DID GOLDMANS COOK UP GREEK LIE

THE SAUDI CONNECTION TO DESTROY AMERICA BY ISLAM

MUST LISTEN - 3 HRS LAURIE ROTH,DOUG HAGMANN AND WALID SHOEBAT DISCUSS THE MUSLIM TAKEOVER OF AMERICA THROUGH MEDIA AND BUYUPS AND JIHAD ALSO.
http://therothshow.com/show-archives/february-2010/
LISTEN TO FRI FEB 12,2010

911 NEW PHOTOS.
http://homelandsecurityus.com/?p=3501
IT WOULD NOT SURPRISE ME IF THIS ARAB WAS INVOLVED IN THE 911 ATTACKS SINCE SO MANY CAME FROM SAUDI ARABIA.

Who is influencing and controlling FOX?

Most folks have believed that Fox TV and their many conservative shows is the last bastion of conservative safety left on TV. You have your Sean Hannity, Bill’ Reilly, Greta Van Susteren asking the hard legal questions and more. But with all the conservative, multi millionaire and popular conservative voices, did you also know that the second largest owner of Fox, parent corporation Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is Prince Ahwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia. Prince Ahwaleed has been buying his anti Semitic and Muslim way right into American life. Let us review just how generous he is a moment. He purchased a 5.6% stake in News Corp. in 2005, second from the top now. He manipulated Islamic study departments into place by giving $20 million each to Georgetown and Harvard Universities.

Ahwaleed is a man who gave $500,000 to CAIR, Council on American Islamic Relations, and then there is the mother load of $27 million in 2002 to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. Naturally, he called them martyrs.The prince is also rather close to James, Murdoch’s son who is known for his anti-Israel views and left wing radical environmental and global warming nonsense. He is not a man of mystery in anyway. Before he jumped in bed with Murdoch and his son James, he revealed his true heart on Arab News. Just some of the things he said were: Arabs should focus more on penetrating U.S. public opinion as a means to influencing decision making rather than boycotting U.S. products…….Arab news stated Arab countries can influence U.S. decision making if they unite through economic interest, not political…..We have to be logical and understand that the U.S. administration is subject to U.S. public opinion.

What ever happened to the tough guys on Fox taking on Islamic radicals?

Back in 2001, you may recall Bill O’Reilly interviewing al-Arian. He was so in his face back then that al-Arian practically implicated himself, many giving O’Reilly the credit for getting him arrested for ties to Islamic terrorists. Bravo to O’Reilly back then. What ever happened to the tough guy who dug for the truth? How come he has seemed to be in bed with Obama from the very beginning instead of exposing the sea of Islamic kiss up, public betrayal and neo-Marxism? It is as if someone has neutered him.Diana West, writer for the www.washintonexaminer.com reminded us all that Prince Ahwaleed was the guy who, right after 9/11 offered then New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani $10 million with the notice that the attacks were in response to U.S. foreign policy. Basically, we were to believe that we brought on the attacks but we Ahwaleed was offering us money to soften the blow. How could we forget our proud moment as Americans when Rudy through it back in his face. Back then, Fox hosts were hard on Ahwaleed as well. Hannity & Colmes commented that this was a bad guy and so did other hosts. Now Ahwaleed, Mr. try to buy us off back in 2001, is now the second largest owner of the company that owns FOX. Isn’t that precious?

No one can truly say just how this Muslim control influences Fox, yet Alwaleed bragged if you recall, saying he had called Fox to make sure their coverage of the Muslim riots in France weren’t described as ‘Muslim’ riots in France. I remember that! Fox never has denied this by the way. By the way, THEY DID TALK ABOUT THOSE RIOTS IN MUTED WAYS BUT YES, THE RIOTS WERE NOTHING BUT MUSLIM RIOTS! I am all for capitalism and fair commerce, but does it really protect our freedom of speech and the truth in media, especially in a time of war with Muslim radicals, when our most conservative network FOX is largely controlled by a rich Muslim who wants control? Are they completely on drugs or is it us who is on drugs for slowly allowing ourselves to boil in water while the temperature keeps getting higher.Question everything and don’t assume news is honest and real anymore unless you have checked it out.

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).

Saturday, 13 February 2010
John Loeffler Steel on Steel.: Changes in the Wind/ with Ambrose Evans-Pritchard : the EURO CRISIS- America's Financial Reckoning Day,
http://britanniaradio.blogspot.com/2010/02/john-loeffler-steel-on-steel.html#links

The European Union Friday February 12, 2010 16:01 by European Anarkismo Conference - Anarkismo

Motion passed at the recent European Anarkismo Conference

We must remove the economical, political and civil obstacles that are limiting our freedom and equality in our daily lives, and call into question their concept of participation in the organization of society. For us, direct participation is only possible on the basis of mutual aid and solidarity.

The European Union

The Treaty of Lisbon came into effect one year ago, with the global economic crisis at its height. This Treaty gives the European Commission absolute power to issue directives guaranteeing competitive European businesses access to the world's markets and operational security within them. Furthermore, the Court of Justice guarantees only one freedom, the freedom of the market and the defence of free competition as a condition to casualize the workforce, society and the environment of the 27 Member States. The new Treaty brings the prospect of the deregulation of the entire production system and servies in the fullest sense, enabling practical application of the Bolkestein Directive which open the door to the complete privatization of healthcare, edication, water and pensions.This strategy takes no account of the devastation caused by the current global economic crisis, and sweeps away public services (healthcare, transport, education, water, housing) both on a symbolic level and on a real level. It introduces the market as an instrument for concession (services of general interest) and for satisfaction (someone who saves can gain access to private healthcare, integrated pensions, etc.). This is the Europe that, from 1st January 2009, forbids tax policies for redistributing wealth, public spending, social safeguards and benefits, while allowing tax havens to be created.

Naturally, the first victims of these policies of dismantlement are women, who so often find that they have to struggle alone in their daily task of providing care (to children, parents, family members). This is particularly felt in certain countries where, without any social assistance women are even having to give up jobs for this.In this situation, the labour market and related policies can only be governed by the golden rules of neo-liberal capitalism: free deregulation (flexibility) and total, widespread casualization of the workforce (with the removal of social and labour rights).In a Europe that is growing together with the global crisis, this means only two things: the use of social dumping and the rejection of the right to strike for those who ask for equal working conditions in de-located and re-located companies, all in the name of social competition and the market economy.
Ever since the 2007 agreement on flexicurity, flexibility for companies to manage the workforce already means in effect total freedom of labour organization, which at the same time supposedly has the apparent aim of guaranteeing security for workers, with all the necessary adaptability that is asked of them from constantly changing jobs and during periods of continual training.Thus, in a jobs market devastated by the crisis, we see a relaunching of the watchword competitivity, which in turn brings about not only social dumping and therefore the privatization of services that are essential to the population, but also an effort to reduce labour costs through instruments linked to policies that increase flexibility, workforce mobility and the capacity to adapt.Germany, France and Italy - countries once held to be strong in the field of social security and tough in the field of labour rights - have reshaped the internal labour market, reaching the level of Spain, Ireland and the United Kingdom in areas such as unemployment benefit, fewer protections against dismissal, increasing retirement age, flexible contracts, weakening social safety nets, etc.

EU immigration policies are also affected to the logic of the market and to double standards: on the one hand there is a need for labour from non-EU citizens due to the aging of the European working class (this manpower is necessary and sufficient to ensure the type of casual work required by competition); and secondly, there are policies that deny the right of citizenship, that feed racism accusing migrants of clandestinity, that use repression and control in order to give support to unequal, aggressive and exploitational relations between the North and South, especially in the Europe-influenced Mediterranean area.For European and immigrant workers, flexibility thus in effect means availability to work on the basis of the needs of production. For companies in a time of crisis, when millions of jobs are being cut, nothing could be better than this. The labour market thus becomes a mere mechanism, which nonetheless acts and moves, is governed by rules (laws, executive orders, ad hoc legal decisions, directives, etc.) and by institutions, in order to avoid dealing with any form of social conflict.And by following this fragmentary social and economic model, the social and labour struggles have been broken up into a thousand pieces, thus losing all their effectiveness. We need to see a recomposition of the rights and immediate interests of workers and citizens in a new unitary and industrial conception and organization of all paid work.We must oppose the logic of the segmentation and flexibility of global capitalism's social and productive models and resolutely fight for the rights of all men and women, for labour rights, social rights and civil rights.We must remove the economical, political and civil obstacles that are limiting our freedom and equality in our daily lives, and call into question their concept of participation in the organization of society. For us, direct participation is only possible on the basis of mutual aid and solidarity.We must oppose their concepts of competition and competitivity with the polar opposites: our concepts and our practice of solidarity.

All coherently alternative labour, social and political forces need to support the rights and interests of the workers, in a society organized on the basis of solidarity and not competition, on the basis of respect, freedom and equality and not on the basis of authoritarianism, of individualism and of the absence of democracy. There is really only one answer, the only possible response on the basis of these values and these choices:

SOCIAL MOBILIZATION:
•for a Europe of European and migrant peoples and workers
•to defend our interests in employment matters, income, social gains and solidarity
•to build popular power and democracy from below
•to defend and create collective grassroots, self-managed spaces within the community and in the workplace in order to give firm roots to the anti-capitalist struggle
•to build the libertarian alternative to the barbarism of the crisis caused by capitalism and by States.

FSA accuses private equity industry of arrogance as buy-out heads rail against AIFM regulations12 Feb 2010. Source: AltAssets

The UK's Financial Services Authority has accused the private equity industry of arrogance after prominent buy-out figures criticised the proposed Alternative Investment Fund Management (AIFM) directive regulations, according to reports.
Speaking at the Super Return conference in Berlin, Better Capital CEO Jon Moulton (pictured) asked why the asset class was being regulated by the EU when it already faced clinically insane levels of regulation in the UK, according to the Financial Times.FSA asset management sector leader Dan Waters was quoted in the newspaper as saying,It is the arrogance of that statement that no regulation is needed that has got the industry in trouble in the first place. We are where we are, we must deal with it.The cause of the conflict is the EU’s proposed AIFM (AIFM) directive, which would require fund managers to obtain regulator clearance for funds, increase the level of transparency in their activities and hold at least €125,000 in capital. Four sessions were reportedly devoted to regulatory issues at the conference, underlining the level of concern held by the industry about new forms of enforcement.

Commenting on the spat, Eversheds' Mark Spinner said,In my view it is the morbid fascination the market has with the earnings of the private equity executives that is at the root of the problem and not the perceived lack of regulation. I do not think any serious participant in the private equity industry does not accept that a degree of regulation is both needed and a good thing.However the draconian measures proposed by the draft AIFM directive have not been properly thought through,added Spinner, a partner and head of private equity at the law firm.The directive is reportedly going to be voted on in July this year and could come into effect by 2012.2010 AltAssets.

Turkish foreign policy and the EU in 2010 (II)Thursday, February 11, 2010
AHMET DAVUTOĞLU

Today’s multifold challenges such as the financial crisis, energy security, illegal migration, epidemic diseases, climate change, organized crime, cross-cultural and religious intolerance, extremism and terrorism can only be addressed through genuine and effective solidarity in the Eurasian space.If we are to eradicate all forms of intolerance and discrimination based on religion or creed, to promote a democratic and equitable international order, to obtain robust economic growth and to achieve sustainable development, then Turkey’s membership in the European Union will only help render the latter a leading global player in the 21st century.Yet, fifty years since the beginning of the contractual relationship between Turkey and the EU, the debate on Turkey’s European vocation has not waned. These views, also nourished by the politics of identity, disregard Turkey’s well-established place in European history. The last 200 years of Turkish history are marked by various struggles, both internally and externally. The most important was fought for political, economic and social modernization, and it transcended generations. Both the transformers in the Ottoman Empire and the founding fathers of modern Turkey were influenced by the cornerstones of European history like the Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment and the French Revolution. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s reforms toward solidifying the modernization of Turkey are the ramifications of this revolutionary mindset. The next stop in this journey of transformation and modernization is Turkey’s membership in the EU.

With significant challenges and opportunities before us, we must now put the tiresome debates on Turkey’s European vocation to rest and focus on the added value inherent in this accession: Turkey, seeking membership in the EU, generates peace at home, peace in the world. It is the only country that is simultaneously a member of G-20, NATO and the OIC. We are also a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. It is the world’s 17th, and Europe’s sixth largest economy. It is a bulwark for democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms; that is, European ideals and values.In this new era ushered in by the Lisbon Treaty, the EU is preparing to emerge stronger on the world stage through a new institutional structure. At this juncture in time, I also see a new opportunity to bring in a fresh wind of optimism into Turkish-EU relations. It is a time for new ideas, new ways of thinking. We must seize this opportunity to move our relations into an ever closer union.The EU is the successful outcome of a dynamic integration process. Through the EU, Europe has been able to leave behind past conflicts. Thanks to the culture of dialogue and compromise, it has become a beacon of liberty, stability and peace. The Lisbon Treaty will further solidify the political unity of the EU. An internally stronger EU is tantamount to a more effective and visible EU on the global stage. The smooth implementation of the Lisbon Treaty and mobilizing popular support for enlargement in general – and Turkey’s membership in particular – appear to be two strategic tasks that lie ahead in this respect. We hope that with the entry into force of the treaty, the argument that was put forward by some countries that enlargement could not proceed without institutional reform will finally be buried. At this new juncture where the EU is in search of a new soul, it is exceptionally important that a positive style and substance prevail in Turkey-EU relations.

The process of accession negotiations is lengthy and difficult. We were aware of this fact before we set out on this journey. Yet, we face several political obstacles in stark contradiction to the commonly agreed framework for the negotiations. This serves only to undermine the credibility of the EU. As membership will not happen overnight, the ultimate decision on this issue should not be prejudged from today. By that day, Turkey will have attained the same standards and norms as that of the EU, and this will definitely be to the interest of all sides concerned.Turkey’s accession process follows an irreversible course. The negotiations continue to advance at the technical level. No single week goes by without an expert meeting taking place in Brussels, Ankara or elsewhere. Our legislation in every field – from environment to food safety to education – is being revised. The massive work carried out by the Turkish and EU officials has brought about a silent revolution. There is a consistent quality to this side of the picture vis-à-vis the political rhetoric on the other side.Let me repeat that membership in the EU is the strategic objective of our foreign policy. We will undertake whatever is necessary. My government is determined to advance its comprehensive reform agenda with this aim in mind. The components of our homework are clearly and extensively stated in regular reports of the European Commission. We take good note of these to-do lists and undertake to accomplish whatever is necessary. On the other hand, we also believe that the EU should do more to preserve the credibility and consistency of political Europe. Our list would be shorter, comprised of only three items:

1- The EU should abide by the principle of pacta sund servanda;*

2- The EU should not allow bilateral issues to hold back the accession negotiations; and

3- It should not let Turkey’s accession process be manipulated for domestic politics.

I am of the opinion that there are basically two paths the EU can take. Either it will be a global power with a dynamic economy or remain a continental power with a more inward-looking perception. The starting point should be to focus on a functioning and productive relationship between Turkey and the EU. At present, Europe is going through a transformation in many ways. With the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, Europe will undertake new responsibilities on a global scale. European leaders now have a chance to demonstrate their resolve in preparing the EU for the challenges of the 21st century, both internally and, even more decisively, on the global stage.We are fully committed to the EU process and determined to advance our reform agenda. Indeed, in the last seven years my government launched and implemented an ambitious reform campaign. Our reforms aim not only to comply with the Copenhagen political criteria but also to respond to the aspirations and expectations of the Turkish people for the highest standards of democracy and rule of law. Turkey will pass this test successfully, no matter how demanding it will be. We see this process as a formidable challenge, which presents Turkey an opportunity to reinvigorate its strong potential. I firmly believe that this will be a road of remarkable achievement.

* Latin for agreements must be kept.

- Mr. Ahmet Davutoğlu is Turkey’s foreign minister. This piece was originally published in Turkish Policy Quarterly.

EU E-COMMERCE RULES
http://www.inbrief.co.uk/electronic-commerce-regulations.htm

With rescue of Greece, Europe veers down a new path FEB 13,10

Say goodbye to the European Union as half-a-billion Europeans know it.

By pledging to come to Greece’s rescue, the EU did something it has never done in its 53-year history, and certainly never in the 11 years of the euro’s existence: extend a financial lifeline to a sovereign member of its club. Greece’s out-of-control spending triggered a debt crisis that, left unchecked, would almost certainly bankrupt the country and generate a financial maelstrom in other ailing EU economies, threatening the viability of the euro itself.The message from the EU leaders who drafted the rescue plan was direct: No country that uses the euro will be allowed to go bust because the monetary union is sacrosanct. The 16 EU countries that use the euro have a shared responsibility, EU president Herman Van Rompuy said Thursday in Brussels.The promise to save Greece from defaulting on its debt sends the EU off in a new direction. Since the European Economic Community, the EU’s ancestor, was created by the Treaty of Rome in 1957, each member country has been accountable for its own financial health. The launch of the euro did not change this principle, at least not until Greece’s largely self-imposed financial wounds turned critical in recent months. From now on, it appears, the strongest countries, notably Germany and France, will guarantee the financial stability of the weakest.

In time this can only lead to the erosion of economic and political sovereignty among the countries that use the euro.In a recent note, Russell Jones, a strategist with Royal Bank of Canada’s investment arm in London, said: The historical fact is that no monetary union has survived without political and fiscal union.The announcement of the rescue plan, rumoured for weeks, came a day after a civil servants’ strike shut down schools, airports and other public services across Greece in protest of the socialist government’s austerity plans. No details of the plan were released on Thursday; they may not come until euro zone finance ministers meet in Brussels on Monday. There is an accord,Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, told reporters in Brussels.Greece won’t be left alone, but there are rules, and these rules must be adhered to.Greece’s rescue may not be needed; the EU leaders stressed that Greece had not asked for it. And the support provided so far is largely statements by officials, rather than concrete moves.But if a rescue has to be launched, it would probably take the form of loans or loan guarantees from individual euro zone countries, based on their relative economic size. The International Monetary Fund would offer technical expertise, but no direct financial support. Investors and strategists welcomed the news of the rescue plan. Once is it is clear that the European Monetary Union will not abandon any member, we believe the crisis will fade,said UBS strategist Katherine Klingensmith.

But the markets were underwhelmed by the lack of detail, and possibly by lack of conviction that Greece’s government, led by Prime Minister George Papandreou, will hold up its end of the bargain. It has promised to rein in spending by freezing public servants’ wages, reforming pensions, raising fuel taxes and other measures. Last year, Greece’s budget deficit was 12.7 per cent of GDP, the widest in the EU and more than four times greater than the EU’s 3-per-cent limit. Stocks and bonds made tepid gains Thursday, but the euro sank almost 1 per cent against the dollar shortly after the EU leaders announced their commitment to support Greece.The question is whether the Greek government has the political will to keep a tight austerity plan in place for several years. Wednesday’s strike may be the first of many. Another general strike is planned for Feb. 24. In a note published last week, UBS economists said: We think that there is a risk, in the near future, to have social unrest which eventually could push the Greek government to cancel or simply water down the austerity plan.But others think that Greek workers – the country of 11 million has some 700,000 civil servants at the national level – know their country faces ruin unless sacrifices are made. We have an opportunity to change, said Constantine Katsigiannis, the Athens business lawyer who is president of the Hellenic-Canadian Chamber of Commerce.We have our back against the wall, big time. There is nowhere to go.He fears, however, that any EU-directed rescue on its own will not cure Greece’s main problem – lack of competitiveness. For Greece to thrive, it needs structural reform, such as shrinking the bloated bureaucracy and streamlining regulations. Any cuts that take place aren’t serious unless they are combined with serious economic reform measures,he said.

11 February 2010 6:37 PM Hail to the Chief: Belgian, pointless and in charge

Well, that was the most unenlightening appearance since Punxsutawney Phil came out of his lodge to check his shadow.This afternoon Herman Van Rompuy emerged from the secret meeting of the European Council, the 27 European Union prime ministers and presidents, to announce their decision on what to do about the Greek crisis. It was: We support the efforts of the Greek government and their commitment to do whatever is necessary.And, err, that more or less was it.

The bond markets are treating Greece as if it has typhoid, the EU-invented eurozone may unzip and leave the economies of Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Ireland in economic chaos, and all the EU 27 can do under the leadership of Van Rompuy is agree that they will give undefined support to Greece -- and may even adopt additional measures.At the press conference after the meeting, one of the first questions out of the pack was from a journalist who noted the markets had reacted weakly to the statement, and what did Van Rompuy say to that? (By the way, weakly,is about the best anyone could expect from such an absolute refusal by the European Council to say whether the EU, or some group of EU countries -- for which, read Germany and one or two others -- would support Greece by buying its bonds or lending it money.)
Van Rompuy snapped back that I haven't been following the markets because I have been working this afternoon.Tripe. Either he still doesn't know how a President of the European Council is supposed to keep informed, or he just resented anyone calling attention to the fact that his text, as he kept calling it, failed to impress the markets. Or both. He made the statement hours before the press conference. He had time for a briefing from one of his highly-paid eurocrat staff between the time the meeting ended and his meeting with the press. Either he knew his statement tanked in the markets, or he was too dull-witted to find out that it had.

Any actual dig-out is now going to be agreed next week by the Finance Ministers of the 16-member eurozone; or by the Finance Ministers of the 27 members of the EU. Or, again, by both. Because whatever is agreed, it seems certain that it will a) break EU treaty law forbidding bail-outs (so, like the death warrant of Charles I, the men taking an ax to the law will want to have as many signatures as possible on the document) and b) involve British money, despite Britain not being the the eurozone.
In between being weak in the bond markets, Van Rompuy was showing a bit too much taste for muscle when it comes to increasing his own influence. He announced that, starting later this year, he wants the Council to meet every month instead of just a few times a year. It seems Van Rompuy imagines he can turn the Bundeskanzlerin, Le President de la France, Her Majesty's First Lord of the Treasury, Il Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri della Repubblica Italiana, and all the rest of them into his personal Scout pack. Let's see if they put up with it, or start dropping out after the first couple of pointless monthly Van Rompuy meetings on the grounds that they have better things to do.For, how long could anyone take being closed up in a room listening to some unelected Belgian politician of whom no one had ever heard before last December? There Van Rompuy was this afternoon, sitting alongside José Manuel Barroso, the not-too-bright unelected President of the European Commission. The only one missing from the line-up was the doubly-unelected nobody British Baroness Ashton, who is now High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.This is absurd. These three jumped-up jokers claim to speak with a voice superior to the voices of the most ancient nations of Europe. I mentioned to an admirable economist I know that what we have running the EU now are Groucho, Harpo and Chico.Wrong, he said. What we have running the EU now are Tony Hancock, Hattie Jacques and Sid James.I stand corrected.

February 11, 2010
Did Goldman's help cook up the big fat Greek lie?

I was just folding up my laptop to move over to the Council building for the informal economic summit, -- how do I know now's the time to make the move? I can hear the security helicopters overhead and the police sirens in the street. These leaders do think they are important -- when this item from the Eurointelligence news summary caught my eye. A report in the German newspaper Der Spiegel says that Goldman Sachs helped Greece to present fraudulent accounts.The story so far on the Greek accounts: when the new government took over in Athens four months ago, they found that the outgoing government's claim that the deficit was just five percent was a fiction. The real deficit, Prime Minister Papandreou, seen here, assured us, was actually a shocking near-13 percent. It now seems that was not the full shock. A report out yesterday indicates the deficit last year actually reached 16 percent of national output.

As the old Russian proverb has it: The Greeks tell the truth, but only once a year.
It's these dodgy accounts which have helped set the bond markets against Greece and triggered the present doubts about the survival of the euro.According to Eurointelligence's translation of Der Spiegel's story: Greece's debt managers agreed a huge deal with the savvy bankers of US investment bank Goldman Sachs at the start of 2002. The deal involved so-called cross-currency swaps in which government debt issued in dollars and yen was swapped for euro debt for a certain period -- to be exchanged back into the original currencies at a later date.Such transactions are part of normal government refinancing. Europe's government's obtain funds from investors around the world by issuing bonds in yen, dollar or Swiss francs. But they need euros to pay their daily bills.Years later the bonds are repaid in the original foreign denominations.But in the Greek case the US bankers devised a special kind of swap with fictional exchange rates. That enabled Greece to receive a far higher sum than the actual euro market value of 10 billion dollars or yen. In that way Goldman Sachs secretly arranged additional credit of up to $1 billion [£642m] for the Greeks.

This credit disguised as a swap didn't show up in the Greek debt statistics. The reporting rules at Eurostat -- the European Commission agency for statistics -- don't comprehensively record transactioins involving financial derivatives:The Maastricht rules can be circumvented quite legally through swaps,says a German derivatives dealer.Now, on to the summit, waiting for leadership from Herman Van Rompuy. Oh, dear God, that it should come to this...

Europe's Five Undeclared Nuclear Weapons States Are Turkey, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and Italy Nuclear Powers? by Michel Chossudovsky Global Research, February 12, 2010

According to a recent report, former NATO Secretary-General George Robertson confirmed that Turkey possesses 40-90 Made in America nuclear weapons at the Incirlik military base.(en.trend.az/)

Does this mean that Turkey is a nuclear power?

Far from making Europe safer, and far from producing a less nuclear dependent Europe, [the policy] may well end up bringing more nuclear weapons into the European continent, and frustrating some of the attempts that are being made to get multilateral nuclear disarmament,(Former NATO Secretary-General George Robertson quoted in Global Security, February 10, 2010)Is Italy capable of delivering a thermonuclear strike?...Could the Belgians and the Dutch drop hydrogen bombs on enemy targets?...Germany's air force couldn't possibly be training to deliver bombs 13 times more powerful than the one that destroyed Hiroshima, could it?...Nuclear bombs are stored on air-force bases in Italy, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands — and planes from each of those countries are capable of delivering them.(What to Do About Europe's Secret Nukes.Time Magazine, December 2, 2009)

The Official Nuclear Weapons States

Five countries, the US, UK, France, China and Russia are considered to be nuclear weapons states (NWS),an internationally recognized status conferred by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Three other Non NPT countries (i.e. non-signatory states of the NPT) including India, Pakistan and North Korea, have recognized possessing nuclear weapons.

Israel: Undeclared Nuclear State

Israel is identified as an undeclared nuclear state. It produces and deploys nuclear warheads directed against military and civilian targets in the Middle East including Tehran.

Iran

There has been much hype, supported by scanty evidence, that Iran might at some future date become a nuclear weapons state. And, therefore, a pre-emptive defensive nuclear attack on Iran to annihilate its non-existent nuclear weapons program should be seriously contemplated to make the World a safer place. The mainstream media abounds with makeshift opinion on the Iran nuclear threat.

But what about the five European undeclared nuclear states including Belgium, Germany, Turkey, the Netherlands and Italy. Do they constitute a threat? Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy and Turkey: Undeclared Nuclear Weapons States While Iran's nuclear weapons capabilities are unconfirmed, the nuclear weapons capabilities of these five countries including delivery procedures are formally acknowledged.The US has supplied some 480 B61 thermonuclear bombs to five non-nuclear NATO countries including Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey. Casually disregarded by the Vienna based UN Nuclear Watchdog (IAEA), the US has actively contributed to the proliferation of nuclear weapons in Western Europe.

As part of this European stockpiling, Turkey, which is a partner of the US-led coalition against Iran along with Israel, possesses some 90 thermonuclear B61 bunker buster bombs at the Incirlik nuclear air base. (National Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Weapons in Europe , February 2005) By the recognised definition, these five countries are undeclared nuclear weapons states.The stockpiling and deployment of tactical B61 in these five non-nuclear states are intended for targets in the Middle East. Moreover, in accordance with NATO strike plans, these thermonuclear B61 bunker buster bombs (stockpiled by the non-nuclear States) could be launched against targets in Russia or countries in the Middle East such as Syria and Iran( quoted in National Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Weapons in Europe , February 2005)Does this mean that Iran or Russia, which are potential targets of a nuclear attack originating from one or other of these five so-called non-nuclear states should contemplate defensive preemptive nuclear attacks against Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Turkey? The answer is no, by any stretch of the imagination.
While these undeclared nuclear states casually accuse Tehran of developing nuclear weapons, without documentary evidence, they themselves have capabilities of delivering nuclear warheads, which are targeted at Iran. To say that this is a clear case of double standards by the IAEA and the international community is a understatement.

The stockpiled weapons are B61 thermonuclear bombs. All the weapons are gravity bombs of the B61-3, -4, and -10 types.2 .Those estimates were based on private and public statements by a number of government sources and assumptions about the weapon storage capacity at each base.(National Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Weapons in Europe , February 2005)

Germany: Nuclear Weapons Producer

Among the five undeclared nuclear states, Germany remains the most heavily nuclearized country with three nuclear bases (two of which are fully operational) and may store as many as 150 [B61 bunker buster ] bombs (Ibid). In accordance with NATO strike plans (mentioned above) these tactical nuclear weapons are also targeted at the Middle East.While Germany is not categorized officially as a nuclear power, it produces nuclear warheads for the French Navy. It stockpiles nuclear warheads (made in America) and it has the capabilities of delivering nuclear weapons. Moreover, The European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company - EADS , a Franco-German-Spanish joint venture, controlled by Deutsche Aerospace and the powerful Daimler Group is Europe's second largest military producer, supplying .France's M51 nuclear missile.

Last update - 13:45 12/02/2010 Hamas: Next war with Israel will be regional conflict By News Agencies and Haaretz Service

Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal warned on Friday that should another war erupt with Israel, the majority of battles would not be contained to the Gaza Strip as they were during the conflict last winter. Meshal told the London-based Al-Hayyat that Hamas was not interested in seeing another war, but would embark on steadfast defense of the Palestinian people should one begin. Speaking during a visit to Russia, Meshal accused Israel of making threats of war in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria.

He said the quickening tide of military threats was the result of Israel's leadership under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberma and Defense Minister Ehud Barak - the latter to whom he referred as the most extremist.The Hamas leader also blamed Israel over the failure in Russian attempts to mediate between the two enemies, with regard to peace negotiations and efforts to see abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit released from Palestinian captivity.Meshal's visit to Russia angered Israeli officials, who sent a letter of protest to Moscow over the matter.

OPINION: EXTRAFEBRUARY 11, 2010, 10:55 A.M. ET.Blame China for Iran's Nukes
Beijing's friendship with Tehran makes war in the region more likely By MICHAEL DANBY

Iran's threat to punch the West will exacerbate the worries of many people who follow events in the Middle East and are increasingly worried the world is sleep-walking towards a new regional war. The causes of this possible war are typically categorized as, first, Iran's determination to build nuclear weapons, and second, the world's apparent inability to stop it.But a third cause often gets overlooked: If there is a war, a large part of the responsibility will rest with Beijing. China has assumed the status of a great power, including a veto at the U.N. Security Council. But instead of becoming a responsible member of the community of leading states, acting jointly with other powers to avert the prospect of wars, China is using its new-found power in ways that make war more likely.China's military and diplomatic power have increased enormously over the past 20 years. But unlike the world's other leading powers, China is a poor country economically and a dictatorship politically. After decades of rapid growth, China's per capita GDP is still only $6,500–less than Ecuador or Angola, and only 14% of per capita GDP in the United States.

China's approach to Iran can be explained by the political situation at home: The Chinese people have come to expect constantly rising standards of living, and this the greatest weakness of the Chinese Communist regime. The Chinese people will tolerate the communists' monopoly of power only so long as their living standards keep rising.The weak link in this system is China's inadequate energy sources. Even with coal, nuclear power and its huge hydro-electricity schemes, China is short of energy, and its dependence on imports is growing. Australia, as a major exporter of coal and natural gas, has been one of the major beneficiaries. But China's greatest need is for oil, and this Australia cannot supply.

Associated Press

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, right, shakes hands with Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi during a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Thursday October 15, 2009.China can buy all the oil it wants on the international market, but the communist leaders don't want China's prosperity—and their own hold on power—to be dependent on a free market they don't trust. They want control and certainty. They see the way to get these things is through deals with selected oil-exporting countries, preferably ones which are at political odds with western powers, so that their need for friends and protectors is greater.This explains China's deep involvement with Sudan–one of the world's nastiest regimes, responsible for the deaths of up to 300,000 people in Darfur. Sudan now supplies nearly 10% of China's oil imports. It's a cozy deal–China gets a secure oil supply and Sudan gets arms and diplomatic protection. The Sudanese regime knows it will never face U.N. sanctions, because China uses its Security Council veto to protect it.An even bigger supplier of oil to China is Iran. China now gets 15% of its oil from Iran, and is Iran's second-biggest customer after Japan. As with Sudan, China pays for its oil by protecting Iran against U.N. sanctions over its nuclear program. Even with Russia threatening to support sanctions against Iran, China's foreign minister has made clear that Beijing opposes sanctions.This is a very dangerous game. President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad is determined to build nuclear weapons and has threatened Israel with destruction many times. He may be bluffing, but this is not a risk Israel can afford to take. If the international community cannot restrain Iran, the government of Israel will face great pressure to take pre-emptive steps to protect the country against attack.Thus, China's greed for secure oil imports and its willingness to deal with outlaw regimes to get these imports is causing a breakdown in the world's only system for disciplining countries that endanger peace. If the U.N. sanctions break down in Iran, this opens up a serious danger of war—and China will bear a heavy share of the blame.Mr. Danby is a member of the Australian Parliament and chair of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee.

SocGen’s Edwards Sees Euro Breakup as Feldstein Predicts ChangeBusiness Exchange By Alexis Xydias

Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- The Greek budget crisis is a symptom of imbalances that will lead to the breakup of the euro region, according to Societe Generale SA strategistAlbert Edwards, and Harvard University Professor Martin Feldstein said monetary union isn’t working in its current form.Southern European countries are trapped in an overvalued currency and suffocated by low competitiveness, top-ranked Edwards wrote in a report today. Feldstein, speaking on Bloomberg Radio, said a one-size-fits-all monetary policy has fueled big deficits as countries’ fiscal records differ.The problem for countries including Portugal, Spain and Greece is that years of inappropriately low interest rates resulted in overheating and rapid inflation, Edwards wrote. Even if governments could slash their fiscal deficits, the lack of competitiveness within the euro zone needs years of relative (and probably given the outlook elsewhere, absolute) deflation. Any help given to Greece merely delays the inevitable breakup of the euro zone.The euro has slumped 9.9 percent against the dollar since November on concern countries including Greece will struggle to tame their budget deficits. The common currency and stocks in the region dropped yesterday as European leaders closed ranks to defend Greece in a plan that investors said lacked details.

Euro Falls

The euro fell for a third day against the dollar, to $1.3626 as of 5:01 p.m. in London. Europe’s recovery almost stalled in the fourth quarter, as gross domestic product in the 16-nation euro region rose a less-than-expected 0.1 percent from the third quarter, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said today.
While the European Central Bank sets interest rates for the region’s 16 economies, the practice until now has been that each country has to steer its economy and can set its own tax and spending plans.They have a single monetary policy and yet every country can set its own fiscal and tax policy,Feldstein, 70, said.There’s too much incentive for countries to run up big deficits as there’s no feedback until a crisis,he said.Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, a former European Central Bank executive board member and Italian finance minister, said today there was no possibility of a partition of the euro area.

Padoa-Schioppa

I don’t think there is any prospect for such an event and I don’t think it makes much sense to talk about it,he said in an interview on Bloomberg Television.

Edwards was voted second-best European strategist in the 2009 Thomson Extel survey after his then-colleague James Montier and is known for his bearish views on equities. In 1996 he angered southeast Asian governments by predicting the currency meltdown that struck the region a year later. The poll also named Societe Generale as the top economics and strategy research firm for a third straight year.In a 1997 article, Feldstein wrote that while it is impossible to predict whether political clashes will lead to war, it is too real a possibility to ignore in weighing the potential effects of monetary and political union.After a three-month long plunge in Greece’s bonds amid speculation it was facing the threat of default, the euro region’s leaders yesterday ordered the country to slash its budget deficit and warned investors they would be willing to defend the country from speculative attack if necessary.

Portuguese, Spanish Bonds

Portuguese and Spanish bonds also declined earlier this month on concern those countries may also need to cut spending.Prime Minister George Papandreou’s drive to get Greece’s ballooning budget under control is being challenged in the streets by striking schools, hospitals and airline employees.Unlike Japan or the U.S., Europe has an unfortunate tendency towards civil unrest when subjected to extreme economic pain, Edwards wrote. Consigning the countries in southern Europe with the weakest finances to a prolonged period of deflation is most likely to impose too severe a test on these nations.The budget crisis in Greece may escalate in the way the Asian currency meltdown of 1997 paved the way for the Russian default and the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management LP in 1998, Edwards added.This is a different chapter in the same book, he wrote, adding that the need to tighten deficits is a particular issue for the U.S. and U.K.There will be more crises to follow Greece, both inside and outside of the euro-zone.To contact the reporter on this story: Alexis Xydias in London ataxydias@bloomberg.net.Last Updated: February 12, 2010 13:04 EST

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.

Snowballs did have a chance in the South By KATE BRUMBACK and MELISSA NELSON, Associated Press Writers – Sat Feb 13, 3:35 am ET

ATLANTA – It doesn't take much snow to shut down the Deep South.Even before the first flake fell, flights were canceled Friday at the world's busiest airport in Atlanta. A Starbucks on the Gulf Coast closed for the day, citing a steady drizzle and temperatures in the mid-30s as inclement weather. Classes were canceled nearly everywhere.As much as 7 inches fell in central South Carolina, one of the hardest-hit areas. The powder wasn't expected linger, though, like it has in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. That region was hit with back-to-back blizzards in the past week that dumped 3 feet of snow.The Southern snow knocked out power to thousands and caused hundreds of accidents. Near Montgomery, Ala., a car plunged off an icy road into a pond, killing two brothers ages 4 and 2, State Trooper Kevin Cook said. The boys' mother, who was driving, survived.

In the Dallas area, students celebrated the day off.

I was like, yes! said 14-year-old Ashleigh Hartsock, a high school student in suburban Frisco whose Facebook page was going crazy with messages rejoicing over the school closure.She was among many Texans who braved the cold with a comical lack of winter gear. In a city that gets an average of 2 inches of snow a year, heavy boots, thick gloves and sleds were scarce.Several kids at a Frisco park attempted to sled down a slight incline that passes for a hill in the Dallas area. Wearing knit gloves covered in plastic baggies and grocery bags over their tennis shoes, they rode garbage can lids, tops to plastic containers and pieces of cardboard.If they have to miss a school day, at least they can get out in it and have some fun, said Lauren Harbour, whose children, ages 10, 8 and 6, were trying out the various makeshift sleds.Federal forecasters said every state but Hawaii had snow on the ground somewhere Friday, a freakishly rare occurrence. It was even snowing along East Coast beach towns.I knew it could happen, but I didn't expect much snow down here, said Frank Pinter, Savannah's street maintenance supervisor, who moved here four years ago from northern Ohio.It's such an unusual event for this area, we don't maintain a stockpile of salt or anything.Airlines scrapped more than 1,800 flights, many of them at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which sees 2,700 arrivals and departures on an average day. Of that total, hundreds were halted at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, which got more than a foot of snow from Thursday into Friday.

The cancelations quickly jammed up air traffic around the country.It's frustrating, said Russ Cereola, a New York salesman trying to fly home from Atlanta.There's no snow on the ground yet, and they're canceling flights. Now I understand inbound stuff is probably canceled, but this is a little nuts.Many places were seeing snow for the first time in a generation or longer, and some people weren't quite sure what to do.We don't even sell snow shovels. They'd have to go to the old-time coal shovels, which is the closest thing I have, said Todd Friddle, the manager at a Lowe's home-improvement store in the Charleston, S.C., suburb of Mount Pleasant.In the Florida Panhandle town of Century, 44-year-old Steve Pace scraped some snow from the hood of his truck and formed a snowball to throw at his 6-year-old grandson, Kaleb. It snowed for only about 10 minutes before giving way to rain again, but it was enough.I've only ever seen snow on TV till now, Kaleb said, smiling. For the first time in its 88-year history, Grandview Florist in the Panhandle community of Gonzalez had to reschedule Valentine's Day deliveries for winter weather. Owner Marie Pierce, 77, managed the chaos while creating arrangements from lilies and roses in the back of the rural shop. The schools and some businesses are closed, so we are sending our drivers to customers' homes instead,said Pierce, whose grandmother started the shop in 1923.Melissa Nelson reported from Pensacola, Fla. Associated Press writers Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Ala., Bruce Smith in Charleston, S.C., Shelia Byrd in Jackson, Miss., Desiree Hunter in Montgomery, Ala., and Cain Burdeau in New Orleans contributed to this report.

Cyclone slams American Samoa with 100 mph winds By FILI SAGAPOLUTELE, Associated Press Writer – FEB 13,10

PAGO PAGO, American Samoa – A Pacific storm with hurricane-force winds churned across sparsely populated islands of American Samoa and took aim Saturday for the capital region of the U.S. territory, which is still recovering from a deadly autumn tsunami.Tropical Cyclone Rene hit the territory's eastern Manu'a islands Friday before growing in strength, with winds reaching 86 mph and gusts to 103 mph by late evening.Several Manu'a residents reached by phone by The Associated Press said the winds have been extremely strong but they have not heard of any reports of injuries or major damage. Telephone links, however, have been intermittent, and it was difficult to assess damage because it was still dark.They're getting clobbered from the back side, said Meteorologist Mase Akapo Jr. with the National Weather Service in Pago Pago.Heavy rain fell on parts of Tutuila, the territory's most populous island, early Saturday morning, and some low-lying areas were flooded, but the brunt of the storm had not yet hit. The cyclone was expected to be 50 miles east of Pago Pago, the capital, by 6 a.m.NWS forecaster Carol Baqui in Pago Pago said Rene swirled for a time around the Manu'a islands before it finally settled north.She said the capital region should begin feeling some of the storm's force before dawn Saturday.Baqui warned of possible damaging high seas along coastlines with waves reaching 18 feet.

Emergency officials in the capital said there were reports that high winds had downed some trees and electrical lines. The officials also said there was one death indirectly caused by Rene — a 50-year-old man died Friday morning after falling from a two-story building while boarding it up to protect it from the storm.Territorial Gov. Togiola Tulafono called for calm, urging residents to be aware and be safe.
Referring to the tsunami that killed more than 200 people in the Samoan islands and Tonga in September, Gulafono said as we recover from the events of last September 29th, it is a good feeling that we have placed high priority to help ourselves by preparing and spreading the emergency awareness message.Rene may also threaten Samoa, the Tokelau Islands, Tonga and Fiji.Diani Donu, forecaster at Fiji's Nadi Tropical Cyclone Center, said Rene is expected pass about 90 miles southeast of Apia, the capital of nearby Samoa, bringing strong gales and heavy seas.The center said earlier that the cyclone might pass between the Tonga and Fiji, avoiding a direct hit.Broadcasters in the two countries were urging people to seek shelter, stay indoors and avoid using boats.New Zealand Red Cross was assisting preparations on Tonga, Nuie and the Cook Islands. International operations manager Andrew McKie said the organization was issuing warnings ... securing infrastructure and making sure all satellite phones are charged and working.

The NWS said the eye of the storm will likely brush Tutuila.Residents on Tutuila boarded up windows Friday and stocked up on bottled water, flashlights and candles. Most major businesses closed Friday as did all public and private schools. All 29 public schools in the territory, which has about 65,000 residents, were opened for use as emergency shelters. About 300 people already were using the shelters.The U.S. Coast Guard was advising vessels bound for Pago Pago to reroute. Cyclone Heta, the last major cyclone to smash through the region, hit Samoa and American Samoa in January 2004, damaging more than 4,600 homes in American Samoa, the American Red Cross said at the time. It also devastated up to 90 percent of the crops on Samoa.
Associated Press Writers Ray Lilley in Wellington, New Zealand, and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed to this report.

Wild storms cause Sydney flash floods
Sat Feb 13, 1:04 am ET

SYDNEY (AFP) – Flash flooding hit parts of Sydney after the heaviest rainfall in a decade to hit the Australian city, officials said Saturday, in a wild storm that felled trees and caused widespread blackouts.Almost 100 millimetres (four inches) of rain fell in little more than an hour in some parts of the city, a weather bureau spokesman said, turning streets to rivers and leaving scores of people stranded.For the city (centre) we recorded 65 mills of rainfall in the evening, and that's about a one in five to ten year event, he said.More than 1,000 people called emergency services requiring rescue or to report damage from the surging waters, which brought down trees and caused the roof of a popular city nightspot to cave in.It was one of our busiest storm response nights for several years,a fire rescue spokesman said.The torrential rains cut power to a number of regions, blacking out traffic signals in the city's central shopping and business district.Forecasters warned of further floods Saturday night, as a second storm gathered.Heavy rain and thunderstorms are expected to cause flash flooding in western parts (of New South Wales state) this afternoon and evening,the Bureau of Meteorology said.

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.

Strong quake near Tonga; no injuries reported
Sat Feb 13, 12:48 am ET

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – A strong magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit near the South Pacific kingdom of Tonga on Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported, but no tsunami alert was issued and there were no immediate reports of injury or damage.
The quake, centered 60 miles (95 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Nuku'alofa, was a shallow 6 miles (10 kilometers) below the ocean's surface, the agency said.It hit as Tonga — a 170-island archipelago about halfway between Australia and Tahiti — braced for tropical cyclone Rene, currently a Category 3 cyclone packing winds up to up to 93 miles (150 kilometers) an hour. On its present track, the storm is gathering strength and could pass close to the islands that are home to more than 100,000 people.

In September, nine people in Tonga were killed on the northern island of Nuiatoputapu by a tsunami spawned by an earthquake off Samoa. The tsunami killed 183 people in Samoa and another 34 in American Samoa.The most recent local temblor was a powerful 6.8 magnitude quake that struck about 75 miles (120 kilometers) out to sea off Nuku'alofa on Nov. 25, sending panicked residents into the streets at night. There was no serious damage or injuries.Tonga is part of the Pacific ring of fire, a series of rifts in the earth's surface and volcanoes that reach from Chile through Alaska and down the western Pacific to south of the islands state.

Judge demands details on $150 million SEC-BofA deal By Jonathan Stempel – Thu Feb 11, 7:33 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A federal judge weighing a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission $150 million settlement with Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) has demanded more details on why bank shareholders were left in the dark about problems at Merrill Lynch & Co before approving that company's takeover.U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan ordered the bank and regulator to reveal whether anyone urged disclosure of Merrill's mounting losses between September 2008 and December 5, 2008, when bank shareholders voted to approve the merger. He also sought details on whether disclosure was sought over the bank's allowing Merrill to pay out $3.6 billion in bonuses.In addition, Rakoff demanded more documents on the December 10, 2008 firing of bank general counsel Timothy Mayopoulos, and the role of the bank's law firm Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz LLP in deciding what to reveal about Merrill's losses, which grew to total $15.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008.Rakoff ordered the SEC and Bank of America to answer these and other questions by February 16. He plans to decide by February 19 whether to approve the accord, which calls for shareholders to recover the $150 million, and sets governance and disclosure changes at the largest U.S. bank, including on executive pay.Bank of America spokesman Bob Stickler and SEC spokesman John Nester said their respective parties will answer Rakoff's questions by the Tuesday deadline.

Rakoff expressed many of the concerns behind the questions at a hearing on Monday on the proposed settlement, which would end separate SEC lawsuits accusing the bank of hiding Merrill's losses and misleading shareholders about the bonuses.Greater disclosure, however, could complicate Bank of America's efforts to defend a civil fraud lawsuit filed last week by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. That lawsuit alleged there were discussions involving the bank as early as mid-November 2008 over whether to reveal Merrill's losses.Rakoff rejected in September an earlier $33 million accord over the bonuses as too lenient and because it did not hold individuals responsible.At the Monday hearing, he praised some elements of the revised accord. If he rejects it, however, both sides face a trial on the bonuses, set to begin on March 1.Other questions that Rakoff asked on Thursday included whether he could appoint a pay consultant and independent auditor for the bank if the SEC and Bank of America cannot agree on who should be hired.He also asked whether he could direct how the $150 million is distributed, to ensure that shareholders supposedly harmed by the merger would be able to recover. The SEC has said the sum would go to shareholders who might have voted against the merger or sought a lower price if they knew Merrill's losses.Cuomo also filed civil fraud charges against Kenneth Lewis and Joe Price, who were, respectively, the bank's chief executive and chief financial officer at the time of the merger.Lewis retired from the bank at year end, while Price is now its consumer and small business banking chief. Brian Moynihan, who replaced Lewis as chief executive, is not a target of Cuomo's probe, the attorney general's office said last week.Bank of America shares closed Thursday down 4 cents at $14.63 on the New York Stock Exchange.
The cases are SEC v. Bank of America Corp, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, Nos, 09-06829 and 10-00215.(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; additional reporting by Rachelle Younglai in Washington, D.C.; editing by Andre Grenon)

Mexico should boost trade with EU: Calderon Fri Feb 12, 5:34 pm ET

MEXICO CITY (AFP) – Mexican President Felipe Calderon said Friday that his country must reduce its economic dependence on neighbouring United States and seek greater trade opportunities with Europe.Standing beside visiting Prince Andrew of Britain, Calderon said that a key strategy for Mexico is to diversify its trade and investment (and) reduce its dependence on the United States.The opportunity is primarily in the European Union, Calderon told reporters.The president confidently stated that the Duke of York's three-day visit would help strengthen the bonds of cooperation and promote better mutual investment between Mexico and Britain.More than 80 percent of Mexico's foreign trade is with its northern neighbour the United States, a movement of goods that has soared since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was implemented along with Canada in 1994.The Mexican economy, the second largest in Latin America behind Brazil, shrank by around 6.8 percent in 2009, in a drop spurred by the US economic crisis, according to official figures released late last month.According to a recent UN study, Mexico's gross domestic product will grow by three percent this year, while the Bank of Mexico projects a rise of between 2.5 and 3.5 percent.

UN: Time needed to resume NKorea nuclear talks By KWANG-TAE KIM, Associated Press Writer – Sat Feb 13, 8:11 am ET

SEOUL, South Korea – A top U.N. envoy said Saturday it could take some time before North Korea rejoins stalled international talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons programs.North Korea, believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for at least a half dozen bombs, walked away from disarmament-for-aid negotiations and conducted a second nuclear test last year, drawing tightened U.N. sanctions.North Korea has called for a lifting of the sanctions and peace talks formally ending the 1950-53 Korean War before it returns to the disarmament talks, which also involve South Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan.This process is a negotiated one and they are talking. My impression is that these talks may go on for a bit of time as they decide to get back, U.N. political chief B. Lynn Pascoe told reporters in Seoul after visiting Pyongyang, North Korea's capital.Pascoe, the highest-ranking U.N. diplomat to visit the North since 2004, earlier said he made it quite clear to the North Koreans that we wanted the talks to be re-engaged very quickly to move forward and without preconditions.

His comments came amid a flurry of diplomatic efforts to revive the nuclear negotiations, including a trip in recent days by North Korean nuclear envoy Kim Kye Gwan to Beijing for talks with his Chinese counterpart.The North's Foreign Ministry said in comments carried by its official Korean Central News Agency that both sides had an in-depth discussion on the issue of boosting the (North Korea)-China relations and matters of speeding up the denuclearization of the peninsula.On his return from China, Kim said the issue of resuming the nuclear talks "is still under consultation (with China),Japan's Kyodo News agency reported from Pyongyang. He declined to give any details on his talks with China, noting "we are in the process of diplomatic contacts.South Korea's Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported Saturday that North Korea is strongly pushing for Kim to visit the U.S. for a bilateral meeting in March, but the U.S. has not authorized a visa for him. It cited unidentified diplomatic sources.But U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters Friday there were no plans for a visit by Kim, and no current U.S. discussions with North Korea about such a trip.A bilateral meeting between the North Korean envoy and U.S. officials would be a strong sign that the push to get the disarmament talks back on track is gaining traction. It would also confirm a warming in relations between the U.S. and North Korea, wartime rivals that do not have diplomatic relations.Meanwhile, some 100,000 North Koreans rallied in Pyongyang on Saturday to support the government's policy of building a great, prosperous and powerful country,the North's state-run television said.Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, Alexa Olesen in Beijing and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

NOTICE RELIGIOUS PEOPLE AND RABBIS ARE RADICALS,BUT ISLAM IS THE PEACE OF THE EARTH.MEANWHILE ISLAM BEHEADS AND IS ON A POWER TRIP LIKE THE NEW WORLD ORDER NUTCASES,WHILE CHRISTIANS AND JEWS ARE CLASSIFIED HATERS.TRUTH IS DEFINATLY TURNED UPSIDE DOWN AND TO LIES FROM HELL.

Isolated and battered, Israeli doves hold protest By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer – Sat Feb 13, 3:57 am ET

JERUSALEM – Israel's battered pro-peace camp is showing signs of life with a weekly Jerusalem protest by a motley collection of anarchists, intellectuals and radical rabbis, but they face a public increasingly hostile to their point of view.Activists have gathered each Friday since November in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah to protest the eviction of Palestinians from their homes to make room for Jewish settlers. The demonstrations have become a rallying cry for the shrunken left and freedom of speech advocates who say their country has become increasingly intolerant of dissent since waging a bruising winter war in Gaza.Activists point to a recent campaign vilifying a prominent human rights campaigner, arrests of protesters and attempts by government officials and right-wing groups to halt international funding of Israeli organizations they deemed disloyal.It's about time the left in Israel protest against the way the right-wing is kidnapping our future and our life,said Israeli author David Grossman, a leading dove, at a recent protest.

In the latest protest Friday, some 250 demonstrators assembled by a road blowing on shrieking whistles and loudly banging on drums. You have no shame! they chanted at Jewish settlers.Several police officers watched warily across the road, backed by riot police wielding batons and assault rifles.The weekly demonstrations in Sheikh Jarrah began after Israeli police evicted Palestinian families from the flash point neighborhood and allowed Jewish settlers to move into their homes.Numbers swelled after police began arresting protesters. Activists shared protest videos on YouTube and Facebook. Anarchists mingled with rabbis, veteran activists, former politicians whose left-wing views have edged out of the mainstream and prominent Israelis like Moshe Halbertal, who helped draft the Israeli army's code of ethics.Anger over the evictions and the apparent crackdown on freedom of speech inspired Holocaust survivor and veteran activist Max Moray, 84, to join a recent protest after years of shirking them. It was the first protest for Ariel Gommershtadt, 26. The only other demonstration he'd ever attended was one he helped disperse as an army conscript, he said.

While the peace protests are the largest in years, turnout has hovered at 200 to 400 — highlighting their dramatic fall in popularity from the days when the left could draw crowds in the hundreds of thousands.Israel's left-wing activists have diverse backgrounds but broadly support the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem — territories Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war — and the evacuation of Jewish settlers from those areas.The left was devastated by the failure of peace efforts in the 1990s and the eruption in 2000 of violence between Israel and the Palestinians that included suicide bombings targeting civilians. The cause took another knock last winter when Israel waged a three-week war in Gaza that left 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead.Today, polls show solid public support for the hawkish government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. If elections were held today Netanyahu's Likud Party would go from 27 seats to 35 seats in the 120-member parliament, according to a survey published in the Haaretz daily last week.In contrast, Meretz, the flagship party of Israel's left, clings to three seats. The Labor Party, the center-left movement that dominated Israeli politics for decades, joined Netanyahu's rightist coalition as a junior member.A U.N.-sponsored report last year that accused Israel of committing war crimes during last year's winter offensive in Gaza fueled a backlash against left-wing activists. Israel's government shunned the U.N. commission, headed by jurist Richard Goldstone, that drafted the report and many accused the rights groups that testified of damaging the country's image.In Israel today there is a rage against Goldstone and his report that I have rarely seen, analyst Yossi Klein Halevi said.Hawkish Israeli organizations have lobbied Israel's parliament to find a way to halt international funding to rights groups that testified to the U.N. commission. Traitors, said political scientist Gideon Doron to describe what most Israelis thought of them.

And this month, they took their campaign to the public when a hard-line group published newspaper and billboard ads carrying a crude caricature and criticism of ex-lawmaker Noami Chazan, head of an organization that funded groups that testified.
Chazan was sketched as having a horn, an image suggestive of anti-Semitic caricatures of the 1930s in Europe. Before Chazan was targeted by the hard-line ad campaign, she described the Sheikh Jarrah protests as the struggle for the future of democratic rights in (Israel) in one of her regular columns in the English-language daily, The Jerusalem Post. The paper ran the ad attacking her and her column was dropped after she threatened legal action. Today it is against Naomi Chazan, she said in an Israel Radio interview,but tomorrow it will be against every citizen who expresses his opinion.

THESE PALESTINIANS PROTESTERS ARE GODLESS JUST LIKE THE AVATAR MOVIE SO THEY BLEND RIGHT IN.THIS IS PROOF HOW FAR AWAY FROM THE BIBLE PEOPLE HAVE GONE,WHEN THEY TURN TO SATAN WORSHIPPING MOVIES TO GET AN IDLE TO WORSHIP INSTEAD OF THE ONE AND ONLY TRUE GOD KING JESUS CHRIST..

Palestinian protesters pose as Na'vi from Avatar
Fri Feb 12, 2:23 pm ET

JERUSALEM – Palestinian protesters have added a colorful twist to demonstrations against Israel's separation barrier, painting themselves blue and posing as characters from the hit film Avatar.The demonstrators also donned long hair and loincloths Friday for the weekly protest against the barrier near the village of Bilin.They equated their struggle to the intergalactic one portrayed in the film.
Israel says the barrier is needed for its security. Palestinians consider it a land grab.The protests have become a symbol of opposition. They often end in clashes with Israeli security forces involving stones and tear gas.The Avatar protest comes a day after the Israeli government began rerouting the enclosure to eat up less of the Palestinian village.