NOT MUCH PROGRESS IN HAITI

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)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
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)(HAMAS) 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.

MY LAST COUNT I HEARD WAS 7,000 DEAD BUT BODIES LYING ALL OVER THE PLACE AND ROTTING.THE RUSSIA ,MUSLIMS BETTER BE PAYING ATTENTION,THIS IS HOW IT WILL BE WHEN 5/6TH OF THEM ARE DESTROYED IN ISRAEL FOR COMING AGAINST ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM.IT WILL TAKE 7 MONTHS TO BURY THEM AND ANIMALS AND MIGRATING SPRING BIRDS WILL BE DEVOURING THEIR FLESH.THIS IS DEFINATELY A FORUNNER OF THE RUSSIA,MUSLIM HORDE BEING ALMOST TOTALLY DESTROYED IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE.THE ONLY DIFFERENCE THERE WILL BE QUAKES,PLAGUES AND NUKES USED ON THE HORDE.

EU foreign relations chief tests new powers in earthquake response
ANDREW RETTMAN 14.01.2010 @ 13:18 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU's response to the earthquake in Haiti has given a first glimpse into how the bloc's new foreign relations set-up is to work in practice.The union's new foreign minister, Catherine Ashton, is currently awaiting the EU parliament's formal approval for her appointment and is to put forward proposals for the structure of her future diplomatic corps, as mandated by the Lisbon Treaty, by April.But Ms Ashton's office already leapt into action on Wednesday (13 January) as news emerged of the scale of what looks like the worst natural disaster since the Asian tsunami in 2004.The earthquake on Tuesday is thought to have claimed tens of thousands of lives and left millions homeless.Ms Ashton chaired a meeting in Brussels of European Commission officials from the foreign relations, development and environment departments as well as experts from the EU Council and the Situation Centre, the EU member states' intelligence-gathering hub.The meeting agreed to trigger €3 million in emergency aid, signed off by development commissioner Karel de Gucht, and to look into further financial assistance, such as advance payments from the commission's €28 million annual development budget for Haiti.It also decided to send officials from the commission's environment department to the earthquake zone to assess damage and to task an environment department unit to co-ordinate pledges from Belgium, Sweden, France, the UK, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Norway, Iceland and Luxembourg to send personnel and equipment.

Ms Ashton on Wednesday also attended a separate meeting of EU member states' ambassadors in Brussels and may travel to Haiti personally in future. It's the first time in such a situation that we have brought all these various actors together. I wouldn't call it the first act of the External Action Service, because that doesn't exist yet, but this has never been done before, Ms Ashton's spokesman, Lutz Guellner, told EUobserver. She is acting as the overall co-ordinator on this, for example any contacts with Ban Ki Moon [the UN secretary general] will be through her.
The Spanish EU presidency has taken a back seat. But the rotating chairmanship also got to work on Wednesday by calling snap meetings of EU diplomats dealing with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and by offering Ms Ashton the use of a Spanish base in Panama. Ms Ashton is on Thursday to meet with Spanish defence minister Carme Chacon to see what else can be done.

Bilateral action

Meanwhile, EU member states are carrying out the vast bulk of Europe's response on a bilateral basis with Haiti, with the former colonial powers in the region - France, Spain, the UK and the Netherlands - taking the lead. France, the former colonial ruler in Haiti, has sent two military planes carrying 85 rubble-clearing experts and medical staff, with the country's development minister, Alain Joyandet, set to travel to the country in the coming days. Spain has sent three planes with over 40 staff and 150 tonnes of supplies and pledged an extra €3 million. The country's secretary of state for Latin America, Juan Pablo de Laiglesia, is on his way to Haiti to help run the relief effort. The UK has sent over 70 rescue specialists and 10 tonnes of kit. The Netherlands has donated €2 million and will send a 60-person search-and-rescue team.Germany (€1.5 million), Denmark (€1.3 million), Italy (€1 million) and Sweden (€0.6 million) have also promised support. But Poland's contribution, of just €12,000, has been lambasted by newspapers, which point out that the film star couple, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, have independently pledged $1 million (€0.7 million).

Aid groups struggle to get food, water to Haitians By JONATHAN M. KATZ and TAMARA LUSH, Associated Press Writers – JAN 15,10

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Aid workers hoping to distribute food, water and other supplies to a shattered Port-au-Prince are warning their efforts may need more security Friday as Haitians grow increasingly desperate and impatient for help.United Nations peacekeepers patrolling the capital said people's anger is rising that aid hasn't been distributed quickly, and the Brazilian military warned aid convoys to add security to guard against looting.Unfortunately, they're slowly getting more angry and impatient, said David Wimhurst, spokesman for the Brazilian-commanded U.N. peacekeeping mission.I fear, we're all aware that the situation is getting more tense as the poorest people who need so much are waiting for deliveries. I think tempers might be frayed.The U.N. World Food Program reported Friday that its warehouses in the Haitian capital had been looted since Tuesday's cataclysmic earthquake. It didn't know how much of its pre-quake stockpile of 15,000 tons of food aid remained.A spokeswoman for the Geneva-based agency, Emilia Casella, noted that regular food stores in the city also had been emptied by looters.Casella said the WFP was preparing shipments of enough ready-to-eat meals to feed 2 million Haitians for a month.The international Red Cross estimated 45,000 to 50,000 people were killed in the quake Tuesday, based on information from the Haitian Red Cross and government officials.

Hundreds of bodies were stacked outside the city morgue, and limbs of the dead protruded from the rubble of crushed schools and homes. A few workers were able to free people who had been trapped under the rubble for days, but others attended to the grim task of using bulldozers to transport loads of bodies.For the long-suffering people of Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation, shock was giving way to despair.We need food. The people are suffering. My neighbors and friends are suffering, said Sylvain Angerlotte, 22.We don't have money. We don't have nothing to eat. We need pure water.From Europe, Asia and the Americas, more than 20 governments, the U.N. and private aid groups were sending planeloads of high-energy biscuits and other food, tons of water, tents, blankets, water-purification gear, heavy equipment for removing debris, helicopters and other transport. Hundreds of search-and-rescue, medical and other specialists also headed to Haiti.The WFP began organizing distribution centers for food and water Thursday, said Kim Bolduc, acting chief of the large U.N. mission in this desperately poor country. She said that "the risk of having social unrest very soon" made it important to move quickly.

Governments and government agencies have pledged about $400 million worth of aid, including $100 million from the United States.But into the third day following the 7.0-magnitude quake, the global helping hand was slowed by a damaged seaport and an airport that turned away civilian aid planes for eight hours Thursday because of a lack of space and fuel.Aid workers have been blocked by debris on inadequate roads and by survivors gathered in the open out of fear of aftershocks and re-entering unstable buildings.The physical destruction is so great that physically getting from point A to B with the supplies is not an easy task, Casella, the WFP spokeswoman in Geneva, said at a news conference.Across the sprawling, hilly city, people milled about in open areas, hopeful for help, sometimes setting up camps amid piles of salvaged goods, including food scavenged from the rubble.Small groups could be seen burying dead by roadsides. Other dust-covered bodies were being dragged down streets, toward hospitals where relatives hoped to leave them. Countless dead remained unburied, some in piles. Outside one pharmacy, the body of a woman was covered by a sheet, a small bundle atop her, a tiny foot poking from its covering.

Aid worker Fevil Dubien said some people were almost fighting over the water he distributed from a truck in a northern Port-au-Prince neighborhood. Elsewhere, about 50 Haitians yearning for food and water rushed toward two employees wearing Food For The Poor T-shirts as they entered the international agency's damaged building. We heard a commotion at the door, knocking at it, trying to get in, said project manager Liony Batista. What's going on? Are you giving us some food? We said, Uh-oh. You never know when people are going over the edge.Batista said he and others tried to calm the crowd, which eventually dispersed after being told food hadn't yet arrived. We're not trying to run away from what we do, Batista said, adding that coordinating aid has been a challenge.People looked desperate, people looked hungry, people looked lost.Engineers from the U.N. mission have begun clearing some main roads, and law-and-order duties have fallen completely to the mission's 3,000 international troops and police. About 5,500 U.S. soldiers and Marines were expected to be in Haiti by Monday. Their efforts will include providing security, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. Wimhurst, the mission spokesman, said Haitian police are not visible at all, no doubt because many had to deal with lost homes and family members. The first U.S. military units to arrive took on a coordinating role at the airport. Batista, the Food For The Poor project manager, went back to the Dominican Republic late Thursday and awaited the arrival of 100 shipping containers loaded with rice, canned goods and building supplies. I don't think that a word has been invented for what is happening in Haiti, he said.It is total disaster.Associated Press contributors to this story: Mike Melia, Jennifer Kay and Gregory Bull in Port-au-Prince; Alexander G. Higgins in Geneva; Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations; Tales Azzoni in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Danica Coto and David McFadden in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Adam Geller in New York; Matthew Lee and Pauline Jelinek in Washington.

Scientists warned Haiti officials of quake in 2008 By RICK CALLAHAN, Associated Press Writer – JAN 15,2010

INDIANAPOLIS – Scientists who detected worrisome signs of growing stresses in the fault that unleashed this week's devastating earthquake in Haiti said they warned officials there two years ago that their country was ripe for a major earthquake.
Their sobering findings, presented during a geological conference in March 2008 and at meetings two months later, showed that the fault was capable of causing a 7.2-magnitude earthquake — slightly stronger than Tuesday's 7.0 quake that rocked the impoverished country.Though Haitian officials listened intently to the research, the nearly two years between the presentation and the devastating quake was not enough time for Haiti to have done much to have prevented the massive destruction.It's too short of a timeframe to really do something, particularly for a country like Haiti, but even in a developed country it's very difficult to start very big operations in two years, Eric Calais, a professor of geophysics at Purdue University, said Thursday.Their conclusions also lacked a specific timeframe that could have prodded quick action to shore up the hospitals, schools and other buildings that collapsed and crumbled, said Paul Mann, a senior research scientist at the University of Texas' Institute for Geophysics.At the time of earthquake, which the international Red Cross estimated killed 45,000 to 50,000 people, Haiti was still trying to recover from a string catastrophes. In 2008 alone, it was hit four times by tropical storms and hurricanes. The country also suffers from a string of social ills including poverty, unstable governments and poor building standards that make buildings vulnerable in earthquakes.

Haiti's government has so many other problems that when you give sort of an unspecific prediction about an earthquake threat they just don't have the resources to deal with that sort of thing, Mann said.In March 2008, Calais and Mann were among a group of scientists who presented findings on the major quake risk along the Enriquillo fault during the conference in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. Their conclusions were based both on geologic work Mann conducted along the same fault and recent findings by Calais.Calais had detected rising stresses along the fault using global positioning system measurements that showed that the Earth's crust in the area where the fault traverses southern Haiti was slowly deforming as pressure grew within the fault.That pressure, paired with Mann's work and the fact that the last major quake in the area was in 1770, led to the prediction that the fault could produce a 7.2-magnitude temblor.Calais said he also presented the findings to officials in Haiti during a series of meetings in May 2008 that included the country's prime minister and other high-ranking officials. He said he stressed to the officials that if they did nothing else they should at least begin reinforcing hospitals, schools and key government buildings to weather a strong quake.We were taken very seriously but unfortunately it didn't translate into action, he said.The reality is that it was too short of a timeframe to really do something, particularly for a country like Haiti struggling with so many problems.Calais said Haiti has no seismic stations for monitoring quake activity, while adjoining Dominican Republic has a small seismic network.Although the specific risks of the fault zone near Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, may not have been known until recent years, the region has a long history of major earthquakes, said Carol Prentice, a U.S. Geological Survey research geologist based in Menlo Park, Calif.Those include earthquakes that destroyed Jamaica's capital, Kingston, in 1692 and 1907, that also occurred along the Enriquillo fault, which extends hundreds of miles through the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica.

She said Calais' GPS studies were the first along the fault to quantify the potential quake risk in the heavily populated Port-au-Prince area.Prentice said she, Calais and Mann had sought U.S. government funding over the years for detailed excavations in southern Haiti to document evidence of past quakes in soil layers along the fault but that work has not yet been funded.It's entirely possible that we'll see additional quakes along this fault in the years to come. But we really don't know the risk if those studies aren't done, she said.

Oil slips below $79 amid stronger US dollar By PABLO GORONDI, Associated Press Writer – JAN 15,10

Oil prices dropped below $79 a barrel Friday amid a strengthening U.S. dollar and weak crude demand in developed countries.By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for February delivery was down 77 cents to $78.62 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Thursday, the contract fell 26 cents to settle at $79.39.The euro was down to $1.4371 Friday from $1.4500 on Thursday, while the British pound dipped to $1.6273 from $1.6332. Investors often buy commodities such as oil as a hedge against inflation when the dollar weakens and sell when it strengthens.Crude prices also fell on concerns demand from the U.S. and Europe remains weak.Retail sales in the United States fell 0.3 percent in December, while economists had been expected an increase.The U.S. retail sales data ... was not as good as expected and put a cap on the global markets, said Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix in Switzerland.Some analysts expect growth in demand from developing countries such as China will help make up for sluggish economic recoveries in rich nations.Francisco Blanch, head of global commodities research for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said 75 percent of the 2.3 percent growth in global crude demand this year will likely come from developing economies.I'm not saying demand from OECD countries is going back to the previous highs, but we've fallen very sharply and now we're stabilizing and coming up a little bit, Blanch told reporters in Singapore.

He expects crude to average $78 a barrel in the first half, $92 in the second.

A monthly report from the Paris-based International Energy Agency on Friday held steady its forecast for world oil demand this year, predicting a slight rebound in consumption led largely by developing economies in Asia.Oil demand recovery in the OECD is likely to remain sluggish, despite a bout of recent cold weather, the IEA said, predicting average global demand of 86.3 million barrels a day this year, or 1.4 million barrels a day more than in 2009.In other Nymex trading in February contracts, heating oil fell 2.22 cents to $2.0607 a gallon and gasoline slid 1.28 cents to $2.0610 a gallon. Natural gas futures lost 5.6 cents to $5.532 per 1,000 cubic feet.In London, Brent crude for February delivery fell 91 cents to $77.66 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.Associated Press writer Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.

IEA affirms forecast for rising oil demand
JAN 15,2010

PARIS – The International Energy Agency on Friday held steady its forecast for world oil demand this year, predicting a rebound in consumption led largely by developing economies in Asia.The Paris-based IEA, which advises oil-consuming countries, predicted in its monthly report that oil demand will average 86.3 million barrels a day this year, or 1.4 million barrels a day more than in 2009.That was unchanged from the IEA's previous report in December. The estimate for 2009 was also unchanged at 84.9 million barrels a day, the IEA said.Growth is driven by non-OECD countries, most notably in Asia, the report said. It forecast oil demand recovery in the industrialized countries will remain sluggish, despite a recent cold snap that has lifted energy demand.

Microsoft's browser flaw exposed Google to hackers
Thu Jan 14, 7:31 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Microsoft says a security flaw in its Internet Explorer browser played a role in the recent computer attacks against Google and at least 20 other companies.In a Thursday alert confirming the weakness, Microsoft said the security hole can be closed by setting browser's Internet security zone to high. The world's largest software maker may also issue an update to fix the problem.Microsoft pinpointed the trouble spot after Google announced earlier this week that hackers in China had pried into the e-mail accounts of human rights activists opposing the Chinese government's policies.The attack outraged Google. It plans to leave China unless the government backs off rules requiring Google's Chinese search engine to censor some results.

CHARTS TO LOOK AT
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=121993

Robbing Peter to pay Paul-Fed purchase of debt like family using Visa to pay MasterCard January 15, 2010 12:45 am Eastern By Jerome R. Corsi 2010 WorldNetDaily

President Obama

Statistics from the federal government document how the Federal Reserve over the course of 2009 bought some 80 percent of the $1.5 trillion borrowed by the U.S. Treasury – making the federal government like the family that uses Visa to pay down a monthly MasterCard bill. Remarkable as that may seem, data make clear the Obama administration has been managing trillion dollar federal budget deficits by selling financial instruments to the Fed. Even to sophisticated investment analysts, using the Fed to buy Treasury debt is the equivalent of simply printing money to pay for government-funded programs an increasingly bankrupt United States can no longer afford. While the Federal Reserve's massive purchases of Treasury bonds and government agency debt, including debt issued by the government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has keep interest rates low, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee in its Dec. 15-16, 2009, meeting strongly suggested the program to buy debt issued by U.S. Treasury, government-sponsored agency debt and mortgage-backed securities will come to a close at some point. And with the Chinese revealing a diminishing appetite to buy U.S. government debt, the Treasury is facing a crisis regarding how to sell possibly $2 trillion in new debt to finance the 2010 Obama administration federal budget deficit. The likely results of the crisis – rising interest rates and hyper-inflation – could include a burst stock market bubble and a deepened real estate foreclosure crisis and also could force average Americans to face higher prices as the dollar continues to lose value against stronger currencies, such as the euro and possibly the yen.

How will Obama continue to sell trillions of dollars of debt?

The amount of Treasury-issued debt has spiked in the first year of the Obama administration and is likely to continue at elevated levels given the $9 trillion in federal budget deficits President Obama has projected over the next 10 years. The fiscal 2009 federal budget deficit totaled nearly 12 percent of gross domestic product and required more than $1.5 trillion of newly issued Treasury debt to finance it, according to Bill Gross, an investment analyst at the giant bond dealer PIMCO. Foreign investors including the Chinese bought somewhat under 20 percent of the $1.5 trillion of Treasury debt the Obama administration needed to sell in order to finance the $1.84 trillion federal budget deficit in fiscal year 2009. In other words, in fiscal year 2009, the Federal Reserve purchased approximately 80 percent of the Treasury debt issued to finance the Obama administration budget deficit. The Federal Reserve has also become a buyer of last resort for government agency debt.

When the Federal Reserve discontinues its program of buying U.S. Treasury and government agency debt, interest rates will almost certainly have to rise in order to attract buyers.

Warnings from China

In 2009, China led foreign investors in selling mortgage securities issued by government-sponsored entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to an analysis published in the Wall Street Journal last July. China has warned Richard Fisher, the president of the Dallas Federal Reserve, that the Obama administration is monetizing the U.S. debt by allowing the Federal Reserve to purchase Treasury debt. With little fanfare, China's foreign-exchange reserves have grown to $2.27 trillion at the end of September, a dramatic 700 percent increase in the last 5 years. This comes at a time when China is increasingly concerned that inevitable dollar devaluation makes holding dollar assets a risky foreign-exchange reserve strategy. In 2009, China, the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury debt, reduced its holding of U.S. Treasury bonds out of a concern over the safety of U.S.-dollar-linked assets. According to the U.S. Treasury, China remains the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury debt, amounting to $798.9 billion in October 2009, with Japan second on the list at $746.5 billion. One day after Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao snubbed President Obama at the U.N.'s Copenhagen Climate Summit in December, the Chinese warned the United States that China's ability to continue buying U.S. Treasury debt was limited. Zhu Min, the deputy governor of the People's Republic of China, told the Shanghai Daily that it is getting harder for the People's Bank of China to buy U.S. Treasuries because the shrinking U.S. currency account is reducing the supply of U.S. dollar foreign exchange reserves overseas.

This was dire news for the Obama administration that in 2010 – and for the foreseeable future – will be dependent on China to buy U.S. Treasury debt to meet the demands of the proposed trillion dollar budget deficits. The Shanghai Daily reported that Zhu told an academic audience that it was inevitable the value of the dollar would fall given the increasing reliance of the Obama administration on issuing U.S. Treasury debt to finance deficit spending. The United States cannot force foreign governments to increase their holdings of Treasuries, Zhu said. Double the holdings? It is definitely impossible.

Zhu's warning was clear. The world does not have so much money to buy more U.S. Treasuries, he said. What China's warnings portend is that the Obama administration's determination to expand the U.S. social welfare state will necessarily meet a limit when foreign nations lack the U.S. dollar foreign exchange reserves needed to purchase increasing amounts of U.S. Treasury debt. Zhu's comments were a warning to the Obama administration that China does not approve of the large and continuing trillion dollar deficits the U.S. is projecting into the future, or of the way the Obama administration has chosen to finance those deficits.

AMERICA (POLITICAL BABYLON)

EZEKIEL 39:21
21 And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.

ISAIAH 18:1-2
1 Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:
2 That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!

JEREMIAH 50:11,37,12
11 Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of mine heritage, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls;(BACKSLIDERS)
37 A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her; and they shall become as women: a sword is upon her treasures; and they shall be robbed.(A NATION OF MINGLED PEOPLE)
12 Your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bare you shall be ashamed:(MOTHER ENGLAND) behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

JEREMIAH 51:13,7,53
13 O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness.
7 Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD's hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.
53 Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the LORD.

REVELATION 18:3,5,7
3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
7 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

JEREMIAH 50:3,24
3 For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD. (RUSSIA A SNEAK ATTACK ON AMERICA)

REVELATION 18:9-11,15-21
9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,(NUKE ATTACK I BELIEVE)
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
15 The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,
16 And saying, Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
18 And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.
20 Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.
21 And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.

Bankruptcy of U.S. now certain December 11, 2009 8:03 pm Eastern 2010 WND

It's one of those numbers that's so unbelievable you have to actually think about it for a while ... Within the next 12 months, the U.S. Treasury will have to refinance $2 trillion in short-term debt. And that's not counting any additional deficit spending, which is estimated to be around $1.5 trillion. Put the two numbers together. Then ask yourself, how in the world can the Treasury borrow $3.5 trillion in only one year? That's an amount equal to nearly 30 percent of our entire GDP. And we're the world's biggest economy. Where will the money come from? How did we end up with so much short-term debt? Like most entities that have far too much debt – whether subprime borrowers, GM, Fannie, or GE – the U.S. Treasury has tried to minimize its interest burden by borrowing for short durations and then rolling over the loans when they come due. As they say on Wall Street, a rolling debt collects no moss.What they mean is, as long as you can extend the debt, you have no problem. Unfortunately, that leads folks to take on ever greater amounts of debt, at ever shorter durations, at ever lower interest rates. Sooner or later, the creditors wake up and ask themselves: What are the chances I will ever actually be repaid? And that's when the trouble starts. Interest rates go up dramatically. Funding costs soar. The party is over. Bankruptcy is next. When governments go bankrupt, it's called a default. Currency speculators figured out how to accurately predict when a country would default. Two well-known economists – Alan Greenspan and Pablo Guidotti – published the secret formula in a 1999 academic paper. The formula is called the Greenspan-Guidotti rule. The rule states: To avoid a default, countries should maintain hard-currency reserves equal to at least 100 percent of their short-term foreign debt maturities. The world's largest money-management firm, PIMCO, explains the rule this way: The minimum benchmark of reserves equal to at least 100 percent of short-term external debt is known as the Greenspan-Guidotti rule. Greenspan-Guidotti is perhaps the single concept of reserve adequacy that has the most adherents and empirical support.

The principle behind the rule is simple: If you can't pay off all of your foreign debts in the next 12 months, you're a terrible credit risk. Speculators are going to target your bonds and your currency, making it impossible to refinance your debts. A default is assured. So how does America rank on the Greenspan-Guidotti scale? It's a guaranteed default. The U.S. holds gold, oil, and foreign currency in reserve. It has 8,133.5 metric tons of gold (it is the world's largest holder). At current dollar values, it's worth around $300 billion. The U.S. strategic petroleum reserve shows a current total position of 725 million barrels. At current dollar prices, that's roughly $58 billion worth of oil. And according to the IMF, the U.S. has $136 billion in foreign-currency reserves. So altogether, that's around $500 billion of reserves. Our short-term foreign debts are far bigger. According to the U.S. Treasury, $2 trillion worth of debt will mature in the next 12 months. So looking only at short-term debt, we know the Treasury will have to finance at least $2 trillion worth of maturing debt in the next 12 months. That might not cause a crisis if we were still funding our national debt internally. But since 1985, we've been a net debtor to the world. Today, foreigners own 44 percent of all our debts, which means we owe foreign creditors at least $880 billion in the next 12 months – an amount far larger than our reserves. Keep in mind, this only covers our existing debts. The Office of Management and Budget is predicting a $1.5 trillion budget deficit over the next year. That puts our total funding requirements on the order of $3.5 trillion over the next 12 months. So, where will the money come from? Total domestic savings in the U.S. are only around $600 billion annually. Even if we all put every penny of our savings into U.S. Treasury debt, we're still going to come up nearly $3 trillion short. That's an annual funding requirement equal to roughly 40 percent of GDP. Where is the money going to come from? From our foreign creditors? Not according to Greenspan-Guidotti. And not according to the Indian or Russian central banks, which have stopped buying Treasury bills and begun to buy enormous amounts of gold. The Indians recently bought 200 metric tons. Sources in Russia say the central bank there will double its gold reserves. So where will the money come from? The printing press. The Federal Reserve has already monetized nearly $2 trillion worth of Treasury debt and mortgage debt. This weakens the value of the dollar and devalues our existing Treasury bonds. Sooner or later, our creditors will face a stark choice: Hold our bonds and continue to see the value diminish slowly, or try to escape to gold and see the value of their U.S. bonds plummet. One thing they're not going to do is buy more of our debt. Which central banks will abandon the dollar next? Brazil, Korea and Chile. These are the three largest central banks that own the least amount of gold. None owns even 1 percent of its total reserves in gold. All of this is going to lead to a severe devaluation of the U.S. dollar, which I expect to happen within 18 months. If you haven't taken steps to protect yourself from the coming devaluation – like owning gold and silver bullion, foreign real estate, and farmland – make sure you do it soon. The dollar rout is coming.

Is America's financial collapse inevitable? Pat Buchanan January 14, 2010
8:10 pm Eastern 2010

We were blindsided. We never saw it coming. So said Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein of the financial crisis of 2008. He likened its probability to four hurricanes hitting the East Coast in a single season. Blankfein was reminded by the chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Committee, Phil Angelides, that hurricanes are acts of God. Financial crises are manmade. Yet Blankfein was backed up by Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan, who said, Somehow, we just missed ... that home prices don't go up forever.The Wall Street titans thus conceded they did not foresee the housing bubble ever bursting and they did not consider the possibility of a collapse in value of the sub-prime mortgage securities piled up on their books. Backing up Blankfein's plea of ignorance and incomprehension is this: The crisis killed Lehman Brothers and would have killed every one of them had not the Treasury and Fed, neither of which saw it coming, either, intervened with hundreds of billions in bailout cash. Yet there were those who warned a housing bubble was being created like the dot-com bubble; others who predicted the Empire of Debt was coming down – as, today, there are those warning that the United States, with consecutive deficits running 10 percent of gross domestic product, is risking an eventual default on its national debt. The warnings come from the Committee on the Fiscal Future of the United States, chaired by Rudolph Penner, former head of the Congressional Budget Office, and David Walker, former head of the Government Accountability Office and author of Comeback America: Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility.Who's getting richer under the Obama regime? Find out in Tim Carney's new book, Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses.

With that share of the U.S. national debt held by individuals, corporations, pension funds and foreign governments having risen in 2009 from 41 percent to 53 percent of GDP, Penner and Walker believe it imperative to get the deficit under control. Unfortunately, it is not possible to see how, politically, this can be done. Consider. The five largest elements in the budget are Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, defense and interest on the debt. With interest rates near record lows, and certain to rise, and back-to-back $1.4 trillion deficits, this budget item has to grow and has to be paid if the U.S. government is to continue to borrow. Second, with seniors on fire against Medicare cuts in health-care reform, it would be fatal for the Obama Democrats to curtail Social Security or Medicare benefits any further this year. Next year, they will not only lack the congressional strength but any desire to do so, after their anticipated shellacking this fall. The same holds true for Medicaid. The Party of Government is not going to cut health benefits for its most loyal supporters. Indeed, federal costs may rise as state governments, constitutionally required to balance their budgets, cut social benefits and beg the feds to pick up the slack. This leaves defense. But the president is deepening the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan to 100,000 troops, and the military needs to replace weaponry and machines depreciated in a decade of war.

Where, then, are the spending cuts to come from?

Can the administration cut Homeland Security, the FBI or CIA after the near disaster in Detroit? Will Obama cut the spending for education he promised to increase? Will he cut funding for food stamps, unemployment insurance or the Earned Income Tax Credit in a recession? For the near term, the entitlements are untouchables. Is this Democratic Congress, which increased the budgets of all the departments by an average of 10 percent, going to take a knife to federal agencies or federal salaries, when federal bureaucrats and beneficiaries of federal programs are the most reliable voting blocs in their coalition?

What about tax hikes?

Obama has promised to let the Bush tax cuts lapse for those earning $250,000 but has pledged not to raise taxes on the middle class. Any broad-based tax would be politically suicidal for him and his increasingly unpopular party. But if taxes are off the table, Afghan war costs are inexorably rising and cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and entitlement programs are politically impossible, as pressure builds for a second stimulus, how does one reduce a deficit of $1.4 trillion?

How does one stop the exploding national debt from surging above 100 percent of GDP?

America is the oldest and greatest constitutional republic, the model for all the others. But if our elected politicians are incapable of imposing the sacrifices needed to pull the nation back from the brink of a devaluation or default, is democratic capitalism truly, as Francis Fukuyama told us just two decades ago, the future of mankind? What the looming fiscal crisis of this country portends is nothing less than a test of whether this democratic republic is sustainable.

2.4 TRILLION CAN DESTROY AMERICA QUICK IF CHINA DUMPS THE CURRENCY.POOF AMERICA LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS IN 1 HOUR AMERICA CAME TO NAUGHT.

China's foreign reserves rise to $2.4 trillion
JAN 15,10

BEIJING – China's foreign reserves, already the world's biggest, surged 24 percent last year to $2.4 trillion despite the global financial crisis, the central bank reported Friday.China's reserves are closely watched in the United States, which is looking to Beijing to help finance its stimulus spending by continuing to recycle its trade surpluses into buying Treasury securities and other government debt.The reserves grew by $453 billion in 2009, an even faster growth rate than the previous year, the central bank said. The reserves added $10.4 billion in December alone.

China's reserve growth is driven by its currency controls, which requires Beijing to buy dollars and other foreign currency that flows into the country in order to control the state-set exchange rate of China's yuan.China, which overtook Germany last year as the biggest exporter, reported a $196 billion trade surplus for 2009.

Regulators also say foreign hot money is flowing into China for speculative investments in real estate and stocks, which the government is trying to stop.China had $798.9 billion of its reserves invested in U.S. Treasury securities as of October, according to the U.S. government.On the Net:Chinese central bank (in Chinese): http://www.pbc.gov.cn

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).

Korean trade deal could fall under Lisbon rules
ANDREW WILLIS AND TERESA KÜCHLER 14.01.2010 @ 17:42 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Speculation is rife within trade circles that the EU's free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea could be in for a rough time from newly-empowered MEPs who strongly oppose aspects of the deal. Initialed by the European Commission and the South Korean government last October, but still requiring ratification, the deal has been heralded for its potentially huge savings due to tariff reductions, and held up as the crowning jewel in former trade commissioner Catherine Ashton's list of achievements. But the deal could still fall victim to its complicated legal heritage, with negotiations carried out under the EU's old Nice rulebook precluding an active role for the European Parliament, while the Lisbon Treaty - in force since 1 December 2009 - hands MEPs an equal say with member states over the deal's final ratification. The notion that it will be a smooth process is naive, parliament will not just rubber-stamp the deal, said centre-right MEP Christofer Fjellner, a member of the parliament's trade committee and a supporter of the agreement. A number of European sectors are deeply unhappy with the bilateral FTA, which took two years to negotiate, most vocally European small car manufacturers that fear greater levels of South Korean imports will hammer their sales.Amongst other issues, opponents argue the agreement offers too many concessions to Korean companies in the area of duty drawbacks, a mechanism under which Korean companies can claim back EU import duties on car components purchased outside Korea.Unable to participate in the deal's negotiations, and under pressure from local constituencies, MEPs may now choose to block the deal, a fate that would mimic South Korea's free trade agreement with the United States, signed in 2007 but still languishing in both parliaments.

Oral question

In an oral question to the European commission, to be discussed at the parliament's plenary session next week in Strasbourg, a group of MEPs will call on the EU executive to defend the deal. The debate is likely to shed light on the stance of the European legislature, with observers predicting support or opposition is likely to fall along national rather than political lines. This is the first piece of trade legislation the new parliament is handling which makes it interesting, said trade committee member and Italian Liberal MEP, Niccolo Rinaldi, adding that he was very upset with parts of the agreement. Some fear that the parliament's new trade powers mean it will inevitably become the target of increased lobbying, hampering the EU's ability to complete trade agreements. It would be very disturbing if the first thing the European Parliament does with its new powers is to take special interests to heart and increasingly act in a protectionist way, said Mr Fjellner. Strong lobbying of congressmen in the US is blamed as one reason why the American free trade deal with South Korea has hit the buffers.Officials in the council of ministers, the EU institution that represents member states, are also concerned that parliament will take some time to adjust to its new trade role.I think the EU trade policy will stop for some time,said one council official who wished to remain anonymous, citing delays of up to two years.

Greece outlines deficit plan
ANDREW WILLIS Today JAN 15,10 @ 08:19 CET

The Greek cabinet has approved an ambitious plan to bring the country's deficit to within EU limits by 2012. We will attain our goals by any means possible, finance minister George Papaconstantinou told a news conference on Thursday (14 January), with the measures set to be presented to the European Commission on Friday. Under the plan, the newly elected socialist government aims to cut the deficit to 8.7 percent of GDP this year, 5.6 percent next year and below 3 percent by 2012.It is our commitment to leave behind the giant deficits of the past, said Prime Minister George Papandreou.The plan is based on the expectation that Greece will return to growth next year of about 1.5 percent of GDP and 1.9 percent in 2012, with some analysts sceptical the southeastern EU economy can achieve this. The Greek administration has been under great pressure to return its public finances to good health after it announced last autumn that its deficit would exceed 12 percent of GDP, almost four times higher than previously forecast. European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet indicated on Thursday that the bank would not change its lending rules to support Greece. However he also described as absurd speculation that Greece would be forced to leave the euro area.

Statistics

Greece has received strong criticism from the EU commission and the member states over the unreliability of its statistical data, with EU finance ministers set to continue the pressure for improvement when they meet in Brussels next Tuesday. A draft of the meeting's minutes, seen by AFP, suggests ministers will push Athens to improve outstanding methodological issues and technical procedures in its accounting.
They are also set to call on the administration to reform governance and institutional structures identified by the commission.A scathing report published by the EU executive this week called Greece's economic statistics unreliable.

Inuit sue EU over seal ban
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today JAN 15,10 @ 07:53 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Canadian and Greenlandic Inuit groups are suing the European Union over its ban on seal products, and are very confident they will win.Canada's Tapiriit Kanatami, the country's national Inuit organisation, the Inuit Circumpolar council and a number of Inuit individuals filed the lawsuit with the European General Court, until this year known as the Court of First Instance, on Wednesday. In 2009, the EU banned the import of seal products. The legislation was one of the most non-partisan bills to pass through the European Parliament. Believing the issue to be massively popular amongst EU citizens ahead of elections to the chamber in June, some 550 deputies voted in favour of the ban, with just 49 opposed.The groups will aim to prove that the seal hunt is, contrary to the European legislation's justification, humane. The suit will also maintain that the hunt is environmentally sustainable and that seals are not endangered.Calling the EU ban the product of a shrill campaign by animal rights extremists, Mary Simon, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, said: Inuit have been hunting seals and sustaining themselves for food, clothing, and trade for many generations.No objective and fair minded person can conclude that seals are under genuine conservation threat or that Inuit hunting activities are less humane than those practiced by hunting communities all over the world, including hunters in Europe.

The EU ban includes an exemption for aboriginal hunts, but the Inuit argue that this makes little difference as the ban results in a collapse of their biggest market. Canada currently is trying to develop a Chinese market for seal products in the wake of the ban.Ms Simon said the ban was hypocritical, given the industrialisation of European farming in recent decades and the effect that has had on food animal living and slaughterhouse conditions.It is bitterly ironic that the EU, which seems entirely at home with promoting massive levels of agri-business and the raising and slaughtering of animals in highly industrialized conditions, seeks to preach some kind of selective elevated morality to Inuit.The groups are highly confident they will win the suit, suggesting that European legal experts warned against adopting the legislation.Despite advance warning by their own lawyers, its EU lawmakers registered no inhibitions about adopting laws that are legally defective, said Ms Simon.The Canadian government is also currently challenging the EU seal products trade ban at the World Trade Organisation.

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.

Obama's second try at Mideast peace talks Christian Science Monitor: By the Monitor's Editorial Board – Thu Jan 14, 2:37 pm ET

Last year, the Obama administration urged Israel and Arab players in the region to take several interim steps that might create enough confidence to bring Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table. For lack of sufficient step-taking by all sides, it didn’t work.Rather than regroup and suggest another series of steps – because that’s how progress in the Middle East tends to move, incrementally – the administration is now looking to take a giant leap forward. It wants to advance to such final status issues as defining the borders of a Palestinian state and agreeing on the role of Jerusalem, which Israelis and Palestinians both claim as their own.

It’s a hugely ambitious strategy, and commensurately, the risk of failure is great. But it also shows a welcome dedication and a renewed push from the administration, without which this seemingly intractable problem can’t be solved.Bill Clinton also tried to wrap up final-status issues in one big package when he brought the two sides together at Camp David. He failed. George W. Bush, in his Annapolis process, took a more incremental approach. He also failed. Both presidential attempts were followed by renewed violence in the region. Hopes raised; hopes dashed. One wonders how this will be any different, especially with half of the Palestinian government – the militant Islamist group Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip – on the sidelines. How can one negotiate the final shape of a Palestinian state with only a partial representation of the Palestinian people, i.e., Mahmoud Abbas, on behalf of the secular Fatah movement in the West Bank? The president’s special envoy to the Middle East, former Sen. George Mitchell, suggests an answer. In an interview with PBS host Charlie Rose last week, Mr. Mitchell referred back to his successful experience negotiating the Northern Ireland peace accords in the 1990s.

Negotiations lasted 22 months, he said; for the first 16 of them, Sinn Fein – the political wing of the terrorist Irish Republican Army – did not participate. Sinn Fein only joined the talks after it renounced violence and agreed to abide by a set of democratic principles.Like Sinn Fein, Hamas will turn around once it sees how the negotiations are going – specifically, once it sees a state shaping up along the pre-1967 borders (Israel took the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war). This, at least, is the hope of those who support the administration’s leap-forward strategy.

Mitchell pointed out another reason why the strategy could work: timing. Presidents Clinton and Bush gave a big push toward peace very late in their administrations. President Obama began 48 hours after taking office, Mitchell quipped. Indeed, one president who started early – Jimmy Carter – sealed the historic Israeli-Egyptian peace accord in his second year in office. The Obama team suggests that by reaching for an agreement on borders (where there is substantial understanding) and Jerusalem (which is far more contentious), the parties can circumvent the roadblock that’s in the way of talks: Jewish settlements. Borders and Jerusalem would, by necessity, solve that problem. But Mr. Abbas insists he won’t resume negotiations – which is the immediate aim of the administration – until the Israelis completely freeze settlement building. And Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu insists Jerusalem is not negotiable.That would seem to leave the administration’s fast-forward strategy stuck on pause. But Mitchell is calmly optimistic. Northern Ireland taught him that a negotiator takes neither the first no nor the 100th as the final answer.Remember, he says, that the basic demands of both sides are mutually reinforcing. Palestinians want a state. Israel wants security. Neither party can reach its own objective until it meets the other’s.May Israelis and Palestinians be spared hearing no a thousand times until they get to yes.

JERUSALEM DIVIDED

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

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

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

FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU Obama to guarantee strategic territory to Palestinians-Letter to stress need to carve up Israel for new state January 15, 2010
12:45 am Eastern By Aaron Klein 2010 WorldNetDaily

President Obama with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office

TEL AVIV – President Obama is planning to issue a letter in the next few weeks guaranteeing U.S. support for a plan to give much of the West Bank and eastern sections of Jerusalem to Palestinians within two years, WND has learned. The presidential letter is slated to stress U.S. commitments to Israeli security as well. It would state the final borders of a Palestinian country will be determined by direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations but that the U.S. supports a Palestinian state in the general 1967 borders – meaning the West Bank, Gaza Strip and eastern Jerusalem. According to a source in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, the Israeli leader is pushing against a formal letter from Obama, recommending the U.S. president issue an official oral declaration instead. The contents of the letter are being discussed by Israelis with both Egypt and the U.S. and separately by the Palestinian Authority with Egypt and the U.S. Egypt is a key broker in the matter.

WND has learned that on Monday Israeli National Security Adviser Uzi Arad was in Egypt on a secret visit to discuss Israeli-Palestinian talks as well as the content of Obama's future declaration. Arad's visit until now has not been reported by the news media. But earlier this week, WND reported that Middle East security and diplomatic officials said Israel and the Palestinian Authority are negotiating indirectly via the U.S., Jordan and Egypt to outline a future Palestinian state that would encompass Jerusalem. Popular perception has it that talks between Israel and the PA are stalled over a Palestinian demand that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extend a 10-month West Bank settlement freeze to include Jewish communities in eastern Jerusalem. On Wednesday, Netanyahu's office released a statement declaring the prime minister would never cede control of united Jerusalem nor retreat to the 1967 borders, referring to an evacuation of the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem. The statement came after Egypt's foreign minister said in Cairo last week Netanyahu was ready to discuss making Arab Jerusalem the capital of a Palestinian state. According to Middle East security and diplomatic officials, however, Netanyahu's statement may be misleading unless he meant he would not retreat to the exact 1967 lines. Those officials, from Egypt, Jordan, the PA and Israel, told WND in separate interviews over the course of the last few weeks that Israel is in advanced stages of outlining a future Palestinian state that would encompass most of the West Bank. Also, Jerusalem is being discussed between Israel and members of the Obama administration, the officials said. To point out the advanced levels of the current talks, a PA official told WND that a visit next week by President Obama's national security adviser, Jim Jones, will center around security arrangements for a future Palestinian state in the West Bank. The arrangements may include a contingent of Jordanian troops in the strategic territory as well as private Palestinian firms and international soldiers participating in patrolling the Palestinian side of a future border, the official said.

Regarding international forces, one Jordanian security source said there are very serious talks about bringing international forces to the borders between the West Bank and Israel, especially the Jordan Valley, where the Israelis would have security guarantees from an international force working in collaboration with the Palestinians.Officially, White House spokesman Mike Hammer said that in his consultations, Jones will discuss the full range of regional challenges and opportunities at this critical time in the Middle East.According to the Middle East security officials, Netanyahu agreed in principal to establish a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders – the Gaza Strip, West Bank and eastern Jerusalem. However, Israel would retain what are known as major settlement blocks, including Ariel, Gush Etzion and Maale Adumim. The officials said the formula, established under Netanyahu's predecessor, Ehud Olmert, would call for a 100 percent territorial exchange, meaning that any West Bank Jewish communities retained by Israel would be compensated to the PA using other land, such as territory in the Israeli Negev alongside the Gaza Strip.

Status of Jerusalem up for talks

With regard to Jerusalem, talks between the U.S. and Israel are in their infancy.

The officials from the Obama administration most publicly identified with brokering Israeli-Palestinian talks include Jones and Obama's envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, George Mitchell. However, WND has learned Dennis Ross, an Obama foreign policy adviser who served as Mideast envoy to the Clinton administration, is actively engaged in brokering a deal regarding Jerusalem. Israeli diplomatic sources said Ross wants to use the formula established under the Clinton administration that would see Jewish sections of Jerusalem becoming Israeli while areas largely inhabited by Arabs would become Palestinian. About 100,000 Arabs live illegally on Jewish-owned land in Jerusalem. The fact that the talks are ongoing through mediators leaves Netanyahu and PA President Mahmoud Abbas open to declaring that there are no direct negotiations. Israeli leaders in the recent past claimed talks were not occurring or did not include certain territories only later to admit the territory in question had been ceded in secret negotiations. After months of denials the status of Jerusalem was on the table during negotiations, Olmert's office finally confirmed in August 2008 that Jerusalem had been included in talks. Also, weeks before he departed office, Olmert gave an interview to Israel's leading daily, Yediot Aharonot, admitting that during negotiations he offered Abbas 94 percent of the West Bank and peripheral areas of eastern Jerusalem. Olmert's office repeatedly had denied such talks. Similarly, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ran for office in 2000 on the very election platform that he would not withdraw from the Gaza Strip. Sharon was running against Amram Mitzneh, a leader of Israel's leftist Labor party who had pledged to evacuate Gaza. In 2004, Sharon did an about face and announced his Gaza disengagement policy. One year later, Sharon pulled all Jewish communities out of the Gaza Strip.

SIGNS IN THE SUN, MOON AND STARS

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.

Thousands view solar eclipse in Africa and Asia By RAFIQ MAQBOOL, Associated Press Writer – JAN 15,10

DHANUSHKODI, India – Thousands of people in Africa and Asia viewed an eclipse Friday as the moon crossed the sun's path blocking everything but a narrow, blazing rim of light.The path of the eclipse began in Africa — passing through Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya and Somalia before crossing the Indian Ocean, where it reached its peak, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Web site.The path then continued into Asia where the eclipse could be seen in Maldives, southern India, parts of Sri Lanka, Myanmar and China.Clouds obscured the partial solar eclipse in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, disappointing residents who were up early to catch a glimpse.I woke up very early because I wanted to see the eclipse, but I have only been able to catch just a few seconds of it because the clouds kept blocking the view. If I weren't more observant, I would've missed it, said Monica Kamau.The eclipse is known as an annular eclipse because the moon doesn't block the sun completely.Annular eclipses, which are considered far less important to astronomers than total eclipses of the sun, occur about 66 times a century and can only be viewed by people in the narrow band along its path.

In Uganda, locals refer to an eclipse as a war between the sun and moon.It is rare to see such an eclipse. I am excited to be seeing this one. It shows how powerful God is, said Damalie Nakaja, a shopkeeper in Kampala.Friday's eclipse was visible from a 190-mile (300-kilometer) -wide path that passes through half the globe, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Web site.Hundreds gathered to view the phenomenon in southern India's Dhanushkodi, a tiny town at the tip of a rocky strip of land jutting out into the ocean, where the eclipse could be seen for about 10 minutes.

In the southern Indian city of Bangalore, hundreds went to a planetarium to see it.
This is my first time viewing an eclipse through a pinhole camera at a planetarium and I'm very excited, said 12-year-old Aniruddh Kaushik.But others in India were gripped by fear and refused to come outdoors. Hindu mythology states an eclipse is caused when a dragon-demon swallows the sun, while another myth says the sun's rays during an eclipse can harm unborn children.In northern India's Haridwar town, hosting the Kumbh Mela — touted as the world's largest religious gathering — thousands of devout Hindus were expected to mark the eclipse by taking a dip in the frigid waters of the sacred Ganges river.The eclipse could also be viewed in Indian capital New Delhi and Mumbai, the financial hub.In Male, capital of Maldives, hundreds of people watched the eclipse with special glasses in an open field as it reached its peak.The last total eclipse of the sun was on July 22, 2009, when it was visible in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, China and some Japanese islands. Associated Press writers Sinan Hussain in Male, Maldives; Aijaz Rahi in Bangalore, India; Godfrey Olukya in Kampala, Uganda and Ronald Bera in Nairobi, Kenya contributed to this report. On the Net: NASA: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/ASE2010/ASE2010.html