names of 3,000 people suspected of tax fraud and holding accounts at three Swiss banks, French Budget Minister Eric Woerth, said Aug. 30 in an interview with the newspaper Journal du Dimanche.It’s not credible,Hummler said.The U.S. had a hard time getting these 4,450 names, then the French come and say we have 3,000? I cannot believe it, but they’re trying it on.To contact the reporter on this story: Warren Giles in Zurich at wgiles@bloomberg.net
Japan's new leader reassures US on strong alliance By KELLY OLSEN, Associated Press Writer – SEPT 2,09
TOKYO – Japan's incoming leader said Thursday he told President Barack Obama that the two countries' security alliance is the foundation of his country's foreign relations, an apparent attempt to ease concerns his new government may try to distance itself from Washington.Yukio Hatoyama, whose party won a resounding victory in Sunday's parliamentary elections, and Obama spoke by telephone for about 12 minutes, Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan said on its Web site. The White House confirmed the call took place, but did not immediately release details.The Japan-U.S. alliance is the foundation,Hatoyama said he told Obama during the conversation, adding he wants to build constructive, forward-looking Japan-U.S. relations.
His comments to reporters after the call were shown on national broadcaster NHK.
The White House said in a statement that Obama expressed his strong wish to work with Mr. Hatoyama and the Japanese government.Obama mentioned cooperation on economic recovery, combatting climate change, denuclearizing the Korean peninsula, anti-terroristm and building peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region.
Hatoyama, a Stanford University Ph.D and grandson of a prime minister, has called for Japan and the U.S. to pursue a more equitable relationship and said Tokyo should strengthen ties with its Asian neighbors. That has raised concerns a rift could develop between the allies.The Democratic Party, which trounced the incumbent Liberal Democratic Party, is expected to form a new government and name Hatoyama, the party's president, as prime minister on Sept. 16, replacing Taro Aso.Under the long-ruling LDP, Japan has pursued close economic and security relations with the U.S., which has 50,000 troops stationed in the country under a mutual security treaty.Unease about Hatoyama's views of the U.S. has been spurred by an op-ed published in The New York Times ahead of Sunday's election, in which he suggested that Japan had suffered under U.S.-led globalization.He has tried to distance himself from the controversy, however, saying in comments broadcast Tuesday on Japanese television that what he wrote was in no way an expression of anti-U.S. views.
In his op-ed article, Hatoyama also said that he was in favor of an East Asian community,though also wrote that Japan's security pact with the U.S. will continue to form the cornerstone of Japanese diplomatic policy.In the elections, Hatoyama's party won 308 of the 480 seats in the powerful lower house of parliament, giving it control of the chamber and ensuring it will choose the next prime minister.Hatoyama said he told Obama that the Japanese had received their courage to vote for a change in government from the American people and President Obama.Despite the overwhelming victory a poll said Wednesday that the new government will have a shaky mandate. Most Japanese voters chose the opposition because they were fed up with a half-century of rule by the governing conservatives, not because they were enthused by what the Democrats, according to the poll in the Asahi, a major national newspaper.
The poll found most voters remain skeptical about whether the Democratic Party can make good on its promises to bring the world's second-largest economy out of its worst slowdown since World War II, rein in the powerful bureaucracy and restore Japan's international credibility after a succession of three prime ministers in three years.Only 32 percent of respondents said they felt the Democrats would be able to change the government significantly, while 46 percent said they would not, the poll said. It put the Democrats' approval rating at just 39 percent.The poll was a random telephone survey of 1,104 eligible voters conducted on Monday and Tuesday. It reported direct results and so gave no margin of error, but a poll of that size would generally have a margin of about 3 percentage points.Associated Press writer Eric Talmadge contributed to this report.
6 nations meet on Iran's nuclear program By MELISSA EDDY and MATT MOORE, Associated Press Writers – Wed Sep 2, 1:37 pm ET
FRANKFURT – Six countries trying to address concerns about Iran's nuclear program met Wednesday to review developments, and a German official urged Iran to agree to talks before the U.N. General Assembly meets later this month.The meeting took place near Frankfurt and involved political directors — Foreign Ministry officials below ministerial level — from the U.S., France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany.It was scheduled before Iran's main nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, told reporters on Tuesday that his nation would present new proposals and would open talks in order to ease common concerns in the international arena.Jalili gave no details.We took note of the fact that Dr. Jalili has made a statement ... offering talks,the German political director, Volker Stanzel, said after Wednesday's meeting in remarks carried by RTL television.And I expect him to accept our offer to talk, to go into a dialogue on a diplomatic resolution to the nuclear question, before the United Nations General Assembly Week at the end of September.Earlier Wednesday, German Foreign Ministry spokesman Jens Ploetner acknowledged media reports of Jalili's statement, but said such offers must be formally presented to the governments involved before they could be considered.So far we have not received any such communication from the Iranian government through official channels,Ploetner told reporters in Berlin. Consequently ... from our point of view nothing has changed.
We hope that the press reports will be followed by something of substance at an official level.Western nations and others worry Iran is moving toward development of nuclear warheads. But Iranian leaders say the country only seeks reactors to produce electricity.The six countries plan to meet again on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York later this month to review developments.That would dovetail with U.S. President Barack Obama's deadline for Iran to agree to nuclear talks or risk harsher sanctions. Last year, Tehran was offered economic incentives in exchange for suspending uranium enrichment, but Iran's leaders responded by saying they would never give up control of the production of nuclear fuel.In its latest report, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it has pressed Iran to clarify the purpose of its uranium enrichment activities and reassure the world that it's not trying to build an atomic weapon.The agency acknowledged, however, that Iran has been producing nuclear fuel at a slower rate and has allowed U.N. inspectors broader access to its main nuclear complex in the southern city of Natanz and to a reactor in Arak.Stanzel noted that the U.N. Security Council has repeatedly said that Iran is obliged to reply to all the open questions and doubts about its program.Melissa Eddy reported from Berlin. Geir Moulson contributed to this report from Berlin.
Sudan should stay united: EU's Solana Wed Sep 2, 9:57 am ET
CAIRO (AFP) – EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Wednesday he favoured unity for Sudan, where a referendum to decide the south's independence will take place in 2011.It is very important to have that country united, Solana told reporters in Cairo where he held talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Arab League chief Amr Mussa.I do look at the map, I do look at the distribution of resources, I do look at the situation... I am for the unity of the country,he said.
North and South Sudan fought a devastating decades-long civil war that ended with the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).Under the deal, the south has a six-year transitional period of regional autonomy and takes part in a unity government until the 2011 referendum on self-determination.On August 19, former enemies from north and south Sudan signed a new deal aimed at bolstering the 2005 peace agreement, witnessed by US special envoy Scott Gration.The document -- the result of months of negotiations between the two sides and the US envoy -- covers key areas that both sides will work together on, including upcoming elections next April, peace efforts in the war-torn region of Darfur, demarcating the north-south border, and power sharing.
Polls Reveal Obama’s Plummeting Approval Ratings Support for Obama falls AGAIN for second time this week as monumental decline in popularity continues Steve Watson Infowars.net Wednesday, Sept 2, 2009
To say Barack Obama’s honeymoon period with the American people is over would be a gross understatement.Figures from major pollsters confirm that the president’s approval rating is declining at an unprecedented rate, and by the hour.Rasmussen’s Daily Presidential tracking Poll today shows that only 28% of the nation’s voters strongly approve of the way Obama is performing, down a further 2% from yesterday, with 40% strongly disapproving.This gives the president an approval index rating of -12, again down another point on yesterday’s figures.The Rasmussen Presidential Approval Index is calculated by subtracting the number who strongly disapprove from the number who strongly approve.The latest figures indicate that Obama’s public support has fallen by a whopping 41 index points since the beginning of the year.
Rasmussen puts Obama’s overall approval rating at 46%. Yesterday it fell to 45%, the lowest yet recorded by Rasmussen, representing a 20 point decline in just eight months. Check the trends figures here.Roughly translated this means that one in every eight people that voted for Obama now disapprove of his performance.
Former High-Ranking Intelligence Officer: Cheney Responsible for 9/11
Washington’s Blog Wednesday, Sept 2, 2009
David Steele is a former 20-year Marine Corps infantry and intelligence officer, the second-ranking civilian in U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence, and former CIA clandestine services case officer.Steele has previously written that 9/11 was at a minimum allowed to happen as a pretext for war.
This month, Steele went further, writing:Pakistan briefed Cheney [about the plans for the terrorist attacks ahead of time] …nations also got wind of this and warned the CIA. We also had two walk-ins to the FBI, one in Orlando, one in Newark, that were dismissed by the FBI because the names were all virgins and not in the FBI data base—the arrogance of stupid bureaucracy.Cheney saw an opportunity for what Bush called his trifecta, and gave it to him by giving the go-ahead to ISI and Al Qaeda, and ordering up a terrorism exercise that allowed him to send all relevant close-in air defense strip alert craft away from the target areas, and to disable the NORTHCOM normal response to flight path diversion.
